Month: May 2017

It is hard to believe that we are on the home stretch to finishing up these psalms.  We will be done before June begins.  Psalm 140 is another psalm where we find David pleading to the Lord to deliver him and to save him from his enemies.  He appeals again to the fact that David is part of that group of people that God has set apart as His people, and so it really is God’s responsibility to care of His people.  This in turn means that it is really God’s responsibility to take care of David as he faces his enemies.

The psalm ends again with the final two verses lifting up the cause of the poor and the needy.  We have to keep asking ourselves the question of who exactly does David mean, and who exactly does God use these verses to support and uplift?  I’m guessing David probably meant himself when he spoke about the poor and the needy, especially in light of a psalm beseeching God to save him in the midst of his enemies.  But when we take Jesus’ words where he speaks about the poor and the needy there is a common thread if we really mean the poor and the needy.  Jesus is continually lifting up the poor and the needy as God’s favorite, the least become the first.  

There are a lot of favorite Psalms in the 120’s and 130’s.  This is one of them.  I try to read this Psalm every time that someone is going into the hospital for surgery.  The reason why is as you read it, think about the knowledge that God has of your body.  Think of the fact that God has known us ever since we were intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Think of how God knows how we have been knit together in the womb of our mother, and then take comfort in knowing that whatever happens in that room, God is ultimately the one who has complete charge and control of your body.

It is so important to remember that God has created our bodies so we ought to treat out bodies as a temple.  Paul says this in I Corinthians 6:19.  That means that even though God is in control of our bodies, we can’t think that we can do anything that we want with our bodies, while at the same time abusing them thinking that since we are faithful God will compensate for our faults.  Take care of your bodies.

I stop reading that psalm at vs.19 because the psalmist seems to be having a hangover from psalm 137 as he wishes God to kill the wicked, aka his enemies.  The Psalm begins and ends, if you count vs.18 as the ending, with the assurance that God knows not only our bodies but also the end of our days.  God knows when our days will come to an end.  It is simply a great psalm.

If you look at the verses beginning at 7-8 you get a feel that you have been transported back to Psalm 23.  It begins with the somewhat familiar words: “though I walk in the midst of trouble…”, it sounds a bit like the words: “Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death…” There is also a similarity in the words: “you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies”, sounds very similar to: “you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”.  And yet while Psalm 23 is one of the most reassuring psalms, this psalm doesn’t make the list.  But it is a good psalm whether it makes the list or not.

You have to pair this Psalm with Isaiah 43:14-21.  It is an agonizing Psalm.  It is one where it begins so peacefully and beautifully even if the author is lamenting the fact that they no longer had their homeland.  So, you need to keep in mind that the author is writing while they have been taken into captivity into a foreign land.  This is not David.  This is someone who has been conquered and made into a slave.  Think of about that as you sit in your room in your house and the comforts and the niceties which we have around us.  We are not slaves, we are not out of our home land, we are not witnessing the abuse of our people at the hands of invaders.  Some people in our country are, but we are not.  We have not witnessed our children dashed against the stones.  This author is living all of that now.

So, if we place ourselves in their context maybe, just maybe vs.7-9 makes a little more sense, even if we don’t applaud it, we can understand it.  Even if we can say that this is not what God wants, we can understand the voice that speaks this angry, violent, bloody thought.  I’m at a preacher’s conference and there is a theme that is pretty powerful around here.  We are living in dangerous, similar times to that in which the people of God were living when Scripture was being written.  I don’t completely agree, but I understand why people might think so. 

Our understanding of history is normally taken from the perspective of being an American.  I would say that if we were a Syrian Christian we would say that we have been living in the times of the Scripture for quite a few decades now.  That is where my disagreement takes shape.  Depending on where we live in the world we can say to a lesser or greater degree we live in the times of eternity and that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Things are not getting any worse in the world.  How can things get worse than when we have been separated from God?  I firmly am convinced that Jesus is coming back irrespective of what is happening on the face of this earth.  Jesus doesn’t need us to do anything in order for him to come back.  He is waiting on us to get things together before he can come back.  

When we are in the position of this Psalmist, or a Syrian Christian, or living in a nation where it seems like our political reality is so bewildering, Jesus is still coming back.  

FOR HIS STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER

Well, we sure are in a good mood aren’t we?  It seems like the psalmist just met the Lord face to face and wants to write about it.  What I’m about to say next is not even close to what the psalmist is feeling, but I’m feeling pretty good myself today.  Here I am sitting in the Admiral’s Club in Houston.  A long time ago I signed up for a credit card from American Airlines and part of the deal was a free ticket and two passes to the Admiral’s Club.  It is amazing.  Free food, wifi, drinks, lounge, TV, all of it as I get ready for my final leg into San Antonio.  It wouldn’t be right for me to repeat vss.19-21, but there is a part of me that wants to say: Bless the Lord!

What is probably happening with David in this Psalm is that he is reflecting over his life and how God has blessed him.  He sees his son Solomon growing up and being all that he would have wanted to be.  From Jacob, his ancestor, God has raised one that would build the house of the Lord where all nations could come to worship him.  It is in my mind a looking back on all that God has done and the natural, mandatory response is: Bless the Lord!

Did you catch how the people of God were worshipping in this setting?  They were lifting up their hands to the holy place.  They were standing at night and lifting up their hands to the holy place.  Last night was pretty special.  We had the LMH campus chorale and we had to put out probably 40 chairs in order to fit everyone, I would guess we were close to 300.  It was special, it was Mother’s Day, it was at night, and we were enthralled.  I know that I am biased because my daughter sings in the choir, but I have seen them sing probably more than a dozen times, and this time it was special.  Because it was in our holy place.  They had come to our holy place.  

This Psalm is incredible and it does make me think of this song from Chris Tomlin.

This is, again, one of my favorite psalms.  I have used this psalm so many times in ecumenical settings.  Whenever I find myself with people of other denominations it seems easy to say: How good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!  It is easy to say, but it is also something that I say and I mean it.  It is exactly what God requires of us.  God wants us to live together in unity.  I can point to John 17:11 and other verses in chapter 17 where we find that Jesus asks that God would make his disciples one just as God the Father and God the son are one.  We need to be one, all the different denominations across the globe, because what unites us as one is our faith in Jesus Christ.  

The greatest scandal to our faith is the fact that we are divided and those divisions have created wars and produced death and destruction because the disciples of Jesus Christ want to show and prove that they are worshipping Him in the only true way.  There have been plenty of wars between religions, but there have been just as many within Christianity itself.  My approach to our Christian faith is that we are not in competition with each other but rather in competition with Satan.  It is good against evil and Jesus is on the side of good and we are on his side, all of us.

As soon as I read this Psalm I try to place it chronologically.  It certainly seems to be in the time of David, or maybe it could be in the time of Solomon.  Probably Solomon now that I think about it.  While he isn’t mentioned by name there is a strong request to forgive David of his past misdeeds.  Something a son would want for his father’s legacy.  They would have been legendary by the time Solomon came around.  But we also have the words of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, given to David as the king swears not to enter into his own home until the temple is completed.  It is the same action that Uriah takes when he is sent home as David tries to make up for his son by having Uriah sleep with Bathsheba.  And yet we know that the temple is not built until Solomon.  So, somehow David is given credit for building the temple here, or at least really wanting to, when we know that it was Solomon who ended up building it.  

He then shifts from speaking about David’s praises to speaking about the horn that will sprout up from David and that this son will then be the one who will be the Lord’s favorite.  That is definitely speaking about Solomon so maybe, just maybe, this is Solomon who is writing this.  He is making up for his father’s misdeeds and still he is able to speak about the one who would be coming up after David, that would be him.  

It is a great psalm which praises David and at the same time praises all of Israel as the nation which is most in tune with the Creator God.

Okay, so I have never breastfed, but I have three daughters who have been weaned.  I’m pretty sure that a weaned child is not calm and quiet, at least they were not with me.  They were so fidgety at that point and they obviously wanted something from me which I could not provide.  I wonder if there is some sarcasm in this psalm especially in vs.2.  I’m going to need some insight if any of you think I’ve misunderstood David at this point.  How can he say that his soul is like a weaned child and then pair that up with peaceful and quiet?

We find a confession of David as he states that he is not able to lift up his head or look people in the eye.  I’m assuming that this is because of his sin.  David seems to have settled for things that are not too great or too marvelous.  He seems to have settled for less than what the Lord really wanted of him.  My take on this Psalm is that the key to it is found in vs.3 where David directs his words to his people and reminds them that they are to direct their thoughts to the Lord.  He basically tells them that they are to think of God and not David.

It reminds me of when he showed up at the gates of the city and pretended to be crazy just so that the king would not send out soldiers to kill him.  It was a great strategy and it worked.  So maybe here he is pretending to be the village idiot by saying that his soul is content and quite and peaceful just like a child who had recently been weaned.  It should direct the gaze of the people away from the King, who obviously is not worthy to be praised, and to the Lord, who is the only one to be praised.  But I’m probably giving him too much credit.