Psalm 45

¹ My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.
² You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever.
³ Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.
⁴ In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness; let yourright hand display awesome deeds.
⁵ Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet.
⁶ Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
⁷ You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
⁸ All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad.
⁹ Daughters of kings are among your honored women; at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.
¹⁰ Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house.
¹¹ The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
¹² The Daughter of Tyre will come with a gift, men of wealth will seek your favor.
¹³ All glorious is the princess within her chamber; her gown is interwoven with gold.
¹⁴ In embroidered garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions follow her and are brought to you.
¹⁵ They are led in with joy and gladness; they enter the palace of the king.
¹⁶ Your sons will take the place ofyour fathers; you will make them princes throughout the land.
¹⁷ I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.

This psalm can only refer to one person and that is Christ. The writer of the book of Hebrews uses this verse in chapter one to introduce Christ, God’s son, as the one who has provided purifications for sins and is now seated at the right hand of God in heaven. This process of our growth in understanding why God provide redemption through Christ for mankind is a mystery I cannot fully understand; however, it is psalms such as this psalm that makes it so real to me. Paul states it better in Philippians 3:8 as I count all things loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. The goal of this knowledge is to be found in him and to obtain the righteousness that is provided by our faith in him. The end result is that we will know Christ and that the new life given to us by the result of his resurrection and by our partaking in his suffering will make us more Christ like so that we will become sons of God. No wonder this psalm starts out with the phase “My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the King”. When studying the Bible, I hope that Christ is the noble theme that you look for in your studies.

¹ We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.
² With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.
³ It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.
⁴ You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob.
⁵ Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes.
⁶ I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory;
⁷ but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.
⁸ In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. Selah
⁹ But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies.
¹⁰ You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us.
¹¹ You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations.
¹² You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.
¹³ You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us.
¹⁵ My disgrace is before me all day long, and my face is covered with shame
¹⁶ at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
¹⁷ All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path.
¹⁹ But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals and covered us over with deep darkness.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
²² Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
²³ Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
²⁴ Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?
²⁵ We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.

Verse twenty-two “Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered” is used by Paul in Romans 8:36 in response to the question “If God is for us who can be against us”. In the past my daughter Alex and I would race to see who could quote Romans 8:28 the fastest. It was my desire to make this verse real in her life, since I knew her Christian walk in this life would not be easy. Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” is the verse that states the conclusion of Paul’s discussion on living your life through the spirit. When studying Romans we realize that we were born in sin and we do not seek God, but it was God who seeks after us and provided a way back to Him through Christ that we might become sons of God. Therefore, to understand this psalm in light of Romans chapter eight we must understand that the world lives according to the sinful nature of the old man and we live according to the spiritual nature of the new man. These two natures have two different masters with two different goals: Christ and glorifying God, man and glorifying man. When we take of the spiritual nature we take on the nature of a servant just as Christ did when he was on this earth. This new nature then seeks Christ and ways of glorifying God.

When we study the scripture, we must realize that God’s will for man is that we become sons of God. Therefore, it is important that all believers know and completely understand the effects that the fall of man (found in Genesis 3) had on the relationship of God and man that existed before the fall. Before the fall man walk with God, after the fall man hid from God. Christ though his death on the cross has renewed the relationship between God and man. The relationship that existed before the fall (found in Genesis 3) has been restored to man through Christ.

I hope through the words of this website that I can relate the message of this psalm to those who read these words. Verse one of this psalm has a very powerful message to the readers. “We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.” It is the message of what God did for Israel in the days of bringing them out of Egypt and making them a nation. We can get the same type of message to the people that surround us. This message is how God through Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit has delivered us from our sinful ways to a new creature created to serve God. Paul writes about this change in Romans 12:1,2 “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And not be conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” My prayer is that I may live as an example that leads us to a better understands of Christ.

¹ Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men.
² You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?
³ Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.
⁴ Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.

⁵ Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

This psalm is similar to psalm forty-two, however he does request two things: God’s light and God’s truth. This light and truth is Christ. As I age and see the events happening in the world, today I cannot help but reflect on this time in David’s life. Samuel had anointed David as a young lad to become the next king of Israel. David was probably only thirteen or fourteen at that time. I am not sure how much this affected his life at the time of the anointing, but soon after he was in the courts of Saul playing his harp for him as well as being one of his armor-bearers.

Verse three “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell”. Your light and your truth refer to God’s Word and teachings. As I reflect back on my life, I realized how God uses the events in our life to shape us. At age thirteen I entertained myself in the evening by reading. The books I read were Arthur Maxwell’s Children Bible Stories. These ten books gave me a wonderful understanding of the Bible. This led me to a deeper desire to study the Bible. Studying the examples in God’s Word will give us the hope that David writes in verse five.

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble.
² The LORD will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.
³ The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.
⁴ I said, “O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
⁵ My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die and his name perish?”
⁶ Whenever one comes to see me, he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander; then he goes out and spreads it abroad.
⁷ All my enemies whisper together against me; they imagine the worst for me, saying,
⁸ “A vile disease has beset him; he will never get up from the place where he lies.”
⁹ Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
¹⁰ But you, O LORD, have mercy on me; raise me up, that I may repay them.
¹¹ I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me.
¹² In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever.
¹³ Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.

Blessed is he who has regard for the weak:

The LORD delivers him in times of trouble.
The LORD will protect him

The LORD will preserve his life

The LORD will bless him in the land

The LORD will not surrender him to the desire of his foes.
The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed

The LORD will restore him from his bed of illness.

 As

I said, “O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

My enemies say of me in malice:

When will he die?

When will his name perish?
Whenever one comes to see me, he speaks falsely

While his heart gathers slander

Then he goes out and spreads it abroad.
All my enemies whisper together against me

They imagine the worst for me, saying, “A vile disease has beset him

He will never get up from the place where he lies.

Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

But you, O LORD

Have mercy on me

Raise me up, that I may repay them.
I know that you are pleased with me

For my enemy does not triumph over me.
In my integrity you uphold me

Set me in your presence forever.

This is another psalm which we can see the life of David, the life of Christ and the life that we are now living entangled together. Verse eleven “I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me” could refer to many enemies.  As we study this psalm it starts out as blessing the one that is a friend to those in need.  As we consider the word friend, we must realize that the word enemy comes from the Latin word inimicus which means unfriendly or hostile.  So this psalms centers around the behaviors that are either friendly or unfriendly.  So, as the psalmist writes in verse eleven “for my enemy does not triumph over me” is referring to these forces that are unfriendly to him.  So, the next time you considered the word enemy considered the word friendship.  To love your enemy is to love these who are not a friend to you.  That is what God did for us on the cross.  We were all unfriendly to God, yet in his love he reached out to us his enemies (whose who were not his friend) to make us his friend.  This is the same love we must reach up to our enemies (those that are not a friend) to make them a friend of ours as well as God.

In his devotional for February 9 titled “Are You Exhausted Spiritually?” Oswald Chambers writes “Examine your reasons for service. Is your source based on your own understanding or is it grounded on the redemption of Jesus Christ?”.  As I read the words of this psalm, I cannot help but see the desire of the Psalmist to fulfill the purpose that God has for him in this life.  Verse eleven states “I know that you are pleased with me.”  However, this desire of having God being pleased with us can sometimes make us feel spiritually exhausted.  This is especially true when we have realized that we have sinned against God.  When sin does take place in our life, we must realize it and turn from it.  This is the examination that Oswald writes about in this devotion.  Paul writes about this call for service in II Timothy 2:21 “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the master’s use, prepared unto every good work.”  There are usually two reasons that I believe Christians become exhausted spiritually: first they are so focus on the things around them that they forget about God; or because they focus on and become assumed by trying to discover what is God’s purpose for them in this life.  To me the answer to renewing a spiritually life is to live blameless before God.

Psalm 40

 ¹ I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.
² He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
³ He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
⁴ Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
⁵ Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.
⁶ Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.
⁷ Then I said, “Here I am, I have come, it is written about me in the scroll.
⁸ I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
⁹ I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD.
¹⁰ I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.
¹¹ Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me.
¹² For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.
¹³ Be pleased, O LORD, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me.
¹⁴ May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.
¹⁵ May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled at their own shame.
¹⁶ But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “The LORD be exalted!”

¹⁷ Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.

This is one of my favorite psalms with verse six being the key verse that I use to understand this psalm.  The writer of Hebrews in chapter 10 verses 5-7 reference this psalm as verses that portrays the earthly ministry of Christ.   Hebrews 10:5-7 “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.  Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll I have come to do your will, O God.'”   Another section to consider is Deuteronomy 15:6,7 “

But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life.” which is the piercing that I believe that verse six reference.  Deuteronomy fifteen is God’s instruction to Israel on how they should handle the canceling of debts.  Verse one states “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts” so Israel was to forgive debts every seven years.  With this verse in mind look at the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:12 “Forgive us our debts,  as we also have forgiven our debtors.” here we are instructed to forgive others.  Debt gives us power, it gives us control over someone, however by releasing the debt we no longer hold the debtor responsible for the debt.  Yet so often we go through the process of forgiving, but do not really release our debtors.  We have a way of reminding them that they do not have to repay the debt but that they are still in debt to us; since we did forgive the debt that they owed us.  In the same way a lot of believer put God in this category of forgiving debt, but we still owe God.  However, in Deuteronomy 15 this is not the true picture of debt forgiveness.  Debts are forgiven completely just as our sins are remember no more. 

Now for the true meaning of verse six of this psalm.   Paul states it best in Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.”   Yes, Christ paid the debt for us, yet because of our love for him and knowing that we cannot make it on our own in this world we turn our life back over to God.  We make God our master and not self. 

As you read this  psalm take time to read Philippians 2:5-11 were Paul states that we should have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had in our relationship to others.  Christ was Lord, yet he humbles himself and died as a criminal on the cross.  The human nature struggle with the issues of pride and humility daily.  To aid us in this struggle Paul gives us this advice: don’t be selfish, do not try to impress others, think others as better than yourself, do not look to your own interest but take an interest in others.  Apply these principles to your daily living and the battles against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life can be won.  As I have just finished my course in Leadership, I have realized there are two types of leaders: the leaders that seek their power, and the leaders that are appointed because their services are needed.  Moses is a great example of both leaders.  At age forty he decided that it was his time to stand up for the rights of the children of Israel.  However, his actions were not received by others and he had to flee for his life.  At this time, he suffered humiliation from those he tried to help.  In this humiliation he lost respect from his people and the Egyptians as well.  In this humiliation he became a shepherd and stepped out of the picture.  It was in this humiliation that God spoke to him.  Moses returned forty years later not in humiliation, but as a humble servant with no agenda of his own.  From Stephen’s sermon in Act chapter seven we see Moses life divided in three parts: God preparing him with knowledge and training that he would needed in the future,  God humbling the character of Moses to prepare him for service, and the last forty years combining the two to perform the task that God had planned 430 years earlier (Exodus 12:41).  Highlight Philippians 2:1-11 in your Bible and realized it is only as a humble servant can we truly serve God.   

Probably one of the best books that has help me gain a better understanding of my walk with Christ on this earth has been the collection of writings of Oswald Chambers.  His reading from My Upmost for His Highest for September twenty-second helps illustrates the Master and Servant relationship that is illustrated in this psalm.  He sums up his daily reading with this summary “If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness of it—a relationship where all we know is that we are His to obey.”  After my many years of being involved in the work of the church and then years of just attending services I have realized that the task of making Christ the Lord of my life comes about with many hardships.  The short poem of “Footprints in the Sand“ also illustrates the principle of a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness of it coming out of times of difficulties where we thought God had abandon us to look back and realized that it was really Him that had carry us through the crisis.  As you study the psalms you must do so with a complete understanding of David’s life as well as the faith heroes before him.  As we study David’s life, we realize that before God can use us we must face a wilderness journey in which we become totally dependent upon God to get us out.  Once this happens then our relationship with Christ changes and is so easy to make him our Master and Teacher.  We arrive at this place in our walk and really do not have any conscious awareness of when this relationship began to take place. 

Oswald Chambers reading The Surrendered Life for March 8 ties in beautifully with this Psalm. His opening sentence “To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things.” helps bring the true relationship of this Psalm to the individual believer.  The Psalm starts out by waiting patiently for the Lord.  This implies waiting for his timing in the daily events of my life.  However, it does not imply that I be just like a piece of driftwood floating in the sea of life, but rather I see the opportunities that are before me and present them to the Lord.  He hears me and puts me in the right position to either take full advantage of them or to abandon them.  This maturity of decision-making only comes from years of walking with the Lord and trusting him completely. Surrendering completely to God’s way of looking requires the practice of daily commune with the Lord in the light of his Word. 

A short verse by verse look at verses 9- 17

^{Verse 9} I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD.  I will proclaim the gospel.  I will tell others of the sinful nature of man.  I will tell others of the holy nature of God.  I will tell others of the wonderful love of God.  I will tell others of the new birth.  I will show others the life of Christ in me.

^{Verse 10} I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly. I will show others the life of Christ in me.

^{Verse 11} Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me. 

^{Verse 12} For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.

^{Verse 13} Be pleased, O LORD, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me.

^{Verse 14} May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

^{Verse 15} May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled at their own shame.

^{Verse 16} But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “The LORD be exalted!”

^{Verse 17} Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.

Psalm 39

Of David.
¹ I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence.”
² But when I was silent and still, not even saying anything good, my anguish increased.
³ My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:
⁴ “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.
⁵ You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah
⁶ Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.
⁷ “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.
⁸ Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.

⁹ I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.
¹⁰ Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
¹¹ You rebuke and discipline men for their sin; you consume their wealth like a moth each man is but a breath.  Selah
¹² “Hear my prayer, O LORD, listen to my cry for help; be not deaf to my weeping. For I dwell with you as an alien, a stranger, as all my fathers were.
¹³ Look away from me, that I may rejoice again before I depart and am no more.”

I believe David opens this psalm with the thought of how he was going to live a blameless life.  Living a blameless life is different from living a life of perfection.  It is not sin or wickedness that keeps us from God, but our desire not to follow God’s way.  As I focus on David’s life I realized that it was only in the events surrounding the case of Uriah the Hittite (I King 15:5) that David turned aside from following God’s way.  However, to most people it was this one event that they associate and judge David’s life.  However, in studying the psalms I realize that this event was the only black mark that God placed on David’s life.  This is a key factor in studying David’s life.  By studying his life and his writings in the book of Psalms, I believe we can be transformed into a vessel that can be used by God.

The first three verses start out with David’s desire to watch his ways and keep his tongue from sin.  In these verses he was in the presence of others who were wicked, and he was probably observing them carrying out evil activities.  His actions, he was silent and still, yet his angry increased as he meditated on the actions that he was observing.   David’s desire was to guard himself from sin by watching his ways and not speaking.  This silent caused his heart to burn forcing him to speak. 

In verses four through six David does an examination of himself as well as mankind.  Our life is short, and we can’t even know the end.  We can make our plans and build the desires of our hearts, but in reality, we do not have control of them.  Then at death we even lose all control of the works of our hands.

In verse seven David states “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you”.  Here he realizes that the only hope he had was is in the Lord.  As we live our live, as Christians our values are not the same as the world’s values.  We live in world in which we must be politically correct if we want no conflict with the world.  And yet when we live this life we are in conflict with the way of God.  Our hope then must be in God for if I must make a chose, I choose God’s way.  This even means more to me today than in the pass.  The world fears Covid-19 and tries to combat it in man’s way; I look to God for my hope and my protection. 

Yet we live in this world.  We too are sinners just as all the people.  Sometimes in our life it is God’s judgment on us that causes the discomfort we are experiencing.  Verses twelve and thirteen^, “Hear my prayer, O LORD, listen to my cry for help; be not deaf to my weeping. For I dwell with you as an alien, a stranger, as all my fathers were.  Look away from me, that I may rejoice again before I depart and am no more.” is verses that I don’t understand completely.  Yet, if this was written at the time he was running and hiding from Saul then he probably did feel he was a stranger from God and that that the promise of him being the future king made him an alien from the kingdom were God was King. 

As I look back on my life, I reflect on the many dreams I had and how many never came to light.  My life’s direction has changed so many times, and yet as I look back I must thank God for being there to make these changes happen in my live and for the growth that was given by these changes.  To walk with God, one must stay in His Word.  It is through His Word that the Holy Spirit will guide us and direct us in our walk with God.

Psalm 38
of David
1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
2 For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon me.
3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.
4 My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.
5 My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.
6 I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning.
7 My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body.
8 I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.
9 All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes.
11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away.
12 Those who seek my life set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they plot deception.
13 I am like a deaf man, who cannot hear, like a mute, who cannot open his mouth;
14 I have become like a man who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply.
15 I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God.
16 For I said, “Do not let them gloat or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”
17 For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me.
18 I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.
19 Many are those who are my vigorous enemies; those who hate me without reason are numerous.
20 Those who repay my good with evil slander me when I pursue what is good.
21 O LORD, do not forsake me; be not far from me, O my God.
22 Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.

As I read this psalm which is title “A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance” I cannot help think back to the story of David’s affair with Bathsheba. As I study God’s Word, I see how God’s way is so easy and yet religion and man tries to make it seem so difficult. We can speculate about the events that led up to the events that lead David to take Uriah’s wife Bathsheba and have an affair with her, however  the little details about this event are not recorded.  We can give suggestions and create books on how to live a blameless life that will keep us from falling into sinful situations; however, the bottom line is we do fail every once in a while. And when we do this is the psalm that we must bring to remembrance.

Jesus message was simple. In Matthew 11:29 he stated, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”. This psalm gives us the steps of putting on this yoke. First David realized his sinful folly, and the guilt that overcame him. We too must realize this in our life and not to try to cover up our sinfulness. David tried this with Bathsheba’s pregnancy and brought Uriah home from the battle to sleep with his wife; however, this did not work. So, to protect Bathsheba as well as himself he sacrificed his own friend and arranged Uriah’s death in battle.

Lesson one from God’s Word: as soon as you are in the wrong, confess your sin and ask for forgiveness. Do not try to cover it up or make excuses for it. If you do it will lead to greater sins and greater cover-ups which will lead to damage to others. Your relationship with God will also come to a stand-still. It is only as David writes about in verse eighteen “I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin” that we can renew our relationship back to God.

Lesson two from God’s Word is that there are consequences for our actions. David could not take back the pregnancy, he could not give life back to Uriah, and he could not defend his actions to his enemies. Yes, the last consequence of living with our life with the knowledge that our sinful actions are known to everyone. That we are just as evil as the next person, or even worst we are much more evil then those around us. There was a song we use to sing when I was young that had this phase in it “anything you can do I can do better”. That phase is still true today in the world we are living in. Most of the people all around us are comparing themselves to others and attempting to justify why they are better. The there is one problem that mankind faces which is “we have all sinned and came short of the glory of God”. However, mankind likes to judge and usually our known sins makes us a little better than those around us. However, when we commit a sin like this of David’s then our enemies will use this knowledge to slander us and cause us to be hated by many. No matter how much we try to make things right there will always be those who will continue to slander us and use the sin to destroy us.

Lesson three from God’s Word is that he is the one we need to turn to when we have sinned. It is He who can help us. James puts it this way in James 4:7-10:
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep:
let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Therefore, confess your sins to God, accept the consequences that will come about because of sin, and wait on God to answer your prayer of forgiveness.

Psalm 37
Of David.
1 Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret-it leads only to evil.
9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
11 But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.
12 The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.
14 The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.
15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.
16 Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked;
17 for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever.
19 In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.
20 But the wicked will perish: The Lord’s enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish-vanish like smoke.
21 The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously;
22 those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off.
23 If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm;
24 though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
26 They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.
27 Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.
28 For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off;
29 the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.
30 The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just.
31 The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip.
32 The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, seeking their very lives;
33 but the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned when brought to trial.
34 Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
35 I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil,
36 but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found.
37 Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace.
38 But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.
39 The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
40 The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.

This psalm is a psalm that people turn to when they face difficult times in their life. These times are not just trouble times, but usually a time when the only one a person can turn to is God. However, it is also at a time when God has also seemed to have forsaken them. It was this psalm that I turned to at one of the most difficult times in my life. It is a time when the wickedness of someone who at one time was very close to me turned and tried to destroy everything in my life. It was a time like Joseph faced when his own brothers sold him as a slave. It was a time in my life that I learned how to pray thy will be done instead of my will be done. Verses four and five gave me at that time an insight on how to pray. Three things on my part were required: delight myself in the Lord, commit my ways to the Lord, and trust in the Lord; by following these three simple steps the Lord will give to me the desires of my heart.

I now realize that these principles become clearer as one ages and applies life experiences to the scriptures. It is in the example that God gave me from the life of Joseph that I can see how these principles governed his life. He was only seventeen when his own brothers sold him into slavery. However, instead of trying to gain his freedom and taking vengeance on his brothers for this act he accepted the place where the Lord placed him and committed his ways to the Lord. The phase “but the Lord was with Joseph” characterized his life. Joseph learned to apply the principles of trust and obey in his life and knew that God would be with him, both in the hard times as well as the good times. He was a slave and a prisoner of the state for thirteen years, yet he still followed the principles of committing your ways to the Lord and trusting in Him (trust and obey). It was at the time of Jacob’s death that we truly see how these principles played out in Joseph’s life. As I read Genesis chapter fifty, I realized Joseph’s brothers had not ask for forgiven yet for their treatment of Joseph at age seventeen. This selfish act on their part not only affected Joseph life, but also had a profound effect on Jacob his father and Benjamin his brother. It took thirty-nine years, the death of their father, and the fear that Joseph would pay them back in full for all the wrong they did to him before they tried to patch up the incident with Joseph. And even in this process they did not want to address the real issues which were the fact of their own sinfulness in the way they handed Joseph over into slavery. Joseph weeps when they spoke, because he had already forgiven them, but he saw how they lived in fear because they could not face the truth of forgiveness. Joseph’s  answer to them reveals his trust on the Lord to guide his life. When you are following these principles then you like Joseph can say “for I am in God’s place”. When walking with God in this world we will face times in our life when people (even our own family) do evil things against us. However, if we wait on the Lord and keep his ways then we will see the desire of our hearts fulfilled and will be able to say, “Therefore what you meant for evil against me, God meant it for good”.

“The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip” the righteous will not fall. As we see the fruit of wicked schemes of greed and corruption around us falls, we must realize that God is our stronghold the one we take refuge in these times of trouble. So, when the topic about the economic failures and other events of disaster from around the world come about in your conversation you can take comfort in these verses. Live by the verses and know that God is our refuge. Then let the world see God’s law alive in your life so that the light of his law will reflect God to them. These phases are:
Do not fret (3 times)
Do not be envious of those who do wrong
Trust in the Lord (2 times)
Delight yourself in the Lord
Commit your ways to the Lord
Be still before the Lord
Wait patiently for him (2 times)
Refrain from anger
Turn from wrath
Hope in the Lord
Give generously
Turn from evil and do good
Utters wisdom and speak what is just
Keep the Lord way
Consider the blameless
Observe the upright
Seek refuge in the Lord

Verse 25 “I was young and now I am old” lets us know that this psalm was written when David was old. This psalm reflects David’s beliefs and pattern of life that as a king and a father he wanted to pass on to others. In Psalm 51:12, 13 he writes “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.” His desire was to live by God’s ways and teach others of the joy of living in God’s ways. Ecclesiastes is another example of scripture that was written by an old man. However, this was written by Solomon who at the end of his life was told that the kingdom that God had given his father and when to him would not be passed to his son. Why?  The answers was simple Solomon had forsaken God’s ways and served another God’s. It is interesting to see his words in Ecclesiastes: 12:8-14 “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. And further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he pondered, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written uprightly, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads; and as nails well fastened are the words of the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And furthermore, my son be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.” Therefore heed the words of David in this psalm so that in your old age you will not have to write as Solomon did in Ecclesiastes 12:1 “Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come and the years draw nigh, when thou shall say I have no pleasure in them.”

Of David

¹ An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes.
² For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.
³ The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.
⁴ Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.
⁵ Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.
⁶ Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.
⁷ How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.
⁹ For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
¹⁰ Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.
¹¹ May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
¹² See how the evildoers lie fallen thrown down, not able to rise!

1. Sinfulness of the wicked

                             No fear of God

                              He flatters himself

                              Does not detect or hate his sin

                              His mouth is wicked and deceitful

                              He has ceased to be wise and to do good

                              Even on his bed he plots evil

                              He commits himself to a sinful course

                              Does not reject what is wrong

1. Lord’s provisions

Your love reaches to the heavens

Your faithfulness reaches to the skies

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains

Your justice like the great deep

You preserve both man and beast

Your unfailing love is priceless

Your wings provides refuge for men both high and low

They feast on the abundance of your house

They drink from your river of delights

With you is the fountain of life

In your light we see light

1. Summary

Continue your love to those who know you

Your righteousness to the upright in heart

May the foot of the proud not come against me

May the hand of the wicked not drive me away

The evildoers lie fallen thrown down, not able to rise!

This psalm was written by David as an oracle (any utterance made or received as authoritative, extremely wise, or infallible) concerning the sinfulness of the wicked.  The study of the sinfulness of man begins in Genesis chapter three with the temptation in the Garden.  The three individuals involved were Adam, Eve and the serpent.  It involved a simple decision to follow a command, “If you eat or touch the fruit of tree which is in the middle of the garden, you will die”.  Adam and Eve broke the command and their eyes where open.  They then saw their nakedness and attempted to cover this nakedness with fig leaves.  They now became like God knowing good and evil.  The outcome of breaking God’s command was death; however, God delayed death and made provisions for Adam and Eve to live.  Yes, there were curses, but there were also provisions.  

As a believer makes his or her daily walk in this world probably the biggest challenge that he or she will face along their path is the same challenge that Eve faced.  This challenge can be found in the simple word “but”.  Just as Satan challenge Eve trust in God those around us challenge our faith in God today.  They start questioning our understanding of God and present the “but” questions to challenge our understanding of God’s way.  It seems that the more we walk with God the more we have to defend our relationship to him to those around us.  In this Psalm we see the sinfulness of the wicked which are those who oppose God and have let pride become their necklace.  However, in this Psalm we also see the Lord’s provisions to those who know Him.  One of the main challenges we seem to face from the world is the belief that God takes care of those who take care of themselves.  The problem with this belief is that it is a path for man to flatter himself on the way he follows God, which leads him to the point of not seeing his sinfulness.  This leads to a path of reasoning about all issues of life which places man in charge of his our life which leads to a course of sin and this soon leads to the rejection of the Lord and His provisions.  The escape from this path is to know the Lord and to walk in his righteousness.  For the believer this means being more Christ-like.       

How the free will of an individual and the will of God interact is a mystery that mankind battles with daily.  However, this weekend as I was studying C. S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity his statements that atheism was “too simple” and “Christianity and water”, water down faith, could not explain the world in which we live.  The battle of Good verses Bad was also the wrong approach to take in looking at the world in which we live.  After reading his writings his weekend I realized that the true battle is the rebellion of Satan and the evil forces here on earth against God and that we as Christians are really “living in enemy territory”.  If this is the case then verses two through four would describe the enemy  “For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.  Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.”  If this is the case then how important is it for believers to live in the shadow of God’s wings.  To better understand the free will of an individual and how the individual will interacts with God’s will we must turn to the creator of both who is God.

As I was studying the book The Battle is the Lord’s by Tony Evans this oracle speaks loudly not only of the sinful man, but also the sinfulness of Satan.  As I study this book I ask myself the question “why did not God just destroy Satan as soon as Satan rebelled against God?”  If he had done that then Satan could not have tempted Eve and she would not have offered the fruit to Adam.  But we know that this did not happen.  There is a reason why God has chosen the path of dealing with Satan as well as the sin of mankind.  As Paul stated in I Corinthians thirteen “now I know in part, but then I shall know as I also have been fully known” there are some things that as long as I am on earth I will not fully understand.   However, the more I try to understand this battle the more I understand the battles in my own life.

As I read and study the Psalms I realize that living a Christ-like life is easy until I have to put down the Bible and move into the real world and face your daily routines.  It is only when we as believers take God’s written Word and make it God’s living Word in our hearts that we can answer the “but” questions from those around us with an affirmative answer just as Christ did to Satan “But it is written”.   Start the process of writing God’s Word on our heart today.

Of David.
¹ Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me.
² Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid.
³ Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”
⁴ May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may  those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay.
⁵ May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away;
⁶ may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.
⁷ Since they hid their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me,
⁸ may ruin overtake them by surprise may the net they hid entangle them, may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.
⁹ Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation.
¹⁰ My whole being will exclaim, “Who is like you, O LORD? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them.”
¹¹ Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about.
¹² They repay me evil for good and leave my soul forlorn.
¹³ Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered,
¹⁴ I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.
¹⁵ But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee; attackers gathered against me when I was unaware. They slandered me without ceasing.
¹⁶ Like the ungodly they maliciously mocked; they gnashed their teeth at me.
¹⁷ O Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my life from their ravages, my precious life from these lions.
¹⁸ I will give you thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise you.
¹⁹ Let not those gloat over me who are my enemies without cause; let not those who hate me without reason maliciously wink the eye.
²⁰ They do not speak peaceably, but devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the land.
²¹ They gape at me and say, “Aha! Aha! With our own eyes we have seen it.”
²² O LORD, you have seen this; be not silent. Do not be far from me, O Lord.
²³ Awake, and rise to my defense! Contend for me, my God and Lord.
²⁴ Vindicate me in your righteousness, O LORD my God; do not let them gloat over me.
²⁵ Do not let them think, “Aha, just what we wanted!” or say, “We have swallowed him up.”
²⁶ May all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and confusion; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace.
²⁷ May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.”
²⁸ My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long.

The more I read the psalms the more I see Jesus.  As I am studying the final week of Jesus’ earthly ministry on this earth (starting in Jericho and making the fourteen mile trip to Jerusalem) I can see Jesus praying to God this psalm.   Knowing that this trip would end in his death Jesus still made the journey.  To set the stage for this journey we see Christ in Matthew chapter nineteen giving us the true meaning of a relationship with God which is different than trying to be religious.  The first was in reply to the Pharisees question “is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”  Marriage is the foundation of the most basic building block of our society (the family).  Therefore I believe the question they ask challenged Jesus to give a black or white answer on this issue.  Christ answer was simple.  He answered them by using Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24  and stating have not you read “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”.  He finished his answer with this phase “Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”.

But this answer did not address the issue that the Pharisee’s wanted answered.  Their next question to him was really a challenge to God on why God’s purpose was changed.  This is seen in their reply to his answer.  “Why then, did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”  In other words Moses had to make provisions so that if a marriage did not work out the relationship could be ended.   Man had to intervene, because God’s way did not always work.   However, Jesus replied the problem was not God, but man.  He stated “Moses permitted divorce because your heart was hard, but that was not the way from the beginning.” which not only revealed issues about divorce, but all areas of living in society.   The way of the Pharisee’s differed from the way of the Lord as pictured in Psalms 1 because of their harden hearts.  We need to be careful therefore when asking the “Why then” questions concerning the basic truths found in God’s Word.  As we study and look deeper into the issues of all the questions we have we will usually find the answer to be in our own hardness of our hearts. 

The second example that was given to us in Matthew chapter nineteen that help picture the true meaning of a relationship with God was that of a little child.   Children trust their parents and depend upon them completely.  This stands in contrast to the old saying “God takes care of those who take care of themselves”.  It seems today that a lot of believers have traded their trust and dependence on God in for the trust and dependence on their own abilities.  When reading a Psalm like this I realize that to be Christ-like is to surrender all your burdens and worries to Him.  Like a child looks to their parents to take care of everything so must we look to God to take care of all our issues.

The third example that was given to us in Matthew chapter nineteen that help picture the true meaning of a relationship with God was that of the rich young man.  The question was simple “Teacher what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”  The rich man was living a good life, but still felt he was missing or lacking something.  That something was following God.  Sometimes it hard to give up everything that you have worked for and achieved and to take the path to follow  God.  It is only after you lose what you considered the most precious thing to you that you learn that the most precious thing to you is your relationship to God. Once you realize this then the words “And the  things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace” from  the song  Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus  will start to take place in your life.  You will then become one of those who in verse twenty seven of this psalm will delight in God’s vindication and shout for joy and gladness; we will always say, “The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.