Psalm 60 – For the help of man is worthless

Psalm 60

In every Christian’s life, there are times when we feel that God has rejected us. When the things we fear most happen to us, when life becomes unbearable. Yet, despite the pain or the disappointment or the anger we have to somehow find the strength to carry on with our lives. And we have to find some way of holding on to our faith.

Think of those people in Christchurch who have suffered through two severe earthquakes and numerous after-shocks. Then read verses two and three of this Psalm: “You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking. You have shown your people desperate times; you have given us wine that makes us stagger.”

As Christians, we often tend to live fairly insular lives; We go to church and we go to work. Usually, we tend to mix with other Christians and life proceeds fairly peacefully. Our faith generally goes untested. But then the times of trial come, and God sends us “wine that makes us stagger“. Suddenly, we are in a deep valley, the valley of the shadow of death. It is then that the real strength of our faith is revealed.

This is the moment when we discover whether we are a Job or a David, with faith as strong and unyielding as an iron shield. Or whether we are a Simon Peter, with faith as insubstantial and fickle as a piece of straw.

In this Psalm David never gives up on God, he asks in verse 9; “Who will bring me to the fortified city“, and in verse 10 provides the answer; “Is it not you, O Lord? You who have rejected us“. Despite being rejected by God, despite the fact that God no longer went out with their armies, David still turns to God. He still believes that it is God who will provide them the victory.

David still calls out to God for aid, simply because he knows there is nowhere else to go. He knew he couldn’t trust in himself, in Proverbs 28:26 it says that “he who trusts in himself is a fool“. He also knew that he couldn’t trust in other men, for in verse 11 he says that “the help of man is worthless.”

David knew that God alone is to be trusted. Only God could be counted on for assistance, even though to all appearances God had rejected him.

If you are going through a valley. If it feels to you as if God has abandoned you and rejected you, take courage and continue to call on the lord, for “with God we will gain the victory” (verse 12). Despite the hopelessness of the situation, God has raised a banner of love for those who fear him (verse 4, Song of Solomon 2:4).

Psalm 59 – my loving God

Psalm 59

One of the things one notices when reading the Psalms, is that David often petitions God to protect him, not from deeds of cruelty or violence, but rather from what is called in this Psalm “the sins of their mouths” (verse 12).

What David is referring to are acts of malicious talk, slander, mocking and lies; “the curses and lies they utter” (verse 12). Why does he focus on what issues from their mouths (“See what they spew from their mouths— they spew out swords from their lips” [verse 7]) , rather than the real and immediate threat they pose to his life? Why not just ask God to protect him from their violent actions? Perhaps the answer can be found in Jesus’ saying recorded in Matthew 12:34, “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

David was inferring the intentions of their hearts by listening to the fruit of their mouths. As it says in Matthew 15:18, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’“. We often say that the eyes are a window to the soul, but it might be more properly said that the mouth is the window to the heart.

Contrast the difference in behaviour between David and his pursuers in verse 15. His pursuers are like dogs, howling for food. But David sings praises to God. The pursuers use their mouths to howl in frustration, in their hunger for evil. But David’s mouth issues forth nothing but songs of praise to his God!

And how beautifully he addresses God in verse 17; “O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God“. David sees God as his fortress, his place of safety to run to in times of trouble. But God is also Loving. He is not merely a stone fortress made of thick stone walls. A mute building passively offering emotionally neutral protection.

No! God is a loving fortress! A fortress who cares about the wellbeing of His followers. God is more like a hen gathering her chicks under her wings when the eagle or the snake are near. Lovingly she covers them and snuggles them close into her soft, downy feathers, safely tucked away from the face of danger. At the same time the hen will face the enemy, whatever it may be and passionately fights on behalf of her chicks.

Jesus cries out in Luke 13:34; “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

When hard times come into our lives, let us run to our Loving fortress and allow Him to shield us from our troubles.

Psalm 58 – surely there is a God who judges the earth

Psalm 58

This is a Psalm of judgement. It is one of those Psalms we may find difficult to reconcile with our modern concept of Christianity, primarily because of the imagery in verse 10; “The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked“.  Typically, the normal Christian will recoil from such an image. We are tought to forgive, and to pray for our enemies. Yet here we are portrayed as delighting in their punishment, and even washing our feet in their blood!

We find something similar in the New Testament. In the book of Revelations, John describes the souls of those who were slain for their testimony as saying “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Rev 6:9-10). And in Revelation 19:2, we see that God will indeed avenge the blood of His servants.

Christians often forget that God will judge the earth. All the injustice that we see now will one day be avenged. We often feel that the wicked get away with their wickedness, because they are never brought to justice in our lifetime. That is why we often cry out to God and lament the injustice that we see in this world.

But because of God’s righteous character, perfect justice will prevail and all sin will receive its just reward. This is why Christ had to die on the cross, to pay the just penalty for our sins. If there is no final and ultimate judgement, then Christ died for no reason, which would render our faith (and God’s special grace) futile.

God has all of eternity in which to bring the wicked to task, and one day we will see perfect justice done. And in that day, as it says in this Psalm, the righteous will rejoice. Not because we take pleasure in the suffering of others, but because we love God, and therefore we also love justice. Justice is both a beautiful and an awful thing. When we see a criminal receive a well deserved punishment, suited to his crime, we feel vindicated and reassured. On the other hand, when we see someone walk free despite the heinous crimes they have committed, we despair and feel cheated.

There is therefore no escape for the wicked. But who are these wicked people? Since we are all sinners, who will ultimately suffer the judgement of God?

David describes the wicked in the first part of this Psalm (Verse 1-5). He likens them to venomous cobras who have stopped their ears so that they are unable to hear the tune of the charmer. God is the charmer in this picture. He is singing a tune in an attempt to charm them away from their evil ways. From their lies, injustice and violence. But they do not hear him and are therefore unable to respond.

In Luke 7:31-32, Jesus compares his generation to children in the marketplace, shouting to each other: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry“. Again we see the imagery of God trying to communicate with them through a “tune”, but they were unable to respond appropriately. They did not show the correct response because they were unable to identify the tune. Just like the wicked rulers in this Psalm, they have stopped their ears and are unable to hear the music of the charmer.

Throughout the new testament, we find the importance of hearing God’s word. This does not, of course, refer to our physical ears, but rather to our spiritual ears. The spiritual ears represent a willingness of the heart to respond to the word of God. Consider this verse from Luke (Luke 8:15) “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop“.

Where does this (spiritual) hearing come from? Paul says it quite clearly in this well-known verse from Romans 10:16; “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God“. It is Jesus who opens our ears so that we may hear His word. Let us pray, then, that God opens our ears, so that we may hear Him when he speaks to us. Only by hearing God’s word and obeying Him (by accepting Jesus as our saviour), will we escape the righteous demands of  justice on that last day of Judgement.  

(Revelation 2:7) “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God“