continuing the easy access of the psalms – here are the next group of psalms i have walked or am walking through – the idea was always to grab a thought or two from each psalm and comment and hope that others would jump in and do the same so please feel free to add your comments on any of the psalms i have looked at so far – be great to get your thoughts, insights and observations…
to head back to the beginning and the first 35 psalms go here.
another psalm from David and again, it appears as if he hadn’t committed his major facefall yet as he is still muttering about those who have “no fear of God before their eyes.” [vs. 1]
but once he has gotten over looking at “them” and “their awful sin” he has some useful things to say [so useful we turned them into songs… from songs into other songs that it]
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
so much so that i want to just share it like that, so all the poetry and music can drip from it… it is amazing how when a poet/songwriter/artist gets it so right, they can transport other people along with them on their journey and i feel that happens here – basically the writer is shouting out, “God you are big in this way and huge in that other way and just so incredible in that way” and uses amazing language to take us right there with Him…
Your Love reaches to the heavens [which are not necessarily a physical up there, just past the stars, kind of place, so really Your Love just goes on and on and on]…
Your faithfulness is like the mighty mountains [you know, standing firm, unmoveable, unshakeable, You are trustworthy]…
Your justice like the great deep [going way beyond what we see and can experience and even know about or can safely enter into without super special hectic gear – it just keeps going and is much greater than we can imagine]…
and on and on… God you are Huge and Great and Mighty and everything about You is just desirable and mind-blowing and life-transforming…
it is great, and necessary to every now and then [or really regularly actually, which is why i love corporate worship times cos that is a place i feel encouraged to do so] just lose it in your praise and adoration of God, for who He is and what He does and what He has done…
when last did you do so?
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light. [vs.9]
been great hearing some thoughts from my friends and may have some more at a later stage but back to me for now… with psalm 35:
as i was reading this psalm [of david once again calling besmitement upon his enemies for all the nasty things they are doing or plotting against him] i had the thought that david’s only reference was the old testament God… now one of the big contentions of the Bible for a lot of people who don’t follow Jesus [and believe me, a whole lot of those who do as well] is that the God of the old testament seems to be different from the God of the new testament… old testament God = angry and violent and vindictive and new testament God = loving and full of grace and mercy – and a quick reading of the whole bible may help give you this opinion as there is a lot more killing in the old testament and appears to be a lot more forgiving and teaching on it in the new testament…
but a deeper reading will show that while God may change the way He interacts with people or reveals Himself to them, He doesn’t change in character… i assume this psalm is another of the pre-bathsheba stories of david’s life as he is once again appearing innocent while wanting all the ‘guilty’ around him to be taken down – and i imagine after that whole episode where he has received the punishment of his sin [loses the child conceived in sin] but also the forgiveness, grace and mercy of a loving God who will one day come Himself to bring release from the pain, sin and suffering of the world and bring the message of His heart of Love, Grace, Mercy and Freedom to us personally, that david would have had a different understanding of who God is and also chosen to be a lot more lenient on his enemies.
in the old testament we see a lot of God’s Grace, Mercy and Love shown in the way He holds back from destroying His people when they do the equivalent of showing Him the finger in disobedience time and time again and after every punishment He allows them to go through He always ends up rushing back with forgiveness and the next plan and opportunity for kingdom growth. and in the new testament we witness in the Acts 5 story of ananias and sapphira how God is still able to step in and say “enough is enough” – I am Loving, Gracious and Merciful but also I am a Holy God and will not just sit back and watch my name and character be mocked without ever intervening… so two examples of which there are more of the old testament God suddenly seeming very new testament and vice versa – God doesn’t change – His character and heart are consistent throughout Scripture even if His methods, style and ways of communication and even being followed might.
so the psalm made me want to introduce David to the new testament understanding of God as we see Him portrayed in Jesus Christ with the words and life on Love and Forgiveness and cheek-turning and enemy-Loving and so on…
and then i really loved verse ten which says, ‘My whole being will exclaim, “Who is like You, Lord? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them.”’
Both the question of “who is like You, Love?” with the obvious answer of “No-one!” And the heart for the poor and needy, the least of these, who are shown to be on God’s heart all the way through the story of the bible… and the strength of the statement coming from the exclamation of the writer’s whole being. definitely words to live by.
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Irresistibly Fish 