Blogging the Psalms

Psalm 1

The Book of Psalms begins by speaking of two paths.  The path of the ungodly and the path of the godly. Many metaphors are used in this psalm to show the progression (or regression) and the effect of taking one path or the other.  This is the first psalm to speak on meditation.  It declares that the blessed man is a man who meditates on God’s law day and night. This means the man is constantly imagining and thinking of the images, metaphors, symbols, and promises God has written down.

The first path is the path of a person who understands the importance of God’s word. Psalm 1 declares we are blessed if we meditate on God’s words. The psalms declare that it’s not mere religious affiliation, earthly wisdom, perfect ethics or even great adherence to moral laws (those these all might sometimes be good in their own way) that produce the best blessings in one’s life. The truest, most enduring blessings are linked to God’s word, to the meditation on the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. Thus, anyone in any religion can and may be blessed but the Jewish Tanakh and the Christian Bible bring the greatest truth and the greatest blessings.

The progression on the wrong path begins when someone walks in the advice given to him by ungodly people. Often God’s advice and the world’s advice are different, because God doesn’t see human life in the same way the limited human mind does. The man on the wrong path has begun by walking as sinners do (in the way of the ungodly.) Then his walk leads him to stop and stand with sinners. At last he ends his progressive walk toward evil as he gets comfortable enough to sit among scorners. Stop for a moment and imagine this series of imagery. It is not important to overthink this. Simply imagine a person walking past a bookstore or a group of Bible haters in a park. Something they say intrigues him. He believes their view of life and takes advice from their loose talk. Then instead of moving on, this same person follows the advice he was given and becomes part of this group of ungodly people. Before, when he walked near them, he would only occasionally allow himself to be a part of them. But now he has become part of their group, standing around and listening to their ungodly talk. After a while, he even gets an honored seat among them. He has become a fulltime mocker.

Scorners of God’s word is a recurring theme in many of the psalms. What do these mockers scorn? Use your imagination. Everything related to godliness. Mocking implies a smug proud belief in one’s own way of thinking. Mockers mock righteousness as much as they mock righteous people. Thus the man who began by merely walking near the godly, ends up standing and listening to their ungodly discourses and then being so tainted that he grows bold and ends up joining them in their mockery of God, religious people, and holiness. Can you see this thing happening? Can your mind picture the scene? If it can, then you have meditated on the word.

I’m making this chapter on Psalm 1 a large one because I want you to get the idea of imagining and meditating on God’s word. Because the first psalm is full of images, if you practice meditating on it, you will become skillful on meditating on all Scripture. Even better, Psalm 1 reminds us that we are blessed by meditating on it.

Now let’s look at the good man. He has chosen the right path. The words of mere men do not delight him, but Scripture does. He meditates, imagines, ponders, walks about in, mutters, the images and the words he has seen in the Bible. He enjoys thinking about the Bible stories he reads. He imagines watching God creating the world in the Genesis account. He ponders and wonders what John could possibly mean by God is Light. He wonders what it must have been like to see the waters of the Red Sea part. The good man actively engages his imagination as he reads Scriptures. Even at night, he thinks about what he has read.

The Psalmist then brings in another series of symbols and metaphors that are occur often in the Bible. In this case, they are images that have to do with water and planting. Biblical imagery which compares the human heart to a field, and God’s word as seed is common. So is the idea that water is the life-giving force of God’s Holy Spirit. This, the water and the seed are symbols of God’s spirit acting together with God’s word. They produce spiritual fruit and blessings in the believer’s heart and spirit when the believer meditates upon them. Of course the believer’s heart must not be like hard ground or concrete which stop God’s seed from growing.

The person who humbly ponders and meditates on God’s word day and night is not someone  who merely studies it and then moves on. If studying the Bible was all that is required, more theologians would be blessed by it. Only those who meditate on God’s word receive the promised blessings. If we meditate on God’s words, the power in those words are like seeds which have found fertile soil in our hearts. The word of God has life within itself to create life within those who believe it in their hearts. Those who are rooted in the Bible are like trees rooted by flowing rivers. They are rooted in God Himself. But the ungodly have no such rootedness.

The Psalmist then returns to the metaphor of walking which is another frequent symbol in the Bible. This time he continues the Biblical poetic style of comparisons and contrasts. We see (and imagine) what the ungodly does. As the ungodly chose to stand in the way of sinners, he cannot stand in the judgment or in the congregation of the righteous. He cannot even stand before God.

The path symbol is also revisited. The path of the righteous is described as walkway that God knows. God is before, beside, and behind the one who walks on this Bible-meditation path protecting them as they walk. (Try imagining this picture for ten minutes.) But the road that the ungodly walk on ends in destruction.

Much is promised to the one who keeps his imagination and mind focused on God’s words. Godly meditation is not meditation on nothing but imagining, imaging, and focusing on God’s words as one reads it.

1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 2

Psalm 2 seems to be portraying a preparation for war. We are given a scene in which the kings of the earth are being looked at from a heavenly point of view. It’s as if God and those in the heavenly throne room are looking down on the children of men and wondering at the arrogant, presumptive, foolish plans earthly rulers make. This is an interesting scene to image even if we aren’t exactly sure what the scene is about..

There are many possible interpretation of what is going on in this psalm and each interpretation depends on what one thinks of the prophesied Messiah. In Jewish and Christian Scripture, the Messiah is a special human who will come to earth. What that special human is supposed to do depends on what one considers is the fate and purpose of the Messiah. From the beginning of the Scriptures, in the book of Genesis, there is a prophecy of a special human who will crush the serpent’s head and who will be bruised in the heel. Whatever this may mean, the idea of a special human who will come and set the world right is common in many religions and folklore.

For the Jewish people, the Messiah has not yet come and is one who will be sent to show the holiness of God and the greatness of the Jewish people. For Christians, the Messiah has come and was sent to revive the human spirit (which died after the temptation in the garden), to return power and dominion to humans, to reconcile humans to God, to conquer sin, and other great deeds. Christians believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Other groups, such as Moslems believe that the Messiah has not yet come. 

In the psalm, the Gentile world is seen battling against God’s people and the Messiah of God’s Chosen people. So, depending on one’s interpretation, the psalm could be referring to the world’s dislike of Israel and Israel’s Messiah. Or, it could be a prophesy about the Jewish rulers of Jesus’ day fighting against Jesus as Messiah. Or it could be a Psalm that looks ahead to the end of days when all the world battles against God.

Whatever the case, the imagination of these people are bent on doing something ridiculous. No matter how powerful the kings of the earth are, they cannot battle against the Lord. As it is written in Proverbs 21:30, There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD. Try imagining this. There are so many movies about aliens attacking earth. There are also many movies about evil bad guys trying to take over the world. Generally in those movies, the stronger power wins. If there was a war between God and men, who do you think would win?

According to the Bible, ever since their first disobedience in the garden of Eden, humans have battled God. They are always at war with Him, even when they think they want to obey Him. The human mind is always at enmity with God until God’s Holy Spirit revives a person’s spirit and that person is born again as a truly awake spiritual human being. According to Christianity, this cannot be done through obeying laws. In fact the whole desire to have a system of laws, where one knows the difference between good and evil, stems from the human mind which likes to be proud, which likes to feel it can become like God. In fact, very self-righteous people who obey God’s laws perfectly are the ones who desperately need God’s reviving spirit. They must get rid of their trust in the self-righteousness which comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and accept the reviving life that comes from the tree of life.

Humanity and human kings always seek to shake off the Lord’s rules. They war against God’s Messiah. In this psalm, we see that their petty vindictiveness only cause the Lord to mock them. They actually believe they can challenge God. In the first Psalm humans mocked those who follow God’s path. In this second Psalm, God Himself laughs at those who seek to walk their own rebellious path.

The psalm ends with a Promise which the Lord makes to the Messiah. Then the Holy Spirit tells the kings of the earth to worship the Messiah whom God Himself will set up as king on Israel’s holy mountain.

1Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

2The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,

3Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

4He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

5Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

6Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

7I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

8Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

9Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

10Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

11Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Psalm 3

Sometimes when one reads a psalm, one has to decide if it is prophetic, historical, personal, communal or a combination of some or all of the above. Very knowledgeable people may understand this psalm more than you and I do, but their knowledge has not helped them because they have not lived in or meditated on the word of God with a believing imaginative heart. Truly, it doesn’t matter if a psalm is meant to be historical, or prophetic, or communal or personal. All you are asked to do is to meditate on the story or scene being presented in the Bible.

Many of the psalms have annotations, a short description of the circumstances which caused the psalm to be written. These annotations often tell us who wrote the specific Psalm and why. And sometimes we are told what musical ceremony the Psalm was written for and how the Psalm should be played. Psalm 3 has such an annotation. This annotation declares that the Psalm is given to the overseer of the worship music  —the chief musician. It also states that David wrote it when he fled from his son Absalom. You can read about the civil war between David and his son in the Biblical books of Kings, Samuel, and Chronicles.

This is a psalm about overwhelming trouble. Since the annotation declares that David wrote it about his troubles with his son Absalom, we know it is a personal psalm. But the psalm could also refer to Israel and to the troubles that have overwhelmed Israel from its beginning. It could also refer to something that will happen to Israel in the future. Or it could refer to the troubles of good people in the world.

Although we are told that the psalm was written when David was fleeing from his rebellious son Absalom  who had instigated a civil war against David’s rule, Absalom is not mentioned at all.

The psalm begins with the psalmist directly addressing the Lord. Thus the psalm can be used by any worshiper who feels overwhelmed by enemies. The sense of being over-run by great troubles and the astonishment, weariness, and amazement caused by such trouble is palpable. It feels as if this is the worst in a series of unrelenting troubles that has come into David’s life.

Whether caused by David or not, these troubles are so bad that when bystanders look on, they see no way for David to get out of his problems. They believe that even God can’t help him. Or perhaps they believe that God will not help. Perhaps they even believe that God Himself is causing the trouble in the psalmist’s life. Whatever their reasoning, the observers see the psalmist/worshiper of God on one side, and the psalmist’s enemies on the other side while God stands powerlessly or indifferently or even willfully unhelpful to the side.

David, however, sees matters differently. This is a common theme in much of Scripture: one person alone against the world, one person who trusts God’s words in spite of all that seems to proclaim God’s lack of care or lack of love. Here, the psalmist declares that —whatever others may think about the situation— God is with him.

Although there doesn’t seem to be any apparent help, David declares that God has heard him. He feels that God will indeed help him, sustain him, and protect him. He is so sure of God’s care and power to save him that he can even sleep peacefully although he has many enemies attacking from all sides. Fearful words have no power to harm him. He knows his God and he reminds God that he trusts in Him. He even believes that those who are his enemies are also God’s enemies because he himself is righteous and his enemies are ungodly.

Although Absalom was not yet captured, David ends the psalm by affirming that God would deliver him.  God’s blessing is upon His people and salvation is one of God’s blessings. David ends the psalm by using the word Selah. This is the first appearance of a word the translators left untranslated: Selah. As far as I know, no one is quite sure what it means but the general guess is that it means either Pause, interlude, and/or Meditate on that consider that. It seems to be a musical interlude in the music where the listeners are asked to ponder the theological truth just declared.

David calls God The Lifter up of my head. When we’re depressed or ashamed our head is turned down. Because of shame, we can’t face other people, we can’t face ourselves. Because of the hopelessness of the situation, we can’t look up. But then we look up to God who is our hope. It is also interesting to note that Jesus Christ always looked up to heaven when he prayed.

Although David is looking down, he prays to God. He trusts God but he also remembers to ask God. Then he proclaims his belief in what God has done. He says he knows that God has already destroyed all his enemies. He declares that God is able to save and bless those whom God considers his people.

1Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.

2Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.

3But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

4I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.

5I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.

6I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.

7Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.

8Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.

Psalm 4

In Psalm 4, we see the plight of a man who is determined to believe in God despite the distresses and scorns around him. It begins with a call to God, the God whose righteousness is somehow equated with the psalmist’s own. The psalmist’s righteousness depends on God’s. Therefore, he tells God, Answer Me When I Call!

He reminds God of God’s past kindnesses and deliverances. In the same way that Christians love Jesus because He saved and delivered them from sin, death, dead works, and their own righteousness....and in the same way that Israel was commanded to love the Lord because He was the Lord who had delivered them from the house of bondage, Egypt...so David’s knowledge that God has delivered him makes him believe that God will deliver him again. Moreover, David knows that God has set apart the godly for Himself, and the mercy of God will be shown by God hearing the prayer.

David then stops speaking momentarily to God and speaks to humanity, the sons of Adam. He tells them they have turned God’s glory into shame. An example of turning glory into shame would be when the Israelites made a golden calf to represent the God who had delivered them out of Egypt. Or people who scorn the idea of holy good and who aim to make people who believe in God feel ashamed for their beliefs.

Those who turn shame into glory are folks who take delight and honor what is considered a sin in the Bible. Such people love lies and follow delusions.

Once again, the theme of the opposite spirit returns. It is often the way of the world to think well of things that God considers evil. And vice versa. The world’s black is often (but not always) the believer’s white. And vice versa. What the world glorifies is often what the believer avoids. This can be seen in the believer’s attitude toward power, Mammon, pride, fierceness, etc. It is even evident in the way the world views religious matters. Those who trust in God rejoice that the Lord is their shepherd and that they have a heavenly Father who guides, feeds, protects and leads them on the right way. Those with the opposite spirit like to consider themselves wordly-wise, shrewd, self-made men who have studied the world and who know how to operate in it. What is important to worldly humans is considered sinful, vain, or empty to those who seek God’s glory, kingdom, and power. 

The Psalmist continues by stating that God has set apart the godly for Himself. Another word for set apart is holy or sanctified or devoted. The psalmist declares that God has his eye on those who love God; God has a special place and a special destiny for those who love him. Part of this special relationship is that God will hear the godly person when the godly person prays to Him. There are many verses in the Bible about things, people, and people being devoted to or set apart for God. Take about ten minutes and try imagining God setting you apart. If this is difficult to imagine, try focusing on your good set of plates that you only use for special occasion. Paul used that symbol also. Some of us are like common dishes but we can make ourselves even more useful for God’s household if we set ourselves apart. .

Having made this holy boast about his special relationship with God — a boast which is David’s glory but which would probably cause shame to be heaped on his head if the sons of men were to hear it— David commands the sons of men to stand in awe. He probably means to stand in awe of God. To stand in awe of God is to become smaller in one’s own estimation of one’s self. But it also is —paradoxically— to rise in one’s estimation of one’s own place in the universe. After all, God has made humans in his own image and has given to all humans the capacity to know and befriend him.

But how does one befriend God? He does this by communing with his own heart as he lays in bed, by being still and meditating on God’s awesomeness. David understands that sin sometimes comes from anger. Perhaps anger at God, anger at bad people, anger at the distresses. What one must do is search one’s own heart and be silent before God. Then one begins to see why God is faithful, one sees why sinful men do not really prosper although they seem to. He tells his hearers to trust in God and to offer right sacrifices. The Psalmist ends this section by stating Selah, a word which means, Pause and consider that, meditate on that. 

David then tells the sons of men to offer sacrifices of righteousness and to put their trust in the Lord. This is not merely external ritualistic sacrifices of bulls, goats and other offerings. These are internal spiritual sacrifices that one makes when one has communed with one’s own heart. In that silence on one’s bed, one sees how wrong one’s path is. After communing with God, one stops walking in self-trust, self-righteousness and self-glorying. Instead one learns to trust God.

David declares that many people have lost faith in seeing  goodness in the world. They are looking for a leader to show them the way to happiness or they are looking for someone who will give them hope. The world wants to see that God is working in people’s lives but they are unable to see it. Why can the world not see it? Perhaps some kinds of  goodness cannot exist in this world. Perhaps the goodness exists but sinful human eyes can’t see it. Since God is Light and gives light, David asks God to enlighten the eyes of those who seek good. 

David states that there is a deliverance, a mercy, and a joy that is more than the joy humans get when they have a harvest or increase in their fields. God is able to give this kind of deliverance and joy. God is able to show this kind of good in such a way that those who trust in Him will have a joy that cannot be comparable to the joys of earthly-minded people.

The psalm ends by David declaring he has peace and can sleep. To be so full of Peace that one can sleep is something the worried seek. The psalmist knows that God’s care surrounds him at night and will go before him when the new day arrives. He has a powerful God who protects and cares for him. Even when we are asleep and unaware, God is aware of all and capable of protecting us.  David trust that those who have suffered for and lived for God will have a harvest of greater joy than those who rejoice in or seek earthly good. He asserts that although trials blaze all around him, he will remain in peace and safety because he trusts in God. Why? Because God loves the righteous, God knows the way a man should walk, God is merciful, and God will destroy the wicked and the rebellious who either don’t know the way or who don’t care to ask God what the true path is. He reminds God that God gives great favour to the righteous people who seek help from Him.

1{To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David.} Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.

2O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.

3But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.

4Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

5Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD

6There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

7Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.

8I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

Psalm 5

Psalm 5 begins with David asking God to consider the things his heart is meditating on. This is perhaps a dangerous thing to ask of a holy God. But David dares ask God to look at his thoughts. Just as the Israelites gathered manna in the morning, David speaks to God early in the morning. He declares that God should listen to him because his own lips are pure and he himself is free from sinfulness and iniquity.

Try to meditate on this. What is David saying? He says he speaks to God early in the morning and looks up. What does it mean to look up spiritually, emotionally, or physically? Jesus also prayed and looked up when he prayed. Imagine looking up to the sky as you pray to God in the morning. Better yet, wake up a few times in the early morning and walk over to your window. Pray and look up at the sky. Keep looking up. Look at the stars. Look at the night changing to the day as the sun rises over the mountain. It’s as simple as that. 

Although David understands that the Lord abhors the deceitful man — and what human is not deceitful?— David is trusting in God’s many tender mercies. God will see his sins and his self-deceptions but God will also see the fear that David has for Him. David acknowledges that he needs God’s help to lead him in the right path, in the path of righteousness.

The righteous man does not trust the counsel or advice of other men. Neither does he trust the advice his own heart gives him. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But the righteous man does not rebel against God or God’s words. This is the difference between the righteous and the sinner. The inner heart of the sinful man is unfaithful toward God, but the heart of the righteous continually fears that it may fall into deception and rebel against God. 

Thus, David trusts God’s love to protect him. There is pleasure for the righteous. Not because righteous people are so good but because they trust in God’s love to protect them from sin. David declares that the gracious favour of the love of God circles him like a shield. The righteous man takes not only his goodness to God but his sins as well, knowing that neither his goodness nor his sin can separate him from God. 

1{To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David.} Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.

2Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.

3My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

4For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.

5The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

6Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

7But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

8Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.

9For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

10Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.

11But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

12For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

Psalm 6

In Psalm 6, the psalmist is overwhelmed with his sin and is cowering in front of a pure God. This psalm shows us a God who is to be feared because He is so