Meditations on the Psalms

The reassurance of the godly elder: In You, O LORD, I put my trust; let me never be put to shame... Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress (verse 1,3). This is a declaration of confidence in the Lord and His protection; this is why he will never be put to shame. The Apostle Paul put it in much the same way: According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed (Philippians 1:20). He abides in God, and shall never be shaken; he hides in the shelter of the Almighty, as David hid in the cave from Saul. The psalmist knows that God is always a rock of refuge for him, for He gave a command to save and deliver him. God commanded light to shine out of darkness, and it was so. And when He gives a command to save, salvation surely comes. He is always there with His righteous servant; and the righteous run to Him and are safe (Proverbs 18:10). He is the Lord of nature, who commands it to serve His servants; He is the Lord of Providence, who charges it for their good; and He is the Lord of angels, who directs them to guard His people.

There is a special relationship between the psalmist and God, which makes him address God with certainty: You are my rock and my fortress. God's fortress is impregnable to all attacks, yet it has a window that is ever open so that prayers may ascend as sweet incense.

The request of the godly elder: Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; incline Your ear to me, and save me... Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man (verse 2,4). He appeals to the Lord's righteousness to deliver him from the wicked and cruel man, because the Lord judges everyone according to their works. He also seeks the Lord's reassuring intimacy when he says, Incline Your ear to me. God is not far away, but his heart needs the reassurance anyway.

There are two lessons for us in the request of the godly elder:

He remembers the days of his youth: For You are my hope, O Lord GOD; You are my trust from my youth (verse 5). How wonderful it is to recall God's dealings with us and conclude that The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want (Psalm 23:1). Another elder, Jacob, said as much to his son Joseph in his last days, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day (Genesis 48: 15). During his youth, the psalmist experienced the goodness and care of God who preserved him at the time of temptation. It seems that God seemed to say to him, Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth (Revelation 3:10). God set his feet upon a rock and established his steps (Psalm 40:2). Even when he fell, he was not utterly cast down; for the LORD upheld him with His hand (Psalm 37:24). God preserved David from Goliath and Saul, and used him in some quite heroic acts. In old age He would also keep him safe from all danger, and use him in mightier works.

He remembers how God brought him into being: By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall be continually of You (verse 6). For You formed my inward parts... Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:13,16). Before the psalmist was aware of his own existence, while he was yet an embryo, and after his birth, when he could do nothing on his own, God gave him life and upheld him. Similarly, He told Jeremiah that Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you (Jeremiah 1:5). His promises still hold true to all His people: Listen to Me, O house of Jacob who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb: even to your old age, I am He, and even to grey hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you (Isaiah 46:3,4).

He remembers how he was in his sufferings and trials as a wonder to many: I have become as a wonder to many, but You are my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day (verse 7,8). They saw him suffer from afflictions and thought that his God deserted him. But the afflictions increased his determination to hold fast to his God, and as a result, God remained a strong tower for him. He went through the experience of the suffering Messiah, thus astonishing many (Isaiah 52:14), because of what had become of him. But after all, divine victory was his.

Troubles of physical fatigue: Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails (verse 9). Every elderly person is apt to get into these problems. Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 depicted old age in a figurative poem full of images and metonymy. The author describes the years in which a man takes no pleasure, when the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, meaning that pleasure comes to an end because death is near. And the clouds do not return after the rain, since they have already poured down all the good rain. In old age one's arms, the keepers of the house, start to tremble, and the feet, the strong men, bow down. Also the teeth, the grinders, cease and the eyes, those that look through the windows, grow dim. The doors, (the ears and eyes) through which sound and light comes in, will be shut. The sound made by the teeth, the sound of grinding, becomes low, while sleep becomes light and one rises up at the sound of a bird! An old man does not take pleasure any more in the sound of music; for him all the daughters of music are brought low. He becomes afraid of height, in that his legs grow weaker and incapable of climbing up any more. The almond tree blossoms, namely his hair grows grey, and The grasshopper is a burden, because, as small as it is, he has no strength to lift it up! One's appetite for food ceases and desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home. And as he dies, the mourners go about the streets, because the silver cord (carrying the golden olive oil to the branch of the lampstand) comes loose, and the golden bowl (by which the lampstand is fed) is broken. The pitcher shatters at the fountain, and the wheel is broken at the well. Then the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

God has never rejected his loved ones in the time of their old age, when their strength fails. It was said of Moses that he was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigour diminished (Deuteronomy 34:7). Caleb said, Here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in (Joshua 14:10,11). The divine promise is true that Those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).

Troubles from the people around him (verse 10,11): Some people rejoice when they see others in trouble. The enemies of the godly elder monitored his every step; they said every evil word against him. Hearing of his physical ailments and afflictions, they assumed that God had deserted him and would not deliver him any more. They made up their mind to pursue him and hurt his reputation, finances and children. This is very much reminiscent of Rabshakeh, the commander of the Assyrian army, who came to invade the kingdom of Judah and sent messengers to King Hezekiah, saying, Have I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, 'Go up against this land, and destroy it' (Isaiah 36:10). Yet, he lied in all he said. The only thing that was left for Hezekiah to do was to turn to God. He tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD to seek help (Isaiah 37:1). This is what the godly elder did when his bodily weakness and enemies gave him trouble: He turned to God in prayer and found a way of deliverance. He cried out to his divine Saviour, O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! Let them be confounded and consumed who are adversaries of my life; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour who seek my hurt (verse 12,13). And God must have listened to the cry for help and sent speedy assistance as He usually did. So the godly elder declared in the final part of the psalm that his faith overcame, and that his enemies were covered with shame and dishonour as they saw God lifting up the one they persecuted. They thought that God left him, but he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1).

The godly elder declares his victory in many ways (verse 14-17):

The victorious godly elder asks with assurance (verse 18-21):

Having declared his victory, the psalmist moves on to prayer. He asks God not to forsake him (verse 18). He depends on the righteous God, who gives everyone what is rightfully his, and does great and mighty acts that none can imitate (verse 19). God was good to him in the past and He will surely be good to him in the future; He will again comfort him (verse 20,21).

Now also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come (verse 18). The godly elder asks God to preserve his health, so that he could hand down to his children, grandchildren, and the coming generation his own experiences with God, to teach them about God's faithfulness and love. They were supposed to recall the memory of the miracle of the exodus in the reality of their contemporary lives. Then the godly elder would attain what Samuel spoke about: I am old and grey-headed, and look, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my childhood to this day (1 Samuel 12:2).

For this request to be granted he had to depend on God's unique righteousness and transcendence. He is the incomparable One who dwells in heaven: Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You? (verse 19). Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11). True, the Lord allows His people to see trouble, but He must raise them up from the bottom of the pit, so they can enjoy the sun of righteousness with healing in its wings. The Lord increased the greatness of the psalmist and comforted him, so he could not help saying, O LORD, I will praise You; though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me (Isaiah 12:1). Similarly, everyone who obtains God's righteousness through Christ sees God's highness and great deeds, experiences one miracle and one grace after another, and says with the godly elder, You, who have shown me great and severe troubles, shall revive me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth (verse 20). God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13). For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). If he allows us to be chastened at present, He will eventually grant us peaceable fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11), just as our psalmist said, You shall increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side (verse 21). This was David's experience. The Lord took him from following the sheep, made him a King, and him a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth (2 Samuel 7:9). This also happened with Mordechai, the doorkeeper of the king, whom the king delighted to honour. He became the prime minister of the greatest empire in his time (Esther 6:8). How great is He who suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18).

The godly elder sings for the joy of victory (verse 22-24):

As a natural result of God's comforting mercy the voice of the godly elder rings out in praise to God: Also with the lute I will praise you; and Your faithfulness, O my God! To You I will sing with the harp, O Holy One of Israel (verse 22). His song expressed his feelings about God: Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:18,19).

Joyful singing comes from the depth of the redeemed soul that says, My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, and my soul, which You have redeemed (verse 23). For The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned (Psalm 34:22). He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me (Psalm 55:18). Because of the greatness of this redemption, the soul sings and shouts, To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever (Revelation 1:5,6).

Singing comes also from the heart that trusts in its victory and peace: My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long; for they are brought to shame who seek my hurt (verse 24). The tongue of the godly elder talks of God's righteousness and justice, because he realises that his enemies must be ashamed, and he must be delivered. This is the lot of all who say, For You are my hope, O Lord GOD; You are my trust from my youth (verse 5).

The godly elder remembered three things to be thankful for. What are they?

The godly elder mentioned two things that troubled him. What are they? How did he overcome them?

The people ask for a just reign: Give the king Your judgements, O God, and Your righteousness to the king's Son (verse 1). The judgement is God's (Deuteronomy 1:17), but He gave his judgements to the king's Son. The earthly king has power that comes from his father, the previous King, as well as power invested in himself. God appeared to King Solomon, the son of King David, in Gibeon in a dream and asked him what He should give him. So Solomon asked for an understanding heart to discern between good and evil (1 Kings 3:6-9). And God granted his wish. Even though he loved to walk in the statutes of his father David, Solomon still sacrificed and burned incense at the high places, like the pagans, therefore the prophecies of this psalm were not fulfilled in him. They had to be fulfilled in the Messiah, the coming King, who has the throne of David and about Whom the angel Gabriel said to Mary before she conceived Him, He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:32,33). This is what was said of Him by the Spirit of prophecy, The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him ... and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked (Isaiah 11:2-4). This expectation will also be fulfilled in Christ who will come back to our planet as a righteous Judge: For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will (John 5:21). Therefore, we call out to God today, Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

A description of the righteous kingdom (verse 2-6):

The extent of the Messiah's kingdom (verse 9-11):

The reasons of the expansion of the Messiah's kingdom (verse 12-15):

Christ prays for the believer, saying, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word (John 17:20). He always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:8,25). In appreciation of this divine kindness, the believer prays always and does not lose heart.

Christ blesses the believer all day long, from the rising of the sun till the time it goes down, as well as preserving him from the dangers of the night. Therefore the believer blesses the Lord all day long, saying, Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits (Psalm 103:2).

The Messiah's everlasting kingdom will grow unceasingly: There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, on the top of the mountains; its fruit shall wave like Lebanon; and those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed (verse 16,17). The Messiah's kingdom starts out like a handful of grain sown on the top of the mountains. It soon grows; first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head (Mark 4:28). The winds blow on it, causing its to grow deep into the soil. It becomes like the cedar of Lebanon in beauty and loftiness, and like the dewy grass of the land that refreshes whoever beholds it or walks upon it. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread; his beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall be revived like grain, and grow like a vine (Hosea 14:5-7). Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit (Isaiah 27:6). The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches (Matthew 13:31,32). There is a potential power in the seed of the word of God, and it must work and expand. The Holy Spirit will make sure that it will have an effect. It will effectively continue to work among everyone forever, causing many people to repent and return to God. Thus the prophecy will be fulfilled: Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, and set up My standard for the peoples; they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders Then you will know that I am the LORD, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me (Isaiah 49:22,23). So the name of the Messiah will endure forever and His kingdom will never come to an end. His name shall continue as long as the sun, and it will go from one country to another. And men shall be blessed in Him because He is their generous benefactor. All nations shall call Him blessed through words of songs of glorification like the ones in the following two verses.

All the earth praises the Messiah's everlasting kingdom: Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen (verse 18,19). They will praise Him for His singular wonders, of which Job said, He does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number (Job 9:10). He works wonders in nature, which declares His glory; and in the firmament, which shows His handiwork. He works wonders for His people telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done (Psalm 78:4). This is how He demonstrates his power and love. Who else can do these wonderful acts?! He alone is able to do these things; so let us bless Him, because He alone is worthy. The whole earth will continue praising the Lord forever, and will be completely filled with His glory. All the peoples of the earth will bow down before the One who said, As I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD (Numbers 14:21).

The people will hear this call to praise everywhere: Stand up and bless the LORD your God forever and ever! Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! (Nehemiah 9:5). And their answer will be: Amen, Amen! While lifting up their hands, they will bow their heads and worship the LORD with their faces to the ground (Nehemiah 8:6). Blessed be the LORD forevermore! Amen and Amen (Psalm 89:52). Blessed be the LORD from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, 'Amen!' Praise the LORD! (Psalm 106:48).

The psalmist mentions three descriptions for the just kingdom. Mention them.

Why does the kingdom of the Messiah expand?

The believer's problem: But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked (verses 2,3). To say "as for me" means that the psalmist disagreed with the Lord until he almost lost sight of His straight paths. He embarked on a perilous journey, during which his feet almost fell into the pit of despair, because he walked in a miry land. But for God's mercy he would have slipped, because he was envious of the prosperity of the wicked. Certainly this was contrary to David's advice: Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb (Psalm 37:1,2). The philosopher said, Do not envy the oppressor, and choose none of his ways ... Do not let your heart envy sinners, but in the fear of the LORD continue all the day (Proverbs 3:31; 23:17). He should have rather sung along with David, Uphold my steps in your paths that my footsteps may not slip (Psalm 17:5) and with the sons of Korah, Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way (Psalm 44:18).

In the overwhelming sufferings of the psalmist, brought upon him by his troubles, he forgot that those he felt envious of were "boastful". They thought they could live and prosper without the Lord. They were not aware of the fact that the boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity (Psalm 5:5). They did not realise that they were wicked, and all the wicked must perish.

The cause of the believer's problem:

The psalmist mentions four causes for his problem:

The believer repeats the explanation of his problem: Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease; they increase in riches. Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning (verses 12-14). In these three verses the psalmist sums up his problem; he says that the wicked are at ease and rich, so what then is the recompense of godliness? His conscience is good, and he has practised all the demands of the Mosaic Law, such as the washing of hands and feet (Exodus 30:17-21), but he only got troubles, persecutions and chastisement every morning for his godliness and purity of heart. He was plagued all day long, although those who break the law no are they plagued like other men (verse 5)!

He moved on from murmuring to triumph (verses 15-17):

The psalmist saw the end of the wicked: Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so, Lord, when You awake, You shall despise their image (verses 18-20).

In the presence of the Lord the psalmist saw the mysteries of God's holy providence, and knew that the end of the wicked is full of perilous slippery places, ruin, destruction and terrible catastrophes that befall them or their followers suddenly. It seems as though God were asleep and left the wicked alone, but woke up to despise them, causing them to discover that they were living a dream and a fantasy. Zophar the Naamathite was correct to say, The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment ... He will fly away like a dream, and not be found; yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night (Job 20:5,8). They are like weeds among wheat; the harvest day must come when they are consumed by unquenchable fire (Matthew 13:30).

At the commencement of his psalm, the psalmist embarked on a dangerous trip in which his feet nearly slipped, because he walked on dangerous ground. But in the house of the Lord, he discovered that he was standing on a rock and came to realise that the wicked will slide down in the abyss. All of a sudden he saw that their prosperity was a dream, and that they were only images that exist today and are immediately destroyed as the sun of truth brings their imaginary existence to an end. Evil cannot prevail, as God said of the wicked, Their way shall be to them like slippery ways; in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall in them; for I will bring disaster on them, the year of their punishment (Jeremiah 23:12).

The psalmist held on to the Lord (verses 21-28):

Let us all enter the sanctuary of the Most High at all times, to find healing answers to our questions, enjoy His tender fellowship, and proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. If any of us is far away from the Lord, let him draw closer to Him in repentance. If any of us is confused, may the Lord reassure his heart.

May the Lord establish our faith and deepen our hope in Him, no matter how the circumstances may look.

What is the similarity between Psalm 73 and 37. What is the difference?

In verse 15 the psalmist says that he did not share his doubts with his fellow believers. Why not?

Asking why: O God, why have You cast us off forever? Why does Your anger smoke? (verse 1a + b). The psalmist begins his complaint by posing two questions to God:

Describing the questioning people: Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture? Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, the tribe of Your inheritance, which You have redeemed; this Mount Zion where You have dwelt (verses 1c,2). The psalmist lists three descriptions of his people that made him raise up these questions.

The motivation to the question (verses 3-9):

The psalmist lists five reasons for the question:

The psalmist asks for an explanation and an answer: O God, how long will the adversary reproach? Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever? Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Take it out of Your bosom and destroy them (verses 10,11). In these two verses the psalmist wonders if this miserable state will last forever. And if it will end, when will that be? He demands that the Lord save his people and destroy their enemies, who reviled the Lord's name by their words and insulted Him by their actions, as the king of Assyria said, As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols? (Isaiah 10:10,11). By these words he equated the idols with the Lord God! It seemed to the psalmist that the Lord was unwilling to rescue His people, as the author of Lamentations said, He has cut off in fierce anger every horn of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy. He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire devouring all around (Lamentations 2:3). So the psalmist appealed to God to take out His right hand out of His bosom and stretch it out by his power, as He had already done, making the sea swallow and destroy the Egyptians (Exodus 15:12).

The Lord is the God of salvation: For God is my King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by Your strength; you broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters (verses 12,13). The psalmist declares that God is still his King, as He was and will be. For God is the fair judge of all the earth, who works salvation and justice, because He says, In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you (2 Corinthians 6:2). In spite of the painful difficulties the psalmist and his people underwent, he was still aware that The LORD shall reign forever and ever (Exodus 15:18). So he said to Him, You are my King, O God; command victories for Jacob (Psalm 44:4). He saved His people by bringing them out of Egypt in the presence of all countries and nations, and relieved them of the pain of torment (Psalm 77:14), as much as He worked salvation at Elijah's time by bringing fire down to burn up the sacrifice. At that time the people shouted, The LORD, He is God! (1 Kings 18:39). He also worked salvation at Daniel's time when He saved the three young men from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) and saved Daniel himself from the den of lions (Daniel 6).

The God of salvation divided the Red Sea by His heavenly power, so that His oppressed people could cross over and Pharaoh and his soldiers would be drowned. The Egyptians were defeated and their bodies floated on the water, So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore (Exodus 14:30). The Scriptures call Pharaoh "the reptile", as well as "Leviathan",' and "great monster". Isaiah said, In that day the LORD with His severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent; and He will slay the reptile that is in the sea (Isaiah 27:1). He called upon the arm of God's power, saying, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab (Egypt) apart, and wounded the serpent? (Isaiah 51:9). Ezekiel also said, Thus says the Lord GOD: 'Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies in the midst of his rivers, who has said, "My River is my own; I have made it for myself"' (Ezekiel 29:3).

The Lord is the God of providence: You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up mighty rivers (verses 14,15). The heads of Pharaoh's soldiers were broken and were dashed to pieces, so that they became food for the beasts of the wilderness, just as God said to Pharaoh, I will leave you in the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers; you shall fall on the open field; you shall not be picked up or gathered. I have given you as food to the beasts of the field and to the birds of the heavens (Ezekiel 29:5).

When the people were thirsty the caring God burst springs of water from the rocks of the Sinai Peninsula so that the people could drink for forty years (Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:8). And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out (Isaiah 48:21). Therefore the psalmist said, He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths (Psalm 78:15).

And when the people needed to cross the water to reach the land which God had promised to them, the Lord dried up the ever-flowing Jordan River And as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks uring the whole time of harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho (Joshua 3:15-16). For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever (Joshua 4:23,24).

The Lord is the God of creation: The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. You have set all the borders of the earth; You have made summer and winter (verses 16,17). God created day and night on the basis of the earth's rotation around itself when He said, 'Let there be light' and there was light. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night... God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,' and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night (Genesis 1:5,14-16). God also created the boundaries of the earth and marked off its limits on the day when He divided between the land the water: Then God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear' (Genesis 1:9). Based on the earth's rotation around the sun, God created the seasons.

He asked for deliverance because the enemy had reproached the Lord: Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, and that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name (verse 18). When the enemy attacks the people of the Lord and gains victory over them, he supposes that his idols are greater than the Lord and that his triumphant attack is a reproach to the God of the defeated people. In such case the enemy is utterly ignorant of the Lord's greatness and the generosity of his loving care to His people. The ignorant said in his heart, There is no God (Psalm 14:1), and Many are they who say of me, 'There is no help for him in God.' (Psalm 3:2).

He asked for deliverance because he was innocent and weak: Oh, do not deliver the life of your turtledove to the wild beast! Do not forget the life of your poor forever (verse 19). The psalmist compares the people of the Lord with a turtledove that cannot defend itself. A turtledove hurts no one and sings in such a sad tone, while the enemy is a ferocious beast. He also describes himself as a poor man, unable to sustain or guide himself. Unable to defend himself, he turns to the Good Shepherd to remember him in his time of trouble.

He asked for deliverance because the Lord has a covenant with His people: Have respect to the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty. Oh, do not let the oppressed return ashamed! Let the poor and needy praise Your name (verses 20,21). The Lord entered into a covenant with His people so that He would keep them and they would be His own. He said to Noah and His descendants, And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you (Genesis 9:9), and again the LORD made a covenant with Abram (Genesis 15:18). As Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, he sent the young men of the Israelites to slaughter animals for sacrifices. Moses took half of their blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people, took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words (Exodus 24:4-8). Again God made a covenant with David and said, I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David (Psalm 89:3).

But it seemed to the psalmist that God turned his face away from His covenant with His people, so that the children of Israel were carried away from their land to "the dark places of the earth" in Babylon, where there was dark idol-worship and where injustice dwelt and filled every corner. The people were crushed, shamed, exposed to poverty and reduced to misery. The psalmist reminds the Lord of His covenant with His people, so that the crushed ones should not return ashamed because their prayers have not been answered, but rather sing and praise the Lord who heard their prayers. Then The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You ... You will cause Your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more (Psalm 9:9,10; 10:17,18).

He asked for deliverance because his cause is the Lord's: Arise, O God, plead Your own cause; remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily. Do not forget the voice of Your enemies; the tumult of those who rise up against You increases continually (verses 22,23). This is the last call for deliverance in this psalm. The psalmist was used to asking God to plead his personal cause or that of his people, so he said, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! (Psalm 43:1). But here he demanded God to plead the divine cause against the foolish man who reviled the Creator, the Lord of all the earth. It seemed to the psalmist that God forgot the reproaches of His foes, the voices and tumult of His enemies that rise up in defiance to heaven from ever blaspheming mouths. He waited to hear once more the words that God said to the King of Assyria: Because your rage against Me and your tumult have come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came (Isaiah 37:29).

In verses 1c and 2 the psalmist gives three descriptions of the believers. Write these descriptions.

In verses 18-23 the psalmist tells four reasons why the Lord should help him. What are these four reasons?

He thanks Him in an emphatic way: We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! (verse 1a). The sentence We give thanks to You is repeated to emphasise the people's wholeheartedness in thanking God for His mercies that are new every morning. The psalmist's heart overflowed with thanksgiving to God who saved them from severe suffering, whose mercy was greater than every trouble. Likewise, every true believer learns to thank at all times for all things, and to do like the Samaritan leper, whom Jesus healed together with nine others. This leper returned to give thanks to his healer, and Jesus asked him, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? (Luke 17:17), because many are healed and do not thank.

The true believer thanks even for the bad circumstances, not because they are bad, but because God will bring something good out of them. Out of the eater comes something to eat, and out of the strong comes something sweet (Judges 14:14). We must always say to the righteous that it shall be well with them (Isaiah 3:10).

He thanks Him for His wondrous works: For Your wondrous works declare (verse 1b). The psalmist and those surrounding him talk about the wonders of divine deliverance, as if saying, I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvellous works ... O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works (Psalm 9:1; 71:17). They are awed by the repeated miracles that have increased their spiritual maturity, as though they say along with Paul, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).

He thanks Him for His nearness: Your name is near (verse 1c). The name of the Lord is His Person and all the attributes by which He revealed Himself to mankind. He is always near to those who seek Him, although this nearness is felt much more in times of trouble when He demonstrates His active presence by saving them. Moses said to the children of Israel, What great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? (Deuteronomy 4:7). The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit ... The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth (Psalm 34:18; 145:18). May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob defend you (Psalm 20:1). For this reason Paul, while in prison in Rome, said to the suffering people in Philippi, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand (Philippians 4:4,5). He is nearer to the believers than they can imagine, as much as His second coming is also near.

There is a time for divine intervention: When I choose the proper time (verse 2a). It seems to the one in trouble that God has forgotten, but To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiates 3:1). The poor man who grew weary and poured out his complaints before God said, You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favour her, yes, the set time, has come (Psalm 102:13). What great wisdom there is in divine timing, for the gift that we receive in time of need is definitely the best gift ever. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11). For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, It will not tarry (Habakkuk 2:3). There is certainly a set time for every deed that is done, so let us wait for God's timing, with our heart saying, I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry (Psalm 40:1).

When the Lord makes a covenant with His friend Abraham and promised to give him the Promised Land, He did not give it to him right away for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete (Genesis 15:16). God gave the Amorites four hundred years to repent. They had to understand the wise warning: Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4).

There is realisation of justice in the divine intervention: I will judge uprightly (verse 2b). God assures that He alone will right the wrongs, administer punishment to the enemy if he does not repent, let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream (Amos 5:24). There will be no injustice, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained (Acts 17:31).

The divine intervention will subject all: The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved; I set up its pillars firmly (verse 3). Justice might seem to falter in this world, and the faith of the believer may waver because of it, and so he says, Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence (Psalm 73:13). Yet God has set up His world on moral foundations like firmly balanced pillars. When earthly justice shakes and injustice prevails, God restores justice to its firm state and punishes the unjust. Then the believer will say, Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction (Psalm 73:17,18). God has balanced everything and placed it in its proper location. He has not left the world he created to chance, neither has He neglected His people for a moment! This is what we see in all history. The earth and all its inhabitants melted down as they witnessed the exodus from Egypt, they melted once more as they witnessed the return of the people from their captivity in Babylon to rebuild the temple! All the earth will melt again at the second coming of Christ to judge all beings. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:9-13).

He warned them of being arrogant: I said to the boastful, 'Do not deal boastfully,' and to the wicked, 'Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high' (verses 4,5a). The boastful take pride in themselves not in the Lord, and it will be said to them, Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually (Psalm 52:1). The wicked man lifted up his horn on high, to where God dwells. A horn symbolises strength; an ox butts with it. The horn was a title of kings because they have strength and authority (Daniel 7:7,8; Psalm 132:17). The psalmist warns his enemies of boasting, because blessed are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). The latter realise that all the authority they have is a gift of God, and each one of them says, My soul shall make its boast in the LORD (Psalm 34:2).

The Persian vizier Haman was upset because Mordechai, the doorkeeper of the king, refused to bow down to him in obedience to the commandment: You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve (Matthew 4:10). In his pride, Haman decided to hang Mordechai, but he was hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordechai (Esther 7:9,10).

In the pride of his heart, Nebuchadnezzar looked at his great capital and said, 'Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honour of my majesty?' While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven: 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the king-dom has departed from you! And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses' (Daniel 4:28-32). And so it was, until he realised that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. Later he regained his mind and was restored to his throne.

Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king's personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king's coun-try. So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, 'The voice of a god and not of a man! Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.' (Acts 12:20-23). Thus Herod destroyed himself by his pride, because before he was afflicted with his bodily disease, his soul was eaten by the malady of pride.

He warned them of stubbornness: Do not speak with a stiff neck (verse 5b). Hanna, the mother of Samuel, said, Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed (1 Samuel 2:3). "A stiff neck" is a proud one. Man has got to learn humility. The earth has claimed many dignitaries and rich, influential men, and it will continue to do so. So let us give up this stiff neck, and bend before the Lord in humility, as Mary, the mother of Jesus, humbled herself and said, My soul magnifies the Lord ... For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me ... He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly (Luke 1:46-52).

He reminded them of divine authority: For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another (verses 6,7). The enemies attacked the people of God from all directions; from the North, the South and Arabia. "But" there is hope for the believer and terror for the unjust, since God is the Judge. Isaiah said, For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King; He will save us (Isaiah 33:22). The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and lifts up� (1 Samuel 2:6,7). The LORD lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground (Psalm 147:6).

He warned them of the divine punishment: For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down (verse 8). The cup indicates the divine punishment. The psalmist mentioned it elsewhere, You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of confusion (Psalm 60:3). The Lord commanded the prophet Jeremiah, For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: 'Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.' (Jeremiah 25:15,16). The prophet Isaiah also said to his country, Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of His fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained it out (Isaiah 51:17). The cup of wine in the hand of Lord means severe punishment for the wicked. The cup is fully mixed, that is, the punishments that God will pour out are diverse and numerous, because it is still full of His fury. The wicked will drink of it to the dregs that are on the bottom. They will drain it out so that not a single drop will be left in it.

These words may seem harsh, but the fact is that those who drink the cup of God's fury to the dregs are those who rejected God's mercy. Although God has long been calling them to repent, they refused, and in their refusal they treasured up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God (Romans 2:5).

The psalmist glories God by revealing His acts: But I will declare forever (verse 9a). God performed an act with the believer that he did not deserve or expect. It was exceedingly abundantly above all that he asked or thought, so, in astonishment, he tells what great things the Lord has done for him, and how He has had compassion on him (Mark 5:19). The Scriptures say to the believers, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy (1 Peter 2:9,10). So each of them says, My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer (Psalm 45:1).

He glorifies Him by rejoicing in what He has done: I will sing praises to the God of Jacob (verse 9b). Jacob's history was not the history of someone who deserved divine mercy; neither he nor his descendants. So when God rescued them, the psalmist expressed his glorification of God by singing. Jacob did not deserve mercy, for he cheated his brother, father and uncle. Even his relationship with God started on a selfish basis. He vowed, If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You (Genesis 28:20-22). God granted Jacob's requests, but Jacob forgot about his vow and was censured by God for not performing his covenant. God said to him, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother (Genesis 35:1). Later, Jacob felt he was unworthy of God's kindness, so he told his son Joseph about his two grandchildren, Manasseh and Ephraim, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads (Genesis 48:15,16). The psalmist praises the God of Jacob because He had compassion on Jacob, and because He opened the gate of His mercy, because He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).

He glorifies Him by declaring his victory: All the horns of the wicked I will also cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted (verse 10). The psalmist declares that God will defeat the enemies and see that justice is done to His people. He will cut off all the horns of the wicked and all manifestations of its influence, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted, because God will right the wrongs and rescue His children from danger. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron you shall beat in pieces many peoples (Micah 4:13). The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He will thunder against them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed (1 Samuel 2:10). Truly, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12).

Comment on verse 2 I choose the proper time.

How did the psalmist choose to glorify his Lord?

A well-known power: In Judah God is known; His name is great in Israel (verse 1). God's history with His people is well known. It is recognised by the miraculous exodus from Egypt, the dividing of the Red Sea, providing the manna and quail for the people in the desert to eat, and quenching their thirst with water that gushed forth from the rock. During their celebration of the Passover, the children would ask their parents, What do you mean by this service? and the answer was, It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households (Exodus 12:26,27). God is known to have infinite power. At the creation, He said, Let there be light, and there was light. He is upholding all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). He created the world, He takes care of it, and controls it. All things were created and remain existing by His will (Revelation 4:11). He rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. The LORD is known by the judgement He executes; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands (Psalm 9:16). God is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge (Psalm 48:3).

Both David and Solomon reigned over a united kingdom, but later it was divided into two kingdoms: A northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, whose capital was Samaria, and a southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. God was known in both kingdoms, Israel and Judah. God made Himself known to them through His prophets and the miracles He worked through them.

An establishing power: In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion (verse 2). The psalmist says that the Lord established His tabernacle in Salem, a short form and a pet name for Jerusalem, meaning "the City of Peace" or "the Foundation of Peace". In New Testament times, the heavenly Jerusalem was substituted for the earthly Jerusalem, because the Jews, Christ's own people, did not accept Him. For this reason He gave all those who accepted Him from every nation, people and tongue all the privileges of His people, to whom Christ said, Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it (Matthew 21:43).

In Salem also is His tabernacle. The same word for tabernacle is sometimes applied to the lion's lair. The meaning could then be that the Lord defends His people as a lion defends its lair. For thus the LORD has spoken to me: 'As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey (when a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, he will not be afraid of their voice nor be disturbed by their noise)... so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, He will also deliver it' (Isaiah 31:4,5).

God dwells amongst His people; He lives in their midst. John saw Christ in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, which were the seven churches (Revelation 1:13). Christ also said, For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).

A triumphant power: There He broke the arrows of the bow, the shield and sword of battle (verse 3). "There" in all the battles the enemy waged against the people of the Lord, the Lord broke the arrows shot from the enemy's bows by His superior power, which must conquer and grant victory to His people. The Bible says of God's arrows that defend His people and defeat His enemies, He sent His arrows and scattered the foe, lightning in abundance and He vanquished them (Psalm 18:14). The prophet said, Then the LORD will be seen over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning (Zechariah 9:14). Here the Bible says that the Lord will crush all tools of war; the buckler, the sword and the soldiers altogether.

He destroyed the fortifications: You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey (verse 4). The mountains of prey are the lofty, firm mountains, which are topped by the enemy's strong fortifications, and the impenetrable caves that none of the people of the valley could reach. God, however, is more glorious and excellent than all of them, because He who is with us is by far greater and more powerful than those who are with them. God offered such great encouragement through the prophet Nahum, who said about the attack of the Assyrians (whose capital was Nineveh) against His people, 'Where is the dwelling of the lions? ...The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, killed for his lionesses, filled his caves with prey, and his dens with flesh. Behold, I am against you,' says the LORD of hosts (Nahum 2:11-13).

He destroyed the soldiers: The stout-hearted were plundered; they have sunk into their sleep; and none of the mighty men have found the use of their hands. At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep (verse 5,6). The king of Assyria said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent; ... My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth. But God said to him, Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? (Isaiah 10:13-15). God has plundered the brave enemies, let them fall into a deadly sleep, saying about them, 'That they may ... sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake,' says the Lord (Jeremiah 51:39). When they attempted to use their hands and feet for attacking or defending, they found them cut off, either because they actually lost them, or because they were unable to use them any more.

Because He is feared: You, Yourself, are to be feared; and who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry? (verse 7). God is an awesome God and none can stand against Him. Saul of Tarsus withstood Christ and His Church, carrying messages from the Jewish leaders that allowed him to arrest the Christians, both men and women, and take them to prison to be tortured. But with all his knowledge, power and zeal for his doctrine, he could not stand up against the awe of God, who send dazzling light around him and caused him to fall to the ground. At which point he heard Christ say, Why are you persecuting Me? ... It is hard for you to kick against the goads (Acts 9:4-6). Truly The LORD Most High is awesome (Psalm 47:2). He is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? (Nahum 1:6). The psalmist said to Him, If you Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3).

Because He is the judge: You caused judgement to be heard from heaven; the earth feared and was still, when God arose to judgement, to deliver all the oppressed of the earth (verse 8,9). God is a fair judge who pronounces judgements against the wicked that incapacitate them and render them defenceless. Hannah said in her prayer of thanksgiving, The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He will thunder against them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth (1 Samuel 2:10). The children of Korah said as well, The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted (Psalm 46:6). And Isaiah said, The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard, and show the descent of His arm, with the indignation of His anger and the flame of a devouring fire ... For through the voice of the LORD Assyria will be beaten down (Isaiah 30:30,31).

God must arise to execute fair judgement, frighten the wicked, and save all the meek of the earth. But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked (Isaiah 11:4). God rushes to the rescue of the helpless; He defends them as they keep silent. When we encounter an arrogant man who oppresses the helpless, we must remember that God arises to save the meek of heart. He says to them, All the horns of the wicked I will also cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted (Psalm 75:10).

God is in full authority: Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; with the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself (v, 10). Man's wrath against God's people must be made to glorify the Lord and bring welfare to His people. God must work miracles to rescue His people; bringing out of the eater something to eat, and out of the strong something sweet (Judges 14:14). This was the case with Pharaoh, to whom God said, But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. As yet you exalt yourself (Exodus 9:16). If the evil man still keeps wrath unexpressed, God girds Himself with it and makes it for the good of His people. God says to the sinners, Your breath, as fire, shall devour you (Isaiah 33:11).

When Haman was angry with Mordechai, he was crucified on the tree that he had erected for the purpose of crucifying Mordechai. The king tore the signet from Haman's finger and gave it to Mordechai. The enemy destroyed himself while God honoured His people (Esther 7:9; 8:2).

Christ said, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). This took place after the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian to be martyred. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles... Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word (Acts 8:1,4). The wrath of the people made the spreading of God's word possible.

Pay your vows: Make vows to the LORD your God, and pay them; let all who are around Him bring presents to Him who ought to be feared (verse 11). In times of distress, man makes vows to the Lord, but when what he requested comes true he often forgets about the vow. A vow is an agreement between the weak man and Almighty God. God, in His love, accepts this arrangement, not because He expects the man to pay up, but because He wants us to be faithful to our promises. When Jacob vowed to build a house for the Lord if He kept him safe and honoured him, the Lord granted his request, but Jacob forgot his vow (Genesis 28:20-22). God's words came true, but Jacob's did not! Therefore the Lord told Jacob to remember his vow and go to Bethel to pay it (Genesis 35:1).

The psalmist joins his voice with the voice of God in requiring everyone who makes a vow to fulfil it. When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed; better not to vow than to vow and not pay (Ecclesiastes 5:4,5).

Rest assured: He shall cut off the spirit of princes; He is awesome to the kings of the earth (verse 12). When man alienates himself from God, he ruins and destroys his soul. When his actions contradict the divine laws, he cuts his soul with a sharp sword, because God's laws are like a sword; it protects us if we walk alongside Him, but rips us apart if we go against Him.

Revelation speaks of this cutting off of the spirit of princes using the following picture: And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, 'Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.' So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God (Revelation 14:18,19).

This psalm is the voice of God that comforts us in times of trouble and distress. It says that God is a victor, that He will make His enemies His footstool. Let us rejoice in the God of our salvation.

What did the psalmist mean by saying,You are more glorious than the mountains of prey?

Why does the wrath of man praise God?

A problem within the soul (verse 1-4):

The problem of comparing the present with the past: I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search (verse 5,6). In these two verses the psalmist compares the present with the past. He recalled all that God did for His people since He had chosen Abraham. He considered it, analysed it, and was glad at what he found out. He could just as well have said, God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night... The LORD will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me; a prayer to the God of my life ... It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your loving-kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night (Job 35:10; Psalm 42:8; 92:1,2). Still, the psalmist's present was different from his past, so he began to wonder in bewilderment and grumble to his heart, while his spirit searched and looked to see if God would fulfil His promise: But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham My friend. You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest regions, and said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.' (Isaiah 41:8-10).

A problem with God (verses 7-10):

The psalmist felt that the hand that used to support him in the past stopped doing so, or perhaps began to work against him to make him fall. Certainly these were feelings, not realities, because God will never change. He is the First and the Last. He will never forget His people because they are dear to His heart, neither will His wrath hinder His acts of mercy; for He is love. Yet the psalmist was struck with sickness; he groaned and moaned and his health still deteriorated. He murmured to himself, his spirit was overwhelmed, sleep escaped his eyes, and words ceased to come forth from his lips. He asked many unanswerable questions as he saw God's acts being changed from acts of mercy to acts of punishment.

The psalmist's feelings must have humbled him before God as though he were saying like Jeremiah, Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is severe. But I say, 'Truly this is an infirmity, and I must bear it' (Jeremiah 10:19). They must have made him sympathise with the suffering: Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). They must have kept him awake lest he should fall into temptation (Matthew 26:41). It is also certain that they made him hold on more firmly to God and say, If I say, 'My foot slips,' Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul (Psalm 94:18,19).

The solution is with the God of wonders: I will remember the works of the LORD; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds (verse 11,12). The Holy Spirit must intervene in the right time to change the atmosphere of misery and complaint into one of thanksgiving and appreciation to God's grace. He reminds us of all that God said to us (John 14:26). The Spirit of God reminded the psalmist of the Lord's works, wonders, deeds and acts, beginning from Exodus and its accompanying miracles and the song, Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11). So his soul was reassured.

When John the Baptist was in jail, he sent two of his disciples to ask Christ: Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another? He expected that, with the miracles that He had performed, Christ must rescue him. But Christ did not release John the Baptist; He strengthened his faith by commanding his disciples to tell their rabbi what they had heard and seen: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Then Christ said to John the Baptist, And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me (Matthew 11:3-6). John the Baptist's soul must have been comforted as he heard the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, although he was still in jail.

The solution is with the God of holiness: Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary [holiness]; who is so great a God as our God? (verse 13). All that God does is flawless for God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). Habakkuk asked Him this rhetorical question, Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? (Habakkuk 1:12). He is a great God in His holiness; all His ways are holy, and the angels shout out loud for Him, Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory! (Isaiah 6:3). As soon as the clouds of doubt were dispersed and the mournful tears were wiped from the eyes of the psalmist, his soul rested and he saw the perfect holiness of God, who does nothing evil.

The solution is with the God of salvation: You are the God who does wonders; You have declared Your strength among the peoples. You have with Your arm redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph (verse 14,15). The holy God of wonders is the Saviour, whose deeds Moses recounted to his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian: And Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the LORD had delivered them. Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the LORD had done for Israel ... And Jethro said, 'Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh ... Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.' Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God (Exodus 18:8-12).

This God is unique in His power, to whom we offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise, and in whose presence we find intimate fellowship, peace and satisfaction. It is He who released "the sons of Jacob and Joseph" from captivity. This expression occurs here and in Obadiah 18 only. "The sons of Jacob" refers to the southern kingdom, and the "sons of Joseph" refers to the northern one, because Joseph was the father of the strongest two tribes in it, which were Ephraim and Manasseh. He means, then, that all the children of Israel, both in the north and in the south, have experienced the salvation of the great God who miraculously delivered them.

The solution is with the God of authority (verse 16-20):

Who could believe that Pharaoh's army would sink while the miserable underdogs would be delivered?! Who would imagine that God would support about two million souls for forty years in the desert of wandering. So let us commit ourselves to the hands of our Supporter and feel reassured about His love, holiness and power. He guided His people like sheep through Moses and Aaron. And like weak and helpless sheep they were! Sheep know how to get lost, but not how to find their way back. So God guided them through Moses and Aaron, though both of them needed guidance from the God of guidance. Today God guides us through His holy Word, His Holy Spirit, the acts of His Providence and his ministers, who do His pleasure. His guidance is personal for the individual, and collective for all believers.

The psalmist meditated within his heart and his spirit made diligent search. What was the subject of his meditations?

The psalmist found his rest at the feet of the God of authority. How did he see God's authority?

An invitation to listen (verse 1-4): Right at the beginning of the psalm the psalmist warns the new generation the sins of the past one, so that they should not repeat them. He opens his mouth in a parable and utter dark sayings of old. He will explain an old story to draw beneficial lessons out of it, so that it would not be merely an historical incident, but a spiritual lesson; nor just memories of bygone events, but a present spiritual blessing to the souls. The parable that the psalmist utters is a reality that was coined by those who experienced it in a brief, rhymed phrase to be easily memorised by all, so that all would learn from its wisdom and practice it. The psalmist's experience was a mysterious riddle for many, so he wanted to make it plain, after the manner of the author of Psalm 49 and in keeping what Moses' command to the Israelites: Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe; all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 32:46,47).

What God did (verse 5): God asks His people to listen to Him in two things:

What the other generation must do (verse 6-8):

The tribe of Ephraim forgot (verse 9-11): Ephraim was the second son of Joseph. He was greater than his elder brother, Manasseh. His name means "double fruits". The tribe of Ephraim became the leader of the Northern Kingdom, but they turned back on the day of battle because they did not keep the covenant of God and would not walk in His law. He also forgot God's deeds and wondrous acts. This does not mean that Ephraim turned back in a specific military battle, but that he was defeated in a spiritual battle, in which he fell prey to the fangs of the devil. Ephraim was spiritually advanced as a tribe. From them came Joshua, Moses' successor, the prophet Samuel, and the prophetess Hannah. But painfully they turned back from God, and, in consequence, God rejected the service of this tribe. It will be shown to us at the end of the psalm that God chose David to come from the tribe of Judah instead of the tribe of Ephraim. It is obvious that God does not reject the person himself, because He gives him a chance to repent, but He takes away the service that he was not faithful enough to perform, and gives it to another who would be faithful.

What the tribe of Ephraim forgot (verse 12-16):

They grumbled against the food (verse 17-20): The people sinned against God by their continual rebellion against His clear commandments. They tempted Him by doubting of His goodness and demanded that He to show His power. When He gave them water, they asked, But where is the food? They grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! (Exodus 16:3). They said on another occasion, Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? (Exodus 17:3).

The punishment for grumbling (verse 21,22): The people neither believed in God nor trusted in His salvation. They complained in God's ears and aroused Him to anger. Immediately fire was kindled among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. So Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was quenched. They called the name of the place Taberah, meaning, "burning" (Numbers 11:1-3).

Giving despite the grumbling (verse 23-29): In spite of the complaint, the doubts, the grumbling, and the rebellion God opened up the gates of heaven and gave them manna, an angelic food called bread from heaven in the Scriptures (Exodus 16:4). The manna was like coriander seed, its colour like the colour of bdellium, and it tasted was like pastry prepared with oil (Numbers 11:7,8). Then He drove the quails by a strong east wind. These are migrating birds that fly in large numbers from Africa in the south to the north. Their meat has a sweet taste (Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31).

The punishment for ingratitude (verse 30-33): God punishes some people by granting them the request of their greedy hearts. God punished those grumblers after He gave them what they asked for. God administered His heavy punishment on them while they were eating (Numbers 11:20,33). The purpose of the punishment was to correct those unthankful rebels. Yet, God continued to deal bountifully with them as well.

The repentance of the fearful (verse 34-37): God punished the grumblers, so they cried out, not out of true repentance, but to escape the punishment. It was a superficial repentance, which the Lord described in these terms: Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honour Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8).

Divine mercy (verse 38,39): God knows the frame of man; He remembers that he is dust. The wind passes over it, and it is gone (Psalm 103:14,16). He is merciful, gracious and longsuffering, therefore He does not punish the sinners according what they deserve (Exodus 34:6,7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 4:31).

How often they disobeyed Him (verse 40-43)! The more God multiplied His bounties to the Israelites, the more they multiplied their disobedience and murmuring. They disobeyed Him and grieved Him. They turned back from Him, tempted Him. They provoked Him to anger and forgot His bounties. Yet, He worked those miracles against Egypt, the greatest empire at the time, and against its capital Zoan.

Plagues upon Egypt (verse 44-51): The psalmist does not mention the seven plagues that befell Egypt not in the order of their occurrence. He began with the turning of water into blood (the first plague Exodus 7:20), the flies (the third plague Exodus 16:8), the frogs (the second plague Exodus 8:2), the caterpillar and locust (the eighth plague Exodus 10:12), the hail (the seventh plague Exodus 9:18), the death of cattle (the fifth plague Exodus 9:3), the death of the first-born (the tenth plague Exodus 11:5).

The miracle of the exodus (verse 52,53): Finally the miracle of the exodus took place (Exodus 15:13-17,22). What a great difference between the destiny of God's people and the end of the army of the oppressor.

He brought them into the land (verse 54,55): Finally, and despite their disobedience, God brought His people into the Holy Land, which He had promised, to Abraham, according to His unchangeable faithfulness. He also wanted to establish in it His holy temple, which Solomon built, as was expressed by Miriam's song: You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which You have made for Your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established (Exodus 15:17). Joshua said as he divided the land to the tribes, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea westward (Joshua 23:4).

Their disobedience in the land (verse 56-58): The people went in the wrong way during the time of the judges; they veered away from the goal for which God brought them into existence. They worshiped idols.

The punishment of the disobedient (verse 59-67): Shiloh was the capital of the tribe of Ephraim. The Ark of the Covenant was set up there inside the tabernacle of meeting that Moses made. The reason it was selected for the establishment of the ark was that Joshua, the leader of the people, came from the tribe of Ephraim. In this way God honoured that tribe. But they departed from worshipping the Lord, so God rejected them because "they turned back in [the spiritual] battle" and missed the path to true worship. God rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh where the Ark of the Covenant stayed for over three hundred years (verse 60), and let the Ark be carried off (verse 61). The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were killed (verse 62,63a, see 1 Samuel 4:17). The maidens had no husbands to marry and the widows could shed no more tears because they wept so much (verse 63b,64).

Despite their apostasy, God never abandoned His people; He rather hastened to their assistance. The psalmist describes this "haste" with an unusual figure of speech. He compared God with a mighty man who shouts before joining the battle because of the wine he drank (verse 65), in order to redress the injustice done to His people and effect a change in the policy of the land. The Lord rejected the tabernacle that had been established in Shiloh in the land of Ephraim the son of Joseph, because He chose the tribe of Judah.

The election of the tribe of Judah (verse 68,69): God stopped the old system and replaced it with a new one. He substituted the tribe of Ephraim for that of Judah, and the old city of Shiloh for Mount Zion in Jerusalem. And on the holy hills He established Solomon's temple.

The election of David (verse 70,71): For this new beginning, God chose David the humble shepherd, as He had already chosen Abraham and Moses. He bestowed upon these men the honour of serving Him and blessed them with making them the founders of a new covenant of true worship to God. He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.' (Acts 13:22). Thus David was transferred from watching over the sheep to watching over God's people in the paths of righteousness, as the heads of the people said to him The LORD said to you, 'You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over Israel' (2 Samuel 5:2).

David shepherding the people (verse 72): David shepherded God's people according to the integrity of his heart and the skill of his hands. God said to Solomon, Your father David walked in integrity of heart and in uprightness (1 Kings 9:4). At the beginning, Solomon walked in the footsteps of his father David, and asked the Lord for an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil (1 Kings 3:9), and God gave him wisdom and exceedingly great understanding (1 Kings 4:29).

According to verses 6-8 mention four things the generation to come should do.

In verses 68 and 69 the psalmist mentions three new things God will do. Write them.

A complaint of the nations: O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple they have defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps. The dead bodies of Your servants they have given as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth. Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them (verse 1-3). The psalmist saw that the difficulty that he and his people were going through first had to do with God and His glory, he was the Lord's and His land was the Lord's mountain of inher-itance (Exodus 15:17). How could He then allow the heathen to enter His own inheritance, knowing that the inheritance is the most valuable thing a person has, not only because of its ma-terial value, but because of its moral value? Believers are of great value in the eyes of God, because they are His inheritance, and He considers them the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18). The temple also was the sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established (Exodus 15:17). How could He possibly allow the heathen to defile it? Jerusalem was the city of the Great King, why did He let it turn into rubble? Why did He let His servants be killed and their bodies cast away in such great numbers that they had no one to bury them, and the birds of the skies de-voured them as well as the beasts of the earth? The enemy shed the blood of the people of God like water, as though they were of no value or price. The living were not enough to bury the dead! So why did the Lord let all this happen to His inheritance, His temple, His city and His saints? Has the psalmist not said, Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints? (Psalm 116:15). And has not Christ said to the persecutor of the Church, Why are you persecuting Me? (Acts 4:9).

The psalmist knows that when he is hurt, the kingdom of God is al-so hurt. Happy is the believer who sees his strength belonging to the Lord, and is sure that He is with him at the time of his trouble, because In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them (Isaiah 63:9). He realises that his cause is not his alone, but that of his heavenly Father also.

Shame from the neighbours: We have become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to those who are around us (verse 4). The children of Israel were surrounded by idolatrous nations. Those nations believed that their gods were stronger and mightier than the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth. Now when the heathen defiled the holy temple of God, the neighbours of the Israelites mocked them and their God. They must have poked fun at them, since the God they worshipped did not grant them victory, while the Babylonian army triumphed!

A petition from the psalmist: How long, LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? (verse 5). The psalmist declares that the evil both he and his people experienced was caused by their own sins. He knows that God is a jealous God, who allows for no associates with Him and does not accept a divided heart (Deuteronomy 4:24). When a believer falters between worshipping the Lord and worshipping idols, God's angered is kindled against him like a fire. He wants the whole heart to be His, and that man's heart to yearn only for Him: Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name (Psalm 86:11). Because If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear (Psalm 66:18). In his penitent state, the psalmist wonders: How much longer will God's anger against him and his people last?

Justice in the Mosaic perspective: The Mosaic law decreed that if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (Exodus 21:23-25); the same thought is repeated in Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21). According to this law the psalmist asks the Lord to pour out His anger against the heathen who do not know God, nor call upon His name. His reason is that they did great evil to the people of the Lord. This was David's request: Plead my cause, O LORD, with those who strive with me; fight against those who fight against me ... Let them be like chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the LORD chase them (Psalm 35:1,5).

The necessity of justice: In these two verses the psalmist declares that divine wrath is coming. It must fall upon the sinners as a consequence of the nature of their sins, and upon those who do not call upon His name, those who worshipped the created being rather than the Creator, although He manifested Himself to them through the nature that declares the work of His hands. As smart as the sinners are in matters of the world, they are ignorant when it comes to matters of faith. They would cut down trees for themselves, take some of them and warm themselves, and carve the rest to make a god and worship it (Isaiah 44:14-17). Therefore, God must show His wrath as a result of their sin.

Mercy and justice: God loves the sinner but hates his sin. Heaven rejoices at one sinner that repents (Luke 15:7). Bearing this in mind, the two verses, then, should mean that God pours down His wrath upon those who do not know Him, but He still calls them to repent and leave off their error. A pious man said, Lord, help me destroy my enemies by making them my friends. We hate enmity, but love the enemy, and call upon God to break down the middle wall of separation, the enmity, which he does in Christ (Ephesians 2:14). God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).

The spiritual forces of darkness and justice: The meaning of the two of verses might be that God will annihilate the spiritual forces of darkness that oppose the force of heavenly light, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). We pray, Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (Matthew 6:13).

Forgetting the iniquities of the former: Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! (verse 8a). When fathers sin, they leave behind a heavy heritage of grief and misery for their children. When fathers run into debt, they hand them down to their children, and when they misbehave they leave behind a bad name that sticks to their children. Also when they make bad decisions, they involve their children in the consequences of those decisions. On the other hand, when fathers repent, God forgives them, but their former conduct continues to be gossiped about by the coming generations. God forgave the penitent thief and Christ said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise (Luke 23:43), but his children and grandchildren carried the title children and grandchildren of the thief that was executed on the cross! God will not recall the sins of the fathers if they repent of them, but the reputation, health and economical situation of the children must suffer on account of the their fathers' iniquities. Yet, they will not suffer spiritually, because the Lord said, In those days they shall say no more: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge (Jeremiah 31:29,30; see also Ezekiel 18:1-5).

Granting mercy to this generation: Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low (verse 8b). The psalmist does not claim innocence for himself or for his generation from the sin that incurred trouble upon them, but requests the mercies of the Lord to meet him and protect him, so that he should walk behind it on a paved road. In Psalm 23:6 the psalmist said, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. So mercy also follows the believer to make sure he is safe from a stab in the back. In this way the believer will always be surrounded by the divine mercies, both from front and behind. They come "speedily" to meet him, because he has reached the utmost trouble and distress he could possibly endure, and both he and his people were humiliated.

Forgiveness for His name's sake: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, for Your name's sake! (verse 9). In the heathen standpoint, the defeat of the people of God stands for the defeat of God Himself! The psalmist asks for mercy and salvation for the glory of the Lord's name, so that the heathen should not say that God is unable to deliver His people. For the glory of His name He must hasten to save us from our sins by forgiveness, from our wants by fulfilling them, from our sickness by health, and from our enemies by deliverance. We do not receive salvation from our sins, however, as a result of what we do, but as a result of what Christ did on the cross for us. We trust in the perfect sacrificial atonement, the Lamb of God, who was offered to take away the sin of the world. Every blessing we have comes to us for the glory of His name, and for His name's sake.

For the glory of the Lord: Why should the nations say, 'Where is their God?' Let there be known among the nations in our sight the avenging of the blood of Your servants which has been shed (verse 10). The psalmist seeks the glory of his God, and does not want the heathen nations to scorn his people by saying that their God is not with them. He sees that vengeance upon the enemy goes hand in hand with deliverance, for God must avenge the slaughtering of His servants by those who shed their blood. Such a state of affairs is in keeping with what Moses said in his song after the recording of the Torah: Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people (Deuteronomy 32:43). The enemy will be smitten with fear, while the broken heart of God's people will be strengthened, according to the statement of the Lord, Say to those who are fearful-hearted, 'Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.' (Isaiah 35:4).

For the reassurance of the prisoner: Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; according to the greatness of Your power preserve those who are appointed to die (verse 11). God answered this request, heard the groans of the prisoners in Babylon, and His mighty arm spared the lives of many of those who were appointed to die. Among those were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, whom God preserved from the peril of death when the Babylonian king commanded them to partake of his food and drink his wine. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank (Daniel 1:8). And as Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego refused to bow down before the statue of the king, he ordered them to be cast into a fiery furnace. But even there God spared their lives and rescued them from burning (Daniel 3). Also when Daniel refused to pray to the king, he cast him into a den of lions, but the Lord sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths so that they should not hurt him (Daniel 6). This is exactly what He did for Peter on the day He got him out of Herod's prison (Acts 12). He heard the groaning of the prisoner and reassured him about his life and future.

For the punishment of the aggressor: And return to our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord (verse 12). The Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites were Israel's neighbours, but they did not empathise with them when the Babylonians laid their capital and temple waste. Further, they made fun of the God of Israel and cursed His people. The prophet Ezekiel predicted that God's wrath would fall upon those evil neighbours who cursed and mocked God (read Ezekiel 25). The psalmist asks for sevenfold of what they have done to be delivered into their bosoms, so that they would not escape it.

The psalmist mentions three reasons why God should save His people. What are these three?

The last verse of the psalm is a proclamation of trust. Write a short comment on this verse.

Requesting His favour because He loves His people (verse 1):

Now His relationship to His people is threefold:

Requesting His favour because He is strong: Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up Your strength, and come and save us! (verse 2). The psalmist requests the Lord to stir up his mighty strength that seems slumbering, and make haste to save His people who were precious to Him. He refers to the people as Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's two sons, and Benjamin, Joseph's full brother. Joseph and Benjamin were the sons of Jacob from his beloved wife Rachel, who was considered the mother of the Northern Kingdom (Jeremiah 31:15). Jacob gave a portion of the inheritance to each of his grandchildren, Ephraim and Manasseh. One of them received the portion of the tribe of Levi, the tribe invested with priesthood, who received no portion in the land because the Lord was their portion, and the other received the lot of Joseph their father. As the children of Israel camped in the desert of Sinai, these three tribes dwelt on the western side of the tabernacle of meeting, and as they journeyed these tribes went right behind the tabernacle of meeting (Numbers 2:17-24). Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh means that God walks before His people leading them to victory, just as He did in the Sinai desert.

We imagine sometimes that the Lord is too sleepy to help us, although God's strength is always awake. He says to us when we rush Him, To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1), and I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time (Isaiah 60:22).

Requesting His favour because He restores: Restore us, O God; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! (verse 3). The restoration that is being requested is the return from captivity, as well as repentance of error, withdrawal from disobedience to God, and the correction of things that went wrong. Thus Ephraim prayed, You have chastised me, and I was chastised ... restore me, and I will return, for You are the LORD my God (Jeremiah 31:18). Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored; renew our days as of old (Lamentations 5:21). The psalmist requests to be restored to the presence of grace and his previous position, so that he might say, He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake (Psalm 23:3). The people went astray, individually as well as corporately, and now they seek God's face with repentance, because they can never be restored except by the work of His grace. When they repent He smiles upon them and they can see His glory and His power to save them.

Are you in trouble because you are far away from the Lord? Then repeat what the psalmist said, Restore us, O God and He will immediately hear your prayer. When you return in repentance, God will make His face shine upon you and save you. It will be said to you, The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you ... and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

Requesting His favour because the people are in trouble (verse 4-6):

Their situation is described three different ways:

God's grace to the vine (verse 8-11):

God's punishment on the vine: Why have You broken down her hedges, so that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the woods uproots it, and the wild beast of the field devours it (verse 12,13). This is a rhetorical question and a real question at the same time. The psalmist marvels at the demolition of the walls of the vine, which allowed the invaders to come in and carry off its fruits. He asks the Lord who transported the vine, replanted it and increased it about the reason for punishing it, so that the boar out of the woods and the wild beast were not only allowed to take its fruits, but also to destroy the vine itself. They were not like invaders that take off the fruits and go, but they destroyed the roots and the branches! The Lord answers the psalmist with a question: What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? (Isaiah 5:4). When the vine of the children of Israel did not fulfil the purpose of its existence, God withdrew His protection from it. He had chosen them to be a priestly kingdom for the nations around them to preach His name (Exodus 19:6). A priest speaks with God about the people and speaks with people about God. They did not do what God gave them to do, but despised the rest of the nations and regarded God's election of them as a reason for superiority, so God rejected them. Christ said to His disciples, You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you. But he did not stop at that; He went on to say, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain (John 15:16). In the light of that appointment, the disciples promulgated Christ's teachings to the uttermost parts of the earth. Now if we are not fruitful, we should be asking God to work in us to make us fruitful, and submit our will to His directions. Let every believer ask himself right at the beginning of his spiritual life, from the time God planted him and increased till this hour: What is my testimony of God in my society? What is the service that I have done to the Lord, my family and my fellow citizens? But I hope that no one will pass a wrong judgement on himself, because many presume that the ministry consists only in preaching from the pulpit, whereas every work of mercy is indeed a ministry unto God, be it the offering of a cold glass of water (Matthew 10:42). A mother who looks after her house and children in love and the employee who does his job faithfully, both render a great service to God. If you have not done your due service to God, or if you have done it carelessly, ask Him to teach how to do Him the service that is acceptable to Him.

The prayer of the vine (verse 14-18):

According to this psalm God's loving relationship with His people is three-fold. Mention these three aspects.

According to verses 8-11 of this psalm, what are God's favors to His vine?