Psalm 148: Praise the Lord from the Earth

Today’s reading is Psalm 148.

From the Heights to the Depths

The second half of this week’s psalm begins similarly to the first, but with a major difference. The psalm began, “Praise the LORD from the heavens.” The second half begins, “Praise the LORD from the earth.” The contrast continues in the second line of each section. The second line of the psalm, “Praise him in the heights!” The second line of the second half, “You great sea creatures and all deeps.” The praise moves from heaven to earth, from the heights to the depths. All creation praises God. Go as high as you can possibly go, there God is praised by creation. God as deep as you can possibly go, there God is praised.

The earth praises God through the weather: fire, hail, snow, mist, and wind. It praises God through geology: mountains and all hills. It praises God through the vegetation: fruit trees and cedars. It praises God through animals: beasts and all livestock. It even praises God through insects: creeping things. It also praises God through birds of the air.

We are once again reminded of the account of creation. God’s creation is good. The mountains and hills, beasts and birds, fruit trees and cedars all do what they are supposed to do, what they were created to do. Even the stormy wind fulfills God’s Word. The only part of God’s creation that fails on that score is mankind.

As with the heavens, the praise of creation is somewhat metaphorical. Mountains don’t speak. Neither do fruit trees. However, as we examine creation, especially today as we learn more and more about the intricacies and clear design of the cells of each of these creations, we are driven to praise the Creator of all aspects of this world. Think how incredible it is that this creation contains not merely matter, but even life. And consider the amazing diversity of this created life. Consider how amazing it is that there are some creatures that creep on the earth and some that fly and some that swim.

Be in awe of the world around you. Go for a walk and look at the trees, bushes, grass. Listen to the birds. See the skittering animals. God is amazing. Praise Him for every one of these creations. Take it a step further. Go into a lab and look into a microscope. Study the cell. Look into the nucleus. Study the DNA. Be amazed. Praise God for the intricate detail of His design. God is worthy of praise and the evidence is all around us from sky to earth and everywhere in between.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 148.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 148 admonish you?

Psalm 130: Plentiful Redemption

He Walks Us On the Water

I can’t help but see Matthew 14:25-33 in our psalm. Jesus walks across the depths to the apostles struggling to cross the sea of Galilee. Peter says, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (ESV) and Jesus did. Peter got out of the boat and, shock of all shocks, walked on the water. But then he got distracted from Jesus by the wind and waves. He began to sink in the depths. He had a choice. Head back for the boat or seek the mercy of the Lord. He cried out from the depths, “Lord, save me!” And Jesus did.

Was this event with Peter orchestrated by God to tell us Jesus is the answer to Psalm 130? I don’t know. But, surely, we can see Jesus is the answer to Psalm 130.

The psalmist begs for forgiveness for himself and Israel. He pleads for redemption for himself and Israel. God did not fully grant that request until Jesus. Jesus is the plentiful redemption. Jesus is the forgiveness.

As Ephesians 1:7 says, it is “In him” that is, in Christ, “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (ESV).

Praise God for redemption. Praise God for forgiveness. Praise God for the riches of His mercy and grace. Praise God for Jesus who Himself went into the depths of the grave, waited on the Lord, and defeated death in order to lift us all up and walk us on the water.

Praise the Lord!

Next week’s reading is Psalm 131.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What do you want to share with others from Psalm 130?

Psalm 130: Out of the Depths

Today’s reading is Psalm 130.

When I Am My Biggest Problem

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!

All by itself, this is a beautiful psalm. We certainly turn to it for comfort in the midst of our personal struggles. When we feel overwhelmed, drowning, this is the go-to psalm. But in the story of our ascending pilgrim, this psalm just doesn’t seem right. I mean, I know we’ve talked about being in the dry times. I know we’ve recognized the psalmist honestly assesses real life even in the city of God, dwelling on His holy hill as he continues to journey up to the pinnacle of His mountain. But do we expect this psalmist who has faced even his dry times in faith to find himself in the depths? Surely we will be kept from those when we are in His holy city, Christ’s church. In fact, haven’t we read how God already delivered the pilgrim from the depths?

Read the other place in Psalms the depths are mentioned:

Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
…
Deliver me from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
and from the deep waters.
Let not the flood sweep over me,
or the deep swallow me up,
or the pit close its mouth over me.
–Psalm 69:1-2; 14-15 (ESV)

Both occurrences of “deep waters” translate the same word as “depths” in Psalm 130:1. The picture is clear. Crying out from the depths means crying out in the midst of the torrent, the flood. Do you recall the great blessing of Psalm 124? Because the Lord was on our side, the flood didn’t sweep us away. The torrent didn’t go over us. Haven’t we been delivered from the depths already?

Recognizing this, we discover how gloriously true to life these pilgrim songs are. In Psalm 124, the psalmist was talking about the floods of the enemies’ attacks. The enemies out there. The persecutors. The mockers. The belittlers. The tempters. The violent. We look back and recall how the Lord delivered us from them all. But now we look around and discover the greatest enemy of all. Ourselves.

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
Psalm 130:3 (ESV)

And isn’t this our big concern as we’ve gone through the past few psalms? We read of the blessed family who fear the Lord. We read of the farmer who keeps on sowing even with tears hoping for the rains and bumper harvest. We remember the blessed man who delights in God’s law and walks in His ways. And then we remember our lives. Our failures stand out like the mountains around Jerusalem. Our sins plague us like the days of drought. Then we fear. What if I’m not one of the blessed? What if I’m actually one of the sinners after all? What if I won’t bring the sheaves home in joy but am actually trying to collect a harvest from grass on the rooftop?

The floods surrounding us are not the attacks of persecutors and warmongers. The floods are the torrent of our own sins. And how much more do these floods plague us as we are now closer to God’s presence than we ever were before? We have two options. We can turn and run back down the mountain, trying to hide from God. Or we can turn to Him and plead for mercy. The pilgrim chooses the second option. You can too.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 130.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 130 prompt or improve your praise of God?

Psalm 71: Up from the Depths of the Earth

Today’s reading is Psalm 71.

You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.

Psalm 71:20 (ESV)

Almost every commentary you read on Psalm 71 will make two comments. First, apparently in the ancient manuscripts there is disagreement about whether this verse should be about “me” or “us.” The entire psalm has been individual, but some suggest we are to see this shift to speaking of the entire nation. Don’t dismiss this. There is apparently manuscriptal evidence for that possibility. However, the second comment will be something like, “We in the time of Christianity and Christ read this verse and see resurrection. But the ancient Israelites did not have our same conception of resurrection. This is almost certainly just an exaggerated statement about being rescued from a near death experience. We shouldn’t see resurrection here.”

I think that second statement misses a point we need to see. I don’t know precisely how the ancient Israelites viewed resurrection. I sure seem to hear this statement about multiple passages and wonder how many passages we have to discount in the Old Testament to decide the ancients didn’t have a concept of resurrection? I’m sure there perspective wasn’t as fully developed as ours. But this misses the major point. I’m not reading this passage as an ancient Israelite. I’m reading this passage through the lens of Jesus. No wonder I see resurrection. Isn’t this precisely what happened with Jesus? He saw calamities and troubles, but He was revived. He was brought again from the depths of the earth.

There are plenty of passages in the Psalms which from the psalmist’s perspective was an exaggeration to declare his life would be lengthened or he would be saved in some particular situation (not the least of which is Psalm 16:10–a passage in which even the apostles saw Jesus’s resurrection). Here we have another. Though Jesus did not become an old man, His detractors did consider Him as God-forsaken (vs. 11). They did believe no one could deliver Him. But He did lean on God from His mother’s womb. And He would not suffer shame for relying on His Father. Rather, He would be exalted. He would be honored. He would be given a name above every other name.

Further, because Jesus was brought forth again from the depths of the earth, His church will also be brought forth from the depths of the earth. May we follow in His footsteps so we too will be revived and brought forth again from the depths of the earth.

Praise the Lord!

Next week’s reading is Psalm 72.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What do you want to share with others from Psalm 71?

Psalm 71: Who is Like God?

Today’s reading is Psalm 71.

What a question. “O God, who is like you?”

The psalmist asked the question back in Psalm 35:10, “All my bones shall say, ‘O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?'” (ESV). But perhaps more to the point, Moses and the Israelites asked this question after crossing the Red Sea: “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11, ESV).

The psalmist repeatedly expresses in Psalm 71:14-19 God has done amazing things. Though he doesn’t list them here in the psalm, he explains he could praise for his whole life because he doesn’t even know the number of God’s great and righteous acts. However, we’ve already hinted at one act he may have in mind.

When Moses was an old man (apologies to all my 80-year-old friends), he led Israel through the Red Sea. After the victory, they sang the song mentioned above. But notice some verbal connections between that song and this one. In Exodus 15:5, Moses’s song declared while Israel was delivered and passed through the Sea, Pharaoh’s army was not so blessed. Rather, “The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone” (ESV). I find it frustrating that the verbal connection is between “floods” in the ESV of Exodus 15:5 and “depths” of Psalm 71:20. But there it is. Further, in Exodus 15:12, the song went on to say, “You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them” (ESV). The psalmist claimed God would revive him and raise him up “from the depths of the earth” (Psalm 71:20). When Moses asked who is like God, the contrast was obvious. Israel had walked through the depths of the earth and come out on the other side. Pharaoh’s army, however, went into the depths of the earth and did not revive, nor was brought up again.

Our psalmist anchors his hope in the Exodus and the Red Sea crossing. Just like Moses and Israel did after they were brought up again, the psalmist declares he will sing praises to the Holy One of Israel (see Psalm 71:22-24). How shameful for Israel as an entire family and nation to be enslaved to Egypt. How far they had fallen into shame from the time of Joseph’s glory and honor. Yet, though they had seen troubles and calamities, God brought them through the Red Sea and set them in His promised land on the other side of that victory with glory and honor again. The psalmist in his old age remembers God’s great works and knows he too will be brought out on the other side victorious. May we hang on to the same hope no matter what calamities and troubles we face.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 71.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 71 prompt or improve your trust in God?