Psalm 15

For the first time in many days we don’t have David or any other psalmist crying out about his enemies or asking God for His deliverance. Today’s psalm is about “the righteous” (though they are not exactly named as such). I like to consider myself as among “the righteous”, along with the rest of us RTB’ers and all those with whom we’ll worship at church together this morning. But then as I do that, I look at the standards asked of those who are actively seeking God – verses 2 through 5. And I see myself falling short, especially a long-known difficulty in my heart of being overly judgmental. Somehow I weave that into “slander” or “reproach” (think, gossip…) from verse 3. And I was touched by Jim’s “confession” yesterday of being “stupid” or even “evil”. We know that we all fall short: “There is none who does good, not even one” from yesterday’s psalm.

Then I look further and evaluate myself on other aspects of today’s psalm, asking myself if I am moving toward those things that David considers good. My eternally optimistic self seems to always find sunshine peeking through clouds of gloom. But each of us should also look to where we are growing in those things “good”, confessing our shortcomings and looking beyond our faults to the One who forgives us and knows that we fall short. Later we will read in Job 19:25, “I know that my Redeemer lives…” – not only that He lives, but that He also loves me/you/us, eternally. Hold that thought…!

Psalm 14

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who … do not call upon the LORD? (v. 4) David is speaking these first words sarcastically, I think, Have they no knowledge…? Surely everyone has knowledge of God! Paul says this in Romans 1:19-22, For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools… I’ve often said that we can look around us at the everyday, or at the macro (the skies), or at the micro (our cellular structure) and see God’s glory revealed. Yet people persist in their unbelief. Personally, I don’t think they’re “fools”. I think they are either stubborn or excessively prideful, unwilling to yield themselves to the One who created them. But also, I can look in a mirror and see a “fool”, one who is stubborn and excessively prideful. Probably that’s why I see it in others…

Psalm 13

Yesterday I put my New King James Version (NKJV) Chronological Study Bible on the shelf and grabbed my old Revised Standard Version (RSV). I’ve been using the NKJV many years; one thing I like in particular with this translation is capitalized deific pronouns and found myself disappointed that the RSV chose not to do that. (There are reasons for that – I’ll discuss at another time.) So I brought my NKJV back off the shelf and now I’ve got both the NKJV and the RSV, along with my NASB and our church’s ESV.

So this morning as I picked up that RSV bible and saw how torn the cover and binding were, I realized that it was January 1972, fifty years ago this month that I bought this bible at the beginning of my first semester back to college after a five-year lapse. It was a required textbook for a New Testament class that I was taking to fulfill a Humanities requirement. Then the Old Testament course followed in the fall semester. And it was because of this RSV bible that I met Jim, a second-semester freshman who was to lead me to the Lord some three-and-a-half years later. I am again intrigued at how the Lord leads in our lives! At a public institution (U. Illinois) a bible sequence was offered as an alternative to other sequences. I was to read Moses and Isaiah and Jesus and Matthew instead of Cicero, Shakespeare, Hawthorne and others. GLORY!

As for today’s Psalm 13: How long??!! David begins four questions in the first two verses with “How long…?”. It strikes me that he was a bit exasperated at the Lord not delivering him from his difficulties and making him endure them day after day, week after week, month after month…!!! But always faithful, he is confident of the Lord working in his life and rejoices in that thought in the last two verses: …my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. (v. 5b) So my heart goes to things for which Carol and I have been praying for a long time, praying, we believe, “in God’s will”. But “how long”? How long, Lord? How long?

Psalm 12

I recall John saying a few days ago, essentially, that the psalms are timeless. I surely see that in today’s reading: You, O LORD, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever. On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man. (vv. 7-8) David is asking to be guarded …from this generation forever. He goes on to speak of the wicked and of vileness being exalted. Again I think of Hollywood – television and the movies! Yes, wickedness IS exalted. We do need to be guarded from this generation.

Psalm 11

I really hope that each of you has a study Bible with notes that can help your understanding of the Psalms. I regularly look to my two or three study Bibles for guidance and understanding. Such was the case today, and punctuation is the key. David is writing this Psalm; in the first verse “you” is not capitalized in any translation that I read, so David is speaking to someone else – individual or group. Then beginning in verse 1b we have quotation marks around David’s speech until the end of verse 3. Putting it all together, it seems clear to me that David is speaking to his followers who want him to flee from imminent danger, to go hide in the mountains. But David’s confidence in the Lord shows up in the rest of the Psalm. He knows that he may be getting tested (see verse 5), but he also knows that he is among the righteous and that the Lord is on his side.

So David occasionally gets tested; soon we’ll be reading Job where Job endures some serious testing; and last year we read of Jesus being tested – initially in the wilderness, then regularly by the scribes and Pharisees, then finally that ultimate test that He faced in the Garden of Gethsemane. What do we learn from all that? We are not immune from testing! How we respond is the key. Look at David’s immediate response to those who are suggesting flight: The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven; His eyes see, His eyelids test the children of man. (v. 4) Our Lord knows everything that is going on in our lives. Rest. Pray. Wait.

Psalm 10

Psalm 10 has no title; it’s the only Psalm between #3 and #32 that has no title. That’s another reason why scholars think that Psalm 9 and Psalm 10 may have together been one complete Psalm. Small item.

The focus on the wicked and his/her/their deeds in verses 2 through 11 (plus other verses) is strange in that most of us don’t see these people or their deeds in our everyday lives. We read articles in the newspapers and magazines. We see horrible behaviors – violence, lust, corruption, etc. – in movies and on television. But we tend not to see these behaviors ourselves unless our jobs or our volunteerism take us there. So I’m wondering how much the psalmists actually saw these people and their behaviors. Presumably King David, because of his position had evildoers in and around his throne, although certainly not of his making or his desire! A famous proverb from 1887 says that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (https://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/lord-acton-writes-to-bishop-creighton-that-the-same-moral-standards-should-be-applied-to-all-men-political-and-religious-leaders-included-especially-since-power-tends-to-corrupt-and-absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely-1887) So I’m wondering how much evil and corruption the “average Jew” saw back in David’s time – and on down through the ages. Did they see the nearby poor and the oppressed being mistreated by those who had power over them?

Then I ask again about ourselves, that maybe we are not near enough to power-holders to see more evil deeds? But what about in the church? One of the blessings of our Anglican tradition is oversight, that our deacons, priests, and bishops all submit to an ecclesiastical oversight, a “covering”, if you will. It’s what that breakaway group from St. John’s sought in 2004 as they became St. Andrew’s. They immediately looked for ecclesiastical covering and found it in Uganda. That blessed relationship has persisted now for 17 years! It’s what those of us handling the church finances seek – always being transparent and having others looking over our shoulders. It’s what we all need in our daily lives: …confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. (James 5:16)

The psalmist closes this Psalm with his consistent confidence in the Lord’s working: O LORD, You hear the desire of the afflicted; You will strengthen their heart; You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. (vv. 19-20)

Psalm 9:11-20

Twice today the psalmist speaks of the Lord remembering the poor, the needy, and the afflicted: …He does not forget the cry of the afflicted (v. 12b) and For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. (v. 18). I agree with the psalmist that the Lord remembers the poor, the needy, the afflicted. But my difficulty is with His people and their remembering – or not remembering – the poor, the needy, the afflicted.

There is huge income inequality among people in the industrial nations and between the industrial nations and the lesser developed peoples; wealth inequality is even more dramatic! We have a poverty rate in the United States of 13.4 percent, one in every 7.5 people living in poverty. Almost one-third of those living in poverty are children under the age of 18 – and they can’t do anything about it! Global poverty is even worse; I’ll not trouble you with those statistics. I’m encouraged that the Lord remembers the poor, the needy, the afflicted. I’m troubled that the rest of us don’t do more. But I don’t have any reasonable answers short of wholesale national and global changes.

The nations have sunk in the pit that they made… (v. 15a) Most of us will read this verse as referring to the “heathen” nations surrounding and challenging Israel. What if the psalmist some 3000 years down the road is referring to us, that we are the nation that will sink into the pit that we have made?

My apologies for such a sobering post.

Psalm 9:1-10

Today is the first day that we are breaking up a longer Psalm into two reading days. I’ve been using a breakpoint of 18 to 20 verses; for the most part any Psalm at that length or longer I’ve split into shorter sections and more reading days. Naturally you can read the entire Psalm through if you wish, but for posting my suggestion is that we focus on those verses assigned for that day. When I’ve split a Psalm, I’ve tried to find a break where there was a clear change in the tone of the Psalm. I see that today in Psalm 9 between verses 10 and 11.

Speaking of splitting, my Study Bible noted that Psalms 9 and 10 may have originally been one Psalm, but that they were split into two and we have them as they are today. They provide a number of arguments for that position; for me the most interesting is that Psalm 9 tends to refer to nations against Israel as the “bad guys” (see “nations” in Ps 9:5, 15, 17, 19, 20) while Psalm 10 seems to have individuals within the Lord’s chosen people as “the wicked (and evildoer)” (see Ps 10:2, 3, 4, 13, 15). Although “wicked” appears three times in Psalm 9 (vv. 5, 16, 17), in two of those occasions there is clear reference back to “nations”.

My thought for the day is verse 10: And those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. We regularly pray for ourselves and others, especially when sickness or adversity comes our way, but we also consistently pray, “Your will be done.” And when prayers are not answered in the way we have prayed, even when the polar opposite for what we have prayed occurs, (ideally) we still say “Thank You” and move on. Faithful people in the USA in the last two presidential elections have been on both sides of their prayers for help for their candidate or deliverance from the other. But in the end we all say “Your will be done.” We have to put our trust in the Lord; He has not forsaken us!

Psalm 8

No doubt Psalm 23 is the favorite for millions, maybe even billions of Christians worldwide, but inexperienced and unknowledgeable as I am in the Psalms, today’s reading, Psalm 8 is my favorite. It struck me early in my Bible reading and continues each time I read it anew.

David begins by ascribing glory and majesty to his (and our) Lord (vv. 1-2) and closes with that same thought (v. 9). Then he reviews the magnitude of the heavens and sees mankind as such a small bit of God’s creation. But God looks down on this small bit of His creation, each and every one of His created human beings and has …crowned him with glory and honor… (v. 5b) and set him above everything else in all creation.

And if all that is not awesome in itself, because of His love for all of humanity and to rescue His human creation from the depths of their sin, He sent Jesus to die for us and His Holy Spirit to live in each and every one of us – each and every one of us, personally! …what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? (v. 4) David, living a thousand years before Jesus had some knowledge of, some feeling for God’s love for him. But he did not know what we know from our perspective this side of the cross. God loves you, God loves me, eternally!

Psalm 7

I was struck today by the word “righteous(ness)”. The psalmist uses this word five times in today’s reading (vv. 8, 9, 11, 17). In his first use of this word he ascribes righteousness to himself; in the second he applies it to all those who turn away from wickedness, and in the last three uses he applies righteousness to God. I recall last year when we discussed righteousness in the epistles, especially Paul in Romans 1:17 citing Habakkuk 2:4, “The righteous shall live by faith…” and in Romans 3:10 citing Psalm 14:3, “There is none righteous, not even one.” I think we would all agree that there is only One who is fully righteous, God Himself, so any use of “righteous” with application to any earthly being must necessarily reflect a work in progress, not something accomplished. I’m thankful that I live among and worship with people who are “in progress”!

Verse 6 is interesting: Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me… God never sleeps. However, even with this knowledge our psalmist is asking God to (1) Arise, (2) lift yourself up, and (3) awake! Should this repetition plea reflect the intensity of our own prayers? We would surely not be ordering God around, but would He be more responsive to a persistent request “in His will”? I wonder…