Psalm 140

Today’s psalm reads like one of David’s laments and seems particularly out of place, having just recently seen the happiness and joy of all the “songs of ascents”. But in today’s psalm David explains his situation (Ps. 140:1-5), makes his plea for God’s help (Ps. 140:6-8), then suggests to God the retribution needed for these wicked men (Ps. 140:9-11) before closing with his customary confidence in the Lord’s deliverance (Ps. 140:12-13).

As with many laments, I have a hard time relating to enemies or to evil/violent men. I read the news about them – globally, as in Putin’s continuing war against Ukraine or locally, when we read about the latest murder spree. I feel evil most complete when I read about someone doing evil against a young child, as in a recent story of a FedEx driver’s kidnapping and murder of a 7-year-old girl. Horrible! One asks, what kind of evil is this, what kind of man could do that…??!! There is much evil “out there” and we need to pray against it. (I am not dismissing, however, our own “evil within”.)

My Study Bible makes an interesting observation – the physiological nature of David’s choice of words: heart, tongue, lips, hands, feet. Just that, interesting.

Psalm 139:13-24

For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. (v. 13) With these four verses beginning at verse 13, how can anyone who calls him/herself a Christian be in favor of legalized abortion? How does one reinterpret these verses to justify taking a baby’s life? Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (v. 16) How??!!

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my anxious thoughts! And see if there be any hurtful way in me… (NASB, Ps. 139:23-24a) David offers here a good meditation for confession. It’s not just us probing our own thoughts; instead, we are asking God to guide us, to lead us in doing that very thing. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Psalm 139:1-12

Psalm 139, Day 1. In times past I have said that I am not a Psalms person, that there’s not a whole lot that I get, in general, from reading through the Psalms. This year, naturally, has been different and has given me a much greater appreciation for the Psalms. But that notwithstanding, how could anyone, at any level of comprehension, not absolutely love the verses that we read today??!! God knows us, in and out, through and through, completely!! The first six verses are all totally personal, how well God know us. Then the next six verses tell of His omniscience, that He knows everything and that absolutely nothing is hidden from Him. Then another four verses, if you choose to read ahead, tells us of His knowing us at conception, in the womb, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made… (v. 14). What a beautiful set of verses! GLORY!!

Psalm 138

The first of eight psalms “of David” in the next ten days. What can we expect to find in psalms “of David”? Thanksgiving and praise, certainly, and pleas for deliverance from his enemies. We see all that today in Psalm 138. See especially Ps. 138:1-2,7-8.

For though the LORD is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar. (v. 6) At first I thought it strange that David would be writing these words, since he, himself, is also of high stature. But then I remembered his earlier life, his times of running from Saul, and then his later life, when he was challenged by Absalom. Surely he had surrounded himself with people of both high and low stature. In addition, in his earlier life he was a shepherd and he likely knew other shepherds – again, people drawn from lower societal classes. So David is clearly qualified to write these words.

But beyond David’s perspective on the high and the low, this verse speaks of the God of Heaven and Earth having high regard for the lowly; no doubt He also has high regard for the mighty, so long as their might is cloaked in humility. The key in this verse is “haughty”. David is telling us that God “despises” our self-righteous pride. I have written before that pride is humankind’s greatest sin – and I believe it! Our personal pride leaves too little room for God to work in our lives. If we think that we’ve done it all ourselves, then there’s no basis for thanking God and little cause for praising Him. And without thanks and praise, most of our prayers are just “gimme, gimme”! Not good!

Psalm 137

The Babylonian Exile. Two days ago, my first comments on Psalm 136 talked about the Lord’s hand in Israel’s deliverance, perseverance and conquest/victory, mostly in Moses’ days. I first chatted about deliverance (redirection) two days ago, then conquest/victory (success) yesterday. Although today’s Psalm 137 speaks passionately about revenge, truly that Babylonian captivity is also a tale of perseverance. The Israelites were taken from their homeland as captives and held in Babylon for 70 years. During that time they maintained their faith in the One True God, effectively setting up synagogue worship in the absence of the Temple.

So, the question for us is how we persevere during hard times. That is, how do we seek the Lord and His mercy when things aren’t going well for us? My personal “Babylonian Exile” was a five-year period at USDA, non-academic time between TAMU and EKU. It was a depressing time for me, for us, but Carol and I continued to seek the Lord, and He remained faithful. I’ll save the details for a time when we’re together. But for now it would be good for all of us to relive those down times and look for God’s hand, for His faithfulness to us during those times, in spite of our own sense of disappointment or defeat. I can assure you, He was there for you!!

Psalm 136:13-26

Yesterday I wrote about deliverance, couching it also (in lesser terms) as redirection. We see Israel’s deliverance in Ps. 136:10-15,24. From there we see different acts of God with respect to Israel – preservation (Ps. 136:16,22,23,25) and victory / conquest (Ps. 136:17-21). Preservation is best shown in verse 25, …He Who gives food to all flesh… It’s that continuing act of God to provide for our basic needs.

Victory/conquest is something very different from deliverance or preservation. We see it in Israel in their defeat of the kings in the wilderness (Sihon, Og, etc.), then in their conquest of other nations and tribes in their taking the Promised Land. In our present day we are not in the business of conquest, as such, but we do make efforts to move forward from our present, everyday state. We work toward bonuses and salary increases, advances and promotions, entrepreneurial gains, and, eventually, retirement. On another level we also “work” toward family and church advances and improvements, in addition to growing in our own spiritual walk.

But for those “work”-related gains that we have seen (or those for which we are still striving), do we see the Lord’s hand in those successes, those “victories”? Do we actively look back to see His work in our lives back then so that we can thank Him for being there for us? I saw major redirections (that were in fact, advances) in both my M.A. thesis and my Ph.D. dissertation – events and ideas that opened up for me for which I cannot take personal credit. Then in my work world I lived with ups and downs – the ups for which I am (was) eternally grateful and the downs for which I saw the Lord’s constant deliverance to better ends. It’s time for us all to start listing out those recent and past victories and advances, looking with new eyes to see God at work in those events. You will be all the more grateful for where you are today if you see His past work in directing you to how you got there!

Psalm 136:1-12

It is often difficult to break these longer psalms without interrupting the flow. Today is a good example. I broke Psalm 136 at verse 12; verse 13 would also be good; or verse 16. Pick your own break today!

Today’s verses break down into three sections – praising and thanking God for Who He is (Ps. 136:1-3), praising and thanking God for His creation (Ps. 136:4-9), and praising and thanking God for His deliverance from Egypt (Ps. 136:10-12, ff.), also continued tomorrow. We 21^st century Christians can fully relate to these first two sections; then we can either relate to Israel’s deliverance or we can look back to deliverance(s) that we have seen in our own lives. Personally, as many of you well know, I like to look back at God’s work in my life.

I don’t always think of “deliverance” as what happened at this event or that event, but it’s intriguing to go further and ask what might have happened if … if … if…, given that at some point(s) I was redirected – or “delivered”, if you will. Why would an “A” student drop out of college and join the Army? Why would I quit my job at AT&T to go back to school? Why would I choose the academic paths that I followed (Psychology, Labor Relations, Economics)? Why would I choose graduate school at the University of Maryland, some 700 miles east? All these redirects…! I can’t even begin to imagine whatever it was that I was delivered from at each of those points. What if I had not acted on any one of those redirects? Where would I be?

Folks, it truly is good to look back at the Lord’s work in your lives – to thank and praise Him for His many deliverances! Thank you, Lord!

Psalm 135:13-21

O house of Israel, bless the LORD! O house of Aaron, bless the LORD! O house of Levi, bless the LORD! You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD! Blessed be the LORD from Zion, He Who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the LORD! (vv. 19-21) What does it mean to “bless the LORD”? Yesterday afternoon we had our annual cookie baking/decorating party with Christian’s family, the Wolfes. As Richard and I stood together, grandfathers sharing our beautiful granddaughter, Audra, I noted to Richard how blessed we were. I know what it means (within our human sphere) to be blessed, to see “blessed” as an adjective. I’m less certain about what it means to bless one another, with “bless” as a verb. I suppose it means something like wishing a person good will, good fortunes, good outcomes going forward.

But what does it mean for God to be blessed, or for us to bless the Lord? I presume that God is blessed even as Richard and I are blessed when we see our children and our grandchild living in happiness and joy. So too, God is blessed when He sees His children – us – happy and joyful. But He also knows that our pure joy, pure happiness can only come when we know Him more fully. Which answers that original question, what does it mean to “bless the Lord”. For us to come to know Him more fully, to embrace Him with all that we have – that would be what blesses the Lord. So, bless the Lord, folks. Seek Him!!

Psalm 135:1-12

It was a wacky morning and a busy afternoon, so I’m just now posting. But it’s a worthy verse to post on: “Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.” (v. 6) This is the might, the power of our God. Whatever He pleases!! That doesn’t mean that He causes everything. We have free will. He chooses when and how to act, to intervene or not. But He is God, not us, and He does not act according to our expectations of when and how He should act. (Thank you, Ben!) Whatever He pleases!!

Psalm 133-134

Two psalms today, three verses each. Interestingly, for Carol and me each of these psalms has associated music. Our leader at the Bible Study where we met was a talented musician who wrote guitar music for Psalm 133. And Psalm 134 is one that we’ve sung regularly at church services. It’s difficult to simply read the words without singing them!!

My Study Bible was helpful with Psalm 134; they suggested that it’s a verbal interchange between people leaving the Temple area (vv. 1-2) and the Temple guards (priests) responding (v. 3). That rings a bell with me – servants … night … sanctuary / holy place all make sense in that context; likewise with verse 3 set apart. I’m thankful for Kathy and John commenting yesterday on the Lord’s dwelling on the Temple Mount – past, present, future. We see that today: May the LORD bless you from Zion… (134:3). His blessing is “from Zion”.