“So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’’” -Hebrews 3:7-11
The previous section of chapter 3 discussed Jesus as compared to Moses, and it ended with the phrase: “And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory” (verse 6). This section ties into that firm foundation, with an Old Testament Scriptural quotation.
The section of Hebrews is basically all a quote from Psalm 95:7-11. For more on the context of Psalm 95, check out this post. While that post focuses more on the first 6 verses of this psalm, here I’ll focus on the last half, which is quoted here by the author of Hebrews. This quote is referring to the time in the nation of Israel’s life when they did not walk in fellowship with God but were disobedient to Him.
This quotation is attributed to the Holy Spirit at this location; later, in Hebrews 4:7, the author of Hebrews mentions it again and attributes it to David. The psalm itself does not have an author’s name attached to it, but considering David wrote so many of the psalms, his authorship is very plausible. Attributing this quote to the Spirit also shows the divine authorship of all of Scripture; human hands wrote the words, but they were inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The quotation from Psalm 95 starts with the word “today” in verse 7, which is important. The content of this passage is applicable a few thousand years ago when the psalm was written, in the first century when the book of Hebrews was written, and every single day this passage is read. Immediate action is necessary - we must hear God’s voice each and every day!
We must also not harden our hearts. A person having a hardened heart means they are not following God. They are acting in disobedience to Him and following their own ways and desires, just like what Israel did in the wilderness. They rebelled against God often, but this reference in verse 8 is likely a specific reference to the incident in Exodus 17:1-7 where they tested God by demanding water in the wilderness.
The idea of testing God in the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness continues in verse 9. Israel should have trusted God’s works that they could see, including His deliverance of them out of slavery in Egypt. God is always faithful no matter what, but the Israelites rejected Him for 40 years for that time period. At the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews, it was likely about 40 years since many of the descendants of those first Israelites rejected Jesus when He came to earth as their Messiah.
We often tend to think of God as simply loving, but it is clear from verse 10 that God does get angry. He does not just passively let us sin and become indifferent to it; because His nature is completely opposed to all types of sin, He must get angry at it. In this case, the passage specifically calls out His anger toward the generation of Israelites that was wandering in the wilderness. Their hearts were constantly going astray. The use of “heart” here refers to the whole inner being, the person’s thoughts, feelings, and will. If they really knew God’s ways and really understood His faithfulness and care for them, they would not have acted in such rebellion toward God.
Because of all of that, we see God’s judgment on them in verse 11. The reference to an oath here refers to when the spies returned from their survey into the Promised Land (Numbers 14). It is significant that the Psalmist brings together an incident from early in the wilderness period and one from late in that period. The Israelites rebelled and caused God to be angry at the beginning of the exodus, at the end of the exodus, and often in between.
God made a binding oath out of His wrath at their sin that they should “never enter my rest.” God actively opposes their sin, so He has to do something about it. The word used here is a stronger one than simply saying anger or even wrath, but we don’t really have a stronger word in English for that kind of anger. God is that passionately opposed to sins against Him.
But what does it mean that they should never enter God’s rest? The idea of rest here is a place of blessing where there is no more struggle; there is only relaxation in God’s presence and there is no fear about anything. Some believe this rest in the psalm refers to a physical place, such as entering the Promised Land, or the idea of living under the rule of the Messiah - as Israel had often thought would be political. But, it is more likely that the author intends this rest to refer to a spiritual sense - being in complete peace with God as we will be able to spend eternity.
These words of Psalm 95 were written many centuries before even Jesus walked the earth, but they were still true in the first century and they are still true today. We are commanded to not harden our hearts and rebel against God, but to hear God’s voice. We can look back to Israel’s history and see how their disobedience worked out for them; we are urged not to follow their disobedient example. We are to instead know God’s ways and strive to follow Him with all our hearts.
What are you doing in your life to help you follow the ways of God instead of falling into rebellion against Him? Are you surrounding yourself with people that will encourage you in this struggle that we all face? Or are you giving in to rebellion and letting sin run your life? I encourage you to examine your life this week and determine if you’re listening to God’s voice or hardening your heart to Him.
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“Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.” (Psalm 150)
As we bring 2019 to a close, I’m also bringing to a close my study on the Psalms. As I started with Psalm 1 at the beginning of January, I’m ending with the last psalm here at the end of the year.
It is fitting for this marvelous and majestic book to end with a psalm that is totally and completely made up of praising God! I kept the psalm in the format I did above so you can see how basically every phrase starts with the word “praise.” It’s the same in the original Hebrew text; each phrase begins with a form of the verb for praise. Many begin with halleluhu which specifically means “praise him.”
We can break down the structure of this psalm further than just being praise. It starts with telling us who we should praise, then why we should praise Him, then how we should praise Him, then who should do the praising.
We find out who we are commanded to praise in verse 1: we are to praise God. Even though He is in His mighty heavens and we are on earth, we are to praise Him. There is no one else even remotely worthy of the praise that God deserves.
Why should we praise God? Verse 2 tells us that He has done mighty acts, and He is amazingly great. The Bible is full of stories of what God has done for His people throughout history, and even today we still see God doing amazing things in our lives and the lives of those around us. God is still working in the entire world today. He is the epitome of greatness; we don’t even have the words to describe Him. He is ever-deserving of all our praise!
How should we praise God? Verses 3-5 of this psalm gives us lots of ways. You may notice that the ways listed are musical in nature - playing instruments and dancing. Thankfully, we don’t have to be musically skilled to praise God. We can enjoy others using these skills and praise God along with them, or we can make a joyful noise to God even if it may not sound great in others’ ears! God knows our hearts, and any method that we use to praise Him with a right heart is good in His sight.
Who should do the praising of God? We see in verse 6 that it’s not limited to those who are musically skilled. The psalm calls for “everything that has breath” to praise God! That doesn’t even limit it to just humans. All living things were created by God, so all living things should praise God with the breath that He has given us.
As we look back on 2019, this journey through the psalms has gone through times of praise, times of lament, times of joy, and times of sorrow. The psalms are full of all of these emotions and more. Some of them have been a struggle for me to write, but overall it has been a journey led by God. God has given us emotions and free will so that we can better praise Him. He has given us language to express these emotions, whether it was a psalmist writing in Hebrew a few thousand years ago or a blogger writing in 2019.
The whole purpose of this book of psalms is to praise God, just as Psalm 150 tells us. What is the purpose of your life? Does your life line up with God’s Word and praising Him as He calls us to do? Maybe 2019 was a spectacular year for you, or maybe you’re happy it’s finally over. Either way, every day God gives us a new chance to praise Him and follow Him with our lives. Every day we can make the choice to praise God with our lives, whether we’re in a season of joy or a season of lament. I pray that all of us would make the choice to praise God today, and all throughout the upcoming year!
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Hallelujah! Today’s psalm, Psalm 146, begins the last collection of hallel psalms, named as such because they are full of praise to God and hallal is the verb for “praise” in Hebrew. It is likely that these praise psalms were used as part of the daily prayers for the people of Israel worshiping in the synagogue.
We do not know who wrote this psalm, though there are some theories. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) and the Latin Vulgate attribute Psalms 146 and 147 to Haggai and Zechariah, but most scholars believe there is not enough evidence for this authorship.
As expected, this praise psalm begins with simply praising God in verses 1-2. The psalmist both individually praises God and invites those around him to join in as well. He knows that his life is to be lived in praise to God at all times because God is the one who gives him life.
In verses 3-4 we see that committing to praise God means that we don’t trust in our fellow humans. While we should have some level of trust for other humans, they cannot save us as God can, and they are not as perfectly trustworthy as God is either. People may leave us or die at any time, while God is eternal and will be the same trustworthy God forever and ever.
Verse 5 shows us that we need to look to God, rather than people, as our true help if we want to be blessed by Him. Again, we need to put our hope in God who will never fail instead of people who can fail us.
So who is this that we should praise? Verse 6 tells us, “He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them — he remains faithful forever.” God is the creator, the one who made everything, just as the Bible tells us in Genesis 1 and Exodus 20:11. He will always remain faithful to us. He is truly worthy of our praise!
What does God do after the work of creation was completed? Verses 7-9 tell us that He sustains His people. The nature of God’s faithfulness is explained here. He upholds His people, feeds the hungry, sets prisoners free, gives sight to the blind, loves us, and watches over and sustains His people. The Hebrew text uses participles for all of these actions, which indicates that God continually does them. He is eternal, and He continues to sustain His people through all generations.
Finally, the psalm closes with another call to praise God in verse 10. We see that the Lord reigns forever. He will be our God for all generations of all people!
As we look forward to celebrating Christmas and the birth of Jesus this week, we need to continue to praise God for all that He has done in our lives. When this psalm was written, the world was still looking forward and waiting expectantly for the Savior who they knew was coming. Today, we can look back a couple of thousand years and see that the Savior has already come! He came in the person of Jesus as a baby, He grew up as both fully human and fully God, and He lived His life without one single sin so that we could be saved and live eternally with God. We live in a time where the promise of salvation has been fulfilled, and that is the best reason there is to praise God all the days of our lives.
Just as the people of Israel used this psalm and others in their daily worship, we can do that also. These psalms have a different meaning to us, being on the other side of the salvation event of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but we are still called to praise God in all that we do. As you’re gathering with family and friends this Christmas, remember the reason for all the celebrating - the birth of Jesus who fulfilled the promises that the psalmists were longing for. If they could praise God before, we can truly praise Him now!
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Unlike the lament we saw last week in Psalm 142, in today’s psalm (Psalm 144), we see King David’s confidence in God as a warrior. In this psalm, David both praises God and prays for His involvement with the nation of Israel.
As they often do, this psalm begins in verses 1-2 with praising God. The language and some of the imagery are similar to that of Psalm 18. There is definitely a feeling of being a warrior in this psalm, with these verses containing words like rock, war, battle, fortress, stronghold, deliverer, shield, etc. Battle was a big part of David’s life, and he knows that his obedience to God is the only reason why he has had success in that area. God promised David that He would protect him, and we see that God has kept that promise by giving David military victories over surrounding nations. David knows who God is and therefore comes to Him with boldness.
Knowing who God is leads David to knowing who mankind is. Verses 3-4 show that David is still humble in approaching God, in spite of the boldness we saw in the previous verses. David knows that mankind is nowhere near being worthy of God’s love and protection. We are simply God’s creation. He is all strength and we are weak. He is eternal and we are simply a breath or a fleeting shadow. But in spite of that, God still cares for us and still thinks of us. For more on that, check out Psalm 139.
In verses 5-8, the psalm moves to David asking for God’s involvement in the lives of Israel. David asks for God to come down as He did on Mt. Sinai, with smoke and lightning. David brings up warrior imagery, referring to God as the greatest warrior, who is always able to defeat David’s enemies. We know that God has power over His entire creation, and David is asking God to use that power in Israel’s favor to help them defeat their enemies.
After that battle imagery, David again turns to a hymn of praise in verses 9-10. David has such confidence in God’s deliverance that he is already singing a new song of praise to God because of it. He is confident that God will deliver him and give him victory.
Verse 11 is a repetition of verses 7-8. Its purpose is likely for emphasis that God will help David and the nation of Israel defeat the enemies that are around them.
The psalm ends in verses 12-15 praying for God’s blessing to come on the people. David isn’t just praying for blessings on himself and his own family but for God to bless all of Israel. He prays that God would bless their children, their crops, and their livestock, and also for their safety as a nation. All of this is summed up in the last line of verse 15: “Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.”
That line still rings true for us today - we will be blessed when our God is the Lord. We as sinful humans have a tendency to put many other people and things in the place of God in our lives. But when our God is the Lord, the one true God who saves us, then we will truly be blessed. That blessing doesn’t necessarily mean that we will have all the material things and possessions that we want; it means that God will bless us in His way and in His timing.
The difficulties that face our lives today are different than what David faced, but our God is the same. Most people who are reading this are not commanding armed forces or ruling over a kingdom, but we still need God to guide us in the battles that we do face. We face battles every day in all of the choices we make. We have constant internal battles of choosing God over choosing sin. God will help us be victorious in those battles, but we need to rely on Him and on His power in our lives.
As David says, who are we that God is mindful of us? The answer is that we are God’s creation and He loves us. He wants to fight our battles for us so that we will always be victorious. Put your trust in Him as David did, praise God for who He is, and you will be blessed.
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“I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble.
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. 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.
I cry to you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.’
Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. 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.” (Psalm 142)
Today’s psalm, Psalm 142, was written by King David “when he was in the cave” according to the introduction. This could refer to when he was pursued by Saul at Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1-4), or when he was at En Gedi (1 Samuel 24). Either way, it was not a happy time in David’s life, as evidenced by the lamenting nature of this psalm.
David’s lament begins in verses 1-2 with parallel statements showing David’s crying out to the Lord. The phrases of crying out to the Lord and lifting up one’s voice occur often in the lament psalms. These verses show us the tension between being in anguish and also depending on the Lord. We trust in God for His deliverance, but at the same time, we also experience the depressing emotions of being a human in this fallen world.
This idea continues at the beginning of verse 3 where we see that David is exhausted from the anguish he is experiencing. He knows that even when his body is weak, God will carry him through and sustain him. But even with God watching over David, that doesn’t mean everything will be great in life. He knows that people will still try to trap him - most likely referring to King Saul who was pursuing him and trying to kill him.
Even though he knows that God is with him and taking care of him, in verse 4 we see that David feels totally alone in this situation. He believes that there is no person who is standing with him and concerned for him. There is no refuge he can go to and be safe. The image of someone being at his right hand actually refers to a legal situation. To the right of a person would be where their legal council stood; David feels that he has no one to defend him or to fight for him in this situation.
But to contrast that, David recognizes in verse 5 that the Lord is his only refuge. God is the only one who is truly protecting and taking care of him in this situation.
In verses 6-7, David again cries out to God in his lament. He pleads for God to rescue him from this situation. The “prison” he asks to be set free from might refer to the cave David is in, or the spiritual anguish he’s going through, or more of a metaphor for our imprisonment to sin. Either way, he is experiencing anguish and knows that God can release him from it if He so chooses.
We may be in the midst of this holiday season where it feels like everything should be all happiness and joy. But, anyone who’s honest with themselves probably still has “down” times even in this holiday season - or maybe especially in this season.
Have you ever had a time of lament like David did in this psalm? As believers today, we too experience the tension between knowing that God can save us from any situation, yet He doesn’t always do that. We still have the effects of sin in this world, so bad things will happen to us and those around us.
No matter what happens in our lives, we know that God is watching over our way too, especially those of us who follow Him. That doesn’t mean that everything will always be jolly in our lives; we will still experience sadness, desperation, remorse, etc. But that’s why our faith in God is so important! When it looks like everything around us is failing, we can always trust in God to bring us through. The end result of any situation may or may not look like what we want or expect, but we know that it will be God’s plan and for His glory.
As we celebrate in this season leading up to Christmas, Jesus came into this world as a baby and He experienced all sorts of bad things so that He could ultimately give us eternal life away from everything negative! One day there will be no more lamenting but only pure joy when our faith in Jesus gives us the true and ultimate forgiveness that we need to spend the rest of eternity in God’s presence.
Whether you’re having a holly jolly Christmas season or if you’re experiencing sadness due to circumstances, be confident today in the joy that can only come from God.
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I believe that our relationship with God is the biggest paradox of the Christian faith. God is the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the entire universe, and He is, of course, infinitely better than us in every aspect. Based on that, He should be unknowable to us - and to some extent He definitely is. But at the same time, this almighty God also desires to have a personal relationship with Him. He knows us more intimately than any other person ever possibly could, and that’s not because He “has to” as our creator but that He wants to as the loving God He is. It’s quite a paradox!
Psalm 139, which we’re taking a look at today, highlights that personal relationship between God and us, and the intimate knowledge that God has of us. The words that the psalmist writes are personal between him and God, but they apply to us as well. I’d encourage you to go read the entire psalm here before continuing on reading this post because it’s important to have the context of the whole psalm in mind.
The theme of verses 1-6 is that God knows His people. That’s not a knowing like I know someone’s name or maybe a few facts about them. This knowing is the most intimate kind of knowing that there is. God knows both our thoughts and our actions. He knows the words we’ll say even before we speak them! All of this knowledge is too “wonderful” for us; it would make our human brains explode. We can’t even begin to comprehend knowing any one person in that intimate manner, yet God knows us all.
God alone is capable of having this knowledge not only about a few people, but about every person who has ever lived, who is currently living, or will ever live! Just that fact alone should blow your mind, not to mention actually knowing every word or action of every person ever. Wow.
That shows us the paradox of our relationship with God. He is so amazing that He can have all that knowledge, and yet He still knows each one of us on such a personal, individual level that it truly is amazing.
We see in verses 7-12 that we can never escape God’s presence. Whether we go high to the heavens or low to the depths of the oceans, God is there. It’s not that the psalmist is trying to escape from God for some reason, but he is showing us the amazing presence of this all-knowing God. This just further shows us that God is so far beyond our grasp in His amazing presence and knowledge. God is absolutely sovereign and in control over all of creation; even darkness cannot overpower Him because He is light.
Now that we have established how well God knows each of us and His presence throughout the entire world, we now ask, for what purpose? What does all this mean and why does it matter?
Verse 13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” We can be confident in God’s ability to know us because of how He created us. He didn’t just throw each one of us together without any thought, or create us like a copy-and-paste job, but He created our inmost being and knit us together in our mother’s wombs. That is a very intentional creating, showing how much God knows, loves, and cares for each and every person - even before we’re born.
What should we do because of that? We should praise God! Verse 14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” We need no other reason than to praise God but that we are created by Him. We know that God only does wonderful things, and because one of His actions was to create each of us, we know that we are wonderfully made. We should praise Him because of that. We can be aware of God’s presence with us and the amazing knowledge that He has about us, and the fact that He still loves us; for that God is worthy of all praise.
Verses 15-16 go into more detail about how God made each one of us. Even when we were not yet born and God was creating each of us, He already had a purpose for our lives. He had already ordained all of our days - as many or as few as we get to live on this earth - before we even lived our very first day.
In verses 17-18, the psalmist is again amazed at God’s thoughts and how He is so knowable but yet completely unknowable. God’s thoughts are way too magnificent and wonderful for mankind to comprehend. They would outnumber the grains of sand if we were to try and count them - which, of course, is impossible.
In verses 19-22, the psalm’s tone changes from one of thanksgiving, praise, and amazement to one of anguish. The Lord has been good to the psalmist, but people in the world have not treated him in the same way. He knows that God is good, and he prays that God would remove all of the evil from this world that is messing up God’s perfect creation. The psalmist goes into detail about how he hates those who hate God; he cannot even be in relationship with them if they are against His God, the God who created him and knows every intimate detail about him.
It is only because of his love for God that the psalmist hates those who are evil. He knows that the goodness of God cannot be present around any evil at all. Coming off of accusations of those who hate God, the psalmist asks God in verses 23-24 to help discern his motivations. The psalmist wants to honor God by following His will no matter what, even if that makes him change how he feels about those who do evil in this world. He knows that there is an “offensive way” and a “way everlasting,” and he desires for God to lead him in the right way.
How does it make you feel that God knows every intimate detail about you? He loves you so much that He wants to know you that well. The amazing, all-powerful God who created everything wants to know every little detail about us!
Do you believe that God created you, and every human, so intentionally that He knit you together in your mother’s womb? What is your reaction to this? Do you praise God for it and live your life in a way that honors His creation? God has a purpose for you; are you living it out, or at least working on discerning what that purpose is?
Are you following the way of the world, or are you seeking God to lead you in the way everlasting? God knows us, God loves us, and God will lead us as much as we will follow Him and be obedient to Him. I pray that you will realize even a fraction of how much God loves you and that you would truly desire to live that out every single day that God has ordained for you.
If you want to dig deeper into Psalm 139, I encourage you to check out the devotional book Known: A Journey Through Psalm 139 written by my good friend Katie Wolfe. As a fun bonus, it's a coloring book too!
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As we enter this week where we celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s quite appropriate that our psalm to dig into is one that focuses on being thankful to God. When I put together the list of psalms to write on this year, I didn’t intentionally put this psalm on this date with that in mind, so it still amazes me how God works in little things like this!
Psalm 136 is the last of the Hallel psalms (read more about those here) which focus on praise, from the Hebrew verb meaning praise, hallel. From a literary perspective, this psalm is clearly in the form of a hymn. It has a beautiful symmetry to it as well. It starts with an introduction, then moves to a creation hymn, then has two sections of a redemption hymn, then back to a creation hymn, then a conclusion. It focuses on how God continued to be involved in the lives of Israel, and how thankful they are because of that.
One of the great things about this psalm is the repetition throughout. After each phrase, it repeats, “His love endures forever” in the NIV. How’s that for emphasis! The phrasing of this repeated line is different in other English versions, however, In the NASB, it’s “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” In the ESV, it’s “For his steadfast love endures forever.” In the NLT, it’s “His faithful love endures forever.” While these all have generally the same meaning, why is there such a difference in wording?
The reason, of course, is that this psalm (like all of them) was originally written in Hebrew, not English. The Hebrew phrase is literally, “ki leolam chasdo.” The ki is a preposition usually meaning for. The le on the next word is a preposition mean to or for, and olam is a noun meaning a long time, future, or eternity. These two words together gives the idea of “to the future” or “eternity.” The last noun is from the root chesed, which we don’t have a good English word for, but it conveys the idea of unconditional love, mercy, kindness, and goodness all wrapped up into one. The o on the end simply is a pronominal suffix meaning “his.” So all that to say, there’s some ambiguity when translating. All of our English translations are correct, even though they differ.
The psalm opens with an introduction of thankfulness in verses 1-3. In this introduction, we see that God is good, He is the God of gods, and He is the Lord of lords. While we as humans may think that there are other gods, or may place things in the position of God in our lives, He is truly the only one. He is the only one we should truly be thankful to!
In verses 4-9, we see the first hymn of creation. God is the only one who has done “great wonders” (verse 4). It then gives us a recap of the first 4 days of the creation narrative in Genesis 1, how God made the heavens, the earth, and the great lights. All the while discussing what God made, it keeps repeating that phrase - His love endures forever. He created everything out of love for us, His created people.
Verses 10-22 move on to the first redemption hymn. It starts out in verses 10-15 recounting some of the events of the Exodus, where God rescued and redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt. It then moves on in verses 16-20 to discuss God leading Israel through the wilderness and striking down the kings of foreign peoples who stood in their way of the Promised Land. In verses 21-22, we see how that conquered land became Israel’s inheritance, their gift from God for being His people.
The psalm goes on to have another short redemption hymn in verses 23-24. Whenever Israel strayed from God, God remembered them and continued to redeem them. The Lord’s continually remembered Israel as a result of the covenant that He made with Abraham back in Genesis 15. God didn’t break His promise to them, even when they were continually disobedient to Him.
Verse 25 is another short creation hymn, sharing that God provides for His people. The psalm concludes with thanksgiving in verse 26 by saying, “Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.”
While those of us reading this psalm today did not experience the mighty works of God in the Exodus and are likely not biologically a part of the nation of Israel, this psalm helps us remember what God has done in our lives as well. What has God rescued you from in your life, like how He rescued Israel from slavery? Or, what are you praying for God to rescue you from? We need to remember that Israel was enslaved for many years before their rescue came, so God will not always rescue us in what we think is good timing.
This psalm also helps us remember that God is the one who created the whole world, including humans. He created us out of love, so we could live to worship, thank, and praise Him in all things. He gave us this world to live in and enjoy.
Most importantly, this psalm helps remind us that God’s love, His steadfast and faithful love, endures forever. His lovingkindness is everlasting. His love will never fail! Even when our lives may seem difficult (and maybe difficult is an understatement), remember that the writer of this psalm repeated that phrase about God’s love in every single verse. That’s how important it is to remember. Can you imagine telling a story, but every other sentence is reminding your listener of God’s love? That’s exactly what this psalmist did because everything that he wrote about God points to His love because God is love.
If you remember nothing else from this blog post, remember this one important thing all the days of your life: God’s love endures forever. We should always be thankful for that above all else.
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“Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” (Psalm 130)
This psalm is part of the collection of the 15 songs of ascent (like this one and this one) that were prayed by the Israelites as they would ascent up to the temple in Jerusalem. While some of the songs of ascent focus on praise, others like this one are more of a lament. This psalm is also considered to be one of the seven penitential psalms (along with Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, and 143) because of its aspects of realizing the weight of our sin and confessing it.
This psalm begins in verses 1-2 with a lament, crying out to God. Being in “the depths” is a metaphor for adversity or trouble in a person’s life. It’s like that feeling of being in a pit that you can’t get out of because of the weight of the negative things going on in life. It may even feel like alienation from God because we’re so deep into a bad situation. But even in a place like that, or maybe especially in a place like that, we can and should cry out to God. The psalmist prays for God to hear his cry and to give him mercy, as it’s likely that whatever bad situation he is in is because of a sin he has committed.
In verses 3-4, the psalmist recognizes his sin and knows God will forgive him. In the courts of ancient Israel, if you were going on trial you would be asked if you consider yourself to be innocent or guilty of the crime. If you plead guilty, you would remain seated, whereas if you plead innocent, you would stand. The psalmist uses that imagery here, saying that there is no way he could stand in innocence if God remembered all his sins. But he is so thankful that God does not keep a record like that, and that there is forgiveness available to him. The psalmist knows that he needs to be forgiven of the wrongs he has committed in order to be able to serve God well.
The psalm moves on in verses 5-6 to a sense of waiting for the Lord. He knows he needs God in his life, and he must patiently wait on whatever God is going to do through him. While he waits, he puts his hope in a word from God. That likely refers to waiting on a promise of salvation or deliverance, as at the time this psalm was written they likely didn’t have the Word of God in the form of the Scriptures yet. The psalmist waits on this word like a watchman waits for morning to come. The watchmen guarded the city against attacks overnight so its residents could sleep peacefully. They know the morning will come and they wait expectantly for it.
This hope then turns to confidence in God in verses 7-8. The psalmist is putting his hope and confidence individually in God, but he also called for the whole nation of Israel to do the same. The Lord is the only one who can provide unfailing love and redemption, and the psalmist is confident that He will. He is the one who will redeem all of Israel from their sins.
While the psalmist didn’t have the Bible as we have it today, and he was writing long before Jesus came to earth, we can see even more clearly that we should put our hope in God as well. We have the true Word of God - Jesus Christ - and we have the Bible to show us how God is revealing Himself to us. We don’t have to hope in an unknown God but one that we can have a relationship with.
We need to feel the weight of our sinfulness just as the psalmist did, but from the depths of our sin we too can call out to God to show us mercy. When we have faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus, we know that God will forgive us when we truly repent of our sin. Because of that, we have the certain hope of life eternal with God. We know that He is the only way to get out of the pit of our sin and be truly redeemed.
Put your hope in God and His unfailing love today, and live out this week in the confidence of His redemption of your life.
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“Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you live to see your children’s children—peace be on Israel.” (Psalm 128)
Psalm 128 is another of the psalms of ascent that I mentioned last week, which were often read in connection with ascending to the temple in Jerusalem. It is a psalm of blessing, specifically relating to the blessing of family.
Verse 1 starts out with general words of wisdom: “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.” We see that the fear of God brings us blessings. That word “fear” has multiple meanings. It does mean that we should be afraid of God because He is the all-powerful creator and we are merely His creations. But it also means to have reverence or awe for God, again because He is God and we are not. We need to both be afraid of how He can punish us if we don’t walk in His ways, and we need to be in awe of His might and power. Because of this fear, we should walk in His ways.
If we do what verse 1 suggests and walk in obedience to God, then “blessings and prosperity will be yours” (verse 2). That doesn’t mean we’ll be immensely wealthy with the things of this world, but it refers to blessings and prosperity from God. That’s often not the same as being prosperous with material wealth and things. And, this doesn’t mean that blessings will simply be handed to you without you having to do anything. On the contrary, it says that “You will eat the fruit of your labor.” Your hard work will be rewarded, but we do still need to work to do what God is calling us to do.
Verses 3-4 provide many images of the blessing of a family. The man who works well at his labor will be blessed with wife and children, which was a sign of prosperity in Biblical times. To our ears, it may sound weird to compare kids to olive shoots, but that’s simply a cultural difference. Most olive trees do not bear fruit until around 5 years after they were planted and they may not bear fruit after 40 years, but they are still considered to be a symbol of longevity and productivity. They bear their fruit in due time, just as teaching children will bear fruit for generations to come.
In verses 5-6, we see that these blessings we receive from God are not just for a short time but for all the days of our lives on earth. In the days of this psalm being written, people often didn’t live as long as they do today, so being able to live long enough to see your grandchildren was a huge blessing.
The city of Jerusalem was (and is) of great concern to the nation of Israel. People of Israel would not only be concerned with the circumstances of their own lives and family but also with the status of Jerusalem, if the city was prospering and being properly defended from outside enemies. In Old Testament times, it was believed that God’s presence lived in the temple in Jerusalem, so this was a very precious site. Having God on your heart and mind also meant being concerned for Jerusalem, the place where God dwelled.
Jerusalem was also the center for their government and where the king of Israel would live. If a Godly king was ruling in Jerusalem, then they knew that the whole nation would be blessed by that king’s good actions. Even if a person was not in Jerusalem, having peace in Jerusalem would mean peace for the rest of the nation.
But what about for us, as many Christians today are Gentiles and not Jewish? Should we still care about Jerusalem and what’s happening there? I believe the answer is yes, as we should care for all of God’s people - both those who follow Him and those who do not. We should desire all people to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection as 1 Timothy 2:1-4 says, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Are you walking in obedience to God’s ways in your life? Where might you be struggling to obey what God has commanded you? What blessings do you see in your life that are a direct result of following what God desires for you? I encourage you to think about these questions as you go about your week.
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“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121)
After writing on the very length Psalm 119 over the last two weeks, a short psalm is a nice change! Psalm 121 is only 8 verses, compared to the 22 sets of 8 verses we saw in Psalm 119.
Psalm 121 has the title of “a song of ascents,” and it is one of the 15 psalms with this title (Psalms 120-134). The Mishnah, essentially an early Jewish commentary, suggests that these psalms correspond with the 15 steps of the temple, that they would be said or sung one for each step as the worshiper ascended the steps to go up to the temple. They may not have originally been composed for this purpose, but they were used this way at the second temple in Jerusalem.
The content of this psalm also feels like an ascension. It starts with identifying God as creator, then as our guardian, then a blessing for all time. It is an encouraging psalm and can “ascend” the reader’s mood into one of feeling blessed and encouraged in our walk with God, even if we’re not literally ascending the steps of the temple while reading or reciting it.
This psalm starts in verse 1 with the psalmist lifting his eyes to the hills. Anyone who has visited a mountainous region, especially if they live in a flat area, is generally impressed by the beauty of mountains or even hills. I live in northwest Ohio where everything is super flat, so on the occasions that I’ve been able to travel to Colorado, I just love looking at the mountains! The terrain is so different and so much more beautiful, though I suppose flat farming fields have their own beauty as well.
The psalmist questions where his help comes from. We, too, can ask that same question in our own lives. When we’re discouraged, where do we turn? Do we turn to God, or do we turn to the ways of this world? God does give us people and things in this world that will help us through difficult times, but the most important place to turn is to Him - the one who created this world and all of us.
The psalmist’s answer to this question is found in verse 2. His help comes from God the creator. The one who made this world is the one who is sovereign over it and is fully capable of helping with any difficulty we encounter. God as the creator has unlimited power!
What exactly does God do for us? That answer can be found in the rest of the psalm (verses 3-8). God keeps us from slipping. God does not take naps where He’s not paying attention, but He constantly watches over us. We see this phrase of God watching over is 5 times in these verses - clearly, this is an important idea that the psalmist is emphasizing. The pagans would consider their gods to be sleeping at times, so this is in direct contrast to their ideas. The one true God never sleeps!
God shades us from the extreme heat of the sun, meaning that He will protect us from dangers. While that doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen to us, it does mean that He is always with us to help us through anything we experience. There be many things in life that God has protected us from that we don’t even know about. He is a good God who loves His people, though we are still sinful and often cause negative things to happen in our own lives. But God is always there with us, watching over us, no matter what.
The climax of this psalm occurs in verses 7-8: “The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” The psalmist has built up to this point, and this is his emphatic conclusion. The Lord will continue to watch over us in the future, even until eternity!
The God that the psalmist was writing to so many centuries ago is the same God that we worship today. He does not change. He continues to watch over His people in all things. He is still the God who created all things, and He still has power over all of His creation.
What are you going through today that feels like it may be bigger than God? Whatever it is, God is walking through it with you and He has power over the situation. Put your trust fully in Him and lift up your eyes to the hills - God is where your help comes from.
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As I wrote about last week, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and it’s super cool in the Hebrew, so that’s why I’m writing a second blog post to cover it better. While I don’t have enough space to go verse-by-verse through all of its 176 verses, I do want to give the highlights of each 8-verse stanza, which are labeled with each consonant from the Hebrew alphabet.
Aleph: The very first verse of this long psalm is strikingly similar to Psalm 1:1. We see that the Lord will bless those who follow His law and follow in His way. The psalmist knows that he should always obey what God commands, but he realizes that he can’t always do that and wishes he were better at it. Learning and following God’s righteous ways will help him to praise God better.
Bet: This section starts out with a rhetorical question, asking how long a person can “stay on the path of purity” (verse 9). The answer, of course, is to live according to God’s Word. The psalmist expounds on that by explaining how that means we must seek God’s Word, keep it in our hearts, and delight in it. We need to be teachable and allow God’s Word to shape us.
Gimel: The psalmist is consumed by a desire for God’s Word, so much so that he feels like a stranger on earth. God’s Word is what brings him comfort no matter the situation. He focuses briefly on those who are wicked and do not keep God’s Word, then re-emphasizes how he’s not like that but instead delights in God’s statutes.
Dalet: In this stanza, the psalmist is facing adversities. He knows that only God and His Word can deliver him from these things. He strives to remain teachable, hold fast to God’s law, and continue to be devoted to God’s teachings no matter what happens in his life.
He: Most of the verses of this stanza start with imperative (command) verbs where the psalmist is commanding God to do things, but in a humble way and not out of arrogance. He wants God to teach him, give him understanding, direct him, turn his heart and eyes toward God, and for God to fulfill His promise.
Vav: Whereas in the last section the psalmist commanded things of God, in this section he reaffirms his commitment to God. He says that because of God’s unfailing love and salvation, he will always obey God, not be ashamed of God’s law, and continue to meditate on it.
Zayin: God’s Word provides hope even when (or maybe especially when) we’re suffering. The psalmist finds comfort in God’s law, and he knows that it will deliver him through whatever he’s going through.
Het: Seeking God goes along with obeying Him. We can’t obey Him if we don’t seek Him and know what He commands of us. Even in spite of difficulties, obedience to God needs to be first and foremost in our lives.
Tet: The Hebrew word for “good” starts with the letter tet, and in this section, the psalmist asks God to do good to him and to teach him good judgment. He affirms God’s goodness and the incomparable value of God’s law.
Yod: God has created us for the purpose of following His laws because we show Him love out of our obedience. The psalmist prays that he would follow God’s laws so well that others would look up to his example.
Kaph: This is a section of longing, with the psalmist wondering how long will he have to put up with those who persecute him. He is continuing to wait for God’s deliverance and His promises to be fulfilled.
Lamed: God and His Word are eternal, and the psalmist focuses on God’s law to get him through difficult times. He asks God to save him, for he has continued to learn and obey God’s law.
Mem: This is a praise section, full of statements about how the psalmist loves God’s law. He loves God’s teachings because he loves God, and therefore he devotes his life to following God’s law as best as he can.
Nun: This section contains the famous verse 105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” God’s law shows him the path on which he should live his life. He constantly faces adversity even on this chosen path, but he knows that God’s Word will sustain him.
Samek: Here we see that the ways of the righteous and the ways of the wicked are very different. This section has many contrasts between the person who follows God’s law and the person who doesn’t.
Ayin: The psalmist explains that he has upheld his share of the deal and followed God’s laws, so now he wants to see God’s promises to him fulfilled. Living in obedience to God is our response to His promises, even if they aren’t yet fulfilled in our lives. We uphold God’s law while we hate everything that goes against it.
Pe: God’s law is not harsh but rather good, and that’s another reason the psalmist wants to obey it. God’s Word brings enlightenment and understanding to our lives. The psalmist continues to pray for God to guide him in all his ways.
Tsade: God’s character and God’s law are both righteous, and that righteousness is the theme of this section, which is fitting as the Hebrew word for righteous starts with the letter tsade. Even though his enemies ignore God’s law, the psalmist clings to it.
Qoph: The psalmist cries out and calls to God for His help. He asks God to remain near him at all times. His prayer is intense, but his loyalty to God is also intense.
Resh: The psalmist’s lament gets stronger here as he continues to pray for God’s deliverance, while still focusing on God’s Word and His laws. He shows God how he has remained loyal, while those who don’t follow God have continued to break His laws.
Sin/Shin: In spite of the lament in the last section, the psalmist rejoices in God here. Even in the midst of affliction, the psalmist delights in God’s law.
Tav: This last section contains a prayer for salvation. Verse 174 sums up the psalm well saying, “I long for your salvation, Lord, and your law gives me delight.” The psalmist remains committed to following God and His laws no matter what, and he prays to God asking for continued knowledge and strength to do this.
And that, friends, is Psalm 119 in a nutshell! I encourage you to go read it, even just meditating on one section per day. Even though we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us, we obey God’s laws and commands out of our love for Him and our thankfulness for what He has done for us.
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Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses, so if you were expecting that I would cover the whole thing in one blog post, that’s just not going to happen! Today I’ll give an overview and some interesting facts for this psalm, and next week we’ll dig into the content a bit more.
When a psalm is this long, it needs to have some more organization than just by verses. So, it’s collected into 22 stanzas of 8 verses each. This psalm is an alphabet acrostic in the original Hebrew, which is something we sort of see but sort of miss in our English translations. If you look in your Bible, you’ll at least see non-English words above each stanza - those are the names of the Hebrew consonants, which is how the author named each stanza. Sometimes Bibles will print the Hebrew letter next to its name as well.
This psalm is an alphabetic acrostic too. Not only is each stanza labeled with a Hebrew consonant, but every verse in that stanza begins with that same letter! The first 8 verses begin with the letter aleph, the next 8 verses begin with the letter beth, etc. all the way through the last 8 verses beginning with the letter tav. All the verses are fairly short as well, so all this makes it visually look pretty cool in the original Hebrew.
These facts alone make this psalm a pretty amazing literary work, but the meaning is also very coherent and centered around the theme of God’s law. The message of this psalm is not just devotion to God’s law and doing the right thing, but also devotion to God Himself. It is typically considered to be a wisdom psalm, but it also has elements of lament and thanksgiving.
With the central theme of this psalm being God’s law, it’s interesting to note that there are 8 different Hebrew words that refer to God’s law used in it. They are:
1. Torah: You may have heard the first 5 books of the Bible referred to as the Torah because they do provide the background for God giving the law to His people as well as the Law itself. While Torah often means the specific law given by God, it can also mean any kind of Godly instruction.
2. Dabar: While this word literally means “word,” we know that all words spoken by God are meaningful. Dabar is often used for any kind of divine revelation that God gives us.
3. Mishpatim: The word mishpat means judgment, and this is the plural form of that. These forms of laws are more like the courtroom judgment type of laws, as God Himself is the ultimate Judge over all things.
4. Edut: This word technically means “statutes,” but it’s actually derived from the word that means “witness” or “testify.” It is also used to refer to God’s covenant with His people, so obeying God’s statutes also refers to being loyal to the promise God has made with us.
5. Mishvat: The word mishvat means commandment, as in the Ten Commandments. Generally, when God gives us a law or tells us to do something, it’s in the form of a command.
6. Huqqim: While it literally means “decrees,” this word is from the root that means to engrave or inscribe. God engraves His law and His decrees on our hearts, and He establishes His authority as God by doing this.
7. Piqqudim: This word is usually translated as “precepts” and is often found throughout the psalms. It comes from the root word meaning “visit” or “appoint,” as God’s precepts are the things that He has appointed for us to follow if we are following Him.
8. Imrah: This word is from the root meaning “he says,” and it means a promise. Our word should be good in that anything we can should be considered a promise, just as God’s Word is.
Is it coincidence that each stanza of this psalm is 8 verses long, and there are 8 different Hebrew words used to describe God’s law? I’d say that nothing in this amazingly crafted psalm is a coincidence, and all of these literary features simply point to the amazing God that we serve. The Hebrew language is truly amazing, and even after 11 years of studying it, I continue to be amazed at new insights into the heart of God simply by looking at the language and structure He used through the human authors He appointed.
While all this is interesting, what does it have to do with us living our lives today and not speaking Hebrew? In the Old Testament, the focus was on keeping God’s law - doing what God commanded His people to do, and not doing what He commanded them not to do. God had not yet sent His Son as the Savior when the psalms were written, so the focus was more on obedience than on faith. Today, we are living in the time after Jesus came to earth, and we have the opportunity to know and believe in His sacrifice for us. We know that we can never fully keep God’s laws, no matter what word we use to describe them. We know that we are in need of the Savior and that Jesus is the only one who truly is that savior for our sinful lives.
But as Paul says in Romans 6, because we have Jesus as our savior, does that mean that we can live however we want and keep on sinning, even when we know God’s law? By no means! Because we love God and appreciate the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made for us, we should strive to obey God’s law all the more. We have the opportunity to be enslaved to righteousness, which means that through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we should strive to live better lives to honor the God who saved us.
Being able to live in God’s grace makes His law all the more important. God’s law tells us how to live our lives to honor Him and the sacrifice that He made for us.
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Are you ready for some Bible trivia? The shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117 with just 2 verses, and the longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 with 176 verses. Psalm 118, which we’re looking at today, is the chapter that most consider to be the exact center of the Bible (though there is some dispute on that depending on which version you’re using).
Again depending on your Bible version, if you count verses, the exact center verse of the Bible falls in this psalm as well, Psalm 118:8. It says, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans.” What a great truth to keep at the center of not only our Bibles but our lives!
But this psalm isn’t just a placekeeper for some nifty Biblical trivia. It is also one of thanksgiving and praise to God for His eternal love, which is way more significant than simply its place in this great book. It is the last in the collection of Egyptian Hallel psalms, the ones used in the Passover celebration, praising God for His deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
The psalm starts out in verse 1 with a familiar refrain: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” We’ve seen this wording or variations of it a few times throughout the psalms. The word “good” here is the same one that God uses to describe Creation multiple times in Genesis 1. The word translated as “love” is a Hebrew word that we really don’t have a good English translation for. It means a combination of mercy, kindness, and love all wrapped up into one. This same word and phrasing are repeated in verses 2-4 for emphasis and so that everyone knows and agrees that God’s perfect love will endure forever!
Because of this belief that God’s love will endure forever, we see what that means in the following verses. In verse 5, we see that God has delivered the psalmist. In verses 6-7, we see the psalmist’s conviction that God is always with him and because of that, he doesn’t need to worry about anything, even his enemies. In verses 8-9, we see the psalmist’s confidence in God over mankind.
In verses 10-12, the psalmist explains how bad things were with his enemies so that his praise of God is even more significant. He emphasizes that “in the name of the Lord” he was able to defeat his enemies. It was only through God’s power that he persevered, which is why he returns to thanksgiving to God in verses 13-14. Verse 14 is another key verse that we can remember for our lives: “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” We only have strength in our lives because of God, and He is the one to truly defend us from any enemies we may face. God is the only one who can truly save us.
The works the Lord has done are great causing for rejoicing, as we see in verses 15-16. We see the repetition of the phrase, “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things,” which again is for emphasis and to drive that point home to the people reciting this psalm.
In verses 17-18, the psalm changes from one of more communal praise and thanksgiving to focus on the individual. After all, a community of people cannot be praising God if the individuals who make up that community are not focused on that praise. We see the psalmist emphasizing that although bad things may happen in his life, God has continued to let him live so that he can proclaim the good that God is doing.
Verses 19-21 show us that a person must be righteous to be in God’s presence, and the symbolism of entering through a gate is used. The psalmist is considered righteous because of his trust in God and His deliverance, but we know that today we can be considered righteous because of our faith in God and what He has done through Jesus to bring us true salvation from the enemy of sin and death, not just deliverance in a battle from earthly enemies. Our focus is not on doing good things but on living out the faith that we have in Jesus’ saving work, which results in actions that praise God.
Verse 22 says, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This verse shows us that just because some people reject what we’re doing or who we are, God can still use us for great things (verses 23-24). When building a stone building, there needs to be a cornerstone, a foundational piece where the stone walls begin. In modern times, the cornerstone is more of a symbolic thing, but back then it was an essential piece of the building’s foundation. The builders may reject a certain stone for use in a wall because it doesn’t fit what they need it for, but God can use that for His glory and even make it a foundational piece. Think about that in your own life; have you ever been rejected from something, and then God has turned that situation around and used it in an amazing way?
In verse 25, the people ask God to continue the mighty works that He has already done. In verse 26, the people are assured that they will be blessed if they truly approach God in His name and for the right reasons. The people respond to this blessing in verse 27 with continued praise of God.
Verses 28-29 conclude the psalm with praise of God, including repetition of verse 1: “You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
What can we learn from this psalm for our lives today? Our confidence should be in God rather than in our fellow humans because God is the one who delivers us. He will use us for His purposes when we follow Him with our lives and approach Him with the praise that He is due. He may discipline us as needed while on this earth, but His love for us truly does endure forever. He is the only one who is truly good, and He is the one who always deserves our praise!
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As I’ve been writing through the psalms this year, you may be wondering how I choose which psalms to write about and which to skip. While they’re all wonderful writings, I’m only going through about a third of them, 52 out of the 150 there are. Sometimes it was that there was something interesting about the psalm that I wanted to know more about. Sometimes a particular verse or phrase would catch my eye. In other cases, the reason is that psalm or a verse in it means something significant to me. Psalm 115 is one of those psalms.
The significant part of this psalm to me is verse 1: “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” This was the chosen theme verse for my graduation from Winebrenner Theological Seminary with my M.Div degree in 2010. Along with that, we had the song “Not to Us” by Chris Tomlin as our theme song. All of us graduates had accomplished something great - earning a theological degree - but we wanted the focus to be on God’s accomplishments, not our own. It was only through God working in each of our lives that we earned our degrees.
Also, Psalm 115:1 is a verse that I’ve memorized in the original Hebrew. Memorizing Bible verses can be difficult enough in your native language, but it takes some extra work to memorize them in another language. I have the Hebrew text of it written on a notecard under my computer monitor where I work so it’s always in front of me. It helps me remember that I’m not working as an engineer for my own glory, but for the glory of God.
All that being said, while this verse means a lot to me personally, there is much more to this psalm. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) and the Vulgate (Latin translation of the Bible), Psalm 114 (which I wrote about last week) and Psalm 115 are actually all one psalm. While they do go together in some respects, most scholars agree that their genres are too different for them to be one psalm together. Psalm 114 is focused on what God did for Israel in the exodus, while 115 is much more varied in its language.
Verses 2-8 show the difference between the one true God and the idols of other nations. God is in heaven and has power to do what He wants to do for His good purposes. Idols are completely powerless because they are fake. They may have eyes, mouths, hands, etc. but they are all useless because they are not even living beings and they don’t have any power. The psalmist calls out all who worship those idols as being as false as they are.
On the contrary in verses 9-11, the one true God is our help and our shield and everyone should worship Him. Each of these verses contains repetition for emphasis on this fact. Trust in the Lord, and He will help you. Abandon the worship of anything false and trade for worship of the true God. He’s not powerless like any idol you could worship, but He is the one who is all-powerful! Three times it is written to trust in the Lord, and three times we are assured of His power and protection in our lives.
In verses 12-13, we see three blessings of God called out. He will bless Israel, He will bless the house of Aaron, and He will bless all those who fear Him. The distinction of Israel and the house of Aaron signifies that this applies to both the priests and everyone else. We are included in “those who fear the Lord” when we have faith in Him. Fear doesn’t just mean being afraid of something, but it also means being in awe of the majesty of God. When we truly understand just a piece of who God is, we should both be terrified that He could strike us down at any time as well as being in awe at His majesty, power, and love for us.
Verses 14-15 spell out the blessing for God’s people: “May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Because God has power and is sovereign over all of creation, He causes blessings for those who follow Him. We know that He can provide these blessings because of verse 16: “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind.” God has ownership over the heavens and the earth, though He has given mankind the earth to manage and live on.
Finally, the psalm ends in verses 17-18 with praise of God. It clarifies that it is not the dead who will praise God but those who are alive - that’s us! We are called to praise God, both now and forevermore.
What are you doing in your life to give God the glory, rather than receiving it yourself? Are you living out worship of the one true God, or are you worshiping idols - not necessarily some little statue, but anything else besides God? Are you placing your trust in God and receiving His blessings? How are you showing God the praise He truly deserves? I encourage you to ponder these questions this week.
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“When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
Psalm 114 is one of the 6 psalms (113-118) that are called the Egyptian Hallel psalms. Hallel is the Hebrew verb for praise, and it’s where we get our word “hallelujah” from. (Adding the “-jah” at the end makes it more emphatic in Hebrew.) Additionally, Psalms 120-136 are called the Great Hallel, and Psalms 146-150 are called the Concluding Hallel psalms. The Egyptian Hallel psalms are called such because they feature prominently in the Passover celebration. Traditionally, Psalms 113-114 were read before the meal and 115-118 were read after it. So, these psalms praise God for His leading Israel out of Egypt.
Psalm 114 starts out retelling the event of the exodus from Egypt in verses 1-2. The idea that they were delivered from a “foreign tongue” implies that they were in slavery in that land. They lived as foreigners, not as people who were accepted as citizens. God chose Israel to be His “sanctuary” and “dominion.” Even though the nation was later divided into two kingdoms (Judah in the south and Israel in the north), they were all still God’s chosen nation. God made a covenant promise to dwell among the whole people, all twelve tribes, and he brought all of them out of slavery in Egypt.
Verses 3-6 are interesting because they tell us of nature’s reaction to Israel as God’s chosen people. “The sea looked and fled” is clearly a reference to God parting the waters of the Red Sea so that the people of Israel could cross it on dry land (Exodus 14). Similarly, “the Jordan turned back” refers to Israel crossing the Jordan River on dry land (Joshua 3). The references to mountains and hills likely refer to God giving His commandments to the people on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19-20).
The questions we see in verses 5-6 seem to indicate that the psalmist is calling on nature to bear witness to the mighty power of God. The Red Sea, the Jordan River, and Mt Sinai were all witness to spectacular events of God in our world. The answer to all of these “why” questions is, of course, because God has power and dominion over all His creation.
This answer is echoed in verse 7, where the earth is called to tremble in God’s presence. The phrase “at the presence of” is repeated, which shows that this is the climax of the psalm: everything else builds up to the mighty power of God! The Lord is the mighty God over all creation, and He identifies Himself as the God of Jacob, the God of His people of Israel.
The psalmist concludes in verse 8 with one more example of God using nature to fulfill His purposes and show His power: getting water from the rock (Exodus 17:1-7). This may also reference the prophecy in Isaiah 41:18.
So what does all this mean for us today? It’s great that God led Israel out of Egypt, but how does that affect us living in the modern world of 2019? Well, God is the same God today as He was back at the time of Exodus. God never changes. Since God did miracles like that for the people of Israel, how much more will He continue to pour out blessings and miracles for us today! He is the same God, and now His chosen people are everyone who has faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son Jesus. All of us who follow Jesus are God’s chosen people, regardless of nationality. Nature still bears witness to the power of God today. Are you watching for God’s almighty power in your life?
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Why was it, sea, that you fled? Why, Jordan, did you turn back? Why, mountains, did you leap like rams, you hills, like lambs?
Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.” (Psalm 114)
