Psalms Archives - Page 14 of 17

Psalm 65: The God Who Hears

Joe Harby on August 5, 2012

Introduction

Nothing about this world comes as a surprise to God. He knows what is in the heart of man, and He knows what His Spirit can do to the dry earth of sinful disobedience. As we look around us, let us never forget that God has the situation (our situation) well in hand. He governs all things, our century included, and He does all things well.

The Text

“Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: And unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come . . .” (Psalm 65:1-13).

Summary of the Text

This psalm divides nicely into three sections. The first deals with how God is to be approached (vv. 1- 4). The second records how God rises up in deliverance (vv. 5-8). And the last section bursts into a glorious harvest hymn (vv. 9-13). The occasion for this psalm appears to have been a fortuitous combination of a great victory in battle and a remarkably bountiful harvest. The vow will be fulfilled in Zion, which is where praise awaits (v. 1). God is the one who hears prayer, and all flesh comes before Him (v. 2). Iniquities rise up, but God purges them away (v. 3). Blessed is every man who is elect (v. 4). God answers prayer in terrible (i.e. awe-inspiring) ways (v. 5). He hoops the mountains around with His power (v. 6). He stills the waves (v. 7), which is a type for the nations of men. The people who dwell in the outlands are afraid of His tokens (v. 8). The earth is watered because God visits it, and this is how God enriches the world (v. 9). God softens the world with His showers (v. 10). He crowns the year with goodness, and fatness is the name of His game (v. 11). He makes the pastures lush (v. 12). The pastures are covered with flocks, and the valleys with corn (v. 13), and all of it sings.

Dealing with Sin

When we approach God honestly, the first thing we must reckon with is the fact that we are sinners. There are two things that must happen here. The first is the realization that iniquities prevail against us. The second is that God purges transgressions away. The first is conviction of sin, and the second is forgiveness. To have conviction without forgiveness is to live a life of despair. To have forgiveness without conviction is to coast along in cheap grace.

Iniquities rise and transgressions are purged. When this is not happening, it is usually because we want to be little lords of the definitions. We want to define sin ourselves, which gives us (we think) control of how deeply the conviction pierces, and how much the forgiveness takes away.

Whom He Causes

There is a whole course in theology to be found in verse 4. A particular kind of man is pronounced blessed. Who is blessed? That man is blessed if God chooses him. But God never chooses a man out of a crowd just to put a little x on him, showing that he has been chosen. God’s choice is not an end in itself. No, God’s choice of sinners is always directed toward a particular end. He chose us to be holy

and blameless (Eph. 1:4). God drafts us with a purpose in mind. There is a mission involved. It is the same here. He chooses this man in such a way as to enable him to dwell in His courts, and to be satisfied with the sufficiency and goodness of dwelling there. God gives the initial attraction (He causes the man to approach Him), and He gives the ongoing attractiveness of His own courts. He makes His own courts altogether lovely. Another way of saying this is that He gives conversion and He gives perseverance. God will complete what God has begun (Phil. 1:6).

Fearful Answers

God is the one who hears our prayers. That is how He is addressed at the very beginning of the psalm. All flesh comes before Him because He is the one who hears prayer (v. 2). This is the reason we come, but when He rises up and answers those prayers (in the way He loves to do), we are then startled and fall back. We pray earnestly for something and then say yikes when we get it. Those who dwell in the uttermost part of the earth are “afraid at His tokens” (v. 8). And earlier in the psalm it says that God answers our petitions “by terrible things” (v. 5). These terrible things are not horror story terrible, but rather awe-inspiring answers, numinous answers to prayer that will make our knees go loose.

The Coming Harvest

Where do we get all the flocks and the crops? The answer given here is that these are gifts from God. Without Him giving the gift of refreshing water, the earth would be desolate and brown. When He gives, He gives abundantly.

When we are struggling (with wealth, crops, profits, etc.), our unbelieving temptation is to think that it is because we have “run out.” We see this in the language of “conservation.” Let’s husband our resources carefully, we think, because we believe that the universe is a zero-sum game—anything we use will therefore be used up. But this is simply unbelief, and not prudence at all. Everything we use (under the blessing of God) is available for continued usefulness in the future, thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold. God created a universe that can bear fruit.

And these things are a type. Why are there evangelistic droughts? God’s people often think of evangelism the same way the conservationists think about coal, or water, or soil, or you name it. We think we serve a stingy, tight-fisted God. But read through this psalm again. God brings a blessed man into His courts, and God makes our paths drip fatness. This is the same God, and He has the same style —whether we are talking about the grain harvest at the time of Pentecost or the people harvest as the result of Pentecost. Look, Jesus said. The fields are white unto harvest (John 4:35). Pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out laborers (Luke 10:2).

This means that our evangelism ought not to be ecclesiastical subsistence farming. Why does our conservative theology, with its thick fertilizer manuals and high tech equipment and state of the art barn and shops, be growing what can only be called Third World corn? Something is wrong—but it not the stated desire of God.

Psalm 64: Poetic Justice

Joe Harby on July 22, 2012

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Introduction

The child’s retort about “sticks and stones” is entirely misguided. Words really can hurt; words can be cruel, and words can be savage. One of the things we must do is learn how to guard our own tongues (in the first instance), and learn how to deal with the slanderous accusations of others. This is equally true, incidentally, in the world of children. Words are weapons which children have, and which children know how to use. Their father Adam taught them where the trigger is—you must teach them where the safety is.

The Text

“Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; From the insurrection of the workers of iniquity . . .” (Psalm 64:1-10).

Summary of the Text

David usually mentions his enemies in his prayers, but this prayer is entirely about them. This is made apparent in the first petition, where he asks God to hear him and preserve his life from fear of the enemy (v. 1). He asks to be hidden from the “secret counsel of the wicked” (v. 2). These are the people who sharpen their tongues on the grindstone (v. 3), dipping the arrows of their words into the poison of bitterness (v. 3). They take counsel in secret, and they shoot from secret places (v. 4). Their target is the righteous man. The wicked get discouraged from time to time, and so they take care to encourage one another (v. 5). They look for dirt like they were on a treasure hunt (v. 6). Theirs is not a superficial malice (v. 6). But vengeance belongs to the Lord, and He is not absent. God will shoot at them (v. 7). The work of their tongues will recoil upon them (v. 8). When this happens, men will see and declare that God was at work in this (v. 9). Poetic justice is therefore the hand of God (v. 9), and so the righteous are glad in how the story ends (v. 10).

Secret Counsel

The first lesson to learn is that slander of the righteous is not something that happens by accident. It is the result of “secret counsel” (v. 2). The words are sharpened beforehand, with malice aforethought (v. 3). They give one another pep talks if they start to lag in the work of tearing a righteous man down (v. 5). They lay traps beforehand (v. 5). They do “opposition research,” looking for something that will stick. And if they heap on enough calumny, something from it is sure to stick. Jesus says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34). The psalmist here says that this malevolent abundance runs very deep (v. 6). This kind of thing is not the result of a half-thought-through throwaway line.

The fact that such things come from a secret place does not mean that you know where it came from. Remember the laws of justice, which apply to us as much as to anybody.

Vengeance Belongs to God

Scripture teaches that vengeance belongs to God (Rom. 12:19). We are not to seek out personal

vengeance, not because it is wrong, but because it belongs to the Lord. It is fully appropriate to ask the Lord to take up your cause (as David does here). It is fully appropriate to plead with Him to do so—we see this in both the Old and the New Testaments (Rev. 6:10). In some instances, it is appropriate to take action yourself when you have been invested with the office that is responsible to do so (Rom. 13:1-7). And when God intervenes, it is important that your satisfaction in this not be a form of ungodly gloating.

“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, And he turn away his wrath from him” (Prov. 24:17-18).

Poetic Justice

You have often been urged to “read the story you are in.” This means at least two things. In the first place, it means being steeped in the stories of Scripture. Tell them over and over—get them down into your bones. The serpent is crushed by the seed of the woman that he led astray (Gen. 3:15). He was crushed because he stirred up a crowd to cry “crucify Him.” If the rulers of this age had known . . . Haman built a gallows for Mordecai, and wound up being hanged on it himself, just as the inventor of the guillotine died by his own device.

In the second place, it means honoring and obeying direct instructions like this one. When the wicked cut themselves with their own tongues, when they fall into their own pits, when their plots collapse, all men are supposed to “declare the work of God.” A man reaps what he sows. We are supposed to look at the story and see what is happening in it. “They shall wisely consider of his doing . . .” This means you have to be able to tell the difference between the protagonist and the antagonist, and you have to be able to tell which one you are.

Having read the story, you must know how to glory in the wisdom of the storyteller (v. 10). There is sin in gloating over His endings, and there is sin in just sitting there as though He hadn’t told His story at all.

Faith Embraces the Suspense

A small child, playing hide n’ seek, will often give himself away, running out of hiding. Why? The answer is because they can’t handle the suspense. You have heard before that God loves cliffhangers. That means we need to adjust our thinking so that we come to love them too. Count it all joy . . . On the mount of the Lord it will be provided . . . This is true when it comes to physical threats and circumstantial trials. But it also true when it comes to slander. God will vindicate you, sure enough, but He will do it in the right chapter.

Thomas Sowell once wisely said that charges of racism are like ketchup—they go on anything. I have been accused of misogyny and racism so many times I have lost track of them all. But Jesus says that we should rejoice when this sort of thing happens (Matt. 5:11-12). No, wait . . . He actually said that when this kind of thing happens, we should be exceedingly glad. But don’t you want to get in there and explain to them one more time that it just isn’t true? Look at the first part of this psalm again. They know that.

Psalm 63: The Marrow and the Fat

Joe Harby on July 15, 2012

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Introduction

John Donne says of this psalm that it is one of the imperial psalms—suitable for every occasion, and one with universal applications. Christians can resort to it under all kinds of circumstances, and according to Chrysostom, a portion of the ancient church would not let a day pass without singing it. All the various challenges of modern life have made even more suitable for regular use.

The Text

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is . . .” (Psalm 63:1-11).

Summary of the Text

The heading says that David wrote this while in the wilderness of Judah. He appears to have been king (v. 11), but in some danger, which would likely place this turning his brief exile during the revolt by his son Absalom. As such, it is a prayer of dedication and faith, with the object of that faith not yet realized. He will seek God early because of an intense desire to do so (v. 1). What he yearns for is to see God’s power and glory as he has previously seen it in the sanctuary (v. 2). He states that God’s loving-kindness is better than life (v. 3), and as a result David will worship the Lord, lifting up his hands (v. 4). He praises God in faith now, but will praise Him from a position of satisfaction later (v. 5). He will remember the Lord during the night watches, while he lies upon his bed (v. 6), remembering all the ways God has helped him (v. 7). David “follows hard” after the Lord, and the Lord helps him (v. 8). Those who seek David’s life will descend to Sheol (v. 9), falling by the sword (v. 10), only to be consumed by jackals (v. 10). But the king will rejoice and his followers will glory. Those who oppose him will have their mouths stopped (v. 11).

Lovingkindness Exalted

David exalts the loving-kindness of God, exalting it highly. Having placed it on the throne, saying that it is better than life itself, he then appoints seven retainers for that court, seven faculties of his body and mind. These are his lips (v. 3), his tongue (v. 4), his hands (v. 4), his will (v. 5), his mouth (v. 5), his memory (v. 6), and his mind (v. 6). The greatest commandment is to love God with all that you are and have and this is a good example of someone doing just that. David says that God’s loving-kindness is better than his life, and by way of showing this, he throws all the faculties of his life into praising God’s loving-kindness.

Marrow and Fatness

The Christian life is not a lo-fat business (v. 5). Godliness is clotted cream, not skim. Isaiah speaks of the new covenant era this way: “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined” (Is. 25:6). If you lived in a society which thought milk was a poison and honey was toxic—and you very nearly do—then you would be living in a society at odds with God’s descriptions in Scripture

of how He made the world. The promised land, famously, was flowing with milk and honey (Deut. 6:3). When Isaac blessed Jacob (unwittingly), he blessed him with fatness of the earth, and with plenty of

corn and wine (Gen. 27:28). Do not let those in high rebellion against the blessing of God become the arbiters and definers of what blessing is. The Christian life is a potato with melted butter all over it. The soul of the diligent is made fat (Prov. 13:4).

God in the Sanctuary

David is parched in the wilderness, and he wants to pursue God in order to see His power and glory, the way he has seen it before in the sanctuary. The ordinances of God are precious to Him, and ought to be precious to us. Remember that David was out in the wilderness, which meant that he could go out and look at a spectacular array of stars in the sky—but he wanted to see God’s power and glory in the sanctuary. It is better to be in the wilderness with God than to be in the sanctuary without Him, obviously. And the ordinances and sacraments of God without Him present for blessing are nothing but dry breasts and barren wombs. While we can rejoice in natural revelation (Ps. 19), and we can rejoice in private devotions in the houses of Judah (Ps. 87:2), the worship of God in the gates of Zion is greatly to be preferred.

Following Hard After Him

David says here that God is not always easy to find, and so he pursues hard after Him. There are two ways in which a chasm exists between God and ourselves, and true evangelical faith (given by grace) bridges it both ways. The first is the ethical divide, created by our sins, and by the fact that we live in a fallen world. We must seek God diligently, aware that moral traps are set for us on every side. We sin, when we sin, downhill. Isaiah is undone when he sees the Lord “high and lifted up,” but he is undone because of how aware of his sinfulness he has become. His lament should remind us of our spiritual leprosy (Is. 6:5; Lev. 13:45). We put a cover on our lip, and we cry “unclean.” But God cleanses with a coal from the altar.

But there is another aspect to it—which is the infinite gulf between the Creator and the created. This is not a transcendence that severs us from Him, for in Him we live and move and have our being. God does not have to overcome His “transcendence” in order to be near to us. But the Bible teaches us that we have to overcome it to be near to Him—this is another way of “following hard after Him.” God dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen (1 Tim. 6:16). We are to praise His great and terrible name, for it is holy (Ps. 99:3). The voice of the Lord is full of majesty (Ps. 29:4). He sits on the circle of the earth, and we are invited to view ourselves as little grasshoppers of the field (Is. 40:22). The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1). But in another gospel irony, we overcome this chasm by embracing it—again, by faith.

Psalm 62: Low and High Degree

Joe Harby on July 1, 2012

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Introduction

Most psalms of affliction begin with the problem and work through to the solution of faith—there is a story arc to the psalm. One of them is grim and gray from beginning to end (Ps. 88). But this psalm is all confidence, from the first words to the end of the psalm. The troubles are there, but so is the faith, right from the start. The psalmist is not working things out as he sings—this is already worked out.

The Text

“Truly my soul waiteth upon God: From him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved . . .” (Psalm 62:1-12).

Summary of the Text

David waits upon God because he knows that God is his salvation (v. 1). God alone is his rock and salvation; God alone is his sure defense, and this is why he will not be moved (v. 2). He then turns to challenge his adversaries—how long will they devise mischief? They are all of them going down, they are all going to be slain (v. 3). They are bent like a bulging wall, ready to collapse (v. 3). They conspire against David’s majesty; they delight in lies, and their mouths and hearts respectively juxtapose blessing and cursing (v. 4). Reflect on this. Selah. David charges his soul to wait upon God only, and to look to Him for his expectation (v. 5). God is his rock and salvation; God is his defense, and David is therefore immovable (v. 6). God is his salvation and his glory; his rock and refuge are in God (v. 7). The people are then charged to trust in Him always, and to pour out their hearts before Him. God is our refuge again, and Selah again (v. 8). Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie (v. 9); together they are a bunch of air piled onto the scales. Don’t trust in oppression or theft. If riches grow, you should still not trust in them (v. 10). God has said one thing—no, make that two things He has said. The first is that power belongs to God (v. 11), and the second is that mercy belongs to God (v. 12). God renders to every man according to his work (v. 12).

The Glory of Mine

Notice what David does here—my expectation, my rock, my salvation, my defense, my salvation, my glory, my strength, my refuge. As Spurgeon put it, “It is the word my which puts the honey into the comb.” My expectation—where is despair? My rock—where is uncertainty? My salvation—where is he that condemns? My defense—where is loss? My strength—where is failure? My refuge—where is vulnerability?

And the one that may surprise us is this one: my glory—where is slander? As John Donne once put it, “If my ‘glory,’ what calumny shall defame me?”

Democracy and Aristocracy

The rabble is a bunch of nothing, but few are deceived by them anyway. The men of high degree—the aristocracy—are a lie because people think they might be formidable. But put the great and small together onto the scales and they are lighter than vanity. Take the mob and take the elite, and hold them up against the strength of God—it is like trying to weigh a cloud of helium on your bathroom scales.

We don’t want to adopt the cynicism of Ambrose Bierce when he defined an idiot as “a member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.” But having resisted that temptation, we still have to recognize that he was closer to the truth than any amount of chirrupy and optimistic vainglory.

Notice how the biblical writers do not choose up sides between rich and poor. They are not elitists and they are not populists. Some think God automatically sides with the rich. Some think he automatically sides with the poor. No, there are other variables.

If Riches Increase . . .

Those men who trust in riches should know that riches have never been true or faithful. Riches are a heartbreaker—if you are foolish enough to trust in them. They fly to you on the wings of little sparrows, and fly away like a condor. A man consumed with how to get and how to keep the vanity of wealth is like a man looking for constancy in love by dating floozies, painted ladies, and honky-tonk angels. Do not trust in them. We see the same thing in 1 Timothy 6.

“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:17-19).

Riches should be brought in like contract labor, not wooed and courted like a prospective wife. So you who desire to be rich, you who really want that status with all your soul—I have a word from God for you.

Merciful and Mighty

The writer of Holy, Holy, Holy put these words—merciful and mighty—together, and he did so with a wonderful biblical instinct. Nehemiah prayed this way—“I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments . . .” (Neh. 1:5). Or “O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him . . .” (Dan. 9:4).

Merciful and mighty—this is what we should know about our God. I have known one thing . . . no, two things I have known. First, we know that power belongs to God. And we know also—through Jesus Christ—that mercy belongs to Him as well. And whatever belongs to God, through Christ, belongs to us as well. That means that we are in present possession of God’s power and God’s mercy. Let us give thanks for that now.

Psalm 61: A Rock that is Higher than I

Joe Harby on June 11, 2012

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Introduction

This is a psalm of David in a time of affliction. Because he is likely king at this time (see v. 6), and because he longs to be restored to the tabernacle (v. 4), it would be safest to locate this psalm as being written during the time of Absalom’s rebellion. So this is not just a matter of danger for David (which he had faced many times before), but of mortal danger from a dearly loved son.

The Text

“Hear my cry, O God; Attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I . . .” (Psalm 61:1-8).

Summary of the Text

First, this is not a dispassionate prayer. David cries out, “Hear my cry, O God” (v. 1). He is in a desperate way. He will cry out to God from the ends of the earth, which indicates some form of exile (v. 2). When he is overwhelmed, when his heart is overwhelmed, he asks that he be led to a rock that is higher than he is (v. 2). God has been a shelter for him in times past, a strong tower against the enemy (v. 3). This indicates that on the top of the rock that is higher than David there is a fortress. Having presented the request, David declares his confidence that he will return to the tabernacle to be there forever, and that he will trust in the covert of God’s wings (v. 4). He then says Selah, which most likely means something like “pause and reflect.”

David has made vows, and God has heard them (v. 5). He is confident that he has been given the heritage of those who fear God (v. 5). The king’s life will be prolonged, and his years will be extended like they were generations (v. 6). He will abide with God forever (v. 7), and mercy and truth will do it. God will be praised forever, and He will be praised forever daily (v. 8).

Attend to My Prayer

Here is a striking difference between the formalist and the true believer. The formalist is content with having prayed. The true believer has a holy discontent until he has an answer. The formalist checks the box that says he has “said his prayers,” but he, along with everybody else knows that prayers are not meant to be answered. God, for some mysterious reason, wants us to say them, but He isn’t listening. Away with all that. The psalmist says “Hear my cry, O God.” He says, “attend to my prayer.”

The Ends of the Earth

It might be the end of the earth, but it is not the end of prayer. It may be far away from the tabernacle, but God is no local baal tied to just one mountain, or to one shrine. David’s distance might be geographical, as a man might pray when lost on a glacier in Greenland. Or David’s distance might be ecclesiastical—where the tabernacle was taken as the very center of all things. Either way, or both, God is immediately there. Wherever God is, there is the true center.

So the end of the earth is not the end of prayer, but the end of prayer is the end of man.

A Rock That is Higher

Not only does David not have a Rock that is higher than he is, he doesn’t know where it is. He knows

there is one, but he can’t find it, and he can’t get up on it. His cry is to the one who can accomplish a full deliverance. The first thing is that he must be led to the Rock; he needs to be shown where it is. And because the Rock is higher than he is, two things follow—if he gets up on it, he will be saved, but because it is higher than he is, he can’t get up on it. He needs to be led there, and he needs to be placed there.

And just being led there is not enough. Picture this great danger along a rocky coast, and you are a mariner whose ship has foundered. The shoreline is a series of rocky cliffs—your salvation from the waves is there, right there. You can see it now. But seeing it and being on it are two entirely different things.

No Expiration Date

God’s past kindnesses do not have an expiration date. Notice how David prays from the past to the future, from “thou hast been a shelter . . . (v. 3)” to “I will abide . . . I will trust” (v. 4), from “God, hast heard . . .” (v. 5) and “hast given” (v. 5) to “Thou wilt prolong . . .” (v. 6).

God’s faithfulness in the past is a sure indication of His faithfulness in the future. God’s hard providences are sometimes hard, sometimes tangled and messy, sometimes inscrutable, but always faithful. The plots twists are often over our heads, but the happy endings never are. The Christian cosmos is a comedy, not a tragedy, and not a farce.

Contentment is a Gift

If contentment is a gift from God, and it is, then it is appropriate for us to plead for it. And when we are pleading for it, it only stands to reason that we know that we do not yet have it. You don’t know where it is, or how it can be, but you know who has it to give.

David wanted to be back at the tabernacle. The shelter of God’s wings might be seen in the Holy of Holies, with the wings (“the covert of thy wings”) of the cherubim extending over the mercy seat.

Jesus is that mercy seat. Jesus is the Rock that is higher, much higher, than we are. Jesus is the tower fortress on top of that Rock. Jesus is the tabernacle. Jesus welcomes you under the covering of His wings. Jesus is your heritage. Jesus is mercy and truth. Jesus is the fulfillment of all our vows.

What do you do, then, when your heart is overwhelmed? You fly, you fly to Jesus. Nothing else makes any sense.