Psalm 9 makes me want to put it to music. What an awesome song of praise. I love that no matter what comes and goes in our world, the Lord is forever. Nothing will ever destroy or change him. I never thought about how we praise God, but verse one encourages us to praise God for what he does for others. How amazing. Usually we merely thank him for our own blessings but I am going to spend some time thanking him for blessings he gives others each day. Maybe that will help me to appreciate my own blessings more. In light of Haitis current situation, verse 18 gives a lot of hope. It is nice to think that the poor won’t always be left in a mess.
Psalm 10 is similar to psalm 9 and some places I saw them allude to these being put together a lot because their tone, topic and so forth blend together well. Yet it is not known for certain. This psalm is more personal and pointed at evil people who attack us. Wicked people don’t think about God, they could care less. They think that God will just let them get away with whatever they want, or deny his existence. David is asking God to rise up and make them pay, to bring some justice to life and punish the wicked. I think we often want this now as well. We want God to step up and right all the wrongs in the world. People ask, if there is a God, why is there so much pain. David seems to forget as we do that we live in a fallen world. God didn’t bring evil into the world, he doesn’t choose that for us, we choose it for ourselves. I hold onto the hope that God has given us that one day all will have to make an accounting of how they used this life we have been given.
Psalm 11 is a picture of what the ultimate ending will be for unrighteous people. Obviously David had to run away in some situation, or was at least encouraged to. David claims God’s justice in light of this. David points out that there are some things that God just can’t allow the wicked to destroy. In verse three he alludes to this by referring to the foundations. If those are ruined, then what hope is there? There are some things, like all believers perishing, that God will not allow to happen. We have only to think about God and see him in heaven to gain faith and hope according to verse 4. I can see that. I often remind myself of God’s character when I am frustrated and that gives me strength to keep going even when I feel like everyone is against me.
Psalm 12 left me thinking of David as a whiner, so I will just share what I read in the notes since that is more fair to him. In verses 1 & 2 we find a complaint, then a petition in verses 3 & 4. It is followed by a promise in verses 5-7, and an observation to round it out in verse 8. The complaint seems to be that he feels like the only godly person around. I have an awesome church family and many godly friends so I don’t really relate with that. It seemed somewhat “drama queen” to me. In 3 & 4 he asks basically that God remove fake people who don’t fear God from around him. He sees that there are many poor and needy that God will lift up in verses 5-7 because they are the ones that fear God. His final statement is one that states that evil is just there, we have to deal with it. In all, it seems to be one of those psalms where David was just trying to get something off his chest so he could stop thinking about it. I wonder if he ever thought we would be reading his personal thoughts like this today, or if he thought these things were between just he and God.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Psalm 12 – I do not look as David as a whiner in this Psalm…. I look at him in an environment where the persons in charge were not practicing followers of God. There are many environments today that we may be in, perhaps your work/career environment, where as a practicing follower of God one feels defeated by evil. It is difficult to be in an environment that is not following the beliefs of God. There may be the perception that the environment is more powerful directly to you for the short term than God. For example, you need your job to pay your bills. You go to work everyday and do your best. Along the way, you experience the people that you work for are not just… and it happens time and time again. Or the people you are working for are just but the bigger picture of the industry they are in is not just and therefore, your company is being penalized for it. (The industry of banking comes to mind as of late). This is when one has to pull back and look at the big picture and decide where to go from here. To change jobs? To change professions? To start your own business? Or to stay where you are and be His presence in that environment. It is a challenge that God is more than willing to steer you thru. Sidenote: With unemployment so high many people are very grateful for the job they do have. So, the thought of changing anything may not seem like the best move. God is revealing more and more evil to us everyday, on a grand scale. I feel that it is a very exciting period of life to be experiencing… although, one of the most difficult.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is in times like these the most can be accomplished.
Joy