Psalm 52:8 Flourishing Olive

Psalm 52:8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever.

Psalm 52 is again For the director of music and A maskil of David. We are told that it is from the time When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: David has gone to the house of Ahimelech. This may seem like a rather unpromising circumstance but after the initial rage at Doeg (1-4 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God? etc), pronouncements of doom (5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living) and the statement (6, 7) that The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him, saying, Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others! David ends the psalm with very positive words concerning his own state, in verses 8 and 9. In verse 9 David says that he will praise God forever for what he has done. In your name I will hope he adds for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints. It is verse 8 that I want to focus on, however. There, using a common but powerful picture, David says But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God. He had been in God's house and no doubt he had noticed the many olive trees depicted everywhere there. Or perhaps he had even seen a real one growing in the precincts and, by God's grace, it had encouraged him as it reminded him that he too would flourish under God. Speaking more plainly, he also says I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. This is the reason why he was flourishing and why anyone at all flourishes. Keep putting your faith in God and his unfailing love and there will be hope and a future.

Psalm 51:16, 17 Broken Spirits

Psalm 51:16, 17 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
A psalm of penitence Psalm 51 is again For the director of music but, for the first time in this second book, A psalm of David. It was written famously When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Most of the psalm is taken up with confession and prayers for forgiveness but towards the end David asks God to restore to him the joy of salvation and a willing spirit to sustain him (12) and promises in future to teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you (13). At the end of the psalm (18, 19) he envisages great and widespread blessing now that the King himself is restored. Before that, in verses 16 and 17, come striking words, full of insight. He begins You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. One wonders \t first if this can really be David whose ambition was to build a Temple where thousands upon thousands of sacrifices would be made. However, his point is not that sacrifices are no longer to be made but that they, in and of themselves, count for nothing. David understood what the writer to the Hebrews did when (in 10:14) he wrote that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. No, David saw, even in those days, that (17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Now that there is no more sacrifice because Christ has died, New Testament believers should see even more clearly than David that our concern must be to have broken spirits, broken and contrite hearts. The world may despise such things but not God our Father.

Psalm 50:9,10 No Need

Psalm 50:9, 10 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

Psalm 50 is the first of thirteen by Asaph. In it The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets (verse 1). Asaph describes God's coming in verses 2-6 then reveals how God speaks, first to his people Israel (7-15) calling on them to make sacrifices to him not becasue he needs them but because they need him, and secondly to the wicked (16-22) rebuking them for their sins. The final verse (23) sums up Asaph's main point - He who sacrifices thank-offerings honours me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God. The verses we highlight here, though very much in Old Testament language, remind us that the moment we think we are doing God a favour or giving to him in any absolute sense, then we have misunderstood. The fact is that God has no need of anything from us. There is nothing that we could possibly give him that has not already been given to us by him. One often thinks of younger children buying birthday presents for their parents in this context. First, the parent gives money to the child then the child uses that money to purchase a gift for the parent. The whole exercise seems a waste of time and effort to the cynic. In fact, as Asaph would recognise, there is something to it. The person who gives to God in the right attitude honours God and even, in one sense, prepares the way for God to show him salvation, for it is as we come to God, honouring him, that his grace is seen.

Psalm 49:20 Perishing Beasts

Psalm 49:20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

The main lesson of Psalm 49 is summed up in its final verse - A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish. It is a wisdom psalm designed for all who live in this world, ... low and high, rich and poor alike. Verse 5 asks Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me? Opposition is coming chiefly from (6) those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches so the psalmist addresses the question of whether the rich man will win. He will not, of course, because he will not endure. No-one will live on forever and not see decay (9), that is a well known fact. All alike perish and the rich leave their wealth to others.  Verse 12 says that man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. Of course, the rich who are in mind here are those who trust in themselves, and ... their followers, who approve their sayings. Verse 14 says that Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. And so there will come a great turn around one day. The upright will rule over them as their bodies rot far from their princely mansions. The godly will be redeemed from their graves and taken to be with God. This is why we must not (16) be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendour of his house increases. The fact is that  he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendour will not descend with him. While alive he might have counted himself blessed but (19) he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light. The psalm is not a polemic against the rich as such then but against being a man who has riches without understanding which is little different from being like the beasts that perish. Such a person has no hope and will die.

Psalm 48:9 God's Temple

Psalm 48:9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.

In Psalm 48, A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah the psalmist, as he puts it in verse 9, meditates on God's unfailing love within God's Temple. He begins with praise to God, rejoicing in Jerusalem, where the Temple is found. He says that the LORD is Great ... and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain. He then goes on to speak of how wonderful that city is, the reason being that (3) God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress. In verses 4-7 a specific instance of God defending his people seems to be given. Though kings joined forces and advanced together nevertheless they fled in terror as God destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind. He concludes (8) As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure for ever. It is God then that he praises but in the context of Mount Zion and Jerusalem and indeed the villages of Judah. He ends the psalm by urging us (12, 13) to Walk about Zion, go round her, count her towers, consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation. It is not the place itself that he is drawing attention to as such but the fact that (14) this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. In a similar way a study of church history and its great characters, for example, is a way of meditating on God's unfailing love and reassuring ourselves of his continued guidance.

Psalm 47:2 Most High

Psalm 47:2 How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth!

Psalm 47 is again For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. It begins with a call to the nations to Clap your hands, and shout to God with cries of joy. The encouragement is repeated in verse 6 with more enthusiasm again - Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. What prompts this call to praise is the subduing of nations under God's beloved people. From this is extrapolated the fact that God is the King of all the earth (verse 7) and so should be praised by all. At the end of the psalm (verse 9) the writer boldly envisages not "a win for Israel" but The nobles of the nations assembling as the people of the God of Abraham. If we focus on verse 2 we notice that it uses the term the LORD Most High. This is a combination of the sacred name revealed to Israel and the name for God most often used among Gentiles. This God is awesome and the great King over all the earth! It is his awesome nature that enables him to reign over all. One day all will fall down before it.

Psalm 46:1 Our Refuge

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Psalm 46 is one of the most famous of all the psalms. The psalm has been sung and is sung to this day in various forms by Christians all over the world. Like previous psalms in this second book, it is For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. It is also headed According to alamoth. A song. This is some sort of musical direction. The psalm speaks of God being our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Even though everything appears to be going wrong all around us, therefore, there is no need to give in to fear. An inner strength will sustain God's people if they are willing to look to him. A refrain comes in verse 7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. It is followed by the invitation to see what God has done - bringing peace to his own. Then comes the great call in verse 10 to Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The refrain is repeated in the final verse of the psalm (11) The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. The key to peace then is not something external as such but is a matter of finding refuge in God and seeing him as our strength and as an ever-present help in trouble for that is what he is. At every moment of every day he is at hand to be our help. We need only to trust in him and although the trouble may not be removed we will be sustained and enabled to endure.

Psalm 45:11 King enthralled

Psalm 45:11 The king is enthralled by your beauty; honour him, for he is your lord.

The most important note in the heading to Psalm 45 is that it is A wedding song (as well as being again For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil and this time To the tune of Lilies). The psalm begins with the statement by the writer My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skilful writer. The next 16 verses then divide evenly between what he has to say to and with regard to the King and then to and with regard to his Queen. The King is the most excellent of men ... his lips ... anointed with grace, since God has blessed him for ever, etc. She is told to Forget your people and your father's house. The king is enthralled by your beauty; honour him, etc. This could be David, though one assumes it is Solomon. Most importantly, this is Messiah of whom it is most true that his throne lasts for ever and ever with a sceptre of justice being the sceptre of his kingdom. Who more than he loves righteousness and hates wickedness and has been by God set above his companions by being anointed with the oil of joy? If the King is Messiah then his Bride must be the church. Given that premise, the first part of verse 11 is quite striking. We rarely think of Christ being enthralled by the beauty of the church. We wonder what beauty there is. Yet he himself is making the church beautiful as he adds daily to it and as he matures the graces of those who are his. His enthralment with our beauty is a thing to keep in the back of our minds then. Meanwhile at the forefront is this most reasonable command to honour him, for he is your lord.

Psalm 44:26 Help Lord

Psalm 44:26 Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love

Another psalm For the director of music and Of the Sons of Korah, Psalm 44 is also A maskil. It was written at a time when things were not going well for Israel, when (9) they felt rejected and humbled and God was no longer going out with their armies. The psalmist acknowledges help in the far (1-3) and the near (4-8) past but now, and for some time, it has not been like that at all. The obvious explanation would be that there was some sin in Israel but he protests (17-22) that Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path (18). And so the prayer is (23-26) Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? ... Do not reject us ... Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust ... Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love. That last line is one we could use in prayer today. One fears that a lot of our problems do stem from our having been false to the covenant in some way, our having strayed to some extent and we certainly must examine our hearts as he knows the secrets of the heart. But, having done that, it may be that there is no obvious explanation for our failures. In such a case we must pray - pray that the Lord will rise up and help us, that he will redeem us, as it were. Our best argument is because of your unfailing love. If his right hand brought victory for Joshua and he gave victories to David and others, even though things may seem to be against us at present, we can be sure that he will not reject his people forever. Pray then for him to rise up and help us.

Psalm 43:3 Guide me

Psalm 43:3 Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.

Having made a number of background remarks with regard to the previous psalm, remarks that probably apply here too, we just concentrate now on the content of the psalm, and especially on verse 3. The psalmist begins by seeking vindication against the ungodly, pleading to be rescued from deceitful and wicked men. God is his stronghold and yet the writer feels that he has been rejected. He is inwardly depressed and outwardly oppressed. Therefore he decides to call on God to act. Once God has acted then he will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God presumably with new psalms that he has written (and presumably that do exist). By the end of the psalm we have not reached that point, however, and so the refrain from the last psalm is repeated. The specific prayer that he prays at this time is that God will send forth your light and your truth. He asks God to let them guide me. He wants to know the way forward in this situation he finds himself in. He adds let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. The verse is steeped in Old Testament ideas. Under the new covenant this is a desire to be in church, to be playing a full part and eventually to be in heaven. Even on the worst days of our lives we must seek God in this way and trust him to lead us safely home.

Psalm 42:11 Have hope

Psalm 42:11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. 

The opening psalm of the second book in the corpus, Psalm 42, is again for the director of music and so designed for public singing but this time it is not by David. Rather, it is A maskil of the Sons of Korah. Various Levites were Korahites and some were involved in the Temple music programme, including Asaph and Heman who are, presumably, the ones in mind here. An 11 verse long psalm, its two halves are punctuated by a refrain (5, 6a; 11) - Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. The same refrain occurs at the end of the following short psalm leading to suggestions that Psalm 42 and 43 are really one. Both psalms are about panting after and longing for God when he seems far away for whatever reason (or lack of it). Although there once was a time when this writer used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng his soul is now downcast and that is the last thing he can bring himself to do. However, he can hope for better times. He remembers too (8) that even now By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me. But he wants more than that. The refrain itself then urges us to talk to ourselves, to our souls, and to urge ourselves to hope in God. If we really are his, the time will come when we will yet praise him and say with gladness my Saviour and my God. It is towards these times we must head.

Psalm 41:1 Deliverers delivered

Psalm 41:1 Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble
The pattern in the psalms does vary even when familiar themes are in mind. The final Psalm in the first of the five books (headed For the director of music. A psalm of David) begins objectively with a beatitude (1-3) Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble, etc before the personal testimony (4-9) I said, O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you, etc. This section includes a pointer forward to Judas Iscariot with verse 9's Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Finally, there is prayer (10-12) But you, O LORD, have mercy on me; raise me up, that I may repay them, etc and concluding praise (13) Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen. If we stick with the early beatitude we see that blessing is for he who has regard for the weak. Many think only of themselves and if they have any interest in others it is only in the strong. What God wants, however, is for us to care about the weak and defenceless - unborn babies, the elderly and frail, the sick, those with mental health issues, widows and orphans, refugees, strangers, the low paid, the ignorant, the disabled, the unevangelised, etc. The blessing is a reciprocal one - the LORD delivers him in times of trouble. Given that we are all weak in some way and all face trouble at some time or another, the wise policy is clear for all to see.

Psalm 40:3 New Song

Psalm 40:3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

In Psalm 40 we have A psalm that is very much Of David and yet is For the director of music as what David relates here of his experience is something that many can identify with. David can testify of how the LORD lifted him out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire but he also prays at the end (17) I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay. The messianic nature of the psalm is undeniable as the writer to the Hebrews specifically quotes from verses 6 and 7. This has to be pressed with care, however, as in verse 12 David says not only that troubles without number surround him but also that my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. To focus on verse 3 for now, which is pretty typical of the psalm, David declares first his own experience and then the hope that what he has known may be a help and a blessing to others. His own experience is that God has put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. This is the result of God hearing his cry and lifting him out of the slimy pit and setting his feet on a rock. Who would not rejoice at such a blessing? What David had done was to trust in the LORD and that had resulted in blessing. His hope is that Many will see this and so be caused to fear God and to put their trust in the LORD. For, as he has said (4) Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. He is determined not to hide God's righteousness but to speak of your faithfulness and salvation to all (10). He wishes God's judgement on his enemies but he wants (16) all who seek you to rejoice and be glad in you. He says may those who love your salvation always say, The LORD be exalted! Let's fear God and trust in him always.