Psalms – Page 5 – LOVE | ACCEPT

Psalm 77 – I Cried Out to God to Hear Me

I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands

and my soul refused to be comforted. (Ps 77:1-2)

We are all familiar with these dark nights in which we cry out to the Lord but seem to receive not a word in return. Our distress deepens with the silence but moreover, our thoughts return to times of blessing. Why does God bless us here and leave us in distress there? These thoughts drive the psalmist to say:

I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint.

You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak.

I thought about the former days, the years of long ago;

I remembered my songs in the night.

My heart mused and my spirit inquired: “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again?” (vv 3-7)

Our greatest difficulty comes in the limited time span of our thoughts. We only see tomorrow and the end of our days but God looks into eternity. Our travails which seem unending and insurmountable to us are but a second in His vision. Our difficulty in facing the struggles of today is our inability to look beyond, to know a time when it will be all blessing and no sorrow. Can we look that far?

Grace and peace to you..

image by pshmell

Psalm 76 – He Is Feared By The Kings Of The Earth

From heaven you pronounced judgment, and the land feared and was quiet–

when you, O God, rose up to judge, to save all the afflicted of the land.

Surely your wrath against men brings you praise, and the survivors of your wrath are restrained. (Ps 76:8-10)

Political correctness would tear psalms such as this one from the pages of the Bible. A cheer for the God who destroys enemies and brings rulers to heel? This sounds so foreign because we want a God who stands off at a distance and rolls His eyes at our interpersonal and international battles. No longer does God favor one nation over another or even condone the exclusivity of one religious path.

In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel.

His tent is in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.

There he broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war. (vv 1-3)

Modern Christianity is personal. We call it our faith but do not extol its superiority over all others. Why not? We have here in the scriptures proclamations of God’s choice of Israel as His people and the Temple as His dwelling place. Dare we not say the same thing? God has chosen us in Christ and our soul is His dwelling place? Is this defeat for all competing belief systems?

Grace and peace to you..

image by musumemiyuki

Psalm 75 – It is God Who Judges

Close your eyes and think of the hymns and choruses you sang at church last week. We love the Lord, We trust the Lord, We worship the Lord..I would dare say that few, if any, reflected the sinfulness of humankind or echoed the realities of Hell throughout the sanctuary.

But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.

In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices;

he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. (Ps 75:7-8)

Has the worship leader ever invited you to sings these words toward the altar, to raise this tune to God in worship? Unlikely. To modern ears this sounds hateful and judgmental and these are two adjectives that have become hidden in the Church. The reality of God’s final judgment and the separation of the sheep and goats has become unspeakable in our meetings but we must ask, do we have the luxury of softening God in this fashion?

We do no one any favors when we talk of a Jesus who will love despite our many faults yet will not judge. We lie if we do so. This psalm may appear to revel in the coming destruction of the wicked but it is in truth, a praise song. It is a song of trust, not an imprecatory hymn. Israel trusted beyond their present, visual circumstances that Yahweh would have the upper hand. We must express this same trust in the Lord and, in doing so, express to those who risk destruction that there is another way. We praise Him for His love and His loving justice.

Grace and peace to you..

image stevec77

Psalm 74 – Rise Up O God and Defend Your Cause

Where do you turn when everything around you has crumbled to ruin? Whether or not it aligns with reality, we’ve all felt at least as though everything was gone. Trouble has a way of compounding in our minds until all we can see is ruin.

Little has changed throughout history.

The psalmist was looking about and saw nothing but ruin. His people were in exile, the temple lay in ruins, and the promised land taken from them. Everything that they had built their self identity upon had been snatched and the psalmist cries out in desperation for Yahweh to restore them.

Why have you rejected us forever, O God?

Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

Remember the people you purchased of old, the tribe of your inheritance, whom you redeemed—Mount Zion, where you dwelt.

Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary. (Ps 74:1-3)

We meditate on these verses and, with a little perspective from time and distance, we answer back. You failed to keep up your end of the covenant! Why do you cry out to God we say, when you know you were responsible for the ruin that your life has become.

And then that moment of self-realization hits us.

We too are responsible for those black nights in which it appears that all is in ruin and that the Lord has abandoned us. Is it more likely that someone two-thousand years distant from us will look back on our plea and say, what is wrong with you? You are the one who moved away from God, not He from you.

Grace and peace to you

image usonian

Psalm 73 – It is Good to Be Near God

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.

They are free from the burdens common to man; (Psalm 73:2-5a)

We rarely hear of the Seven Deadly Sins within our Protestant tradition but we intuitively know that envy is not good. Whether it be the Ten Commandments, selections from the Proverbs, or passages such as Ephesians 4:17-32 being preached, we have undoubtedly been warned against the subtlety of the sin of envy. All sin starts in the mind as we toy with it, roll it over in (what we think is) a safe, hidden environment. The psalmist reflects on this game we all play, allowing the envious fantasy to play about in our minds while, at the same time, dismissing the danger.

What danger? The peril inherent in the truth we know but avoid; the step from thought to action is the shortest of all of our strides. We lose our foothold when envy makes itself at home in our thoughts.

Envy, for the Christian, is an especially challenging issue because the enemy preys on our sometimes immature sense of fairness. Our hearts are tempted to look upon the riches, health, and ease of life the ungodly enjoy and compare it to our struggles or relative poverty and ask, how is this fair God? Why do those who express an open malice toward God appear to have riches that remain out of the grasp of the believer? The psalmist expresses our moments of doubt well;

This is what the wicked are like—always carefree, they increase in wealth.

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. (vv 12-13)

We’ve all been there. We may have even expressed it out loud. Some have stepped over the line to create their own ‘fairness.’ Our hearts have been led astray but Spirit has brought the majority of us back from the edge. Our faith has been renewed as the eventual destination of the wicked becomes clearer in our sight and we realize that nothing is worth the separation it creates between ourselves and our Father.

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,

I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. (vv 21-23)

We have faith into eternity, it lasts beyond the next few weeks, months, or years. The Spirit gives us a glimpse of eternity and the wisdom to understand that it is better to be close to God and know His glory forever rather than to enjoy material wealth now and separation later. Doubts approach us from all directions but we give them no harbor. The Lord is our refuge.

Grace and peace to you.

image Bright Star

Psalm 72 – May The Whole Earth Be Filled With His Glory

The close of the second book of the Psalter concludes with this doxology:

Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.

Praise be to his glorious name forever;

may the whole earth be filled with his glory.

Amen and amen. (Psalm 72:18-19)

Our sense of forever is tempered by our fleeting existence in this world. Forever for us is the next forty or fifty years. We might have some small sense of what it will be like for our children to live on past our moment but our scope still remains limited.

Recognizing our limited historical frame of reference, we seek to have a positive effect on the world while we are here. The prayer at the center of this psalm is for the strength of the king, that he might have a positive effect and bless the people under his care. As we read these verses through modern eyes we find them strange without a human monarch that rules our lives. For the Christian however, we can see glimmers of the glory of our Holy King, Jesus.

Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness.

he will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice.

The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness.

he will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy;

he will crush the oppressor. (vv 1-4)

Are we faithful to pray for these qualities in our human leaders? Do we seek to embody them in ourselves?

Grace and peace to you.

image by lel4nd

Psalm 71 – Be My Rock of Refuge

Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.

Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God,

till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.

(Psalm 70:17-18)

This prayer issues from a psalmist who finds himself on the back side of his journey and who is looking over his shoulder at those who are just taking their first footsteps on the path of the God follower. The elder knows that his enemies will mistakenly see him as vulnerable and weak because of his advanced age but he is also aware that they do not see God’s hand on his life. The psalmist pleas for Yahweh’s continued shield over him to serve as both protection and a revelation of the divine presence that surrounds him.

Balancing the petition for rebuff of the enemy is the psalmist’s continued praise and attribution of glory to the Lord. The praise emanates from deeper than the surface; despite the struggles that God has allowed in his life, the psalmists insists that God is fully and wholly good.

Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God,

you who have done great things.

Who, O God, is like you?

Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again;

from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. (vv 19-20)

Oh, that we would continue to praise God despite our circumstance! Though we might might be long in years or just placing our foot onto the path, to know, really know, that despite the roadblocks, snares, and setbacks that God is with us and to praise him is our greatest calling. We cannot be fooled by our eyes or other senses, God is good and worthy of our praise in every moment. Will my lips close for the final time with this prayer on them?

My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you – I who you have redeemed.

My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long,

for those who wanted to harm me have been put to shame and confusion. (vv 23-24)

Grace and Peace to you.

image by Luke Scowen

Psalm 70 Let God Be Exalted

Hasten, O God, to save me; O Lord, come quickly to help me. (Psalm 70:1)

How often have we heard or said these words? Come now Lord, save me now! Our urgency must, through our pleas, become the Father’s urgency. We bring God’s time into our infinitesimal lifespan rather than seeking to understand our life in the span of eternity. Shall we not trust Him to save us tomorrow rather than today?

Our impatience is linked to our view of God’s glory. We believe that were He to save us now it would be to His greater glory rather than waiting until tomorrow. Our view down the corridors of the future ends at the tip of our nose and sometimes, our trust ends there as well.

Yet I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God.

You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay. (v5)

Grace and peace to you.

image by adesigna

Psalm 69 : May Your Salvation Protect Me

On the cross at Calvary the perfect innocent was crucified. Though charges were leveled and accusations screamed about Him, there was no guilt in the verdict of the ultimate Judge. The Savior knew and trusted in the ultimate outcome of The Plan.

Though our voices ring with affirmation of our trust in God and His Plan, the immediacy of the struggles we face excite the doubting voice in our hearts. Why God? Why do you allow your saints to be falsely accused while the mockers go free? No answer has ever been given except, “trust me.”

Save me O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.

I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.

I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.

I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail looking for God. (Psalm 69:1-3)

Along with Psalm 22, this scripture is found most often in the New Testament. The authors (as well as modern Christians) found the parallels with the innocent suffering of Christ to be the perfect descriptive words. John speaks of Jesus’ rejection by His own people (Jn 15:25) and his motive in driving out the traders from the Temple (Jn 3:17). The other gospel authors heard the words of innocence being put to death ( Mt 27:34; Mk 15:23; Lk 23:36; Jn 19:19-30) and Paul related the meaning of His suffering (Rom 15:3) to this psalm.

for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. (Ps 69:9)

For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” (Rom 15:3)

Trusting that our struggle is for the greater good is one of the greatest challenges that we face. Our innate sense of what is fair doesn’t have a category into which we can organize our pain in the face of the guilty walking free of injury. We must simply trust.

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. (vv 30-31)

Grace and peace to you.

image by prilfish

Psalm 68 – Proclaim the power of God

If you were to compose a psalm proclaiming all that God has brought you through as you follow Him to glory it would likely end up reading much like Psalm 68. The glory of the Father is magnified in the processional and was rehearsed in a liturgy used in the Temple. The worshippers who trail behind the Ark and the Cherubim cry out:

Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds —

his name is the Lord —

and rejoice before him. (v4)

We lift our voices in praise because of who He is and what He is but it is an expression of mercy over evil that helps us to associate our hearts with the congregation..

God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing;

but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

When you went out before your people, O God, when you marched through the wasteland,

the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,

before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. (vv 6-8)

This is the God we worship, the one who leads us safely through the wasteland. Despite the temptations on all sides, it is God who leads us home without fear. We fall behind Him as He takes the rightful place at the head of the procession and follow it to the altar.

Grace and peace to you.

image by gregw66