Psalm 19 Look into the sky

Psalm 19

This is one of the psalms that you can imagine inspiring some of the great scientists of history - The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

You can imagine these words inspiring the great astronomers of history, in fact you don't need to - they wrote about it themselves.

Great scientists like Copernicus and Kepler and Newton  struggled to account for the movements they observed in the planets in an attempt to understand the knowledge that is being spoken in the heavens.

One of the current  British TV science stars is Professor Brian Cox who is very keen to point out that the same laws that affect celestial bodies like the galaxy also apply here on planet earth.

The Law of God is perfect, refreshing, making wise the simple, 

the Precepts of the LORD are right - more precious than gold, sweeter than honey.

the Psalm ends with

May the words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

It is chapters like this that convince me that any conflict between science and religion is fabricated and in reality there is no conflict.

Psalm 18 I thank God when a plan comes together

Psalm 18

This is a song that King David sang when God had delivered him from all his enemies and the hand of Saul.

If you recall the story of David, he spent a long time being hated and persecuted by king Saul after he had been anointed as king.

One of the first things David did was compose a hymn of praise to God.

The psalm starts "I love you, LORD, my strength"

The imagery of this Psalm are quite good 
God is a rock in whom David takes refuge, his shield and the strength of his salvation.

I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise and he saved him from his enemies.

When David was entangled in the cords of death. overwhelmed by torrents of destruction and at the gates of death, David called on the LORD who heard him from his temple,

The rest of the psalm goes on at legnth about God and his dealings with people and David - 
It can be summed up perhaps in verses 25-30

To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless.
To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
You save the humble, but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

The Psalm ends with the following 
"The LORD lives, Praise to my rock.
Exalted be God my saviour.

I think there is a good moral to this psalm - when a plan comes together give praise to God - after all in reality it is his plan 

Psalm 17 A plea to God

Psalm 17

This is one of David's prayers, there is no background given for this so it'll have to speak for itself.

Do you remember the Lords prayer? 
the start of this psalm is somewhat different in tone

"Hear me LORD, my plea is just, listen to my cry" 
David here maintains that he is innocent of deceit and has not planned any evil, he has refused any bribes and by following the law has kept away from the paths of the violent.

"I call on you, my God, for you will answer me, turn your hear to me and hear my prayer.
Show me the wonders of your great love"

David is confident in this Psalm that God absolutely will answer when he calls - this is a contrast to Psalm 13 which we looked at in an earlier post.

It seems that David is still beset with enemies and wicked men who want to destroy him but now David's prayer is that God would hold him as the apple of his eye and hide him in the shadow of his wings from the wicked men..

You know - I never really pictured God as having wings? Though the Bible does use the metaphor of a mother bird protecting her young under her wings. 

The enemies of David close up their calloused hearts, talk arrogantly and have tracked him down and surrounded him, ready to pounce on him like a lion waiting to pounce from cover.

"Rise up, LORD, confront them, bring them down"
David prays to be rescued from those who are of the world and only the world and whose reward is in this life.
May they eat what God has stored up for the wicked, with leftovers for their children and grandchildren.

As for David, in his faith he will be vindicated and see God's face, when he wakes up we ill be satisfied with seeing God's likeness.

It seems a bit unusual to not start a prayer with "Our Father" or similar, I believe that prayer is a lot more than a set form of words.

Psalm 16 Keep watching God

Psalm 16

David wrote this "miktam" - an unknown musical term

David says "you are my God, apart from you I have no good thing"
The holy people in the land are the ones who are noble and delight Davi.

Those who run after other gods suffer more and more - David declares that he will not pour out offerings of blood to such gods or even speak their names.

God is David's portion and cup who makes his lot secure, the boundaries of his land are extremely pleasant and with God his inheritance is delightful.

I keep my eyes always on the LORD, with him at my right hand I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices, my body will also rest secure.

 Because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the paths of life, you fill me joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

The verse about God not abandoning him to death nor letting his faithful one see decay are quoted about the resurrection of Jesus 

Psalm 15 God's neighbours

Psalm 15

This Psalm starts with asking who may live in the house of God and live on his holy mountain - in other words who are God's neighbours?

The description of these people is actually rather nice - it would be a whole lot nicer if I saw myself in this description a bit more clearly! 

The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from the heart, 
Whose tongue utters no slander who do no wrong to a neighbour and casts no slur on others.

Who despises an evil person, but honours those who fear the LORD.
Who keep an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind.

Who lends money to the poor at no interest, who does not accept a bribe against the innocent

Whoever does these things will never be shaken (and can live next door to God)

My thoughts now - or observations 

When the law was given to Moses at Mount Sinai the Israelites were strictly ordered not to so much as set foot on the mountain, even an animal that strayed was to be killed.

People did live in the house of God - the temple and tabernacle before it - the priests on duty would stay there day and night.

The prophet Samuel was recorded as living in the tent of God 

Sorry for the  very poor quality of the upcoming joke - that I'm explaining it is probably going to kill it futher, but in the book of Revelation there is a beast whose number is 666 (the famous number of the beast) - is 668 the neighbour of the beast?

(note for non British people who may be reading this - in the UK  a lot of streets have odd number houses on one side and even numbers on the other side - hence 668 rather than 667.)

You know I wish I hadn't bothered with that last bit ...........

Psalm 14 When God is removed

Psalm 14

I think this Psalm should be read by Mr T from the A team - who talked a lot about fools.

Now just to be clear, a fool in this context is not somebody lacking intelligence nor is it a comedian or jester it is a person with no moral compass or morally deficient.

The fool says in his heart "there is no God" - they are corrupt and commit vile deeds.

there are those who reach a position of power who do not believe that there is any higher power in the universe.

God looks to see if there are any with understanding and who does good?

Evildoers know nothing, eating people as though they are bread never calling on God.

God is present in the company of the righteous and is the refuge of the poor.

Oh that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. when the LORD restores his people let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

"I pity the fool" - Mr T

Psalm 13 alone with my thoughts

Psalm 13

If you believe in God, has he ever felt so far away that he might as well have forgotten you? 
David did, and there have been times, if I'm honest, that I have felt this way too - in my experience living faith sometimes means that one simply has to carry on in the utter belief that God is there, he does see what is going on and eventually the barren times will come to an end. I know that at some stages in my Christian faith the only thing that kept me in church, praying and taking part was that I made a promise that I would do these things in front of a lot of people and I am blooming well not going to break my promise!

This Psalm strikes a chord with my experience - 
How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Perhaps David's response actually is helpful - 
Look on me and answer, LORD my God, give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say " I have overcome him" and wicked men will rejoice when he falls.

David is not sugar coating this - it is, apparently literally, life or death to him

Then trusting in God's nature and in the history David knows of God he says
I trust in your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Then an action - I will sing the LORD'S praise, for he has been good to me.

In my time there have been times when I have been close to God and believe that God was close to me - the memory of these times did keep me going during the times that God was far away and probably looking the other way from where I was.

Please don't be discouraged if God seems a long way off and keeping faith is, in the words of Rudyard Kipling

..... force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

From "IF"

I find Sometimes going through the motions is all there is. It is either motions or nothing - if that is where you are I pray that God will give light to your eyes and surround you with his unfailing love

Psalm 12 Faithful friends

Psalm 12

This is another of David's Psalms, "According to Sheminith" (Whatever that means!)

It seems that David is feeling the pressure when he wrote this Psalm, nobody is faithful anymore, loyal people seem to have vanished from the gene pool, people lie to their neighbours smiling and flattering but harbouring deception in reality.

David asked God to silence flattering lips and boasts and those who think that they can talk their way into or out of any trouble and have no need of God as an advocate.

God says because the poor are plundered and the needy groan in suffering he will take action and protect them.

God's words are flawless - compared to silver and highly refined gold 

The psalm ends with the faith that God keeps the needy safe and protected from the wicked who strut about when mankind finds what is detestable honourable.

Psalm 11 Trust God

Psalm 11

This is another Psalm of David.

David was a person who really trusted in God, reading his story in the history books earlier in the blog, David refused to take revenge on Saul who was plotting to kill him for a number of years.

Who can tell the one who trusts in God completely to go and fly away to the mountain - the wicked bend their bows to shoot the bird as he flees, shooting from ambush and shadows.

God is in his temple, sitting on his throne in heaven and can observe the actions of humans, the psalm talks about God examining the righteous but having a marked dislike for the wicked who he hates with a passion

God loves justice, and the upright will one day see his face

Psalm 10 Sometimes evil prospers

Psalm 10 

Why does God allow bad things to happen?
This is a tough question - there is no real answer to this, but perhaps there is hope in the psalms.

The psalm starts with a question to God and then a vision of the evil.
there are a number of words that appear in the description of the wicked - words like Arrogant, scheming, boasts, blessing the greedy and pride, lies, threats.
The wicked man has no thought of or room for God or morality, yet his ways make him rich

He lies in wait to ambush the innocent and defenceless, always seeking the next victim for his schemes.

The Psalm ends with the prayer that God would not forget the helpless but lift up his hand to defend them.

Why do wicked people revile God and assume that they will never be held to account for their actions?
Yet in faith we believe that God sees the trouble of the afflicted, and takes account of the grief. 

The Lord is king for ever, and causes the rise and falls of nations and empires. Yet God helps and defends the weak and the fatherless and oppressed.

Sure often bad things happen, and unscrupulous people prosper - this is when mankind can either shine with the light of God or go to the blackest night.

Psalm 9 One song to the tune of another

Psalm 9

The introduction of this psalm says it is to the tune of "Death of the Son".
I have no idea what this tune sounds like - but the words are fairly upbeat.

My all time favourite show on radio is "I'm Sorry I haven't a clue" which has appeared twice a year on BBC Radio 4 more or less since 1972 - so it has been going as long as I have. One game they play on there is called "one song to the tune of another - in which a contestant (usually a comedian) has to sing the words of one song to the tune of another - hence the name!

I tried the opening couple of verses to the Darth Vader Imperial march from Star wars and certainly in the NIV version of the Bible it fits.

The first 12 verses are very upbeat, singing praises to the most high, enemies falling back, God in heaven ruling the world in righteousness, a refuge for the oppressed, stronghold in times of trouble.
finishing off the positive with an exhortation to sing the praises of God and proclaim his deeds among the nations.

Verse 13 then changes to a plea that God would see how David's enemies persecute him, and that God in his mercy would lift him up from the death's door

Verse 15 - The nations have fallen into the pit they dug and snared in the traps they have set. God is known for his acts of Justice and he does not forget the needy, nor crush the hope of the afflicted.

Verse 19 - Arise Lord, don't let mortals triumph, remind them that they are in fact only mortal.


This is quite different from Psalm 8 - 

Anyway - one song to the tune of another - I bet you will always wish for this combination?
My favourite off the radio was Evlis Presley's "Love me tender" to the theme tune of the archers.

While Shepherds watched to the tune of Ilkley Moor baht tat is pretty well known
Immortal Invisible God only wise to the Wombles theme tune
At the name of Jesus to the theme of Hawaii 5-0 
And my favourite Amazing Grace to the tune of house of the rising sun...

Feel free to share any others that you may know in comments

Psalm 8 From the mouths of infants

Psalm 8

I remember when I was a teenager at a church weekend retreat pondering the words of this psalm - we were staying on a farm, camping and at night in the country away from street lighting. When it is dark there, boy is it dark and the stars just go on forever with more distant, less bright stars between the closer, brighter constellations. Unfortunately towns, cities and street lighting just kill the subtle star light in our night sky.
Anyway I was looking at the clear night sky and thinking "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you have set in place, who am I that you are mindful of me, humans that you care for us?"

Next morning I woke early and watched dawn in the valley with the mist just on the river - and I think I got an answer - God does not just do stars, he has a good line in beauty here too.

But God really does some amazing things and his majesty can be seen if one has eyes that perceive.

Men of faith, like Kepler, Copernicus, Newton and Galileo all considered the heavens, the movement of stars and sought to understand the workings of God in the heavens and in so doing discovered some amazing things about how the universe works.

From the praise of children and infants God gains strength. Which seems a bit weird, children can be a bit fidgety in church - yet God is strengthened by their praise.
Jesus famously told his disciples that unless they believe like children, they cannot enter the kingdom of God and he welcomed children and spent time with them and their parents.
By the way - anybody with a 2-3 year old will know that belief and praise come with a LOT of questions. 

Anyway back to the psalm - God has been so generous to mankind that he has made us a little lower than angels and crowned us with glory and honour and given us responsibility for the planet we live on - we can use (or misuse) the resources of the world.

O LORD, our LORD, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.

Can I share something that happened to me yesterday? I think it is pertinent to this chapter.
It happened at work, somehow the conversation in the kitchen turned from kettles to God - not sure how and one of my colleagues said he did not believe in God, but he knew I did and respected my faith as I respect his views.
However he does not hold God's name as majestic or excellent and many other people feel the same.
He mentioned a friend of his who was paralysed in an accident who became an atheist at the time of his accident - he prayed desperately that he would not be paralysed and when he woke up God had not answered his prayer .

Now I don't have an answer for this person, or for anybody whose prayer is not answered but I did have a thought - 
Jesus, before he was arrested, beaten, tortured, flogged and executed prayed desperately to God "Take this cup of suffering from me" - on that occasion God did not answer his prayer either.

Psalm 7 Concerning Cush

Psalm 7

This Psalm is headed A shiggaion (unknown word) of David, Which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjaminite.

It appears that Cush is a relative of king Saul who accused David of violence and usurping royal authority.

The sections of the psalm seem to change from victorious to limping along - 

Lord my God, I take refuge in you, save and deliver me from all who pursue me or they will tear me apart like a lion and rup me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

the second section goes 

Lord me God. If I have done this and there is guilt on my hands - If I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe- then let my enemy pursue and overtake me, let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.

However David is confident of his innocence before God as he calls on God to rouse his anger against his enemies rage and to decree Justice.


I like that David is humble enough to accept that if he is guilty then he deserves to be trampled in the ground.

One of the themes of the Bible is Justice, somebody far wiser than I once said "True peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice" 

The psalm ends with David giving thanks to God because of his righteousness.

Psalm 6 incomprehensible musical direction

Psalm 6

The musical directions for this psalm dictate musical instruments and probably the tune - though nobody has ever worked out what the actual word in Hebrew means.
This Psalm is attributed to king David.

The Psalm is a prayer that God would not be angry with David and heal him.

The psalm starts off with David in distress and praying to God and ends with David certain that God has heard him.

This appears to be fairly common in the psalms