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Gratitude in the Lowlands

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Introduction

      C.S. Lewis once made a vivid observation that grumblers are on a path to becoming just a grumble: “[Hell] begins with a grumbling mood and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps criticizing it. And yourself, in a dark hour, may will that mood, embrace it. Ye can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood, just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.”

The Text

“I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, In the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD” (Psalm 116).

Summary of the Text

       This is a passover Psalm, likely composed by David, and was a regular fixture of that celebration. It opens with a declaration of love, firm footing for any expression of praise to the Lord. But this ain’t vague sentimentality. Rather, He loves God because God heard him (v1). His statement “I will call upon the Lord (cf. vs. 2b, 4a, 13b, 17b)” forms the spine of this hymn. God’s past kindness in inclining His ear to David stirs him up to make calling upon God his continual habit (v2). He had faced a recent trouble––death hunting him down (v3)––and we see his response: calling unto God for deliverance (v4). God’s grace and righteousness is the basis for David’s confidence in this request (v5), along with the reality that God doesn’t deliver on the grounds of the recipient’s merit, social status, or book-smarts (v6).

       This reality brings rest, because God has blessed him bountifully in this undeserved deliverance from death (vs 7-8); but it also compels him to “walk before the Lord” (v9). Faith isn’t an anesthetic to his emotion; rather it allowed him to look affliction in the face, and call it what it is (v10). This also helps him see his temptations to sin against his neighbor (v11).

       All this leads to a question of how to properly thank the Lord (v12). What should I give Him? I should take from Him. The cup of salvation is received, and God is once more called upon (v13). Furthermore, reviewing God’s deliverance elicits a response of tangible gratitude. The thanksgiving overflows in obedient execution of vows (v14, 18), humbly recognizing that being spared death was a precious gift from the Lord (v15). In other words, salvation compels service; deliverance from bondage binds us to obedience (v16). The sacrifice which a loving, faith-filled heart gives is thanksgiving––public obedience––in the midst of God’s people (vs17-19).

Black Swan Deliverance

       While this is a very “first person” psalm, it isn’t a psalm of individualism. Remember that this is a passover hymn. The psalmist sees in that mighty, miraculous deliverance of God’s people a source of hope for his present difficulty. David draws hope from God’s past faithfulness to His people, to buoy his hope that God would perform another miraculous exodus for him. In essence, he sings about his present trial, while putting himself in remembrance of God’s mighty works of old.

       God’s deliverance is always undeserved, and we see this in a few spots in this passage. As Spurgeon observed, the grace and mercy are a bejeweled sheath for the blade of justice (cf. vs5). David had seen many perish, and knew that God sparing his life was a precious gift, not to be taken for granted.

       We also see that the Lord’s preservation of the simple is not the way corrupt systems of human justice works. There often  seems to be one law for D.C. elites and Hollywood stars, and another set of laws for us simple folk. But God isn’t a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), and he delivers whom He will regardless of their wealth, influence, power, prestige, or IQ. God saves those who call to Him in faith. As David says in another Psalm, “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. (Ps. 34:6).” And He continues to save them through “many dangers, toils, and snares.”

Gratitude and Duty

       But the deliverance is intended to lead us to love and thanksgiving. The sacrifices of Israel were always supposed to elicit gratitude from God’s people. They were both an expression and a reminder of the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise which we owe to God. The sin offerings reminded the saint that the throat which should be slit was theirs, but instead, God graciously accepted the lamb in their stead. But this gratitude and faithful thanksgiving, wasn’t to be empty words. It is dutiful work. Notice the order of this psalm: love leading to loyalty, faith catalyzing good works.

       How do you repay God for His salvation? You receive once more from Him a heart of thanksgiving, regardless of your circumstances. What does God want from you? He wants you to get more of Him and from Him. He wants you to overflow with praise. Praise for His blessings: life itself, rest, bounty, and all the other blessings. But also praise in the pit. Thanksgiving in all circumstances, for all circumstances.

       Faith-filled hearts of gratitude don’t just thank God for keeping us safe during the flood, it thanks Him for the flood. Because the flood is what gave us another opportunity to call upon Him, look unto Him, and trust ourselves to Him alone.

Grumble or Gratitude

       The grumbler wants to mutter and whine about everything, as he plods down the path to hell. He thinks he knows what his circumstances should be. He thinks a nice, comfortable life is his by right. He wants to pour his own cup, with his own choice of wine.

       But the grateful heart knows that whether in blessed or burdensome times, whether on the mountain or in the low-lands, God delivers His people from all their troubles. The grateful pray to God about their problems. The grumbler prays to himself.

       Drink the cup which God set before you. Trust that in it, you will taste that Christ has already drank the cup of God’s wrath, that you might drink the cup of God’s blessing. So don’t fear your trials, even the final trial of death. God’s deliverance is always a resurrection from the dead. For in Christ, even death has lost its sting (1 Cor. 15:55).

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The Church & the Word

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Introduction

The Christian faith and the Christian church are glorious results of the Word of God. The voice of God thunders in creation and in the gospel, and then we thunder with His grace.

Summary of the Text

Psalm 29 has three parts. First, David issues the command to give glory unto the Lord. The command “give” comes three times: first to the “mighty ones” (literally: sons of the gods), then the command includes “strength,” and finally the command is given with a reason: it is due/owed to His name (Ps. 29:1-2). The psalmist then summarizes the command he is giving: “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness” (Ps. 29:2).

The second part of the Psalm explains these elements of “might” and “strength” and “beauty” and “glory” all centering on the “voice of the Lord” as a fierce thunder storm (Ps 29:3-9). The word “voice” is actually used a number of times for thunder: in the seventh plague with the hail (Ex. 9:23), and later, when Israel was gathered at the base of Sinai there were “voices/ thunderings” (Ex. 19:16, cf. Rev. 4:5). The Psalmist begins by introducing the thunder storm “over the waters,” his “glory thunders,” His voice is “powerful,” and his voice is full of “beauty/majesty” (Ps. 29:3-4). God’s voice splits cedars in half (Ps. 29:5), and God makes the earth quake, causing it to leap like young oxen (Ps. 29:6). God’s voice also shoots out lightening on the earth (Ps. 29:7). God’s thunder is not limited to Lebanon, He also shakes the wilderness of Kadesh (Ps. 29:8). God’s storm makes the wild animals give birth in panic, and His voice is like a pressure washer that completely strips the forest bare (Ps. 29:9), like with the Red Sea (Ex. 15:8).

Finally, in what might feel like a lurch, the Psalmist describes the voice/storm of the Lord in the temple where everyone shouts “glory!” But when the tabernacle and temple were dedicated, they were filled with glory that made them unapproachable (Ex. 40:34-35, 1 Kgs. 8:11, cf.Rev. 11:19, 15:8). So this is not a lurch at all. On the one hand this is what God’s people do in responseto the glory of God and His mighty Word, and on the other hand, the worship of God’s people is as much causedby the voice of the Lord as the rest of the storm. Weare the storm. The Psalmist finishes His call to worship, remembering that God was the One who ruled over the Flood – the greatest storm in the history of the world, and He is the one who sits enthroned forever. He gives strength to His people, and therefore He is the one who blesses people with peace (Ps. 29:10-11).

Centrality of the Word

The center of this Psalm is the power of the Word of God. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth by the Word of His power when His Spirit-wind hovered over the waters (Gen. 1:1), and it is that same powerful Word that upholds all things (Heb. 1:3). His Word thundered at Sinai, but Hebrews says that He now thunders His word directly from Heaven “that the things which cannot be shaken may remain” (Heb. 12:25-27). What this indicates is the fact that God’s storm is not merely destructive, but it is also wonderfully creative, saving, and healing. This Word that created and sustains and thunders from Heaven became flesh and dwelt among us, and John says, “we beheld His glory” (Jn. 1). The center of that glory was the cross and resurrection, where the justice of God was completely satisfied and the mercy of God freely offered. It has pleased God for many centuries now for His Word to go forth in the mouths of men, preaching the gospel, proclaiming the justice and mercy of the cross, splitting the cedar hearts of rebellious men and stripping their arguments bare (Acts 2:37, Lk. 2:35). The Word is a two-edged sword going out of the mouth of Jesus (Rev. 19:15), through the mouths of His servants (Heb. 4:12), conquering sinners. And God’s people shout, “glory!”

Good Order: Liturgy & Government

Because of the power of God’s Word, worship must be patterned after God’s clear word. To go off on our own in worship is to insist on impotence, but His voice is where the power and glory are. And His voice says, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:39, Col. 2:5). The word for order is “taxis” and was used to describe military formations in the ancient world, and this is why we should in principle be committed to a formal or liturgical worship. Casual or informal worship is not obedient worship (Heb. 12:28-29). The New Testament requires our worship to be a spiritual sacrificeof praise, and this too implies careful order. The Old Testament sacrifices were offered very carefully and often in a particular order: sin offering, ascension offering, and peace offering (Lev. 9:22, Num. 6:14-17, Ez. 45:17). We call this basic shape of worship Covenant Renewal Worship. But Paul’s concern is principally with clarity (1 Cor. 14). When the Word of God is clear and understandable, God’s Voice thunders with grace and truth.

The same word is also used to describe the “order” of the Levites (Lk. 1:8) and priesthood (Heb. 7:11-21). So our good order is also guarded by the Church through faithful church government. “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you” (Tit. 1:5, cf. 1 Tim. 3). If we want the glory of the Lord to fill our worship and thunder in our cities, we need godly, qualified men in office. While all of the qualifications for elder/deacon are important, perhaps the most neglected is the order and holiness in his home. “If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination” (Tit. 1:6). “One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)” (1 Tim. 3:4-5). Related, God’s people honor and obey their elders (1 Tim. 5:17, Heb. 13:7, 17).

Church Discipline

Finally, there is no storm of God’s glory where there is no discipline. Church discipline begins in every believer’s heart by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, through confession of sin and repentance (Lk. 6:41, Gal. 6:1). Most church discipline is informal and takes place in the day to day communion of the saints. Love that covers a multitude of sins is actually part of this: hot grace breaks cold, hard hearts. And never stop praying. But the Bible is also clear that some sins need to be confronted and rebuked. “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him” (Lk. 17:3). You should ordinarily go to your brother in private, seeking to gain your brother (Mt. 18:15), and the principles of justice apply (2-3 witnesses, due process). Sometimes public sins may need to be publicly confronted (Gal. 2:14, 1 Tim. 5:20). A church that does not fight for holiness does not really love the beauty of holiness.

Conclusion: The Lord of Hosts

In the Exodus narrative the word “armies” is used five times, but the really striking thing is that it never applies to the Egyptians. It always applies to the children of Israel. So this is God’s way: He sees us as His armies, His hosts, and we fight by praising His name, feasting on His Word and at His table, by baptism, by confessing sin, forgiving one another, by building homes, working hard, feasting, and rejoicing in His glorious grace. By the grace and power of His word, He makes us (and remakes us) into the beautiful storm of His holiness.

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Psalm 110: The Priest/King at God’s Right Hand

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Introduction:

This psalm is the most frequently quoted passage of the Old Testament in the New Testament. The verses quoted have various applications which we will consider as we work through the psalm.

The Text

“The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lordshall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lordhath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: Therefore shall he lift up the head” (Ps. 110:1–7).

Summary of the Text

Jehovah said to Adonai, sit at my right hand (v. 1). He is told to remain seated there until His enemies are reduced to being His footstool (v. 1). While He is seated there, Jehovah will send out the rod of Adonai’s strength from Zion, with the result that He will rule in the midst of His enemies (v. 2). The seat of His authority is in the heavenly places, while the extension of it is from Zion—His people will be willing in the day of His power (v. 3). They will be arrayed in the beauty of holiness, they will be an army of priests (v. 3). As Spurgeon put it, “in brightness, then, as well as in multitude, did they resemble the glittering drops of the morning dew” (v. 3). Jehovah has taken an oath, and He will not turn back from it—Adonai is a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek (v. 4). Adonai, there at the right hand of Jehovah, shall strike down kings in the day of His wrath (v. 5). He will judge among the goyim, and many of them will be killed (v. 6). He will slake his thirst from the brook after the battle, and will lift up His head (v. 7).

A Davidson on the Throne

Why should it be thought remarkable for the throne of David to be established in the heavenly places? A sonof David is there. Why should His throne not be there?

In this famous exchange with His adversaries, the Lord asked a question that pointed out an incongruity in their doctrine of the coming Messiah. The Christ, whose son would he be?

“And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The Lordsaid unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Luke 20:42–43; Matt. 22:44; Mark 12:36)

So he would be David’s son, they replied. That is correct, Jesus said, but have you never noticed that David addresses the one descended from him as his ultimate superior? David calls a Davidson Lord. How can that be? The only way to answer this question satisfactorily is through the doctrine of the Incarnation.

The Great Melchizedek

This is a psalm about a great king, one seated at the right hand of Almighty Jehovah. But this king is also described as a priest, and so it is fitting that another king, Melchizedek, would be mentioned as a type of the coming Messiah. But this Melchizedek is a type in more than one way. He is also a king—and whata king.

“For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace” (Heb. 7:1–2).

He was a priest of the most high God, but he was also a king in different sense. He was the king of Salem (probably Jerusalem), which means king of peace. His name means king of righteousness. This is why his antitype belongs at the right hand of Jehovah.

“As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 5:6; 7:17, 21).

Enemies a Footstool

The first chapter of Hebrews is dedicated to showing that the Christ is vastly superior to the angels.

“But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?” (Hebrews 1:13).

And in the book of Acts, we are told that this has reference to someone other than David himself. The reference must be to the Christ.

“For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lordsaid unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.” (Acts 2:34–35).

Until

This should be very straightforward. When was Christ seated at the right hand of His Father? When did that happen? We are told that it happened at the Ascension.

“Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:20).

“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 8:1, ESV).

So He has been seated there for the last two thousand years. How long will He remain seated there? He will remain seated at the right hand of power, ruling from the midst of our Zion, until all His enemies are under His seat. The only enemy that will be destroyed by His Second Coming will be the last enemy, death. Every other enemy will be subdued prior to that, through the ministry of the gospel (2 Cor. 10:4-5).

“For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25–26).

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Psalm 109: God Is Not Mocked

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Introduction

This psalm has been a challenge to many Christians for centuries. It is an imprecatory psalm, and of the most bracing variety. Many commentators have been reduced to saying something like, “We know it is inspired, but we don’t have to like it.” The great C.S. Lewis stumbled over it, saying that God put it in Scripture so that we might have an example of how not to behave. And even Charles Spurgeon said the psalm represented “no small difficulty,” and that “we have need of all our faith and reverence to accept them as the voice of inspiration.” This psalm, he says, “tests our teachableness.” And so it does.

The Text

“Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: They have spoken against me with a lying tongue . . .” (Psalm 109:1–31).

Summary of the Text

The psalmist begins by asking God to not hold His peace (v. 1), and the reason given is that the wicked are not holding theirs. Theyare speaking, they are telling their lies (v. 2). For no good reason, they surrounded David with words of hatred (v. 3). They turn David’s love into their grievance, but David gives himself to prayer (v. 4). They returned evil for good, and hatred for love (v. 5). This ends the first section, which is a statement of David’s dilemma. He then uncorks, and the next section contains some of the fiercest words in all Scripture. Let the accuser be at his right hand, and let Herod have a Herod rule over him, and Stalin a Stalin (v. 6). When he comes to judgment, let the verdict be guilty. When he prays, let that prayer be sin (v. 7). Cut his days short, and let another take his position. This is the verse that was quoted when the apostles replaced Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:20). Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow (v. 9). May those children be turned out into the street, hunting for scraps in waste places (v. 10). May an extortioner take everything, and may strangers pillage him (v. 11). May no one show mercy, whether to him or to his children (v. 12). Cut his posterity off, Lord (v. 13). May the Lord remember the sins of his fathers, and also of his mother (v. 14). May God remember them all, such that He cuts off their memory from earth (v. 15). And why? Because he was merciless (v. 16), and no, this is not lack of self-awareness. He loved to curse, and so may it all return upon him (v. 17). He wore clothing dyed in venom; may that venom sink down into his bones (v. 18). May he be covered with a garment like that (v. 19). Let this be the return that my adversaries receive from the Lord (v. 20). This is the conclusion of the second section, the imprecatory section.

The third section is a plea for deliverance (v. 21), for the sake of the Lord’s name. For David is poor and needy, and his heart is wounded (v. 22). He dwindles like a declining shadow; he is tossed like a locust in a stiff breeze (v. 23). His knees are weak because of fasting, most likely forced on him through adversity (v. 24). He was a reproach to his foes, they shook their heads at him (v. 25). He pleads for God to save him, according to God’s mercy (v. 26). He wants his foes to know that God undertook for him (v. 27). If God blesses, then let them curse. Let them be ashamed when David rejoices (v. 28). May his enemies be wrapped up in confusions (v. 29). The psalmist will praise God with his mouth in the midst of the multitude (v. 30), for God will stand at the right hand of the poor in order to deliver him from those who condemn his soul (v. 31).

Surrendered to Christ

We are supposed to sing this. To the end of the world, the Christian church is supposed to sing this (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). And we are not supposed to sing bad attitudes back to the Lord. And Peter was not shy about applying the imprecatory section of this psalm to the desolation that Judas brought down upon himself (Acts 1:20), and this means that if the antagonist in the psalm was Judas, then the protagonist is Christ. David in his troubles served as a type, but this is really about Christ. And Christ responded to His foes in two stages—in the first, He was like a sheep before the shearers, answering not a word (Is. 53:7). In the second, He was the one who destroyed His enemies with the breath of His coming (2 Thess. 2:8). We want to reverse that order (Luke 9:55), but we must not. We are invited to turn it all over to Him, therefore. Psalms of imprecation are a surrender to the judge of the whole earth who will do right.

God is Not Mocked

We sometimes complain about psalms like this on the grounds of “injustice,” but what really troubles us is the sheer justice of them. We have quietly and surreptitiously switched the categories of mercy and justice. We think that mercy is owedto us, and that if we don’t get it, then that is somehow unjust. But grace that is owed is no grace at all. So the wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life (Rom. 3:23). Note that death is the pay check, death is the wage, and death is what we have earned. There is an asymmetry between death and life that extends beyond the categories of death and life. There is also the asymmetry of wageand gift.

God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows (Gal. 6:7-8). If you plant thistles, you will harvest thistles. If you sow cursing, then your crop in the fall will be cursing, and your barns will be full of it. Of course, this is not talking about salvation (Eph. 2:8-10). We are notsaved by our works—but we are most certainly damnedby them. Never forget the stark difference between law-righteousness and faith-righteousness. The former is damned by works while the latter is saved by grace.

In addition to all of that, remember the fact that justification is by grace through faith. This does not abrogate the principle that God is not mocked with regard to your sanctification. Let us assume that a man is a converted man, by grace through faith. Now consider two other realities of the Christian life—the blessings that come from obedience and the obedience itself. These are joined together in Christ and only in Christ. The temptation to separate them (by various means) is always the attempt to obtain the blessings of obedience without the obedience itself. The name of this sin is—at the foundation—sorcery.

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23).

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Psalm 108: We Shall Do Valiantly

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Introduction

There is a true theological balancing act that is able to handle two very different sentiments that are both found in Scripture. The first is the response of a humble servant of Christ—“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). We are to say that we are unprofitable servants, and when we do that, we are doing no more than what we were told to say. But what does the Lord say to us? “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21). How do we reconcile the two? To paraphrase Spurgeon, we don’t need to reconcile them. Why reconcile friends?

The Text

“O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, Even with my glory. Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: And I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great above the heavens: And thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: And thy glory above all the earth . . .” (Psalm 108:1–13).

Summary of the Text

The one who would worship God rightly should be settled in his intention. O God, my heart is fixed (v. 1). He will sing and praise, and will do so with his glory, which is likely his tongue, his faculty of speech. He wakes up his instruments in order to give himself to the task; he wakes himself up early to do it (v. 2). He will praise God among the people, and sing praises among the nations (v. 3). God’s mercy is great above the heavens, and His truth stacks up to the clouds (v. 4). The exaltation that is rendered to God, therefore, ought to reach as high as His mercy and truth do (v. 5)—above the heavens, above the earth.

The psalmist refers to himself as God’s beloved, and asks God to save him with His right hand. Answer me (v. 6). God is holy, and He speaks in His holiness (v. 7). Then David as king rejoices in what God has granted to him—Shechem and the valley of Succoth (v. 7). Gilead and Manasseh are now his (v. 8). Ephraim is the strength of his head (v. 8), and Judah is his lawgiver (v. 8). We then come to the odd image of wash pot and shoe. I take it this way. Moab is the basin that some slave uses to wash David’s feet, and Edom is another slave that he—having taken his shoe off for the washing—throws his shoe over (v. 9). Philistia has been defeated, and David triumphs (v. 9).

Who is going to bring about his conquest of the strong city in Edom (v. 10)? God, is it not you? You have cast us off before, but not now. Will You not go out with our armies (v. 11). God, give us help in our trouble, for the help of man is vain and empty (v. 12). We are God’s instruments, and we shall do valiantly. We shall do valiantly because we are not really doing it. It is He that shall tread down our enemies (v. 13).

That Balance Within the Psalm

“Give us help from trouble: For vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly: For he it is that shall tread down our enemies” (Ps. 108:12–13).

David is looking for tangible help in a physical battle. How can he take the strong city in Edom? And so he asks for the help of God in this trouble because, as he says, the help of man is vain (v. 12). Vain. Futile. Worthless. Inconsequential. The victory, when it comes, is through God. David says that it is through God because He, God, is the one who is going to tread down the enemy (v. 13). But with all this said, David does not sit down on a sofa to watch the battle from afar. He does not expect God to smite the adversary with lightning bolts from the open sky. “Through God we shall do valiantly.” So how do we relate the action of God to the actions of men?

God is God

God is always God, absolute and sovereign, and man is always man, finite and limited. We need not concern ourselves with God’s sovereignty of inanimate objects—that presents no difficulty at all. The challenge for us is when we are dealing with beings who have free agency. They are not puppets, and yet . . . God directs them perfectly as well.

Sentient creatures who make choices can be divided into two categories—rebels on the one hand and sons and daughters on the other. The rebels choose wickedly, but their choices are overridden by God such that they accomplish the opposite of what was intended. Remember Herod, Pontius Pilate, and all the Jews (Acts 4:27-28). And if the rulers of this age had known what the crucifixion would accomplish, they would not have engineered it (1 Cor. 2:8). They all had true freedom, but it was not freedom to win.

Sons and daughters lay down their arms, and surrender to Him. In the course of His kindness to them, He gives them everything. But what He gives, on the basis of our new justified status, He gives into us. And we then work it out.

Working In, Working Out

“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily” (Col. 1:27–29).

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13).

Shall we, like David, do valiantly? Yes, we shall, but that valiant spirit has to be given to us first. Shall we be Christ-like as we overcome in His name? Yes, we shall. But first . . . the Christ must be given.

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