Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Reflections on Psalms 108

 Psalms 108(Contemporary English Version)
  1. (A song and a psalm by David.) Our God, I am faithful to you with all my heart, and you can trust me. I will sing and play music for you with all that I am.
  2. I will start playing my harps before the sun rises.
  3. I will praise you, LORD, for everyone to hear; I will sing hymns to you in every nation.
  4. Your love reaches higher than the heavens, and your loyalty extends beyond the clouds.
  5. Our God, may you be honored above the heavens; may your glory be seen everywhere on earth.
  6. Answer my prayers and use your powerful arm to give us victory. Then the people you love will be safe.
  7. Our God, from your holy place you made this promise: "I will gladly divide up the city of Shechem and give away Succoth Valley piece by piece.
  8. The lands of Gilead and Manasseh are mine. Ephraim is my war helmet, and Judah is my symbol of royal power.
  9. Moab is merely my washbasin, and Edom belongs to me. I shout with victory over the Philistines."
  10. Our God, who will bring me to the fortress or lead me to Edom?
  11. Have you rejected us? You don't lead our armies.
  12. Help us defeat our enemies! No one else can rescue us.
  13. You are the one who gives us victory and crushes our enemies.

Whatever the occasion for the use of Psalms 108, it must have been similar to two other occasions when David wrote Psalms 57 and Psalms 60. No doubt David's thoughts in this psalm reflected his thoughts on many other occasions. They also reflect my own thoughts on a number of occasions.

David had experienced God's intervention and deliverance on a number of occasions previous to this psalm and opened the psalm with praise to God for His faithful love and power to save. In his praise he wanted to greet the dawn with the playing of his harp and lyre and sing praises before the peoples of Israel as well as the peoples of other nations. David was not ashamed to give praise to the Lord.

He felt at this time, though, that God was withholding Himself from Israel's armies when they went out to battle. God was not helping them, and left to their own resources they were not being victorious over their enemies. It led David to ask, "Have You not rejected us, God?" (108:11) David may have wondered that out of all the previous times God had helped Israel be victorious had He now chosen to reject her and leave her on her own against the enemy? This, at least, seems to be the nugget of doubt that was troubling David.

In David's times of worship in the sanctuary he had heard God speak of His sovereignty over all the nations. He accepted God's sovereignty over his present situation and petitioned God to come to Israel's aid against the foe for without God they were helpless. On their own, they were worthless, but with God's help they could perform valiantly.

If David's thoughts were similar to mine on such an occasion when the odds seemed to be stacking up against me, he had faith that God would deliver Israel from her enemy, but the longer God withheld His help doubt began to raise its head. He didn't want to give in to the doubt, he just wanted God to hurry up and give them victory. I am convinced that God purposely withholds His help for a period and let's us wait on Him so our faith will grow. Little faith is required if God always shows up on time. At least on time according to our timetable. Stronger faith is necessary, however, when we have to wait on Him to act according to His timetable. Not only does it require greater faith on our part, it provides a greater demonstration of God's intervention.

No comments:

Post a Comment