Category: Living in The Story Psalms

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;

O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.
                             —how long?!?!

More questions. The Psalms overflow with the mystery of living.

Psalm 6 struggles with what may be some physical illness. This psalm certainly speaks to those of us who have languished in the pain or fear or misery of our body’s un-health and dis-ease.

Ever since our earliest history, we humans have wondered if negative physical circumstances could be the result of some sin or some failure to please the gods.

Does the drought or the flood come because of sin?

Did the cancer or heart failure happen because of something we did wrong? Are we being punished? Or disciplined?

The psalmist seems to think so.

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.

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I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come?

My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

The beautiful and beloved Psalm 121 offers deep comfort and assurance.

It is part of the collection of Song of Ascents, hymns sung as pilgrims made their way up to Jerusalem. Remembering the Lord who travels with them on the way to Temple continues as a powerful metaphor for the God who travels with us every step of the way in all of life’s journey.

He will not let your foot be moved; the One who who keeps you will not slumber.

The One who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

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O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me …

O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause, then let the enemy pursue and overtake me …

Our psalmist in Psalm 7 stands boldly before the LORD his God and proclaims his righteousness in this situation. He prays for vindication, for God to keep the promise of protection and rescue in the face of unjust persecution.

 Awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment …

O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.

Many of the psalms confess sin and acknowledge God’s right to judge and punish. But many other poems call out rampant injustice and petition God to remain faithful to covenant by protecting the righteous and hindering those who practice unrighteousness.

There is a sense in which the psalmist seeks personal protection and vindication. He celebrates “God as my refuge, my shield.”

But in another sense, the yearning of the poet is that God’s own righteousness will be vindicated in the earth.

He prays that “the wicked” will come to know beyond any doubt that God’s righteousness and integrity WILL triumph and reign throughout the world.

See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.

They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made. Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.

Look here at the images of conception, pregnancy and delivery. The poet’s brilliance allows us to see clearly how wickedness develops from thought to action.

Continue reading “Psalm 7”

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

And all that is within me, bless God’s holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul and do not forget all his benefits—

Then Psalm 103 proceeds to list some of those benefits.

Forgiveness

Healing

Redemption

Steadfast love

Mercy/Compassion

Goodness

Vindication

Justice

Any who claim the God of the Old Testament is a god who only judges and condemns need to read again the grace and mercy of this psalm.

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Look at the gorgeous poetry of Psalm 144!

The LORD is my Rock, my Fortress, my Stronghold, my Deliverer, my Shield….

But humans are like a breath or a passing shadow…

These words echo words and sentiments from other psalms, especially Psalm 18 and Psalm 8. It’s as if our psalmist has been reading the earlier songs in Book I and is now re-reading, re-interpreting and re-newing these long ago praises for his own time.

Even after returning home from exile in Babylon, Israel is surrounded by adversaries and feels as if they are drowning in a sea of infidelity by those whose “right hand are false.” This psalmist of Israel struggles against uncertainty and against the unreliability of their betrayers.

No wonder this vision of the Savior is strong and solid and substantial. No wonder the poet imagines this Redeemer…

…bowing your heavens to come down

…touching the mountains so they smoke

…making the lightning flash and sending out arrows

…stretching out your hand to rescue me from the mighty waters.

Psalm 144 alludes to the miracles of judgment against the oppressors of Egypt and the ancient and reassuring story of rescue through the waters of the Red Sea.

Ancient history for this people is not the boring stuff of textbooks; rather history is story, OUR story.

This is us!

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Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

Psalm 146 sings of the rightness of creation with the Creator reigning as Lord and Sovereign.

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.

During the time of Exile, the Davidic monarchy ended. The experience of Israel in Babylon reminded them that blindly trusting in any human – even the king – is bound to bring disappointment and even despair.

There is only One who is truly faithful within all creation: the Creator.

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them …

For Israel, the Creator-of-All is also the personal God of Jacob.

Israel’s God: the One who called and chose them to be God’s own people. For Israel in exile, struggling to hold on to hope and faith, it is God alone who is faithful forever.

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Hear this, all you peoples; give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together.

My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb…

Psalm 49 sings like the couplets of the Proverbs.

This is a wisdom psalm, reassuring the faithful that God’s way is the way of true wisdom. Human wealth and success may look like a wise course, but the psalmist has no doubt that – finally, ultimately, eschatalogically – God’s way is the only way that will endure.

The Wisdom Tradition of Israel offers an intriguing mix of literature. The Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job – each gives insight into various approaches for making sense of the world.

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Sing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done marvelous things!

Psalm 98 recollects the salvation of the Exodus and offers hope for every impossible possibility.

Remember – the song sings. Remember the times in our history when we had no hope and then – completely unexpected – something new and marvelous came into being.

Remember!

Thus Psalm 98 offers hope for Israel as it waits in Exile. Along with the prophets of the Exile, this poetic prophet holds out hope for vindication and salvation (see the similarities of encouragement in Isaiah 52).

Just as God “remembers” steadfast love and faithfulness, so God’s people must remember God’s faithfulness and hold on to hope.

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Psalm 110  is the most widely quoted psalm within our New Testament.

The LORD says to my lord,
 “Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.”

verse 1

This royal psalm celebrates the king of Israel – an earthly lord who embodies the presence and will of the Sovereign LORD of heaven and earth. Not only did the king represent God’s presence on earth, but Jerusalem and the Temple represented God’s holy dwelling.

The “Anointed of God” ruling from Zion, the “city of God.”

The LORD sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes!

verse 2

More than likely, this psalm originated during the time of the Davidic monarchy and parts of it may have been sung at coronations (consequently categorized as an “enthronement” psalm).

But by the time Psalm 110 was gathered into the psalter, Israel was in Exile. The land, the Temple and the monarchy were now gone, thus the scholars of Israel were challenged to look back at their story and re-interpret its meaning for a tragic new time.

Consequently within the psalter itself, we see theological re-readings and readjustments of Israel’s understandings and expectations. If the Davidic kings were no more, then (Jewish teachers pondered because of the Exile) this hope of God’s reign throughout the earth must be assigned to another “anointed one.”

This is how hope for the Jewish messiah was born.

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