Psalm 145 Endless praise

Psalm 145

This Psalm is titled "A psalm of praise. Of David" - I think the King James version it is titled "David's Psalm of praise" - in which case this would be like "The Archbishop's best sermon"

As you might guess from the title, it is quite upbeat!

I will exalt you, my God the King; 
I will praise your name for ever and ever.

It is interesting that David (king of Israel) acknowledges God as his King.
As I've mentioned before, one of the people who inspired me to start this blog is a Jewish agnostic journalist who tried to live according to all the laws in the Bible for a year - the book is called "My year of living biblically" 
One of the lessons AJ Jacobs says he learned was to be thankful and live with an attitude of gratitude as it were. 
The Psalm continues in this vein

Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever
Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise, his greatness no one can fathom.

One generation commends your works to another, they tell of your mighty acts.
The speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty - and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
They tell of the power of your awesome works - and I will proclaim your great deeds. They tell the power of your awesome works.

Sometimes I worry that churches are filled with a lot of elderly people (at least in the UK) - there was an old hymn that had a chorus "Tell me the old, old story....of Jesus and his love".
Perhaps the church has not been as good at telling the story of the works of God to the next generation?

God, the God of David, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not a wrathful or vengeful deity who has given loads of restrictions on fun and basically waits, thunderbolt in hand to smite the wicked - the psalm goes on 

I will proclaim your great deeds. They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
The LORD is good to all, he has compassion on all he has made.

The God of David is described in the Psalm as
Trustworthy in his promises and faithful in all he does
He upholds those who fall, and lifts those bowed down 

The Psalm ends with a promise  
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfils the desires of those who fear him, he hears their cry and saves them.
The LORD watches over all who love him.

Please note - I've found that the desires that God grants generally don't include winning the lottery! God would prefer us to desire knowing him better than riches.

Psalm 144 A Brexit Psalm?

Psalm 144

This is another Psalm of David, but marks a change in tone.

The reason I titled this Psalm with one of the worst portmanteau words (one that I personally detest and am fed up to the back teeth with constantly hearing!) is the following phrase appears not once but twice in this Psalm

"rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful" 

I'll come back to this in a bit.

Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge.

These days it seems that talk of war and battle and training is inconsistent with teaching of a loving God - yet here in this Psalm we have this rather odd mix of loving with military ideas.

The next bit of the Psalm is often read at funerals and there is a note of wonder about it.
God has made David king of Israel and he has many subjects and people he leads.
Then we get the question "LORD, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? 
They are life a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow."

The wonder of it all is that we believe that God does care for us, and has planned the whole of evolution, chemistry, physics so that you can be here reading this! 
Of course you could just be here by pure chance, but to me the odds are longer than winning the lottery! 
If you want to explore, my inspiration for this is the Bill Bryson book "A short history of nearly everything" which explores the history of science and how we know what we know. It also touches on the known unknowns and unknown knowns (to riff off Donald Rumsfeld) 

David prays to God to "part your heavens and come down" 
"Touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
Send forth lightening and scatter the enemy; shoot your arrows and rout them.
Reach down you hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, 
from the hands of foreigners...

Right - lets talk about this.
It may come as a bit of a shock, but David was not British, neither is Jesus, God or any of the characters in the Bible!
The Garden of Eden is not in Kent, nor is Yorkshire God's own county - though it is very pretty, dramatic, and all the other things that I enjoy living here.
In terms of the Psalm foreigners includes those who are not Jewish - like me?

In June 2016 a referendum was held about the British membership of the European Union - the propaganda (sorry referendum campaign messages) talked about us regaining sovereignty and stop being slaves of an uncaring and unfeeling European tyranny that would make us more like the Dutch or, heaven forbid, French.
The message was also that they forced us to take in millions of Polish, and other EU citizens and we were "powerless" to stop this inrush of immigrants and asylum seekers (as though the 2 are not separate issues) I find it odd that nobody questioned why people want to live here, unless it is the weather and cuisine!
Personally I am worried about the rise in race intolerance in the country and particularly the government (who have, for instance, barred non UK academics from contributing to government studies on the future relationship with the world) 

I will sing a new song to you, my God;
on the ten stringed lyre I will make music to you, to the one who gives victory to kings.
New music (particularly in church!) is a bit of a contentious issue that people have been moaning about for literally hundreds of years 

The nation blessed by God will have healthy children, sons like well nurtured plants, daughters like pillars in a royal palace.
Barns (today perhaps Supermarket shelves?) will be filled with every kind of provision, fields and pastures safe and fruitful.

Blessed is the people of whom this is true;
Blessed is the people whose God is the LORD.

Psalm 143 When all else fails

Psalm 143

This is another Psalm of David, and my reading suggests that he was not in total control of his life at the time of writing.

I remember a song from many years ago "Spirit in the sky", there is a line in that song "I'm not a sinner, I've never sinned, I've got a friend in Jesus"

The Psalm starts with a thought that is pretty different from that song - 
Lord hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy
In your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.
Do not bring your servant into judgement, for no one living is righteous before you.

Some people may believe that Christians are "Holier than thou" and the media takes great pleasure in pointing out the foibles of people of faith. 
However, certainly I am not that holy, there are a whole bunch of people who do much bigger and better good works than I do, and there is stuff I do that I'm not proud of.
The secret of acceptance by God is not going around acting all pious but admitting that I am not perfect and regularly fall short, at this point I have no choice but to throw myself on God's mercy and forgiveness.

David has his opponents who at this time are crushing the life and spirit from him, he is pursued, crushed and dwelling in darkness, like the dead.

At the lowest point, in dismay and growing faint,  David remembers the good times when God seemed close.

I meditate on the days of long ago, and I consider what your hands have done.

Sometimes it is all we can do to hold on to what we know of God and keep going.

David prays to God to rescue him, but no answer is present in this Psalm - however David did end his life in his palace and his children became kings after him, so perhaps there is an answer in the longer term.

Psalm 142 Who do you call?

Psalm 142

This is another Psalm of David - written when he was living in hiding in the cave.

Probably not the best of circumstances - so unsurprisingly this is not among the more cheerful in the book of Psalms!

In this Psalm David does not suffer in silence - 
I cry aloud to the LORD. 
I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy
I pour out before him my complaint, 
before him I tell my trouble when my spirit grows faint within me.

If there is one thing that is important here, with God I don't have to bottle my feelings - There is permission here to unload your feelings and cares onto God 

The Psalm continues with recognising that God is not aloof from the situation, but is fully aware of what is going on

It is you who watch over my way in the path where I walk
People have hidden a snare for me, look and see, there is not one at my right hand.
No one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge, no one cares for my life.

I say (to God) You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

When David has no where else to turn, he turns to God.

People say that faith is a crutch - yet if you have a broken leg, a crutch is extremely useful to aid mobility (as Bear Grylls puts it) 

David's foes while he was out hiding were very strong and powerful, and had cornered David.

As we know from the story of David, God did liberate him and raise him as king of Israel.
David wrote a lot of praise psalms after this episode in his life.
God did answer his prayers at the end of the Psalm

Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

Psalm 141 People not to avoid

Psalm 141

In the last Psalm there was a list of people who David wanted to avoid too much contact.
This Psalm, also attributed to David, is a bit of the opposite - where a rebuke from a righteous person is actually a blessing.

If memory serves, verse 2 of this prayer forms part of a daily office said by those in holy orders.
"My my prayer be set before you like incense, may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice"

Personally I don't go in for "bells and smells" at church, but there is a really nice image of how God finds prayers in the picture of rising incense here in this Psalm.

The next bit of the Psalm is interesting to me - If I am honest with myself, I probably need to pray this more often.
Set a guard over my mouth, LORD, keep watch over the door of my lips.
Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies

What would you do if, for example, the Archbishop of Canterbury were to hit you? Or the Pope? or Mother Theresa of Calcutta? Would you regard it as a kindness? - David did.
Let a righteous person strike me = that is a kindness, let them rebuke me - that is oil on my head.

In my daily bible reading I'm currently reading the letter of St Paul - his letters contain their fair amount of "knocking heads together  in a metaphorical sense. How would I have felt if I received a letter like that? Hopefully as a blessing and a challenge to live better

The end of the Psalm talks about the wicked leaders being thrown over cliffs and their broken bones scattered as if by a plough

David's prayer is that he keeps his eyes fixed on God , and asks God to be his refuge and to keep him safe from traps set by wicked people and more that the wicked would be caught in their own traps, while he passes by in safety.

Psalm 140 Protect me from bad people

Psalm 140

This is another Psalm of David.
It starts with a request to God listing a number of groups of people from whom he would like to be separated from,

I am writing this blog in the aftermath of the UK referendum on EU membership and the lead up to the USA presidential election (which seems to have been going on for EVER - how do the Americans keep up that level of enthusiasm?) but I digress.
The point I want to make is that in the EU referendum in the UK and the USA elections people have (sometimes rather long) lists of people who do the country harm.
In this Psalm, David lists the people who really cause harm - I don't think the lists from the referendum and election campaign are quite the same!

Evildoers
The violent
Those who devise evil plans
warmongers
Serpent tongued with poison on their lips
Wicked
The arrogant
Those who would trap the innocent

Like David, I don't think I can avoid all these people and call out to God
"I Say to the LORD, you are my God, 
Hear my cry for mercy, Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, my shield in times of battle"

David goes on to ask
"Do not grant the wicked their desires, or let their plans succeed."

"Those who surround me proudly rear their heads, may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
May burning coals fall on them, may they be thrown into the fire, into the pit, never to rise"

"May slanderers not be established in the land, may disaster hunt down the wicked"

On my more cynical days I can fully understand David's point here. However on my better days I hope to aspire to higher levels of tolerance and kindness, believing that it is never too late to change and become a nice person.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies and do good to those who would not do good to you. 
The burning coals reference in the Psalm puts me in mind of a proverb - "If your enemy is hungry or thirsty give him some food and water - in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head and God will bless you" - not as I once heard a misquote "if you enemy is hungry give him some food THEN pour burning coals on his head" I don't think that God would really approve of that version!

Funny, the list of people David sought rescue from did not include immigrants, benefit claimants, foreigners, or corporate tax evaders! - I wonder when and why our national priorities changed?

Psalm 139 Fearfully and wonderfully made

Psalm 139

I find the end of this Psalm extremely difficult - the truth of it is the end of this Psalm is scary "Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting"

On balance, I think I'd rather not be tested, thank you very much.

The Methodist church has a similarly scary prayer - traditionally it is prayed at the start of the year to commit the following year and life to God.

I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;

put me to doing, put me to suffering;

let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,

exalted for you, or brought low for you;

let me be full,

let me be empty,

let me have all things,

let me have nothing:

I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things

to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

you are mine and I am yours. So be it.

And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

See what I mean? - this is pretty scary stuff!

However let us put it into context - this Psalm is one of wonder and is very intimate and full of trust.

You have searched me LORD, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise, 

You perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you LORD, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before, and lay our hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain..

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there

If make my bed in the depths, you are there

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, 

if I settle at the far side of the sea, 

even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.

If I say "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me"

even the darkness will not be dark to you, 

the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; 

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works are wonderful, I know that full well,

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, God!

How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them , they would outnumber the grains of sand - 

When I awake I am still with you.

Still all is not totally rosy, there are still wicked, bloodthirsty, God hating people who act in rebellion and abhorring the ways of God., however God is far, far greater than these people!

With a God as close as this, the scary stuff at the end of the Psalm is actually quite a lot less scary given that God knows me and thinks so much me!

Psalm 138 Whole hearted praise

Psalm 138

This Psalm is listed as one of David's.

For David, God is not just somebody for the Sabbath.

I will praise you LORD with all my heart, before the "gods" I sing your praise.
I will bow down to wards your holy temple and will praise your name.

The relationship with God is not simply one way, there is reasoning behind David's faith.

For your unfailing love and your faithfulness, for you have so exulted your solemn decree that is surpasses your fame.

When I called you answered me, you greatly emboldened me.

There is a joke told about a young man who was tempted to become a Christian, but afraid that becoming a Christian he would have to go out evangelizing.
He talked to an old and wise Christian about his dilemma and the old Christian said "your faith is between you and God, if you want to become a Christian, you can go into your room on your own and invite Jesus into your heart, you don't have to tell another person if you don't want to.
The young man followed the advice and met with God - rushing downstairs he told his family and their friends "Did you know that you can become a Christian without telling anybody?"

May all the kings of the earth praise you, LORD, when they hear what you have decreed.
May they sing of the ways of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD is great.

One thing that historians are into these days is not so much the lives of the great and the good (or spectacularly brutal, wicked or evil) but the lives of ordinary people.
God is the same, though lofty he looks kindly on the lowly, though lofty he sees them from afar.

One repeating sentence I'm noticing a lot is that God's love endures forever, and one thing that I would like to ask of God is what the Psalm ends with, do not abandon the works of your hands.

Psalm 137 By the rivers of Babylon

Psalm 137

If you think there is a pop song from 1978 in the title, there is.
The song by Bony M was based on this Psalm.

Things in Israel and Judah have gone very badly wrong and the people have been deported forcibly, this Psalm expresses the sadness and anger of the deported refugees.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of Joy.

How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?

This Psalm is really quite bitter lamenting the end of Jerusalem, going so far as to declare that infanticide against Babylon would be a good thing, as they did it to Jerusalem.

Let me make a few things very clear here - these are my thoughts
The Bible is very clear that we should treat all people with dignity and respect, regardless of race, colour, religion, sexual orientation. Too many people are bitter from ill treatment (real or imagined) and lash out in acts of violence and terrorism.

Revenge is one of the motives given by terrorists "the west is killing Muslims in Iraq and Syria, so we attack the west in revenge" God claims vengeance for himself, and in my opinion he is far better qualified than I am!

The Bible is also very clear "Do not murder" 

When I am in a bad place - this Psalm shows me that you can present things to God with absolutely no holes barred, you can complain to God.

Psalm 136 Everlasting love

Psalm 136

This is possibly a marching song - the kind of thing where the leader shouts out a call and everybody chips in with the response.

This is also fairly common in sea shanties as they encourage a group to cohere as they overcome hard work and difficulties.

This one is God centered though - with a refrain "His Love endures for ever"

Give thanks to the LORD for he is good - join in with the refrain!
Give thanks to the God of gods- 
Give thanks to the Lord of lords-

I'm going to edit a bit - if you want the original, look it up!
Who does great wonders,
Made the heavens and the earth 
Liberated his people from Egypt 
Parted the Red sea

And so on and so forth.

In the Jewish Passover service there is a prayer called "Dayenu" which could be translated "That would have been enough", in which the blessings of God are piled up with after each blessing the people declare "THAT would have been enough"

One thing about the blessings of God is that God is just not finished yet - that would have been enough but God still wants to pour out more blessings.
I really need to say far more often "Dayenu" with wonder at the blessings of God, and "His love endures forever" 

Psalm 135 God is Great

Psalm 135

Last week 2 young men entered a church and murdered the priest, one of the battle cries common among Islamic fundamentalist terrorists is "Allah Akhbar" (God is great) Sorry If I spelled that wrong, but I sure as heck am not about to google it!

God is indeed great, but we believe that God is also good and his will is for everybody to love, honour and worship him and to recognise that God loves all of his people.

The Psalm starts with 
Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good, sing praise to his name for that is pleasant.

I know that the LORD is great, that our LORD is greater than all gods.
The LORD does whatever pleases him in the heavens and on the earth
In the seas and all their depths
He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth, he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

The Psalm talks about God choosing Jacob, and that God struck down the Egyptians and the kings of the promised land - these are kind of hard to comprehend in these days. 

Your ma,, LORD endures forever, your renown, LORD, through all generations.
For the LORD will have compassion on his servants.

We like to think these days that we don't worship man made idols, described in the Psalm
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands.
They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see.
They have ears but cannot hear, nor is their breath in their mouths.
Those who make them will become like them, and so will all who trust in them.

There are many things that we trust in, hope in, invest in, that just don't deliver. God help us to recognise these for what they are - idols.

The Psalm ends with the instruction Praise the LORD.

Psalm 134 Vicars only work on Sundays!

Psalm 134

Hanging around churches and stuff I know a lot of ordained people and I like to joke that Priests only work on Sundays - needless to say the priests I know take exemption to this!

This Psalm is actually one of the shortest in the Bible, but it talks about more than working on Sundays!

Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD
Who minister by night in the house of the LORD.
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD

May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who is the maker of heaven and earth.

Ministering by night in the house of the LORD sounds a bit more than working one day a week

Psalm 133 the benefits of Unity

Psalm 133

This is another of David's pilgrimage Psalms, or a song of ascents.

The other week in the UK we had a referendum on whether the country should remain part of the European Union.
Unfortunately one of the results of this referendum is that much of the country now feels quite aggrieved that either their votes did not count or that they were mislead into voting the way they did.
Within the United Kingdom whole regions voted differently to the overall result and there is now serious talk about breaking apart the country.
The day after the referendum billions were wiped off the economy and the pound plummeted against the dollar and euro - and the incidence of "hate crime" has dramatically increased since the vote.

This Psalm paints a very different picture-
How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured onto the head, running down on the beard,
Running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe.

It is as if the dew of Mount Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life for evermore.

Oh well better get back to working on rebuilding unity!

Psalm 132 Remember David

Psalm 132

Here in England we have a rhyme "Remember, remember the 5th of November. The Gunpowder treason and plot"

To me there is something very English about Guy Fawkes night - where we celebrate that a plot to blow up parliament was foiled, and that in November!
Tomorrow is the Anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, Thursday is Bastille day in France, and last Monday was Independence day in the USA.

June last year was the 800th anniversary of the singing of Magna Carter (In my mind a more significant event than the non-event that was the gunpowder plot by the way!)

Remembering events that changed the country and the world are important things to do - both the good events (from the view of the winners) and the bad 

This Psalm is about remembering the contribution to Israel and the Jewish faith of David

LORD, remember David and all his self-denial.
He swore an oath to the LORD, he made a vow to the Mighty one of Jacob;
"I will not enter my house or go to my bed, I will allow no sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty one of Jacob."

I suspect that there is a bit of hyperbole here as I'm pretty sure that David went to bed regularly and slept (given  the number of his wives and children, I imagine he didn't always sleep ............careful Mark remember this is a family friendly blog)

However be that as it may, David did draw the plans for the Temple of God and acquired the land - though his son, Solomon actually built it (in much the same way as Hadrian built his wall!)

We heard it in Ephrathah (Bethlehem) - we came upon it in the fields of Jaar.
Let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool.

The Next bit sounds a bit like the prayer at the dedication of the temple - 
Arise, LORD, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.
Not sure about getting up to go to rest!

May your priests be clothed with your righteousness; may your faithful people sing for joy.

For the sake of your servant David, do not reject your anointed one.

God made a promise to David that one of his descendants would sit on the throne (if they kept the terms of the covenant) 

I read the rest of the Psalm with a bit of disappointment - the history of Israel and Judah were full of breaking the terms of the covenant with prophets warning of calamity ahead while the nation went slowly from major regional power to vassal to conquered and deported people.

In the Psalm God  promises to always rest in Jerusalem at the temple, he will bless with abundant provisions, even the poor will have satisfying food.
The priests would be clothed with salvation, and the faithful will sing for joy.

Perhaps the end of the Psalm is a bit prophetic - looking towards the offspring of David, Jesus.

Here I will make a horn (power) grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one.

I will clothe his enemies with shame, but his head shall be adorned with a radiant crown
(Ever see a halo?)

Psalm 131 Not too proud

Psalm 131

This is another pilgrimage psalm by David 

Have you ever tried to solve the problems of the world? I usually think about it when I get some beer inside me!!

I have to remember sometimes that some problems are beyond my means to solve!

This Psalm puts me in mind of trying to sort out the big problems that I don't have a hope of solving!

My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty
I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.

But I have calmed and quietened myself, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child I am content.

Israel put your hope in the LORD, both now and for evermore.

One thing I will say is that there some things that I will never understand, however that is no excuse to not try and understand!

Isaac Newton (one of the greatest minds in history) once said
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

There is no shame in admitting that there are things one doesn't know - but there is no excuse for not caring enough to at least try and understand.

Psalm 130 Out of the Depths I cry to you, LORD

Psalm 130

There is a memorial plaque at my church which is in memory of the unmarried sister of the vicar at the time who died in a boating accident at Pangbourne on Thames (Here unfulfilled) it says with some sadness ( I assume) 
"Out of the depths I cry to thee O LORD" 

LORD, hear my voice.
Let your ear be attentive to my cry for mercy.

I think it is a bit interesting that very few people approach God as though he owes them a favour don't find him, while those who seek mercy are not turned away.

If you, LORD kept a record of sins, LORD who could stand?

I'm afraid that there is a record of sins kept, but with God there is forgiveness, Christians believe that through Jesus death and resurrection forgiveness of sins if we come to God for mercy, admit our sins and try and turn away from them.

I wait for the LORD, by whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the LORD more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

Psalm 129 They have oppressed me

Psalm 129

They have oppressed me from my youth 

Wow - cheerful! 

They have oppressed me from my youth  but they have not gained the victory over me.
Ploughmen have ploughed my back and made their furrows long.
But the LORD is righteous and has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.

Not sure what this is about 

The fairly short Psalm finishes with wishing those who hate Zion would be turned back in shame, wither like grass growing on a rooftop and nobody passing a blessing on from God

Psalm 128 Fear the LORD

Psalm 126

This is another tricky one for me as a single person who lives on their own!
Anyway more of this later...

Blessed are all those who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him.
You will eat the fruit of your labour, blessings and prosperity will be yours.

You know, I look around and far too often see good people suffering, made redundant - is the Psalm wrong? 
Personally I don't think value and prosperity can be measured in terms of simple money (which will come as a bit of a relief to the Chancellor of the Exchequer!) If there is one thing that the founders of the Christian faith show it is that prosperity and blessing can just as easily come from a non-earthly source.

Now comes the bit I have difficulty with -
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in your house; your children will be like olive shoots round your table.
Yes this will be the blessing for the man who fears the LORD.

By the way fear in this case is not the same as afraid - it is more like respect
It is interesting to note that, so far as we know, many of the founders of the Christian faith were not married - including Jesus himself (there is absolutely no evidence that Dan Brown  is anything but am author of well selling, but implausible, books!)

May the LORD bless you from Zion, may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
May you live to see your children's children - Peace be on Israel.

Psalm 127 God the builder

Psalm 127

Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.

This has been a difficult week for me this week, on Thursday in a referendum my fellow countrymen voted to leave the EU (well actually it was more like 37% voted to leave and 27% did not vote) but the  "voters have spoken" and those who disagree are now told to shut up as the "country has decided" You may get the hint that I am part of the country that did not want to leave and woke on Friday to what I feared.

I find that this Psalm is difficult too - I am deliberately single, this is my choice and I have accepted that it is very unlikely that I will ever have children but the Psalm says 
Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him, 
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.

Interesting the use of the word "When" in this last verse!
As I say I don't have children and am unlikely to have children, and what is more at the age of 40 something I don't think if I had children today they would be the children born in my youth!

I think I'll consider the first part of the psalm - and pray that God builds my nation and guards my country so that we are not working in vain!

Psalm 126 When god restores

Psalm 126

I'm going to let you in on a secret today - I don't always find it easy to be a Christian.

Some years ago, when I was at University I had a stage with - I hesitate to call it depression, as a lot of people have it a heck of a lot worse than me, call it a dark period or a sad time. I went so far as to try and ignore my faith and what I knew about God his presence and his spirit.

God actually met with me and restored my faith at a Christian Union meeting where the guest talker was talking about the outpouring of God's spirit called the "Toronto blessing" 
I asked for prayer from the speaker and the chaplain after the meeting and this psalm kind of reminds me of the feeling I got during and after the prayers - 

"When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy."

I won't say it was quite that extreme, but I did feel a sense of God's presence and his peace, that today, nearly 20 years later, has not left me!

Then it was said among the nations, The LORD has done great things for us and we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, LORD, like streams in the Negev (Desert).

The Psalm ends with an interesting expression - 
Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping carrying seed to sow , will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them

If you are in a hard place right now - you have my prayers. 
Remember - it may take some time, but things will work out for the best one way or another 

LORD, please be with those who are suffering and weeping now, please restore faltering faith, comfort those sowing acts of faith through tears.
Please hurry and bring a harvest of laughter.
Amen.

Psalm 125 Those who trust

Psalm 125

This is yet another song of ascents or pilgrimage psalm,

Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures for ever.

I guess from the view of a couple of thousand years this is true enough, but geologists will tell us that the earth is in a constant state of change in geological times and that once the very mountain tops were on the sea be. 
Furthermore this mechanism is essential for life on earth to exist.

However from the point of view of humanity most of the mountains have been in their current from since discovery, so from the Psalm writers, way before geology became a science, mountains are permanent 

I've never visited Jerusalem, but I believe it is in a mountainous area with hills and mountains in every direction as the surrounding hills are likened to the surrounding presence of God.

The sceptre of hte wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous, for then the righteous might use their hands do do evil.
I'm not sure if this has actually happened, though for good people to do evil just takes an amount of following on and listening to messages of hate, walking with those who believe in violence and fitting in with evil people!
Sometimes one has to take a stand to maintain ones integrity.

Lord, do good to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart.
But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish them with the evildoers.

Psalm 124 Going alone

Psalm 124

If the LORD had not been on our side - 

"If" is such a small word isn't it? 
One of my favourite poems - and indeed the UK's favourite when voted on is "IF" by Rudyard Kipling
It is an amazing list of things that if you can do them, "Yours is the earth and everything that's in it and, which is more, you'll be a man my son" - sorry non inclusive language...

The Psalm however is not "If you" but "If God"

IF God had not been on our side when people attacked us - we would have been swallowed alive, engulfed in torrents and floods of raging rivers.
You only have to watch the news for a bit to see tragic tsunamis, floods, landslides, senseless murders.
Speaking of which I write this the day after a local member of parliament was stabbed and shot to death on the street in my county.
My sympathy and prayers are with the family and friends of Jo Cox MP along with those who have lost an advocate and voice.
I also pray for the family of the murderer, and indeed the assailant that they and he would feel the love and forgiveness of the true God, after all the first person Jesus promised a place in heaven was a murderer and terrorist "I tell you the truth, this day you will be with me in paradise"- is one of only 7 sentences recorded by Jesus on the cross. if Jesus can make that offer - I don't want to slam the door of forgiveness on anybody 

Anyway, lets finish the Psalm shall we?

Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth,
We have escaped their pluts like a bird escaping a broken snare.

Our help is in the name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.

Perhaps there is room for both "If God" and "If you" -
If you can live your life to the fullest within the blessing of God
If God is for us, who can stand against?
Neither poverty, nor riches,, neither height nor depth, neither life nor death, neither angels nor demons can separate us from the love of God - to paraphrase St Paul

Psalm 123 Don't look down

Psalm 123

This is another pilgrimage Psalm 

I lift my eyes to you who sit enthroned in heaven.

I'm a bit confused by the next bit if truth be told - I don't agree with slavery!

As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, 
as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.

Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt.
We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud.

I wonder at the requirement to look to the hand of a human, either hoping for reward or in fear of punishment.
Though the hand of a master craftsman showing his or her skills so that we can learn is something worth taking notice of.

There is an old song that I recall that has the line,
Father, I want to be with you and do the things you do.

One of the things Jesus and God do is free people from the tyranny of mental and physical slavery, now that is worth looking our for! 

Psalm 122 To be a pilgrim

Psalm 122

The title for this post may seem a bit of a stretch - the Psalm is titled "A song of ascents. Of David"

I believe that the song of ascents refers to the journey to Jerusalem that was supposed to be made three times a year. 
For me I would describe a pilgrimage as a physical journey with a spiritual goal.

Historically a pilgrimage would have been to a holy site, in the UK we have a few pilgrim sites. Historically Canterbury was the main one to visit the shrine of Thomas Beckett (parts of him actually came back recently following the destruction of the shrine during the reformation) 

Anyway back to the Psalm - how do you feel when somebody says "Lets go to church"?

I guess for a lot of people the response would be For why, Keats, for why? (extra points if you get the movie reference!)

Here, though I rejoiced with those who said to me "Let us go to the house of the LORD"
Our feet ar standing at your gates, Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, I believe is built on a hill top and is pretty built up

The Psalm asks us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem holy to three major world faiths (if only we could see eye to eye on living peaceably there! But hey there has been a long time to wind each other up!)

I honestly do think that praying for peace in the middle East is a worth while thing to do - after all we have had a few thousand years of human "diplomacy" to demonstrate that we cannot solve these divisions on our own!

Those of no faith may argue that the divisions are religious - in which case go in there and sort it out using atheism and pure "logic" - see how you get on!
Oh wait, we saw how that works with the purges and pogroms of totalitarian atheist states!

Perhaps there is something to be said about making a journey together - after all sometimes the journey of discovery is as important as the destination?

Psalm 121 Run for the hills!

Psalm 121

There is an expression "Run for the Hills" - in the BBC show Blackadder this phrase is followed with "Bit they're coming from the hills"- - "Run away from the hills"

I live in a town called Ilkley which is in a valley between Ilkley moor on one side and high land with Beamsley beacon the other 

This Psalm starts with the words "I lift my eyes up to the hills, Where does my help come from?"

This Psalm is very comforting and positive and the chance to just relax into the presence of God here is rather nice.

Our help comes from God, maker of heaven and earth .
He will not let your foot slip - God watches over us won;t let our foot slip, he does not sleep.
God is our shelter so that neither the sun nor the moon can hurt us.
(I'm quite fair skinned and get sunburn easily!)


God will watch over our coming and going, both now and forevermore.

Psalm 120 Location, location

Psalm 120

This is titled a song of ascents (or a pilgrimage song) though it is not all that cheerful!

I call on the LORD in my distress and he answers me.
Save me, LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.

So far, fair enough I think, but the Psalm continues with what God does 

What will he do to you and what more besides, you deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior's sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom bush.

Sorry - are broom bushes prone to turning into coals?

Then the Psalm continues with moaning about the neighbours!

Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek (Possibly a middle East version of somewhere like, for example, Mirfield?)  that I dwell among the tends of Kedar (Is that like Dewsbury?)
Before you comment Mirfield and Dewsbury are quite nice (in parts) 

I actually looked this up in some commentaries of the Bible and it seems that Meshek is a hostile tribe in the North somewhere and Kedar is a hostile tribe in the south, and these verses are not meant literally since Meshek and Kedar are actually nowhere near each other!

Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.
I am for peace; but when I speak they are for war.

This last bit is the sort of thing that I can imagine coming from the mouth of some mad warmongering dictator or insincere politician!
 I'd hope it was sincere but actions speak loud when you say this sort of thing!