Psalm 111

Today we begin a week of “Hallelujah” psalms – Psalms 111-118. You may recall way back when, as we were first reading the Psalms that so many of the Psalms were laments, often written by David during his many trials. Now we’re nearing the end of the Psalter, and we will be seeing many more praise-and-thanksgiving Psalms. It’ll be a good way to end our year’s reading.

Many of the praise Psalms that we have seen recently have focused on Creation, on the beauty and power of God’s work in speaking our Universe into existence. Today’s Psalm focuses more on what God has done specifically for His people. The Psalm mentions two items in particular, providing them food (v. 5) and bringing them deliverance from their enemies (v. 9). His works are described as full of splendor and majesty (v. 3), powerful (v. 6), and faithful and just (v. 7). This praise for His works is then followed by praise for His precepts – His rules, His commandments. They are trustworthy (v. 7) and eternal (v. 8), to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness… (v. 8).

Where do we stand with respect to His works in our lives and His commandments for us going forth? Spend some time right now recalling His works in your life. You will end up praising and thanking Him for all that He has done.

Psalm 110

The first verse has always been confusing to me. In a post from years past (which I cannot find) I attempted to shed some light on it, mostly to help my own understanding, but it still remains confusing. The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” (v. 1) My Study Bible noted that long before Jesus’ birth the Jews considered this verse to be Messianic, that “my Lord” and the “your” pronouns referred to the coming Messiah. The NASB even has the “your” pronouns capitalized.

This first clarification has to do with the first two words, “The LORD”. Clearly this reference is to God. There is only One; there is no other “The LORD”. So we can rewrite the beginning of this verse as God says to my Lord … Then we ask ourselves, who is “my Lord”? As noted above, Jews believed this verse to relate to their coming Messiah.

My Study Bible suggested something new to me. Suppose “my Lord” and the “your” pronouns refer to David’s son, Solomon – at the point where David was stepping aside and turning the kingdom over to him. (See I Kings 1:28-40.) Then Solomon would indeed (to David) be “my Lord”. So we can again rewrite the verse as God says to Solomon… Furthermore, this Study Bible suggested that this verse could have been used as a coronation verse for all later kings in David’s line. If so, then finally the most important of these “kings” in David’s line is Jesus, whom many (most?) Christian scholars believe this verse to have referenced as the coming Messiah.

If you find yourself confused with this verse, take heart. Greater minds than ours have pondered these words. Jesus knew of the confusion that this verse created; He confounded the Pharisees by challenging them to explain “my Lord” to Him. See Matthew 22:41-45, a really fun read if this verse confuses you!!

Psalm 109:21-31

John is correct in his comment yesterday that we don’t throw out Scripture simply because we don’t like (or don’t understand) what it says. Thankfully, for the most part we tend to embrace Scripture because it does reveal Truth to us. But for those difficult passages I simply claim “blessed ignorance” and move on.

Today’s passage is one that we can embrace, one to which we can easily relate. We’ve all been in situations where we need God’s help, where we pray to Him for guidance, strength, and deliverance. We acknowledge our weaknesses in those times (vv. 22-24) and ask for prayer from our family and friends. And when we are confident in the Lord’s work in those situations, when we can truly say, “Your will be done…”, then we can thank Him for His answer to our prayer before we see the outcome.

Given all that, the verse that stood out for me today was verse 27: Let them know that this is Your hand; You, O LORD, have done it! All too often I try to work things out on my own and think of prayer only as a last resort. But if I can reset my focus early and seek the Lord beforehand, then I can trust in Him more fully and see more clearly His hand in that outcome. I can know that the answer to that difficult situation will be God-ordained, not the result of my own effort. Yes, my effort is still involved, but only in my doing His will in working it out: Your hand; You, O LORD, have done it!

Psalm 109:1-20

I wonder if David had a particular person in mind in today’s Psalm, for whom he has nothing good to say. He goes back and forth between “he” and “they”. However, strangely, as he is attacking this person (or these people), most of today’s verses have to do with the evil that David wishes to be put upon them. But what have they actually done? Only three things: …speaking against me with lying tongues… (v. 2); he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted, to put them to death… (v. 16); and he loved to curse [and] did not delight in blessing…(v. 17). Now granted, putting people to death (v. 16) is evil, but what struck me most in today’s reading was the vengeance that David wished upon his enemies.

Looking ahead to the New Testament we see Jesus with a different perspective: But I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44) We can’t have it both ways. Although “love” may be too much for us, let’s try to pray for our enemies – or for those for whom we harbor bad will. That would be a good beginning.

Psalm 108

For the first time in almost two weeks we are reading a short Psalm in its entirety instead of having the Psalm broken down into readings over a few days. Surprisingly, however, today’s Psalm could easily be split into two parts, 1-5 and 6-13. Those first few verses, in particular, constitute a song well known to some of us. It’s almost impossible to read those verses as text without singing the lyrics! An online search said that this song in the Anglican Hymnal 1982, but we don’t have that book here and I could not find it online to verify that claim. Carol and I know these verses as sung by Maranatha Music.

Give us help against the enemy, for deliverance by man is worthless. (v. 12, NASB) Here David is writing about Israel’s battles against foreign foes, but we can easily apply these words to our everyday lives. All too often we strive in our own efforts, using our own guidance, our own resources to solve a difficult problem or to work out a difficult situation. Our mantra seems to be, “When all else fails, pray!” God is ever at hand waiting to guide us. We have but to ask.

Psalm 107:33-43

Continuing in Psalm 107… Whatever the Lord wills to do, He does. Rivers into desert (v. 33) and desert into pools of water (v. 35); fruitful land into a salty waste (v. 34) and parched land into springs of water (v. 35) – He is the Creator of the Universe, all has come into being through Him; He simply spoke and His will appeared in solid form. If He can create everything out of nothing, if He can undo anything that He has done and can re-do whatever He has undone, if He can do all things by simply speaking that they be done, then who are we to deny His work in our lives??!! How can we imagine ourselves to have the wisdom to do anything without His guidance? How can He not be Lord of our lives? How can we not seek Him daily, by the hour, by the minute in all that we do? Seek Him, folks!!

Psalm 107:17-32

Continuing in Psalm 107… The psalmist continues his narrative of people in various situations living in terror, distress, difficulties, then reaching out to the Lord and His delivering them. Yesterday we had desert wanderers and prisoners. Today we have sailors on ships and “fools through their sinful ways” (v. 17).

I’ve never sailed much nor spent much desert time nor been in prison, but I can relate to those fools in their sinful ways – suffering affliction and crying out to the Lord in my distress. And I can surely relate to the Lord’s deliverance. How could I be where I am today without His deliverance, His forgiveness, His guidance, His love?! All the psalmist asks is that we …thank the LORD for His steadfast love… and that we …offer sacrifices of thanksgiving… (vv. 21, 22). That’s not much to ask!

Psalm 107:1-16

The calendar has turned over into a new month, which means that I am back to “first comments”. Thank you, John, for your efforts on our behalf – in opening the Psalms to us the past few days, shedding light on verses and passages that we had not considered. Well done!

So now, October – I daresay my favorite month of the year. And as we begin a new month, you may have noticed at the beginning of today’s reading that we also begin a new “Book” in the Psalter, “Book Five”, the last “Book” in the Psalter. What’s that all about? For reasons unknown to us and to Biblical scholars throughout the ages the Psalms were broken down years ago into five “Books”. The first “Book” ended at Psalm 41, the second at Psalm 72, the third at Psalm 89, and the fourth at Psalm 106. There is no pure and simple accounting for how the Psalms are organized or how the “Books” were decided, but it’s what we have today. As we begin Book Five it’s interesting to note that Book 5 contains the longest Psalm in the Psalter, Psalm 119 at 176 verses, and the shortest Psalm, Psalm 117 two Psalms earlier at only two verses. Interesting. So today we begin Book Five.

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. (vv. 6-7) As we have seen before, some Psalms are straightforward in their application to particular events or times in Israel’s history, while others are intentionally general, possibly written for all time, or lost to us in their historical context. So it is with today’s Psalm 107 and these verses in particular. It could easily be read in the context of Israel returning to Jerusalem from its Babylonian exile. Or it could be read as one sinner repenting and turning back to God, possibly returning to the Temple to ask God’s mercy and to offer sacrifices through the Levitical priests.

But I saw a very different application – in the very founding of St. Andrew’s. We are all blessed from those 80 or so people who had the courage to leave St. John’s and call David Brannen as their Rector. But also in those early days of St. Andrew’s founding people were coming from “everywhere” to worship at this new “faithful” church. They came from Shelbyville in the west, from Frankfort and Georgetown in the north, from Winchester and Richmond in the east, and from Danville and Harrodsburg in the south. For seven years Carol and I traveled 45 minutes to get here, until we finally moved 18 minutes away in 2015. We were all crying to the Lord, seeking to worship Him in fellowship with His faithful people. And we are still doing that today – people continue to make the journey from many miles distant to worship at St. Andrew’s. As we move forward as a St. Andrew’s body, seeking a new vision for our church, for this new time in which we find ourselves, let’s remember to pray regularly for our leadership – for Ben and the staff and vestry – and for all of us as we seek the Lord’s will for St. Andrew’s. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death… Let them thank the LORD for His steadfast love… (vv. 14a, 15a)

Psalm 106:34-48

Today we see one of the most consequential mistakes of ancient Israel: their disobedience in not completely driving out the Canaanites from the Promised Land. As with the incident at Peor, which we saw yesterday, the result was cultic syncretism with its attendant idolatry and abhorrent practices. I won’t bother giving specific references here, because the problem runs throughout the Old Testament. Time and again the people stray from the LORD, and time and again He both warns them and rescues them, but their continued disobedience leads to exile — the Northern Kingdom to Assyria (never to return), and the Southern Kingdom to Babylon.

As we have seen, we tend to be very much like ancient Israel in our own faithlessness, and we, too, may struggle to stand against the ways of the world. But unlike ancient Israel, we are here now, and in the power of the Holy Spirit we can choose to repent and follow the Lord today.

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One more thing…

They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons;
they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was polluted with blood.
Thus they became unclean by their acts,
and played the whore in their deeds.

Psalm 106:37-39

Tell me, what significant difference is there between the child sacrifice described here and modern-day abortion?

With the recent “Dobbs” Supreme Court decision and with the upcoming midterm elections, we stand at an extremely important cusp of our nation’s history. We can join with the world around us, or we can stand up for righteousness. We can vote for life, or — like ancient Israel — we can vote for death. Which will it be for you?

Save us, O LORD our God! (v. 47)