Daily Meditations

Psalm 38:19 Enemies without cause Many of the societies in our so-called civilised, western countries are being torn apart by internal disruption, by political in-fighting and by minority causes fighting for their rights. The more we make human rights our cause, the more disruptive the world will become. The alternative is that populations are subjected to controls by the elite or the powerful and no one dares to speak out or defy the system. That is equally oppressive and wrong and it all goes to show that there is no perfect political, social or democratic way for human beings to govern themselves; sooner or later the cracks appear and power struggles emerge. That is because it is human nature to want to have control.  Because David was King of Israel he automatically found himself in a position where enemies plotted and schemed to kill him and harm him. It goes with the territory! Even Christians get very hot under the collar about their political allegiances and see no good in the

Psalm 38:18 The trouble with sin I’m sorry to keep on about it but sin is a terrible disease. Don’t take my word for it, take David’s word. Modern science often veers away from God and reveres humanism and that spills over into health care and general well-being for most people. Even Christians are duped into thinking that caring for the body is more important than caring for the soul. So, we all fear cancer and heart disease and pneumonia and the long list of potentially life-threatening illnesses that plague mankind. The world we live in is currently in a state of paralysis caused by the coronavirus. There is fear all around us but no one seems to fear the greatest curse of them all – OUR SIN! Sin is a killer. Sin eats away at our souls from the day that we are born. Sin spreads like wildfire. Sin always ends in death; it is the cause of all mortality on earth from the beginning of time. Sin is the reason for all of society’s ills and it affects all of its victims, physically, mental

Psalm 38:17 The trouble with sin Sometimes we confess our sin and make reparation because we know that it is the right thing to do. Sometimes we confess to sin because we feel an obligation, even though we are not really repentant. And there are other occasions when the consequences are so bad that we are driven by remorse to “own up.” In this verse David reflects on yet another side to repentance, it is his acknowledgment that his time is up, he is about to depart, the pain of his suffering is overwhelming and so he must confess. In other words, he repents before it is too late! What endears us to this man is his honesty, not just with himself or with us, but with God. You see God hates sin; God detests the wickedness in mankind. God hates the way we so easily fall into the ways of the world rather than seek His ways. God is angered by our sin and God must and will judge our sin. It takes men like David to help us to realise this. The Christian life is not a lovey-dovey, sentimental,

Psalm 38:16 Don't allow the wicked to gloat The nature of the Psalm is changing somewhat. The previous verses are a torturous outpouring of woe and self-pity. To be fair, David can hardly be blamed, who would not be miserable in his situation? But now the tone has changed, the beleaguered king has obviously given some thought to his predicament, and although he believes his woes are caused by his own sin, he can also see a glimmer of light in the darkness. That statement in the previous verse is the beginning of the way back,  “Lord, I wait for you; You will answer, Lord my God.”   So, the Lord is still somewhere in the picture. He will answer the cries of a helpless, repentant sinner. At some point David had already pleaded with the Lord that if he faltered, if he made a mess of being king, if he committed some heinous sin, if he exposed his weakness to the world then, “ Lord do not let my enemies gloat over me, please don’t let them be exalted as a consequence of my failure.” I w

Psalm 38:15 Lord, I wait for You We are an impatient lot – us humans. With the developments that technology brings in almost every area of life, we have become used to instant solutions. Instant food, instant answers to questions, instant conversations, instant financial transactions – there are not so many areas in life where we have to wait. This was not so when the Scriptures where written, a 30mile journey took time and preparations. A conversation with someone miles away needed a letter and a lengthy delay before a reply was received. A lot of food produce was only available in season and a mental puzzle or item of general information might never be available; even the news took weeks or months to circulate the country. When you think about it, much of this has only changed in the past 100 years. The whole point of this verse is to remind us to wait, to be patient, to learn to trust for an answer. Our God does not work to our time frame, His scale is eternal, with Him one day is a

Psalm 38:13-14 Don't listen! The bombardment of lies and jeers and accusations by David’s enemies become overbearing and David makes a conscious decision to shut his ears to their taunts. This is actually a positive step; he is effectively saying, “I will not listen to them, I will not hear their lies and I will not respond to their sneers and their goading. I will keep quiet.” We may have suffered like him at some point in our lives, when the barrage of negativity directed towards us become unbearable. There is no more to be said and our protestations are ignored; at such times it may be better to metaphorically stick our fingers in our ears and a tape across our mouths! When it comes to the spiritual battle, the same ploy is very useful. The bombardment in our heads, the accusations and taunts that we suffer as the arrows of the enemy wing their way towards us; these can be terrifying times. So, what about sticking our fingers in our ears and refusing to listen. Even better, what

Psalm 38:12 The schemes and the lies The Satan is intent on promoting the sin sickness we talked about in the previous verse and he will stop at nothing to multiply its effects in the lives of human beings. His strategy is simple, he uses deceit in a multitude of ways, to trap and ensnare. Something that is sinful is dressed up as good. Something that is dangerous is promoted as desirable. Something that is forbidden is tainted by compromise. The moral codes and commands that prohibit are put into question. The author of human morality and all laws is denounced as a figment of deluded imaginations. The idea that you can do anything if it doesn’t hurt anyone is paraded as truth, and the concept of sin attacking every man’s conscience is constantly under attack. Be under no illusion, the enemy is intent on destruction, his one aim is to bring death to as much of God’s creation as possible. The only beings who can withstand this onslaught are those who have been brought out of death into

Psalm 38:11 Sin and depression One thing this Psalm makes clear, and modern psychologists are still trying to understand, is that our state of mind has a significant effect on our bodies. This Psalm is incredibly enlightening about the human condition. We know that the root cause of all of David’s ills is His sin. V3-5. (Something psychologists do not recognise – hence their incapacity to help sinners!) David has sinned against his fellow human beings but also against God and his wickedness has brought him to despair. That despair and regret has prompted a state of deep depression accompanied by serious physical ill health. Every part of his being is affected by the original sin. And now he has the added burden of being ostracized by his friends and neighbours.  The reason that the Gospel is so powerful and liberating is that it deals with the root cause of humanity’s problems – Sin! Once sin is forgiven a victim may begin the road to recovery both mentally and physically. It’s a very

Psalm 38:10 Deepest anxiety So far as I am aware, there are a number of occasions when the heart pounds; the most obvious is after strenuous exercise, and that is good for us. Sick people are aware of their pounding hearts during the onset of a heart attack. Frightened people are also aware of their pounding heart when adrenalin pumps through their bodies and they experience a heightened sense of reaction to the stimulus. Some of us have faced the kind of heart pounding that David is talking about, it comes from panic attacks and anxiety, caused not so much by a fright but a deeper-rooted fear that is often difficult to explain. The fear can be caused by any number of factors, one of which is dread over what we have done and the consequences. I suspect that this is what David is talking about. That kind of fear definitely leads to apathy and loss of energy and an iron grip on our souls that stops us from being able to do anything at all. David was in such a state of terror that he coul

Psalm 38:9 He knows our longings It’s a salutary moment when we realise that God knows all of our desires and longings. It’s easy to try to impress Him with our spiritual desires; the desire to do right, the desire to overcome temptation, the desire to share His Word, the desire to see His kingdom grow, the desire to be loving and kind to our friends and family. The list goes on and there’s good reason to be proud of those spiritual longings that are God-given and perfectly legitimate. However, the Lord is not fooled, He knows that not all of our desires are healthy. We are descendants of our mother, Eve, who looked at forbidden fruit and noticed that, “ It was   good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.” Here in this Psalm, in a state of deep regret and repentance, David is only too well aware of his failings and his sinful desires; his lust for forbidden fruit. That suggests that he may be languishing in sorrow over his dealings with Bathsheba and

  Psalm 38:5-8  Sinful folly! I feel ill-equipped to comment on the lament that pours out from David’s heart in these verses. Don’t rush over them, stop and ponder them and put yourself in the place of this broken man: - ·        My wounds fester and are loathsome ·        I am bowed down and brought very low ·        All day long I go about mourning ·        My back is filled with searing pain ·        There is no health in my body ·        I am feeble and utterly crushed ·        I groan in anguish of heart There are a number of things that come to mind here. Firstly, if this was me I would probably not want to write about it! Secondly, David is describing physical illness and psychological illness too. Thirdly, he did not have doctors to sooth him and prescribe painkillers and healing medicines, nor would he have been aware of the name of the condition or illness that had overwhelmed him. Instead, David sees all of these symptoms as the direct result of his sinful folly. That leads

Psalm 38:3-4 Sin and health There is no doubt that sin affects health! There are two levels at which this statement applies, and lots of grey areas in between. Those who live without God and who ignore or reject Him still have consciences. This ability to know right from wrong, to have an awareness of morals and ethics, was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was one of the most obvious consequences of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Conscience has been handed down to every human being who has ever lived and so even the most vile of our species still have some kind of moral thermometer. Thus, if they have done wrong they will feel a pang of regret or remorse or have to make a conscious effort to subdue it. Paul talks at length about this condition of the godless in Romans 1:18-32 and he makes no excuses for them. He effectively is saying that, deep down, everyone knows that there is God and we are all without excuse when we sin against Him. Hence, ev

Psalm 38:2 The hand of judgement The ancients believed that the Lord God held a bow of wrath directed towards the earth and the arrows of pain and suffering and famine and pestilence and war are His judgements against sin. The rainbow, on the other hand, is pointed away from the earth and its arrows are directed to the heavens; that suggests God turning away and instead of judgement He provides blessing. Such is the unbelief in our culture today that no one would consider such notions as being worthy of consideration – not even Christians. If we are sick or ill or troubled or surrounded by enemies or weighed down by fears and doubts, the last thought would be that this is God’s anger and judgement against us. The world is currently suffering from Climate Change and Coronavirus and individuals and governments have no idea what to do! Meanwhile Satan is on the march and “out of control” computers are watching and monitoring and interfering with our thought processes. Tensions within nati

Psalm 38:1 Do not rebuke me There’s no hiding from it, this is not an uplifting Psalm! It does not even end, as many of David’s Psalms do, on a note of praise and positivity. The dirge continues to the end and the beleaguered King is in a fatalistic state of mind. Most commentators believe that David is cowering before the Lord as a direct consequence of sin and he believes that sickness and approaching death are the result of his disobedience and wickedness. His friends appear to have forsaken him, his enemies are plotting and scheming his demise and the Lord God, who is always a refuge, seems to be far away. It would be easy to skip Psalm 38, and Psalm 39 for that matter, and move on to the happier comforts of Psalm 40 – but we cannot. We cannot because Psalm 38 describes a state of mind that I suspect most of us are familiar with. We have sinned, gravely, we have allowed ourselves to enter a depressive place of self-torment where we bitterly regret our actions. Our mind and body suf

Psalm 37:40 Take refuge in Him I am sure that there are many occasions when the Lord steps into our lives and guides, guards and blesses us and we are not even aware of it. There are other occasions when we think we are resolving our problems and it all works out well and we proclaim, proudly, that we did it! We do not give Him the credit but take it for ourselves. The better way is to be so close to Him, so intimate that we share every need and every problem and we take Him with us into every minute of our life. In that scenario we are taking refuge in Him, we are admitting our own weakness and limitations and we are giving Him control of ourselves. That is dependency and that is the journey that real faith will take us on; less and less of me and more and more of Him. Now we are in business! We stop worrying and fretting and we slowly learn to bring everything to Him in prayer and let Him do the worrying for us! The Lord helps the righteous. The Lord delivers the righteous. The Lord

Psalm 37:39 We have the Lord! This verse points out another contrast between the righteous and the wicked. When the wicked get into trouble or become aware of their sin and weakness or need deliverance or face their enemies; they have to save themselves! They must scheme and plot and equip themselves for deliverance. They must seek absolution by their own means and fight their own cause. They must try to extricate themselves from the holes they have dug. Who else can help them? Sadly, most prefer their independence, they would sneer at the idea of obtaining help from a greater, wiser power. Not so the righteous. We have the Lord God as our covering, our helper, our deliverer, our guide and our guardian. We are not alone and that is why it is so important to learn dependence. We have to realise that we cannot save ourselves, that we cannot fight all our enemies alone and there are times when we are powerless. The greatest lesson that we can ever learn is the surrender of self and it is

Psalm 37:37-38 Future or no future! I must say, the Bible is blunt at times! “Say it like it is David, don’t hold back.” If ever there was a contrast in the prospects of two very different groups of people, this is it. The blameless and the upright have a future, they are worthy of our inspection and offer food for thought for they have a great future. Conversely, those who are sinful and wicked have no future at all.  It needs to be clarified that there are no human beings who are blameless and upright in themselves,  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  But there are men and women who have been covered by the blood of the Lamb of God, sacrificed at the altar of Calvary, and by faith they are blameless. Those who choose to ignore God’s act of mercy and love and who spurn His salvation are condemned by their own rejection of their Maker. Once again, it is all about faith. What do we believe? Who do we believe in? If we willingly turn to our God and accept Him as L

Psalm 37:35-36 He soon passed away! These verses are self-explanatory; we’ve all seen this happen, often to people in the public eye. Their career soars, their fame spreads, their stock rises and their bank balance with it. Such people make their mark on the world stage but their fame is short-lived. Royalty, politicians, statesmen, bankers, company directors, pop stars, sports people; the list goes on  but the consequences of ruthless greed and arrogance are all the same. Such people flourish for a time and then they are gone. Names that were on everyone’s lips are forgotten, their brief moment in the spotlight passes and the world moves on. That is the consequence of trifling with the Lord God, of living in rejection of Him, of treating this life as if it is only about me, when it should only be about Him! Not all are ruthless and not all are arrogant but if they are, they’d better watch out, selfish ambition only leads to obscurity. When the annals of earth time are completed their

Psalm 37:34 continued Inherit the land Let us add together all that this Psalm says about the gaining and occupation of the inheritance of the land that the Lord has for us. V9 tells us that those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. This is not some kind of vague, distant anticipation of future glory that will one day come our way. This is the hope of Today, it is an immediate hand-over of all that we are and have to the capable control of our Lord. This is you and me standing back and giving the Lord His rightful place as our Sovereign King, now and forever. It is our surrendering everything to His command. V11 takes this a step further. Only the meek can inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity. A lot of people get confused by the word meekness because it smacks of low -self-esteem and lacking confidence. In fact, in this context, it is better translated – humility. It is the humble who will inherit, those who lack pride but who can be incredibly confident. Why? Becaus

Psalm 37:34 Hope in the Lord This verse has appeared at a very opportune moment. I have recently been involved in some midweek Bible Studies looking at events leading up to the conquest of Canaan by Joshua and the Israelites and drawing parallels with the Christian’s journey of faith. We have seen how God delivered the Hebrew slaves from Egypt and how they were saved by the blood of the Passover Lamb pasted over their doors. We have followed their baptism in the Red Sea and the provision and protection of God in the wilderness. We have seen how unbelief was the major obstacle to entering the Promised Land and a whole generation perished in the wilderness as a consequence. All of these events have parallels in the spiritual journeys of believers today and now we are standing on the eastern banks of the River Jordan and itching to cross over. Ahead lies conflict and conquest and an unfolding story of God’s guidance and care. The thing is, when do we cross over and get started and what do

Psalm 37:32-33 Beware the wicked! The commentaries on these verses suggest that the Hebrew meaning is not as simple as our Bible versions make it seem. The text is not saying that wicked people are lurking in every shrubbery and dark alley hoping to exterminate a few righteous people! That is true in some parts of the world and in some eras in the history of most nations but, there is an interpretation that suggests that “putting to death” does not just mean taking life. Putting to death can mean robbing someone of their reputation. It can mean taking away their livelihood, it can mean making their shame public or laying false charges against them in a Court of Law. Even if exonerated, few people come out of such experiences with no stain on their reputation and their previous status unaffected. There are no depths to which mankind will not go to wipe out the knowledge of God, the reputation of God and obedience to His commands. The world is born to hate Him, it is not in the nature of

Psalm 37:31 The Law in our hearts We are still thinking about the righteous and David writes something here in this verse that is always attributed to Jeremiah by preachers and commentators of the Bible.  “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  Jeremiah 31:33 (repeated in Hebrews 8:10). It’s good to know that our friend and companion, King David, first penned the spiritual insight that those who are truly righteous will have the law of God in their hearts. David lived in an age when men and women learned the law from a young age, they obeyed the law for fear of the consequences of disobedience. The Jewish law was to become the bedrock of the nation but it was simply intellectual and religious. The law David speaks of here, that Jeremiah prophesied, is a law that is obeyed out of love, respect and a d

Psalm 37:30 Who are the righteous? It is time that we properly answered the question, who are the righteous? Because there are no people who do good at all times and who are completely blameless, there must be a deeper meaning to this expression. I believe that there is more than one kind of righteousness. Let’s just ponder that statement for a moment shall we? The first kind of righteousness is something that cannot be earned or achieved by us – it is given to us by God. Ephesians 1:4 says that the Lord God  “Chose us in Him before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.”  This is an imputed or assigned righteousness that is credited by the Lord; He deliberately chose those who would be credited in this way, He clothes us with a form of righteousness that we can never gain for ourselves. That righteousness is sealed by the blood of Christ and it alone makes us fit for God’s presence and declares us to be His children. The second kind of righteousness is that

Psalm 37:29 Who will inherit the Land?  That is the question posed at the beginning of this Psalm and since then it has been answered in many different ways. Most of the verses of Psalm 30 contrast the actions and beliefs of the righteous and the wicked. At every twist and turn we have seen how the wicked devise schemes and plot to benefit themselves. The righteous, by contrast, hope in the Lord and seek to honour Him by serving others and doing good. The way of the wicked is cursed, they will be destroyed, their wealth and fame will last only for a while and then they will be no more. The righteous, we are told, will  “dwell in the land forever.” My friends, we have an amazing inheritance that awaits us. In Israel, at the time of David, it was primarily a physical inheritance, a patch of land between Egypt in the south and Lebanon in the north. For most Israelites that would be enough, to own their property and to be proud of it. David, and Joshua before him, did more than anyone to m

Psalm 37:28 The Lord loves the just Integrity, honesty, fairness, righteousness; these are not words that we hear much nowadays, perhaps we never did. They have been replaced by phrases like; double-dealing, duplicity, look after yourself, do what you like so long as no one else gets hurt. Because our culture does not celebrate godly qualities, does not mean they are obsolete, in fact the opposite is true, they became the jewels, the highly sought-after rarities, the desirable objects in the eyes of the Lord God. So much so, that those who practice such things, out of respect for God, are loved by Him, for they are qualities that accompany faith in Him. Indeed, the Lord goes further, He promises that if we live His way and seek to honour Him in all of our dealings, He will never forsake us. In other words, He will watch over us for eternity! Not so the wicked, their way leads only to self-gratification, isolation and ultimately, destruction. Sadly, their deeds not only affect them as i

Psalm 37:27 Dwell in the land forever At the heart of Jewish faith has always been their land. The Promised Land, their inheritance, the place gifted to them by God. The Old Testament is full of the stories of their survival against all the odds, their protection from the Almighty, their prosperity when they obeyed Him, their superiority over their pagan neighbours. The history of Israel is primarily the history of a place and their identity with it. Sadly, that history is littered with accounts of their wilfulness, their disobedience, their unbelief and their rejection of the Lord God and His ways. Faith is the key to survival in the land and the people of Israel have been woefully short of it, over the centuries. Even today, after they have reclaimed their land, few pay anything but lip service to their God. Even the devout ones still reject Messiah and pursue religion.  “Turn from evil and do good,”  writes one of the fathers of the nation.  “Then you will dwell in the land forever.

Psalm 37:26 Lending freely More qualities of the righteous are in view here. They are known for their generosity. They give freely because they know that they don’t really own anything, everything they have comes from a God who is generous to them. The righteous do not seek to profit when they lend to someone in need.  The whole business of lending and charging interest is so engrained into the fabric of our culture that we forget that this is not God’s way. Some of the interest charged by institutions and banks is extortionate, greedy and wicked; it drives people further into debt instead of helping them to escape from it. In truth most financial institutions make their exorbitant profits from lending at the highest rates they can get away with! Most of us have borrowed money at some time or another and we only did so because we had a need that we could not meet on our own. We turned to a lender for help and they would see that as an opportunity to make a profit out of us. God does NO

Psalm 37:25 Living by faith Hmm, seems like this is continuing the train of thought from yesterday - it’s all about getting older! I occasionally look back and think about the faces and names that filled my childhood, youth and early adult years. Men and women of God, men who preached and taught the Scriptures and walked with the Lord. Some of them were outstanding characters and left a deep impression. One or two really did live by faith, they had no secular income and depended entirely on the Lord’s provision. And yet these people were also some of the most care-free that I have ever known, they had learned to leave everything in God’s hands and He never failed them! The Lord will not forsake His people, never, no never, no never! He has said this and He does not lie. If you are called upon, at some point in your life, to abandon worldly logic and throw yourself on His mercy, He will not forsake you. I had 10 years, from the mid-eighties onwards, of living by faith and my God abundan

Psalm 37:23-24 We will not fall Those of you who are older will be well aware of the dangers of tripping! We’ve watched our grandchildren run into everything and constantly taking tumbles, but they usually get up, grin and carry on. We were all like that once but now we prefer firm steps and a dependable route to follow. Most adults mature from fearless explorers into careful plodders! It is that growing process that I think is in David’s mind here. We may take risks with our faith when we are young and we look back and wonder how we survived at all. As we grow closer to the Lord, over the years, we delight so much in His presence that we prefer the safe route! Not to say that there will be no pitfalls, no deviating from the path or no occasions when we have to be roped to safety! But, the more we delight in the Lord somehow He makes the way seem firmer and the journey is one of growing contentment. When obstacles and difficulties arise, we know that we can trust in our Guide. Do not g

Psalm 37:22 Blessings and curses We are now taken to Deuteronomy 27 and 28 where the blessings and curses of Mt Gerazim and Mt Ebal are described. Moses instructed Israel that when they had entered the Promised Land and conquered much of it, they were to come together in the centre, near Shiloh, and pronounce the blessings and curses. Blessings from Mt Gerazim and curses from Mt Ebal. Certain tribes were directed to each mountain – the mountains stand directly opposite each other and are rounded hills. The curses had consequences, if the people worshipped other gods and disobeyed the Lord’s commands then their land and their livelihoods would suffer. If they obeyed the Lord God then the nation would be elevated above all others and they would enjoy peace and prosperity. David applies this same logic here in the Psalm, and he describes the two factions as the righteous and the wicked. The righteous always have an inheritance before God, that principle remains true throughout Scripture.