Psalm 86:16,17 – Conclusion of the Matter

As usual, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁶Turn to me and be gracious to me. Give Your strength to Your servant and deliver the son of Your handmaid. ¹⁷Make with me a sign to good and ones hating me will see and be ashamed because You LORD have helped me and comforted me.

This entire prayer has been motivated by a particular incident in David’s life where the hate-brigade has him in their sights. No one knows exactly what is the particular nature of their hatred but, for the sake of Scripture, that really isn’t important. Obviously David’s prayer is suited for any such attack, whether it be the hate-brigade, the devil himself, or whatever kid of threat it might be.

David prays in conclusion, “Turn to me.” One should remember that the Lord is a great King with many, many people seeking audience with Him and with many matters of great import demanding His attention. In the midst of all of that, David asks Him, “Turn to me.” “In the midst of all Your kingly business, I would ask a moment of Your attention.”

And then he implores, “Be gracious to me.” The Hebrew word translated “be gracious” is exactly that, the act of a superior granting favor (not necessarily merited in any way) to an inferior, as a king granting to a subject or a master to his servant. That is truly what each of us needs. We need the great King to grant us acts of favor, regardless of whether we deserve it or not. We simply need it.

The particular grace David asks for is the Lord’s strength and deliverance. Strength is certainly what we all need to face the trials and threats and challenges of our life. I so easily lose sight of love. I so easily lose sight of treasuring relationships. I so easily lose sight of the things that really matter. And I am so easily confused. I so easily give up. Lord, grant me the strength to keep my gaze fixed on Jesus and to be Your representative, no matter what it costs or what I have to fear.

He adds that he is the “son of Your handmaid.” In the times of slavery, if a child was born to a master’s slave-girl, he automatically became the servant of that master. He could potentially be seen as especially valuable to his master since he was actually born in his house. If he had some need, he could remind the master that he was not just a slave who had been bought along the way, but actually born in his house. So David alludes, apparently, to his own mother. This is, as far as I know, the only allusion in the Bible to David’s mother’s character. I don’t believe we are ever given her name. His father was Jesse, of course, but I don’t believe we’re ever given his mother’s name. But here, apparently, David reminds the Lord that his mother was a godly woman, and that being the case, he was then “born in the Master’s house.” Certainly anyone who can attest to godly parents and grandparents can certainly bring that before the Lord as further reason for Him to come to our aid. He wants to bless “thousands of generations of them that love Him.” Godly parents and grandparents invest a lifetime of prayers and heartlove for their children and grandchildren. Whether they are still living or not, it is a kindness of the Lord that he will bless their children for their sake, just as He blessed many of Israel and then Judah’s kings “for the sake of my servant David.” So may we implore that blessing if we’ve enjoyed the benefit of godly ancestors.

Finally David asks the Lord to help him in such a way that his enemies will see it and somehow know that it was the Lord who helped him and comforted him. I don’t know how much other people have been able to see “it was the Lord who helped me” but I am certainly aware of many, many, many times when He has helped me face whatever He put in front of me. At 55, I am amazed how much he has helped me at work. He has made me way better than I am. I have faced so many problems and projects where I really didn’t know what I was going to do, or where things could have gone really badly or really well. And again, and again, He has helped me. And once again, what I see is that He has made me way better than I am. I’ve accomplished so much that really was far beyond me. But again, and again I am very aware of specific ways and instances where he stepped in helped me see something I could never have seen, helped me figure out something I could never have figured out, moved other people to do things I could never have somehow extracted from them, made things work that were simply far out of my control.

He is just so good that way. I am just floored by His kindness. Like David, every time I face new challenges, I need to remember all that past kindness and be the more determined to be loving and faithful right through it, no matter what.

I think that is the big point of Psalm 86. We need to keep in the very focus of our minds that our God is gracious, compassionate, forgiving, faithful, and abounding in loving-kindness. Then as we face our various challenges throughout our day, big or small, we need to keep on loving, assured that our good God will giv us joy and strength and help at just the right times.

He’s that kind of God. May our hearts be so full of His love that we find trusting Him habitual. He certainly deserves it.

And now, unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above anything we could ask or think, to Him be the glory throughout all the ages, world without end. Amen.

Psalm 86:14,15 – Contrasts

As usual, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁴O God, proud ones rise against me, and a group of violent ones seek my soul, and they have not set You before them, ¹⁵but You Adonai [are] a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and great [in] loving-kindness and faithfulness.

Last post I noted the existence of the hate-brigades, the people who will oppose you no matter how good or right your cause. As I noted there, unfortunately, if we don’t vigilantly, prayerfully guard our own souls against the sin of pride, we actually ourselves become the hate brigade for someone else’s good cause. The problem with us people is we’re just a fallen, wrecked bunch, all desperately in need of a Redeemer.

But, against this backdrop of human maliciousness, in verse 15 David contrasts it all with who God is: but You Adonai [are] a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and great [in] loving-kindness and faithfulness. Wow. What a combination of attributes. What more could we ask for? Just pause a moment and think about these five qualities and then marvel that this is who our God is! It is the very salvation of our souls that our God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and great in loving-kindness and faithfulness. If He was anything less we’d have all long since dropped into hell. But thankfully for us, He is who He is.

What better God could we ask for? And what better friend? What better Father? If only we could get this knowledge, this image of God fixed in our minds. If only we could so believe it and embrace it by faith that our minds never lost sight of such divine beneficence. Then we’d have no trouble trusting Him implicitly. I’m reminded of the words to the song, “You’re everything I’ve hoped for; You’re everything I need. You are so beautiful to me.” I would pray again, “Lord, unite my heart, give me a single focus, to see You clearly for who You really are. May my heart never lose sight of the wonder of Your compassion, graciousness, patience, loving-kindness, and faithfulness.

Incidentally, I just want to interject that the Hebrew word translated “compassionate” is from the same root letters as the word for a mother’s womb. In Hebrew, the idea of compassionate includes the whole picture of the very deep love, the affection, the feelings of a mother toward her tiny baby. Again, pause and consider that is how our God sees us. Amazing love. How can it be?

Back to the contrast, what is both sad and encouraging is that we were made in God’s image. We were made to be like Him. It is sad that people are proud and violent and inject misery into each other’s existence, when from their very creation they were intended to be compassionate, gracious, patient, and great in loving-kindness and faithfulness. But there is a Redeemer! And He came to redeem! That very God of compassion, graciousness, patience, loving-kindness, and faithfulness came to earth to be our Savior, to redeem our broken perverted race, to call us to Himself, and to restore us into that image. And for those who embrace that love, He promises that all things will work together for the amazing good that we should be conformed to that image – the image of Christ – the One who is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and great in loving-kindness and faithfulness!

Oh that we would be that kind of friend, that kind of parent, that kind of boss and co-worker. Oh to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer. Adam’s image now efface, stamp Thine image in its place.

On the one hand, for now reality has to be that I simply cannot expect to escape people’s meanness and cruelty. But even as I see it and suffer from it, may my heart be all the more enamored with the wonder of who my God is. And as I learn to fix my gaze on Him, may He change me into His likeness.

Second Adam from above, reinstate us in Thy love!

Psalm 86:14 – Opposition

As usual, here is my fairly literal translation of this verse:

¹⁴O God, proud ones rise against me, and a group of violent ones seek my soul, and they have not set You before them.

Hmmmm. Several thoughts cross my mind. First is that Jesus Himself could have prayed this exact prayer. We shouldn’t be surprised to suffer the same fate. Jesus never did anything but love people. He taught them the truth, healed them, fed them, and sought always to do them good. Unfortunately there was a group of proud, violent men always waiting in the shadows for a chance to kill Him! And kill Him they did.

It has long been my observation in this world that no matter how good a cause you may champion, no matter how worthy a project you might try to implement, no matter how sincere your love for a group of people, there will always be fierce, mean, hateful opposition. A man told me once about a particular issue which he felt he should confront and asked my opinion. I told him he was right but, if he chose to pursue it, he should realize that, before it was over, it would cost him his life. If it was worth that, then, yes, he should dive in. I didn’t say that to discourage him, but only to make him count the cost. Too often people (including myself) dive into such things imagining that a good cause will enjoy the support of most people. Instead, you get seemingly nothing but opposition and hatred. The better part of wisdom is to realize that going in.

When we see that is what Jesus got, it should sober us all. No more imagining ourselves carried along on a wave of adulation. Even when we do seem to enjoy widespread public support, we’d better remember that’s what Jesus got on Palm Sunday. Less than a week later they crucified Him.

I’ve heard them called the “hate-brigade.” In one town, the clerk told me they are the C.A.V.E. people – Citizens Against Virtually Everything. No matter what you try to accomplish, they are always there, fighting against you.

David was a good man. He was a good king. He intended to do his people good. Yet here we find him deeply afflicted by his own personal hate-brigade. It is interesting to note that his response was not to give up the cause but rather to take the matter to the Lord in prayer. Just like Jesus.

A disturbing thought is to realize the very people who opposed Jesus and who were in fact responsible for His murder were the religious establishment of His day. The very group from which Jesus should have enjoyed the most sincere support instead were His most bitter enemies. The Pharisees were the “fundamentalists” of their day – the people who seemed most committed to the Scriptures and to living a religious life. But the truth is, as much as they all impressed each other, their religion was a totally external sham, a religion of do’s and don’ts, of legalistic self-righteousness, and devoid of any real relationship with God. As a result, they had no heart for a man like Jesus, a man who was too busy loving God and people to pay any attention to their “rules.” So they crucified Him.

The scary fallout from this is to realize that, even if we think we are the champions of faith in this world, we’d better take serious stock of our hearts before God. David exposes in this verse the root problem – pride. Presumption, arrogance, insolence. The most hideous thing about pride to me is that, even though it is horrifically ugly, if it’s my problem I can’t see it. Pride blinds me to itself. I never detect it because I see it in my life. I first detect its symptoms, then as I pray for God’s help, I will actually finally see it, so I can repent of it. But it is an elusive evil. The Pharisees didn’t think they were proud. They were quite sure they were right! Yet they crucified the Messiah Himself.

If we are not vigilant, if we don’t sincerely try to guard against this subtle sin, then one way or another we will join the hate-brigade. Yes. Us. We need to beg God to deliver us from the sin of pride. Even the religious establishment itself becomes satan’s minions when their hearts are full of pride. God help us.

So, as I live my life, even if I think I’m pursuing good causes, I shouldn’t be surprised when I get not adulation but rather bitter opposition. Before I take up a cause, I should honestly count the cost – am I willing to endure the opposition? Can I proceed expecting it? And will I stay the course to the end, regardless? Rather than giving up in the middle, can I resolve to take the opposition to the Lord in prayer?

Secondly, God deliver me from the sin of pride. I don’t want to join someone else’s hate-brigade. Obviously from this verse, if I allow myself to live in the sin of pride, one way or another I will become one of the “violent” ones and fail to set the Lord before me. I will one way or another oppose someone sincerely trying to do good. I could even end up crucifying the Messiah! I DON”T want to do that. I don’t want to be that kind of person. Yet pride is the very skin I live in. Good thing His name is Jesus. “… for He shall save His people from their sins.”

Lord help us to stay the course even when proud people oppose us – even if it is the very religious establishment itself – and God deliver us from our own pride, lest we become the opposers. Give us the grace instead, to truly be supportive and encouraging to those who are trying to do right.

Psalm 86:11-13 – The Anatomy of Trust

 As I included in my last post, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹Teach me Your way, LORD. I will walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name. ¹²I will praise You, Adonai my God, in the all of my heart. I will honor Your name to ages, ¹³because Your lovingkindness [is] great toward me and You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

As I said last time, as I study these verses, so many thoughts flood my mind. I’ll try to record a few more here:

In verse 11 David prayed, “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” In verse 12 he goes on to say, “I will praise You, Lord, with all my heart.” First he wants his heart united, then he would praise the Lord with all of that heart. All our heart. That is what the Lord desires and certainly what He deserves.

I’m reminded of the Rio Grande River which flows down through the West and into the Gulf of Mexico – except for one problem. It never makes it. All along its path, so many people draw out its water that it never reaches the Gulf. So like our hearts. We would praise God with all our hearts except that after so many other allurements we never quite make it to His throne. Lord, deliver us. May we not squander our hearts gathering straws but rather give them totally to You. Grant us grace to rise above ourselves so that in fact we truly can praise You with all our hearts.

David then adds that he would “honor Your name to the ages.” Back in verse 9, he noted how all the nations (the Gentiles) would honor His name. But David would not be left behind. He too has every intention of joining that happy throng of angels, Israelites, and Gentiles as they honor the Lord’s name together one day. And he intends to start the practice now. In verse 11 he desired the Lord to unite his heart to “fear Your name.” Here he would “honor Your name.” Fearing, honoring, praising – they all coalesce in the wonder of who God is.

Perhaps from a slightly different angle, honoring the name of the Lord is a very immediate and practical affair. We want not only our words but our lives as well to bring Him honor. I want to always be aware that the choices I’m making, the words I’m saying, the way I’m living is all something that can actually honor the Lord’s name. So much of what supposed Christians do actually dishonors God’s name in this world. It’s a wonder that anyone ever comes to the Lord. But I am certainly no different. I am deeply ashamed of what an idiot I have been. Proud, self-righteous, arrogant, cruel legalist. I’ve been way too much of that. Like I said, it’s a wonder anyone ever comes to the Lord when we believers live such dishonorable lives. If we’re the only Jesus they ever see, it is an eternal tragedy they don’t see who He really is.

But God help me (us). I (we) would be different! I want my life to honor Him. God help me as I go to work that love and faithfulness would never leave me. As I interact with my family and friends, may I be a loving, forgiving, encouraging person. Take this feeble twisted wreck of a soul and truly let Jesus live through me.

Then David goes on to explain himself. He has said he would praise the Lord with all his heart and honor His name to the ages. Then he adds “because …” These are always blessed places to pause. David was a man after God’s own heart. He was a genuine believer. As I have related above, I can concur with David in his desire to praise and honor the Lord. Those things I understand. But when one of God’s people says “because…” we are offered the unparalleled treasure of knowing their heart. Why, David? Why exactly are you moved to want to praise and honor God? What in particular moves you? All we have to do is keep reading. When he says, “because…,” he is about to share his heart with us!

So “because” why? Why would you praise and honor God? Read verse 13 again. It is because “great is Your loving kindness to me and You’ve delivered my soul from the deepest Sheol.” Back in verse 3 David said he would lift up his soul to the Lord “because You are good and forgiving and abounding in loving kindness to all who call on You.” Pause and think about this. What David is saying is that love begets love. What we have before us is a real relationship. I suspect that for too much of my life and for too many people, we think we should praise God simply because we should. It’s the right thing to do. Or perhaps in some people’s heart of hearts they see Him as sitting on His throne demanding it. Praise Him or else. But this is something so much better. David had it and we can too. A real relationship with God. A love relationship. A mutual love relationship. I feel like in a lot of ways I’ve just begun to understand this in the last few years.

I know I should trust God. I want to trust Him. But I am more and more convinced that trust should be born of love. On the one hand I can try to “trust” Him because I know the facts – that He is great and all-powerful, that He is omniscient, that He has promised to do me good, etc., etc. But how much better to constantly feed on His great love, His great goodness and forgiveness, the amazing deliverance I’ve already enjoyed in so many ways. When I am seeing His love for me, the way He has already delivered me, why shouldn’t I trust Him?

Perhaps this is part of the united heart, the single-mindedness, the fixed gaze. As discussed above, we need to be looking to Him. But who is the Him we’re looking to? What are we seeing when we’re “looking”? I would think that, when Peter was looking at Jesus, he was seeing Him, that he was seeing the assurance of His great love. As long as he saw that, he could walk on water. To look away and see the wind and waves wasn’t just “looking away” but it was actually losing sight of this great love that would have carried him.

Right now, in my own life, I am under an enormous amount of pressure coming from several different directions at once. Way more than I’ve ever experienced in my life. I am quite sure without God I simply couldn’t handle it. But I want to do more than just “handle” it. I want to enjoy life and enjoy God even as I work my way through all of it. I know the key is to trust Him. But that seems like a very fragile grasp for me. I suspect herein is at least part of the answer – what I need to do is try to constantly feed on His great love. I need to try to keep my mind filled with it. And when I see the wind and the waves, it is this great love I need to look back to and cling to. If I’m seeing this great love, then it isn’t that hard to trust Him.

Lord help me be like David. Help me praise You and lift up my soul to You because You are good and forgiving and great in loving kindness to all who call on You, because I already know You’ve delivered me from the deepest Sheol.

I’m really going to try to keep this focus. The particular pressures I’m under right now are probably going to be here in raging intensity for at least a couple or three months. I know I’m going to fail. Like Peter I will see the wind and waves and lose it. But I pray for the grace to get up again and again and keep trying to focus my mind of this great love. When this is over, may it be true that I trusted Him because I love Him, because He loves me. And may it be true that I learned to trust Him – and to love Him – more than I ever have before!

Psalm 86:11-13 – Students

As usual, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹Teach me Your way, LORD. I will walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name. ¹²I will praise You, Adonai my God, in the all of my heart. I will honor Your name to ages, ¹³because Your lovingkindness [is] great toward me and You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

As I study these verses, so many thoughts flood my mind. This section will take more than one post, I’m sure. Here are some thoughts to start with:

In verse 11, David says, “Teach me Your way, LORD. I will walk in Your truth”. Remember that the context here is that David is in trouble of some kind. He could simply pray, “Lord, get me out of this!” Instead, he prays, “Teach me Your way.” As much as I may want to “get out” of my troubles, it is actually far more important that I let God teach me through them. Although He may have other purposes, it is generally true that He allows trouble in my life specifically because He is trying to teach me something. So am I a willing student? Or am I too busy whining to see the value in what is happening? The greatest regret from any trouble will not be that it happened but that I failed to learn what the Lord could have taught me. Lord help me be a willing student in Your school of life.

Then David adds, “I will walk in Your truth.” Shifting gears a little, when it comes to God’s teaching, the appropriate response is that we should walk in the truth He teaches us. Herein is a great deficiency in our sin-sick souls. Like the “Sower and the Seed,” so much teaching falls on bad ground. Apparently, one of the deepest traps is, having heard teaching, we therefore think we’ve “got it” and go merrily along. It is beyond shocking to me how people can spend years and years in church, hear sermon after sermon, sometimes three or four (or more) a week, and be utterly unchanged. Perhaps they attend church simply as a religious checklist. Just being there makes them “okay.” Perhaps they’re so mired in the politics and relationships and programs of the church, they simply don’t hear what’s being taught. There are no doubt as many explanations as there are sin-cursed hearts. But here is one sure remedy – that we would sincerely pray, “Lord, teach me Your way and I will walk in Your truth.” Always our hearts should be intent on application as we sit under Bible teaching, and as we read and study our own Bibles.  We should have a holy discontent until the “lights come on,” until we see clearly how this teaching affects my daily life. We should say, “I want God to teach me His way, but that job isn’t done until I can actually walk in that truth.” God deliver us from our sin-sick heart and the ignorant stupor it breeds. May our hearts truly remain restless till they find rest in Thee.

David goes on to say, “Unite my heart to fear Your name”.  Ah, here we have another affliction of our fallen souls. Double-mindedness. Hebrews 12 urges us to have our “gaze fixed on Jesus.” The only rightful place to fix our gaze is on Jesus. He alone deserves our undivided allegiance. Looking at Jesus, Peter could walk on the water. It was when he looked instead at the wind and the waves that he began to sink. In Isaiah 41:10, we are instructed to “Fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God.” The phrase, “Be not dismayed,” could actually be translated, “Don’t be furtively glancing around.” “I am thy God.” “Look at Me.” “Look to Me.” “Whatever it is you’re fearing, quit focusing on it. Quit glancing around hoping for some other deliverance. Look at Me.”                      

This is what our hearts need. Singlemindedness. “Unite my heart to fear Your name,” David prays. Our sinfulness can be described as pride or as selfishness or a lot of other things. But “fearfulness” is another way of seeing it. When we don’t fear God aright, then our poor hearts get slain by a million other lesser fears. And sinful fear drives us to make very bad decisions, which only get us into deeper trouble, which only leads us to fear more, which only leads to more bad decisions … What I need is a heart that single-mindedly gives fear only to Him who deserves it. And fearing Him liberates me from all those other fears. It gives me a clear mind to make good decisions, even when seemingly drowning in troubles and threats. Fear makes us sniveling, pathetic creatures. A right fear of God will raise us up into courageous, resolute people who can face trouble head on and standing up straight. None of us wants to be like the double-minded man in James who is “unstable in all his ways.” But unfortunately, our very existence as believers is a war between our flesh and the Spirit. We must be resolved to let the Spirit win, but first, we must realize our utter helplessness and cry out to our Deliverer, “Unite my heart to fear Your name!” Give me an undivided heart. Help me to be single-minded. Left to myself, I am a hopeless mire of pride, selfishness, and fear. Raise me up. In those moments of decision, give me a heart to walk in Your truth. When I fail, forgive my foolishness and raise me up stronger. Unite my heart, O God.

May You find us willing students. May you find us practicing students. And may You find us single-minded students. You certainly deserve it.