Psalm 11

Some sort of crisis has presented itself to David.  It’s big enough that it looks like the very foundations of his society are about to crumble, and it has his closest advisors worried, ready to run.  But David seeks asylum in God.  What he knows of his God prevents his own panic, and can prevent ours.

Verses 1-2.  Someone is trying to convince David to leave and hide in the mountains.  But this strikes him as ridiculous, as incompatible with his faith.  The bow and arrow here probably represent the false words and accusations of enemies, ready to strike down God’s anointed, David. 

Verse 3. ‘foundations’ is probably a metaphor for the very order of society, established institutions and civil order.  Anarchy is upon them. 

Verse 4. David has been walking with God for years, and knows that ultimately, even his throne is in the hands of the true king, whose throne is unshakable.  His faith is fixed on the sovereign Lord, not human institutions.  It is easy to find comfort and even salvation in good, godly institutions.  They are gifts from above, for sure.  But our confidence is not in good schools, godly elected leaders in government, or even a great church.

Eyelids/see and test - This denotes careful examination.  First, God beholds, looks intently, gazes at.  This is divine investigation, full awareness of all human activity.  Second, God tests, literally as the smith purifies gold or silver. God’s knowledge of us is not passive, but evaluative. Think of the way you watch your children when you have specifically directed them to do something.  You watch their motives, their method, their every move, not out of spite but out of love and desire to see them grow into a right and true character. God tests us, and it’s often painful.  ‘The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.’ Proverbs 17:3.  We don’t like to think about this, the fact that God may actually SEND pain into our lives.  But he is much more concerned with the state of our hearts than our current enjoyment of circumstances.

Verses 5-6. “The Lord may have been testing David’s faith with the threat of anarchy and persecution, for in the Bible they are often God’s way of proving the faith of believers” (Ross). Eventually the wicked will be judged, as we see in the two images of judgment here: fiery coals and burning sulfur, and a scorching wind.  In the middle East, the hot wind blows over the desert and turns all living things into withered plants over night.  This is the future of the wicked.  

Verse 7. This is ultimately our confidence - the character of our God.  Our future is seeing his face. As Van Gemeren states, “To see the face of God is an expression of deliverance from adversity, of close communion, and of the reality of God’s blessed presence in this world and in the world to come.”

Food for thought:

1. What human institutions (marriage, church, public/private/home school) are you tempted to put ultimate trust in instead of God himself?
2. Where might God be testing you right now?

Psalm 10

Oftentimes it seems that those who ignore God, or live as if he does not exist, abusing the weak and exploiting others, prosper wildly, seemingly unchecked.  Meanwhile those who acknowledge and worship him, caring for the “least of these” may be seriously struggling.  “It is a function of the Psalms to touch the nerve of this problem and keep its pain alive, against the comfort of our familiarity, or indeed complicity, with a corrupt world.” (Kidner)  This is Psalm 10 - predator and prey, strong and helpless, and a God who is decidedly on the side of the underdog.

Verse 1. This is the question our hearts very often want to scream out to God, especially when we know the situation is something close to his heart.  Though he is never far away or hidden, he certainly can feel that way to us.

Verses 2-4. Powerful, wicked people are using the weak in their schemes to get what they want.  This may be a tyrannical ruler in a country far away, but it may also be a ruthless businessman down the street who ruins others’ investments while walking away with a fortune. They purposely avoid God, believing they will never be brought to justice.

Verses 5-6. Because God has not yet judged them, they become more brazen, bold, confident.  Think of the slumlord who charges a ridiculous rent to the new immigrant or refugee living in his property.  He does so well he buys more buildings to exploit more people. 

Verses 7-10. Their attacks are sudden, secret, stealthy. And the afflicted person is no match for these planned ambushes.  One cannot help but think again of young girls sold into sex trafficking.  Also the title pawn business comes to mind, charging ridiculous amounts of interest on loans to the already working poor.

Verse 11. Once again, the wicked utterly disregard the Lord.  “They mistake God’s patience with evil for God’s lack of interest in justice and the innocent victims of injustice” (Van Gemeren)  Maybe it’s the computer hacker team who manages to steal the credit card numbers of thousands of people.  Perhaps it’s the sex offender who slowly reels in another child victim. 

Verses 12-15.  Asking God to ‘arise’ is asking him to act.  The Psalmist knows that God has been the ‘helper of the fatherless’.  He knows God cares for these weak and defenseless people.  The word here for ‘helper’ often describes God; it means that he is able to do for people what they cannot do for themselves.  The writer prays that God would break the power of the wicked.  

Verses 16-18. The hope of this unjust world lies in the Lord. The fatherless and the oppressed are the class of people who are most easily wronged.  ‘you encourage’, ‘you listen’ - these are progressive imperfects, meaning this is what God is now already doing as a result of having heard the pleas of the psalmist.  He is still the eternal king of glory, in charge, the ultimate victor.  He is just and will bring the wicked to account.  They will answer to the judge for what they do.  And those children of God who are preyed upon will be rescued.  

What does this mean for OUR prayers? It means God cares about the foster children in our congregation.  And so our prayers for them should be bold, confident.  It means God is on the side of the widow and the orphan in countries where they are ruled by horrible, despotic rulers.  And so our prayers for them should hold God’s promise and his own words before him, asking him to do something about what he cares about.  It means that God hears us when we are the victims, the helpless, the ones at the mercy of the merciless, whatever that might look like.  

Food for thought: 

1. When you pray for such issues as justice for the oppressed in some category, do you expect God to act? Have you decided he doesn't care? 

2.  What are some things you know God cares about after studying this Psalm that you can take to him and hold him to his word?

Psalm 9

Psalm 9 is an incomplete acrostic psalm, using the 11 hebrew letters aleph-kaph.  Some scholars have argued that this may have been imposed on the psalm, but it bears mentioning if for no other reason than to remind us again that this is not a letter or prose.  It is an artful song, lyrics to be sung to a God who hears.  While beginning as a song of thanksgiving, it turns into a prayer for the righteous judge to act.

Verses 1-2. David exhorts himself to praise the Lord, not only as a therapy to forget his troubles for a moment, but to deepen his trust in the Lord. (Van Gemeren)  David knows that the right ordering of his world and heart begins with worship.  And so whether he feels the particular inclination to sing to God at that very moment or not, he pushes himself to do it.  Are we not the same in our need?

Verses 3-6.  Apparently the Lord has won some victory for David. Not only has he won, but God has “blotted out their name”. These are present perfect verbs, meaning they have continuing results.  God continues to rebuke, destroy and blot out their character and evil nature, removing even the memory of their acts. 

Verses 7-10.  God is absolutely sovereign and will judge those who oppress others.  This is what makes him such a refuge.  He WILL WIN, and will stand by “those who seek you” - literally “your seekers”.  Here again we are named with a wonderful name; we are God’s seekers, to be added to the title “beloved”. 

Verses 11-14. afflicted - the poor, wretched, weak, helpless, humble.  They are overwhelmed by their sense of need and inability to deal with their situation (Van Gemeren).  This is us.  This is also the small girl who lives in the trash dump in India, the child in the US who is at the mercy of the state to find them a permanent home, and the woman who is told a lie and sold into prostitution in Thailand. The sovereign judge has not forgotten the cry of the afflicted.  And those who trust in him will be delivered, some not until the day they meet their righteous judge.  

Knowing that he will be heard, David again pleads with God for his help.

Verses 15-18.  The verbs here are prophetic perfects, meaning that David has such confidence in God acting again for him as he has in the past, that he speaks of sure victory over his enemies. 

return to Sheol - Note here that those who hate God will not just be sent to death, they will return to it; it is their native land.

Verses 19-20. The word used here for man is one that emphasizes his frailty.  Man is dust, a vapor that rises and is gone.  Only God gives man his dignity.  God’s judgement reveals the reality of God to the world.  And only when we realize our own weakness and helplessness can we really understand who God is. 

Food for thought:

1. When do you worship and thank God? Do you do it outside of Sunday, not just singing songs, but marveling at him, thanking him for things?  Do you make yourself do it when you don’t feel like doing it? What would it be like to choose to worship at some point this week when your heart and mind want to do anything but that?
2. How does God’s concern for the afflicted (verses 11-14) change your perspective on the suffering in the world? Or does it? What does this mean for how we pray for those who suffer?

Psalm 8

Like Psalm 1 described the ideal person, so Psalm 8 returns to the world of ideal.  We leave betrayal, injustice, depression and longing for the majesty of the creator.

Verse 1. majestic - could be translated ‘wonderful’, also meaning lofty, high, noble or splendid.   name - as usual in the Bible, this does not just mean the actual word we call the Lord, but his character, his nature. We could read it, ‘Oh Lord, our Lord, how wonderful you are’. 

Verse 2. While the Hebrew is translated ‘strength’, the Septuagint translates this word ‘praise’.  The general idea here is this: God works through things that appear to be weak and insufficient (Ross). As children are weak and small, but have intimate access to their more powerful and resourceful parents, so the weak and marginalized of this world cry out to their all powerful God, who does what he pleases. One commentator suggested that the very sound of children’s voices is evidence of God’s reign on earth.  The human race continues, no matter what the enemies of God do.  “The sound of opposition is silenced by the babbling and chatter of children” (Ross).  

Verses 3-4. Out of the entirety of creation, only man can stand back and actually look at the scene and ask this question. The word ‘man’ here is used in a poetic sense, emphasizing the frail existence of humans. 

mindful - This is not just implying fond thoughts, but movement toward the man he is thinking of, action.  In the Bible, God’s remembering always leads to God’s acting on behalf of those he remembers. The word here is used in the imperfect tense, which implies not just a one time action, but a continuing action.  God doesn’t just think of mankind once or twice, but continually moves toward and remembers him, acting on his behalf.

David must have sat some nights, gazing at the stars without our modern city lights, overwhelmed by the detail and design of what he saw.  In Psalm 19 he says, ‘the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” In the middle of this beauty we can almost see David shaking his head and quietly asking, “why in the world would you choose to direct all your power and focus on man, so frail and small in this amazing universe?”

Verses 5-6. Though we are not God, or angels, though we are now so clearly not wonderful or majestic, we are still ‘crowned’ with glory - dignity and importance, and honor - external splendor.  This is the way we were created by our God, important, with a place in the world, magnificent, weighty in our value. So much so that the great king put us in charge of all things listed in verses 7 and 8: animals, birds, marine life.  All creatures are subject to human authority.  

Somehow this strikes me as similar to creating a beautiful, precious, fragile piece of art and handing it to my 2 year old to oversee.  What honor has God given us in freely entrusting such and intricately designed, unbelievably beautiful, ordered world to us. What a vote of confidence, what an act of belief in us to create such beauty and unreservedly hand it over. 

Verses 8-9.  Again the refrain is sung, now with fresh understanding. 

God uses the weak things of this world to show his strength. We, the seemingly small and powerless, have been put in charge of this vast world and all it contains.  We are weak but have access to the one who is not. This is the way that God has ordered creation. 

Food for thought:

1. Over what or whom specifically has God given you dominion? With what has he entrusted you? It may be helpful to even make a list, naming children, objects, areas of responsibility.  Do you see these as God’s vote of confidence, his entrusting you with a portion of his amazing creation? Are they burdens? Annoyances? Privileges? 

2. Where in creation do you experience God’s ‘majesty’ or ‘wonderfulness’? 

Psalm 7

Because of some extra responsibilities this week, I will not be posting on Psalm 7.  Feel free to read and study and comment here for all of us! I'll be back for Psalm 8.

Psalm 6

Psalm 6 is a lament Psalm, full of anguish, pain, desperation.  When the early church appointed certain psalms to be used in services on particular days, Psalm 6 became one of the penitential psalms to be sung during Lent.  Saints through the generations have used it to learn how, and with what confidence they may pray in the midst of physical pain, depression, or God’s discipline.

Verse 1.  There is an implied confession of sin in these verses, and David is not nearly as concerned with the anger of his enemies, which surrounds him, as he is with God’s anger.  Sometimes God’s discipline is so harsh that it seems he is angry.

Verse 2. David’s request for mercy shows us that while he knows he deserves discipline, he asks for grace.  He uses the word ‘bones’, which may refer to the whole physical body, but often this word means the spirit within the body, the center of the painful distress.  

Ross writes, “Not all physical suffering or affliction at the hands of enemies is chastening for sin.  However, when devout believers find themselves in such trying situations, they naturally will do some soul searching to see if they are in fact being chastened.  If no obvious sin can be uncovered, then the believer may consider other explanations for suffering.”

Verse 3. David pours out his pain to God, and is stopped from speaking by his extreme stress and frustration.  He cannot even finish his sentence, but simply says, ‘how long?’  If he had been able to complete it, the thought may have finished something like, ‘how long will you allow me to go on living like this?’  

To David, it must have seemed as though God had gotten carried away with his discipline, and left David to suffer, alone, distressed, weak and anxious. As the commentator writes, “his suffering at the hands of his enemies had wreaked havoc with his health and well-being.  What made it so frustrating was that the Lord was silent and apparently willing to let him languish in pain and depression.  He knew his suffering was divine discipline, so all he could do was appeal for a gracious deliverance.”

Verse 4. David boldly says to the Lord, ‘Turn’, or ‘Return’. He wanted and needed God, at that very moment, to stop the chastening.  And here we see the basis for David’s boldness with the very God he has wronged - unfailing love.  This is hesed, again.  This is what we named ourselves with in Psalm 4.  This is the covenant-keeping, never-failing, never-giving up, always and forever love of the God of Abraham.  And so David pleads with God only on the basis of this love for his people.  David has nothing with which to bargain, nothing to offer God but his pleas for mercy and confidence in God’s character and promise.

Verse 5. Death is the great leveler, and the one thing that stops all worship.  David appeals to God with this logic - people will not hear about how God saved him from this present suffering if he is not present for the next gathering where praises were offered.  Though this may sound like bargaining with God, it is simply an acknowledgment that the outcome of answered prayer would be glory to God and the encouragement of God’s people. 

Verses 6 - 7. David may have been experiencing physical suffering because of attacks of his enemies.  But even worse was the mental anguish caused by God’s silence. 

Verses 8 - 10.  This sudden boost of confidence tells us that David has seen some answer from God, almost ‘as if we saw the singer’s face light up in recognition’ (Kidner). 

put to shame - This is a figure of speech which expresses a sudden reversal of fortune and defeat which the enemies will experience.  

As Ross writes, “God does chasten people for sin, and God does use other people as part of the chastening process.  For a king, this may have involved personal enemies or national enemies with their armies.  When God is through using the natural animosity of enemies as part of the discipline, he then judges them for their eagerness to destroy his people.”  This is the power and sovereignty of our God.  He uses all things, all people, whole armies and nations, for the loving discipline of his beloved.

Food for thought:

1. We know that David was suffering because of his own sin.  His suffering was great.  And yet he confidently asked for God’s mercy, for relief from his discipline.  How do you talk to God when you know you have sinned? Do you hide from him? Walk about in shame? Try to make it up to him? Do you ask confidently as David did for help? Do you see a pattern in your dealings with God over your sin that is different than what the gospel lays out?

Sources:  Intro to the Psalms, ESV Study Bible

Psalms by Derek Kidner

Expositor’s Bible Commentary by Willem A VanGermeren, Edited by Tremper Longman and David Garland

The Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 1, Allen P. Ross

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible

Psalm 5

If you have not yet read the previous post, please do.  It will help give us a context for Psalm 5.  This is a morning Psalm, written for flutes as well as voice.  It’s a helpful reminder, in the midst of parsing and interpreting these songs, that they are indeed songs.  They were sung in the temple, probably multiple times during one’s lifetime, so that one could have many of them, or parts of them, memorized.  Just as we may flip on the radio and easily sing along with the lyrics of the 1984 song being played, though it be 2013, so the music and lyrics of the psalms must have stuck in the minds of the Israelites who heard them, helping them to shape their thoughts and attitudes towards the Lord.

Verses 1-3. The psalmist uses audible sounds, though they may even first be groans or sighs.  He knows the Lord hears even his inner thoughts, and does not think about the formality of prayer.  The word for ‘groaning’ or ‘sighing’ could even be translated ‘meditation’, and describes a scarcely audible sound, such as when Hannah was praying in I Samuel, and was misunderstood by Eli to be drunk.  This is the attention paid to us by our God.  He hears and understands even our indistinguishable sighs.

The psalmist lays his requests down, and waits in expectation. He keeps vigil, waiting for an answer to his prayer, like a watchman.  This word for ‘watch’ is used of God’s prophets posted to report the first sign of his answers (see Isaiah 21:6; 8).  David doesn’t just ask and forget.  He waits, looking for God’s answer.

Verses 4-6.  We may read these verses and think, are we not doers of wrong? Is this speaking of God’s hate for me in those moments? But Ross helps us by explaining that this participle (remember your English grammar here: a participle is a word formed from a verb, used as an adjective, e.g. working, sinning) describes people who are characterized by sinning, as an ongoing trait.  Their typical, distinguishing, normal behavior is sin.  These are ‘evildoers’.  In contrast to this, if you are the beloved, you are a saint who sins, but your sin is not the truest thing about you.  We must remember the contrast between the two categories of people in Psalm 1.  The wicked are those who are outside of the covenant, who live with a total apathy towards God.  The righteous are not those who are perfect, but those who orient their lives around the covenantal God, and who find their refuge in him.

abhors - This verb is related to the noun ‘abomination’ which describes something that God totally hates.  It is off-limits, taboo.  

Verse 7. David distinguishes himself from the wicked, not by his actions, but ‘by the abundance of your steadfast love.’ He will enter the Lord’s house, a place where the evildoers cannot go.

Verses 8-10. make your way straight - a request that the direction be free from hindrances and temptations, echoed in the Lord’s prayer phrase, ‘lead us not into temptation’

The enemies cannot be trusted.  Their plan is to destroy the righteous, to ruin people’s lives.  They speak deceit, with the verb used having the idea of smoothing something over to conceal it, giving the false idea of trustworthiness or truthfulness.  

make them bear their guilt - The psalmist calls on the Lord to declare them guilty and to judge them with an appropriate sentence, casting them out of the covenant community.

Verses 11-12. The shield in verse 12 would be a large shield for the whole body (see I Sam 17:7). The image here is of a protective shield surrounding God’s people. 

Food for thought:

1. Have you felt alone in your ‘groaning’ or ‘sighing’ about certain things in your life? Hopeless? Defeated? What would it be like to direct those cries to the King, knowing that, as verse 3 says, ‘you hear my voice’?
2. What is your attitude towards ‘wickedness’? Is it like David’s - knowing what God hates? What can you identify throughout your day today that God ‘abhors’? 

Sources:  Intro to the Psalms, ESV Study Bible

Psalms by Derek Kidner

Expositor’s Bible Commentary by Willem A VanGermeren, Edited by Tremper Longman and David Garland

The Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 1, Allen P. Ross

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible