Psalm 31

¹⁹             How great is Your goodness,

stored up for those who fear You;

            gathered [especially]  for all who take refuge in You,

                        in the sight of the sons of men!

²⁰             In the cover of Your presence,

You hide them from the intrigues of men;

            In Your dwelling, You keep them safe

                        from the strife of tongues.

²¹             Blessed be the Lord,

for He has demonstrated His steadfast love to me

 in a city besieged.

²²             As for me, I had said in my alarm,

“I am cut off from Your sight.”

            But still You heard my pleas for mercy

                        when I cried to You for help.

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Besieged

For the Lord’s Day:  the 2^nd of October 2005

 

Introduction:  While many commentators would downplay the idea, the verses selected for meditation today all seem to relate to a time when David’s cause was under siege, very much like an ancient city or fortress surrounded on every side by the arms and trenches of a desperate enemy.  In verse nineteen there is the storehouse gathered for those who take refuge, and in twenty – the elect are hidden in plain sight of the enemy.  Then in verse twenty-one David states the obvious fact of God’s love even in the midst of spiritual warfare, and finally in verse twenty-two David admits that he came close to giving up his cause before God came in power and might to raise the siege and save David’s skin and soul.

 

David begins this section with a note of praise for all that the Lord in His eternal goodness has done for the struggles and troubles of every saint in extremis!  Following after a section where David has admitted that our times are in the hands of the Almighty, the statement here in verse nineteen should be no surprise.  Just as every careful sovereign stores up resources for difficult times, so too has David’s Lord God prepared for every emergency.  Twenty-some years ago, it was necessary for the government of Britain to assemble a task force and send it off to rescue the residents of a little known outpost in the Falkland Islands.  The Islands had just been invaded by the forces of Argentina and many surmised that Britain might not be able to afford any military adventure in the latter quarter of the twentieth century.  However, the government announced that millions of pounds of gold had been sequestered away for just such an emergency, so no new taxes would be necessary and inflation was staved off because of the solid metallic change that had been prepared for just such an emergency.

 

Over the years, our own country has stored eatable commodities for any lean season.  At one time, it was estimated that if every milk cow suddenly dropped dead, there would have been enough dairy products for seventeen years.  On another occasion, a mild drought was covered by enough foodstuffs to go another three and a half years.  Of course that was during the Cold War and since the end of that twilight struggle, the reserves and resources have been drawn down considerably.  But, at the height of that struggle, I read that if necessary, the military had enough leather and goods in storage to convert our forces back to a horse economy if necessary?  While that seems a bit far fetched – still everywhere but Louisiana and New Orleans it seems that governments have plans for desperate times.  Given the storm history of the last several years, it appears that the State governments of Texas and Florida have emergencies very much in mind.

 

This is the state of preparedness that David tells us underlies the kind sovereign care that the Lord God showers upon His people, whenever they face desperate times, be they spiritual or natural.

 

“How great is Your goodness,

stored up for those who fear You;

gathered [especially]  for all who take refuge in You,

                in the sight of the sons of men!”

 

Except in the blindness of their vanities – the worldly will give little public account of the multitude of churches, denominations and Christian agencies who would imitate David’s God in our own day and age.  In fact, if I may address the spiritual struggle of every age, and by that I mean the ongoing opposition of the City of Man to the City of God – even though every spiritual, intellectual and political battle the last hundred years has gone to the humanists, still the Church of Jesus Christ survives and even kicks a little in our time.  If Rush Limbaugh is prophetic in his analysis – the worldly wicked are much nearer collapse than the eternal cause of Christ.  Even as David knows, the Lord protects his own.

 

Development:  Just in case you doubt the sensibleness of my theorem here, look ahead at verse twenty.  It almost a commentary on the spiritual nature of the struggle of the Lord’s saints in every time and place:

 

“In the cover of Your presence,

You hide them from the intrigues of men;

In Your dwelling, You keep them safe

                from the strife of tongues.”

 

Certainly, in David’s age and in every violent century since, the image here is one of the City besieged, cut off from its heartland and subject to every manner of assault from fire, missile and disease.  But, the Lord’s elect are hidden from the intrigues of mere humans.  They are safe in the very house of God and as we should always remember, the continued cultural wars where the strife of tongues would bite deeper if they could – still the invisible Church of the Living Lord remains in the presence of many adversaries.

 

David celebrates the divine goodness, care and mercy in verse twenty-one, where he gives thanks for the constant sovereignty and providence of the Lord’s oversight and rule:

 

“Blessed be the Lord,

for He has demonstrated His steadfast love to me

 in a city besieged.”

 

The evangelical churches in England and Europe today are pitifully small in comparison to other centuries, yet in spite of rampant humanism – they are stronger today than fifty some years ago.  While on the surface, the American church seemed stronger by comparison, dry rot had strangled the work and witness of far too many organizations.  And the liberal modernists had almost succeeded in burying the theological orthodoxy of the past.  But, thanks be to the providence and wisdom of God, the Church is still around, and the number of believing ministers is much larger than several decades ago.

 

Even in a fortress city, surrounded on every side, David felt the strong power and might of his God who could deliver and raise up the fortunes of Israel once again.  And so it is in every time and place, even thought the world believes we are down for the count, God is not done yet – no indeed He intends to raise the siege and come again in triumphal victory with the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  But in the meantime, we must realize we are all too human, even as David admits in the last verse in this section.

 

Application:  Calvin catches the emotional pain of David’s confession in our last verse for today.  “David here confesses that for his distrust he deserved to be deserted by God and left to perish.  It is true that to confess this before men he felt to be a shameful thing; but that he may the more fully illustrate the grace of God to him, he hesitates not to publish the same of his fault.”

 

You see, in spite of the biblical doctrines wrapped up in the triumphal celebration in the verses just considered, still in the inmost recesses of David’s mind and heart – he has doubts and fears as do we all.  Listen to David’s confession:

 

“As for me, I had said in my alarm,

‘I am cut off from Your sight.’

But still You heard my pleas for mercy

                when I cried to You for help.”

 

All was not well within the city wherein David faces the circumstances of this Psalm.  Being surrounded on every side, he knew not from whence his help would come.  Momentarily, the great heart skipped a few beats and he admitted before the Lord of the universe:  “I am cut off from Your sight.”  His cause and kingdom seemed little better than that of the wicked. 

 

“But”, and here that word resounds forth like the trumpet blast of the Angel Gabriel at the end of the age. “But, still You heard my pleas for mercy when I cried to You for help.”  David was not so deep in despair that he stopped praying to the Lord of heaven and earth.  Do you have spiritual causes for which you hope?  Keep them in prayer for many years if necessary.  The Lord does indeed hear the prayers of David and every saint within the Church.  Remember even as our times are in the Lord’s hands, so too is every event, great and small.  Within the ordinary history of mankind, no citadel has proved finally to be capable of holding out for ever.  But, the City of God is a different from of structure, not made with human hands.  And even as David realizes it will last until the end of the age.  And one day – the Lord shall return and at His return every knee shall bow and every one shall admit that Jesus Christ is Lord.  May we hold to this precious hope in every time of trouble and despair.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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