Psalm 88

A lament – frankly, as lamentable as any lament that we have read. There’s not a shred of hope in any of what the psalmist writes. He calls out to God for help (vv. 1, 2, 9, 13), yet he blames God for his condition (vv. 6-8, 14-16). And unlike any other lament that we have read (that I can recall) there is no closing praise, no expression of confidence in the Lord’s deliverance. His words remind me of Job – but of Job at his worst. Sad.

I am not a person who has known much depression in my life. Misfortune, yes. Difficulties, yes. Setbacks, yes. But I always had hope, always believing that these difficulties would be short-lived. I find it hard to relate to someone living in deep depression. But as I read this lament, my heart goes out to the writer. His malady has been with him “from his youth on” (v. 15). I know that I need more compassion in my life. This psalm helps me to think about that, to try to see what others are (or might be) going through. Something of a wake-up call…

Psalm 87

To me there’s not a lot to reflect on in today’s psalm. The psalmist is extolling the glory of Jerusalem and Mount Zion, established/ordained by God Himself. The psalmist pays particular attention to the special “citizenship” of those who were born there – in contrast to those who were born in the other countries listed in verse 4.

So birthright comes to mind, specifically birthplace. Carol and I share unusual birthplace items. Carol was born in Washington, DC (not many people can say that!), but her parents were living in Maryland. I was born in Indiana, but my parents lived across the river in Illinois (no nearby hospitals on that side of the river). Our Slovak friends, Vlado and Maria have returned to Kentucky. Their son, Oliver was born here when they first arrived, so he is by birthright an American citizen. Likewise, I have heard or read stories about pregnant Hispanic women who take their chances with the dangers and the US authorities to have their children born in the USA – forever American citizens. Finally, wherever we travel Carol and I have our very special blue passports, proof to border agents everywhere that we are American citizens.

With it all, frankly, none of those birthrights matter, not compared to our eternal birthright: But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ… (Philippians 3:20). That is a birthright to grasp onto – and to share!

Psalm 86

All the nations You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name. (v. 9)

Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Psalm 85

Today’s Psalm 85 looks to be a psalm of confession, although confession is only implied, not fully stated. And while the psalmist seems to be confessing for the whole nation, it would be a good exercise for us to look at the psalm as a model for individual confession. Here are those elements that I see for a good confession:

1. A recognition of God’s past mercies, as in You forgave…, You covered…, You withdrew…, You turned… (vv. 2-3).
2. A new plea for mercy – Restore us again… (v. 4). Implicit in this request for mercy is the recognition that Israel has again fallen into their backsliding ways. In the next three verses (5-7) the psalmist clearly sees that God’s favor has not been with Israel for some time. Unfortunately he seems to be blaming God for not being there instead of Israel for having fallen away. We have a similar phrase in our Christian culture: “If you feel far from God, guess who moved.”
3. Then in verses 8-9, after a less-than-heartfelt confession the psalmist asks God for His direction in Israel’s life. Presumably this is another implicit item, that behind it all the psalmist is seeking God’s forgiveness. There is a hint of repentance: …let them not turn back to folly… (v. 8b), but not fully stated.
4. Finally the psalmist closes with a beautiful set of verses offering praise to this merciful, all-perfect God, using a unique, poetic form in which he personifies lovingkindness (NASB), faithfulness, righteousness, and peace. Beautiful.

If our confession and repentance could be more explicit than what the psalmist offers, his is a good model to follow.

Psalm 84

I am not the Bible memory person that John would like for me/us to be, but there have been quite a few verses in my life for which I can call “chapter and verse”, mostly verbatim. Today’s reading has one of those, one of the earliest in my “list” that I can recall: No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. (v. 11b) I was at a Bible conference soon after my first born-again year and someone there gave me a card that had that verse on it. So I remembered/memorized it. Later that “chapter and verse” became a password for my e-mail server. Think about it – they want passwords to be strong, to include an upper-case letter, a lower-case letter, a number, and a special character. Here it is: “Psalm 84-11b”. Another one that I’ve used is “Romans 3:23”. These “chapter and verse” Bible citations make good passwords and help you to recall that verse every time you type your password.

Almost every time that I read of these pilgrimages to the Temple at Jerusalem (vv. 5-7), I think of my own trips to church, how much I enjoy the Eucharistic service, the music, being with God’s people. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be on Sunday morning: How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes faints for the courts of the LORD… (vv. 1-2a).

Psalm 83

Where possible I like to put these psalms into their historical settings. Today’s Psalm 83 fits best with II Chronicles 20, where we see Moab, Ammon, and Edom (vv. 6-7) all gathered against Israel, with Assyria mentioned only as an ally (v. 8), not the powerful foe that destroyed the Northern Kingdom. Often we see I and II Chronicles retelling the events of I and II Kings, but there is no account of the battle of II Chronicles 20 in the Kings writings.

I was intrigued by verse 2: For behold, Your enemies make an uproar; those who hate You have raised their heads. The psalmist makes the enemies of Israel out to be God’s enemies also. Maybe that’s the case; all of these nations have their own gods that they worship; they see victory or defeat as the result of their gods acting in strength or weakness, so they may well have hated the God of Israel. But I tend to think of them hating the nation Israel, not the God of Israel. In present-day terms, it’s like Moslem extremists hating our Christian God, when in reality (it seems to me) they hate our American culture and all that they see as evil. Not a serious point to ponder, but an intriguing point to me…

Psalm 82

At first glance, this is quite confusing, especially depending on the translation you are using. Does verse 1 have “gods” or “rulers”? If “rulers”, we can imagine that the psalmist is speaking of either Israel’s leaders or the leaders in the surrounding nations. If “gods”, we can imagine God calling an assembly in the heavens; that reference would most likely be to external leaders, not to Israel’s own. In either case, God has convened a group of these leaders/gods/rulers and He is condemning them. Their wrong deeds are listed in verses 2-4. As we’ve seen over and over again, God has a deep concern for the poor and the needy, the destitute and the weak. I wonder what he would say to us – as individuals or as a congregation?

Psalm 81

An unusual psalm… I don’t recall many (any?) psalms where we see a prophet, possibly a Levite, quoting the Lord as He speaks directly to His people (vv. 6-16). Carol and I were part of a church back in Northern Virginia where we would occasionally hear someone speak up in a prophetic voice with (or as if) the Lord were speaking directly through him or her. It’s a strange sense to hear those words spoken. Surprisingly, essentially the psalmist says the same thing: I hear a language I had not known (v. 5a).

Herein the Lord is simply calling His people to repentance. He has delivered them from their difficulties; now all He wants is obedience and devotion to Him alone.

Today’s verses for reflection: But My people did not listen to My voice… So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. (vv. 11a, 12) So often I’ve gone off on my own – writing, saying, or doing something without praying about it in advance. And too often I give myself credit for what good that I have done – or more truthfully, what good the Lord has done through me. Even now as I work on healing and recuperation, I often hear from the medical personnel that I am healing very well, far better than most open-heart patients. And while I am certainly thankful for this outcome, I have learned to reply that the Lord has built me in such a way that my recovery can be quick and strong. That is, it’s not me – it’s Him at work in me. I need to bring that truth into all aspects of my life.

Psalm 80

First, a few clarifications. We should have no problem following the vine metaphor that the psalmist uses in verses 8 to 16 – Israel being transplanted from Egypt to the Promised Land and taking control of that entire area during David’s and Solomon’s reigns. So within that metaphor, the sea refers to the Mediterranean and the River, most likely to the Euphrates (v. 11).

Second, the three tribes mentioned – Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh (v. 2) – are all Northern Kingdom tribes. In fact, they are the Northern Kingdom tribes that are most near to Jerusalem. Where the psalmist is praying for deliverance for them (stir up Your might and come to save us…, v. 2a), it may be that they are under attack by the Assyrians, who later would defeat them and carry them away into exile.

Verse 18a stuck out for me: Then we shall not turn back from You… I noticed this verse because the RSV translates it, …we will never turn back… “Never”, like “always” is seldom a good term for us to use in our conversations with the Lord. Unfortunately, we know that both the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom tribes regularly turned their backs on the Lord. And we are no different. We may strive for “never” or “always”, but chances are, we will never get there. Only God is “never” and “always”; He is eternally so! GLORY!

Happy August, y’all!! August??!! Already?? Yeah…

Psalm 79

The temple has been destroyed and Jerusalem is in ruins. The Israelites were taken into exile to Babylon in 587 BC; this psalm could very possibly have been written from Babylon during that exile.

A couple of items to note. There are a number of verses in this psalm where the writer calls for vengeance to be delivered to Israel’s enemies (vv. 6, 10, 12), but God did not answer that request. In fact, Babylon was never defeated by Israel; instead in a major reversal, the Israelites were allowed to return home peacefully during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. God is not a god of revenge. As I said yesterday, He will act in His time.

Another verse; Do not remember against us our former iniquities… (v. 8a, ESV). The NASB translates “former iniquities” as “the iniquities of our forefathers”. That NASB translation is what struck me. The psalmist seems to be saying that he and his contemporaries are innocent, it was their ancestors who sinned and brought on this great desolation. No doubt we can learn from both translations. We have inherited the benefits and the costs from those who have gone before us, but we are also responsible for all that we have done in our own lives. We should never blame others for our present circumstances. God knows where we are. We need to move on: Your will be done!” Wait and pray. Pray and wait.