Psalm 118

1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.

2 Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

4 Let them now that fear the Lord say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

5 I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.

6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.

8 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

9 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

10 All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.

11 They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

12 They compassed me about like bees: they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

13 Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the Lord helped me.

14 The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.

18 The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:

20 This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter.

21 I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.

23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

25 Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.

27 God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.

29 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever. (KJV)

THE STONE THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BECOME THE CAPSTONE is also found in Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Peter 2:7. In Matthew 21:42 Christ used it to sum up the parable of the wicked tenants. “Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ” ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed”.

As I study the scriptures I realize that without Jesus there is no need for the Bible. Jesus is the story of redemption that is proclaimed throughout the entire Bible. If your foundation of understanding the Bible is not built on the cornerstone of Jesus then you foundation will be unstable. Christian organization therefore must bases it foundation on Christ.

The first and last verses of this psalm “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever” is a testimony of one that has walked in the way of the Lord for a long period of time. It is easy to talk to other Christians about the Bible and the blessings as well as the tribulations we seem to face on our daily journey in life. However, our conversations with those that have not witness the love of Christ in their life seem to be short-lived. This is why it is so important to be a light that points others to Christ, by our actions. Our actions and life style can often lead an individual to Christ, where our preaching to them will usually turn them away.

Psalm 117
¹ Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.
² For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD. (NIV)

This short psalm is everything a person really needs to know about God.

This poem was from a chain email, so I will pass it on all who look at this psalm.

God Lives Under The Bed

I envy Kevin. My brother Kevin thinks God lives under the bed. At least that’s what I heard him say one night.

He was praying out loud in his dark bedroom, and I stopped to listen,” Are you there, God?” he said. “Where are you? Oh, I see. Under the bed…” I giggled softly and tiptoed off to my own room. Kevin’s unique perspectives are often a source of amusement.

But that night something else lingered long after the humor I realized for the first time the very different world Kevin lives in. He was born 30 years ago, mentally disabled as a result of difficulties during labor. Apart from his size (he’s 6-foot-2); there are few ways in which he is an adult.

He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7-year-old, and he always will. He will probably always believe that God lives under his bed, that Santa Claus is the one who fills the space under our tree every Christmas and those airplanes stay up in the sky because angels carry them.

I remember wondering if Kevin realizes he is different. Is he ever dissatisfied with his monotonous life? Up before dawn each day, off to work at a workshop for the disabled, home to walk our cockier spaniel, return to eat his favorite macaroni-and-cheese for dinner, and later to bed. The only variation in the entire scheme is laundry, when he hovers excitedly over the washing machine like a mother with her newborn child. He does not seem dissatisfied. He lopes out to the bus every morning at 7:05, eager for a day of simple work. He wrings his hands excitedly while the water boils on the stove before dinner, and he stays up late twice a week to gather our dirty laundry for his next day’s laundry chores. And Saturdays-oh, the bliss of Saturdays! That’s the day my Dad takes Kevin to the airport to have a soft drink, watch the planes land, and speculates loudly on the destination of each passenger inside. “That one’s going’ to Chi-car-go!” Kevin shouts as he claps his hands. His anticipation is so great he can hardly sleep on Friday nights. And so goes his world of daily rituals and weekend field trips.

He doesn’t know what it means to be discontent.

His life is simple.

He will never know the entanglements of wealth of power, and he does not care what brand of clothing he wears or what kind of food he eats. His needs have always been met, and he never worries that one day they may not be.

His hands are diligent. Kevin is never as happy as when he is working. When he unloads the dishwasher or vacuums the carpet, his heart is completely in it.

He does not shrink from a job when it is begun, and he does not leave a job until it is finished. But when his tasks are done,

Kevin knows how to relax.

He is not obsessed with his work or the work of others.

His heart is pure.

He still believes everyone tells the truth, promises must be kept, and when you are wrong, you apologize instead of arguing.

Free from pride and unconcerned with appearances,

Kevin is not afraid to cry when he is hurt, angry or sorry.

He is always transparent, always sincere.

And he trusts God.

Not confined by intellectual reasoning, when he comes to Christ, he comes as a child.

Kevin seems to know God – to really be friends with Him in a way that is difficult for an “educated” person to grasp.

God seems like his closest companion.

In my moments of doubt and frustrations with my Christianity I envy the security Kevin has in his simple faith.

It is then that I am most willing to admit that he has some divine knowledge that rises above my mortal questions.

It is then I realize that perhaps he is not the one with the handicap.

I am. My obligations, my fear, my pride, my circumstances – they all become disabilities when I do not trust them to God’s care.

Who knows if Kevin comprehends things I can never learn?

After all, he has spent his whole life in that kind of innocence, praying after dark and soaking up the goodness and love of God.

And one day, when the mysteries of heaven are opened, and we are all amazed at how close God really is to our hearts, I’ll realize that God heard the simple prayers of a boy who believed that God lived under his bed.

Kevin won’t be surprised at all!

Author Unknown

Psalm 116

1 I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

6 The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

10 I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

11 I said in my haste, All men are liars.

12 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?

13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.

14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

16 O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.

18 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

19 In the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. (KJV)

Charles Spurgeon in his Notes to the Village Preacher called this Psalm “Psalm of Thanksgiving in the Person of Christ”. As I read this Psalm, I can picture Christ living this Psalm during his time on this earth. Spurgeon writes that this Psalm is a continuation of Psalm 115 and is consider part of the the Passover Psalms. It could be considered as a Psalm that represents the nation of Israel coming out of the bondage of Egypt. As we look at the first verse, we see three key points that should be in our life. First, I love the Lord. Second, God hears my voice. And third, my cry that he heard is for mercy. Why do I cry for mercy? Mercy is defined as: compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one’s power; compassion, pity, or benevolence. Who else could I turn to, beside God? However, if I picture this as a Psalm that my Lord would pray, why would he call for mercy? Would it be because of John 3:16?

As a young boy around eleven worked on a dairy farm and would help milk the cows every day. Milking cows is a seven day a week, twice a day activity that starts early in the morning and again in the evening. It was during this time in my life I remember the song “Tell Me the Story of Jesus” that would play on the radio at during this time. This was back in the early sixties. This Psalm reminds me of my story of a journey with Jesus that started at an early age. The Christian walk is not just a walk that means I go to church on Sunday but left out my beliefs in my daily secular walk. No, it is a walk that makes me a servant to God’s way, and His will.

Psalm 115

1 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.

2 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?

3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

6They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:

7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.

8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

9 O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: he is their help and their shield.

10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield.

11 Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield.

12 The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.

13 He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.

14 The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.

15 Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.

16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

17 The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.

18 But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord. (KJV)

Praise the LORD.

In chapter one of his book Knowledge of The Holy, A.W. Tozer writes:

That our idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creed statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are, we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.

By studying God’s Word daily, we get to look into his mirror of truth. It is amazing how the first impression of the people we meet are later changed as we grow to know the other person better. If we get pass the first impression of a person there is a great chance that the personal relationship with that person will usually grow deepen and richer. This is also true of our idea of God. This relationship grows once we learn the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. In today’s reading the phrase fear of the Lord or fear the Lord is used in Psalm 111, Psalm 112, Psalm 115 and Proverb 23. So, as a starting point in developing a better relationship with God ask yourself this question “What does the fear of the Lord mean to me?”. Therefore, as I study the Psalms and the rest of God’s Word I must start off with a fear of the Lord that looks at God as creator of this universe and a God that does whatever pleases Him.

Psalm 114

1 When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language;

2 Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.

3 The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.

4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.

5 What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?

6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs?

7 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob;

8 Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

(KJV)

Image you are fifty-eight years old. You are one of the oldest survivors among a nation that has spent the last forty years in the wilderness, and now you are ready for the promises that God made to this generation. You are one of the few that can recall the riches of Egypt that this nation left to travel to the new land that God had promise to Abraham almost five hundred years earlier. As this generation looked back on the past forty years on a journey through the desert they could look back not only to the rebellious ways of their parents and grandparents; but also to the many miracles that also witness that came from God.

This is one of the advantages that a believer has when he or she accepts the way of the Lord at an early age. Having grandparents and a mother that loved the Lord I was blessed to have an early start in my life to be introduce and follow theway of the Lord. During this journey of over sixty years I have witness both the rebellious ways of many believers as well as the great triumphs of God working miracles in the believers’ lives. So, I do not have to worry about tomorrow because the God that brought an entire nation out of slavery to become a nation (which still exist to this day) is more able to take care of an individual believer.

Psalm 113

1 Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.

2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.

3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord’s name is to be praised.

4 The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.

5 Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high,

6 Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!

7 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill;

8 That he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.

9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord. (KJV)

One of the simple truths that we sometimes overlook in reading the psalms is the truth it reveals about the relationship between God and man. Verse one starts out with the phase “Praise Yahweh”. The phrase “Praise the Lord” comes from the Hebrew word Hallelu Yah and is used twenty-four times in the Hebrew Bible and four times in the Greek form in the book of Revelations. The word Hallelujah (Alleluia) that we use in Christian’s songs today literally means Praise the Lord. This psalm puts in place the reasons that we should praise the Lord, now and forever, and from the raising of the sun to the setting of the sun. In other words, everything we do should reflect our Praising of the Lord. In good times and bad times, we should always praise the Lord. Yes, even in the bad times as we learn from Job. In Job, 1:21 after Job lost all his earthly goods as well as his children he fell to the ground in worship and said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return.” The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord”. In other words, no matter what is happening in your life today your life should always reflect the phrase “Praise the Lord”. This is truly the relationship that man was created to have with God.

Psalm 112

1 Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.

2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.

3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.

5 A good man sheweth favor, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.

6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.

8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.

9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honor.

10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish. (KJV)

When considering the phrase “blessed is the one who fears the Lord” one must reflect on the importance of Psalm one. The key in understanding this phrase is found in the word blessed. In Psalm 1, we are told, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law, he meditates day and night.” The fear of the Lord is an understanding of God and his way. To grasp an understanding of this verse we must understand the definition of fear. Fear can be defined as a feeling of anxiety (restlessness caused by uncertainties) that marks a state of guard apprehension and uneasiness that forces one to make decisions. This blessing comes from a trust and obeys relationship with the Lord.

Studying this Psalm, one cannot help to be drawn back to the teaching of Psalm one. God has given us the way to walk in; however, humankind seems to want more. The truth of this Psalm is we are to trust and obey the God.

The difference in the life of the man who fears the LORD and the life of the man who does not is the caretaker. As I work in my backyard or on my land, I realize how much the design reflects the desire and purpose of me the caretaker. The same is with the one that looks to the Lord as the one that directs his life. This is the type of relationship that Christ spoke of in John chapter fifteen:

¹ I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

² Every branch in me that bears not fruit, he takes it away: and every branch that bears fruit, he cleanses it, that it may bear more fruit.

³ Already ye are clean because of the word, which I have spoken unto you.

⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so, neither can ye, except ye abide in me.

⁵ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.

⁶ If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

The wicked, the one that does not have the fear of God in their life does not have the Lord as the caretaker in their life. May my life (the work of God’s hand in the life of an old saint) reflects the same joy in God that I have when I set in the designer’s chair, look out, and delight in the beauty that my secret garden gives me?

Psalm 111

1 Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.

2 The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

3 His work is honorable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

4 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant.

6 He hath shewed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen.

7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.

8 They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.

9 He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever. (KJV)

Last night during the silent of my time in prayer, I realized how important the very first verse of the Bible is to humanity “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. God is responsible for our very being; however, we become so wrapped up in our affairs and the social environment in which we live in that we forget that God even exist. The world around us has taken God out of the picture. God is either too big to care about the events of our individual lives, or he really does not exist. This psalm helps bring us back to the simple relationship we need to have with God. God is our creator and we are his creation. Reading Proverbs twenty-two, one will realize that “Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all”. All men must call him creator.

First, we must praise and extol the One who made our being possible. Do this with your entire heart. The path of knowledge starts with this simple understanding of “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. If you do not have this as the foundation and starting point to ponder everything you see, hear, taste, and touch then your thoughts will lead to the wrong conclusions. The reading of the psalms today focuses on the phrase “the fear of the Lord”. This fear is the starting point in understanding the world around you.

Reading the second part of verse ten “all who follow his precepts have good understanding”, one cannot help but place an emphasis of the importance of starting the day out with the Word. The world in which we abide within today is ready to let us know of all the problems that exist today. In Genesis, three Adam and Eve hide from God because they were afraid and naked. Studying the account of the fall in Genesis chapter three, one will realize that God did not asked Adam why he was afraid; but instead ask him “who told you that you were naked?” However, before Adam could reply to God’s answer God ask Adam another question “have you eaten from the tree?” Adam’s reply it was the woman who you gave me that gave me the fruit. So, in fact, Adam blames God instead of taking the blame himself. In I Timothy 2 :14 we realize that Adam was not deceived or beguiled, but freely chose to take the fruit. Whom do we listen to every day? The world around us, or God? The chose is ours: do we follow God’s precepts, or do we listen to the world?

Psalm 110

1 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

4 The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head. (KJV)

The writer of Hebrews refers to this psalm in Hebrews chapters six and seven. The Lord referred to this verse three times in the gospels (Matthew 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42). He also warned the Jews that in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64 and Mark 14:62). Peter in Act chapter two and the author of Hebrews in chapter one refers to this psalm when addressing the work of Christ. The Lord used this psalm to redirect the Pharisees answer to his question “What do you think of Christ? Whose son, is he?” When they answered, “the son of David”, he referred them to this psalm, which he accredited to David. His question was “How is it then that David speaking by the Spirit calls him Lord? If then David called him ‘Lord’ how could he be his son?” To this, they could not answer him a word, nor did they ask him any more questions. Christ reference to this psalm was during his last week on this earth right before his death when his authority was questioned. In Matthew 26:24 Christ states, “The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him” and in Act chapter two Peter preaches that Christ is the one written about in this psalm.

Two facts to remember about this psalm: The Lord will judge the nations; however, He also has the role of priest after the order of Melchizedek. In I John 2:2 John writes of his actions in this position as being the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. So read this psalm in relationship to Psalm two and “kiss the Son, lest he becomes angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath may kindle in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”

Psalm 109

1 Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;

2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.

12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

21 But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

24 My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

25 I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

26 Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy:

27 That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, Lord, hast done it.

28 Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.

31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul. (KJV)

Reading this psalm of David, one can look back to the time that he was running from Saul. At this time in his life he was in running from the law of the land and being hunted down as a criminal. During this time of running from Saul his name and reputation was being destroyed by Saul. The times of I Samuel seventeen and eighteen when David was the hero, the one who slew Goliath, the captain of a thousand men, the one that slew ten thousand were now history. It was not because of something evil that David had done, but the envy that Saul had of David. Just like Cain who slew Abel because Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God and Cain’s was not, Saul desired to slay David because God’s favor was on David and not Saul.

The same can be said of Christ as he walked on this earth two thousand years ago. Reading the verses above a person can see a picture of Christ as he was accused by the religious leaders of wrongs he never did. The accusers in this verse have the same nature of Satan (who is the Great Accuser) in them.

As I was reading today (February 22, 2008) in My Utmost for His Highest) Oswald Chambers writes “Our greatest fear is not that we will be damned, but that somehow Jesus Christ will be defeated. Also, our fear is that the very things our Lord stood for— love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness among men— will not win out in the end and will represent an unattainable goal for us.”

Verse 21 is a verse that will conquer this fear for the believer, and it is this truth: “It is out of his goodness that we are delivered and not our righteousness; to him belongs the praise and glory for this great salvation.” So how must we approach those closest to us when like David they accuse us falsely and attach us. David gives the answer on how to approach these times in verse 4 “but I am a man of prayer”. Believe me it is hard when someone very close to you turns on you and seeks to destroys you and your reputation. At first you want to fight back and take the matters into our hands. However, if your desire is to be Christ-like then you soon discover and realized that this is an issue that only God can handle so you turn to him in prayer and remember what that we are to be Christ-like in everything we do. The very things our Lord stood for— love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness among men will someday be in place and we who follow him will reign with him, so wait on his return both in prayer and staying in his word.

As I read this psalm of David, I can picture the inward hurt that must have been in his heart. The cry for justice is alive in this psalm, however there is also a cry to God from David to deliver him from those that are attaching him. We as believers also face the same issues and struggles that David faced as we go about our daily routines. We see God’s loving kindness, his goodness, his mercies, and his forgiveness is always there for us as well as others to enjoy; however, it does come with a price. That price is the realization that our way is wrong, and we need to repent and turn from our evil way to God’s way. This is a price that many do not want to pay. Vengeance (the repayment of evil to those that did evil to us) is something that we must leave in God’s hand. The desires that David outlines in this chapter:

appoint an evil man to oppose him

let an accuser stand at his right hand
when he is tried, let him be found guilty

may his prayers condemn him.
may his days be few

may another take his place of leadership.
may his children be fatherless

may his wife a widow.
may his children be wandering beggars

may they be driven from their ruined homes.
may a creditor seize all he has

may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
may no one extend kindness to him

may no one take pity on his fatherless children.
may his descendants be cut off

may their names blotted out from the next generation.
may the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD

may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
may their sins always remain before the LORD

may the memory of them be cut off from the earth.
may the curse he pronounce be upon him

may this curse be like a cloak wrapped about him

may it be like a belt tied forever around him.
may this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.

David believed these judgments were justified; however they are for God to execute and not us. This is an important truth that we must apply to our life also.