Psalm 68 – Feels Good

There are certain things that are just good things. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize them. Even a child can tell. One of the most obvious good is realized when providing for those who are in need. And while you can’t always trust your feelings, it certainly feels good to help.

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing.” – Psalm 68:5-6

God is a good God. While God is just, he is certainly a God of compassion. In the middle of a life filled with amazingly high highs and low lows, David remembers and worships this God of Goodness.

“But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds - his name is the LORD - and rejoice before him.” – Psalm 68:3-4

I love what Matthew Henry writes today: “God is the joy of his people, then let them rejoice when they come before him. He who derives his being from none, but gives being to all, is engaged by promise and covenant to bless his people. He is to be praised as a God of mercy and tender compassion. He ever cares for the afflicted and oppressed: repenting sinners, who are helpless and exposed more than any fatherless children, are admitted into his family, and share all their blessings.”

Psalm 38 – Mercy

They were dumb games really. Whether it was “mercy”, “uncle”, or “bloody knuckles”, they were all fairly worthless. Except, of course, for the building of our pride and establishing the pecking order. Middle School pretty much was an exercise of figuring out who was weak and who was tough. It was a strange land of adolescent tribal sifting.

We’re taught from the beginning that calling for mercy is a sign of weakness. But once again we see the paradox in David’s life, a pattern that is completed through Christ.

“O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon me.

Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.” – Psalm 38:1-4

David calls for mercy and replaces pride with humility in the form of a request, a request that acknowledges God as the one who is capable. I’m reminded today how much we need to “de-program” our brains and remember how much more the ways of God are higher than ours.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9

Psalm 10 - Just a Taste

Just a quick word today on Psalm 10 from Matthew Henry. I hope you are all having an amazing New Year!

The psalmist speaks with astonishment, at the wickedness of the wicked, and at the patience and forbearance of God. God prepares the heart for prayer, by kindling holy desires, and strengthening our most holy faith, fixing the thoughts, and raising the affections, and then he graciously accepts the prayer. The preparation of the heart is from the Lord, and we must seek unto him for it. Let the poor, afflicted, persecuted, or tempted believer recollect, that Satan is the prince of this world, and that he is the father of all the ungodly. The children of God cannot expect kindness, truth, or justice from such persons as crucified the Lord of glory. But this once suffering Jesus, now reigns as King over all the earth, and of his dominion there shall be no end. Let us commit ourselves unto him, humbly trusting in his mercy. He will rescue the believer from every temptation, and break the arm of every wicked oppressor, and bruise Satan under our feet shortly. But in heaven alone will all sin and temptation be shut out, though in this life the believer has a foretaste of deliverance.