Psalm 119 "Enlarge My Heart"

Psalm for Today = 119:31-32

I cling to your testimonies, O Lord;

    let me not be put to shame!

I will run in the way of your commandments

    when you enlarge my heart!

Comments:

The psalm for today is Psalm 119, which has 176 verses…so where do I start? Well, it is an acrostic psalm made up of 22 separate sections starting with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Almost every verse mentions the Word of God by one use of a few synonyms. So in this psalm, we don’t look for the differences between these different terms (Word, way, law, testimonies, precepts, commandments, statutes, rules, etc.) but look for the similarities.

I have most often landed on v. 24 when commenting on this Psalm…so I won’t do that today. Verse 32 is what I call the “Good Grinch” verse.

 

In the classic animated Christmas special, the Grinch was a nasty evil creature determined to steal the entire Christmas celebration from the inhabitants of Whoville. After he steals everything and gets away to the top of a mountain he listens to hear their lament. But instead, he hears their celebration rising up undiminished by the loss of all their gifts, decorations, and food.

 

The Grinch then decides to return everything but the sleigh starts to fall off the back side of the mountain. He clings desperately to it and is slowly being dragged down to his doom. Then something amazing happens, his heart which was two sizes too small was enlarged (3 sizes). He is enabled at the last moment to pull the sleigh back with miraculous strength.

Here in this passage, the psalmist not only speaks of clinging to the Lord’s testimonies but asks the Lord that he might not be put to shame (v.31). He also expresses his desire to “run in the way of your commandments  when you enlarge my heart!”

Like the Grinch, we can’t change our ways or fix our mistakes without his grace changing us from the inside (“…it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace.” Hebrews 13:9). May the Lord enlarge our hearts to run according to the great commandments of loving God and loving our neighbor instead of settling for an old Grinchish selfishness. 

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

   The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17)

Question:
If you were to write a new verse or two for this psalm, to describe a couple of ways that God's Word had helped or changed your life what would you say?

 

Psalm 118 "The Situation is Normal"

Psalm for Today = 118:10-13

All nations surrounded me;

    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

         They surrounded me, 

                  surrounded me on every side;

    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

         They surrounded me like bees;

          they went out like a fire among thorns;

    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,

                      but the Lord helped me.

Comments:

This passage in Psalm 118 reminded me of the airborne soldier's mentality in battle, as demonstrated by Capt. Dick Winters in the midst of Operation Market Garden in WWII, on seeing that German armor had cut the road behind them, informed his paratroopers, “Men, there’s nothing to get excited about. The situation is normal; we are surrounded.”[1]

The people of God are a little like paratroopers. We are surrounded in this world, outnumbered, harassed, and severely tested. Yet we are not called to escape, but to engage the world around us, though no longer in some kind of military campaign as the nation of Israel once did. We are called to a much more challenging mission--that of loving our enemies and blessing those who persecute us.

Jesus was also surrounded by sinners and thieves on Calvary... and spiritually, we were among them.

Today, the kingdom of God is to be fought for, and won, by spiritual means, for Jesus' kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). We are to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:20-21), hatred with love (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27-36), pride with self-sacrifice (John 15:13), and the devil by our testimony (Rev. 12:10-11) for it is by Christ’s blood that we have been helped!

Do we feel surrounded today? The situation is normal.

Does everything around us seem to be buzzing and burning? The situation is normal.

Do we feel like we have been pushed so far that we are falling? The situation is normal.

And with that let me also say that the last line of verse 13 is still normal, “but the Lord helped me.”

We will cut off the enemy’s supply, we will cut off the enemy’s attack, we will not be overcome by the enemy on all sides because God is our help and as verse 14 sings out,

“The Lord is my strength and my song;
    he has become my salvation.”

Thank God today and forever!

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[1] Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506^th Regiment, 101^st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest (Touchstone, New York, 2001), 131.

Psalm 117 "Short and Sweet"

Psalm for Today = 117:1-2
¹Praise the Lord, all nations!
    Extol him, all peoples!
² For great is his steadfast love toward us,
    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
 Praise the Lord!

Comments:

This is the whole psalm…the shortest, yet is says a lot! 

The psalmist’s call to praise Yahweh is not just to the Jews, but to all nations and peoples. The kingdom of God is intended to be multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and cannot be contained by any one political nation.

Why should we praise him? We should praise God first because of the greatness, the might, the strength of his hesed (steadfast love/ loving-kindness / loyal love) towards us. When we praise him for it, it helps us to not forget how he feels about us.

Secondly, we should praise the Lord because of his faithfulness/truth never ends. He doesn’t stop being faithful and true no matter what we do or what the condition of the world may be. When we praise him for this, it helps us to become a bit more faithful and true ourselves! 

Hallelujah! (Praise the Lord!)

Psalm 116 ""I Love the Lord Because..."

Psalm for Today = 116:1-4

¹I love the Lord, because he has heard

    my voice and my pleas for mercy.

² Because he inclined his ear to me,

    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

³ The snares of death encompassed me;

    the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

    I suffered distress and anguish.

⁴ Then I called on the name of the Lord:

    “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Comments:

I was impressed at the psalmist's forthright causal statement. He loves the Lord because…

• he listened, 
• he heard my voice, 
• he delivered my soul. 
• he showed his love over the long haul. 

The psalmist can’t help but testify to what God has done for him, and is determined to love the Lord back…and serve him faithfully.

Why do we love the Lord? Is it not for the same reasons? 

You might take a few minutes and think through the ways Jesus has heard and delivered you. Thank him together with me today!

Psalm 115 "Not to Us"

Psalm for Today = 115:1-3

¹ Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,

    for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

² Why should the nations say,

    “Where is their God?”

³ Our God is in the heavens;

    he does all that he pleases.

Comments:

I read these words but have to wonder how much I really believe this. Do we want God to be glorified? Sure, what Christian wouldn’t agree with that? But the part where I wonder how honest we are is the first part of verse 1 which says, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us”. 

I think that we all have a very strong glory desire. 

At some level, it is natural for us to want to be noticed, thanked, appreciated, and recognized for what we do or who we are. 

There is truth in the saying, “It is amazing how much you can get done as long as you don’t care who gets the credit.” Why is this? Because people are more willing to help you if it helps them. But are we really satisfied to get no credit? We can rest assured that God remembers what we have done and will reward us for it…so we don’t have to get bent out of shape when people don’t notice. I need the reminder in Colossians 3:23-24, 

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 

                                 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance 

          as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."

This psalm is also a significant comparison between the power and effectiveness of the Lord God as opposed to the impotent idols. Verse 3 says he does what he pleases…and we can be thankful that he "pleases" to be a help and a shield to his people!

Psalm 114 "Tremble...at the presence of the Lord"

Psalm for Today = 114:5-8

What ails you, O sea, that you flee?

    O Jordan, that you turn back?

O mountains, that you skip like rams?

    O hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,

    at the presence of the God of Jacob,

who turns the rock into a pool of water,

    the flint into a spring of water.

Comments:

Just as we saw the use of the literary device of personification in Psalm 97, here in verse 5, the psalmist uses the similar literary device of apostrophe (speaking to the inanimate, imaginary, or absent as though animate, real, and present). Yes, in my course on the Psalms that is on the test!

In a very brief poetic summary, he evokes the miracles of the Exodus from the Red Sea parting at the beginning to the Jordan River stopping at the end. In the middle, there is the image of the earthquakes that came with the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai.

What I think is interesting today is that in verses 5-6, it seems like the psalmist not only poetically transports himself back into the historical events of Israel’s past, but engages in what seems to be a taunt song addressing the named elements as though they might stand for some enemy contemporary to the psalmist. Whether nature, the gentile nations, or the Israelites themselves, the call is to recognize the presence of the Lord, the Creator Himself.

Questions:

Do we tremble at the presence of the Lord? Do we recognize his life-giving and sustaining power as we walk through the wilderness moments in our lives? This psalm suggests that we should.

Here is a cool quote from a commentary written in 1867 that still speaks today:

“The causing of water to gush forth out of the flinty rock is a practical proof of unlimited omnipotence and of the grace which converts death into life. Let the earth then tremble before the Lord, the God of Jacob. It has already trembled before Him, and before Him let it tremble. For that which He has been He still ever is; and as He came once, He will come again.” (Keil & Delitzsch, Vol.5 Psalms, 209)Cross references:

 

Psalm 113 “He Raises And He Lifts”

Psalm for Today = 113:4-8

⁴ The Lord is high above all nations,
    and his glory above the heavens!
⁵ Who is like the Lord our God,
    who is seated on high,
⁶ who looks far down
    on the heavens and the earth?
⁷ He raises the poor from the dust
    and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
⁸ to make them sit with princes,
    with the princes of his people.

Comments:

After the invocation of praise the Lord (v.1-3), verse 4 states that which should be obvious, yet which we continually need to be reminded of, that “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!” It is the lot of mankind, left to himself,  to worship either the heavens as the highest and most glorious thing he can observe, or to give glory to the nation to which he belongs as the highest authority and greatest cause on the earth. Neither is true.

What also is so amazing about God in this psalm is the testimony that though he has to “look far down” to consider even our greatest works, He raises and lifts the poor and the needy from the dirt. It would seem that most often worldly power is used to keep others from getting power. Those at the top must keep everyone one else from getting to the top in some global and all too deadly game of “king of the hill”. But it is like someone hasn’t told God our rules.

What God does as the highest and most glorious is raise up the lowly and wretched and give them power and glory. He uses his might to bring satisfaction to others not to himself. Truly there is none like Him! How unlike human rulers he is.

Ironically, when God raises others (including us) up he is not diminished, but when we keep others down we are! He is a God most worthy of our praise!

Question:

·         How have we seen God raise up the poor and needy?

·         What will I do with whatever power and honor God has entrusted to me this week?
 

Psalm 112 "Not Afraid of Bad News"

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

Psalm for Today = 112:7-8    

He is not afraid of bad news;

    his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.

His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,

    until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.

Comments:

In this psalm, the man “who fears the Lord” and the “upright” are used synonymously and such a person is blessed by God. Verses 4-5 describe his character (gracious, merciful, and righteous, just) while verses 7-8 describe his emotional state. This is what I would like to be! Because of his reverent and trusting relationship with the Lord, his character was changed and made godly. Flowing from such a redeemed character came consistently honorable and generous actions. The emotional result is a calm and settled trust. Don’t we all want to go through life without fearing bad news? Yet this man’s lack of fear was not a result of there not being any bad news (he still had adversaries) but of his relationship with the good and very present Lord of All.

The Lord speaks the comforting words that…

·       He will never leave us nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)

·       He will never let anyone snatch us out of his hand. (John 10:28-29)

·       He works all things together for good to those that love God and are called according to his purpose…and is committed to conforming us into the image of his Son. (Romans 8:28-29)

So there is really no "bad" news for me to fear! By the way, that will really tick the enemy off!

Psalm 111 "With Faithfulness and Uprightness"

Photo by Sven Mieke on Unsplash

Psalm for Today = 111:7-8

The works of his hands are faithful and just;

    all his precepts are trustworthy;
they are established forever and ever,

    to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

Comments:

Too often it seems that we sit in judgment on God and his works—critics and Christians alike. Critics look at God’s driving out the Canaanites before Israel as the moral equivalent of genocide. Surely they say, “Such a God is not worthy of worship.” But the psalmist provided commentary on such works of God…as “faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.” As I have written elsewhere, when we don’t understand the reasons, we must rely on a default setting that embraces God’s faithfulness and justice.

But what about those who claim to be Christians? Do we really live like we believe that “all his precepts are trustworthy” and that they should “be performed with faithfulness and uprightness”? Because we are under a different covenant we often think we no longer have to live in harmony with God’s commands. This faulty view of the Bible produces a life of selfishness. Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Later in the same chapter, Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)

So what are those commandments that we need to keep? It is true that there are commands in the Old Testament that pertain to diet, dress, and sacrifice within the Mosaic Covenant community that were fulfilled in Christ and while continuing to be instructive for us are no longer requirements placed upon us. Yet the heart of the commands continues. Jesus summed them up when he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

Because God kept his promises to liberate Israel from Egypt and bring them into the promised land the psalmist not only responded by giving thanks but by encouraging obedience. The psalmist here in Psalm 111 was calling for the same response from us that Jesus later confirms—love God and love your neighbor. All the rest is about helping us to understand what that means and how to do it “with faithfulness and uprightness”.

Psalm 109 I give myself to prayer...with a vengence?

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Psalm for Today = 109:3-5

They encircle me with words of hate,
    and attack me without cause.
In return for my love they accuse me,
    but I give myself to prayer.
So they reward me evil for good,

    and hatred for my love. (v.3-5)

Comments:

In this lament, David asked God for deliverance from the wicked men who pursued him verbally and physically. They were evil men in every sense of the word. But how did David respond to such injustice? He gave himself to prayer. I wish I was so consistently spiritual when faced with rejection, slander, and hate.

David also gave himself to prayer in a way that Christians usually don’t. It is called “imprecatory prayer” and is like praying judgment or a justly-deserved curse down on the wicked. I read “They encircle me with words of hate” in verse 3 and am struck with the word picture. It seems that David’s prayer encircles their words of hate with his words of trust that God will deal with them righteously…though they are not kind words. Verses 6-20 ask God to deal with these specific oppressors in very specific ways appropriate to their sins (esp. v.17).

As followers of Christ, we are to pray for those who curse us. Like the psalmist, we can process our emotions honestly through the character of God and his commitment to justice. We can also pray and ask God, like the martyred souls in heaven when will He avenge all the innocent blood that has been shed by the wicked (Revelation 6:10)? But like Jesus prayed on the cross we should also pray for their forgiveness “for they don’t know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Ultimately, all judgment is in God’s hands and he will make it all right!

Psalm 108 “Back by Popular Demand”

Psalm for Today 108:5-6, 11-12

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!

    Let your glory be over all the earth!

That your beloved ones may be delivered,

    give salvation by your right hand and answer me! (v.5-6)

Comments:

Psalm 108 is the collective prayer of a post-Exilic Israel for God’s restoring justice to be accomplished. It consists of the last half of two previous psalms (57:7-11 & 60:6-12) recast for use in a new context. The people had been betrayed by their neighbors, abused, and exiled. Now that they had been returned to the land they were again surrounded by the hostility of the neighboring nations, but would they take things into their own hands or trust their justice into God’s hands?

We find Israel’s answer of faith in the last two verses of the psalm,

Oh, grant us help against the foe,

    for vain is the salvation of man!

With God we shall do valiantly;

    it is he who will tread down our foes. (v.11-12)

Photo by 𝓴𝓘𝓡𝓚 𝕝𝔸𝕀 on Unsplash

So what can we glean from this psalm for our situation today? Are we surrounded by people who despise the ways of God? Those who mock us for actually trusting Christ Jesus to establish and deliver us? I think so. We then are faced with the same question as post-exilic Israel, will we fight to regain control by our own hand or will we trust God to take care of the treading down of our foes? Perhaps our “doing valiantly” with God is following Christ into the valley of humiliation and suffering. As it is written, “…the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly,” (2 Cor. 10:4) but are powerful nonetheless.

Photo by Jens Thekkeveettil on Unsplash

Another thing I find encouraging is those who had returned to rebuild the city of God found a new encouragement, a new voice by which to express their need honestly to God, in the old scriptures. They turned to their old worship music, mashed up into a new medley, to express their trust in God in a new and very current context. May we also find that voice of trust and hope in God’s word. To that end, let me quote a passage from an old Bible Commentary:

“The combination of earlier psalms illustrates the vitality of older scriptures as they were appropriated and applied to new situations in the experience of God’s people. Evidently, Psalm 60 had harked back to a promise already old: over and over again God’s word speaks to the hearts of his people.”[1]

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[1] Leslie C. Allen, Word Biblical Commentary Psalms 101-150 (Word, 1983), 70.

Psalm 107 "Some Wandered..."

Psalm for Today = 107:2, 4-9

² Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,

whom he has redeemed from trouble…

⁴ Some wandered in desert wastes,

finding no way to a city to dwell in;

⁵ hungry and thirsty,

their soul fainted within them.

⁶ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

and he delivered them from their distress.

⁷ He led them by a straight way

till they reached a city to dwell in.

⁸ Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,

for his wondrous works to the children of man!

⁹ For he satisfies the longing soul,

and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

Comments:

Photo by Kasuma F. Gruber on Unsplash

The book of Psalms is made up of five collections of psalms. Psalm 107 is the first psalm in Book 5, the last collection of psalms. It is not the rehearsal of their national salvation history so much as a testimony to the Lord’s steadfast love delivering God’s people from whatever situation they had personally been in. There are at least four groups of people spoken of in the psalm. The verses above are the first group…The Wanderers. They are not of the happy..."Val-deri,Val-dera" kind of wanderers either.

Those who are described here are those who desperately hunger and thirst for more than food, longing for identity, security, and community…seeking both a place and a people where they belong. They are unable to produce what they need on their own. As they begin fade, despairing of their self-direction, they cry out to the Lord and he delivers them. He makes them a people and places them in a secure place in which they can dwell and thrive.  

The same is true of the wanderers and searchers today. Only the Lord can fully satisfy our longings. For many this is our story, our testimony, as a trophy of God’s grace. Let us thank the Lord for his steadfast love!

Yet even knowing this I know that I still fight a wandering heart at times. Robert Robinson, the 18^th Century hymn writer understood this psalm and the wandering heart when he wrote these words in the classic, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” which we still sing today:

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood;

How His kindness yet pursues me Mortal tongue can never tell,

Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me, I cannot proclaim it well.

4. O to grace how great a debtor, Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.

Questions:

• What other groups of spiritually needy people you see in this psalm? 
• Which testimony has the greatest impact on you? Why? 
• Have you thanked the Lord for his love today?

Psalm 106 "Remember me, O Lord"

Psalm for Today = 106:1, 4-6

¹Praise the Lord!

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

    for his steadfast love endures forever!...

⁴ Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people;
    help me when you save them,
⁵ that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones,
    that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
    that I may glory with your inheritance.

    help me when you save them,

⁵ that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones,

    that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,

    that I may glory with your inheritance.

⁶ Both we and our fathers have sinned;

    we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness...

Psalm 105 "He..."

Photo by Terren Hurst on Unsplash

Psalm for Today = 105:1-4 “He…”

¹Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
    make known his deeds among the peoples!
² Sing to him, sing praises to him;
    tell of all his wondrous works!
³ Glory in his holy name;
    let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
⁴ Seek the Lord and his strength;
    seek his presence continually!

Comments:

The last two psalms we read focused on remembering what God has done redemptively in the removal of our sin and sickness (103) and in his creation of everything and his care for the creature (104). Here in Psalm 105, we are called to remember what he has done in establishing his covenant with Abraham and with the Patriarchs, and in the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. These were the great cardinal events in the history of the nation of Israel and yet it is very clear from this psalm that the hero of the story was not Abraham the man of faith, Joseph the longsuffering man of integrity, nor Moses the miracle-working law-giver.

The hero, the one who did it all was and is Yahweh, the Lord. In this psalm the pronoun “he” is used of God and tied with an active verb 28 times—He made, he allowed, he summoned, he sent, he spoke, he struck down, etc. Perhaps the action that I like the most is found in verses 8 and 42,

      “For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.”

By extension, he remembers us as well "to a thousand generations" (v.8), and we read this psalm and remember him more clearly.

So today as we remember… perhaps we are a little more like God!

Psalm 104 "Creating & Caring"

Photo by Klemen Vrankar on Unsplash

Psalm for Today = 104:1-2

¹Bless the Lord, O my soul!  

   O Lord my God, you are very great!

    You are clothed with splendor and majesty,

² covering yourself with light as with a garment,

  stretching out the heavens like a tent.

Comments:

This is the second psalm in a row that has begun with the exhortation to bless the Lord. But how can we the lesser, the weaker, the dependent bless Yahweh who is the Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient God the great I AM? Psalm 103 encouraged us to bless God by not forgetting “his benefits” centered on the work of redemption. Something about our remembering what God has done blesses him.

In Psalm 104, we see a similar effort to remember God’s greatness as expressed in his Creation and his continued care for his creatures. This lengthy psalm is like a guided tour through the creation where the psalmist points out God’s past work and continued care. We should train our eyes to see his hand and heart at work in the world around us.

This psalm stands firmly against any deist leanings (Deists believe God started everything in motion but is not actively involved with what has been created). Likewise, by God’s example, we should also stand against any tendency within us to withdraw ourselves from being active agents of the kingdom of God in the world.

God, you are very great! May we have eyes to see your splendor and majesty around us today!

Question:

Where have you seen Him working today?