When Praise Sounds Weak and Warbly

Psalm 67 is a beautiful, awe inspiring 7 verses that I’ve been memorizing recently. It’s a Psalm of gratitude, asking God to keep His promises to His people. It’s a Psalm that stirs up the soul toward excitement for missions and for the church globally and generationally. Phrases like, “the peoples,” “the nations,” and “all the ends of the earth” declare the mission of the gospel and where it is headed.

Psalm 67 (ESV): Make Your Face Shine upon Us

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
 and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

2 that your way may be known on earth,
 your saving power among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
 for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God
let all the peoples praise you!

6 The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, shall bless us.

7 God shall bless us;
let all the ends of the earth fear him!

As a side note, Psalms were meant to be sung. Don’t just take my word for it. I highly recommend you whip out your trusty copy of “The Book of Psalms for Worship” (or buy a copy here!) and sing this beautiful Psalm. I’m partial to the 67C version myself.

My study Bible notes on this Psalm, “May God’s favors to His people be so obvious that all the world takes notice.” God promises every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3) so that “all the ends of the earth may fear Him.” When God blesses us abundantly, the watching world can’t help noticing and glorifying our gracious and loving Father. This is part of the Christian’s witness to the world. Pray that praise from every corner of the earth will resound to God and that His blessings on us will be so plentiful that the world will have no other option than to respond with rejoicing and worship.

I wanted to add some related verses from the two Psalms directly before 67.

Psalm 65:8: They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs, You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

All people will ultimately see God’s saving acts on behalf of His people and therefore will bend their knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:11). All creation will rejoice (see Psalm 19), joining in the human chorus to celebrate the blessings of God in creation and redemption. What an exhilarating thought! All earth from the farthest corners will be praising the Almighty with us. If it seems to be just your small congregation with feeble, quavering voices in worship on Sunday morning, keep in mind that one day we will join in an everlasting refrain of praise to God with the dawn, the angels, and the people of God throughout the generations. It will sound incredible to be glorifying God as we see Him face to face with the church triumphant. John Boys said, “The servants of the Lord are to sing His praises in this life to the world’s end; and in the next life, world without end.”

How should we await this eternity of adoration? As Psalm 66:1-2 says, let us, “Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious.” We are called to give honor and worship to our Holy God. Let’s be overflowing with His glory and declaring what He has done for us. Make His praise glorious, not just half-hearted, timid, and occasional. Our praise should be constant and glorious, because our God alone is worthy of all glory. With this knowledge, we should be driven to missions, whether across the street or across the ocean. The vision of Psalm 67, “That your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations” should drive us forward in fulfilling the Great Commission. 

Psalm 28: Prayer Transformed to Praise

I'm Lydia Goerner from Christ Church RPCNA in Utica, NY. I'm excited to be the newest author of Selah and to be able to share what God is teaching me through the marvelous book of Psalms. Recently, I've been meditating on Psalm 28, so without further ado, here are my thoughts. Let me know why you love Psalm 28 in the comments!

To you, Lord, I call;
you are my Rock,
do not turn a deaf ear to me,
For if you remain silent,
I will be like those who go down to the pit.

It is futile to call to rocks for deliverance, but our Rock will save us and give us peace. It is vain to rely on words to rescue us from judgment, but the eternal Word died so that we could have eternal life. We can call on our Rock: a steady, immovable deliverance. This verse starts on a desperate note, pleading with God to hear and answer the Psalmist’s prayer. If God remains silent, if he does not answer our prayers and cries for mercy, we will be no better off than those who are dead. Spurgeon said of this verse, “We must have answers to prayer: ours is an urgent case of dire necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to our agitated minds, for he never can find it in his heart to permit his own elect to perish.” 

Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place.

The Psalmist is distraught and fervently petitions God to be his salvation. Many of us can probably relate to these desperate cries for mercy in times of illness or despair. When hard times hit, it's crucial to turn to the only thing that can deliver us. Nothing else can fully answer our calls for help. At these times, we can beseechingly lift up our empty hands to God our refuge. 

Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work,
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back on them what they deserve.
Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord
and what his hands have done,
he will tear them down
and never build them up again.

God is just and will repay men for the evil things they have done; justice will be done to the men who “speak cordially with their neighbors” and wear a mask of righteousness while their hearts are full of malice. God sees the hearts of men and no thought, word, or deed escapes his omnipresent gaze. Even if the wicked seem to prosper in this life, God will deal justly with them in the life that is to come. He won’t reward them for their cordial speech but according to their evil thoughts and deeds. They have no regard for the works that God has done, so He will have no regard for their work, but will make it futile. It's probably not news to many that we live in an evil and perverse generation. Psalm 28 is a prayer that we would not be like those who go down to the pit but that we would be spared from being judged along with the wicked. 

Praise be to the Lord,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me,
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

The Psalm of prayer turns to praise, illustrating the Puritan William Jenkyn’s words: “Praise shall conclude that work which prayer began.” The trusting, reliant soul will find an answer and be lead to joyfully worship God for His marvelous provision. We can be certain that if we pray fervently and unceasingly now, joyous and unending praise will follow, if not in this sin cursed world then throughout eternity. God heard the prayers of Jesus Christ, and we have assurance that He hears our prayers as well if we are God's anointed. Psalm 34:15 confirms: "The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry." Our Rock will hear us and deliver us from His and our enemies.

The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever.

God grants to His people these two main things: salvation and blessing. He saves us from death and our sin and blesses us by making our lives and labors fruitful. The answer to this prayer is fully answered in the ministry of the good shepherd. Christ shepherds, teaches, and guides us as God protects and makes our labors flourish. We also learn that we shouldn't just pray that God will bless us and our personal life, but all His people—the church militant. Spurgeon said of this verse’s petition: “Carry them in thine arms on earth, and then lift them into thy bosom in heaven. Elevate their minds and thoughts, spiritualise their affections, make them heavenly, Christlike, and full of God. O Lord, answer this our petition, for Jesus' sake.”
This one brief verse in a relatively short Psalm holds enough promise and hope for a lifetime- even for an eternity. I pray that God will continue to carry us forever, guiding us constantly even to death (Psalm 48:14).


Resource: The Treasury of David by C.H. Spurgeon. 

A Song of Contentment

¹¹ Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: ¹² I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ^[b] who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11-13

New King James Version

If someone asked if you are content, how would you respond? Or even more importantly, what kind of thoughts would this question bring to mind? Would you think about your belongings, friends, and family and conclude that altogether there is plenty reason to be content? Or would you think that you could be content, if only a few things were added to your life? The Bible reveals that the content man does not rely on any earthly blessings, which can never satisfy, but instead the truly content man places all his hope and trust in the Lord. Psalm 62 shows the mindset of such a man, and when singing this Psalm, we are able to express our own peace in God and praise Him for the comfort, defense, and salvation He provides. Through singing and studying this Psalm, may we be immovable like David and not like those of a murmuring heart that Burroughs describes. “If a man’s body is of such a temper that every scratch of a pin makes his flesh rankle and be a sore, you would surely say this man’s body is very corrupt. So it is in your spirit, if every little trouble and affliction makes you discontented and murmur, and even causes your spirit within to rankle.” (19)

God burdened my heart with this topic through Jeremiah Burroughs’s book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, and I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand true, biblical, contentment.

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which feely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

Jeremiah Burroughs (3)

Psalm 62

To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

1Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation. 
2 He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be greatly moved.

           

David is content, and he demonstrates this by a “sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit” which submits to God’s will. By declaring that his soul waits silently, David refuses to be overtaken by murmuring or any other rebellious attitude towards God, and instead he waits with faith for God to bring deliverance. By “soul,” David speaks of his heart, inner-most affections, and will. We also find in the next verses that this was not a peaceful time of David’s life; his enemies were verbally attacking him. Yet from the first verses of the Psalm, one would hardly be able to tell. Looking at my own prayer life, I am ashamed to say that many of my own prayers do not start with the same peace and focus on God. Often my initial thoughts revolve around personal and troubling circumstances in my life, yet David does not start with a complaint or even a request but with humble submission to God.

So why is David content? Why is he so able to submit himself to God and say that his soul waits silently? The answer is simple: God. It is the infinite, merciful, and loving God of the universe, who is David’s salvation, both concerning the troubles of life and the penalty of sin. (Romans 8) God is his rock. As the previous Psalm explains, He is the “rock that is higher than I,” the rock which we can go to when overwhelmed. (Psalm 61:2) When we are made right with God by trusting in Jesus Christ, we also have Him as our rock, salvation, and defense. With such a God on our side, why should we be greatly moved? With such a God as our Father, we may find comfort by submitting to Him and recognizing His power and goodness.

I used to think that Christian contentment rested mainly on our external state. I thought that we were called to not complain and just deal with the trials that God puts before us in silence, but internally we were allowed to hold an abundance of turmoil. However, there are two main problems with this type of thinking. First of all, a merely outward contentment is not genuine. (Proverbs 18:14) On top of that, the mindset which concentrates on the outward state forgets about God and focuses on self. With a proper focus on God, we can recognize the goodness that God works through all situations. We may feel pain and experience hardships yet find peace by trusting in God, so at the end of the day, we can say with David that we “shall not be greatly moved.” Christian contentment is an utter mystery unless one first obtains salvation through Christ. (Matthew 11:29-30)

³ How long will you attack a man?
You shall be slain, all of you,
Like a leaning wall and a tottering fence.
⁴ They only consult to cast him down from his high position;
They delight in lies;
They bless with their mouth,
But they curse inwardly. Selah

            Verses 3-4 show the struggles of David and also the mindset of discontented men, David’s enemies. David sounds amazed at the tenacity of the wicked, “How long will you attack a man,” particularly since they strive in vain, “You shall be slain, all of you.” Flatteries and lies have long been the favorite tactics of the enemies of God’s people; Nehemiah dealt with such in Nehemiah 4 while building the walls of Jerusalem, and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself met much flattery and deceit from the Pharisees. (Matthew 12:9-14)

When we undergo trials, we must prayerfully go to God as David did. However, we must also be careful not to be like David’s discontented enemies. They were so rebellious against the providence of God that they sought to bring others down through sin and deceit. This seems to be the ultimate form of discontentment, as the devil, the deceiver himself, implemented such tactics against Adam and Eve in the garden. (Gen 3:1-7) Seeing the contrast between David and his enemies, we should diligently strive to be content and be fearful of becoming like David’s enemies. For the content Christian finds peace in all situations of life, but only destruction awaits those who refuse to delight in God’s will.

⁵ My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
⁷ In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God.

            Now as both you and I know, Christian contentment does not come naturally or easily. Often when we look at our lives and see different hardships, we forget about God and fall into despair. Thus David immediately moves his attention right back to God after speaking of his enemies. A verse that has provided me endless encouragement comes from Romans 8,

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

God is our only rock, and He is always our rock. Even when everything appears to be hopeless, God, who cannot lie, promises His people that it will work out for our good. (Titus 1:2) I find it simply astonishing that God makes certain both that His own name is glorified and also that our good is secured. (Leviticus 10:14) “For my expectation is from Him.⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation” We need to constantly remind ourselves of God’s nature and promises.

⁸ Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah
⁹ Surely men of low degree are a vapor,
Men of high degree are a lie;
If they are weighed on the scales,
They are altogether lighter than vapor.

            David continues by instructing us in some practical applications and truths. If God is our refuge, we can and must pour out our hearts to Him. Many people find comfort in telling close friends of their troubles, yet we have access to the all-powerful and merciful God who is willing and able to answer our prayers. We have a High Priest who can perfectly sympathize with our weaknesses. (Hebrews 4:14) However, the general opinion of men is fleeting like vapor, while men in high positions are often a lie. Even our Christian friends, who are a great blessing, do not compare to our Father in heaven. (Proverbs 18:24) Thus “Trust in Him at all times” and “Pour out your heart before Him”.

Now it must be mentioned that there is a place for sorrow and mourning in pouring out our hearts before God. Christ himself prayed to God with His soul” exceedingly sorrowful” in the garden before His death. (Matthew 26:36-46)  Yet our Lord still submitted to the Father, “not as I will, but as you will” and rejoiced at the salvation He brought to His people. (Zephaniah 3:17) May we follow in Christ’s example and go to God in prayer with trust even in our deepest sorrows.

10 Do not trust in oppression,
Nor vainly hope in robbery;
If riches increase,
Do not set your heart on them.

            Being rich is not intrinsically good and neither is being poor. The poor are tempted to steal and feel self-righteous, while the rich are tempted to trust in their riches. J. C. Ryle points out that “a man’s temporal condition is no test of the state of his soul” through the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. So it is not wise to judge a man’s spiritual state by the size of his wallet, just as you and I should not put our trust in either our abundance or poverty. Paul said in Philippians 4:11-13 that he had learned to be content both in suffering and abounding, and we must also learn this by God’s grace and through trusting Him.

¹¹ God has spoken once,
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God.
¹² Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;
For You render to each one according to his work.

           

            God never needs to repeat Himself; He created the whole world from nothing by speaking once, yet He proclaims twice that all power belongs to Him. As Charles Spurgeon put it, “Our meditative soul should hear the echo of God's voice again and again” God is also merciful and just, and a mindfulness of God’s power, mercy, and justice should always be ringing in our minds. David starts, fills, and ends Psalm 62 with meditations and praises of God, for that is the prayer and song of a man who possesses contentment in God.  

            Every day we are tempted to worry and not trust God. Maybe for you it involves your job. Maybe you have lost heart over a relationship gone bad, financial struggle, persecution, or the death of a dear family member or friend. Whatever it is, we have Psalm 62 to sing and remind us that if we lose all else, we still have God. The risen Christ is our guarantee of salvation and throughout this life, He is also our rock and shield. Through singing this Psalm, may you never be blinded to the truths which can bring you real contentment and comfort in God. The saved and adopted by God have all the reason to be content. We simply need to remember what God has already done, have faith in what He will certainly accomplish, and see with clear eyes. ²² “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. Matthew 6:22

²² Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning;
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

Lamentation 3:22-24

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs

http://www.chapellibrary.org/files/archive/pdf-english/rjoc.pdf

Practical Religion, J.C. Ryles

Idols of the Heart: Psalm 115

 ¹ Not to us, Lord, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.

 ² Why do the nations say,
“Where is their God?”

 ³ Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.

⁴ But their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.

⁵ They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.

⁶ They have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell.

⁷ They have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
⁸ Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them.

 Psalm 115 was reassuring Israel how much greater their faith in God was compared to the foolish worship of something made by the hands of men. The Psalm starts by stating the grief that Israel was given by other nations, such as Assyria and Babylon, at various times for worshipping a God that could not be seen. They mocked Israel by taunting, “Where is your God?” The other nations observed their suffering and came to the conclusion that not only can Israel’s God not be seen, but He also does not care about their well-being. The Psalm then assures Israel that their God is in fact alive and active, unlike the idols made by the hands of men. “He does whatever He pleases.” The psalmist is not implying that God is a ruthless dictator, but rather He is showing God’s sovereignty and the power of God’s plans--even if they don’t make sense to man. The psalmist continues to explain the worthlessness of worshiping idols.  They are made by the hands of men and therefore had no power. They are mere carvings and nothing more.

          In the present age, idols are everywhere, enticing teenagers in our society.  Most of the time we do not even notice them, but an idol is anything that we put above God. Our first response to this statement would be, “Nothing, of course. We know that God is above all things.” But do we put him above everything else in our lives? There are so many things that can become idols to us, and most of them are not bad. Internet, friends, food, clothing, money, popularity, school. These things can be positive and fun. The problem arises when we put these things in front of spending time with God.  How often do we dwell on these things compared to how often we dwell on God and His Word?

Actually, idols can even arise when studying and preaching God’s Word. If we spend much of our time studying and debating theology, but we forget about God’s grace and love, then theology becomes an idol of the heart. If we dedicate our lives to a ministry such as helping the poor, but we get so caught up in ministry that our work is no longer a result of our own abiding relationship with Christ, ministry becomes an idol. This is not to say that theology and ministry are bad in and of themselves. These become sinful if we put them above our God and his love and mercy. Only then do they become idols of our hearts.

God doesn’t ask for a portion of our hearts, He requires our entire heart. Our God is jealous for us. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  God commands us to surrender our entire heart, but we can’t give our hearts to him if there are other people and items in our lives to which we are too emotionally attached. When we take time to consider God’s power and love for us compared to the temporary pleasure we get from earthly gifts, we should be ashamed. How could we ever consider putting other things in front of our almighty God who loves us for eternity? In this Psalm the other nations mocked Israel because they could not see their God. A reason it is easy to put others above God in our lives is because we tend to forget God.  God is clearly seen through creation and His Word, but even Christians tend to focus on “man made idols.” We do this simply because it can be easier to rely on and love something that can be seen or touched--even if that “something” has no real glory.

 Idols of our hearts are incredibly burdensome.  There have been several times in my own life when, as I pray or do my devotions, my mind wanders. I start to think about something or someone besides God. When I catch myself doing this, I feel guilty and ashamed that, even with my personal time with God, these idols entangle my heart. This troubled me for a while. I remembered Eustace in C.S Lewis’ book “The Voyage of the Dawntreader.” I remembered the powerful scene when Eustace turned into a dragon, and Aslan stripped him of his scales until he was once again human. I prayed that God would strip me of the idols in my heart. Although it would involve pain and it would be a hard process, I prayed that God would extract the idols from my heart that were firmly entangled through and around it. Since God is a faithful God and because He loves me, He has been working in my heart to help me make Him first in every situation of life. If you belong to God and you feel ashamed because of what you put first in your life, remember God’s love. Don’t let your guilt make you want to avoid Him. Rather come to God with your guilt, confess your idols to God, and ask Him to tear from your heart everything besides Him. Although it may be hard and painful, always remember God’s love. The first verse of this Psalm says, “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory,because of your love and faithfulness.” Trust that God will be loving and faithful and that, if you ask, he will help you with the idols in your heart--even if the process is long and painful.

                                                                                

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1^st Corinthians 10:13

The Psalms Have No Joy

¹Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the law of the Lord!
² Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!
³ They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.
⁴ You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.
⁵ Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!
⁶ Then I would not be ashamed,
When I look into all Your commandments.
⁷ I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
⁸ I will keep Your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!

Psalm 119:1-8 (NKJV)

When singing praises to God, we would all like to experience joy and excitement for what Christ has done. Some would argue that the Psalms simply do not convey joy as effectively as praise songs and hymns, and this type of thinking fueled the church at large to drift away from the singing of the Psalms during the 18^th century. Many Christians focus on the emotion evoked by the song rather than the meaning of the words sung to God; however, could it be that this thinking is backwards?

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Colossians 3:16

Notice that in Colossians, the Psalms instruct and fill us with wisdom which leads to holy emotion, emotions set apart for the praise of God through singing. The Bible does not simply give instruction concerning our actions but also our thoughts and emotions, and these thoughts and emotions always tie into truths established by the Bible. In Psalm 51, God calls us to be contrite and completely dependent upon His mercy when repenting for our sin; God commands us to be forgiving and slow to quarrel, since He has forgiven us of our sins, in Proverbs and the Lord’s Prayer. Our lives in thought, word, and deed have been set apart as holy (1 Peter 2), and thus how much more should our worship of God be guided and set apart by His word! The Psalms have been set apart for the praise of God, and each Psalm contains both infallible truth and our response as Christians. David, in Psalm 119:1-8, starts by declaring the truths of God (vs. 1-3) and then continues by uttering his longing to obey and seek God with his whole heart (vs. 4-8). 

¹Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the law of the Lord!
² Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!
³ They also do no iniquity;

They walk in His ways.

In the first verses of Psalm 119, David proclaims who is truly blessed: the one who is not ruled by sin, walks in the law of God, and seeks Him with the whole heart. We can clearly see that this person is the one who puts his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and diligently seeks to bring his or her own life into accordance with Christ’s teaching and example here on earth (Romans 12:1-2). Only through Christ can anyone reject sin and seek after God, and we can claim these truths for ourselves and look forward to heaven where we will be perfected and blessed in all fullness (Revelations 21:22-27). How wonderful are the truths of God!

⁴ You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.
⁵ Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!
⁶ Then I would not be ashamed,

When I look into all Your commandments.

          The truth of the blessed man permeates throughout the entire book of Psalms since it is our proper and intended relationship and standing with God. Psalm 1 reveals that the blessed man is like a tree well planted by water; the blessed man is the one who brings forth spiritual fruit and prospers in all he does. Yet after proclaiming the truth of such a desirable state, David then turns these truths unto himself with some amount of sorrow and longing, but not without hope.

The word in verse four that sticks to me the most is the word diligently. I can with reasonable confidence say that I pursue my academics diligently. I can with even more confidence confirm that I diligently seek sleep after a long day, yet often I find that I have not diligently sought to keep God’s precepts. At best I am often half-hearted and lax concerning God’s commandments. David also felt his own weakness and immediately cries out to God to aid him in his obedience.  “Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!” is the prayer David lifted up, a prayer we should constantly lift up since we are yet weak here on earth. Notice that this is not a completely happy prayer; David admits to having felt shame when reading through the word of God. Many Christians today only want to sing about joy, but this is not a very accurate or realistic view of the Christian life. We often fail. We undergo trials. Enemies of God rise up, and for all of these, joy by itself is not always appropriate. Yet the Psalms provide a comprehensive selection of songs which covers the entirety of the Christian life. Psalms 119 gives me the words to voice the desires and frustrations that I undergo every day, and I am comforted that these prayers are founded in the truth of the scriptures and voiced in the Word of God, as opposed to being merely written by the hand of men.

⁷ I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
⁸ I will keep Your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!

After meditating on the requirements for blessedness and the shortcomings in his life, David makes a resolution. He resolves in verse eight to keep God’s statues, and we must, as David did, set in our hearts to keep God’s commandments diligently and pray to God that this would be so. However, we must not have confidence in our own strength, but instead we must cry out to God to not forsake us and realize that “it is God who works in you both to will and do His own good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)  David could look back with sorrow at the times he ignored God and trusted in himself. An important distinction must also be made. David could not lose his salvation but could still displease God through his actions. An unbeliever on the other hand cannot please God and needs redemption through Jesus Christ. We must first be saved, and after that, God and His saving grace are our only source of personal obedience. The words of Psalm 119 are not to be sung or said lightly, yet the prayer for obedience is the proper response to the truths laid out in the beginning of the Psalm. The benefit of obedience is great: to be able to praise God joyfully with an upright heart.

Maybe when singing to God we would like to feel a sense of peace or raw joy, or maybe we search for an experience while singing to boost our spiritual life. However, let not these emotions be stirred by any hand but by the hand of God. Psalm 119 leads me to self-reflection, dependence on God, and resolution to obey Him, and as the word of God itself, Psalm 119 does this through and only by the truths of God. I thank God that He reveals how we are to live through the Bible, and in particular, how we are to worship Him through the holy act of singing both through truth and emotion, hardship and joy.

“Prayer and praise and all sorts of devotional acts and feelings gleam through the verses like beams of sunlight through an olive grove. You are not only instructed, but influenced to holy emotion, and helped to express the same.”

Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalm 119 

Free From the Lies: A Final Meditation on Psalm 16

     Unshackled from lies, full of freedom and joy –isn’t that where we all want to be?  There is such a burden lifted when we know that our entire lives are held safely in the hands of King Jesus, even when everything else seems overwhelming or insurmountable.  Only then can we truly rest in peace.  Towards the end of Psalm 16, King David expresses this condition in his response to the beautiful promise of God’s faithfulness and abounding love for his people.

⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.  ¹⁰For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.  ¹¹You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

     David rejoices!  Our flesh dwells secure with the King of all Creation!  He has gone through so much to get to this point – years of shepherding out in the fields, being brave for the name of the Lord in the face of Israel’s cowardice against Goliath, years on the run from Saul, and the list goes on.  David also struggled with his own grave sin, such as his adultery with Bathsheba.  He chose not to control his own passions, but gave in to temptation.  Yet he knew the redemption that was to come for him through King Jesus.  Can you see David with me - kneeling, hands upraised and thankful for the glorious redemption of the King which would come through his descendant Jesus?  In his song “I Will Wait”, Marcus Mumford describes well such a position of humility:

But I'll kneel down
Wait for now
I'll kneel down
Know my ground

Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow

Cause I will wait, I will wait for you

     In this position of surrender in his heart, David knows what Jesus has done for him.  Despite the mistakes and disappointments of his life, he would always be in the palm of God’s hand and would never be abandoned to an eternity away from him in hell.  The Lord would illumine his path as he walked through life.  At the end, he would rest from his labors on this earth and go to be with God.  The presence of the Lord, that deep indwelling of the Holy Spirit, was with David and would continue to be with him until he saw the face of our holy Lord himself.  There was much suffering in David’s life on earth, but pleasures and ultimate joy awaited him in heaven.

     As God’s child, I can claim these promises for myself.  We can and should rejoice in what Jesus has done for us!  He has seen us in our wretched estate, and has made us his holy ones!  He has picked me up from the dirt and filth of my lustful thoughts and my pride over my accomplishments.  He has become my portion and my cup, and I can rest in the peace of knowing that he will forever protect and guide me, no matter how I feel in the present moment.

     In conclusion, I’d like to mention some more of my personal experience with this psalm and acknowledge some of the people who have made it so precious to me.  As I said earlier, I discovered the beauty of this psalm on my own at first.  However, I went to a program through my church denomination in the summer of 2011, where this psalm became the theme psalm sung by the youth at the program.  Many times in this first year at college, I have been discouraged, wondering where God was in the midst of my campus and my struggles.  But one day, walking along to somewhere, I remembered singing Psalm 16 with these youth.  I remembered our last day together, and I saw my old friends Emory and Abby hugging each other as they cried over the bonds of friendship our group had formed and the beauty of this psalm.  I looked around and I saw people like Emily, Sidney, Jesse, Dani, Caleb, Hannah, Jonah, Ethan, Michaela, Jonathan, and all the rest of these youth who have caused me to remember that there are other students embracing God’s promises for themselves.  When I remembered our voices singing together, I was pushed on to persevere and remember that the Lord Himself is my portion.  He carries me through to this day in the midst of confusion and difficult work, causing me to rejoice in himself.  It is a perfect example of the saints cheering on those who persevere in Hebrews 12:1-2:

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

     The cry of my heart is that Christ would fix my eyes upon Him and the truth expressed in this beautiful Psalm, which has become my anthem and my song.  Mumford expresses this well again:

So tame my flesh
And fix my eyes
That tethered mind free from the lies

‘

     As you think about this Psalm, I hope that you will see the incomparable beauty and security of resting in the Lord and delighting that he is your portion and your cup.  May our minds be fixed upon Jesus, who loved you enough to endure the cross, knowing that he would rejoice in seeing us unshackled from Sheol and from corruption.

Guest Post by Elizabeth Magill 

My Portion and My Cup: A Meditation on Psalm 16:1-8

     The Lord speaks to people in different ways, and one of the ways he has spoken to me is when he will bring to mind a part of a verse that applies to a current struggle.  In the spring of 2011, God brought Psalm 16 to my attention in this way.  He has since used it as a promise and an anchor in learning to love him more than the expectations and dreams for my life, on which I tend to stubbornly insist.

     Psalm 16 is an incredibly powerful passage of Scripture that reflects the spiritual and physical struggles of King David.  He cries out for God to preserve his life and to help him find contentment in the lot which he is given.  He praises the Lord and speaks the simple, potent truth which we all need to hear – that there is absolutely nothing better and more secure than having the Lord Himself as our eternal portion in life.

¹Preserve me, O God, for in You I take refuge.  ²I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” (Psalm 16:1-2)

     David begins this psalm by crying out to the Lord to protect his life.  He had many challenges during his life, both from the circumstances of his life and the consequences of his sin.  There were times when he was fleeing from Saul who wanted to kill him, and the only hope he had for his physical safety was God’s protection.  Other times, his spiritual life was gravely in danger and he needed refuge from the lies and hatred of the devil.  In all these things, we can imagine King David kneeling down before the Lord, hands folded and praising him – “I truly have no good apart from you.”  As sinners, not one blessing comes to us apart from the great mercy of the Lord.  Let us rejoice in being his servants, for there is no greater place of peace.

³As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.  ⁴The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.

     The people of God have been saved by him and will ultimately be victorious in the end.  David delights in the community that they offer and longs to be a part of them.  He determines that he will stay within this community and will not run after another god.  Idolatry was rampant in Canaan and the lands around it.  For David, worshipping those other gods meant pouring out blood for them and repeating their names in worship or prayer.

     Personally for me, there is not a completely different religion with which I am struggling.  However, there are many idols which I have worshipped in my life by spending time, money, energy, and thoughts on them – figurative “drink offerings of blood.”  Throughout my life, I have desperately wanted to attend one of the most prestigious universities in the nation.  Being much younger than my siblings, I watched them go through college with success and I determined to get the best SAT scores and be smarter than all of them.  I was driven by this competition with my family members and fellow peers, causing me to work hard in high school and think that I could go to whatever school I wanted.  I applied to several schools with cutthroat acceptance rates, as well as a couple back-up schools.  I’ll never forget the night when I scrolled down a webpage at 12:15 am in the morning and found out that I was accepted to the school of my dreams, into the program of my dreams.  However, I’ll also never forget the day a couple weeks later when I scrolled down a webpage to find out that the financial aid I had been given would cause me an astronomical amount of debt.  It seemed unfair, because it was due to a unique financial situation in my family that I couldn’t control.  So many times I told my dad – “This is my big break!”  I could get a good job and pay off the debt later.  Here was the culmination of years of looking to academics as my god.  When I struggled socially or felt alone, I looked ahead to college in which I would “prove everyone wrong” and be successful, even if I felt small now.  My identity had been founded in my own ability and not in the way in which God loves me and allowed my hate to be nailed to him on a cross.  But then, then comes the beauty and the turning point of this psalm.

⁵The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.  ⁶The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

     The psalm takes a paradigm shift here, for David has been proclaiming what he will do in his relationship to God as he lives the world.  However, here I can see him raising his hands to God and crying out, “YOU hold my lot.”  It is not David or I or any of us who hold on to God, but it is He who holds on to us and has freely given himself to be our portion.  This is the statement of absolute surrender and rest – YOU hold my lot.  Because Christ holds our lot, we know that all will be well eternally.  There may be great blessing that comes in this life, but the lines will surely fall for us in pleasant places eternally.  Our inheritance is living forever with the one who loved and redeemed us, his broken enemies.  The university I ended up at is exactly the place where I need to be – I can see that Christ is “holding my lot” here and has directed me to places where I am needed and can be used to make His name known.  When my dreams for friendships and relationships have been broken and unfulfilled, Christ still holds my lot and I can rest in peace about the future.  He will perfectly provide for every situation, even if it is different than I expect or hope.

⁷I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.  ⁸I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

     David blesses the Lord, thanking him for the counsel that he gives him.  Although our hearts are often wayward and can be “deceitful above all things”, the Lord nudges us in the right direction through His Word, Christian community, circumstances, and His still, small voice in the middle of the night.  With this God at our right hand, we will never be shaken.  What precious, precious words these are!  Though we feel alone, though the tears come from our eyes in the still of the night, though we suffer the darkest nights of pain, yet we shall never be completely uprooted.  Our God is alive and present – He knows where you are, though you feel lost.

     As you think on the greatness and nearness of God in all our circumstances, meditate on these verses from Psalm 73 that reiterate the promise well:

               

²³Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.  ²⁴You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.  ²⁵Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you.  ²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Guest Post by Elizabeth Magill