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