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Psalm 84: No Good Thing Will He Withhold

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Introduction
This is a psalm of pilgrimage—worshipers of God afar off are longing to be where they can worship Him at the place where He has set His name. They yearn to be at the place of worship, at his tabernacle, and the spirit of worship drives them there.

The Text:
“How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God . . .” (Psalm 84:1–12).

Summary of the Text:
The tabernacles of the Lord are altogether lovely, and yet He is addressed as the Lord of hosts, the God of armies (v. 1). The worshiper, removed from the place of worship, is heartsick and faint, and yearns to be in the courts of God. He is truly homesick (v. 2). Even the lowly sparrows and swallows are privileged to dwell in the tabernacles of God (v. 3). Everyone who dwells there is blessed (v. 4). For verse five, consider the rendering of the ESV. “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion” (Ps. 84:5, ESV). Blessed is the pilgrim who is on his way to Zion. The valley of Baca was apparently a desolate place, but it was on the way to Zion, and generations of pilgrims had dug wells for themselves (v. 6). As they approach Zion, they are moving from strength to strength (v. 7). Their strength grows as they approach their goal. Lord God, hear. God of Jacob, listen (v. 8). God is invited to look upon the face of His anointed (lit. Messiah) (v. 9). One day in the courts of God is to be preferred to thousands outside (v. 10). And a lowly place with God is superior to the grandest heights the world could bestow on you (v. 10).  The Lord God is both grace and glory, sun and shield (v. 11). No good thing is withheld from those who walk uprightly (v. 11). The man who trusts in God is truly blessed (v. 12).

Milton’s Satan:
After his expulsion from Heaven, Milton’s Satan famously says that he would rather “reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” This is the photo negative of the sentiment expressed here in this psalm. The psalmist would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness—no matter how grand those tents of wickedness might be. This is striking, because this psalm comes from the sons of Korah, who were lowly porters in the house of God, and whose fathers had rebelled against Moses in the wilderness (1 Chron. 9:17-19). They had been humbled, and here is a glorious redemption. They now yearned for the lowest place—and were given the highest place of contributing to the praises of God’s people for virtually the entire history of redemption.

And returning for a moment to Milton’s Satan, we need to remember that his destiny is actually not to rule anything, not even in Hell. The devil is not the king of Hell—the Lord Jesus is the king of Hell. “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Hell is not the devil’s domain or realm; it is his punishment.

The Humility of the Small Birds:
Going lower than the sons of Korah, we find small birds in the tabernacle. The psalmist here notices sparrows and swallows nesting there. What can we gather from this? “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father” (Matt 10:29). The Lord assures us that we are worth more than many sparrows. And so what does that mean when we come to dwell in the presence of God? We are welcome there, just as the birds are welcome. The birds are not just privileged to be there—they are welcome to be there. And you are worth more than many of them. And also keep in mind that these lowly birds are welcome to bring up their young there. Are they to be allowed to nest in the tabernacles of God and you not be allowed to do so?

Sun and Shield:
God is our shield, which means that He is our protection (v. 9). But not only is He our protection, He is also our provision. He is our sun and shield (v. 11). What will He give you? He will give you grace and glory.  It is not difficult to associate the grace with the shield of protection, the protection we did not deserve, and the glory with the sun of provision. All your strength derives from the sun. Every bit of energy you have has been poured out upon you from 93 million miles away. What a wonderful picture of the one in whom we live and move and have our being.

No Good Thing:
Now the promise near the end of this psalm is quite a striking one. “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Ps. 84:11). We have some trouble navigating this concept when it comes to answered prayer. This is because Scripture gives us two models for prayer, and they seem quite distinct. First, in the Garden, the Lord Jesus prayed that the cup of suffering would pass from Him, but He uttered this with a caveat. If it be your will . . . So obviously this is a lawful way to pray. But how many of us rush to this pattern because we want to use it as the all-purpose escape clause? Why do we use this to dispense with the other pattern for prayer? “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13–14).

As we meditate on this—and it calls for real meditation—we have to remember the central context of all this. That context is that God has determined that no good thing, as God defines “good thing,” will be withheld from the one who walks uprightly. And of course, the only way to walk uprightly is to walk in the Upright One. And that is done by faith alone.

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Psalm 83: Silent Jehovah

Ben Zornes on

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Introduction:
Here is the last of the psalms attributed to Asaph. You might recall that we discussed how this could be Asaph himself, or someone descended from him, in the “school” of Asaph. This psalm is likely written by Jehaziel, a Levite descended from Asaph (2 Chron. 20:14). From the internal evidence, the episode referred to in the psalm is very likely the situation that God delivered Jehoshaphat from in his dilemma.

The Text:
“Keep not thou silence, O God: Hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: And they that hate thee have lifted up the head . . .” (Psalm 83:1–18).

Summary of the Text:
God is silent, and this is distressing because His enemies are not silent. They are in a tumult and so it is time for God to act (vv. 1-2). They have plotted against Israel in a crafty way (v. 3). The intent was to wipe Israel out, the intention was genocide (v. 4). Many nations have conspired against Israel (v. 5). The Edomites, the Ishmaelites, and the Amalekites were from the south. The Moabites, Ammonites, and Hagarenes were to the east. The Assyrians were to the north. The Philistines, Gebalites, and Tyrians were to the west. Israel was surrounded and in a desperate way (vv. 6-8). The psalmist prays that God would intervene as he had in the past against Midian (vv. 9-11; cf. Judges 7:25; 8:5). The enemies of God’s people had grand plans (v. 12), but the psalmist prays that they be made like tumbleweed (v. 13). He prays that God would take them out like a forest fire takes out wood (v. 14). He prays that a divine tempest would arise (v. 15). Fill their faces with shame (v. 16). And why? So that they might seek the name of God. Overwhelm them with confounded shame, and bring them low (v. 17). Again, why? So that men might know that there is only one with the name Jehovah, the God who is no longer silent (v. 18).

The Situation:
Jehoshaphat, a good and godly king, received word that a great confederacy had arisen against him (2 Chron. 20:1-2). Jehoshaphat did what he ought to have done, which is that he turned to the Lord (v. 3). He prayed in the presence of the people, reminding God of His great deliverances before (vv. 4-13). Jahaziel arose with a word of promised deliverance (vv. 14-17). He does not just promise that Judah will win the battle, he promises that they will win it without having to fight in it (v. 17). Jehoshaphat hears this and he believes (vv. 18-19). All the assembled believe with him.

In the morning, the king reminds them to continue to believe (v. 20), and he appointed the choir to march out in front, praising the beauty of holiness (v. 21). By the time the choir and the army arrived at the place where the enemy was, they had already turned on each other and dead bodies covered the ground (vv. 22-24). They had to spend three days taking the spoil (v. 25). And they came back to Jerusalem in great joy (vv. 26-30).

Fighting Dogs:
Unbelievers hate each other, but are occasionally distracted by their greater hatred of the godly. The death of Jesus was the occasion for peace between Herod and Pilate. Thomas Watson used the figure of two greyhounds fighting over a bone, but if you released a hare next to them, they would be immediately united in their pursuit of the hare. And when we are in this position, it seems to us that their antipathy cannot be directed anywhere else.

But in this case, God made them forget the hare, and turn back on each other.

Fertilized with Bone:
When it says that the ground was fertilized with dead bodies (v. 10), it shows the extent of the judgment and it shows the nature of the judgment. In 1830 some enterprising individuals combed the fields of Austerlitz, Waterloo, etc. and gathered up human and animal bones, shipped them to Hull in England, where they were all ground up and used for fertilizer. They did this to more than a million bushels of bones.

More than once God has promised to feed the birds with bodies of His enemies. More than once He has determined to make the fields lush and green by fertilizing it with the pride of man. Nothing rots better than the pride of man. Nothing makes finer compost than the arrogance and insolence of men who breath through their noses.

Silent Jehovah:
The psalm begins with a pending calamity. Not only is there a pending calamity, but God appears to be disinterested in it. God, why are You silent? Why do You do this to us? We panic early. We jump to conclusions more quickly than we ought. We are disciples who view Jesus sleeping in the boat with great consternation. Do you not care that we perish (Mark 4:38)?

The unbelievers are beating on their shields with their spears, and the God we serve . . . is quiet. They are filled with great, swelling words. Their confederacy is unstoppable. Nothing can save us now. Their alliances are impressive, and we are entirely surrounded. They all have their grievances against us, and those grievances stacked on one another seem to be

Not Silent Forever:
The God who seems so silent is the God who—when the time is exactly right—rises up and delivers His people. How many centuries of silence before the Messiah came? How long did we long for Christ before we were given Christ?

When Jesus arrives, what does He say? “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand . . .” (Mark 1:15). When was Jesus born? When the fullness of time had come (Gal. 4:4). We serve the God whose sense of timing is exquisite. And this is why He seems so silent—His sense of timing is far, far better than ours.

And so when is the time of salvation, according to that exquisite timing? The Christ has been given, and so the day of salvation is now. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.

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Psalm 82: God Among Gods

Ben Zornes on

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Introduction:
We come now to yet another psalm of Asaph. Unlike many psalms, this one is not directed to God. It speaks of Him, but the import of what is said is directed at rulers. This is an Old Testament instance of “teaching and admonishing one another.” This is a word to be sung horizontally.

The Text:
“God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods . . . ” (Psalm 82:1-8).

Summary of the Text:
The psalm begins, for us at least, very cryptically. Elohim judges among the elohim (v. 1). His complaint against them is that they are unjust in their judgments (v. 2). Instead of what they are doing, they should deliver those who are oppressed (vv. 3-4). When rulers rule wickedly, they blunder on stupidly in the dark, and they put everything out of joint (v. 5). God says that He had declared them gods (v. 6), but that now they will die like men do (v. 7). God is then invited to rise up, judge the world, and inherit all the nations (v. 8).

God and Gods:
The word for the one, true Creator God has a plural ending—Elohim. If we were to reproduce the monotheistic confession of Israel in modern English, we would say something like “we believe in one true Gods.” At the same time, the word for the pagan gods is the same word, same ending—elohim. So the first verse here says that “Elohim stands in the congregation of El; He judges among the elohim.”

Throw into this the wild card of Scripture’s acknowledgement that such gods were not non-existent. They were supernatural beings, but they were created, just like we were created. “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (1 Cor. 8:5–6).

Background Cosmology:
In this place, the imagery and language has God judging among divine beings (or angels) who have ruled unjustly and wickedly. This is a divine council, the congregation of El. Their rule has ramifications on earth. But in John 10, Jesus quotes v. 6 to the Jews, saying that the phrase “you are gods” applied to those to whom the Word of God came (a reference to Israel at Sinai). This makes it apply to men, as opposed to angels. The best way to harmonize this is to argue that Asaph was overlapping the imagery of the divine council in order to make the same point about Israel. This would be warranted if the heavenly councils and the earthly councils were somehow linked. This helps explain why Deut. 32:8 may be rendered differently in the Masoretic text and in the Septuagint. The former says that God divided up the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel. The LXX says the angels of God or sons of God.

Going the other way, this also helps explain why earthly rulers can be called gods. “Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people” (Ex. 22:28). See also Ex. 21:6 and Ex. 22:8-9.

Judges Shall Be Judged:
We know from Scripture that judging shall be judged (Matt. 7:1), but we also need to learn that judges shall be judged. If God told the heavenly gods that they would die like men, how much more shall men die like men? As Spurgeon put it, “How quickly death unrobes the great.” When God hunts birds, He can shoot them out of the tallest of trees. What? Do you think God’s guns cannot reach the Ninth Circuit? Or the Supreme Court?

Relieve the Afflicted:
You have perhaps heard it said that lotteries are a tax on people who are bad at math. But who runs the lotteries? A great deal of the world’s sorrow is generated by the clevers, by the creatives, by the smart people. We see their true character by what they do, and do not evaluate it on the basis of their intellectual horsepower. They abuse the poor and needy, but they don’t do it under banners that say, “Let’s stick it to the poor and needy.” No, they are all about saving the children . . . except for the ones whose body parts they have for sale.

Out of Course:
They are clever enough to completely fool the poor and needy. They can run roughshod over the afflicted and needy. They know how to abuse orphans, and they know how to distract you if you try to call them on it. They are clever enough for that.

But they are not clever enough to see the reality of what they are doing. They know not (v. 5). They do not understand. They walk on in darkness, and they put the foundations of everything out of kilter. The devil is likely a thousand times smarter than any of us, but he is this kind of fool.

Getting Your Case Heard:
When it comes to the judgments of God, there is a great difference between the imagination of the ancient Jews and the imaginations of Christians. In certain respects, their take is superior to ours, and will not be corrected until we recover psalm singing more fully. When we think of God as judge, we tend to think of criminal court, and ourselves as defendants. This is not automatically wrong because there is scriptural warrant for it (2 Cor. 5:10). My concern here is emphasis. The Jews thought of unjust judges as the ones you couldn’t get to hear your case. They thought of it as civil court, and of themselves as plaintiffs. The whole point was to get into court, not out of it.

So whatever you affirm about the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, make sure you don’t leave this part of it out. Arise, O God, judge the earth. For thou shalt inherit all nations. This judgment is the culmination of gospel. The judgment of God coming to earth is to be categorized as good news.

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Sermon #1952: Psalm 80

Ben Zornes on

KINDLY PRODUCED BY CANON PRESS

Introduction:

As with others of the psalms of Asaph, this is likely either in the tradition of the school of Asaph, or by another Asaph downstream from the father of that tradition. The events described here are not what we see in the time of David and Solomon, so it is either written later, or it is prophetic.

The Text:

“. . . Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved . . .” (Ps. 80:1-19).

Summary of the Text:

We will divide this psalm into three sections, each one concluding with the refrain turn us again. Each refrain builds on the previous one—turn us again, O God, then turn us again, O God of hosts, and finally turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. The first section is the invocation (vv. 1-3). The second section is a brief lamentation over Israel’s condition (vv. 4-7), and the third section is a more detailed lamentation using the extended metaphor of Israel as a ravaged vine (vv. 8-19). This is a mournful psalm.

God is the Shepherd of Israel, and He is asked to “shine forth” (v. 1). He is asked to stir up His strength for salvation before the sons of Rachel (v. 2). Turn us, O God, and we will be saved (v. 3). How long will God be angry with the prayers of His people (v. 4)? What does He give them but tears (v. 5)? It is God who has made His people a laughingstock among their enemies (v. 6). In one way it shouldn’t matter, but it still does. Turn us, God of hosts, and we shall be saved (v. 7). God brought a vine out of Egypt and planted it (v. 8). It flourished there, filling the land (v. 9). The vines covered the cedars, the way kudzu might (v. 10). She expanded to the sea to the west, and the river (the Euphrates) to the east (v. 11). She was greatly blessed. And so then the lament sets in. Why has God broken down the hedges of her protection (v. 12)? The boar has wasted the vine, which is something a boar can certainly do (v. 13). Return, O God, and visit your vine (v. 14). After all, You planted it; You made it strong in the first place (v. 15). It is burned, wasted, and it perished at the look of God’s countenance (v. 16). God, let your hand be upon the man of your right hand (v. 17), let your hand be upon your Benjamin. In order that we not fall away, “quicken us” is the prayer. Then we will call upon You (v. 18). And the last prayer is offered for the third time—turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Cause your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved (v. 19).

A World of Hurt

When God is judging a people, they smart under it. Being in that condition, they cry out for deliverance. But there is a Catch-22 involved. Because they are under chastisement, they pray. But also because they are under chastisement, God is angry with their prayers. “How long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people” (v. 4)?

Make Your Face Shine:

As the plea to “turn us” is offered up three times, other expressions come in alongside it. Two times God is referred to as the God of hosts, which is to say the “God of armies.” When the God of armies turns you back to Him, the reason is that He has victory in mind. And three times, the expression “cause your face to shine” is used. When that happens, the end result is deliverance and salvation.

The expression makes you think instantly of the great Aaronic blessing. “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace” (Num. 6:24–26).

Turn Us:

When we turn to God on our own steam, our prayers for deliverance just add to the offense (v. 4). When we repent autonomously, our repentance requires repenting. We don’t know how to return to God without wandering off from Him. We do not know how to repent any more than we know how to do anything else right. If we “turn us,” we will not really be turned. But if God gives the gift of repentance, it really does the work.

“Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; Renew our days as of old.” (Lam. 5:21).

“Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31).

“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentanceto the acknowledging of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25).

Repentance is not the coin that we come up with to put into the vending machine of God’s forgiveness. All of it is the gift of God. Not just the salvation afterward, but the repentance and faith that receives the salvation.

The Son of His Right Hand:

The tribe of Benjamin is mentioned earlier in the psalm, along with the other (grand)sons of Rachel. Benjamin is alluded to again later in the psalm, with a strong messianic statement.

Remember this is a call for deliverance in the midst of mourning. And what does the psalmist call for? He calls for this:

“Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, Upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself” (Ps. 80:17).

Who is the man of God’s right hand? These expressions apply in their fullness to Christ. Christ was made to sit at God’s right hand (Ps. 110:1; Heb. 1:5). And the next phrase, son of man, is applied to the Lord Jesus constantly. As one scholar notes, it is used of Christ in Scripture 71 times. Of those instances, 67 were from Christ Himself. Daniel uses it once, Stephen once, and twice by the apostle John in Revelation.

Let your hand be upon Christ, let Him be seated at your right hand. Let your hand be upon the son of man, the man you have strengthened for your own glory. What will be the result? Then we shall be turned. Then your face will shine. Then we will be saved.

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