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