Month: March 2021

Psalm 72

Hope energizes, despondency sucks the energy from us. Hope or lack of it is a major issue in our time as certain global forces impact so many lives. A global pandemic, with no clear pathway through, impacts expectations on all continents. Global warming carries with it seismic threats to the well-being of the whole of nature as far into the future as we can see. It is apposite that it is the younger generations who are the most vocal regarding its consequences. We have not experienced a world war since the mid twentieth century but the impacts of regional wars are now felt globally. The human heart has not changed and secular advocates of human rights with a belief that rationality and ever-increasing knowledge will lead to less cruelty have not proved substantially true, although this could be argued at length.  Large scale events impact individuals at all levels from young adults feeling that career chances have slipped away following the economic contraction associated with the Coronavirus pandemic, to elderly in severe pain and unable to have any clear date as to when surgery to relieve their chronic pain can be undertaken. At such times a good and strong leader is wanted. People are desperate to believe in somebody who is trustworthy and honest. When a new leader comes to the fore there is often a surge of hope that this one will make a profound difference. There is no need to be entirely cynical. There have been many who have made significant differences to people’s lives and the well-being of their nation.

Psalm 72 is a prayer for such a king. It is only one of two attributed to Solomon but as to whether it was written by Solomon and was a prayer for his own kingship and future kings or a psalm of David for his son Solomon it is not known. The psalmist and for convenience we will call him Solomon is primarily concerned with his own immediate time and the kingship of Israel, prior to the division between north and south. This is a mortal king, ruling a physical geographical nation, loved by his people. ‘Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given him. May people pray for him and bless him all day long.’ ^v15 The best fit for the prosperity of the nation during his kingship, the geographical extent of his rule, the gifts and tributes brought to him and the wisdom and fairness of his judgements is Solomon’s reign. Sadly though, Solomon did not maintain this throughout his life and the long decline of Israel started in his life time as he was tempted to worship other gods influenced by his many wives and concubines.

However, Christians see this psalm as much more than that, it is prophetic, set within the whole thrust of the bible whose purpose is to reveal Christ. The aspirations of the psalm are beyond any one human. Themes within the psalm are continued in the New Testament and reach their culmination in Revelation. ‘May his name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun. Then all nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed’. ^vv17

In this psalm, which provided a liturgy for an enthronement ceremony we see the nature of Jesus’ kingship. Hope has become not a thing, an idea or a process but a person, Jesus Christ. He alone is capable of providing eternal hope, kept safe and glorious, untouchable, to all who trust in him. ‘An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you’. ^{1 Peter 1.4}

In this ‘royal son’ we see the righteousness of God. ‘Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness’. ^v1 God’s righteousness is a light that shines into darkness bringing  life. John introduces his biography of Jesus with these words, ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ ^{John 1.4,5} The natural companions to righteousness are justice and judgement. Solomon prays, ‘May he judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice’.  The clear priority for this righteous king are the needy and afflicted. ^{vv 2,4,12} Read any of the gospels and Jesus’ concern for people and his active mercy accompanied by his anger about hypocritical oppression is abundantly apparent.

He is not only interested in opposing injustice and hardship, he is equally concerned to actively cause righteousness to flourish. This king came on an eternal mission at the heart of which was to overcome sin and death and to do that through his own sacrificial life. He is a king concerned not just for one people group but for all peoples. ‘May all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him.’ ^v11 ‘Then all nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed’. ^{v 17}

He is our hope, he is our king and deserves the doxology that rounds off the second book of psalms.

Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel,

who alone does marvelous deeds.

Praise be to his glorious name forever;

May the whole earth be filled with his glory.    Amen and Amen.

Can you join in Paul’s prayer, ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope’? ^{Romans 15.13}

Living Hope – Phil Wickham

Psalm 71

When as an older Christian do others see you as old? Is it when they stop asking you to be part of things and including you in decisions or think your thoughts are no longer relevant? Could it be that people no longer think you will be wrestling with temptation and the evil one or you cannot speak in a meaningful way about what God is doing today. Perhaps it is when people see bodily limitations and think the spirit is equally disempowered. One of the most hurtful ways to be perceived is as a caricature. There are several out there.  There is, now you are retired an assumption that passion and drive have retired as well. Alternatively, there can be the idea that life is now a constant holiday and you will not have plans beyond the next cruise or trip. Conversely if in later life one is financially poor then one is also negatively dependent in all aspects of life including spiritual understanding. Then there is a belief that from now on all of life’s adventures are lived vicariously through children and grandchildren. In truth some people in later life live up to caricatures like these.  Psalm 71 shows a multifaceted spiritual life of a believer who is now, ‘old and gray’. ^v18

The opening stanza contains familiar refrains of the Lord being the believer’s refuge but in verse 3, ‘Be my rock of refuge’ the Hebrew word chosen includes a subtle change. Here it would be more literally, ‘rock of habitations’. (BST, The message of Psalms 1-72, Michael Wilcock) The implication being that in times past he has sought God when in need of refuge, rescue and deliverance but now he has learnt to see the Lord as his home, a safe home. There is a greater stability about his relationship with the Lord as his saviour. That does not mean he is no longer under threat as he still prays, ‘Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel’. ^V4 Simply because one has become older it has not removed one from being as Peter puts it sojourners and exiles in a world that wages war against your soul’ ^{1 Peter 2.11} I wonder how many times we consider that in the spiritual lives of the elderly the battle for holiness is as urgent as ever it was in younger years.

The psalmist here is able to bring a perspective of God’s faithfulness over his life since his youth. ^v5 He understands that God’s hand has been upon him from his conception, well before he was able to make any conscious act of faith. The longer one can trace God’s goodness in one’s life the more it is liable to inducepraise for him. In this way the psalmist is fulfilling a principal purpose for his and the lives of others to give praise to God and bring him glory. ‘From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you’. ^V6 But more than this he is able to trace how his life has intersected with others and contributed to their encounter with God. This is a tremendous resource of experience to draw upon and when shared builds up the faith of the fellowship. Can you think back and name people who you know God has impacted upon their lives, in some small way, through you? If so then you can share at least in part with the psalmist when he says, ‘I have become a sign to many’ ^v7 and it ought to encourage one to continue to pray for occasions when it will be repeated.

A fear in older age is that one can become rejected. Not only by God but also by fellow Christians. At that point one becomes increasingly vulnerable. In the western world in particular there is a tendency for the elderly to be excluded and lonely. There are many reasons for that some of which are not intentional but never the less do happen. In the light of this a prayer written around 3000 years ago can be highly contemporary to a Christian incapable of getting to church. ‘Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone.’ ^v9 Feelings are as important and strong in old age as they have been throughout life.

The psalmist is not an elderly person who has given up. He always has hope ^v15 and he continues to see it as important to tell people about God’s righteous deeds and his saving acts. ^v15 For the modern Christian with our understanding of Jesus’ cross and resurrection and that we all will face God’s judgement, how much more important is it for elderly Christian to speak of these things. The psalmist is not prepared to let his own inadequacies prevent him from speaking, ‘Though I know not how to relate them all. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord.’ ^v16 He is not going to limit himself to speaking to people of his own age in some old people’s forum he sees his role cross generationally. ^v18

As an older person the psalmist understands his eternal hope is fixed upon the Lord, ‘you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up.’ ^v20 This is such an important message and needs to be communicated before it is time for the funeral. Our hope rests on Jesus’ resurrection and the reason for that hope should be declared by the church, old and young, repeatedly backed by the reliable evidences. It is what the apostles declared and it continues to the be churches’ calling.

Old age should be a time for praise, hopefully based on a lifetime of grateful celebration of the grace of God. ^{vv 22-24}

My Jesus My Saviour

Psalm 70

When the chips are down, when the rubber hits the road, when you’ve just drunk the last drop in Last Chance Saloon, what would you pray? If like me when your first read psalm 70 and thought, what has this got to do with me, then the worst crisis you’ve ever had might not have really been that much of a crisis. Not every refugee is threatened with life threatening violence but the numbers that are, are horrific. Not everybody whose life is threatened by violence is a refugee and again the statistics where this is the case is terrifying. What is the women married to a man who regularly beats her meant to pray? What should the teenager forced at gunpoint onto an inflatable to cross the Mediterranean pray. When I explained to an asylum seeker from Eritrea, that the letter he had received from the Home Office meant that they had the right to send him back to his country of birth, he just quietly cried repeating, ‘No, they can’t’, because he had just told me that for years he had been repeatedly beaten in their jails with electric cable on his feet. What should he have prayed? The examples could endlessly carry on. If one is a victim of such events then the prayer, ‘Make haste. O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life.’ ^Vv.1,2 makes complete sense.

The vast majority of people living in fear for their lives are as the psalmist describes, poor and needy. ^v5 In that situation the need for salvation is great. Prayer is urgent and they long to rejoice and be glad. It is into that type of situation that the gospel is so crucial and along with that, the role of the church to bring people the gospel.  When this happens then people can honestly pray, ‘You are my help and my deliverer, O Lord, do not delay.’ ^v5 They can also rejoice with the psalmist affirming, ‘God is great!’ ^v4

In Jesus we have a saviour who knows exactly what it is to have had powerful people to plot to kill him, have him arrested, tortured, publically humiliated and brutally executed. He then overcame through his resurrection but that in no way diminishes his suffering or his experience of fear. Fear so great he sweated blood. The gospel is at its most obviously meaningful in times of the greatest crisis. Perhaps this is why the church often prospers the most in times of greatest oppression because the person of Jesus cuts through empty materialism, temporary sating of senses, self-righteous rituals and the cruelty of one of human to another. Jesus has met people’s needs by giving himself not an ideology. He is the source of love, light, truth and hope.

Jesus though did not simply come to bring urgent relief to those who are suffering, his mission was much more than that, it was to bring people and God back into relationship and establish permanent reconciliation between humans and God through the forgiveness of sin and faith in him. But that does not take away from the repeated biblical opposition to injustice and oppression and the importance of his disciples to love and serve those in greatest need.

How do you think the church should respond to the prayer of psalm 70?

My Help” sung by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir in HD

Psalm 69 and Matthew 10.32

Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ^{Matthew 10.32}

The emotional and spiritual price of being a follower or seeker after God is no new thing. Today there are so many long term situations where a Christian can feel alone and unable to see a way forward. It feels unjust and when things don’t seem as if they will ever change then in prayer the Christian will understand David’s words, ‘I am worn out calling for help, my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.’ ^v3 It can be particularly difficult for the adult who has become a Christian when those they know are hostile to their new found trust in Christ. This can often be family who now feel rejected or betrayed and then retaliate by rejecting the new Christian. Many experience opposition in the work place especially where the values at work do not conform to Christian values. Friends may reject a Christian because the Christian does not want to speak the way they used to or do the things the group once did. Living in the context of conflicting beliefs where one stands out as different frequently leads to bullying of various degrees and a tendency to compromise and conform to the group.

Psalm 69 exposes David’s inner life when isolated humanly and spiritually and reassures us that these experiences are not rare, they can be openly expressed to God. Christians have seen how Jesus went through many of these things himself and in that sense the psalm is seen as prophetic. Not all that is written here can be applied to Christ, David’s confession of sin ^v5 in particular does not apply to him. The language is poetic, powerful and evocative but that is appropriate to the internal dialogue that goes on when one feels, ‘up to one’s neck in it’. ^v1

How many of these feelings or situations have applied to you at some time in your Christian discipleship? They carry a contemporary resonance for the modern seeker after God.

It is painful when one feels that one is hated without legitimate reason. Think of a daughter who has become a Christian, that does not mean she no longer loves and respects her mother and family but there have been many who have been rejected by their family for their new found faith. In such circumstances David’s words, ‘Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs on my head; many are my enemies without cause’ will be a shared experience.   When we are in the middle of unjust hostility it easy to be filled with self-righteousness but David avoids this and confesses his own sin. ‘You God, know my folly, my guilt is not hidden from you.’ ^v5

To continue the example of hostility from one’s family David terms it being, ‘a foreigner to my own family’. The most obvious examples may be when one changes faith from the family faith, but it is not limited to that situation. It can be equally and just as painfully when one has abandoned a positively atheist setting or simply a context where no thought has been previously given to faith.

The actual practices of being a Christian in themselves can be the focus for hostility, that may be reading the bible, taking time for prayer, attending a bible study group and going to church. It could be altering how one uses time such as choosing to join in with a feeding the hungry project one evening a week instead of a social activity. For David the religious and cultural practices in his time were different but they still attracted derision. ‘When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn; when I put on sackcloth, people make sport at me.’ ^vv10.11

When opposition is overwhelming it is OK to plead with God and pour out one’s heart because God does have great love for you. If we are struggling for words then the bible often provides words for us and we can simply pray what we read.

‘Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love;in your great mercy turn to me.
Do not hide your face from your servant;
answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.
Come near and rescue me;
deliver me because of my foes.

You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed;all my enemies are before you.’ ^vv16-19

If you feel in any way as David did in this psalm have you shared your feelings and circumstances with a trusted Christian?

Does the church you belong to take the time to know who the Christians are in their church who are experiencing opposition in their private life, understand and support them?

At The Cross – Chris Tomlin

Psalm 68

The opening words of Psalm 68 are the words Moses said whenever the Ark set out, ‘Rise up, Lord! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you.’ ^{Numbers 10.35} The Ark representing God’s presence with his people took hundreds of years to travel from Sinai, the place where the law was given to Mount Zion (Jerusalem). One can imagine the words again being incorporated in the rejoicing as David accompanied the Ark into Jerusalem. David draws upon the song of Deborah as she described the Lord as being the God of Israel and Sinai where the mountains quaked, the earth shook and the heavens poured clouds down like water. ^{Judges 5.4,5} David declares God is the ‘God who saves’ ^v20 based on the history of how God has fought for Israel from slavery in Egypt, through the desert and the giving of the law, on to the conquest of the promised land and up to the point where the Ark is now resident with God’s people in Jerusalem.

The wicked who perish before God ^v2 were probably the Egyptians who had for centuries enslaved Israel and the righteous who were glad and rejoicing before God ^v3 were the Israelites. Such simplified statements gloss over many complications, even doubt and rebellion but when in the middle of events it is helpful to remember the big narrative that God has a purpose and history demonstrates that he has fulfilled his promises in his time. As Christians we benefit from knowing Jesus, who he is and what he has done as well as his promises. The same God who kept his promises regarding Israel will keep his promises regarding his people now.

The destruction of his enemies is balanced by the care for his own as in verses 4 to 6, those who call him Lord. ‘A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing’. ^vv5,6 The dwelling of God now resides with the church and these verses capture how the church should be now, a place where God meets the needs of people in need. It describes what contemporary mission should be, not limited to orphans and widows but to all who have need to be in the family of God. Prisoners may be literally in prison but they equally may be people who are imprisoned through sin and need God’s saving grace.

Israel’s victories over the nations as it occupies Canaan are sung of in verses 11 to 14. Again there is no mention of the many failures that occurred during that time as the focus is on God’s faithfulness. The silver sheathed dove with feathers of shining gold is poetic imagery possibly drawing on an ancient practice of sending victory messages by a homing bird. It was the role of women to proclaim the word of the Lord ^v11 and that feminine vocabulary is used again in Isaiah 61.1-2 and repeated by Jesus in Luke 4.18 as good news is proclaimed to the poor. The biblical narrative may be dominated by male perspectives but the role of women is essential and core and this captures the importance of women in proclaiming the gospel.

The narrative moves on to the eventual arrival of the Ark and the Lord’s presence at Sinai. ^{vv 15-19} This is also symbolic of Jesus’ ascension. The remaining verses of the psalm celebrate the rule of God over all nations. David’s psalm looks forward to a time when nations will recognize and honour the God of Israel and Jerusalem. ^v29 However Christians will see in these verses the promise of Jesus’ return and his reign culminating in the defeat of all the spiritual enemies of God. Christians can join in with ancient Israel and sing, ‘You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God! ^v35

Paul saw the whole sweep of the psalm, from Egypt to Zion, as a picture of the saving work of Christ (Michael Wilcock, BST) in Ephesians 4 and from Christ’s place in glory he has given gifts to his people through the Holy Spirit that have meant that God’s praises have been sung throughout the kingdoms of the earth. ^v32 It started at Pentecost and the process continues today as the gospel reaches fresh people worldwide each day.

Do we sometimes focus so much on the details of life that we forget to see the big picture of God’s purposes?

Do we remember what God has achieved in our own lives and draw strength from that as we face the future?

Everlasting God (Chris Tomlin)