Psalm 23:1-6

... 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 23:1-6[1]

A Psalm of David.

The Lord [is] My shepherd.  I shall not want.  He makes Me lie down in green pastures.  He leads Me beside the still waters.  He restores My soul.  He leads Me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.[2]

Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You [are] with Me.  Your rod and Your staff comfort Me.  You prepare a table before Me in the presence of My enemies.  You Christen My head with oil.  My cup runs over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow Me all the days of My life.  I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.[3]

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[1] Everyone’s favorite Psalm opens with the remembrance of Yahweh’s great shepherding leadership.  All of life hangs on this marvelous providence, which supplies everything necessary for both the material (human body or flesh) and the immaterial (the human spirit) aspect of man.  Yahweh focuses great attention on keeping the image of God in man alive.

We are less surprised then, when we learn from David that this same attention for the image of God in man continues after bodily, physical death.  Death is that great specter which haunts us all.  We would do well to ask, “What will happen to our souls, when we can no longer cling to God in faith?”  Faith grows dim, hope fades.  We find the answer to the terrors of death in the death of Christ: for David is writing about Christ’s three day burial in the tomb.  Jesus fears no evil in “the valley of the shadow of death” because the same relationship with Father Yahweh that sustained Him in life, now sustains Him in death.  We are in Him, and in Him we are also led through the valley.  Our human frailty thinks too much of how tightly we cling to God.  Like little children we grasp our earthly father’s hand with such tenacity that we nearly wring his fingers off, yet we forget.  Yahweh’s great shepherding ministry is not dependent on our clinging to Him, although that is not a bad thing to do, but rather in His clinging to us.  We are children, we get distracted, we let go.  God never lets go; the Father’s Faithful shepherding in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, never fails, not even as we weaken in death.  After death, we have new life, and a new home.

[2] The first paragraph centers on the relationship of Yahweh, He with I or me.  The second paragraph changes the verbal focus from the third person to the more intimate second person; the relationship of Yahweh, You with me or I.  In neither case is my relationship with Yahweh ever in view; but always His relationship with me.

[3] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost or share any of them as you wish.

My Path, His Path

I came, at last, to the end of my path.  I had not experienced shame for a long time.  Tonight, I was ashamed of myself for what I had done.  In my misery, I cried out, “Dear God, if there is a God, in heaven, if there is a heaven, help me.”  God heard that prayer of desperation, and blessed it.  He brought me onto a new path, His path.

“Blessed [is the] man who follows not [the] wishes of [the] wicked.  In [the] path of sinners, he stands not.  On the seat of [the] pestilent, he sits not.  But, his will [is] in the law of [the] Lord.  On His law, he meditates day and night.  He is as the tree, having been planted beside the path of waters, who gives his fruit in his time.  His leaf [is] not cast away.  Whatever he shall do follows the good path.

“Not so, the wicked, not so: but [are] like the dust, which the wind casts out from the face of the earth.  Through this, [the] wicked arise not in [the] judgment, nor sinners in [the] wishes of [the] righteous.  Because [the] Lord knows, [the] path of [the] righteous.  [The] path of [the] wicked perishes.”[i]

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[i] Psalm 1

Psalm 116:1-9 and 10-19

Salutation

... 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: Prayer to the Holy Ghost

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.

Psalm 116:1-9 and 10-19[1]

I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice [and] my supplications.  Because He has inclined His ear to me: therefore, I will call on [Him] as long as I live.

The sorrows of death circled me.  The pains of hell gripped me.  I found trouble and sorrow.  Then I called on the name of the Lord.  “Lord, I beseech You, deliver my soul.”

Gracious [is] the Lord, and righteous.  Yes, our God [is] merciful.  The Lord preserves the simple.  I was brought low.  He helped me.

Return to your rest, O my soul: for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you: for You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling.  I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Division 16: Part 3

I believed, therefore I have spoken.  I was greatly afflicted.  I said in my haste, “All men [are] liars.”

What shall I render to the Lord [for] all His benefits to me?  I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.  I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord [is] the death of His saints.

Lord, truly I [am] Your servant.  I [am] Your servant, the son of Your handmaid.  You have released my bonds.  I will offer You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the name of the Lord.  I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the heart of you, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord.

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If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost or share all of them.

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[1] The Greek text of Psalms divides Psalm 116 into two parts between verses 9 and 10.  We believe that this division is correct, that this is really two Psalms: both anonymous and undated.

The psalmist begins with a proclamation of love for God.  He is not claiming that if God doesn’t listen, he refuses to love him: he only loves God because God did him a favor, some sort of heavenly quid quo pro.  What the psalmist boldly announces is that without God’s condescension, he would not be able to love God at all (1 John 4:10).  We would be remiss if we did not see Jesus in this.  Jesus is the ultimate and final Word of condescension from God.  There will not be another such Word.  In Jesus resurrection from the dead we are empowered to enter into prayer that never ends: it is “as long as I live” only because the risen Christ can never die.

The agonies of sin, the realities of mortality, grip the psalmist.  Again his poetry, his hymnology is highly prophetic.  Jesus is the one who leads us through the valley of death (Psalm 23).

Out of our lowliness and brokenness in sin, He helps us, only because He is gracious, righteous, and merciful.  Simple and low are not compliments.

Thus only, we may enter into the eternal Sabbath rest of God.  This alone, is salvation.  This exclusively, is the path of “the land of the living.”

Verse ten may be separate from the previous nine, but it is not unrelated.  The condition of the human race is in total wreckage.  The only reason it is not worse than this, is because God, in His rich mercy, has limited the decline of our race.

The psalmist asks about the will of God for his life (John 6:28).  The answer is that in Christ, God has set a great feast table for the human race.  God excludes no one.  People exclude themselves.  Free clothing, wedding garments are provided, but people are thrown out of the feast for refusing to wear these wonderful garments.  We must come to the feast table and eat and drink freely.  What have we all vowed that we must pay?  We have vowed to love the Law of God.  We are incapable of obeying it.  But in Christ we enter into His perfect obedience: we share His life.  What we cannot do, He does within us.  While we fail miserably under the Law, in Jesus we build most magnificently upon the Law.  “God became man, so that man might become God.”

The next verse seems horribly out of place until we consider that the death of Christ on the cross, “tramples down death by death.”  Through His death, “death has lost its sting, the grave is swallowed up in victory, mortality is turned to life.”  Death, which formerly indicated the great poverty of man, is now made of great value, it is precious.

Now Jesus takes the bread and the cup.  He is the Servant of God, par excellence.  He is the Son of Mary, the handmaid of God, the Virgin.  He prepares the Feast Table and eats and drinks from it.  He breaks the bonds of man.  He is thankful to God, and offers the High Priestly prayer for us all.  He is the lover of God’s Law.  These things He did in Jerusalem, on Zion, in the Temple Courts.  Then He went out to die.

Psalm 49:1-20

Salutation

... 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: Prayer to the Holy Ghost

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.

Psalm 49:1-20[i]

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

Hear this, all people.  Give ear, all inhabitants of the world: both low and high, rich and poor, together.  My mouth shall speak of wisdom.  The meditation of my heart [shall be] of understanding.  I will incline my ear to a parable.  I will open my dark saying on the harp.  Why should I fear in the days of evil, [when] the iniquity of my heels shall circle about me?  Those who trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the abundance of their riches, none can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him: for the redemption of their soul [is] precious, It ceases forever: so that he should live forever, [and] not see corruption.

For he sees wise men die, Likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.  Their inward thought [is], [that] their houses [shall continue] forever, [and] their dwelling places to all generations.  They call lands after their own names.  Nevertheless, man in honor abides not.  He is like the beasts [that] perish.  This their way [is] their folly.  Yet their posterity approve their sayings.  Consider.

Like sheep they are laid in the grave.  Death shall feed on them.  The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.  Their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.  But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for He shall receive me.  Consider.

Be not afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased: for when he dies he shall carry nothing away.  His glory shall not descend after him: though while he lived he blessed his soul.  Men will praise you, when you do well for yourself.

He shall go to the generation of his fathers.  They shall never see light.  Man in honor, understands not.  He is like the beasts [that] perish.

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[i] Long before Scrooge was ever written, the sons of Korah made the point in Psalms.  The person ensnared in his own wealth is neither fit nor ready to receive the Christ Child.  “The iniquity at [His] heels,” refers to the prophecy that the Christ Child came to wound the head of Satan.  The path to eternal life without corruption, lies in forsaking the wealth of this world, so that one may receive the wealth of the next world.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”  The Christ Child came in poverty: so that we could receive His riches, the riches of His Glory.

Oklahoma Tragedy, May, 2013

Oklahoma Tragedy, May, 2013

 

Among the more thoughtless and cruel questions asked at a tragic time like this is, “Where is your God now?”  The foolishness of the question rests in the silly idea that those who so tragically died were also atheists.  Here is my answer:

He is walking among the dead holding their hands, and they are holding His.  The same God, Who walked in the fiery furnace with the three children, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (aka Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) walks with His dead today.  It makes no difference to us whether we live or die, even in the fiery furnace; He is always with us in life and in death.  To Him, death and life are the same; it’s just a change of residence for us.  Darkness is as bright as sunlight to Him.

God has called us, the living Christians to suffer.  It is foolish to believe that the dead in Christ must suffer any longer.  It is we who are left behind, who must continue to suffer.  As the Psalmist writes:

“I believed, therefore have I spoken.  I was greatly afflicted.  I said in my haste, ‘All men [are] liars.’  What shall I render to the Lord [for] all His benefits to me?  I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.  I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord [is] the death of His saints.  O Lord, truly I [am] Your servant; I [am] Your servant, [and] the son of Your handmaid: You have released my bonds.

“I will offer You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the name of the Lord.  I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people.  In the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

“Praise the Lord.” — Psalm 116:10-19