... in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. Through the prayers of our
holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King,
the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill all things,
Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us
from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy
Immortal, have mercy on us (three times).
Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the
beginning, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? [Who] can show forth all His praise?
Blessed [are] those who keep
judgment, he who does righteousness at all times.
Remember me, Lord, with the favor
[that You bear for] Your people. Visit me with Your salvation: so that I may
see the good of Your chosen, so that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your
nation, so that I may glory with Your inheritance.
We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not Your wonders in
Egypt. They remembered not the abundance
of Your mercies: but provoked [You]
at the sea, at the Red sea. Nevertheless
He saved them for His name’s sake, so that He might make His mighty power
known. He rebuked the Red sea also. It was dried up. He led them through the depths, as through the
wilderness. He saved them from the hand
of him who hated [them], and redeemed
them from the hand of the enemy. And the
waters covered their enemies. There was
not one of them left.
Then they believed His words. They sang His praise. They soon forgot His works. They waited not for His advice: but lusted
exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. He gave them their request: but sent leanness
to their soul.
They envied Moses also in the camp, [and] Aaron the saint of the Lord. The earth opened and
swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram. And a fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked.
They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped
the molten image. Thus they changed
their Glory to the likeness of an ox that eats grass.
They forgot God their Savior, Who had done
great things in Egypt: wondrous works in the land of Ham, terrifying things by
the Red sea.
Therefore He said that He would destroy
them, had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His
fury, lest He should destroy [them]. Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They believed not His word. But murmured in their tents, [and] listened not to the voice of the Lord. Therefore, He lifted up His
hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness: to overthrow their seed
also among the nations, to scatter them in the lands.
They joined themselves also to Baal Peor,
and ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus
they provoked [Him] to anger with their inventions. The plague broke out on them.
Then stood up Phinehas, and executed
judgment. The plague was stayed. That was counted to him for righteousness to
all generations forever.
They angered [Him] also at the waters of
strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: because they provoked his
spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips.
They destroyed not the nations, concerning
which the Lord commanded them: but were mingled among the heathen, and learned
their works.
They served their idols, which were a snare to
them. They sacrificed their sons and
their daughters to devils, and shed innocent blood,[3]
the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the
idols of Canaan. The land was polluted
with blood. Thus they were defiled with
their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.
Therefore the fury of the Lord was kindled against His people, so that He abhorred His own
inheritance. He gave them to the hand of
the heathen. Those who hated them ruled
over them. Their enemies also oppressed
them, and they were brought to subjection under their hand.
Many times, He delivered them. They provoked [Him] with their advice, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless, He regarded their affliction,
when He heard their cry. He remembered His
covenant with them, and relented according to the abundance of His mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all those
who carried them captive. Save us, O Lord our God. Gather us from
among the heathen, to give thanks to Your holy name, to triumph in Your praise.
Blessed [be] the Lord God of Israel from everlasting
to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen.”
[1] The
Psalm opens with questions that exhort us to find the great and good act of
Yahweh in all of life. What follows is a
three part, carefully constructed litany of Israel’s many failures, reminding
us how God turned every one of these failures to good.
The psalmist now cleanses himself in preparation for the main
prayers. This feature is also rare in Psalms. The psalmist asks that he would be enabled to
see reality the way Yahweh sees reality, so that he could lead all the people
of God to see and understand things the way they really are.
The first part opens with the national confession, “We have sinned.” This should
remain as our national confession, as well as the national confession of
Israelites and Jews today. This is why
the world appears to be in such disastrous turmoil, “We have
sinned.” The psalmist repeats the point
three times for emphasis; he doesn’t want us to miss the main point. The Israelites were already sinning at the
Red Sea (Exodus 14:11-12). The Israelite
claim is that it is better to remain in the service of Satan, demons, and sin
than it is to die. The reality is that
it is better to die than it is to remain in the service of Satan, demons, and
sin.
Gratefulness is short lived. Praise turns to lust. Man is by nature shallow. We want what we want, not what God
wants. Strangely, God often yields to
our childish demands, but at what cost?
By preferring sin over death we do damage to our own souls. Yet, it is only through such leanness that we
eventually learn a better way.
The psalmist specifies three items in God’s rib (Hebrew, reev:
a legal accusation, contention, strife) against Israel. 1. “They envied Moses.” 2. “They made a calf.” 3. “They forgot God.” The outcomes seem more tragic than blessing,
until we remember that, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood (Ephesians
6:12).” God’s battle is involved with the
painful reality of separating His creation, man, from Satan, demons, and sin.
William Cowper’s poem expresses the next reality, “Behind a
frowning providence. He hides a smiling face.”
God’s clearly expressed displeasure exists to induce Moses to
intercessory prayer. This is the great
lesson of part one; we need to learn to pray for each other, especially as we
see evil threaten. Failure in this
matter may explain why The Church is so scattered and in disarray today.
The scene shifts to the battle with Moab (Numbers 25), and we
learn a gory and grisly fact, a fact so horrible that Moses did not record it in
Numbers: “[They] ate the sacrifices of the dead.”
At first glance Phinehas’ actions seem
excessive until those words sink in: “[They] ate the
sacrifices of the dead.” Phinehas is not
acting unilaterally here. This is not
the overthrow of adultery, fornication, idolatry, and murder by yet another
evil murder, as though two wrongs can somehow make a right. “Phinehas … executed judgment.” As the ordained officer of God’s judgment, the
difficult task fell upon him, and he did his duty, whether he relished it or
not. We learn another great lesson from
part two. Sin needs to be resisted, and
we must not be squeamish about it; when the time comes, each of us must man up,
must woman up. Set aside all fear; take our
stand for righteousness sake.
The third part is introduced by the incident when Moses struck
the rock in anger a second time (Numbers 20) which happened earlier. This sinful and unbelieving act of Moses is
the singular reason he was not allowed to enter into the Promised Land.
A litany of Israelite crimes follows. What does the sin of idolatry include? 1. They did not destroy. 2. “They sacrificed their
sons and their daughters to devils.” They
murdered their own innocent children in acts of pagan worship. 3. They worshipped their own inventions. The great lesson of part three is that we
must be very careful how our own behavior may be destructive to our children.
Punishment follows crime as inexorably as night follows
day. If we are oppressed by the wicked,
we usually need not look far for the cause.
The sins of our youth have caught up with us.
The scene shifts again, this time to the period of the judges,
and even beyond to the Assyrian (722) and Babylonian (586) captivities. The concluding prayer is for re-gathering,
which may be the partial experience of the psalmist, possibly around 516
BC. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus;”
and reignite and restore the unity of Your divided, but indivisible Church
(Revelation 22:20).
“Blessed [be] the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to
everlasting. Let all the people say, ‘Amen.’ Praise the Lord.”
[2] The
last phrase echoes the first…. The
penultimate and antepenultimate phrases echo the second and third phrases,
forming an overall chiastic structure, which emphasizes that this is a Psalm of
Praise. Most Psalm headings name the
author and provide musical instruction. Psalms
of Praise have a different style of heading.
Very few Psalms end with a distinct final chorus.
[3] Innocent
in the sense that they had done nothing to cause their being forced into
association with such idolatry, or to be singled out for the death
penalty. It was their parents who were
worthy of the death penalty. The wicked
parents, however, transferred their onus to their own children; just as we
today, are mortgaging our children’s future.
[4] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations in
Psalms, please repost or share any of them as you wish.
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