Daily Meditations

Psalm 143:9 You are my hiding place For many casual readers of this Psalm, the idea of  “hiding themselves in the Lord”  would sound very odd indeed! How do we do this and what does it mean? We can hide ourselves in a castle or a secure building or a forest or even in a crowd, in other words, we feel secure because of what is around us and we are less vulnerable to being discovered by our pursuers. If, like David, we believe in the omnipresence of God then He cannot be escaped from, He is always there and wherever we go His presence is with us. What a comfort, what a joy! For those who believe in Jesus Christ and who are true children of God there is more to this spiritual security. Paul, in his letters, often refers to our being “in Christ”. Talking about castles and secure places, take note of these words from Ephesians 2: 19—22.  “ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers,   but fellow citizens   with God’s people and also members of his house...

Psalm 143:8 To You I entrust my life The verse before us suggests that much of this Psalm was written during the dark hours of the night; we can imagine David huddled in a shadowy corner of somewhere like Adullum’s Cave, with just a candle or an oil lamp to provide some illumination and thus he poured out his troubled thoughts to the Lord.  There is a ray of hope! Maybe, in the morning there will be reason to believe that something has changed, that a prophet or a visitor will appear with some good news. What David wants to hear above all else, Is that the Lord still loves him and will always love him. Let’s never be in doubt about this, the Word of God promises that we will always be protected and loved by our heavenly Father, perhaps we do not value enough His promises, promises that David did not discover in the Torah!  Two years ago, I had a catastrophic heart attack and that was a scary experience, especially the night-time flight in a rescue helicopter. 4 Months ago, I h...

Psalm 143:7 Identifying with the dead! This is a troubling verse! If our spirits fail, does that mean that we are about to die? This outcome was certainly in David’s mind and, as we have noted, it was not just the oppression of His enemies and the impending certainty of being killed that brought David so low, he was isolated and lonely, riddled by fear and without hope. The man who had been anointed, some years before, to be the future King of Israel saw all his hopes and ambitions crashing down around him and it’s likely that he thought he had failed himself, His family, his friends and his nation, even his God! Once again, we must take note that when there was nowhere else to turn, David cast himself on the mercy of the Lord and begs Him to not turn away and to not make Himself unapproachable or unreachable The final phrase of Psalm 143:7 is chilling! It throws further light on how the ancient Jews saw their fate beyond death. We know that they believed in Sheol, the place of all dep...

Psalm 143:6 Are we thirsty ..... for Him? This verse seems to take us to a different level, it is a reflection of the intimacy that existed between the fugitive King and His Lord. Firstly, David talks about spreading his hands, this gesture is usually indicative of prayer. Moses first uses it when He speaks to Pharaoh after the plague of hail that came upon Egypt,  “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord.”  Exodus 9:29. To spread our hands out seems to suggest that we have nothing to give and that we are vulnerable, but that we are imploring the Lord to hear and answer our pleas. Stretching out our hands also infers that we are waiting for them to be filled.  Many of us may have experienced the yearning to see someone we love dearly, and to hear their voice and see their face becomes a deep, deep longing. David has this longing, he calls it a thirst because nothing can quench it except the reality of the presence of the Lord. Of...

Psalm 143:5 Meditating on God's works Sometimes, when life is very dark, it does us good to stop and reflect, to remember the good times and to recall the events in our lives when there was joy, security and days of peace and contentment There is no doubt that David had experienced such times, as a young shepherd he must have had contented periods in his life, wandering across the hillsides and meadows with his flock. But his meditations go deeper, he chooses to muse over the beauty and wonder of God’s creation and to look for evidence of the presence of the Lord in all that has been made. Even if his personal situation lacks the input and stamp of God’s presence, the created world is a constant reminder that the Creator is at work and there is abundant evidence of His existence. As Paul puts it, when writing about the pagans,  “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – ...

Psalm 143:4 The pit of despair Psalm 142:3 is repeated here, once again we are dealing with a man whose spirit grows faint within him. In addition, David admits to his heart being dismayed. We are all familiar with genuine weariness and tiredness when we’ve pushed ourselves to the limits and our bodies are aching and screaming “No more!”  The dilemma for David was that his inner being had also had enough. The will to carry on had deserted him, he had no desire to move on, the psychological battle had been lost, he could take no more, the constant waves of aggression and evil from his enemies had worn him down. David was at a very low ebb, He didn’t want this fight anymore, he was ready to lie down and give up, nothing in his being desired to keep battling on, he was riddled with fear and ready to die. He was crushed, broken and utterly defeated. Maybe some of us have been in this dark and lonely place, where all the will to continue with life has been wrenched from us, such a state...