Bread From The Book. Click Here For Index Of Psalms Articles

Transcription

1 Bread From The Book Articles by Conrad Murrell On The Book Of Psalms John 6:50 [Jesus said,] This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Click Here For Index Of Psalms Articles

2 1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalm 1.) In this first psalm, the writer draws upon rich imagery to mark out a sharp contrast between the righteous, the blessed man, the man whom the Lord knows and the ungodly, those who fear not God. The God-fearing man does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Their counsel or philosophy does not chart the course. The wisdom or reason of unconverted worldly minded men is set on mischief, avarice, greed, worldly lust, malice, temporal things. The godly man reasons differently. He delights in God's law, Gods counsel, the inspired scriptures, God's leadership by the Holy Spirit. He meditates upon them, thinks on them continually. They become a part of his being, and directs his every action and undertaking. The righteous man does not stand in the way of sinners. His anchor is not theirs. He is not established by what they are. Their hope is in temporal things, wealth, power, the admiration of men, the achievements of men. He is established in Christ. He is like a tree planted. It is fixed forever never to be moved as long as it lives. Like a tree planted by the rivers of water, the godly man is fixed in Christ Who is the way the truth and the life. All that man needs to sustain him and make him fruitful flows from Christ. As the planted tree brings forth fruit, so the righteous brings forth lasting fruit. The ungodly do not stand. They have no certain fountain of water, so they dry up. They are not fixed so they drift with the wind. None can predict where they will be tomorrow. They will not stand in the congregation of the righteous, and cannot stand in the day of judgment which will surely come. The blessed man does not sit in the seat of the scornful. The scornful is a fool resting upon a false hope. He is at ease when he derides the righteous and mocks the warnings of a Holy God, but his rest and security is a delusion. It will surely fail. The blessed man rests under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty. The righteousness of Christ is his hope and refuge. Because his leaf, the vitality of his life gathers food from the eternal God, it shall never wither but will prosper in all he does.

3 2 Why do the Heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. (Psalm 2:1-6) For those who would prove that God has a sense of humor, this passage affords the only testimony of God's laughter. The subject matter, however, precludes there being any humor in this laughter. Set before us is the arrogant rebellious attitude of the rulers of human governments who own no God but themselves. They rage and fume against the restrictions put upon them, their governments and their behavior by the decrees of the Almighty. They are filled with vain ambitions, pompous illusions of grandeur, exaggerated estimations of their persons and powers. These earthling rulers take counsel among themselves with the vain hope of breaking the laws and limitations placed upon them by a sovereign God. They disagree, fight and war among themselves until God appears on their horizon; and then they unite and gather themselves together against Him and His Anointed. It is interesting to remember that Pilate and Herod were confirmed enemies until Jesus Christ entered their lives. From that day forward they became friends, united by their common hatred for Christ. This is a common refrain among men who are accustomed to grinding other men under their tyrannic heels: We will not have this man (Christ) reign over us. They are unaccustomed to submitting themselves to men, and they think that they will not submit themselves to God either. The Lord will have them in derision. He laughs at the foolish attempts of men to overthrow His good purpose. That God is not amused is clear in the next verse. He is angry. He shall speak to them in his wrath. When God speaks to wicked men, they hear no voice from heaven. Rather they experience his displeasure. He vexes or troubles them. No nation has flaunted the moral laws of God, defied the divine order of justice, integrity and human relations, and survived to boast of it. All who have are now extinct with the exception of the newest crop who will also soon follow them to the same inglorious grave. God has established His own King. Jesus Christ has been crowned King of kings and Lord of lords in the court of heaven. And though earthly rulers will not willingly own His Lordship, He yet rules over them. To Him every knee will ultimately bow and every tongue will confess His Lordship. It would be wise if we did it now while He is yet willing to be our Savior also.

4 3 I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. (Psalm 2:7-12) Men, creatures of the earth, plan, hope, scheme, devise. They have ambitions, goals, objectives. God, the Creator, decrees. Some of men's plans are worthy, some unworthy, some successful, some failures; yet men do their utmost to make them succeed. God does not simply plan... He decrees. He does not simply attempt to implement His decree. It is sovereign, and He has the power to bring it to pass. His decree is not merely good: It is perfect. Let us consider it. He first declares the deity, the divinity of Christ. Jesus is the begotten Son of God. This must be the moral foundation of God's decree concerning Jesus Christ, for if Christ be not truly God, then He has no right to the honors about to be bestowed upon him. If we deny the Godhood of the Savior, we destroy the foundation and reason of Christian hope. But if we establish it, then it is incumbent upon all men to receive Him as Lord. God then declares the Lordship of Christ. He is His Son, and His inheritance is the nations of the earth. He owns not only those who love Him but those who hate Him. All the earth is His possession, and it is within the scope of His right and power to do as He pleases. None but the Father can limit the Hand of the Son in judgment, and the Father has committed it all to Christ. In our popular preoccupation with the goodness, the love of God, His willingness to save all who come to Him, we must not forget that there is something to be saved from. God's goodness and love is always set against the background of His justice and wrath. Men in their natural state are in rebellion against God and so the first word of which they are conscious in God's decree is this: They shall be broken with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel. This is the prospect facing all men when they receive God's command to repent. In view of such a decree by such a God, men are urged to wisdom. Abandon your foolish destructive course, you kings and judges of the earth. You may have done what you pleased among men, but now you face a thrice holy God and He will have nothing but unquestioned submission and obedience. You may have never feared men or beast, but please know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All who do not fear Him live a fool's life and die a fool's death. The blessed person is the wise one who puts his trust in the Lord. Kiss the Son. Receive Him as your King. Love Him with all your heart. He is your Owner. He must be your Judge. He will be your Savior if you will be His willing servant.

5 4 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou O Lord art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. (Psalm 3:1-4) This Psalm of David, written on the occasion of his flight from his traitorous son Absalom, affords us an opportunity to identify with a truly god-fearing man in our own often adversities and sore conflicts. The righteous do not always march forward victoriously. They do not always shout with the voice of triumph and joyously sing the song of the conqueror. They, at seasons, find themselves fleeing from the massing hordes of enemies like this sorrowing and mourning monarch. He who sat on the throne yesterday is today fleeing for his life while the cursing Shimei flings dust and rocks at him. Adversaries sometimes multiply themselves. They increase. At what time we hope for respite, woe piles upon the top of other woes. We scarcely have heard about one until news of another assails us. The significant word here is many. Many trouble us. Few or none comfort us. Many rise against us. It seems everyone has jumped on the bandwagon of persecution. Let one chicken in the yard get a bleeding wound and all the other chickens will quickly peck it to death. If this is a shame in worldly circles, what a disgrace it is among professed people of God! Many there are who say, There is no help for him in God. Men either say this because they believe that there is no help in God for anyone...that God is only an illusion, a fanciful prop for the weak and foolish; or they say it because they believe God has now forsaken their victim, and that He will not defend him against their vicious attacks. All of this clamors to take away the faith of the God-fearing man. Shall he cast away his faith because many have turned against him and declare that there is no help for him in God? Never! Not for the Godfearing man. He fears God and no one but God. But thou O Lord. His God is only one though his oppressors be many. God is a shield for me. Arrows may fly from a hundred directions. The one shield of God is sufficient to thwart them all. God is my glory. Though men rob me of my crown, my throne, my possessions, my home, my family, they have not yet touched my glory, for I glory in nothing but the God of my salvation. God is the lifter up of my head. God will be my ultimate victory. He will restore me. There is a lifting up in honor after shame, in health after sickness, in gladness after sorrow, in restoration after a fall, in victory after a temporary defeat. (C. H. Spurgeon) Our defeat and flight, our retreat is temporary. Our victory permanent and final, for the Lord has heard our cry.

6 5 I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. Arise O Lord: save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: Thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah. (Psalm 3:4-8) This man lies down and sleeps! He may have just heard the evening news with all its frightening details. He may have just received notice of personal disaster, evil tidings, threats from deadly enemies; yet he sleeps! He takes no tranquilizers, no sleeping pills. He just lies down and rests. How can he do it? He has cried unto the Lord. His prayer was no mealy muttering of memorized mumbling, not a parroting of prepared petition. It is a cry! Arise, O Lord! Save me O God. It is a cry of distress from a heart that feels itself in mortal danger, that knows it will surely be destroyed except help comes from the Lord. He is then able to rest, for the God to whom he cries is a Delivering God. He is a God with abundant testimony of His past deeds. He has smitten all my enemies. He has broken the teeth of the ungodly. He will not fail now. This man, who lay down and slept, awakes. The Lord has heard him out of His Holy Hill. Having heard him the Lord sustains him. He is preserved. Jesus promised that he who believes in Him shall never die. When those who fear God and trust in Christ lie down, they know that they will arise. God will never suffer them to perish. How this worried, harried, frustrated generation needs to know such a God! Because this man fears God, he fears no man. No, he will not fear ten thousand men set against him and surrounding him on every side. This one fact he knows in his heart, and it is evident in all his actions: Salvation belongs to the Lord. There is only one Savior in the universe. That is the God with whom we have to do. His name is Jesus and his blessing is upon all who trust in him. We can find no other hope under which we can safely rest. We need none, for He is sufficient.

7 6 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for Himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto Him. Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. (Psalm 4:1-4) The inspired writers often speak as Jehovah Himself as it seems the Holy Spirit imparts to them the very heart s cry of the Creator. Such an occasion is this second verse of the fourth Psalm. How long will ye turn my glory into shame? Man, created in God s image and intended to display a visible image of the glory of an invisible God, has fallen. Instead of glorifying God in his life, he lives it in vanity, deceit and corruption bringing shame and reproach upon the true and living God. How grieved He is at our reluctance to repent and forsake our evil ways! This longing and willingness of God to save is reflected in Christ s weeping over the city of Jerusalem which is about to reject and crucify Him. He says again, Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. The hope of such fallen creatures as us is revealed in the first sentence of the song, Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Sinful men have no righteousness of their own. Their hope of audience with a holy God is His own righteousness imparted to them through faith in Christ. God is the source and creator of all true righteousness. Therefore we can never hope to impress Him with our righteousness. What we have is simply His own, given to us freely by His grace. Since we are sinful creatures and have no claim on God s goodness, we come to Him pleading His mercy. We believe that we shall be heard because He is a merciful God and because He has proven Himself in the past. Our past help is our present hope in God. Such distress in which we must call upon God enlarges us...it causes us to grow in grace if for no other reason than simply because such distresses bring us into a close and dependent relationship with God. The Lord has set apart such godfearing persons for Himself, and they will surely be heard of Him when they call upon Him. God s mercy to sinners does not encourage them to sin and presume upon His grace. Contrariwise, it makes sin so much more to be hated by those who truly love God. They stand in awe of His holiness and goodness, they commune with Him in their hearts. Their eyes are upon His Face, and their hearts are filled with His love. The more we cultivate and abide in such an attitude toward God, the less likely we are to fall into sin.

8 7 Offer the Sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord. There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:5-8) There is a perpetual search among human philosophers for good, for moral truth or for true morality. Men seek for this, not because they are so obsessed with doing good, but because by doing good they hope that good will come upon them. Who will shew us any good? They hope by their moral righteousness to be set free from fear of harm and evil and that they will thereby know happiness and peace. All of men s attempts to find joy and peace apart from God have been met by failure. The present attempts will fare no better. Only God Himself is absolute good. Therefore moral perfection can be found only by union with God. Anything less than that is less than moral, or immoral,...sin. Union with God is possible through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through Him. The sacrifices, then, of righteousness consist of all it means to put your trust in the Lord. All that we do trusting in ourselves is apart from God, is unholy, and must be counted no more than sin. All that we do in dependence upon Him, His righteousness, mercy, grace, and power, is counted righteous. It is His work in us. Irreligious men who fear not God count themselves righteous when they prosper, when their corn and their wine is increased. They make the error of the men of corrupt minds of whom the Apostle warned Timothy: supposing that gain is godliness. (I Tim. 6:5) But this is the resting place of such men. Their hope of safety is in human power and increase of worldly possessions. Yet when they lie down at night they cannot sleep. They reason that if they were able to take this power and wealth from others, will not others take it from them? They think that they have the blessing of the Lord, but have no assurance that He will protect them. Not so with those who offer the sacrifice of the righteous and put their trust in the Lord. They have more joy and gladness than the man who just harvested a bumper crop or received a windfall from the stock market. What they have did not come from men, and man has no power to take it away. He will lie down in peace, and he will sleep. He has made a discovery worth more than all the gold and silver on earth. Thou Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

9 8 Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. (Psalm 5:1-4) It may be observed that prayers may be divided into two kinds: Expressed and Unexpressed. In the unexpressed prayer we have inward groanings, deep sorrow of heart that inwardly looks up to God imploring His help and mercy. We have silent meditations reflecting on the works and goodness of God. We wonder at His mighty works, His power and His wisdom, rejoice in the beauties of His glory. We have thoughts and considerations. We reflect on His word, meditate (masticate, ruminate) that truth that has been made known to us by the Holy Scriptures or other means of communicating God s truth. The thing that makes such thoughts, meditations, or sorrows, prayers is that they are always engaged in the context of God the Creator and Cause and Cure of all things. They differ from those of godless men in that such men never consider God as they reflect upon these things. To them, man, fate or chance is the cause of all things, and there is no One to pray to. Such prayers, though not spoken, are heard. We may not even understand them enough to articulate them. We may not even know the question let alone the answer. Deep sorrow sometimes so assails our heart we find it impossible to ask God for anything, for we can think of nothing that would relieve our affliction. But God understands perfectly and will hear and answer perfectly if the prayer is from the heart. Expressed prayers are spoken audibly. These are put into words. They are vocalized reasonings from the mind. Sometimes these are reasonings from the God-centered mind, and will be the right kind of words because they come from the right kind of thoughts. At other times these come from the mancentered mind and will be the wrong kind of words because they come from a heart that is wrong toward God. Often prayers take the form of crying, plaintive pleas, urgent implorings, desperate cries, weeping and mourning. These are sometimes soft, sometimes loud; the volume matters not. What matters is where the prayer is directed. The psalmist directs his prayer to God, his God, the God with whom he is acquainted. If you would pray, you must have a God with whom you are on speaking terms, whose law you obey, and in whose power you trust. He must be your only source of hope and strength. How shall we, wicked sinners that we are, get on such intimate terms with a holy and pure God? Is it not through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ His Son? Surely we can never be holy enough within ourselves to stand before Him, and our own works never good enough to merit His help. Yet He graciously received and hears all who come to Him by Christ Jesus.

10 9 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. (Psalm 5:5-7) The sentiment that God has an unqualified and equal love for all men does not come from the Bible but from the wishful thinking and human reasonings of fallen men. This may come as a shock to us who have been taught to believe that God who is holy, hates sin, yet loves the sinner practicing his iniquity. The passage before us declares differently. It is expressly stated that God hates all the workers of iniquity; not just the iniquity, but the workers. A person is inextricably identified with his deeds. Separate sin from the sinner and neither exist any longer. You are what you do. Your deeds simply bear witness of the inner man. Evil, sin, wickedness do not exist in the abstract. A man is the wickedness he does, and the scriptures tell us that God abhors the bloody and deceitful man. But this truth presents something of a problem to us. Is not God love? Is He not a God of infinite mercy and kindness? Is not the very essence of Christianity the fact that God loved and had mercy on wicked transgressors? All of this is most certainly true. Then how can we reconcile the fact that such a God actually hates men? We should first understand that although God is love, mercy, kindness, He is first of all Holy. He cannot compromise His holiness in order to implement mercy. His primary trait is Holiness; and He must hate sin. He cannot be the God He is and do otherwise. Therefore any love or kindness He displays and extends must be in keeping with His Holiness. The second thing we must understand is that when we speak of either love or hate in relation to God, we must not attribute to Him the unworthy sentiments which we usually experience these to be. God s hatred is not the malignant, petty, evil hatred that men hold in their hearts. This arises from fear, avarice, envy, strife, covetousness, pride...all of which God is incapable. Love and hatred in respect of God are terms used to express relative favor or disapproval. Hate is to love what short is too long, light is to heavy, cold is too hot, little is too much. God is love, and all men enjoy His general indiscriminate goodness. He makes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust alike. But the psalmist is not now speaking of the universally diffused benevolence of Almighty God. He is speaking of God s judicial love and hate exhibited in His special favor or special and particular judgments applied to particular individuals. Workers of iniquity will experience the eternal wrath of God. His abhorrence of murderous and deceitful men will be demonstrated in eternal punishment. Therefore the person who would experience the love of God in salvation will come into God s house in the multitude of His mercy. He knows himself a sinner and deserving of the wrath of God, but finds God s mercy extended to him through faith in Christ who was offered to bear our sins on the Cross.

11 10 O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. (Psalm 6) We have before us the prayer of a man who has sinned and knows it. As a child of God, he knows the Lord s chastening and scourging to be forthcoming. He does not reject God s chastening (the obedient child expects it), but pleads that it will be loving and merciful chastening. He requests that he be spared God s anger, His hot displeasure. Such is the distinction between those who are God s children by faith in Christ and those who are not. God lovingly and mercifully chastens His own, but those who have not Christ can expect nothing but God s unmitigated wrath. Notice the condition of this repentant sinner: He is weak. He has no more power to rebel against God any longer. He has given up. Nor has he power to forsake his sin. He trusts in God to deliver him. He is vexed, physically and emotionally sick. Sin, disobedience, alienation from God and consequent alienation from fellow man, will vex your bones and destroy your health. He is weary. He has had no rest since losing his peace and fellowship with God. He tosses, groans and weeps all the night. He is grief-stricken. His sins have become hateful to him. He would undo them if it were within his power, but it is not. They have been done, cannot be undone, and so he grieves over them. He fears. The person who trusts in God knows that his safety lies in God and in God alone. Feeling now that God has turned away from him because of his sins, he fears his enemies will take advantage of him. He feels vulnerable without God s protection. Five things he cries for. Mercy. God s forgiveness and forbearance. Mercy is for sinners, transgressors. He counts himself among that number. He cries for God s return to him. Only a child of God can pray this prayer. Others have never known the fellowship of God and must cry for Him to come to them. He asks for deliverance from the evil that has befallen him and might yet come upon him as consequence of his sin. He prays for salvation from all that would bring him down to the grave in disgrace. And he prays for healing. He would not only be forgiven of his trespasses, saved from their consequences, but would have his former, physical and spiritual health restored. He knows there is full salvation in Christ. Such prayers by repentant sinners will always be heard. God will surely forgive, He will save, heal and restore and once again be the Protector and Keeper of His own.

12 11 O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honor in the dust. (Psalm 7:1-5) The psalmist finds himself in a position we all commonly share at times. He is being slandered. His words and actions have been misrepresented and his character maligned. He wisely makes his appeal before God. In thee do I put my trust. How different this is from most of us who, when slandered, go about refuting it in the court of men. If it is false, God will stand by us, and men can do no harm. If it is true, then the comfort and vindication of men is a hollow victory; for the Judge of all the earth knows our guilt; and He will avenge. The godly man confesses his vulnerability. He does not foolishly trust in his own strength or the strength of his allies. He well knows if he draws not his help from God there will be none to deliver. He makes the confession of the redeemed who, apart from the love of Christ, are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Then the accused does a most prudent thing. While affirming his innocence, he does not fail to consider the possibility of truth in the allegations against him. If we would be honest, then we have nothing to fear from objective examination. The truth of the matter is, when people accuse us, there is usually some truth in what they say. And while the whole of the slander may be a lie, we must not shirk to acknowledge what is true, and be rebuked and corrected. Thus, personal slander can be an occasion for soul searching, for personal discipline, and for learning to trust the Lord in the face of popular rejection.

13 12 O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honor in the dust. (Psalm 7:1-5) Let us suppose that we, like the psalmist, have been slandered. False representations have been made of our speech, our actions, our intents. Our character is being assassinated. Our first impulse is to run out and defend ourselves, to refute the lies, and recover our image and reputation among men. But if we trust in God, fear and love Him above all, should we not make our appeal primarily to Him? Is it not true that His favor and His opinion is to be sought above that of all men? And how shall we fool Him? He already knows of accusation, the accusers and even the accused. Therefore it behooves us to ask ourselves the following questions: Do I indeed deserve this slander? If these particular details are not exactly true, am I scoundrel enough that they could be true, and have I not actually committed such or worse things? Is there truth in what is said of me? If the whole story is not the truth, is there not some truth in it? Have I honestly searched my soul, my heart, tongue and deeds for works of iniquity? Is there not bitterness in my heart, dishonesty in my words, and impurity in my deeds? Have I gone the second mile with my enemy? Have I done him good, been his deliverer? We must be ready to accept the punishment, the affliction, the rebuke and correction due us. We must not shirk from earned humiliation. It would do most of us inestimable good to have our honor laid in the dust at appropriate seasons.

14 13 The Lord shall judge the people: Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. (Psalm 7:8-10) God will judge! No three words have been spoken so often and heeded so little. Yet death and taxes are less certain than this. God will judge. James warns those who are harboring evil feelings against one another, those who hold resentments, feelings of being mistreated, The Judge stands before the door. And how will he judge? God does not try our case by external evidence presented. He is not swayed and persuaded by the cleverly worded arguments of our accusers or our defenders. The opinions and judgments of men weigh nothing in His court. He tries the hearts and reins. He is the God who saves the upright in heart. The Lord shall judge all the people. None will escape His justice. And it is quite evident from the Biblical record that not all will be vindicated. Verse 13 of the same Psalm tells us that he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; Justice is meaningless unless it (1) vindicates, protects and rewards the righteous and (2) condemns and punishes the wicked. God will surely do both. If I, then, am to be judged according to inner purity of heart then it most certainly behooves me to cease from my wickedness and turn in my heart to the God who is merciful to repentant sinners. But perhaps here is a sinner whose heart is too black, his past deeds too wicked. His whole life has been godless and corrupt. Far from being upright in heart, he has been selfish, rebellious, deceitful, greedy and hateful. Is there hope for such a person before a God who saves only the upright in heart? Indeed there is! The prophet Isaiah foretold of the Substitute Sin-bearer: All we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. For those of us who have no upright heart to present to God, Jesus Christ, His Son, is our righteousness; and He will present us blameless before God the Father in that day.

15 14 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens...when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalm 8:1,3,4) The excellency of God s name, His fame, His renown, the glory of His Person is mightily testified in all the earth. It must be universally acknowledged that the builder is greater than the building. And though the building may be more visible, larger, more impressive to the eye in many ways, all the properties and glories of the building is derived from the builder. Even so, the creature must ever be overshadowed by the Creator. The glory and wonders of the former serve only as a token testimony to the excellencies of the latter. God s heavens, (they are not just the heavens; they are His heavens) are best contemplated at night. This was likely a night-time meditation of the psalmist. As moon and stars are obscured in the brilliant glory of the midday sun, so men and the works of men are unnoticed when God s glory is on the scene. Let us consider for a moment these works of God s fingers. The more we learn of them the more incomprehensible they become. Their sheer numbers are uncountable. The distances they are removed from us and each other are immeasurable. Their age is incalculable. How can we number them when we cannot find the end of them? How can we measure their distance when as far as we can reach with electronic telescopes billions of light years away, we cannot find their borders? And how can we determine their age when we cannot comprehend the nothingness from which they were created, or the Source of the matter of which they are composed? They testify of God unlimited, eternal and infinite. His glory is above them, for He is their Creator in a far more absolute sense than the carpenter is the builder of the house. But let us now consider man in relation to all of this. Do we not wonder that God, in view of the majesty of all His creation gives such consideration to man? Man, who is the weakest and most dependent of all mammals is given the honor and glory of bearing God s image, of being His vicar, His representative, the steward of God s creation. Is it any wonder then, that man s sin and rebellion are so odious to God? Is it any wonder that God should be offended by the multitude of agnostics who say, God is unprovable and unknowable, or the foolish atheist who with the breath of the Almighty Creator, denies His existence. Let us repent of such madness. Let us acknowledge that God our Creator is excellent, mighty and glorious in all the earth and that we are feeble worms, helpless wretches, insignificant shadows, who have been favored by God s goodness, redeemed by His Son, and destined for an eternal existence either in God s presence or the awful desolation of His absence.

16 15 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. (Psalm 8:2-6) It is the delight of the Almighty to confound the wise with the simple, to put down the mighty with the weak and to bring down the exalted with the humble. When we contemplate the infinite magnitude and unsearchable glories of the stars and planets, the illimitable expanse of the heavens, then turn to gaze upon a helpless babe in a crib, the contrast is staggering. Yet it is in this helpless babe that the Creator has ordained His strength. Of all creatures none is more helpless, vulnerable, utterly dependent than the human infant. God does His work with these puny helpless sucklings. It has pleased Him to use man as His vicar, His representative. We are said to bear His image. He has put the fear of man in every beast, fowl, fish and reptile. To all other creatures, man is god. All things are put under his feet. The first man was told to subdue and have dominion over all the works of God s hands. How far man has fallen from this exalted place! It is now man, not beast, that fears everything. He fears beasts, other men, elements, circumstances, the future, shadows, superstitions, everything but the God he should fear. Instead of walking upright as a conqueror, he grovels in the dust as a worm. He is stricken with micro-organisms and dies of disease. He becomes addicted and enslaved to alcohol, drugs, tobacco. Esau sold his birthright for beans, but now men sell their souls for poison. He, who was created to be capable of the highest good, has sunk to be the perpetuator of the lowest evil. Yet the fact remains. God has ordained His strength in an infant. And when the fullness of time came, God sent His own son, born of a virgin, to redeem His crowning creation from the ruin brought upon him by the Enemy of our souls. And Jesus has overcome. He has rescued ruined men from the bondage of the evil one, and now He sits enthroned with all powers under His feet. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

17 16 I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right. (Psalm 9:2-4) David, ancient king of Israel, portrays the many aspects of those who trust God in Christ Jesus. As the psalmist, he is the believer worshipping; as he mourns and complains, he is the faithful suffering trials and oppression; as king, he is the believer identified with Christ the King. But most prominently, David the man of war speaks of the Christian in spiritual warfare. Those who are friends of God are ever at war with the powers of darkness. The believer has enemies. He cannot avoid it. When one identifies himself with God, he takes on, not only the love and friendship of all who love God, but also the hatred and malignance of all who hate God. However, we who love God must not suppose that all with whom we have trouble are God s enemies. We are perfectly able to provoke the hostilities of men by our own perverseness and meanness. We must therefore be slow to judge all who dislike us as disliking us on account of our righteousness. We have quite enough of raw contrariness about us to create enemies. But when someone becomes our enemy because of Christ or our obedience to Him, we may be sure that person is primarily the enemy of God, and our enemy only by association. If God s enemies attack us, victory can always be expected; for God will surely fight His children s battles. David sees this: When mine enemies are turned back..., not if they are turned back. Victory always has God as its cause. It is never because we have been strong enough, outsmarted the enemy, or have learned how to successfully wage the warfare. If there is victory, then God is on the scene. The enemy flees only because of Him. They shall fall and perish at thy presence. If God is on the scene there is occasion of rejoicing and praise; not just because of the victory, but because it is God s victory. We may rejoice for a moment or a few days in a victory won by man; but who knows when the next conflict will come with a stronger man than the last and then we will be defeated. But if we know that God is undertaking our battles, then we can be assured that they will all be won. That is cause for praise and worship. One reason we find so much praise and worship in the Psalms is that David the man of war is continuously experiencing the deliverance of God, so he is ever praising Him. Perhaps if we were a bit more courageous in provoking the enemies of God by Christ s righteousness, we might also find more occasion to praise and worship our mighty Victor.

18 17 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. (Meditation) Selah. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. (Psalm 9:15-17) Here is food for thought, meat for meditation, something that every person should stop and consider. Some observations are set forth. The first is that scheming, plotting, conniving persons have a way of getting caught in their own traps. Too often they, like wicked Haman plotting the destruction of righteous Mordecai, get hung on their own gallows. All too consistently the very vehicle men expect to carry them to glory brings them to disgrace. The means whereby they expected to enrich themselves creates the disaster that brings them to poverty, and that which they expected to lift them above other men becomes the chain that enslaves them. Such is not coincidental. God has not left His universe to blind chance in the hope that men would someday work out a system of equitable justice. It must be by now evident that such a hope would be foolishness and unworthy of an all intelligent God. No, the fact of the matter is that God is known by the judgments which He executes. He does now execute judgment in the earth. There will be a time when He will finally judge all who have ever lived; but He has not left the righteous without help or the wicked without fear of reprisals until then. It is God who sees to it that the laws of reaping and sowing work. It is the righteous judgment of God that men see when they observe men falling into the grave they themselves had dug. And it is this that keeps the knowledge of God before men even when they in their godlessness had rather forget that He exists. The second thought to meditate upon is the inevitable following of the first. If the wicked shall be turned into hell because of their own doing, so shall all nations that forget God. The wicked scheming man has secretly fixed his snare and laid his trap. No one saw him. But He forgot God. God saw him, and God will not let it pass. Nations do the same thing. They all eventually rule God out of their plans. They adopt the religion of humanism and forget God. When they do that they foolishly imagine they only have to reckon with the knowledge and powers of other men. Moral restraint gone, they sink lower and lower until they drop into the graves they have themselves dug. Meditate upon these things; and perhaps we shall see the wisdom of keeping God foremost in all our thoughts and in all our deeds.

19 18 Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his heart s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. (Psalm 10:1-3) There is a question that God-fearing people will always ask again, no matter how often it is answered for them: Why does God stand afar off and seemingly have no concern for me in this trouble? Why am I unable to find Him when I need Him most? Though we may give a satisfactory answer to it now, yet when we fall into deep trouble and can no longer sense God s presence we will ask it again. Trouble is most grievous without God s sensible presence. We experience trouble at times and have the comfort of knowing that He is with us. At such times the circumstances do not try us. We pass through them joyfully. Therefore it is of necessity, if we are to experience any trial at all, that God withdraw Himself for a short season. There can be no trial while we experience God s comfort. We must be prepared to walk by faith knowing that God is indeed always near even when we do not feel that He is. The just shall live by faith. While the righteous man is mourning and seeking comfort from God, the wicked man, his oppressor, is boasting of his conquests. He actually takes pride in the ways and means he has taken advantage of others. He enriches himself at the expense of others whom he has cheated and then has the audacity to brag about it. Listen to the tone of his conversation. He is always admiring himself for his sharp deals. He victimizes the poor, the weak and the ignorant and actually thinks himself to be a mighty conqueror. Thus crooked lawyers plunder people who do not know the intricacies of the law. Covetous physicians gouge unknowing patients who are unqualified to challenge the doctor s findings and treatments. The moneyed industrialist and business man can charge what he pleases to the man who must have his product. Banks and loan sharks have the debtor over a barrel and can keep him paying through the nose. And the charlatan preacher or priest can pick the pockets of his ignorant and superstitious votaries. It is amazing to note that men bless the successful man in all his covetous practices. They will condemn every other kind of sinner, yet admire the man who gains riches, power and prestige by cleverly plundering people. The Bible tells us God abhors such a man! What a shocking thought that we should be blessing the person whom God abhors! We are even prone to emulate such men, and try to gain such a position ourselves. O how sad it is when men had rather gain power and admiration of men rather than the favor of God. Let us give heed to the admonition of James: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

20 19 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. (Psalm 10:4-5) A proud man cannot seek God. Those who seek God have no confidence in themselves; that is why they seek the Lord. Those who seek God have despaired of their own ability to get done what must be done, therefore they call upon God. They who seek the Lord are admitted failures: They cry out to Him Who cannot fail. For the proud man to seek God, he would have to admit his failure and his wickedness. He would have to throw aside all his self-confidence and take the place of a poor helpless beggar. He would have to come to God as we all do hat in hand. But cannot the proud man do this? Indeed he can, but then he would no longer be proud. His glory has been left in the dust of humility. But the egotist will not do this. Indeed God is not in his thoughts at all. It never occurs to him that he should need God. He is quite self-sufficient. When he contemplates any decision, it is of no concern to him whether or not God would be pleased or displeased with his actions. He has no one more worthy of pleasing than himself. If the job is difficult, he measures it only against his ability. He undertakes nothing he does not believe himself capable of handling. The power of God does not exist for him. Everything thus falls in the realm of worldly rationale and fleshly capability. With no thoughts of God and no consideration of His ways, the behavior and deeds of the proud and wicked are always contrary to God. They never please God, are always grievous. God s judgments are far above his horizon of sight. He never looks that high up. Like the sow with her eyes always on her own level, the ground, he never lifts his head and his thoughts high enough to consider the excellent ways and judgments of God. The proud man is an optimist to a fault. He believes in the power of positive thinking. He puffs at his enemies. He will not allow himself a negative thought. In this foolish philosophy of men destitute of spiritual wisdom he has robbed himself of the grace of fear. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. He illogically thinks himself invulnerable. He will soon learn the wisdom of the proverb, Pride goeth before a fall. In this time when it is popular to encourage men to embellish their self-image, it might be wise for us to consider that God resisteth the proud, but gives grace to the humble.