When Doves Cry (Psalm 55)

There are more than a few remarkable mice:

Mickey & Minnie
Jerry (of Tom & Jerry)
Speedy Gonzales
Speedy’s cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez
Pinky & the Brain
Gus (from Cinderella)
Fievel Mousekewitz
Mighty Mouse
Stuart Little
Mrs. Brisby (from The Secret of NIMH)
Pixie & Dixie

(Pikachu is often thought of as a mouse, but the character was originally inspired by a squirrel).

Did I mention Timothy Q. Mouse? One of his greatest moments in the animated feature, Dumbo, ended up on the cutting room floor. In the deleted scene, Timothy tells a dejected Dumbo that his grandpa used to say, “Now listen here, you little tyke; lots of things are going to happen that you won’t like.”

Then Timothy sang the song, Are You a Man or a Mouse?

When the going’s getting rough
An’ old man trouble’s getting tough
Stand right up and call his bluff
Are you a man or a mouse?

You won’t find any mice in Psalm 55, but there is a dove. David said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wilderness… I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest” (v6-8).

David was expressing his desire to flee from his troubles, rather than have to face them.

As is so often the case, God did not give David “wings like a dove” in his troubles. He instead promised to sustain him in them.

No other animal is directly named. But if you look at verse twenty-two, you’ll see the word “burden.” The ver word suggests another animal, to the Hebrew mind.

The main animal of burden in the Bible was the donkey.

In the 74 or so times they are mentioned, they are always depicted as work animals or riding animals. That is their lot. They plow fields and carry loads.

David the dove wanted to escape his lot in life.

David the donkey would be sustained in his troubles.

I’ll organize my comments by asking you: #1 Are You A Dove?, or #2 Are You A Donkey?

#1 – Are You A Dove? (v1-15)

Don’t be thinking of “dove” as a symbol of God the Holy Spirit. Or as the symbol of the Democratic Party. Or as a label for pacifists. The dove in our song is a common bird who has the benefit of independent flight in order to escape its troubles; nothing more.

David thought he could fly away.

Psa 55:1  To the Chief Musician. With Stringed Instruments. A Contemplation of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God, And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.

Trivia question: How many guitars on Hotel California? Although it varies, the usual answer is 8.

David put his contemplation of his troubles to music, writing it for multiple stringed instruments to perform.

“Give ear to my prayer” sounds OK; but “do not hide Yourself from my supplication” seems to diminish God. It doesn’t. Look at verse two:

Psa 55:2  Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily,

It’s a repeat of verse one with some insight. He again asked to be heard. Then he described the character of his supplication: It was a noisy, restless, moaning, complaint.

When David asked God to not hide Himself from his supplication, it was because David knew he was whining.

In The Godfather, a weeping Johnny Fontane complains to Don Corleone about a movie role he wanted. The Don gets up, slaps him, saying, “You can act like a man.” David allowed himself to deteriorate into self-pity. He deserved a slap.

People like to point out that God is OK with your doubts, or complaints. That isn’t the point. The point is this: Are you OK with them? Do you want to be the kind of believer that doubts and complains? The kind who needs a slap to act like a man or woman of God? No; of course not. Slap yourself.

Psa 55:3  Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked; For they bring down trouble upon me, And in wrath they hate me.
Psa 55:4  My heart is severely pained within me, And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Psa 55:5  Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, And horror has overwhelmed me.

If you’ve been to the doctor recently, did they give you a depression screening? These verses we just read were David’s answers.

Have you felt these ways? Probably; I know I have. In fact, in one sense, I hope you have felt some of these – because then you are equipped to “weep with those who weep,” without giving them shallow counsel.

David – the so-called “man after God’s own heart” – knew heartache.

Psa 55:6  So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.
Psa 55:7  Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wilderness. Selah
Psa 55:8  I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest.”

David did not have “wings,” and neither do we. Ah, but we sometimes think we can be capable of independent flight. We can look to the so-called wisdom of the world, or to its resources, as our “wings” – attempting flight.

When troubles come upon me… I try to exercise independent flight, to avoid them. I waste a lot of time until realizing I can’t escape my lot. We’re not doves.

The particular troubles David wanted to fly from are described next.

Psa 55:9  Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Psa 55:10  Day and night they go around it on its walls; Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it.
Psa 55:11  Destruction is in its midst; Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets.

Someone, or someones, were causing serious dissent against David’s rule in Jerusalem.

Their “deceit[ful]” “tongues,” meaning their lying words, were fomenting “strife,” “violence,” “iniquity,” “trouble,” “destruction,” and “oppression.”

It sounds a lot like the time when David’s son, Absalom, was laying the groundwork for his hostile takeover of the kingdom. He did it using lying words.

Psa 55:12  For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him.
Psa 55:13  But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance.
Psa 55:14  We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng.

If David was describing the rebellion of Absalom, the “companion” of his he was speaking about would be his court counselor, Ahithophel. He changed loyalties, to Absalom.

Ahithophel’s counsel was disregarded. He went home and promptly hanged himself.

We see in this a Messianic prophecy. It very obviously looks forward past Ahithophel and David to Judas and Jesus.

O, what comfort it must have brought our Lord, Jesus, to recall this song. Just as David would go through his troubles and remain king, so Jesus would endure the Cross and reclaim the kingdom.

Psa 55:15  Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

This is one of those “imprecatory” statements, in which people are cursed with destruction and death.

In fact, David did not feel this way about Absalom. He cautioned his men to not kill his son. Jesus certainly did not feel this towards Judas.

These are statements that reveal the ultimate future of any and all who remain in their wickedness, in sin:

“Death” will seize them

They will “go down alive into Hell

Are you a dove? We all try independent flight from our troubles. It’s our natural reaction. We do not want to react naturally; we want to react supernaturally.

#2 – Are You A Donkey? (v16-23)

Jesus wasn’t alone in loving this psalm. The apostle Peter borrowed from verses twenty-two, “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.”

“Burden” is a word with negative connotations. It’s a heavy load; a grief; an anxiety. It is something that slows us.

In this psalm, we mustn’t think of “burden” as a bad thing.

Derek Kidner says, “The word burden is too restrictive: it means whatever is given you, your appointed lot (hence in New English Bible, ‘your fortunes’). And the promise is not that God will carry it, but that he will sustain you.”

My unscholarly paraphrase: God will sustain you in your appointed lot in life. In that sense, you are to be like a donkey – taking on whatever load, sustained by Him to do so.

G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “The experience of suffering was not taken away from the servant of God, but he was sustained, and so made strong enough to resist its pressure, and through it to make his service more perfect. This is how God ever sustains us in the bearing of burdens.”

Psa 55:16  As for me, I will call upon God, And the LORD shall save me.
Psa 55:17  Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.

Big change in David’s attitude and approach. Instead of whining, David visited the Tabernacle three times a day, for prayer, as was the custom of the Jews. Instead of crying like a baby, he cried like a man, at the prescribed times.

He knew the Lord would “save” him. David understood that to mean the current troubles would not lead to his destruction and death. The Lord would keep His unconditional promises to David.

Praying three times a day. Maybe that’s what the apostle Paul meant when he said he prayed three times for his affliction. God’s answer was to sustain Paul in his affliction. Very similar to what we are learning from David.

We are under no obligation to pray three times a day, either in Jerusalem, or looking East toward it.

Psa 55:18  He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, For there were many against me.
Psa 55:19  God will hear, and afflict them, Even He who abides from of old. Selah. Because they do not change, Therefore they do not fear God.

These two verses look back on David’s trouble. God sustained him; David was now at peace; God would be the One to mete out justice upon those who did not fear Him.

Psa 55:20  He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; He has broken his covenant.
Psa 55:21  The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.

This described Ahithophel. What an awful legacy. He definitely did not finish well.

The apostle Paul wanted both he, and us, to finish well:

1Co 9:24  Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
1Co 9:25  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
1Co 9:26  Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
1Co 9:27  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Double-down on discipline. Don’t let your liberty in Jesus turn to something that weights you down. Run, Christian, run.

We said this psalm looked forward, prophetically, to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. It has another, further, fulfillment.

It speaks of violating the covenant and making war with those that were at peace with him. This is where things are leading to for the nation of Israel today. A man is coming who will arise on the global stage with whom the nation of Israel will enter into a covenant – a peace agreement. This man will betray the nation of Israel.

He has more than thirty names in the Bible. We know him best as the antichrist. He is the Beast of the Revelation.

And look at the description given here of this man: His speech was smoother than butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. When the Bible speaks about the coming antichrist, the most common attribute that it speaks of concerns his speech and words.

Notice also the instruction to “cast your burden upon the Lord for He will sustain you.”

This will apply to the nation of Israel once, through the terrible Great Tribulation, they turn their eyes again to their Messiah. The Revelation specifically states God will sustain Israel to the end of that terrible time.

Psa 55:22  Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

We’re saying that this means something a little deeper than Footprints in the Sand. Remember the apostle Paul. He cast his thorn in the flesh on the Lord, Who sustained him.

The Bible version called The Message translates the end of the verse, “He’ll never let good people topple into ruin.” Any ruin – we do that to ourselves. It isn’t that the Christian life is too hard. It’s that our hearts may harden; we may leave our first love.

Psa 55:23  But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction; Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; But I will trust in You.

David saw both the ultimate, and the immediate, destiny of the wicked:

Ultimately, eternally, they would be brought to what he called “the pit of destruction.” The Bible is progressive in its revelation. We know more than David did about the final destination of the lost. They will be consigned to the Lake of Fire, forever in conscious torment.

Immediately, God would vindicate David. His enemies would be dealt with.

If this was a contemplation of David’s upon Absalom’s rebellion, his son was killed, “not living out half his days.” It isn’t a promise to claim against those who might be opposed to you.

Your enemies will be dealt with:

At the Second Coming of Jesus, the antichrist and his cohort, a man called the false prophet, will become the first two permanent residents of the Lake of Fire.

Satan will be thrown into something called the Bottomless Pit.

After the one-thousand year reign of Jesus on the earth, Satan and the fallen angels will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

All the wicked dead, from all of time, will be raised, and likewise cast alive into the Lake.

Donkey. Not the animal we would ordinarily want to identify with. But if your other choice is a dove, donkey is the spiritual alternative.

It won’t catch on… But when our brothers and sisters in Christ are in trouble, we might ask them, “Are you a donkey, or are you a dove?”

Don’t ask others until you ask yourself.

Pray For Keeps (Psalm 121)

Martin Luther once said, “As long as we live, there is never enough singing.” While are not the most sing-song culture, there are many occasions where only a song will do. Once a year, Happy Birthday will be dedicated to you. And, only once a year is Auld Lang Syne allowed to come out to be heard.

If you go to a ballgame you know there’s a moment coming – in the seventh inning stretch – where bitter rivals join together to sing about the joys of America’s past-time. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Sure, you’re singing about going to a place where you’re already at, and you’re singing about a popcorn treat no one actually wants to eat, you sing about never leaving the park and that you and all the rest of the crowd are happy to be found in the stands. It may be idealized, but it’s just the right song for the time and the setting.

Dory, everyone’s favorite Pacific Blue Tang, swam into our hearts singing: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” It was that song that not only helped her and Marlin though many trials, but ended up saving the lives of a large school of grouper who were caught in a fisherman’s net.

Songs have the ability to cheer our hearts or steel our resolve. They can also help us to remember things we’ve once learned but have a hard time recalling. If I were to ask you what the capital of New Hampshire was, or the order of the books of the Bible, a lot of you would start scrolling a song in your head.

In the Psalms, we’ve seen many kinds of songs that God has given us to sing through life. Songs of hope and songs of praise. Songs of lament and songs of sorrow. They’re given to us, not just so that we have some sort of emotional vent, but so we will learn the heart of God and how to live in closeness to Him.

Inside the Psalter there are 15 songs that were specifically used by Jewish pilgrims on their trips to the Temple in Jerusalem 3 times a year. They’re Psalms 120 through 134 and they’re called Songs of Ascent. Jerusalem was built on a hill, and so, from wherever you were traveling, you would go up the road, elevating up Mount Zion until finally you arrived in the Temple courts where you would worship God among His people.

These songs were meant to be sung as they took their trip. Probably the most famous among them is Psalm 121. You heard it at the start of our service this morning. When we look at the words, we may be tempted to say, “Now, wait a minute – The Lord will protect you from all harm? The sun won’t strike you? My foot will never slip?” Is this some Biblical version of I Believe I Can Fly? Or were the pilgrims just meant to sing something frivolous to pass the time, a sort of Take Me Out To The Ballgame on their long stretch from tent to Temple?

We’ll find this wonderful song is not shallow. It’s not unrealistic. It is a precious melody we can take with us as we make our own pilgrimage from here to heaven.

A little context might be helpful. The very first Song of Ascents, Psalm 120, is full of distress. The singer takes a look around and finds himself among violent and hate-filled people. He finally comes to the conclusion that he has “dwelt too long” in this place so far from God. And so he calls out to the Lord who is faithful to immediately answer. That’s the first song in the pilgrim journey. Some Bible scholars see an analogy of the moment that a person realizes that they are sinners and call out to God for salvation. He does not withhold it, He answers. And now the pilgrim begins their long walk with Him.

So, our pilgrim has made the decision to go and now, setting out, we find ourselves at the start of Psalm 121.

Psalm 121:1 – A song of ascents. 1 I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?

There are several ways to look at this opening verse. Are we looking at mountains standing between the traveller and the Temple? Are we looking at the hills surrounding Jerusalem? Or, are we looking at the Temple Mount itself? All three would be mountains that the pilgrims would encounter and all three have their own implications.

Whichever it was, the singer looks up and quickly comes to the conclusion that he needed help. We’ll find he’s concerned about the elevation and the elements and potential enemies lurking about.

If we’re looking at mountains on the road, standing between him and Jerusalem, they would be foreboding, indeed. Even if there weren’t thieves hiding in the cliffs, mountain trails are much more hazardous and difficult than those on the level plain.

If we’re looking at the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, chances are the singer would also see the pagan shrines on the high places, stocked with shamans and temple prostitutes. They’d be selling themselves and selling charms and potions, promising help and protection, if you would only leave the path and linger for awhile with them.

If we’re looking at the hill of Jerusalem, the sight wouldn’t be frightening, but encouraging. There is the place where he’s headed. But, even then the singer does well to focus his attention, keeping himself from making the mistake of the Pharisees, who thought that their city and their traditions and their buildings was what kept them safe. This pilgrim must not going to make the mistake of Samson, who let his mind and his morality wander, thinking that his strength came, not from the Lord, but from his hair, leading to his destruction.

Psalm 121:2 – 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

No matter who the pilgrim was, what year they were traveling, where they were coming from or how needy they were, this was and is true. God, the Creator, has made Himself available to us.

He offers more than just a bus ticket or a walking stick. The help described here means acts of supplying what is needed in abundant measure. To support and further the one being helped. We’re talking more than a simple guide here. Before the modern era, these long trips were often supplied with a guide to help those who hadn’t been before. Like how Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark. Sometimes those guides did a great job. In 1843, a missionary named Elijah White led a caravan of 100 wagons carrying 1,000 people down The Oregon Trail. He had made the trip the year before and so knew a bit of how to handle it.

On the other hand, sometimes those guides don’t do so well. Lansford Hastings promised the 89 members of the Donner Party that he knew a shortcut to California.

The Psalmist reminds us that God is not simply a guy who has been down the road once before. He’s the One who made the heavens and the earth. He placed the stars throughout the galaxies so that they might form particular constellations from our vantage point. He hangs the planets on nothing and keeps them in motion. He gives life to the universe. And why did He do all of it? So that He might interact with you and me. So that He might walk with us as He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.

This reminder is both humbling and invigorating. As we look at our surroundings or down the road of life and find ourselves thinking, “I need help.” We’re immediately met with the truth that not only will God help, but also the that God fashioned the cosmos so He could love us.

Our singer, seeing the mountains, takes the next step forward, still singing. Trials and temptations most certainly lay ahead, but God would not fail to help. In verse 3, the voice changes from I/my to you/your. Remember: The pilgrims were singing this as they went. And so it seems best to see this as them singing to themselves what they know to be true.

Psalm 121:3 – 3 He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber.

God’s providence extends to you. It’s not just for the great movements of history. He has numbered the hairs of your head. He has prepared a path for your life so that you can discover the good works He has set before you.

But we’ve come here to a phrase we must reconcile. Is this song telling the truth? I’ve sprained my ankle, after all. Many around us are, right now, enduring suffering greater than a slip of the foot.

Eugene Peterson writes, “At no time is there the faintest suggestion that the life of faith exempts us from difficulties. What it promises is preservation from all the evil in them.”

That is what’s promised to us in the Scriptures. That God will sustain us. That He will complete us. That He will keep us. In fact, we lose something when the song is taken from Hebrew into English. Six times a certain word is used – the word “keep.” God, the Keeper, will keep us. And He will not get tired of performing that gracious work.

We may twist our ankle walking down the steps today, that’s just part of life in a sin-ruined world. But God is on record, promising that He will not allow our enemies to overcome us or temptation to overwhelm us.

Psalm 121:4 – 4 Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep.

The longest recorded time of sleeplessness in humans is 264 hours. That’s 11 days. But, even then, the subject was experiencing significant cognitive and behavioral problems due to lack of sleep.

Not so with our Lord. He never tires of His work and He never tires of us. He never looks down as an exasperated Father and says, “I just need a break!”

It’s a very good thing that our Lord stays awake and attentive to us and to the nations of this world. There is a realm around us that we cannot see. There are strains and pressures that exist around the clock, even when we need to sleep. What hope would we have if we had no help from heaven? Or if our God needed to take naps?

It reminds me a scene from the classic Disney movie Swiss Family Robinson. The family has been marooned on a strange island. There, on the beach, with a little make-shift shelter, the wife and boys are sleeping while the father tries desperately to stay awake, musket in hand. He’s exhausted and keeps nodding off. All the while, there’s a tiger lurking in the underbrush. Pirates are sailing close. All sorts of dangers they don’t even know about.

We’re not left on our own like the Robinsons, stranded on a beach. God takes the watch of our lives.

Psalm 127:2b – God gives rest to his loved ones.

He is always ready, keeping watch, keeping us.

Psalm 121:5 – 5 The Lord protects you; the Lord is a shelter right by your side.

The pilgrim, concerned about the path ahead, comes to a wonderful realization here: The Lord is already there beside him. He hasn’t been walking alone. The Lord is by his side, doing His work.

What sort of protective work does the Lord promise to us? As Christians in the Church age the physical blessings in God’s covenant with Israel do not apply. So, what protection is given now?

1 Corinthians 1:8 – 8 He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 – 3 But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

Galatians 5:10a – 10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings.

Revelation 3:10 – 10 “Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world.

Jude 24 – 24 [The Lord] is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,

God’s protective work was not only for Jewish road trips. He walks with you today.

Psalm 121:6 – 6 The sun will not strike you by day or the moon by night.

From here out the song makes it a point to ensure that God’s got it covered. Morning, noon and night, in every place, in every way. There is no trap door He isn’t aware of that we might fall into while we walk with Him. There is no complication He hasn’t considered.

Whether it’s the heat of day or the cold of night, the Lord is able to meet our needs. This is demonstrated literally for us when we read about God’s presence in the wilderness with the Israelites. God’s glory was a cloud by day to give them shade and a fire by night to light the way.

Commentators talk about the dangers of the desert sun and then the ancient belief that the light of the moon could make you “insane.” That’s where the word lunatic came from, by the way. But in a general sense the song is reminding us of the all-encompassing nature of God’s care for you. And it reminds us that God cares about all of you. Mind, body and spirit.

Psalm 121:7 – 7 The Lord will protect you from all harm; he will protect your life.

One of the images of God’s keeping us is of a hedge preserving us from evil. I was reminded of Guardians of the Galaxy, where the heroes are about to be killed, and Groot, who is sort of made of living branches, starts growing himself as a protective shell all around his friends. He gives his life to keep them safe. This is what Christ did for us at the cross. He bore the weight of our sin and took on himself what we could never withstand. And then God raised Him from the dead in power. Now we are His, held safe in His hand as He continues the good work He began in each of us, hedged in His powerful love.

Though bodily hurt is part of life on this side of eternity, we know that we cannot be snatched from the fold of God. Even in the Old Testament, God’s people weren’t exempt from death. So we recognize that this song is speaking here of something much deeper, something much more important. As Psalm 66 says: Our lives are in His hands and He keeps us from stumbling.

Paul said it this way:

Romans 8:35, 37-39 – 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Verse 8:

Psalm 121:8 – 8 The Lord will protect your coming and going both now and forever.

The setting of the song is a pilgrim on the road to to the Temple. But then, of course, they’d have to return home one day. They’d have to pass those same mountains, those same dangers. Once home, they’d have other paths to take. Many comings and goings. God goes with you. Actually, He invites us to go with Him. To follow Him as He leads us through life, knowing what is best for us. Knowing perfectly well how to accomplish His good work in us.

This tender, powerful care isn’t just for the worship service. It’s not even just for this life, but evermore He will be with us, our Keeper, our Shield, our Faithful Savior.

There are a lot of different kinds of Psalms. There are praise Psalms and lament Psalms, royal Psalms, Psalms of thanksgiving. This one would be called a trust Psalm. But that doesn’t mean it’s wishful thinking. This song was given to God’s people, both ancient and modern, to help remind us of what is true. We’re told in Philippians chapter 4 that we need to think on things that are true.

Looking at the world around us, looking down the roads of life, we see a lot of dangers, a lot of uncertainly. But of this we can be certain: God is with us. He is our Keeper. He isn’t asleep on the job, but has all the care and all the power that we read about in His word.

Peterson, once again, said, “Everyone who travels the road of faith requires assistance from time to time. We need cheering up when our spirits flag; we need direction when the way is unclear.”

Psalm 121 would have us sing. Not something inane or something unrealistic, but to sing the truths of God, which will not only bring us cheer, but will help us correct course when necessary. A mixture of request and reminder, that God is not unconcerned. He is deeply attentive in every phase and every circumstance of our lives. And so, the comfort of this song can be a melody in our heart, not just once a year like Happy Birthday or in one particular type of situation like Take Me Out To The Ballgame, but it can be like the song that played during the credits of the old Lamb Chop show. Remember that? “This is the song that doesn’t end…yes it goes on and on, my friends.” This is a song for us to sing every day as we travel toward the New Jerusalem.

Apply these truths to your hearts. Remember that the Lord is our ever-present help. And, as Virgil said, “Let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious.”

I’m So Glad, I’m So Glad, I’m So Glad, I’m So Glad (Psalm 45)

Can you remember the songs you chose for your wedding? They should represent the love you have for one another to your gathered guests. They can create atmosphere.

Every Breathe You Take, by the Police, was, and maybe still is, wildly popular at weddings. Have you listened to it? Here is a sampling of the lyrics:

Every move you make, and every vow you break
Every smile you fake, every claim you stake, I’ll be watching you
Since you’ve gone I’ve been lost without a trace
I dream at night, I can only see your face
I look around but it’s you I can’t replace
I feel so cold and I long for your embrace
I keep crying, “Baby, baby, please”
Oh, can’t you see you belong to me
How my poor heart aches with every step you take

Not exactly a romantic love song. It’s clear she left him, broke her vows, but he thinks she “belongs” to him. It sounds like he is sinking into a sociopathic despair. She might need to go into WitSec. It’s just creepy.

Psalm 45 is “a song of love” between a groom and his bride. It’s a wedding song. While it might have been sung at the ceremony of a Hebrew king, it most certainly looks forward to the wedding that is a prominent feature in the Second Coming of Jesus to earth. In the Revelation, we read, “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ “(19:7-10).

“The Lamb” is a name of Jesus Christ. It is used of Him around twenty-nine times in the Revelation. He is the Groom.
A “saint” is anyone and everyone who has been drawn to Jesus by the Cross, by which He is the Savior of all men – especially those who believe.

Psalm 45 is an old fashioned love song that has staying power, written by a saint in love with the Lord that he’s talking about, under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit.

The song has these two movements:

In verses one through nine, the song calls your attention to the majesty of the Groom’s arrival.
The remaining verses are about the beauty of the bride as she appears with Him.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Your Groom Will Be Revealed In His Majesty, then #2 Your Groom Will Then Reveal You In Your Beauty.

#1 – Your Groom Will Be Revealed In His Majesty (v1-9)

Merging two lives into one sounds so romantic. But Bono is apparently disappointed that fans don’t see how utterly unromantic are the lyrics of the U2 song, One. “I have certainly met a hundred people who’ve had it at their weddings. I tell them, ‘Are you mad? It’s about splitting up!’ ” The lines like “We’re one/ But we’re not the same/ We hurt each other/ Then we do it again” aren’t really wedding material.

As we proceed, think of Psalm 42 as our more appropriate wedding processional song.

Psa 45:1  To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Contemplation of the Sons of Korah. A Song of Love. My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

David delivered this psalm to “the Chief Musician.” I wonder how many songs were submitted by various artists? There are extra-biblical books that aren’t considered inspired. There must have been extra-biblical psalms. Solomon, for example, wrote a thousand songs; but only one is in the Bible. David must have certified this one inspired before submitting it.

“Set to ‘The Lilies.’” This may have been a well-known tune. Or it may refer to a stringed instrument of a certain shape.

“A Contemplation of the Sons of Korah.” We’ve said before that this means the Sons of Korah were the particular worship team selected to perform certain psalms.

“A Song of Love.” More than love, it is a song for the wedding of the beloved.

“My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”

This reads like an intro to the song itself. David often wrote of his despair; of his exile; of the suffering of his soul. This psalm had a very “good” theme.

“My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” I’m sure that God didn’t always give David the same experience in songwriting. We don’t know if this song came to him all at once, or a little at a time. We do know he had to be “ready” to write it down. I envision him being interrupted in his kingly business to jot down bits and pieces of it.

As we get into the song, there is something we must bear in mind. This song was undoubtedly sung at royal weddings. It’s first application was as a popular wedding song.

But it is immediately obvious something more was going on. In verse six, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.” You cannot really say that about any earthly king.

The writer to the Hebrew Christians was inspired by the Holy Spirit to quote from this psalm, applying it to Jesus, cementing the truth that it looks beyond any earthly wedding.

It’s thus OK for us to read back into it the fuller revelation we have in the completed Word of God. At the same time, we want to preserve the beauty of the psalm as a love song by not over-doing it.

Psa 45:2  You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed You forever.

All true of Jesus:

“Fairer” is a great romantic word we rarely use anymore. One of its meanings is, “attractive.” Jesus had and has an attractiveness. He attracts people to Himself, because He loves them, and died for them.

“Grace is poured upon Your lips.” No one ever spoke the way Jesus did. Anything you think He said or says will be overflowing with grace.

“God has blessed You forever,” in that the wedding of the Lamb and His saints is what all human history has been moving toward; and it will last forever.

Psa 45:3  Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, With Your glory and Your majesty.

I think it’s cool when the groom gets married in uniform. The groom-king in this psalm was girt with a sword. It anticipated Jesus, in His Second Coming.
In His case, His “sword” is the word He speaks, conquering a hostile world gathered against Him.

He’ll “ride” a great, white steed at His Second Coming.

Psa 45:4  And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness; And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.

Because Jesus humbled Himself to come as a man, His Father’s right-hand of authority was upon Jesus so He might embody truth, humility, and righteousness, thereby prospering – succeeding – as our Savior.

Psa 45:5  Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies; The peoples fall under You.

Our future wedding procession will be unusual. We return with Jesus at the height of the Battle of Armageddon on the earth.

You might say that it is a destination wedding: “You’re invited to the wedding of the ages, to be held in the Valley of Megiddo, at the Battle of Armageddon. Dress is your robe of righteousness. You’re saved for the date.”

The armies of the world turn on Jesus; they are destroyed, easily.

Psa 45:6  Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

Eternity… With Jesus… In glorified bodies that have free will but that can no longer sin… Righteousness restored to God’s fallen Creation. Huge “Wow!” factor.

Psa 45:7  You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.

Trinitarian note: “God” the Father anointed Jesus; and that anointing was by the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Father; Son; Spirit. One God; three Persons.

To be full with the Holy Spirit means to have an inner, unspeakable gladness.

No one ever lived so filled with, so led by, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the example.

As a man, Jesus loved all that was right, while hating all that was wrong. I interpret that as meaning He was motivated by righteousness to go to the Cross to destroy wrong once-for-all.

Psa 45:8  All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.

Jesus doesn’t rent a tux that doesn’t fit. He’ll have specially made, specially scented, garments. Being “glad” is again highlighted.

Psa 45:9  Kings’ daughters are among Your honorable women; At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

Remember – this psalm was not wholly written for the Second Coming. We aren’t looking to make very statement prophetic. Forcing the “Kings daughters” to mean something is one way analytics can ruin this psalm. This could describe the weddings of any number of Hebrew kings.

It is a good segue to the second movement of the psalm.

We are not accustomed to a wedding that focuses so much attention on the Groom. How can you not first see Jesus, proceeding from Heaven, sword-girded, upon His steed, preceding but leading His blood-bought, declared righteous, glorified bride, to establish, rule and reign over the Kingdom of God on the earth?

#2 – Your Groom Will Then Reveal You In Your Beauty (v10-17)

Wedding ceremonies are essentially reality makeovers. Saying “Yes!” to the Dress… picking out an Amazing Wedding Cake… asking Whose Wedding is it, Anyway… and potentially turning into Bridezillas.

As for grooms, around these parts its more like My Big Redneck Wedding.

In the remaining verses, here comes the bride.

Psa 45:10  Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house;

It’s a more jealously romantic way of saying you should make your family and friends subordinate to your marriage. Applied to us and Jesus, we must put Him undeniably first, sometimes at the cost of losing family and friends.

Jealousy. We think of it as something bad. I’m glad that God is jealous over me – loving me fiercely, protectively.

Psa 45:11  So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him.

This contains yet another clue the psalmist was looking at an eternal wedding. The Groom deserved worship – something reserved for God alone.

BTW: Since the Groom is Jesus, this is a statement of His Deity.

Psa 45:12  And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; The rich among the people will seek your favor.
Psa 45:13  The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; Her clothing is woven with gold.
Psa 45:14  She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors; The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You.
Psa 45:15  With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; They shall enter the King’s palace.

These four verses sing like they are wholly about a real royal wedding in Israel. There is nothing here to indicate that Jesus’ Second Coming with His bride is being described. I’ll again say that we must be careful to not read into the Bible things that aren’t intended.

Psa 45:16  Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons, Whom You shall make princes in all the earth.

Sounds like a toast to the groom that he would have many royal sons in the kingdom.

Now that is something we can apply to our union with Jesus. By our preaching the Gospel, revealing the King, those who believe become sons and daughters in the Heavenly family, kingdom kids.

It’s a new metaphor. We are like a bride; but we are also like sons and daughters. God uses many metaphors, smilies, types, and illustrations to show us what a relationship with Him is like.

Psa 45:17  I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.

A future King, and His bride, who will go on through generations, then forever and ever. That’s exactly how things are going to go:

The “generations” hints to the one-thousand year reign of Jesus from Jerusalem over the post-Tribulation world.
“Forever and ever” is eternity.

We should each be stunned by the statement, “the King will greatly desire your beauty.” Not our natural beauty, but the beauty Jesus makes us over to. He sees us after His work is through.

The Christian life is a makeover:

You were born “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). You might say you are the Corpse Bride.

When Jesus comes into your life, you are born-again, “made… alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5).

Over the course of your new life, you “are being transformed into the… image [of Jesus] from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (Second Corinthians 3:18).

When Jesus comes to resurrect and rapture the church, “we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (First Corinthians 15:51-52) when “the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (First Thessalonians 4:16-17).
In Heaven, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (First John 3:2).

Maranatha!

O, Deer, What Can the Matter Be, David’s So Long in Despair (Psalm 42)

Turns out Waldo is an immigrant whose European name is Wally.

Where’s Wally? was published in 1987 in the United Kingdom. In the United States it was published as Where’s Waldo?

In the book, Waldo travels to everyday places, where he sends postcards to the reader (which are the pictures in the book), and you must find him in huge crowds.

There is a brand new, COVID-19 version of Where’s Waldo? Artists Pedro Mezzini and Clay Bennett gave Waldo a social distancing makeover. I’m not joking. As you might guess, Waldo is a quick find.

On the cover, Waldo is sporting a surgical mask. In reviews I read, however, more than one person scolds Waldo for not sheltering at home.

Twice in Psalm 42 we will hear the question, “Where is your God?” Instead of giving a theological answer or argument, the psalmist drew back the curtain and shared his personal longings:

In verses one through four, he is anguished because he could not be in the assembly of God’s people.
In the remaining verses, he is agonized because of some tremendous affliction.

Anguished and agonized, he nevertheless declares that his “hope” is in the Lord. His afflictions will come to their end; and he looks forward to the day he will again assemble with God’s people. He never doubts that God is, in fact, present.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 “Where Is Your God?” He Is In The Great Assembly, and #2 “Where Is Your God?” He Is In Your Graced Afflictions.

#1 – “Where Is Your God?” He Is In The Great Assembly (v1-4)

Star Wars Episode 4. It ends with the heroes being cheered at a great, galactic assembly.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, near the end, features Aragorn’s crowning as king in a great assembly of Middle Earth in Gondor.

The Bible, in episode 66, looks forward to a great assembly of believers and angels:

Rev 5:11  Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,

Rev 7:9-11  After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
Rev 7:10  and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Rev 7:11  All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,

At that heavenly assembly, we are told that Jesus, “WILL DECLARE YOUR NAME TO MY BRETHREN; IN THE MIDST OF THE ASSEMBLY I WILL SING PRAISE TO YOU” (Hebrews 2:12).

Just how much of this the psalmist understood, we don’t know. I’m guessing, however, that the psalmist had some idea that the assembling of God’s people on earth was a foretaste of a gathering in Heaven.

Psa 42:1  To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the Sons of Korah…

“Contemplation” is from the Hebrew, maschil.

One scholar noted, “[it is] a musical term denoting a melody requiring great skill in its execution.” It may be that David penned this song, but only the musical family, the Sons of Korah, could perform it.

I bet you don’t know that William Shatner recorded an album, and did a cover of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It is on every list of worst covers ever.

Psa 42:1  To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the Sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.

“Deer” is sometimes rendered, more poetically, “hart.” The hart in this case would be parched from either a long drought, or from a recent pursuit. It was an apt description of several possible seasons in David’s life. For example:

He was on the run from King Saul for maybe thirteen years. Long drought.

He had to quickly evacuate the palace when his son, Absalom, rebelled. Pursuit.

We sing this chorus, but I don’t think we understand the anguish of it. We sing it as a reminder of how much we ought to long after God. We are usually more comfortable when we sing it.

Psa 42:2  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

What is your go-to thirst quencher? The healthy folks over at LiveStrong say, “Go for the water.”

Christians seem to have an insatiable thirst, but I sometimes question the quenchers we reach for. Program after program after program promises to quench your thirst. But just thinking logically, if the program worked, why would it quickly be replaced by the next?

I came across an article titled, Hiker Dies of Thirst with Water All Around.

By Day 2 in the blazing Utah desert, Dave Buschow was in bad shape.

Pale, wracked by cramps, his speech slurred, the 29-year-old New Jersey man was desperate for water and hallucinating so badly he mistook a tree for a person.

After going roughly 10 hours without a drink in the 100-degree heat, he finally dropped dead of thirst, face down in the dirt, less than 100 yards from the goal: a cave with a pool of water.

But Buschow was no solitary soul, lost and alone in the desert. He and 11 other hikers from various walks of life were being led by expert guides on a wilderness-survival adventure designed to test their physical and mental toughness.

And the guides, it turned out, were carrying emergency water on that torrid summer day.

Buschow wasn’t told that, and he wasn’t offered any. The guides did not want him to fail the $3,175 course. They wanted him to dig deep, push himself beyond his known limits, and make it to the cave on his own.

Too many so-called Christian thirst quenchers are exactly like that.

They make you do work for the water, when in fact God has promised it to you by grace.

Here is a better quench: Repetitive reading of Scripture, out loud.

David’s particular thirst was spiritual, and it could only be quenched by “appearing” before the “living God.” He meant appearing in the Temple, with the assembly of God’s people.

Now David, of all Jews, knew that God was omnipresent. In another psalm he would sing, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.“ (139:7-10).

Notwithstanding God’s omnipresence, David panted for the assembling of the saints.

Psa 42:3  My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”

He fasted, but not on purpose. He was so overwhelmed by his exile that he cried through mealtimes, as all the days blended together.

Who was asking, “Where is your God?” Enemies, for sure. David had been anointed with oil by Samuel as the rightful king; but he languished in exile, a hunted man.

It could also have been those who accompanied David in his exile. Even though friends, they must have wondered why the return of the king was waiting.

Psa 42:4  When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

David was recalling the ‘normal’ Hebrew life:

Regular assemblies of God’s people in the Tabernacle, which was the center of Jewish life.
Seven annual pilgrim feasts, three of which were graciously mandatory, and would swell the population of Jerusalem with pilgrims.

In this psalm, at this time in David’s life, the thing he missed most was worshipping with other believers. He had the omnipresence of God. God the Holy Spirit was with him. He longed for His presence in the assembly.

This was the guy who wanted to get God out of the Tabernacle and into a Temple.

Even when told “No,” he continued to plan for the Temple to be built by his son, Solomon. David was a hardcore worship junkie.

For David, there could be no “new normal.” He must get back to worship as prescribed by God.

Psalm 42 is not about COVID-19… Not about sheltering in place, or social distancing when in public. But it’s principles can suggest a meditation.

In this time of sheltering-exile, what is it you really miss the most? Your honest answer will give you a look at your actual priorities. I’m not saying meeting together as the church must be #1, or else. But you should have a longing for it – and feel anguished that it has been rendered difficult, if not impossible.

And we must never settle for some forced “new normal.”

Let me share an ominous thought. Churches are virtual; on-line, on YouTube, on Facebook, etc. These platforms are getting increasingly political. For example, here is a recent quote: “Under mounting pressure to counter misinformation around the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook is increasingly dictating what its users should see and think.”

Facebook is removing posts that they feel violate their opinions about COVID-19.

It’s only the push of a button away from tech giants censoring the virtual church. If this quarantine goes too much longer – it will happen.

Another recent article said, “Significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet, and governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with society’s norms and values.”

Wow.

#2 – “Where Is Your God?” He Is In Your Graced Afflictions (v5-11)

Do you talk to yourself? You probably do; I know I do. We are in good company. In these remaining verses, David has a conversation with himself as he is talking to God. Let’s listen in.

Psa 42:5  Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.

In a classic commentary on Psalm 42, Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote,

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.”

Great advice. Take control of the conversation. Maybe even filibuster against despair and depression.

“Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.” In the Bible, “hope” denotes certainty. David’s other voice was certain he would “praise” and experience God’s “countenance.”

I think this looks forward to once again being in the assembly, worshipping God. It was there that Jews experienced His manifested presence among them – “the help of His countenance.”

Having the complete revelation of God, we look farther forward to the great assemblies in Heaven. Mean time, we have God the Holy Spirit indwelling us.

This verse, part of it at least, is quoted. In the gospels of Matthew and Mark by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. It’s not very obvious; it is something language scholars have carefully identified.

That being said, I find it wondrous that Jesus found comfort in the psalms – just like we do. I’ve mentioned before: Jesus quoted from Psalms more than any other Old Testament book. Perhaps we should, too.

Psa 42:6  O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar.

David was “cast down,” but after talking to himself, he had a better handle on what he wanted to say to the Lord. He might be in exile, giving us his GPS co-ordinates; but he would “remember” the Lord.

That doesn’t mean he had drifted from Him; we saw how his soul longed for God. It means he would “remember” God’s promises to him. He would be king; he would see his son on the throne.

Psa 42:7  Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.

“Deep calls unto deep” is sometimes lifted as a stand-alone phrase to describe God trying to teach us deep things. In context, not so much. The Pulpit Commentary says this:

The rolling up of the waves into a swell, and the break of the top of the swell, and its dash upon the shore, are surprisingly represented in the sound of the two last words. The psalmist seems to represent himself as cast away at sea; and by wave impelling wave, is carried to a rock, around which the surges dash in all directions, forming hollow sounds in the creeks and caverns. At last, several waves breaking over him, tear him away from that rock to which he clung, and where he had a little before found a resting-place, and, apparently, an escape from danger. “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” He is then whelmed in the deep, and God alone can save him.

Psa 42:8  The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me – A prayer to the God of my life.

I think The Message Bible captures this better: “GOD promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God’s prayer.”

David portrays God as a loving parent, singing comforting songs if need be to His son in the night.

He loved God three thousand for comforting him.

How is “my life… God’s prayer?” If prayer is having a conversation with God, people can ‘hear’ what God and I are saying by seeing my life. My countenance reveals His countenance as we daily look into His wonderful face and are changed from glory-to-glory into His image.

Psa 42:9  I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
Psa 42:10  As with a breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

This makes it sound like David had again sunken into despair. One version starts the verse, “I sometimes say.”

This, then, is what David would sometimes say, and would have said, if not for the intervention of talking to himself.

Instead of what he sometimes said, he said,

Psa 42:11  Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

My paraphrase: “Get yourself out of verse 9&10 thinking, and think verse 11.

“I shall yet praise Him,” I suggest, anticipates a return to the assembly of saints. After all, that is David’s great yearning – his thirst quencher – in this psalm.

The “help of my countenance” means David’s afflictions, understood as in the will of God, will contribute to a better countenance. People will see God in him.

One example would be Stephen, the first martyr.
Before being stoned to death, we are told that “all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15).

You may never glow; but on a spiritual level, folks can ‘see’ God’s countenance in you.

I’m using the term, “graced afflictions.” The waves may dash you upon the rocks; and just when you think you’ve found something to hold on to, you’re drawn out to sea. When God is your only hope, when His grace is sufficient, that is when you shine.

Where is your God? David answered that question by letting us look into his personal conversations with God, and with himself. His answer, if that’s what we can call it, was this: God manifests His grace through my afflictions; and He manifests Himself in the great assembly of His people.

Grace & gathering. It boils down to those two words.

Sweet Sovereign Comfort (Psalm 41)

What is the first thing that pops into your head when I say, “comfort food?”

For me, it’s ¼ to ½ pound of spaghetti, thick with marinara sauce, covered with fresh grated Parmesan cheese, followed by a generous slice of Grandma Mary’s cheesecake.

There’s a scene in the movie Signs where the family thinks they might be having their last meal before being overrun by aliens:

The little girl, Bo, wants spaghetti.
Her brother Morgan wants French toast and mashed potatoes.
Uncle Merrill – chicken teriyaki.
Father Graham says, “I’m going to have a cheeseburger with bacon. Extra bacon.”

Comfort is a prominent theme in Psalm 41. King David was in serious physical distress. No one comforted him. Quite the opposite. His “enemies” and those who “hate[d]” him hoped he would never get up from his sickbed.

That his enemies would be so comfort-less was to be expected. But then there is this, in verse nine: “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.”

No one comforted David. No one on earth, that is. Comfort-less, David looked to the Lord to be his Comforter.

You may never be in a distress so lonely that literally no one on earth comforts you. At least, I hope not. The more important takeaway from Psalm 41, however, is this: The Lord is your constant comforter.

If others comfort you, that is a bonus – but it is not a necessity. I don’t say that to excuse our having compassion upon others. We are urged to, “comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (Second Corinthians 1:4).

We are to be comforters. We are fallible. We can be miserable comforters. Never so the Lord; look to Him first and often for comfort.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Are The Lord’s Anointed Comforter, and #2 The Lord Is Your Ample Comforter.

#1 – You Are The Lord’s Anointed Comforter (v1-3)

King David was sick. Glance at verse eight, “An evil disease,” they say, “clings to him. And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.”

What do we do when we are sick? We go to the Lord, in prayer, with our requests. David does just that, beginning with verse four. Before he asked the Lord to heal him, he gave his request a three-verse prologue. He rehearsed his own response when others were in distress.

Was he trying to earn his healing, by pointing to his own good works? I don’t think so – especially because he will open his prayer by asking the Lord to be merciful to him.

Why this prologue? It shows two things:

First – In their response to David’s suffering, the people around him were exposed as hypocrites. The sickness was being used by God to reveal the hearts of others. This doesn’t necessitate that the Lord caused the sickness – only that He could work with it to make all things work together for the good.
Second – We must differentiate between the Old Covenant David was under, and our New Covenant in Jesus. Under the Old, God promised to reward right behavior with physical blessing. David will show that he had behaved righteously toward the sick, thus God should bless Him physically, according to His Word. I’ll talk about it more, but now under the New Covenant, believers in Christ Jesus are not promised physical blessings so much as spiritual ones.

That was a lengthy, but necessary, prologue to David’s prologue.

Psa 41:1  To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Blessed is he who considers the poor; The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
Psa 41:2  The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
Psa 41:3  The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.

Remember, this is a song. These first three verses – instead of being a prologue, maybe they were a kind of spoken word intro? If you’re having trouble thinking of a song with a spoken word intro, I’d recommend one of the last Johnny Cash songs, The Man Comes Around.

Maybe I focus too much on suffering, but the first things I hear in this spoken word are “poor, “trouble,” “bed of illness,” and “sickbed.” David did not think it strange he might be sick. The physical blessings God promised did not mean an individual would never get sick, never die.

They did mean David could boldly ask for the things he did in these verses: consideration, preservation, blessing, strengthening, and sustaining.
As for consideration – Sometimes your cause is just a matter of getting it before the right person. As believers, it isn’t a matter of discovering the secret spiritual behaviors necessary before God will hear us. That’s legalism. We’re told to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

As for preservation – “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).

As for blessing – Our blessings are spiritual. We have every spiritual resource at our disposal. We tend to look too much on the now, not enough on Heaven. Who remembers Now&Later candy bars? You didn’t eat it all at once; you saved for later.

“Now&Laters” might be a good nickname for believers. We’re saved now, but we look to what is coming later.

As for strengthening – Here are two verses to reflect upon:

2Co 13:4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.

2Co 12:9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God’s strength is shown through our weakness.

Sustaining is the byproduct of the Lord’s strengthening. The power of Jesus’ resurrection is ours to draw upon.

David comforted the “poor.” Not just people in poverty. The word is broad enough to include all type of suffering. One image I’ve never had of David is him doing hospital visitation. Or making a death notification. He must have done all that.

As God’s anointed king, he expressed the anointing by being among the poor.

As Christians, we use the word, “anointed,” usually to describe serving that was accompanied by a strong sense of God the Holy Spirit leading it, and present in it.

One more thing, and then I’ll be able to make a point. Jesus promised believers He would send the Promise of the Father – God the Holy Spirit – in permanently indwell us. And Jesus called Him, the Comforter.

My point: Every believer, by virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit, is already anointed to comfort others. AND we learn more about comforting as God comforts us in and through our troubles on the earth.

Maybe you’ve been asked, “What is your superpower?” It’s a thing. Whatever else you might say, believers ought to say, “Comforter.” Think about it.

#2 – The Lord Is Your Ample Comforter (v4-13)

One of the early Christian rock guys, Benny Hester, had a song that really struck me as a baby believer. Nobody Knows Me Like You. One of the lines – “Though some know me well, still nobody knows me like You.”

King David’s sickness was compounded by his being abandoned by friends and accused by enemies. He therefore committed himself to the one Person who truly knew him. To the One he knew loved him with an everlasting love, and who would never, ever, leave him or forsake him.

Let’s listen to the lyrics of David’s sickbed song.

Psa 41:4  I said, “LORD, be merciful to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”

The Old Covenant promised blessings for obedience. David, however, didn’t demand what was promised. He appealed to God’s mercy. Under the Law you need not have a legalistic relationship with God; love was the basis of fellowship. Salvation was by grace – not the works of the Law.

David said, “I have sinned.” He wasn’t confessing any particular sin. He was acknowledging he was a sinner.

It’s possible to say “I’m a sinner,” but not really believe it is affecting your life. I see it in marriage counseling, where the husband or wife admits they are a sinner, but selfishly insist nothing in the relationship is their fault.

“Heal my soul” reminds us that our spirit is more important than our body. “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day“ (Second Corinthians 4:16).

For us, “heal my soul” can be a reminder of what we think about the Doctrine of Salvation:

The moment you believe Jesus, you are saved.
From that precious moment forward, for the rest of your life on the earth, you are being saved as you are being conformed into the image of Jesus. We call this ongoing process sanctification.
When you are resurrected or raptured, your salvation is complete. This we call glorification.

BTW: People who want to impress you refer to the Doctrine of Salvation as soteriology.

Psa 41:5  My enemies speak evil of me: “When will he die, and his name perish?”
Psa 41:6  And if he comes to see me, he speaks lies; His heart gathers iniquity to itself; When he goes out, he tells it.
Psa 41:7  All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me they devise my hurt.
Psa 41:8  “An evil disease,” they say, “clings to him. And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.”

Regarding those who “[came] to see” David, one commentator pointed out the following:

The word “me” is not in the original; and perhaps the idea is not that he came to see the sufferer, but that he came to see “for himself,” though under pretense of paying a visit of kindness. His real motive was to make observation, that he might find something in the expressions or manner of the sufferer that would enable him to make a report unfavorable to him, and to confirm him in his impression that it was desirable such a man should die. He would come under the mask of sympathy and friendship, but really to find something that would confirm him in the opinion that he was a bad man, and that would enable him to state to others that it was desirable he should die.

I want to emphasize a second time that God could use David’s sickness to expose the hearts of others. These individuals wished David would die. They justified it by thinking he deserved it. Let’s just say that such thoughts are not consistent with compassion, and therefore render a person unlike the Lord.

Psa 41:9  Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.

Many of the psalms, which were all written before the time of Jesus, contain details that foreshadowed events in His life. This verse foreshadowed something that happened later with Jesus. As explained in Matthew 26:47-50, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of the 12 apostles, on the night before He was crucified.

Scholars give various answers to just how many prophecies Jesus fulfilled in His life, death, and resurrection. The number 300 seems reasonable. Peter Stoner he looked at the odds of any man fulfilling even just 48 of the 300+/- Old Testament prophecies. The chance of any man fulfilling these prophecies, even down to the present time, is 1 in 10 to the 157th power.

Neither Jesus nor David was giving a lesson in Bible prophecy. These words did not proceed from them without great emotion. They were abandoned in the worst way. “Lifted up his heel” is an expression that means kicked in the face by an animal, e.g., a donkey.

Rather than think of being abandoned… Apply the Scripture to yourself as a potential abandoner. Be a person who is able to say, You’ve Got a Friend.

Psa 41:10  But You, O LORD, be merciful to me, and raise me up, That I may repay them.

Mercy is our certain hope. God won’t give those who love Him what they deserve. What every human deserves is the wages from their sin, which is eternal, conscious suffering in Hell. By His death on the Cross as our Substitute, no believer gets what is deserved.

“That I may repay them” sounds vengeful. Don’t forget that David was more than a believer. He was king over Israel; he was the final authority. He had the responsibility to deal with treachery, with treason.

Psa 41:11  By this I know that You are well pleased with me, Because my enemy does not triumph over me.

In David’s case, God would raise him from his sickbed. It would be tangible proof that his enemies and friends were in the wrong. It was a little Job in David’s life.

We can’t read this as a promise God will always give us physical and material prosperity.

Or that if He doesn’t, that it is a sign we are not walking close with Him.

I quoted earlier, from the Book of Romans, that regardless our sufferings, we are always the victors. No weapons forged against us shall stand.

For us, victory is fiery-furnace victory. It is God’s decision to deliver from the fiery furnace, or in it.

The Lord allowed James to be beheaded… But Peter was sprung from prison, keeping his head.

Psa 41:12  As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, And set me before Your face forever.

God raised David from his sickbed, restored him, and by it exposed the hypocrites.

In the New Testament we have an odd verse, which reads, “For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you” (First Corinthians 11:19).
Similar to David, God can show who is in the wrong by permitting things to play out.

David, as do we, looked forward to being “set before [God’s] face forever.” The forever worldview of the believer must affect all our thinking and deciding.

Psa 41:13  Blessed be the LORD God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.

In the story of this song, David was still on his sickbed when he made this exclamation of praise. Thoughts of Heaven will do that for you. When you are suffering, sure; that makes sense. But you need to have your heart set on home maybe more so if you are prospering. It is times of blessing that make you soft and susceptible to drifting away from Jesus.

When people look for comfort, they often seek out those who have had similar suffering. Well, that would be Jesus first and foremost.
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Jesus really is ample for you. People are good, too, and are anointed to comfort you.

But nobody knows you like Jesus.

God Writes the Songs that Make the Whole World See (Psalm 40)

The real genius of the internet are the pop-up quizzes.

The last one I took was, “What song are you?” After twenty-nine scientific questions, if I were a song I’d be Where is My Mind?, by the Pixies.
Not being at all familiar with them or the song, I went to YouTube to watch the music video. It’s a hand-held, black & white video of a dog going through his day. Co-starring a cat.

That’s all I have to say about that.

I do have a point to make. In our psalm, King David will say of God, “He has put a new song in my mouth – Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD” (v3).

Notice David didn’t say of the song, “many will hear it.” That’s what we would have expected him to say. No, he said “many will see it.” Seeing the song, they would “fear, and… trust in the Lord.”

You can “see” a song when the singer embodies it; or when he or she is identified with it. In ancient times, singers had an identifying song:

Tony Bennett, I Left My Heart in San Francisco.
Dean Martin, Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime.
Frank Sinatra, My Way.
Kermit the Frog, It’s Not Easy Being Green.

Can we, maybe, “see” Jesus as the Singer Songwriter, and each of us bringing forth His songs?

It’s a solid biblical metaphor. After all, the apostle Paul encouraged us to “[speak] to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord…” (Ephesians 5:19).

I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 What Songs To The Lord Have Been Seen Through Your Life?, and #2 What Songs To The Lord Are Yet To Be Seen Through Your Life?

#1 – What Songs To The Lord Have Already Been Seen Through Your Life? (v1-10)

Most of you are familiar with the MercyMe song, I Can Only Imagine. It’s a pretty good movie as well. It captures the emotion of the background story in Bart Millard’s life. Because of Jesus, his father went from abuser to someone who Millard describes as, “the godliest man I’d ever known.”

The song was crafted by Millard’s experiences. Most importantly, you can “see” the Lord through it.

We don’t need to be popular recording artists to have our experiences with the Lord be used by Him as if we were songs. I’m not talking about writing songs, or even singing. I’m saying your experience of the Lord in, through, and after trouble strikes a supernatural chord others see.

Psa 40:1  To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.

(BTW – Do you recognize the worship chorus we sing from this verse?).

Scholars point out that “waited patiently” could be translated, in waiting I waited. It implies more than “patience.” It implies learning more about waiting; learning things through waiting.

If asked what is a favorite activity, “waiting” said no one ever. It is, however, an essential element of your song being seen. And the waiting here – it involves suffering of some kind, because the psalmist was crying to the Lord.

Psa 40:2  He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.

There are, in God’s wonderful Word, many pictures for suffering. Storms… Valleys… Desert places… Ships tossed on the waters… Being overwhelmed by waves… Being assaulted by wild beasts.

In this case, David expressed his trouble as if he’d been thrown into a “pit.” The title of this song might be Pit Stop. Or This is Pit. Would you believe Pit Fighter?

His description of the pit having “miry clay” indicates it was a dry cistern. These were reservoirs carved out of rock to collect rain and runoff. Jeremiah was famously thrown into one in the course of his ministry to Israel.

In David’s case, his troubles felt like that. But here he was describing God delivering him from that trouble. Instead of being stuck in mire, he had been rescued, and made to stand on solid rock. This trouble was over.

Psa 40:3  He has put a new song in my mouth – Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.

While it seems David wrote a praise song about his experience, the meaning is broader than that. David exuded “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in [his] heart to the Lord.” People saw his praise in his waiting, and they feared and trusted the Lord.

Psa 40:4  Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

David’s trouble had involved the pride and lies of others seeking to undermine his trust in the Lord. It may have been as simple as worldly counsel.

Beware the so-called “wisdom” of the world.

Psa 40:5  Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.
This is the reset position after trouble is ended. It can (it should) also be our default in trouble. In or out of trouble, this is true.

It isn’t wishful thinking; or having a positive mental attitude. God’s salvation alone is enough to counter any trouble in this life.

Do you ever whip out a yellow pad, and list Pros & Cons? If your troubles generated thousands of pages in the Cons column, writing “Salvation” in the Pros column you’d see nothing could compare. And that’s just the beginning of God’s resources available to you.

Psa 40:6  Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Psa 40:7  Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
Psa 40:8  I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”
If you are familiar with your Bible, you might think I forgot to ask you to turn to Hebrews 10:5-7. These verses in Psalm 40 are quoted there, and applied to Jesus. That is why this psalm is Messianic.

I don’t want to launch into an exposition of these verses; I would if we were in Hebrews. I do want to make two quick observations in our context:

In verse six, when David mentioned the opening of the ear, he was likely referring to the custom of marking out a voluntary bond servant by hammering an awl through the earlobe. His point is an important one: God is working to make us voluntary servants, not religious people who go through the motions of required sacrifices. This is applied to Jesus to show that all the sacrifices were temporary, until He could come and be the once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world.

In verses seven and eight, David must have realized he was not talking about himself. It reminds us our lives are part of a greater plan. You may not think your song is a hit, or even charting; but it is part of the grander musical of God’s redemption, beginning in the Garden of Eden, and ending in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Psa 40:9  I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O LORD, You Yourself know.
Psa 40:10  I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly.

The “great assembly” was the gathering together in the Temple for worship. Can I go off subject for a moment? The church is meant to gather together. While virtual church is OK for time, it is not adequate for the long-haul. Virtual church is like taking a virtual vacation.

David gave testimony, often through his songs, to these attributes of God: “Righteousness,” “faithfulness,” “salvation,” “lovingkindness,” and “truth.”

Those are themes that we can always show:

God has declared us righteous thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
We are thereby saved by His free gift and not by our works.
He Who began this work in us will faithfully perform and complete it.
His Word is truth, and can therefore be trusted.
All His dealings with us involve His boundless lovingkindness.

You’ve probably heard believers described as “living letters.” It derives from the apostle Paul, who said, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (Second Corinthians 3:2-3).

We are also living lyrics as in waiting we wait for the Lord to conform us into the image of Jesus.

What songs have you shown, already?

#2 – What Songs To The Lord Are Yet To Be Seen Through Your Life? (v11-17)

Beginning with verse eleven, it is evident that David was in a brand new time of trouble.

For some believers, it’s as if they have nothing but suffering. Others, not so much. It will be better for you if you refuse to compare yourself to others believers; and, especially, do not compare yourself to nonbelievers.

Psa 40:11  Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.

Before asking for rescue, David wanted God’s graces to “preserve” him. He was mature enough to know that his trouble might go on a while. He depended upon theses spiritual resources.

Unlike toilet paper, aren’t you glad that Jesus’ resources aren’t ever exhausted? For those of you who were wondering, every August 26th is National Toilet Paper Day. One fun fact to post as you are celebrating: Colored toilet paper was available in the US for about 40 years. Scott was the last company to remove colored toilet paper from the US market in 2004. Colored toilet paper is still readily available in European countries.

Psa 40:12  For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me.

“My iniquities” is taken by most commentators as a statement that it was David’s own particular sins that landed him in this new trouble. I can’t see that, not in this psalm, and here is why: David doesn’t repent or ask forgiveness. He was not hesitant to do so in other passages.

He was describing what we all feel: The world is full of evil, and sin abounds, and it presses upon us. His current trouble was evidence the world was fallen.

The world – it isn’t what God intended. Much of our suffering is simply the result of the human condition. I mentioned this last week: COVID-19 is not a judgment from God. It is the latest proof Adam and Eve brought death when they sinned.

Psa 40:13  Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me!

This was an “if it is Your will” statement. David knew God could speedily rescue him. Why didn’t He? For reasons of the heart, to continue the work He had begun in David.

Psa 40:14  Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil.

Here is another metaphor for suffering. David saw his enemies as an approaching army. He asked that they become confused, driven back.

There are a few examples in the Old Testament of literal enemy armies being confused by the Lord – even turning on themselves.

The fact that the Lord can move in these ways is what is often so bothersome. Why doesn’t He?

Because His work in the storm is more important than your having smooth sailing. You must learn rough weather sailing.

Psa 40:15  Let them be confounded because of their shame, Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”

At home, at work, at school, even (sadly) in church… People have an “Aha!” moment about how they can attack you, destroy you. They are like little Satan’s, thinking that if God wasn’t blessing you, you would curse Him.

God loves those kind of challenges! Me – not so much.

Psa 40:16  Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The LORD be magnified!”
In Isaiah we read, “Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?” (66:1).

This may not be a deep theological statement, but “God is big.” If He is big, how can He be magnified?
It seems He is magnified as believers celebrate His salvation in the midst of trouble.

Psa 40:17  But I am poor and needy; Yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.

One of the things that’s great about baseball is the appearance of the closer. The great ones have great entrance music. Arguably the best of all time, Mariano Rivera of the Yankees, was accompanied by Enter Sandman, by Metallica.

When a believer is “poor and needy,” enter Jesus.

To us it feels like we are in the bottom of the ninth, losing, with a Little Leaguer on the mound. That is never the case.

When Frodo suggested that Gandalf was late, he replied, “A wizard is never late, nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.”

Our waiting is not God delaying. I want to say that again, because it really struck me. Our waiting is not God delaying. It is God crafting our lives.

A lot of you read Stephen King. I came across this quote by the King of Horror:

When I’m starting a book… I’ll try to write a paragraph. An opening paragraph. And over a period of weeks and months and even years, I’ll word and reword it until I’m happy with what I’ve got. If I can get that first paragraph right, I’ll know I can do the book.

Years to write a single paragraph? He also talks about how critical the very first sentence is.

God gets it right. What He is doing takes time. More time, if we resist.

We think of God as being able to simply snap His fingers and be done with it. Not so with humans.

Look at it this way. God created the universe in six 24-hr days, including Adam and Eve. But since our original parents sinned, it has been around six thousand years.

Six days to create the universe.
Six thousand years, and counting, to redeem and restore the human race.
And we know that if the Lord were to resurrect and rapture the church today, it would be at least another 1,007 years before the new heavens and the new earth.

It just isn’t possible to go any faster with regard to God’s workmanship – with you. You are His workmanship.

It’s probably getting repetitive for you, but I am fascinated in the realization that, in the end, God will have fellowship with believers who have free will but will be unable to sin.

“Impossible,” you say? Nope. God has free will, but He is incapable of sin. One day, so will those who put their trust in Him.

It takes time to accomplish. It would be easier if free will was not necessary. But without it, there cannot be love.

I also am fond of pointing out that the perceived delay is tied to the Lord’s longsuffering with sinners, not willing any should perish eternally, but that they would be drawn by grace to the Savior, and to salvation.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand it when the car with the $10,000 custom stereo system pulls up next to me at the light. I always want to drown him out with Grand Funk Railroad; but all I have is the pitiful stereo that came with the car.

As we go through our lives, in the Lord, when we “pull up” next to people, so to speak, our grace and love and mercy should drown out the noise of the world they generate.

The Lord’s lyrics of salvation, of righteousness, faithfulness, of truth, and of lovingkindness are heard as we simply, but powerfully, in waiting, wait.

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend (Psalm 88)

“I’ve had mosquito bites that were more passionate than this undead, unrequited, and altogether unfun pseudo-romantic riff on Romeo and Juliet.”

The critic who penned that was Marc Salov, of The Austin Chronicle. The movie – Twilight.  

Some movies are so bad, the reviews are the best part.

“I’d rather wake up next to a severed horse head than ever watch Gotti again. The finished product belongs in a cement bucket at the bottom of the river.” Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post.

Catwoman is considered by critics to be one of the worst movies ever made. Keith Phipps of the AV Club wrote, “The film could have turned out worse, but only via the addition of an accident in which the actors caught on fire.”

Bible commentators reviewing Psalm 88 are not sarcastically critical, but their words are quite stunning:

Derek Kidner says, “This is the saddest prayer in the Psalter.”

H. C. Leupold says, “It is the gloomiest psalm found in the Scriptures… The psalmist is as deeply in trouble when he has concluded his prayer as he was when he began it.”

J.J. Stuart Perowne says, “This is the darkest, saddest Psalm in all the Psalter. It is one wail of sorrow from beginning to end.”

John Phillips says, “There is scarcely a glimmer of hope anywhere. It is full of dejection, despair, death. The very last word of the psalm is darkness.”

Marvin Tate says, “Psalm 88… reminds us that life does not always have happy endings.”

That makes it a perfect psalm – an appropriate song to sing – for our own times of darkness and despair.

Some people, important people, are saying that our entire country is in just such a dark time. US Surgeon General Jerome Adams told FoxNews host Chris Wallace, “This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized. It’s going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that.”

You’re going to need Psalm 88; if not today, for what has befallen us all, for sure on some tomorrow when darkness assaults your own life.

The psalmist mentions darkness twice. If you are listening closely, there is light in his darkness – light that overcomes.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 There Is Light For You To Look Past The Darkness, and #2 There Is Light For You To Live In The Darkness.

#1 – There Is Light For You To Look Past The Darkness (v1)

I know some of you are binge watching disaster movies. There’s a line in World War Z, uttered by the top physician working on a vaccine. He says, “Mother Nature is a serial killer. No one’s better [or] more creative.”

I know some of you are binge-reading the Psalms. There’s a line in Psalm 88 that must be meditated upon. It is in verse one. It’s right at the beginning, highlighted as it were, because things were so bad the psalmist could not wait to express it.

Psa 88:1 A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician. Set to “Mahalath Leannoth.” A Contemplation of Heman the Ezrahite…

That’s a lot of introduction before we get into it. Who was the psalmist that was in so much sorrow?

Heman the Ezrahite, a descendant of Korah, is the most famous Bible character you’ve never heard of. Here is a synopsis of his life from one resource I consulted:

Heman was the grandson of Samuel, the final judge of Israel who anointed King Saul and King David.

His musical family of fourteen sons and three daughters was prominent during the reign of King David. They were present when the ark of the covenant was brought to Jerusalem. Heman worked closely with King David and is listed as one of three main musicians appointed by King David “for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals” (First Chronicles 25:1).

He was a songwriter and musician.

He is named a “seer” in First Chronicles 25:5.

He was also a sage. Heman was considered very wise. Solomon, the wisest man of all, was compared to Heman: “He was wiser than anyone else, including Heman” (First Kings 4:31).

Heman’s only known song is Psalm 88, but he’s no one-hit wonder. It remains at the top of the charts for sad songs to sing when suffering.

Psa 88:1 … O LORD, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before You.

This has been called “the only truly positive statement in the psalm.”

Since we know the Lord as full of grace and mercy, there must be sufficient hope in it for the darkest night, the deepest valley.

“God of my salvation.” It’s only four words in English, but it’s worthy of many sermons. Sometimes less is so much more.

There is a God Who saves. Do you realize that you need saving? Not from a global pandemic, but from something far worse: A universal preexisting spiritual condition.

Your preexisting condition is sin. If you want to sound more technical, I’ve heard it called SOAD – Son of Adam Disease.

Everyone conceived inherits a sin nature from our original parents. We see it manifest as we commit individual acts of sin throughout our lives.

God gave Adam and Eve a choice. You know why: He had to give them a real choice because love cannot be forced; it must be freely chosen.

They chose badly, sinning, and thereby plunging God’s perfect creation into ruin.

Is COVID-19 a judgment from God? No; it is par for the course here on the fallen earth. It is the most recent evidence that mankind needs saving. I don’t say that in a way to minimize it’s impact. But for our purposes today, it is proof that we brought sin into God’s perfect Creation, and that we need saving.

Enter – literally – Jesus. He was God in human flesh, God incarnate. He came to offer Himself as a Substitute for the human race. He died on the Cross to draw mankind to Himself. He is the Savior of the world – not the one responsible for evil in the world.

And here is the Easter message: Jesus rose from the dead, proving His sacrifice was sufficient to save any and all who believe Him.

I don’t think we can ever stress too much that God saves. While admittedly the rest of the psalm will be filled with tears, God’s salvation is more than just a high point; it is the point.

It is why the apostle Paul could declare, and remind us, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…” (Second Corinthians 4:17).

No matter the intensity, or the duration, of your suffering, it is all a “light affliction… for a moment,” compared to eternity.

We must always be looking at our lives from our promised future. It gives suffering its context. And it fosters endurance – patient endurance that can be infused with grace.

Heman identified the Lord as “God of my salvation.” While Heman did not have the fuller revelation of God we enjoy today, he believed in a personal, living God, Who had a relationship with him.

If you are not a believer; if you have not been saved; you will die in your preexisting spiritual condition. You will be committed to eternal, conscious torment in the absolute darkness of the Lake of Fire.

Salvation is a “light” in many ways, including these two we’ve discovered in these few words:

It illuminates a path that will always end with our glorious entrance into Heaven.

It renders all our troubles a light affliction that is but for a moment.

Heman established his base, his foundation, for “[crying] out day and night before You.” The remainder of his song describes his crying.

#2 -There Is Light For You To Live In The Darkness (v2-18)

Nyctalopia is the proper name for night-blindness, a condition making it difficult or impossible to see in relatively low light. It is described as “insufficient adaptation to darkness.”

Darkness serves as an apt description, not just of our sufferings, but of the true condition of our planet. The apostle John said of Jesus’ coming to earth that He was the singular light shining in the darkness (John 1:5).

We can’t afford to have insufficient adaptation to the darkness. Think of verse one as the eye-salve that counters spiritual night-blindness. These remaining verses are the application.

“I have cried out day and night before you.” Because God is my salvation, I can nevertheless “see” Him through the dark. He is thus my companion and comforter at all times.

Psa 88:2 Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry.

One commentator I read described the character of Heman’s upcoming prayer this way:

It seems that the psalmist here ransacks the vocabulary of gloom and bitterness to describe his hopeless plight. His is definitely a terminal case. He feels as if he were on the critical list in the isolation ward of a hospital for incurables. The only thing left is the morgue, and it is only a matter of time before the sheet will be drawn over his face and he will be carted away.

If you think it is somehow wrong, or sinful, to be this low, remember Heman was no spiritual lightweight. I read you his resume. His song is a sad song we will all need to sing.

J. N. Darby said of Psalm 88, “One time this was the only Scripture that was any help to [me] because [I] saw that someone had been as low as that before [me].”

We don’t know what Heman was suffering from, or with. I think it’s good we do not know, because it allows each of us to relate to him in our suffering whether great or small.

Psa 88:3 For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draws near to the grave.

Heman’s suffering was terminal. He faced the prospect of his imminent death.

We’re told to live each moment as if it will be our last. It’s great advice, but it’s hard to apply. I believe I could die at any moment. Once I get a diagnosis I am definitely going to die, or that I am diseased, that’s a whole lot more real than my philosophical perspective.

Psa 88:4 I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength,
Psa 88:5 Adrift among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, And who are cut off from Your hand.

These Old Testament statements about “the pit” and “the grave” need to be understood in the context of what had been thus far revealed by God to His people. There’s no doubting that they had a limited knowledge of what happens after death.

I think Heman was lamenting that, if he died, what use was that? He would no longer be “remembered” by God in this sense: Someone else would take his place as a servant, writing songs and dispensing sage counsel and seeing into the future.

Heman would be “cut off” from God’s hand. God’s hand would no longer be upon him, to use him as a tool of ministry.

Psa 88:6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, In darkness, in the depths.
Psa 88:7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah

Heman felt like he was already dead, and he attributed it to God’s “wrath” lying heavy upon him.

In the Old Testament, things were a lot more physical. By that I mean God had promised Israel material blessings if they obeyed, but physical discipline if they disobeyed. Heman was applying that principle to his own situation, and concluding he might be being disciplined.

Even today, with our fuller revelation of the grace of God, it is common for a believer to think that his or her suffering is none other than God’s hand of discipline upon them.

It can be; there are cases in the New Testament where God caused believers to be sick, or to die, as a discipline. But they were in obvious, notable sin. While it’s a good idea to search your heart in your suffering, chances are it isn’t the wrath of God lying upon you.

It is because we live in a fallen world, who’s god is the devil. Sickness and death will exist until the return of the King.

“Selah” is an unknown musical notation. Heman has just struck a note that needs our most serious contemplation.

Psa 88:8 You have put away my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an abomination to them; I am shut up, and I cannot get out;
Psa 88:9 My eye wastes away because of affliction. LORD, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You.
Psa 88:10 Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise You? Selah

Heman sees himself as a prisoner, “shut up,” locked away in his cell, receiving no visits from his former “acquaintances.”

When we suffer, others do care; they care a lot. But their lives generally go on. The contrast is stunning. They are relatively free, while you seem locked a cell of suffering.

One thing COVID-19 can teach you: You have some small experience of what it is like for shut-ins, whose whole experience of living is sheltering at home.

When he says, “my eye wastes away,” it’s a poetic way of describing the effect his much crying is having on him.

Heman wondered what good his death could accomplish. It would seem only to detract from his otherwise important service to God.

We want to give every suffering, and every death, some profound earthly meaning. It’s just not always possible to find an earthly meaning. Establishing funds or foundations in someone’s memory – that’s great. But it isn’t the reason they died.

I’ll tell you the most profound meaning of death: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15).
A grand entrance is supplied into Heaven, as angels bear us home. Nothing on earth can compare to our going home.

Psa 88:11 Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?
Psa 88:12 Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

As a singer-songwriter, Heman extolled God’s “lovingkindness,” and His “faithfulness,” and His “wonders.” In death, he’d have no more songs to write, leading worshipping hearts to God. It would be the day the music died.

Psa 88:13 But to You I have cried out, O LORD, And in the morning my prayer comes before You.
Psa 88:14 LORD, why do You cast off my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?

This is Heman’s version of the “Why?” question, that asks about the problem of pain and suffering. Since God can stop our suffering, why doesn’t He?

It’s the number one complaint of nonbelievers. They see God as either unwilling, or as unable, to alleviate human suffering.

Sad that they cannot see beyond suffering that God is longsuffering toward them, not willing they perish, but that they receive His offered salvation.

God has a decisive plan to end all suffering. He’s put it in writing, in the last book of the Bible.

When it is implemented, in full, it will end sin and death and suffering for eternity. Believers will be in glorified bodies, fit for eternity. We will have genuine free will but not be capable of sin.

But it will also end all opportunity for nonbelievers to be saved.

Psa 88:15 I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth; I suffer Your terrors; I am distraught.

If there is a clue to Heman’s affliction, no one can find it. Whatever it was, it’s as lifelong.

You can have a lifetime of suffering, in the will of God.

Psa 88:16 Your fierce wrath has gone over me; Your terrors have cut me off.
Psa 88:17 They came around me all day long like water; They engulfed me altogether.

Another analogy, this time a shipwreck that everyday kept him thinking he was drowning.

In the 2014 feature film, Edge of Tomorrow, a soldier fighting aliens (played by Tom Cruise) dies every day, only to relive each day, the day restarting every time he dies. Of course, he figures out what to do, getting a little further each time, until he is victorious.

Heman started each day suffering, but there was no progress. If anything, his situation worsened.

With this, we’ve arrived at the point in a psalm where the psalmist gives us his climactic words of hope and strength. Here is what Heman chose as his climax:

Psa 88:18 Loved one and friend You have put far from me, And my acquaintances into darkness.

Heman laments he outlived all those who were once dear to him. Not at all what we were expecting. It almost reads as unfinished.

We last see Heman in “darkness.” But we know that he saw through the dark, to God.

In The Lord of the Rings, Galadriel gifts Frodo with a vial that, as she put it, would be “a light in dark places.” It saved him in Shelob’s lair. It enabled him to live in that darkness.

When you are in the dark, don’t succumb to night-blindness. See through your darkness to the God Who saves. Live in it with the light provided for your journey home.

If Jesus is your Savior… He’s coming, any moment, for you. Keep looking up. And look down, as it were, upon the earth from your spiritual position of being already seated in Christ in the heavenlies.

If Jesus is not your Savior – personally – what are you waiting for? When the Gospel is presented, He is the light freeing your will to respond to His gracious invitation.

You Can Tell Everybody This Is Your Song (Psalm 62)

Elton John wrote Candle In The Wind for Lady Diana. Dave Grohl wrote My Hero for Kurt Cobain. McCartney penned Hey Jude for John Lennon’s little boy, Julian, to comfort him in the wake of his parents’ separation. Don McLean was “absolutely amazed” to discover that Killing Me Softly With His Song was originally written about him. Killing Me Softly has resonated with a number of artists since it was first recorded. It even won The Fugees a Grammy 25 years later in 1997.

Of course, not all songs written with a specific person in mind are the kind you would want written about you. Carly Simon’s classic You’re So Vain has generated a lot of speculation, but who would want that song to be dedicated to them? Taylor Swift became famous for writing scathing lyrics with particular people in mind. There are webpages dedicated to helping you know which song is directed at who. From her freshman year boyfriend to international superstar John Mayer.

Did you know that, in the book of Psalms, there are 3 songs specifically dedicated to someone? Many of the Psalms give us information about who wrote it, what instrument it was intended for and what occasion inspired the writing. But there are 3 which were written with a particular person in mind. And, all 3 are written with the same person in mind: a man named Jeduthun.

He’s not a particularly famous Bible character, which makes it all the more significant that the only Psalms dedicated and directed to a specific individual are sent to him.

We learn in First Chronicles 16 that he was a member of King David’s grand administration. He was one of three Levites given charge over the worship in the Tabernacle and, ultimately, the Temple. He and his sons were to be the Gatekeepers in the Lord’s house. He was charged with giving thanks and praise to the Lord, with prophesying with harps and stringed instruments, and with training others to continue the work. He was free from other duties and was to be employed in his spiritual work day and night.

What an amazing job description! And what a time to have been alive and walking with God. Watching David, the great king, establish his throne and to see the blessing of God in the nation of Israel. To have been in the presence of the Ark and the Shekinah.

So what are the 3 songs dedicated to such an interesting man? They are Psalm 39, Psalm 62 and Psalm 77. One is a funeral song about the vanity of life. One is about enduring opposition and attacks in your life, and that life, by the way is only a vapor. And one is about what we do when the day of trouble comes and our souls refuse to be comforted. Yikes!

But you see, Jeduthun also lived through the turbulent years when David hadn’t been enthroned over all Israel. He lived through the scandal of Bathsheba, the shock of Absalom’s rebellion, and, perhaps, the desperate horror of the plague which struck down 70,000 people after David took his ungodly census. We don’t know much about Jeduthun as an individual, what he thought, his personal story, but we know that 3 songs were given to him for his comfort and to be used in his spiritual duties.

He was to not only treasure these songs, but to teach them to the choir, who would then deliver them to all Israel for use in worship. Ultimately, these songs have been saved for us, that we might sing them in our own lives.

We’re told the Lord gives us songs to sing. Job 35:10: God gives us songs in the night. Psalm 40:3: [The Lord] has put a new song in our mouths. In Revelation 14, the 144,000 are taught a special song only they can learn. God gives us songs and plays a melody through our lives. This morning we get to see one that declares that God is our refuge, no matter what, no matter when, and that’s a song we all need to hear, especially in times like this.

Verse one says:

Psalm 62:1-2 – 1 I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. 2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will never be shaken.

David did something obvious in the Hebrew that is lost to us reading in English. The word we see as “alone” or “only” is the same in Hebrew and is used 6 times and each time it is used, it’s purposefully put at the beginning of the line. Only in God my soul finds rise. Only He is my Rock. Only in Him find rest, my soul. In fact, for a long time this Psalm was referred to as “the only Psalm.”

Here in verses 1 and 2, David is reminding his friend of what is absolutely true. We don’t know the specific timing of when this song was sent to Jeduthun, but whether it was a time of triumph or tragedy, the truth remained the same. And David’s desire was for Jeduthun to internalize this song and lead the nation in singing it together.

To rest here doesn’t mean to slumber, but to wait in calm quietness before the Lord. Our faith is meant to be defined by peace and joyfulness and restful repose as we contemplate the great strength of our God and the access He has given us to His saving power. God alone and God only. He is the One subject of our worship. He is the One original cause of all life. He is the One Ruler over heaven and earth. David, the peerless king, the giant slayer, declares with clear certainty that there is one place where we can find the help for our deepest needs and that is in God alone.

It’s important for us to note that this “rest” is not just an optional upgrade for some people. It’s not like getting granite countertops. We are commanded to enter into this rest. Psalm 37:7 says: “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.” In fact, the translators of the Septuagint render the opening of the song this way: “Will not my soul be obedient to God?”

We should and we must because He is our salvation. Our “yeshuah” is the word there. We recognize our Lord written right there on the page for us. He is our salvation.

Jesus, our salvation, is also called here our ‘rock.’ This image not only conveys strength and security, but brings us back to the wilderness wanderings, where a great rock followed after the congregation of Israel to supply them with abundant, overflowing, life-saving water. And that Rock was Christ.

David’s declaration that he and Jeduthun and all of us by extension would “never be shaken” in verse 2 should be explained. It’s not that we will never experience turbulence in life, that’s obviously not true. But David could say with confidence that we will never be shaken too greatly, caused to topple and fall. This was being said by a man whose life was often hanging in the balance. Whether running from Saul or Absalom, crossing swords with fierce enemies, or enduring plots from within his own palace, David was, from one perspective, never far from death. And yet, he knew he was safe in his Savior. His statement sounds almost too good to be true. But the man speaking to us is worth listening to. Of course, he was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But, in addition to that, this was a man who knew what it was to be spiritually at rest. He knew what it was to lay his life on the altar of heaven. He knew health. He knew danger. He knew success. He knew glory. He knew defeat. He knew desperation. He knew how to fortify and how to flee. Most of all, he knew God. And this man, with all his power and resources and courage, was content to forego all of it, instead clinging to a patient, passionate trust in his Lord.

But the quiet is then interrupted by verse 3.

Psalm 62:3-4 – 3 How long will you threaten a man? Will all of you attack as if he were a leaning wall or a tottering stone fence? 4 They only plan to bring him down from his high position. They take pleasure in lying; they bless with their mouths, but they curse inwardly.

It’s a good thing David’s God is a God of strength and security, because when he looked at his own life, he saw a rotten fence about to be knocked down by killers and enemies, some of whom had pretended to be his friends.

David, for all his strength, was feeling pretty weak. He compared himself to a stone wall, about to crumble. Until recently, I had a fence like that. Any time we got a little bit of a breeze, another picket would fall over. If I tried to put it back, it would just split apart. David’s situation was tenuous, but there are several important takeaways here. The first is that, at least in this Psalm, David wasn’t too worried about it. Notice that there isn’t actually a request to God anywhere in this song. In fact, David doesn’t even refer to himself in this section. He is speaking almost abstractly. Second, we are reminded that we have an adversary, the Devil. And his goal is to destroy you. To destroy your peace and your witness. To try to sift you away from closeness to God. He wants to bring you down from the high position that God has placed you in. But that reminds us of the third thing: And that’s that the Lord has placed us in a high position, that many might see what He has done for us and find salvation themselves. God is the Lifter of our heads and His desire is to set us on our feet that we might stand firm in Him. Even in the face of trial or adversity. Perhaps we will be under assault for the rest of our days until we are brought home to heaven. But thanks be to God we can be sure of our hope and our help in Christ Jesus, our Rock.

This song, which started with such a dramatic crescendo of assurance, has suddenly turned to a dark and minor key. On the one hand, David saw himself as firmly fortified in his stronghold, but on the other we see the troubles surrounding him and closing in, about to deal that final blow which will put him down once and for all. In that situation, what is a person to do?

Psalm 62:5-7 – 5 Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God.

David repeats what he said before, but this time it’s in the form of a sermon to himself. The first time, he boasted in the Lord’s greatness. Now, as he faces the valley of the shadow of death, he preaches to his own heart what he already knows to be true. And, knowing what he knows to be true, he tells his soul to obey.

Our souls need preaching like our bodies need nutrition. One meal won’t do it. Our hearts must be continually reminded of what is true about our God and His plan for our lives. David was showing Jeduthun how to cast his lifeline onto the Rock and secure his life there. And we can expect God to fulfill His promises to us. We can expect God to be our Shield and our Provider. He, who knows everything we need, will be the source of our supply. When and how the Lord will work is a mystery, but God’s word promises again and again that He will help us. He will be with us. He will not leave us or forsake us.

And it’s great news that our salvation and our glory do not depend on movable things like human governments or economic markets, but on the unchangeable nature and power of God, our Father.

Psalm 62:8 – 8 Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge.

What David has discovered to be true he wants to share with others. Heinvites his friends and his nation and any hearer throughout history to join him on the Rock. And, as we join David in the stronghold, we find that it’s not some impersonal citadel. This refuge is a Person, to whom we can pour out our hearts. What a lovely invitation. You know, financial security is an important issue to most people. Those who are able spend a lot of time and resources to store up for retirement. You may open your bank account to your IRA, but you don’t open up your heart to it. The fine folks at Fidelity aren’t set up to hear about your inner hurts, your fears, your deepest needs. But the Lord is. And He does not want us to be shy about pouring out our hearts to Him. Cast all your cares upon the Lord, for He cares for you! Give your burdens to the Lord and He will take care of you! Come to Jesus, all who are weary and carry heavy burdens and He will give you rest.

The God of the Bible was not just a Father and Friend to David, but to Jeduthun and to all Israel and to each of us who have been saved by His grace. Because of that, we can trust in Him at all times. Choosing to be confident in Him and believe that all He has said is true.

Trust in Him at all times, you people. The president got in a little trouble in the media recently for saying, “you people” to a reporter. But this message, from heaven, through David, to Jeduthun and us, says, “You people.” Who are you? You children of God, remember He is our Father. You flock of sheep, remember the Lord is our Shepherd. You members of the Lord’s army, remember He is our Commander. You citizens of heaven, remember Christ is our King. You Bride of Christ, remember He is our Bridegroom. And remember that you are a people. Meaning we are not in this life alone. We walk with others together on this road of faith, bearing one another’s burdens and building each other up, especially in times of difficulty. If you’re weak or afraid or confused, don’t be afraid to pour out your heart to the Lover of your souls.

Psalm 62:9-10 – 9 Men are only a vapor; exalted men, an illusion. Weighed in the scales, they go up; together they are less than a vapor. 10 Place no trust in oppression, or false hope in robbery. If wealth increases, pay no attention to it.

David’s desire was not only to comfort believers, but to send an urgent caution to unbelievers – those very enemies who were seeking to destroy him. He reminds everyone that life is short. It’s just a puff of smoke and then is gone. In the end, it doesn’t matter how much wealth or earthly power a person has and I can prove it: Who was the King of Spain in 1830? His name was Ferdinand VII. They called him “Ferdinand the Desired.” But, to us, he’s not even a memory. He is forgotten. His kingdom is gone.

Our lives, when weighed on the scales of heaven, are just a wisp of vapor. May they be a puff of incense which honors God and pleases Him. A life lived in worship and sacrifice. If not, if a person will not lay hold of the salvation offered by God and find refuge in Jesus Christ, they will be like Belshazzar in the book of Daniel. Written on the wall that night was the message that he had been weighed and measured and found wanting. And that very night he was judged, condemned for his refusal to repent and turn to God.

For believers today, David gives another sobering instruction: We are not to set the watch of our lives by the status of our bank accounts. It’s hard not to fall into this pattern of thinking. We see the news “The economy is up! So things must be good!” But that’s not how God assesses our lives. In fact, we’re warned that the lure of wealth can crowd out the production of spiritual fruit. We’re told that too much attention to these material things leads to some wandering from the faith. Rather, the New Testament gives us the proper perspective on wealth in 1 Timothy 6:

1 Timothy 6:17-18 – 17 Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. 18 Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.

Our song closes in verses 11 and 12.

Psalm 62:11-12 – 11 God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: strength belongs to God, 12 and faithful love belongs to You, Lord. For You repay each according to his works.

Commentators point out the wonderful beauty of God being both full of strength and full of mercy. If He had not mercy, we would all be doomed. If He had not strength, we could not be saved. But He is, indeed, the God of limitless power and unfailing love. And this God will repay the people of the earth. Sinner, if you have not been born again, you will be paid for what you have done. And the wages for your sin is death. You who are saved, you who work in our Lord’s service, you will be richly rewarded.

For nearly 150 years, God’s Church has been singing that wonderful refrain from Blessed Assurance: “This is my story, this is my song.” That great hymn is all about finding rest in God alone and trusting in His strength to save.

You can tell everybody that Psalm 62 is your song. Like Blessed Assurance it is full of hope and truth. As David encouraged Jeduthun, we should sing it to ourselves, especially in times of strain or when we’re feeling week. Our lives can be like musicals, where everyone is going along normally, but then something happens and everybody begins singing. It seems so normal to the people on the screen. “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” “Be prepared!” ”Everything is Awesome!”

God only and God alone, our refuge and fortress. Our ever-present help in time of trouble. It’s amazing to see David’s calm confidence, and it’s good for us to see it because it proves to us that such a state of spiritual rest is possible. But we are also reminded that he didn’t always feel this way. This is the same songwriter who felt as though God had abandoned him in Psalm 22. The same songwriter who said in Psalm 142 that he was crying in anguish to the Lord, weak in spirit, pleading for mercy.

David was no stranger to danger. He was knew what it was to be afraid, to be pressed in upon. To be close to a breaking point. But, the man after God’s own heart gave this song as a gift to his friend. And God has given it as a gift to us, that we might remember and sing of His unending love, His boundless strength and that He has made Himself a refuge to us where we can find rest, hope, help and all that we need.

No One Knows What It’s Like to be the Madman (Psalm 34)

Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man.
Geoffrey Rush for Shine.
Edward Norton for Primal Fear.
Robin Williams for The Fisher King.
Brad Pitt for 12 Monkeys.
Billy Bob Thornton for Sling Blade.

It’s a partial list of actors who were either nominated for, or who won, an Academy Award for their portrayal of a mentally challenged or mentally ill person.

We don’t normally think of King David as an actor. That’s too bad, because he was a good one. He once won the Abimelech Award for portraying a madman.

The introduction to Psalm 34 reads, “A Psalm of David When He Pretended Madness Before Abimelech, Who Drove Him Away, and He Departed.”

(BTW: Abimelech is a dynastic title, like Pharaoh. The Abimilech the psalm refers to is Achish).

Let me read the full account, recorded in First Samuel 21:10-15.

1Sa 21:10  Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
1Sa 21:11  And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands’?”
1Sa 21:12  Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
1Sa 21:13  So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard.
1Sa 21:14  Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me?
1Sa 21:15  Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

An award winning performance, for sure; but a sad one spiritually. It was birthed out of fear.

When a believer gives in to fear, he or she is acting like a madman. We may not foam at the mouth, but Heaven sees us as forgetting to fear only God.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Can Be Delivered From Your Fears, and #2 You Can Deliver Hope To Those Who Fear.

#1 – You Can Be Delivered From Your Fears (v1-10)

Commentators are split as to whether or not David’s madman act was his own desperate idea or God’s unusual strategy. I’m saying it was David’s fail because of fear since the message of Psalm 34 is him being delivered from fear.

Psa 34:1  A Psalm of David When He Pretended Madness Before Abimelech, Who Drove Him Away, and He Departed. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Psa 34:2  My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Psa 34:3  Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together.

David was certainly addressing saints in every generation. He did, however, have a live audience for whom he performed this psalm. “Let us,” he said, “exalt His Name together.”

In the sequel to his madman performance, David became the captain of a rebel alliance. Here it is from First Samuel 21:1-2.

1Sa 22:1  David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.
1Sa 22:2  And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.

These downtrodden men were the “humble who [heard] of it and [were] glad.” It was they who “[magnified] the Lord together” with David. This psalm was one of their anthems.

Psa 34:4  I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.

Spoiler alert: David just gave us the secret of being delivered from fear. You talk to the Lord and He hears you.

What do you say to the Lord? Psalm 57 records what David said. Here are the opening verses.

Psa 57:1  To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” a Michtam of David When He Fled from Saul into the Cave. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by.
Psa 57:2  I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me.
Psa 57:3  He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.

Quick summary: David came to his spiritual senses. He remembered God’s promises of mercy, refuge, and providence. He believed God.

David remembered who he was. He had been anointed the next king of Israel. Though outwardly that seemed preposterous, it must occur.

Are you in Christ? Believe God. Remember who you are. You are beloved of God. Saved; being saved day-by-day; ultimately saved when you are resurrected or raptured.

You are a recipient of God the Holy Spirit. You are His Temple individually; we are His Temple collectively.

Psa 34:5  They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.

This is so beautiful. “They” refers to the 400 men who rallied to David. In debt; distressed; discontent. Shattered lives – probably by their own bad decisions. No hope of changing their circumstances by hard work. Outcasts all. Yet received by David, and thus by the Lord.

David didn’t post on Craig’s List, looking for mercenaries. This was God. I say the Holy Spirit prompted these men to go out to David. They trusted in mercy.

Part of God’s deliverance of David was to grant him ministry. He remained a fugitive, on the run, in danger. But David could thrive in his adversity by serving the Lord.

I digressed. What is so beautiful? David’s men looked to God and their faces were “radiant.” It doesn’t mean they were literally radiant – like nightlights in the cave. It’s a way of saying that they reflected the glory of the Lord.

Something like we read of ourselves: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (Second Corinthians 3:18).

We might say, both of them and of us, we are transformed. Transformed as God renews us day-by-day. Transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Psa 34:6  This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.

David was referring to himself. He was the “poor man.” While he was quite literally poor, he most certainly was talking about his spiritual condition, which was fear. Compare his walk some years earlier. As a teen, he was incredulous that no Israelite would accept the giant’s challenge to one-on-one combat. He did – killing Goliath easily in the Lord’s strength.

BTW – Something I didn’t tell you is that, when David fled to Gath, he had Goliath’s sword with him. The fearless had become fearful.

David said that God “saved him out of all his troubles.” Not! He was still a wanted, hunted man, with Bobba Fett seeking the bounty.

We need an expansive definition of deliverance. It is an oft-used, perhaps over-used explanation, but that’s because it’s a good one. It is this: God is faithful and will deliver you from all of your troubles, or through all of your troubles.

In the Tom Hanks film, Castaway, he preserved a FedEx package through his ordeal, eventually delivering it once he was rescued. It was symbolic of his hope he would be delivered. The package was delivered – but it was through the trouble, not from it.

(BTW: There is a lot of speculation on the contents. Some say that box contained a fully charged, satellite phone. They should add that, as a stinger).

Your hope is that, one day, you will be delivered from all trouble. Mean time, like David, you’re delivered through it.

Psa 34:7  The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.

The Angel of the Lord was an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. Don’t be confused by the title, “Angel.” It means ambassador, or messenger. Jesus is no angel, as the letter to the Hebrew Christians makes clear. He came to Old Testament saints as Heaven’s ambassador, to deliver His message to them in Person.

Did David see Him? Or was he merely referring to the common knowledge that His angelic forces were always encamped around God’s people?

It sounds like David had forgotten to factor in the unseen realm. Once his fears were overcome, and he feared only the Lord, he was reminded of the mighty resources that were deployed on the behalf of the saints.

Again, I am quick to point out that the realization of an encampment of angels didn’t deliver David from trouble. But he knew he’d be delivered through it.

Psa 34:8  Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

The thing I like most about cooking is tasting the food along the way. As we walk with Jesus, we get tastes of the feast that awaits us at His coming.

Nonbelievers cannot “see that the Lord is good.” They think Him evil, or neutral. We know that He is not. We know about sin, the Savior, and salvation. We know that He is longsuffering, not willing any should perish eternally.

Psa 34:9  Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him.
Psa 34:10  The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

The “young lions” are… Lions. As in Asiatic Lion. David was making a comparison from the natural world. It’s similar to Jesus’ comments about how much more God cares for you than the sparrows.

Those who “seek the Lord” is another name for believers. They shall not “want” is explained as “not lack[ing] any good thing.” By “good” we understand that all things, both good and bad, work together for the good by our loving Savior.

There was an especially evil orc in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. As the orc forces approached Gondor, Gothmog said, “Fear. The city is rank with it.”

This is a season “rank with fear.” A.W. Tozer said, “A fearful world needs a fearless church.”

You can be delivered from your fears. Talk to the Lord; He hears you. Fear God rather than man. Believe God. Remember who you are.

#2 – You Can Deliver Hope To Those Who Fear (v11-22)

If you are like me, at this point you are ready for the precise steps you must take to overcome fear. We always want to do something – as if it were up to us to live-up to God’s standards without His help.

David doesn’t provide a “How To.” He describes what you act like as a believer, and he compares you to nonbelievers who have no power to walk with the Lord.

Psa 34:11  Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

The madman was gone. Immediately David was restored and could teach others to fear God rather than man.

Psa 34:12  Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good?
Psa 34:13  Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit.
Psa 34:14  Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.
Psa 34:15  The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry.

We can miss the main point by approaching these verses as if they were some sort of bullet points, following in order. The place to start understanding what David had in mind is with verse fifteen.

“The righteous” is a term for believers. In the Bible we read that you believe God and He declares you righteous. It is how God saved people before Christ came; it is how God saves people after Christ came. Because Jesus became our Substitute on the Cross, God can remain just but also be the Justifier of those who believe (Romans 3:26).

The righteous man or woman is transformed day-by-day by yielding to the Holy Spirit. Your part is to “cry” out to the Lord, knowing He hears you.

The righteous man or woman looks and acts like the description in verses twelve through fourteen. We don’t do those things to become righteous. We are declared righteous and are enabled to do those things.

Next, ways of life are presented:

Psa 34:16  The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
Psa 34:17  The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.

“Cut off the remembrance” doesn’t mean nonbelievers are forgotten the moment they die. It seems to be a euphemism for their death and destiny. It will be as if they never lived in terms of eternity. While believers enjoy the radiant presence of God forever, nonbelievers are confined to outer darkness in the Lake of Fire.

The “righteous” can be certain God hears them. He WILL deliver you out of all your troubles. But that deliverance is your final, ultimate deliverance. Your hope in that final deliverance – that is something that will help you overcome your temporary fears.

A title can sometimes be all you need; you might not have to read the book. Dave Hunt wrote, Whatever Happened to Heaven? It immediately communicates that believers have become less heavenly minded. The less heavenly minded you are, it follows that you have a more worldly mind; i.e., things of this world are your prerogative. That is a formula for fear.

Psa 34:18  The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Think of David, in the cave, surrounded by the four hundred. This verse reads like an Old Testament altar call to those men. He preached to them in this psalm, and probably with other words. He let them know God was “near,” that they could therefore have a relationship with Him. “Broken” and “contrite,” they chose the Lord.

What is the very first thing you should tell a new believer?

Psa 34:19  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.

That’s real. It’s honest. AND it is full of hope.

Psa 34:20  He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.

The apostles applied this to Jesus’ experience on the Cross, making this a Messianic Psalm. Did David know? His men? Think about it. They knew this was not a promise for them to claim. I’m sure many of them had experienced a broken bone. Or they knew folks whose bones suffered breaks. Any thoughtful person would conclude that there was more going o in these words. Whether they knew it was about their future Messiah or not… I don’t know.

Psa 34:21  Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
Psa 34:22  The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

Very ‘altar-callish.’ Do you want to remain condemned? Or will you choose to believe God and not be condemned?

Long lines. Hoarding. Aggressive behavior. “Fear. The world is rank with it.”

God CAN deliver you from all your fears. Believe it; believe Him. Set your mind by Heaven’s news regarding your future.

Then tell others that they, too, can be delivered from fear.