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.