Daily Meditations

Psalm 35:4   Turn the enemy back!      I wonder how much David knew of the spiritual battle that raged around him? After all, he was arguably the greatest king of his time and he would push back the boundaries of the land of Israel to the very edges of what had been promised by God. I personally think David knew that his battle was not just against flesh and blood and that there were darker, more sinister forces plotting and scheming to bring him and his kingdom down to the dust.  We too are under attack by more than just other human beings, the Satan is continuously plotting our downfall and hoping that he can lure us, like Eve, to doubt the Word of God. It’s not very nice to ponder the thought that there is a being out there who thinks that the world would be a better place without us! He plots our disgrace, our shame and our ruin which is why it is so important that we give him nothing to work with! Keeping ourselves from deliberate sin, from public disgrace and from personal ruin

Psalm 35:3  I am Your salvation Do  you remember those occasions at school, or when you were a teenager or in your early twenties, when it was fun to dare friends to do something stupid! “I dare you!” we used to say, and there was always some idiot, often me, who would be prepared to take a gamble for the sake of popularity. At the risk of sounding irreverent, this verse almost reads like a dare; David says to the Lord God, “Come on then, brandish Your spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to me “I am your salvation.”” This is not a man who is asking the Lord to defend him, David wants God to go on the attack, to take on his adversaries, to stand before him and defy them. He asks that the mighty arm of the Lord God Almighty be raised, wielding offensive weapons, and that these deadly tools are accurately unleashed on his enemies. It is hard to understand this at times, especially as our enemies are not human and of flesh and blood. But, believe you me, they do exist, they

Psalm 35:2   Arise and come to my aid      “ Take up Your shield and armour; arise and come to my aid.”  This is a heart cry from a godly man who realises that his own offensive and defensive armour is not enough to save him from the taunts and threats of his enemies. So, David has the audacity to ask the Lord to get Himself armed and come to his side and fight for him! This request raises a question in my mind; you see, you and I are very used to reading Ephesians 6:10-20 and we may have also memorised these verses about spiritual armour: - the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness and so on. I’ve taught on these things, I’ve heard numerous sermons about them, read books about them, even been in groups where we have symbolically put them on. What is sometimes missed is Paul’s opening comment when he writes,  “Put on the armour of God.”  V13. These pieces of equipment that help us to battle in the spiritual war zone against  “the rulers, against the

Psalm 35:1 Heavenly King, defend Your servant   The background to this Psalm is not completely clear. David was wandering and running and hiding for many months at different times in his life. It is possible that the events described in the previous Psalm were still hanging over him and so he penned Psalm 35. There is a military theme here, David calls upon the Lord to fight for him and then spends most of this song expressing his sense of injustice at the behaviour of his enemies.     There is no doubt that he sees their taunts and their lies as a dreadful slight against him and in this he is able to call upon the Lord and also to look forward to a time when his foes are beaten and he will publicly praise the Lord.   If you are being persecuted or maligned or slandered unfairly, or if there are enemies who are speaking falsely about you, then take heart from this Psalm.    V1        Contend means to oppose, challenge or resist. What an opening salvo this is to Psalm 35. David had enem

Psalm 34:22 “The Lord will rescue His servants.”  To be a servant you have to have a master. To be a servant you must be willing to take orders. To be a servant you must be willing to work. To be a servant you have to be dependable. To be a servant you must be able to obey your master and inspire his trust. There are many who like to think that they are servants of the Lord but they are actually serving themselves or just doing a job because they are paid to do a job. Some servants are like that, of course. Maybe it is splitting hairs but if I wanted the Lord to rescue me I think I’d also want to believe that I am worth rescuing! But, of course, we can never be good enough or faithful enough, and God is incredibly gracious in that He saves us despite our weaknesses and failings. So, while trouble and disaster and judgement pile up around us we can take comfort that we who believe will not be condemned, the justice of God against those who are His servants was meted out upon our Saviour

Psalm 34:21   The consequences of evil      In Jeremiah 2:3 we read,  “Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of His harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them, declares the Lord.”  This verse is one of many that promises that where evil prospers and God’s people are victims, He will deal with the wickedness and bring judgement upon the perpetrators. It’s quite a statement isn’t it that, “Evil will slay the wicked?” In other words, the sinfulness of man brings its own judgements. I have found myself wondering if the present coronavirus crisis is not a judgement from God on an evil world. A world that has abandoned His commandments, that has turned to many other gods, that has replaced faith with reason and that has justified replacing morality with licence. How will evil men and women stand before God and excuse themselves from the murder of millions of helpless, unborn children? How will they be able to account for the weapons of mass destruction,

Psalm 34:20   No bone was broken      This statement pulls us up short doesn’t it? Who was it who was brutally tortured and abused and then nailed to a Roman crucifix but not a bone of His body was broken? We are talking about Jesus, of course, and the Scriptures tell us that when the Roman soldiers inspected the three bodies hanging on their crosses, they had to break the legs of the thieves. This caused their torsos to slump and after hours of suffering and gradual weakening it would have brought about immediate asphyxiation. But Jesus did not have His legs broken, He was already dead. He had voluntarily and willingly submitted His Spirit to God and had breathed His last. A soldier thrust a spear into His side just to check that He was deceased; the separation of the blood and water that flowed was evidence enough that His heart was no longer pumping and that He was indeed a corpse.  We have been sympathising with David’s troubles and have sensed something of his dilemma as he writes

Psalm 34:19   The Lord delivers him      There is a certain kind of preaching that assures its disciples that following Jesus frees us from all troubles. In truth, I grew up with a simplistic kind of faith that believed that once you were saved everything else would fall into place. “I’m born again, my sins are forgiven, I’m on my way to heaven. What more do I need?” Experience and age tell me that it ain’t that simple! Christians are not absolved from troubles and problems, however, they do have an amazing friend who walks with them and they always have hope that whatever happens God will win through. And He does! David was not wrong to write that,  “The righteous person may have many troubles.”  Physical health troubles, financial troubles. family troubles, work troubles, marriage troubles, mental health troubles, even church troubles; all of these and more are common to us all. Listen to these words of Jesus, perhaps He had been reading this Psalm before He spoke them!  “I have told

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close      There are times when events and circumstances plunge us into a bleak and sorrowful place. We may have brought these things upon ourselves or they may have happened beyond our control or knowledge and suddenly we are bereft. Sometimes life just throws grief and heartbreak our way and there is nothing that we can do to stop it. The emptiness, the shock and the inner pain are indescribable, and we wonder if we will recover for life will certainly never be the same. David uses similar language to this verse of the Psalm when he exposes his wickedness before the Lord, in Psalm 51:17. Here, the heartbreak is not caused by the loss of a human relationship but by the fractured friendship he had caused between himself and the Lord.  “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”  Thank God that whatever the cause, He does not wish His people to be heartbroken, nor does He ignore their cries. There is a specia

Psalm 34:17   He delivers      This verse seems to be a repeat of verse 15 although the meaning is slightly changed. Here, we have godly men and women crying out and the backdrop is that they have troubles. “What kind of troubles?” Any kind, I suspect. Once again we look at this from David’s perspective and bear in mind the problems that confronted him as he penned this song. The hatred and murderous ambitions of King Saul. The parting from his closest friend and confidante – Jonathan. The narrow escape from Doeg, Saul’s Chief Shepherd, at Nob. The play- acting with Abimelek now that he lives as a fugitive in the land of the Philistines. David had plenty of troubles and he dare not think about what tomorrow might bring. It was enough to make any man cry out, but then he was not anybody, he was a righteous man and he knew this. He knew that he had the right to call out and that the Lord would hear him. The chain of thought leads David to believe that if he is righteous, and if the Lord

Psalm 34:16   The face of the Lord       Verse 16 continues the theme of verse 15 in sombre fashion. The ancients believed that if the Lord turned His face or hid His face from them it effectively meant that He had forgotten them. This fear of the Lord being forgetful brings only despair and anguish. It may seem, at times, that we are forgotten; when prayers go unanswered, when depression and darkness set in, when the world seems to be against us and we feel isolated and alone. “Have You forgotten me Lord? Have You turned Your face away from me?”  Listen to me, if you walk with the Lord God and are trusting in Him by faith then He will NEVER turn His face away. Whatever may be happening, you can believe that He has it under control and that somehow, He is working things out according to His purpose. The ones who really should be worried, and are not, are those who continually practice evil and do not consider themselves accountable to God. Here is a solemn warning, you cannot play arou

Psalm 34:15 He hears and delivers      This verse and its successor continue the contrasts outlined previously between the Lord’s treatment of the righteous and the wicked. Verse 15 tells us that the righteous are constantly being brought to the Lord’s attention. Verse 16 speaks of the wicked being ignored!  Isn’t it comforting to know that the eyes of the Lord are upon us? The only times when that becomes embarrassing or even fearful is when we know that we are sinning or that we have transgressed His laws. Then we would rather He looked the other way! I’m glad that the Lord is watching me. Life can be so hard, wearisome, scary, depressing and lonely; there’s nothing worse than the knowledge that no one understands, no one shares our pain or our sorrow. Life can also be a joyful, fulfilling experience and whatever may be happening it’s just good to know that there is a Lord in heaven who watches. It may be fanciful to say this, but do you not think that He must smile at times, or grim

Psalm 34:12-14  Keep on doing good      There are three verses in this stanza that work together as a whole and must be viewed in that way. David starts with a kind of question; he is asking, “ Who amongst you loves life and wants to live a long life with many good days?” The answer would surely be - all of us! But I think there may be a bit of a twist to this question, it may more accurately read,  “Who amongst you desires life and would love many days so that he may see good?”  In other words, there is a difference between the hope of living long and enjoying myself with good times and actually wanting to live long so that I may promote goodness.      There follows a number of conditions that are worthy of our reflection. Long life with an abundance of good days does not just happen, there are many who fall far short of their expectations, who die young, who suffer terrible physical afflictions or who live lives full of fear, depression, anxiety or loneliness and the like. It’s not f

Psalm 34:11 Listen to me!      The beleaguered fugitive becomes a comforter! Despite the fear and insecurity of this episode in his life, David has managed to come up with some great pearls of wisdom as he writes this song. Now, considering the assurance that the presence of the Lord brings, he is able to offer comfort to us all and some help in understanding the ways of God. I like to accept this offer as coming from Jesus Christ Himself. He stands before me with searching eyes and hands outstretched, “Come, my child, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” So, I sit humbly at His feet, aware that this moment is precious, for the Maker of the Universe, the Son of Almighty God is spending time with me, He has singled me out for instruction in wisdom. What does He want me to know? How the world was made? How the plans of God work?  The secrets of the angelic beings? The mysteries of faith? No, it is the fear of the Lord that I need to grasp. Reverence, respect, deep love a

Psalm 34:10   Hungry lions? I'm not a great lion lover, are you?  Much has been made, in recent years, of Aslan, the lion figure in the Narnia stories by CS Lewis. Aslan is meant to be a picture of Christ and that is fine, but the Lion of Judah is not an adorable, cuddly, purring playmate; He is a powerful, holy, Judge of the earth of whom men ought to be terrified! The description fits the tribe of Judah to whom Jacob spoke these words on his death bed.  “You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness – who dares to rouse him?”  The theme is picked up in Revelation 5:5 where the Lion of Judah has triumphed and proved Himself fit to open the seals and the scroll of judgement.  In Scripture, lions are usually mentioned in the same category as jackals and desert beasts of prey who rely on cunning, speed and sheer power for their survival. When famine comes, or old age, or they cannot feed for themselves; lions go h

Psalm 34:9   Fear the Lord!      As we have said on numerous occasions, when the Bible exhorts us to “fear the Lord” it does not mean that we have to fall down in holy terror, with beating hearts, and cower in His presence. It means that we should revere or respect Him and give Him the honour and homage that is His by right. He does not call us to cower but to draw near with confidence, assurance and expectation. He loves you and me. He awaits our company and revels in intimacy with us. We are His children and no child in a happy family relationship should live in fear. In this verse we are described as His holy people. That can be misconstrued also; the suggestion is that we are holy because we are good, because we work at being different and righteous, because we dress and behave and live differently to “the rest of them.”. That is not the meaning of holiness! Holy means to be set apart. Yes, we are different but not because we are better but because He has made us holy. He has calle

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see      My wife has, on rare occasions, produced a sumptuous Taster Menu – and the food that goes with it! One Christmas stands out when we were treated to about 10 Courses and the eating went on all day! Each delicacy had its own delights and none of the dishes was a piled high plate of food but rather an exquisite adventure into different flavours and textures. All the family who were present remember that Christmas Day! The God who made the universe, the galaxies and the glories of the heavenly bodies is also the One who created trees and flowers and shrubs and grasses, insects, birds, mammals, fish and mankind. He is a God of exceptional variety and infinite wonders. That same God humbled Himself to become a man and to show Himself to us. He is the divine author of a book unlike any other, full of hidden depths, surprises and nuggets of amazing wisdom and knowledge. This God invites you and me to draw near and taste any one of the delights from His Menu, to al

Psalm 34:7 The angel of the Lord      The “angel of the Lord” features from time to time in Scripture, I think Hagar was the first to meet him when she had been cast out by Abraham and Sarah and she found herself sitting by a spring in the desert, with her little boy, Ishmael. Genesis 16. As you read the various accounts of angelic encounters, which are too numerous to list here but are worthy of further study, there are two impressions that stand out. Firstly, this “angel” seems to be the Lord Himself! For instance, Abraham pleads with him over the destruction of Sodom, the conversation suggests that man and God are speaking to one another. Genesis 18. The “angel” is worshipped by Moses, and Joshua, and also has the power to forgive sins. Exodus 23:21. On these occasions it seems that this “angel” is a theophany, an appearance by the Lord Jesus in human form. At other times the “angel of the Lord” acts and speaks on behalf of the Lord and it is clear from the text that he is a separat

Psalm 34:6 This poor man called      As we have reflected, at the beginning of the Psalm, David was in a desperate place; hounded by the King of Israel, parted from his best friend and his family, unsafe in his own land and amongst his own people, he had crossed into enemy territory and resorted to deceiving a Philistine King by acting like a madman! Everywhere he went he was a fugitive and his life was in danger, he was in desperate straits indeed. The Psalm describes David as a poor man, I doubt that he had much in the way of money and possessions but, the word “poor” has other connotations. He was poor in that he could not change circumstances; they were outside of his control. He could not save himself and his men. He could not predict what might happen next. He knew of no way out of this situation. Everything was against David except, His God. So, the fugitive called and the Lord heard him. What a lesson this is! Sometimes it takes desperation to bring us to our knees. When all el

Psalm 34:5   Radiant faces       Well, what can be said about this verse? It immediately puts me in mind of Exodus 34:29.  “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.”   How do you feel about having to put a veil over your face because, having spent a lot of time with the Lord, you are shining with pure joy? Frankly I doubt if I’ve ever been that radiant although I remember well, when I was 26 years of age, how the Holy Spirit elevated me to a place so beautiful and joyful that it took several days to recover! If you have read yesterday’s blog you will know that the experience of close fellowship did not last and yet its foundation was laid and the joy and pleasure of God’s presence are still with me many years later.  Verse 5 here gives us two very different scenarios; the radiant faces of those who look to the Lord as opposed to the shameful faces of those

Psalm 34:4   Delivered from all our fears      Here is another statement in the Psalms that it would be so easy to brush over without embracing the full meaning of the words.  “I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.”  As we have seen in the introduction, David had more than enough on his plate, when he wrote this Psalm, to be a man full of fears! But, I don’t think that this refers to one incident or place in time, I think it refers to a general heart and mind attitude at all times. In other words, whatever stage we are in our spiritual journey, whatever may be happening to us – good or bad; we should be learning to seek the Lord. We are learning to lay all problems, big or small, at His feet. We are learning to depend upon Him in every detail of our lives. We are learning to walk with Him, to talk about everything with Him. As we do this, surprise, surprise; we become less anxious, we pass the buck, the fears slip away and we face the future with con

Psalm 34:3   Let us exalt His name together      This verse carries on from verse 2, it is talking about corporate worship. As I write, it is a Sunday morning – 17th May 2020. The garden outside is very quiet, this is Coronavirus time and there are no aircraft and the traffic is silenced. My neighbours have not yet roused themselves and all that can be heard are the birds singing. Earlier a Cuckoo was calling out his evocation of summer days. Wouldn’t it be great to join a large crowd and to exalt the Lord’s name together? But of course, we cannot, it would be illegal, we are keeping our distance from one another. For the first time in history people across the land are not able to come together to worship or celebrate, or for any kind of communal event. Shortly, some of us will sit in front of our computers or Smart TV screens and watch a church service. Crossways Church will be following the example of many others; the congregation will meet but not to praise and worship together. Oh

Psalm 34:2 What do we glory in?      This verse of the Psalm begs a question. What do we glory in? It’s easy to throw a load of suggestions into the basket – celebrities standing beside their brand-new sports cars, a triumphant football supporter wearing the club kit, the proud home-owner with an immaculate house and garden, the smug investor clutching their portfolio. We all have things that we glory in, the phrase simply means that we praise these things in our heads, we take great pleasure from them, we value them very highly and would be destitute without them.  It is a rare thing to find men and women, even Christians, who glory in the Lord to the extent that He is their greatest source of pride and joy. How many people wear Him as their badge of honour, claim Him as their greatest source of pleasure and spend inestimable amounts of time and effort worshipping and praising His holy name? Very few of us, I’m afraid. One version of this verse reads,  “When I boast, it will be about

Psalm 34:1   Praise Him whatever the circumstances      It will do no harm to read the background events that lie behind the writing of this Psalm. Most Bibles provide a superscription that says that David wrote this when he pretended to be insane before Abimelek or Achish, a Philistine king. The events are recorded in 1 Samuel 21. To be fair to David, he had suffered some serious traumas in the days and weeks leading up to the writing of the Psalm. King Saul had seriously taken against him and threatened to kill him. He had suffered the sorrow of parting with Jonathan his dearest friend who he would never see again. He, and his men, had arrived starving, at Nob where the Tabernacle was situated. David convinced Ahimelek, the High Priest, that he had been sent on a mission by King Saul. Such was their hunger that the group had eaten the Shewbread from the Tabernacle that had just been changed over on the Sabbath day. This was usually reserved for the priesthood. Whilst resting the part

Psalm 33:22 We put our hope in You      So we come to the final few words of this momentous Song. Strangely, it appears to end with a kind of a deal! I don’t like doing deals with God, do you? He does deals with us and His deals are called covenants. The way it works is that God says what will be and we obey and as a result get incredibly blessed. Is this verse saying, “If we put our hope in You, will You then show unfailing love to us?” Nope! It is the other way around. The Lord already loves us, His love is unfailing so we cannot do a deal can we? If someone loves us anyway, what have we got to bring to the table? If that love is guaranteed, forever, what can we offer that will improve the deal? What David is saying here is, that as a consequence of the Lord’s unfailing love; we will put our hope in Him. He is love. He is generosity and grace and provision and blessing all rolled into One. He will carry on providing and caring and protecting His children for eternity. That is why we

Psalm 33:21   We trust in His holy name       The Psalm is drawing to a close, it has been a Song of praise and trust and a Song full of hope, declaring that the Lord is over all and He sees all and He knows all. There is no confusion in His mind about those who are His and those who are not. Over-riding everything else is this sense that everything is going to plan, the plan is predetermined, and God is resolute as He fulfils very tiny detail of it. We are included in the plan as special individuals because we respect and love and acknowledge Him. He protects and loves us in return. It is because this thing is so big, so mind-blowing, so powerful, so overwhelmingly immense that the Lord has to stop and remind us of what is going on. This world is not about billions of people scurrying around in their futile attempts to better themselves and to make the most of their short time on the planet. It is far, far bigger than that. It is about a blueprint, laid down before earth-time began. I