“Why, my soul, are you so dejected?” Psalms 42 & 43 – 1st February

New book of the psalms – new look title. Structurally, Psalms 42 and 43 fit together like a hand in a glove. Well, not really like that actually – more like a hand and its finger, I suppose. Psalm 43 continues the pattern established in the two halves of Psalm 42, with the same key refrain that is repeated in verses 5 and 11 of Psalm 42 also capping verse 5 at the end of Psalm 43. Indeed, a footnote to my Bible informs me that many ancient manuscripts do join the psalms. Either way, they are scheduled for the same day in my diary and so they will be considered together.

Psalm 42 starts with a very famous line – “as the deer pants for the water”, or in the translation I am using, “as a deer longs for flowing streams”. This seems to paint a picture of the deer’s main source of thirst fulfilment during the dry season. What is the point of this first verse? That in the same way “I long for you, God.” The primary need of the author (the sons of Korah) of this ‘maskil’ in a particular dry season in life is God.

As a deer, or any animal, thirsts for water – the psalmist says “I thirst for God, the living God,” asking when they will be able to “come and appear” before him (verse 2). It could be that these authors have been separated from the Temple and the ability to join in the public worship, and laments not being able to enjoy the presence of God in this way. And in a sense, Christians can look at this verse and be reminded of Jesus’ great promise at the end of Matthew’s gospel: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28 verse 20). So we can look at the desperate situation of the psalmist here and remember that we are not in that situation – Jesus promises that his presence is with us; it is not at the Temple building, and we do not need to be in a specific geographic location to know his presence.

Jesus told her [the Samaritan woman at the well], “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. […]
But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.
John 4, verse 21 and 23

But at the same time, this thirst for God can be so real and so frequent in the life of the believer. How hard it can feel, at times: when our prayers feel like they’re being said to a silent brick wall; when calamity after calamity besets us; when we see the wicked prospering. Life is never short of places that we long to see God working in. We can feel very much like the psalmist often – that our tears are all we have, and those who oppose God mock us and ask where he is in all of our suffering (verse 3).

We feel this – the psalmist feels this. But the psalmist also remembers – we too ought to remember. What memory is this? Verse 4 show us two sides of this. Firstly – the psalmist remembers prior joy in the presence of God. For the ancient Israelites, this involved certain festivals of remembrance and for priestly folk like the sons of Korah, this would have been an intensely joyful time, remembering past deliverance and continual sustenance from God. Christians no longer have such festivals, but we do continue to regularly share communion together as brothers and sisters. We are reminded of the covenant we have with God, and the sacrifice that Christ gave on our behalf to secure that covenant. So we remember what God has done, above all the sacrifice of Jesus.

But the psalmist also remembers joy in the fellowship of God’s people. A “procession” to the Temple with “joyful and thankful shouts” definitely implies a great gathering of people worshipping God together at festival time – as indeed the people of Israel were commanded to do. Gathering with God’s people reminds us that we aren’t in our struggles by ourselves. It is not for nothing that the author of Hebrews encourages Christians to continue meeting together (Hebrews 10 verse 25), as the temptation to forget Christ’s sacrifice and sin in many ways can be checked as we encourage one another through our fellowship.

In view of remembering these two things, then, the psalmist has a question for their soul (verse 5): why this dejection and turmoil? God may feel distant right now, but you can still trust him as you remember what he has done and remember the fellowship of saints. So in the first five verses, we see a description of the situation – desiring the old closeness of relationship with God, the feeling of depression and rejection by people, the memory of God’s past activity and your fellow believers, so the encouragement to continue trusting God through this time.

Verses 6 to 11 sort of expand on the latter parts of the first chunk of Psalm 42. We see the description of the psalmist’s feeling: “I am deeply depressed” (verse 6). In view of this, what does the psalmist do? Remember God in the midst of their situation (verse 6). Just as the memory of what God has done (and the fellowship of the saints) is an encouragement to continue trusting in him through the depressing time in the first half, so here a memory of who he is – thoughts of his majestic character – have the same effect.

Verse 7 describes the comfort of knowing that God is all-powerful in very aquatic terms. “Deep calls to deep” seems to refer to the way that troubles in life seem to just pile up, or continuously flood. But this is happening in the roar of God’s waterfall – and this tells us two helpful things. Firstly, compared to God, these troubles are actually somewhat miniscule: the flood is the end result, but they are God’s waves and waters; God is in control of our troubles. Incidentally, this reminds me of one of William Cowper’s hymns:

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace;
behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face
William Cowper. 1774. God moves in a mysterious way. Public domain.

This reflection leads onto the second point: the flood shows us God’s love and protection. God is the one who says to the waters and to all forces of evil “You may come this far but no further; your proud waves stop here” (Job 38 verse 11), and he never lets the waves rise beyond what his people can bear (1 Corinthians 10 verse 13).

So – remembering God’s character (verse 6) reminds us of his sovereignty over and grace in our troubles (verse 7). And because we know that his character never changes, that his covenant is sure, we can know that he will continue to act in faithful love towards his people, by day and by night – and doesn’t that just encourage us to pray (verse 8)! And what is that prayer?

Verse 9 records it for us – the psalmist asks God why he feels so distant, and why he is letting the wicked continue oppressing them, resulting in depression (verse 9). But this is not a doubting prayer; it is expressed to “my rock”. It’s a great comfort to know that we can pray to God in such total honesty about how terrible things seem and how much the feeling of not having that relationship hurts. True humility involves truly communicating with God – and sometimes it will look like this.

In view of this prayer, the psalmist restates the problem of facing crushing problems and enemies who mock their trust in God (verse 10). This is the situation of life. But you know what? God is still worthy of our trust and praise; he is a saviour to his people, and so dejection and turmoil, while obvious reactions to the situation, are not the right response of faith, as we saw in verse 5 (verse 11). Know your situation, but more importantly: know your God.

Psalm 43 provides a natural continuation to this, jumping into a new prayer to God – this time for God to act in justice. This involves a petition that God would show the psalmist to be in the right by rescuing them from the situation they find themself in (verse 1). This prayer does not rest on this person’s own inherent worth, but on the fact that they trust in God for protection and salvation (verse 2), although this does make the fact that they feel rejected by God an even harder pill to swallow (verse 2).

It’s hard for the psalmist – they know they cannot make it through by themself, and so they continue to plead that God would give them wisdom, and restore the joy of his presence with them (verses 3 and 4). This is what the author needs, and even though they don’t have it, even though the situation seems terrible, they will still put their trust in God (verse 5).

24th Jan: Psalms 35 & 36

The 35th psalm, by David, is a prayer for deliverance. Once again, we meet David enduring some deadly threat, and responding by bringing it before the Lord in prayer.

In verses 1 to 8, there is a clear sense of desperation out of which David prays for the total downfall of his enemies, which can only come about if God fights on his behalf. David’s prayer against them is strong (verses 1 to 3), asking God to fight his enemies, protect him and assure him of deliverance, but so are their intentions against him (verse 4, verse 7). Indeed, in verse 4 to 8 we see David’s prayer is effectively for them to be reap what they have sown, to face the consequences of their wickedness.

Why is this wickedness, this rejection and hounding of David so severe, so consequential? David was God’s chosen, temporal, covenant king. He was most certainly not a perfect man, but he was one of God’s chief ambassador’s on earth, and so rejecting David means rejecting God. It’s effectively the same for Christians. We are God’s covenant people, having been united with Christ. We aren’t promised deliverance from trials and enemies, but we are promised strength to endure in the face of such trials and commanded:

If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay”, says the Lord.
Romans 12 verses 18 and 19 (quoting Deuteronomy 32 verse 35)

David didn’t take action on his own initiative, but trusted in God to deliver him from his enemies and avenge them on his behalf because he was his covenant king. But he did pray to God and commit the issue and the wicked people into his hands. This is the biblical pattern for us today too – to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecture you” (Matthew 5 verse 44).

Certainly, David is confident in God’s deliverence, for he intends to rejoice in it (verse 9), commending the righteousness and salvation of his God with his whole being (verse 10). What a faithful God he has; what a faithful God we have.

Verses 11 to 16 give us a more complete depiction of the wickedness of these schemers againt David. Their malicousness and impropriety in verses 11 and 12 contrasts sharply with how David had treated them in verses 13 and 14, kindly and humbly. How did they repay David’s kindness and willingness to step up for them in their need? To beat him and mock him (verses 15 and 16). He was innocent of their accusations, and comparatively righteous – and yet they tore aware at him.

But standing behind David, we see his greater son: flesh mutilated, mocked by all and sundry, hanging on a tree – the perfect, spotless, righteous Lamb of God sacrificed to make atonement on our behalf. “‘We have no king but Caesar!’ the chief priests answered.” (John 19 verse 15), shortly before joing in the crowds as they mocked him. “Godless mockery” indeed.

This interlude describing the godlessness of the wicked in more depth now ended, David returns to his prayer in the remainder of the psalm (verses 17 to 28). It must have been frustrating to endure this pain (verse 17), yet David knew he had a God who cared for him and would vindicate him in spite of the pain (verse 18). It’s like he knew about Jesus beforehand:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens – Jesus the Son of God – let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
Hebrews 4 verses 14 to 16

Knowing what God is like is a great source of comfort and certainty for us, is it not?

With this confidence proclaimed, we meet the petition again in verse 19 – “do not let my deceitful enemies rejoice over me”, because of their wickedness and evil desires (verses 20 and 21). David trusts in the perfect knowledge and justice of God: he sees all things (verse 22), and therefore judges with wisdom (verses 23 and 24). And so we see two fates – judgment and wrath for those who oppose God and his annointed king (verses 25 and 26), great joy and gladness for those who love the Lord and his annointed king (verses 27 and 28).

I’ve undoubtedly missed out a lot of stuff here – but hopefully have highlighted something of what David is teaching us through this psalm. Psalm 36 is a bit easier to work through, though.

Firstly, we see wickedness for what it really is (verses 1 to 4). This information is “an oracle”, which is to say a revelation from God (verse 1). In sum, the wicked person is someone who does not fear God (verse 1). In more detail, the nature of wickedness is self-love without self-awareness (verse 2), deliberate malice in life and lip (verse 3), and it permeates the whole life to the extent that they cannot even go to sleep without coming up with more and more wickedness (verse 4). These people have set their course away from that which is righteous, and so cannot even recognise that which is wrong (verse 4).

Altogether, these people sound just terrible, don’t they? But the sad truth is that, actually, we are all like this. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way” (Isaiah 53 verse 6).

This description of human wickedness is contrasted with the beautiful truth about God’s righteousness (verses 5 to 9). He alone is faithful and loving (verse 5), infinite in righteousness and justice (verse 6). The “faithful love” of a covenant relationship with him is “priceless” (verse 7), and so we see that people in that covenant are protected (verse 7), provided for in life (verse 8), and powerfully saved (verse 9). Well, maybe that last one is less clear. But God is the source of life and light – “In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1 verse 4), and “to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name” (John 1 verse 12).

So verse 9 proclaims to us the grace of the God who would send his own Son to reconcile a wickedpeople to himself. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to uor own way; but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53 verse 6). Indeed, this is the only way these people in verses 7 to 9 could be in convenant with God and therefore receive these blessings; “if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2 verse 21).

Finally, we see a prayer for God to act (verses 10 to 12). In view of his great faithful, covenant love (verses 5 and 7) and infinite righteousness and justice (verse 6), David prays that God would protect the people he has reconciled to himself (verses 10 and 11). It could be that he has a situation very similar to that of Psalm 35 in mind. But the wonderful thing is this: knowing the infinite majesty and goodness of God, David knows that his will will come to pass, that the wicked who have not been reconciled to God will not endure, and so he can say with confidence that this has already happened (verse 12).

It’s the ‘prophetic past tense’; knowing what God is like, it is impossible for his will not to come to pass. And so, when he makes a promise, it is so certain that it will happen, that we can as good as say it has already come to pass. What a faithful God David has; what a faithful God we have.

Jan 22nd: Psalms 31 & 32

So I may have spent four-five hours this evening with some church friends watching the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. One consequence of this is that I have less time to write up my devotional readings, and will do on the next two Tuesdays. As Christians, we are called to form deep relationships with our church families, and so I am happy to prioritise spending time with them and growing in our friendships over putting quite so much detail into my psalm write-ups, as long as I am still making sure to make the time to actually read and pray through them devotionally. Even so – the following are some thoughts on Psalms 31 and 32, which are both of David.

Psalm 31 is another prayer for God to deliver David from a distressing situation. Verses 1 to 8 show us something of the tension of living the Christian life in light of the final victory and knowing God is in control and all-powerful, yet still feeling trapped in difficulties that are beyond us. So we see a prayer for salvation, which can only come through God’s righteousness (verse 1); a prayer for God to be his certain salvation (verse 2) followed immediately by certainty in God’s salvation (verse 3); an affirmation that God will protect David (verse 4) followed by a prayer that he would do so (verse 5); then we see David’s rejection of the wicked and faith in God (verse 6), faith which assures him of the certainty of God’s own faithfulness in the covenant (verse 7). In short, David knows that God knows his situation and protects him through it (verses 7 to 8), even though he continues to pray that God would do so.

Isn’t that so often where we are too? Under deep distress in whatever situation, desperately praying that God would protect us and save us – and yet completely firm in our trust that he is in control. So there is this tension in the Christian life – we can fully trust and depend on God through all our circumstances, yet there are times when all we can do is pray for salvation whilst still believing this. Nowhere in the Bible is it promised that the Christian life will be easy – yet we are promised that Jesus is worth trusting through our difficulties. So it is that the Christian can affirm the same words as the Apostle Paul:

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.
2 Corinthians 4 verses 8 to 10

Whilst we do live with this tension, sometimes it is appropriate for us just to pray. Indeed, prayer is one of the ultimate ways in which we recognise the sovereignty of God and our dependence on him. And so in verses 9 to 13, we see David’s prayer fleshed out. He prays that God would treat him with grace – not as he deserves – (verse 9), because the situation he finds himself in is simply too hard for him to deal with (verses 9 and 10). This situation of affliction seems to quite heavily involve the extent to which different people are against David (verses 11 to 13) – from downright hostility from friend and foe (verse 11), to simply being forgotten (verse 12), and knowing their evil plans for him (verse 13) – it looks like it’s David up against everyone.

But this isn’t the case. Because verse 14 reveals the most important thing about David – he trusts in God. He recognises God’s sovereignty in all things (verse 15). Because of this understanding, he can pray the prayer of verses 15 and 16 that God would protect David from his enemies and even bless him because of his covenant love. Indeed, knowing God’s grace and justice, we see the prayer of verses 17 and 18: that his faith would save him, whilst the faithless would be dealt with as they deserve.

With his prayer coming from a deep-seated recognition of who God is, and his certainty that God will answer him springing from this understanding of God’s character, it is no surprise that the next chunk of the psalm reflects this with praise. David praises God for who he is and what he does for his people (verses 19 and 20), and that he keeps his covenant with his people, rescuing David (verse 21), even though he felt isolated from God (verse 22).

And so David, still living in the shadow of the situation that has plagued him throughout the psalm, calls the covenant people to worship their God (verses 23 and 24). Because of the salvation he works and the certainty we can have in his grace and his justice, we should love the Lord (verse 23); no matter what situation we face, when we live in right relationship with God as his humble children, we can be bold and strong (verse 24) – because he does indeed promise to give us rest from the dangers, toils and snares that life throws at us:

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11 verses 28 to 30

Psalm 32 starts with a two verse description of the joy that it is to know that your sins are forgiven (verses 1 and 2). This great joy of now having no condemnation contrasts sharply with the heavy life of the unrepentant sinner (verses 3 and 4). The necessary act to get from the heavy-hearted situation in verses 3 and 4 to the joy in verses 1 and 2 was confession of sin and repentence (verse 5).

Now, this isn’t to say that the cause of all depression and physical ailment is sin and that the way to treat all such problems is extra confession. Whilst all such problems do, at root, stem from the initial fall of humanity in Adam (in Genesis 3), and in some cases personal suffering does result from unrepentant sin in our lives (see Hebrews 12), the fact of the matter is that there is not a one-to-one relationship between sins committed and ailments suffered. Consider the situtation where Jesus and his disciples came across a blind man:

His disciples asked him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.
John 9 verses 2 and 3

Jesus clearly affirms that this man’s blindness was not a direct result of sins. As a result, we know for certain that not all such illnesses do directly result from sins, and we therefore cannot assume that any cases do. Another area that is worth clearing up is that joy is not synonymous with being happy. Happiness is an emotion, a positive feeling that comes and goes as circumstances change. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, the surface experience of which may feel something like an emotion, but crucially does not depend on our circumstances.

Anyway – confession (verse 5) has turned the sorrow of sin (verses 3 to 4) to the joy of forgiveness (verses 1 to 2). This is what David experienced, and it is what all who have new birth through the work of the Spirit (see John 3) have also experienced:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 5

So, with his theology of salvation by grace alone and faith alone worked out some 1,000 years in advance, what does David write next? He calls on those who trust in God to pray to him, because his salvation is certain (verse 6). The certainty of salvation means we can certainly trust him to answer our prayers. This is followed by something of a statement of confession of David’s faith – a description of his total reliance and dependence on God (verse 7).

In light of his experience, David has some advice for us all (verse 8). Negatively, this involves not being like an animal without understanding (verse 9). I think this implies that we are not to be fools, who “say in their heart ‘There is no God'” (Psalm 14 verse 1); such foolish leads only to sin and wickedness. Conversely, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9 verse 10). This is also true in Psalm 32, the wicked suffer pain whereas those who trust in God are protected by his faithful covenant love (verse 10). Verse 11 gives us a bit of the picture of how we live the blessed and joyful life of trusting in God’s love.

Part of that is “shouting for joy”.

Jan 21st: Psalms 29 & 30

Reaching Psalm 30 on the surface means that I will have gone through 1/5 of the total number of Psalms. That said, many of the longer ones are still to come, so the remaining 80% of them will need a little more time to be worked through together. In ‘book’ terms, we’re still a little way away from finishing the first of five. Either way – the purpose isn’t actually to get through it all, and any milestones are arbitrary really as I won’t stop reading my Bible when I get to the end. The point is opening God’s word, hearing him speak, and being transformed by the inward work of the Holy Spirit renewing my mind. So: less preamble, more Bible.

And when I open it, here we are in Psalm 29. A psalm that teaches me that my understanding of God is simply too small; that his glory is incomprehensibly massive, and that his grace is too. Verses 1 and 2 constitute an instruction to worship the Lord (verse 2), which is achieved through “ascribing” him “glory and strength” (verse 1), the “glory due his name” (verse 2). Ascribing is not really a term we use in our everyday lives, but a good dictionary will reliably inform you that its meanings are associated with an idea of recognising. So for instance, if we ascribe a work of art to Picasso, we are recognising that he was its creator.

And so when we ascribe “glory and strength” to God, we are recognising that he is the one who possesses these things – that he alone is worthy to be worshipped. In one sense, it is merely describing the humility we ought to have before God – a recognition of his total bigness compared to us humans. In fact, you can almost see a sense of this at the opening of verse 1 too – when David writes “Ascribe … you heavenly beings”, there’s almost a confession that humans actually aren’t big enough to properly ascribe any of this to God; it is the mighty Seraphim who carry out that particular task:

Seraphim were standing above him [the Lord]; they each ad six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another:
“Holy, holy holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.”
The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. Then I said:
“Woe is me for I am ruiend because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.”
Isaiah 6 verses 2 to 5

The sheer weight of angel praise is unimaginably great. Yet one almost gets the sense that even that isn’t really enough to describe the true strength and glory of God. In either case – humans like Isaiah and us are unclean and unworthy of God, and too small to adequately sing his praises.

David follows this call to worship with a poetic attempt at a sufficient description of the sheer greatness and all-encompassing might of God (verses 3 to 9). Verses 3 to 9 provide a huge range of similes for the sheer power of God’s voice, as well as flashes of its effect. Two main analogies seem to refer to a great storm in verses 3 to 5, and a great earthquake in verses 6 to 8. The implication is that these two are immensely big, and nothing stands in their way – but God is bigger. Verse 9 recounts the total control God has over all creation and destruction with two woodland references, and then shows us the proper response to understanding this about God: coming into his presence and worshipping.

It has often been remarked (I forget where originally) that “theology leads to doxology”. In other words, a right understanding of who God is and what God does leads us to proper worship, as David calls the people and the heavens to do in verses 1 and 2. In verses 10 and 11, we see the character of God summarised in his identity and his activity. Firstly, he is the eternal king in control over all other things (verse 10). Secondly, he is the one who gives strength and peace to his people, blessing them (verse 11). In other words, he is the God of grace. I always love the start of so many of the New Testament epistles – “grace and peace to you”*, or variants thereof. There is an inextricable link between grace and peace.

Whilst ‘peace’ in the psalm probably immediately refers to the granting of victory and lack of hostility in the context of the psalm, true peace between man and God was wrought through the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Consider the announcement of the angels to the shepherds at his birth:

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favours!
Luke 2 verse 14

Or again, John’s reflection on the significance of what Jesus did for humanity:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1 verse 1

The perfect expression of grace, the foundation of eternal peace, is the cross of Christ, where the good news of great joy for all people – the saviour who is the Messiah (Luke 2 verses 10 and 11) – reaches its perfect fulfilment as amnesty is declared for the human rebels against God, for whom the call to enter into his eternal, peaceful rest still stands for any who will listen to his voice (Hebrews 4 verses 1 and 2).

Just like David’s theological reflection in Psalm 29, our understanding of the crucifixion should cause us to grasp the great identity and graceful activity of God – and to humbly come before him to worship. Psalm 30 shows us a little bit more what that worship may look like, specifically being a “dedication song for the house”. This may mean that it was used in public worship at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. One large part of worship is through song, as seen in Psalm 30; this is something the Church throughout the world continues to do to this day. Whilst this is only one aspect of ‘worship’, this psalm does focus a bit on singing so I will stick to that focus here.

Firstly, worship is about giving God the honour he is due – the exaltation of the opening line in verse 1. I used to move in circles where we would mainly actually sing songs about ourselves living as God’s people, and whilst these songs would usually be biblical in the sense that they were in line with the truth of the Bible and frequently did take their descriptions for us from the Bible, in another sense they are quite unbiblical because biblical worship is God-centred. So how does one go about doing that?

Well, the rest of verses 1 to 3 give us the testimony of what God has done for his servant David – David prayed for deliverance from some life-threatening situation (which could be one of many recorded in 1 and 2 Samuel), and God answered him. We could write and sing a new song for every single point of deliverance, and sometimes that will be appropriate. But more importantly, our worship is to the God who delivers, who saves, who keeps his promises. So quite often regular use of great classics that generally remind us of God’s character will be useful. This is especially true if we recall the above discussion, and remember that the great salvation and deliverane for all of God’s people, the perfect expression of his character, is found at the Cross. So why not sing about it.

Verse 4 is a great command to the people of God to sing praises to God. And we get the reason why in verse 5: God’s character. We are told of the smallness of his anger compared to his favour; we may experience discomfort as he leads us to mortify our sin, to take off the ragged old clothes of our old selves and put on the robe of Christ’s righteousness, but his favour shields us from his true wrath on our sin. This first half of verse 5 reminds me of God’s proclamation of his name to Moses, which reveals his character:

The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
Exodus 34 verses 6 and 7

Being in covenant relationship with a God like this, we know that whatever trials, hardships, or pains we bear in this life, there is greater joy awaiting us in the dawn of the new life. And so the beautiful words of the second half of verse 5 – “weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning”. In other words, eternity shapes our response to our suffering – we can live through the difficult nights of life knowing that there will be a new morning with joy on its way, whether that is literally after sunrise or figuratively at the recreation of all things.

The rest of the psalm sort of maps out the experience of a worshipper who has forgotten their reliance on God. You can forget to remember God when things are going well, but then what can you do when calamity comes (verses 6 and 7)? You can only turn to God, and trust in his mercy (verse 8). Following this, verses 9 and 10 are the actual prayer. Yet they may seem out of place – I would definitely be tempted to pray something more along the lines of simply “Lord, I need you. Help me. Amen” But David’s prayer is centred on God’s glory. If he lives, he can praise God and ascribe to him the glory he deserves, which he cannot do if he dies (verse 9). It is on this basis that he appeals to God (verse 10).

Fortunately, Romans 8 reminds us that the Spirit and Jesus are at work in our prayer lives, so we don’t need to be worried about not having quite the right way of saying things. We know God’s character; we can rely on him to answer our prayers. And we are reminded again that this is what he did for David – his sorrow was turned to joy as God answered his prayer (verse 11). But we are strongly reminded at the very end that the reason God answered the prayer was so that David would worship him (verse 12); indeed, every part of him is tuned to sing his praise, as expressed in the dancing.

The same is true for us. We should never lose sight of our reliance on and need for God. We should never lose sight of his incredible glory and grace. We should always keep our centre on this God and his gospel.

If you haven’t really thought about the majesty and glory of God quite enough (although, can one ever?), and especially how that shapes our lives as Christians, a good basic introduction can be found in the book ‘Big God’ by Orlando Saer.

*(Romans 1 verse 7; 1 Corinthians 1 verse 3; 2 Corinthians 1 verse 2; Galatians 1 verse 3; Ephesians 1 verse 2; Philippians 1 verse 2; Colossians 1 verse 2; 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 1; 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 2; 1 Timothy 1 verse 2; 2 Timothy 1 verse 2; Titus 1 verse 4; Philemon verse 3; 1 Peter 1 verse 2; 2 Petre 1 verse 2; 2 John verse 2; “mercy, peace and love” in Jude verse 2)

Jan 17th: Psalms 23 and 24

Things will be slightly truncated for the next few days. Why? Well, life just has its way of keeping you on your toes, and occasionally there are more important things going on than keeping a detailed blog going through the Bible readings you have done that day. Fortunately, Psalms 23 and 24 are both quite short so that probably won’t be that noticeable this evening.

Psalm 23 is without doubt among the most well-known of the psalms. Verse 1’s “The Lord’s my shepherd, I shall not want” is quite possibly Hollywood’s stock phrase for use when a Christian character finds themself in between a rock and a hard place. And Psalm 23 teaches us the sufficiency and reliability of God – He is our shepherd, so we shall not want. What other gods or idols could make that claim? Does a love for money leave one satisfied with enough? Does a love for health and beauty leave one satisified with life? Or a lust after sexual liaisons leave one satisified with ‘love’?

The only source of true satisfaction, as Jesus taught the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), is in a deep and meaningful relationship with God. In fact, this idea is very much in verse 1, because “the Lord” is our English rendering of the covenantal name of God so emphatically revealed to Moses during the Exodus. So true satisfcation is found in relationship with God. What does this look like? In verses 2 and 3, the picture is one of the Shepherd providing good rest, nourishment and direction to his flock. Jesus sums it up rather well, as he has a habit of doing:

So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.
Matthew 6 verses 31 to 33

Put your relationship with God first, the rest follows. This isn’t some sort of prosperity gospel call, though. I think the most genuinely thankful Christians I have ever met were a poverty-stricken community in the Peruvian Andes. They had very little in the way of material things, and enough food to get by, but their joy and satisfaction in that was utterly complete – because they valued the blessing of their relationship with God above everything else.

Verse 4 speaks of the certain protection we have in our relationship with God as we go through tough times. As life-threatening as the valley may be, the certain presence of the covenant God with his people is a source of comfort. “I am who I am”, God said to Moses at the not-burning bush (Exodus 3 verse 14), which I am reliably informed carries the idea of presence. How could Moses lead the people through the trials of the Exodus and in the desert? “I am who I am” – God was with him. And so it is for every believer – “I fear no danger, for you are with me” (verse 4).

Verse 5 looks at our difficult situations from a different angle. In verse 4, walking through the valley was possible because of God’s presence. In verse 5, God provides for us in our troubled situations – such as when enemies breathing down our necks. We know from Scripture that Jesus is “sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1 verse 3); there is not an atom in the universe that is outside of his control or not upheld by him. And so does this Jesus not also uphold and sustain his people, even in the midst of great trials and difficulties? Consider his invitation to his followers:

Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?
Matthew 6 verses 25 and 2

And so we come to the psalm’s culmination in verse 6 – wherein we see the assurance of blessing in the life of the believer, both now and to come. David contrasts the real life-threatening dangers of verses 4 and 5 with the real delights of God’s protection to his people – it is God’s goodness and faithful love that envelop his people, not the clutches of death or wicked enemies. But David’s final destination, and ours, is to “dwell in the house of the Lord” – to live in the rooms that Jesus is preparing for his people (John 14 verses 2 and 3). But it’s all very well and good for David to be this sure of his place – but what about feeble old me over here? Where is my assurance?

It takes its root in verse 1, where “The Lord is my shepherd”. As Jesus says:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. […]
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
John 10 verses 11 […], 14 and 15

Our assurance is in who we know God to be and what we know God to have done. This is especially in the sacrificial death and righteous life of Jesus, the good shepherd.

Psalm 24, an altogether different ‘beast’ from Psalm 23, actually makes a rather similar point, albeit in a very different way. It starts by making a grand statement of God’s sovereignty: he is the lord and creator of everything (verses 1 and 2). Understanding this complete majesty of God, it is only natural to ask the questions of verse 3: which of us mere mortals could possibly have the right to go into God’s presence?

To qualify, we would need to be like the description in verse 4 – with “clean hands and a pure heart”, and no falsehood about us. It’s a bit like the bar is set at the very top – not one misdeed or un-acted-upon-thought-of-malintent measures up as ‘clean’ or ‘pure’. That definitely rules me out, alongisde pretty much every single other human that has ever lived. But anyone who did meet that standard would be rewarded with blessing and righteousness by God (verse 5).

But verse 6 surprises us a little with David’s assertion that “those who seek the face of the God of Jacob” are in a generation of people who receive the reward of verse 5. How can this be, if none of us can meet the mark ourselves? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the answer is Jesus. He is the one who meets the mark for us. His perfect life of obedience to God satisfies the requirements of God’s law (verse 4) on our behalf; Paul elaborates on this idea of our union to Christ being the source of our righteousness with God throughout Romans 5 to 8.

In verses 7 to 10, we meet David’s cry of praise at the presence of God dwelling among man. This psalm may originally have been written to commemorate the arrival of the ark of the covenant in Jerusalem – the symbol of his presence among them. But I think it doubly points forward to Jesus too.

In the first case – the King of glory came to that which was his own, and whilst we do see an initial reaction of jubilant crowds crying “hosanna!” at the arrival of their saviour king, ultimately this was only short-lived, and instead of the elation of the psalm, the religious leaders condemned him to death. The irony of that is that this rejection actually fulfilled God’s plan to redeem himself a people through the sacrificial death of his Son, thereby enabling the earlier ‘chunk’ of the psalm to make perfect sense.

And things did not end there; the death led to the resurrection, which led to the ascension, and now we eagerly await the return and the consummation of all things. The King of glory is going to enter again, and this time, the gates will lift up their heads, the doors will rise up – and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord.

Jan 4th: Psalms 3 & 4

I’ve never been surrounded by tens of thousands, as assailed David must have felt his enemies to number in Psalm 3 (verses 1 and 6). In fact, I can only think of two people in my whole life who have ever had some sort of ‘beef’ with me – and one of those was definitely imagined (although one friend did once assure me that I should be easy to find annoying). The point is, the experience David is going through as described in Psalm 3 is so far away from my lived experience – so what does it teach me about life as a child of God’s?

Indeed, we ultimately know that David is a type of the true Messiah King, anyway, so why should I expect anything of his experience to relate to my experience? I am not God’s anointed king and never will be (thankfully – for me and for everyone else). It’s great to know that his King can rest assured in his sustaining (verse 5), but what about a mere mortal like me? The very first thing we should do is see what this psalm actually tells us, and specifically what it tells us about the relationship between its author and God.

Fortunately, these eight verses seem to fall rather neatly into pairs of verses. So in verses 1 and 2, we see David describing the terrible situation around him – both the inordinate number of enemies he seems to be facing in his son Absalom’s rebellion (see basically the entirety of 2 Samuel chapters 11 to 20), and the great spiritual toll their constant taunting that God would not deliver him must have dealt. But in verses 3 and 4, we see the antidote to this problem: right theology. Understanding who God is, and therefore what he will do for his people, in these verses David is not controlled by the fears of verses 1 and 2, but given gentle rest and sustaining in verses 5 and 6. On the basis of this, we see twin applications in verses 7 and 8. Verse 7 is David’s prayer for himself – deliverance from this situation and judgement upon his enemies; verse 8 is a prayer for the people – that they may be blessed and remember that God is the ultimate source of their salvation.

Which scratches the surface of the psalm nicely for us – but doesn’t resolve the fact that this is David speaking as the (current) covenant king of the covenant people. This is not where we stand, and so how does this psalm apply to us today? I think Jesus’ words in the sermon on the mount, recorded in Matthew 6, especially verses 25 to 34, help us to see that this Psalm applies to us to. In these verses, Jesus extols his followers not to worry about anything, but seek first God and his kingdom. A right understanding of who God is and how he continues to provide for us is still the antidote for our worries and concerns today. We may not be beset by tens of thousands of enemies, but financial worries, depression, isolation and so many other things press in on us. As Paul writes:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4 verses 8 and 9

And why is it Paul can write this? Indeed, why was it true for David?

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. … We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
2 Corinthians 4 verses 7 and 10

At its heart, this psalm teaches us that right theology (verses 3 and 4) puts our problems (verses 1 and 2) in perspective, allowing us to continue living (verses 5 and 6) and trusting in God’s plan for his people (verses 7 and 8). We could illustrate this again from many passages of Scripture, but Jesus’ own words provide us with a spectacularly clear guarantee that this promise still holds for us today:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11 verses 28 to 30.

We find some parallels between Psalms 3 and 4, as we did between the first two. David is the author of both, crying out to God in distress (verse 1) caused by other people (verse 2), and ultimately his theological reflection (verses 3 to 7) leads him to a place of rest (verse 8).

In a way, it very much seems that the testimony of both these psalms is that grasping who God is – the God of the covenant, the light of whose face David implores to shine upon his faithful remnant (Psalm 4 verse 6; see also Numbers 6 verse 25) – is the single most important thing for us. We need to see his great character, and to do so we need to look to Jesus. John, Paul and the writer to the Hebrews emphasise this point clearly:

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 1 verse 18.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Colossians 1 verse 15.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Hebrews 1 verse 3.

The Psalms, then, and especially these two, teach us that ultimately God is the answer to life’s problems. Only by trusting in him can we overcome whatever the world throws at us. A right relationship with the Sovereign of all things puts a right perspective on all things. In the words of Paul:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15 verse 13

Amen!