Psalms - All others (52-100)

The following material is adopted from James’s Montgomery Boice’s 3 volume commentary on Psalms. Additional material from MacArthur Bible Studies, Psalms: Hymns for God’s People. Introductory material from Psalms of Grace, Philip Webb, editor. Additional material taken from sources listed at the end

Psalms: 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 77, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 87, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 100

Psalm 52

Psalm 52 is a psalm of trust, that contrasts Doeg, the wicked Edomite, with David, the righteous king. David begins by questioning why Doeg boasts of evil, and plots destruction. Though it brings the Edomite pleasure to pursue such sin, God will ultimately judge him. He will be destroyed, because he refused to trust in God. By contrast, David recounts his hope in the Lord, and the willingness to wait for him.

Righteous Judgment for a Wicked Man

— The heading for Psalm 52 gives the context as one of the most bitter experiences in the life of David

“When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: ‘David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.’”

— As result of this report and at Saul’s command eighty-five of the priests of Nob together with their wives, children and other citizens of the town were killed by Doeg

— David had two responses,

— The first is recorded 1 Sam (1 Sam 22:22-23)

Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have brought about the death of every person in your father’s household.

— The second is here directed at Doeg

Psalm 52:1 “Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?"

David and Ahimelech

— David was forced to feel Jerusalem alone and unarmed and went to Nob

— He presented himself to the chief priest Ahimelech asking for help

— David lied to Ahimelech and said that he was on a secret mission ( 1 Sam 21:2)

— He asked for food and was given the consecrated bred

— Because David was alone and without a weapon, Ahimelech gave him Goliath’s sword ( 1 Sam 21:9)

— In this midst of the story we read this solemn notation:

1 Samuel 21:7 “Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord;

and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.”

— The story shifts to the next chapter where Saul was is assembled with his officials and military guard

— Doeg was present and told Saul that he had seen David with the High Priest

— Saul was irrational and vowed to kill Ahimelech and his family ( 1 Sam 22:16)

— Saul’s men did not want to kill the priests (1 Sam 22:17)

— But Doeg willingly killed them and their families (1 Sam 22:18)

Portrait of a Very Wicked Man

— We see Doeg’s evil described in three ways

— First, he was proud

— He boasted (v. 1)

— He loved evil (v. 3)

— He ruthlessly murdered the priests and their families

— The High Priest had spoken truthfully when asked by Saul

— Doeg wanted to eliminate such people nonetheless

— Third, he used words as his weapon (vv. 2-4)

— This quality is emphasized repeatedly

Psalm 52:2–3 “Your tongue devises destruction,

Like a sharp razor, O worker of deceit. You love evil more than good,

Falsehood more than speaking what is right. Selah.”

— This tells us something about falsehood and deceit

— Words are not morally neutral

— James wrote about the harm that the tongue can do (James 3:5-10)

A Prophesied Judgment

— David next prophesies Doeg’s end

— Evil does not prosper

— This is not to be taken as a truth with no exceptions

— The righteous do sometimes suffer and evil people flourish

— But the evil will punished and David tells us of the totality of their ruin (v. 5)

— bring down

— snatch up

— tear (or sweep) away

— uproot

— The response of the righteous when they see this judgement

— They will “see” it and “fear” (v. 6)

— And they will “laugh” at Doeg’s folly in pursuing evil

A Contrasting Portrait of the Righteous

— David suggests the proper attitude we should have (v. 8-9)

— Do not forget that we are also sinners

— David does three things

1. He praises God (v. 8)

2. He trusts God for the future (v. 8-9)

3. He bears witness of these truths before others (v. 9)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote:

Before or among the saints David intended to wait, feeling it to be good both for him and them to look to the Lord alone, and wait for the manifestation of his character in due season. Men must not too much fluster us; our strength is to sit still. Let the mighty ones boast, we will wait on the Lord; and if their haste brings them present honor, our patience will have its turn by-and-by, and bring us the honor with excelleth

Psalm 53

Psalm 53 is rebuke to the foolish man, who refuses to acknowledge God. David explains that God looks down on humanity and sees our ignorance. We all sin, because we are corrupt. The foolish man refuses to call on God, and do is punished. But salvation will come to Israel, whom God has chosen.

A Psalm that is Repeated

— This psalm is a near repetition of Psalm 14.

— The most important aspect of the psalm is quoted in Rom 3:10-12

— And anything that God says twice, we should take notice of

— But if he says it three-times (Ps 14, 53; Rom 3:10-12) what should be our response?!

Fools and Their Folly

— When we looked at Psalm 14 we studied how it was used in Romans

— The fool was one who knows that God exists but does not want to acknowledge him

— That is sin, of course

— So we could say, “A fool is anyone who sins, acting as if there is no God”

— Matthew Henry as a handy outline of this Psalm and all of the points start with the letter “f”

1. The fact of sin

— God looks down from heaven and sees it (v. 2)

— I do not always see sin but God does

— We say, “I didn’t mean it;” “It wasn’t my fault;”

— Or as Flip Wilson used to say: “The Devil made me do it!”

— In the Garden of Eden

— Adam blamed Eve: “The women you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Gen 3:12)

— Eve blamed Satan: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate it” (Gen 3:13)

— It will do us no good to pretend that sin is not sin or that we are not sinners, as long as God is on the throne

2. The fault of sin

— We minimize sin

— We think of it as a weakness, or imperfection

— We certainly don’t think of it as a serious transgression that harm us or people we love

— God says that sinners are “corrupt’ and “their ways are vile” (v. 1)

— They have “turned away” from the correct path (v. 3)

— We’ve gone on the anti-God path

— They are “evildoers” who “devour” other people (v. 4)

— We are destroying ourselves

— We are harming others

— Sin is no small thing; it is a very great fault and very harmful

3. The fountain of sin

— Today we have people who absolutely deny the existence of God

— In ancient times an a person like that was rare

— What is in view here is what we might call a practical atheist

— There is a God but he has no bearing on my life

— God placed man between the angels above and the animals below

— When man will not look up, if he determines to act as if “there is no God”, then he can only look down in the direction of the animals

— He will begin to behave like the animals

4 The folly of sin

— It is folly because God exists whether we acknowledge him or not

— What will that person say to God on that day?

— He has revealed himself in creation, in Jesus Christ and the Bible

5. The filthiness of sin

— One of the deceptive features of sin is that it masquerades as something beautiful

— In face it is corrupt and vile (v. 1)

6. The fruit of sin

— Sin destroys the one who pursues it

— But verse 4 shows us how it impacts others

Psalm 53:4 “Have the workers of wickedness no knowledge,

Who eat up My people as though they ate bread And have not called upon God?”

— In the Middle East as in the Western World bread is the most common of food staples

— Evildoers devour the poor in order that they might grow strong and rich

— What an apt description of our own dog-eat-dog world

7. The fear and shame that attends sin

— Verse 5 refers to a historical incident although we can’t be sure which one

— The scattering of the armies of Sennacherib during Hezekiah’s reign (2 Ki 18-19)

— Confusing the armies when Jewish troops fell on Gibeon (Josh 10:10)

— The battle of Gideon and 300 men against the Midianites , who in their confusion killed their own countrymen (Judges 7)

— Imagine the fear that will fall on sinners when they stand before a thrice holy God

The Faith of the Saints

6. The faith of the saints

— Matthew Henry’s last point turns from sin to contrasting the portrait of the true people of God (v. 6)

Psalm 53:6 “Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!

When God restores His captive people, Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.”

— David looks to the future for the promised Savior-God who had been prophesied so many times in the OT

— As we look forward to Christ’s second coming

— We know that one day sin will be punished

— Good will be rewarded

— The folly of those who lived as if there is no God will be revealed

Psalm 54

Psalm 54 is a prayer for deliverance from strangers who seek the life of the king. David asks that God would rescue him, because ruthless men have arisen against him. He confesses that God is the one who sustains him, and will judge his enemies. David anticipates salvation, by declaring that he will give thanks when the Lord delivers him, and he looks in triumph on his foes.

Betrayed

— This psalm follows nicely Psalm 54 which was about people who act as if “there is no God”

— In Psalm 54 the psalmist is surrounded by just these (evil) people

— “ruthless men…men without regard for God” (v. 3)

— The Psalm is about betrayal

— Psalm 52 was David’s betrayal by Doeg the Edomite

— Psalm 55 speaks of David’s betrayal by a close friend

Psalms 52 and 54

— Both Pss. 52 and 54 are intertwined historically

— They cover the same period of David’s life when he was fleeing King Saul

— In Psalm 52 he fled suddenly based on the advice of Jonathan and went to the priestly city of Nob

— He was given food and the sword of Goliath

— Doeg was there and sometime when Saul was feeling sorry that no one knew where David was, Doeg revealed David had gone to Nob and was assisted by the Chief Priest

— Saul turned on the Chief Priest, Ahimelech, and demanded his death

— When his soldiers refused to lift a hand, Doeg obliged the king by killing Ahimelech and his entire family and all the other priests and families in Nob

— According to 1 Sam 23, were attacking a Jewish border town called Keilah

— David asked God if he should attack the Philistines and rescue the town

— God gave him permission but Keilah was a walled city and when news came to Saul he marched on the city

— Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech who has escaped to David after the massacre of the priests of Nob, had brought with him teh sacred ephod, used to discern the will of God

— David used it to ask if the citizens of Keilah would surrender him to Saul

— David slipped out of the city before Saul arrived and went to the inhospitable desert area of Ziph

— Even in this remote area David was not safe

— The inhabitants of Horesh, the Ziphites went to Saul to tell him where David was hiding (2 Sam 23:19-20)

— Later when he was hiding in Hakilah, the Ziphites again went to Saul to tell him where David was hiding

— The title of this Psalm is “A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, ‘Is not David hiding himself among us?’”

— This is a psalm for anyone who feels abandoned, rejected or betrayed

The Fugitive’s God

— Whenever David had a problem he brought it to God

— He prayed (vv. 1-3)

Q: What does David mean when he asks God to save him “by your name”? (v. 1)

— We don’t think of the name as all that important but it was different for OT saints

— Jacob inquired of the name of God when he wrestled with him (Gen 32:29)

— Moses asked God for his name when God called him at the burning bush (Ex 3:13)

— The name that God gave Moses was “I AM” (Yahweh or Jehovah, usually translated LORD in our bibles)

— Notice how David heightens the importance of the name by delaying it until verse 6

— “Save me, O God, by your name” (v1. 1-4) — Elohim, the most common name of God

— “The Lord is the sustainer of my soul” (v. 4) — Adonai (translated Lord in our bibles)

— “O Jehovah (Yahweh), for it is good” (v. 6)

— In verse 6 David uses the name that he appealed to in the opening verse

The Fugitive’s Prayer

— David begins to pray to God for rescue

— His prayer had five parts:

1. He asks God to hear his lament (v. 2)

— God always hears us (cf. Jn 11:42)

— But it is good to ask God to hear us

— It reminds us that while there are things that do not hinder God from hearing us, there are things that hinder him from responding when we ask

— Sin is one such hindrance

— That is why God said through Isaiah

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.”

— When we ask God to hear, we are taking time to see if there is any reason why God should not hear us

2. He describes the situation he faces (v. 3)

— Some people are reluctant to open up and share if something is bothering them

— David was not like that

— If you are facing some sort of problem, tell God about it in detail (God knows it already)

— It will help you remember that God also knows and cares about the details

3. He encourages himself by remembering who God is (v. 4)

— David does not wallow in his problems (cf. 1 Pet 5:7; Ps 55:22)

— As soon as he has described the situation he spends time reminding himself who God truly is

Psalm 54:4 “Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.”

4. He makes his request (v. 5)

— David prays that God would destroy those who are attacking him

— David did not kill Saul when he had the opportunity on at least two occasions (cf. 1 Sam 24, 26)

5. He promises God a freewill offering (vv. 6-7)

— David is so confident that God will answer his prayer that he promises God a thank offering

Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote

Let us trust that if we are as friendless as this man of God, we may resort to prayer as he did, exercise the like faith, and find ourselves ere long singing the same joyous hymn of praise

Psalm 55

Psalm 5 is a psalm of lament, that expresses trust in the Lord. David cries out to God, because he is oppressed by his enemies. His heart is troubled, because he sees violence all around him, and even former friends are against him. But David calls to God, knowing that He hears the humble. He expresses trust, in the One who can sustain.

Betrayed by a Close Friend

— Psalm 52, 54 and 55 all involve David’s betrayal by some person or group

— Psalm 52 was David’s betrayal by Doeg the Edomite

— Psalm 54 David was betrayed by the people of Ziph - that is, his own countryman

— In this psalm David’s speaks of betrayal by a close friend

Q: Who was this best friend that betrayed David?

— Our best guess is Ahithophel, his must trusted counselor who sided with Absalom (2 Sam 15-17)

— But there are problems with this view

—The writer of this psalm is presumably in Jerusalem and David learned of Ahithophel’s defection only after he left the city

— It is probably best to assume that this incident is not recorded in the Bible

The Psalmist’s Personal Anguish

— David is established in Jerusalem

— This must mean that Saul is dead and that David is now king

— We would think that his troubles would be over but David is:

— Distraught (v. 2)

— in anguish (v. 4)

— terrors and death assail him (v. 4)

— fear and trembling beset him (v. 5)

— Horror overwhelms him (v. 5)

— Then the tone of the psalm changes (vv. 6-8)

— David is distraught that the escape his troubles, to fly away and be at rest!

— When we are young we expect trouble

— When we get older and find that the problems are still there or worse, we want to escape

— Some do, and retire and travel

— But others are trapped

— This is a study in perseverance and it is one of the virtues that God looks for in his children

Bad Times in the City

— David now turns to the wicked who are wrecking havoc in the city

— But these are not external but internal enemies

— The psalmist is saying, as Pogo said in one of the best-known Pogo cartoons, “We have met the enemy, and he is us”

— The only way to see real change is for the Holy Spirit to work revival and reformation

— Until that comes we can at least pray that evil will be frustrated and that the doers of evil be confused (cf. Gen 11:1-9)

Psalm 55:9 “Confuse, O Lord, divide their tongues,

For I have seen violence and strife in the city.”

The Psalmist’s Pain

— David explores his own heart and reveals that what bothers him most is the betrayal of his close friend (vv. 12-14)

— Those who are closest hurt us most

Destruction for the Wicked

— Verse 15 stands alone and is the low point of the psalm

— Earlier in v. 9 David was referencing the confusion of speech at the tower of Babel

— Here is a throwback to the destruction of Korah and his followers in the days of Moses (Num 16:31-33)

A Turning Point in the Psalm

— What is important is that David turns the corner at v. 16

— He knows that God hears him and saves him

— “the LORD saves me” (v. 16)

— “he hears my voice” (v. 17)

— “he ransoms me unharmed” (v. 18)

— he knows that God will destroy his enemies and deliver him (v. 19)

— This is faith, when our problems are honestly faced and brought before God

A Final Glance at the Wicked

— David casts a final glance at the friend who betrayed him (vv. 20-21)

— David steps away from his feelings and reflects on the wrongdoing itself

— The real problem is that man is a covenant breaker

— And the reason he breaks covenants is because he is a hypocrite

Conclusion and Practical Advice

— Righteousness we may hope for and sometimes discover

— Sin we can always count on

— The question is, what are the righteous to do in such deplorable times and David provides us with the answer

Psalm 55:22 “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”

— This statement is picked up by the Apostle Peter (1 Pet 5:7)

— It is learning to cast our cares on God that enables us to be steadfast

— First, “he will sustain you”

— We think that the problem will overwhelm us

— But God will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle (1 Cor 10:13)

— Second, “he will never let the righteous fall”

— Peter was sure that he would drown when he stepped out of the boat (Matt 14:3)

— The Lord saved David just as he saved Peter and all who cast their cares upon him

— Third, “God…will bring down the wicked”

— Evil may succeed for a time but it the promise of God they they will soon perish and be destroyed

— “But as for me, I trust in you”

Psalm 56

Psalm 56 is a prayer for God’s grace, in light of earthly troubles. David is attacked all day long by his enemies. The king refuses to fear, but chooses to place his trust in God. Their crimes are many, and his are multiplied. But, David trusts that God will cast down the wicked in wrath. He praises God, because his feet are kept from falling, he is kept on a steady path.

“What Can Man Do to Me?”—

— The answer to that question is “A Lot!”

— Man can oppress, slander, hurt, hate, maim and murder, for starters

— Bad news sells newspapers and the newspapers are full of bad news

Into Death’s Jaws

— The context of this psalm is when the Philistines seized him in Gath

— The backstory of this psalm

— David has been forced to flee from King Saul which we saw in Psalm 52

— David went to Nob, one of the priests gave him food and a weapon

— Doeg killed all of the priests and their families, eighty-five in all

— There was a lapse in time between when David visited Nob and when Doeg informed King Saul of David’s visit (1 Sam 21-22)

— The first was his flight to the fortified Philistine city of Gath

— The second, when he realized he wasn’t safe in Gath, was his escape into the wilderness, to the cave at Adullam

—At the end of this period David collected about 400 men who eventually became the core of his army

— Psalm 52 is written between these two times; three things are worth noting

David was alone

— David had fled Saul without any soldiers, weapons or food

— According to 1 Sam 22, the gathering of his army occurred after his time in Gath

1. David was desperate

— Gath was the home of Goliath, whom David had killed just a few years earlier

— Goliath had been a Philistine hero

— What except desperation would cause anyone to walk alone into the hometown of the hero he had killed and carrying his sword?

David Kidner begins his study by noting this:

“To have fled from Saul to Gath of all places, the home town of Goliath, took the courage of despair; it measured David’s estimate of his standing with his people.” David’s attempt to find safety in Gath was not successful, of course. So Kidner adds, “This has failed, and [David] is [now] doubly encircled”

2. David was afraid

— We are told this explicitly (1 San 21:11)

— The “tens of thousands” were Philistines

— “David took these words to heard and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath” (v. 12)

— This psalm is encouraging but it is not merely about loneliness and fear

— It is about faith that gives victory over those very real states and terrible emotions

— This psalm is quoted by other OT and NT writers

— vv 4, 11 are picked up again in Psalm 118:6 and Heb 13:6

— Verse 9 is quoted by Paul (Rom 8:31)

— The first part of v 13 is quoted in Psalm 116:6

The Outline

— The trouble David finds himself in (vv. 1-2)

— The strong statement of faith and the chorus (vv. 3-4)

— Elaboration of the problem (vv. 5-9)

— Expanded chorus (vv. 10-11)

— David’s promise to present a thanksgiving offering to God when he is saved by him (vv. 12-13)

The Voice of Fear

— There are two emphases of David’s fear

1. The fury of the attack

— David conveys the relentless fury of his enemies’ pursuit

— “Pursue,” “attack,” and “all day long”

— David is saying, “no matter which way I turn they are always after me’

2. The nature of the attack

— David’s second description (vv. 5-9) is not as furious

— Yes, they want to kill him but he explains that it is the slander that bothers him more

— His enemies twist his words to make it seem that he is speaking against King Saul (vv. 5-6)

— This section ends with a prayer that God will judge his enemies (v. 7)

— And that God will remember his sorrows, making a list of them (v. 8)

Psalm 56:8 “You have taken account of my wanderings;

Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?”

The Voice of Faith

— The chorus occurs in vv. 4, 10

— We have been invited to observe David’s fear, but now we hear the voice of faith

Psalm 56:4 “In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust;

I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?”

—And again, slightly expanded:

Psalm 56:10–11 (NASB95)

In God, whose word I praise, In the Lord, whose word I praise,

In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

1. Confidence in God

— God has confidence in God

— Not man

— Not circumstances

— If you are a Christian, God saved you in the matter of salvation

— If he saved you from the greater, do you trust him to in lesser things?

Psalm 37:25 “I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken Or his descendants begging bread.”

Psalm 55:22 “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”

Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

2. Confidence in the Word of God

— David’s confidence was also based on the Word of God

— The phrase “whose word I praise” occurs three times (vv. 4, 10)

New Life in Christ

— The last two verses are like the ending of Psalm 54, in which he promised a thanksgiving offering

— This is a great sign of confidence

— David got his confidence by praying and so can we

But I want to you to see one last thing before I end this study. The fact that Jesus seems to have used the last words of verse 13 in Jn 8:12 makes us think of verse 13 in light of the deliverance of Jesus brings to those who trust him and the “life” as his gift of salvation by the Holy Spirit. That is the ultimate fulfilment of the psalm, of course. As Alexander Maclaren says, “The really living are they who live in Jesus, and the real light of the living is the sunshine that streams on those who thus live, because they live in him.” So I end this way. If you really want to move out of fear, despair, and loneliness and bask in God’s sunshine, live looking upward always into the face of Jesus Christ. Then will you find yourself saying firmly, “In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

Psalm 59

Psalm 59 is a prayer for deliverance, as David is surrounded by his enemies. They lie in wait for the king, howling like dogs, ready to devour him. But David rests in God’s sovereignty, and his steadfast love. As he asks that God would deliver him, the king expresses confidence in the Lord. He will sing, because God is his strength and fortress.

God is My Fortress

— This is another historical psalm

— It is about the time “when Saul sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him”

— The story is found in 1 Sam 19:11-18.

David’s Escape

— This story takes place when David was living in the court with King Saul

— It occurred after David killed Goliath and the women were singing “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Sam 18:7)

— Saul was so jealous and distraught that twice he threw his spear at David (1 Sam 18:10-11; 19:9-10)

— David got the message and moved out of the court and back to his own home

— Saul sent soldiers to his house with the intent to kill him in the morning

— David was married to Saul’s daughter Michal, who loved him and warned him to leave (1 Sam 19:11)

— That night Michal let David down through a window in the house, presumably outside the city’s walls or into a back alley, and he escaped

Michal also bought David some time. She put an idol in his bed, covered it with a blanket, and set some goat hair at its head. When the soldiers came in the next morning, it looked as if David was asleep. “He’s ill,” Michal said. The soldiers reported this to Saul. Saul told them to bring David to him on the bed so that he could kill him anyway. But when the soldiers went back to David’s house and discovered the ruse, David was long gone.

— Martin E. Tate rightly observes that we have not escaped the problems of enemies and their evil work in our society

— Evil people prowl around like the dogs that David described

— Laws no longer mediate justice

— Like ancient Isreal, we too are dependent on Yahweh for deliverance

David’s First Appeal to God

— Living in the South Bay we probably don’t feel under attack or threaten with bodily harm

— Surrounded by luxuries and peace the psalms sometimes seem to be little more than quaint poetry

— Yet the psalms are often urgent and their prayers almost desperate

— There is a lesson here

— Swift, urgent prayers can also be thoughtful

— We see three reasons why God should hear David’s prayer

1. The danger facing David (v. 3)

— Are you in danger?

— Tell God about it

— Are you discouraged?

— It is not wrong to call it to God’s attention

— If you lack wisdom, ask God for it; he promised to supply it

2. David’s innocence (vv. 3-4)

— David protests his innocence: “for no offense or sin of mine, O LORD”

— He is not claiming to be sinless, of course

— This is not a matter of his innocence before God but rather his innocence before Saul

— If you are innocent of wrongdoing before other people, then you can appeal to God bravely and with confidence

3. The character of God (v. 5)

— David says, “You, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel

— In Hebrew this is a mouthful

— Yahweh, the great personal name of God revealed to Moses on Sinai means, “I am who I am”

— Elohim Sabaoth, “the God of hosts,” refers to both the armies of Israel and to the heavenly hosts

— Elohi Israel, “the God of Israel,” refers to the God who has entered into an everlasting covenant relationship with his people

David’s Doglike Foes

— David compares the soldiers who were prowling his village as packs of wild dogs seeking to kill him

— But they are no threat to God who simply laughs at them (v. 8)

—They are no threat to the one protected by the Lord

The Refrain

— “I will watch” reminds us of the minor prophet Habakkuk’s similar words when he was in danger and overcome by fear (Hab 2:1)

— Habakkuk did not understand why things were happening to him

— David does not understand why the Lord allowed Saul’s soldiers to hunt him

— David, like Habakkuk, committed himself to God and waited faithfully and expectantly for God’s deliverance

David’s Second Appeal to God

— David’s first appeal focused on the bloodthirsty men who sought this life (vv. 1-5)

— In his second appeal David is appealing to God deal with his enemies (vv. 10-13)

— To “bring them down” (v. 11)

— “let them be caught in their pride” (v. 12)

— “consume them in wrath, consume them til they are no more” (v. 13)

— Then David says this interesting statement

Psalm 59:11 “Do not slay them, or my people will forget”

— He asks God not to destroy them at once

— Do so gradually so that the people can see and learn from it

— This says something important about evil and God’s willingness to let evildoers survive for a time

— God allows it so that we will learn from it

— We see that evil is short-lived and carries the seed of destruction in itself

— We know that judgment does come upon the wicked in the end (v. 13)

This understanding of evil must have been in David’s mind for a long time, for these are almost the same words he used when he went out to fight Goliath. He told the Philistine champion, “This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Sam 17:46)

David’s Foes and God Almighty

— Earlier David described his enemies as wild dogs

—Here he is noting their punishment, particularly their howls of frustration when they are “not satisfied”

— Remember that

— Not only does evil carry within it the seeds of its own destruction

— It is not capable of being satisfied either

— When God cursed the serpent he said, “You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life” (Gen 3:14)

— Snakes don’t eat dirt, of course

— This is a way of saying that for those who pursue evil everything they taste will turn to ashes in their mouth

— As for the godly, they know that the God will “prepare a table” for them “in the presence of [their] enemies” and that “goodness and love will follow [them] all the days of their lives (Ps 23:5-6)

The Refrain

— Now we come to the refrain a second time (vv. 9, 17)

— Earlier David said he would “watch” (v. 9)

— Now he will “sing”

— In Hebrew the words watch and sing are identical except for one letter

— Which is one way of saying that keeping one’s eyes on God is only a stroke away from singing his praises

— Do you lack joy?

— If so, it is probably because you are not watching for God, are not looking to him

Psalm 60

Psalm 60 is a corporate lament, after a military defeat. King David leads his people to acknowledge God’s anger towards them, as their defenses had been broken down by the enemy. God delivers those whom he loves, but his desire is also for holiness. In His wisdom, God allowed the people to suffer defeat. And so, David prays that God would again fight for them.

If God Does Not God with Us

— This is the last psalm with a historical setting in the life of David

— The title describes battles David won long after he had become king

— Psalm 60 is an important historical document as Derek Kidner notes: “[Except] for this psalm and its title we should have no inkling of the resilience of David’s hostile neighbors at the peak of his power”

The Historical Background

— The background is found in 2 Sam 8:1-14.

— In the part of the book immediately before this several things are recorded

— First David become king over all Israel (2 Sam 5:1-5)

— Second, he conquers Jerusalem and makes it the capital (5:6-16)

— Next, he achieves decisive victories over the Philistines (5:17-25)

— Fourth, he brings the ark to Jerusalem (ch 6)

— Fifth, God send Nathan to David and tells him that God will establish his throne forever (ch 7)

— And then a description of the battles (2 Sam 8:1-6)

— If we put the title of this psalm together with the description of the battles we learnt that

— While David was away from Jerusalem the Edomites staged an uprising

— The title describes sending Joab, one of his chief commanders, to subdue the uprising

This tells us that even in times of unprecedented blessing there are nevertheless defeats. Some Jewish cities were still being overrun by enemies. Some people were still being killed. Should we expect things to be different? It is a fallen world. Even in times of blessing we can expect some things to go wrong. In fact, even when we are closest to the Lord ourselves, we can be sure that there are still areas of our lives that will cause us trouble and need correcting.

Defeat in the Midst of Victory

— The defeat is portrayed as great disaster

— It was like an earthquake (v. 2)

— We know how terrifying earthquakes are in Southern California

— Second, is the image of drunkenness (v. 3)

— This is an OT image of God’s outpoured wrath (cf. Psalm 75:8; Is 51:17, 22; Jer 13:13; 25:15-16; 49:12)

— Isaiah is representative

Isaiah 51:17 “Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem,

You who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of His anger;

The chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs.”

— God was angry with the people and rejected them (v. 1)

— But not all the people (v. 4)

— Let’s apply this to the church

— Churches sometimes fail because some bring disgrace to the gospel

— Churches are sometimes torn open by some factious members

An Appeal to God and God’s Answer

— David asks God for help for those who have been attacked by the Edomites (v. 5)

— Followed by God’s answer (vv. 6-8)

— Israel was surrounded by three enemies: Moab, Edom and Philistia (v.8)

— The psalmist pictures Moab as a humble, menial servant to God, either being or bringing a washbasin for his use

— Edom pictures a man entering his house and throwing his shoe to his servant, Edom

— Edom, like Moab, was a servant under God’s sovereign control

— Philistia - God is exalted as victor/ruler

Two Lessons to Be Drawn

— What lessons is David learning?

1. Only God can give victory

— When David speaks of “the fortified city” he can only mean Petra

— It was the most inaccessible and apparently impregnable mountain stronghold of Edom

— It is approached through a narrow cut in the limestone cliffs that winds inward for about two miles and is called a siq

— In some places it is so narrow that only two men on horseback can pass

— A handful of men could defend this siq against an army

— Only God could give victory over a fortress like that, and David knew it (v. 11)

2. We must ask for it

— We do not command armies or fight battles like David

— But we have spiritual battles (Eph 6:12)

— We need God to fight with us and on our behalf

— James said “You do not have because you do not ask God” (James 4:2)

— Jesus expressed the other side of James, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matt 7:7)

Psalm 64

Psalm 64 is a psalm for protection, as he is assailed by his enemies. He cries out to God, to hear his voice, because his life is in danger. He asks that God would hide him from the schemes of the wicked, who are steadfast in their intentions. The king expresses confidence that God will shoot his arrows, and bring them to ruin. Thus, the righteous can rejoice, and take refuge in him.

Sudden Destruction for the Wicked

— It is not very often that David composes a psalm without mentioning his enemies

— The fact that David mentions his enemies so often gives some idea of how many enemies he had and what his life as the king of Israel was like

The Psalmist’s Complaint

— The psalm begins by David asking God to hear his complaint

— Here is the word is used as a complaint in a legal proceeding — that is, one who initiates an action calling for reparation or redress

— David brings his case to God

— We would be wise to bring everything to God, whatever our particular burden may be

1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

The Threat from the Wicked

— This psalm spends most of its time on the wicked who are attacking David

— vv. 2-6 provides us a helpful study of this particular kind of evil

1. Their Nature (v. 2)

—Wickedness takes many forms

— In this case it involves practitioners in a “conspiracy” to do hard

— What David faced was the secret plotting of his enemies to bring him down

2. Their weapons (v. 3)

— Their weapons on words

— These people “sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows”

— In Pss 57, 58 David compared the words of his enemies as arrows shot at him secretly from hiding, as he does here

— The apostle James has strong words to say about this evil (Jam 3:5-8)

— The words of God are even more effective (Is 55:10-11)

Remember that we are called upon to fight the Lord’s battles with the Lord’s weapons, not the weapons of the world. The worlds’ weapons are money, power, and influence. Our weapons are the Word of God and prayer. It is said of the warfare of the saints against Satan in Revelation, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev 12:11)

3. Their methods (v. 4)

— It was secret and sudden warfare

Psalm 64:4 “To shoot from concealment at the blameless; Suddenly they shoot at him, and do not fear.”

— Who can protect us from the arrow that is launched by night or from some hidden covert?

— Only God, who is the psalmist’s trust

4. Their plans (v. 5)

— Charles haddon Spurgeon wrote, “Good men are frequently discouraged and not unfrequently discourage one another, but the children of darkness are wise in their generation and keep their spirits up, and each one has a cheering word to say to his fellow villain”

— If the wicked can do that, what is wrong with us? — Shouldn’t Christians encourage and strengthen one another, rather than attacking one another, as we often do?

Their pride (v. 6)

— The last thing to say about the wicked is that they thing that they have “devised the perfect plan”

— But, as we will see, it is actually the wicked that are foolish

— Anyone who leaves God out of his or her life is a fool (see Pss 14:1; 53:1; Rom 1:21-23)

God’s Sudden Intervention

— The destruction of the wicked comes quickly

— In just a verse and a half

— It is hard to read about the sudden destruction of the wicked and not think about Haman and Mordecai in the Book of Ester

Three Lessons to Be Drawn

— The last two and half verses sketch three lessons to be drawn

— First, the wicked will be exposed (v. 8)

— Second, people will be directed to “fear” God and “ponder what he has done” (v. 9)

— Third, the righteous will “rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him” (v. 10)

— It takes faith to trust God and look ahead to the future destruction of the wicked

— But true faith wins that victory

Psalm 65

Psalm 65 is a psalm of thanksgiving, in response to God’s character and his works. David praises God because He is holy, good, and atones for transgressions. As He created the mountains and the seas, the ends of the earth are in awe of his power, and sets their hopes in Him. God sustains his creation, watering the earth, and causing growth. As a result the meadows and the valleys respond with joyful singing.

All Good Gifts from Our Good God

—This a psalm about nature

— But it is also a psalm about the God of nature

— This is a beautiful description of the blessings God bestows on field and meadow

The Occasion and Outline of the Psalm

— This was probably composed around the annual harvest festival, the Feast of the Tabernacles

— This is after the crops have been brought in and people are celebrating the abundance of the harvest

— Part of the celebration consisted of offering the first fruits to God (Lev 23:33-43; Num 29:12-39)

— This psalm also used the word atone or atonement (v. 3 inexplicably rendered, “you forgive our transgressions” in recent NIV and NASB translations)

— This may be significant because the Day of Atonement comes almost immediately before the Feast of Tabernacles

The God of Saving Grace

— While the festival might be a Jewish festival only, God is a prayer-hearing God to “whom all men will come” (v. 2)

— And, “the hope of all the ends of the earth” (v. 5)

— And, “those living far away fear your wonders” (v. 8)

— Perhaps the most striking thing about the psalms is that atonement is described as something that God himself does

— It is not the people who make atonement, or even the high priest, it is God

— “You forgave [actually, atoned for] our transgressions” (v. 3)

The Mighty God, the Lord

— God is gracious but also mighty

— He establishes the mountains and stills the roaring seas (v. 6)

— The high mountains and the turbulent, unpredictable seas are some of the most awesome displays of nature known to man

God of a Plenteous Harvest

— God has shown both this power and grace in blessing the land of the harvest (vv. 9-10)

— He waters the fields

— He causes the crops to grow

Shouting for Joy

— David suddenly says that the meadows, flocks, and grain all “shout for joy and sing” (v. 13)

— They don’t shout but they would if they could

— Jesus said, at the time of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the Pharisees wanted him to rebuke his disciples for their praise, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Lk 19:40)

Psalm 67

Psalm 67 is a prayer for God’s blessing, on both Israel and the nations. The psalmist asks that God would shine his face upon his people, and make His saving power known among the earth. He prays that the nations would be glad, and all people would praise Him. The psalm ends with a confident expression of trust: God has already shown His goodness, therefore He will bless again.

The Shining Face of God

— Many regard this as a favorite psalm along with Pss 14 and 23

—One commentator called this “a missionary psalm”

God’s Blessing on Israel

— The psalm begins and ends with a prayer that God might bless Israel

— And that the God of Israel might be known and feared among the Gentiles

1. The Aaronic blessing

— In Num 6 God told to have Aaron bless the people

Numbers 6:24–26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you,

And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’”

— What is meant by this blessing is that God would enter into a personal relationship with is people

— This is what a real blessing is, of course

— We think that being blessed is being rich

— Jesus overthrew this narrow, selfish idea

Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”

— This is the blessing that is alluded to in the opening of this psalm (v. 1)

2. Gentile Salvation

— The blessing is to be known in the whole earth (v. 2)

— The whole earth might come to hear and believe the gospel and so be saved

God’s Blessing on the Nations

— This stanza asks that the Gentiles might come to know and praise God (vv. 3-5)

1. The power of God in his people

— John Stott says that ta great hindrance to evangelism is the church’s failure to give evidence of the power of God in an individual’s life

— Does your life show forth the presence of God within?

— Does anyone ever look at you and think, “God certainly makes a difference for that Christian”

2. The power of God’s Word through his people

— In order for the nations to know God we must tell them

— Our failure is to tell others

Q: How was the priestly blessing of Aaron, or any priest, to actually come to the people?

— Blessings come by bringing his Word to them

— OT priests performed sacrifices but they also spoke the Word too

— Romans 15:15-16 Paul speaks of our priestly duty

— We are to proclaim the gospel so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God

— Paul saw himself as a priest

— The way that he exercised his priesthood was by evangelism

— Exodus 19:5-6 says that all of God’s people are to be priests

— 1 Pet 2:9-10 says once you were not a people, but now you are a people and you are royal priesthood

Blessings Now and Later

— The third and final stanza is surprising one respect

— It mentions God causing the land to yield a good harvest (v. 6)

— This is the first time any material blessing has been mentioned

— The desire of the people is that God will bless them and the surrounding nations will see it

— They will see that God loves his people ( cf. Deut 28:1-6)

— But, still the greatest blessing of the psalm is to see God face to face and that takes us back to the beginning of the psalm

Psalm 68

Psalm 68 is a psalm of praise, for God is the King, and who leads His people to victory. David begins by declaring that God’s enemies shall be scattered, but the righteous shall be glad. They shall sing to Him, because He is a Father to orphans, and a protector of widows. When God marches, the earth quakes. When He speaks, kings flee. His army is great, and Sinai is His sanctuary. God is King, the Lord of salvation. He strikes the head of his enemies, and will lead a triumphal procession. Because of these truths, the psalmist exhorts the kingdoms of the earth to sing to God. They should ascribe power to Him, and bless Him for His power.

God Who Saves

— This is a song of military trump

— It was the battle song of the French Huguenots and the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598)

— Charlemagne and Oliver Cromwell loved this psalm

— In 1812, after Napoleon’s disastrous retreat from Moscow, a service was held to celebrate the city’s deliverance and this was psalm was preached

Outline and Historical Setting

— The psalm has ten stanzas

— Each stanza relates something different about God

— And the psalm abounds with different names for God (Yahweh, Yah, Elohim, El, Adonai, Shaddai)

— The occasion is probably the entrance of the ark into Jerusalem ( 2 Sam 6)

— There is not easy to discern if this psalm is messianic

The Prologue: “Arise, O Lord”

— The first verse "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered” is a reference back to Num 10:25-36.

— The Jews had received the law and had constructed the wilderness tabernacle

— The ark of the covenant was placed in the holy of holies

— A massive Shekinah glory represented God’s presence among his people

— When the cloud rose and moved forward the people were instructed to march forward

Two things are said of God in this prologue. First, he scatters his enemies, who are the wicked (vv. 1-2). Second, he cares for the weak and the abandoned (vv. 5-6). Specifically, he is “a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,” one who “sets the lonely in families,” and who “leads forth the prisoners with singing.” This is a revelation of God’s character, which is always to uplift the downtrodden and comfort the lonely.

The Virgin Mary understood this about God and may have even have deliberately echoes Psalm 68 in her Magnificat (Luke 1:51-53).

The kings and rulers of this world do not act like this. They surround themselves with the noblest and richest of their lands, those who can enhance their glory and strengthen their power. The highest glory of God is that he cares for the miserable and surrounds himself with them. Therefore, the righteous must be glad and praise him. They do at the end of stanza one (v. 3) and at the start of stanza two (v. 4).

The March: Setting Out from Sinai

— The words that begin this stanza (vv. 7-10) pick up directly from the prologue

— This is when the people finally set out from Sinai on the march to Canaan

— This is what these verses describe

The March: Victory over the Kings

— The fourth stanza (vv. 11-14) describes the conquest of Canaan

— There are some puzzling images here

— “the wings of [God’s] dove… sheathed with silver” (v. 13)

— “while you sleep among the campfires” (v. 13)

Verse 11 has taken on importance beyond the original context of this psalm

— Perowne says, “The deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh’s host, the overthrow of Sisera, and David’s victory over Goliath were all thus celebrated”

Psalm 68:11 “The Lord gives the command; The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host:”

— This has been referred to as a reference to the great commission (Matt 28:19)

The March: Arriving at Mount Zion

— The fifth stanza is the longest

— Several points are worth noting

1. God’s choice of small things

— God is not impressed by greatness, as we think of it

— Rather, he chooses the weak and lowly things of this world as vehicles for his great acts

— Mary spoke of God lifting up the humble and filing the hungry with good things

— David was from a lowly family and the youngest of eight sons

— Remember how Paul put it (1 Cor 1:26-31)

— If you consider yourself being poor, weak, or unimportant, do not consider that as a handicap or disadvantage

— Instead consider it as an opportunity for God to show his power in you

2. The entrance of God into his sanctuary

— Verse 17 is the high point

— It describe the entrance of God into his sanctuary:

Psalm 68:17 “The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands;

The Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness.”

3. Paul’s use of verse 18

— One of the fascinating things about this psalm is the way Paul used it in Ephesians

— Th e psalm describes God receiving gifts from men

Psalm 68:18 “You have ascended on high, You have led captive Your captives;

You have received gifts among men,

Even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell there.”

— Paul describes Jesus dispensing gifts to men

— It seems to be a wrong or at least unjustified twisting of the OT quotation

Ephesians 4:7–8 “When He ascended on high,

He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.”

—The solution may be in the in the image itself; a victorious king would both receive and dispense them, particularly the spoils of his conquest.

MacArthur comments on this text When He ascended on high. Paul used an interpretive rendering of Ps 68:18 as a parenthetical analogy to show how Christ received the right to bestow the spiritual gifts (v. 7). Psalm 68 is a victory hymn composed by David to celebrate God’s conquest of the Jebusite city of Jerusalem and the triumphant ascent of God up to Mt. Zion (cf. 2 Sa 6,7; 1 Ch 13). After such a triumph, the king would bring home spoils and the prisoners. Here Paul depicts Christ returning from His battle on earth back into the glory of the heavenly city with the trophies of His great victory at Calvary led captive a host of captives. Through His crucifixion and resurrection, Christ conquered Satan and death, and in triumph returned to God those who were once sinners and prisoners of Satan (cf. Col 2:15). gave gifts to men. He distributes the spoils throughout his kingdom. After His ascension came all the spiritual gifts empowered by the Spirit, who was then sent (see Jn 7:39; 14:12; Ac 2:33)

Salvation Now and to Come

— A major shift in Psalm 69 occurs at verse 19, marked by the word daily

— At this point it begins to praise God for being the same in the present as he has been in the past

— He looks ahead to what God will yet do

— What are they to do now?

1. They are to praise God

— Earlier during the recap of the victories no mention of praising God (vv 7-18)

— There is a call for praise once the victories are past and the nation is firmly settled (24-27)

— It comes to a peak (32-35)

— The psalm ends: “Praise be to God!” (v. 35)

— God acts, his acts result in his people’s salvation, and they praise him for it

2. They are to continue to trust God

— The second thing they are to do is trust God

— He is a “God who saves” (v. 19); “Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9)

Salvation to Come: Future Victories

— The seventh stanza (vv. 21-23) deals with the people’s future victories

— The language seems bloodthirsty

— If this is a messianic reference, if we are to think not of Israel’s enemies but of God’s enemies, then it is appropriate to think of such complete destruction and rejoice in it

Salvation to Come: Procession of the Tribes

— The eighth stanza (vv. 24-27) describes a procession making its way up to Jerusalem

— The description of bringing the ark back to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:5; 1 Ch 13:8; 15:16-28)

Salvation to Come: The Messianic Age

— The ninth stanza (vv. 28-31) describes the gathering of the people and nations of the world to God’s city

1. All the nations will come

— He mentions a few by name and suggests others by poetic language

— There is no discrimination, all may come

2. It is the power of God that will draw them

— This sounds like Bible theology

John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you”

Epilogue: “Praise Be to God!”

— In the final stanza all the nations of the earth are called to praise God (vv. 32-35)

— At the beginning of the psalm the focus was on Israel

— At the end the focus is on all the kingdoms of the earth

Psalm 69

Psalm 69 is an imprecatory psalm, that pleads for God’s deliverance, and for the destruction of the wicked. David expresses despair, as he waits for salvation. His enemies are numerous. They have alienated the king, and intend to harm him. David mourns. His zeal is for God’s house, even though it brings him reproach. He prays that the Lord would deliver him, because of His steadfast love. David also asks that God would confound his enemies — that he would visit upon them punishment and desolation. Then he will praise God with the heavens and the earth.

Man of Sorrows

— It was difficult to say about Psalm 68 if it was messianic

— There is no question that this psalm is about Jesus

— This is why, for instance, next to Pss 22 and 110, it is the psalm most frequently cited in the NT

— Seven of its thirty-six verses are directly quoted

The Original Setting

— The psalm is about a man hurting who is asking God for help

— Even though the psalm is messianic some of the expressions do not apply to Jesus

— For instance this verse cannot be said about Jesus:

Psalm 69:5 “O God, it is You who knows my folly, And my wrongs are not hidden from You.”

A Lament and a Plea for Help

— This psalm is a classic lament

— I am sure you have felt like the psalmist — overwhelmed

— Waters up to his neck (v. 1)

— Stuck in mire where he cannot gain a foothold (v. 2)

— Weary of crying and his throat is parched (v. 3)

— Consider this psalm in three parts

(1) What it meant to David is this situation

(2) What it tells us about Jesus and his suffering

(3) What it ought to mean to use

A Brief Confession of Sin

— Next we see David acknowledging his foolishness and guilt (v. 5)

— The godly live without blame as much as they can

— But they nonetheless know their lack of wisdom and acknowledge their deep guilt before God

A First Renewal of the Lament (vv. 6-12)

— This psalm’s outline is unique

— It repeats it’s outline

— It is a lament and then an appeal for help and this pattern repeats itself with more detail being added

— In the first lament and appeal for help (vv. 1-4) David complained about being attacked

— Here is the first renewal of the lament (vv. 6-12) with the reason given

Psalm 69:7 “Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Dishonor has covered my face.”

— and because “zeal for your house consumes me” (v. 9)

— Two lines in this section are explicitly identified with Jesus

— The first is the first half of verse 9 (cf. Jn 2:17)

— The second of the same verse (“the insults of those who insult you fall on me”), which Paul applied to Jesus (Ro 15:3)

— Paul’s point is that Jesus behavior is an example for us

— We should not seek to please ourselves

— We should work for other’s well-being

— If we read through the first part of the psalm we will see many examples of the kind of insults Jesus endured

1. Enemies

— His enemies “outnumber the hairs of [his] head” (v. 4)

— Jesus quoted this about himself (Jn 15:25)

2. His brothers

— “I am a stranger to my brothers” (v. 8)

— Even Jesus’ brothers did not believe (Jn 7:2-5)

3. A proverb

— Barnhouse writes

Still further in this psalm we see that he became a proverb to his people — a byword (v. 11). We know how a Christian student may be sneered at on a college campus — called a “Christer” or a “Holy Joe.” [Today we speak of “religious nuts,” the “radical right” or the “God squad.”] We do not know what the slang phrase was by which Christ was thus deprecated, but our text leaves no doubt of the face. He was a byword of the people

4. The drunkards

— Here we find men who mock the Savior who died for them

A Lifetime of Insults

— Jesus bore a lifetime of insults for God and for our sake

— When he spoke the truth about sin, the leaders were incensed (Jn 8:41)

— When he spoke about salvation by simple, electing grace the Pharisees tried to push him over a precipice (Lk 4:29)

— When he cast out demons they accused him of being Beelzebub (Mat 12:24)

— When he hung on the cross they mocked him with the claims that he had made (Mat 27:40)

— If there was ever an example of one who was willing to bear even the worst of abuses in order to please God the Father, it was Jesus

A First Renewal of the Plea for Help (vv. 13-18)

— The new idea in this stanza is David’s description of himself as God’s “servant” (v. 17)

— Isaiah gave us great Servant Songs which point to Christ (Is 42; 49; 50; 53)

— “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28)

A Second Renewal of the Lament (vv. 19-21)

— Like the other renewals these verses also introduce something new

— The first is that the psalmist claims that God knows he is being scorned (v. 19)

— This is the second time he claimed that God knows something - earlier it was his folly and guilt (v. 5)

— It is helpful to know that God knows what we are going through

— There is comfort for us to know that he knows

— Verse 21 deserves special consideration

Psalm 69:21 “They also gave me gall for my food And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

— Few OT verses are quoted in the NT and fewer still more than once

— This verses is quoted in each of the four gospels (Matt 27:34, 48; Mark 15:23, 26; Lk 23:36; Jn 19:29)

— John says that Jesus was offered wine vinegar to drink “so that the scripture would be fulfilled,” an unmistakable reference to this psalm

A Second Renewal of the Plea for Help (vv 22-28)

— This is a call for God’s swift and utter judgment on the psalmist’s enemies

— It is am imprecatory prayer

— It ends with these terrifying words, “May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous” (v. 28)

— David is calling for God’s swift vengeance on his enemies

— He is not proposing or even wanting take vengeance himself

— But we remember that Jesus told us to forgive our enemies (Matt 5:43-45)

— On the cross Jesus prayed for his enemies (Lk 23:34)

Alexander Maclaren handles the seeming incompatibility of Psalm 69 with these texts by saying, “It is impossible to bring such utterances into harmony with the teachings of Jesus, and the attempt to vindicate them ignores plain facts and does violence to plain words. Better far to let them stand as a monument of the earlier stage of God’s progressive revelation, and discern clearly the advance which Christian ethics has made of them”

Blessings that Become Curses

Yet this is not the whole story. It is true that we are not to take vengeance. Paul says this in Romans, writing, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom 12:19). But just because we are not to take judgment into our hands does not mean that we should not want justice to be done or that God will not punish sin eventually. It is significant in this respect that Paul, the same author who says, “Do not take revenge…but leave room for God’s wrath,” also quotes verses 22-23 of Psalm 69 (in Rom 11:9-10) as a prophecy of a judicial blinding of the majority of the people of Israel because of their rejection of Jesus Christ

— Paul makes the point in Romans that the things that should have been a blessing to them

— The adoption as sons

— The divine glory

— The covenants

— Receiving the Law

— The temple worship

— The patriarchs (vv. 4-5)

— Had all become a “snare,” “trap,” “stumbling block”

— This means that if the blessings of God are misused ti will lead to further sin and greater judgment

— If we do not allow the good things we enjoy as Christians to lead us to Christ, these same things will lead to even greater spiritual stupor, hardness of heart and sin

— Here are four examples:

1. Baptism

— Countless people have trusted the outward sign without the inward commitment

— They have judged themselves to be saved without truly following Christ

2. The Lord’s Supper

— Catholics teach that grace is imparted in the taking of the elements, so that the physical act by itself conveys salvation

— If we do not trust Christ, the sacrament, which is intended to do us good, actually becomes a curse and we become pagan in our practive

Material possessions

— Money and other material things are from God

— They should lead us to God in gratitude

— More often they lead us away from him

The Lord’s Day

— From Donald Grey Barnhouse

My fourth example is our misuse of the Lord’s Day. On December 7, 1941, the air force of imperial Japan bombed the American navy at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II and altering the course of history. It was a terrible disaster for this country, since it crippled the Pacific fleet and claimed 2,403 young lives. The bombing took place on Sunday morning. What is not well known is that after the defeat of Japan in 1945, General Douglas MacArthur took control of the archives of the Japanese war department and set translators to work on the enemy’s papers. They discovered that in the years prior to the war the Japanese had sent professors to the United States to study America’s national character to determine at what point and in what manner we would be most vulnerable to attack, when it should come. Their reports stated that we would be most vulnerable on a Sunday morning following a Friday on which both the army and navy had a payday.

And that is precisely what December 7, 1941, was. In earlier years Sundays were sacred days of rest and worship for the majority of Americans, and even those who were not Christians respected them. But that had changed by the winter of 1941. Our day of national blessing had become a national hangover, and God turned this former blessing into a curse. That weekend at Pearl Harbor was a debauch of vast proportions, and we were unprepared and unable to meet the Japanese attack when it came.

A Brief Interjection

— In verse 29 David seems to reiterate his profound and calls on God to protect him

Conclusion: Let God Be Praised

— There is a lot of sorrow and tragedy in life

— A person would have to be blind to not see it

— But for the Christian tragedy is never the final word

— So this is the note on which the psalm ends

— Verse 35 came after David and was probably added for the benefit of congregational worship

— The original psalm would have ended with verse 33

— This would be a perfect conclusion

— This verse is the key to the psalm

Psalm 69:33 “For the Lord hears the needy And does not despise His who are prisoners.”

— God does not always remove the pain or troubling times

— The Father did not remove the cup from Jesus

— God nevertheless heard his prayer and did not despise his agony

— Moreover, he sent angels to minister to him so that he might go through his trail gloriously for God

— Be assured that this will be the case with you

Psalm 70

Psalm 70 is a prayer for protection. David asks God to deliver him, and that his adversaries would be put to shame. He prays that they would be dishonored, but that all who truly seek the Lord would rejoice. David concludes by confessing his needy state, and asking that the Lord would hasten his deliverance.

“Let God be Exalted”

— This psalm is a repetition of Psalm 40 (vv. 13-17)

— Earlier we saw an almost exact duplication of Psalm 14 and Psalm 53

— We might ask ourselves what the relationship is between these two psalms

Psalm 40 and Psalm 70

— It is possible that Psalm 40 was originally two psalms

— The first part (vv. 1-12)

— The second part (vv. 13-17)

— Psalm 70 may be have been detached from the Psalm 40 with the goal of making it into a distinct composition for later user

— The intent seems to have been to stress the urgency of the psalmist’s plight and highlight the need for God to hurry to his defense

The Psalmist’s Plight

— What is immediately apparent is that the writer is in serious trouble and call on God to help him quickly

— We don’t know what the trouble was

— It had to do with enemies who were mocking him (v. 3)

— And were seeking his life (v. 2)

— David was nearly always in close fellowship with God and was called “a man after his own heard” (1 Sam 13:14)

— Yet he had constant troubles and nearly constant danger

— If that was true of David, should we be surprised if that is often our experience too?

The Psalmist's Prayer

— This psalm is a prayer

— David prays for three things

1. For himself: for quick deliverance

— David gets right to the point and calls on God to help him

— Praying not for others but for himself (v. 1)

2. For his enemies: for their shame and confusion

— Next he prays for his enemies (vv. 2-3)

— But this is not the way that Jesus taught us to pray for enemies (Matt 5:43-44)

—David prays that (1) those who seek his life “may …be put to shame and confusion” (v. 2)

— and (2) that those who desire his ruin “may…be turned back in disgrace” (v. 2)

— and (3) those who mock him may “turn back because of their shame” (v. 3)

— The kindest thing we can pray for is that people who do evil will have their plans fail

— That in their frustration they will see the folly and true end of evil and seek God

3. For the righteous: for their delight in God

— He prays for the righteous

— it is important to remember that there are other people who are trying to do exactly what we are trying to do

— If you are sick, you are in a better position to pray for other sick people

The Psalmist’s Persuasion

— The last verse is psalmist's most basic persuasion

— The height of faith is not to presume God will save us just in time

— David was convinced that we are needy and that we cannot help ourselves, and that God is the only one who can

Psalm 71

Psalm 71 is a prayer for salvation that gives thanks for God’s steadfast righteousness. The psalmist begins by expressing his trust in the Lord, who is his rock and fortress. He prays that God would rescue him from wicked men, who say that his is forsaken. The psalmist asks that God would draw close, and hasten His salvation, so that he can praise the Lord yet more. God has been faithful throughout the generations. So, the psalmist anticipates God’s comfort, and will respond with shouts of joy.

A Psalm for Old Age

— The Septuagint ascribes this Psalm to David

— It is the last psalm in book 2 of the Psalter

— As for the outline, no two commentators divide the psalm the same way

— The psalm handles four problems

(1) old age and its problems

(2) how the past looks from the perspective of old age

(3) the future in terms of what is yet to be done

(4) praise from one who has lived long enough to have observed God’s faithful ways

Old Age and Its Problems

— At one time old people were honored and respected

— That is no longer the case in America

— David didn’t have that problem, of course

— He lists some basic problems

1. Weakness, the loss of former strength or abilities

— Many of us can’t read the small print

— We get tired fast

— We can’t even sleep as well, and we wake up three or four times throughout the night

— This is what David is talking about when he says

Psalm 71:9 “Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails.”

2. A continuation of troubles, particularly enemies

— Our problems don’t go away as we get older

— And some of them are augmented because of our diminished strength to deal with them

— We have health problems, financial problems elder care problems and so on...

— In David’s case he writes of his enemies who are dangerous people (v. 10)

3. Being alone, no one to help

— The third thing that bothered David is that as he grew older he had fewer people to help him, to solve or shoulder these burdens

— His enemies argued that even God had deserted him (v. 11)

— Maybe you feel that way too

Looking to the Past: Our Faithful God

— We are not wring our hands and complain about bad it is to grow old, on the contrary

— David wants us to see that even old age is given to us by God

— it is one of his good gifts and it should be used for his glory, and the blessing and well-being of others

— One good point of old age is we have a long experience of God’s presence, faithfulness, and blessings

1. David had known God from his youth and even before that

— David says that the Lord has been his confidence since his youth (vv. 5-6)

— He remembers how he trusted the Lord in his childhood

— He was a man of God even before he was a man (1 Sam 16:1-13)

I like the testimony of Polycarp, the aged Bishop of Smyrna, who was martyred on February 22, A.D. 156. As he was being driven to the arena where he would be given the choice of worshiping Caesar or, refusing, being offered to the lions, the city officials tried to persuade him to make the gesture of homage to Caesar. They had respect for him because of his age and reputation and argued, “What harm is there in saying, ‘Caesar is Lord,’ and burning incense…and saving yourself?” But Polycarp answered, “For eighty-six years I have been [Christ’s] slave, and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” Despite his age and undoubted physical weakness, Polycarp was not weak. He was strong in faith. In fact, he was never stronger, because he remembered the strength and faithfulness of God to him throughout the many long years of his service as Christ’s slave. So it will be with you if, in your old age, you recall God’s love and faithfulness to you over your lifetime

2. David had become a “a portent” to many

— The word portent (v. 7) is hard to define

— It can be taken in a good sense as to marvel at God’s protecting care

— This is the way that it is treated in the NASB

— Or it can have a negative meaning and refer to the greatness of his sufferings

— Since we have such a complete picture of David’s life we can understand it as applying to his trials and blessing, of perils and deliverances

Looking Ahead: The Next Generation

— Some people only look back and that life are filled with regret

— The present does not mean much to them and they constantly complain

— David’s approach to old age wasn’t like this

— He looked back at God’s faithfulness

— He looked forward to what God was yet to do (vv. 17-18)

The Present: Praising God Now

— David looks to the present and bears witness to God now

— He praises God who is righteous (vv. 19-21)

— And faithful (vv. 22-24)

Psalm 72

Psalm 72 is a prayer that asks for God to prosper his anointed king. Solomon asks that the royal son would know God’s justice and righteousness — that he would lead the people in a way that honors Him. He prays for the king’s dominion to increase, and that nations would serve him. Solomon asks that the anointed king would enjoy abundance and fame and that the nations would bless him. In this way, the God of Israel would be blessed, and His glory would fill the whole earth.

David’s Son and David’s Greater Son

—There is no good reason for denying that the last psalm of book two is by the new king (Solomon)

— But the church as always held that this psalm portrays the ideal king, the Lord Jesus Christ

— The psalm describes five qualities of Christ’s kingdom

(1) its character (vv. 1-4)

(2) its duration (vv. 5-7)

(3) its expanse (vv. 8-11)

(4) its nature (vv. 12-14)

(5) its blessing (vv. 15-17)

The Character of the Kingdom: Righteousness

— The first verse asks that the king be endowed with righteousness

— So endowed, the king will judge the people in righteousness (v. 20

— The fruit of this judgment is prosperity (v. 3)

Q: Did Solomon possess righteousness ?

— Yes, in his early years (1 Ki 3:5-28; 10:1-9)

— Unfortunately, as his reign progressed he turned away from the Lord and followed other gods

The Duration of the Kingdom: Endless

— The second stanza (vv. 5-7) describes Christ’s eternal kingdom

— David reigned for forty-years and then died

— Solomon reigned for forty-years as well

— But Christ’s kindgom is an ever-lasting kingdom

— Righteousness brings blessings, just as Proverbs states (Pr 14:34)

The Expanse of the Kingdom: Universal

— The third stanza speaks of the great expanse of the kingdom (vv. 8-11)

— It is from “river to the ends of the earth,” (v. 8)

— Solomon’s kingdom extended from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean (1 ki 4:21; 2 Chr 9:26)

— Christ’s kingdom extends over all places and all ages (vv. 11)

The Nature of the Kingdom: Compassionate

— The fourth characteristic of the kingdom is its nature: compassionate (vv. 12-14)

— Those who are need and cry out receive help (v. 12)

— Those in danger of death are saved (v. 13)

The Blessings of the Kingdom: Prosperity for All

— The final stanza describes the blessings that will come from Christ's rule (vv. 15-17)

— Gold pouring in from Sheba

— Grain and fruit thriving on the tops of hills, the least productive parts of the land

— Prosperity of every conceivable kind

— Rich in spiritual blessings as well (v. 17)

— Spiritual blessings is the true mark of prosperity (Eph 1:3)

Praise to the God of Israel

— A doxology ends this psalm

— We are to pray for this world’s kingdoms (1 Tim 2:1-2)

— But we are not to suppose that our elected officials will bring the kingdom

— As Charles Colson famously said, “The kingdom of God does not arrive on Air Fore One.”

— God’s kingdom arrives with God’s King, the Lord Jesus Christ

Psalm 77

Psalm 77 is a psalm of lament, in which Asaph cries aloud to God, as his spirit is faint. As troubles overwhelm him, the psalmist questions whether Yahweh has withheld His goodness — whether God has forgotten to be gracious. He prays to the Most High, remembering His previous mighty deeds. God had shown Himself in the past to be glorious, as He redeemed His people. He saved His people through the waters, and in this the psalmist finds comfort.

Remembering

— Asaph the psalmist is unhappy and puzzled about what God is doing (or not doing) in the lives of his people

— He describes his doubts and struggles and questions his inability to find satisfying answers

— God seem to have rejected both him and his people

— Notice that in the first six verses the use of “I or me” eighteen times

— In the last eight verses there are twenty-one mentions of God and no personal references at all (vv. 13-20)

Cries in the Night

—The first two verses express the psalmist’s plight

— God does not seem to be working in his life or the life of the nation (vv. 1-2)

— This is a portion of the psalms that appealed strongly to Charles Haddon Spurgeon

— He identified with Asaph’s physical and spiritual anguish

— Spurgeon studied the psalms betwen 1865 and 1885

— During those twenty years he experienced ill health that continued to deteriorate until his death in 1892

— He had neuralgia and gout, which left him with swollen, red, painful limbs

— He frequently could not write or walk

— He had debilitating headaches and frightful bouts of depression, leading almost to despair

— About this psalm Spurgeon wrote

Some of us know what it is, both physically and spiritually, to be compelled to use these words; no respite has been afforded us by the silence of the night, our bed has been a rack to us, our body has been in torment, and our spirit in anguish…Alas, my God, the writer of this exposition well knows what thy servant Asaph meant, for his soul is familiar with the way of grief. Deep glens and lonely caves of soul depressions, my spirit knows full well your awful glooms

— This stanza is preoccupied with “I” and “me”

— This is all right

— If we hurt there is nothing wrong with expressing it and telling it to the Lord

— But we must not stop there, rehearsing our hurts endlessly

— We need to do as the psalmist does and focus on God and move on

Dark Memories of Bright Days

—In the second stanza (vv. 3-6) Asaph tells us more about his depressed state of mind

— What troubles him the most is his memories of former days when he was happy with God and sang songs in the night (vv. 5-6)

— In stanza four he remembers the mighty deed of God (v. 11), which is a significant shift of focus

— The verse goes on to show , however, that he is really thinking about himself

— But there are still a lot of “I” (six occurrences) and “my” (four occurrences)

Six Rhetorical Questions

—He was happy with God but not now

— God seems to be utterly absent

— So he asks a series of questions which are rhetorical (vv. 7-9)

Q: Well, what of these questions? Does the Lord reject his own forever?

— The answer is, of course not!

— God does not change or break his promises

— if the psalmist does not see God as favorable, it must because he is looking at things wrong

— He is the one who is wrong, not God

— As the apostle Paul was to write, “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Rom 3:4)

Constructive, Biblical Meditation

—Verse 10 is difficult to translate because it contains two words that are of doubtful meaning

psalm 77:10

— Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand. (NIV)

— Then I said, “It is my grief, That the right hand of the Most High has changed. (NASB)

— And I said, “This is my anguish; But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.” (NKJV)

— The word that the translators of the NIV render “appeal” might be

— supplication

— or affliction - which is used by the NASB and NKJV

— The word translated years could be change, which is what the NASB uses

Attributes of God

—Now the psalmist thinks of about God and the years of his working (vv. 13-15)

That God is holy

—Whatever God does is upright

— This has been true in the past and is true now

— He can always be trusted to do the right thing

That God is great

—In the previous stanza Asaph reflected on God’s “deeds” and “miracles” (v. 11)

— This leads him to ask “What god is so great as our God?” (v. 13)

— The answer is no god at all

—He is not only upright but able and does put all his holy decrees into action

That God is caring

—How do we know that God is caring?

— Because he redeemed his people, delivered them out of slavery (v. 15)

And this means that even allowing the psalmist to fall into depression with which the psalm began is not carelessness on God’s part, but rather a part of his total loving plan. This is practical theology of the best sort, for it reasons from the immutable character of God to purpose for his acts in history and takes comfort from such truths

God our Redeemer

—The last stanza continues the idea of the exodus introduced in stanza five (vv 16-20)

— The psalm adds details about the exodus that are missing in the earlier account by Moses

— Rain, thunder, lightning and the shaking of the earth (vv. 17-18)

The Lord our Shepherd

—The last verse has to do with the people’s wanderings and God’s gentle shepherding of them by Moses and Aaron

— What it says is that God who acted in mighty ways in the past also acts in calm, tender and loving ways

— This is what he is doing right now even though the psalmist did not realize it

Psalm 79

This psalm is a national lament, written after the fall of Jerusalem. The psalmist laments how the nations defiled the temple, left the city in ruins, and killed the people of God. He cries out, asking how long the judgment of Yahweh will persist. How long will His jealousy burn? The psalmist pleads for mercy and deliverance. He asks that God would hear the groans of those in exile, that they may give thanks and praise Him.

“Where is Their God?”

—There is no agreement on the historical setting of this psalm

— Most likely the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.

— The Jews seem to regard the classic interpretation because the psalm is recited at the Wailing Wall on Friday afternoons to this day

The Destruction of Jerusalem

—Psalm 74 covered Asaph’s distress of the destruction of the city

— This is Asaph’s lament (vv. 1-4)

— Both psalms ask how long this terrible state is to continue

— Will it go on forever?

— Both ask God to rise up and destroy those who have destroyed Judah

— Both look forward to a day when the people of God will be able to praise him for his mighty acts of deliverance once again

— But there are differences

— In Psalm 74 Asaph was concerned about the temple

— Here, he is concerned about the people, the causalities

— The fact that there were so few survivors and no one to bury them had been prophesied (Jer 7:33)

Hanging On to God

—The next two stanzas (vv. 5-8 and 9-12) are best taken together

— They are the substance of Asaph’s prayer following his lament (vv. 1-4)

How long will this punishment last?

—This is the big question

— In fact, it is often the question asked by God’s suffering or persecuted people

— They do not complain that their treatment is unjust; they acknowledge that they are sinners

— “How long, O LORD?” is their agonizing question

Saint Augustine asked it during the hours of his deepest soul struggles prior to his conversion, probably quoting this very psalm. He had retired into a far corner of the garden of a friend’s estate in Milan, Italy, under great conviction, knowing the truth but yet unable in himself to break with his old life of sin and commit himself to Jesus Christ. Here is how describes it: “I cast myself down I know not how, under a certain fig tree, giving vent to my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out and acceptable sacrifice to thee. And, not indeed in these words, yet to this purpose, spake I much unto thee: And thou, O Lord, how long? How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever? [This is where he quotes Psalm 79.] Remember not our former iniquities, for I felt that I was held by them.”

It was immediately after this that August heard the voice of a child singing the words Tolle lege! Tolle lege! (“Take up and read”), which he did. He picked up a Bible that was there in the garden, opened it at random, and came upon these words in Romans 13: “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Rom 13:13-14). Augustine did turn to Christ and was marvelously converted.

1. It is time to punish those who punish us

—When the psalmist asks God to punish his enemies we get uneasy because Jesus taught us to forgive and pray for our enemies (Matt 5:38-47)

— We should remember two things

— First, err on the side of being too lax

— We treat both virtue and vice lightly, forgetting that virtue should be rewarded and that evil should be punished

— Second, regardless of the attitude we take, justice will be done

— God sees the evil and will punish it

— This is a time of Grace

— But we should both warn people of this judgment and be diligent in taking the gospel to those who are without it

2. Forgive us our sins

—Every prayer should have a confession of sin

— Be aware of God’s holiness

— This is how the tax collector prayed (Lk 18:9-14)

3. Glorify your name

—The psalmist appeals to God’s name being glorified (v. 9)

— When we begin with a desire that God’s name be glorified, everything else tends to fall into place when we pray (Matt 6:9)

Praise from God’s Sheep

—The last verse stands alone (v. 13)

— The prayer has ended

— Amazing confidence that a day of praise will come

— The people will always be God’s people, his sheep

— It brings us back to where the psalm started by speaking of “your inheritance…your holy temple… your servants… your saints”

Psalm 80

Psalm 80 is a community lament, asking that God would restore His people in the midst of adversity. The psalmist prays that the Shepherd of Israel would act and save them. He asks that God would no longer be angry with His people, but instead would cause His face to shine upon them. Recalling how Yahweh has been gracious to them in the past — delivering them from Egypt and protecting them in the wilderness — he asks that the God of hosts would again look down from heaven and give them life.

God’s Flock and God’s Vine

—The psalm has a chorus which is repeated three times (vv. 3, 7, 19)

— The chorus asks God to restore us

— Restore us from what?

— One commentator says that this is about the Northern Kingdom (Judah & Ephraim) and the threat that they faced by the Assyrians

— The Septuagint (LXX) titles the psalm “a psalm concerning the Assyrian”

The Lord is Our Shepherd

—There is the image of God as Israel’s shepherd (vv. 1-2)

— Isaiah also used this imagery (Is 40:11) and here in the psalter (Psalm 23)

— Jesus said this in the gospel of John (Jn 10:14-16)

— The same imagery elsewhere (1 Pet 2:25; Heb 13:20-21)

The Aaronic Blessing

—In the chorus we also have a reference to the Aaronic blessing (Num 6:24-26)

— The ultimate blessing is to actually see God

— Theologians call this the beatific vision

— In this life it is impossible to see God and live (Exod 33:18-20)

— If the psalm was written before the fall of the northern kingdom, we know that God did not smile favorably

— The people were unrepentant

— So the psalm warns us that restoration is not automatic

— God is good — he is the Good Shepherd — but he is also a stern judge of unrepented sin

Israel’s Present Plight

—The second stanza describes Israel’s plight

— God is so angry that he is described as smoldering even “against the prayers” of his people (v. 4)

— The people refused to repent; sin has consequences

— Therefore, the people have been made to eat and drink tears (v. 5)

A Second Image: God’s Vine

—The second image is of God as the planter and keeper of the vineyard (vv 8-18)

— This image is also common in Scripture (Gen 49:22; Is 5:1-7, 27:2-6; Jer 2:21; Hos 10:1, 14:7)

— This is the only psalm where the vine is used as a symbol of Israel

1. The past: brought out of Egypt, planted and prospering

—God brought Isreal out of Egypt as a choice vine (vv. 8-11)

2. The present: the ruined vineyard

—This is the people’s present condition (vv. 12-15)

— What God has allowed to happen

3. The future: restoration through “the son of man”

—And yet there is hope (vv. 16-18)

— A future revival and restoration

— The “son of man” (v. 17)

— in this context refers it to Israel

— In a secondary sense it may refer to Christ since He is frequently called that in the NT

“I Am the True Vine”

—The prayer is that God would bless Israel by turning this “son of man” back to God again

— It is how we should all pray

— We cannot forget that Jesus applied the image of the vine back to himself (Jn 15:1)

— Without God Israel could do nothing

— Without Christ and his power, we cannot live a righteous life, achieve spiritual victory or any spiritual fruit

— On the other hand, in Christ we can do “everything” (Phil 4:13)`

Psalm 81

This psalm is a festal hymn, recounting God’s work amongst His people and cataloguing their disobedience. The psalmist instructs his audience to sing at the appointed time of the feast. They are to shout to Yahweh because He delivered them from Egypt. He called them, freeing them from the bonds of slavery. But the people of God did not listen to Him. They would not obey His law, so He gave them over to their pride of heart. If they would listen, then He would feed them with the finest honey.

“If My People...”

— No one spoke out against the Hypocrisy and sin of the church more than Jesus

— The church in Jesus’ day was directed by religious leaders who Jesus’s described as “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” and “fools”

— Amos had similar things to say (Amos 5:21-23)

— These are reminders that just because we go to church and practice what we call worship doe snot mean that we are actually worshipping the true God

— Or even doing anything that might please him

An Invocation: The Call to Worship

— This is precisely the problem with which the psalm deals with

— It begins with a call for worship of God, who delivered the people from the power of the Egyptians (vv. 1-5)

— This is like the worship leader in today’s churches calling the congregates to stand and sing

— Franz Delitzch points outs that verse one is directed to the congregation

— Verse 2 is to the Levites, who were the appointed temple singers and musicians

— Verse 3 is to the priests who had the specific task of blowing the trumpets

A Reminder: What God Had Done

— God’s rebuke begins with a reminder of what he done in delivering the Jews from Egypt (vv. 6-7)

— The people had called him distress and he heard

— He lifted the burdens from their shoulders

— They carried the bricks for Pharaoh’s massive building projects

This last note (in v. 6) is a historical remembrance of what the deliverance from bondage actually entailed. Derek Kidner calls the mention of the baskets “an independent memory, not mentioned in the record, but confirmed by many pictures.” They can be seen in the tomb paintings of Luxor from the Valley of the Kings, as well as in other places.

— God saw this and he cared (Ex 3:7-8)

A Warning: Ears to Hear?

— The second part can be divided into sections along the lines of the NIV

(1) The reminder of what God had done (vv. 6-7)

(2) A warning because of the people’s idolatry (vv. 8-10)

(3) A record of the people’s obedience and the result (vv. 11-12)

(4) A jump to the present to indicate that the situation is still continuing because the hearts of the people are unchanged

— The greatest issue today, as always, is the truth or falsity of the statement: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Ex 20:2-3)

The Results in Past Days

— This is something that the people of God should know and practice

— But they often do not which is what the fourth stanza of the psalm is about (vv. 11-12)

— God says:

— He heard them

— Delivered them

— Instructed them

— Warned them

— Notice that it is “my people” not the world that is emphasized (vv. 8, 11, 13)

— The problem is not that the world does not know God

— How can we expect it to?

— The problem is that the people of God do not know God, or at least they do not act like they do

— Instead of worshiping the Lord and only him, they worship the gods of secular culture — gods of wealth, pleasure, fame, status and self-absorption

When I travel around the country and speak in so-called evangelical churches, the thing that strikes me the most is how little awareness of the presence of God there seems to be, even on a Sunday morning. The services are relevant in the sense that they deal with supposed human needs. They are lively, often entertaining. Like the worship described at the beginning of this psalm, they are often loud, joyful, and boosted by musical instruments. But there is almost no serious mention of God. The hymns are increasingly man-centered, dealing with who we are rather than with who he is, and there are almost no prayers. To judge from what I hear, Christianity has become a form of Sunday entertainment, a political pressure group, or a twelve-step recovery process, rather than a community of those who are learning to obey God.

The Result to Be Anticipated Now

— At the end of the fourth stanza God indicates the result of his people refusing to hear his voice and worship and proclaim him only

— He gives them up to their own devices just as Paul says in Romans (Ro 1:24, 25, 28)

— Second Chronicles 7:14 and Psalm 81 are for us

— It is for us to humble ourselves and repent, and seek God

Psalm 83

Psalm 83 is an imprecatory psalm, wherein the psalmist petitions God to execute judgment on His enemies. He prays that God would not be silent because the wicked are planning evil. They work to destroy Israel. The psalmist asks that God would thwart their efforts — as He did in former times. He prays that Yahwe would make Israel’s enemies like chaff, in order that they would repent. The psalmist prays that even the wicked would turn and seek the name of the Most High.

The Encircling Foe

— Edmund Burke is credited with saying “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”

— We can think of historical examples to prove this truth

— One that comes to mind is the lack of resolve and blindness of the democratic nations in the years prior to to World War II, which allowed Germany under Hitler to rearm

— Winston Churchill described it in The Gathering Storm

— But there is an even greater problem and that is when God does nothing

— This is what Psalm 83 is all about

— And this is the last of psalms by Asaph (Pss 50, 73-83) who consistently seems troubled by the wicked and regularly calls on God to rise up and defeat their evil plans

The Immediate Problem

— Asaph described a time when the nations that surrounded Israel had united against her and threatened her survival (vv. 2-8)

— It is not possible to describe the exact historical event

— One possibility is when Jehoshaphat was king and Israel was threatened by a coalition of Edom, Moab, and Ammon (2 Chr 20)

— What is interesting is that these nations form an almost complete circle around Israel (6-11)

— The Edomites (v. 6) were descendants of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, Abraham's grandson

— The Ishmaelites (v. 6) had descended from Ishmael, Abraham’s son by Hagar

— The Hagarites (v. 6) were a tribe against whom the Transjordanian tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh fought at the time of the Jewish conquest of Palestine

— Along with these people, the nations of Moab (v. 6), and Ammon (v. 7) were situated to the east of the Jew’s territory

— The tribe of Gebal (v. 7) is uncertain

— The last tribe was Assyria (v. 8) which would later become a formidable power and overthrow the northern kingdom in 721 B.C.

— We know of no time in history when these ten tribes were actually arrayed against Israel so the listing in these verses is probably a generalization

Anti-Semitism throughout History

— What Asaph describes — the nations wanting to wipe out Israel — has been a long part of her history

— Starting with Egypt, in the years prior to Moses’ birth, the Pharaoh enslaved the Jews and killed them

— This is the first expression of anti-Semitism in world history

— The birth rate of the Jews exploded such that they became like “the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore” (Gen 22:17)

— This created fear in Pharaoh, and he instigated a pattern of abused and oppression that extended to the murder of the Jewish male children

— Pharaoh’s persecution did not destroy the Jews but rather Egypt when God intervened

— Persecution continued after the Assyrian invasion in 721 B.C and the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

— Jews were expelled from Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius (Acts 18:2)

— Jews were persecuted during the Middle Ages before and during the Crusades

— In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries thousands were abused, attacked and murdered and entire communities exterminated

— During that same time the Jews were expelled from Spain which ironically was the same time that Columbus set sail for the new world

— During World War II six million Jews were killed in Adolph Hitler's death camps and many more died under Stalin

Q: Why is there such hatred?

— Satan hates the Jews because God promised to send his Messiah through them

An Appeal to Past Victories

— The psalm consists of two parts

— The desperate situation (vv 1-8)

— An appeal to God (vv 9-17)

— Asaph starts by appeal to the past

1. A victory over Midian recorded in Judges 6-8.

— Gideon was victorious with only three hundred men

— The Midianites had been harassing the land and carrying off the harvests

— Gideon started out with thirty-two thousand men

2. The victory over Sisera recorded in Judges 4-5.

— Sisera had terrified the land for twenty years

— He was well armed with nine hundred iron chariots

— Israel was commanded by Barak, who defeated the army of Sisera with ten thousand men

— Sisera was forced to abandon his chariot and flee on foot

— He came to the tent of man named Heber and his wife Jael

— Sisera was exhausted and while he was sleeping Jael took a tent peg and mallet and drove it through Sisera’s temple to the ground so that he died

“They’re Attacking Your Property”

— Notice that Asaph says that these are “your enemies” God, not the Jews’s enemies (v. 2)

— When the enemies are trying to steal the land of Israel Asaph called these “the pasturelands of God” (v. 12)

— This perspective makes a tremendous difference in how we think of judgment

— If we think of the evil against us personally, then it is revenge

— If it is against God, then we leave justice in his hands

— God says that “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deut 32:35; ;cf. Rom 12:19)

That They Might Know You

— The last part is the most important

— It ends with a call for God to judge “so that men will seek your name, O LORD” (v. 16, 18)

— The ultimate desire is that men will come to know and obey the Lord

Let me go back to the beginning of the psalm and remind you of the greatest “no-answer” to that prayer in all history. The first verse of the Psalm says, “O God, do not be silent; be not quiet , O God, be not still.” One day many centuries after this was written the Son of God was hanging on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem, where he had been encircled and condemned by his cruel enemies, and he in a sense prayed this prayer. He cried to God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46; Mk 15:34). God did not answer. he did not intervene to save Jesus from his enemies or rescue him from the cross.

It was good that he did not answer, for God’s silence to Christ’s forsaken cry meant our salvation from the Father’s wrath, and it meant that we have the gospel and not just judgment to proclaim.

Psalm 85

Psalm 85 is a corporate lament that seeks the salvation of God. The psalmist begins by recounting Yahweh’s grace in former times. He then prays for a present deliverance — asking that God’s anger would subside, giving way to His steadfast love. Salvation is near to those who fear God. If the people do not choose folly, the glory of Yahweh may yet dwell amongst them. The psalmist expresses trust in Yahweh, that He will give good things to His saints.

When Righteous and Peace Meet

— Have you ever asked the Lord to restore the joy that you once had

— Psalm 85 is precisely that kind of prayer

A Downcast People

— It is not obvious from the title of the psalm the historical setting

— But based on the psalmist plea for revival and a new restoration (vv. 4-7), it is likely shortly after their seventy-year-long captivity in Babylon

— This may not be the right setting and a number of commentators doubt it

— The first wave of Jews to return after the captivity was in response to a decree by Cyrus, the king of Persia, in 585 B.C. (Ezra 1-6)

— The foundation of the temple was laid down and finished between 520 and 515 B.C.

— The Jews tried to rebuild the city walls but the work was abandoned, probably after their enemies destroyed what work had been done and burned the city gates (Neh 1:3)

— The people must have felt joy when they first returned to the city followed by despair

— What do people do in these circumstances?

— They pray and wait for God to answer

— God answered that prayer by sending Nehemia (if it is true that is the historical setting of this psalm)

A Reflection of Past Mercies

— The place to start to overcome discouragement is by reflecting on the goodness of God in our past (vv. 1-3)

— The first verse deals with the land and the people’s reversal of fortune

— Interestingly is that it then quickly moves to the forgiveness of sins and the removal of the wrath of God

— Compared to everything else, the greatest mercy we can receive is the forgiveness of sins

— Some of the strongest salvation language is found in these verses

— “Covered their sins” describes atonement

— “Set aside your wrath” describes propitiation

Pointed Prayer for Restoration

— Now the psalmist moves to a prayer on behalf of the people (vv. 4-7)

— He asks God to restore us again (v. 4)

— And revive us again (v. 6)

1. Restore us again

— There are several ways to translate the Hebrew in this verse

— The root of the word is “turn”

— It can mean “turn us” or “turn us back” which caries the idea of restoration

— This is the way it is rendered in the NASB and NIV

— The second way is to say that God should turn from his wrath

— Third, it could mean that God should turn back to his people

— The best translation is probably the NASB and NIV since the phrase “revive us again” appears a few verses later

2. Revive us again

— The second prayer is that God revive the people

— Revive means to resurrect or make alive

— Revivals always start in the church not the world

— An argument for the two prayers is God’s “unfailing love” (v. 7)

— The psalmist does not plead the people’s goodness or even their intentions to reform

— On the contrary, he acknowledges the justice of god’s displeasure

Waiting on God

— Having prayed the now waits for God to answer (v. 8-9)

— Habakkuk asked God for a revival and God told him that he would send judgment instead

— He could not understand how God could use an ungodly nation, the Babylonians, to punish his people

— God answered and said that in time the Babylonians would be judged

— In the meantime we are to live by faith (Hab 2:4)

— It is never foolish to wait on God, for God is not slow to answer

— Our problem is that we often don’t go to him in prayer

A Hopeful Looking to God’s Promises

— The psalmist found his mind turning expectantly to what God would do

— He remembered that God has promised “peace” to his people (v. 8)

— And that the Lord’s “salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land” (v. 9)

— This leads to the last stanza and the brighter day that is coming (vv. 10-13)

— Verse 10 is one the great poetic sections of the Psalms

“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (KJV)

— This is generally understand to pointing to the work of Christ in making atonement for sin by which God alone is able to both satisfy the demands of justice and at the same time show mercy

— But they also look forward to an ideal state and time when the harmony that is God will also pervade and dominate creation

MacArthur:

These 4 spiritual qualities characterizing the atmosphere of the future kingdom of Christ will relate to each other in perfect harmony and will saturate kingdom life

Psalm 86

Psalm 86 is a psalm of lament, that seeks the steadfast love of Yahweh. David begins by praying for salvation. He is poor and in need, but he trusts in God. He pleads for the grace of Yahweh, as he lifts up his soul in the day of trouble. David expresses confidence that there is non like the LORD — He alone is God. Therefore, he gives thanks, and prays that Yahweh would strengthen him and show David His favor.

An Appeal to the Compassionate God

— This psalm is by David and the only one in this section

— Characteristic of David, it is an appeal for mercy based on the character of God

David’s Relationship to God

— David does not begin his prayer by arguing that God owes him anything. On the contrary

— He is “poor and needy” (v. 1)

— He is God’s “servant” (v. 2)

— David is looking to God for help and he will come back to this later (v. 7) when he speaks of this “trouble” (v. 14) , and “enemies” (v. 17)

David’s Requests of God

— David makes fifteen requests of God

— “hear” and “answer” and “listen” (v. 1)

— “guard” and “save” (v. 2)

— “have mercy” (v. 3)

— “bring joy” (v. 4)

— “hear” and “listen” (v. 6)

— “teach me” and “give me an undivided heart” (v. 11)

— “turn,” have mercy”, “grant…strength,” and “save” (v. 16)

— “give me a sign of your goodness” (v. 17)

— David asks God to teach him his “way” and give him an” undivided heart” (v. 11-13)

— Most of us want the blessings of salvation without the duties

Praying with Arguments

— One of Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s great themes when he writes about prayer is that we should pray with arguments

— This is for our benefit not God’s

— If we cannot think of reasons why God should answer our prayers, our prayers need to be revised

— He begins with four reasons based on his need

1. “For I am poor and need” (v. 1)

— If God will not help him, there is no real help to be found

— this presupposes God’s mercy — because God is merciful he helps the poor and needy

2. “For I am devoted to you” (v. 2)

— Because David is his servant and in a covenant relationship with God

— As a servant he has duties towards God, but God has duties toward him

3. “For I call to you all day long” (v. 3)

— Third, he is asking God to do it

— God is not under any obligation

— But God is a prayer-answering God, so David asks him to take note of the fact that he is praying

4. “For to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul” (v. 4)

— David is calling on God an no other unlike the pagan

— He knows that God is the true God

— There are four reasons based on God’s character

1. “For you will answer me: (v 7)

— Prayer is not an empty experience, it works (James 5:16)

2. “For you are great and do marvelous deeds” (v. 10)

— God is able to do what the one who prays asks

3. “For great is your love toward me” (v. 13)

— God in his mercy has already set his love upon the one praying

— God has made us his sons and daughters by the new birth

4. “For you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me” (v. 17)

— God helped David in the past

— It is consistent with our every past experience of God to ask for mercy now

The Merciful God

— The major theme of the psalm is that David is appealing to God’s mercy

— David learned God was merciful from Moses

— God said that he would send an angel to lead the people to the promised land, but that was not enough for Moses (Ex 33:2)

— He prayed that he might know God better (Ex 33:13)

— Second, he judged that it would be impossible to lead the people without the Lord’s very presence (Ex 33:15)

— it would be good if we all thought this way: we dare not take a single step without God

— Then Moses asked to see God’s glory and we all know the story

The text says, “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD , the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin’” (Ex 34:5-7). These words unfold the meaning of “the name” of God, expressed in his mercy to all who confess their sin and come to him.

This is one of the greatest revelations of God in the Bible, and it meant a lot to Israel. Exodus 34:6 is one of the most frequently quoted passages in the Old Testament. For example, it is referred to in Nehemiah 9:17, Psalms 103:8 and 145:8, Joel 2:13 and Jonah 4:2. And here is the point: It is referred to by David in this psalm. In fact, it is referred to twice. It is mentioned briefly in verse 5 (“You are kind and forgiving, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.”). It is cited extensively in verse 15 (“But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness”).

Four Points of Application

— There are four applications regarding God’s mercy that we cannot afford to miss

1. We need mercy if we are to be saved

— This can never be said enough, simply because we do not think this way naturally

—Moses and David needed mercy

— Apart from mercy we will likewise perish

2. God is a God of mercy

— True, he is also a God of justice and wrath and sin will be punished

— But God emphasizes mercy and he offers it

— The ultimate expression of his mercy is found on the cross

3. We can appeal to mercy

— Mercy can not be compelled from God but we can appeal for it

— Scripture is full of such appeals (cf. Lk 18:13-14)

4. We can proclaim God’s mercy to others

— God’s very name is mercy

— He will show mercy on whom he will

— There is nothing to hinder us from asking God for his mercy

Psalm 87

This psalm celebrates Yahweh’s love for Zion, the city of God. The psalmist recounts how the LORD established the dwelling place of Jacob. The nations acknowledge those who were born there, and many sing of the city’s glory.

Zion, City of our God

— This psalm prophecies a time when all the nations of the earth will be citizen of Zion

— This a poetic name for God’s rule over God’s people from Jerusalem

— In Palm 86:9 a similar prophecy was made

— The vision of Gentiles joining Jews in Jerusalem to worship the true God is found elsewhere (Is 2:2; 19:23-25; 56:6-7; Micah 4:1; Zech 2:11; 8:22-23; 14:16-19; Malachi 1:11)

“On the Rock of Ages Founded”

— Verse one starts with “His foundation”

— This reminds us of Hebrews (Heb 11:10)

“for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

— Even OT saints did not set their affections on earthly Jerusalem alone, but loved it as a symbol of a heavenly Jerusalem

“Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”

— Verse three says that glorious things are said by God of Zion

— What is it that God has said in praise of Zion?

— It is beautiful in its loftiness… (Ps 48:2)

— The Lord has chosen Zion… (Ps 132:13)

— The mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains…(Is 2:2-3)

— Saint Augustine used this verse as theme of The City of God

— Augustine and others say that this applies now to the church (cf. Heb 12:22-24)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“Glories things were taught in [Jerusalem’s] streets, and seen in her temples,” yet this is ”more true of the church: she is founded in grace, but her pinnacles glow with glory…Whatever glorious things the saints may say of the church in their eulogies, they cannot exceed what the prophets have foretold, what angels have sung, or what God himself has declared.

“Gentiles and Jews in Jesus’ Fold”

— The title of this section is the theme of these verses and the chief idea of the psalm

— The psalmist has a vision of true brotherhood of nations and world peace

1. The people will acknowledge God

— The word acknowledge (v. 4) is a translation of the Hebrew word yadah

— It has a variety of meanings

— “know,” “know about”

— “acknowledge”

— “understand”

— “be sure”

— “experience “ and a variety of other meanings

— In the NIV it has been translated no fewer than 190 different ways to get as close as possible to the meaning

— Here it means more than knowing about God but coming to him in a saving relationship, bowing before him, and seeking to know him better

— It is what Jesus means when he said

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (Jn 17:3)

— Those who consider themselves strong and wise (Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia) (v.4) should consider what Jeremiah said (Jer 9:23-24)

— The greatest blessing is to know the and worship God

2. The people will be born again

— Being “born in Zion) is to become a spiritual Jew (v. 5)

— A member of God’s family

— The new birth does not clearly appear in the OT but this expression surely implies a deeper meaning which is being fulfilled today by the church

Here is a confirming piece of evidence. In the Septuagint version of verse 5, which the apostle Paul knew and from which he frequently draws in his epistles, the additional word mother appears, which gives the sense captured by the New English Bible’s translation: “and Zion shall be called a mother in whom men of every race are born.” This lies behind Paul’s saying in Galatians 4:26, “The Jerusalem that is above…is our mother,” which means that he interpreted Psalm 87 as pointing to spiritual rebirth.

Psalm 93

Psalm 93 is a psalm of praise that declares Yahweh’s reign. He is strong, majestic, and His throne is established over the whole earth. The waters acknowledge Yahweh — the mighty waves of the sea praise Him. Therefore, the psalmist praises the holiness of God and the trustworthiness of His decrees.

A Psalm to God as King

— This is the first of a group of eight psalms that deal with describe a theocracy

— The word theocracy was first coined by Josephus, the Jewish historian, not long after the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ

— A theocracy is a direct rule of a people by God as king

The Reign of the Sovereign God

— We see four characteristics of God’s reign (vv. 1-2)

1. The majesty of God

— Majesty is a hard idea to define, but it has to do with dignity, authority or sovereign power, stateliness, and grandeur

— Earthly monarchs have gone to great lengths to multiple the trappings of their power

— But it is supremely the attribute of God who does not need to multiple the trappings of his power

— Isaiah was so overcome with a sense of God’s majesty that he cried out, “Woe to me! … I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isa 6:5)

2. The power of God

— The majesty of God is also the power of God

— “the LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty” (v. 1)

— “and is armed with strength” (v. 1)

3. The immutability of God

— God’s immutability is what the writer means when he says that God is “established” (v. 2)

— The only reason that the world is established is because God himself is established or immutable

— God is unchangeable but no other part of creation is

— Human nature is restless and constantly changing (Jude 12-13)

— The inhabitants of Jerusalem hailed Christ as Messiah and the next week crucified him (Jn 12:13; 19:15)

4. Th eternity of God

— Revelation describes God as the “Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev 21:6; see 1:8; 22:13)

— First, God can be trusted to remain as he reveals himself to be

— He will not change his character or break his word

— Second, God is inescapable

— We can try to ignore him

— But one day we will all have to give an accounting to him before whom all hearts are open and all desires are known

The Surging World

— The seas represent the Gentile nations (v. 3)

— This is an assertion of God’s sovereignty over every historical development

— He is king not just of the cosmos, which has been asserted earlier, but of human beings too

Two Characteristics of God’s Rule

— The final verse gives us tow more unanticipated characteristics of God’s kingly rule (v. 5)

1. A rule of law

— God’s rule is not a rule of power alone

— It is also a rule of law, which is what the important word status in this verse refers to (v. 5)

— What this means is that God rules his people by his Word

— His statues (testimonies, NASB) “stand firm,” like the world and even the throne of God itself

— Those who profess to know God must know and obey this statutes too— if we would be actually ruled by him

— We cannot claim to be ruled by Jesus Christ unless we know what he has told us to do in the Bible and we are doing it (Act 26:16)

2. A rule of justice

— His rule is according to his holiness or justice

— If we strive to live holy lives, as we must, then we honor God and prove that he is indeed ruling us his holy people

— Peter wrote

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” ( 1 Pet 2:9)

Psalm 94

Psalm 94 is a psalm of lament, praying that God would rise up and judge the earth. The psalmist asks Yahweh how long He will allow the wicked to prosper. They afflict the poor and the fatherless, supposing God does not see. But Yahweh knows the thoughts of man. Thus, the psalmist knows that Yahweh will not forsake His people. He confesses steadfast love of the Lord and his confidence that God will wipe out the wicked.

All Hearts Open, All Desires Known

— There are times when the wicked seem to prosper

— We should ask God to punish sin and avenge the righteous which is what this psalm is about

Here Comes the Judge

— The first stanza is a call for God to arise in judgment against the “proud” who crush or oppress God’s people (vv. 1-2)

— The complaint is not that God is unjust but that he is apparently slow to act (v. 3)

The Boast of the Arrogant

— The problem that is disturbing the psalmist is the jubilant boasting of the arrogant, who do not believe God sees what they are doing (vv. 3-7)

— They are oppressing the weak, the widow, the alien, the fatherless

— In each case, these are people who have little means of self-defense

— The arrogant are not ashamed of what they are doing!

— They are proud of being able to do it (v. 7)

A Warning for Fools

— The psalmist warns the arrogant oppressors whom he calls fools (vv. 8-11)

— He does it with a series of sharp rhetorical questions (vv. 9-10)

— The conclusion is that “the LORD knows the thoughts of man.” (v. 11)

— Anyone who thinks he is getting away with something just because judgment is not immediate is a fool

— God not only knows the thoughts of man, he also “knows that they are futile” (v. 11)

— It is folly supposing that God does not see or care

— It is the folly of acting as if there is no God (Ps 14; 53)

— Paul quotes this verse to prove that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight” (1 Cor 3:19)

The Blessing of God’s Discipline

— The psalmist has warned the arrogant

— Now the psalmist addresses the oppressed (vv. 12-15)

— He assures them that the evils they endure are for their discipline in the school of faith

— Righteous judgment will surely be provided by God in the end

1. Relief from days of trouble (v. 13)

— We do have trouble but it is never unmitigated or unrelieved

— God is always with His people when we go through it (Matt 28:20)

2. Eventual punishment for the wicked (v. 13)

— God also assures us that those who oppress us will be punished in due time

— A “pit” is being dug for them

— Elsewhere in the psalms it says that the wicked dig the pit themselves (Pss 7:15; 9:15; 35:7-8)

3. The steadfast faithfulness of God (v. 14)

— The third promise is that God will not reject his people or forsake his inheritance

— His people are never abandoned

4. The final triumph of righteousness (v. 15)

— Judgment will again be established for the righteous

— It will be when the Almighty God will “make the nations [his] inheritance, the ends of the earth [his] possession” (Ps 2:8; Phil 2:10-11)

God is the Answer

— Now a personal testimony

— What God has been promising others he has proved himself (vv. 16-19)

— In the words of Ps 73, he says that his foot was slipping (v. 18; see Ps 73:2) but that God reached out to support him at nearly the last possible moment and provided comfort

— The psalmist insists that God was the only who did this (v. 17)

— He looked around for some who “take a stand for me against evildoers” (v. 16)

— But there was no one

When Paul was in his last imprisonment he wrote that everyone had abandoned him: all those in Asia (2 Tim 1:15) and Demas, “because he loved this world” (2 Tim 4:10). Indeed, “At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me” (v. 16). Nevertheless, he said, “The Lord stood by my side and gave me strength” (v. 17). If you feel abandoned, you should know that God will do exactly that for you.

The Just Shall Live by Faith

— The last stanza comes full circle, God is Judge of all the earth (vv. 22-23)

— The corrupt judgment thrones of this earth cannot be allied with the upright throne of heaven (v. 20)

— Thus the psalmist looks for the day when the Judge of the earth will rise to destroy the wicked for their sins against the righteous

Q: What shall the righteous do in the meantime?

— We shall live by faith (Hab 2:4)

— This is what the psalmist is affirming when he says, “The LORD has become my fortress, and my god the rock in whom I take refuge” (v. 22)

Psalm 95

This psalm is a petition to worship Yahweh. The psalmist instructs others to approach God with singing, because He is a great King. He implores people to bow down and worship, because Yahweh is our Maker. The psalmist warns against testing God, as their fathers had done in the wilderness. Those who harden their hearts will not enter His rest.

How to Worship God

— This psalm tells us how to worship

— It is a call to worship and it explains how we should worship

— And it warns of what can happen if we do not worship but harden our hearts instead

— The church has used the first part of this psalm as a call to worship from at least the fourth century

— In many circles (The Vulgate Bible) it is known as the Venite

— This is from the Latin word for “come” with the psalm begins

The Joy of Worship

— The psalms starts with a call to worship (vv. 1-2)

— God is the “Rock” of our salvation

— The natural and proper way to worship is with joy and enthusiasm

— The psalm suggests some of the forms of worship we an enjoy

1. Singing

— The OT and NT forms of worship includes much singing

— Singing expresses joy (and sorrow for sin)

2. Shouting

— Most of us probably have more trouble with shouting than with anything else in this list

— Some traditions like charismatics, shout

— In other services people say “Amen”

3. Music

— The psalmist is not talking about music without singing

— He writes of extolling God both “wit music and song”

— The psalm does not mention instruments but other psalms do

— 150 lists trumpets, harps, lyres, tambourines, strings, flutes, cymbals

— It is right and natural to use every musical means to extol God

Why We Should Worship God

— The next stanzas give two important reasons why we should worship

1. Because God is such a great God (vv. 3-5)

— Appreciation can be shown to people

— Worship belongs to God alone

— We cannot worship God until we have a proper sense of who he is

— Verses 4-5 began by teaching us that he is the Creator of all things

2. Because God is our own dear Shepherd (vv. 6-7)

— His relationship to his people is the second reason we should worship God

— God made us; for that reason worship is personal

— Using a beautiful pastoral image, the psalm says that we are God’s sheep, “the flock under his care” (v. 7)

An Unexpected Warning

— Suddenly we find an unexpected warning (vv. 7-11)

— It is so sudden that some liberal commentators speculate on this being an entirely separate psalm that somehow got attached

There is no good reason for such speculation. Abrupt changes like this are not infrequent in the psalms, and the warning to hear the voice of God and obey it is actually a critical part of what needs to be said about the worship God accepts. Worship without obedience is mere sham. It calls down the judgments of God and the Father and Jesus, who once said:

These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me,

They worship me in vain (Matt 15:8-9; quoting Isa 29:13)

Q: What happened at Meribah (v. 8) ?

— The children of Isreal came to a place called Rephidim where there was no water (Ex 17:1-7)

— God told Moses to take his staff (the one that turned the Nile into blood) and to strike the rock at Horeb

— Moses gave a double name to that place

— Massah, which means “testing” because the people tested God by their sinful unbelief

— And Meribah, which means “quarreling” because they quarreled with Moses about the lack of water

— This is the warning of the psalm

— If you want to worship God, make sure you do not harden your heart against God’s Word, or quarrel with him or test him

— On the contrary, trust worship is (1) hearing the Word of God, (2) obeying the Word of God, and (3) praising God for it

The Urgency of Worship: Today!

— The NT has a commentary of this psalm found in Hebrews (Heb 3:7-4:13)

— Psalm 95 is quoted four times (Heb 3:15; 4:3; 4:7)

— This is probably the most thorough citing of an OT passage in the NT

— There are several things to note

1. The verses are applied to salvation through faith in Christ

— The psalm is not restricted to the children of Israel entering the promised land

— It is seen as the more important matter of entering the promised rest of God

— The promised “rest” is not Canaan but salvation

2. The warning is for those who have heard the gospel and who seem to have responded to it

— The uniqueness of Hebrews is that it is written to those who have heard the gospel

— They even seem to have responded to it

— But they have never actually surrendered to Jesus and are in danger of falling away

— The writer of Hebrews traces this back to unbelief just as the psalm traces the rebellion in the desert to “testing” and “quarreling” (Heb 3:12-13. cf. the five virgins Matt 25:12)

3. It is important to believe on Jesus Christ now while it is still “today”

— “Today, if you hear his voice…” (v. 7)

— Hebrews repeats “today” five times (Heb 3:7; 13, 15; 4:7)

— Now is the time to turn from sin

Psalm 96

Psalm 96 is a psalm of praise to Yahweh, because He reigns. The psalmist instructs the whole earth to sing and declare God’s glory. He is great and to be feared — strength and beauty are His. The whole earth should worship Yahweh, bringing offerings to His court. The psalmist proclaims God’s kingship: He will judge all peoples in righteousness, thus the earth should rejoice.

Worship in the Splendor of God’s Holiness

— Psalm 96 is a joyful hymn to the God of Israel as king and an invitation to the nations of the world to join Israel in praising him

— It is also a prophecy of a future day when God will judge the entire world in righteousness

— Not all commentators agree that David wrote this psalm

— When the ark of God was brought back to Jerusalem David composed a psalm (1 Chr 16)

— The middle verses of that psalm (vv. 23-33) appear in this psalm

— Other portions of that psalm appear elsewhere in the Psalter (Ps 105:1-15; 106:1; 47-48)

A Call to Worship God

— In the last third of the Psalter numerous psalms begin with a call to worship God

— There are a couple things to notice as we begin

1. A new song

— The “new song” is a call to notice some new thing that God is doing

— In this case, the new thing was God coming to Jerusalem as symbolized by the moving of the ark

— He would now rule over his people from Mount Zion

— When we think of Christ we think of his atonement which is called a “new song” by John (Rev 5:9-10)

2. Praise plus proclamation

— The second thing to notice is that the praise of God should never be a private thing

— It should lead to missionary witness

The King’s Glory

— The first point that the psalmist makes about God’s glory — why he is “most worthy of praise” — is that:

— “He is to be feared above all gods” (v. 4)

— in Hebrew the word for idol means “a no-thing’

— So verse 4 can only mean that God is to be praised and feared above those who are only thought to be gods

Actually, there is a play on words in this stanza. The word fro “gods” is elohim, and the word for “idols” is elilim. So what the writer is saying is that the elohim of the Gentiles are elilim

— The word occurs only in two places in the psalms (here and in Psalm 97:7)

— And it occurs twice in Isaiah

— Isaiah mocks the artisan who makes a god of out wood and uses what is left over to cook his diner (Is 44:9-20)

— And Isaiah challenges the handmade heather “gods” to do something, anything at all! (Is 41:21-24)

The King’s Due

— This psalm borrows the first two verses of Psalm 29 but adds the lines about trembling before God

— Psalm calls on angles to worship, here it is “families of nations”

— In this stanza the worship of God is described as our bringing something to God rather than our coming to God to get something from him

The King’s Coming

— The last stanza is a command to proclaim the universal reign of God “among the nations”

— There are two ways this stanza speaks of God’s reign

1. God rules all history now

— God does rule which is sometimes difficult to appreciate when there is so much unrighteousness in the world

— Nevertheless, God does rule and hold evil in check

2. God will rule the world’s nations in perfect righteousness in the future

— The striking thing about these verses is that they look forward joyfully to God’s judgment

— We who trust Christ look forward to that day when he returns to rule the world justly (Rev 19:6-7)

Psalm 97

This psalm declares the reign of Yahweh and exhorts the world to rejoice. The psalmist describes the omnipotence of God over all creation and the response of the heavens to proclaim His righteousness. Because Yahweh is exalted, the daughters of Zion rejoice. The psalmist then instructs those who love God to rejoice and give thanks to His holy Name.

The Awesome God

— The psalm begins with two words borrowed from the previous psalm

— “The LORD reigns” (Ps 96:10)

— “let the earth be glad (Ps: 96:11)

— It reminds us that Psalm 96 and Psalm 97 belong together

— As well as Psalm 93 and Psalm 100 belong together and their theme is the kingly rule of God

— Psalms 96, 97 and 98 call hail God’s coming as the world’s king

— Psalms 96 and 98 soar with delight at what is in store for the world when God returns

— But Psalm 97 is the frightening, awesome side of God’s kingly rule

— We are to be under no illusions as to what is involved

— God’s rule will mean the confounding of evil and the rule of perfect righteousness

The Sovereign God

— God’s “reign” here means his sovereignty and is an attribute of God

— Sovereignty involves other attributes as well

— God must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free

— If he were limited in any one of these areas, he would not be completely sovereign

— If we here not omniscient he would be taken by surprise

— If he were not omnipotent, he would not be able to control events

G. S. Bowes tells this story*:

Here is a story of someone who was comforted by being reminded of God’s sovereignty. His name was Bulstrode Whitelock, and he was an envoy of Oliver Cromwell to Sweden in 1653. He was resting at the village of Harwich the night before he was to sail to Sweden, and he was so distracted by the perilous state of England that he could not sleep. He had a servant who was accompanying him, and this man, discovering that Whitelock could not sleep, said, “Sir, may I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” said Whitelock.

“Pray, sir, do you think God governed the world very well before you came into it?” he asked

“Certainly.”

“And do you think he will govern it quite well when you are gone out of it?” he continued

“Undoubtedly.”

“Then pray, sir, excuse me, do you not think that you may trust him to govern it quite as well while you are living?”

Whitelock had not answer to this question. But he rolled over quietly in his bed and was soon asleep

The Awesome God

— The second stanza describes the various manifestations of God (vv. 2-6)

— We think of God’s terrifying appearance at Mount Sinai (Ex 19:16-19)

The same phenomena occurred when God appeared to Moses sometime later (Ex 34:5) and still later to Isaiah (Is 6:1-4) and other prophets, such as Ezekiel (Ezek 1:4-28), Daniel (Dan 7:9-14), and Micah (Micah 1:3-4). Psalms 18:7-15 and 50:3 and Habakkuk 3:3-15 also contain this language

The point of these passages is that a manifestation of the true God is awe inspiring to the point of bone-shattering fear and trembling on the part of the worshiper (cf. Ex 19:16; Heb 12:21; Isa 6:5; Ezek 1:28; Dan 7:28; Hab 3:16)

The Righteous God

— The fourth stanza returns to the original theme, the righteous judgment of God (vv. 7-9)

—We don’t know the historical context but Zion is rejoicing because God has intervened in history to establish his righteous kingly rule (v. 8)

— The only complete fulfilment of this vision must be the eventual return of Jesus Christ (Rev 19:1-3)

Is This Your God?

— The final stanza is an encouragement to hold fast (vv. 10-12)

— We are told to do two things:

— “hate evil” (v. 10)

— “rejoice in the LORD” (v. 12)

— If we hate evil, God will provide us with (1) protection, (2) deliverance, (3) light on our path through life, and (4) joy

Q: How you you know if you are really coming to hate evil?

— Some people saw Jesus’ holiness and learned to hate their sin

— Others saw him, hated him for exposing their sin and eventually crucified him

— The way we know that we hate evil is this:

1. If our hatred of sin is universal

— The one who hates sin truly, hates all kinds of sin

2. if our hatred of sin is fixed

— There should be no appeasing of sin, but rather an abolishing of the thing hated

3. if our hatred of sin is a more rooted affection than anger

— Anger may be appeased, but hatred remains and opposes the hated object

4. if we hate sin wherever it is found

— We must hate sin in others but especially in ourselves

5. If we can be reproved for sin and not get angry

— if we truly hate sin, we will welcome whatever help we may get in dealing with it and driving it from our lives

Psalm 100

This psalm is a call for thanksgiving. The psalmist instructs others to sing with joy and serve with gladness, because Yahweh is God. He is a Shepherd, and His people are the sheep. We can enter His gates with thanksgiving because He is good, and His faithfulness endures.

The Psalm for Giving Thanks

— The title of this psalm is “a psalm for giving thanks”

— Interesting that this is the only psalm in the entire Psalter that says that

— The psalm contains

(1) A statement on how to give thanks

(2) An explanation of why God’s people must give thanks

(3) An invitation to give thanks

(4) A final great expression of praise or thanksgiving

Three Ways to Give Thanks

— When someone has done something nice we think, “how can I show my appreciation?”

— Than answer is not always easy

— How much more difficult it must be to show appreciation to God

— The opening verse suggests three ways

1. We can “shout

— To shout seems like a strange thing to do when we come to church

— It is helpful to know that the Hebrew word originally meant a glad should, such as loyal subjects might utter when the king appears among them

— The emphasis is on gladness

2. We can “serve”

—We are to serve God by our worship (v. 2, 4)

— Jesus said that the righteous will be praised in the day of judgment because they gave a stranger something to drink (Matt 25:35-36)

— When we do this to the least, we do it unto Jesus (v. 40)

3. We can “come”

— This refers to formal worship, since the psalm describes the coming of the people of God to the temple

— We are to “come” to worship

Why We Must Give God Thanks

— The fourth imperative is “know” (v. 3)

— We must know whom we are thanking

— The Athenian Greeks had ben worshiping “an unknown God” (Acts 17:23)

— We cannot rightly thank or worship a God who is unknown to us

1. Knowing God as Creator

— When we don’t know God as our creator we think of ourselves as the creator

— The appeal of evolution is that it does away with God

—If we don’t need God as our creator, we don’t need to be thankful

2. Knowing God as Redeemer

— Even more important is to know God as our redeemer

— Which is what “his people” and “the sheep of his pasture” ultimately refer to (v. 3)

An Invitation to Thank God

— The third part is an invitation to thank God

— Three strong imperatives: “enter,” “give thanks,” and “praise”

The Character of God

— The final verse explains why you and I should thank God (v. 5)

— Earlier the psalmist said we should thank God for what he has done (v. 3)

— He made us and remade us

— He is both our Creator and Redeemer

— The final verse invites us to thank God for who he is

1. God is “good”

— The heathen gods were not not; they were selfish and capricious

— Our God is good and what he created was good (Gen 1:4-31)

— When he gave us the law, that law was “good” (Rom 7:12)

— When he reveals his will to us, his will is “good, pleasing and perfect” (Rom 12:2)

— The word gospel, means “good news”

2. God is “love”

— This love “endures forever” (v. 5)

3. God is “faithful”

— Spurgeon said, “As our fathers found him faithful, so will be our sons and their seed forever”

— We can count on him to remain the same

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 1 a, Psalms 1-26 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1968)

Webb, P. (Ed.). (2022). Psalms of grace. The Master's Seminary Press.

Matthew Henry, Job to Song of Solomon, vol 3 of Commentary on the Whole Bible (New York: Revell, n.d.)

Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72: An Introduction and Commentary on Books I and II of the Psalms (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 1973)

Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, vol 3, The Psalms, Isaiah 1-48 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959)

Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72: An introduction and Commentary on Books I and II of the Psalms (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 1973)

Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150 An introduction and Commentary on Books III-V of the Psalms (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 1975)

J. J. Stewart Perowne, Commentary on the Psalms, 2 vols. in 1 (Grand Rapids; Kregel, 1989)

Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Glory: Exposition of Bible Doctrines Taking the Epistle to the Romans as a Point of Departure, vol 10, Romans 14:13-16:27 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964)

Alexander Maclaren, The Psalms, vol 2, Psalms 39-89 (New York: A.C. Armstrong and Son, 1893)

Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants: Exposition of Bible Doctrines, Taking the Epistle to the Romans as Point of Departure, vol 8. Romans 9:1-11:36 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963)

*The story is from G. S. Bowes, “Illustrative Gatherings” (1862), and is cited in C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol 2b, Psalms 88-110 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966)