Psalm 49 Playing A Little Music While Pondering Big Questions

Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash

Psalm 49 is considered a Wisdom Psalm. It focuses on wisdom and understanding, and it sounds very much like a mashup of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

When commenting on this song, about 80%of the time my emphasis has been on the second stanza (v.5-9) and verse 15’s victoriously confident statement, “But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.”

However inevitable it may be that I again consider those verses, my emphasis in reading the psalm this time was on the first stanza (v.1-4) and specifically verse 4.

Hear this, all peoples!
    Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
both low and high,
    rich and poor together!
My mouth shall speak wisdom;
    the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
I will incline my ear to a proverb;
    I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

The psalmist declares the nature of the psalm from the beginning and then in v. 4 paints a picture of his pondering or thinking through or considering a weighty matter while noodling around on his lyre (guitars were much harder to come by back then). This process of thinking, meditating, and creatively working out the big questions in the heart can be very profound.

Too often, our lives are filled with so many distractions that we never seem to find time to quietly think through the goodness of God and the ridiculous pride of humanity. Other times it is not distractions but a residual distrust that keeps us from honestly considering the evidence regarding the big questions. That distrust produces fear and fear is then masked with anger. In the end, we find it easier to yell at someone else than it is to consider the truth of God’s heart amid the difficulties of a broken world.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Now back to v. 4. What riddle does he work out in this psalm? He wrestled with the big questions… seeking wise perspectives on power and wealth, fear and hope, and even on human mortality and redemption. As he pondered and played, it seems that he worked through all of his concerns and realized that he didn’t need to live in fear (v. 5, 15).

It should be noted that while the third stanza (v.10-12) speaks of the finality of the grave, the sons of Korah had no clear grasp on the idea of the resurrection. Many truths in the Bible were progressively revealed as God’s plan unfolded down through the centuries. Yet, even in this psalm, there is the confident expectation that as v. 15 states,

But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
    for he will receive me. 

But what was the riddle?

Is this post starting to sound like a click-bait article that keeps stringing you along as long as possible before giving you the answer to your simple question? Maybe. But what I was hoping was that you would read the psalm and find the answer for yourself before I confirmed your answer.

The answer to the riddle the psalmist works out in this passage is first stated in v.12,

Man in his pomp will not remain;
    he is like the beasts that perish.

Photo by Janne Simoes on Unsplash

The psalmist solved the riddle as he saw behind the deceptive curtain of human pride and self-importance. Proud, self-important, powerful people still die and rot in the grave. Humans are not God; we are not even capable of saving ourselves from our sins (v.7-8). Our wealth, and the social trappings that go with it, cannot redeem us… yet we waste so much time trying. And in the end, we die like everything else. And everything we may have accumulated goes back into the box. I remember a popular psychologist telling the story of thoroughly beating his family at the board game Monopoly and how in the face of his excess celebration they left him to clean it up all by himself. It was then that he realized that it all goes back in the box—all the hotels, houses, property deeds, and the money too. This is true of real life as well. Such understanding, which the Bible calls wisdom, is what we still need today.

Apparently, the people this was written to needed to hear it again as well, for verse 20 repeats, “Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish” with the addition of “without understanding.”

Are we merely selfish animals that live without understanding and die without purpose, meaning, or any lasting legacy? Or are we invited to join God in his mission to heal the broken universe? It starts with the understanding that only God can ransom our souls! The price he paid was costly, even the precious blood of Jesus! What mere bauble that this world offers could be worth enough to turn me away from trusting Jesus? So, we cannot save ourselves, and neither can we continue to live forever without dying. The good news is that God has ransomed me at the cross!

While the psalmist may not have understood how the Lord would do it, he knew that his soul would be redeemed from the grave. And thus there was no reason for fear and anxiety to direct his life.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15) 

As a result of the psalmist’s inspired pondering and playing, I am reminded that I no longer need to fear in times of trouble or when the wrong people grow rich and famous. Neither of those situations can determine my value for that is secure in the finished work of Christ Jesus! 

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #22)

Read Psalm 119:169-176

“Seek”

I didn’t want to leave the last stanza of Psalm 119 out. Even though it has been a long-haul journaling and posting each day on each successive stanza over the last three weeks, it has been a sweet time as well. So here is Day #22, an encore!

Today, in church, we read this final stanza together and thought about prayer as modeled by the psalmist. He begins with a prayer to be heard in verses 169-170,

Let my cry come before you, O Lord;
    give me understanding according to your word!

Let my plea come before you;
    deliver me according to your word.

He is concerned with the need for the Lord to hear his pray, be it cry or plea. Isn’t that what we want as well—to be heard? Secondly, beyond being hear the psalmist is seeking understanding and deliverance.

Understanding is what we so often need when we consider our circumstances or those of others and we just don’t get it. Things just aren’t working out how we expected and as they should (in our opinion). It is in times like this that we wish God would speak order, clarity, and purpose into the world. The psalmist recognizes that this kind of understanding is found in the Bible. Have you ever had one of those moments when as you read you know a passage was revealed to you in a way that answers your cry for understanding? I have, and I cherish those moments.

In asking for understanding he is asking for the Lord to do something in him through the Scriptures. In deliverance, he is asking the Lord to do something for him—likely a physical deliverance from the ongoing and acute threat of his enemies. It is in God’s word that we find not only his promises (and conditions) regarding deliverance but the revealed character of God with which such deliverance must accord.

These requests move me, as does the psalmist’s commitment to the law/ precepts/ statues of the Lord as an assurance that his prayer would be heard and that the Lord would do something about his circumstances. However, despite his repeated commitment to delight in God’s word and to be helped by it, he confesses his own wanderings, for he ends the longest psalm in the Bible with verse 176

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
    for I do not forget your commandments.

This is a prayer of confession (“have gone astray”) and repentance (“seek”)

The reason he is praying this way is because of his trust in God’s revelation (“I do not forget”). I am reminded of the old gospel hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing written in 1757 by Robert Robinson that so poignantly describes our tendency to wander like a lost sheep. I quote verses 1, 3, and 4.

1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,

The Good Shepherd,
painted by Richard Hook

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.

When Jesus suffered and died on the cross some 2000 years ago, it was for our wanderings. Isaiah 53:6, in the midst of a larger section describing the suffering Messiah, says,

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

And Jesus, in Luke 15, facing criticism from the Pharisees and teachers because he spoke to sinners, tells the parable of the Lost Sheep,

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Can we end this study of Psalm 119 the same way, willing to confess our wandering and ask Jesus our Good Shepherd, to seek us out and deliver us? We too are wanderers who need to turn back to the Lord in relational repentance and bring as many with us as possible.

Dear Lord Jesus, seek your servants and turn our hearts back towards you. Help us to see your beauty and steadfast love and may we be filled with awe and wonder at your deliverance! Fill our hearts with praise so that it spills out in our speech and songs day by day. May we share your love with others and may we rejoice with heaven over each sinner that repents! Thank you for a marvelous contemplation on your word!

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #17)

Read Psalm 119:129-136

     “Shine”

The things that God has said are so wonderful that once we have heard them we treasure them and hold them close (129)! Those whose hearts are hard like a well-worn path do not take time to listen to understand much less allow the word into their hearts. Jesus said such words are like seeds snatched away by hungry birds (Matt. 13:4,19; Luke 8:12).

I could have chosen “wonderful,” “keep,” or even “turn” as my focus word today. However, I settled on “shine” because of verses 130 and 135,

The unfolding of your words gives light;
    it imparts understanding to the simple…

Make your face shine upon your servant,
    and teach me your statutes.

The idea of the “unfolding” of his words intrigues me. It captures the idea of the process of how God chose to reveal his word. As Josh McDowell and others have noted, the Bible is unique. It didn’t happen all at once but over 1500 to 2000 years, was written by around 40 different authors (inspired by the Holy Spirit), in different places, vastly different times and circumstances, expressing different moods and emotions, on three continents, in three or four languages, covering hundreds of controversial subjects, and consisting of a number of different literary styles. Yet there is a wonderfully consistent quality to it. It is like one epic tapestry, where each narrative, command, letter, or psalm is woven together to reveal the heart and plans of God revealed in history.

Eugene Peterson’s vivid paraphrase (The Message) has “Break open your words, let the light shine out” But while I like its vividness, it seems to lose some of the richness of the idea of “unfolding,” Theologians refer to this unfolding of God’s plan and purpose throughout the Bible as “progressive revelation.” Jacob did not have the revelation of Moses, David, or Isaiah, etc. In the last book of the Bible, we see Jesus as the “lamb that was slain” who takes the scroll sealed with seven seals and opens them one seal at a time as God’s plan for the end times was revealed (Rev. 5-6).

It is in our taking time to be available to the word of God that the Spirit unfolds it for us in a way that “imparts understanding!” But this time spent is not merely with a message, or an important mission, as though the word was a thing. Rather there is a remarkably relational statement here as the psalmist uses verse 135 as a parallel, but instead of using one of the more direct synonyms for the word of God (e.g., word, law, rules, testimonies, etc.) he uses the term “your face.” Do we see the face of God in the scriptures? We should.  

Moses's face glowed after spending time in the Lord's presence. Jesus' face while praying, at the transfiguration, was "altered, and his clothing became dazzling white." (Luke 9:28-29). It is in spending time in the presence of the Lord that something of his radiant glorious love is communicated to us so that we not only learn his statutes but we shine a bit too.

O Lord, we live in a dark world made all the darker by our persistent self-focus. I as that as we spend time reading, thinking, and praying your words that such darkness may be banished from our hearts by the light of your great love! I pray that your love would shine through us, especially this week in our divided nation. Lord, when others our quaking in fear, or frantic in their pursuits may your words make us steady (v. 133) and dependable. May our hearts be broken with what breaks your heart (v.136) but keep us from the exhaustion of discouragement by the strength of your joy! Your word is wonderful because it reveals your steadfast and beautiful love for us! Wow! 

21 Days of Prayer in Psalm 119 (Day #13)

Read Psalm 119:97-104

“Meditation”

This stanza emphasizes the benefits of meditating on the Word of God. The verses I wanted to quote today are 97 to 99.

“Oh how I love your law!    
   It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
    for it is ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
    for your testimonies are my meditation.”

Biblical meditation is not an emptying of the mind and embracing nothingness, but thinking deeply as we attach ourselves in devotion to the precious Lord that the Scriptures reveal.

It is through meditating on the Scriptures that we gain what I refer to as “supernatural understanding” an understanding that goes beyond simply education and strategic studies (teachers and enemies). It has been said that if you think about any particular word too long it loses all sense of meaning. However, when we think about God’s words in their intended context they grow in meaning rather than dissipate.

I recently was stuck chewing a piece of gum (in a place where I couldn’t spit it out) for way too long and not only did it lose its flavor it dissolved into a mushy mess. I didn’t want to chew gum for quite a while after that. Meditating on God’s Word is the opposite of that gum for the more we think about it, and mull it over in our hearts, the sweeter (v. 103) and more flavorful it becomes. In addition to understanding, and “flavor”, meditating on God’s Word sustains us and shepherds us away from the spiritually toxic wastelands of sin (v. 101, 104).

Ancient millstone in
Capernaum, Israel

Some years ago, in poetic imagery, I likened biblical, Holy Spirit-led, meditation to three things: the tumbling of a rock polisher, the grinding of the grist mill, and finally the chewing, tasting, and enjoying of a good meal. We are not looking to polish God’s Word or to separate the wheat from the chaff for all God’s Word is inspired and useful for training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16-17). What we are trying to do in meditation is remove the opaque layers of pride and resistance, our cultural rationalizations so that we can see the beauty of God’s Word to us. We are trying to separate the grain of God’s truth from the chaff of our own bias, preconceptions, prejudices, and limited understanding. We spend time chewing because God’s Word is not only nutritious, but it is enjoyable. God wants to spend time with us. Remember that Revelation 3:20 was written to believers. Jesus wants to come into our midst and share a meal.

O Lord, thank you that your words are for the most part simple to understand, and yet they are not simple. The communication of your love and plan has weight, depth, and beauty to it. We welcome you to sustain and nourish us by your word, to teach us, and mature us in the faith through fellowship around the Scripture. We sign the waiver, giving the Holy Spirit freedom to use the scalpel of the Scripture to do whatever surgery is needed in our hearts for us to be whole (Heb. 4:11-12), and wholeheartedly devoted to you and to each other. May your churches be filled with those who truly desire to hear from you through your word, not just to be entertained or encouraged in their pet sins (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Amen.

I am including my poem (mentioned above) here for those who might be interested.

Spirit-led Meditation

Spirit-led meditation,

A Scriptural rock polisher,

Fine grit concentration,

Tumbling back and forth

In the mind, over time.

Rough stones of our understanding,

Emerging

Agates of God's truth.

Now we can see the beauty.

A Scriptural grist mill

Grinding together in

Familiar, well-practiced motion.

Truth's grain processed,

Separating nutritive value

From husks, chaff;

Preconceptions, personal bias, pride,

Worldly tomb of the mind.

Rightly divided,

That life might be released

Sustained, strengthened, shared.

Staple of life apprehended.

A Scriptural repast

Being chewed upon reflectively,

Taking time to taste, enjoy.

Thoroughly digesting, assimilating, using

What God places before me.

Savoring the things of God.

© Greg Dueker