Monday, December 3rd Read Psalm 139: If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

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1 Monday, December 3rd Read Psalm 139: If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. David refers to the enemies of God in the strongest of terms. As he reflects on how perfectly God has designed each one of us, he grew angry with those who had an evil attitude. The term hate denotes a decision to reject something in favor or something else. Unlike the English word, it does not wish harm or ill will upon another; the Hebrew concept of hate involves a turning away or to turn your back on someone. David s love for God is so great and so aligned with God, he sees God s enemies as his enemies, but rather than take matters into his own hands he asks God to remove them. David asks for God s help in protecting him from those who stood against the things he held dear. In verse 20, the psalm points out that evil people reveal their wickedness through their tongues. Disrespect and profanity are trademarks of deep heart problems. Close companionship with those who do not honor God will take a damaging toll on our spiritual life. The virus of the degenerate heart is dangerously contagious if you spend too much time near those who have hardened hearts for God. This is true for teens who want popularity at any cost and it is true for adults who entertain spiritual compromise. As David meditates on his love for God and the knowledge of His adversaries, he invites God to make a thorough examination of him. David wants God to penetrate his outer shell and dig deep within him unveiling his inner being where unspoken thoughts dwell and unstated motives hide out in secret. When David asks to be searched, it is as if he is saying, Find out which thoughts carry me away from fellowship with You. Show them to me so I can understand their effect on my walk with You. It is not enough for God to know the results, but David himself wants to know what God discovered. He wants to be a man of God and to be led in the everlasting way. As we conclude our journey with David in this psalm, hopefully we are left with a security of God s love for us. For David, his insecurity has passed, and he stands open before the Lord. Do you desire a relationship of spiritual intimacy with Jesus to take root in your life? Becoming a godly person takes time and trust in our Lord. He is waiting for you. He is pursuing you. You don t need to clean yourself up for He knows every part of you. He

2 knows our sin is great, but His love is greater. He wants you to join in Him in the way everlasting. Swindoll, Charles R. Living the Psalms: Encouragement for the Daily Grind. Worthy Publishing, Tuesday, December 4th Read Psalm 142 A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer. 1 I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy. 2 I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. 3 When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. 4 Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. 5 I cry to you, LORD; I say, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. 6 Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. 7 Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

3 Maskil is from the Hebrew root verb, sakal, meaning to be prudent, wise or to give insight and instruction. This is an instructive psalm designed to give us help and insight into how to handle a particular situation wisely. During this time in the cave, David was experiencing depression and overwhelming distress. This psalm is actually a prayer to give encouragement when facing dark feelings abut a significant loss, anger or unresolved conflict. To appreciate the conflict present in David s life at this time, these verses from 1 Samuel 22:1-2 offer a possible context: David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him. David had sought out the cave to find relief and solitude from Saul who was running after him. The relief was short lived as a mob pursued him with all their demands. In verses three and four he cries out to God about the people who have no concern for him. Here David models the need for us to declare our raw emotion to the Lord. God wants us to take our shame and difficulties to Him and not keep our distressed thoughts to ourselves. Expressing our most troubling thoughts and our deep-down feelings is a form of therapy. It is common to want to isolate ourselves, but it is important to pray and tell others we trust about our thoughts and concerns. David s prayer reflects his determination not to let his feelings cut off his access to the Lord and the help He promises. The phrase in the land of the living is a poetic way of saying, You, Lord, are my life and reason for living. David recalled and believed the promises of the Lord. He is asking the Lord to accomplish what He has promised. David asked the Lord to change his circumstances, deal justly with his persecutors and to honor His promise to make David king. He also asked God to change his state of mind and to release him from the prison of emotional depression. In the last verse, Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me, is a paraphrase of stating, What the Lord will do in the future is as good as done. David is looking ahead and claiming a time of victory. He is trusting God will use these difficult days to give him maturity, inner strength and stability. Those who have been in the crucible of suffering are the ones who have a ministry in the lives of others. The Lord may be preparing you for a unique message and an enviable ministry. Swindoll, Charles R. Living the Psalms: Encouragement for the Daily Grind. Worthy Publishing, Wednesday, December 5th Read Psalm 143 A psalm of David. 1 LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. 2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.

4 3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. 4 So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. 5 I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. 6 I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land. 7 Answer me quickly, LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. 8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. 9 Rescue me from my enemies, LORD, for I hide myself in you. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. 11 For your name s sake, LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. 12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant. This psalm is numbered among the Seven Penitential Psalms songs of confession and humility before God. It was a custom in the early church to sing these psalms on Ash Wednesday, the Wednesday before Easter. Although, its proclamation is not as strong as other psalms in this group, verse two is a strong and clear statement about the unrighteousness of mankind. David continues to pray to the Lord expressing his overwhelming despair due to the constant harassment and oppression from his foes. The darkness he is living is likely to be both be literal, as he may still be in the cave of Adallum, and emotional due to the cloud of sadness he is experiencing. While being confined David continues to lift up his cares and troubles to the Lord, not stewing over them alone but turning to God in close relationship. He asks for love and mercy, not contingent on his character, but on the faithfulness and

5 righteousness of the Lord. In saying, no one living is righteous, David seemed to foretell the Apostle Paul s words in Romans 3:10 There is none righteous, no not one. Martin Luther called this psalm one of the Pauline Psalms due to this shared truth. As David remembers God s acts from the past it reassures him of God s faithfulness and wonder. He petitions the Lord for a renewal of his hope, trust and wisdom and for His Spirit to bring God s goodness to him. He took comfort in knowing the sovereign God knew exactly where he was, who he was and what he was going through. He pleaded with God to give him a quick answer as he hoped to wake up in the morning with God s clear guidance. The psalm brings David full circle as he recalls God s protection and blessings in the past, he asks for God s current provision and he voices his faith in God s perseverance and vindication in the future. He trusted the knowledge of God s promises - of him being appointed to a life of godly purpose even though the present seemed far from these promises. David trusted that in God s own way and timing He would clear out a path to an anointed life. Guzik, David. Enduring Word Bible Commentary Psalm. Enduring Word, David Guzik NLT Study Bible. Carol Stream, IL, Tyndale House Pub., Thursday, December 6th Read Psalm 145:1-13 A psalm of praise. Of David. 1 I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. 2 Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. 3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. 4 One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. 5 They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty and I will meditate on your wonderful works. 6 They tell of the power of your awesome works and I will proclaim your great deeds. 7 They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. 8 The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

6 9 The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. 10 All your works praise you, LORD; your faithful people extol you. 11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, 12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. Psalm 145 is a monumental praise psalm, it is the last psalm attributed to David and a fit summary of all he had learned about God during a long lifetime of following hard after the Almighty. The psalm begins with David s acknowledgment that he would praise God no matter what happened. He would make it his work and his delight to exalt our God, the King. It is thought that at this point David had assumed the throne as the king of the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, he embraces God as King of kings and therefore He is David s king too. David instructs each generation to pass on the praise of God to one another. He looked for God s people to encourage each other in praise. An older generation may inspire a younger generation to praise by remembering and retelling God s mighty acts in the past. A young generation may stir praise in an older generation by declaring the fresh and new blessing of God in their lives. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. David expressed the idea, sometimes called common grace, that God spreads some of His goodness to all humanity. In Matthew 5:45 Jesus said, He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. All Your works shall praise You Lord signifies creation itself praises God. Even more than the rocks and hills praising God as written in Psalm 98, God s people have a greater obligation to praise and bless the Lord. David again repeated the responsibility of God s people to tell the wider world the greatness of what He has done. Think of this not so much as preaching but as Christians expressing to each other the hope and joy they have in our Lord. We praise God because we are acknowledging Him as the source of all our blessings. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom that will continue forever, throughout all generations. God s actions reveal his royal qualities - he cares for all His creatures and He is King of all. Guzik, David. Enduring Word Bible Commentary Psalm. Enduring Word, David Guzik NLT Study Bible. Carol Stream, IL, Tyndale House Pub., 2008.

7 Friday, December 6th Read Psalm 145: The LORD upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. 17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. 18 The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. 20 The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. 21 My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever. The last portion of the psalm is marked by a frequent repetition of all, which occurs eight times in these verses. David seems to delight in the very sound of the word, which suggests boundless visions of God s universal mercy and the countless number of dependents who wait on and are satisfied by Him. The Lord upholds all who fall - God s compassion is especially evident towards those who fall and fail. He does not despise or reject them; there is a sense in which He specially draws near them to hold them up. This is most evident in those who allow their fall to rightly humble them, so that God can raise up those who are bowed down. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works throughout Psalm 145 David has told about how we should praise God for who He is and what He has done. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him - God s responsiveness to His people in prayer is an example of the graciousness mentioned in the previous lines. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. The last verse of Psalm 145 is the last word we have from David in the Bible. It is his last will and testament. If he had said nothing else in his life, these words would be a fine legacy for future generations. In it he praises God and invites others to praise God also. Guzik, David. Enduring Word Bible Commentary Psalm. Enduring Word, David Guzik