Psalm 125: The One Who Trusted

Today’s reading is Psalm 125.

The ONe King Who Truly Trusted

Perhaps you’ve already figured out where today’s post will go. This week, I’ve already mentioned the notion of reading this psalm from the perspective of the kings who were called to be the Blessed King of Psalm 1-2. How many of them pulled that off?

David was doing really well for a while. But then he saw Bathsheba. Solomon started off great, asking God for wisdom. But his wives turned his head. We might think of Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18:5 says Hezekiah trusted in the Lord to such a degree there was no king of Judah like him either before or after. Of course, because of his trust in the Lord, the Lord kept His people surrounded and Assyria couldn’t touch Jerusalem. Yet, Hezekiah still had his struggles.

The one King who truly trusted in the Lord, who trusted in the Lord despite the scepter of wickedness He met in Jerusalem, who trusted in the Lord all the way up to and through death, is Jesus the son of David. He refused to stretch out His hand to do wrong. He was not turned to the crooked ways of evildoers. He was not moved. And He truly abides forever.

He did good. And the Lord returned the good upon Him, raising Him from the tomb on the third day. He ascended to the right hand of the Father and has been given the name that is above every other name. At His name every knee will bow and every tongue confess He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Praise the Lord!

If I will confess Him as Lord and bow my knee in submission to Him, then I too will be transformed into one of those who do good and receive good from God. After all, my King matters. If I follow the best King, I can’t help but have victory.

Will you follow with me? Let me know in the comments section below.

Next week’s reading is Psalm 126.

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PATHS:
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Psalm 116: I Will Walk Before the Lord

Today’s reading is Psalm 116.

Delivered to Walk

The valley in this psalm was deep and dark. The psalmist wasn’t merely in pain. He was close to death. The snares of death encompassed him. The pangs or distress of Sheol laid hold of him. He was going to die.

O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!
Psalm 116:4 (ESV)

The Lord did!

For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling…
Psalm 116:8 (ESV)

When the Lord healed those stumbling feet, the psalmist declared:

I will walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
Psalm 116:9 (ESV)

The Lord saved this psalmist. Therefore, he loved the Lord, he believed the Lord, he called upon the Lord. On top of all that, he would walk before the Lord.

In the Land of the Living

No doubt, as with all the psalms which speak of salvation from death and the grave, we should see Jesus in the song. The original song may have been about David, Hezekiah, or one of the other kings. It could have been a metaphorical personification of restored Israel herself. It may have been merely a talented and inspired poet of God whom we don’t know. This psalm is really about Jesus.

Then it is about us who are in Jesus. Jesus cried out to the Lord and was heard because of His reverence (Hebrews 5:7). Though He endured the cross and died. On the third day, His soul was delivered from death. His body was not allowed to see corruption in the grave. He walks before the Father in the land of the living.

Again, think about what it must have been like for Him to sing this song on the night of His betrayal with the very men who were going to scatter to the winds when trouble hit. He was going to die. But He was going to live.

Like Master, like disciples. That is exactly what is promised to us. Though we die, we will live. There will be a time when our eyes do not see, our ears do not hear, our hands do not feel, our feet do not walk. But, as we know God raised Jesus from the dead, He will raise us who are in Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 4:14). We groan in the tents we now wear, but we look forward to a home not made with hands in the heavens as we walk before the Lord in the land of the living for all eternity.

Praise the Lord!

Next week’s reading is Psalm 117.

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Psalm 80: The Lord’s Vineyard

Today’s reading is Psalm 80.

Our psalmist again gets historical. However, this time, he doesn’t just tell the story of Israel’s past. He provides a metaphor. Actually, if I am correct in saying this psalm was written in the days of Hezekiah, the psalmist uses a common metaphor for Israel of the day.

During and surrounding the reign of Hezekiah, Hosea prophesied. In Hosea 10:1, the prophet wrote:

Israel is a luxuriant vine
that yields its fruit (ESV).

Sound familiar? Sure. Our psalmist also presents Israel as a vine. He says the vine began its growth in Egypt, but God brought it out of Egypt, then cleared the ground of other nations and planted it. Then He grew the vine so it was great in the earth. However, God allowed the wall of the vineyard to be broken, allowing passersby to plunder it and allowing the wild animals to feast on it. Why?

Isaiah also wrote during and surrounding the reign of Hezekiah. Listen to his answer in Isaiah 5:1-7:

Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
And now I tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry!

If the psalmist didn’t know why Israel was burned down, we do. The problem was not God. The problem was the vineyard. May we remember that today. We are the vineyard of the Lord’s planting. If we want Him to be a wall about us and the glory in our midst, let us bear the fruit of the kingdom. A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. May we always conduct ourselves in the meekness of His kingdom/vineyard wisdom.

Today’s reading is Psalm 80.

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Psalm 80: “How Long Will You be Angry with Your People’s Prayers?”

Today’s reading is Psalm 80.

We find a shocking question in Psalm 80:4.

O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
(ESV)

This question is shocking because it is hard to imagine God being angry with prayers ever. Yahweh is a merciful God (Exodus 34:6-7). He is merciful all the time. He is consistently merciful. He is constantly merciful. If we will turn to Him for mercy, He will respond in mercy. Yet, here is a psalmist claiming Israelites have prayed and God is angry with their praying. That’s hard to process.

Let’s put this in context. This is a psalm of Asaph, which means it is written by one of the family/school of Levites set aside to lead Israel in worship at the temple back in David’s reign. That is, it comes from citizens of the southern kingdom of Judah. However, according to Psalm 80:12-13, 16 this psalm was written after God’s vine, Israel, had been uprooted, chopped down, burned. Judgment has come on God’s people. The author, therefore, is a descendent of Asaph, not Asaph himself. That being said, the focus seems to be toward the northern kingdom by calling out Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh (vss. 1-2). However, God is still enthroned above the cherubim (vs. 1). Of course, this may refer to God’s true throne above the cherubim in the heavenly realm, but this statement usually refers to God’s place in the temple between the cherubim on the ark of the covenant. In other words, even though destroying judgment has come on God’s people, the temple still stands. Finally, in vs. 17, there seems to still be a king who is the “man of your right hand.” That recalls David and his descendants from Psalm 110:1.

Let’s piece all that together. Israel has been judged, but the temple and king in Jerusalem remain. Certainly, we can’t be dogmatic about this, but it sure looks like a psalm written during the reign of Hezekiah following Assyria’s destruction and deportation of Israel. Jerusalem and Judea seem to be threatened and the psalmist believes their prayers are being ignored by God. The psalmist is begging God to protect the king.

Consider 2 Kings 18:13, an oft-overlooked verse: “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them” (ESV). Hezekiah then makes a treaty with Assyria. But Assyria follows that up by heading to Jerusalem. Do you see how our psalm fits perfectly in this time frame?

Israel, the northern kingdom, was judged by God using Assyria for their idolatry and sin. Now Assyria sets its sights on Judah and Jerusalem. Judah had been just as idolatrous and sinful until Hezekiah became king. Hezekiah had been leading Judah into revival and restoration. He repaired the temple and restored feasts. He cut down high places. But when Assyria starts moving in to Judah, Assyria is winning fortified cities. That doesn’t sound right. But it does sound like a perfect scenario in which someone might say, “How long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?”

Of course, we get it. When the folks were full of sin and idolatry, going through the motions of worship was odious to God (see Isaiah 1:12-17). But Judah had been reforming. They had been repenting. They had been turning back to God. Why is Assyria still having victory? How long will God continue to be angry at their prayers? He is merciful all the time, why isn’t that mercy coming immediately?

I don’t know all the answers to this question. However, I do know how the events of Assyria’s attack on Judah and Jerusalem go. Sennacherib has success until getting to Jerusalem. Hezekiah fully submits and surrenders to God seeking His glory fully. And then God destroys the Assyrian army in an awe-inspiring way–185,000 soldiers dead in one night by the angel of the Lord. Sennacherib heads back home with his tail between his legs and ends up being killed by his own sons in the house of his own weak god.

Here’s what I learn. Sometimes, it seems to me like God is angry with my prayers. He doesn’t like them. He’s not responding to them. But, I’m facing one of two issues. Either 1) He is angry at my prayer and my prayer is odious to Him because I am either living in impenitent sin but thinking God will respond to my ritualistic praying. Or 2) God has a bigger, better plan in store for me than I even contemplated in my prayers and I just need to hang on.

God is merciful. He is merciful all the time. Even when it seems like He isn’t, He really is taking me somewhere greater than I imagined.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 80.

PODCAST!!!

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PATHS:
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Psalm 76: The God Who is to be Feared

In vs. 1, He is the God who is known. In vs. 4, He is the God who is glorious, resplendent, and shining brightly. In vs. 7, He is the God who is to be feared.

Based on the heading in the Septuagint that this is a “song to the Assyrian,” it seems likely the specific historical context of Psalm 76 is God’s defeat of Sennacherib’s army in 2 Kings 18-19. Do you recall the Rabshakeh’s words of mockery against our God in 2 Kings 18:32-35? “Do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has any of the gods of the nations every delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?” (ESV).

Neither Sennacherib nor his representative, the Rabshakeh, knew the LORD as Hezekiah did. Hezekiah prayed:

O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.

2 Kings 19:15-19, ESV

And that is precisely what God did, killing 185,000 Assyrians in one night. The LORD was known in Judah and Israel; He was then known better in Assyria.

This is powerful just a single literary unit, but let us not forget the psalms of Asaph have been presenting a story arch. In Psalm 73, the Asaphite psalmist struggled with God’s goodness, but when he went to the sanctuary, the place of God’s presence and worship, the place where God’s name dwelt and God was known among His people, the psalmist was reminded of God’s goodness and ultimate purposes. However, in Psalm 74, the sanctuary was destroyed. The one saving grace was gone. But the Asaphite psalmist tied a knot at the end of his rope by remembering God’s great acts through creation and the Exodus. However, he was left struggling. “How long?” he begged to know. How long would God allow His name to be mocked by leaving His sanctuary in ruins. Then, in Psalm 75 we find God’s response. “‘How long?’ you ask. At my appointed time, I will judge.” Though God had not actually in Psalm 75 provided the judgment on Israel’s enemies and brought deliverance to His people, the psalmist praised and thanked God intently. Now we come to Psalm 76. Imagine reading, singing, praying this psalm which memorializes God’s defeat of Assyria while languishing in Babylonian captivity. What a statement of faith it becomes. Yes, we are beset by enemies. Yes, we are far from home. Yes, Salem and Zion lie in ruins. Yes, it seems like our God has been defeated. But we trust our God. We know Him. We know the covenant keeping God He is. We know the phenomenal might He possesses. We know the life-giving, slavery-breaking, restoration-providing power He wields. Assyria should have feared our God. They underestimated Him because He allowed them to judge Israel. Babylon, you should fear our God. Don’t underestimate Him just because He allowed you to be an instrument of our judgment. He has plans for us.

Assyria couldn’t stand before God when He was roused to utter judgment from the heavens. Babylon will not be able to stand either. And no enemy today will either.

Fear has fallen out of favor as a motivator in today’s world. However, be aware, if you decide to push God away. If you mock Him instead of surrendering to Him, and please understand if you don’t surrender to Him you are mocking Him, He is to be feared. You will not stand before Him. You will not be able to resist Him. You will not be able to defeat Him. Please, fear God, and surrender to Him. Let Him save you so you don’t have to fear Him any longer.

If you have surrendered to Him…well, we’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 76.

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:
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How does Psalm 76 prompt or improve your trust in God?

Psalm 76: The God Who is Glorious

Today’s reading is Psalm 76.

In vs. 1, He is the God who is known in Judah and Israel. In vs. 4, He is the God who is glorious. As other translations say, He is resplendent, bright, radiant with light.

Then the psalmist provides an odd word picture. God is more glorious than the mountains full of prey. What is that about? First, imagine yourself a lion looking out on the mountains. Would anything be more glorious to you than seeing plenty to eat? But there is a double meaning here. If the application to the 2 Kings 18-19 Assyrian siege of Jerusalem is accurate, Jerusalem looked out and saw an awe-inspiring army. It was majestic, magnificent, glorious as far as armies go. But, of course, it was an enemy army. It was terrifying, horrifying, petrifying. However, in the end, it was nothing more than prey for the God who fights for Judah and those faithful to Him.

In 2 Kings 19:35, God struck down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. Though stouthearted, they were stripped of their spoil. They sank into sleep and were not even able to use their hands in battle. Then the psalmist connects it back to the defeat of Pharaoh’s army. He calls to mind the horse and rider which in Psalm 76 lay stunned and in Exodus 15:1, 21 were thrown into the sea.

I can’t help but also remember the fantastic story of 2 Kings 6:8-23. The king of Syria wanted to capture and kill the prophet Elisha. He sent horses and chariots to surround the city of Dothan. When they awoke, Elisha’s servant cried, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” Then God opened the eyes of the servant to see “the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” The Syrian army was nothing but prey; God’s army was more glorious and resplendent. This time, the army was stunned with blindness and led into the city of Samaria where God bestowed mercy on them, allowing them to return home.

What we see over and over again is while we are embattled by a powerful, cunning, and baffling enemy, our God is stronger, more powerful, and more glorious. He fights for us. We can rest in His strength and might.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 76.

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 76 admonish you?

Camping with the Lord’s Angel

Today’s reading is Psalm 34.

Some people don’t like camping. It’s outdoors. It’s in the wild. There are animals. There are snakes. It’s can seem kind of dangerous. “Anyone wanna come a get killed with me or do you wanna get killed looking for me?” But, you know, as Jim Gaffigan also says, until we came up with the house, everyone was camping.

That is exactly where Israel was in the wilderness, camping. In fact, when they moved into their houses in the Promised Land, they had an annual feast to remind them of their 40-year camping trip. It was called The Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles).

So, when David says “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them,” the first thing that should come to our mind is that camping trip. Do you remember essentially how it starts? They travel up to the Red Sea, and then they get hemmed in. They’ve got three potential ways to travel. One way is a rocky, mountainous wilderness through which they could never lead their flocks and children. Another is the Red Sea. Then they look behind them and there’s Pharaoh’s army coming in hot pursuit. They think the jig is up.

But in Exodus 14:19, the angel of God in the form of the cloudy and fiery pillar stood between them and Pharaoh’s army. God parts the waters of the Red Sea and Israel starts to pass through. In 14:24, the angel of God threw the Egyptians into a panic, clogging them down between the walls of water until the Israelites had safely crossed to the other side. Then brought the water down on the army of Egypt, destroying them.

After Sinai and the building of the Lord’s Tabernacle, Israel encamped around the Tent of the Lord. But, really, the Angel of the Lord encamped around Israel.

That is why David feels safe when he takes refuge in the Lord. Because he knows that when the Angel of the Lord encamps around you, no one can hurt you.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 34.

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.