Psalms 15-16
Dear RTB’ers,
Back to Psalms. Today, Bastille Day in France! I recently read and re-read A Tale of Two Cities. It’s a wonderful novel, historical fiction, set in the context of the French Revolution. If you’re looking for something to read…!
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right … He who does these things shall never be moved. (Ps. 15:2a, 5b) After his intro, David then lists behaviors of those who do “what is right”, mostly a “Thou shalt not” list of living righteously in this world. He does make one positive statement, however, honoring those who fear the LORD. (Ps. 15:4b)
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. (Ps. 16:10) Is this verse Messianic? Both Peter and Paul thought so. Each cited this verse – Acts 2:27, 13:35, respectively. My NASB also has “Holy One” capitalized, an obvious reference to Jesus and His Resurrection. But David might have been referring to himself as someone who is “godly”. We’ll never know, but the early church clearly thought so!
I was also struck by verse 16:8, I have set the LORD always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. A manager might speak of a foreman as his “right-hand man”. David speaks of the LORD in this manner, One in whom he puts his full trust and confidence. And if we have Him at our right hand, we should be holding that holy hand as He leads us!!
We covered the Psalms and the Wisdom literature in RTB in 2022. Each day as I make my own reflections I typically look back at what I (and others) said back then. I was struck by the number of comments following my posts for both of these psalms. There were four different people who added comments following my post for Psalm 15 and three different people who added comments for Psalm 16, a stunning contrast with this year where typically we might get one or two added comments per week. I think those comments from 2022 are due to the content material. Most of the Psalms are short and easily read and mostly understood. Amos and Hosea, however…!! As both John and I have said, we’d like to hear more from you!
Blessings!