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Psalm 4: A Peek Inside the Prayer Closet
Psalm 4 is a window into the struggle that is prayer.
1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
2 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.
4 Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.
6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4 ESV)
This psalm is difficult, as it appears to lack a specific context or specific request to God. The several verses appear disjointed, moving along in a somewhat jumpy manner. What is clear is that the psalmist is struggling and he presents God with his state of urgency.
The prayer opens with intensity that is immediate. The psalmist seems to be in an excited emotional state. He demands of God, “Answer me when I call, O God … hear my prayer!”
The reader can imagine that the psalmist has already been praying repeatedly over time. Time is running out now. “Answer me … !” God has helped the psalmist in the past, and he asks God to help him again (1). And yet, the psalmist acknowledges that for God to hear would be grace on his part. Nevertheless, the psalmist insists, “… hear my prayer!” There is an intimacy with God implied by these insistent requests.
While the speaker is not named, the reader knows from verse 2 that the psalmist is a righteous person. In verse 2 the psalmist speaks of his long-abiding honor, or glory, which his apparent enemies from the human race are turning into shame. That is, they are taking the Lord’s pearls and trampling them underfoot. John Barclay observes the similarity between Psalm 4:2 and Proverbs 1:22, “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?” Such speech befits God alone and God’s Son, his representative on earth. And just as Proverbs 1:23 presents God’s offer of blessing were the scoffers to repent, Psalm 4 holds out an olive branch encouraging repentance in verses 4-5. What greater call to second chances and a rewritten ending than Christ’s cry from the cross, “Father, forgive them … “?
The stability of this seemingly disjointed prayer is God. God in his righteousness is the stability of all the Psalter’s prayers. Prayer is a battleground for the one praying. It’s where the suppliant/worshipper brings an often jumbled set of emotions, turmoil, confusion, hopes, and fear. When the petitioner comes before God in prayer, they open themselves to change. The one praying changes–God does not change. To effect change is the purpose for prayers of supplication. As often as not, it is the one praying who changes, apart from any change to circumstance.
God is the settler in a suppliant’s prayer. Verse 6 is key to understanding the marvelous transaction that occurs in a worshipper’s heart as she bends her knee to the grace of God in earnest prayer. It is God’s light that heals.
Word Study
Verse 6b in the Septuagint, the Bible Jesus would have used, reads differently than the Masoretic, or Hebrew text, printed above. Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint reads, “the light of thy countenance, O Lord, has been manifested towards us.” Notice the change from the Masoretic’s imperative, or second person tense of request, to past tense. This change of tense turns the tide of the prayer from supplication to accomplished encouragement. The speaker’s heart has already been strengthened as he focuses on the light that God has already manifested.
The Orthodox Study Bible goes a step further in its translation of verse 6b (7b LXE), “O Lord, the light of Your face was stamped upon us.” The Greek word for “stamped” is the middle verb ἐσημειώθη, which is of the verb family rendered “sign” in English. The reader will recognize this word from Revelation 12:1 and other verses, “And a great sign appeared in heaven…” John in his Gospel calls the miracles that Jesus performed “signs,” while God calls the rainbow he gave Noah and the act of circumcision he gave Abraham “signs.”
The idea in the Orthodox translation is that the light from God’s face has already shined upon the believer’s face, leaving its indelible imprint, mark, or stamp there. The idea (though not the exact word) is the same as in Ephesians 1:13, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” God’s light changes people. We hear this thought again in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Much of this transformation occurs in prayer.
The believer goes to God in prayer, bringing everything that burdens his or her heart to the God who cares in order that God may shine his light upon both the person and upon the issue. God’s light is what effects change. God’s light transforms the darkness of the human condition into the glory that always accompanies his presence.
Verse 3 of this same psalm confirms the Greek Bible’s interpretation, just presented, “But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.“ The stamp, seal, imprint, sign, or manifestation of the believer’s having been set apart for God (verse 3) is the light of God’s face upon them (verse 6).
As already mentioned above, although the unbeliever assaults the psalmist in verse 2, verses 4-5 are a call to repentance, a welcoming entreaty to nonbelievers to join in as recipients of God’s manifest blessings. The blessings of verses 3 and 6 wrap themselves around the nonbelievers of verses 4-5. Christ came to save sinners, not to condemn them, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Verses 7 and 8 close out this short psalm on an entirely different note than its opening in verse 1, “7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” This prayer has accomplished its purpose. Although there are no indications that the psalmist’s circumstances have changed an iota, his heart has made a complete turnaround. God heard and answered the psalmist’s impassioned plea for his divine response. Joy, peace, and rest, both physical and emotional, replace the distress and urgency of the prayer’s opening. This is what coming into God’s presence accomplishes. Yet, prayer is a struggle. It is like wrestling the enemy within one’s own heart, but in the healing light of God’s presence. God’s presence changes everything.
They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. (Luke 8:24 NAU)
Blessings to you, as we move forward in this prayer study of Psalms together. (On a personal note, please do not think that it is easy for me to comprehend and dig out the treasures of Psalms. This psalm gave me extreme difficulty, as I wrestled with it all week long. And yes, I did pray over it.)
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1 English language does not currently have a neuter pronoun in reference to people. At times it is necessary to use the pronoun “he.” I hope that all the women reading this know and understand that God loves women as much, or even more, if that were possible, than he loves men. The Lord Jesus is a man, but his church, his body, is comprised of men and women, both of whom God welcomes to pray this prayer in Christ’s footsteps. This blog’s author is a woman, who writes these words.
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Psalm 3: Does God Have Multiple Personalities?
James J. Tissot, ‘David in the Wilderness of Ziph’ (1896-1902) gouache on board, Jewish Museum, New York.
Does God have multiple personalities? Some Psalms speak of God’s blessings upon his faithful, while others describe a God whose face is turned away. Psalms 1 and 2 speak of endless, magnificent blessings for the righteous man and for the King, God’s Son, while in Psalm 3 we see an ardent follower of the Lord, who by definition is righteous (Psalm 1:1-3), surrounded by countless foes in a seemingly hopeless situation (vs. 2). Where are God’s promises now? How can a “blessed” God-follower be having such a hard time?
Gladly for us the Bible is literature, as well as being inspired. All of us can take the rules of common speech we have learned since infancy and apply them towards understanding what God has written for our instruction. God wants the seeker to understand him (Proverbs 1:20-21).
One of the first facets of Psalm 3 lying in plain sight is the change of voice from that of the prior two: “I…I…I…me…my.” Psalm 3 is strongly first person, and the person speaking is neither God nor the glorified Son, as in Psalm 2, nor a neutral narrator, as in Psalm 1. Unlike Psalm 3, Psalms 1 and 2 present the overview to the Psalter, as demonstrated in the two prior posts, the long distance, high-in-the-sky, end-of-the-movie point of view. While Psalms 1 and 2 present the outcome of life as reported from God’s eternal point of view, the human speaker in Psalm 3 has his feet on the ground, running, as it were, heavily pursued by his multitude of enemies. Again, Psalms 1 and 2 are a summary view of the entire story, while Psalm 3 is a snapshot view of a certain moment of time in the psalmist’s life.
Who then is the psalmist?
- Historically, the superscription applies Psalm 3 to King David, when he was fleeing the persecution of his wicked son Absalom (2Sa 15:13-17, 29).
- In a broadly poetic, generic sense, the speaker is every righteous man and every righteous woman.
- Specifically, especially as the believing reader becomes familiar with the ways of the Psalter and the Bible as a whole, the speaker is the righteous man of Psalm 1 and the King, God’s Son, of Psalm 2. (See footnote 1.) What? This is a surprise! “But I thought … blessed!” Yes, until we look more closely at Psalm 2.
1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:1-3)
As a whole, Psalm 2 makes so light of the efficacy of the enemies of God–verse 9 describes them as mere, broken pottery–that their role as antagonists diminishes within the bounds of Psalm 2. Their end is destruction, but … their beginning is persecution of the Lord’s Anointed. Psalm 3 gives the reader a view of what that persecution looks like from the vantage of the Lord’s Anointed, Messiah on earth, incarnated, human.
From the point of view of Messiah in real time, God-as-man, the enemies look multitudinous: 1) the word “many” is repeated three times in verses 1 and 2, 2) the enemies are numbered as “many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around,” in verse 6, and 3) the psalmist labels them as “all my enemies” in verse 7. Clearly, the ground level view is very different than the heavenly.
What can we learn from Psalm 3?
Takeaways:
1. God is love. It was God’s love that sent his Son into this battleground. Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32; see also John 3:16)
2. A life of faith is a life of warfare. John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
3. Faith consistently cries out to the Lord.
4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
7a Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! …
4. Faith lives in the final victory as it struggles through the conflicts of the moments.
3 But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.7b … For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
5. The final victory of faith is eternal blessing. Psalm 3:8 Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah
As believers during the various seasons of our lives, we will experience security in the Lord, blessedness, battle, hardship, the attacks of our enemies (which may be the spiritual enemies of lust, anger, addiction, and so forth), crying for help, praise, thanksgiving, and finally, victory in Christ. We can each of us ask where we are in this cyclic continuum. If you are found by Christ still believing in him when you die, then you are a victor. Faith is the victory by which we overcome the world. (1 John 5:4)
Sidebar Tidbit: Notice how the wicked (see footnote 2) are compared to chaff in Psalm 1:4, pieces of broken pottery in Psalm 2:9, and broken teeth in Psalm 3:7.
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1 With reference to Acts 2:30, Matthew Bates writes, “Third, Peter affirms that David, ‘was a prophet’ (2:30), which suggests that the emphasis is on David’s future-oriented words not on David’s own past experiences as a righteous sufferer, making it even more unlikely that we are invited to see David as speaking for himself as a ‘type’ of the future Christ.” (Bates, Matthew. The Birth of the Trinity. Oxford University Press. Oxford: 2016, 154.) The same line of reasoning may be applied to this psalm as well. Jesus’ apostles, such as Peter, were so taken up with the person and resurrection of Christ that David qua David had little significance for them. (So if you don’t find yourself excited about King David, that’s okay–be excited about Christ!)
2 Within the context of these psalms, the wicked are those who willfully and consciously oppose God, oppose his Anointed Son the King, and oppose God’s good way.
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Psalm 2: Blessings to the King, an Apology (Apologia)
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Whereas Psalm 1 blesses the Lord’s generic, faithful follower (Footnote 1), Psalm 2 blesses an identified person–God’s Son the King. Because God guards the path of the righteous (1:6) and rejects those who reject him (1:1, 4-6), the reader must rightfully infer that the King, who receives God’s greatest blessing, is righteous and adheres very closely to God’s way. What does Psalm 2 tell us about this King?
- Verse 2: He is called God’s “Anointed One (Messiah),” and is named alongside God the LORD (Israel’s God, who is named Yahweh. See Genesis 2:4 and Exodus 3:15). Takeaway: Messiah is introduced in Psalm 2, at the very front of the Psalter.
- Verse 3a: The Messiah is fully on God’s team. (When the Pharisees accused Jesus of serving Beelzebul, the prince of demons, they were gravely mistaken. See Matthew 12:23-28.)
- Verses 1-3: The nations of the world take a united stand against God and his Anointed. The world perceives Messiah as its enemy (Messiah is translated “Christ” in the Septuagint (LXX), which is the Greek version of the Old Testament.) The Septuagint asks its readers to pause and think about this awhile. (See 1 John 2:15.)
- Verse 3: Even in the act of rebelling against the Lord and his Anointed, the kings of the world implicitly and vocally acknowledge that God is their ruler. “They say, ‘Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! Let’s free ourselves from their ropes!'” (Psalm 2:3 NET) Takeaway: What God gives as blessing–the rule of his Anointed One, his Messiah–the world perceives as bondage. Whose perspective is distorted? God’s? or the world’s? Before replying, consider the biblical portrait of Messiah given in the Gospel accounts–the life, words, actions, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom the gospel writers, and Pilot the Roman governor, identify as Israel’s king. (John 19:19-22.)
- Verse 5: God himself, in direct speech, endorses his King by proclaiming that he personally installed him on Zion, his holy hill.
- Verses 7-9: The King in direct speech repeats God’s decree.
- Verse 7: The King reports that God announced his relationship with his King. The King is God’s Son, and God is the King’s Father.
- Verse 8: God encourages the King to request of him all the nations of earth as his inheritance, and he will do it.
- Verse 9: The King’s rule over the nations will be absolute, powerful, and punitive.
- Verses 10-12: The King permits repentance. The narrator of this dramatic, possibly choral, psalm encourages the worldly kings of the earth to stop their current course of rebellion and wisely to consider. They still have opportunity to serve the LORD God and to kiss the Son (verse 12). Judgment is not now, but future. His wrath is not yet realized and can be averted. Takeaway: The Son will bless all (even former enemies) who take refuge in him. (See Romans 5:10.)
Conclusion and Summary
While Psalm 1 speaks blessing upon God’s loyal followers and judgment upon his enemies, Psalm 2 speaks judgment upon his enemies and blessing upon all, including former enemies, who hide themselves in him. The tone is absolute, as it states the facts of life. There is no room for discussion, nor protest, nor exceptions. God speaks boldly and clearly as though to say, This is the way it is, folks. You can take it or leave it, and I God encourage you to take my offer of peace and blessing through my King the Son. While Psalm 1 appears to be generic (Footnote 1), Psalm 2 is specific.
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1 Even though God’s blessing is to a class of people who are righteous, Scripture teaches that among the human race, “None is righteous, no not one,” (Romans 3:10; Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3). Therefore, the only righteous one remaining is God himself, and as concerns humanity, God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus became human for the very reason that he would become the righteous human sacrifice to pay the penalty for all people. Such is God’s love and his determination to bring his fallen people back to himself. In Christ God created a way where there had been no way. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6.)
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Psalm 1: If You Eat All That Candy, You’ll Get Worms in Your Stomach
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My dad used to send me out trick-or-treating for Halloween, and then whenever he saw me eating some of my stash, he’d tell me I was going to get worms in my stomach. Go figure…
Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: (Proverbs 1:20-21 ESV)
Every culture teaches its own wisdom either for good or for evil, either freely or for pay. Parents come first to mind within the culture of homes. The American culture generally abounds with offers of wisdom for pay: secrets of obtaining wealth, secrets of losing weight, secrets of building confidence, and so forth. Then there are cultures of evil, which often require initiation rites to test the novice’s loyalty, to exact a payment, or to acquire incriminating evidence to hold over the initiate’s head as a threat if the person decides later to leave. Think fraternities or Oliver Twist or gangs. Movies provide many examples of cultures of crime that exact payment of one sort or another from initiates. God’s culture is different than all these.
Within the Psalter and the Bible as a whole, God claims to be the creator, owner, and ruler of everything. The Psalter offers a culture of wisdom, God’s wisdom, for those desiring to join his team, as it were, or to place themselves under his protection. Psalm 1 teaches wisdom in much the same way as Proverbs 1:20-21, quoted above. There we learn that God’s wisdom exacts no initiation fee from the novice, it is offered to everyone, it is not secretive or hidden, it seeks to give to all, and it presents itself in places where it is likely to be found. In other words, in the body of psalms, God shares his wisdom freely with all. Psalm 1 states in the clearest language possible the simple wisdom of God, the beginning and end of all things human, and how to survive the final judgment.
Think of a mountain high in heaven and picture a spring of clear, cold, fresh, pure water bubbling up from God as its source. The water from the spring forms a stream which flows down the mountain giving water to everything it meets. This is the position of Psalm 1 at the head of the Psalter. It lays the foundation of the psalms and tells the final outcome. Everyone seeking God’s wisdom, the wisdom that leads to a prosperous and fruitful life, should begin here.
These are the principles of Psalm 1:
- God exists and is all-powerful.
- God is good and his path leads to blessing.
- God is just and does not reward those who go against him.
Psalm 1 breathes out Proverbs 1:7–
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (ESV)
Psalm 1 is an invitation to enter into the presence of God, to drink deeply from his waters of instruction, and to travel the flow of his river to its final destination of happiness forever. God gives to all who come to him.
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Psalm 1: Headwater to the Psalter
San Andreas Fault. Photo by John Wiley.
There is a plain located on a fault line on the southwestern side of North America, where the Pacific Plate meets the North American Plate. These two plates slide past each other, the Pacific to the north, and the North American to the south. “For years the plates will be locked with no movement at all as they push against one another. Suddenly the built-up strain breaks the rock along the fault, and the plates slip a few feet all at once. The breaking rock sends out waves in all directions, and it is the waves that we feel as earthquakes.” (Lynch, see Bibliography)
A hill rises along the highway at the northwestern end of this plain which lies along the fault line. Visitors can walk up its short but steep incline to a view point and see the entire plain stretched out before them. It’s an exciting and breathtaking view, as various geological features can be noted. Such a view point is Psalm 1 at the head of the Psalter. Psalm 1 in six short verses sketches out the fault line between the blessedly happy righteous person, whom the Lord guards and protects for all eternity, and the wicked, whom the wind blows away like chaff and who ultimately perishes.
Psalm 1 describes real life in condensed form. As we live our lives, we see the righteous and the wicked side by side. Often they seem locked with no apparent movement as they push against one another. The righteous do not seem to be blessed, confer Psalms 22, 31, and 88 among many others, and the wicked apparently prosper, confer Psalms 37 and 73. Suddenly–for us, not for God–the built up strain causes breakage, as in an earthquake, slippage occurs, and the final outcomes for the righteous and the wicked are revealed. The righteous of earth continuously move toward God’s blessings, while the wicked move in the opposite direction. Psalm 1 describes the fault line between these two.
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Psalms 18 and 118: Up from the Grave He Arose!
Resurrection Glory
After the dark Tenebrae chords of Psalm 88 and after the discordant realities of Messiah’s abased life while on earth as recorded in Psalm 89, Psalms 18 and 118 both ring out like joyful peals of Easter bells. Christ is alive! He did not die. Just as we heard from Messiah the God-man in his human form expressing in lament his petitions to his Father, in these psalms we also hear the voice of a man singing his carols of victory, salvation, and release from the grave. Below are a few highlights from each of these psalms. I encourage the reader to read both of these psalms with the vision provided by the apostolic kerygma, the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We rejoice as believers, because he rejoices as one of us. His triumph was a triumph of humanity over sin and the grave.
Psalm 18
After the dark pleadings of Psalm 88–
5 like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah (Psa 88:5-7 ESV)—
God replies. He was silent and absent in Psalm 88, but in Psalm 18, his response is nothing short of tremendous. And, just as Jesus pleaded his lament with great emotional overtones, God his Father replies with great emotional drama as well. Hear what the psalmist says.
4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me;
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.
7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.
9 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.
14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16 He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me (cf 22:8). (Psa 18:4-19 ESV)
Psalm 118
In Psalm 118, the psalmist/resurrected Messiah sings with pure joy and loud celebration his victorious release from the grave and salvation to life. God heard and answered his prayers, and he is no longer confined alone and friendless in the dank darkness of the pit of death, as recorded in Psalm 88.
1 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
… … … …
5 Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free.
6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
7 The LORD is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
… … … …
10 All nations surrounded me; in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
12 They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the LORD helped me.
14 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
15 Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly,
16 the right hand of the LORD exalts, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!”
17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.
18 The LORD has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.
21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
23 This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.
27 The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.
29 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psa 118:1-29 ESV)
Christians celebrate Easter, which they often call Resurrection Sunday, because in Christ, his victory over sin and death is their victory over sin and death. Because Christ is resurrected, by faith in him, they are resurrected. Because he lives forever, they live forever.
The Bible’s promises are so majestic and broad in scope that words fail. There are no qualifications for anyone to receive all the benefits of God’s covenant of life made with Jesus Christ and through him to all believers. The one and only requirement is a lifelong TRUST in the life, death, and resurrection of the ascended Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as both Savior and Lord. The duration of the lifelong commitment might be no more than one minute, for those who choose to believe on their deathbeds, or an entire span of multiple decades in a hard labor camp. Eternal life is so great that no one merits it and not one more than another (Matthew 20:1-16).
If you have not already done so, won’t you give Christ your allegiance (1) today?
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1 For an interesting approach to the word “allegiance” as it relates to “faith,” see Matthew W. Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone. Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, 2017.
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Psalm 88: A Tenebrae Psalm
A Tenebrae service in its current evangelical format is a dark service commonly observed on the Thursday evening before Good Friday. It is a church service in which the events of Christ’s Passion are acknowledged and honored. Scripture is read, music is sung, and lights or candles gradually dim or are extinguished, until the service room is very dark. Worshipers often exit in silence. Psalm 88 is highly suitable for a Tenebrae service. This psalm dramatically prophesies Christ’s final suffering and death in his own first person voice. The psalm foretells in this man’s own words what it felt like for him to die. Notice that the psalm has two characters–1) the speaker, and 2) the silent character, God. What a treasure this is for us to find in God’s Word.
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Psalm 88 (ESV)
O LORD, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.
In verses 1-3, we sense the events of Holy Week–our Lord’s deep, deep, constant prayers, his foreknowledge of his betrayal, his suffering in the Garden, his arrest and trial, his close friend’s three denials, and finally, his crucifixion. By verse 4, Jesus the man is dead, or nearly so. Verse 6 works very well as a description of a tomb.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
Verses 7 and 8 might be a repetition of the period Christ spent on the cross, resulting in his being placed in a small, dark cave, a tomb, from which he could not escape.
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
The last ten verses (9-18) are best read as a whole. They seem to repeat in different words the first eight verses with a deeper development of the prayers of pleading the psalmist prayed. We hear notes of what Christ may have spoken to his Father when he cried out to him those three times in the Garden, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” (Luke 22:42; Matthew 26:36-44)
Jesus loved his friends; it grieved him that they shunned him as a horror (verses 8 and 18).
The words dark or darkness are mentioned three times in this prayer-poem: once in verse 6, once in verse 12, and once in verse 18.
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Psalm 116: Christ Loves the Father
Psalm 116 is a song of worship, praise, and thanksgiving for the author of love, God the Father. In it, Christ recounts a brief history of the cross, and his relation to the Father throughout its enactment in history. Christ loves the Father and believes. Therefore, he sings this song.
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Psalms are love songs between Father and Son. As the Father loves the Son (Psalm 2:7-8; Psalm 18), so the Son loves the Father. “I love the Lord!” (Psalm 116:1). “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,” (verse 13). The cup of salvation is the Eucharist (cup of communion) for the early church and in today’s Orthodox tradition (Reardon, 232 and The Orthodox Study Bible, 760). It represents the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Psalm 116 states reasons for the Son’s love for his Father: God heard his prayer and delivered him from death.
- He heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. (v 1)
- He bent his ear toward me and responded to my prayer. (v 2)
- I was about to die, and in fact I did die! (v 3)
- I cried out to the Lord and he saved me marvelously. (vv 4-8)
- Now I am alive and I walk freely with the Lord in the land of the living. (v 9)
Psalm 116 describes the Son’s love for his Father.
Short Version of this Section (Scroll Down for the Longer Version)
- He believes, even in the middle of all his horrible experiences. (v 10; Hebrews 11:6)
- “The cup of salvation” (v 13) is the cup that brings eternal life. Its cost of purchase was the death of the Son.
- Both of the phrases in Psalm 116:11, 1) I said in my alarm, and 2) all mankind are liars, conceivably make reference to the cross. (Read the longer version below to find out how.) This interpretation lines up perfectly with the context and received church tradition of Psalm 116 in its entirety. Verse 11 describes the Son’s agony as he sacrificed himself to the Father in love.
- “I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.” (vv 14, 18) What vows? Quite out in the open and publicly, Christ paid his eternal vows to his Father, sacrificing his body and life on the cross. His obedience demonstrates his love for his Father.
- Verse 16 speaks of resurrection. The bonds of servitude are distinguished here from the bonds of death. Christ in verses 17-19 offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving, praise, and continued intercession in prayer (Romans 8:34), thereby displaying his love for his Father God.
Longer Version of this Section
1. He believes, even in the middle of all his horrible experiences. (v 10; Hebrews 11:6)
2. “The cup of salvation” (v 13) is the cup that brings eternal life. Its cost of purchase was the death of the Son. In the early days of the church, many Christians were eager and happy to give up their lives in martyrdom as an expression of their love for Christ (Acts 7:54-60). Christians are martyred today for believing in the Lord. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (Joh 15:13 ESV)
3. Psalm 116:11 is a difficult verse. “I said in my alarm, All mankind are liars.“ Jesus Christ’s love for his Father surpasses the unworthiness of the people for whom Christ died. (Romans 3:23; Psalm 14:1-3; John 2:24-25) When Jesus was tried, convicted, and hung on a cross, none came forward to speak on his behalf (Pilate’s wife did mention to her husband the nightmare she had experienced concerning him). There was no one to comfort him (Handel’s Messiah quoting Psalm 69:20). Because the human race, as represented by all who were gathered and by those who chose to stay away and avoid trouble, allowed and encouraged the great Creator’s crucifixion, they all in essence, denied his deity. To not receive Christ, to not acknowledge God’s love in Christ, is to lie. (Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Rom 1:18 ESV) In this sense, in the crucifixion of Christ, the crucifixion of deity, all humankind was deceived and lied about the true relationship between themselves and their Creator/Savior.
The word “alarm” in Hebrew can mean “haste, hurry, to hurry in alarm.” In the Greek Septuagint, the word is “ecstasy,” which refers to a strong emotional state that is not normal, in the sense of not usual. We say that “So-and-so is beside herself.” It can be produced by great terror, bewilderment, astonishment, (as in response to a powerful miracle that overrides physical laws of nature (Mark 5:42, where Jesus resurrected a dead girl; Luke 5:26, where Jesus healed the paralyzed man; Mark 16:8, where the women were beside themselves in astonishment upon meeting the angel in Christ’s tomb, who told them that he had arisen from the dead). A second meaning for “ecstasy” is a trance (Acts 22:17, Peter’s vision of the blanket filled with unclean foods). This second meaning does not seem applicable here.
Continuing with the first meaning of strong emotion, often brought on by great fear, the Greek word “ecstasy” appears in the superscription of Psalm 31, which is Psalm 30 in the Septuagint. The English translation of the Septuagint reads, “For the end, a Psalm of David, an utterance of extreme fear,” or, εἰς τὸ τέλος ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυιδ ἐκστάσεως in Greek. Jesus speaks Psalm 31:5 from the cross, “Into your hand I commit my spirit,” (Luke 23:46) and the whole psalm speaks of death and resurrection. It should not be difficult to perceive Christ the man experiencing great trepidation both before and while he was being crucified. Witness his sweating of blood in the Garden as he prayed concerning the trial and crucifixion that lay just ahead.
Therefore, both of the phrases in Psalm 116:11– 1) I said in my alarm, and 2) all mankind are liars, conceivably make reference to the cross. This interpretation lines up perfectly with the context and received church tradition of Psalm 116 in its entirety. Verse 11 describes the Son’s agony as he sacrificed himself to the Father in love.
4. “I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.” (vv 14, 18) What vows? The prior verse (v 13) speaks of “the cup of salvation.” This cup (Luke 22:42) included the cross. The triune God determined the plans for the salvation of humanity in eternity past (Ephesians 1:11; 1 Peter 1:20; Titus 1:2). God made certain promises to his Son, and Christ the Son made promises to his Father. (See an excellent article expanding this topic by R. C. Sproul: Link, accessed 3/30/2018.) Another word for promises is “vows.” Christ in his life and death was constantly surrounded by crowds of people. Quite out in the open and publicly, Christ paid his vows to his Father through his obedience unto death, thereby demonstrating his love. The greatest vow was the sacrifice of his body and life on the cross. His obedience demonstrates his love for his Father.
5. Verse 16 speaks of resurrection. The bonds of servitude are distinguished here from the bonds of death. Christ in verses 17-19 offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving, praise, and continued intercession in prayer (Romans 8:34), thereby displaying his love for his Father God.
Summary and Conclusion
Psalm 116 is a song of worship, praise, and thanksgiving for the author of love, God the Father. In it, Christ recounts a brief history of the cross, and his relation to the Father throughout its enactment in history. Christ loves the Father and believes. Therefore, he sings this song.
It is amazing to me how many facets of approach every bit of the Psalter carries for its many readers. My approach today may not be my approach tomorrow. What I discover and emphasize today may not be the discovery and emphasis of another writer. God speaks one language with as many strings as there are hearts of those who seek him. This is wonderful in my eyes. I just want to encourage you to take time and prayer to allow the Lord to open his Word to your heart. You may not see what I see, but what you see directly from the Lord will be just wonderful for you.
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Psalm 116:1-9–Simple and Beautiful; Beautifully Simple
Photo by Christina Wilson
Devotional
Psalm 116:1-9 (114 LXX) is simple and beautiful, a beautifully simple psalm.
I love the Lord because He has heard the voice of my supplication.
Because He inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call on Him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish; then I called upon the name of the Lord: “O Lord, deliver my soul!”
Gracious and righteous is the Lord, and our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, He saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
For He has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
therefore, I desire to please the Lord in the land of the living. (The Ancient Faith Psalter, 256)
“I love the Lord!” exclaims the psalmist. Psalm 116 is the only psalm that opens with this exclamation. How many Christians spontaneously cry out this way when the Lord blesses in a big way? Whenever something outstanding pleases them, people often say things like, “I love this food!” “I love my car!” “I love my house!” “Oh, I love this dress!” This psalmist loves the Lord, and for good reason, which he explains in verse 8:
“He has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.”
Where were you when the Lord Jesus found you? This line exactly sums up my salvation experience. Immediately, also, in the very opening lines of the psalm, I hear the voice of Jesus Christ looking back on his experience with the cross and death. And so, Christ and I are intertwined in the words of this psalm. Verse three–the snares of death were in fact encompassing me when I first cried out to the Lord for his help, I felt the pangs of hell, and I was indeed suffering distress and anguish–all this metaphorically. Christ, on the other hand, experienced and suffered all these things concretely, intensely, in his body and soul as he hung nailed upon the cross and witnessed himself descending into Sheol, or hell*. “…then I called upon the name of the Lord: “O Lord, deliver my soul!” (vs 4). *(See Apostle’s Creed, available at https://www.ccel.org/creeds/apostles.creed.html)
4 Gracious and righteous is the Lord, and our God is merciful.
Unlike idols humans make for themselves, our God is a God who hears (Psalm 115:3-8). He is both gracious and righteous.
God’s righteousness is found in his judgment and condemnation of sin. We all know what condemnation feels like. We all see and experience it in our own court system. God’s judgment first expressed itself when he threw (cast) Adam and Eve out of their garden home. How many parents have ever thrown their own children out of their homes when they feel their behavior merits such stern discipline? God is holy, and he demands holiness in those who are near him, even his own created beings.
God’s graciousness appears when God takes the form of human beings and takes upon himself the judgment and condemnation of the sin he detests. Our creator took the punishment of his creation’s sin in his own flesh and blood. God did not abandon, he made a way where there was no way. In Christ, God opened the door of return to his home and to his own side.
Jesus, however, sings this psalm not in his role as Creator God but as human being, as one of us, a brother in distress.
The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, He saved me.
All Christians can sing this line as their personal testimony, “… when I was brought low, He saved me.”
Psalm 116:1-9 (114 LXX) is truly a resurrection song, an Easter Sunday rejoicing.
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Psalm 132: Concrete-Literal and Spiritual-Literal
Addendum
Before leaving Psalm 132, I want to comment on one of the most amazing differences between Old Testament faith and New Testament faith–the experiencing of the Holy Spirit.
Saints of the Old Testament received the saving grace of God through faith, just as New Testament believers do. It is and always has been God’s grace through faith.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (ESV)
There is a great difference in salvation experience between the Testaments, however. When Paul came to Ephesus in Acts 19:1-7, why did he ask the believers there, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? (Act 19:2)?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” (vs 2) They had been baptized with John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance. Paul then baptized them in the name of “the Lord Jesus.” “And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.” (vs 6) Right in these verses is the difference between salvation in the Old Testament and the New Testament: the location of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit played a significant role in the Old Testament.
- All Israel knew the presence of the Lord in the wilderness, since he manifested as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22).
- The Ark was revered because it contained the presence of the Lord.
- When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting in the wilderness to speak with God before the Ark, he would place a veil over his face when he left, to hide the fading glow he received in his encounter with the Lord there (Exodus 33:7-11; 34:33-35).
- God’s Holy Spirit inhabited the First Temple of Solomon as a cloud, “10 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.” (1 Kings 8:10-11)
- In Ezekiel 10, the prophet describes his vision of the Glory of the Lord leaving this same temple.
The common denominator in all the prior biblical scenes is that the presence of the Lord, his Holy Spirit, was external. He manifested in a visible, concrete-literal way. By literal I mean real. These events really happened; they are true. Concrete means apparent to the physical senses. Spiritual means of the Spirit of God, who is himself invisible. The Holy Spirit accompanied the congregation of Israel in the Old Testament, and his presence was concrete-literal. This is why, I believe, prophecy played such an important role in the Old Testament. David needed a prophet like Nathan to walk up to him and tell him what the Lord was saying, because David did not have the Holy Spirit within him to speak to him directly in his heart.
It is impossible to overstate the change from the Old Testament to the New in the shift from external to internal of God’s Holy Spirit. This is a change from a concrete-literal manifestation of the Holy Spirit among the people to a spiritual-literal. John the Apostle previews this change in Jesus’ discourse with Nicodemus in John 3 and with the woman at the well in John 4. To understand the prominent position Scripture gives this change we can recall Jesus’ last directions to his disciples before he ascended.
Luke 24:49 And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high,” and “… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Act 1:8)
Acts chronicles the multiple occasions when believers received the Holy Spirit, and Paul in his letters again and again proclaims the Spirit’s presence in a new way within the church corporately and within believers singly.
For example, see:
Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (ESV)
Romans 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Ephesians 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
New Testament believers currently experience the fulfillment of God’s statement in Psalm 132:13-14.
13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place:
14 “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews sums up the effect of the difference between the concrete-literal experiencing of God’s Holy Presence in the Old Testament and what New Testament believers experience now:
Hebrews 12:20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
As New Testament believers in Jesus Christ join with Old Testament believers in the hope of Messiah by singing the prayer of Psalm 132, may we feel fortunate (blessed) and joyful to know that we are part of the psalm’s fulfillment in grace. Praise God for having restored and even increased the close, intimate fellowship of humans with their Creator.
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One Small Voice 