Psalm 23-B The Lord is My Host

Psalm 23:5-6

    You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
     you anoint            my head with oil;
                                  my cup overflows.
   Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
          all the days of my life,
                 and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Comments:

Psalm 23 is usually referred to as “The Shepherd Psalm” for good reason (v.1-4), but it also contains the imagery of the host and honored guest (v. 5-6). This second aspect of Psalm 23 gets very little attention compared to the first. However, there are a number of similarities between the two.

The shepherd shows the sheep hospitality by providing good food, drink, and a comfortable place to rest (v.1-3). The shepherd also offers his sheep protection as they journey on good paths that reflect well on the character of the shepherd (v.3-4).

The host similarly provides a meal (table and cup, v.5-6) and appropriate refreshment and honor to the guest (v.6) as seen in not just the table preparations but the anointing with oil. However, the Lord as our Host does more than that. In the ancient Middle Eastern culture “the law of hospitality” was supreme and made the host responsible to offer protection to those who shelter in his home. The Lord as host in this psalm not only protects the guest from enemies but vindicates the guest in their presence (v. 5). This is no hurried meal snatched in the anxiety of imminent attack, but a humanized form of the rest experienced by sheep whose shepherd has led them to green pastures. Spurgeon, the great 19^th Century preacher, when commenting on this psalm, wrote,

“When a soldier is in the presence of his enemies, if he eats at all he snatches a hasty meal, and away he hastens to the fight. But observe: ‘Thou preparest a table,’ just as a servant does when she unfolds the damask cloth and displays the ornaments of the feast on an ordinary peaceful occasion. Nothing is hurried, there is no confusion, no disturbance, the enemy is at the door and yet God prepares a table, and the Christian sits down and eats as if everything were in perfect peace.”[1]

He leads us to his house and there, where everyone can see, he makes it clear that we not only are under his protection but are honored by his relational hospitality. Yet some might think that this is only our 15 minutes of fame and that soon we will be out on our own again. This is not what the psalm teaches. Nor is it like western hospitality that is done from a carefully orchestrated distance of individualism. Derek Kidner comments,

In the Old Testament world, to eat and drink at someone’s table created a bond of mutual loyalty, and could be the culminated token of a covenant…So to be God’s guest is to be more than an acquaintance, invited for a day. It is to live with Him.” [2]

The Lord is our host, both now and in the future. The psalmist makes it clear that he was currently participating in the banquet and would continue to enjoy “dwelling” with the Lord in the future, even forever.

This Lord who is our Host, is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God, who has been revealed in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ. He is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18) and he is the one who has gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us and will come back for us one day and take us to the table he has prepared (John 14:1-3).

In being the Lord our Host, God in Christ by the Spirit invites us into the Trinitarian community where we find protection, honor, refreshing, and justice that remains. But what does this mean for those of us who follow such a Shepherd and worship such a Host? When followers of the Way were first called Christians it was intended in a derogatory sense (Acts 11:26) but accurately described their commitment to live as “little Christs” determined to do what Jesus had done. Early Christian hospitality and care for the poor are renowned as they provided food, shelter, and medical care while working for justice for all whom they met even when there was no Motel 6 leaving the light on for them. They were givers more than takers, despite living under the often brutal persecution of the Roman Empire. Could John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father” have applied to hospitality? I think so.

So how do we become better hosts in today’s world? What will we risk? Whom will we protect and provision and send on their way and who will we allow to heal and help in our midst? Do we only open our homes and our lives to those who agree with us, look like us, and provide us some benefit? Or do we take Jesus’ words to heart, loving even our enemy for the sake of Christ?

How can those who don’t know the love of the Good Shepherd and Host learn about it and respond if not to that love as seen in us and extended to them? How will they know the welcome of the Divine community if not embraced by the outposts of such community here on earth? In what ways should we welcome the beggar at our gate? I think we have a lot of reflection, thinking, and work to do.

Is not the best diplomacy that of shared life and the honest and unguarded table? Will those who are open get burned in the process? Probably, but a better question to ask is, will those whose minds and gates are closed to the alien miss out on what God is doing? Absolutely.

This week we set aside a day to give thanks for what we have received from the Lord our Host. I have to confess that while I am often timid I am learning to open my eyes to the wonder of relational hospitality. In fact, I wonder what the Lord will do in our midst in the year to come. But first, I have to come into his midst by grace through the Word and the Spirit. Let’s encourage each other in this adventure!

^“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

---

[1] Charles Spurgeon’s Treasury of David Vol. 1, page 400.

[2] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72, Tyndale OT Commentary series

Psalm 23-A "The Lord is My Shepherd"

Psalm for Today = 23:1-4

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
      He leads me beside still waters.
³     He restores my soul.
      He leads me in paths of righteousness
                                 for his name's sake.

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley

                of the shadow of death,
                       I will fear no evil,
 for you are with me;
      your rod and your staff,
      they comfort me.

Comments:

Hook's "Jesus the Good Shepherd"

We should all know this psalm by heart not merely from memory. In his presence, we "want" for nothing (in the old-fashioned sense of not “lacking” anything), and we fear nothing. This psalm uses the shepherd metaphor to great effect in the worship life of a people steeped in a herding culture. From the time that Jacob’s family first moved down to Egypt that was how they were known. In Genesis 46:34 we read that the Egyptians despised all herdsmen/shepherds and we see this prejudice play out through the pages of the Bible as the Shepherd God’s shepherd people are repeatedly persecuted by those who glory in the ways of the world. 

In this psalm we see God relating not just to the collective “nation” or “people” but to individuals. As westerners, we tend to over-emphasize the individual to the detriment of the group, but to the Hebrew, this was a remarkable passage where the psalmist says, “The Lord is my shepherd,” heavy on the “my”. As Americans, we are almost insulted to be referred to as “sheep” aren’t we? It’s not a stretch to think of someone getting an attitude about it, “If you call me a sheep again I’m going to give you a piece of this!” We like to think of ourselves as competent, capable, and in control of our lives. So, I think that this psalm must—for us—must be a personal confession of need before it can bring comfort. It must be our statement of trust before it becomes our testimony…and God wants it to be our testimony.

The subject in this passage is the Lord, the Shepherd, the God who consistently acts for the good of his people. Re-read v. 2-3. He provides just what I need at just the right time and in a gentle way that I can receive it without anxiety... if I am one of his sheep.

The key to this psalm, as in life, is not found in the peace of perfect circumstances, but in the relationship with, and presence of the Shepherd. It is all based on the foundation that he is my Shepherd, which implies that I am one of his sheep. There is a wealth of biblical imagery to develop to show just how relational—and dependent—this image of sheep and shepherd is. Here are just a few...

• He will carry his lambs in his arms (Isaiah 40:11)
• He will punish abusive and selfish shepherds and feed his flock himself (Ezekiel 34)
• He will rescue his sheep (Ezekiel 34:22)
• Jesus told the parable about leaving the 99 sheep safe to go out seeking the one sheep that was lost and the joy in the shepherd’s heart when it is found. (Luke 15:3-7)
• Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd, or literally, “the Shepherd, the good” (John 10:7-20)

I am glad that I can know that the Lord is my shepherd and that the Lord knows me personally as his sheep, not merely an anonymous part of the large flock.

 

Do you know this by heart, or just from memory?

 

My next post will look at the rest of Psalm 23.

Posts Coming More slowly...

Photo by Cedric Fox on Unsplash

Thanks to those of you who have followed my posts on the Psalms and other scriptures over the years. For this season of 2014 I have had to prioritize other areas of my writing so my posts on this blog which once were daily now have slowed to once every couple of weeks.

I apologize for the slow-down and am confident that the frequency will increase whenever I have the bandwidth to do so. In the meantime, I appreciate your prayers for my doctoral program, my job search, and for my son deployed in a combat zone overseas.

Thanks!

Psalm 22 "The Unanswered Call...Answered"

Psalm 22:1-2, 24 

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
    and by night, but I find no rest…

For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,

    and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him."

Comments:

The psalmist knew lament...and to some extent, we all do and verse one becomes the universal cry of humanity. Long before David wrote this psalm, the righteous man, Job, longed for an answer from the God he had only heard about. “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. (Job 30:20) Little did Job know how firmly God believed in him and was in his camp…until the end of the book when, though humbled in God’s presence, he heard the Lord vindicate him before his “comforters” and put their health and future in his hands (Job 42:7-10). The late Peter Craigie pointed out that this "psalm differs from the record of Job and Jeremiah by virtue of its liturgical character; the liturgy immediately sets the loneliness of dying into the context of a caring community." (Psalms 1-50, WBC [Word, 1983], 202) We are meant to face life together not as individuals.

There are times when God seems far from us, but because Jesus once had to live out (or more accurately “die-out”) this verse in a complete and total way (Jesus even quoted this verse in agony on the cross [Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34]) we no longer have to. He will not forsake us even when we feel like He has (Hebrews 13:5).

Have you ever been in the same frame of mind as the psalmist? I am encouraged to remember that Jesus knows what this feels like too...at a level I will never know...as he quoted this verse while hanging on the cross for my sin. As you read the rest of the psalm note the tone towards the end! In v. 24 we see that God himself, in Christ, answered David’s cry, and the cry of all the afflicted throughout history. It is no wonder that the psalm ends in praise.

Sadly, though so many around the world have cried out like David in Psalm 22:1-2, too many people bail, quit, and walk away from God and his people before they get to the collective experience of v. 24, often because of undiplomatic and aloof believers. Heaven forbid that we should cause any to stumble. Christ did everything to enter into their suffering. Here is another quote from Craigie,

"The sufferer in Ps 22 is a human being, experiencing the terror of mortality in the absence of God and the presence of enemies. In the suffering of Jesus, we perceive God, in Jesus, entering into and participating in the terror of mortality; he identifies with the suffering and the dying. Because God, in Jesus, has engaged in that desolation, he can offer comfort to those of us who now walk where the psalmist walked." (Psalms 1-50, 203)

Allow me to share a couple more verses from Psalm 22 that I started thinking about yesterday. Verses 4-5 might be your testimony as it was David’s…

In you our fathers trusted;
    they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame. 

However, even if your physical parents and grandparents did not trust in the Lord, your spiritual parents—those who shared the gospel message with you and those who made sure you had the Bible to read of God's love for you [myself included]—all experienced the Lord’s deliverance in many different ways. I hope it gives you the confidence to be able to pray like David did in v. 19-21 for yourself and others.

But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
    O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dog!
    Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

While we may not be spared from all hardship and danger, we will never be alone in the midst of it. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39) and when we cry out to the Lord for salvation he will not cast us out (Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13, cited from Joel 2:32). Christ endured the separation for us so that God might now dwell in our midst by the Holy Spirit. Let us abide in him (John 15)!

One last thing, this deliverance that David sought from death, centuries later became the deliverance that Jesus experienced through his own death and resurrection and now makes available to all nations and all peoples. He is a Father to the fatherless and a brother to the forsaken. Let us come to him in faith, together, as the great collected people of God! That "unanswered call" of our soul's desperation has been abundantly and lovingly answered!

Psalm 21 "Humble Glory & Deliverance from the Proud"

Psalm 21:5-7, 11-12

This is a psalm of David, presumably written by or for King David and using the third person "him" most likely to refer to himself and any godly descendants to follow. I like his statement in v. 6b and desire that I too might be glad today with the joy of the Lord's presence. So having sorted out the pronouns, the author is speaking of the king (David), and by extension of the people of the king, to God,

⁵ His [David’s] glory is great through your [God's] salvation;
    splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
⁶ For you make him most blessed forever;
    you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
⁷ For the king trusts in the Lord,
    and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.

The king’s glory was not in his own achievements so much as it was great through what God had done to save and deliver him time and time again. David didn’t have to promote himself but it was God who bestowed splendor and majesty on him. God’s consideration of us is usually better than anything we would honestly think of ourselves. Self-glory is always at the expense of others and in the end, poisons our own life. But the humble glory that God gives to those who trust in him and are “glad with the joy of your presence” results in our being firmly established. Following the plan of God is not some dour task demanding grim determination, though often difficult (as it was for David) it is filled with joy and the greatest of loves.

In this psalm David—the king—represents all who would trust the Lord for their honor and glory. David worked diligently as a shepherd—in obscurity even within his own family—until the time that Lord chose to elevate him. Saul persecuted David for years and yet David spared Saul’s life several times (see 1 Samuel 16-31) and though a proficient warrior he refused to take things into his own hands (his military advisors told him to kill Saul) trusting in the plan of God. Why? Because he knew the steadfast love of the Lord for him! The steadfast love of God is something we all need to be reminded of in the midst of a culture of self-promotion, self-esteem, and selfishness. Amazingly we matter more to God than we do to ourselves!  

I wrote a major paper in the first year of my doctoral program about the “humble glory of God” and this passage fits into that model. In that paper, I included an original poem, Scent of Glory, that begins like this,

Born to share glory, not seek it.

Yet sniffing, climbing, grasping, fighting, expecting,

We hunt along a different path

Twisted we claim it, kill it, and die

Poisoned by pride.

And then later,

Glory is given not grasped,

Belonging to God—Father, Son, Spirit—

Shared in Trinitarian community of love.

Yet he invites us in as family, to eat once again

What we once lost by taking.

His invitation to “come up” is far better than the humiliation of falling from our self-claimed glory (Luke 14:7-11). 

The second section of this Psalm that also stood out to me, in this reading, was v.11-12. While the king/person that trusts in the Lord is established and unmoved, the person who is filled with the pride of self-promotion will not ultimately succeed. These verses contain some very military language that we would like to be true of us in our conflict with our enemies today.

Though they plan evil against you,
    though they devise mischief,

                they will not succeed.
For you will put them to flight;
          you will aim at their faces with your bows.

When I read the phrase “aim at their faces with your bows” I can’t help but picture the humorous scene in the movie, Fellowship of the Ring, where Gimli the Dwarf covers his own fear of the forest by bragging about how stealthy he is, only to look up to see a bunch of Elfish bows pointed at his face. It seems that prideful people are like that…surprised to learn they’re not “all that.” 

The humble glory of God has a much better shelf-life than any work of human pride.

God is still in the business of confronting the pernicious idol of our own pride. In the midst of cultural discord, political campaigns, and sadly even church conflicts, pride is not absent. I pray that we might be delivered from the attacks of the proud, yet often that means we need to be delivered from ourselves. 

We are to be different, following the example of our gift-giving Saviour, Jesus Christ and consider others first. 

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Phil. 2:3-4)

Lord, have mercy, Christ have mercy!

Psalm 20:1, 6-8 "Pray First"

Psalm 20:1, 6-8

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
    May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! ...

Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;

    he will answer him from his holy heaven

    with the saving might of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall,
    but we rise and stand upright.

Comments:

This psalm is a seven-fold prayer delivered as a blessing directly to the person being prayed for (v.1-5) presumably the king. The psalmist is asking that God would hear the request [of the king] and bring deliverance. It is implied that those who sing this psalm strongly desire their king/leaders to actually make prayerful a request of the Lord before the day of battle comes.

These early verses culminate in a statement of trust (v.5) as the psalmist stands in solidarity with the afflicted as evidenced by his use of the plural pronoun “we”. Then in the familiar verses 7-8 he reveals where he puts his own trust. The psalmist is neither unprepared nor is he ill-equipped. He is realistically trusting in something/someone beyond the military might of the day.

In all of this that is being prayed, the psalmist reiterates how he could pray such things. He states emphatically, “Now I know that the Lord saves…he will answer.” Not only will God answer but it is how he will answer that we should not forget, “with the saving might of his right hand.”  The imagery is that of the Lord using his right hand to wield his sword in defense of the people in need. The “right hand” of the Lord was a very common and confident image in Psalms as the following verses indicate.

• Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
• Psalm 17:7 Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
• Psalm 18:35 You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great.
• Psalm 20:6 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.
• Psalm 44:3 for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.
• Psalm 45:4 In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!
• Psalm 48:10 As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
• Psalm 60:5 That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us!
• Psalm 63:8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
• Psalm 73:23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
• Psalm 74:11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!
• Psalm 77:10 Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
• Psalm 78:54 And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won.
• Psalm 80:15, 17 “…have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for yourself…But let your hand be on the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
• Psalm 89:13 You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.
• Psalm 98:1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
• Psalm 108:6 That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer me!
• Psalm 110:1, 5 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool…The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
• Psalm 118:15-16 Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly, the right hand of the Lord exalts, the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”
• Psalm 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.
• Psalm 139:9-10 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 

The sheer number of times the psalmists wrote of this divine deliverance is evidence that it was a message that needed to be repeated, for it was always ancient Israel’s temptation to put their trust in the number of horses, chariots, and soldiers in their army, and to be alarmed at the size of the enemy’s army. Both reactions would result in disaster unless they first took the time to ask for God’s direction and to place their ultimate trust in the Lord. This psalm stands against that trend and asks the king to pray and the Lord to answer. The late Peter C. Craigie wrote,

On the one hand, the necessities of historical existence imposed certain requirements upon the chosen people: the presence of enemies made warfare a necessity. On the one hand, human action which involved no divine participation was doomed from the beginning; at the heart of Hebrew theology lay the conviction that God was involved in their historical experience. So the preparation for war was twofold. First, there must be practical and military preparation, for it would be impossible to sit back and wait for a miracle to happen. Second, there must be religious preparation, which is here reflected in Psalm 20, for it would be equally irresponsible to hope that anything lasting could be achieved merely in human strength. (Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50, 187-188)

It is a rare time when the world has not been faced with wars and rumors of wars. It is not uncommon for a nation to have to defend its people as it is its responsibility to do. But leaders can rush into battle without good planning (2 Kings 3) or without asking God if it is a good idea.

 

Leaders can make bad decisions that cost many lives. waste gains made previously, and even have to fight the battle over again. I personally agree with the appeal of this psalm and would prefer that my leaders would seek the Lord before they do what they do. When I see the raw evil of mankind towards each other I also cry out for the Lord to be our deliverer!

I recently wrote to my deployed son using the words of this psalm,

“I know you are well prepared and have great equipment—for which I am thankful, yet that is not where my final trust lies. It is the Lord who will answer you in the day of trouble! “Some trust in Helicopters and MRAPs…” but they can be shot down, blown up, and crashed. Snipers ambush, SAMs hunt and seek, IEDs lurk, but the Lord is the one who picks us up after the attack.”

This lesson doesn’t just apply to the physical battles we read about in the media. If we are to survive the spiritual battle that rages around us every day, and finish well, then we must trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and the spiritual armor he provides (Eph. 6:10-20). And when we do place our trust in Christ, he says, "Fear not".

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’” (Revelation 1:17-18)

Psalm 19:12-14 "Hidden Faults & Presumptuous Sins"

Psalm 19:12-14

Who can discern his errors?

    Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;

    let them not have dominion over me!

Then I shall be blameless,

    and innocent of great transgression.

 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

    be acceptable in your sight,

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Comments:

In this great psalm about God’s revelation, there is something so real and personal about these verses. The psalm starts with a hymn declaring the natural revelation of God (in creation) that testifies to God's glory (v.1-6). Then it speaks of the special revelation of God (in the Bible) that shows me the way of salvation (v.7-11) poetically describing the Bible and how it benefits us (i.e., reviving our heart, making us wise, bringing joy, enlightening our eyes, lasting forever, completely as we should be, bringing a great reward). 

Having considered these two revelations of God, the psalmist looked inward and found his own unworthiness. I don't know about you but I am constantly praying that my "personal" revelation...what I say and do will be found to be in harmony with both the natural and the special revelations of God! Because of this, it is in verse 12 that I find my focus today.

 

The psalmist’s declaration, “Who can discern his errors?” tells us that we are generally unable to accurately view our own sinfulness. When we consider our own lives, we gaze through a window that is more distorted than a fun-house mirror (Jer. 17:9) and dirtier than a window after a house fire. We normally see the sins of others fairly clearly, but tend to see our own only through a more nuanced filter.

It is the Word of God that sounds like a foghorn through the self-deception of our sin. It is the Word of God that the Holy Spirit often uses to search out our hearts. The law shows us where we have fallen short and how much we need God’s deliverance. Salvation starts working in us when we have our eyes opened to see that we actually need to be saved and that we are unworthy of it. In the New Testament, the Apostle John wrote in opposition to those who denied having a sin nature and having personally committed sins saying,

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10)

If we realize we have sinned, the best course of action is to admit it (confess) to God. Why would we do that? We would confess our failures, weaknesses, and rebellions because God has always loved us and desires to forgive us and cleanse us from all our sin. Salvation has never been about our worthiness (which is compared to filthy rags or a polluted garment—Isaiah 64:6) but about receiving God’s mercy.

The palmist’s second statement in v. 12 is along the same lines as something John or Paul might have written hundreds of years later. “Declare me innocent from hidden faults” is not a request that God would declare that he had done no wrong, but that God might forgive any wrong that he had done. That is the heart cry of all who know the heaviness of their own sin and the hopelessness of trying to atone for it ourselves.

We receive forgiveness by the gift of God in Christ. But the psalmist understands that his desire to bring his life into alignment with the natural and special revelation of the holy and loving character of the Lord needs to issue forth in a new way of living. A way of life that requires the continuous work of the Lord in our daily thoughts and actions. A person who has been set free from slavery has a healthy fear of ever going back into that oppression so too it is with sin.

"Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;

    let them not have dominion over me!" (v. 13a)

This line reminds me of how Jesus taught the disciples to pray, 

       “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:13)

As I have said in the past, God is there and he has spoken (a Francis Schaeffer title) both generally in creation, specifically in the Bible, and finally in Christ. It is by use of his Word that we can stay on track, free from presumption, and living into the calling and blessing that we have in Christ. His word transforms my mind and emotions as I see his love poured out. My affection for Jesus changes my behavior...not the other way around.

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

    be acceptable in your sight,

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." (v.14)

This prayer cannot be answered until we confess our need for forgiveness, and put our trust in the Lord himself to make our forgiveness a reality, and the love of Christ has captivated me.

But this passage is not merely true of us as individuals...but should be viewed collectively.

• Can we as small groups, congregations, denominations, and movements discern our own errors? Disunity.
• Can leaders see their own tendency to be corrupted by the very power, privilege, and influence which they wield?  Distrust.
• Have we the insight to see how we look down on others from our position of education and economics (by what rubric do we assign value to our fellow humans)? Disrespect.

You tell me…

I tend to think that we still need the witness of the Word applied to our collective life and path to see where we have sinned against those within and without. We still need the grace of God to bring healing where we have even unintentionally caused hurt. We still need the more biblical leading of the Spirit to not fall into the same bondages that litter our collective past. We still need to follow Jesus in the way of the cross (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23).

Even the prophet needs a prophet, or our hidden errors become presumptuous sins.

Psalm 18:6-16 "Song in the Storm"

Psalm 18:6-16

In my distress I called upon the Lord;
    to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
    and my cry to him reached his ears.

Photo by Mandy Beerley on Unsplash

⁷ Then the earth reeled and rocked;
    the foundations also of the mountains trembled
    and quaked, because he was angry.
⁸ Smoke went up from his nostrils,
    and devouring fire from his mouth;
    glowing coals flamed forth from him.
⁹ He bowed the heavens and came down;
    thick darkness was under his feet.
¹⁰ He rode on a cherub and flew;
    he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
¹¹ He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
    thick clouds dark with water.
¹² Out of the brightness before him
    hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

Photo by Brandon Morgan
on Unsplash

13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
    and the Most High uttered his voice,
    hailstones and coals of fire.
¹⁴ And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
    he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
¹⁵ Then the channels of the sea were seen,
    and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
    at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

¹⁶ He sent from on high, he took me;
    he drew me out of many waters.

Comments:

Recently I was listening to the August Rush soundtrack which I have loved since I first saw the movie. I was reminded of a couple of lines from the movie that stood out to me. Robin Williams’ tormented Fagin-like character “Wizard” argued in a lucid moment that it is not that many people can’t hear the music, but that not many are listening.  He encouraged August, “You got to love music more than you love food. More than life. More than yourself!” Unfortunately, Williams’ Wizard loved the money more than the music…and ended up alone with only a harmonica under the L. However, his mystical thoughts about music are brought full circle in the faith and longing of a child. After the performance of August’s Rhapsody, the 11-year-old August whispered, “The music is all around you. All you have to do is listen.”

David the psalmist also heard the music—the music of God’s love—all around him. He wrote this longish psalm (50 verses), to celebrate his deliverance from the years of false accusations, threats, betrayals, and violent pursuits of King Saul. He had believed that the Lord was his refuge through all his troubles, and had seen God continually providing help, strength, and salvation in so many situations. In verses 6-16 above he used the powerful poetic description of a terrible storm to communicate the emotion of his song of deliverance. God was working on his behalf, in answer to his prayers. Do we hear God's song in the storm? Do we, like David, have ears to hear the Lord working in love? Do we, like August, want to be found?

It is such “music” in his soul that inspired David to sing v. 28-32 with infused enthusiasm as he faced the new battles ahead, now that he had stepped into God’s calling for his life.

For it is you who light my lamp;
    the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
For by you I can run against a troop,
    and by my God I can leap over a wall.
This God—his way is perfect;
    the word of the Lord proves true;
    he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

For who is God, but the Lord?
    And who is a rock, except our God?—
the God who equipped me with strength
    and made my way blameless. 

The deliverance of God is not just from something but unto something. David was delivered from running for his life unto serving Israel as God’s anointed king.

What is it that God has delivered us from? What is it that we are delivered unto? What enthusiasm, what courage, what freedom now that we have been found and he has removed the shame and the blame of the past?

Dare I say it? The word has been so overused and underapplied. Yet God has equipped us for a mission…should we choose to accept it.

The music of God’s steadfast love is all around us. Today I am repeating the seven words of verse one, "I love you, O Lord, my strength!"  

 
Can you hear the music? I hope it gets stuck in your head too!

Psalm 17—Hear a Just Cause!

Psalm 17:1, 6-11, 13-15

1 Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry!...

⁶ I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
    incline your ear to me; hear my words.
⁷ Wondrously show your steadfast love,
    O Savior of those who seek refuge
    from their adversaries at your right hand.

⁸ Keep me as the apple of your eye;
    hide me in the shadow of your wings,
⁹ from the wicked who do me violence,
    my deadly enemies who surround me.

¹⁰ They close their hearts to pity;
    with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
¹¹ They have now surrounded our steps;
    they set their eyes to cast us to the ground...

¹³ Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!
    Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
¹⁴ from men by your hand, O Lord,
    from men of the world whose portion is in this life...
¹⁵ As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;     when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

 

Comments:

These are difficult days for those who would remain faithful in the face of brutal persecution, as they were at different times in the past. David spent years fleeing from Saul’s unjust campaign to kill him out of jealousy. The early church faced dreadful persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire. 20^th Century Christians suffered and died by the millions at the hands of Communist and totalitarian regimes.

 

Today, the sword again comes against God’s people from a murderous group of Sunni radicals called ISIS. I wonder if they get the irony of the name they have chosen, that of an ancient Egyptian goddess of magic, healing, and motherhood. While they brutally torture and kill any that will not convert to Islam, and within Islam any that stand in their way. For Christians, they mark their houses with the Arabic letter that is the first in the word for Christians, reminiscent of the Nazi treatment of the Jews in the Holocaust.

 

David's response is instructive for me. In the face of great injustice, he cries out in faith to the Lord for help. He actually believed that the Lord would answer, deliver and save. His language (v. 8 “the apple of your eye” and “the shadow of your wings) deliberately looked back to the great national deliverance from Egyptian slavery as sung about by Moses in Deuteronomy 32:10-12

¹⁰ “He found him in a desert land,
    and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
    he kept him as the apple of his eye.
¹¹ Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
    that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
    bearing them on its pinions,
¹² the Lord alone guided him,
    no foreign god was with him.

 

He not only remembered the past faithfulness of God, in the midst of the acute situation in which he found himself, but he connected with the larger community of God’s people down through history. I love the way the late Peter C. Craigie captures this idea.

That which makes hope, and therefore confidence, possible is an awareness of the nature of the covenant God. The psalmist was not the first to be in trouble, nor would he be the last, but he believed in a God of covenant, whose most fundamental characteristic was lovingkindness (v.7)…

Though the psalm is written in the language of individuality, it does not contain the words of a lonely and bold pioneer of crisis; it contains rather the words of one sharing in the past and present experience of a community that has known God as a deliverer. The psalmist thus draws upon the strengths of both history and community in reaching his confidence. (Psalms 1-50, p.165)

 

Yazidis fleeing ISIS in Iraq

Out of David’s covenant-based confidence, there is yet a very human urging, even a deeply pleading tone for the Lord to confront the enemy. Today, as we are once again made aware of man’s capability to objectify, abuse, and destroy the innocent and the weak, we cry out to the Lord with Davidic fervency for the deliverance of hurting people—be they religious minority Christians, Yazidis, Sunnis, or Kurds in Northern Iraq. In other areas of the world, it may be other minorities that are being tracked down, surrounded, and slaughtered by power-hungry men.

 

Do we cry out with the psalmist, “Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!” Using strongly military-sounding metaphors of desperation? Or do we close our eyes to the suffering with excuses de jour and/or limit our responses to government-designated expediencies? I was talking with someone recently who thought that the media was only covering the violence in Iraq today because it was targeting Christians. While I disagree with this assessment as much has been said first about the moderate Sunnis, and more recently about the Yazidis (neither of which are Christian) it does force me to assess my own definition of “neighbor.” Do I only get upset when Christians, or Americans, are being victimized, or do I see how God is concerned for all peoples?

 

Whether we take v. 15 to refer solely to the immediate physical deliverance sought today that enables us to actually wake up tomorrow, or as containing assurance that reaches beyond this life into eternity in the presence of God we should see that the prayer first uttered in v. 1 will be answered in v. 15, one way or the other.

 

In times of trouble, injustice, and persecution we pray for deliverance the like of which is recorded in Hebrews 11:32-35.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.

 

Every day there are plenty of testimonies of God’s power to miraculously deliver, heal, and restore all over the world today. But it is not always the case that his followers are spared torture and death. The very same text (v. 36-38) goes on to say,

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

 

Are we willing to follow Christ if the deliverance doesn’t come today the way we desire? The last book in the Bible encourages followers of Christ to “overcome” the urge to save our own lives by compromising with the idolatries of the world. Those who overcome do so “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Rev. 12:11)

 

If our portion is merely in this life we will close our hearts to pity (v.10) and abuse others in order to expand and prolong it. However, if we trust that our portion is ultimately in the presence of a God who is wondrous in showing his steadfast love (v.7) we will seek to care for the oppressed wherever we find them.

 

I am moved by the story of the Danes, who when the Nazis ordered Danish Jews arrested in 1943, stopped what they were doing and did whatever they could to hide Jews and ferry them to safety in Sweden. What can we do for the powerless today?