Daily Meditations

Psalm 40:14 May my enemies be put to shame This is a bold request! I mean, you have to be pretty sure of your own standing before you start to plead with God to intervene against your adversaries. So, I think we can say that David has made some recovery in his thinking and that it is now time to turn the tables on those who have opposed him. Stop and think about this for a moment; we’ve all had enemies, or at least people who have opposed our position or authority or reputation. Some have done this out of jealousy or spite, others in order to gain power for themselves. Whatever the cause, you have to be pretty sure that you are in the right place if you are going to get God to fight for you! You also need to be able to justify yourself righteously if you are going to plead for the actions and words of your enemies to rebound on them. I’m asking myself right now if I can do this. There have been people who have opposed me, although I’m not sure they wanted me dead, but they caused a gre

Psalm 40:13 Come quickly It might be helpful here to stop and think for a moment, about the way that God views time. In truth I don’t know, no one does, but His view of time and ours are definitely different! Time, in human terms, is linear. In other words, it has a beginning and an end, say A and B, and between those two points are the events that occur over minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years that fill in our measurement of how time passes. As humans we always measure time in this way, time is what plays out between those two identifiable moments, the starting and finishing lines. With God there is no A and B, no beginning and no end,  “As it was in the beginning, and now, and always, and into the ages of ages. Amen. “  So says what is known as the Lesser Doxology and there is truth here, the beginning and the end are not defined in Scripture, rather we are presented with a God with whom everything is circular, where earth’s timetable is a series of events that work towards

Psalm 40:12 My sins have overtaken me After the dark depression and laments found in Psalms 38 and 39 it has been refreshing to join David on an upward spiral as he begins to reflect on the goodness, love and faithfulness of the Lord once again. However, David is human and there will inevitably be days of doubt and backward looking as he continues his journey out of the miry pit of despair. Those of us who have suffered with mental illness or the depression and doubt that follow a sinful episode in our lives, will understand what is happening in this verse. The road to recovery is long and arduous but gradually the good days grow longer and, over time, they outnumber the bad ones. However, there are still times where our feet slip and we slide backwards until a gentle hand reaches down and lifts us up again. This verse exemplifies this, David is looking around and looking down instead of up. Once again he is troubled by the problems that surround him and by the sinful past that threate

Psalm 40:11 Always protected  It is easy to forget that God can do as He likes! He is the God of mercy but also the God of judgement. Of course, we love to focus primarily on His mercy and His grace. Why not? To know and experience these qualities and live in the comfort of them provides us with security, peace of mind and great hope for the future. However, I do not think we should take these attributes of our God for granted. It seems that David did not. Here is a man who suffered in his life, who writes whole songs bewailing the disciplinary, hard hand of the Lord upon him, because of his sin. God does act justly; He does and will judge the world. Our Father also disciplines the children whom He loves. Therefore, we need to keep in mind that He can withhold his mercy, as this verse infers. In truth we are such truculent, wayward creatures that it is amazing how often He wears the smile of the beneficent Father instead of brandishing the rod of discipline. How gracious is He? How oft

  Psalm 40:10   Don't hide Him away! There is a certain kind of believer who asserts that their faith is personal and private. A similar attitude prevails amongst those who say that they believe in God and Christ but they do not attend church; there usually follows a concoction of excuses about their preferences with styles of worship and personalities and clashes with leaders and other negatives that have put them off meeting publicly with others. Their brand of faith is a far cry from that of men like David who believed that it was necessary and right to proclaim his faith in public and as vociferously as possible. It’s all very well to pride ourselves that our hearts are righteous but that message needs to be shared. Our experience and understanding of God’s faithfulness is a matter of significance that should never be hidden. The Gospel, the message of God’s salvation, is only effective if it is proclaimed and revealed to the world. The place to declare the Lord’s love is in th

Psalm 40:9 The great assembly As the high days and feast days came and went throughout the Israelite’s year, vast crowds would gather at Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice to their God. Remember that the Ark of the Covenant and the Sacred tent or Tabernacle had been lost until David re-found and restored them and set up a place for worship in the capital city. Once again the feasts were celebrated – Passover, Firstfruits, Pentecost or Weeks, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles. Most Israelites would attempt to attend at least one of these events and would make their way to Jerusalem and camp out if necessary so as to be part of the festivities. David loved these occasions and did not restrain himself from celebrating with his people. He wrote songs especially for these Feast Days and would join in the throngs who crowded around the Holy site – later to become the location of Solomon’s temple. At these times the King danced and sang and proclaimed the greatness of t

Psalm 40:8 Your law is within my heart In the days of ancient Israel, up to the coming of the Messiah, the Law of God was learned by rote. Children learned it, especially the boys, and they did not just learn bits of it, the elders, leaders and fathers of the people taught and recited the whole of the Torah law over and over. We need to remember that Jesus and the Apostles would have learned the Scriptures this way. That is the reason for the great scrolls found in synagogues and for the sacredness of the scriptures to the people. A scribe was literally a man who spent most of his days writing out the Torah and the Mishnah and all the other documents that were deemed to be so precious. Along with them were the “teachers of the law,” mentioned so often in the Gospels, who spent their lives instructing and teaching all ages the truths of the law.  It is in Jeremiah 31:33 that the Lord promises a new covenant with the people of Israel, “ I will put my law in their minds and write it on th

Psalm 40:7 Written in the scroll It is a fact, though not widely known, that when the Lord foretold that the nation of Israel would desire a king, He also commanded that the king should not acquire many horses or wives, nor should he accumulate great wealth for himself. Deut 17:14-17. (Something Solomon overlooked! 1 Kings 2:1-4 shows us that he had no excuse, it was explained to him by his father!) The passage in Deuteronomy goes on to say,  “When he takes control of his kingdom, the king is to write for himself, on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priest. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel .”  It seems that verse 7 in Psalm 40

Psalm 40:6 Ritual religion You did not desire The startling revelation that the Lord God does not desire sacrifice and offering seems to create a conflict with all that has gone before in Israel’s history! Surely it was God who introduced the sacrificial system and commanded the Israelites to bring their offerings to the Altar of Sacrifice. Why did God command all of this if it is not what He wanted?  In 1 Samuel 15 we have the account of the Lord’s rejection of Saul as King over Israel. Saul was a mighty soldier; a leader of men, and he had been appointed by the Lord to attack and completely destroy the Amalekites and everything that belonged to them. Saul was successful in this task except that he and his army spared the best of the Amalekite’s flocks and herds. To celebrate his success Saul set up a monument to himself at Carmel. Samuel, God’s prophet at that time, went to Saul and demanded to know why he had kept back the best of the flocks and the herds. “Ah,” said Saul smugly, “B

Psalm 40:5 Too many to declare I’ve just read this verse, looked at the clock, and wondered how much time I have to fully do it justice!  “Many are the wonders You have done, Lord my God.”  When the Israelites reviewed the wonders that God had done they would usually start with the patriarchs, go through God’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and recount the blessings of the Promised Land. It was a kind of review of the nation’s history. So instead of my giving a brief review of Bible history and my own experiences of what the Lord has done, perhaps it would be good for us all to stop and ponder today, “What are the wonders He has done in my life?” Highlight those moments when the extraordinary hand of the Lord has intervened or blessed you in some way and you know that everything changed as a consequence.  Just last night, my wife concluded a weekly Zoom Bible Study on the Book of Ruth. Our final deliberations were on the meaning of the Hebrew word “vav”. It expresses the idea that

Psalm 40:4 Trust in the Lord We are back to the same familiar truth that runs like a golden thread through all of David’s Psalms. We keep being reminded of our need to trust in the Lord. As we have noticed, many times now, the fundamental foundation stone of our relationship with the one true God is faith. Faith that believes that He is in control, that He can do anything because He is Creator God. Faith that believes in His salvation and that we have nothing to bring to the table, He gives and expects nothing in return – except faith. Our seeking for well-being comes not from looking within but from looking without – to Him. He is the source of life and hope and love and justice, without Him nothing makes sense. What is the point of our attempts to resolve all the big questions and to plan and organise our futures when He has already done it? Why would we trust in Kings and Queens and Presidents and Prime Ministers and politicians and earthly leaders when we have the Lord? These men a

Psalm 40:3 A new song Well, David was a song writer extraordinaire, the best known and most eagerly sought after of his day. Can you imagine the excitement as the crowds made their pilgrimages to the temple for each of the festivals and they anticipated the musical treat that awaited in Jerusalem? I’m sure that one of the talking points on route would be the content and melody of David’s next song. What would it be about? Would they all be able to sing it? Had the choir rehearsed the music? Would they be able to familiarise themselves with the lyrics and share them back home? What was their favourite Psalm? Was it Psalm 19 or 23 or 100 or 139? Many of these brilliant songs were preserved for special occasions and became part of the fabric of their religious lives. Back home there might not be orchestras and choirs but they still learned the words and sang them together as a reminder of the high days and holidays. Children learned these songs too as part of their educational curriculum

Psalm 40:2 The miry pit In September 1982 I plunged into a slimy, miry pit of life-sucking, depressive mud and, at the time, thought that my existence had no more meaning. Over the ensuing months doctors, psychiatrists and bottles of pills were offered to help me but none of them could show me the way out of that dark and terrifying place. Even after the initial weariness and despair had lifted a little, there would follow years of panic attacks and crippling phobias that threatened to take away any sense of normality and stability in my soul. Only my heavenly Father could help me and little by little He revealed the causes of my incarceration in that dreadful pit and then, He offered me the route out of it. His escape ladder was these very Psalms which I read and memorised every day, filling my head with positive and praise-full thoughts rather than listening to the negative and self-destructive arrows sent by the enemy. It took time but slowly my feet and hands clung to the next rung

Psalm 40:1 Wait patiently Psalm 40 continues some of the laments of its two predecessors, David is still ashamed of his sin and the disastrous consequences that have followed on from his disobedience. He is still aggravated by the gloating of his enemies and their desire to see him gone. However, this Psalm starts with praise and a growing awareness of God’s greatness, His deliverance and His blessings. Our songwriter is on the road to restoration although there is still quite a long way to go. I wonder if this mirrors your own experience? I can certainly see myself reflected here, how gracious of the Lord God to befriend a man like David and grant Him greatness and yet allow us to share his vulnerabilities and his shame as he wears his heart on his sleeve. He is both a great man in worldly terms and a humble and vulnerable human being before the Lord. It would serve a us all well to learn from this.    V1        It goes without saying that there is not much point in getting impatient

Psalm 39:13 Look away from me This verse reminds us of the pleadings of Job. So full of self-pity was he that he blames the Lord for giving mankind too much attention!  “Will you never look away from me or let me alone even for an instant. If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?”  Job 7:17-20. Later Job pleads with the Lord to turn away from him so that he can experience a few moments of joy before he goes to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness. Job 10:20-22. This attitude that the heavy hand of the Lord God is too great to bear, that His discipline is too heavy and His commands too onerous, is probably not shared by many Christians in the 21 st  century! I confess I would not dare to ask God to leave me alone so I could have a few moments of peace before I leave this world! However, we need to remember that these dear saints of old did not know of resurrection

Psalm 39:12 continued Foreigners and strangers Let’s explore the following statement of David’s a little more fully for it has something very profound to teach us and forgive the lengthiness of my explanation.  “I dwell with you as a foreigner, a stranger, as all my ancestors were.”  What does it really mean? What is David hinting at when he says that all his ancestors were strangers and foreigners? And is there not a verse somewhere in the New Testament that says the same thing about us? Jacob talks about being a restless pilgrim in Genesis 47:9 when he says to Pharaoh in Egypt,  “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”  The early patriarchs were nomadic men, who travelled throughout their lives with no permanent resting place and nowhere to call home. They lived mainly in tents and the only stability they had was God Himself and the faith to believe that He was guiding

Psalm 39:12 Hear my prayer, Lord This is the final appeal in the Psalm, that the Lord God will listen and hear the cry of His earthly child. I suspect that it is not a polite request for an audience, nor is it an impatient plea for attention. No! This is David on his knees begging for a response from heaven; heaven that seems to be deaf to his pleading, heaven that has, thus far, shown no sign of having heard one word of his earnest entreaties. The most heart-rending cry is the confession that David does not feel like he belongs, that his tears are the tears of a foreigner in a world of foreigners who wander through their lives on earth at odds with their Creator and estranged from Him. This statement gives us an insight into the mental torture that the king was going through; He is appealing to One who is outside his experience and who dwells in another place and who too often seems to be distant from His servants. I guess that we can all confess to times like that. Isn’t it great whe

Psalm 39:11 The moth of judgement Psalm 38 begins with the words,  “Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.”  We observed there, that it is to the Lord God that we must account for our actions and if we have sinned then we should be fearful of His anger! Sin always has to be punished, there is no sin that does not carry a judgement. There are not small sins and big sins – sin is sin. In the same way, there are no individuals ever born to man that are able to escape the consequences of their sin. Sin is punishable by death and ultimately that is the way of mankind. Adam and Eve would have lived forever had it not been for their sin. As our feeble bodies approach the end of this life and the gates of death await us, we must face the rebuke and discipline of the Lord. Our bodies, our possessions, our accomplishments and status and success or failure in this world count for nothing for they are eaten up by the moth of God’s rebuke. We talk of things being “moth

Psalm 39:10 Remove Your scourge from me I know it’s not a pleasant thought but the Bible does teach that  “the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.”  Proverbs 3:12. The writer of Hebrews takes this one step further and argues that we are not legitimate children if we are not disciplined. If our human fathers disciplined us, out of love and concern, how much more will our Heavenly Father at times, lay His hand upon us? The Lord’s plan is that we may learn His holiness, He cannot teach us that quality if we are allowed to do as we like! But the process is painful and unpleasant and we would wish it away. However, righteousness and peace are the outcome of undergoing discipline.  Prior to discipline we are like lame men and women, we are spiritually disabled. Our feeble arms and weak knees must be healed if we are to walk on the level! Hebrews 12:4-12. David pleads to be set free, for the Lord to take away His hand of discipline, he realises what is going o

Psalm 39:9 Be silent! Sometimes it is very wise to resolve to be silent! Have you ever thought about the wisdom in being silent before God? I’m not just talking about those quiet, meditative moments we may spend in the Lord’s presence just wallowing in His glory and love, lost for words and glad to be honoured by His company. No, there are times when we need to shut up! Stop asking the questions, demanding the answers, bewailing the situation and moaning about the injustice of everything. Sometimes we need to stop questioning God and just trust Him. I think that is what David is saying here. “ I was silent, I would not open my mouth.”   Despite all that had gone wrong and the numerous problems, described in earlier verses and in Psalm 38, the psalm-writer has now reached a point when he will speak no more. And one of the reasons is the growing realisation that actually, God is the One who made it all happen, even the bad stuff! You see, we are either creatures of fate who lurch from on

Psalm 39:8 Keep saving me Lord! We use the word “salvation” a lot in the Christian Church. The heart of our faith is that Christ died to save us from the consequences of our sins. He removed those sins from us and made us righteous in the eyes of God. Praise the Lord for that! But that kind of salvation is historic and it occurs at the beginning of the Christian journey. The event that made salvation possible happened 2,000 years ago and the moment that you and I were made aware of it was also in the past, be it yesterday or over 50 years since. I think what David is pleading in this Psalm is not historic but present and it does us well to grasp this. Let’s re-word this statement slightly, “Lord my transgressions are still with me, I still sin and break Your commands. Deliver me from the taunts and influence of my sinful weaknesses. Give me moral strength to be able to conquer my sins, in Your name.” Some people’s theology will differ here but I can only speak from experience and I wou

Psalm 39:7 What do I look for? This is a big question is it not?  “What do I look for?”  In the context of the Psalm David seems to be comparing his own hopes and ambitions, his goals and objectives, with those of his contemporaries. As we have seen, people all around him are  “rushing about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will be.”  That has to be a pretty good indictment of people of today in our wealthy culture; most of them are extremely busy. Dads rush out of the door in the mornings to catch the train or to drive to work on time, mums rush to get children ready for school and then hasten home to start their own work or to get to the office because they are also busy heaping up wealth. Not everyone lives like this but many do and they never stop to ask, “Why?” Do I ever stop to ask, “Why?”  Perhaps today is the day to stop and question our intentions, “What is this all about? Why do I drive myself so hard? Am I just accumulating wealth to leave to others? Who will ulti

Psalm 39:6 Like phantoms! The Psalm uses a peculiar image in this verse – “ everyone goes around like a mere phantom.” T he expression simply means that we are all like ghostly shadows; intermingling, then withdrawing; faceless, nameless people who come and go. Imagine yourself, for a moment, in a busy High Street at the weekend with crowds off shoppers. How many faces will you remember? How many conversations will you have? How many of those people you saw will you ever see again? You see, we are just shadows that brush against one another and then move on never to interact again.  David seems to be anticipating a thought-provoking book here, written by his son, and the next but one in the Bible, Ecclesiastes. There you will find that Solomon writes a great deal about the vanity of man, the pointlessness of chasing wealth and riches and power. Yet everyone does it who can do it. Even penniless migrants are seeking a better life, looking for increased wealth, because the world’s values

Psalm 39:5 My time is nothing As we have already observed, life is very fast moving – a series of acts in a play that tells a story but passes extremely quickly. You will probably be aware that the height of a horse is measured in hand breadths from the ground to the top of the withers. (The shoulders.) The measure, including the thumb, is near enough 4 inches so a thoroughbred horse would be about 16 hands. This method of measurement has been traced all the way back to ancient Egypt, so it is not unreasonable to assume that David is thinking about horses here and is suggesting that his life’s span is no more than 4 inches in length! In other words, it is a very small amount. In God’s terms 4 inches is as nothing, He is the God of infinity, the God of eternity, of never-ending eons of time that human beings cannot even begin to imagine. So, our importance and significance in this world is extremely small, even the greatest names in history only lasted for 4 inches! And the Psalm is so

Psalm 39:4 Show me Lord! Continuing on from verses 2-3, here is the heart cry of a very sick man. It is human nature isn’t it, when things are going well and we are in the best of health, we don’t really want to know when our life is going to end? However, if it feels as if we are already on our deathbed and we have nothing to lose, then we might cry out “How long have I got?” As I write this the last thing I want to know from the Lord is my life’s end and the number of my days. It might not be good news! In truth life is and has been very fleeting. It is very difficult to put into perspective. Were those years of childhood freedom really me? Was that time in my twenties when I thought I could do anything – really me? Some of the events of my past seem like dreams, whole decades sped by and now old age beckons; what was it all about?  For the Christian who follows Christ there is another completely different viewpoint. This world is a mess. The News only gets worse day by day. The ache

Psalm 39:2-3 The burning question It seems as if one of the driving forces behind this Psalm was David’s growing awareness of how fragile human life can be. That is certainly at the heart of his outpouring to the Lord in verses 4-6. How quickly the tables turn, how easily disaster overcomes us, one day all is fine and the next everything has changed. As young people we tend to be optimistic and to make plans on the basis that we are always going to be around to carry them through. Then, as we grow older, an increasing sense of our mortality and the ageing process helps to put things into perspective. Big questions such as, “How long have I got? What is my purpose here? Who am I?” are worthy of consideration and they boiled up inside David. He tried to suppress them. He tried to ignore them. But the more he did so the more anxious he became. I guess most of us have similar questions but we push them to one side. They are rarely asked in public and of course it’s all a bit pointless beca

Psalm 39:1 Muzzling the tongue! Psalm 38 revealed the deep inner turmoil of a man at odds with himself and with the world. His friends had withdrawn and his enemies were gleefully anticipating his demise. As David looked within he could only find one person to blame for this calamitous state of affairs – himself! He had sinned and thus, in his mind, he had brought this dreadful curse upon himself. There are hints of illness, impending death and a broken reputation, amidst the outpouring of bitter regret and sorrow at his disgrace. The Psalm is a gloomy commentary to say the least.    Psalm 39 changes the emphasis somewhat; this Psalm is not so much a reflection on David’s state of mind but a conversation with the Lord God. David is not talking to Himself here, he is communicating with the Lord and instead of introspection there are pleas for help and for restoration. If we have ever sunk as low as David did in Psalm 38 then we must know that the only way forward is to bring all our hur

Psalm 38:21-22 Broken but not forsaken Perhaps there is only one cry left when everything has gone wrong. We have followed the spiralling descent into despair that this Psalm describes and there appears to be no solution. David is battered and bruised in body, mind and soul and for most people this is the point of “no return.” They have no answers, the best medical and psychiatric advisers shake their heads. The familiar bastions of support have withdrawn and there is no one to help. The enemy is gathering at the door and maybe it is time to just give up, to roll over and say goodbye to this life and hope for something better in the next. I’m sure there are many who have done that but David is not one of them! He has one last resort, one final cry bursts from his lips,  “Lord, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly to help me, my Lord and Saviour.” When all else fails the unbeliever must throw in the towel and stare eternity in the face with a deep sense of hope

Psalm 38:20 Suffering for doing good We are drawing to the conclusion of this woeful Psalm and David is still apparently wallowing in self-pity.  “All I do is good and yet my enemies repay me with evil. They make up accusations and besmirch my character and my name. This is so unwarranted for all I do is good.”  Well, it sounds like self-pity and I believe it is, because much of this Psalm has been about David’s sin and his broken relationship with the Lord God. One way or another he has been anything but good! Of course, there is a difference between our relationship with the Lord that requires a foundation of righteousness, and our relationship with others to whom we seek to do good even if our personal life is out of order. Let’s be clear here, there are few rewards in this life for doing good. Many will misunderstand our motives. Some will seek to undermine our intentions and there will always be a few who criticise from the side lines. If we want rewards they usually have to be bo