Daily Meditations

Psalm 18:28   Light of life     This Psalm never stops delivering! Now we are asked to consider light and darkness and the One who keeps our lamp burning. Straightaway my thoughts go to John 1:4-5.  “In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  There are many Scriptures that link light and life. John, in the above passage, states that Christ the Word is the true light that gives light to everyone but ,sadly, many do not recognise Him. Even the Jews rejected Him despite the many prophecies of His coming and the special relationship they enjoyed with God the Father. John’s writings link life with literal creation –  “All things were made by Him; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life ….” So what is the Light?  It is clearly possible to be alive, on planet earth, but to not know the light. It is evident too that this light, whilst shining brightly in a dark place, c

Psalm 18:27   Haughty eyes       You may recall from Proverbs 6:17 that there are seven things that the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: - 1.       Haughty eyes 2.       A lying tongue 3.       Hands that shed innocent blood 4.       A heart that devises wicked schemes 5.       Feet that are quick to rush into evil 6.       A false witness who pours out lies 7.       A person who stirs up conflict in the community At first viewing it would seem that “haughty eyes” are the least detestable of the seven  things and yet they appear at the top of the list! Here in Psalm 18 we read that the Lord saves the humble but brings low those whose eyes are haughty. We do well then to spend a moment pondering the seriousness of the sin of pride. Hannah’s beautiful prayer, recorded in 1 Samuel 2, includes this statement: -  “Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by Him deeds are weighed.”  The son

Psalm 18:26b   The devious      “But to the devious You show Yourself shrewd.” The deceivers, the crooked, the devious all think that they are too clever for everyone else; there is the web of self-deceit that the Satan weaves around certain people to the extent that they believe their own propaganda. You meet them everywhere, even in churches, and the clear message here is that God is not fooled! If they think that they can kid us with their duplicity, they cannot kid Him. That is why the Scriptures encourage us to judge people’s intentions and hearts not by what they say, but by what they do. It follows that it is important that we all constantly search our hearts to see if there is deceit in them. Are we parading around presenting ourselves as godly when we know in our hearts that this is not so? Are we using events and gifts to “show off” under a cover of spirituality? Do we present ourselves as god-fearing with endless Bible quotes but in our hearts we are cold and judgem

Psalm 18:26   The road to purity      Apologies for the length of this blog! “To the pure you show yourself pure,” or as Jesus put it, “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God!”  Matthew 5:8. So, we have a dilemma, it’s that chicken and egg question, what comes first, my making myself pure so that I can experience God’s purity OR He is pure and therefore I have to find a way of receiving His purity so I can be pure? Let’s peel back the layers shall we? Firstly, you and I are not pure by birth, by habit or by inclination. We are born in sin, our lives are tainted by the sin disease and  “the inclinations of our hearts are evil continually.”   We can be mature believers of many years standing and still have a habitual sin problem. We cannot overcome this in our own strength, we do not have the means to fight sin, even the Law causes us nothing but grief for, as we have quoted in verse 25,  “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”  Paul loved God’s Law

Psalm 18:25b   More Hesed     This verse of Psalm 18 just carries on giving. “ To the blameless you show yourself blameless.”   The Christ-like qualities of “Hesed” never stop building in our hearts, they are an ever-running stream of beauty and glory, for the more we seek them, the more we become like them. Some Christians might struggle with the concept and retort, “So I’ve got to be more loving and more merciful and more faithful and then God will bless me. Sounds like it’s all down to me then.” This is the paradox, contrasted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 to 8. He found that the harder he worked to be godly, the more sin and the Law entrapped him.  “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!”  Romans 7:21-24.  Self-effort and godliness are unhappy bedfel

Psalm18:25   Hesed!     “To the faithful you show yourself faithful  …..”  The Hebrew word here for faithful is “Hesed” and it defies definition. It is all of the fruit of the Spirit rolled into one – and more! The Lord is love. The Lord is gracious. The Lord is compassionate. The Lord is merciful and forgiving. The Lord is kind and gentle. The Lord is patient and faithful. The word is often translated “loving kindness” but in truth, any virtue that we can apply to our Holy God will fit into the definition. And when God sees His qualities at work in His people He abounds in “Hesed” towards them. In other words, as the Holy Spirit works in our lives producing Christ-like fruit, so the Lord God responds in like manner and the process gathers pace and has no limit. Paul describes this as  “becoming mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  You see, God can never be outdone, we can never be so loving that we are more loving than Him. Our patience can never ou

Psalm 18:24   Clean hands      I Samuel 26 recounts how David spared the life of King Saul. The jealous king is hunting him down with a view to killing David and his men and ridding himself of their threat to his kingdom. David creeps into Saul’s camp in the middle of the night and removes his water jug and his spear. He refuses to take the life of his enemy but instead taunts him from a nearby hill and pleads to know what it is that drives Saul’s hatred.  “Why are you pursuing your servant? What have I done? What wrong am I guilty of?”   Saul is full of remorse and realising that David has spared his life he promises not to pursue him anymore. David responds with these words, repeated in Psalm 18:24,  “The Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness,”  and in the Psalm he adds the words,  “According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.” Do you have clean hands? Can you stand before the living God hands outstretched, palms up and say to Him, “Look at my

Psalm 18:22-23   Keep me from sin    One of the least heralded principles of our faith is the walk of holiness or sanctification.  The Christian life is no holiday, but every day is a holy day and there are battles to be fought and the greatest of them is within ourselves. The battle with sin is the subject of some of the greatest of the Apostle Paul’s writings, especially in Romans, and yet it is rarely spoken of in modern pulpits. Instead we are lectured about knowing ourselves, dealing with past traumas, severing soul ties etc. Whilst all of these things may be helpful and have a place, there is no more fearsome battle than the inner battle with sin and God’s command that we learn to walk in obedience.  When Christ came to earth it was to enable us to have victory over sin. “ You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”  Christ has dealt with our past, now we need to experience His victory as we live in the present, and the battle will always

Psalm 18:21   Not guilty?       Some of us have trodden the path of faith for many years, possibly a lifetime. There have been many twists and turns, we have failed more often than we dare admit and yet here we are, still walking the walk and still talking the talk. For David that walk meant complying with the demands of the Law, keeping up the religious observances, honouring the Covenant that God had made with his ancestors. Although his life had also taken many twists and turns, he had remained faithful and true to his God. Our journey is the same and yet so different. We are made righteous by faith not by Covenant keeping. Our walk is a journey of holiness not brought upon us by compliance with the demands of the Law but by the unerring, inner voice of the Holy Spirit. Our religious observances count for little for it is our hearts that God sees and our worship that He covets. Far too many Christians are caught in the trap of ritual and ceremony and seeking acceptance based

Psalm 18:20   He has rewarded me      In Psalm 17:3-5 we see that David feels vindicated by his righteousness; in comparison with his enemies he has planned no evil. He has not spoken against the Lord. He has not accepted bribes or been a violent man. He has sought to follow God’s ways and to be obedient to God’s laws. In Old Testament terms David was a righteous man. Samuel, Hezekiah and Job all argued in a similar vein, not out of arrogance or the need to assert themselves but because they genuinely devoted themselves to God. So now David feels vindicated, he can claim that “ The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness.”   This attitude of heart is in stark contrast to his pleas for forgiveness in Psalm 51. There we find a righteous man who is terribly upset and repents when he falls short and behaves as the wicked do.   This sense of self-justification causes David to reflect that the Lord rewards those who have clean hands, that he has earned “the spacious place,

Psalm 18:19   This is the life!    Now we leave the darkness and confusion, anguish and terror of the battle and can  “Lie down in green pastures.” The threats and dangers have been defeated, the night has passed and the warmth of the sun is upon our backs and we find that we are in a spacious place. A place of freedom, with wide horizons and endless possibilities and such a sense of well-being and gratitude. Before this we walked through an ominous valley, but now? Now we are free from the fearful sense of foreboding and the towering, impassable confinement of the cliff sides. Now we have the joy of a spacious place, sustained by the knowledge that we made it, the sunless path has brought us out into a haven of rest and refreshment. This place is secure, the enemy seems far, far away, the sky, the trees, the insects and the birds are singing and the purity of Father’s presence floods our beings. His rescue plan is not just to rebuke the enemy but to restore our souls. Then comes

Psalm18:18   My support       It is not clear what disaster David is referring to in this verse. It is hardly likely to be a natural disaster because he finds himself confronted by his enemies. Obviously, at one of the truly low points in his life, he felt that his power and authority, his wealth, his family, his health and his state of mind were all about to be lost for ever.  David could sink no lower, this was his nadir, he had failed and he was about to be ruined. BUT. BUT. BUT. “ The Lord was my support!”  Maybe it is only when we reach the end of ourselves that we find out just how strong and merciful God is. All of the dark experiences in my own life have brought me closer to Him and given me cause to trust Him in ways I could never have done if life had been an easy road. Even though we do not embrace the dark times, it is only then that we discover just how much we are loved and protected. God will always rescue His people. The greatest lesson of faith that we will ever l

Psalm 18:17b   He rescued me     “He rescued me from my foes, who were too strong for me.”  It is doubtful that the principal enemy spends time bothering about you and me but he has his henchmen, they are always alert, always on-call, always looking for weaknesses in our armour and always ready to shoot their nasty little arrows. We need to reflect on the strategies set out in verse 2 and be constantly alert and of sober mind,  “For your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  1 Peter 5:8. This conflict is world-wide says Peter,  “because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”  If you are suffering right now, depend on this, God is with you, God will protect you, God is not unaware of what is going on in your life. Unlike the devil, God is omnipresent, you have His personal attention and although circumstances may suggest otherwise, He will bring you through and you will live

Psalm 18:17a   In God we trust     Now we are back to the primary focus of these meditations – an understanding of the s piritual forces that war against us in this world, and the weapons and strategies that we are to employ against them. In this verse the simple answer is, there are none! Of course we must wear the armour of Ephesians 6, and we must be vigilant but we are not equipped to stand alone against our spiritual enemies. It is God Almighty who reaches down and rescues David from his powerful enemy. It is God who saves him from his foes who are too powerful for him. The “enemy” in this verse is singular and I have a suspicion that while David was embroiled in several conflicts against singular human enemies in his life, he also knew that there was a darker, more sinister enemy who tried to destroy him and his kingdom.  You and I are not kings of a great nation, we are not in conflict with international forces or tyrants who command great armies. In worldly terms, the

Psalm 18:16   You raise me up     Now that David has painted a picture of the majesty and power of Almighty God, he turns his attention to his own plight. Surrounded by wicked enemies, struggling with the imminent, tangling clutches of the cords of death, David gets personal.  He has cried out to the Lord, the One who thunders from Sinai, who routs His enemies with lightning bolts, who rides upon the cherubim and who simply blows the Sea aside with a breath from His nostrils. Now David expects personal deliverance and help, and he gets it! He sees himself as a helpless swimmer, out of his depth and in danger of being swallowed by the deep waters. There were no life rafts, life buoys or lifeboats in those days. David was lost, his life was about to come to an end, there was no one to help until …..  “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.”  Hallelujah! Oh, the comfort this verse brings. No wonder Jesus slept soundly in the stern of a li

Psalm18:15    A blast of breath    This verse transports us back to the exodus and Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, described in Exodus 14.  The people took an unexpected route away from their captors, no doubt the Egyptians thought it ill-advised as the Israelites found themselves confronted by a vast area of swamp and water known as the Sea of Reeds or the Red Sea. It was insurmountable and their desperate plight intensified when the dust clouds from Pharaoh’s advancing army gathered on the horizon.   There was no escape. Why had Moses led them to this deadly place? They were ill prepared and helpless to fight back.  Somehow their leader remained calm, his words, recorded in Exodus 14:13, are remarkable and highlight the faith of godly Moses. “ Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”  Then, the Lord God Almighty stepp

Psalm 18:14   Acts of God?   In Revelation 4:5 we are granted a brief and tantalizing peek into the throne room of heaven. Seated upon the throne is one who had the appearance of jasper and ruby and around Him is a rainbow that shines like emerald. From the throne comes flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Let there be no doubt then, that such phenomena accompany the presence of the Most High God and that these things are not just earthly symbols but they represent a heavenly, divine presence. In this verse of Psalm 18, the bolts of lightning rout God’s enemies.  Who could withstand the power of the forces described in the previous verse? So, what are these arrows that are shot by God and that scatter His foes? The rainbow, as a bow, points away from the earth and is a symbol of God’s peace and the withholding of His wrath. The bow that points towards the earth shoots the arrows of His anger and judgement at His enemies. It seems that these are the lightning bolts

Psalm 18:13b   Lightning strikes!    What is it about thunder and lightning that the Lord God presents Himself, in power, through these phenomena? The scientific study of thunder and lightning is highly technical and it embraces terms like electrical discharges, colliding particles, negative and positive charged currents….. Perhaps a few facts would be helpful at this juncture: - ·        A lightning flash can heat the air around it to 5 times hotter than the sun’s surface. ·        A bolt of lightning can contain up to 1 billion volts of electricity. ·        A bolt can travel between a cloud and the earth at 200,000 mph. ·        When lightning approaches the earth a surge of positive electricity rises to meet it through a tree or a building, or a tall object. The flash streaks upward at some 200,000,000 mph! ·        The resulting electrical explosion within the cumulonimbus clouds, some of which reach heights of 12 miles, creates the thunderclap that causes so many t

Psalm 18:13a   The Lord thundered     There was another apocalyptic day in Israel’s history when hailstones pounded the ground and thunder and lightning shook the earth. It is described in Exodus 9 and it is 8 th  of the plagues that came upon Egypt as God prepared Pharaoh to let His people go. It was the worst storm ever experienced in that land and it devastated crops and stripped the trees. All of the plagues came at different times of the year and this one probably happened in January – February when the flax and barley were becoming ripe.  Each of the plagues was a direct attack on the power of one of the demonic deities worshipped in Egypt and showed that God could, to put it in modern parlance, “make mincemeat of them”!  We have previously reflected on one godly woman’s prayer, that of Deborah in Judges 5. There was another woman who perceived God as all powerful and all-knowing and she writes a very Psalm-like song of praise that can be found in 1 Samuel 2. It is Hanna

Psalm 18:12   Light and dark    Here is a paradox,  “Out of the brightness of His presence clouds advanced with hailstones and bolts of lightning.”  In Joshua 10 we read of the rout of the mighty Amorite army and I’m sure that David is thinking of this event. The sun and moon stood still that day and many Amorites were killed by large hailstones that pounded down upon them as they fled from Joshua’s army. In Psalm 104:2 we read that the Lord wraps Himself in light as a garment and John’s opening chapter of his Gospel reminds us that,  “Jesus Christ Himself is life, and that life is the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”   John 1:4-5. Light, life, darkness and clouds are conflicting words that describe the glory of His Majesty, our mighty God revealing but concealing, showing His glory but covering Himself, visible yet hidden. That was the paradox of ancient times and ancient Israel; theirs was a fearsome God who caused

Psalm 18:11   Thick darkness   God cannot be looked upon by men. No man can see His face and live. Therefore, when God approaches the earth His presence is shrouded and in Old Testament times it was always by cloud.  The presence of God Almighty was hidden by a pillar of cloud during the day as Israel wandered in the wilderness, but it was fire that accompanied them by night. An impenetrable cloud covered the summit of Sinai when Moses was invited to go up and meet with the Lord - the people below heard a voice but they saw nothing. However, even this appearance of the Lord is multi-faceted as Moses later explained in Deuteronomy 4:11.  “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.”  This conjures up the picture of a blazing inferno, such as an oil well, where thick clouds of black smoke billow up over the furnace beneath. The prophet Isaiah had a vision of the Lord lofty and enthroned; that

Psalm 18:10   Riding the cherubim!   “He mounted the cherubim and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind!”  What images this verse conjures up. I may never understand its full meaning, but I love the picture of a divine being, my Heavenly Father coming to my aid like a celestial super-hero; his chargers are mighty angelic beings and He soars through the sky like a colossal bird of prey.  Indeed, the super – hero genre gets its images from such ancient writings, even Father Christmas soars across the sky with his fictional reindeer! Why do people pursue fiction when, here in Scripture, is the authentic and the original?  The cherubim are first encountered in Genesis 3 as appointed guardians of the Garden of Eden, their task is to block the way to the Tree of Life. In Exodus 25 we read that cherubim are carved out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. They were symbolic attendants marking the place of God’s enthronement in His earthly temple. Fu

Psalm 18:9   The heavens move    Such is the power of our God that He moves the heavens as He comes to rescue His children who are crying out to Him.  Some versions just say that the Lord parts the heavens, like a tent curtain. Whichever way you look at it, this is power, divine power, power to break through the natural barriers and also the spiritual ones. In Exodus 20:21, as Moses approached the holy presence of the Lord on Mount Sinai, we read that,  “He approached the thick darkness where God was.”  He had already warned the people,  “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”  This thick darkness was necessary to stop the people from seeing the glory of God and from catching a glimpse of His divine being. It also demonstrated that God is not deterred or hindered by darkness, He is the light of the universe, no darkness can hold Him.  In other parts of Scripture, heavenly beings, like the archangel Michael, a

Psalm 18:8   Fire and smoke   The imagery changes, and God is now described as a blistering, intensely powerful, all- consuming deity breathing fire and smoke. In Exodus 19 Moses assembled the Israelites before Mount Sinai, the people were consecrated and warned not to gather too close to the Mountain. On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud covered the peak. There was such a loud trumpet blast that everyone trembled and the people moved out of the camp to the foot of the Mountain to meet with God. Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. The smoke billowed up like smoke from a furnace and the whole Mountain shook violently. The trumpet blasts got louder and louder and Moses was summoned to go alone to the summit to speak with the Almighty One. Anyone present at that scene would never forget it, the details were handed down through generations, they would never doubt that their God was a holy God, a God whom y

Psalm 18:7   The earth quakes      Here we have a description of an earthquake prompted by an angry God, a God who drives out enemies and who guides and guards His people.  Deborah’s Song in Judges 5 uses very similar terminology as she describes the Lord’s power on Mount Sinai which shook the mountain of Seir [Seir and Paran are mountains ranges in the Sinai wilderness region]. Edom is drawn into this scenario, a land in that same area that once was fertile and inhabited and belonged to Esau but was cursed and destroyed and remains a wilderness to this day.  [The only modern city in the area is Petra in Jordan.] So, David’s prayer and cry for help prompts action from heaven, for His God is One who acts, who overcomes enemies, who drives back tyrants and who devastates the land of the wicked. Here is a reminder that we should never underestimate the power of the prayers of the righteous and the power of the Word of God.  Paul and Silas prayed in their prison cell in Philippi and t

Psalm 18:6   The God who hears.       Distress is an undervalued word, we speak of motorists in distress when it snows or an animal in distress when giving birth. The Bible never underplays the meaning of a word. In Deuteronomy 4:30 distress is used to describe the plight of the Jews who, having disobeyed God by following idols, are scattered to the four winds.  Only a remnant remains, and all their family and possessions and livelihoods are gone. Such is their distress that they cry out and the Lord hears from heaven.  The word describes the state of those who have lost everything, including hope. When, at last, they come to their senses, they cry from the depths of their beings, to God, for help. Such is the mercy and compassion of our wonderful, great God that He hears, He listens and because He is a compassionate God, He responds. What a vivid picture is painted here, the Lord Almighty on His throne, in His heavenly temple, listening for the cry of His forsaken, desperate chil

Psalm 18:5a   Death is defeated     Not only has the Lord Jesus changed all the rules about death but there is, of course, the probability that once again, King David, through the Holy Spirit, is allowing us to have a glimpse of the suffering that Christ Himself would undergo at Calvary. Doubtless, the insidious claws of death reached out to Him, wave after wave of destruction poured over his pain-wracked body and every bitter vestige of Sheol and the grave taunted His agonised mind. I have no doubt that all of the worst of death’s apparitions danced before Him so that He not only knew the deepest suffering of a man but the worst sufferings of all men as they approach the gates of the next world. BUT He never succumbed, death could not drag Him down, death could not hold Him, despite using all of its most devious and compelling powers, Jesus Christ just could not be lured into that place of darkness. He withstood the tentacles of finality, He braved the waves of torment, a spiritu