... 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.
[A Psalm] of
David.
The Lord [is] my light and my salvation[2]. Whom shall I fear? The Lord [is] the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, my enemies and my foes,
came on me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an army should besiege me, my heart
shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this I [am] confident.
One [thing]
have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple: for in the time of trouble He shall
hide me in His pavilion. In the secret
of His tabernacle He shall hide me. He
shall set me up on a rock. Now my head shall
be lifted up above my enemies round about me.
Therefore, I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle. I will sing, Yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.[3]
Hear, Lord, [when] I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me. [When You
said], “Seek My face.” My heart said
to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”[4] Hide not Your face from me. Put not Your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Leave me not, nor forsake me, O God of my
salvation. When my father and my mother
forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach me Your way, Lord, Lead me in a plain path, because of my enemies. Deliver me not over to the will of my
enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out
cruelty.
[I
had fainted], unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.[5] Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, He shall strengthen your
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.[6]
[1] The
introductory sentence of this Psalm shows that Yahweh is David’s entire
confidence for life: his light, his rescue from foes (salvation), his comfort
from fear, and his real source of strength.
He draws the only reasonable conclusion, “Of whom shall
I be afraid?”
Now he recites a brief review of the means by which Yahweh has
protected him.
This is followed by a list of David’s main priorities, and the
most important items on his prayer list.
Nothing is more important to David than being near the Presence of God,
the Shekinah and spending time with Him. David sees his earthly battles from the
perspective of God’s throne, the ark. David
is preaching. Would to God that each and
every one of us would gain such a love and perspective that we could begin to
see the world from God’s point of view.
His prayer is delivered from this foundation. He begs for God’s mercy and expects to find
it in God’s face. He sees God as his
eternal Father, and asks for instruction in the Law, “Your way,
Lord.”
David concludes with a message for the congregation. Without God, he expected to die. The people should also look to God for
strength and courage.
[2] Salvation
both in the local sense and in the eternal sense. Yahweh saves David from his many enemies:
Saul, Philistia, Edom, etc. But this
physical salvation continues throughout life, past death, and on into eternity.
[3] David
understands his own suffering as he prophetically observes it through the
persecution and suffering of his great Son, Jesus. We take these words for granted, but in David’s
day the ark of God was in exile among the Philistines. That wasn’t much comfort to the Philistines:
for the Glory of God that rode on the ark was a constant source of
trouble. The Philistines expected a
fetish, like their own idols. They did
not expect to deal with the Living God, Who knocked down their idols and struck
the people with diseases, so that they might repent.
David received the return of the ark with great turmoil: it
cost several lives, he had no place to put it, there was no grand temple, and
the tabernacle of Moses had crumbled to dust at Shiloh. With great difficulty and personal expense,
David acquired the top of the mountain, Sion, and set up a temporary tent for
God’s Glory to reside, with His principal piece of furniture, the ark.
David loved to walk around this ark praying. He would rather be in this tent talking with
the Glory of God than be in his own house.
He would just sit in silence and stare at the beauty of God’s Glory and
dream of the day when he would live forever in His presence. All the power of David’s kingdom derived from
this Glory. In this humble tent, before
the ark, in the presence of God’s Glory, David loved to sing. We take these words for granted. Jesus is this Glory.
[4]
This verse expresses the heart of the Psalm.
Yahweh desires, even commands us to seek His face, not His back. This should be our chiefest hope, joy, love,
and trust; to seek the face of God. When
Moses is allowed to see the back of God he is still being punished for his sin
of striking Christ the second time. In this
act, Moses is the type of the Jews and Gentiles who had Christ stricken without
mercy, in riotous anger, just before His crucifixion.
[5]
Inability to see Yahweh’s face should bring us close to death (fainting,
passing out). The land of the living
(Israel) opposes the land of the dead (Egypt).
David knows that these things are earthly types of heavenly
realities. He expresses the fervent
desire for eternal life in the heavenly kingdom of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost.
[6] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations in
Psalms, please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish.
These meditations are not controlled by
Creative Commons or other licenses, such as: copyright, CC, BY, SA, NC, or ND. They are designed and intended for your free
participation. They were freely
received, and are freely given. No other
permission is required for their use.
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