Why do you say such things? Reflections on Psalm 11

David opens this Psalm with an assertion (spelled out in vv. 4-7) and then poses the wicked's threats in the terms of a question: How can you say these things? It is to say, "Don't you know who the Lord is? Don't you know how He operates?" It is both a chastisement of the wicked as well as a kind of taunt. In effect, it is to say that the wicked don't know what they're talking about even as they threaten terrible things against God's people.

What are the threats David is facing?

- 1) We bend the bow, we are preparing to strike you down with arrows.

- 2) They do so in the cover of darkness - you won't even see us coming. You won't know where the threat, the danger actually comes from.

- 3) We won't simply strike at the surface of things, but will undo the very foundations.

- Conclusion: This will leave the righteous ones with nothing to do, no place to belong, no ground to stand on.

- So you should flee like a bird to the mountains. Go into hiding, disappear.

So, on what grounds does David stand in answering these threats? How is that he is able to respond that fleeing to the mountains, disappearing is simply nonsense?

- He knows the Lord. The Lord whose throne is established over everything. His throne is in heaven. He dwells in the midst of his people. Why would God's people flee in fear when God is with them?

- God knows; he sees. He isn't oblivious to the trouble being threatened.

- God tests mankind. The trouble isn't surprising. God tests both the righteous and the wicked. He sends trouble to all mankind.

- For the righteous, the tests are simply tests, trouble that sanctifies - trouble that will, in the end, bring joy. But the wicked, God hates them.The one who loves violence and destruction against the people of God - the trouble He sends on them serves an entirely different purpose. The wicked know only judgment. That is their portion - that is what God will give them.

Living and Singing Psalm 11

- Troubles *will* come. They can look a number of different ways, but they will often involve the opposition of the wicked to the righteous, of those who oppose God and His Word standing against those who believe God's words.

- It is easy to look around in our world and see what seems like the overwhelming opposition of worldly schemes against the righteousness and beauty of God. Too many Christians see all of this trouble and respond in fear. They don't do what David does here - they look to either their own resilient strength or they "flee like a bird to the mountains," hiding, often in plain sight, in order to avoid the embarrassment or disdain of being exposed as those who believe what God says about all kinds of things - gender, sexuality, justice, judgment, grace, sin. But the answer is to both look away from your own strength and look towards God, his character, the certainty of his covenant promises, and how he works in the world. We can name the foolishness of the wicked, not on the basis of our own strength and righteousness but on the basis of God's own words. God brings trouble. But God judges the wicked and gives the grace of his countenance to those who belong to him.

Where is God? Reflections on Psalm 10

Rejoicing in Judgment: Reflections on Psalm 9

TExt

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness. 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. Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted. Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord ha made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men!

A Troubling Introduction

Our age knows little of praising God for his justice. We praise him for his beauty. We praise him for his mercy. We praise him for all manner of things, but we rarely consider the biblical call to praise him for his just destruction of the wicked. For all our society's championing of "justice," we do not know it when we see it, and we do not know how to give thanks and praise to the God who sits enthroned in justice. This is due to at least two things: 1) We do not know what justice is. 2) God's justice is frightening to a nation like ours, drenched in the blood of the unborn, enslaved to our lusts, and resolved to cast off the rule of God over us.

In the first place, we have redefined justice to suit our palette of envy. Justice has come to mean for us moderns merely equity of outcome. We must have what everyone else has. Their wealth, their blessings, must be ours. We rage against a system (read: the current state of politics and the power behind most marketing schemes) that does not provide us with the comforts and pleasures we desire and which we assume others possess. God's justice is quite the opposite of ours. Our "justice" is envy-fueled virtue signaling. His justice is fundamentally concerned with equity of process - a generous process, yes, but also a process concerned primarily with standards of righteousness and wickedness.

In the second place, God's justice rewards the righteous and destroys the wicked. To make matters worse, in this Psalm (and others), he speaks of judging nations, not simply individuals. We are a nation drenched in the blood of innocents. We are a nation enslaved to our lusts; sexual appetites run unrestrained in every city. We are a nation that stands condemned before the righteous justice of God.

As a result, we come to Psalm 9 and find ourselves struggling to sing along. Perhaps we can thank God for his justice in some esoteric sense. Still, if we start considering the practical application of this Psalm to our particular cultural circumstances, it can leave us terribly uncomfortable.

All this redefining of justice and failure to praise the God of justice amounts to an insistence on being gods. We reject God's justice because we have forgotten that we are but men. Our rejection of God's justice and presumption that his justice will never come reveals our enormous hubris. We forget that we are made. We forget that we are subject to God's justice and righteousness, so we fail to praise God for his justice.

Examining the Text:

Psalm 9 arrives as a jarring corrective to our misconstruals of justice and our failure to praise God rightly for his justice. The Psalmist gives thanks to God for these things:

- That his enemies stumble and perish before his presence.

- God sits on his throne, giving just judgments.

- God rebukes nations, causing the wicked to perish - He blots out their names forever and ever.

- God causes the very memory of the wicked to perish, comparing the temporality of the evil to the everlasting throne of God.

- God acts as a refuge to those who trust in him as they are pursued by the wicked.

- God does not forsake anyone who seeks Him.

The Psalm portrays the world as one in which the wicked pursue the righteous, and in this context, the judgment of the evil and the salvation of God's people is good news. We are commanded to praise the God of justice whose throne establishes His righteousness forever and ever. This is a psalm of thanksgiving, and it commands us to praise God for his judgment of the wicked and his salvation of his people. It commands us to praise God for his people's salvation through the wicked's judgment. The two go hand in hand again and again in Scripture. God saves his people by righteously destroying the wicked.

Our trouble with this Psalm is that we do not believe it. We do not believe that we need saving from the wicked. We do not believe that the judgment of whom God deems wicked is praiseworthy, and we do not see the inextricable link, biblically, between God's salvation and God's judgment.

But the judgments of God are good and right and praiseworthy - whether we're comfortable with them or not. We should learn, no, we must learn to give thanks to God for his clear promises to destroy wickedness, to destroy those who would profit in the doing of evil, and those who insist on being their own gods. God's mercy and salvation towards all who seek refuge in him is good, right, and praiseworthy. We must learn to first take refuge in him from evil, and then to praise Him for His just judgments. Psalm 9 anchors the worship of God's people, not in a mood or in sentiment, but in the forever established throne of God over all the nations and in his promise to rescue his people and destroy the wicked. It anchors the praises of God's people in the unassailable throne of God's justice as the nations that rebel against his righteousness perish and are forgotten.

Our nation stands condemned in this Psalm. We have perpetuated and celebrated the dismemberment of millions of babies in the womb. Sexual deviancy is not simply tolerated but celebrated as a civic virtue. We pursue the constant satisfaction of our envy and lust. We pridefully condemn those who tell the truth while denouncing the virtue of past generations. And Christians should be those who sing of the coming and sure judgment of God. He will not allow such evils to go unpunished. He will not let such evils to drown the worship of His people. He will save, and He will destroy. Such singing serves as the resilient cry of God's people when they gather and as a warning to all those who hate His justice. A reckoning is coming, and it has happened many times before. Put away your idols. Put away your wickedness. Come and take refuge in the Just Judge and the Savior of All Who Take Refuge in Him. The nations will be reminded that they are but men when God comes to put things to right.

The Devil Hates Babies: Reflections on Psalm 8

Text

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 
You have set your glory above the heavens. 
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, 
you have established strength because of your foes, 
to still the enemy and the avenger. 
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, 
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 
4  what is man that you are mindful of him, 
and the son of man that you care for him? 
5  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings 
and crowned him with glory and honor. 
6  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; 
you have put all things under his feet, 
7  all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 
8  the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, 
whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 
9  O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

An Introduction

The Devil loves it when you get the kids out of Sunday worship, and this Psalm tells us why.

Psalm 8 is often read as a text about the weak overcoming the strong. And while God indeed loves to overthrow the informed, the posh, the cosmopolitan, and the strong with the weak, the uncouth, the rednecks, and the uninformed, this Psalm is about a much larger story. It is essential we see the story David is alluding to here as he grounds his praise for Yahweh in the unfolding of this story in his own life and the history of the world. Two keys will help us interpret this Psalm correctly: Notice the use of singulars and plurals. The mouth. The Enemy. The Avenger. The son of man. Second, notice how the Psalm is organized: It is bookended with worship, and in the middle, it moves from a statement concerning what God has promised and accomplished through redemption in verse 2 to what he has established regarding the vocation of man in vv. 3-8. Let's look at these two sections in turn, and then I'll try to explain why the yelping of children in worship is good for the soul.

The Progression

There are several connections between Ps 8:2-8 and Genesis 1-3. These allusions set the context for David's progression. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God in Genesis 3, they were told that their sin would result in death. But even in this condemnation for their sin, the promise of the gospel is given by God in his condemnation of the Serpent, the Enemy, the Avenger. He says that the seed of the woman would "bruise" the head of the Serpent. Man was made to exercise dominion over the world - he was made to rule over all that God had created and to do so such that the world would be filled with the fruit of godly children, the society and fruitfulness that such children would bring, and thus the filling of the earth with the image and authority of God. In tempting man to rebel against God and, therefore, against his vocation, the Serpent becomes the "ruler of this age." With the judgment and consequence of death given to man, rule may seem unchallenged. But God speaks this word of judgment over the Serpent, and the promise is that there will be children given to Adam and Eve and that these children will bruise and eventually crush his "head" - they will overthrow his rule.

This is the meaning of verse 2. David, the shadow of the fulfillment of this promise given in the garden, alludes to this judgment and defeat of the Enemy. The voices of babes silence the Avenger. The Dragon's rebellion and tyranny will be overthrown in the coming of the Child, who comes to bruise his head. The bruising of the Dragon's head is synonymous with destroying his rule.

The Devil hates children. More specifically, he hates babies. He hates them because their cries, yelps, and laughter are sure signs of his defeat. The cries of Adam and Eve's children undoubtedly caused him to tremble in fear. The inarticulate sounds of a babe in its mother's arms bring terror to the heart of the Dragon.

The goal of this defeat of the Dragon is then described in vv. 3-8. Man, the sons and daughters of Adam, are given their God-created dominion. They are restored to their creational vocation: To exercise authority on the earth. To rule over what God has made. They are but a little under the heavenly beings in glory and authority. They are given honor.

So, the praise of God's name in all the earth is grounded in David's accounting of the good promises of God, and the purposes of God fulfilled in Jesus. The Serpent's rule is silenced and bruised by the mouths of babies and ultimately crushed in the coming of the babe born in Bethlehem.

Living and Singing Psalm 8

It is hard to miss the war on children in our age. From the "right" to tear a child limb-from-limb in the womb, the organ given to nurture life, to the ubiquitousness of social media culture cultivating despondency in adolescents - there is a shocking opposition to the flourishing of children. Parenting is marginalized to careers. Children are maimed in the name of "gender-affirming" "care." The implementation of the Serpent's rage is everywhere. Churches, too, have far too often removed the sound of God's victory over the Avenger by relegating children to some other room while the "real" church worships together. But while our songs declare the great victory of the lamb over the schemes of the Enemy, there is no more potent sound voicing the defeat of the Devil than the sounds coming from the mouths of babes during church's worship. May we learn to hear again the cries of children in our worship as what it is - the silencing of the Accuser.

So, too, may parents see how and why the Devil hates babies. There is a vital need in this hour of the West to defend our children from the onslaught of violent ideologies that seek to silence the glory that comes from the mouths of children. Do not underestimate the glory invested in those little years.

Finally, we ought to see the glory and the honor Jesus has redeemed us for: To rule in this world for the glory of our Maker and Redeemer. God has silenced our Enemy so that we might, in the redemption given to us in Jesus, by faith in his work and office, be a little lower than the heavenly beings: that we might bear his authority, under his word, in the whole world. How beautiful is the name of God in all the earth!

Reflections on Psalm 6

Text of Psalm 6

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David. 

1  O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. 
2  Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. 
3  My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long? 
4  Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. 
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise? 
6 I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. 
7  My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes. 
8  Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. 
9  The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. 
10  All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. 

"The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle - and not lose it."

- G.K. Chesterton

Introductions

This Psalm addresses the troublesome situation Christians face throughout the ages: What do we do when it appears that God's enemies are gaining victory and blessing while God's people languish? How ought a Christian to pray when a severe illness strikes his family? How do we turn to God when the laws of the land become increasingly pagan, tyrannical, or insane? What do we say when the enemies of God prosper in the land while we struggle to make ends meet? David provides us with a faithful and lucid answer.

The context of these early Psalms is Absalom's wicked attempts to dethrone his father, David. David sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband Uriah murdered. His house is thrust into turmoil and division. Absalom has forced David to flee Jerusalem. As David prays throughout Psalms 3-6, he builds his prayers on the fixed promises and arguments of Psalms 1-2. He refuses to despair by failing to trust the promises of God, nor does he presume upon God's will, taking matters into his own hands. David turns to God, recounting the loving-kindness of God and asking God to act. He finally speaks with a deep assurance that God will defeat his enemies and redeem David's life.

What to See:

David opens by pleading with God not to be angry with him and not to discipline him in his wrath. The language is identical to the language used in Psalm 2 to describe how God treats his enemies. David is living in the position of the pagan nations in Psalm 2 - he describes his circumstances in terms aligned with God's words. This isn't some romantic pietism that somehow believes that suffering is somehow the blessing of God. He names it for what God's word says that it is: he is on the run, his life is in danger, and this is what God promises will happen to his enemies.

He asks God for grace and restoration in verse 2 before asking God, "How Long?" This question is a pained question that still believes in the promises of God. He is asking how long God's enemies appear to triumph. How long must David suffer these conditions and the apparent reversal of God's righteousness? At the heart of this question is the sure hope that the answer is "not forever." When a child repeatedly asks on a road trip - "How much longer?" there is, built into this question, the confident hope that, eventually, we will arrive at our destination. Finally, there will be Grandma and Grandpa. We're done with the car seat (for now). David's question reveals his remaining confidence in the goodness of God and the faithfulness of God.

David, knowing that his enemies will not praise and remember the kindnesses of God, argues for his vindication because this is precisely what he will do when God rescues him from his enemies. This is a recurring theme in the Psalms - "Save me, that my lips might praise you." In David's prayer of repentance after being confronted about his sin with Bathsheba and her husband, he asks for cleansing and forgiveness and then promises: "Open my lips, and my mouth will praise you." "Uphold me with a willing Spirit, then I will teach transgressors your ways." He asks for deliverance because he will praise God and teach God's ways.

The Psalm ends with a confident hope: He sends evildoers away. He declares that his enemies will be ashamed once God acts on David's behalf. He is convinced that God has not only heard his prayers but will work in response to those prayers by reversing the situation that David finds himself in. His enemies will be thwarted and ashamed, and David will be restored. These confident declarations also serve as a warning (like Psalm 2) to God's enemies. God will keep his promises. God will hear the prayers of his people and answer them. He loves to bring victory when it appears all is lost.

Living and Singing Psalm 6

God never tires of telling the same sort of story over and over and over again. It is the story of death and resurrection; as Herbert Schlossberg says in his fantastic book *Idols for Destruction*, "The Bible can be interpreted as a string of God's triumphs disguised as disasters." It is one thing to see this as a literary technique as we examine the Scriptures; it is something entirely different to live through that narrative. We live in a culture plunging dangerously into nihilism and paganism. We live in a city desperate to lead the way. The murder of children is defended through all nine months of pregnancy. Denver has been named the city of Lust by Forbes magazine. Meanwhile, our magistrates act in such a way as to make the cost of living untenable. People move here to play for a decade or so, and increasingly, those who want to build lives, families, careers, and businesses move away to more affordable and hospitable places. A Christian might have cause for despair, even surrounded by some of the most beautiful ground on earth. But such hopelessness would be biblically illiterate. God loves these stories. He's given us countless examples in the Scriptures of precisely this sort of thing. He has shouted at us in as clear a language as possible: "Just wait to see what I pull off."

So, how ought a Christian to pray and live in circumstances like ours? How ought a Christian to pray and act when it seems like his marriage has fallen off a cliff or his children are lost? Pray like David. The pain is real. Set it before the Lord. The immediacy of the crisis is real. Set it before the Lord. And then, against all odds, with great confidence in the faithfulness of God, the steadfast love of God, and the goodness of God, call God's enemies to account. By faith in everything God has said, obey the Lord, rebuke and warn, and confidently sing with David, "The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled. They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment."

Psalm 5

Text of Psalm 5

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. 2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. 3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. 4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. 5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. 7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. 8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. 9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. 10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. 11 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. 12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.

What to Notice

David pleads with God to hear his prayer and to consider his prayer. God promises to hear our prayers, but David goes further and asks God to consider or weigh the argument and content of his prayer. Many times, we think the shape or form our prayers take is unimportant, believing that the fact of our praying is sufficient. We have learned the falsehood that authentic prayer will not follow considered arguments. The Psalms and other prayers throughout the Scriptures, including Jesus' prayers, belie the inadequacy of such a separation. We ought to pray. We ought to pray well, with clear thoughts and arguments that accord with the Scriptures.

David explicitly brings the content of Psalms 1 & 2 before God's face in this prayer. He isn't simply reacting to the direness of his situation (the diabolical pursuit of Absalom) but also meditating on the character of God and setting those before God as an argument. God already knows his character and David's situation, but in prayer, we are to ground our requests before God on the foundation of his nature and words. We "remind" God of what he has said and what he has promised.

Notice David's expression of loyalty- He speaks not merely to God the Lord but to My God and My King. An allegiance to God our King is at the heart of all Christian living. He is not simply a generic king. He is the universal king *and* he is specifically our God and our King. The truth that we are God's royal possession should be a great comfort for all God's people. As David slept in Psalm 4, trusting in the provision of God to keep watch over him, he awakes to face the troubles of his day by rehearsing the character and mercy of God and petitioning God to act in accordance. 

In Psalm 5, David describes the wicked's standing before God and what they seek to do. David emphasizes their standing before God in vv. 4-7. God does not delight in their wickedness. Evil cannot live in communion with God. God destroys those who say lies - who do not speak the truth. God *abhors* - weighty word - the bloodthirsty and the deceiver. These are hard words, and we should clarify who these people are. In our pluralistic age, evil has taken on a far more pliable definition than in the Scriptures. The evil are those who reject God and his law.

The boastful are the proud who define for themselves what is good and evil, what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is true and what is false. They do not acknowledge God. The liar is not simply the one who knowingly declares something untrue; it is the one who speaks what is objectively wrong. And note especially the terrible word "abhor" - We do not like to consider that God abhors anything, but here God abhors those thirsty for blood and those who use words to deceive others. God is just. God is good. God hates what is hateful. And then in vv. 8-9, he describes what the wicked do: They seek to make the path of the righteous crooked. This is a metaphor for the introduction of moral confusion. They make what ought to be plain to the Christian unclear. Good and evil get all muddled up. The wicked deceive. The wicked's desires are destruction, and their lying words lead to death. And the whole thing is covered over with flattery. 

Bloodlust and deception are the two things God is said to abhor in this Psalm. Bloodlust is something different than mere killing. It involves a love for killing and a delight in causing suffering. The images that have circulated since the October 7 terrorist attack from Hamas are illustrative of this thing that God abhors. These men targeted the killing of men, women, and children, as well as the elderly. It was their very purpose and delight to kill in a horrific manner. Israel’s response has resulted in many civilian deaths in Gaza, but it has not been their delight or goal. One is making war on their national enemies. The other is lusting after the blood of innocents. The moral confusion that has erupted in cities all over the globe in the last several weeks is a further testament to how easily we are deceived.

In vv. 8-12, David gives an account of God's mercy. Everything David asks is grounded in the "steadfast love" or the covenant love of God. This steadfast love leads him to worship and ask God to make his paths straight. David turns to God for moral and tactical guidance as the wicked lie, deceive, and obfuscate - covering it all in flattery. He does not trust his own discernment to know what He ought to do. David asks God. He turns to God's word. David ends by holding out the promise of salvation for all those who take refuge in God and those who love him. He asks God to defeat the wicked by causing them to fall under their own counsels - their anti-wisdom. Those who take refuge in God, finding their salvation in him, and those who love him will sing for joy. They will rejoice in God. These verses have a marvelous chain: The Covenant love of God leads his people to worship. The covenant love of God saves God's people from their enemies' attempts to deceive and lead them into sin and death. The Covenant Love of God leads his people to take refuge in him - to turn to him and him alone for mercy and salvation. The Covenant love of God leads God's people to joy. And finally, the Covenant Love of God leads his people to *exult*. This is no quietist salvation - but a salvation marked by singing and the joyful and public rejoicing in the supremacy and salvation of God.

How to Live and Sing in the Light of This Psalm

The first 5 Psalms address a great contrast between the righteous and the wicked. Two things about this contrast are sure: this is not a contrast we moderns *like* or attend to very often, and the Bible does not draw the line where we think it should go. And this is one of the great gifts of the Psalms. They, and God through them, attend to many things that we modern Christians don't often consider. They train us to think differently than the spirit of our age. In other words, they do not work as mere expressions of whatever distortions of Christianity have become popular today. Instead, they serve as prayers that reshape our understanding of the world and how we should pray. Psalm 5's contrast between the righteous and the wicked does two things in this Psalm - it serves as a clarifying distinction which is, without question, the most crucial distinction a human being can recognize, and it is clear - making plain what man constantly seeks to muddle and perceive as unclear. 

David's accounting of the wicked is not merely about what they are but what they do: They seek to deceive and do so with flattery and lies. Christians tend to be the sweet and gullible sort in our day. Empathy is weaponized to deceive - to make what God has said less clear, more nuanced, and less prone to offend. Morality becomes increasingly muddled through deception and flattery, and so the moral clarity of the Scriptures is questioned or downplayed. But we must listen to God. We must trust his word more than our feelings or fears. May He make your paths straight. 

What a terrible and dreadful thing - to be counted among those who are hated by God, who cannot dwell with God, or are abhorred by God. But the solution to this terrible state is fully disclosed in these verses: Worship God. Take Refuge in Jesus. Learn and trust in God's steadfast love demonstrated and given in Jesus. This is the heart of repentance and the good news of the Christian Gospel: All who take refuge in God will rejoice. Turn away from your lies and confusion, and trust God. Believe God. Worship God - and you will sing for joy. 

Reflections on Psalm 4

Psalm 4: The Text

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.
Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.
There are many who say, "Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!"
You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Framework

An important reminder when looking at the Psalms is that they build on one another. Psalm 1 established the preeminence of the Scriptures as the foundation for wisdom, righteousness, and fruitfulness. Psalm 2 calls for the nations plotting against God's authority over them to trust in and submit to the Lord's King. Psalm 3 testified to God's people trusting in God even in the face of vast enemies. So, while Psalm 2 gave us a sweeping picture of God's work in history to conquer the nations and Psalm 3 called upon God to break the teeth of his enemies, Psalm 4 will give us a picture of how Christians should speak to their enemies.

Psalm 4 should likely be paired with Psalm 3, with the 3rd Psalm used as a morning prayer and the 4th as a prayer to end the day (it is quoted during evening prayer in the Book of Common Prayer). Both Psalms presuppose the Christian is surrounded by enemies who have no regard for the word nor the glory of the Lord, and so they refuse to honor Christ, God's King.

How the Psalm is Organized and Some Observations

V. 1 - Calling Upon God

• David bases his present prayers on God's past faithfulness. God had answered his prayers before, so David called upon him again to be gracious to him and hear his prayer.

V. 2-5 - Speaking to Those Who Hate the Word of God

David now speaks to his persecutors, to his enemies, and gives us a model for speaking to our enemies:

• He names their fundamental sin: They deride what he glories in. They reject what he honors. David has told us in chapter 3 that the Lord is his honor and glory. He has told us that his delight and glory are in the law of God. These people reject the glory of the Lord; they treat what is most honorable with shame—calling what is good and what is evil good.

• He again declares God's promises and the authority of God's king. God sets the godly apart. Those who trust in God are made holy by God. He hears their prayers. He cares for them and protects them. God's authority and his covenant grace are the central message of David's response to the rebellion of his enemies.

• In the light of this grace, he offers wise and godly counsel to his enemies: Cease your rebellion against God. "Be angry" acknowledges what is plain: you do not like the authority of God. You do not like the kindness of God towards me. But instead of that anger leading you further into sin and, therefore, destruction, consider it. Consider the folly of your anger at God at the rejection of his word and his king. God's authority and law make you angry, but instead of continuing your sin, take a break. Lay down. Consider these things in the silence of your bed. Reflect on the good authority of God. Reflect on his grace towards those who are his.

V. 6-8 - Godly Counsel rejected, God's King refused, yet God's people delight in God's favor and rest in his promises.

• David's enemies' response is to question God's goodness. "Who will show us some good?" explicitly denies the excellent counsel just given them.

• David then prays the blessing of Numbers 6:26 - a blessing of grace and glory - that God would show his face to God's people. In front of God's enemies and their continued rebellion against Him and His word, David asks that God's people would see again, in God's acts on their behalf the faithfulness and glory of God. This is not simply a prayer for the defeat of his enemies, but something more - namely, that God would be seen and known as *their God* and as gloriously faithful to them. This is seen especially in the joy of God's people, not merely in abundant crops and good wine, but in the peace that comes in God's saving grace towards his people - protecting and revealing himself to them.

• -The Psalm ends with a simple act of faith: God's people, fully trusting in the provision of God over their enemies, can sleep safely, for it is God who keeps them safe.

Living in the Light of this Psalm

We should not be surprised when the ways of God are dishonored and mocked. We should not be surprised that we have real enemies who do not love and trust the words of God. But how do we respond to these enemies? Jesus commands us to love our enemies, and this Psalm shows one fundamental way we are to do so. It is not by softening the hard edges of God's word. It is not by trying to find common ground. It is by doubling down on the promises and goodness of God. It is by reasserting God's great authority and holiness, pointing out the folly of man's anger in the face of this authority, and then giving counsel: Stop sinning. Stop your rebellion. Consider the holiness of God, the authority of God, and the grace of God. Be silent and consider these things again. Repent of your sins. Take refuge in the God who reigns and keeps his promises to bless his people and forgive their sins.

The Psalm does not give us a grand picture of God's enemies turning from their rebellion and listening to such counsel. The counsel is discarded as soon as it is provided. But the Psalm teaches us how to live in such times as ours - when God's law is mocked and rejected when God's king Jesus is derided and his ways abandoned and castigated as hateful, arrogant, or worse. It calls God's people to pray for deliverance, to stand faithfully and joyfully in the truth, calling for the repentance and salvation of these same enemies, and for God's people to find peace and rest in the promises of God, given to us in Christ - that he will, indeed rule all the nations, bless all who take refuge in him, and in the end silence his enemies.

Psalm 3 - Enemies Surround Us, Whether You See It or Not

The Broader Psalm

One of the first things one notices when a church begins to reclaim the Psalms in Christian worship is how much language of warfare and judgment are in them. They assume a world that feels far different from the one we've been taught to believe we live in, where everybody should get along. When our church began singing through various Psalms, we started hearing from people almost immediately that our singing had become far too martial - too much talk of fighting and warfare and enemies. This wasn't because we started looking for music that emphasized this in particular; instead, this theme comes up almost everywhere when one begins to sing across the whole of the Psalms. It is one of the primary reasons churches avoid singing the Psalms or only do so with a great deal of selectivity. The Psalms position the people of God in a very different place in the world than the one we most want to be in. We don't like the *place* the Bible puts us with those around us. We've come to believe what I heard an evangelical pastor say recently, "We don't have any enemies!"

It is important to remember that the Psalms don't just give us prayers for specific circumstances in which we may find ourselves. They also describe our circumstances, which is helpful, especially when we're too blind to recognize our situation. We don't come to Psalm 3 and file it in the folder labeled: "If you ever happen to find yourself surrounded by enemies..." We come to Psalm 3 and find a world in which those who love God absolutely *do* have actual flesh-and-blood enemies, whether we acknowledge it or not. This is the world that the Bible describes; therefore, it is the world we live in. This is hard to accept for Christians taught to be blind to the pervasiveness of friend and enemy language running the whole length of the Bible.

But Christians are commanded to hate evil. We are told to oppose the wicked. And God does not define 'evil' and 'wicked' the ways that our society does. The enemies of God are not only Hamas or some distant element. While the difficult command of Jesus is to "love your enemies," we do not know the difficulty of this command because we've never identified our enemies the way God does. All who love and celebrate sin, defined by opposition to the Word of God, are evil. These are the wicked. These are your enemies. Secularism has taught us to think of the world as filled with the possibility of neutrality: Some love the Word of God, some hate the Word of God, and some are neutral. The Bible says there are only two kinds of people in the world: Those who love the Word of God and those who hate the Word of God. You must be friends of one and enemies of the other. The only distinction is faith and where that faith lies.

Observations from the Psalm

- The notes for this Psalm tell us that David wrote Psalm 3 when he was fleeing from his son Absalom, who had cunningly turned many Israelites against David and was coming after his throne. David was being pursued *again*, but this time, his central enemy was from within his own household. The enemies in view include Absalom, David's own son. And with that, we see that our problems with reading, let alone learning to pray and sing Psalms like this, only get worse, not easier. Here is a friend-enemy distinction that lies between a father and a son. The words of Jesus from the gospels, "...a man's enemies will be in his own household..." (Matthew 10:36). Loyalty to Christ supersedes all other loyalties.

- Verse 2 shows us the fundamental claim of the enemies of God's people: God's salvation is not coming. God's salvation is not true. There is no real salvation there. Salvation not as a sort of other-worldly disembodied hope but salvation as the total weight of God's blessing and grace towards his people.

- Faith sees God's promises as a shield. Faith makes it possible for God's people to sleep when their situation seems dire. Faith can keep fear at bay. Faith calls upon God to fight against the wicked.

- We are instructed to call upon God to break the teeth of the wicked - this is asking God to shatter their strength to harm and devour. It acknowledges their ability and desire to hurt and consume and asks for God's mercy to break their ability to do so. The enemies of God and God's people are not simply making independent life choices different from yours. Their opposition is to the ways of God and, therefore, to all those who live under the ways of God.

Applying the Psalm

The enemies of God's people are not far off. In many seasons and times, including our own, they surround God's people. They do not sit passively by, simply wanting to be left alone. They have teeth. They want the end of any semblance of God's law at work in a community and at work in society. Millions of dollars are being spent by the pornography industry. Thousands of children are murdered in the womb each year, and laws are weaponized in our state to blind us to this and protect this as a "right." Narratives seeking to redefine justice, reframe history, and enslave God's people to a law that is not God's are put forward on billboards, in movies, in DEI offices, and on your Facebook feed. If we had eyes to see, we'd know that we are surrounded. The temptation is to either capitulate or to lash out in fear. The allure of Christians in an age like ours is to either get along with the evil that surrounds us or merely become the opposite of the evil that threatens us. But the Psalms teach us to pray. Jesus instructs us to love these enemies. We pray that God might break their teeth. We love the ones we can rightly name as wicked and enemies of God. If you love the Lord, you have enemies. So sing.

Psalm 2

A Timely Introduction

There is a lot of online noise right now about a thing called *Christian Nationalism* - Its hard to fully outline the debate as the term means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It began as a term of derision, has been defined several different ways by several different proponents and defined rather differently by its detractors. What's immediately relevant as we consider Psalm 2 is the assumptions underlying much stated opposition to *Christian Nationalism* and frankly some wrong-headed assumptions that undergirds much Christian thinking in our own day. That is the assumption of neutrality - that its possible, whether we're talking about politics or social issues or economics or theology or morality. There is a terrible lie that things can be good and righteous, bad and unrighteous, or religiously neutral - things that don't have much of anything to do with God. Much of what has shaped our modern Christianity has been built on a myth that the Bible dispels completely and this Psalm destroys -namely that anything in this world or our lives is neutral, is not decisively under the authority of Jesus Christ. How that all works is what makes some of the *Christian Nationalism* debate interesting - whether one uses the term or not. What no Christian should be unsure of is what is entailed in the confession that Jesus is Lord - which is the basic confession of the Christian Faith. Let's look now at Psalm 2 and let it reshape our understanding of well, everything....

Psalm 2
Why do the heathen nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of 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."
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel."
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.

1 - Seeing the Whole Psalm

This Psalm raises a question with a whole accounting of history and our present day inside of it. Here are nations - not just individuals, but whole cultures plotting, raging against their service to God and his King. And they find some sense of unity in this rebellion - taking counsel together. The Psalmist asks why they do this - this vain thing. Here is the regular pattern in history - the peoples, the cultures, the nations conspire to cast off the rule of Christ over them. The Psalm is built on an idea central to the whole of Scripture - God is the world's king. He rules over all the nations of the earth. He is not merely Lord and King to particular individuals who choose a particular religious identity. His claims are total - over every tongue, tribe and nation. But his reign is embodied. The Psalm points to a historic fulfillment in the reign of Jesus the Messiah over those nations. They are given to him as a possession. But at the heart of this text is an antithesis - the antithesis as it plays out across history and among the nations of the earth. All peoples are subject to God and his law and these peoples conspire together to be free of God and his law.

But the Psalm also moves historically. The nations rage, God laughs and then establishes his king in Zion. The nations are given to him to conquer and then the nations are exhorted. This is the whole of history compressed into a handful of verses. Christ has come, Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ has been exalted to the right hand of the Father where he reigns over all the nations of the earth - All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him and his witnesses have been sent to all the nations to baptize them - to bring them to confess that Jesus is Lord and to bow the knee to this king.

2 - Observations of the Psalm

- All the nations are conspiring against God and against his king - billions of dollars, the full weight of the media and military all put to use by the most worldly minds available to them. They seek to corrupt, to undermine, to persecute, to ostracize and to put to death God, his king and his people. What is God's reaction? Laughter. Superimpose this Psalm onto the hill of Golgotha and the crucifixion of Jesus. The Supreme Political power of Jesus' day conspires together with the religious might of Jerusalem - to put to death God's king to escape his rule. What do we hear from God at this moment? We hear a sound we could hardly expect: We hear laughter. God laughs in the face of all of it. He holds all these impressive powers in derision. He is no respecter of man's pompousness.

- Fear is a non-negotiable aspect of faithful Christian believing. We delight in the Son, but we also tremble before the Son. We serve and rejoice in the Son, but we also fear the Son. Christianity does not turn us into casual worshippers. Faith in Christ brings us to the brink of weighty glory and holiness and teaches us to rejoice in it.

- God's answer to the rebellion of the nations is to reassert his authority and the authority that belongs to Christ. Christ reigns over all the nations. He laughs at their insolence and puts his king right in the midst of those rebellious nations.

- The Psalm ends with a promise and a warning. The promise is to Christ - all the ends of the earth will belong to him, the rebellion of the nations will be dashed to pieces. Rulers who refuse to acknowledge his authority, to believe his authority to submit to his authority will be dashed to pieces. The warning is to those same rulers - that they must do three things: 1) Serve the Lord with gladness, 2) Kiss the Son - showing reverence and affection, and 3) take refuge in God. Here is the gospel in reverse: We take refuge in God - turning to him, seeking God's mercy - we kiss the Son, we love the Son, we honor the Son and then 3) Serve the Son gladly. Here is no embittered servitude, but happy submission to God.

- Notice the responses of the repentant - the Psalmist puts together things we have a hard time holding together: Rejoicing and trembling. Affection and submission. The worship of the Lord grants a fullness of life and experience that cannot be reduced to one emotional experience. It is joy, refuge, fear, service, worship all together.

3 - Applying and Praying the Psalm

- Do not underestimate the hostility of the world around us to the rule of God.

- Do not underestimate the authority of Jesus over the world.

- Take hope in the view of God as he beholds the nations' blasphemies - Our world looks insane, gathered together in rebellion against God. God is not worried. God is not frustrated by the nations. God laughs at their insolence. He does not view them as a viable threat to his authority. Do not be afraid.

- Do not underestimate the promises of God for the world- more particularly his promise of the world for Jesus. The Scriptures do not tell us that God intends to save a few folks from the nations to heaven. They declare - this Psalm declares that the nations belong to God now and that every ruler in rebellion against him will be cast down and all the nations will belong to Jesus.

- Hear the good news: God opposes the proud, but shows mercy to all those who take refuge in him. Confess and believe that Jesus is Lord. Kiss the Son. Love the Son. Delight in the Son. Finally, serve the Son - obey his commands with gladness. And learn to laugh - to laugh with your Father who laughs in the face of all who stand against him.

Psalm 1: The Blessed Man and The Law of God

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law, he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

1 - Setting up How to See and Pray the Psalm (Background)

This Psalm is an interesting one in that it is a wisdom Psalm. It sets out to tell us something about how the world is rather than being a straightforward prayer. It isn’t designed primarily around praise or petition (wherein we ask God to do particular things). It is here to teach us about the world and how to live in it. All the Psalms do this implicitly while doing other things, but Psalm 1 does it explicitly. It is fascinating, too, that this is the Psalm chosen to open this whole book of songs. It sets out a paradigm for this collection of songs, namely, to delight in and meditate on the Law of God. The Psalms are how God’s people set their minds on God’s words - applied in myriad ways. When we come to other Psalms, we find ourselves learning how to speak in the presence of God, but Psalm 1 establishes the world in which that sort of prayer or song takes place.
Which is an important point in and of itself. This isn’t describing some idealized world or Christianized version of the world we should seek to live in; rather, it describes the world everybody lives in - whether they believe it or not. When the Psalmist opens by declaring a blessing on a man who does certain things and doesn’t do other things, he isn’t wishing for that blessing but simply stating a fact about the world that God has made. This is the blessed man. This is what a blessed man does and doesn’t do. We tend to live in a world where we pretend to be little gods, deciding what sort of world we live in for ourselves and describing the blessings we want and don’t want. But the wisdom of the bible is to describe the world as it actually exists - and you can either conform to that wisdom or rebel against it - but we don’t get to change how the world actually *is.*

2 - Observations

Notice the progression in the first section of this psalm: The blessed man doesn’t walk, stand, or sit with the ungodly. The Psalm begins by establishing an antithesis in the behavior of the one who is blessed and the life of those who disregard or scoff at the Law of God. This flies in the face of how we moderns tend to view the world. We do not add Christianity as a supplement to how we live - say we generally accept how a secular culture sees the world, simply tacking on a bit about grace and sexuality and maybe kindness. The Law of God speaks to all of life and is a claim to all aspects of our life in the world. Here is a loyalty to God and his word that sets us apart from what is accepted as usual ways of living by the world. What is the *way* of your living? It is speaking in a very general way about every single part of our lives - not merely some religious aspect of life, but every part of it. Marriage, children, work, worship, other relationships, politics, leadership - there isn’t any part of life outside the scope of what Psalm 1 is about.
It’s also crucial to see that it only offers us two options. There is the wicked and the godly. There is no neutral way of being in the world. We don’t like this. In every area of life, there is a way that accords with godliness, and there is a way that is wicked or ungodly. There is a way that will lead to life and flourishing and fruitfulness (in its season), and there is a way that leads to perishing and being blown away like chaff.

One more observation before we look at the critical distinction in the Psalm - the way the Psalmist uses the language of knowing and judgment in verses 5 & 6. God knows the course of the righteous. This isn’t merely a kind of cognitive awareness - this is covenantal language. The righteous ones belong to God. He keeps them. He protects them. He loves them. The alternative to this knowing is to perish, to face destruction. The contrast is between those who will be unable to stand before God the judge and those who not only can stand before God the judge but are also known by Him - they are his.

So what marks these two very different sorts of lives: The unblessed man, or the wicked man, is the one who lives according to the counsel or the wisdom of the ungodly. He is the one who lives in the way of those who have rejected God’s law, who do not do what God says, who do not believe what God says, and who do not recognize God’s authority. The blessed man is the one who meditates on the law of God and delights in the law of God. One learns how to understand life and wisdom and marriage and sex and politics and money and friendships from those who disregard what God has said to us in his law, and the other learns these things from God himself through His law.

One will know only fruitless destruction and judgment. The other will know life and fruitfulness and will be known by God.

3 - Applications, or How to Live in the Light of this Psalm

The most obvious thing this Psalm leads us to do is to meditate on God’s words. To learn to love and trust and obey God’s words. But we must do so as those seeking to see everything in our lives and the world through the lens of God’s law. There is no arena where what God teaches us there is not relevant. It offers us wisdom in all of life, our business dealings, civic issues, social issues, and our worship among God’s people. Do not let any part of your life be siloed from the instruction of God. You should seek the Lord’s counsel - from his word in every difficulty, relationship, and business deal. Parents’ do not let any part of your children’s lives be siloed from the instruction of God - their education should be saturated with God’s law, and your home should be rooted in God’s book. May your life be planted by this stream of water and bear the fruit that such a life is promised to return.

Next week, we’ll consider Psalm 2. But for the remainder of this week, I want to encourage you to read this Psalm, pray this Psalm, and memorize this Psalm.

Introduction to Reflections on the Psalms

One of the more remarkable claims made in Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith is this:

"The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture..."

The phrase in this perhaps most neglected in our day is the "...an life" - a phrase repeated in the chapter's discussion of what the Scriptures are good for. In other words, the Bible sets out what is necessary to know in all things. This is a universal claim. It applies not only to piety, to some religious sphere, but to worship, work, parenting, and politics - to everything under the sun. In the church we have, for too long neglected the Psalms as a songbook and an instruction manual. There is a whole world in these prayers and songs that the church has simply ignored. To sing all the Psalms in the gathered worship of the church does more than simply provide an emotional outlet for God's people (which is what, it seems, we've made worship to be), it is instruction in how to think and act in the world in addition to singing the songs God has instructed us to sing.

At Trinity our hope is to reclaim the Psalms as a songbook for the church in our gathered worship, and we also want to understand what it is we are singing. The Psalms regularly conflict with our assumptions about how the world works and our place in it. The Psalms regularly conflict with our assumptions about what God is up to in our lives and in the world. Therefore we should sing them, and we should think about what we're singing. To that end, not only will we continue to sing the Psalms on Sundays when we gather, but we are going to offer weekly reflections on the Psalms and encourage you to spend time each week reading through and observing what the Psalms actually say. The hope is that our singing on Sundays will be filled with clear thinking about the words God has given us to sing.

Each week we'll be posting a reflection on a single Psalm here. We'll have a written blog, a video and a podcast episode. We'll post these on Mondays starting with Psalm 1. The goal is that you'd spend that week reflecting on the Psalm we post about and we'll be trying to sing those Psalms in worship when we can. Our hope is that the Spirit of God would be building in us a faith that trusts these songs and prayers and that he might teach us to believe every word of them and obey every word of them. God has been kind to give us this song book, not leaving us to our own whims in worship, but graciously calling us to worship Him and to show us how to worship Him.

We'll see you here every Monday, and feel free to share these posts and talk about them with your family, your roommates and others in the church.