By His Favor

Selah:

Sacred Songs of the Psalter

Max A Forsythe

^© Anno Domini 2005

From the pulpit at Pilgrim’s Rest

Presbyterian Church in America

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Introduction: What shall we make of this Psalm? There are elements that are familiar, but there are details that ordinarily not experienced by the majority. Delitzsch summarizes the theme of this poetry, succinctly in these words: “[David] contrasts his former self-confidence, in which he thought himself to be immoveable, with the God-ward trust he has now gained in the school of affliction. Instead of confiding in the Giver, he trusted in the gift, as though it had been his own work.”

Afterwards, the Psalmist will teach the lesson he had learned to the people of God. This reminds me of my responsibilities to my driving students, where my job is to pass along little tips of safety and any experience of hazards to my charges in the class room and on the road. Even after forty-two years of driving, I am learning new things every month. One lesson was only learned in early May. We were driving towards a railroad underpass when a Semi-Truck came through the center of an ordinarily two lane viaduct. Being surprised, my student and I both realized that it was a necessary violation of the yellow line because both sides of the underpass were lower than the center height of the truck.

Yes, that should be all to obvious, but until we saw that huge vehicle coming straight at us, we had never thought the problem through to the logical conclusion. In a similar way, for the many years of his life, David had learned lesson after lesson from the revelations of the Almighty Creator God. More than once, he was blindsided by his experiences – in not having anticipated an all too obvious lesson.

Thus, we can all read the wisdom of Delitzsch and agree that the Giver is ever so much more important in our relationship to the Almighty than any gifts He chooses to give into our care. But, how many of us really and truly thought of that point before? How many of us really and truly have learned as much as we ought to have about a life of prayer from reading David’s prayers over many years?

Development: Like many parents and teachers, David hopes that the saints can learn from his lessons and thereby avoid some of the pit falls of life that challenge us one and all.

And so, David appears in the tabernacle precincts to instruct the assembled congregation. He begins with a call to praise: “Sing praises to the Lord, You His saints, give thanks and [know that He is Holy].” Now, there is an important point buried deep in the dialect of David’s Hebrew. In my translation, I have written simply, [know that He is Holy!]” This is not a literal translation, but a sincere attempt to get at the meaning of a verse that runs this way: “and give praise to the remembrance of his holiness.”

Now, you will not see my translation for a couple of weeks, until we read it responsively at the end of this four week meditation. When you do see it in print, I have been careful, as always: to set things like this apart from the text within brackets and letters that are not italicized. Most English translations make gallant efforts to convey the understanding and meaning here. In Hebrew, it probably makes as much sense as the phrase “hot dogs, mother and apple pie” does in English. Foreigner’s cringe at our linguistic novelty, much as we might when trying to understand a German word “gemutlichkeit,” a word much in the same vein that I never processed fully.

Thus, the simplicity of my words here [know that He is Holy!]. I have chosen to emphasize the end result of the verbiage, and not the implication left hanging in our language. And so in this fourth verse, David is inviting the saints in the Tabernacle courts to Sing praise to the Lord God, and in doing so: to acknowledge that God alone is holy indeed.

Verse five describes his life journey in understanding the God of heaven. There are two thoughts here that are certainly related. The first is theological and the second is experiential.

David illustrates many times over a phenomena that all too many less sensitive saints never realize. Where are you day by day in your relationship with the Creator God. Does He have reason to be grieved and even angry? So much of our lives are lived without considering the spiritual ramifications and any effects of our doings on others. Few consider that everything they are, everything they say and do – these all have some consequences, some small and some written larger.

David faced up to his responsibilities of living before the face of God. He knew when he was in the dog house, and in learning repentance and confession he was able to rejoice at the open tomb in the morning. And even as His greater son realized in the garden prayer, the full wrath of an angry God is something to consider carefully, but if we are His and He is ours: certain is the promise that His love abides forever and ever.

Verse six and the first couplet in the seventh give us the heart of this psalm portion:

The language here is fairly straight forward, I have only introduced the word [thought] to better indicate the former nature of David’s thinking. He had become comfortable, the wars of independence and security were in the past, the city and citadel were strengthened and his own palace was comfortable and pleasurable. He felt more stable than the mountains because God had indeed been good to him. God had even promised that his House would endure for ever. David took great pleasure in the gifts and began to count them according to his own labors, suffering and commands.

Many people in every age take such creature comforts all to much for granted, not realizing or remembering the hand of God in every gift and allowance. Like in the New Covenant parables of the rich fool and the prodigal son, our state in life is never certain, be we wise or foolish. In our own culture a sudden flurry of stronger than ordinary Sun spots could reduce our culture to that more common a hundred and fifty years ago, simply by making the production of electricity temporarily impossible!

David was forced to learn, even as we all must agree – that the Giver of life, health and prosperity cannot long be ignored. He is more powerful than we know or assume! May we take the warnings of David the king to heart. If for some reason, our culture lost the energy source that means everything to us, we would be reduced to living as David lived, before he was forced out of his palace precincts into temporary abodes in the fields, forests and deserts. Could we, in our own Lord confide, or would we prefer to test our own strengths?

Application: Our last words in this Psalm are fearsome indeed to the extreme.

What was it that Christ feared the most on the garden night before the crucifixion? We are not absolutely certain of course, but being apart from knowing the presence of the father ranks high on our list of speculation. In our world today, there are some places where you can travel where there is not only no knowledge of God, but also no obedience to the hallmarks of civilization. Many of our troops, who work behind the Devil’s curtain in the Middle East know the cultural implications of this fear all too well.

I only hope that more of the world does not have to experience the misguided rule of militant Mullah’s in the future. So far, in the course of modern history, only one country has restored the rule of law and gospel in place of Mohammedism. That Spanish accomplishment has never been much to brag about, because in order to achieve spiritual freedom – the conquistadors had to become just as blood thirsty and violent as their oppressors. And it has taken many hundreds of years to heal their national psyche from that experience.

May we all, like David learn to praise the Lord for all of His goodness, and let us count the most gracious act of compassion well: we have seen His face, and because of that knowledge of His holiness – all is well, not only in this life, but also for all eternity in and through the work of His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. “Sing praises to the Lord, You His saints.” Amen.

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