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Psalm 140:10

Psalm 140:10 Burning coals! It would be easy to simply skip over this verse, but there is more to it than perhaps meets the eye. Firstly, burning coals were very much part of Israel’s religious life, coals were burned on the altar of sacrifice at the Tabernacle and the Temple, and burning coals were taken by the priests into the Holy Place and laid on the altar of incense at least twice a day. There is an element of God’s justice involved in these practices; indeed, the prophet Isaiah pours scorn and condemnation on necromancers, sorcerers, astrologers and the like, saying that they will never be able to save themselves from the fire of judgement, people who think their spiritual coals provide warmth and cosy comfort have got it completely wrong! Isaiah 47:12-15. Their fiery coals will come back to haunt them, an irony if ever there was one!  In Psalm 18:8 God’s power and majesty come down to the earth with consuming fire and burning coals erupting from His mouth. There is no quest...
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Psalm 140:9

Psalm 140:9 Dealing with mischief - makers Oh dear, don’t you wish you had read this verse before succumbing to the latest workplace gossip? Why is that everywhere we go, especially in employment, there are always people who use their lips and tongues for mischief. Sadly, we try to trust our leaders, but experience shows that they are no better, they speak mischief, and thousands are conned into believing them.  As a King, David was well-versed in political games, and he soon saw through the arrogance and duplicity of those who opposed him. I apologise for being cynical, but this is the way of the world, there are few people we can really trust, everyone seems to have an agenda. I used to tell myself that most of my work colleagues were playing games, all I had to do was to decide at what level I would play along and at what point I would say, “no more”. If we do that, we become players too, but at least we have choices and are in control of our own destinies! David constantly make...
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Psalm 140:8

Psalm 140:8 A prayer against the wicked This Psalm is a far cry from the watered-down mantras of the liberal church where love and tolerance to everyone is promoted. I watched a short excerpt from the BBC’s Songs of Praise recently where a vicar was promoting community, inclusivity, the common bonds between all races and nations, and how the church is there to bring people together and to create unity and kinship. It all sounded wonderful, but there was no mention of the Gospel or of repentance from sin. These are the things that God sets before us in His Word as being fundamental to our walk with Him, and from these grows a community of love and fellowship that crosses all racial and international borders. Through the Gospel broken families are restored and individuals learn to love each other. What’s the point of constantly promoting the outcome if we do not teach and preach the means and the cause? It's against the background of tolerance, a word that is extremely popular today,...
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Psalm 140:7

Psalm 140:7 Shield my head in the day of battle I wonder if the Apostle Paul was thinking of this verse when he wrote about the armour of God and in particular, the helmet of salvation? (Ephesians 6:17.) When David wrote these words he could, have course, been referring literally to his head, the part of his body where his brain lived! He could also have been referring to his headship, in other words, when he went into battle the Lord God protected the head of Israel, He looked after the monarchy. Maybe what was in his mind was his thoughts and decision-making processes, the judgements that needed to be made in the heat of the moment, when danger was all around and, as we would say, the king needed a clear head.  After our journey through Psalm 139 it should be obvious that the Lord is able to be all of the above, we could simply say that when the battle rages God is with us, He is our protector, our inspiration, our guide, our deliverer and our salvation. Let’s transfer that infor...
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Psalm 140:6

Psalm 140:6 You are my God! It’s no coincidence that we are confronted here by David’s heart cry to God, something that the next few Psalms will replicate, for we all need to stop at times and ask, “Who is our God?” Most Christians would look indignant when asked this question and reply, “The God of the Bible of course. The God we worship in our church. The God of our ancestors. The God who created heaven and earth. The God of the Christian faith.”  And yes, our God is all of those things but is He truly God of you and me? Is He the One who we worship above everyone and everything? Is He the One we turn to in trouble? Is He the One we think of when we lay down to sleep and when we awake? Is He Lord of all that we possess or own? Is He God of our families, our relationships, our work and our play? Is He our God when we sit in front of the TV or scroll through Apps on our phones? Is He the God who made every tree and blade of grass that grows around us and every cloud in the sky...
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Psalm 140:5

Psalm 140:5 Traps and snares This verse puts us in the territory of poachers and gamekeepers, especially those who do not use guns. In ancient times there were no guns, prey had to be caught with bows and arrows which could be a tricky business. Therefore, the hunters became very proficient at setting traps and snares, using nets and cords. There are many skills involved, you must study the habits of the prey and work out the tracks that they regularly use.  You need to know at what level they travel, for instance a fox trap needs to be higher than say, a rabbit. It’s best to avoid ditches and water courses of any kind and you need to prepare nets and cords that will hold the prey once it has been caught. The methods and equipment vary from animal to animal, and a successful “trapper” has to be able to outwit the animal he is hunting. All the above demonstrates that guile, deceit, experience and an amount of satisfaction in catching and killing prey, has to be part of the qual...
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Psalm 140:4

Psalm 140:4 There's always a battle This is a personal plea for the Lord’s protection, and like David, we need to pray for our own security before we can pray for the safety and defence of our families, friends, churches, even our nation. In David’s world the threat was physical and tangible, his enemies at the time he prayed really did want to physically hurt him, and they devised all sorts of devious plans to cause harm to him and to his reputation. If we read his life story in the books of Samuel, we will see that David faced enemies and persecution almost every day of his life. There’s no doubt that true disciples of Jesus Christ suffer for their faith. It is not a popular thing to be a Christian and to wear that badge of honour with pride. We will always be misunderstood, treated with contempt by some and mistrust by others. Our faith will seem to them to be a pointless fantasy, based on scientifically and historically proven fables. They may like us, but they treat our belief...
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