Psalm 22 - FRom despair to praise

Psalm 22

Jesus famously quoted from Psalm 22 when He was on the cross (Matt 27:46). The beginning of the psalm is rather desolate, but the tone changes by the end. At the start the psalmist is in anguish. Jesus’ death and suffering were very real, and He was fully human, so He felt everything.

Despite his state of anguish he still knew that God was the Holy One of Israel. He still believed that calling on God was the way of salvation. There can be times when we experience deep anguish, and all seems lost, yet there is still something within us that trusts in the Lord.

In those times we do not feel great, and we may be scorned by all, and our faith may be mocked.

The psalmist then reminds himself of some basic truths. It was God who formed him in the womb, and taught him to trust in the Lord. He calls upon God to help him quickly.

David was surrounded by many foes. David really felt the suffering. We can sometimes feel guilty about the fact that we are struggling, but we should not do so. David felt the suffering, Jesus felt the suffering, so we should not expect to be any different.

In v19 David again cries out for deliverance, and in  v22 his attitude begins to change. He will declare the name of the Lord to the people, and calls on those who fear the Lord to praise Him. And he declares that God has not abandoned him.

So Davoid has moved from a place of utter despair to one of declaring the faithfulness of God, and His salvation.

Psalm 21 - In His Strength

Psalm 21

We have had the response of the people to the king, now we have the response of the king to the Lord, and just as the last psalm gives us some guidance on how we should treat our leaders, this one gives us guidance on how to react as leaders. First we are to rejoice in the Lord’s strength. If we are in a leadership position, or any position of responsibility, we are there not to do things in our strength, but to do things in the Lord’s strength. The Lord finds joy in the victories that He gives us.

The Lord looks after the king, and gives him his heart’s desire. He places a crown on his head. The Lord looks after hHis leaders.

The king trusts in the Lord, we are secure when we trust in the Lord. We lead on behalf of the Lord, to fulfil His purposes, not our own. The Lord will consume His enemie, and His Name will be praised.

Psalm 20 - A prayer for our leaders

Psalm 20

This psalm is a response of the people to the king. Perhaps we can learn something about how we should respond to our leaders.

“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress”. We see the weak  times of David, that at times he was in distress. We can tend to put leaders on a pedestal, but they can go through great difficulties, just like the rest of us. This can happen because of the normal trials of life, or because of the peculiar trials of leadership. The prayer is for God to protect the king, and for the help to come from the sanctuary. We need to remember that our help comes from the sanctuary of God, this is  a great privilege. The prayer is for the king’s success, we should definitely not be looking for them to fail!

Our trust is in the name of the Lord, not in human resources. We should want good leaders, but our well being is ultimately not dependent upon the leader, but upon the Lord. To trust in anything else is to set ourselves up to fail.

Psalm 19 - Trust in the word of the Lord

Psalm 19

For once, David doesn’t seem to be in trouble! Instead we have  a psalm of unalloyed praise.There are many times when we do seem to be in trouble, but God also grants us times of peace. First of all David says how creation declares the glory of God. Some use science to try and "disprove God”, or as an alternative to God. Such attempts are both futile and misguided. If we approach things aright, then we see how creation shows how great God is. In Rom 1:19 Paul says that creation makes known to all something of the greatness of God, so men are without excuse.

Creation is good, the Law of the Lord is perfect. ` It refreshes the soul. We should always look to the word of the Lord. Some claim to be clever in their disbelief in God, but the opposite is true. They are fools (see previous psalm) and if we pay attention to the Law then we become wise. Atheism brings no peace, but the word of The Lord gives joy to the heart. His commands are radiant and give light to our lives, they enable us to see clearly. The decrees of the Lord are precious, they are worth much more than gold.

We should seek His word, and trust it more than anything.

Psalm 18 - The Lord is my deliverer

Psalm 18

The preamble to this psalm tells us that David wrote this after h e had been delivered from Saul by the Lord, it is similar, though not identical, to David’s psalm of praise in 2 Samuel 22. David loves the Lord, and describes the Lord as His rock, fortress and deliverer. When in trouble David took refuge in the Lord. He turned to the Lord, called upon the Lord, and sought to do things His way.

David faced many real threats, his very life being in danger, with death seeking to have him. David called upon the Lord in his distress. We may think that we can only call upon the Lord in faith, but sometimes our feelings will overwhelm us, we can still call upon the Lord. God heard Him from His temple, and God took action. We should realise where our prayers go, not into thin air, but up to the temple of God. The Lord took action and scattered David’s enemies. He reached down and pulled David out of the depths, he rescued him from the enemies who were too powerful for David. We may face situations where the opposition is much stronger than us. 

The Lord rescued David because David trusted in Him. Christ is our righteousness, but the fact that we trust in the Lord matters, the fact that we trust Him affects our relationship with Him.  And God enables us to do things that by nature we cannot do.  And the word of the Lord is flawless. So the end result was that David triumphed over his enemies.

Psalm 17 - Vindicate me Lord

Psalm 17

David is in trouble again. He feels that he is being unjustly treated, and he calls upon the Lord asking the Lord to vindicate him. In the psalms we get a full range of emotions from David. There are times when he is overwhelmed by sin,  others when he is full of fear. In all these situations he calls upon the lord, whatever circumstances we might be in today we should call upon the Lord.

David then says that the Lord could examine his heart but would find no wrong. We may think that we can never say that, but we pray on the basis not of our righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness. At the same time David had resisted attempts to bribe him, and had avoided violent ways. We should seek to stick to the Lord’s ways, and the Holy Spirit will help us to do that.

David is confident that God would hear him, we too should be confident that the Lord will hear us, on the basis of Christ’s righteousness. We should expect to see the  wonders of His great love. So often we expect to see disaster, but the Lord actively looks after us.

The wicked are indeed full of evil plans, but David calls on the Lord to rise up against them.

David expects the Lord to vindicate him, and that he will see the Lord.

Psalm 16 - Trust in the Lord

Psalm 16

David calls upon the Lord to keep him safe. Whatever the situation we should always take refuge in the Lord. David knows that all his hope is in the Lord, and he delights in God’s people. The company we keep is important, if we choose the wrong crowd we can be dragged away from the Lord, conversely if we mix with godly people it can help us in following the Lord.running after other gods is not a wise thing to do, it will lead only to trouble.

The Lord is our portion, He is our provider, and \He is good to us. He instructs us. We are secure only when we keep the Lord at our right hand.

When we put our trust in the Lord we will be glad and will rest secure. The Lord’s will is to look after us and to fill us with joy in His presence.