This week’s psalm of lament is the opposite of the others we have looked at.  Psalm 25 has the hope in God at the beginning and the despair at the end.  That is probably the best way to face life: get your eyes focussed on the greatness of God and then look at your problems in comparison.  The size of God will diminish the size of the problems.

    The psalmist’s problems are loneliness, affliction, anguish, distress, all his sins, the multiplication of his enemies and the fear of being put to shame.

    That’s enough of a list to be going on with!  You may find any one of those at different stages of your life.  And if so it helps to know that God is there.  Not just there, but active.

    The psalmist lifts up his soul to God and trusts in him, with the assurance that (N)o one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.

    And then to be assured that his trust will be rewarded, the psalmist is aware that he has a part to play:

Show me your ways, O LORD,

teach me your paths;

guide me in your truth and teach me,

    He knows that he can’t just choose his own way in life (remember Jesus said, ‘I am the way’); he is aware that God has a way (and again Jesus tells us it is a straight and narrow way).  So if we walk this way, we will learn his paths and be guided in his truth.  It seems everyone has their own understanding of truth these days, but there is only one reality and if we are living in the world that the God of the Bible created, then living by his truth guarantees us his presence and protection.

    And then  the psalmist twice tells God that He is good: Good and upright is the LORD.  And:

All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful.

    And there is a conditional clause:

for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

    We do tend to forget the conditions that are found throughout the Bible and then wonder why God doesn’t fulfil his side of the covenant, while we are not fulfilling our side.  And yet that is what we find throughout the Bible - a covenant of two sides.  So often we hear about God’s side and then when God doesn’t deliver there is doubt and questioning.

    It would transform our church if we actually applied the covenant to our lives; it would transform our lives!  

    Let’s give it a try!

​

   The next psalm of lament is Psalm 26.  In terms of theology this is a very good one.  We know nothing of the problem behind the psalm because the psalmist doesn’t tell us.  He spends the whole psalm defending himself - and what a defence!

    He begins with a plea for God to vindicate him.  We don’t know what he has been accused of, but it doesn’t really matter.  Life is just not going his way and he is feeling in need of God’s help.  

    And so he begins his defence: I have led a blameless life.  In terms of Old Testament Theology that means he has never knowingly broken any of God’s laws.  There were sacrifices for unintentional sins, but not for intentional sins, so he is blameless because the sacrifices covered his unintentional sins.

    Then he writes about his unwavering trust in the LORD.  He tells God: 

‘Test me … and try me, 

examine my heart and my mind’.  

    That’s a challenge isn’t it?  Could you ask God to test your heart and mind to see if your trust in him is unwavering?  Then he says, ‘your love is ever before me’.  

    The God of the Old Testament was known for his love.  Sometimes preachers lead us astray on this and give us a different picture of God, but those who knew him knew him as a God who loved them.  But it isn’t just about trusting in God’s love and living how you like.  The psalmist also ‘walk(s) continually in your truth’.  His trust is unwavering because he knows his God and he lives according to God’s Word.  He doesn’t take the advice of people who don’t know God; his guide through life is the Word of God.

    He then lists the people he doesn’t hang out with and continues: ‘telling of all your wonderful deeds’.  The God of the Bible is the true God; He performs wonderful deeds.  He isn’t distant, or inactive.  He is a God of power who wants to work in our lives if we would let him.  We just have to open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit and we would experience some of those wonderful deeds for ourselves.  Some people go to church all their lives and never experience the power of God; this Old Testament psalmist loves going to the Temple because he knows the God to whom it is dedicated.

    And he concludes the psalm by again reminding God that he leads a blameless life:

‘My feet stand on level ground;

in the great assembly I will praise the LORD.’

    I love this psalm because it was written in Old Testament times, before Jesus died on the cross and rose again, before the Holy Spirit was poured out, and yet there is so much life in it.  This psalmist knows his God personally and yet he has never had a life-transforming encounter with Jesus; he has never been filled with the Holy Spirit and experienced that real power of God flowing through his body.

    Aren’t you grateful that you live on this side of Calvary and this side of Pentecost?  All that the psalmist testifies to in this psalm is ours daily, and more besides.

    Everyday, along with this psalmist we should be:

‘proclaiming aloud (God’s) praise 

and telling of his wonderful deeds’.

​

   Psalm 27 begins like a psalm of praise, but as you read through it you can see the psalmist’s problems: ‘evil men advance against me to devour my flesh’; Though an army besiege me’; ‘though war break out against me’; ‘in the day of trouble’; ‘the enemies who surround me’; ‘Though my father and mother forsake me’; ‘my oppressors’; ‘the desire of my foes’; ‘false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence’

    He is not having an easy time!  There seems to be nothing but trouble, including from his own family.  Anyone would give up under the pressures he seems to be facing, but he begins the psalm with a statement and a question:

The LORD is my light and my salvation -

whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the stronghold of my life -

of whom shall I be afraid?

    Good question!  If God is on our side it doesn’t matter how many people are against us.  In the early days of my Christian life there were posters - usually with kittens on them - with pithy little sayings and there was one that fits in here: “With God on my side I’m always in the majority”.  I always liked that one (even with the kitten!)  It doesn’t matter who is against us as long as God is for us.

    The psalmist asks one thing of the LORD: 

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD 

all the days of my life, 

to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD.

    And that is the secret to his confidence.  He has confidence in the God he knows; the God he spends time with; the God he meditates on.  The better he knows God, the better he knows God, and that gives him confidence and hope.

    He finishes the psalm with the words: 

Wait for the LORD;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the LORD.

    He has confidence and hope and he is able to praise the LORD, even though the answers may not come immediately.  He is looking at the big picture and trusting in the God he knows.  And so with all his difficulties he can still praise God.  This is one of those situations where it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

    That is our God - someone worth knowing!

 

   The more psalms we read, the more we realise that God’s people didn’t always have an easy time.  The idea that they believed in a Creator God who was good to them because their lives were running smoothly is false to the evidence that we see in the psalms.  These people suffered; they had enemies and life wasn’t easy.  Today we are looking at Psalm 28.  There doesn’t seem to be any physical threat this time, but there is the threat of the two-faced friend: ‘those who do evil, who speak cordially with their neighbours but harbour malice in their hearts’.  The person who is nice to your face, but has a different story to tell when your back is turned.

    There is a call for justice in this palm; it sounds like a call for vengeance.  And that makes it a very real psalm.  There is no point in lying to God when He knows how we feel.  God is more pleased with our prayers for someone’s judgement than He is with our prayers for their blessing, when He knows, and we know, that we don’t mean it.  He wants us to be honest!

    To use a modern analogy, the book of Psalms is like Facebook, or any other social media platform.  It used to be that people kept diaries and they would be horrified if anyone read them.  Today we have Facebook and you can learn what people had for breakfast; their favourite film; where they are going on holiday; and their opinions about anything from Brexit to Covid.  They are usually disappointed if people don’t read and “Like” these diary entries.

    And so if the book of Psalms is seen as a public prayer diary then we can understand the feelings expressed there.  Life is tough and the psalmist is expressing his feelings about what is happening.  And, just like the InterNet, what goes in the Bible is there forever.  So we may not know the individuals being referred to, but we know how the psalmist dealt with it.

    And once again the way to deal with issues is to recognise God and take everything to him.  The psalmist calls God his Rock, the One who has heard his cry for mercy; his strength and his shield.  And not just his:

The LORD is the strength of his people,

a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

    This is the God who is always there and the God who is able!  Able to protect us in every situation.  Able to deliver us from all evil.  

    And so the psalm ends with a prayer:

Save your people and bless your inheritance;

be their shepherd and carry them forever.

    That’s an even better picture - the God who is our Shepherd, carrying us through the difficult times.  So whatever you may be facing at this time, remember the LORD who is your Shepherd, who will carry you through.

 

   This week’s psalm is Psalm 31.  In this psalm we have another quote that Jesus used on the cross: v5, “Into your hands I commit my spirit”.  And once again there are enemies and there is trouble, but as you read through the psalm you begin to notice something else.  And the something else made me wonder how old this psalmist is:

my eyes grow weak with sorrow,

my soul and my body with grief.

My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning;

my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak….

I have become like broken pottery.

    He is under stress, but he also seems to be suffering the ravages of illness and age.  I liked the broken pottery image - maybe a bit cracked!  Maybe completely broken like Humpty Dumpty.  Humanly beyond repair.  And there is the description of weak bones and failing strength, failing eyesight.  He’s not doing so well!

    And yet with all of that he still knows his God.  That verse that Jesus quoted as his strength was failing on the cross, Into your hands I commit my spirit is a good prayer for each of us to offer - who else are we going to trust as our bodies get older!  The psalm begins with the psalmist trusting God as a refuge, a deliverer, a rescuer, a rock of refuge and a fortress.  This is a God who is able; a God who is powerful.  And a God who is in control.

    The psalmist goes on to say, My times are in your hands.  And that is a statement of faith, trusting in the eternal God who is from everlasting to everlasting, as another psalm describes him.

    This is the God who has his hand on our lives.  He knows every day before we live it.  He reads every email before it arrives in our inbox; every text before it arrives in our phone, and every letter before we open the envelope.  He knows what we are facing and even if we are not able to cope, we can trust that He is.

    The psalmist, with all his problems, was able to trust in God and so he finishes the psalm with:

Love the LORD, all his saints!

The LORD preserves the faithful,

…

Be strong and take heart,

all you who hope in the LORD.

    And if we know this same God, revealed to us more fully in Jesus, we should also be able to be strong in the face of everything that we face in this coming week; we should be able to take heart, and to hope in the LORD.

 

    In this week’s psalm it takes a moment to realise that the psalmist is a good person.  Psalm 35 starts with the psalmist asking God to fight against his enemies, and asking that their lives be ruined.  He doesn’t sound like a good person until you reach v13, where he tells us:

when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting.

When my prayers returned to me unanswered,

I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother.

I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.

    So he is concerned about these people and he isn’t happy to see disaster fall on them, but he is understandably upset when they slander him and are glad of his misfortunes.

    But how does he respond?  In a very human way!  He wants them to experience what they are wishing on him.  The problem with this psalmist is that if his prayers are answered then he has to go back to v13 again and begin fasting in sackcloth.  He can’t really win!  But he doesn’t want to win.  This psalm, like so many others, is his prayer diary.  This is between him and God.  As I said before, the book of Psalms was the Social Media of its day and so we get to read his prayer diary.

    But at least he is honest!  And in his honesty we can see the biblical way to deal with difficult people.

    The psalmist doesn’t plot his revenge.  He is genuinely concerned about the people who are giving him a hard time.  As much as he wants God to punish them, he also treats them like friends and family.

    And he appeals to God for help: O LORD, how long will you look on?   The usual cry in the psalms, and probably a common complaint today: how long will it be before my prayers are answered?

    But he knows that God will answer.  Despite his troubles he trusts, because he knows his God:

May those who delight in my vindication

shout for joy and gladness;

may they always say, “The 

LORD be exalted

who delights in the 

well-being of his servant”.

    And he concludes:

My tongue will speak of your righteousness

and of your praises all day long.

    So on first reading this psalm looks like it’s written by a vindictive man, but once you realise how concerned he is for these people you can understand him better and realise that he is upset with the way they treat him after he has been (and continues to be) so good to them.  And once again there is that underlying trust in God who will vindicate him.

    The psalmist would tell us to pour out all our troubles to God; keep on caring for our “enemies” and trust God to sort it all out.  Not bad advice!

 

    This week we have one of the most miserable psalms, Psalm 38.  The psalmist spends most of the psalm complaining about how God has mistreated him and then, inevitably, he mentions all the people who are mistreating him as well.  And there is no happy ending!  Just a plea in the last verse:

Come quickly to help me,

O LORD my Saviour.

    And we are left wondering: Did He?

        But maybe that’s the point!

            Maybe that’s why this psalm is included in this book!

    Sometimes we can get tired of “Happily ever after”.  It’s OK in fairy tales, but it doesn’t sound like real life.  It doesn’t sound like where we are at the moment, and all those platitudes about how everything will work out and time will heal etc, give nothing but cold comfort.

    I remember going on my first Bereavement Counselling Course many years ago and thinking, “How does this help?  The person (relative/friend) who died is still dead, so how does counselling help?”  And as negative as that sounds, it’s true and that’s where this psalm helps.

    And yet, as bad as his life is, this psalmist is still talking to God.  Even though he has that fairly common human response to his problems - health and relationships - of blaming God, or assuming God is involved somewhere in his troubles, at least he is still talking to God.  That is a much better way than living like a practical atheist and assuming that “This is just life!”

    Sometimes the real world is not fun and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel actually is an oncoming train!  Sometimes we can become overwhelmed.  And it’s good to know that there is at least one (there are more!!) psalm that leaves us hanging; wondering what happened next!

    There are some issues in life that never get resolved; some questions that never get answered; some prayers that just seem to hit the ceiling.  And the Bible acknowledges that.  It isn’t a book of fairy tales (although if you read the end you’ll see there is a “Happily ever after” ending, but that’s not where we are living today).

    And yes we can know that we live in the New Testament and that Jesus has conquered everything, but while we are going through all those things that are working together for good, it can hurt.  So read Psalm 38 and recognise the trust that this psalmist has in his Saviour LORD and if you are in the same position as him - Hang on in there!

 

   This week we have another doom and gloom psalm - Psalm 39.  The beginning is entertaining: I have often thought a muzzle is necessary, but I find, like the psalmist that there is a need to say something, otherwise I’ll burst.  But notice that when the psalmist does speak he speaks to God.  And his main concern is with the fleeting nature of life.

    It isn’t that life is short; it is that life goes by so quickly.  There is a request in v4: 

Show me, O LORD, my life’s end 

and the number of my days.

    I wonder how many of us would like to ask those questions?  I have been in situations where I have counted down the days.  In one circuit I was in I did it the other way and counted the first 1,000 days, just to see what could be done in 1,000 days.  But would you like to know when and how your life is going to end?

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:

He bustles about, but only in vain;

he heaps up wealth, not 

knowing who will get it.

    That describes so many people today.  We have made busy-ness into a virtue, as though being busy is the normal state of life and actually resting, relaxing and chilling out were somehow wrong.  But to what end?  Busy with what?  For what purpose?  Each man’s life is but a breath.

    And all we are doing is killing time, which will kill us right back!  The psalmist, however, knows his God.  He knows that he is an alien and a stranger (v12) on this earth, and he is aware that it is his sin that is causing him his problems (v8).  He also confesses to his trust in God (v7), but he is finding God’s discipline too hard to bear (v13).

    These psalms are not written by people who believe, as so many do today, that God is a cuddly grandfather-figure.  They are written by people who know that God is not tame.  He is a holy God who condemns sin; a righteous God who judges sinners.  We need to look again to these psalms to see how people who know their God talk to him, to see how they deal with the many different issues of life.  And even when there isn’t an immediate solution to their difficulties, to see who it is that they are trusting in.

    In verse 12 the psalmist describes himself as an alien and a stranger.  If you know your Bible you will know what the Law says about aliens and strangers; you will know that David, as king, described himself this way; you will know what the letter to the Hebrews says about aliens and strangers, and you will understand what the psalmist is saying.  God doesn’t treat us the way our government treats refugees - He treats us in the completely opposite way.  And that gives us hope in all circumstances.

 

   In complete contrast to Psalm 39 Psalm 40 is quite cheerful - for a psalm of lament.  The psalmist begins by recounting God’s salvation and goes on to talk about the new song - the hymn of praise - that God has put in his mouth.  And we almost get to the end of the psalm before he mentions all who seek to take my life.  On the whole this is positive!

    But it is a psalm of lament.  The psalmist was in the slimy pit and the mud and mire.  He writes of troubles without number that surround him.  And then he reveals the source of his problems: 

my sins have overtaken me,

and I cannot see.

They are more than the hairs on my head,

    The psalmist is living before Calvary and Pentecost and he is in a time when there is no salvation from sin, no dying to our old selves.  He recounts the sacrifices of the Old Testament, realising that this is not what God requires.  It is surprising how many times in the Old Testament that the sacrificial system is discounted as something that God doesn’t require.  In this psalm we read about the grace of God.

    The Old Testament is just a shadow compared to the reality that Jesus brought, but the picture of God is just as clear and this is what the psalmist concentrates on.  God responds to the psalmist’s cry for help and sets his feet on a rock and gives him a firm place to stand - remember what Jesus said about building your house on the rock, not on sand?

    It was God who put the new song in the psalmist’s mouth.  The Old Testament God is worthy of praise because of his grace, mercy and love.  The only law that the psalmist needs is in his heart.  It wasn’t an external law that needed to be read and observed.  It was within his heart.  We sometimes hear from preachers that one of the main differences between the Old and New Testaments is that everything was internalised in the New Testament, but reading the Old Testament reveals that this isn’t true.  God had revealed himself to his people in the wilderness and in the Promised Land.  They knew what He was like.  They knew what He required of them.  They weren’t capable of fulfilling God’s requirements because they didn’t have the Holy Spirit yet, but they knew their God.  And they knew that He was worth following and worthy of their praise:

Many, O LORD my God,

are the wonders you have done.

The things you planned for us

no-one can recount to you;

were I to speak and tell of them,

they would be too many to declare.

    This is our God, and whatever slimy pit we may find ourselves in, this is the God who will lift us out and clean us up.  So wherever you find yourself, cry out to God and see what He will do.

 

     This week’s psalm - Psalm 41 - is one that is quoted in the New Testament, referring to Judas: 

Even my closest friend whom I trusted, 

he who shared my bread, 

has lifted up his heel against me.

    And it is all about righteous living in the midst of people who are critical.  The psalm begins with an affirmation of trust in God who will preserve the life of the righteous person (who has regard for the weak); the God who will bless, protect from enemies and restore from illness.  And the psalm ends with a cry of praise to God.

    In between!  Well, that’s where we hear all about his problems.  He acknowledges that his sin causes his problems.  This is not the simplistic judgement for a wrong act that we might suspect, but rather an awareness that his separation from God leads to ill-health.  Meanwhile, his enemies, like good pastoral visitors, have been visiting him - and wondering when he will die!  You have to wonder about these “enemies” - they are visiting him!  They can’t be that bad.

    They sound very like Job’s friends.  They are concerned about his health, but they are also a bit judgemental - blaming him for his illness

    But it also sounds like Judas - a follower of Jesus who then betrays him.  There is a fine line between the psalmist’s closest friend who shared his bread, and his enemy who speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander.  There is a fine line between Judas the follower of Jesus and Judas the betrayer of Jesus.

    The gospels don’t record the call of Judas, so we don’t know what he was doing before; but we know he was one of God’s chosen people; we know he preached the gospel, healed the sick, cast out demons and raised the dead.  We know he helped feed the 5,000.  And yet he lifted up his heel against Jesus.

    One of the benefits of God becoming human is that He understands what it is to be human; to have a family; to have friends; to have enemies; and sometimes to discover that they are all the same person.

    And yet the psalmist (and Job {and Jesus}) still is able to praise God.  God is always worthy of praise, from everlasting to everlasting.  And it is God who will set us in his presence forever, as the psalmist says.

    Whatever else is happening, we can have that assurance, that God doesn’t change - He doesn’t change his opinion of us.  He is never disappointed, or let down, by anything we do.  He knows us inside out and He loves us anyway.  He can be relied on, when others cannot.

 

 

    This week’s psalm appears as two psalms in our English translations: Psalm 42-43.  They are, in reality, one psalm, and they are very personal to me.  Two years after I became a Christian I fell away to the point that I was depressed and suicidal and this psalm is the one that spoke to me the most:

My tears have been my food day and night,

while men say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

    This was the position I found myself in among my Christian friends.  In the 1980s it wasn’t considered possible for a Christian to be depressed.  And I remembered, myself:

how I used to go with the multitude,

leading the procession to the house of God

    And it took doing what the psalmist did to get myself out of the cycle of depression and suicidal thoughts - asking myself:

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

    And then advising myself:

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Saviour and my God.

    It did feel, as the psalmist writes, as if God had forgotten me.  And so I did what the second half of the psalm (or Psalm 43) does; I pleaded with God:

Vindicate me, O God

and plead my cause against an ungodly nation.

You are God, my stronghold.

Why have you rejected me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?

    And it made a massive difference!  I was brought to his holy mountain; to the place where He dwells, and I have never had a break in my relationship with my Saviour and my God since then - that was 1983, and as a result of that experience I was called into ministry and I have seen the power of God at work, not just in my life, but in the lives of so many other people.

    So my advice would be: if everything seems dark and hopeless and there seems to be no way out, have a good long look at yourself and ask yourself why you are feeling like that; then have a good long conversation with God and ask him for his Salvation.

    And this is a guaranteed money-back offer - you will yet praise him as your Saviour and your God.  I can guarantee it!

​

    This week’s psalm (Psalm 51) is associated with King David’s adultery with Bathsheba.  If that is the case, there is a genuine need to lament, because this was bad.  But once again we find the psalmist appealing to God’s nature first: 

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; 

according to your great compassion….

    This is the Old Testament God - known for his unfailing love and great compassion.  Sometimes God has been mercilessly slandered by those who do not know him!

    This loving God is also a judge (v4) who desires truth in the inner parts (v6), a God who saves (v14) and a God who isn’t satisfied with ritual sacrifices (v16).

    I will assume for now that this is David writing, and we can see how guilty he feels:

I know my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me.

    He knows that sin is against God; it isn’t based on moral standards that change with each generation:

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight.

    And he feels so guilty that he believes he was born that way:

Surely I was sinful at birth,

sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

    You may have felt that bad at some time in your life, or maybe you haven’t.  But there may come a time when you will.  And so David appeals to God and asks for a fresh start:

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean,;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Hide your face from my sins

and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    God does forgive David, but a pure heart and the radical cleansing are only offered in Jesus:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 Jn.1: 9).

    So remember Jesus if you ever find yourself in need of forgiveness and a completely fresh start.  There are no sacrifices that offer forgiveness; there is no religious ritual of repenting and confessing that will give us a pure heart.  Just Jesus!

​

The next psalm on the list was to be Psalm 53, but as this is an almost exact repeat of psalm 14 I am leaving it out and moving to Psalm 54.  This is a very short psalm, with a familiar theme of the psalmist being attacked by strangers - men without regard for God.

    We used to talk about “Stranger-danger” and warn our children not to talk to strangers; we don’t seem to do that so much anymore.  But there is still that fear of strangers that comes down from Genesis 4 when Cain was concerned with how he would be treated by strangers.  We use the word “phobia” now to describe stranger-danger - anyone who is different, for whatever reason; if we are scared of them we are phobic, or even …ist.  This seems to be the psalmist’s problem, although a 21st century label cannot be applied to him.  We don’t know his situation (despite the titles that were added later) - a good supplement to the Book of Psalms would be an index telling us when, by whom, and why these psalms were written.  Maybe another Arabic schoolboy will discover a jar with that index in it one day.  That would make interpreting these psalms so much easier!

    Anyway, the important thing for us is where the psalmist looks for help, and once again it is to God, who is described:

God is my help;

the Lord is the one who sustains me.

    The psalmist asks God to save him by your name, and to vindicate him by your might.  An interesting way of phrasing it; the psalmist is relying on the Name of God to save him, not on his might.  He is relying on his might to vindicate him.

    The name of God is powerful.  We know his name as Jesus and that is a powerful name: God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Philippians  2: 9-10).

    The psalmist didn’t know this name of God, but there was that one name of God in the Old Testament: I am who I am, or I will be who I will be.  It is an active name!  God is a verb in the Old Testament, not a noun.  God is always doing something and always looking to help his people.

    At the end of the psalm it is the name of the LORD that the psalmist praises because he has delivered him from all his troubles.

    So next time you find yourself in difficulties, consider the name of God - Jesus (which means Saviour) and ask him for help and see what God will be in your situation.

    And then remember to praise Him.

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    This week’s psalm is Psalm 55, which seems to be a psalm by David written to describe his experiences when Absalom his son rebelled against him and in the process took some of David’s trusted friends with him, leaving David isolated.

    That’s enough context to explain his enemies, but as with all the psalms my concern is with where the psalmist finds his help.  He begins by asking God to listen to his prayer, which is always a good place to begin.  I’m one of those people who doesn’t believe in the power of prayer - I believe in the power of the God to whom I am praying.  There is a difference!  I don’t need to be eloquent, or use the right phrases, or pray the “right” kind of prayer.  As with this psalmist, I can just ask God to not ignore my plea.

    I find verse 9 a helpful prayer:

Confuse the wicked, O Lord,

confound their speech,

    I used it in Belfast more than once!  And there are times when righteousness involves silencing the wicked.  Verse 15 may seem a little extreme to some so I won’t comment on that.

    And then we get the positives:

But I call to God,

and the LORD saves me.

Evening, morning and noon

I cry out in distress,

and he hears my voice. 

    And that is the purpose of this psalm - to let us know that even though many oppose (us) God will still listen and rescue us from all our troubles.

    And so the psalm ends with the advice:

Cast your cares on the LORD

and he will sustain you;

he will never let the righteous fall

    Peter quotes and adapts this in his 1st letter: Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

    These are psalms of lament, so they all contain troubles.  There are psalms of praise, but there are times when we need to lament: we have had COVID (and it’s still here); we have some empty shelves in the supermarkets; there is the petrol-panic; and there are all those personal troubles that we don’t tell anyone about.  So it’s good to read about someone who had it worse than us, but still found help in casting all their cares on the LORD.

    There is no better solution!

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    This week’s psalm is another one attributed to David: Psalm 56.  The heading in my Bible says that this was when the Philistines had caught him.  Once again there is talk of enemies: slandering him; twisting his words; plotting to harm him.  You don’t need to be a King in Israel to experience such things, but again it is the solution that is the helpful part of the psalm for us.  We can fit the problems into our own context and find God to be just as faithful today as He was back then.

    The psalmist appeals to God for mercy.  His enemies are attacking him, but it is God he asks for mercy!  He doesn’t ask his enemies for mercy.  He directs his attention to God right from the start.

    Then he tells us he trusts in God when he is afraid.  He doesn’t deny the fear, but in the midst of his fear he is trusting God, and rationalising:

in God I trust; I will not be afraid.

What can mortal man do to me?

    It is good to get our problems in proportion - God is bigger than anything we have to face, so even though our natural reaction may be fear, or anxiety, we need to consider God and remind ourselves that with God on our side we can face anything.

    Then a different emotion: 

Record my lament;

list my tears on your scroll -

are they not in your record?

    It’s an interesting idea to think that God has a book in which He records all our tears.  God misses nothing.  He is that attentive to all our emotions.

    The psalmist is convinced that God will show his hand when he calls for help - his enemies will turn back.  If this is David, then think about his encounter with Goliath!  He has faced enemies before with God’s help, so he is relying on past experience; and with that past experience in mind he knows that God is for him.

    And so he trusts in God; he praises the word of God and he presents a thank-offering to the God who delivers him from death and his feet from stumbling.

    He presents the thank-offering before his deliverance because he has absolute confidence in God!   That is one of the secrets to a successful prayer-life: first we establish a relationship of trust with God; then we tell him our problems (not because He doesn’t know); then we thank him for answering.

    It worked for the psalmist; there is no reason to think it won’t work that way for us.  Jesus said something once about people thinking they would be heard for their many words.  We don’t need a set liturgical prayer, or to use the “right” words.  We just have to know our God and trust him.  Then we watch him in action, grateful that He is on our side.  Give it a try!

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    Yet another psalm in which the psalmist tells us of his enemies: Psalm 57.  As with the others I will just look at the God in whom he trusts.  The psalmist begins by telling us his soul takes refuge in God.  Popular thought would have us believe that the soul is a separate part of us, but in the Bible the soul refers to the whole of us.  The psalmist is saying that he takes refuge in God completely.

    And then he cries out to God: who fulfils his purpose in me.  God has a purpose and the psalmist is aware that God requires him (and us) to fulfil his purpose.  We can compare this to Ephesians 2: 10: we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  There are some things that God cannot do, because He is relying on us to do them.  If we don’t do them, they don’t get done.  That’s quite a responsibility.

    And then moving to verse 10:

For great is your love,

reaching to the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to

the skies.

    This is the God we recognise in Jesus, but one we are told is not found in the Old Testament.  This is a God who loves his people to the moon and back - his love reaches to the heavens!  Not the way God is often described, but the way He was experienced by his people.

    And God’s faithfulness also reaches to the skies.  He is a faithful God - He is faithful to his promises and faithful to his people.  Whether it is 1000BC or 2000 AD God is faithful.  It doesn’t matter what year, decade, century, or millennium it is - God is faithful.  With that in mind, it doesn’t matter what age we are either.  I find the Bible to be consistent throughout in its description of God and while writing this Romans 8: 35-39 has come to mind, so I’ll leave you with this:

    Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ….   No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    Have a look at Psalm 57 and you’ll find that the psalmist would agree with what Paul wrote there.

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    This week’s psalm is traditionally interpreted as being written when King Saul sent men to watch David’s house in the hope of catching and killing David: Psalm 59.

    It has a lot of apparent anger in its tone, but if read from within an understanding of biblical theology it is no different from praying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven”.

    David is praying that those who oppose God’s rule would be punished.  He asks that God will show no mercy, but at the same requests that God not kill them, otherwise Israel will forget, and that would not serve the psalmist’s purpose in his prayer.  His concern is not with revenge, or even justice.  He is concerned with God’s glory:

 

Then it will be known to the

ends of the earth

that God rules over Jacob.

 

    Again, this is what we are asking when we pray for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth.  What would it look like for those who oppose God if his kingdom were to fully come on earth?  What would it be like if God’s will were fully done on earth?  It would not be peaceful for such people.  But for the people of God it would be a time of vindication; a time of peace.

    And so in this psalm, as with the other lamenting psalms, we have a description of God as He was understood in Old Testament times:

 

O my Strength, I watch for you;

you, O God, are my fortress,

my loving God.

 

    The psalmist calls God his strength.  This is the God who sustains him against all the oppression he faces.  The God who helps him to get out of bed every morning and face a new day.  Sometimes there are so many problems that we need God to help us to get up.  If we begin the day with the News, on the radio or TV, we may wonder if it’s worth getting up, with wars, acts of terrorism, COVID, climate change, petrol shortages and so many other things.  If we begin the day with bad news it’s hard to get up.  If you start with the good news of Jesus, and the news of a God who is from everlasting to everlasting, then maybe getting up will be easier.

    And the psalmist calls God his fortress.  Now that he is up and out of bed he relies on God to protect him through the day.  Whatever he has to face, he knows that he is surrounded by God and so nothing can affect him unless God allows it.

    And, as with all the psalms, God is called my loving God.  Whatever we have to face we can know that God loves us.  The Bible repeats that message constantly.  Most people reject that love and become enemies of God, but for those of us who know God, we find him to be a loving God, and that should help us, at the end of the day, to sleep.

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