Psalms 28-29

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalm 28. …who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. (v. 3b) These words struck me today, by way of condemnation! So often I find myself in two-faced conversation – speaking words and listening to what is being said while my mind is way off somewhere else – somewhere else that I needed to be or something else that I wanted to do. Yes, I have a hearing problem and I tend to tune out when I am not hearing well. But that does not excuse me in two-person conversation! By the way, verse 3a, the lead-in to the half-verse that I quoted above, tells us that David is speaking of the wicked … the workers of evil. Ouch!!

Psalm 29. It is easy for us to put ourselves into this Psalm! Sitting on a covered porch during a summer rain while lightning flashes and thunder roars – we see God’s power and majesty firsthand! The voice of the LORD (seven times in this Psalm) … and in His temple all cry, “Glory!” (v. 9b). GLORY!!

Blessings!

Psalm 27

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalm 27. David had two primary (personal) enemies in his life – first it was Saul trying to kill him, then it was his son Absalom trying to take his throne. In addition, when David was king surrounding nations were constantly doing battle with Israel. So as I read the psalms and David speaks of his enemies I have some idea what he might be dealing with.

However, for myself it’s often difficult for me to put myself “into the story”. I’ve had difficulties and failures, but not so many “enemies”. To connect with the Psalm I have to look at my adverse situations as my enemies, whether it’s work issues, finances, personal relationships, or whatever. Therein the Lord has been my deliverance time and time again – situations that I will save for our RTB gathering this Sunday. When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh … my heart will not fear. For on the day of trouble … He will lift me up on a rock. (vv. 2a, 3b, 5 NASB)

So if your enemies are “situational difficulties” like mine, take heart and re-read Psalm 27!

Blessings!

Psalm 26

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalm 26. Integrity. In the past: …for I have walked in my integrity… (v. 1b) And in the future: …I shall walk in my integrity… (v. 11a) In my life, an incident from graduate school comes to mind. One of my major professors asked me to help him with something – something that I felt was not right, and I turned him down. Then he lightened his request a bit, but I turned him down again. We parted and, to his credit, he did not hold it against me. He was not one of those hypocrites, evildoers, the wicked (vv. 4-5) that David was claiming to avoid. But my integrity from back then comes to mind here, even a small item from some 40+ years ago. Doing the right thing, in spite of the consequences. I was fortunate, indeed, to be writing under an honorable man. [NOTE: Later he saved me from another professor’s questioning during my dissertation defense!]

Many times I have asked us to put ourselves “into the story”. That might be easier done with Acts, where we see Peter, Paul, and others actively serving the Lord in their evangelistic ministries. But we also need to do that with the Psalms – putting David’s words onto our lips – confession, repentance, petitions, praise. Calling to mind where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. Integrity: I have walked; I shall walk.

Blessings!

Psalm 25

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalm 25. Today I noticed that Psalm 25 has 22 verses. We will see 22 verses again with Psalm 33 and Psalm 34 a couple of months down the road, then with Psalm 119 much later. Psalm 119 actually has 176 verses, which is 8 sections with 22 verses each. When we see a Psalm with 22 verses, it is typically the case that each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which contains 22 letters. These Psalms are known as “alphabetic acrostics”; sometimes the verses begin alphabetically in order while other times the letters are scrambled, but each is used. So today is our first alphabetic acrostic.

The word “shame” popped out to me today – early in verses 2 and 3, then later in verse 20. So if David begins and ends this Psalm with shame, it must be the case that the entire Psalm somehow reflects shame. The beginning has three actors reflecting and not reflecting shame – David, himself, let me not be put to shame (v. 2b); those who seek the Lord, none who wait for You shall be put to shame (v. 3a); and the “wantonly treacherous, they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous (v. 3b). His concluding shame verse brings it back to himself.

David speaks to himself in verses 4 and 5, Make me to know Your ways, O LORD; then to the Lord in verses 6 and 7, Remember your mercy, O LORD, and Your steadfast love…; then to all his readers in verses 8-10 and 12-15, Good and upright is the LORD… The one interruption is this last group of verses, I think, is what is causing David shame: For Your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (v. 11) David is feeling guilty before the Lord and is ashamed of who he is or what he has done. He is simply acknowledging that before the Lord. It has left him lonely and afflicted (v. 16) and he is seeking forgiveness (v. 18).

What’s interesting to me is that David is not being publicly shamed – not yet! It is his own internal feelings that trouble him, that he is somehow wrong with the Lord. And I sense that he is afraid that his inner turmoil will show itself to those around him, to his enemies (vv. 2b, 19-20). He does not want to be put to shame (vv. 2, 20) before those enemies, and only by cleansing his soul and seeking forgiveness will he be put right before God. Confession, forgiveness, restoration. End of shame.

Blessings!

Psalms 23-24

Dear RTB’ers,

Those of you who stay caught up with our readings, especially those of you who read early in the morning possibly noticed that yesterday’s Psalm reading at church was almost exactly our own daily reading. We read Psalm 22:22-31; at church it was Psalm 22:23-31, one verse off. I was able to enjoy the Psalm reading at church in a very different way than usual, having posted on it already that morning. Doesn’t happen often, but when it does…! Sweet!!

Psalm 23, the Good Shepherd, a favorite, one we all know, one that many of us can quote by heart, a standard for children’s storybooks and Sunday School. Surely Jesus was reflecting back to this Psalm in John 10:1-16. 

Psalm 24. Bible scholars maintain that David wrote this Psalm in conjunction with him bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem. See II Samuel 6 for that history and especially tying that history into verses 7-10 in this Psalm. Back in my post in 2022 I linked these last four verses to Palm Sunday, to Jesus’ own triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Those four verses fit His entrance really well, as we know Him today. However, the Palm Sunday crowds were probably not singing Psalm 24 just yet. They had not yet raised His stature to that level! But we today can see our King of Glory entering that Holy City. To begin His last week on Earth…

Blessings!

Psalm 22:22-31                                        

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalm 22, continued. Yesterday’s reading had so many Crucifixion references – the Gospels, the “Stations of the Cross”, Good Friday – that it’s easy to forget that David was writing this Psalm in his own time, that he was the one feeling a disconnect between him and his God, that he was being pursued. He had closed yesterday’s reading with four pleas: …O LORD, do not be far off! … come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul … Save me …! (vv. 19-21a) Yet with those pleas, David remained confident of his deliverance: You have rescued me… (v. 21b)

Then today’s reading is all about praise! Praise from every corner of the earth! David begins, I will tell of Your name to my brothers… (v. 22a). And then he lists those peoples who will praise Him: You who fear the LORD… All you offspring of Jacob… those who fear Him… the afflicted… those who seek Him… All the ends of the earth… all the families of the nations… All the prosperous of the earth… all who go down to the dust… even the one who could not keep himself alive… And finally, posterity … the coming generation… to a people yet unborn… That’s us, folks. We are those people yet unborn!

What’s the message? …that He has done it. (v. 31b) Done “it”? Done what? For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and He has not hidden His face from him, but has heard, when he cried to Him. (v. 24) Even we yet unborn will be delivered from our afflictions: He has not hidden His face from him, but has heard, when he cried to Him. When we cry to Him…!

Blessings!

Psalm 22:1-21

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalm 22. My Study Bible notes that Psalm 22 is the most oft-quoted psalm in the New Testament, especially at Jesus’ Crucifixion in Matthew and John. For example, My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? (v. 1); “He trusts in the LORD; let Him deliver him…”(v. 8a); They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. (v. 18) It would be a good exercise for us to read those Crucifixion accounts in Matthew 27:33-56 and John 19:16-30 to see Psalm 22 directly related to Jesus’ death.

Two other verses from Psalm 22 are from my childhood, from the “Stations of the Cross”, which we had every Wednesday evening during Lent: But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people… (v. 6) and They have pierced My hands and feet, I can number all My bones. (vv. 16-17a)

A somber reading today…

Blessings!

Psalms 20-21

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalms 20-21 together are a bit confusing. As I first read Psalm 20, I read it as David praying for his men – and by association, for us. So I silently claimed these first five verses for myself (and us!). Then verse 6 points to David, “the anointed”, with verse 9a locking in that acclimation: O LORD, save the king! Then the first five verses, re-read, point also to David. Ah well. Still, I claimed them for myself and us!! Whatever blessings the Lord has for David, I’m sure that He has them for us also! [NOTE: Looking back at my 2022 post, I also claimed those verses for myself and Carol! 😊!]

Then, reading Psalm 21, my Study Bible clearly tied Psalms 20 and 21 together, with the people and the priests praying for David in both Psalms. The tone of the Psalm 21 is set in the first verse: LORD, in Your strength the king will be glad, and in Your salvation how greatly he will rejoice! This theme then continues through verse 7. But beginning in the 8^th verse, I saw the “you” pronouns as referring to the Lord (deific pronouns are not capitalized in the ESV): your enemies (v. 8a); those who hate you (v. 8b); your anger (v. 9a). Nor were they capitalized in the NASB, which goes against my seeing those verses as meaning the Lord. Then beginning in verse 10 and continuing, the NASB has the “you” pronouns capitalized. So, in the end and with the recognition that I am not a Bible scholar, I’ll still read verses 8 and 9 as referring to the Lord and His enemies. [As an aside (or actually strengthening my comments), in 2022 Kathy H. posted the following comments: “This part of the Psalm brings to mind Romans 1:30,31,32 …haters of God…worthy of death… And Romans 8:22, For we know that the whole of creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. It is not an easy thing to live in this world with people indifferent to God and very difficult with haters of God.”] Thank you, Kathy. Two of us can be wrong together!!

What did I say at the outset? Confusing!!

Blessings!

Psalm 19

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalm 19. A late morning. After eleven days of travel and a midnight arrival, Carol and I slept in. Back on schedule tomorrow.

One short psalm today. The first six verses, the heavens, especially the sun reflecting the glory of God – …there is nothing hidden…! I am reminded of Paul’s charge against …all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men… 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, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18b-20) There is nothing hidden…!

Law, testimony, precepts, commandment, judgments (rules)… (vv. 7-9). I’ll have something to say about these “synonyms” when we get to Psalm 119.

Today’s closing: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Have we heard those words before? Like before half of the sermons you have heard on Sunday mornings…!! Now you know where the preacher’s prayer comes from!

Blessings!

Psalm 18:31-50

Dear RTB’ers,

Psalm 18, the rest of the Psalm – David’s enemies are defeated, he is king!

When psalms are long and broken down into smaller sections, it is often good to read through the whole psalm to get the full picture. [Except for Psalm 119…!!] Psalm 18 is like that. Just reading yesterday, we saw that the Lord had delivered David from his enemies – and that was true. But reading today we see that David was not only delivered (as he had been when he escaped from Saul), plucked from danger, as it were, but that God has given him a mighty victory over those enemies: I pursued my enemies and overtook them…(v. 37a); …those who hated me I destroyed (v. 40b); …they cried to the LORD, but He did not answer them (v. 41b); I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet. (v. 38)

Not only is David’s military victory complete, but he is exalted as king. …You made me the head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me.(v. 43b) We get the sense that this Psalm is not just about David escaping from Saul, but more likely about his victory over Absalom and his kingship over a united Israel. But David knows that it’s not the might of his army that has won the battle, but the Lord delivering him: …God who … subdued peoples under me, Who rescued me from my enemies; yes, You exalted me above those who rose against me; You delivered me… (vv. 47-48a). And for this, David is thankful and God is worthy of his praise, For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing to your name. (v. 49) David, his army, his faith, his God. And who’s on our team…?

Blessings!