Psalm 122:1-9

... 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.

Psalm 122:1-9[1]

A Song of Ascent of David.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”[2]

Our feet shall stand within your gates, O Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together.  There the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony[3] of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord: for there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  They shall prosper that love you.  Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.  Because of my brothers and companions’ sakes, I will now say, “Peace [be] within you.”  Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.[4]

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[1] When David became the king of the Jews, Israel was still a divided nation, Jerusalem was still a Jebusite stronghold, and the Sh^ekinah with His Ark still abode with the Philistines (2 Samuel 5 and 6).  The “Joseph Tribes”, later to become the Northern Kingdom (Israel proper) were united behind the remaining tatters of Saul’s kingdom; these were sharply divided from the “Judah Tribes”, later to become the Southern Kingdom (Judea proper), united behind David.  So the ascent of David calls to mind the solidarity and unity of Israel as a single kingdom, of the defeat of the Jebusites, and the return of God with the Ark to restore the Theocracy.  Even though the Theocracy was earlier rejected by Israel (1 Samuel 8:7), David acknowledges here, that Yahweh is the rightful King of Israel, while David merely serves at Yahweh’s pleasure as His servant.  This firmly establishes the fact that there is no ordinary earthly monarchy or monarch in the Kingdom of God’s form of government.  This Psalm may be David’s official Todah for the conquest, unification, and return of the Ark.

When David says he “was glad” all of these things are of recent memory, and the house to which he refers is a temporary tabernacle, a tent: for The Tabernacle of Moses, which was stationed at Shiloh, has long been abandoned and fallen to ruins (1 Samuel 4:3-4; Psalm 78:60).

For David, Jerusalem is the kingdom of God on earth, a perfect picture of the heavenly city (Revelation 21 and 22).  It is important to note that this city is not ruled by a king, but by kings (Revelation 4:4) ruling from thrones.  The Church is “built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20).”

The content of the prayer for Jerusalem follows the leading sentence.  Jerusalem, we pray, will be in reality the perfect picture of the heavenly city, especially in its peace.  The words jeru + salem mean the city or the foundation of peace.  In actuality this peace has been realized through much bloodshed, principally the Crucifixion of Christ.

[2] Psalm 118:24

[3] The Most Holy Place, the Holy Place, the Oracle, the inner room of the Tabernacle and Temple where Yahweh’s throne resided, from which Yahweh ruled in mercy over Israel, and from which Yahweh spoke to Israel.  This is the place where Yahweh usually dwelled in the form of the Sh^ekinah.  Today the Sh^ekinah dwells within believers everywhere.  From this place, God ruled over Israel from 1446 until 586, a span of 860 years.  The cause of the termination of Israel’s Theocracy was Israel’s unbridled sin.  The Sh^ekinah at last returned around 4 BC in the person of Christ, and at His ascension was bestowed upon the whole Church on the day of Pentecost in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

[4] 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.

Psalm 121:1-8

... 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.

Psalm 121:1-8[1]

A Song of Ascent.

I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where my help comes.

My help [comes] from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer your foot to be moved.  He Who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He Who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord [is] your keeper.  The Lord [is] your shade on your right hand.

The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.  He shall preserve your soul.

The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forever.[2]

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[1] This beautiful antiphonal Psalm joyously anticipates the coming of Jesus Christ to save His people.  We have emphasized the separation of calls from responses by indentation.

The singers see the king commanding His power of creation from the hilltops.  He is sleepless in His protection of His nation, the true Israel of God.  As with the Sh^ekinah for Moses and the people in the wilderness, He is their light by night and their shade by day.  He will come to protect and preserve them eternally.  In the heavenly city there will be no night (Revelation 22:5).

We may visualize groups of singers singing these lines back and forth between them: as they make the climb from Jericho to Jerusalem; as they mount the steps of the second temple; as they congregate for worship.  Every church should have two choirs, so they can duplicate this joyous throng.

[2] 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.

Psalm 92:1-15 rA

... 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.

Psalm 92:1-15[1]

A Psalm [or] Song for the Sabbath day.

[It is] good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name, Most High, to show forth Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night, on an instrument of ten strings, and on the psaltery; on the harp with a solemn sound: for You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work.  I will triumph in the works of Your hands.

Lord, how great are Your works!  Your thoughts are very deep.  A brutish man knows not; Nor understands a fool.  When the wicked sprout like grass.  When all the workers of iniquity flourish: so that they shall be destroyed forever.  But You, Lord, [are most] high forever: for, lo, Your enemies, Lord, for, lo, Your enemies shall perish.  All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

But my horn[2] shall You exalt like a monarch.[3]  I shall be Christened with fresh oil.  My eye also shall see [my desire] on my enemies.  My ears shall hear [my desire] on the wicked, who rise up against me.

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree.  He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.  Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.  They shall be fat[4] and flourishing: to show that the Lord [is] upright.  [He is] my rock, and [there is] no unrighteousness in Him. [5]

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[1]This Psalm is prophetic ballad exalting the king for His lovingkindness as displayed in His kingly works.  In this case, the king being exalted is Jesus; His kingdom is The Church.  Jesus is the One Who brings the Sabbath, or Rest, of and from God the Father.  This is considered to be a Psalm of the Incarnation.

Chief among Yahweh’s works, are His thoughts, which is a direct reference to God’ Law, the container of God’s expressed thoughts.  It is chiefly the Law that communicates the lovingkindness of God.  However, the Law also distinguishes those who cry for mercy from those who do not….  In the latter case, the Law condemns the foolish and wicked, bringing about their everlasting destruction and dispersion.  How ironic then that God should need to punish His people in diaspora (dispersion).

King Jesus is seen as rising above the defeat of Israel in 722 BC and the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC to be exalted as King of the Universe.

The reference to flourishing growth calls to mind the majesty of His Incarnation, and the ongoing growth of His Church.  In a very real sense the growth of The Church is a direct extension of Christ’s Incarnation.  “God became flesh, so than man could become god.”  As each new believer is baptized by the Holy Ghost, he or she is joined organically to Jesus, forming His body as living stones being “built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20-22).”  As Jesus flourishes in our hearts, even so we flourish, living fruitful and productive lives in old age.  The result is a growing, immovable, and indestructible kingdom (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45).

[2] In the poetry of Scripture, kingdoms are often described as animals; the kings of those kingdoms as horns.  Perhaps, there are two reasons for this: 1. the horns are lifted up or exalted as a king is exalted; 2. the horns are used to fight, and one of a king's jobs is to fight for his people.  A unicorn is a kingdom with only one horn.

Horns are symbols of power and majesty.  They are symbols, not signs: a sign has no power.  A horn can actually be employed as a weapon, and thus display power: hence, it is a symbol of power.  Horns make an animal stand out above his fellows in beauty, and thus display beauty and majesty: hence, it is a symbol of majesty.  We commonly note, “Look at that majestic twelve point buck.”  This is a symbol to us, but by these horns, the buck rules the forest, and dominates the herd.  When we attempt to see Jesus, do we truly see power and majesty?

[3] Literally, “like a unicorn”, Jesus Christ, together with the lesser kings of Judea, are like monarchs, but they are not monarchs, and Judea is not a monarchy.  Both Judea and its continuing kingdom, The Church, are Theocracies.  Judea and The Church both have one king, but He is a Shepherd King, not an autocrat.  The Shepherd King always rules in the fear of God the Father, hence it is not possible for Him to be a monarch.  In 586 BC Judea ceased to be a Theocracy.  In 33 AD The Church was instituted as a Theocracy, when her first and only King, Jesus Christ was seated on the throne of David, by His resurrection from the dead, and proclaimed by the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.  If Jesus cannot ever be a monarch, then neither can popes, hierarchs, magistrates, or human kings ever be monarchs.  We would do well to remember this if we are ever elevated to any office.  Offices are places of humiliation and servitude, they merely appear to be places of rule.  The true officer must see himself as descending to serve in the fear of God, and not as ascending to reign without God.

[4] Fat is not fleshly fatness, but rather the certainty of the fullness of the Holy Ghost.

[5] 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.

Psalm 91:1-16

... 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.

Psalm 91:1-16[1]

He who dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God.  I will trust in Him.”

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, from the noisome pestilence.  He shall cover you with His feathers.  You shall trust under His wings.  His truth [is your] shield and buckler.  You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; [nor] for the arrow [that] flies by day;[2] [nor] for the pestilence [that] stalks in darkness; [nor] for the destruction [that] wastes at noonday.  A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand.  It shall not come near you.  Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord, my refuge, the most High, your dwelling.  There shall no evil befall You.  Nor shall any plague come near Your dwelling: For He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You in all Your ways.  They shall bear You up in [their] hands, lest You dash Your foot against a stone.  You shall tread on the lion and adder.  The young lion and the dragon You shall trample underfoot.

Because He has set His love on Me.  Therefore, I will deliver Him.  I will set Him on high, because He has known My name.  He shall call on Me.  I will answer Him.  I [will be] with Him in trouble.  I will deliver Him, and honor Him.  I will satisfy Him with long life, and show Him My salvation.[3]

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[1] This Psalm is frequently cited as the guarantee of a Christian’s survival in combat, which is not what this Psalm teaches at all.  This Psalm is exclusively prophetic of The Temptation of Christ in Matthew 4:6; 4:11 and records details of intimate conversation between Jesus Christ and the Father.  The lengthy title itself indicates what applications may be made for those who are in Christ.  “He who dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty,” whether in life or in death.  Millions of martyrs, especially the Crucifixion of Christ, testify that Christianity is no amulet or talisman to ward off death.  On the contrary, becoming a Christian is a guarantee of persecution and death.  What this Psalm promises is life in resurrection, and no other.

Jesus salutes His Father, Yahweh, in much the same way as champions or gladiators addressed their king before combat.  “We who are about to die, salute you.”  “My refuge and my fortress, my God.  I will trust in Him.”

The next paragraph shows why Jesus, and we in Him, should set aside fear in battle.  Jesus finds His all sufficient protection in Yahweh’s most holy place in heaven, where the ever attendant Cherubim and Seraphim conduct Him through death to the resurrection.  It is not in battle where we are secure, but under His wings, covered with angelic feathers.  Only Jesus is truly invincible, “trampling down death by death.”

Now that the principle of resurrection is established the specific application to Jesus’ battle with Satan is spelled out in greater detail.  “He shall give His angels charge over You….”  Satan is to be defeated, “trampled underfoot.”

In the closing address, Yahweh the Father addresses, Jesus, God the Son.  The Crucifixion and Resurrection are the final battle.  We live in the aftermath of victory.  He is risen!  The Holy Ghost leads us in the mop-up operation, as we look to the glorious consummation proclamation.  He has returned!

[2] Very possibly a reference to the death of Ahab foretold in 1 Kings 22 (see especially verse 34).  The idea would be that Jesus would not be judged as wicked Ahab was judged, by a randomly launched arrow.  It does not indicate that Jesus would not die at the deliberately launched plot of the wicked Jews and Romans.

[3] 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.

Psalm 66:1-20

... 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.

Psalm 66:1-20[1]

To the chief Musician, A Song [or] Psalm.

Make a joyful noise to God, all lands.  Sing forth the honor of His name.  Make His praise glorious.  Say to God,

“How terrifying [are] Your works!  Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.  All the earth shall worship You, and shall sing to You.  They shall sing [to] Your name.”  Consider.

Come and see the works of God.  [He is] terrifying [in His] doing to the children of men.  He turned the sea[2] dry.  They went through the flood[3] on foot.  There we rejoiced in Him.  He rules by His power forever.  His eyes behold the nations.  Let not the rebellious exalt themselves.  Consider.

Bless our God, you people.  Make the voice of His praise heard.  Who holds our soul in life, and lets not our feet be moved: for You, O God, have proved us.  You have tried us, as silver is tried.[4]  You brought us to the net.  You laid affliction on our loins.  You have caused men to ride over our heads.  We went through fire and through water.  But You brought us out to a wealthy [place].

I will go to Your house with burnt offerings.  I will pay my vows, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth has spoken, when I was in trouble.  I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams.  I will offer bulls with goats.  Consider.

Come [and] hear, all who fear God.  I will declare what He has done for my soul.  I cried to Him with my mouth.  He was extolled with my tongue.  If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear [me].  [But] God has certainly heard [me].  He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed [be] God, Who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.[5]

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[1] The argument of this unknown psalmist invites the entire Universe to worship God.  He shows that this will certainly take place, because God’s power is so clearly displayed.  This is not an assertion that might makes right; but rather that righteousness displayed in power does bring justice and righteousness to reality.

For evidence of God’s righteous power, we need look no farther than the historic and miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River.  While modern man in futility searches to deny the facts of this history, the Israelites built their whole nation around it.  Moreover, the psalmist expects his words to be universally received and readily believed by all.  The psalmist’s whole discussion is laid on the firm foundation of these two historic facts.

While it is impossible to be certain of the reference in this paragraph, because of its location in the Psalter (it is a good fit with the Psalms for Korah), and because of the Psalm’s flow of logic; it seems likely that this wraps up all the horror of Assyria’s conquest of the Northern Kingdom, together with Babylon’s conquest of the Southern Kingdom, and looks at both from the perspective of the return around 517 BC.

In the Israelite worldview, having returned to Jerusalem, the primary goal in mind is to resume the bloody sacrifices with their attendant prayers of gratitude and praise.

This next paragraph notes that prayer must come from a pure heart.  This accords very well with the national lessons of repentance learned in Babylon.  It would appear that after 517 pagan idolatry was gone from Judaism.  Since God has heard the psalmist’s prayer, he must be purified.  This is not to say that the psalmist has ceased from sin bodily, nor must we become bodily pure to pray and be used by God.  Rather the purity is that of a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).  God does not look for perfection from His people, but for fear and love.  It is the act of “regard[ing] iniquity in [the] heart” that defiles, rather than accidental stumbling in sin.  The person who “regard[s] iniquity in [the] heart” makes sinning the purpose of life.  The person who does not “regard iniquity in [the] heart” regrets that he has stumbled even once.  This is true holiness; it is not perfect purity.

For all these things, God is indeed blessed.  Chiefest of all God’s displays of righteous power is His mercy for sinners.

[2] The Red or Reed Sea, so named because the reeds are red in color.  The reference is to the crossing with Moses.

[3] The flood stage of the Jordan River.  The reference is to the crossing with Joshua.

[4] Very possibly, a reference to the Babylonian captivity.

[5] 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.

Psalm 90:1-17

... 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.

Psalm 90:1-17[1]

A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place[2] in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You [are] God.  You turn man to destruction, and say, “Return, children of men:” for a thousand years in Your sight [are] as yesterday when it is past, and [as] a watch in the night.  You carry them away as with a flood.  They are [as] a sleep: in the morning like grass grows up.  In the morning it flourishes, and grows up.  In the evening it is cut down, and withers: for we are consumed by Your anger.  We are troubled by Your fury.  You have set our iniquities before You, our secrets in the light of Your countenance: for all our days are passed away in Your fury.

We spend our years as a tale[3] [that is told].  The days of our years [are] seventy years; If by reason of strength [they be] eighty years, yet [is] their strength labor and sorrow: for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Who knows the power of Your anger?  Even according to Your fear, [so is] Your fury.  So teach [us] to number our days, so that we may apply [our] hearts to wisdom.

Return, Lord, how long?  Let it relent concerning Your servants.  Satisfy us early with Your mercy: so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.  Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, the years we have seen evil.  Let Your work appear to Your servants, Your Glory to their children.  And let the beauty of the Lord our God be on us.  Establish the work of our hands on us.  Yes, the work of our hands, establish it.[4]

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[1] Many things are disputed about this Psalm, first of which is that Moses is its author.  Moses’ name is introduced by the usual means indicating authorship: namely, in Hebrew, the letter L, lamed.  If Moses did not write this Psalm directly, it certainly draws intensively upon his meditations and quotes them.  In spite of such objections we take it that Moses actually wrote this Psalm.  The historical setting appears to be found in Numbers 13 through 14, where, with the exceptions of Joshua and Caleb and possibly their families, the Israelites steadfastly refused to believe that Yahweh was able to lead them into the promised land.  We are reminded that Israel is a nation now redeemed (saved) from the slavery of Egypt, established under a gracious Law of love at Sinai, but not yet saved into the promised land, into the heavenly kingdom of God’s eternal rest.  That salvation may or may not be lost is also frequently disputed.  We would argue from Numbers 13 through 14 and this Psalm that salvation cannot be easily lost, for God is faithful.  On the other hand we would also argue that salvation can be cast away by persistent malice and ungratefulness, as these passages prove: for God declares that “they shall not enter into My rest (Numbers 14:20-38; Psalm 95:8-11; Hebrews 3:7-11).”

Most commentaries pass this Psalm off as being primarily about the general brevity of life.  While Moses does have a great deal to say about the general brevity of life, this view appears to miss the point.  This extensive nine verse paragraph, over half of the Psalm, is concerned exclusively with God and His righteous judgment, specifically in death.  So, this Psalm is not about the general brevity of life, ending in death; it is about the judgment of God wherein death is the punishment for sin.  There are multitudes who insist that death is merely the result of sin and not a punishment for it, but we fail to see how this can possibly be true in light of this Psalm, not to mention Numbers 14:20-38, Psalm 95:8-11, and Hebrews 3:7-11.  Nor can this Psalm be concerned with mere human mortality: for all die; but with the sort of mortality that fails to enter into the eternal rest of God.  We favor this view for several reasons: One, the context appears to be the unbelief previously cited.  Two, this paragraph is about judgment.  Three, it would be absurd for Moses to record sentiments about the general brevity of life, which were treasured as great wisdom for many generations, but are obvious to all men without being stated.  Why bother to record, and make a point to treasure, that which all men know: namely, that life is short.  Surely, Moses has something more profound to say here than that life is short.  Four, if Moses means to warn us that life is short, he speaks inaccurately: for many fall outside of the span of seventy to eighty years, at both ends of the spectrum of life.  Our days are not simply “passed away;” they “are passed away in Your fury.”

Moses now directs his attention to a specific prophecy.  Is it that man will live to be roughly seventy or eighty before death?  Not hardly.  How can that be the result of “are passed away in Your fury?”  More likely they connect somehow to the sum of the average age of the unbelieving generation plus the forty years of their wandering until death.  However, that unbelieving generation was twenty years old and up into old age, which hardly adds up to seventy or eighty: for example, Aaron, Miriam, and Moses are already in their eighties and will live a good while longer, as will many others in the Israelite camp.  Even more reasonable is the idea that the deaths of that unbelieving generation was a stern warning to their children to guard their faith with awe and reverence; and a grim prophecy that the kingdom granted by the Law of love at Sinai would also perish in a mere seventy or eighty years.  This is certainly the case: for within fifty years or so Joshua will die, not long afterward that believing generation will all be dead in seventy or eighty years, many of them in their nineties and hundreds in age, and the kingdom of the Law of love will lapse into the instability and uncertainty of Judges, until David arises to restore the kingdom as the Redeemer-Shepherd King, prefiguring Christ.  The lesson is about the frailty of faith.  Within seventy or eighty years the kingdom will be frittered away, just as the unbelieving generation despised the gift of God’s grace.  The message given to, and treasured by ensuing generations is that faith must be zealously guarded and earnestly defended, lest it lapse into oblivion.  It is this profound message that introduces this portion of Psalms as Israel is carried into Babylon for seventy years of punishment in exile.  It is this profound message that shakes us as we ourselves watch Christianity lapse into a sea of nihilism.

Lest we forget, “God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7-10).”  There is a terrible price attached to the neglect of faith.  We are to number our days, not merely because they are brief, but because there is so little time remaining to apply ourselves to God’s wisdom.  Age at death is irrelevant, because judgment comes swiftly, sweeping all away, regardless of age, as in the days of Noah, Lot, Moses, the Judges, the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria, the Babylonian Captivity, and the Last Judgment.  One or one-thousand, all die.  We must number our days because the judgment of God is upon us.  Now is the time to seek mercy, cleansing, pardon, visitation (the presence of God in our lives), healing, filling, blessing, and life.  We only have one chance; this is it.

Based on these firm conclusions Moses prays that faith will prevail.  He sees that affliction serves the purpose of drawing us to Christ: we must take life more seriously than we otherwise would.  We need to see God’s Glory, the Sh^ekinah, and love Him.  This is the only lasting legacy we can find in life (1 Corinthians 3:9-17).  It is not death that we need to fear as much as it is the loss of our legacy in the loss of our faith.  Faith and the kingdom are frail.  Guard them with all your dear life.

[2] Refuge: we find our principle residence in God’s house, in the Heavenly City, the City of God.

[3] Sigh: the play on words between spirit and breath calls to mind that we are more than material beings, we are both body and spirit, stamped with the image of God.  Death is more than the loss of life to the body, it is the separation of the human body and spirit from eternal fellowship with God Himself.  We will all die.  We will all not perish.

[4] 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.

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