Meditations On Psalms

Psalm 145-- To Glory In Greatness

2008-07-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

A Song of Praise. Davidic.
The final six psalms of the book of Psalms are about one thing: Praising God. The other five songs are entitled “hallelu-yah” which means, “Praise Yahweh.” Every line of these psalms are either describing God, describing His great deeds or are a command to give praise to God.

I will extol You, my God the King.
And bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You
And praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is Yahweh and much praised.
And His greatness is unsearchable.
This section is stating two facts: First, God is great. This means not just that He is important, but that He is immeasurably important. No one is next to Him in greatness and power. Secondly, God deserves the honor due to His greatness. Even as an ancient king was praised for His greatness, surely the King of the Universe deserves even greater praise. All that He did, all that He is should be spoken well of without ceasing.

Generation to generation will praise your deeds
And acclaim your heroic acts.
The glorious splendor of Your majesty
And your miraculous deeds I will relate.
People will speak of your mighty awesome deeds
And I will tell of your greatness
They will spread the reputation of your abundant goodness
And celebrate your righteousness.
This section is prophetic. It is speaking toward the future, announcing that there will never be a generation that will forget Yahweh, that His deeds will be told eternally. Amazingly enough, this prophecy has been fulfilled in a very complete way. God’s deeds of the past, and His deeds today are the greater part of the stories that are told today. In every church, in every synagogue, in every mosque, God’s deeds are being spoken. Not only his acts of the past, but his miracles of the present. God’s fame continues on eternally.

Yahweh is gracious and merciful
Slow to anger and great in faithful love.
Yahweh is good to all
And His mercy is over all his deeds.
All your works will praise You, Yahweh
And your faithful will bless you.
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
And tell of Your might
To make known to the people your mighty deeds
And the glory of your kingship.
In the ancient times God showed himself to Moses and he spoke the first two verses of this stanza. It is not God’s power by which He wishes to be remembered. It is not His justice. Rather it is His mercy and grace and forgiveness. That is the reputation God wishes in the world. We should remember how powerful God is and how He hates oppression. But even more than that, we should remember God’s deeds of mercy, of kindness and how He turns away from judgment. He wants us to remember how He delivered the children of Israel from slavery, how He brought them across the Red Sea, how He fed the five thousand, how He healed masses from illness, how He forgave even his worst enemies, such as Ahab. God’s mercies should be praise first and foremost.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom
And your dominion prevails through all generations.
Yahweh sustains all who fall
And raises up those who are bent down.
They eyes of all look to You expectantly
And You give them their food on time.
You open your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
God’s power is great. He is a king and His rule will never end. He will rule for eternity. But God does not use His authority over the world to prop himself up or to support the strong. Rather, He looks to the weak and the frail, even the smallest animal. He does not forget a one to feed them, to help them live. God’s main work in sustaining creation is to feed and populate, and this He does without ceasing, every creature on earth.

Yahweh is righteous in all His ways
And faithful in all His deeds.
Yahweh is near to all who call to Him
To all who call to Him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him,
And He hears their cry and delivers them.
Yahweh keeps watch over all who love Him
But the wicked He will destroy.
Finally, God wishes to be remembered for His faithfulness. This means, first of all, that His deeds are true to his merciful nature. Secondly, God is always keeping his promises. If God promises judgment, then at a single repentance He will forget it. But if God makes a promise of mercy or blessing, He never forgets it for as long as the heavens and earth remain. God will never take away a blessing He has promised for eternity. God will always have a human in charge of the earth. God will never destroy the whole of humanity again. God will always bless the children of Abraham. God will always have a king in the line of David. God will always offer people a chance at forgiveness through commitment to the Lord Jesus. These promises will never change, never be overcome in wrath.

My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh
And all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.
All living things praise God, whether they want to or not. They all enjoy that which He gave them, from food to sexual pleasure. They all honor Him in their living. They all follow the basic instructions he gave their bodies. And in the end, every living human will verbally confess their praise to Yahweh, the God of gods, the King of kings. It is our responsibility now to praise Him for who He is so that we might gain the blessing now.

Psalm 139-- God the Stalker

2008-07-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

For the Leader. Davidic. A Psalm
One of the most important questions in this psalm is Who is speaking? We know who is being addressed: God. But is the psalmist speaking as a person who has been especially chosen by God, such as David or Jeremiah who have a special task appointed to them from God? Is the psalmist speaking for all who are of God’s people? Is the psalmist speaking of all humanity? Or is the psalmist speaking of all creation, because God has knowledge and care for us all? The psalm does not answer that question. What we need to understand is that the psalmist is expressing a feeling of the care and attention of God on his person, and often we feel that way as well. Jesus said that God gives his care and attention to all animals, but especially to those who are chosen by God (Matthew 6:26). So we can use this psalm to express our feelings of God’s love for us as well.

Yahweh you have examined me and know me
You know my sitting and my rising.
You discern my thoughts from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down.
You are familiar with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue
But that You, Yahweh, know it fully.
From rear to front you hemmed me in
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too lofty for me,
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
God understands the psalmist fully and completely. There is nothing about us that God does not understand and focus on. Every word, every direction of life, every thought—God is there and is aware of it, before we are. In a sense, God’s love is smothering—we can’t get away from it to get a little breathing room. But it doesn’t matter because if we lost the love of God, we would be like an infant without her mother—completely lost and at bay.

Where can I go from Your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I soar to the heaven, You are there,
Should I bed down in Sheol, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn
If I come to dwell in the remotest part of the sea
Even there Your hand will lead me
And your right hand takes hold of me.
If I say, “The darkness will envelope me
And the night will be light for me.”
Even the darkness is not dark to You
And the night is as bright as day
The darkness is as the light.
Perhaps the psalmist was feeling smothered, because he talks about the attempt to run and hide from God. We might all want to do this, especially when we are doing something displeasing to Him. We might try to run from God, go where God cannot be. The problem with this is that we cannot. God is wherever we would choose to hide from Him. Sometimes we might think that we have hidden from God, like a rhino who thinks that if he can’t see someone that the one can’t see it. Of course, we can’t hide from God, no matter how much we would like to. God is always there, always watching, always caring, despite the fact that we may not want Him to.

For it was you who formed my inner being
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I give thanks to you,
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made
Your deeds are amazing,
And my soul knows this well.
My bones were not concealed from You
When I was shaped unseen
Knitted together in the nethermost parts of the earth
Your eyes beheld my unformed limbs
They were all written in your book
The full number of days in which they were formed
When as yet there was not one of them.
God created every part of us. We might not like all of our parts or understand why God gave us one part over another. But the fact is, God made us for a reason. We may not like the reason He made us the way He did. We may prefer that He made us in a different way, for a different purpose. But God made us who we are because He cares for us. He pours loving attention on us, from the womb.

How precious are Your thoughts O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they outnumber the sand.
I am preoccupied with them, even to my arising.
This passage summarizes the whole intention of the psalmist. God thinks about us so much because He loves us. He is like a new lover who is obsessed with thinking of his love. God is like a father who can’t stop thinking about his infant child. He can’t stop thinking about us. And these thoughts display His care, His love for us.

If you would only slay the wicked, O God!
And you men of bloodshed, away from me!
You who speak to deceive
Your enemies pervert You to blasphemy
Surely those who hate you, Yahweh, I hate
And with those who rise up against you, I contend.
I hate them with a full hatred
For me they have become enemies.
Then the psalmist gets to his point. “So, God, if you really care about me so much, why do you let me suffer so much? I’ve got bad guys here and they want to kill me. Why doesn’t God take care of them?” These enemies are not just enemies of the psalmist, but enemies of God. The psalmist stands up for God, because of His care for him.

Search me, O God and know my heart
Try me and know my thoughts
And see if I have any grievous way
And lead me in the everlasting way.
Yet the psalmist perhaps realizes that his thoughts against his enemies are unworthy. He recognizes that he is human as well and so has at times failed God. So the psalmist begs God to not only know him, but to test his thoughts. “God, look in my head and see if there is anything opposed to you in there.” And the final prayer is asking God to change the thoughts from evil to God’s way.

Psalm 131-- Lean On Me

2008-07-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

A song of Ascents. Davidic.
Yahweh, my heart is not proud
Nor my eyes haughty.
And I do not involve myself in ambitious matters
Or things too amazing for me.
I have determined to become serene
And quieted my soul
As a child weaned of its mother
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
O Israel, hope in Yahweh
From this time and forever

More and More and More and More and…As human beings we are never satisfied. What we have is never enough. It must be something in the human psyche that insists that we aren’t satisfied, we don’t yet have what we need. We just need a little more. A little more justice, a little more peace, a little more stuff, a little more respect, a little more food, a little more love, a little more authority, a little more wealth. We say we need this because we figure we will be satisfied if we get just a little more. But we never are. Every time we get a little more, we always are looking for the next little more.

Screw ups
But when we get a little more, then, more often than not, we screw up what we get. If we get a little more money, we use it on our greed or addiction. If we get a little more stuff, it just clutters up our living space. If we get a little more authority, we abuse it and hurt others. If we get a little more respect, we assume that we deserved it to begin with and so disrespect those who don’t give it to us. It isn’t because we want to screw things up. It just happens that way.
This psalm is a commitment to stop the cycle of get, screw it up, so get more only to screw it up again. This psalm says, “Okay, I’ve had enough. I chose to be content with what I have.” This psalm isn’t a sermon, nor is it a claim that everyone should be like this. It is a simple prayer for simplicity.

Climbing The Ladder
The psalmist prays against pride. Pride, in the ancient world, wasn’t so much an attitude of being more important than one is, but it was a striving for a higher position than what one has. Pride could be seeking to be wealthy, or seeking to be powerful or seeking to be more famous than one is. This does not mean that one could not receive from others more wealth or power—one could be humble and obtain wealth or power from another source, as long as one was not seeking for oneself. Pride is the grasping of power or wealth on one’s own, whether one deserves it or not.
The psalmist is separating himself from pride, from grasping, from personal ambition. He is determining that he will not seek more. He sees his own weakness, and how the world is full of things that he cannot grasp, cannot control. So he will let God control things and he will not try to take the reigns himself.

Peace of Mind
Instead, he devotes himself to quietness and humility. This is not the same as being silent. One may be boldly speaking justice, yet be quiet in one’s soul. This is a picture of contentment, of repose. It does not depend on one’s circumstances. One of the best examples of humility is Joseph. He was sold into slavery, thrown into jail, yet in all things he trusted that God was leading him. In the end, Joseph ended up being the ruler of Egypt and the savior of the world at that time. But he did nothing to achieve that position. Rather, he remained quiet and faithful to God.

Daddy!
The psalmist uses the image of a child trusting in his parent. This is not an infant, nor is it a grade school child. Rather it is a preschooler, a child who can walk and do things, but is still completely dependent on her parent. This is the kind of life the psalmist seeks. A life of dependence, of reliance on God’s power. God is the one who has great power, and will meet the needs of those under his care.

Life of A Nation
Finally, the psalmist calls out to all the people of God, all the people in His kingdom. He says that a life of humility and trust is the kind of attitude we should all have. This is the lifestyle of eternity, this is the life which all of God’s people will be dependent on, forever. So we might as well practice it now!

“Now you’re climbing to the top of the company ladder
Hope it doesn’t take too long
Don’t you see they’ll come a day when it doesn’t matter
See a day when you’ll be gone?
I understand about indecision
But I don’t care if I get behind
People living in competition
All I want is to have my peace of mind”

Plugging In-- Psalm 119:34-40

2008-05-07T12:26:00.001-07:00

And You Expect Me To Read This?
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and so, of course, it is also the longest psalm. It is 176 verses with 22 sections, eight verses in each section. Each section is dedicated to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and every line in the section, all 16, begins with that letter of the alphabet. On top of this, every line says something different about God’s law or word. This is a very focused poem and an excellent structure.
Of course, it is difficult to read. It is VERY long and it seems very repetitive. And it is just about impossible to preach, due to its length. But we can look at a single section, one section that is very significant to me, dedicated to the Hebrew letter He, and see what it says to us.

Guide me by, O Yahweh, the way of your statutes
And I will keep it as the end.
Give me understanding that I might treasure your teaching
And keep it with all of my heart.
Guide me in the path of your commands
For I deeply desire it.
Direct my heart to your testimonies
And not to unjust gain
Avert my eyes from looking at worthless things.
Direct my life in your paths.
Fulfill your word to your worshipper
That he might revere you.
Turn away the reproach which I dread
For your ordinances are good.
See, I have yearned for your precepts
Keep me alive through your righteousness.

What Are We Talking About?
God’s word is a writing, a listing of God’s guidance for humanity, especially the people who are called by His name. It is God’s speech, written down by humans, filled with how God, the creator of all people should live. It isn’t just a bunch of rules and stories, but as a whole it describes a way of life, a lifestyle in which God’s people are distinct from any other people on earth, and which they can continue to commune with God.

What the Bible Actually Does
God’s word is an important ingredient in living before God. Other peoples seek God’s will through divination or tarot cards or horoscopes. But God’s people have His word, which never changes. It communicates clearly a way of life we are to live, a constant connection with God. It points out that which is evil and will cause us to be destroyed. It also directs us to a positive life, how we can have a purposeful existence. It directs us in the proper worship of God, a way in which He is pleased. And it also offers promises to us, should we live this life that God directs us in.

Empowering the Word
As good and as helpful as God’s word is, it is incomplete in and of itself. The fact is, when God’s word is mixed with human frailty then all we get is a mess. We convince ourselves that God’s word is incomplete, or that it doesn’t really understand our situation that we are in. We convince ourselves that it doesn’t say what it really says. We tell ourselves that the word is too difficult for us to really live out. Or we try to fulfill His promises, only to find out that we fail in that, too. How do we get out of this cycle?
Through God’s power. God wants to help us, and He wants us to live out His word. Not because He’s a control freak, but because He actually wants what’s best for us and for those around us. So He empowers our connection to His word. He strengthens us to live out the word. He brings us to His word to help us know that it is the way to His heart. He helps us understand His word, when we want to avoid it or misinterpret it. But most of all, He will keep his promises, when we can’t. It is not our job to fulfill His promises, but His. And if we wait on Him, he will do it.

The Good Life
For the power of God to live out His word, the psalmist gains great blessings. The psalmist avoids a worthless, meaningless life. His eyes want him to focus on his desires and his heart wants him to seek out comforts that are unrighteous, but God’s word and God’s power helps him avoid all that. Instead, he is able to live a life of obedience. Such a life doesn’t seem very attractive, until we see that God’s full power and love and blessing support a life of obedience. The one who lives according to God’s will is kept alive by God and his deepest desires are met. God transforms his desires to reflect His word and those desires are granted, satisfied completely.

Connecting To The Power Source
So what do we need to do to obtain such a life? How can we be completely satisfied in our lives? How do we have such communion with God and His word that we can be content? The secret of it is found in the psalm although it is never stated plainly. In the He passage, we must note, that every verse is a prayer. This is actually the action of the obedient one to keep him in God’s good graces, to receive of God’s blessing. To obtain the satisfaction of God, satisfaction in God, then we must ask. We must persevere in prayer, seeking God’s life. We will not obtain it today, or perhaps tomorrow. But continuing prayer will do its work when yoga, meditation, bible reading, going to church and going through other rituals will not. Because prayer is connecting to power. One can have a microwave and the microwave will do many great things to help our lives. But only if we have a place to plug it is. God’s word is like that—we have and opportunity for a great, satisfying life in God, but if we do not connect to our Power Source, then we will never obtain anything except frustration.

The Last Emperor-- Psalm 110

2008-05-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

A Davidic Psalm
This is one of the most controversial Psalms in the Bible, mostly due to Jesus’ interpretation of it. Jesus had an exchange with the leaders of the Jewish nation that went like this:
"How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself said in the Holy Spirit, 'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET."' David himself calls Him 'Lord'; so in what sense is He his son?" (Mark 12:35-37). Jesus specifically says that Psalm 110 was written by David, although the internal story of the psalm doesn’t indicate that. The idea that Jesus has of this psalm is that David is writing about the Messiah who is not really the so-called “son of David” because a father cannot call a son “lord’. Rather, Jesus says, the messiah is the “son of man” as in Daniel, who is greater than David because David does not himself sit at God’s right hand.
In understanding this psalm, it is clear that it is talking about God support of His King in battle. It could be speaking of any Davidic king, but it is certainly commonly understood to be concerning the Messiah.

Yahweh says to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand
Until I make your enemies your footstool."
Yahweh will extend the scepter of your strength from Zion
"Rule in the midst of your enemies."
This is often translated in the confusing manner, “the LORD said to my Lord…” But since the first word is actually God’s name, YHWH, it makes more sense read as that. God is speaking to the king of Israel and promising him that all of his enemies would be defeated. In the meantime, God promises, the king of God would sit at Yahweh’s right hand and so, literally, be God’s “right hand man”. This is the position of co-rule with God himself. It is, more specifically, the position of emperor or “king of kings” where one ruler is placed above all other rulers. Thus, the Messiah is, more than anything else, the emperor of the world, ruling alongside God.
For God to “extend the scepter” is to expand the rule of the emperor over all of his enemies, thus any nation that attempts to take over the people of God.

Your people give themselves willingly on the day your army mobilizes,
From the womb they have arrayed in holy splendor
At dawn, your youth are you as the dew
This verse is very difficult to translate, having many terms that are vague and the metaphorical understanding of “dew” and “womb” is hard to understand. I believe that this passage is speaking of the devotion of the army of the emperor to his kingship. From birth they are prepared to fight to defend their nation against their enemies. The soldiers cover the battlefield as the dew covers the grass.

Yahweh has sworn and will not change his mind
"You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek."
God appoints the emperor not only as king, but also as a priest. The priesthood position is inherent in the fact that the emperor sits at God’s right hand. The priest is an intercessor for the people so that they may be heard by God. But this emperor needs no priest, since he already has God’s ear anytime he wants.
The reference to Melchizedek is to Genesis 14, where Abraham, after assaulting a large army, is blessed by the king of Salem (later Jerusalem) who is also a priest. Here, the psalmist says that the king of Jerusalem is both a king and a priest, apart from the Levitical priesthood that also rules over God’s people. So the psalmist is not denying the Levitical priesthood, but is saying that the emperor has his own kind of priesthood, one in connection to kingship of Jerusalem.

The Lord is at your right hand
He crushes kings in the day of his wrath.
He will judge among the nations
With an abundance of corpses.
He will shatter the chiefs over a wide area.
This is a pretty graphic description of God’s war against the enemies of the emperor. God is the one who does the fighting, here, and it is God who defeats the armies that come against Jerusalem. The kings of the enemies will be defeated and their armies will all be destroyed.

He will drink from the stream on the way
Therefore he will lift up his head.
This is also a pretty subtle metaphor. After the battle, God walks away from the battlefield, drink from the stream and lift up his head. Both of these are symbols of victory. And God, ultimately is the one who becomes Lord over the enemies. Yes, God does it for the sake of the emperor, but God gains the glory and the power.

There are two messages of this psalm:
a. God is the only king over His people and
b. The Messiah is God’s emperor who is always able to pray to God without a mediator

Redemption Songs-- Psalm 107

2008-05-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

This psalm has no superscription, so we don’t know who wrote it, or in what style. Some think that the psalm was written in the exile period in Babylon, but this is not known. This psalm is very structured, having an introduction, a conclusion and four body stanzas, each giving a different story revolving around the same pattern.

Give thanks to Yahweh for He is good
For his faithful mercy is forever.
Let the redeemed of Yahweh say so
Whom He redeemed from the hand of the enemy
And gathered from the lands
From the east and from the west
From the north and from the south.
This introductory stanza is a general statement which gives a summary of the point of the psalm. God is very merciful to his people and he delivers them from their enemies, which in the psalm is usually described as trials they are facing. The action the psalmist calls us to is to publicly give thanks to Yahweh, which is a statement repeated many times in the psalm.

1. They went astray in the wilderness
Treading in desolation
They found no settled city
Hungry and thirsty
Their soul fainted within them.
They cried out to Yahweh in their trouble
He rescued them from their plights.
He guided them by a straight way
To go to a settled city
Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his faithful mercy
And for His wonderful works to the sons of men.
For He has satisfied the thirsty soul;
The hungry He filled with good things.

2. Some sat in deepest darkness
In the shadow of death
Shackled in torturous irons
Because they had rebelled against the words of God
And spurned the counsel of the Most High
He humbled their heart through suffering labor
They stumbled with no one to help.
They cried out to Yahweh in their trouble;
He rescued them from their plights.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
And tore away their shackles.
Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his faithful love
And for his wonders to the sons of men.
For He shattered the doors of bronze
And split the bars of iron.

3. Fools were afflicted because of their evil way
And suffered because of their iniquities.
Their soul loathed all food
They reached the gates of death
They cried out to Yahweh in their trouble;
He rescued them from their distresses.
He sent His word and healed them
And delivered them from their death pit.
Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his faithful love;
And for his wonders to the sons of men.
Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices
And recount his deeds with shouts of joy.

4. Some went down to the sea in ships
Doing business on mighty waters.
They have seen the deeds of Yahweh
And his wonders in the deep.
He commanded and raised a stormy wind
And lifted high the waves
Mounting to the heavens
Then they plunged to the depths
They melted in terror in their misery.
They reeled and staggered like a drunk;
Their skill was for naught.
They cried out to Yahweh in their trouble
And he rescued them from their plights.
He stilled the storm to a whisper
So that the waves became silent.
They rejoiced that they quieted
So He guided them to their desired port.
Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his faithful mercy
And for his wonders to the sons of men.
Let them exalt Him in the congregation of the people
And praise Him in the council of elders.
This four-fold process is given four times in the psalm.
1. Some people are in trouble. Usually it was due to their own fault—they rebelled against God or they were involved in a risky business venture. But they found themselves in danger of their lives. Very strong language is used here—they are starving or they are in a terrible prison, or they are isolated in the wilderness or they are trapped in a storm at sea.
2. The same sentence is given in each stanza—that they cried out to Yahweh in their trouble. This is a simple prayer in the midst of distress, recognizing that God is the only one who can deliver them.
3. In response to that cry, Yahweh does an act to deliver them. The details differ, but usually the same language to describe the trouble is reversed to describe the deliverance. They end up in the opposite situation than they were in.
4. Finally, there is a command for them to thank Yahweh. They thank him for His chesed—his mercy on his people, and for his power in doing things no one else can do. In the final stanza the delivered are told to praise God in the gathering of God’s people.
Four is a number of completeness, and so the four stories are supposed to give a cycle of deliverance of Yahweh. Ultimately, what is communicated is that this works for anyone, in any situation like these.

He turns rivers into a wilderness
And the springs of water into a thirsty ground.
A fruitful land into a salt waste
Because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
He turns the wilderness into a pool of water,
And parched land into springs of water.
There he settles the hungry
And they establish a city for dwelling.
They sow fields and plant vineyards
They gather a fruitful harvest.
He blesses them and they multiply greatly.
And their cattle he does not decrease.
When they are diminished and brought low
Because of oppression, trouble and sorrow
He pours contempt upon rulers
And makes them wander in a pathless waste.
He lifts high the needy from affliction
And makes their families numerous like flocks
The upright see it and rejoice
And all unrighteousness stops it's mouth.
Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things,
And they will consider the faithful mercy of Yahweh.
The final stanza is a general one about God’s actions. God punishes the wicked and those who oppress the poor, but the needy who cry out to Him, God takes their difficulties and burdens and turns them on their head. He provides for their needs, gives them a community to live in, protects them. Finally, there is a statement for how to meditate on this theology. The righteous, the psalmist says, should recognize this pattern and take joy in it. The wicked should just be quiet because they will be judged in this patter. But the wise should pay attention to this pattern, and act in accordance with God’s mercy on the needy.

The Most Powerful Element in the Universe-- Psalm 103

2008-05-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Bless Yahweh, O my soul
And all that is within me, bless His holy name
Bless Yahweh, O my soul
And forget none of His benefits
To bless God is to offer Him positive speech. We do this from our minds, but when the psalmist speaks of one’s “soul” he is not speaking just of the unseen part. Rather, the Hebrew word “soul” is usually used to speak of the whole self, including one’s body. So one is to give praise and honor to God, not just with one’s mind, but one’s whole being—mind, body, emotions and actions. But to do this, we must not forget who He is. It does us no good to speak good things about a God who does not exist, or to love a different god with the same name. So the rest of the psalm reminds us who God is, what He has done and why we give him praise.

He who forgives your iniquities
Who heals all your diseases
Who redeems your life from the pit
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion
Who satisfies your years with good things
So your youth is renewed like the eagle.
First of all, Yahweh is the god of redemption. This means that he delivers us from evil in our lives. The first evil he delivers us from is ourselves—our own wicked acts which we regret. As a display of this forgiveness, he takes away the judgment of sickness. Then, Yahweh delivers us from humiliation. Perhaps He does not take away the shame visited upon us by other humans, but if we serve Him truly, then He will honor us Himself with love and mercy. He will never forget us, or forget to honor us, as long as we honor Him with our whole selves. Lastly, even as we age, Yahweh delivers us from our bodies weaknesses. We may falter, but God within us is strong and gives us strength when we need it, gives us hope when we have failed.

Yahweh does righteous acts
And judgments supporting the oppressed.
He has made his ways known to Moses
His deeds to the sons of Israel
Yahweh is compassionate and gracious
Slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.
He will not always fight with us
Nor will He keep his anger forever.
Then the psalmist reminds us of what Yahweh has done in the past. He reminds us of Yahweh’s actions supporting the poor. That when the whole world was against people, Yahweh supported them. He was the one who did not forget Joseph in jail when he was falsely accused. He was the one who heard Hagar in the wilderness when her son was dying of thirst. He was the one who delivered the children of Israel from slavery under the most powerful nation on earth. He was the one who saved his people from oppressive regimes and attacking armies. So He will help the poor today.
But the psalmist also reminds us that Yahweh is a teacher. He teaches history and morality and law. He informs Moses of what is right and true. And He reminds His people of what he has done through His word. But his most important teaching to Moses, the psalmist reminds us, is the teaching of his true nature. Yahweh spoke to Moses, as Moses was hidden behind a rock, informing Moses that He is a God of mercy and kindness of graciousness and faithfulness. Yahweh is not a precarious God, who says something one day and changes his mind the next. Rather, Yahweh keeps all of his good promises and always remembers his people in love.
Yes, his people sin, they fight against their god at times, they hate, steal, murder and oppress the poor. But as they repent, Yahweh always forgives. God has no desire to fight, to argue with his people, to offer terrible pronouncements. So as soon as His people are on the right track, He forgives and sets his anger aside. He is slow to anger and sets it aside quickly.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth
So great is his faithful love toward those who fear Him.
He knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are dust.
As for humans, their days are like grass
As a wildflower, so is human glory.
When the wind blows over it, it is gone
And its place is known no longer.
Yahweh knows full well that we are not made of the stuff of the spirit. We are weak, helpless against our hormones, pleasures, pains and desires. We are washed from thing to thing, desire to desire, as foam floating upon the ocean’s waves. And most of all, we are fearful. And that which we fear most is our frailty, our humiliation, our death. We do all we do to remain in perpetuity, to be remembered, to make a mark upon this world, upon which we remain for but the briefest moment.

But the faithful love of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him
And His righteousness to children's children.
To those who keep his covenant.
And remember his precepts to do them.
Yahweh’s love, is the opposite, however, to our mortal frame. We are but dust in the wind, but Yahweh’s love for us is stronger than the pyramids, it is a monument more lasting than the mountains. When the sea is dried up and the earth is cast into the sun, God’s love for us will remain. All that we do for ourselves will fade in a mere few years, perhaps a century. But God’s remembrance of what we have done for Him will never end. And if we live for Him, we will remain with that remembrance.

Yahweh has established His throne in the heavens
And his rule is over all.
Bless Yahweh, you his angels
Mighty in strength
Who perform His word
Obeying the voice of his word
Bless Yahweh all you his hosts
You who serve Him doing his will
Bless Yahweh, all you works of His
In all places of dominion
Bless Yahweh, O my soul
Yahweh is the king of the universe, and His love is the most powerful element in the universe. So if we have that love, through our faithfulness meeting His faithfulness, then we have that power within ourselves.
That power is so great, that we can command the gods. “Praise Yahweh” the psalmist commands the angels of heaven. Yes, the merest glance of one of them could break the psalmist in half—but he is confident in Yahweh’s love. So he commands them, “Honor your commander!” It is not enough, the psalmist says, to obey God, we must take time to honor Him as well. Obedience is wonderful, but we need to give respect to God’s name. We must give thanks for what He has done. We must recognize and laud his perfect character, his love.

Infusion-- Psalm 90

2008-05-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

A prayer of Moses, the man of God
The transcript of this psalm says that it was written by Moses. The Hebrew vocabulary of this psalm is very similar to that of the book of Deuteronomy, and has some of the themes of Deuteronomy as well. Thus, whoever edited the book of Deuteronomy is probably the author of this book, so it make sense that it is ascribed to Moses.

Yahweh, you have been our dwelling place in all generations
Before the mountains were born
And the earth and world writhed in pain
From eternity to eternity you are God
Yahweh is the most powerful, amazing God. In the pagan world at the time of the psalm, there were many gods, all of whom had their own powers, but Yahweh alone is the One who is most powerful from the beginning of time to the end. Other gods raise up in authority and then descend. Other gods obtain power and then lose it. But Yahweh alone is the god who is over all and does not falter or lose any of his authority. He is greater than all the earth, greater than all heavenly beings.

To dust you turn humanity,
Saying, "Return, O sons of men!"
Or as a watch in the night.
You sweep them away like a flood
For a thousand years in Your eyes
Are as yesterday's day when it is past
They sink into deep sleep
In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.
In the morning it flourishes and sprouts
Toward evening it withers and dries up.
So we vanish by Your wrath
Overcome in horror by your fury
You have arrayed our sins before You
Our secrets in the light of Your face.
All our days pass away in Your anger
We end our years like a sigh.
In comparison to humanity, God is most powerful. All humans, no matter who they are have limits and an end. But God does not. For Him, a thousand years is but a moment, because he has always existed and always will, beyond the scope of creation.
And God puts limits on humanity. God created humans, and He causes them to cease as well. The limitation of human life is done because of God’s wrath, as it says in Genesis 6:3. In that context, humanity was becoming more and more corrupt, more and more violent. So God limits their lives in order to limit their corruption. Even so, God’s wrath recognizes the harm that humanity does to one another, and so He limits our lives. This only displays humanity’s frailty before God. God is the powerful one, we are but leaves of grass, dependent on Him for our very lives.

As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years
And if because of strength, eighty years.
Yet their pride is but toil and sorrow
They are quickly cut off and we fly away.
Who can comprehend the power of your wrath?
Give us the knowledge so to number our days
That we may acquire a heart of wisdom.
All humans can do is compare our lives with others to see if it was significant, or if it was long. Some have 70 years, some 80, depending on our strength. But in the end, our lives are limited, hard and short. We work hard all of our lives to get by, to raise our families and to make our mark and in the end all we have to show for it is our death.
So the psalmist prays for us and asks God to give us wisdom. Help us realize, the psalmist cries out, the shortness of our lives and to make the most of them. We only have so many days, and so we should take advantage of what we have. Not for selfish reasons, but to do things that are helping others. We need to have the wisdom to realize that we cannot procrastinate. If we want to accomplish something, we need to do it now.

Return, O Yahweh! How long?
Reconsider your worshippers.
Sate us in the morning with our faithful love
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us rejoice according to the days you have afflicted us.
And the years in which we have seen evil.
Let your deeds be shown to Your servants
And your splendor to their children.
May the delight of Yahweh our God be upon us
And fulfill the work of our hands
Yes, fulfill the work of our hands.
The work of humans is limited and often faithless. Our lives are brutish and short. But if we have God in our lives, then it can all be worth it. The problem with human life is that it is limited by human frailty. But if our lives are infused with divinity, then it can accomplish something much more. Our work can be worth something, if God gets involved. So the psalmist prays here that God take the pointlessness and frailty of our human efforts and to make it accomplish something great. Even if we only exist for a moment, God can take our work and make it eternal. Our work, our accomplishments, can be something amazing, if only God would sustain it and fulfill it beyond what we ourselves can do.

Judgment of the Gods-- Psalm 82

2008-04-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

An Asaphic Psalm.
No one knows when this psalm was written, but it is ascribed to Asaph, David’s choir director.

God stands in the Divine Council
He judges among the gods.
These two verses claim that this psalm is being written from the perspective of Heaven. This is an image of God that is used many times. God is in the center of heaven and all the other gods are around him, taking their instruction from Him and He is determining whether their work is good or bad. This image is also found in Job 1, Isaiah 6, I Kings 22, Zechariah 3 and Revelation 4.
Many people have a hard time accepting the term “gods” in the Bible, unless one is speaking of idols. But the Bible often uses the term “gods” to mean the spiritual powers that are in submission to God Most High. God is not the only powerful spiritual being in heaven, there are also angels, demons, archangels, cherubim, seraphim and national gods. Sometimes these are called “the sons of God” (such as in Job) and sometimes just “gods” (as in Deuteronomy). This does not take away from God’s glory, for God is the one called “God Most High.” What is He most high over? Over the other gods, of course. Yahweh is always the ruler over the gods.
Satan is one of the lesser gods, as well as Michael and Gabriel. So is Marduk (a national god) and possibly Baal/Zeus (warrior gods, really the same god), as well as Venus (goddess of erotic love) and Mars (god of war). There are gods over each nation in the world—Britain, the U.S., Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, France and Russia. Each god actually partly determines the character of each nation. There are also gods over churches. All of these gods are powerful and can effect the world in powerful ways. Their movements are the politics behind politics and the power behind the powers. And God is in charge of them all.

"How long will you judge unjustly
And show favor to the wicked?
Vindicate the needy and fatherless;
Give justice to the lowly and poor.
Rescue the weak and needy
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
They do not know nor do they understand;
They walk about in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.”How does the Most High judge the gods? How does He determine if they are acting well on earth or not? This is a surprise to many involved in theology. It is not based on their show of worship, nor on how they respond to Zion. Rather, God is looking at one thing, especially for the gods of nations—how do they treat their poor? Do the poor get justice in their lands? Are the needy oppressed, abused, blamed for their poverty? Are the poor forced to cry out to God Most High for the only real justice they will receive?
From the perspective of God Most High, the gods are there to make sure that the human rulers treat the poor with equity and justice. That they are given opportunities for charity and love. That they are saved from oppression when oppression overtakes them.
God rebukes the gods because that is not the situation. And it never has been. Never has there been a nation that treated the poor with the same justice and mercy that they treat the wealthy and important. Never has there been a nation that would give the poor the benefit of the doubt. Never has there been a time in which the poor did not need to depend on God Most High for justice.

“I had thought you to be gods
And all of you to be sons of the Most High
But you will all die like mortals
And fall like any prince."
Arise, O God, bring justice to the earth!
For all the nations are Your possession.
So what happens to the gods? How can God punish them? Frankly, his punishment is harsh. Because they refuse to help the poor, because they allow the governments of the earth to oppress the poor and treat them inequitably, then God will kill them. He says, “You think you are immortal. You think nothing can happen to you. But I can kill you, and I will. Your days are numbered, because you refuse to fulfill my most basic command of all leaders—help the poor, support the needy.” The final cry is for God to bring his justice to earth—to take over the justice system.
To be truly divine is to assist those who are needy. If the gods do not act divine, then God Most High will raise up people who do act with divinity and justice.

If this is true for the gods on high, it is certainly true for the nations of the earth, the leaders of the nations and the leaders of the church. If the leaders of any group refuse to assist the poor, they will be taken from their lofty position and destroyed. Every single leader will be judged according to this standard.
• “Did you use your wealth for frivolous living or for the needy?”
• “Did you give more leniency to the wealthy and popular than you did for the poor?”
• “In your warfare, did you harm the innocent poor because they were expendable?”
• “In your church, did you treat the homeless and mentally ill and poor as second-class citizens? Were they excluded because you considered money to be the means of entrance to fellowship? Were people unable to fellowship in restaurants and movies with you because they couldn’t afford it? Were the poor not welcome because they weren’t the same as the rest of you?”
• “In your schools, did you give fewer opportunities to have knowledge to the poor than to the wealthy of society?”
• “In your employment, do you give the poor equal opportunities for employment, even if they haven’t showered, don’t have experience or can’t work a full time job? Are they given short term employment by the wealthy who need clean up or help in their homes?”
• “In your charity distribution, did you give the poor good, nutritious food, good clothing to help them in the weather, or did you give them the items that weren’t good enough for those who could afford it?”
• “In your stores, was the cheapest food the garbage that no one could live off of, or the staples that everyone needs to live?”
• “In cheap housing, is that offered to the poorest of the poor, or only to those who could afford the medium-range prices?”
• “In the value system of your society, are the poor assumed to be immoral, simply because they were poor? Are the poor questioned and doubted when no one else would be? Is there theology that teaches that the poor are less spiritual? Is the poor of one’s family shunted aside and rejected? Does no one want to see them, simply because everyone feels so guilty just looking at them?”
If the poor are treated badly, then it is God himself that will judge. He alone defends them and will support them. And God will question each one of us according to how we treated those poorer than us. Let us pray we have a good answer. (Exodus 23:23; Matt 25:31-46; Proverbs 19:17)

When The Worst Happens-- Psalm 79

2008-04-11T09:39:00.001-07:00

An Asaphic Psalm
Although this psalm is stated to be of Asaph, the music leader of David, it was clearly written after 586BC, 400 years after David, because it is about the destruction of God’s temple which hadn’t been built at the time of David.

O God, the nations have entered your possession
They have defiled your Holy Temple
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps
They have given the corpses of your servants for food to the birds of heavens
The flesh of Your faithful to the beasts of the earth
Their blood was spilled like water around Jerusalem
With none to bury them
We have become a taunt to our neighbors
Mockery and derision of those around us.
This is a bitter description of the destruction of Jerusalem, only to be exceeded by the book of Lamentations. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, brought his armies and surrounded the city. He starved them out, so that even mothers ate their babies. When the gates of Jerusalem finally fell, out of anger for them not allowing him in, he slaughtered the people and completely destroyed the temple of Yahweh. The walls of the city, once used for protection, were dismantled. The bodies of the dead were left out in the open, not allowed to be buried for their shame. All the nations around Israel, who had not yet faced the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar, mocked Judah and Jerusalem because they claimed that the gods had forsaken them, but since they were still standing, they must be more holy, more righteous.

How long, O Yahweh?
Will You be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Pour your wrath out upon the nations that do not know You
And upon the kingdoms who do not invoke Your name
For they have devoured Jacob
And laid waste his home
The psalmist understands God’s anger. He appreciates the fact that he and his forebears have sinned before God, by worshipping other gods and by acting impurely before God. But he just needs to say, “God, but really? Shouldn’t you really be mad at them, at Babylon and the nations that mock us? They are the ones who destroyed your temple, not us. They are the ones who destroyed your people, not us.” But the psalmist fails to look at the situation from God’s perspective (which we are told in Ezekiel 36). It was God’s people who defiled the temple, who made it impure and unacceptable to worship in. Thus, it had to be destroyed, and God used Babylon as his tool for this (as God says in Habakkuk 1).

Do not recall our former wrongs against us
Let your compassion come quickly to meet us
For we are brought very low
Help us, O God our deliverer, because of the glory of Your name
And save us and forgive our sins for the sake of your name
Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?"
Let the revenge for the spilled blood of your servants
Become known among the nations before our eyes.
Now the psalmist is asking for forgiveness. He is claiming, “Haven’t we suffered enough for our sins? Look at our humiliation and decide for yourself, if that is enough.” Then the psalmist has another, more powerful argument to releasing them from their slavery. “God, you know that this looks bad for you, too. After all, your reputation as a powerful God is at stake here. All the other nations will say that you are a wimpy God and unworthy of fear or worship. So restore us and avenge us from our enemies and Your reputation will be strengthened.”

Let the groans of the prisoner come before You
According to the greatness of Your power, free those slated for death
And return to our neighbors seven-fold into their bosom
The reproach with which they have reproached You, O Yahweh
Then we-- Your people, the sheep of Your pasture-- will praise You forever.
To all generations we will tell of your praise
Finally, the psalmist just points to the suffering of God’s people, and relies on God’s compassion. He points to their slavery, to their death sentence, to their imprisonment. And he claims that this is all the fault of the Babylonians and their hatred of God. Therefore, the psalmist claims, God should take vengeance against them, to destroy them, for the sake of His people and His name. And the final icing on the cake is God’s people will praise him forever for his mercy on them.

Often we have terrible circumstances coming upon us, tearing us apart. Our children taken from us, our livelihood torn away from us, our love and hope destroyed by terrible disasters. In that time, we should take the psalmist’s example and cry to God for deliverance. He will give us freedom if only we cry out. Even if He is punishing us, He will have mercy and forgive us.
However, we also need to look at the full circumstance. As awful as what someone else did to us, did we do anything that allowed this suffering to come upon us? Are we blind to our own sins, our own mea culpa? Before we ask for God to take anyone else down, first we must repent of our own sins, accept our own responsibility. It took 70 years for the people of Israel to accept their own responsibility, repent of their sins and turn to God. Only then did He deliver them and move the nations to restore them to their home. Pray that it doesn’t take that long for us to see the light and to have Him restore us to life and health.

The One Thing To Remember-- Psalm 75

2008-04-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

For the leader, "Do Not Destroy". An Asaphic Psalm. A Song.
This psalm, Psalm 57, 58 and 59 all begin with a word meaning, “Do Not Destroy.” This would simply be nonsense, unless it was a reference to another psalm. Probably it is a reference to the melody of another psalm.

We give thanks to You, O God
We give you thanks and your name is near.
People tell of your wondrous deeds.
This is a common passage in the Psalms, offering thanks and praise to God for his salvation. However, as we will see, God’s salvation hasn’t arrived yet. Thanks is being offered for God’s character which will produce future action.

"When I determine the set time
I will judge with equity.
The earth and all who live in it dissolve.
I set firm the pillars.
The psalmist throughout this psalm give quotes from God himself, and provides commentary around it. God’s voice speaks here, instructing the world that He is the final judge. He recognizes that the world right now is going to hell in a handbasket. The whole world, God says, is dissolving, melting down in to chaos, the state it was before His creation (see Genesis 1:2). Everything is falling apart. But God says that he alone is the one who will establish the world. At the set time, God says, the world will be set right, as if it were a wobbly roof, and then placed upon secure, strong pillars. The judgment of God isn’t a time of destruction. It is a time of healing, of restoration, of renewal.

I say to the boastful, 'Do not boast.'
And to the wicked, 'Do not raise up your horn!'"
For not from the East,
Nor from the West,
Nor from the Desert comes uplifting
For God determines justice--
This one he humbles
That one he exalts
Many people think that they can fix the world themselves. In the ancient world, many felt that they had the right army, the right ideas to bring about stability in the world. The Mesopotamians, in the East, thought they could bring the world into stability via empire. Egypt thought their mysticism and religion could restore all things. The Greeks and Romans in the West thought they could stabilize things through their philosophies and culture. Those in the desert thought that through their religious fanaticism they could make all things well. Even today, the West think that all will gain happiness through capitalism. The Islamics think that religious purity will solve the world’s chaos.
But the psalmist says that no one but God himself will create stability in the world. Not the secular philosophers, nor the religious fanatics. God, acting on his own behalf as creator of the world. So, says God, don’t boast about your abilities! Don’t, as a candidate, say you will solve the world’s problems—you won’t! Only God is the one who establishes the righteous ones who will bring security and utopia for all. And no one knows who they are. Some are cast down into anonymity. Others are raised to prominence. It is up to God.

For a cup is in the hand of Yahweh with foaming wine;
It is well mixed
He pours from it
The dregs of it will be drained
For all the wicked of the earth drink of it.
Those who make promises of utopia only for their own gain and benefit to the detriment to others God will give his wrath to. One being forced to drink a cup of wine from God is often a symbol of God’s judgment on the wicked (Psalm 60:3; Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15-16; 51:7; Revelation 14:10; 16:19). These who drink fully of God’s wrath are the wicked who claim to bring utopia, but only bring hardship. Those like Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Idi Amin, Mobutu, Osama Bin Ladin and hundreds of others throughout history and others today who claim they will being in a new era of prosperity, and only bring in war and genocide. All of these leaders face the wrath of God because of their oppression and death.

As for me, I will rejoice forever
I will sing hymns to the God of Jacob
But the righteous in God need not worry about God’s wrath. They who wait humbly upon God to change things will have the opportunity to praise God eternally, before God’s throne.

"And all the horns of the wicked I will cut off
But the horns of the righteous will be lifted high."
God has one other thing to say. “Horns” are symbols in scripture for authority or rule. The wicked, Scripture says again and again, raise up their own authority, boasting that they can fix all the problems in the world. They put themselves in the place of authority, and inevitably, God will cut off their horns—take away whatever authority they have. On the other hand, the humble, the lowly who wait for God, who just do what God says in their specific communities and depends on God to answer the big problems, God will raise them up to have the authority these others are actually looking for. God does the raising, God does the lowering. And God will rule over all.

So this is the one thing to remember: God is the judge and He will judge the world.
If we are trying to get authority for ourselves, it is best to remember that God is in charge and we shouldn’t try to take his place by judging others or oppressing others.
And if we are trying to do good and all we see is injustice, it is good for us to remember that justice comes from God alone. For this reason, the most powerful political act in the world is to pray.

Anatomy of a Doubt-- Psalm 73

2008-03-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

An Asaphic psalm.

When David established the ark of God as the center of Israel and Judah’s worship, he appointed a group of singers and the worship leader was called Asaph. Even after Asaph had died, his style of writing and singing became well known in Judah, and many song writers named their songs after him.

God is surely good to Israel
To those who are pure in heart
As for me, my feet had almost stumbled
My steps had almost slipped.
For I was envious of the boastful
I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
The psalmist acknowledges that God is good and just—that He reward those of His people who are right and just in his mind, who then act out this justice to others. But the psalmist almost immediately admits that his mind has not been pure. That he has considered doubt and despair—he was thinking that it was injustice that truly reigned. And this because of those who were evil, everyone knew of their evil, and yet they were successful in this life. This caused the psalmist a faith crisis, for the most basic justice requires that the evil be punished and the good be rewarded. Yet, this is not the case on the earth.

There are no pangs at their death,
And their body is healthy.
They do not share in human suffering
And are not afflicted like others.
Therefore pride is their necklace
The garment of violence covers them.
Their eyes are huge from their fatness
The desires of their heart are without limit.
They mock and plot their oppression
From their high place they are scornful.
They set their mouth against heaven
And their tongue struts through the earth.
The psalmist then describes those who are causing this crisis of faith, the Donald Trumps of all ages. They are wicked, clearly evil, but they do not suffer at all—not even from guilt! They live their whole lives doing evil, stealing from the needy, yet they remain healthy and even when they die, it is a pleasant death. The suffering that is common on earth, they don’t experience. So they think they are better than everyone else, simply because of their luck. They are very prosperous, and so they then think that all things belong to them, and whatever they desire, they get. They take no thought of others in need, but take from them without remorse, even making elaborate plots to steal from the needy and just. And finally, they speak against God, rejecting God’s morality and power to whoever will listen to them.

Thus do His people return to them
And the fullness of waters is drained from them.
They say, "How could God know?
Does the Most High truly have knowledge?"
See, these are the wicked
And always at ease, they have obtained wealth.
Because of their success, many others gather around them, wishing to know the secrets of their prosperity. So they teach them to steal, to plot, to enact evil on the earth. And they also repeat their atheism, that God is powerless to stop them, and God’s morality is for weaklings.

Surely in vain I have been pure in heart
And washed my hands in innocence
I am afflicted all day long
And rebuked every morning.
If I said, "This is the way it is"
I would have betrayed the generation of Your children
When I pondered to understand this,
It was burdensome in my sight.
Now the psalmist returns to his doubt. He sees these openly wicked kings and CEO’s of our earth, and they just seem so correct. That the way to get ahead in the world is to ignore God’s morality and build a power base to take wealth from others. And what does the righteous receive? Rebukes, claims of idiocy, and speeches of hatred. The psalmist is concerned, because if he had left his doubts alone and communicated it to God’s people, then God’s people would have been doubtful and the psalmist would have been to blame.

Until I arrived at God's sanctuary
Then I understood their end
You placed them on slippery paths,
You cast them down to ruin.
They are destroyed in a moment!
Completely swept away by terrors!
Like one awakes after a nightmare
So will you, Lord, rouse yourself to despise their form
But then the psalmist arrived at God’s place, and realized that “how the world works” isn’t reality. God’s truth is reality. And God’s reality is that the wicked will be punished. If not in this life, then in the next. Yes, this life seems like a nightmare, especially to the poor and oppressed. But it will end in a moment and the good will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished. Justice will prevail.

When my heart was embittered
And I was pierced within
I was empty of knowledge and understanding
I was like a beast before You
Yet I was always with You
You have taken hold of my right hand.
With Your counsel you will guide me
And afterward receive me to glory
The problem, the psalmist realizes, is not God, but himself. We humans are so weak and so filled with doubts. We often ignore in our daily lives that which is so clear in God’s presence. We can be so stupid when faced with one reality, forgetting that a greater Reality exists. The psalmist admits that God had never left him, that He was there the whole time, helping him through his doubts and despair.

Whom have I in heaven?
On earth there is nothing I desire but You.
My body and mind may end
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
See, those who are far from You, You will destroy.
You have destroyed all who play the harlot.
As for me, the nearness of God is good for me.
I have made Yahweh my God my shelter.
That I may relate all of your works.
As opposed to the wicked, who sees everything they want on earth and obtain it by their greed, the psalmist is not greedy. He doesn’t want the things of earth. Rather, he only wants God. Inheritances fail, economics falter, oppression reigns, and all of life ends. But if we are in God, in God’s goodness and justice, it will never end. God will cause us to live forever, if we make Him our security. God alone is enough. We need have nothing else.

Despite out Doubts, God is Still With Us

In The Wilderness-- Psalm 63

2008-03-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

A Davidic Psalm. When he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, You are my God
I earnestly seek you.
My very being thirst for you
Like a parched and exhausted land with no water
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary
To see your power and your glory
For your faithful love is better than life
My lips will praise You.
So I bless you all my life
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul is satisfied with fatness
My mouth offers praises with joyful lips
When I remember you on my bed
I meditate on you in the watches of the night,
For You have been my help
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to You,
Your right hand supports me
Those seeking to destroy my life
May they go to the depths of the earth
May they be split apart by the sword
May they be a prey for jackals.
But the king will find joy in God
All who swears by Him will glory
For the mouths of those who speak lies is stopped

He was running, running, running. His breath burst within his chest, painfully. Across the desert he wandered, cracks in the ground, jagged rocks rising from the parched land like bones. No matter where he looked, there was disaster. The soldiers would capture him for sure.
One of his finest companions, Uriah, was beside him. “Sir,” he panted, running beside his master, “Let us hide among the crooked rocks. Perhaps we could hide and gain some rest.”
“No,” David gasped, each stride desperately pointed in a particular direction.
“But, sir! Surely they will capture us!”
“No, we will get there first. Come!” David turned to enter the rocks. Uriah looked, mystified at David’s response. Did he listen to him or not? David runs around a few tall finger-like stones then stops, breathing heavily for a full five minutes until his lungs quieted. David was whispering, repeating like a mantra, “This is not the shelter I seek, this is not the shelter I seek.”
Behind him, Uriah could hear the soldiers walking close behind him. “The traitor must have run into these rocks, Sire. Only he would be so stupid to stop in the only hiding place in all this area. We will find him quickly. And destroy him forever.”
David gasped. The king! The king is with them. How David longed to grasp hold of his hand and beg for forgiveness, for whatever he had done. David knew that if he could just talk to the king, explain to him what the reality is, all this unpleasantness would be behind him.
“Do you think he is really in here, son?” Saul’s words were slurred as if he were drunk or drugged. David was infuriated. What have they done to my lord?
“Yes, sire. He will be dead in moments and your fears can be put to rest.” Fears! Thought David. This liar had drugged his king, convinced him that he was Jonathan, and then spread lied about David! Anger enflamed David’s mind. He would pay—this little man would squirm and moan in pain.
But the contingent of the king entered the rocks, turning dangerously close to David and his two men. Just as the last man entered the shelter, David ran out, straight across the open desert. Uriah shrugged and looked at the other man, and ran, following David.
The sun beat down on them, pushing them across the desert, causing precious moisture to escape from their bodies, dripping, wasted, upon the parched ground. In the distance, however, Uriah was making out a community. It was bare, only a few tents resting in the middle of empty wilderness, but it was clearly where David was heading.
They continued to run without rest until they reached the first tent. David ran right past it, to other tents in the community. Uriah paused and looked behind him. The king’s soldiers would be close behind them, but they haven’t finished looking through the rocks yet. Uriah breathed easier. There would be a little time. They could escape, if only they would leave this camp quickly.
Uriah turned toward the tents and walked through a few of them. On the other side of the camp, he spied David’s other men. “Adino!” Uriah called, and the two embraced, kissing each other on the cheeks. “How did you come here?”
“David sent us before you left. Didn’t you know?”
Uriah shrugged. “For once, he kept his own counsel.’ Uriah looked around, “Where is he? I know he came over here.”
Adino’s face scrunched up in disgust, “He didn’t greet us—not even to wave. He passed by as if we were strangers—or worse, enemies!—and ran into a tent there.”
“Which one?”
“That one over there.”
Uriah followed Adino’s finger, and walked to the tent. The flap was left open—stupid, allowing all the cool air of the morning escape to mix with the afternoon heat—so Uriah ducked under the flap and spied his master.
At the far end of the tent was the holy of holies, the seat of the Most High. There at the top were the seraphim—the angels that upheld the power and glory of God himself. Uriah struck, stunned. He had never seen such a sight before. For all of David’s clear devotion to Yahweh, Uriah was a foreigner, a Hittite, and his gods were different. But still, such an idol as this, with such clear power! No wonder David was so devoted!
And there was the man himself, prostrate before the image of the seat of God, murmuring. No, wait. He wasn’t just mumbling a prayer. He was singing! Uriah could make out some of the words, “My soul is satisfied… your right hand supports me…” Uriah mocked his devotion to himself. David sometimes could be so obtuse—not even seeing what situation he was in!
“My lord, the soldiers will soon leave the rocks and they will know where we…”
“SHUT UP! Just shut up! Don’t you think I know all that? This is where I am supposed to be.”
“Surely you don’t want us all to be captured…”
“We won’t be! And even if we are, what I am doing here is more important than life itself.”
“More important than your men?” Uriah scoffed. “Is your song to your god worth your faithlessness to your men who dedicated themselves to you?”
“I was up all night, Uriah,” David’s eyes were wild, almost insane. Uriah stayed silent, fearing David’s reaction. “And a song came to me, as if in a dream. ‘O God, you are my God,’ I sang in the midst of my enemies. And I knew that I had to reach the Sanctuary. I had to be before my God. Deliverance is not to be found in hiding, but in devotion. Don’t trust in me, Uriah. I am just a man. Trust in God.”

Raining, raining, raining. He awoke, cold and in the storm, with a light shining in his eyes and a shout in his ears. “Excuse me sir! Will you please come out of the tent!” Cops, he thought dejectedly. Why can’t they leave me alone? All I’m trying to do is sleep.
He got up to obey the command when he stopped suddenly. He could hear sniffing along the front of the tent. A K-9 unit. Suddenly fear gripped his heart. It was only a month ago when his friend, camped only a short distance from this very place, was attacked by a police dog. His leg and arm was all chewed up and he spent a week in the hospital. The doctors say he will walk again. Eventually. But the scars on his face and the fear in his heart would never heal. Never.
One of the cops was yelling, “C’mon—get out of there!”
“I’m coming!” David yelled back sharply. He arose out of his bag, put on his hat, and escaped under the tent in the back.
Damn, it was cold! He had no shoes and no coat and the icy wind blew on him, causing pellets of freezing rain to pelt his bare face. He dipped his head down to allow his hat to block the worst of the weather and he turned aside behind a tree. Shit! He stepped right into his latrine. And it was cold, too! What else could go wrong?
“He’s not in there,” he heard a shout a few yards back. “He must have gotten out through the back! C’mon!” Footsteps ran after him, and he escaped for his life.
His only deliverance was that he knew the small patch of woods better than the cops. For the last month he had been finding and following a three inch wide path through the woods to his camp in the dark. Even in the pitch black of 1am, he could follow it out. The cops didn’t know where he was going.
As David ran past tree after tree, swerving through the branches, he had time to consider. What have I done wrong? Perhaps they looking for a criminal, like they were last month. But probably they were just kicking him out. Maybe a neighbor saw him enter the woods and it took them all night to find his camp. Damn. That place is gone. As well as my tent. And my blankets. And food.
Don’t I have the right to sleep? It wasn’t my choice to be homeless. I don’t have much choice about it now. Don’t the cops know how difficult life is here? David has been outside for three years, and each winter is more difficult than the last. He had to stay in the urban area in order to take advantage of the services that were available there, but even with the few charities available, none of them had enough resources to get him off the street. To get him a truck to sleep in. To recover the tools someone had stolen from him so he could get back to his trade.
But David knew that the cops didn’t care about that. They saw him as a criminal, a thief of air and water and uncared-for property because he did not have the money or employment to pay for four walls and a roof.
Only five minutes later, however, he was out of woods, and the shelter of the trees fell behind him. He had gained a head start in front of the cops, but now he was out in the open and they could set their dog on him anytime. They might even shoot at him, like they did that girl who panicked at a pull-over and drove away. She’s dead now. What was he to do?
The church. It’s right around the corner. If there is just a slight possibility the priest forgot to lock the door…
He ran down the block to the doors of the chapel. Behind him, a full block away, the cops were huffing, trying to shout, “Stop!” but getting caught up by their short breath. Please, be open, please… He tried the tall door and, miracle enough, it was open! David entered and tried to shut the door behind him, but it was slowed by one of those things that closed doors carefully. Damn, come on! Finally, the door was shut and he locked it.
Walking through the foyer, he walked into the sanctuary. The lights were all off. He must be here by himself. Perhaps he could crash here for the night, get up early and then figure out where he could get a new tent. And blankets. And a coat. And shoes. He sighed. It would be a long day, full of refusals and dirty looks, as if he wanted to be ill-prepared at the beginning of winter.
Then he looked at the front of the sanctuary. There was Jesus, arms open, heart exposed. David snorted in disgust. He was raised to not worship idols, he mused. Nevertheless, there was something peaceful here. He felt at ease.
The cops reached the door and were pounding at it. “Let us in, or we’ll break it down!” David turned toward the door in fear. It wasn’t solid—they could break it, if they wanted. He spun around, scanning the room. Where to hide, where to go…
Suddenly, strangely, he remembered his dream. David, the warrior, his namesake, running to the sanctuary of God, only to pray from deliverance from his enemies. He wouldn’t escape, even though he could. He even endangered his men, because he was certain that God would deliver him. If only he would pray.
As the cops pounded on the door, David went to the front of the sanctuary, bowed his knees, turned his face away from the painted Jesus, and began to recite the words he had memorized as a child in Sunday school, “O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and weary land where no water is…”
There was no hope, there was no escape. There is only God in this place. So only He could provide peace.

The presence of God gives us hope, even in the midst of calamity.

Corruption-- Psalm 53

2008-03-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

For the leader, according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.

Psalm 53 is exactly the same as Psalm 14—the only real repetition in the psalms. Perhaps this is an editorial oversight, or perhaps the editor wanted to make sure this psalm didn’t get missed.

The rebellious idiot said in his heart, "There is no God."
They are corrupt
Committing abominable deeds
The person who is being spoken of is not just a “fool” as in the standard translations. He is someone who is rebellious, evil, attempting to do that which is destructive and selfish. At first sight, it seems that this fool is an atheist. But in fact, he is not denying the existence of God or gods, but the reality of judgment. This is his excuse for doing his evil deeds in order to accomplish what he wants corruptly. He tells himself, “God isn’t really going to judge me for this. He isn’t interested in my minor actions. Even if there is a god, he has no interest or power to act against me. I am free to do what I please.” Ultimately, this is a person who thinks there are no consequences for his actions.

There is none that does good.
God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there is anyone who sees
Who seeks after God.
Every one of them has turned aside
Together they have become corrupt
There is none that does good
Not even one.
The psalmist then changes his focus for a moment. Before he was focused on the few individuals who live according to the creed, “No evil will befall me no matter what I do”. Now, he looks at all humanity, and points out that none of us are free from this corrupt concept. Even those of us who want to do what is right and holy before God, we also are rebellious fools in some way. Every one of us see what God wants us to do and does something else. Every one of us closes our eyes to God’s perfection and live just in the moment. Every one of us is trapped by our own desires and faults, our minor corruptions and weaknesses. Paul calls this human nature “the flesh” and John clearly states “Anyone who says he has not sinned is a liar.” (Romans 7; I John 1:8). So the psalmist is saying that even though he is pointing out a particular fault in some folks, this fault exists in all of us, without exception.

Have those who work evil no knowledge
Who eat up my people as they eat bread
And do not call upon God?
There they were, in terror, where no terror was,
For God will scatter the bones of him who camped against You
They will be put to shame
For God has rejected them.
The psalmist now stares in disbelief at the actions of those so thoroughly corrupt that they attack God’s people, the poor, to steal from them, attack them and kill them. He is amazed because they have forgotten God so completely. Sure, he says, we are all forgetful at times, but most of us have a limit. But these people have no fear of God whatsoever—and this, he says, is their ultimate corruption. Now they will face the Great Terror—the judgment of God. God has rejected them and will destroy them completely. Not only will they be killed, but their bones will be scattered throughout the earth, their souls never at peace for the rest of eternity.

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of his people
Jacob will rejoice and be glad.
This paragraph is about God’s people, asking for deliverance. Zion is the place where God’s temple stands. The real shock of what the psalmist sees is not the thoroughly corrupt nature of some, but the attack of God’s people. How the helpless are attacked and those that trust in God. And for those who trust in God, they have only one Resource, one Security.
And so, in speaking of the corruption of some evil ones, as well as the corruption of all humanity, the psalmist was really just leading up to a prayer of rescue. “O God! Save those who trust in You alone! They have no defense against the corrupt—please be there for them.”
Interestingly enough, the psalmist doesn’t speak of confidence in God, as other psalms do. The psalm ends on a hope—a desperate hope, but just a hope—in God’s deliverance.

Evil abounds, but cling to hope in God

A Pardon From the Governor Psalm 51

2008-03-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

For the leader. A psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came into him after he had gone into Bathsheba.
The background of this psalm, although seemingly clear in the introduction, is actually muddled. The text of the psalm, especially the closing verses, seem to indicate an author during the exile of Judah, because he is hoping for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It does have the feel of a Davidic psalm, having many of the themes of other Davidic psalms, but it seems written much later. But the introduction points the context to be when David was publicly caught in his act of adultery and murder by the prophet Nathan. In all probability, the psalm was written during the period of exile, possibly to represent all of Israel (like the penitent prayer of Daniel 9). Later, someone applied the Davidic narrative to explain it being a “Davidic” psalm.

Grant me grace, God, as befits Your kindness
With Your great mercy wipe away my crimes.
Thoroughly wash my transgressions away
And cleanse me from my offense.
For my crimes I know
And my offense is before me always.
You alone have I offended
And what is evil in Your eyes I have done.
So you are just when you sentence
You are right when you judge.
Look, in transgression was I conceived
And in offense my mother spawned me.
In these first verses, the psalmist is mixing three themes: 1. First of all, he admits his crime. He knows just how sinful he is, that his sin is built into him. It is as if he is recognizing his own genetic makeup and that he has a tendency to sin, even though this is not what he wants to do. Yet at the same time, he cannot deny his own culpability. He is responsible for his own sin before God, and he deserves whatever God gives him. 2. The offense is against God. The psalmist is not denying that he has responsibility for other people in his sin, but since God is his judge, God is the one to whom he must answer. It is his separation from God is that is most offensive in his sin, and it is God to whom he must plead. 3. He is asking for mercy. God could sentence him, punish him to death. The psalmist knows he deserves it. But He is asking for God to make the offense disappear, to erase it from the record books. This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t recognize his weakness to avoid it, but it does mean that God wouldn’t punish him.

Look, you desired truth in what is hidden;
In what is concealed make wisdom known to me.
The psalmist here recognizes that sin lies deep within him and that the sin lies to him. He often believes what is not true so that he could continue in his sin. But he knows that God isn’t interested in our excuses. He wants truth in us, so we don’t lie to Him and don’t lie to ourselves. So the psalmist begs the Lord to make wisdom and truth appear within him, so he wouldn’t be deceived by his own sin anymore.

Purify me with a hyssop, that I may be clean
Wash me, that I be whiter than snow.
Let me hear gladness and joy,
Let the bones that You crushed exult.
Avert your face from my offenses,
And all my misdeeds wipe away.
A pure heart create for me, God,
And a firm spirit renew within me.
Do not fling me from Your presence,
And Your holy spirit take not from me.
Give me back the gladness of Your rescue
And with a noble spirit sustain me.
Here the psalmist very specifically describes what he expects if God is going to grant him forgiveness. If his sin is truly wiped away, these are the results that he expects: a. His guilt would be cleansed away, as one would wipe away dirt; b. He would experience the joy of being forgiven; c. That his resolve to think and act for God would be renewed; d. That he would recognize God’s presence in his life and e. That he would experience God’s deliverance again from those who want to harm him.
A couple points of explanation: Hyssop is a plant that was used in purification ceremonies to take away the guilt of a sinner. The “holy spirit” is not the third person of the trinity in Christian theology, but God’s presence as a whole. He is called the Holy Spirit because, as opposed to the psalmist, God is holy, and holiness cannot abide with sin. The psalmist is recognizing this, and so asking to be made so pure that God might abide with him.

Let me teach transgressors Your ways,
And offenders will come back to You.
Save me from bloodshed, O God,
God of my rescue.
Let my tongue sing out You bounty.
O Master, open my lips
That my tongue may tell Your praise.
The psalmist is not just insisting on receiving, however. He wants to give back. For his purity, he will do two things—First, he will tell others of what he learned about himself and about God. He will tell them of the way back to God, and that God will receive them and forgive them. Secondly, he will proclaim God’s mercy and provision. God will be glorified for His mercy on the psalmist.

For You desire not that I should give sacrifice,
Burnt offering You greet not with pleasure.
God’s sacrifices—a broken spirit.
A broken, crushed heart God spurns not.
Show goodness in Your pleasure to Zion,
Rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shall You desire just sacrifices,
Burnt-offering and whole offering
Then bulls will be offered up on Your altar.
Finally, the psalmist has a discussion of worship—specifically sacrifices. Sacrifices in the ancient world was a gift to be offered to God, sometimes so that God would ignore sin, and sometimes just to curry favor with the Lord of the Universe. These sacrifices aren’t that much different than going to church or putting money in an offering basket. But the psalmist clearly recognizes that these kinds of worship aren’t the way to cover up one’s sin. A sin doesn’t get covered by one’s own act. Rather, sin is written off simply by an act of mercy by the Judge. So how does one curry favor with a Judge who knows all your sin? Simply this—by recognizing and openly regretting one’s sin. If the Judge sees how regretful one is, then He will forgive. He doesn’t want a bribe or a deal. He just wants sorrow and humility. After this, yes, offerings can be made as a part of one’s regular devotion. But we can’t use the semblance of devotion or praise as a way to cover up evil done. That is for after our recognition of sin.

(This translation of Psalm 51 was done by Robert Alter, who, in my opinion, is probably the finest modern translator of the Hebrew Bible.)

A Social Worker, Attacked Psalm 41

2008-03-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

For the leader. A psalm of David.
Whether this psalm was written by David or not, it is certainly characteristic of David, and it matches a time of David’s life, when he was being slandered by Absalom, his son, and his son’s friends, even though David had done good for the poor. When a psalm says, “For the leader”, it probably means the music or choir leader.

How blessed is he who acts with wisdom for the needy;
Yahweh will deliver him in a day of trouble.
It is clear throughout Scripture that those who assist the poor receive certain helps from God. It is recognized that they receive few benefits from the earth, and because of this, every injustice is righted by God. God punishes those who oppress the poor personally (Psalm 82, Exodus 22:22-24). And God also rewards those who help the poor, especially if they receive no reward for it in this life (Proverbs 19:17;28:27; Matthew 5:7; Luke 12:32-33). This psalm, then, begins by speaking of the one who helps the poor and the help that he or she will receive from God.
But it is not speaking of anyone who helps the poor. The person who does so flippantly, or as the mood hits him or her don’t receive this blessing. Rather, the one who makes plans for the poor and carries them out. The one who thinks about the poor and then brings that plan to fruition—that’s the one who is assisted. And he or she isn’t assisted in any way, but they are helped when they need it most, when they are in terrible trouble. At the time of their greatest crisis, God will step in and help them.

Yahweh will watch over him and keep him alive
And he will be called blessed on the earth;
And not hand him over into the power of his enemies.
Yahweh will sustain him upon his sickbed;
When he is ill You will restore him to health.
What kind of crises does the psalm speak about? When people are rising up against him or her and trying to destroy him—then God steps in and delivers them from harm. When the helper of the needy is sick, even as the needy are often sick—then God steps in and heals them. These are just two examples, but they show the justice that God has. If one helps people, gaining nothing for himself or herself, when they are in crisis, then God will help such a one when they are in crisis and there is no one else to help.

I said, "Yahweh have mercy on me
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You."
The psalmist moves here from general principles to his specific situation. Here, the psalmist admits two things—that he is one who has helped the needy, and that he is a sinner. Yes, he has done good, and yet he has also done evil. He is like most of us that can’t be characterized as either a good guy or a bad guy. He is one who has done great good for those around him. And yet he also has done impure things, things that God has a hard time forgiving. So he is pleading for God’s mercy, to forgive him, to make him a good guy.

My enemies speak evil against me:
"When will he die and his name perish?"
If one comes to visit, he speaks falsely;
His mind gathers to itself mischief,
When he goes outside, he speaks openly.
All my foes whisper together against me;
Devising evil for me,
"May a great harm be poured out on him;
So when he lies down, he will not get up again."
Even my close friend, in whom I trusted
Who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me
The psalmists particular crisis he is dealing with is enemies that are attempting to destroy him. They aren’t taking out knives to kill him or whips to flog him—rather they are spreading terrible rumors about him. They are openly wishing for his death. They come to visit him, knowing he is ill, and hopes that he says something malicious or impure so they can tell everyone about it. And if he doesn’t say anything they can twist out of shape, they just make up something, tearing down his reputation. Even his friends are against him, doubting the psalmist because of the rumors that have been spread.

But You, Yahweh, have grace to me and raise me up
So I may pay them back.
By this I will know that You are pleased with me
Because my enemy will not revel over me
As for me, because of my integrity, you will be my support
You will place me in your presence forever
Now the psalmist has confidence in Yahweh because of the promise of the first part of the psalm. God does help those who have helped the needy, so God will help the psalmist in his time of crisis. He can rest on this, and not be depressed. He knows that God will give him the upper hand—eventually—over his enemies.

Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen.
This last verse is a unique part of the book of Psalms. The book is divided up into five sections, because Psalms is so large it had to be divided up into five scrolls. At the end of each scroll there is a unique praise given to God that is not found anywhere else. They are not especially creative, nor do they always fit the psalm that they are attached to, but they give a praise to God at the end of each section, and they each say “amen” as if to finish a prayer. This psalm is the end of scroll 1, and this two line praise is the conclusion to the scroll.

A Sinner's Faith-- Psalm 40

2008-03-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

For the leader. A psalm of David.
Psalm 40 is one of the most popular psalms in modern times. There have been numerous songs written about it (not least U2’s “40”).

I waited constantly for Yahweh
And He inclined toward me and heard my cry.
He brought me out of the watery, roaring pit, from the miry clay
And he set my feet on a rock, securing my steps.
He put a new song in my mouth, praise to our GodThe Psalmist here is remembering God’s deliverance in times past. We do not know any of the details, but the metaphors that he is using are particularly horrific. The Psalmist sees himself in a whirlpool in a deep pit, but God pulls him out and places him on solid ground. God must have delivered him from a terrible calamity.

Many will see it and will fear and trust in Yahweh
Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust
Who turns not to the arrogant and those who turn to falsehood.
The psalmist here is taking his experience and saying that it acts as a basic principle for everyone’s life. If there is anyone who trusts in God, God will not fail him or her, but deliver him. He also says that we shouldn’t listen to people who want to lie to us and say that God can’t help us.

Many deeds have you done, Yahweh, my God--
Wonders and thoughts toward us.
(No one can compare with You)
If I were to relate and speak of them
They would be too many to say.
This passage reminds us of all the great things that God has done, so many that it could not be spoken. But some of God’s deeds are: healing the sick, delivering people out of prison, teaching the ignorant, helping the poor, feeding the hungry, encouraging the depressed and on and on and on…..

Sacrifice and meal offering you do not desire
My ears you have opened
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
Then I said, "Behold I have come
In the scroll of a book it is written of me
To do your will, my God, is my desire
Your law is within my heart.
It seems as if the psalmist were saying that God doesn’t want any kind of sacrifice. But in this passage, as well as many other prophetic passages (such as Isaiah 1), God is not refusing sacrifices and offering so much as saying that other things are more important. Here, the psalmist is talking about obedience as being more important than trying to take care of sin after the fact. When he says “My ears you have opened” it speaks of one’s ears as clay that is blocked up, but God opened it up to be able to hear God and obey. The scroll the psalmist brings to God instead of a sacrifice is his biography. The psalmist isn’t just bringing a dead goat or some grain. Rather, he is offering his life, his whole self to God, every action he does.

I proclaimed righteousness in the great assembly;
I did not restrain my lips-- Yahweh, you know this.
I have not hidden your righteousness in my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and deliverance;
I have not refrained from speaking of your lovingkindness
And fidelity before the Great Congregation.
You, O Yahweh will not withhold your mercy from me
And your kindness and fidelity guard me always.
Because of God’s greatness, and because of the psalmist’s commitment to God, he proclaims God’s greatness in a public forum. He has appointed himself the one to remind others to turn to God, to love God and to remember what God has done. He speaks of his life and God’s actions in his life.

For evils without number surround me
My sins have overtaken me, till I cannot see
They are more than the hairs of my head
And I have not heart to go on.
Suddenly, Psalm 40 turns into a different psalm. Up until this point, the psalm is a symphony of gratitude and of acts of commitment. Now the psalm turns into a common Davidic psalm—“I’m in trouble again, Lord, please help me!” In this case, the psalmist recognizes that his trouble is his own fault—he has sinned, and so, he is facing a lot of trouble. But the amazing thing is the little word “for” at the beginning of this verse. The psalmist was in trouble from the beginning of the psalm and he was just leading up to this cry for help. He expressed all of his commitment and joy and thanks, knowing he was already in trouble. Knowing that he was in crisis. This is similar to Jesus’ statement to those facing persecution: “Rejoice!” he says. Recognize your pain and trouble and then be happy about it because God is getting ready to deliver you. In this psalm, however, the psalmist is saying, “I am doing all these things for you, Lord, because I want to. You are a great God, and even though I’m in despair, I will commit myself wholly to You, in the midst of my sorrow and pain.”

Show your grace, O Yahweh, to deliver me;
Make hast, O Yahweh, to help me.
Let those who seek my life to destroy it be ashamed and humiliated
Let those who seek my misfortune be turned back and dishonored.
Let those who taunt me with "Aha! Aha!"
Be made desolate because of their shame.
The trouble the psalmist is in is due to his enemies. Probably people he has wronged, but refuse to forgive him. They hate him so much that they are interested in having him die. The psalmist just wants to be back on top where he was so he could show them. This could very well be David’s concern when he was defeated by Absolom.

Let those who seek You rejoice and be glad in you.
Those who long for Your deliverance always say
"Yahweh be magnified!"
But I am lowly and needy;
Yahweh will show concern for me
You are my Help and Deliverer
My God, do not delay.
So the psalmist returns to his concerns at the beginning of the psalm, showing that it was no accident that these two psalms were “put together”. The psalmist wants to make it clear that no matter what, whatever the outcome, he will praise and commit himself to God. He has confidence in God’s help of the needy, but in the end, God’s help isn’t the point of the psalm. It is the commitment of the psalmist to God, no matter how terrible the circumstance, no matter how many enemies, no matter how many sins he committed and that came back on Him. He is confident in God, not himself or his life.

Rich V. Poor Psalm 37

2008-01-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

A Psalm of David.
Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers.
For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb.
Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.
Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.
Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.
But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
The wicked plots against the righteous And gnashes at him with his teeth.
The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming.
The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow To cast down the afflicted and the needy, To slay those who are upright in conduct.
Their sword will enter their own heart, And their bows will be broken.
Better is the little of the righteous Than the abundance of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked will be broken, But the LORD sustains the righteous.
The LORD knows the days of the blameless, And their inheritance will be forever.
They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, And in the days of famine they will have abundance.
But the wicked will perish; And the enemies of the LORD will be like the glory of the pastures, They vanish-- like smoke they vanish away.
The wicked borrows and does not pay back, But the righteous is gracious and gives.
For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, But those cursed by Him will be cut off.
The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.
I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken Or his descendants begging bread.
All day long he is gracious and lends, And his descendants are a blessing.
Depart from evil and do good, So you will abide forever.
For the LORD loves justice And does not forsake His godly ones; They are preserved forever, But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.
The righteous will inherit the land And dwell in it forever.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, And his tongue speaks justice.
The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip.
The wicked spies upon the righteous And seeks to kill him.
The LORD will not leave him in his hand Or let him be condemned when he is judged.
Wait for the LORD and keep His way, And He will exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
I have seen a wicked, violent man Spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil.
Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more; I sought for him, but he could not be found.
Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; For the man of peace will have a posterity.
But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; The posterity of the wicked will be cut off.
But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in time of trouble.
The LORD helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, Because they take refuge in Him.

Who is the Lord?
He is the God of justice and righteousness, who watches over those who follow him. He is the God of the poor, those who watch over the oppressed. He is the God of power, who has the ability, the right and the desire to judge between the righteous and the wicked, to give the former what is good and the latter their punishment.

Who are the Wicked?
They are those with many resources who use those resources to oppress those who are not able to defend themselves. They are those who hate righteousness and who do what they can to get what they can from the righteous in order to increase their gain.

Who are the Righteous?
These are those who look to God for how they should live their lives. They are always giving, always speaking good, always seeking peace, always looking to the Lord. They are humble and meek on the earth, allowing others to do evil to them, and who wait for God to vindicate them. Because of their humility and righteousness they are often poor and needy, and others take advantage of them.

The Lord’s response to the wicked
God has contempt for the wicked, because he sees that their prosperity is only temporary—soon their wickedness will be punished.

The Lord’s response to the righteous
God watches over the righteous, remaining always faithful to his promises to them. They gain justice from God, even when everyone else tries to oppress them. God will help them in trouble and save them from the wicked.

The final end of the wicked
In justice, God will come and punish the wicked. Their riches will be taken away from them, their power will be gone, they will be separated from the land and people of God. They will be destroyed.

The final end of the righteous
God will give the righteous the rule of the land. They will be secure and prosperous. They will be declared right before the wicked and they will see the wicked punished. And they shall live well in the land of God among the people of God for all ages.

Guilt Buster! Psalm 32

2008-01-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

Of David. A Maskil.
This psalm was probably written in the style of a Davidic psalm, possibly a form of the famous confession psalm, 51, which reads, “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord.” We don’t really know what “maskil” means. It is used in the title of thirteen psalms. It could refer to a musical instrument, or it could

Blessed is he whose rebellion is forgiven
Whose sin is covered
Blessed is the one whose sin Yahweh does not record
And in whose spirit there is no guile.
To be blessed is to gain favor from God, to have God’s fullness and greatest. The one who has God’s best are those who are forgiven. The image described is that of God who has every action every person does is written down. But the one who is blessed is the one who does not have his sinful actions recorded. Notice that it does not say this about the one who doesn’t sin. This is because such a person doesn’t exist. No one is without sin, everyone has failed God in one way or another. So the one who has God’s favor is the one who had their sins written down, but God has erased or crossed out the sin previously written down.
There are two words for sin that are used here. One is a general term, “het”, which means all kinds of sins. The other word, “pesha”, however, is more specific: this is an act of rebellion. This is a sin that a person does, knowing that God isn’t allowing the person to do it, and the person says, “I don’t care! I’m not going to have God tell me what to do!” And they do specifically what God tells them not to, possibly even because God told them not to. This isn’t just an accidental sin, or a sin one does because one is weak and can’t help it. This is an act done to reject God.
The amazing thing is that the psalmist says that this sin is forgiven as well. The question the readers should ask is, “How does this sin get forgiven?” The psalmist tells us this by telling his story:

When I kept silent, my body wasted away
As I moaned all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me,
My moisture is turned dry as the drought of summer
Then I confessed my sin to You
And my guilt I did not hide.
I said, "I will confess my rebellions to the Lord."
And you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Selah)
The result of sin is guilt and the result of guilt is self-destruction. To try to ignore one’s guilt is to wither away in self-hatred, self-loathing. We can literally destroy ourselves in guilt, not able to live with ourselves. Often we don’t let anyone know what our problem is, then we will be self absorbed and destructive to ourselves and our relationships will be falling apart and no one will know what is going on and possibly wonder what they did.
The answer to this cycle is confession. We need to swallow our pride, set aside our fear and talk about what we have done. Often we think that if we share the terrible things we do that it would harm our relationships, but the honest truth is that our relationships are probably already harmed—to be open about our sin and our disgust at our actions will only bring truth and openness in our relationships. As difficult as it is, it will help, not harm
And this is more so with God. God already knows our sin, already knows our attitudes, already knows our shame, and is just waiting for there to be an open relationship with Him again. Because of what we have done, often we want to hide from God, and not to talk to Him, not to be open. But God wants us to pursue him, to tell Him what he already knows. If we confess our sins, He will erase them from his records and they will never be brought up again.

Therefore let every faithful one pray to You in a time of finding
The flood of mighty waters will not reach them.
You are my hiding place
You preserve me from peril;
You surround me with shouts of deliverance.
So the psalmist wants to let people know, that if we want any kind of relationship with God, we must be open with Him. We have to not hide, but be ready to tell Him everything. If we do, then God will be ready to protect us from harm. God will be a fortress to hide in, and a bodyguard to protect us.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way to go.
I will counsel you; my eye will be upon you.
Do not be like the horse or the mule which lack understanding
Who must be curbed with bit and bridle, else they do not come near to you.
Many are the sorrows of the wicked
But he who trusts in Yahweh, lovingkindness will embrace him."
Now God is speaking to us directly. He tells us that if we confess our sins, then He will give us daily instruction through His word and through His Spirit. He is there to teach us. If we don’t pay attention to Him, then we will be idiots—like animals that should only be led for their own self-preservation. Again, God is not expecting us to be perfect. Rather, he is telling us the direction we should be pointed in. If we face away from God, then we will taking in sorrow and mourning in our lives. But if we keep ourselves focused on Him—even if we blow it—then God will always be there for us. If we mess up, then we can still trust that we will be forgiven and we can even forgive ourselves.

Rejoice in Yahweh and celebrate, O you righteous!
Shout for joy all who are upright in heart!
We are to rejoice in God and shout for him. Why? Because even though we are sinners, we can still be counted as the righteous, as those who are accepted by God. Even though we have failed God, we can still be considered right in our hearts because we keep trusting in God. The blessed are not those who are perfect, who don’t make mistakes. Rather, they are those who trust in God through the failings they have.

Mourning Into Dancing-- Psalm 30

2008-01-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

A psalm. A song of dedication of the house. Of David.
This psalm was written at a time of dedication of the temple. Perhaps it was when Solomon built the first temple, or perhaps it was when the second temple was built, in the time of Zechariah the prophet. Whatever the case, it was written by a person who had faced a terrible difficulty, facing death, and he escaped the calamity with his life.

I will extol you, Yahweh
For you have drawn me up
And have not let my enemies gloat over me
O Yahweh, my God, I cried to You for help
And You healed me
O Yahweh You brought up my soul from Sheol
You saved my life from sinking into the Pit.
Sing praises to Yahweh, faithful ones,
And give thanks to his holy name.

The writer of the psalm was in a terrible period of his life. He was near to death—perhaps from illness, perhaps from danger—and he gives credit to God for his deliverance from death. And so he spends time doing what he is supposed to do—praising and thanking God.
Praise, as we all know, is speaking well of another. But praise in Scripture is more than this, it is giving important insights on the character of another, and thus, giving honor to that person. To praise someone is to show that they are worthy of praise—thus, they are people who are good or great in some way, and thus deserving of having other people how good they are. Giving praise to someone is kind of like having a newspaper article about how great that person is published. It means that they are important enough and good enough to tell others about.
Thanksgiving is a kind of praise. It is talking about how good one is through what they have done. To praise someone in this way, you could just recount their deeds in the past—like a biography of someone the writer appreciates. Or one could be more direct and simply thank the person for what they’ve done.
We are commanded in Scripture to praise God and to give him thanksgiving many, many times, especially in the Psalms. In the Law, the children of Israel are commanded to praise the Lord (Leviticus 19:24). We are also commanded to praise God in the New Testament (Romans 15:11; Ephesians 1:3-6; Hebrews 13:15; Revelation 19:5). But, by far, the most frequent place in the Bible that commands us to praise God is the Psalms (Psalm 30:4; 33:1; 66:2; 67:3; 149; 150 and many more). Praising God isn’t just a nice thing to do on occasion, it is something God wants us to do all the time. But especially, we are to praise and thank God when He has done something great for us. This is why the Psalmist commands us to do this for God.

God's anger is only for a moment
God's grace is for life.
One may lay down weeping in the evening
But at dawn one rises with a shout of joy.
In my prosperity, I said, "I am forever unshakable."
O Yahweh, you made my mountain to stand firm
But when you hid Your face, I was terrified.
To You, Yahweh, I called,
And to Yahweh I pleaded
"What profit is there in my death
If I go to the Pit?
Can the dust praise You?
Will it declare your faithfulness?
Hear, O Yahweh, and have mercy on me
Yahweh, be my Helper."
The psalmist is here telling the story of his fall and deliverance. He was proud, like Nebuchadnezzar was in Daniel 4, feeling on top of the world, ready to tackle anything. But God was displeased with his pride and He caused the psalmist to falter, to fail, even to come near to death. Then the psalmist began to assail heaven with prayers, such as Jesus mentions in Luke 18:1-7. He argued with God, claiming that his death gives God no benefit. And so God heard his prayers and offered mercy on him.
This story is not unusual in the Bible, nor should it be in everyday life. Often we, as followers of God, think that we have done everything ourselves and give no credit to God for the successes in our life, and even if we do give Him credit, we “know” in our hearts that we did it on our own. But God always attacks that pride and lets us know that we are nothing without Him. And when we are at the bottom, and we are crying out to Him, that’s when God comes up and delivers us, gives us the help we need.

You turned my mourning into dancing
You removed my sackcloth and clothed me in joy.
That my soul may sing praise to You and never be silent.
Yahweh, my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

Now the psalmist is praising God for his salvation, as he should. He gives the most memorable line in the psalm right here—“You turned my mourning into dancing.” At one point, he was in depression, in horror and terror and everyone he knew recognized the mental anguish he was in day and night. But now he says that God made his life a joy, a party. Because of God’s deliverance, he does not need to share his anxiety and depression any more. And so he gives thanks to God, as is his requirement.

Father Shepherd-- Psalm 23

2008-01-11T08:54:00.001-08:00

A psalm of David
This is the most famous of all of David’s psalms. It is well-known among all Jews and Christians today and is has been popular for thousands of years. In ancient times, it was given a special place in the Jewish liturgy and today it is read in most Christian funerals. The words are so familiar as to be commonplace, unthinkingly repeated. But let’s think about what this psalm really means, and why it is so important for so many people.

Yahweh is my shepherd,
I lack nothing.
To be a shepherd in ancient Israel didn’t just mean someone who keeps an eye on sheep. It also was a common word for leader or ruler. The elders and kings of Israel were often called “shepherds”, and it was not unheard of for God to be called a shepherd. (For example, Micah 5:5-6; Isaiah 44:28; Psalm 80:1; Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 31:10). David himself was called the shepherd of all Israel (Psalm 78:71; II Samuel 5:2). So when David says that God is his shepherd, yes he is using the metaphor of a shepherd, but he is really talking about God’s merciful and protective leadership.
Often the second line we hear is “I shall not want.” But this is not “want” as in to desire something. Rather, this is meaning to lack anything that is necessary. God is such a good leader, that he takes care of all of his people’s needs. In the ancient world, it was the king’s job to make sure his people had the basic bread and water they needed. Often kings couldn’t fulfill this social contract. But God is a better king, always providing for those of his people who are in need (Psalm 37:25; Matthew 6:25-33).

In grassy meadows he lets me lie.
By tranquil streams he leads me.
He renews my life.
David here continues his metaphor by reminding people of something shepherds commonly did for their flock—he would daily lead them to grassy areas where they would have a cool place to lay down in the heat of the day. At the same time, the cool meadow would have a stream, which would water the grass as well as the flock. The shepherd knows the needs of his flock before they do and cares for them, giving them life in the midst of heat and suffering.
Even so, God restores his people by his actions. When his people were suffering under slavery, he sent Moses and delivered them. When his people were suffering under sin, he sent Jesus to deliver them from sin. When God’s people are suffering, he already has a plan, a purpose to restore their life to goodness.

He guides me in right paths
As befits his name.
A shepherd is a guide. Sheep and goats don’t really know where to go that would be best for them, but the shepherd figures it out and leads them to where they should go. Even so, God has given us his Law. He leads his people into correct ways, away from the paths of harm. Even as a shepherd doesn’t want his flock to drown or fall off a cliff, so God doesn’t want us to be destroyed by our own wrong-headed desires. God does this, even as a shepherd, not just to care for his flock, but because of his reputation. Because if his people were destroyed through his carelessness, then he would rightly be blamed for it.

Even when I walk through the dark valley of death
I will fear no harm for You are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
In full view of my enemies.

Sometimes, to care for their flock, a shepherd needs to pass through valleys that had predators that would endanger the sheep. He did this for their own good, to get to a better place. But the shepherd also doesn’t just leave the sheep with nothing to defend themselves. The shepherd himself carries weapons that would protect the sheep if the worst happens.
Even so, God often guides us through terrible places, great suffering and anguish. We can be extremely anxious about the dangers around us. But God is with us, and carries weapons that will protect us. He has the greatest power in the world, and uses it for our benefit. This does not mean that he won’t take us into difficult, terrible places. He sometimes will. But he is there to protect us, to be with us, every step of the way. Because of this, we can trust in Him and not be afraid. Sometimes its hard to not be afraid, but with God with us, we have nothing really to fear.
And then, God’s protection is so full that He is able to help us and support us even right before the ones who want to harm us. God and we are so assured of His protection, that we can receive from Him right before our enemies, and they can do nothing about it.

You anoint my head with oil
My cup is full to the brim.
To be anointed is to have an office of honor among God’s people. For David, this honor was to be king, and he was anointed king over God’s people, three times (I Samuel 16:13; II Samuel 2:4; II Samuel 5:3). But other offices are anointed, like that of priest and that of prophet (Exodus 29:4-7; I Kings 19:16). The laying on of hands is much like anointing in this sense (I Timothy 4:14). So this line is speaking from the perspective of one who has been given special honor among God’s people. Since, he has been blessed to be honored in this way, life can offer nothing more.

Only abundant kindness and goodness will follow me all the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.

God’s mercy and grace is always with his people. God will never forsake them or leave them, because, like a shepherd, He has committed himself to caring for them. And for God’s people, there is no greater blessing than to be in God’s house, God’s kingdom forever. This promise is offered to all who follow God, that they will live forever in God’s house.

Corruption Psalm 53

2007-11-27T17:50:00.001-08:00

For the leader, according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.
Psalm 53 is exactly the same as Psalm 14—the only real repetition in the psalms. Perhaps this is an editorial oversight, or perhaps the editor wanted to make sure this psalm didn’t get missed.

The rebellious idiot said in his heart, "There is no God."
They are corrupt
Committing abominable deeds
The person who is being spoken of is not just a “fool” as in the standard translations. He is someone who is rebellious, evil, attempting to do that which is destructive and selfish. At first sight, it seems that this fool is an atheist. But in fact, he is not denying the existence of God or gods, but the reality of judgment. This is his excuse for doing his evil deeds in order to accomplish what he wants corruptly. He tells himself, “God isn’t really going to judge me for this. He isn’t interested in my minor actions. Even if there is a god, he has no interest or power to act against me. I am free to do what I please.” Ultimately, this is a person who thinks there are no consequences for his actions.

There is none that does good.
God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there is anyone who sees
Who seeks after God.
Every one of them has turned aside
Together they have become corrupt
There is none that does good
Not even one.
The psalmist then changes his focus for a moment. Before he was focused on the few individuals who live according to the creed, “No evil will befall me no matter what I do”. Now, he looks at all humanity, and points out that none of us are free from this corrupt concept. Even those of us who want to do what is right and holy before God, we also are rebellious fools in some way. Every one of us see what God wants us to do and does something else. Every one of us closes our eyes to God’s perfection and live just in the moment. Every one of us is trapped by our own desires and faults, our minor corruptions and weaknesses. Paul calls this human nature “the flesh” and John clearly states “Anyone who says he has not sinned is a liar.” (Romans 7; I John 1:8). So the psalmist is saying that even though he is pointing out a particular fault in some folks, this fault exists in all of us, without exception.

Have those who work evil no knowledge
Who eat up my people as they eat bread
And do not call upon God?
There they were, in terror, where no terror was,
For God will scatter the bones of him who camped against You
They will be put to shame
For God has rejected them.
The psalmist now stares in disbelief at the actions of those so thoroughly corrupt that they attack God’s people, the poor, to steal from them, attack them and kill them. He is amazed because they have forgotten God so completely. Sure, he says, we are all forgetful at times, but most of us have a limit. But these people have no fear of God whatsoever—and this, he says, is their ultimate corruption. Now they will face the Great Terror—the judgment of God. God has rejected them and will destroy them completely. Not only will they be killed, but their bones will be scattered throughout the earth, their souls never at peace for the rest of eternity.

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of his people
Jacob will rejoice and be glad.
This paragraph is about God’s people, asking for deliverance. Zion is the place where God’s temple stands. The real shock of what the psalmist sees is not the thoroughly corrupt nature of some, but the attack of God’s people. How the helpless are attacked and those that trust in God. And for those who trust in God, they have only one Resource, one Security.
And so, in speaking of the corruption of some evil ones, as well as the corruption of all humanity, the psalmist was really just leading up to a prayer of rescue. “O God! Save those who trust in You alone! They have no defense against the corrupt—please be there for them.”
Interestingly enough, the psalmist doesn’t speak of confidence in God, as other psalms do. The psalm ends on a hope—a desperate hope, but just a hope—in God’s deliverance.

Evil abounds, but cling to hope in God

Anawim's Deliverance Psalm 22:19-32

2007-11-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

In the first part of Psalm 22, we read about a man who was in dire circumstances. He was accused of being evil by the people of God, and so he was attacked and judged. They began to tear him to pieces, to torture him, to strip him naked and to mock him. Then they began to close in… But the psalmist’s cry was wondering where is God in all this? He was innocent—was God going to deliver him? Shouldn’t God deliver him? Or did God agree with his attackers—that he was evil and accursed by God?

But You O Yahweh, be not distant.
My strength, hasten to my aid.
Deliver my life from the sword
My only life from the dogs power.
Save me from the lion's mouth,
From the horns of the wild oxen deliver me.
The psalmist now, in the most dire of circumstances, cries out to God. Up until this point in the psalm, the psalmist has not actually asked God for help. He complained to God that God hadn’t saved him yet, but he has not asked for help. Now the psalmist is direct in his request. He knows that no one can save him but God. God is his knight on shining armor, his Dudley Doright, coming to save him in the last minute. Before in the psalm, the psalmists enemies are describes as dogs—because they are encircling him—as a lion—because they attack with intent to kill—and as bulls—because of their mauling him. Now he is asking God to deliver him from these three creatures.

I will proclaim Your name to my brothers;
In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.
You who fear Yahweh, praise Him!
All you descendents of Jacob, honor Him!
And stand in awe of Him, all you descendents of Israel.
For He has not spurn or abhor the plight of the anawim
He did not hide His face from him
When he cried out to Him for help, He listened.
From you comes my praise in the great assembly;
I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him.
If God delivers him, the psalmist makes a promise—he will glorify God before his people. Obviously, it is not all of God’s people attacking the psalmist. Perhaps only a select group of leaders. But God always leaves a remnant of people who truly love him and worship him. This remnant is whom the psalmist is really family with—the anawim. The anawim are those who have faced terrible troubles, but still trusted in God through them. Perhaps his own family rejected him, but God has given him one who really love and serve God. And among these people, the anawim will declare his deliverance. They will not be left in the midst of these enemies—delivered to death and torture. No, they will be delivered by God, and able to proclaim God’s true nature.
God is not the God of forsaking—He is the God of deliverance. God pays attention to the innocent and abused, the anawim. He does not leave them alone. Sure, it may seem that God has left the anawim alone for a period of time, but in the end God will save them and punish the ones who destroy his innocent people. The anawim cry out to God, and expect his deliverance. And so, when the deliverance comes, they give praise to God’s name, who acted for them!

The anawim will eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise Yahweh
May your hearts live forever!
These anawim are the true people of God. Yes, they all go through terrible circumstances at times. They are persecuted, they suffer, they are hated, they are torn apart—but God delivers them. And after that deliverance, God gives abundance. They have abundant food, and they are able to praise God. Only those who have experienced deliverance can praise. Only those who gain their hearts desire express joy. And this joy isn’t just for a period of time—it is eternal. The people of God—those who are destroyed by the evil, but stick with God throughout the ordeal—will be kept alive by God forever, secure and safe.
This is the promise of Jesus. Not eternal life for everyone who claims Jesus or who loves God. Rather, eternal life for those who suffer and stick with God (Mark 8:34-37; Mark 13:13). God will resurrect those who died suffering for Him. And they will have joy in place of suffering, communion instead of hatred, exaltation instead of humiliation.

All the ends of the earth take note and turn to Yahweh;
The clans of the nations bow down to You.
For the kingdom is Yahweh's
And he rules over the nations.
Not only is this promise for those among Israel, but it is for all who love God, no matter what nation they are of. All peoples will have an opportunity to love God, serve him, and receive of his salvation. They, too, were abused by God’s people and so they will be delivered, if only they trust in Him. And God will give the opportunity.
Jesus, through his suffering, opened up the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not just for those born in the nation of Israel. Many immigrants, many hopeless of all the nations, will be welcomed into God’s people and given an opportunity to live for Him.

All who wallow in the ashes of the earth will eat and bow down;
All who go down to the dust will kneel before Him;
Even he who cannot keep his life alive.
The anawim, however—those who were humiliated and abused because they stayed with God—they are God’s special people. They cannot help themselves, so God will help them. God is there for them and will keep them alive for all time because they worshipped Him in their terror, their destruction, their death. God loves them and keeps them forever.

Their descendents will serve Him;
It will be told of Yahweh to future generations.
And they will come and declare his righteousness
To a people not yet born that He does act.
Not only do these whom God love, the anawim, have a special place before God, but so do their children. The descendents of the anawim will make a new people. This new people will go from generation to generation, praising God for what He has done for their forefathers. They will all remember God’s deliverance, praise him for it, and God’s name will be declared to all the world for the sake of His deliverance.

So, although Psalm 22 begins as a complaint, it ends as a hymn in praise of God’s deliverance. Because God is the God of the anawim, God is the God of deliverance. God is always ready to act, the psalmist declares, and even in the face of death, he proclaims God’s power and love. This is why Jesus quoted Psalm 22 on the cross. Not because he was declaring God’s rejection of him. Just the opposite. He was proclaiming his unity with the anawim, and their resurrection and the beginning of God’s kingdom. Although he only stated a line—as much as he could state during his time of oxygen deprivation—he was referring to the whole. Not just the complaint of the anawim, but the promise of deliverance due to the suffering for the sake of God.

David and Jesus' Suffering Psalm 22:1-18

2007-11-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

For the overseer; According to "The Deer of the Dawn"; A Psalm of David
This is a psalm that is spoken of as being David’s. However, we do not know if it was written by David himself, speaking of one of his times of failure, a psalmist trying to write like David, or a descendent of David. We do know, however, that it is not just speaking of David. It is speaking of whoever finds him or herself in a situation that is described. In the Christian tradition, this psalm is most often related to the death of Jesus. In fact, the description of Jesus’ death in the gospels is closely related to this psalm, beyond all other passages in the Old Testament. This is probably the best prophetic description of Jesus’ death there is.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so distant from delivering me; from my roar?
My God, I cry by day but You do not answer.
By night and there is no rest.
The psalm begins with a complaint to God. The psalmist is in terrible trouble, and continues to cry out to God, but hears nothing from Him. The psalmist is not claiming that God has forsaken him because the psalmist isn’t experiencing a mystical sense of God—rather, he is proclaiming God’s rejection of him because God hasn’t helped him yet. The psalmist is in dire circumstances, being attacked unjustly and God is just doing nothing.
This passage is one of the most famous in the psalms because of Jesus’ declaring the same expression as he was on the cross (Mark 15:34). Some claim that Jesus is declaring his separation from God due to his “becoming sin”. However, the only way that Jesus “became sin” is the same way the psalmist did—he was unjustly hated and destroyed by his fellows. Those who should have honored him, shamed, hated and abused him. He was declared sinful despite his evidence. And, like the psalmist, while Jesus was on the cross, God did nothing. He allowed the evil death sentence be carried out.

Yet You are the Holy One
Enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Our ancestors trusted in You
They trusted and You delivered them
They cried out to You and escaped;
They trusted in You and were not disappointed.
Here, the psalmist remembers the stories of his forefathers in the past. The ancients, such as Jacob, Joseph and Moses, were often in dire circumstances, such as the psalmist, and God was there for them. They waited on God, trusted in Him, and prayed to God—and then God answered. The psalmist then is implying—you did it for them, why not me? If you are the God of deliverance, why haven’t I been delivered?

But I am a worm and not a man
A reproach of men and despised by the people.
All who see me, mock me;
Sneer with the lip and shake with the head.
"Commit yourself to Yahweh-- let Him deliver Him;
Let Him save Him because He cares for him."
The psalmist then answers his own question—he is not delivered because he has been completely rejected by his fellows. The very people who have been delivered by God—they are the ones who have rejected this poor man. He is being so thoroughly rejected by God’s people that he can no longer even call himself human—now he is an insignificant, disgusting, worm. No one would say a good word to him. Everyone who sees him makes fun of him. They know that he claims Yahweh to be his savior—“So” they say, “why isn’t Yahweh delivering you? If God really cared that much about you, then shouldn’t you already be delivered?”
Even so was Jesus rejected and mocked like this. It was God’s own people, given the authority of God to judge sinners among the people, who claimed that Jesus was a blasphemer—claiming to be one who sits next to the throne of God. Crucifixion itself was the indication of the curse of God, and everyone who walked by was to participate in this cursing. The rulers of God’s people came to Jesus and, knowing that the power of God flowed through him, said, “If God’s power is with you, why hasn’t He saved you? Why don’t you come down, by God’s power? Obviously, you are the one cursed by God.” (Matthew 27:42-43; Mark 15:36) Even though Jesus was innocent.

Yet you brought me out from the womb,
Made me secure at my mother's breasts.
From birth I was cast into Your care;
You have been my God from my mother's womb.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near
And there is no one to help.
The psalmist reminds God now that Yahweh had selected the psalmist, even from birth. The psalmist asks for God’s help now, because the psalmist has depended on Yahweh his whole life, even before he was weaned. Again, the psalmist is wondering why God has left him in this persecution, although he doesn’t deserve it.

Mighty bulls surround me
The mighty of Bashan have encircled me.
They open their mouths against me
Like a tearing, roaring lion.
Now the psalmist returns back to his troubles, speaking of his oppressors. He compares them to bulls—Basham bulls, which were the strongest, most ferocious of the land. He also compares them to lions. These are animals that gore and kill— they are both mutilators. The psalmist is feeling torn apart by his enemies. It is not enough for them to kill him—no, they have to tear his flesh apart, bit by bit, torturing him over a period of time.
This is more literally what happened to Jesus. First he was beat, then he was whipped—with bits of his flesh being torn off of his body. Then he was crucified. Crucifixion is about killing, but more than that, it is lengthening the death as long as possible over an entire day. Crucifixion is death by asphyxiation—slowly cutting off oxegon until the victim, exhausted, ultimately allows himself to be strangled by his own body, unable to pull himself up to breathe anymore.

I am poured out like water;
All my bones give way
My heart is like wax;
Melting within me.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
My tongue cleaves to my palate;
You lay me in the dust of death.
The psalmist speaks poetically of his personal experience. He is so fearful, he is emotionally poured out, unable to keep his composure. He trembles and collapses. He is literally dried up, completely dehydrated, because of his fear. His tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth. And he knows this is it—he’s dead.

For dogs surround me
A band of wicked close me in;
They pierced my hands and feet;
I count all my bones
They look, they stare at me.
They divide up my clothes among them
And cast lots for my garments.
And why is the psalmist in this terrible state? Because of his enemies—the so-called “people of God” who are prepared to destroy him. They are closing in, surrounding him, prepared to attack him like a pack of dogs. They have attacked him—beginning with his hands and feet, but it is certain that they do not stop there. Because of the suffering they have already caused him, he can see all of his ribs. They have taken his clothes from him and divide them amongst themselves. So there he is—naked, wounded, tortured, and shamed. So what can be done for him? Will he be delivered by God? Or is God in agreement with the attackers? What will be done? To find out the end, we have to read the rest of the psalm—which we will do next time.

But what has all this to do with Jesus death? What meaning do we get of Jesus’ death in this passage? Jesus’ death was not an attack from God, to pour out God’s wrath on mankind’s sin. Rather, Jesus’ death has to do with human sin and judgment—the fact that people attack the innocent if they get in the way of their own plans or ambitions. But with Jesus, we have a conclusion to the story. Jesus didn’t just die because we were sinners and more focused on the world’s ambition than God’s desire. He died to be resurrected—to establish a new kingdom, a new people, who would be focused on God’s power than on worldly power or pleasure. People who experienced God’s deliverance and are ready to depend on Him for their life—even like the psalmist.

Expanding Glory Psalm 19

2007-11-17T21:19:00.000-08:00

For the music director. A Psalm of David
Psalm 19 is known widely to be the psalm with two themes: God’s creation and God’s word. Some think that the psalm is actually two songs put together. Not only are there two themes, but two styles, and two different names of God that are used differently in the two sections. Yet someone, at sometime, saw the similarity between these two different themes and determined that they were richer and more descriptive together.

The Heavens’ Glory and God’s
The heavens declare the glory of God
And the sky speaks of his handiwork.
Day to day utters speech
Night to night declares knowledge
With no language and no words;
With no sound of their voice.
Their cries go forth throughout the earth,
Their words to the end of the world.
The psalmist looks at the sky—its vastness, its depth, its ever-moving lights—and he says, “However amazing this is, its Creator must be more amazing.” Just the fact that the day and night sky can be in turn both beautiful and awe-inspiring, both fearsome and marvelous communicates something to us as to the nature of God. The unspoken assumption of this verse is that God is the creator of all that we see in the sky. And since is creation is worthy of being analyzed on the one hand and the subject of inspiration on the other, then the Creator of such a magnificent canvas on which is placed such colors and drama—the entire universe—must be at least equally worthy of honor.

The Sun’s Glory and God’s
He placed a tent for the sun in them,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his marriage tent
He rejoices like a champion to run his course.
His starting point is at the end of heaven,
And his circuit reaches the other end,
And nothing is sheltered from his heat.
Now the psalmist narrows his focus onto one luminary in the heaven—the glorious sun. In the psalmist’s day, the sun was considered a god, and even in the Bible, the sun is seen as a power that rules the daytime sky (Genesis 1:16). In this section of the psalm, the sun is actually being praised for its power and glory. It is compared to a newlywed on the morning of his consummated marriage. It is compared to a powerful Olympic runner who daily runs his race across heaven daily. And it speaks of its pervasive influence on every square inch of the earth. Yet, ultimately, the glory of the sun, the power is simply God’s—for God gave him the power, gave him the light, gave him the heat, gave him his place in the universe. Thus, the glory of the sun’s is, quite frankly, God’s.

The Perfection of God’s Command
The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving the heart.
The precepts of Yahweh is clear, making wise the simple.
The directives of Yahweh are just, rejoicing the heart.
The commandment of Yahweh is clear, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of Yahweh is pure, enduring forever.
The judgments of Yahweh are true, righteous altogether.
More desirable than gold, than much fine gold
Sweeter than honey, from the drippings of the comb
But as great, as powerful, as glorious as the sun is, as amazing as the universe and sky are, even greater are the commands of God. When the psalmist speaks of the law (or “Torah”), it is not only speaking of the commands that Moses proclaimed, but also the moral stories of the Bible, all of which teach God’s desire for humanity, especially for his people. God’s universe is marvelous, but God’s Torah is perfect. God’s sun shows how powerful God is, but God’s commands show how God can rejuvenate a person and lead them into a life of maturity and joy. Studying the stars has much value—but studying God’s law can lead one to a complete life.

The Purification of God’s Servant
By them your servant is warned;
In obeying them there is much reward.
Who can discern their errors?
Absolve me from unintended faults.
Keep your servant from willful sins--
Let them not rule over me
Then I shall be blameless
Free from great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth
And the meditations of my heart
Be acceptable in your sight,
O Yahweh, my rock and my Redeemer.
In comparison to God’s law, the servant of God realizes how far he must go to be right in God’s sight. Sometimes the law is frustrating when we realize just how powerless we are to accomplish God’s perfection. None of us are without fault before God. All of us have hidden sins and even evils we had no idea were evil. But the frustration we feel in studying God’s commands are not to keep us apart from God, but to help us cry out to God, even as the psalmist does. We are to realize our helplessness and to seek out God. God help us! God, purify us! Make us one with your law, so that we might accomplish the greater work you have chosen to be greater than your whole universe!

It is not enough for God’s glory to be displayed in the heavens;
We must expand that glory by living out God’s word!

The Life In God Psalm 15

2007-11-17T21:16:00.000-08:00

A Psalm of David

Some psalms are simply sermons. They can be short, or long, but they have a point that they are trying to bring. This psalm almost certainly was written by David because it speaks of God’s sanctuary as being on a hill, but in a tent. This was the situation all throughout David’s reign as king, but his son Solomon built the temple so the sanctuary would no longer need to be in a tent.

O Yahweh, who will abide in your tent?
Who may live on your holy mount?
The basic question of this psalm is who can live before God. This, we would think, is a question that is very much of concern to priests and pastors, but it is an important question for all of us. After all, we are all, in Jesus, to be priests, to be saints, to be people able at any time to go before God and ask Him according to our needs. But this psalm assumes that some people can go and pray and some people cannot. The rest of the psalm speaks of who can rightfully go before God and expect Him to listen to their request.

He who walks blamelessly
And does what is right
Often we hear that the one who is right before God is the one who prays a certain prayer or who worships a certain way. But the psalmist—in fact, the entire Bible—says that it is the person who lives a certain life that God welcomes into his presence. God hates people who think they are good because of the way they worship, but do not have justice in their lives. God despises people who think that the way they pray gives them the right to be heard. Rather, God is looking for people who will live the life that He requires. Christianity, the right religion, has to do with right living, not with one’s attitude or one’s words before God. To live before God is to live God’s life.
But what kind of life does God require? Keep reading…

And speaks truth from his heart.
Whose tongue does not slander
The God-pleaser is one who is careful about what he or she says. The person who is careless about their speech, who says evil things about others because it is what they were feeling at the time—they will not be right before God. The person who is always speaking evil of others is not right before God. But the one who always speaks the truth, and only the truth that is merciful and necessary—that is the holy, godly person. The person with merciful integrity is the one who walks with God.

Who has not done wrong to his fellow
Who has not lifted up reproach against his neighbor
The God-pleaser is the one who goes out of his or her way not to harm another person. The God-liver is the one who doesn’t bring up evil things about another person to get them in trouble. Also, when they act, they do what is good for another person, not causing harm from negligence or anger. The person with careful, loving actions is the one who walks with God.

In whose eyes a reprobate is despised
But he honors those who fear Yahweh
The God-pleaser is the one who discerns others correctly. They know who the people are who despise God and his ways, and rightfully stays away from those people. They don’t want to do the God-hater evil, but they don’t encourage them in their evil lifestyle. But these righteous do go out of their way to say positive things about those who seek God and want to please Him. The person who acts appropriately with others, according to their godliness, is the one who walks with God.

He swears to his own hurt
And is steadfast
The God-pleaser is the one who makes sure he or she keeps the promises they make. They make a promise that is painful for them to make, that is a sacrifice. They do it to help a friend, to be seen as someone who is willing to help another, no matter what it costs to themselves. But not only that, they don’t back out of the promise when it is just too inconvenient. They follow through on the difficult promise they made. The person who makes sacrifices and follows through is the one who walks with God.

He does not lend his money at interest
Nor take a bribe against the innocent.
The God pleaser doesn’t take advantage of another’s need. A person might need to borrow money or might need some help—the righteous one doesn’t seek to take advantage of them just because they need help. Nor do they allow someone else’s misfortune just because they could make a profit off of it. The person who isn’t a poverty pimp, that is the one who walks with God.

The one who does these things will never be shaken.
The God-pleaser, the one who walks with God, the one who lives the life that is pleasing to God—that person has the support of God. No matter what tragedies strike their lives, no matter how many difficulties they have to face, God is there for them and will help them. God will always listen to their cries and assist them. Blessed is the one who lives the life of God.

Poverty Pimps Psalm 12

2007-11-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

For the director; on the Sheminith. A psalm of David.

Help, Yahweh.

The simplest, most direct prayer in the Bible is “help”. To call on God for assistance is the basis of prayer. It is a recognition that all is not well in the world, and God himself sorrows over it. It is a recognition of the power of God, and His ability to change things when we cannot. And it is dependence on the Only One who can make all things right. When everything is going wrong, when everything is destruction and horror, all we can do is to cry out to God for help, without fancy words, without elaborate speeches. Simply “help”.

There is no longer any godly;
The faithful have disappeared from humanity.
They speak lies to each other
They have flattering lips
And they speak with a double heart

The psalmist cries to God because the whole world is evil. Perhaps this isn’t so insightful, as the world has been evil from an early time. But the evil that the world is consumed by is an insidious evil, a deceptive wickedness where everyone thinks that good is being done to them, but really it is the deepest wickedness. Hypocrisy is no longer for a few Pharisees, but a way of life for the majority of the world. Everyone feels that they “must” lie, from white lies to whoppers, from small boasts to great deceits. Everyone exaggerates, elongates, extrapolates. Not just for the entertainment of it, the pleasure of a shared knowledge of untruth, but a lie to deceive, a fib to lead astray. They do it to protect themselves, to get something from someone else, to hope in the hopeless in order to obtain profit for oneself.

May Yahweh cut off all smooth talkers
The tongue that speaks boastfully.
They that say, "By our tongue we succeed.
Our lips are our own;
Who is lord over us?"

Why must they lie and deceive? Because it works. It gets them what they want. Through successful lies, one gains employment, one obtains a better salary and gains the higher profit. In a world that honors the one ultimately self-interested, the best liar is the most successful. And why not? To tell the truth is for the one who believes in God. But the liar is the one—no matter how much lip service they give—who, in their heart of hearts, does not believe that God will judge them. For they can speak without any consequence, and all that they obtain will be theirs forever.

"For the plundered poor
For the groaning needy
Now I will arise," says Yahweh
"I will give him the safety which he longs for."

God draws himself up to bring justice, to judge the hypocrites. Why? Not because the hypocrites attack other hypocrites. If the liars gain profit from liars, then who is truly harmed? It is just a game that the most successful liar will win. But it is not the liars that lose out—it is the poor. The most successful liars either directly or ultimately take advantage of the poor. The banks who claim that they make profit through “free checking” by establishing fees that deliberately target the poor. The loan companies that say that they will give a “fare rate” and strip the poor of what little earnings they have. The supermarkets that claim a great sale on the very things the poor would use to fill out their stomachs, but never on the basics that they actually need. The churches and organizations that claim to be helping the poor, but just degrade them and condemn them for not living up to middle class standards. These hypocrites, these liars will be judged by God, simply because they harm the poor by their lies.

The words of Yahweh are pure;
Silver refined in an earthen furnace
Purified sevenfold.
You, Yahweh, will protect them
You will guard each one from this generation forever.

The aspect of God that is least spoken about in modern theology, but most affirmed in the Bible is God’s faithfulness. God would never make a promise and fail to keep it. He does not claim one thing and grant another. God is completely honest, completely true. So, if he says he will be there for the poor, to defend them against the hypocrites, the secret haters of the poor, He will. Thus, hypocrites beware! God is on the side of the poor, so should you destroy the poor with your lies, God will destroy you.

The wicked strut about on every side
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

Despite this warning, the evil continue their attempts. They exult in their duplicity. They glory in their vileness. They don’t care who sees their shame, for they see it as success, as something to be trumpeted, to be praised by all humanity. And yes, they are praised. They make the Fortune 500, the top business lists. But their day is coming. God will not allow them to be honored forever. They are being raised up, just so that their fall would be harder.

Hitting Bottom: A Prayer Psalm 6

2007-11-17T21:12:00.000-08:00

For the music director, with stringed instruments, on the Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

We have all made mistakes, some small and some big. But some of us have a whole life characterized by mistakes. And eventually those mistakes catch up with us and attack our very body. This attack is not unforeseen—people have been telling us for years that if we live this way, we will eventually die. Then we realize that death is imminent. Our time has come. And we ask, “Is it too late? Can I turn back to God now, at this late hour? Will God give me life, although I deserve death?”

O Yahweh, do not rebuke me in your anger
Nor chastise me in your wrath.
Show me mercy, Yahweh, for I waste away;
Heal me, Yahweh, for my bones are shaking in terror.
My soul is utterly frightened.

The psalmist is terribly ill, chronically sick. His whole body is breaking down, wasting away, he can hardly lift his head. Yet, at the same time, he recognizes that this illness is his own fault. He was the one who acted in opposition to God’s plan, and so the illness is a result of his own sin, his own rejection of God’s instruction. He wishes so much that he could change his past—but it’s too late. What’s done is done and now his body is being eaten alive from within.
Many of us have lived in lifestyles of addiction, doing that which we knew would destroy us. We have lived lives of sexual freedom, drugs, alcohol, violence or hatred. Yes, we knew that it would destroy us, but to live such a life seemed like freedom, like joy that we felt we could never experience in limitations. But now we know the consequence of our actions. Every action we do has results, either good or bad. And as our bodies fail, our muscles weaken and our minds falter, we can now see that our choices were not freedom, but foolish short-sightedness. Now we are scared—will God give us the ultimate punishment because of our rebellion?

As for you, Yahweh, how long?
Return, Yahweh, deliver me!
Save me because of your faithful love.
In death there is no remembrance of You
In Sheol, who will give You thanks?

In the midst of this self-blame, the psalmist asks for God’s deliverance. His sickness is a slavery, and God is the one who delivers from slavery. Even as he saved the children of Israel, even in their rebellion, will He not also deliver me? Of course he will. The psalmist reminds God of His faithfulness. You promised to forgive, Lord! You promised to stop judgment if I would turn to You! Even so, at any time we can turn to God and ask for deliverance, for healing. He will not fail to listen. No matter what kind of evil we have done, God is there for us if only we would say, “Please forgive me.”
And if we make an agreement with God, God will fulfill his side. God is faithful and merciful. He doesn’t stick to a harsh sentence if we ask for pardon. After all, the psalmist reminds God, if you send me to hell, then I will not be there to honor You. Death is full of silence and emptiness—“Please,” he cries, “give me life and I will praise You!” Only if we experience God’s deliverance from death can we give Him glory.

I am exhausted with my groaning
I flood my bed each night
I drench my couch with tears.
My eye is worn out in grief
It becomes weak because of my adversaries.

The psalmist turns back to his agony. He groans in pain and sorrow. He is up all night, crying. He is weeping because of his illness. His sleep is punctuated by vomit and shit. He is terribly sick and in horrific pain. But not only is he crying out about his illness, but also in regret. He cries to God for delieverence and for repentance.
Then he looks around. His friends surround him. Yes, they are concerned about him. Yes, they care about him. But they have never cared about him as much as their own pleasures, their own desperate needs. Who are these people? Are they really his friends, ready to support him in his need? Or are they actually his enemies, looking to draw him back into the very sin that brought him to this sorry state? Do they love him or do they want to use him? Suddenly, with a realization of insight, they never loved him. They are not his friends, but his enemies.

Get away, all who do evil
For Yahweh heard the voice of my weeping
Yahweh has heard my petition
Yahweh accepts my prayer.
All my enemies will be shamed and will panic
They will turn back,
They will be instantly ashamed.

The psalmist turns on his so-called “friends” and recognize them as the people who are destroying him. Some of these oppressors are spirits—demons tempting him to do evil, to destroy himself in pleasure and forgetfulness. Some of these oppressors are human, always calling him to join them in their excesses, drawing him into the path of sickness and death.
“Get away from me,” he cries. Sure, the life he led was his own choice, but these people, these spirits have continually drawn him back, even when they seem to be caring about him the most. Now he realizes that if God is going to give him freedom—true freedom, freedom from sickness, freedom from the consequences of his sin, God will also give him freedom from these who drew him away from God.
These enemies, the psalmist understands now, are headed to destruction, just as he was. God will lead them into sickness, into death, and if they do not repent they too will be eaten alive by judgment, by remorse. The psalmist no longer wants to live that life, but to live in God. So he separates himself from his previous friends. Not because he hates them, but because he no longer wants the results of the life they live.

Terror and Trust Psalm 3

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Fleeing From Absalom
A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.

This psalm is given a context of David crying out to God when his son had rebelled against him. At this time in David’s life, not only did his son reject and battle against him, but a good portion of his own nation, whom he had protected and ruled over justly for many years, rebelled against him and tried to kick him out of his kingship. It was a completely unjust act against a ruler who had done what was right to his people.
It is possible that this psalm was not actually written during that time, but was written to be stated in that context. There is nothing in the psalm that indicates the context, and is actually a prayer that could be used in many different situations.

My Enemies Have Increased
O Yahweh, how my enemies have increased!
Many rise up against me!
Many are saying of my soul, "There is no deliverance from God for him." (Selah)

Everyone has enemies. Perhaps we may not know who they are, but at the least there are people who avoid us or say nasty things about us behind our backs. But the psalmist is not speaking of a time when we feel bad that we have enemies at all, but the enemies that hate us have gotten bolder and have accumulated more comrades who will attack us with them. Then, not only do they speak against us, but they also say that God is opposed to us as well. They say that we are separated from God and that our prayers will not be heard.
These enemies could be any sort of people. They could be those who raise up a physical attack, such as what David had to face. They could be people who speak evil against us, and tries to divide our friends from us. They could be people who are attacking our faith, saying that we are stupid to believe in God. And any and all of these could either be human or spiritual persons—even a demonic attack which is trying to separate us from God. Enemies even within our own mind.

God Sustains Me
But You, O Yahweh, are a shield about me
My glory, the One who lifts my head.
I cry aloud to Yahweh
And He answers me from his holy mountain (Selah)
I lay down and sleep;
I awake for Yahweh sustains me
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around

The psalmist is confident in God’s protection. Yahweh is a shield, he says, so that nothing can attack him from any side. God is the one who lifts the head, so that one need not be depressed about circumstances any more. All the psalmist has to do is to call out loud to Yahweh and God answers from his temple on Mt. Zion. The psalmist confidently sleeps, even with enemies all about him, because Yahweh is keeping him safe and makes sure that he awakes safely. No matter how many enemies attack him, the psalmist is not afraid of any of them, because God is on his side.
It is a great and comforting thing to know that God is watching over us. God is the most powerful force in the universe, and so if He is watching over you, then there is nothing that can attack you or cause you fear. To know that God is on your side is the greatest answer to anxiety, because God has the ability to cause all things go well for His—and your—sake.

I Cry Aloud To Yahweh
Rise up, Yahweh
Save me, O my God!
You strike the cheek of all my enemies
You have shattered the teeth of the wicked
Deliverance belongs to Yahweh
May your blessing be on your people! (Selah)

Even as the psalmist has said above that God would help if the psalmist calls, so the psalmist actually does this now. He confidently tells God to come and to assist him. He calls Yahweh to action to offer him deliverance. The psalmist recognizes his helpless place and so he calls on God to strengthen his position. The enemies—the ones around him, the ones speaking against him, the ones in his own head—he asks to be vanquished, completely, by God. God is the one who delivers the oppressed. As the oppressed, the psalmist requests—no, even demands!—God’s assistance. Then, assured of God’s assistance, he offers a note of confidence in God’s character that He will help his own.
One of the main characteristics of this psalm is the writer’s confidence in God. Yes, he recognizes his terrible situation, but he is absolutely assured of God’s strength and of God’s desire to help him. This is a part of faith—the confidence that is with one who really knows God. If we know who God really is, and have seen God assist us, we can be confident in any situation, no matter how difficult.

Lean on God and He will be your strength

The Son of God and the Nations Psalm 2

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Many think that Psalm 2 was a psalm that was read at the coronation of every son of David that became king over Judea. Certainly parts of it—especially the middle section—strongly affirms that God has established the king of Judea upon his throne in Jerusalem and God is protecting that kingship. But there is a story in this Psalm that communicates more than just an affirmation of Davidic rule—it is a direct challenge to any nation or authority that stands against the Davidic King.

The Rebellion of the Nations
Why do the unbelieving nations rise up in insurrection?
And the people plot in vain?
Why do the kings of the earth take up their positions
And the rulers conspire together
Against Yahweh and against His Messiah?
"Let us break their bands apart
And cast their thick cords from us"
The Enthroned One in heaven laughs
Yahweh mocks them.
Then He speaks to them in anger
And terrifies them in fury:
"It is I who have anointed my King
On Zion, My holy mountain."

Gentiles and God
God has a special connection to his people, Israel, through his special king, the Messiah. This psalm has a focus on how other nations and peoples relate to God through his chosen king and people. Who are these peoples? They are all of the nations that exist outside of God’s people. Some of these nations are friendly to God’s people, but many of them are in opposition. They are jealous of the power and blessing of the kingdom of God. They are upset at the ways in which they are controlled by God’s people. And so they decide to do what nations do best—make war. If they can’t get what they want, they will fight for it. So God’s people are attacked by the other nations surrounding it, wanting its blessing, its power, its control. Most of all, the Gentile nations don’t want to feel as if they are being controlled by God or by God’s people. If they feel controlled, they will rebel against God and His ways and determine to strive against it, in anyway they can.

God’s Chosen One
I will declare Yahweh's decree.
He said to Me: "You are my Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask it of me, and I will grant the nations as your inheritance
The ends of the earth as your possession
You shall smash them with an iron rod
You shall shatter them like earthenware."

Son of David/son of God/Messiah
God’s revelation, however, is that all of His power—the whole earth and the angelic powers—are behind his chosen one. But who is this chosen one? God calls him his Messiah—which means the one who was anointed with oil. Who was anointed with oil? Well, those who were chosen by God for a particular office. It could be the king of God’s people, the priest of God’s people or, sometimes, a prophet to God’s people.
But this Messiah is also called “son” by God. So who is God’s son? In the Hebrew Scriptures, the one who is called God’s son is a king in the Davidic line. God promised David that of his sons, none would be lacking to sit on a throne—he would always have a son reigning. But God also said something amazing—that David’s son who was reigning would be called “son” by God, and thus would rule with God’s authority (II Samuel 7:12-16). This psalm, which was not written by David, but is about David’s line, is God’s speech to the kings of David’s line, to whom he says, “You are my son.”
He also promises this Davidic king that he would control the nations of all the earth. That he wouldn’t be under the nations around him, but the nations would submit themselves to him. If they argue or rebel against the king, then God would give him permission to attack and demolish them.

Where is Jesus connected with this Psalm?
But it is not enough to just say that the son, here, is any Davidic king. Originally, this is what it meant. But there was a period of more than 200 years in which a Davidic king was not ruling in any way. And after this time, it was revealed that God spoke this very line from Psalm 2 to Jesus, the Nazarene: “You are my beloved Son.” (Mark 1:9-11) What was God saying?
He was not saying that Jesus was unified with God, otherwise he would have used a different passage. Rather, he was proclaiming to all the spirit world that Jesus was the king of Jerusalem in the line of David. How is this possible, given that Jesus was from Nazareth, in Galilee, not near Jerusalem? First of all, Jesus is of the line of David, adopted by Joseph, a descendent of David. Secondly, Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem, the city of David, although as a child his parents moved to Nazareth and Jesus grew up in Galilee.
So who is Jesus? According to God’s revelation, he is the king of Jerusalem, the Messiah, the ruler of the line of David.

Responding Respectfully
So now, O kings, be wise;
Be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve Yahweh in awe
And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage to the Son
Lest God becomes angry and you perish in the way.
For His wrath flares in an instant.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

Responding To Messiah’s Rule
This final part of the psalm is showing how the Gentile nations should respond to the Messiah of God, the king of Jerusalem. Given the fact that God is completely behind his chosen king, the nations of the world would be wise to not rebel against the king of God. The kings need to remember that this king has all the power of God behind him. If God gives a Gentile nation to the Messiah, then the nation should best honor the Messiah. Why is this? Because God has the authority of all the world. To fear the Lord is not just to respect Him, but it is to remember that God has great power and can destroy and kill as He pleases (Matthew 10:28; Deuteronomy 5:24-29). God has great power, and so all should obey Him, even if they don’t like it. This is the warning against all Gentiles who rebel against God: honor God’s chosen or God’s wrath will come upon you.

What About Us?
But this is the same warning given to us. We, on the earth, are all outside of God’s people, not a part of the Israel of promise, unless we are a part of Jesus. Jesus, according to God, is the chosen ruler, the Lord of all the earth, and God has given all nations to his hands. Whether one is Jew or Gentile, we are all under God’s wrath unless we honor and obey the Son. We need to remember God’s power and tremble. We need to worship the Son and give him the respect and obedience He deserves. Only in this way, will we be delivered from God’s wrath.

The Tree and the Chaff Psalm 1

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The book of Psalms begin with an introduction, giving one of the main themes of the book immediately—the difference between the righteous and the wicked.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
Or who stands with sinners in their path
Or who sits in the company of mockers
But his delight is in the teaching of Yahweh
And he recites his instruction day and night.
He is like a tree transplanted near running water
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither
And all that it grows is prosperous.
Not so the wicked;
They are like the chaff the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor will sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For Yahweh watches the way of the righteous
But the way of the wicked is destroyed.

Who are the wicked?
There are three words that are used to describe the “wicked”. First, there is the word “wicked”, which means those who seek to do immoral, evil things. Second is the term “sinner” who are those who do that which makes them wrong before God and so unable to pray to God or receive anything from Him. The third term is “mocker” or “scoffer.” This is the one who makes fun of others, especially when they are doing poorly or trying to help another—even the one who is mocking them.

Who is the righteous one?
The righteous is not necessarily the one who is perfect, and certainly not the one who is holier-than-thou. To be “righteous” rather means that he is one who makes it a priority to be able to pray to God, and so remain right before God. The righteous is the one who knows his weaknesses enough that he will spend time focusing on God and on His word. His focus is not perfection, but in wanting a good relationship with God, every day, at least twice a day. So he reads God’s instructions and he tries to live by them, and repents when he has broken God’s word.

What does the righteous have to do with the wicked?
Part of maintaining his right standing before God is in the company he keeps. He recognizes that we are all influenced by and see our reality by the company we keep. So he avoids the company of the wicked, so that he wouldn’t participate in his actions. This doesn’t mean that he avoids the wicked or that he turns his nose up at them. But he doesn’t “hang out” with them, try to have fun with them or base his decisions around their counsel. Often the wicked will try to establish themselves as authorities over him, and he won’t have anything to do with that.
Often the wicked in our lives is not even people, but an atmosphere, or anything that would cause us to be separated from God. The Psalmist is warning us to remain away from whatever would cause us to separate from God.

What is the end of the righteous?
The righteous is to have much joy—perhaps not right away, though. It implies in the psalm that the wicked might be in authority and so the righteous might get a hard time from them if he doesn’t hang with them. But the fate of the righteous is described as a tree that has been planted for a long time by a stream—constantly getting nourishment and growing strong. The life of the righteous, the psalm says, is watched over by the Lord, and the Lord always is ready to hear from him.

What is the end of the wicked?
However, the wicked has a very different result of his life. For a while, perhaps, they will be able to mock and laugh and have fun at the expense of others. But their end, it says, is that of chaff.
Chaff is the inedible part of grain that is light. If one throws grain in a light breeze, the chaff flies away, as trash, yet the grain remains. Chaff is useless, and is thrown away, or used to be stepped on.
What exactly does this mean? Well, the psalm is very specific about that. We will all stand before the Lord in judgment, the psalm says. And the wicked will be sentenced harshly by God himself. The righteous will stand as a group, blessed by God, but the wicked will not be allowed in their company.

Jesus says…
This Psalm is very much like the blessings that Jesus pronounced: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy; Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. But woe to those who laugh now, for they shall weep.” (Matthew 5:8; Luke 6:21, 25). Jesus recognized, like the Psalmist, that the righteous would not be able to hang with the wicked, if there was any chance that they would participate in their sin, which keeps them away from God. (Matthew 18:7-9) The important thing is that we have to protect our relationship with God—nurture it and then it will thrive. And one of the important ways for us to do that, Jesus said, is to Listen and do what God says. If we do that, then we will be successful with God. If we have success in Him, then we our future is secure.

Why Read The Psalms?

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What are the Psalms?
The Psalms is a book, right in the middle of our English Bible. In fact, if you open the Bible to the middle, you will open it in the middle of the book of Psalms. Psalm 118 is the middle chapter of the whole English Bible, containing New and Old Testaments. It is actually a collection of songs that were used to express one’s relationship and emotions to God. Many of the Psalms were used in worship in ancient times, while others were often too personal for that. Today, however, the whole book is used for worship and for personal expression of one’s emotions, whether it be joy, despair, thanks to God or complaining.

Who Wrote the Psalms?
The popular idea is that David, the most important king of Israel wrote the Psalms. This idea comes from the introduction statement in almost half (73, to be exact) of the Psalms which says “of David”. We are further encouraged to think this way when, in the famous story about David of the books of Samuel, we learn that David was a musician, and we are quoted a couple of his songs, there. However, this statement, nor the stories, do not necessarily mean that all of the Psalms listed this way is from the mouth of David. Some of them, such as Psalm 3 and Psalm 51, where a part of David’s life story is mentioned, might be more likely to be written by David himself. However, the phrase could mean that it is of a type of Davidic psalm that was written after David had passed on.
Some were almost certainly written by David, but others were certainly not. Some are titled to be of “Asaph” or “The Sons of Korah”. Some are to be “For the chief musician”. These are all people who are known to be musicians in the text of Scripture—but it does not mean that it was written by them. For instance, Asaph was a chief singer in the courts of David (I Chron. 16:1-5), yet one of the Psalms attributed to him was written about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, centuries after David (Psalm 74). Thus, this Psalm was not written by Asaph himself, but probably by a school of singers and musicians named after him. This could also have been the case of the name Korah, and even David. While many of the songs “Of David” could easily have been written by the king himself—Psalm 3, for instance—others probably were not, being of a later style or a content that would indicate a later writing (Psalms 2 and 37, for example). These were possibly written in a style that would be considered Davidic, or perhaps there was a school of music that was in David’s name and every song from that school was named “of David”, which would mean “of David’s school of music.”
Certainly the book was collected after the Jewish return from Babylon. So the traditional editor of the Psalms, the scribe Ezra, is a possible pick.

When Were the Psalms Written?
Just as the authors of the Psalms are widely varied, so the timeframe of the writings are also. The earliest claimed author or school is that of Moses (Psalm 90), which could be as early as 1300 BC. But the majority of the psalms were written from 1000 BC (the time of David) to 400 BC (After the rebuilding of the second Temple). That is quite a range of time, and this is reflected in the range of writing styles and the range of content.

Why study the Psalms?

1. Because they speak specifically about the plight of the poor and outcast
All of the Bible was written from the perspective of the outcast, the persecuted and the poor. But the book of Psalms speaks about that plight and our various responses to it more than any other book in the Bible. It isn’t as melancholic as Ecclesiastes, nor focused on lost “glory days” as the histories, nor as literary as Job. It just talks about desperate circumstances and how we deal with it, with God at our side, or even God at a distance. It is probably as realistic about life as any book out there.

2. Because they get us into the minds of the ancient people of God more than any other book
Other books talk about the ideas of certain people, or the events that surround people. This book is the only one that really gives us a diary of ancient peoples of God—their sorrows, their cries of anguish, their triumphs, their moralities, their hopes, their understanding of God and their daily expressions.

3. Because it comes from many different perspectives
Like many books, the Psalms were written by many people, and edited together later. But unlike other books in the Bible, it was not heavily edited, so a lot of the original understanding of the songs come through. Also, it probably has the broadest range of times it was written in—possibly over a thousand years. There is a mythic understanding in some, a later orthodoxy in others, a philosophy of hope in despair in some, and a cynical understanding of life in others. The theologies come from different perspectives as well. So in the Psalms there is the broadest range of perspectives of the people of God.

4. Because the people of God have always gained understanding of their lives from them
Ancient Jews, modern Jews and Christians of all ages have understood themselves and others better for having read the Psalms. Modern Jews, in their daily prayer, quote the entire book of Psalms every month. Christian monks, in the Benedictine model recite the whole book of Psalms every week! Part of the strength of the Bible as a whole is seeing how other people, who have a strong relationship with God, deal with their lives. This is found in the psalms more than any other book—it is not an ideal, but a realistic perspective from people who sin like us, who love like us, have joys like us, and even hate like us—but all before God and with God. We can certainly learn how we can live in God by understanding how these lived in God.

5. Because they speak about Jesus more than any other book
Some call Isaiah the “fifth gospel” because of the prophecies it contains about Jesus—but the Psalms have many more specific prophecies and realizations of Jesus. His sonship is described in Psalm 2, his priesthood in Psalm 110, his being rejected in Psalm 118, his crucifixion (in great detail) in Psalm 22, and his resurrection in Psalm 16. Even as the Psalms are the expression of the heart of the people of God, so they are the expression of the heart of Jesus.

6. Because the NT quotes them more than any other book of the OT
Because of all of these reasons, and perhaps especially the one immediately previous, the New Testament quotes the Psalms extensively—more than any other book. When they wanted to express their troubles, they turned to the Psalms (Acts 4). When they wanted to hear Jesus’ words, they quoted the Psalms (Hebrews 2). When they wanted to know what God thought of Jesus, they turned to the Psalms (Hebrews 2, Acts 2). Why is this? Because Jesus quoted the Psalms to express God’s will as presented in the Scriptures (Luke 24).

The Book of Psalms really is the heart of the Bible.