Psalm 16: God - The Source of Contentment

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
⁶ The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

⁷ I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.^[d]
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being^[e] rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
¹⁰ For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.^[f]

¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

What is the secret to having contentment? Is it having everything that I want, or even everything that I need? Is it in having enough to live comfortably without worry, or , at least, enough to live at least as comfortably as those around me?  Is it about "having" at all?

In Psalm 16 David reveals the secret to contentment. It's not about "having" anything, but about trusting the One who has everything.

God is the creator of everything. He is the source of all good, and in Him is the power to supply everything we need. Indeed, everything that we are, and everything that we have, and everything that we could ever need comes by Him. Whether we "have" or whether we "have not" has no bearing on our contentment when we put our trust in the One from whom all things come. As Paul puts it in his letter the the Phillipians:

    Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
(Philippians 4:11-13 ESV)

Paul says that the secret to contentment is exaclty what David says in Psalms. It is in trusting in the One who strentgthens us. And knowing that in whatever circumstance. that He is taking care of us and will provide for us.

Psalm 15: God Welcomes Us to Dwell with Him

    O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
        Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
(Psalm 15:1 ESV)

In this Psalm David is reflecting on who is able to dwell with God. He gives a whole list of qualities that a person who can dwell with God should have.

But what strikes me more when I reflect on it, is not what type of person it takes to dwell with God; but just the mere fact that we can. It is beyond comprehension to me that we even can dwell with God. But it's more than that we "can" dwell with God, but that He actually welcomes us and desires us to dwell with Him. We were created to dwell with Him, the end for which we were made was to be with Him, and to be in relationship with Him.

"Who shall dwell on your holy hill?" God's desire is that all would. And He graciously welcomes us to.

Psalm 14: God - The Ever-Watching Father

  

 The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,
        to see if there are any who understand,
        who seek after God.
(Psalm 14:2 ESV)

I love to watch my sons, especially when they don't know that I am watching. I like to watch them to see if they are doing what I teach them and the things that I have shown them. It especially brings me joy when I catch them mimicking the things that I do, like fixing their toys, or pretending to shave.

God is the same way. He is a proud father who is always watching His children. He watches to see if we will follow Him, to see if we are doing what He has taught us. And I'm sure, just like me with my kids, it brings Him immense joy when He "catches" us mimicking Him.

So let us endeavor to make our Father proud. To do as He has taught us, and to bring Him joy while He watches us do so.

Psalm 13: God - The Bountiful Blesser

    But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
        my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
    I will sing to the LORD,
        because he has dealt bountifully with me.
(Psalm 13:5-6 ESV)

Whenever I hear the word bountiful, it always brings to mind a harvest overflowing with perfectly ripened produce. I see a table laden with more delicious food than I could ever hope to consume. The word brings a sense of contentment, security, and rest.

In this Psalm, David is crying out to God in a time of trouble. Things have not been going well for him and He feels that God has abandoned him. He opens the Psalm by saying:

    How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
        How long will you hide your face from me?
(Psalm 13:1 ESV)

 But David trusts God. He knows that even though he feels as such, God would never abandon him. He has seen in his life that God's love is steadfast and he looks back on how God has bountifully blessed him.

God does not abandon His children. On the contrary, He blesses us more bountifully than we can imagine. Jesus himself tells us this in Matthew 7 when He says:

    “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
(Matthew 7:7-11 ESV)

God wants to bless us! He wants to give bountifully to us! And he does; we just need to trust Him and ask and rest contently in the security of His blessing.

Psalm 12: God - The Speaker of Pure Words

   

 The words of the LORD are pure words,
        like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
        purified seven times.
(Psalm 12:6 ESV)

 In Biblical times, the refining of silver was an art. It was a very presice and extremely dificult process. The refiner had to carefully heat the silver to the perfect teaperature where the pure silver would melt off, and the dross, or the bad stuff, would be left behind. If he left it in the furnace too long however, the silver could be destroyed. The refiner had to constantly watch the silver and take it out of the heat at the exact right moment in order to preserve the pure silver. Often this process was done several times to insure that all of the dross was separated from the pure silver.

In Psalm 12 David describes the words of God as silver that has been refined seven times. David uses this analogy to say that God's words have no "dross" of lies, flattery, or insincerity. God means what He says; His words are completely pure. We can trust that when God says something, that it is true and we can put our trust in it. The promises that He has made us stand true. His word is pure.

Psalm 11: God - The Tester of the Heart

    The LORD is in his holy temple;
        the LORD's throne is in heaven;
        his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
    The LORD tests the righteous,
(Psalm 11:4-5 ESV)

We all know the temptation of cheating on a test. Maybe we had a big math exam coming up that we hadn't prepared for and we hear of someone who has found the teachers answer sheet. Or maybe we were sitting next to the smartest kid in class and he left his paper in a position too easy for us to glance at.

In Psalm 10 David describes God as the tester of the heart. And we cannot cheat on God's exam for, "His eyes see." God sees to the very core of who we are. He knows our every though, deed, motive, and feeling. And He tests us. He examines our heart to see if we truly are faithful. If we are indeed His children.

The good news is that we can pass God's test. We can be tested by God and found righteous in His sight. But we must rely on Him in order to pass His test. We must trust Him, obey Him, seek Him, love Him. And we must follow the "study guide" that he has provided for us. He gave us his Son, not only to die for us so that we could have salvation, but to show us how to live righteously before God. If we accept Jesus and model our lives after His, we can be confident that we will pass the test.

Psalm 10: God - The Helper of the Fatherless

   

 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
        that you may take it into your hands;
    to you the helpless commits himself;
        you have been the helper of the fatherless.
(Psalm 10:14 ESV)

According to the latest statistics, 1 in 3 children in the United States grows up without a father at home. Fatherlessness is an epidemic in our world. The importance of a man to be a good father to his children has been all but lost in our culture. Yet its loss has not come without a price. Millions of children are left with a hole in their souls that can only be filled by a father, and this has caused multitudes of social problems in our society that we all know too well.

But we have a heavenly Father who will never abandon us. He is the perfect Father. He knows His children and cares for them deeply. And He is there for those who have no father. His heart aches for the millions of children today growing up without fathers. He will never abandon them, and we will never abandon those who commit themselves to Him.

Psalm 9: God - The Stronghold for the Oppressed

    The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
        a stronghold in times of trouble.
    And those who know your name put their trust in you,
        for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
(Psalm 9:9-10 ESV)

 Where do you turn in times of trouble? When you are going through a rough patch and you aren't sure how things are going to turn out, how do you respond?

David's response was to turn to God. He describes God as a fortress where he could run to where he knew nothing could hurt him. He knew that if he put his trust in God, that God would not forsake him.

God is always there for those who seek Him and who put their trust in Him. He is like an impenetrable stronghold that we can run to in times of trouble. We can have confidence that our trust in Him is not misplaced. He is there for us, and He will never forsake us.

Psalm 8: God - The Majestic Creator

    O LORD, our Lord,
        how majestic is your name in all the earth!
    You have set your glory above the heavens(...).
        When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
        the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
    what is man that you are mindful of him,
        and the son of man that you care for him?
(Psalm 8:1-4 ESV)

I love to stargaze. I love standing outside on a clear dark night and just gazing at the stars and taking in all of their wonder. Looking at them brings me to a place of awe of God's power and grandeur.

From this Psalm we can see that David felt the same way. Reflecting on the stars and the moon leads him to cry out "majestic is your name in all the earth!" And it also leads him to the question "Why does God care about us?" With all of His greatness, and power, and majesty, why does He care about little ol' us? Why does He even take note of our existence? We only occupy a tiny speck of all that He created.

Yet He does take note of us, and more than that:

     Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
        and crowned him with glory and honor.
    You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
        you have put all things under his feet,
(Psalm 8:5-6 ESV) 

 God has exalted us above all of His creation. He greatly values us and He loves us. We matter to Him. It is hard to fathom how great, and huge, and powerful God is and yet He cares for us. The only response can be the response of David.

"Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

Psalm 7: God - The Righteous Judge

    The LORD judges the peoples;
        judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
        and according to the integrity that is in me.
    Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
        and may you establish the righteous—
    you who test the minds and hearts,
        O righteous God!
    My shield is with God,
        who saves the upright in heart.
    God is a righteous judge,
        and a God who feels indignation every day.
(Psalm 7:8-11 ESV)

One time when I was in High School we had a substitute teacher for my English class. The sub that we had was very quiet and reserved, so the class quickly started to take advantage of the situation. Most everyone was being disrespectful and would not listen to or do what they were supposed to. Our teacher was known for having a candy bag in her desk and some of the students even got into her desk and began eating her candy. However, not all of the students were being this way. Some of us, me included, where doing our work like we were supposed to and not causing problems.

Needless to say, the sub reported to our teacher what had happened. Apparently the sub however had not made note of who was causing trouble and who wasn't, so our teacher punished the whole class. We were all, disobedient and obedient alike, required to write a paper as a punishment. I remember being so upset that I was being punished right along with the trouble makers even though I had done nothing wrong. I felt like I had been judged unfairly and was being punished without merit, and there was nothing that I could do about it.

Have you ever been judged unfairly? It can be very frustrating when people judge us, or a situation, when they don't know the full story or all of the details. We all know the saying, "don't judge a book by it's cover", and we feel cheated when someone judges us without having "read" us completely. And we are all also, myself included, guilty of doing the same thing to other people.

But God is a righteous judge. He knows us and every circumstance perfectly and never makes a wrong judgement. And He comes to the rescue of the righteous. Those who put their trust in Him, and walk in obedience to Him, have nothing to fear from those in the world who would judge them unfairly. For God stands before them as a shield and upholds those whom He judges as being righteous.

So let us put our trust in God, knowing that He is the Righteous Judge who would never judge us unfairly.

Psalm 6: God - The Gracious Healer of the Wounded Soul

    "Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
        heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
    My soul also is greatly troubled.
        But you, O LORD—how long?
    Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
        save me for the sake of your steadfast love."
(Psalm 6:2-4 ESV)

Life can be painful sometimes. Whether it be from the death of a loved one, the betrayal of a friend or spouse, or our own sins and failures, this pain can cut straight to our souls; and it hurts. Sometimes we may feel like we have no where that we can turn, no one to turn to. Sometimes, in the midst of heartache, all we can see is the pain. All that we can see is the sin, and the death, and the sadness that is around us, and it can be suffocating.

But praise God that He never abandons us! He is full of love and grace for us and wants to deliver us from our pain. We must but cry out to Him and He is there to comfort us. God hears us when we weep. He sees us when we are in the midst of pain. And His love is steadfast. He is there, He knows, and He cares.

            "for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
    The LORD has heard my plea;
        the LORD accepts my prayer."
(Psalm 6:8-9 ESV)

So rest in God. Take comfort in Him and know that He loves you. He is right beside you, waiting to comfort you, to support you, to heal your soul. Cry out to Him and He will hear you.

Psalm 5: God - The Lover of Justice

"For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
        evil may not dwell with you.
    The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
        you hate all evildoers.
    You destroy those who speak lies;
        the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man."                                                 (Psalm 5:4-6 ESV)

We live in a world where sin, pain, wickedness, and evil abound. Just turn on the evening news or open a news paper and it is easy to see. School shootings, rape, massive oppression, starvation, disease. Things were not any different in David's time, and we can see him lamenting about such things in this Psalm.

But God does not delight in such wickedness. It is not his will that the world would be this way. For better or worse, because he loves us, he permits us to make our own decisions and run our own lives. And we have made a mess of things, and there are certainly people in this world who do great evil.

But praise God that He is a God of justice! He does not let one act of evil, no matter how small, go unnoticed. And He will have His justice. He will put things right, whether it be by redeeming the evil doer by His son Jesus and making him a force of good in the world, or by ultimate judgement and condemnation after death.

So if you are, or have been a victim of evil and injusctice. You can rest assured in God, knowing that He sees your pain, and He has justice in store for you. Seek refuge in Him who loves justice and you will be blessed.

    "But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
        let them ever sing for joy,
    and spread your protection over them,
        that those who love your name may exult in you.
    For you bless the righteous, O LORD;
        you cover him with favor as with a shield."
(Psalm 5:11-12 ESV)

Psalm 4: God - The Faithful Answerer of Prayer

My phone at my house rings constantly. When we first got our phone line we didn't have an answering machine, so I would always answer. The problem was that the calls were never for me. They were always for someone who previously had my phone number and, more often than not, it was either a creditor or some other automated call. Well, to remedy the situation, I quickly bought an answering machine. Now I never answer my phone and always let the machine get it. If it is someone calling for me, I will hear them begin to leave a message and will pick up the phone, as long as they actually do try to leave a message and not just hang up. It is possible that I miss some legitimate calls in this manner, but I hate picking up the phone only to hear the voice of yet the same creditor or automation calling for the hundredth time.

Praise God that He does not have an answering machine! In Psalm 4 we read:

   "Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
        You have given me relief when I was in distress.
        Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
    O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
        How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?
    But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
        the LORD hears when I call to him."
(Psalm 4:1-3 ESV)

 Praise God that He hears our prayers! He, unlike me, does not screen His "calls" nor is He ever "away" and unable to hear us. God is always listening and He hears the prayers of those who cry out to Him. When we pray, we can be absolutely sure that God hears us. In Matthew, Jesus tells us that not only does God hear us but

    "your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
(Matthew 6:8 ESV)

 If I truly believed this; If I truly believed that God hears my every prayer, how much more would I pray! Think about it. The God of the universe, the God who created the farest galaxies, the stars that shine in the night sky, and our world and every thing in it, from the highest mountain to the smallest atom, hears us. He hears us when we laugh with joy, and He hears us when we cry with pain. He hears our smallest of thoughts, and our greatest laments.

So call to Him, and rest assured that you will not get the answering machine.

Psalm 3: God - Our Sustaining Shield

    "But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,
        my glory, and the lifter of my head.
    I cried aloud to the LORD,
        and he answered me from his holy hill.
    I lay down and slept;
        I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
    I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
        who have set themselves against me all around.
    Arise, O LORD!
        Save me, O my God!
    For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
        you break the teeth of the wicked.
    Salvation belongs to the LORD;
        your blessing be on your people!"
(Psalm 3:3-8 ESV)

 Have you experienced, or are experiencing opposition in life? Maybe you feel like the world is against you. Things are going badly at work, your boss or a coworker has it out for you. Maybe things are just not going your way, and it seems like everything you do fails and bad things are happening all around you.

In Psalm 3, David certainly felt this way. His son Absalom had turned against him, and was hunting him down and trying to kill him. Talk about rough circumstances! He was scared for his life, and running from his son was both physically and emotionally draining. But David turned to God, and recognized that God would protect him and sustain him. He trusted that if he cried out to God, that God would answer. He did not first rely on himself and his own power, but turned immediately to God as his protector and sustainer.

What is the first thing that we do when we are experiencing trouble in life? Do we first try everything in our own power to solve our own problems. Do we wait until we are at the end of our rope both physically and emotionally before turning to God and crying out for help?

This should not be! We should have the faith to turn to God first! God is ready and willing to come to the aid of His people if we would but turn to Him. But we should trust Him to sustain and protect us in every aspect of our lives not only when we are in trouble. We should live daily trusting in God and knowing that He is right by our side sustaining us through life, and in Him is the power to handle any circumstance, if we would but turn to Him.

Psalm 2: God - The Wrathful Ruler

 "Why do the nations rage
        and the peoples plot in vain?
    The kings of the earth set themselves,
        and the rulers take counsel together,
        against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
    “Let us burst their bonds apart
        and cast away their cords from us.”
    He who sits in the heavens laughs;
        the Lord holds them in derision.
    Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
        and terrify them in his fury, saying,
    “As for me, I have set my King
        on Zion, my holy hill.”"
(Psalm 2:1-6 ESV)

The fiscal cliff, national debt; removing God from the pledge and off our money, taking prayer out of schools. Wars between nations, walls and fences at borders. Drug lords and dictators, terrorists, lobbyists, environmentalists. Left-wings, right-wings, conservatives, liberals, Republican, and Democrats. And all the while God is laughing...

What is so funny about all of this? It is the fact that we forget that God is in control. God made his creation, and he rules over it perfectly. While we plot in vain, God laughs because nothing that we do can thwart His plan. Nothing we do changes the fact that He is God, and He is in control. God laughs because we fear that, without our policy, our reform, our tax cuts, the world will stop spinning. We plot in vain to "fix" the world, all the while forgetting the one who created all that we are trying to fix.

And God is furious. He is furious that we would forget Him. He is furious that we would turn to our own plans and be so ignorant that we would think that His is not sufficient. He is furious that we would seek glory for ourselves, instead of glorifying the one who created us.

But God is also gracious, and He is waiting for us to turn back to Him.

   "Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
        be warned, O rulers of the earth.
    Serve the LORD with fear,
        and rejoice with trembling.
    Kiss the Son,
        lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
        for his wrath is quickly kindled.
    Blessed are all who take refuge in him."
(Psalm 2:10-12 ESV)

If we continue to oppose God and His plan, the He is storing up wrath for us. But if we would turn to Him; if we would recognize that He is in control of all things, and give glory to Him, and fear Him and not man; then He will bless us, and we will have nothing to fear. We need not fear rulers, or policies, or cliffs. We need only to fear the One who is in control of all things and serve Him. Because He is currently working His plan and will continue to do so, and nothing we can do can stop it.

Psalm 1: God - The Source of the Righteous

Today we begin our journey through the Psalms, but before we begin I would like to clarify my purpose. My intent is to find a deeper understanding of who God is; His traits, characteristics, and how He interacts with His creation, His kingdom, and ultimately, me. To that end, I will be concerning the content of these posts specifically to what each psalm can teach me about God. I will then apply that understanding to how it impacts my life and the way I should live in view of that. With that out of the way, let's get started with Psalm 1.



















I have a pomegranate tree in my front yard near my house. It is a beautiful tree and I love to see it when it is heavy with fruit, all ripening in the sun. Everyday when I see it, I look forward to the day when it's fruit ripens and is ready to be picked so that I can enjoy the sweet, red little seeds of the fruit. But can my tree produce it's delicious fruit on it's own? Absolutely not! It needs to be nourished. It must be sustained by something. It needs a source of life, a source of water. Without such a source, the tree could never bear fruit, let alone live.

In Psalm 1, the writer celebrates God as our source of righteousness. He says that he who delights in the law of the Lord is

 "like a tree
        planted by streams of water
    that yields its fruit in its season,
        and its leaf does not wither."

We must be careful lest we think that the tree is what is most important here. No, it is the stream that is important. It is the stream that is the source of life. It is the stream that empowers the tree to bear fruit. Without the stream, there is no fruit.

So it is with God. God is the source. He is the source of life, the source of blessing, the source of all things. Apart from God we cannot hope to bear fruit, nor be righteous. But to receive such blessing and righteousness we must be "planted by streams of water". We must know God and we must draw our source of strength and nourishment from Him. How do we know God, how do we allow God to nourish us? According to the psalmist, we do so by mediating on the law of the Lord. Through His word, God reveals Himself to us and shows us who He is. His words are nourishment to our souls, teaching and empowering us to "bear fruit."

But more than just leaving us His words, God is here with us. The psalmist tells us that

    "the LORD knows the way of the righteous"

The type of knowing that the psalmist speaks of here is more than just a general "knowing about", but rather, in the words of the ESV Bible, is meant as "knowing with affection and approval." God dwells intimately with us, so much so that He knows us completely. He makes Himself and His power available to us. 

God is our source. He is the being from whom flows every blessing and our strength to live righteously and bear fruit in our lives. He is also near to us and knows us completely. He makes himself available to us to be our source, all we must do is plant our tree near his stream.

Renewing My View of God

At the beginning of the year I began reading The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. His words on the kingdom of God and what it means to be a follower of Christ or a "Christian" have challenged me to take a look at my own life, and how I view,  interact with, and teach about God's kingdom. He says that to understand the kingdom of God, we must first have the correct view of God himself. He says:

"It is, frankly, hard today to think adequately of God -or perhaps to think of him at all. Out intellectual history works against it, and we certainly do not get much training for it. Frankly, our daily experience, under pressure from many quarters, constantly keeps us from thoughtful living and "dumbs us down," in many ways--especially theologically. But the resulting lack of adequate ideas and terminology does great harm to our faith.  It insulates our real life from what we say we believe. We cannot, even by a miracle, believe  a blank or a blur, much less act on it. There is no "what" for our minds and lives to lay hold of in such a case--or it is the wrong "what."

     To trust in God, we need a rich and accurate way of thinking and speaking about him to guide and support our life vision and our will."

So how do we develop an adequate view of God? We do so by meditating on what he says about himself. And there is no place in the Bible that gives us a better view of who God is than in the Psalms. Willard says of the Psalms:

"We learn from the Psalms how to think and act in reference to God. We drink in God and God's world from them. They provide a vocabulary for living Godward, one inspired by God himself. They show us who God is, and that expands and lifts and directs our minds and hearts."

 So, in order to deepen my view of God, his kingdom, and how to be an active and part in it, I will begin by meditating through the Psalms. My prayer is that this will revolutionize the way I think and act in reference to God, and that it will lead me to see him and his kingdom in a way I have never seen him before. I will be reflecting on one psalm every day and posting what God is teaching me here. This is intended to be a help to me more than anything, but I hope that anyone who happens to read this might gain some new insight into God as well.

So, if you are willing, take this journey through the Psalms with me, that together we may know better the God who, according to Adam Clark, is:

"the eternal, independent, and self-existent Being; the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence; he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences; infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made; illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his essence; know fully only by himself, because an infinite mind can only be fully comprehended by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived, and from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, and right, and kind."