Psalms - All others

The following material is adopted from James Montgomery Boice’s commentary Psalms Vol 1: Psalms 1-41. Additional material taken from sources listed at the end

Psalms 5, 7-15, 17

Psalm 5 “For the choir director; for flute accompaniment. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. O Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me. There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of the…”

Outline

— If we were to outline this psalm we see:

— The psalmist standing face to face with God (1, 3, 5)

— He glances sideways to the wicked (2, 5)

— Contrasts to God and the wicked (2) and the righteous (4)

A morning Psalm

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. Devotion should be both the morning…and the evening star”

An Appeal for God to Listen

— Have you ever stopped in your prayers by doubting that you are approaching God rightly?

— Almost everyone has doubts like this

— Notice what this psalm teaches us

— The Spirit in which we should pray

— The types of prayers that should be uttered

— The Relationship that we must have with God

The Spirit in which we should pray

— The urgency expressed: “give ear,” “consider,” and “listen”

— The persistence seen in the repeated phrase “in the morning”

— It carries the idea of every morning

— It reminds us of the poor widow who was so persistent and the judge gave her justice (Luke 18:7)

— And an expectant spirit

— verse 3 ends: “I … wait in expectation”

The types of prayers that should be uttered

— Some prayers are prayers of “words”

— Others are prayers of “sighing” when we can’t find the words

— Others are prayers of crying out

— Still others we cannot find the words

— God hears all kinds of prayers

— We have the NT teaching that, although we often “do not know what we ought to pray…the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Rom 8:26)

The Relationship that we must have with God

— David calls God his “Lord” twice (vv. 1,3) and “my King and my God” once (v. 2)

God Does not Listen to the Wicked

— The second stanza (vv 4-6) is a reflection on the wicked

— In Psalm 1 it was the “way of the wicked” compared to “the way of the righteous”

— In Psalm 2 it was the rebellion of the wicked against God by the kings and rulers of the earth

— Psalm 3 the psalmist has been attacked and is asking for protection (v. 7)

— In Psalm 4 the wicked have slandered the psalmist

— Here in Psalm 5, David refers to wicked people as those whose prayers the Lord will not hear and in whom he has no pleasure

— As David reviews the types of evildoers, we sense he is growing in his awareness and the words grow in intensity

— If you are drawing close to God, you will become increasingly sensitive to sin

“Tis mercy All”

— David doesn’t think of himself better than sinners (vv. 7-8)

— instead of pleading his own righteousness as grounds for coming to God, he pleads God’s mercy

God’s Rejection of the Wicked

— Verse 10 contains the second petition of the psalm (after v. ) and is the Psalter’s first imprecatory prayer

— Praying for judgment of the wicked

— David asks God to condemn sin rather than justifying sinful behavior and to see to it that the stratagems of the wicked fail and that they are banished

The Joy and Blessings of the Righteous

— David encourages all the righteous to “take refuge” in God

— and “be glad”

— to “sing for joy”

The last words say

Psalm 5:12 “For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield.”

When Martin Luther was making his way to Augsburg to appear before Cardinal Cajetan, who had summoned him to answer for his heretical opinions, one of the Cardinal’s servants taunted him asking, “Where will you find shelter if your patron, the Elector of Saxony, should desert you”

“Under the shelter of heaven,” Luther answered

That was the psalmist’s shelter. It should be ours as well

Psalm 7

Psalm 7 “A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite. O Lord my God, in You I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver. O Lord my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my hands, If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary, Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust. Selah. Arise, O Lord, in Your anger; Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries, And arouse Yourself for me; You have appointed judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You, And over them return on high. The Lord judges the peoples; Vindicate me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me. O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the heart…”

Cry Justice!

— David is so overcome with his enemies harsh injustice that he cries out for divine vindication

— The problem alluded to in the title describes it as a lament sung “to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite”

—David’s predecessor, King Saul, was a Benjamite

— Saul killed by the Philistines and the source of his opposition was from Saul’s tribe, the tribe of Benjamin

— When David fled because of Absalom’s rebellion, a man named Shimei of Benjamin cursed him (2 Sam 16:7-8)

— When David returned after Absalom’s death another Benjamite named Sheba led a revolt against him (2 Sam 20:1-2)

— David was slandered

— Protesting openly only fans the flame

— Responding in kind brings us down to the level of the accuser

— The only thing to do is bring it to God

Is Anyone Ever Innocent?

— In vv 3-5 and 8 David says that he is innocent

— David is expressing himself as perhaps we would not

— There is no one righteous, not even one (Rom 3:10)

— We are [at best] unworthy servants (Luke 17:10)

— David is not saying that he is perfect, only that he is innocent of the crime

— David does not take vengeance into his own hands

— Do we flee to God or take matters into our own hands?

Justice or Mercy?

— David is appealing to God for justice for himself (6-9)

“Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity”

— We have been taught to believe that only fools ask for justice from God and what we need from God is not justice but his mercy

Confidence in God

— The second half of Psalm 7 (vv. 10-17) is an expression of David’s deep confidence in God

— The psalm is a great testimony

— Yet here is the striking thing: we don’t know if David obtained the earthly justice from God that he was seeking

Craigie says, “We do not know from the psalm whether the falsely accused was finally vindicated or his name was cleared; we only know that he came into such a knowledge of God that he could accept his lot...”

Psalm 8

Psalm 8 “For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

Jehovah, Our Adonai

— The most dominant theme is that we see man and his place in the created order

— But the psalm does not begin with man but the surpassing majesty of God and this places men and women in a cosmic framework

— We will never understand man until we recognize their special responsibility to their Creator

— We are to praise God beginning with the two great names for God

— Jehovah (Yahweh)

— Adonai (Lord)

Later in Israel’s history, the Jewish people considered the name Jehovah to be so sacred that they would not pronounce it. When the Masoretes came in time to provide the vowel pointing to the consonantal Hebrew text, they wrote the vowels for Adonai whenever the name Jehovah occurred, as reminder of what should be said.

— Jesus quotes this psalm on Palm Sunday when he the blind and lame who come to him in the temple

— The priests and teachers are indignant that people are crying “Hosanna to the Son of David”

— Jesus replied by referring to Psalm 8: Have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise?” ( Matt 21:16 )

— For by identifying the praise of the children with Psalm 8, Jesus not only validated their words

— He was indeed the “son of David”

—But of God, since the psalm says that God has ordained praise for himself from children’s lips

Looking Up or Looking Down

— The bulk of the psalm is about man and how insignificant he is God’s vast creation

— Despite our insignificance God cares for us and loves us

— He has given us a significance and honor above everything else he has created

— First He has crowned us with “glory and honor” (v. 5)

— Second, God has made us “ruler” over the world and his creatures

— Thomas Aquinas, the great Roman Catholic theologian, placed man in what has been called a “mediating position” in the universe

— Angels have spirits and no body

— Man is a spirit body being

— Animals have bodies and no spirits

— Man is described as “a little lower than the heavenly beings” as not a little higher than the beasts

— It is our special privilege to look up toward the angels and beyond to God rather than downward to the beasts

— Sadly, our world has turned their back on God and no longer looks up but downward to the beasts

— King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whose story is told in Daniel, is an example of someone turning their back on God (Dan 4:30-32)

— Evolution teaches that we are only slightly better than the beasts

— Indeed, we are worse than beasts and do things that animals would never do

But We See Jesus

— God sent Jesus to save us from our willful ignorance

— The author of Hebrews uses Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2

— He applies it to Jesus (Heb 2:7-8) which is a parallel to Philippians (Phil 2:8-11)

— Jesus fulfills Psalm 2 because we could not

Psalm 9

Psalm 9 “For the choir director; on Muth-labben. A Psalm of David. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, They stumble and perish before You. For You have maintained my just cause; You have sat on the throne judging righteously. You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy has come to an end in perpetual ruins, And You have uprooted the cities; The very memory of them has perished. But the Lord abides forever; He has established His throne for judgment, And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity. The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble; And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. Sing praises to the Lord…”

A Technical Problem

— The Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate have Psalms 9-10 together

— As a result the numbering of the psalms is different between Roman Catholic and Protestant bibles

— The numbering is the same up to psalm 8

— The numbers re-align at psalm 148

— The best argument for these being one psalm is acrostic pattern

— Psalm 9 contains verses beginning with the alphabet’s first eleven letters, but omitting daleth (D)

— Psalm 10 uses the second half of the alphabet

Praise for Past Deliverance

— David praises God verbally with words and in song

— We need to stop and apply David’s example to ourselves

— We do not praise God with our lips very much at all

— Outside of songs that we sing in church for 20 minutes

— It is more often true that Christians complain how god has been treating them, carry on excessively about their personal needs or desires, or gossip

David Praises God for three things

— Victory over Enemies (vv. 3-6)

— God turns them back

— They perish in their retreat

— Even their names are blotted out

— We need to say here that we cannot imagine an identical situation involving ourselves

— We are not kings or queens defending our land

— We are instructed rather to pray for our enemies, and to do good to those who use us wrongly (Matt 5:44; Luke 6:27-36)

— There is one area we can echo David’s words wholeheartedly

— That is that our King Jesus would have victory over Satan

— Jesus has defeated him but he remains active and is our great spiritual enemy

The Working out of justice and Right Judgment on Earth ( vv. 7-8)

— David was responsible that justice was done in civil matters

— We too should be concerned with justice (Mic 6:8)

Refuge from the Wicked (vv. 9-10)

— God was refuge to David in time of trouble

— We should be able to echo those same words

— God has said that I will never leave you; never will I forsake you (Heb 13:5; cf. Deut. 31:6)

Prayer for Future Deliverance (13-20)

— The second part of the psalm is for future deliverance

— There is a prayer in two parts

— Prayer fro mercy (v. 13)

— Prayer for God to arise in judgment of the nations (vv. 19-20)

— Because of God’s past deliverance, he expects present and future deliverance from God

Man’s Chief End (v. 14)

— Man’s chief end is not to enjoy this life or even to escape the punishment due us for our many sins

— but to praise God

— “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” (Westminister Shorter Catechism, question and answer 1)

Psalm 10

Psalm 10 “Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, “I will not be moved; Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity.” His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate. He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lurks to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. He crouches…”

Practical Atheism

— According to Gallup, 81% of Americans claim to be religious, which places them 2nd to Italians (83%)

— 95% believe in God

— A large majority believe in the Ten Commandments

— Nearly every home has a bible

— 67% believe in hell, 84% believe in Heaven

— However, only 1 in 5 says that religion is the most influential fact in his or her life

— Most want religious instruction for their children but it ranks low compared to other traits they want to see developed

— Only 1 in 8 would consider sacrificing everything for religious beliefs or God

— Gallup records “a glaring lack of knowledge of the Ten Commandments” even by those who say they believe in them

— This is practical atheism and it is extremely widespread

Two Kinds of Atheism

— There are two kinds of atheism in the psalms (14, 53 for instance)

— Outright atheism

— The fool says in his heart, there is no God

— The other kind is practical atheism’

— He knows that there is a God

— But “in all his thoughts there is no room for God” (v. 4)

There is not, in my judgment, a psalm which describes the mind, the manners, the works, the words, the feelings and the fate of the ungodly with so much propriety, fullness and light, as this psalm.

— Martin Luther

The Practice of Atheism

— There are five chief characteristics of the practice of atheism

Arrogance ( vv. 2-4)

— He is boasting ( “He boasts of the cravings of his heart”)

— And pride ( “In his pride the wicked doe snot seek him,” that is God)

— he shows contempt for both God and man (vv. 3-4)

— As for this man’s words

“He says to himself, “Nothing will shake me;

I’ll always be happy and never have trouble”

“He says to himself, ‘God has forgotten;

he covers his face and never sees” (vv. 6, 11)

Prosperity ( v. 5)

— Instead of suffering for his hatred of God, the atheist prospers

— “There may be a God but he has nothing to do with my practical life”

— “If you want to get ahead you have to do it yourself. God is not going to help you”

Security (v. 6)

— The apparent atheist has security which his prosperity seems to guarantee

— David quotes him as saying, “Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have trouble.”

Vile Speech (v. 7)

— Vile or destructive speech

— “His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats;

trouble and evil are under his tongue” ( Rom 3:14)

Violence ( vv. 8-11)

— The violent person is portrayed as:

— an assassin or murderer ( v. 8 )

— a lion ( v. 9 )

— a hunter ( v. 9 )

A Problem for the Righteous

— The problems that these practical atheists create for their victims is obvious

— Not a problem for a strong person like David

— But the problem for David was God’s apparent toleration of the wicked

It is easy to say that God exists, to affirm that morality matters, to believe in divine and human justice, but the words carry a hollow echo when the empirical reality of human living indicates precisely the opposite. The reality appears to be that the atheists have the upper hand, that reality really does not matter and that justice is dormant. At the moment that this reality is perceived, in all its starkness, the temptation is at its strongest to jettison faith, morality and belief in justice. What good is belief and moral life which appear to be so out of place in the harsh realities of an evil world? Indeed, would there not be a certain wisdom in the oppressed joining ranks with the oppressors?

The Response of Godly People

— This wordly wisdom has been bought into by many but it is not the response of those who know God, as David did

— David first asks God to act:

Psalm 10:12 “Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted.”

— It is never wrong to ask God to intervene

— Second, God does see and his retributive actions are often delayed

Psalm 10:14 “You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan.”

— Third, David sees an eventual judgment of the wicked

Psalm 10:16 “The Lord is King forever and ever; Nations have perished from His land.”

— David’s concern in the psalms is judgment in this life

— For the final balancing of accounts we must await the final judgment

— People scoff at it (cf. 2 Pet 3:3-7, 10 )

— We do not always see the wicked receiving their judgment in this life

— Like David and like Habakkuk, we are to live by faith ( Hab 3:17-18 )

Psalm 11

Psalm 11 “For the choir director. A Psalm of David. In the Lord I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain; For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?” The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.”

What Can the Righteous Do?

— We do not know the particular crisis in David’s life

— But the crisis is the image of hidden enemies and friends who offer advice to flee to the mountains

We would say, “Your enemies are lying in wait for you. You won’t even see the blow coming. The best thing you can do is get out of their reach for the time being.”

— The most intriguing part of the opening stanza (vv. 1-3) is the classic question which the righteous ask time and time again

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (v. 3)

— We should remain righteous and not flee to the mountains

Where Should We Look?

— To whom should the righteous look? To the LORD

— In Psalm 8 we learned to look up to the Lord and not down to the beasts

— They look “in his holy temple” and “on his heavenly throne” ( v. 4 )

— When we see temple we think of the temple in the OT but it had not been built in David’s time

— The context of Psalm 11 makes it clear that David is thinking of the temple of God in heaven from the Almighty looks down upon “the sons of men” to “examine them” ( v. 5 )

Where Will We Be?

— What can the righteous do?

— David has looked at God

— Now he looks ahead to the future

— The last phrase is anticipation of seeing God face to face

— Strangely, many commentators seem reluctant to admit that David anticipated seeing God in heaven face to face

— They say that OT saints had an incomplete view of the afterlife (supposedly)

— David has just spoken about the future judgment of the wicked

Psalm 11:6 “Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.”

— What is called for now is a parallel statement of what the same all-seeing God will do for those who are righteous

— They will see God!

— For those in Christ this is certain

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”

Psalm 12

Psalm 12 “For the choir director; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things; Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” “Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.” The words of the Lord are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. You, O Lord, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.”

False Words or Faithful Words

— This psalm is about the use and abuse of speech

— The psalmist begins by describing the use of words by wicked people in order to deceive and oppress others

The Words of the Wicked

— The psalm begins with the psalmist feeling isolated

— This psalm is attributed to David, and there were surely many times in his life when David felt like this

They Lie

— The Hebrew word for lie does not mean exactly what the English word means

— This words includes the idea of “emptiness,” thus including also the additional ideas of insincerity and irresponsibility

— The best expression is “empty (or vain) talk and vanity”

— This is the essence of most cocktail-party conversations

They Flatter

— Flattery goes beyond mere emptiness because it contains the additional element of a corrupt or evil motive

— There have been periods of history when flattering speech has been developed to a high degree, as in diplomatic or courtly language

— King Solomon must have endured a great deal of it in his court because the Book of Proverbs warns often of flattery

— (e.g., Prov 26:28; 28:23; 29:5)

— Daniel says that flattery is a tool that the wicked world ruler will user in the last days ( Dan 11:32 )

They Deceive

— The Hebrew text literally says “They speak with a heart and a heart”

— This is idiomatic

— We would say, “talking out of both sides of our mouths”

— In our current times, the abortion debate is heavy with deceiving language

— God’s image bearer is now a fetus

— People who want to kill a baby call it “Reproductive Rights”

— People have the right to reproduce

— The have it whether they are married or unmarried, young or old

— The issue in abortion is whether they also have the right to kill the ones thus reproduced

They Boast

— This is an inward expression of the deadly sin of pride

— Those who boast make three claims

— “We will triumph with our tongues” — “We own our lips”

— “Who is our master?”

The Words of the Lord

— Now the psalmist turns to the words of God

— v. 5 and v. 6 speak to the struggle over the authority of the Bible in our day

— One view is that the bible is the Word of God without flaw

— The second view is that the Bible is the words of men

— Helpful but not inerrant

— The third view is that it a mixture of God and men

— This view holds that scholars must sort out which is which

The infidels of the ages have beat upon this rock. But the Word of God stands firm, and in the end, like Voltaire, unbelievers are broken by the rock rather than breaking it

Standing on the Rock

— We find something at the end of this psalm that is characteristic of many psalms

— At the end nothing has changed

— The wicked are still “freely strut[ting] about”

— But God has answered and the psalmist realizes that, regardless of what others do, he has the word of the reliable God as his rock

— He is able to stand on this firm foundation

Psalm 13

Psalm 13 “For the choir director. A Psalm of David. How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken. But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

How Long? How Long?

— This psalm reveals increasing intensity and even apparent desperation

— In Psalm 12 David felt abandoned by godly or faithful men

— Here he feels vagabonded even by God !

— Many people feel that no one caries for them and since no person cares, God must not care either

— Not much Christian literature about abandonment

— Not even covered in Spiritual Depression by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Abandonment and Dejection

— The psalm starts with an intense feeling of abandonment

Psalm 13:1 “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?”

A Prolonged Struggle

— The most important thing to note is the words “How long?

— It is repeated four times in the first two verses

— We may not understand but we know that God has reasons for being silent

— We must be patient

Lack of Apparent Blessing

— A second cause of depression is a prolonged period in which the blessings of God seem to have been removed

— If God’s face is not shining on us, it is saying that his blessings have been removed

Dark Thoughts and Uncontrollable Emotions

— The third time that David brings up “How long?” he refers to a combination of dark thoughts and uncontrollable emotions

— When our emotions take over it is hard to get back on course

—Disquieting emotions can be causes by physical illness

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon suffered from gout, marked by painful inflammation of his joints and an excess of uric acid in his blood

— In this same category can be placed all forms of physical tiredness, mental fatigue, and strain

Turning the Corner

— How did David get out of his depression?

— The turning point was prayer ( v. 3 )

Psalm 13:3 “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,”

— For the true child of God there is always some awareness of this truth

When all things seem against,

To drive us to despair,

We know one gate is open

One ear will hear our prayer

Psalm 14

Psalm 14 “For the choir director. A Psalm of David. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. Do all the workers of wickedness not know, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon the Lord? There they are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation. You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted, But the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores His captive people, Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.”

Ship of Fools

—When something is repeated more than once its important

— That is the case with Psalm 14.

— This psalm is repeated almost entirely in the Book of Psalms itself

— Psalm 53 is nearly an exact duplicate (only v. 5 and v 6 are different)

— Romans 3:10-12 contains this psalm

—Anything God says twice demands our attention

— How much more when it is repeated three times!

The Fool Speaks about God

—The psalm is about atheism

— The first verse is what the fool says about God

— The English translation inserts “there is” to make it more readable

— The Hebrew literally reads “No God”

— Not only does he not believe in God, but he also acts on his conviction

— Why is he called a “Fool”

— Paul’s commentary on Romans answers the question

— He is a fool because he knows there is a God and yet chooses to deny it

— How do we know God?

— Paul answers that question: because of God’s revelation in nature (Rom 1:20)

— Nothing in nature reveals God’s saving qualities, i.e.: love, mercy, and compassion

— What is revealed is God’s “eternal power and divine nature”

— What God has revealed leaves man without excuse (Rom 3:19-20)

— Why would any sane person reject God?

— Paul argues that people “suppress the truth” (Rom 1:18)

— Men hate God and love their sin

Hebrew, like English, has quite a few words describing those who are unwise. They correspond to words like simple, silly, simpleton, fool, and madman. The word used in this verse is nabel, which embraces the idea of a foolish but also an aggressively perverse personality. Folly expresses itself in evil acts. There was a man in the Bible who was called Nabal. he was the husband of Abigail, who later became the wife of King David. Nabal was churlish and perverse, so much so that he almost got himself killed by David, though he was saved by his wife’s intercession on his behalf. Abigail herself said of him, “He is just like his name — his name is Fool, and folly goes with him.” (1 Sam 25:25). Nabal perished suddenly and miserably.

It is always this way. H.C. Leupold rightly says, “Atheism bears its proper fruit in rotten conduct”

God Speaks about the Fool

—Having permitted the fool to speak about God, now it is God’s turn to speak about the foo

Psalm 14:2–3 “The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.”

— David describes God literally “bending over to look down upon” such folly

— Notice that in the first verse all men in their unregenerate state are addressed

— “the sons of men” that is all men, not just atheists or fools

— And it is more than acknowledging God

— It is every single aspect of man

— It involves their spiritual understanding, their seeks after God, and their morality

The Way of the Fool

—The third stanza is the way of the fool which we now seen to be the way of the entire human race apart from God’s special, saving intervention

— We never seem to learn

— We will not learn that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut 8:3; cf. Matt 4-4; Luke 4:4)

— And we are prayerless

— We “do not call on the Lord”

— We are all occasionally also “overwhelmed with dread” (v. 5)

— This is an inner psychological dread

— To support this see Psalm 53:5 which is an exact repetition of this psalm

— After the words “There they were” Psalm 53 inserts “where there was nothing to dread”

— In other words, the fear described is an inner fear, occasioned by no visible cause

Calm Hope of Deliverance

—The psalmist does not shudder

— He knows that “God is present in the company of the righteous” and that “the Lord is their refuge” ( vv. 5-6 )

— It is not possible for us to get to that quiet position of trust and confidence by ourselves

— How do we do that?

— The Sunday school answer! Jesus!

— Paul tells us that Jesus, “who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30)

Psalm 15

Psalm 15 “A Psalm of David. O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the Lord; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”

The Question of the Psalm

—David asks “who may dwell in your sanctuary?”

— In other words, what is the character of the person God approves?

— This is a question about godly living not rustication

— If we ask "How can a man or women be right with God ?” there is only one answer

— But if we ask “What is the character of the women or man God approves?” the answer clearly involves the moral law

— David gives an answer in verse 2-5 that is representative but not complete

— One way to know this is to compare this list with the lists provided to almost identical questions in Psalm 24:3-4 and Isaiah 33:14-17

The Person God Approves

—What type of character does God approve of?

— There are six characteristics, one for each couplet of the psalm

His Character

Psalm 15:2a “He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness,

— The first part expresses it negatively

— “He whose is blameless” or without blame (NIV)

— The second half expresses it positively

— He “does what is righteous”

— The second part of the parallel almost always adds something to the original thought

— The upright person not only has a passively upright character, as it were

— But he or she is actively doing righteousness

— Justification can never be separated from regeneration, and regeneration that produces genuine faith always also expresses itself in right action (James 2:14-17)

His Speech

—The second couple deals with the approved person’s speech

— The first line tells us what he does, the second line what he does not

Psalm 15:2b-3a “And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue”

— He or she tells the truth

— This person is telling it like it is

— He is not saying what others want to hear

— You might call this person trustworthy

— Second, a person like this does not slander other

— He does not gossip

His Conduct

—Similar to the previous couplet but moves beyond words to action

Psalm 15:3b-4a “Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised”

—There is a much in common between speaking truth and not slandering another and doing a neighbor no wrong and casting no slur on him

— The difference seems to be that the idea moves beyond mere words to actions

His Values

—The fourth couplet also deals with our responses to other people

— Here the idea is not so much how we treat them but we regard them

— It has to do with values

Psalm 15:4b “But who honors those who fear the Lord; He swears to his own hurt and does not change;”

Q: Who do you look up?

Q: Whose actions and character do you find offensive?

His Integrity

—The fifth couplet contains an incomplete parallelism in which two additional parts need to be supplied mentally

Psalm 15:4c “ He swears to his own hurt and does not change;” or “who keeps his oath even when it hurts” (NIV)

— If we were given a fuller form, it would read something like this:

who keeps his oath [at all times]

[and is faithful] even when it hurts

— There is never a problem keeping your word when it is to your advantage

— But what about when the circumstances change?

— Do you honor your promise then? Or do you find some way to get out of it

— The psalmist says that God approves people who keep their oaths even when it hurts for them to do so

His Use of Money

—The final characteristic of the person who is after God’s heart is that he or she has a right approach to money

Psalm 15:5 “He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”

— This verses is not about receiving interest from money

— Rather, with whom the interest is taken from

— In other words, greed eclipsing justice

The reason fro the first half of verse 5 is not simple denunciation of lending money for interest is that the OT prohibited this only in the case of Jews taking interest from other Jews (Deut 23:19-20), and this is usually explained as a prohibition against a wealthy person taking advantage of one who is needy (Exod 22:25; Lev 25:35-37). Also, the Lord’s parables about the talents suggests that God did not prohibit borrowing money for legitimate business matters. The best OT illustration of the abuse of verse 5 is talking about is in Nehemiah 5, where the wealthy were taking advantage of the poor among the exiles when all should have been helping one another. The poor complained to Nehemiah, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards . Although we are the same flesh and blood as our countryman and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery… We are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others” (Neh 5:4-5). The problem was that those who had money were putting their personal gain before the well-being of their neighbors. They were putting money before people

— Taking bribes is another example of putting money before people

—This is a crime against justice

— It corrupts the both the criminal and civil courts

Psalm 17

The Prayer of a Righteous Man

— This is a model prayer

— It is urgent, perceptive and moving

— It models prayer by the way the psalmist uses arguments to make his appeal to God

— This is something preachers in an earlier day used to urge on members of their congregations

— Not because God needs to be persuaded to help his children

— But because arguments force us to carefully think through what we are asking and to sharpen our requests

The Psalmist’s Innocence

— This is a request for protection and deliverance

— It contains urgent appeals to God to listen

— “hear,” “listen,” and “give ear” (v. 1)

— “give ear to me and hear my prayer” (v. 6)

— “show me the wonder of your great love” (v. 7)

— “keep me as the apple of your eye” (v. 8)

— “hide me in the shadow of your wings” (v.8)

— “rescue me from the wicked by your sword” (v. 13)

— But most striking is that David protests his innocence and argues that on the basis of that God should hear and answer

— This is the first argument (vv. 1-5)

— We, who live in a more introspective and self-conscious age, are easily troubled by David’s boldness

— We have been taught to pray, “Forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4)

— And to say, even in our triumphs, “We are [at best] unworthy servants” (Luke 17:10)

— It is important to distinguish that David is not claiming perfect innocence

— Only innocence of what wrongs he has been charged

— He wants “vindication” (v. 2)

Still, I do not want to dismiss this matter quite that easily. In Psalm 17 we are seeing how David uses arguments in prayer, and one of these arguments, an important argument, is that life of the praying person is above reproach. In other words, this is the positive side of the warning found in Isaiah 59:1-2.

Isaiah 59:1–2 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” (emphasis added)

Open and unconfessed sin is a great prayer barrier. An upright life is a strong basis for appeals.

— One of the most important exercises of prayer is self-examination to determine whether we are approaching God rightly

— It is along these lines that Paul says we are to “examine ourselves” before participating in the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:28)

— Are we being disobedient?

— This is what Isaiah 59 is talking about when it says that God will not hear us when we cherish sin in our hearts

— Are you defying God’s moral law? Are you neglecting the Lord’s day? Having you been stealing? Committing sexual sins? Coveting something that is not yours?

— Remember how Jesus asked, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)

— Are we being selfish?

— Our prayers often go beyond what is fitting and right

— Pray for others needs before your own

— Are we neglecting some important duty?

— Sins of neglect are real sins

— Provide for you family especially your immediate family so that your prayers are not hindered (1 Tim 5:8)

— Is there a wrong we should first make right?

— If you have wronged another person make it right (Matt 5:23-24)

— Are our priorities in order?

— David speaks of his priorities in vv. 3-5

— He is determined not to sin in words or walk in the way of violent men

The Love of God

— David appeals to the covenant-keeping love of God (v. 7)

— It is more powerful in Hebrew than in English

— The word translated “love” is actually hesed, which refers to a covenant

— It is the covenant-keeping love revealed to Moses, David, and other OT believers

— Verses 6-9 echo two of the “Songs of Moses” from the Pentateuch (Exodus 15, Deut 32)

— The connection is more evident in Hebrew than in English

— “working wonders” (Exod 15:11)

— “your right hand” (Exod 15:12)

— “your unfailing love” (Exod 15:13)

— This is where the phrase “apple of your eye” and “in the shadow of your wings” come from (cf. Deut 32:10-11)

The Danger involved

— David speaks about this danger in vv. 10-12

— They have no mercy and they are surrounding him

— They have tracked him down and they are intent on his destruction

The Final Appeal

— David ends with a final appeal

— There are different kinds of parallelism in Hebrew poetry and this one is called chiasm

— From the Greek letter chi, which written looks like an X

— It follows the form A,B; B, A

— The form is a noun (subject), verb; verb, noun (object)

— Psalm 15:3 is an example of chiasm

“who does his neighbor no wrong

and casts no slur on his fellowman...”

— As he closes, in verses 13-15, he reverses the order by describing his enemies a second time and then repeating his claim of innocence

— It is great to be able to pray this way — not to be sinless, or course, but to be so close to the Lord that we can approach him with an upright heart and then, having prayed, go back to the affairs of this world still knowing that we are right before him

Psalm 18

My God is My Rock: Part 1

— The longest psalm to this point

—This is a thanksgiving psalm

— It follows psalm 17 which is a lament and this is a pattern that we will see again

— This is also a “kingship” psalm and David looks beyond the earthly kingdom to God’s promised Messiah

— Paul quotes 18:49 as the first of four prophecies to show that Christ came for the Gentiles as well as the Jews ( Rom 15:9)

The Psalm has six parts:

— Praise to God (vv 1-3)

— The Psalmist Deliverance (vv. 4-19)

— The Reason God Delivered David ( vv. 20-24)

— An important Principle (vv. 25-29)

— The Story of David’s Deliverance told again (vv. 30-45)

— Praise to David’s Rock (vv 46-50)

The Historical Setting

— The title of the psalm is unusually long and points us to 2 Samuel which is the historical setting

— The psalm is duplicated in 2 Samuel 22.

— First, there is the dramatic deliverance from King Saul

— Saul dies by his own hand after a disastrous battle with the Philistines

— David becomes king at the beginning of 2 Samuel

— Second, David is delivered during his years of fighting Israel’s enemies

— 2nd Samuel 8 lists David’s victories over the

— Philistines

— Moabites

— Arameans of Damascus

— Edomites

— Third, David is delivered from his son Absalom

— This psalm is placed in 2 Samuel 22 after this moving recital of the events of David’s life

Section One: Praise God (1-3)

— One kind of metaphor relates to David’s military victories

— God is his “strength,” “shield,” and “horn of salvation”

— Other is related to when David fled to God who is his “rock,” “fortress,” “deliverer,” and “stronghold”

— The Rock metaphor is most dominant

— The great classics professor at Auckland University E.M. Blaiklock wrote that

— The rock is a source of protection in the hot, sandy lands of the bible where life struggles against the merciless elements

— When the spring rains come a light carpet of green is doomed to be scorched a few weeks later

— But set a rock in the sand and it becomes an oasis (the leeward side)

— Similarly, a man traveling through the desert during the hottest hours can find shade in the rock’s shadow

— This idea is presented in Isaiah 32:2

Isaiah 32:2 “Each will be like a refuge from the wind And a shelter from the storm, Like streams of water in a dry country, Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.”

— Jesus used the image of a house built on a rock to contrast the life built on sand versus a life built on a rock (Matt 7:25)

Section Two: The Psalmist’s Deliverance (4-19)

— In this section David tells what God did for him

— What is most impressive about this section is the magnificent way the psalmist describes God rising from his throne in heaven in response to the servant’s cry,

— Parting the clouds

— Descending to fight the king’s battles (vv. 4-6)

— Accompanying earthquakes, thunder, storms and lightning (vv. 7ff.)

— Verses 7-11 use language associated with the descent of God to Mount Sinai to give the law through Moses

— The author of Hebrews describes Sinai as “a mountain… burning with fire… darkness, gloom and storm,”

— So terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear” (Heb 12:18-21)

— Verses 12-14 refer to God’s intervention in the battles against the Canaanites

— This is the time when God sent giant hailstones against the Jews’ enemies (Joshua 10)

— Verses 14-15 undoubtedly refer the parting of the Red Sea at the time of the exodus from Egypt

Section Three: Why God Delivered David (20-24)

— God delivered David because of the upright manner in which he lived

— Since these words were written near the end of David’s life, these words immediately raise a question of how David could say this in life of his sin with Bathsheba and against her husband Uriah

— How could he claim to have been “blameless” and to have “kept [himself] from sin” in view of this sad episode?

It is a good question, but the answer is probably to be seen in the following verses, which we will consider more fully in the next chapter. In those verses David broadens what he says about himself in verses 20-24 to express the principle that God honors righteousness and judges sin even in this life. This is not a promise that the righteous will always prosper. Some suffer the experience of Job. It does not even mean that there is anyone who does right all the time. But as a general principle, when we live for God and try to go in his way, he cares for us and blesses us. When we go our own way, we bring misery and destruction on ourselves. This is all David is saying

Their Rock and Our Rock

— One of the great sermons of the American evangelist D. L. Moody was on God being our Rock

— It was not based on Psalm 18 but Deut 32:31 which the KJV renders:

“For their rock is not our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges”

— What caught Moody’s imagination was the second part of the verse: “even our enemies themselves being judges”

— Moody argued that in times of trouble the objects trusted by unbelievers fail them

— They concede that they do not find the help in their gods that Christians find in ours

— Atheists, pantheists, etc. find nothing to hold onto

— “Their rock is not our Rock” and they confess it

How different it is for Christians! We do not live perfect lives, and we stumble many times, sometimes dreadfully. But when we come to the end of life and look back on it, as David has done in this psalm, we confess that whatever our failings may have been, our God has not failed us. We confess as a true saying, ‘if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he annot disown himself. (2 Tim 2:13)

Psalm 18 (46-50)

My God is My Rock: Part 2

— The psalm has six parts

— But what is interesting about this structure is that the second half, parts 4-6, repeat the first half, though in reverse order

— Part 4 repeats part 3, broadening the principle

— Part 5 repeats part 2, this time telling the story of David’s deliverance from his rather than God’s perspective

— Part 6 repeats part 1 begins and ends with praise

— In the second half of the psalm we pick up messianic overtones

— v. 49 is quoted by Paul in Romans referring to Jesus Christ

Section Four: An Important Principle (vv. 25-29)

— In order to understand this section, we need to backup to the section where David explained the reason for his deliverance by God

— He said that Lord rewarded him for his righteousness (v. 20) and because he “kept the ways of the Lord” (v. 21)

— We raised the question of how this is possible in light of his great sin with Bathsheba

— But as we said his claims about himself must be understood in conjunction with a general principle which now unfolds in section four (vv. 25-29)

— The principle is that, as Leupold puts it:

God very appropriately deals with every man as that man deals with him. god lets man, as it were, choose the pattern after which he will be dealt with…If a man keeps faith with God, he will find that God “keeps faith” with him (v. 25). If a man’s conduct is blameless — and it should be noted that this is a typically biblical mode of speaking also in the New Testament (Luke 1:6) — he will never find a thing that he can blame God fro. The same holds true with regard to a “pure” man (v. 26) or, as we might say, a sincere man. God is bound to meet him with an approach that is in turn entirely pure

— The principle applies for the opposite characteristics as well

—Translators have had difficulty rendering the second half of verse 26 (“to the crooked you show yourself shrewd”)

— It is easy to say that when a man exhibits a good characteristic toward God, God shows the same good characteristic to him

— But if a man shows an evil characteristic, can God really show an evil characteristic back? Hardly!

— The translators of the NIV used the word shrewd in place of the original word (twisted)

— The idea seems to be that if a person “insists in going devious ways in his dealings with God, God outwits him, as that man deserves.

Section Five: The Story Retold (vv. 30-45)

— This is a repetition of vv 4-19

— Spurgeon said, “Second thoughts upon God’s mercy should be and often are the best”

— In the second telling of God’s deliverance David describes in common terms what God’s intervention meant to him personally

— It meant in short, that God provided for his every need

— The terms are physical

— His feet (v. 33)

— His hands (v. 34)

— His arms (v. 34 )

— His ankles (v. 36)

— Verses 37-42 describe the extent of his victories: complete and total

— Verses 43-45 make it clear that his victories were due to God’s intervention and provision

— We may not need strength for battle but whatever we need God will provide

— is it wisdom?

— God is the source of wisdom and we are told to pray for it (James 1:5)

— Is it peace in the midst of trouble?

— God is the source of peace

— Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you” (John 14:27)

— Is it love? Joy? Patience?

— The Bible says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23)

— Paul wrote, “And my god will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” ( Phil 4:19)

Section Six: Praise to My Rock (46-50)

— We return to the beginning: Praise God!

— The theme that God is the Rock reappears

— “The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!”

— Verse 49 is used by Paul in Romans 15 to show that Jesus brought salvation to the Gentiles as well as the Jews

— It is one of four verses that Paul uses

— The others are Deut 32:43, Psalm 117:1 and Isaiah 11:10

Additional Resources

Boice, J. M. (n.d.). Psalms. Vol 1: Psalms 1-41. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994)

MacArthur, J. (2023). Psalms. Hymns for God’s People. Harper Christian Resources.

C. H. Spurgeon. The Treasury of David, Vol 1a, Psalms 1-26 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1968)

Craigie, P. C., & Tate, M. E. (2004). Psalms 1–50 (2nd ed., Vol. 19, Word Biblical Commentary). Thomas Nelson

H. C. Leupold, Exposition of the Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1969)