Psalm 77

Coffee. Bible. The quiet of the morning. Can’t beat it!!

So, Psalm 77… One of my Study Bibles introduces today’s first few verses as “The psalmist’s miserable situation.” And when you consider the first four verses, then again verses 7-9, it certainly looks like a real down-time for the psalmist: My soul refused to be comforted… (v. 2b). He wonders if God has forsaken him, refusing to answer his prayers: Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? (v. 7) The psalmist is so troubled that he can’t even sleep: You have held my eyelids open… (v. 4a) Can any of us relate? Troubles. Can’t sleep. Where’s God in my situation? Why doesn’t He act??!!

So what does the psalmist do? He goes back in time, reminding us of what we need to do. I consider the days of old, the years long ago… I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will ponder all Your work, and meditate on Your mighty deeds. (vv. 5, 11-12)

We can be so easily troubled, fretting about this or that, even to the point of losing sleep while our minds race on. But God is God. He has acted in the past and He will act in the present and in the future – but He will act in His own time. Our duty is to wait on Him. Wait and pray. Pray and wait.

Psalm 76

Today we move again from Proverbs back to the Psalms. And in so doing we move from John’s leading, back to my leading. I have thoroughly enjoyed John’s comments on Proverbs (and on Psalms beginning back on June 23 when I was first laid up) and we considered his staying with Psalms. But as I reflected I realized how much I missed the discipline in my life that leading RTB has given me. My goal is always to get comments out to the rest of you before 9:00 am – which makes RTB the first thing on my plate every morning. Actually, second to that cup of coffee sitting beside me…! But you get the point. So beginning tomorrow, early morning!

Today’s Psalm 76 tells of battles between the Lord and His enemies. It’s easy to read this Psalm with the end times in mind, that final battle between God and all the forces of evil. But we can also read Psalm 76 with another battle in mind, with Assyria besieging the Israelites and threatening Jerusalem. That incident is covered in II Kings 18:13-19:37. Assyria has just taken Israel, the Northern Kingdom into exile and King Sennacherib now has his eyes on Judah, the Southern Kingdom and its stronghold, Jerusalem. I would encourage you to read the full story, but the key verse for Psalm 76 is the victory at the Lord’s hand, as told in II Kings 19:35-36a: “Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of the 185,000 were dead. So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and returned home…” Now we read the Psalmist’s summation of the Lord’s deliverance: At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep. (v. 6) There’s more to these Psalms, the deeper we dig! Glory!

Proverbs 22:17-29

Today marks a bit of a transition in Proverbs. Thus far, all of the internal clues have pointed to Solomon as the author, but today’s first verse, Proverbs 22:17, mentions “the words of the wise” — potentially an indication of a new author. In addition, Proverbs 22:17-21 acts as a fresh introduction to a new section.

Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise…
That your trust may be in the LORD,
I have made them known to you today, even to you.

Proverbs 22:17a,19

And here we have the whole purpose of Proverbs: that your trust may be in the LORD. Let’s just sit with that thought today.

Proverbs 22:1-16

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold.

Proverbs 22:1

Our culture says that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett epitomize success. Why? Because they are rich — wildly rich. But material wealth is not a proper measure of success. True success is found in living honorably and with integrity, following the Lord, not in accumulating material wealth. How do these men stack up on the true success scale? I really don’t know, as I do not know their hearts, nor do I keep up with billionaire gossip, but my guess is that there are millions of people more successful than they.

But what about us? Just because our bank accounts don’t put us on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index doesn’t mean that we aren’t tempted to sacrifice our good name for the sake of material gain. This proverb applies to us as much as to the super-rich. If anything, it is even more applicable because if a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, how much more so is it than small riches?!

Proverbs 21:17-31

No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel
can avail against the LORD.

Proverbs 21:30

You can’t trick God. You can’t outthink God. You can’t outsmart God. You can’t outargue God. You can’t outwit God. You can’t outwait God. You can’t outrun God. You can’t outgun God. You can’t outdistance God. You can’t outmaneuver God. You can’t outlast God. You can’t overpower God. You can’t overwhelm God. You simply can’t beat God.

So stop trying.

Instead, join Him.

Proverbs 21:1-16

To do righteousness and justice
is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Proverbs 21:3

Do you ever think that you can bribe God with a little extra in the offering plate? Maybe you can bend the rules a bit over here, because you sacrifice so much over there, or because you do “religious” stuff? You probably don’t actually say anything like that out loud. You might not have even brought such a notion fully to the attention of your frontal lobe. But I bet the thought (in some form or another) has been there nonetheless.

Yesterday, I mentioned King Saul in the context of how David twice refused to lay a hand on him. Today we can remember Saul again, because Samuel used words very similar to this proverb when pronouncing God’s rejection of Saul as king. Samuel said, to obey is better than sacrifice. (See I Samuel 15 for the whole story.)

And that is not the only other place in Scripture where we find a similar sentiment. Consider Hosea:

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6:6

Micah expresses the same idea less succinctly:

“With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:6-8

Then Matthew has Jesus quoting Hosea twice more:

Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

Matthew 9:13

And if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Matthew 12:7

With so much repetition of this core principle, perhaps we should pay attention…

Proverbs 20:16-30

Do not say, “I will repay evil”;
wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

Proverbs 20:22

This advice is echoed in Romans 12:19, which hearkens back to Deut. 32:35. It is something we all should think about — and heed! — as forbearance does not come naturally. When attacked in some way, our first impulse is to strike back. Sometimes we are a bit more prudent and step away in the moment — but only to plot revenge from a more advantageous position. Fear of further reprisal might keep us from dishing out that payback, but if we could get away with it, we would. Admit it. Without the Holy Spirit guiding us otherwise, that’s what we do.

But that is not the wise path. David’s dealings with King Saul give us a good illustration of the right path. Out of jealousy and paranoia, King Saul tried to kill David. David fled, but Saul hunted him down. On two separate occasions David had perfect opportunities to “return the favor” and kill Saul, but he refused to do so. (See I Samuel 24,26.) Although Samuel had previously anointed David as the future king, David did not force that outcome by his own hand. He waited for the Lord to bring him to the throne. And he waited for years, suffering abuse at Saul’s hand most of that time.

More significantly, we have the Lord’s own example:

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

I Peter 2:23

And we are called to do likewise:

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

I Peter 3:9

Wait for the LORD. Let Him work things out.

Proverbs 20:1-15

Who can say, “I have made my heart pure;
I am clean from my sin”?

Proverbs 20:9

No one.

There is absolutely no way we can make ourselves pure. There is no heroic feat great enough to outweigh our guilt, no sacrifice we can make to atone. There is no self-help program that will instill 7 habits of moral perfection. We are natural-born sinners, and we are powerless against it.

Yet being cleansed from sin is exactly what God offers us in Jesus.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I John 1:9

Proverbs 19:16-29

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

Proverbs 19:21

Last week we mentioned in passing a few verses about planning. Today we get another one. Here we are reminded that we do quite a lot of planning. We all do, all the time, so much so that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without planning. We have short-range plans and long-range plans. We plan get-togethers and set goals. We plan menus and sporting events. We have business plans and battle plans. Rarely do we get out of bed without some plan for the day, even if it is just following some habitual daily routine.

But every plan is subject to interruption and unforeseen circumstances. As the military saying goes, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Someone else’s plan collides with ours. Accidents happen. Illnesses happen. Weather happens. Some small cog in our grand plan breaks a tooth and the whole thing comes off the rails. The prudent anticipate such problems and create contingency plans, building in flexibility and alternatives, but even such contingency plans are subject to further contingencies.

In all our planning we must recognize the truth of the second half of this proverb, that it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. And that requires humility. He is the one Who is sovereign over all. He is the One Who sees the end from the beginning. He is the One Who makes all things work together for good. (Rom. 8:28) He is the One Who will set all things right. So when things go “wrong”, thank God! (Eph. 5:20)

Easy? Not at all! We do not like it when our plans are disrupted. And we are often completely blind as to what the Lord’s good purposes might be. With hindsight we may eventually see some good result, but often we never do — not in this life, at least. The disruptions we face run the gamut, from traffic delays to traffic accidents, from sniffles to pandemics. Perhaps we brush off the more minor ones (or maybe we don’t!) and perhaps we wrestle with the bigger ones (or maybe we don’t!). In all cases we need to cultivate humility and gratitude toward the One Whose purpose will stand. But it isn’t easy!

Proverbs 19:1-15

When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin,
his heart rages against the LORD.

Proverbs 19:3

Does that not describe the human race? Ever since Adam and Eve we’ve shirked responsibility and shifted blame: “The woman whom You gave me… The serpent deceived me…” (Gen. 3:12-13) Whenever we make a mistake, our first instinct seems to be to look for someone else to point the finger at. (By the way, you do not need to teach children to do this. It comes quite naturally!) And the bigger the mess, the bigger the target of the finger pointing — until we screw up so badly that the only target “big” enough is the LORD Himself.

That is where most get stuck, but, thankfully, the Lord is not content to leave the entire human race in this lunacy. He provides us a way to escape through confession (i.e., accepting responsibility), repentance, and faith in Jesus, who carried all the raging of our hearts to the Cross.