Psalm 27

That I May Dwell In The House of the Lord

Above all, this is a psalm of trust.  David, the author, implores us trust in the Lord, that whatever may befall us, we have to have faith that God will be with us and He will deliver us from the trials in our life.  We have interesting bookends to this psalm give us two perspectives to this broader idea.  The first verse tells us "The Lord is our light and salvation, whom shall I fear?" while the final verse says "Be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord".  The implication I see is that God is always with you, and you should not consider the troubles of the world.  On the other hand, you also need patience, because God might not react the way you expect Him to.

One of my favorite aspects of this psalm is David's insistence that the reward of a life lived for God is not something that needs to wait until death.  As Christians, I think sometimes we get too caught up in the afterlife, and living together with Christ as a reward for living righteously.  David, however, twice tells us that he will live with God during his mortal life.  How will he accomplish this?  By working together with God.  He wants to live a Godly life, but he needs help.  He's not strong enough to do it on his own, so he needs God's guidance to lead him on a straight path.  He is humble to God's power over his life.  Without his trust in God, he'd succumb to his enemies.

The Lord is his light and salvation.  In this discussion of trust in God, and fearing nothing because God is with you, I like the imagery of light.  Outside of God, the world is shrouded in darkness.  We fear what we don't know, and what we can't see.  God shines his light on the things we fear.  We are no longer venturing in the dark unknown, and thus, have no need to fear.  And perhaps this is the trust that David speaks of.  He knows that by living righteously, by allowing God to help him on His path, God will light the path before Him.  As he faces the dangers in his life, even if, as he says "My mother and father forsake me", he has love and comfort in God's light above all things.   The light overcomes the darkness.  Whom shall we fear?

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When the wicked advance against me
    to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

4 One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

6 Then my head will be exalted
    above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
    I will sing and make music to the Lord.

7 Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me,
    do not turn your servant away in anger;
    you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
    God my Savior.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
    the Lord will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, Lord;
    lead me in a straight path
    because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
    for false witnesses rise up against me,
    spouting malicious accusations.

13 I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 78

God Most High Was Always Their Redeemer 

This psalm initially seems like a cliff notes history lesson of the Hebrew people from Moses to David.  It's almost difficult to tell if this psalm is intended as a celebration of that history, a warning not to repeat it, or a little bit of both.  Asaph the writer basically tells us, time and time again, God redeems His chosen people, only for them to continually turn away from Him and suffer, until God has mercy and rescues them once more.  However, Asaph is determined that his generation will not be like the previous who turned from God, so he prefaces this history by telling us that God's laws must never be forgotten.  They must be passed down from generation to generation, so that the awful things that happened in the past are not repeated.  He finds redemption in the continual sin of his people, because they can teach the next generation to serve God thankfully.

A phrase in the history that stuck out to me because it was repeated was "Put God to the test".  This is used in both verse 18,  verse 41, and much later is verse 56.  To me, I conjure up the imagery of God being pushed and pushed until, against His will, he reaches His breaking point and simply has to do something.  God provides so much for His people, but becomes upset when they do not appreciate everything He has done for them.  As an example, Asaph tells us of God providing for the Hebrews in the desert as they fled from Egypt.  They were hungry and thirsty, and God provided them water from stone and manna from heaven.  However, even while the food was in their mouths, they turned away from God.  That is seriously putting God to the test.  As we see time and time again, God desperately wants to provide for His people, but only if they are appreciative and humble.  Failure to do so is putting God to the test.

"In spite of His wonders, they did not believe", is what Asaph tells us, as he laments his ancestors fail to live up to the covenant.  Yet, he praises God's mercy, as He continually restrains His anger, and remembers we "were but flesh".  The one thing that really seems to earn God's ire here is idolatry.  God doesn't want to be second to anything, but He really does not want false God's being praised for His wonders.  Failing to learn this lesson, the Hebrew people were ignored by God and suffered the consequences.  This psalm ends on a high note, however, and speaks optimistically towards God's favor towards David, and the reign of his line.

The key take away from all of this, for me at least, is that while God will turn against those who forsake Him, he does so unwillingly, and he always comes back to you.  In this history, after suffering apart from God, the people, time and time again, call back to God, and begin to obey God again, and then God comes to their rescue.  Even though they sin, they still look towards God, and God hears their cries.  Our God is a loving God, who always wants a close relationship with His people.  He always keeps up His end of the Covenant.  The bigger challenge is for us to keep up our end.

1 My people, hear my teaching;
    listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable;
    I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
3 things we have heard and known,
    things our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
    we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
    his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
    and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
    even the children yet to be born,
    and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
    and would not forget his deeds
    but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their ancestors—
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
    whose spirits were not faithful to him.

9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
    turned back on the day of battle;
10 they did not keep God’s covenant
    and refused to live by his law.
11 They forgot what he had done,
    the wonders he had shown them.
12 He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors
    in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and led them through;
    he made the water stand up like a wall.
14 He guided them with the cloud by day
    and with light from the fire all night.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness
    and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag
    and made water flow down like rivers.

17 But they continued to sin against him,
    rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.
18 They willfully put God to the test
    by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God;
    they said, “Can God really
    spread a table in the wilderness?
20 True, he struck the rock,
    and water gushed out,
    streams flowed abundantly,
but can he also give us bread?
    Can he supply meat for his people?”
21 When the Lord heard them, he was furious;
    his fire broke out against Jacob,
    and his wrath rose against Israel,
22 for they did not believe in God
    or trust in his deliverance.
23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above
    and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 he rained down manna for the people to eat,
    he gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Human beings ate the bread of angels;
    he sent them all the food they could eat.
26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens
    and by his power made the south wind blow.
27 He rained meat down on them like dust,
    birds like sand on the seashore.
28 He made them come down inside their camp,
    all around their tents.
29 They ate till they were gorged—
    he had given them what they craved.
30 But before they turned from what they craved,
    even while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger rose against them;
    he put to death the sturdiest among them,
    cutting down the young men of Israel.

32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
    in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he ended their days in futility
    and their years in terror.
34 Whenever God slew them, they would seekhim;
    they eagerly turned to him again.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,
    that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
    lying to him with their tongues;
37 their hearts were not loyal to him,
    they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful;
    he forgave their iniquities
    and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
    and did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
    a passing breeze that does not return.

40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
    and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test;
    they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power—
    the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
    his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44 He turned their river into blood;
    they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
    and frogs that devastated them.
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
    their produce to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
    and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
    their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,
    his wrath, indignation and hostility—
    a band of destroying angels.
50 He prepared a path for his anger;
    he did not spare them from death
    but gave them over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
    the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock;
    he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
    but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
    to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them
    and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
    he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

56 But they put God to the test
    and rebelled against the Most High;
    they did not keep his statutes.
57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
    as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places;
    they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard them, he was furious;
    he rejected Israel completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
    the tent he had set up among humans.
61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
    his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62 He gave his people over to the sword;
    he was furious with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
    and their young women had no wedding songs;
64 their priests were put to the sword,
    and their widows could not weep.

65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
    as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back his enemies;
    he put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
    Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
    like the earth that he established forever.
70 He chose David his servant
    and took him from the sheep pens;
71 from tending the sheep he brought him
    to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
    of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
    with skillful hands he led them.

Psalm 4

The Lord Hears When I Call to Him.

Although this is a psalm of lament, David provides us with some very interesting imagery of comfort.  Twice he mentions lying in bed while comprehending God's nature, and that detail is very interesting to me.  After all, when we are laying down in our beds, we are at our most vulnerable.  It is a time when we try and shut out all of the other things in the world and come to rest.  Often, during this time, at least for me, you have more time inside of your own head, where, uninterrupted, I can think for a minute or two on the big things in my life and the big things facing the world.  Perhaps, while in laying in bed, it is the best time to feel God around you.

The first instance of bed rest we have in this psalm is in verse 4, when David tells us "When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent".  Many times I have written that God is always speaking to us, but it is up to us to listen.  That seems to be our instructions here.  We phase out all of the problems of the world around us, and lie in our beds, surrounded by blankets, and make ourselves a little cocoon that separates us from everything else.  Then, alone with our thoughts, we search our hearts.  David instructs us to be silent, since we need to be humble to receive God.  We stop and listen, and that allows us to ponder the entirety of God's wonder and creation.

The other talk of lying in bed comes in the final verse 8, where David, lying down in sleep, says "You alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety."  It makes the act of lying in bed a two way street.  God provides us the love and comfort to safely lie in rest, and in exchange, we can use that time to lie and listen to Him and open our hearts.  Prior to this, David thanks God for his prosperity, and the joy and abundance that the presence of the Lord, offering thanksgiving for "the light of your face" shining on them.  David realizes that when he has a relationship with God, when that light is shining on him, that he has the comfort and and love of God.  That not only provides for his soul while he wakes, but also provides while he's resting as well.

Rather than a psalm of anguish, this seems more like a psalm of comfort and joy.  It's a reminder that if you follow and obey God, if you listen to Him when he calls, you will share in his love and comfort.  God is good to those who trust Him.

1 Answer me when I call to you,
    my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
    have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

2 How long will you people turn my glory into shame?
    How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?
3 Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself;
    the Lord hears when I call to him.

4 Tremble and do not sin;
    when you are on your beds,
    search your hearts and be silent.
5 Offer the sacrifices of the righteous
    and trust in the Lord.

6 Many, Lord, are asking, “Who will bring us prosperity?”
    Let the light of your face shine on us.
7 Fill my heart with joy
    when their grain and new wine abound.

8 In peace I will lie down and sleep,
    for you alone, Lord,
    make me dwell in safety.