Daily Meditations

Psalm 53:1 The fool says ..... there is no God. I will let you into a well-known secret! Psalm 53 is almost an exact replica of Psalm 14 and so it would be easy to just copy the thoughts recorded there and hope that no one would notice! That would, of course, be cheating and also lazy. If something like this is recorded twice, it rather suggests that there is a reason and that the Lord God wants us to give further thought to these words. So, I intend to review Psalm 53 as if we had never seen these verses before and then, maybe, at the end, compare the two Psalms. We may discover that we have moved forward in our understanding or that the Holy Spirit has new things to say today. It will be interesting to find out.    v1        There are a variety of reactions to the concept of God including; those who think that He may exists or could exist but believe there is little evidence, those who believe that God is a talisman, someone to cry out to when in trouble but who does not interact wit

Psalm 52:9 Your name is good! My wife and I had a short holiday recently, and one of the memorable highlights was the time we spent reviewing all that the Lord God had done for us! That might sound like a five-minute job, but it turned into an exercise that spread over a number of days. I’m not just talking here about the work of Christ at the cross or the theology of our faith – they could occupy our thoughts for a very long time too! No, I’m talking about all the moments, the people, the incidences, the changes of direction, the surprises, the occasions when we were stopped from going wrong, trivial things sometimes, but now we look back and as we reflect over our lives on this planet, we realise that nothing happened by chance. The Lord was there at every twist and turn. Sometimes it was just a conversation or a fleeting contact with another person, but something they said or did changed the direction of our lives and now, as we look back, we see that it was meant to be. It is extra

Psalm 52:8 The Olive Tree Olive trees are important symbols in the Bible. These trees grow slowly but continue to bear fruit even after they have aged. Tyndale’s   Illustrated Bible Dictionary   notes that an olive tree “often attains an age of several centuries if left undisturbed. If cut down, new shoots spring up from the root, so that as many as five new trunks could thus come into being.” These trees were known for being “prolific,” because they were useful in so many applications. Their wood helped build the temple. Their oil was used for cooking but also to light lamps, and for anointing, commerce, and dressing wounds. David thought about olive trees when he wrote this verse in Psalm 52. As we know, he was being hounded by Saul. Although running for his life, he still realized that he was   “like a green olive tree in the house of God.”   Trusting in the Lord, he could remain firm, confident, and at peace. We can be very impatient at times, one of the things that olive trees tea

Psalm 52:6-7 Do not trust in wealth In Psalm 49 we read about rich fools who are arrogant and boastful. Men and women who flaunt their wealth and their extravagant lifestyles and who boast of their accomplishments, their power and their possessions. These people think that they have everything and even if they do not, they have the means to get everything. Such foolishness believes that security, well-being and the future, are all protected by a healthy bank balance and an abundance of earthly possessions.  Throughout David’s period of suffering, he bitterly rejected such worldly wisdom with statements like,  “People despite their wealth, do not endure.”  Psalm 49:12.  “People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.”  Psalm 49:20. I believe that a similar sentiment is being expressed here; the boastful and arrogant who rely on their accumulated wealth and their accomplishments will, one day, fall from grace. Those who trample others and use them, those w

Psalm 52:5 Prayers against the wicked There are some dark images in this verse aren’t there? “ Bring you down. Snatch you up. Pluck you from your tent. Uproot you.”   This arrogant enemy of David’s is in for a torrid time if all of this comes true – and it did! I struggle with the idea of pronouncing such curses on anyone – should we not leave room for repentance and a change of heart? David evidently did not think so, Saul would be brought down, snatched up, plucked away and uprooted, and so he was. Maybe, if we know someone who is so violently against the will of God and so inflated by their own importance that they put themselves beyond salvation, then we should pray that their impact is curtailed by the Lord. That does not mean that they will die but at least their evil powers will be extinguished. We have already noted that our spiritual enemy is no different to the human enemy described by David. If we cannot bring ourselves to pray against another human being, we can certainly d

Psalm 52:4 The power of words!  It’s interesting isn’t it that most verbs and adverbs have a positive and a negative, or to be more precise when we use a verb there is usually an opposite. Love – hate. Sleep – wake. Talk – silence. Go – stay. Encourage – discourage. It follows that for every positive act or word of God, the Satan has devised an antithesis and he loves it! He loves every doubt, every deceit, every profanity, every insult, every curse, every word that undermines, destroys, upsets and promotes a negative. Every word of God is questioned, every truthful statement is challenged, every compliment is undermined, he takes every opportunity to destroy love and joy and peace. That is the delight of the devil. He loves it! Don’t take my word for this; read today’s verse and realise afresh what a stronghold he has built and how negatively the world is being stage-managed. Listen to the news, read the papers and discern the truth if you can, there’s not a lot of it! That is why we

Psalm 52:2-3 You love evil rather than good Saul was an obvious example of a human being that was on the payroll of the satanic powers and David exposes him in these verses. So, how do we see the works of the mastermind of evil in the actions of a human being? We know that Satan is a created being. We know that he once held a position of power and authority in the heavenly realms. We know that he fell from grace and there are hints in the Scriptures that this fall was rooted in pride and a thirst for power. However, Job 1 suggests that he still had access to God in the spiritual realms and that he could still make requests and was held accountable for carrying out his wicked plans. The full nature of this spiritual clash of wills is not revealed to us. I have occasionally pondered how the conflict came about, there is some suggestion that free will exists even amongst angelic and heavenly powers. Satan – Lucifer – the devil, obviously suffered from a catastrophic delusion about himself

Psalm 52:1 Denunciation of the enemy The background to this Psalm can be found in 1 Samuel 21-22. David is on the run from the jealousy and murderous intentions of King Saul. As he skips from place to place his movements are being watched and anyone loyal to Saul reports back to him. The tabernacle, that used to be housed at Shiloh, has been moved because Shiloh was destroyed by the Philistines and God’s Holy Meeting Place is now housed at a town called Nob, just a few miles NE of Jerusalem. Ahimelek, the priest in charge, trembles one day when David appears alone and asks for bread. The only bread that is available is that which has recently been removed from the Table of Shewbread in the Holy Place and David gratefully takes this and asks also if the priest has any spears or swords that he could take. With that, Ahimelek hands over the Sword of Goliath, the Philistine. Unbeknown to David, Doeg, Saul’s Chief Shepherd, was at the site and of course, he hotfooted it back to the King to

Psalm 51:19 The sacrifices of the righteous This Psalm has been an eye-opening journey, with David, through the travails of his soul. He saw fit to publicly acknowledge his sin and to write a Hymn that would define true repentance for centuries, right up to this present day.  The climax is a return to the altar of God, this time bearing sacrifices that would be acceptable to the Lord. (Bearing in mind that in verse 16, they were not!) We need to remember firstly, that Israel’s sacrificial system had no appropriate offering for deliberate sins such as adultery and murder. It was up to the individual to confess and make atonement in some way for his wrongdoing. Here in this verse David anticipates that the Lord will accept sacrifices if his heart and intentions are right. This is the opposite of the religious rituals that followed a prescribed pattern and asked nothing of those who were making the offerings. Leviticus 1:3 states that a worshiper who offered a burnt offering must offer a

Psalm 51:18 The highest Place This verse could be taken in isolation, as a prayer for Jerusalem. We are exhorted elsewhere to,  “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”  (Psalm 122:6) However, we have followed David through his travails, his journey of repentance, and we know that he doesn’t throw ideas into his Psalms as afterthoughts. Somehow, in the king’s mind, his own restoration and the fortunes of the capital city are intertwined.  As we have previously commented, Jerusalem was the title of the entire city, it was the place of government of all Israel, and it housed the living quarters of the king and his officials. Mount Zion was a small, squat hill that was elevated in stature because the tabernacle was placed there, and it was in this southern area of Jerusalem where David’s fortress was built. The term “Tzion” was often used to describe the entire city of Jerusalem; and later, when Solomon’s Temple was built on the adjacent Mount Moriah (which came to be known as the Temple Mount)

Psalm 51:17 A broken spirit Well, there is no Tabernacle in the wilderness for us is there? We have no Temple Mount and no soaring edifice dedicated to the glory of God or, even if we do, He is not in it! There are no ceremonial practices that will draw us nearer to Him and no hand-made artifacts that represent His glory and splendour. I’m talking about candlesticks and altars and lavers. What can you and I bring to the Lord that will please Him? What can we do that will be the equivalent of the ancient practices? How do we approach this Almighty Being we call God if we have no tangible means of doing so?  In this verse David gives us an answer; a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart are not despised by the Lord. He may turn His nose up at the relics of religion, but He never spurns the humble hearts of His worshippers. Is He so arrogant that He desires us to be broken and to come crawling to Him on begging knees? No, of course not! What He requires is that we lay aside our eg

Psalm 51:16 Empty religion Here is a theme that we have already encountered on more than one occasion on our journey through these psalms. The God who instituted the system of sacrifices and offerings, at Mount Sinai, takes no pleasure in them! He who commanded Moses and set out, in infinite detail, the observance of all these things, is no longer pleased by them. He who initiated a Covenant with Israel and established a form of worship that would be passed on through generations, takes no delight in its execution! We have previously set out the reasons why and there are a number: - ·        The sacrificial system was a means to approach God not an end in itself ·        The offering of sacrifices was meant to come from repentant and grateful hearts  ·        The people were to learn obedience through these rituals and not use them as a religious obligation ·        The Law if obeyed, used offerings sparingly. Israel had turned it upside down and they did as they pleased in the belief

Psalm 51:15 The heart of worship True worship and praise are not all about the ability of musicians or singers. They are not about the spirituality or prominence of worship leaders or the spiritual depth of their hymns and songs. Neither are they dependent upon the enthusiasm of a congregation or its numbers. Sadly, all of those elements are promoted and developed in churches and meetings to try to attain powerful worship experiences, but the key is not in any of them. Worship and praise start in the hearts of those individuals who love the Lord and are eager to tell Him so. Even then, passion and enthusiasm are not enough. How can we worship if we have unclean hands and uncleans hearts. Psalm 24 asks this question,  “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.” All worship experiences are an attempt to ascend the mountain of the Lord, to draw near to Him,

Psalm 51:14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed There are probably two events driving this cry from for David for deliverance from “the guilt of bloodshed.” The first is the death or Uriah, the former husband of Bathsheba and one of David’s “mighty fighting men.” Uriah was his friend and trusted ally and yet he had connived to get him drunk so that he would go home and sleep with his wife, in the hope that this would cover the possibility that Bathsheba was pregnant. When Uriah refused because of his loyalty to his comrades in the army, David ordered that he be placed in a position where fighting was fiercest and then be abandoned and left to die! The plan worked and David had Uriah’s blood on his hands.  A child was born to David and Bathsheba, but because of their sinful actions it too would die. 7 days after the birth their son, who had become seriously ill, passed away. His life was so short that he remained uncircumcised and unnamed and therefore was not counted among the Israe

Psalm 51:13 Sinners will turn back to you The entire nature of this Psalm of penitence and confession changes abruptly here in verse 13. So far, we have walked in the shoes of a sinner who pleads for forgiveness, but now David’s heart turns to the future and what he is going to do once he is assured of the Lord’s salvation. The mean-spirited might suggest that these words are a kind of bribe, “Lord, if you forgive my transgressions, I will teach other transgressors Your ways, and these sinners, like me, will then turn back to You.” I don’t think David is quite that disingenuous in his dealings with the Almighty and if he was, the Lord God would see right through him immediately! The truth is that when we face our sin and failure and come to the Lord for forgiveness; when we have sincerely confessed and repented and laid all of our failure at His feet, there is redemption. Our spirits testify that there has been a positive change, true confession is not just words, it affects our minds

Psalm 51:12 A willing spirit! This is quite a verse! For a start, we have an Old Testament, Covenant king talking about the joy of salvation. It was a joy that David had felt before in his life because he asks the Lord to restore it. We use the reality of salvation to describe deliverance from our sins, from ourselves, from Satan, from judgement and from death. That is the gospel and the salvation we enjoy comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How did a man like David view salvation 1,000 years before Messiah came? I suspect that he wanted salvation from the consequences of his sins too! The rest of the verse suggests that he wanted to be saved from himself and we already know that he longed to live again without the heavy hand of God’s discipline and judgement. Like David, when we know that we are free of these things, then we know we are saved and in that, there is great joy. There is another twist to this verse. The wicked do not have much choice when it comes to

Psalm 51:11 Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me This verse has much to teach us. Firstly, there is the link between the presence of God’s Spirit and the presence of God Himself. Obviously the two things are the same, or are they? In Old Testament times it was possible to enter God’s presence simply by visiting the Tabernacle / Temple. It was here that God dwelt, and the closer His people came to these buildings the nearer to Him they believed themselves to be. Thus, the priests who served in the sanctuary were very much in God’s presence, and the High Priest who entered the Holy of Holies once a year came as close as any man dare to go. The approach to the divine presence was a journey of holiness that required increasing ritual cleansing and purity and in normal, everyday life it is doubtful that most people were giving it much thought! An awareness of the Holy Spirit was a rare event in the centuries before Christ. David had experienced this blessing at his anointing as king over Is

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God. This is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible. I, like many others, learned it at Sunday School and its truth lies embedded in my mind although I confess it has been ignored only too often. This is the beginning of David’s journey to recovery from his sorrows in the dark pit of self-awareness. His sins have been confronted, the true horror of his actions have been recounted, the sense of guilt and overwhelming shame have tortured his soul and he has laid it all before the Lord.  After a long time of honest appraisal, he dares to look up into the face of his Holy God and beg for purity in his heart. David now realises that he cannot clean himself up, his heart his sinful and dark by nature; his thoughts and longings are tainted by that sin that has been with him from conception so, he needs a new heart! A pure heart. Only God can do this. God is creator, God alone can allow us all to begin again, to restart our journey but with a di

Psalm 51:9 Hide Your face from my sins Earlier, in verse 3, David confessed that, such is the depth of his sinfulness and the ramifications of his behaviour that he just cannot let it go;  “My sin is always before me.”  The sour taste of his exploits lingers and there is barely a moment passes and his troubled soul relives his failure and the implications of it. Such is the awfulness of his plight that he now appeals to the Lord God to look away from him, “Hide Your face, don’t look upon me and see me in this wretched state.” I’m not sure if David is saying, “Don’t look at me I am so tainted and dirty,” or, if is He saying, “I know how awful my sins are so please hide Your face from them but do not ignore me. Please!” It is a good moment to remember that such was the burden of our sin, taken by the Lord Jesus at the cross, that God His Father had to look away and hide His face.  “My God, My God. Why have You forsaken me,”  came the plaintive cry. In verse 1 we reflected on the Charge S

Psalm 51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness We all know that sin drives a wedge between us and the Lord. A rebellious act is just the beginning! The guilt that follows, the sense of failure, the condemnation and thoughts of worthlessness; all of these things automatically upload themselves into our heads. This is Satan’s strategy of course and it is very hard to avoid the consequences of sinfulness. Ultimately, we become sullen, angry with ourselves and with others. All joy is taken away and we descend into a dark place. Sometimes it takes days to recover and there are many people who descend into habitual sin accompanied by continuous dark despair and depression.  David understood the full extent of his transgressions and he now pleads to hear joy and gladness once more. He got a response from Nathan the prophet, but it was not a comforting pat on the back!  “David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die

Psalm 51:7 Whiter than snow Those who know the Passover story well, will know that the blood of a lamb had to be sprinkled over the doorposts of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, to save them from the judgement of the Angel of Death. This was the night that the people would escape from Pharaoh’s clutches and the exodus to the Promised Land would begin. The instructions from Moses were,  “Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door-frame.”   Exodus 12:22. Hyssop was later used in the ceremonial cleansing from skin diseases and moulds on buildings along with other defilements. It was always used for cleansing purposes and referred to in Hebrews 9:19-22 where the scroll of the Covenant, the tabernacle and its implements etc were all sprinkled with blood using branches from this plant.  Hyssop is an aromatic plant of the mint family grown today for its sweet scent and pungent leaves and flowers; it is not unlike la

Psalm 51:6 When did my sin begin? This is a curious verse, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone preach on it or even mention in it before! The teaching of my childhood and youth was based on the King James Bible which translates the verse rather differently,  “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”  In fact, I have checked 27 versions of this text and only 2 mention the womb, the rest use variations of the idea of “inner parts” or the inner man. (By the way, if you have an NIV and are wondering what I am talking about, some versions do not mention “innermost part” but substitute this for womb. Mine reads,  “Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. ”) So, who is right? What is David saying here?  Firstly, this is a continuation of the previous verse that tells us that we were sinful from the moment of conception. In Judaism, no one is born a sinner! The correct translati

Psalm 51:5 Sinful at birth Many of us have a high view of our parents and, as children, it was hard to imagine that they were sinful. Hopefully this does not come as too much of a shock, not only were they sinful but they were responsible for our being born in sin too! I’ve often pondered the truth that I never taught my children to lie or to steal or to be disobedient, sadly it was inborn. The inclinations to do wrong are in all of us simply because we are descendants of a long genealogy that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. The Lord God pronounced a damning indictment against us all after the flood, in the days of Noah,  “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”  Genesis 8:21.  This denunciation of the entire human race from birth, was clearly in the minds of the religious leaders when they angrily condemned Jesus after He

Psalm 51:4 Deliberate sin In Genesis 20 we read the story of Abimelek and Abraham. The latter had passed off his wife Sarah as his sister and Abimelek had taken her with a view to her becoming his wife. The relationship was not consummated, and the Lord used a dream to reveal to Abimelek just what was going on. The insulted king pleaded innocence,  “I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands ” he said, to the Lord. And God agreed,  “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me.”  This is a big subject but there is clearly a difference between sinful intentions and deeds where the participant knows that he/she is doing wrong, and those occasions where an action is carried out in innocence.  David knew all along that every detail of his relationship with Bathsheba was sinful, as were his actions in the cover-up. Therefore, he sinned against the Lord God and broke the commandments which said that  “You shall not commit adul

Psalm 51:3 I know my transgressions Paul talks, in Ephesians 2:1, of our being dead in transgressions and sins. We are probably more familiar with the word “trespass” than transgression, as it is part of the Lord’s Prayer.  “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  These words, “transgressions and sins” are deliberately used in Scripture because they have different meanings.  To trespass means to step out of line, to overstep a boundary, the Hebrew equivalent describes the violation of a law of God. In other words, one who trespasses is a rebel, knowingly breaking the pre-ordained rules. Sins are simply when we fall well below the mark, as an archer sometimes does when aiming at a target.  Paul defines it when he writes, “ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Trespasses      =          man’s rebellion Sins                  =          man’s failure David is well aware of his deliberate rebellion and also of how far short of God’s glo

Psalm 51:2 Cleanse me from my sin Washing was a big part of the daily routine, as well as the annual rituals at the Tabernacle / Temple. Whilst animals and birds were offered as sacrifices for sin and as thank offerings to God on behalf of the people, there were many occasions when the priests had to pay particular attention to their own cleanliness. Implements used in the ceremonial duties had to be washed. The priest himself had to be washed. His clothes had to be washed. The altar had to be cleansed by blood. Then there were the routine washes required if an ordinary Israelite touched unclean objects or dead bodies. The ritual cleansing process was a big part of Jewish worship.  One of the most carefully observed washing ceremonies involved the Brass Laver or “The Sea” as it was also called. Before any priest could enter the Holy Place that housed the Table of Shewbread, the Menorah and the Altar of Incense, he must wash at the Laver. There was a difference therefore between the cle

Psalm 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God Jesus borrowed from this verse! In Luke 13:9-14 he tells the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the penitent tax collector who both prayed in the Temple Courts. The first of these men publicly congratulated himself on his religious achievements and that he was not like other people who were robbers, evil-doers and adulterers. The tax collector, at a distance, looked down to the ground and beat his breast and cried,  “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  David appeals to God’s mercy, His loving kindness and His great compassion and dares to beg that if the Lord has all of these qualities, surely, He might be willing to forgive and restore His penitent king!  It is perhaps a good moment to reflect on the difference between fake and genuine penitence. It is easy to exhibit remorse, as did Judas after he had betrayed Jesus. Remorse and regret are close allies and even the hardest of sinners must feel some sense of guilt on occasions. We all have mome

Psalm 51 Intro Repentance and Thanksgiving This is one of the best known of David’s Psalms; not least because so many of us can identify with its message. The full background is recounted for us in 1 Samuel 11-12:25. David should have been away with his troops; it was springtime, when kings go off to war, but he had other conquests in mind. One of his closest confidantes and fighting men, Uriah, had a beautiful wife and she lived not far from David’s palace. Uriah was away with the army, fighting the Ammonites and David was watching the desirable Bathsheba ceremonially washing herself in full view, on the roof of her house. Did she know David was watching? Did he know where she lived? The story that unfolds is seedy but not unprecedented. Voyeurism, adultery, lies, cover up, the demise of Uriah and the loss of a child, it’s a story that has been played out many times. The only shock for us is that the mighty and godly David was a major player in this drama and his behaviour was not wha

Psalm 50:23 Honouring Him Verse 14 sets out the meaning of the Thank Offering or Fellowship Offering. Let me stress again, this came from thankful hearts, from men and women who acknowledge the sovereignty of God in all things. The person who went to all the trouble to fatten up an animal (the fatted calf) and bring it to the altar of God did so out of reverence and humble devotion. This was someone of generous disposition who did not keep the best for themselves but brought it to the Lord, to the priests and also to their family and friends. Such a person was humble and generous and glad to share what they owned.  We do not have a similar means of expressing ourselves and showing our thankfulness - or do we? Surely our fellowship within the church of Jesus Christ is no different? We come to our God, sacrificing time and money to support His work and His people. We give generously to His flock and we do so with thankfulness knowing that all we have is His and therefore available to be