PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

This psalm is all about praise.  It is all about praise.  

Think of the listing of attributes that are given to the Lord which allows the author to praise him.  God: answers prayer, forgives, answers us, is the hope, established the mountains, silences the roaring waves (in our life), makes nature shout for joy, visits the earth and waters it, provides grain.  The list goes on.  But what I love about this psalm is the pasture imagery which pervades it.  You can definitely tell that the person who wrote this understood the outdoors and what makes it tick.  The person who wrote this knew what it meant to work hard in God’s nature.

My work is behind a desk, or visiting in hospitals or people’s homes, or behind a pulpit, or at meetings.  My work doesn’t take me outside.  But I love to be outside and I especially love to work outside.  I love to split wood until my arms can’t move.  I love to dig out things until my hands are bleeding with blisters, I love to run until I can’t run anymore, I love to be in God’s creation not just for the sake of being outside, but to actually do something which is demanding.  The person who wrote this psalm understood the value of this even better than I do.

I hope you take pleasure in God’s creation.  I hope you find in your life moments when you can read this psalm and completely relate to what it means when the writer says: The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.  That’s the image I have of God preparing this earth of us.

When I was working my way through college throughout the summer I had my own apartment in Linwood, NJ and worked at Golf and Tennis World in Atlantic City.  I would periodically be given tickets to see boxing bouts at the casinos in Atlantic City and I would love to go.  I loved boxing, in high school for a couple of years a few of my friends and I bought gloves and boxed, just to the body.  It was fun.  I loved watching boxing because it would go back and forth and when you thought someone had a bout locked up, the other person would come back and win.  It was exciting.

These Psalms feel like a boxing match.  At the beginning you have the author calling out to God for help (vs.1-2).  He lists the negative attributes of his enemy, but by doing so builds up his enemy as a formidable foe (vs.3-5).  Once he builds them up he gets to a point where it seems like he is going down for the count, well, God then comes to his rescue (vs.7-9).  Then he ends the psalm with a celebration and a victory dance (vs.10).  A bit like what Freddy Mercury had to say in this song (please pardon the outfit, I don’t condone it):

We find in I Samuel 23 that David was pursued into the wilderness of Judah by Saul.  He begins the Psalm very appropriately.  He speaks about the parchness that he feels, he speaks of his inadequacies as if he were wandering in a land that is dry.  In the midst of all this the dwelling place of the Lord serves as an oasis.  It serves as a place where he is able to go and gather himself and where he can find the presence of the Lord in a powerful and real way.  

Today it is going to be brief.  But I encourage you to find your place which brings relief to your dry soul.  

I was absolutely captivated by the first two verses of this psalm.  I love the thought of my soul waiting in silence for God.  Waiting in silence for God…waiting…in silence…for God.  There is an interesting internal discussion that takes place here as the author begins with a testimonial describing who God is to him.  It is almost as if he is talking to himself, and then expands it out to those around him, who happen to be his enemies.  

He then goes back to this personal dialogue of talking to himself and asserting that his soul is waiting for God in silence.  It repeats and it allows us to be sucked into his thoughts that we should be waiting for God in silence.  But notice that in vs.1 he stresses that salvation comes from God.  In vs.5 he states that his hope is in Him.  He repeats but stresses different aspects of what it means that our soul waits on the Lord, in silence.  It means that we fully recognize that salvation comes from God.  It means that we completely embrace the hope that comes from him.  

Vss. 9-10 are interesting.  They seem a bit out of place as the author becomes Captain Obvious.  Put no confidence in extortion and set no vain hopes in robbery.  Not a piece of advice which I would think I would have to give to people everyday.  So I almost want to take those verses out and then focus in on the first 8 verses plus the verses which end this psalm.  Power belongs to God.   

This is the song that comes to my mind when I read this psalm.  When I get to verse 2 where it states “lead me to the rock”, for some reason I substitute it with “lead me to the cross”.  

I guess vs. 2 also makes me think of this song.  It states very specifically that God is our strong tower.  Boy, strong towers were so important in David’s day.  They provided safety, refuge, a fortress which could even be impregnable.  That is what we want our God to be.

Isn’t it something how we are able to relate to music in a way that probably we can’t relate to in words.  Everyone of us learns God’s truths in different ways.  Some of us can only experience the lessons and the words will fall on our deaf ears.  But music does something that at times words cannot express.

On Tuesday we were at Presbytery and the person who preached, Doug Good, shared this song with us.  It is one that we sing in worship often.

Today is a song day.  We are asking God to lead us to the cross, for Him to be our strong tower, which He is, and that He would sustain us even when we feel as if the waters have risen over our heads.  Enjoy today!

It is interesting to note that the historical occurrence to which the prelude alludes was actually one of David’s greatests conquests.  When Joab destroyed all the males of Edom it was also the time that David had one of his greatest victories.  You can read that in II Samuel 8:13.  But you would never know that when you read through the Psalm.  It seems more like a cry for relief and help in the midst of battling against foes than it does a time when victory is coming soon.  

The Psalm begins with a lament that God has basically taken the other side.  The complaint is that God has broken them and made his people suffer.  It really isn’t what I would expect from the historical situation of the time.  Verses 9-12 are curious because it seems that the author is doubting whether God is really going to rally with them.  There are questions as to whether God has rejected them or if God is still going out with them on the battlefield.  The author states that human help is worthless.  I believe Gideon proved that point.  The number of people you have is not significant if God is not with you.

Finally, the last verse we see a glimmer of the old David who trusted that no matter what, God would never leave or forsake him.  We read that it is with God that we can win, God will win the battle for us.  It does sound like a psalm of defeat as the author is getting ready for another battle after a thrashing.  I guess the practical application is that we need to see God still on our side even after a thrashing, whatever that thrashing may look like.  We should always be confident that with God we shall do valiantly.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.  Today is Fat Tuesday.  So, this is supposed to be the day that we celebrate and make merry because the next 40 days we are to be serious and morose.  Fat Tuesday is Fat because we are to enjoy the Fat of the land.  We are to take advantage of all that we have which we can enjoy.  Basically, it is a hedonistic festival.  When I read Psalm 59 I smile as I think of what David would have thought of Fat Tuesday.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, he knew how to have a good time.  But the relationship that we have with our God never changes.  So what makes us think that today we are to make merry and tomorrow we are to wear sackloth and ashes because that is what God wants.  No, it really isn’t, but maybe, just maybe it helps us to distinguish between the times and the seasons.

David’s primary concern, and probably his only concern in these psalms that begin with DO NOT DESTROY, is the preservation of his life.  So maybe I was wrong and it did mean: please don’t destroy ME.  In each of these psalms the context is King Saul looking to destroy him.  In each of these Psalms David is asking for God’s protection as the one that God has anointed is seeking his life.  And somehow in each of these psalms we end with a verse very similar to what we find here in vs.17: O my strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

Dick Barge is lying in a hospital bed tonight.  Not real sure the full extent of what is going on.  But this is what I pray for him this evening, that he is able to hear vs.17 even while he might be going through what David expresses in the verses before this.  Maybe we need to pray that God would deliver us from our enemies and our enemies happen to be medical conditions that seem to nag but don’t have a clear diagnosis.  Look at vs.14, does someone else hear this in their lives? “Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the borough.”  But we can always come back with verses 16-17.  Sleep well my family knowing that God is our fortress and always has been through all the times in our lives.

For some reason when I read this psalm this scene comes to mind:

It is probably inappropriate for a pastor to place this scene on his blog, especially since there are two words which would be considered as not being the type of words I would use in my common speech.

But I think the reason I think of this clip is that the writer goes on a long list of things that he hopes God would do to his enemies.  The list almost goes to the point of being a bit silly, and maybe even exaggerated.  Listen to this list: break their teeth, tear out their fangs, make them vanish like water, let them wither like trampled grass, let them dissolve like a snail who dissolves into slime, and I want to add: We are the knights who say NEE.

That is quite a listing.  And he tops it off by saying that he looks forward to sitting on the edge of the wall and dipping his feet in the blood of his enemies as it flows by.  I guess we do all find our beach.  It keeps getting a bit sillier and sillier.  But doesn’t the last sentence really remind us of what we are feeling in those situations?  We want there to be a reward for the righteous, well, that is as long as we are the righteous.  We want our enemies to suffer and die and become slime, as long as our enemies are not ourselves.  But in the end, we know that God is the judge and even our desires and our wishes and our understanding of what is right and wrong can only be held up to the light of God’s kingdom.  Once we do that, well, then things probably change.

You have to love the context of this psalm.  There are directions: if you happen to find this, it isn’t junk so don’t destroy it.  I really feel like the directions are more for the psalm itself than for any individual.  We are not receiving a directive to “do not destroy”, but rather it is geared toward this psalm.  Keep this piece, it is special, even if I have spoken about this before.

Yes, just like yesterday’s psalm, this is a time when David was fleeing from Saul, and Saul went into a cave, right where David was, to relieve himself and David cut off a piece of his robe and showed it to him later.  I could have killed you, but I chose not to kill you.  It is psalm of protection where David asks God to have mercy on him.  The point of the psalm is that God does have mercy on him.  We know this because of the ending.  Look after the Selah at vs.7 when the psalm becomes decidedly upbeat.  Praise the Lord!  

From vs.7 following we find David praising God unabashedly for the entirety of the psalm.  So, when we face times that we know are going to be difficult and then we receive an unexpected deliverance, I hope we can’t help but praise the Lord.  People, we ought to be post vs.7 people.  We know that God has delivered us even if we are still in the cave waiting for King Saul to finish relieving himself so that we can show him that we had cut off a hem of his robe and not harmed him.  God has delivered us and given us salvation.  What more do we need in order to have a post vs.7 life?  I love that phrase.  We need to be post vs.7 Christians.  Let’s make that our theme.

Have  you ever had a life experience which is impossible to forget and it has shaped so much of who you are today?  That certainly happened to David.  The time that he was in Gath was one of those experiences.  Remember when we mentioned in Psalm 34 when he was before Abimelech and pretended that he was crazy?  The context is I Samuel 21:10 and really all of I Samuel 20.  Oh, hey, I’m sorry about writing this today and not posting it yesterday.  It doesn’t happen often, but this is now twice in 56 days, that’s surprising.

Look at vs.8 and it does seem a bit out of context unless you are the person below.

But David can’t seem to forget that experience in Gath and it has shaped his words in that he speaks about his enemies and asks God, again, to take care of them in a not so nice way.  But at least he ends the Psalm on a nice note as he looks forward to being able to walk in the light of God which will provide him life.