Category: What does this PSALM sing to you?

Psalms praise the Lord

Psalms is a hymn book, full of praises and pleas of emotion. Share a favorite Psalm and tell us what it means to you. Do you have a link to a contemporary Christian song with a lyric from Psalms? Please share that with us as well. Share a hymns text. PRAISE THE LORD in our Christian Social Witness for Jesus. COMMENT on a verse or an entire Psalm. How does it affect your? (These speak to so many of our daily troubles and God’s availability to His created ones. How does this Psalm sing about Jesus Christ? What is your WITNESS of Christ Jesus to your SOCIAL friends through this Psalm or song? We praise you for your Post and WITNESS for the LORD.

Psalm 34: Like-minded with Peter – 5
We might describe Peter and David as like-minded, that is, men after God’s own heart.

Of course, Psalm 34 is a Psalm of David. So what does this Psalm have to do with a letter from Peter (where we left off previously by asking, ‘Why Submit?’)?

Psalm 34 would have been familiar to first century believers and Peter quotes David’s message as a unifying foundation of hope for these new believers in Christ.

1 Peter 3:

8 Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, 9 not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.

Stick with this short list of characteristics of relationships between believers.
- like-minded
- sympathetic
- love one another
- be compassionate
- be humble
- do not return evil for evil
- never insult
- bless your brother or sister in Christ.
Remember the church’s persecution as exiles and their hope from many familiar stanzas of this Psalm Peter does not even mention. We have much to unpack from Peter’s instruction to the church here.

For now, because he moves on to the Psalm and we most likely lack the familiarity of the first century believers, I will attempt to open the scripture of Psalm 34, returning later to Peter’s letter.

Psalm 34

Introduction to Psalm 34

Charles Spurgeon provides some helpful insight into this Psalm.

Although the gratitude of the psalmist prompted him thankfully to record the goodness of the Lord in vouchsafing an undeserved deliverance, yet he weaves none of the incidents of the escape into the narrative, but dwells only on the grand fact of his being heard in the hour of peril…
David in view of the special peril from which he was rescued, was at great pains with this Psalm, and wrote it with considerable regularity, in almost exact accordance with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
C.H. Spurgeon

Spurgeon also helpfully points out that this Psalm of David divides into two parts: a hymn [vs.1-10] and a sermon [vs.11-22].

Have you ever been in such a situation as David when your life as you know it is at stake? Did you praise the Lord for saving you?

Perhaps this hymn was sung by the persecuted first century church. And maybe the church receiving Peter’s letter already knew well the sermon David preaches. From this context the Apostle’s recalls Psalm 34 in his first letter to the church.

I will bless the Lord at all times

[[A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.]]

לְדָוִ֗ד בְּשַׁנֹּותֹ֣ו אֶת־֭טַעְמֹו לִפְנֵ֣י אֲבִימֶ֑לֶךְ וַֽ֝יְגָרֲשֵׁ֗הוּ וַיֵּלַֽךְ׃ אֲבָרֲכָ֣ה אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה בְּכָל־עֵ֑ת תָּ֝מִ֗יד תְּֽהִלָּתֹ֥ו בְּפִֽי׃
Psalm 34:1 WLC

I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth. – Psalm 34:1 NKJV

Most contemporary Christians know that David was a man after God’s own heart. Certainly the newly founded and persecuted church to whom Peter wrote knew the same. Bless the LORD at all times! It is a good start.
```
3 O magnify the Lord with me,
 And let us exalt His name together.
 4 I sought the Lord, and He answered me,
 And delivered me from all my fears.

6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
 And saved him out of all his troubles.
 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him,
 And rescues them.
```
Spurgeon commentary – Psalm 34:6

Once again Spurgeon relates David’s verse from from the Psalm in a way Peter also knew would resonate with Christians in fear for their lives.

Verse 6. “This poor man cried.” Here he returns to his own case. He was poor indeed, and so utterly friendless that his life was in great jeopardy; but he cried in his heart to the protector of his people and found relief. His prayer was a cry, for brevity and bitterness, for earnestness and simplicity, for artlessness and grief; it was a poor man’s cry, but it was none the less powerful with heaven, for “the Lord heard him,” and to be heard of God is to be delivered; and so it is added that the Lord “saved him out of all his troubles.”

Peter then refers to this next stanza [in 1 Peter 3:10]:

8 O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
Psalm 34:8 NASB

Peter’s Psalm 34 Sermon

Peter urges the men of the church to whom he writes:

1 Peter 3:

10 For the one who wants to love life
and to see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit,
11 and let him turn away from evil
and do what is good.
Let him seek peace and pursue it,

Keep your tongue from evil, Peter urges. Also turn away from evil to do what is good. Pursue peace (with each other, between members of the church).

12 because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are open to their prayer.

This too is from the Psalm [v.15].

Do you, beloved believer, pray to the Lord? His eyes look toward the righteous.

Are your actions now righteous because of Christ? His ears are open to your prayers; therefore pray to the Lord in whom you now take refuge. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

And a reminder from Peter as he continues quoting from Psalm 34 [v.16]:

But the face of the Lord is against
those who do what is evil.
1 Peter 3:12b CSB

This is actually encouraging to those who have turned to the Lord. For in Christ we no longer want to do what is evil.

The vengeance of the Lord will prevail against the enemies of God, as when David called on the Lord for help. Again, this Psalm of David will be familiar to the persecuted church of the first century.

Psalm 34 beyond Peter’s quote

9 O fear the Lord, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him there is no want.

Do we realize that all like-minded servants of the Lord are referred to as saints?

11 Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Who is the man who desires life
And loves length of days that he may see good?

Like Peter, the Apostle John also encourages the church. We are called to be like-minded faithful, ‘children of God.’

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name
John 1:12 NASB

When Peter earlier referred to ‘not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult‘ his advise came from Psalm 34 and other scripture.
```
13 Keep your tongue from evil
 And your lips from speaking deceit.
 14 Depart from evil and do good;
 Seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
 And His ears are open to their cry.
 16 The face of the Lord is against evildoers,
 To cut off the memory of them from the earth.
 17 The righteous cry, and the Lord hears
 And delivers them out of all their troubles.
 18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
 And saves those who are crushed in spirit.
```
Like-minded believers

What do the faithful do with Scripture?

Peter’s readers applied Old Testament Scripture to the promises of their faith in Christ Jesus.

The Lord has done this before and the Lord promises these things; therefore we have faith.

David, a man after God’s own heart, preaches the sermon of Psalm 34 to the church. Yet first century persecuted followers of Christ probably seemed just as crazy to others as David had when he pretended madness before Abimelech.

The Psalmist assures us that God hears the cries of the righteous and sees our suffering. Furthermore, the Lord prevailed and saved David.

The Lord also saves us in spite of humanly impossible circumstances many times; therefore the faithful hear:
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Psalm 34:21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
 And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned
22 The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
 And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned
```
Is your soul saved?

The Lord redeems the soul of His servants.

Are you a servant of the Lord? Will you become like-minded with Jesus in suffering?

Do you take refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Once again, turning to the preaching of Spurgeon:

“The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants”—with price and with power, with blood and with water. All providential helps are a part of the redemption by power, hence the Lord is said still to redeem. All thus ransomed belong to him who bought them—this is the law of justice and the verdict of gratitude. Joyfully will we serve him who so graciously purchases us with his blood, and delivers us by his power. “And none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.” Faith is the mark of the ransomed, and wherever it is seen, though in the least and meanest of the saints, it ensures eternal salvation. Believer, thou shalt never be deserted, forsaken, given up to ruin. God, even thy God, is thy guardian and friend, and bliss is thine.
Charles Spurgeon commentary Psalm 34:22

Peter continues

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, Peter asks, are you all these things in Christ?
- like-minded and sympathetic?
- Do you love one another?
- Are you compassionate and humble?
Peter will continue by asking the church to be Christlike.
- Do not return evil for evil and never insult anyone.
- Bless your brother or sister in Christ.
Do good, even if you suffer for it.

If we are in Christ we must be like-minded. For we are now children of the Living God through Christ Jesus!

Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified.
Isaiah 8:12b;1 Peter 3:14b CSB
```
To be continued...
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September 5, 2019
Give Thanks to the Lord – Psalm 136 & Psalm 95

His faithful love endures forever.
Psalm 136

I don’t know about you, but once again Thanksgiving seems to be upon us as a prerequisite observance preceding the rush of the Christmas holidays. Some would observe in political correctness, ‘the holiday season,’ which promoted for lights in darkness and gifts seemingly endures forever.

I have previously mentioned this hustle and bustle of black Friday having overtaken the archaic imagery of worshiping pilgrims. Yet each year’s commercial focus on a relatively minor Jewish holiday and formerly insignificant Christian observance grows more and more into a worship of our prosperity (for which we give thanks).

Puritans forbade Christmas, considering it too pagan. Governor Bradford actually threatened New Englanders with work, jail or fines if they were caught observing Christmas.
Christianity.com

Perhaps our 17th century Puritan forefathers, who celebrated on this uniquely American Thanksgiving holiday, weren’t so far from the truth of this holiday season. For these brief days provide little rest and even less thanks.

Thanks giving in two Psalms

Set aside your devices and distractions for a moment as you gather together with family and you will see much bounty, a recurring theme for America and also Israel of the Psalms and Scripture.

Who will you thank?

Your host and hostess? Sure. Or maybe family who have made this gathering possible? Perhaps. Yet the thanks giving of those faithful to the Lord is always to God.

No book better expresses our worship, our praises, and singing with joy to the LORD than Psalms, which is the hymnal of Jewish and Christian worship.

One simple form of praising God for the worshipers is to simply repeat a single phrase, when the worship leader praises the LORD. One example of several with thanksgiving of the worshipers for God is Psalm 136.

You could give thanksgiving to God right now simply by repeating your response out loud after reading every praise of the Psalm [linked below].

Psalm 136

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. [136:1 הֹודוּ לַיהוָה כִּי־טֹוב כִּי לְעֹולָם חַסְדֹּֽו׃]

His faithful love endures forever. OR

For His mercy endures forever. OR

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Different translations all reinforce God’s love in our response of worship to the LORD. The Psalmist praises God in many ways:

v.4 He alone does great wonders.

v.7 He made the great lights

v.23 He remembered us in our humiliation

²⁵Who giveth food to all flesh:

for his mercy endureth for ever.

²⁶O give thanks unto the God of heaven:

for his mercy endureth for ever.

King James Version (KJV)

This is giving thanks as the Pilgrims of America’s founding would have given to God – not only on this holiday, but also in other worship.

Thanks is often a theme of worship, therefore thanking God is the first fruits of harvest for believers of all faiths who landed in this new world.

Yet we have forgotten the lessons of the Lord — He who has preserved us for bounty and blessings of a new land.

Are we so unlike those who worshiped the Lord before, yet then neglected to thank their Provider?

Psalm 95

Worship

¹Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord,
shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!

²Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving;
let us shout triumphantly to him in song.
Psalm 95 CSB

³For the Lord is a great God,
a great King above all gods.

If the LORD is God, then as worshipers giving God thanks, what must we do?

Hear this caution from the Psalm, that we might not give our thanks lightly, forgetting the worship of Almighty God our Creator.

6 Come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
the sheep under his care.

The Psalmist then reminds worshipers of those who had previously turned from the Lord.

Warning

Today, if you hear his voice:
8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the wilderness
9 where your fathers tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
Psalm 95, referring to exodus 17:17

Wilderness of the Negev

Meribah מְרִיבָה means testing and is the place where the Hebrews escaping Egypt tested the Lord, rather than giving thanks to the Lord. And Massah מַסָּה means quarreling, the politics of an ungrateful saved people in the wilderness.

The Lord saved many who had fled to the New World from persecution and death in the seventeenth century. The Pilgrims and others gave God thanks for this. Yet the Psalmist reminds worshipers to not harden our hearts.

Those escaping to a new land had far to go and much to learn of community, about authority and of thankfulness. Because of their testing and quarreling, the promise of the Lord would not be fulfilled in their generation.

Therefore let us heed these cautions of the Psalmist in our attitude of thanks to the Lord. Even today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

10 For forty years I was disgusted with that generation;
I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray;
they do not know my ways.”
11 So I swore in my anger,
“They will not enter my rest.”

Would you enter the eternal rest of the Lord? Do you thank the Lord this day?

We will have more to say of this rest in our Lord after this holiday of Thanks giving.

November 22, 2018
Judgment among the gods – Psalm 82

A Plea for Righteous Judgment

Where, O Lord, will we find righteous judgment, truth of testimony, a jury of understanding?

If not at the Throne of Heaven, give us gods among us with Your own heart for justice and mercy.

Have mercy upon us, heavenly Father, for all men are sinners. Yet let us know your love for righteousness by Your penalty of the guilty.

Vindictive man of dust, cunning woman of deceit:

Do you cry out for vengeance against those who have trespassed your rights, while you plea for mercy for your betrayal of good?

What jury will hear their guilt while overturning your own sin?

82:1 מִזְמֹור לְאָסָף אֱֽלֹהִים נִצָּב בַּעֲדַת־אֵל בְּקֶרֶב אֱלֹהִים יִשְׁפֹּֽט׃

Psalm 82: A psalm of Asaph.

God stands in the divine assembly;

he pronounces judgment among the gods:

“How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?

The LORD God Most High! Among other gods?

What can it mean to speak of a divine assembly? Who can judge? Who are these judges of men and women?

We cannot know or face Almighty God in this life. Man knows not the judgment of the Most High, justice which makes right all that is wrong. The plea of this Psalm cries out to the Judge of all, to his appointed rulers.

God takes His stand in His own congregation;
He judges in the midst of the rulers.
Psalm 82:1 NASB

The NASB translation of Psalm 82 may help clarify, referring to the other gods as the congregation of God, rulers over the judged who He also judges.

Almighty God has all Authority! He sits among other gods, rulers of that which the Lord delegates.

Justice required of other gods

3 Provide justice for the needy and the fatherless;
uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.
4 Rescue the poor and needy;
save them from the power of the wicked.”

5 They do not know or understand;
they wander in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Our earthly judges, rulers seated in the thrones of justice, must judge rightly, helping their own subjects. These other gods in our earthly congregations owe obedience to the God above all gods.

6 I said, “You are gods;
you are all sons of the Most High.
7 However, you will die like humans
and fall like any other ruler.”

I say: to the President, the Premier, the Prime Minister; to the King and Prince, the Queen and Empress: You are gods – rulers over men and women under your dominion. Yet know your Authority comes down from the Most High God of Creation.

Though you eat bread by the sweat of your subjects, you will return to dust and you will fall like any prince, your ashes returned to dust.

Our plea to God

He IS God! above all men, above all spirits, above all rulers of heaven and earth! Our Father God rules over the congregation of the other gods. We can ask for justice and we may ask for mercy. Yet in true humility and obedience all will bow down.

8 Rise up, God, judge the earth,
for all the nations belong to you.

The Lord will judge the earth and nations.

Until that Day, He appoints judges, gods among us, men and women subservient to Almighty God.

David also says:

86:8 אֵין־כָּמֹוךָ בָאֱלֹהִים אֲדֹנָי וְאֵין כְּֽמַעֲשֶֽׂיךָ׃
Psalm 86:8 KJV

elohiym ‘Adonay ma`aseh

Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.

David also declares:

For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
Psalm 96:4-5 KJV

Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.
Psalm 96:10 KJV

The LORD יְהֹוָה Yĕhovah shall judge righteously.

He IS a God among the gods of the earth, even in the council of the rulers of the heavens and the earth.

The gods and idols of the heathen, other nations who do not judge righteously must bow down to the LORD God, for He will give the rulers of the lands true and just council.

God among other gods

Many men and women of many nations worship gods of many names. God appoints other gods, rulers and judges, over the heathen and over the faithful. These will bow down to the Lord God, as will all men of dust and angels worship at His Throne.

We are His created. Let us worship the Lord.

One Flock, One Shepherd

6:4 שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃
6:5 וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶֽךָ׃
Deuteronomy – KJV

: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‬; “Hear, [O] Israel”

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Jesus, Shepherd of Israel, Son of God

Controversy erupts in Jerusalem among religious and political leaders – controversy even to this day. The Messiah Jesus comes before us as Redeemer and Sacrifice for our sins.

He was and IS and will be God, Judge of all souls.

Yet in this incident Jesus stands accused as a Son of Man, a god among other gods appointed to rule over the Jews.

John 10:

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Jesus then refers to the rulers of the Jews, as “hired hands,” judges who do not care for the lives of their flock. It’s no small insult to the leading religious authorities, who later will convict Jesus wrongly before their own court. This God will become the Perfect Sacrifice for the sin of the world.

Solomon’s Porch overlooking the Temple courtyard

God among the appointed gods

23 Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

25 “I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me. 26 But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep…

“I and the Father are one.”
John 10:30 CSB – words of the Messiah Jesus

The religious officials answer:

33 “We aren’t stoning you for a good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because you—being a man—make yourself God.”

34 Jesus answered them,
“Isn’t it written in your law, I said, you are gods?
If he called those whom the word of God came to ‘gods’—and the Scripture cannot be broken— do you say,
‘You are blaspheming’
to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world,
because I said: I am the Son of God?
John 10:34-36 CSB

Jesus escapes their stoning during the Festival of Lights to become the Sacrifice of Most Holiness during the Passover.

He IS the body and blood, shed for our sin.

Let us worship and bow down only to Christ, our Lord and Savior. He IS a God among other gods and He will judge their righteousness and ours.

Amen.

November 7, 2018