Daily Meditations

Psalm 141:4 The delicacies of evildoers There are countless enemy attempts to disrupt our spiritual lives every day! The world around us is choc-a-bloc with lures, temptations and urgings to join the ranks of the wicked. Our modern-day culture is probably worse than any that has ever existed with its multi-media technologies, the phones and devices that fill people’s days and the giant HD television screens that occupy most houses. The content of these things is rarely for our good but rather designed to lure us into sin or to water down sin. It’s one thing being aware of this and another to stop our hearts being drawn in. Why else would so many people be drawn to watch pornography, or violent movies or ghoulish horror? Why else would large chunks of our society believe the deceptions and lies that are paraded in front of us by seemingly legitimate broadcasters? The problem with all of this subtle strategy, devised in the mind of a deadly foe, is that many are so convinced by what they...

Psalm 141:3 Watch what you say Well, we’ve never met this side of David have we? I’ve always thought of him as a “listener”, a man who was slow to speak, who weighed up his words before pronouncing an opinion. But maybe that was not the case, maybe David sometimes spoke rashly and later regretted it. We can all fall into that trap! The most likely scenario behind this verse is that the great king was concerned that his lips should not speak evil. This was a man who understood that the tongue speaks what is in the heart and there must be no doubt that David had good reason to think ill of his adversaries. In fact, there were some whom he hated, as we saw in Psalm 140. Maybe therefore, this was a heartfelt plea from the King, that when he was in company, the Lord would help him to keep his real opinions to himself and to not give vent to the anger, frustration and vengeful thoughts that surfaced in private. We all have thoughts that churn away in our minds but are best not expressed! We ...

Psalm 141:2 The Altar of Incense. The Altar of Incense was a prominent feature in the Tabernacle constructed under Moses, and also in the Temples built by his successors. This item of sacred furniture was housed in the Holy Place, accompanied by the Table of Shewbread and the 7 branched lampstand or Menorah. When the Temple rites and rules were established, there were at least two events in each day when the Altar of Incense was used, these were at the times of the morning and evening sacrifices at 9.00am and 3.00pm. (Exodus 29:38-41 and Numbers 28:3-8). These were also hours of prayer. A priest would be chosen to enter the Holy Place with burning coals and a censor of incense, and the coals would be placed on the Altar and the incense poured over them. The consequence was a cloud of sweet-smelling fumes ascending before the curtain that led into the Holiest of All, the chamber that housed the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. It was this special task that had fallen to Zechariah...

Psalm 141:1 Hear me when I call - please! After spending time with King David and reading his outbursts against his enemies in Psalm 140, we might be ready to move on! But no, he continues to be angered by their threats and their actions, although the beleaguered King pays some attention to his own words and actions so we cannot accuse him of hypocrisy. Many readers skip over these Psalms, indeed we all like to be filled with positive thoughts that uplift us and inspire us, why spend so much time wringing our hands and grinding our teeth over the plots and schemes of the wicked? Perhaps these songs are a reality check, the real world is full of wickedness, all followers of Yeshua are besieged by evil at times, there are countless plots to silence us and to belittle our faith, the enemy never gives up and never withdraws. Let’s get into the real world and learn from David, shall we?   V1        This sounds a bit presumptuous, it’s hardly the c...

Psalm 140:13 Justice for all The concluding verse of this Psalm allows us to change direction, and it ends on a positive note. David has been brutally honest in his assessment of his adversaries, and he has made his feelings about them public. He has also had the temerity to turn this all into a prayer and plead to God for their judgement. How many of us have asked the Lord to deal with our / His enemies by, pouring burning coals on them, throwing them into the fire and condemning them to the miry pit? Have we prayed that disaster might hunt down those who are violent? If not, why not? David did! In verse 12 he reminds himself that the Lord God does not overlook the cause of the needy and he will secure justice for the poor and when this happens there will be cause for rejoicing rather than bitter recriminations. And that is the point, those who do not believe, who have no ultimate arbiter and judge who acts for them, end up descending slowly and bitterly into a pit of despair and desp...

Psalm 140:12 The poor and needy When David talks here about the poor and needy, he is not just referring to the homeless, to vagrants or social welfare dependants. There’s little doubt that he is also thinking about his own people, the much-beleaguered Israelites and their tempestuous history, so full of threats and incursions by surrounding nations. The poor are not just those who have no money or possessions, the Bible also includes those who have no means to look after their lives, their safety or their mental well-being. In other words, it’s possible to be financially wealthy but still poor in spirit and in resources. If we applied these definitions to the Jews today, we might say that they are economically secure, they have a very efficient and well-armed military and they excel in food production, technology, the arts etc. But these people are hated by the world in general and threatened daily by their neighbours, in that sense they are poor and needy.  Where does this leave ...

Psalm 140:11 A prayer against our enemies Maybe, like me, you are reluctantly pondering this Psalm and David’s vehement condemnation of his enemies. My initial problem has been trying to establish who my enemies are! Don’t we all try to be at one with everyone and at peace with our neighbours? In fact, the Bible seems to suggest that it is perfectly normal to have enemies, they are simply the people who oppose us or who are opposed to us.   So, let’s spend a moment or two thinking about this, are there people in the workplace who deliberately put us down, gossip about us and who try to undermine our authority or our roles? They are our enemies.  Are their individuals who make overtures to our husband or wife and send them messages in secret? They are our enemies. Are there people on committees, boards, leadership teams or even church bodies who always take the opposite view to us and express their opinions arrogantly? They are our enemies. Do we know people who are consta...

Psalm 140:10 Burning coals! It would be easy to simply skip over this verse, but there is more to it than perhaps meets the eye. Firstly, burning coals were very much part of Israel’s religious life, coals were burned on the altar of sacrifice at the Tabernacle and the Temple, and burning coals were taken by the priests into the Holy Place and laid on the altar of incense at least twice a day. There is an element of God’s justice involved in these practices; indeed, the prophet Isaiah pours scorn and condemnation on necromancers, sorcerers, astrologers and the like, saying that they will never be able to save themselves from the fire of judgement, people who think their spiritual coals provide warmth and cosy comfort have got it completely wrong! Isaiah 47:12-15. Their fiery coals will come back to haunt them, an irony if ever there was one!  In Psalm 18:8 God’s power and majesty come down to the earth with consuming fire and burning coals erupting from His mouth. There is no quest...

Psalm 140:9 Dealing with mischief - makers Oh dear, don’t you wish you had read this verse before succumbing to the latest workplace gossip? Why is that everywhere we go, especially in employment, there are always people who use their lips and tongues for mischief. Sadly, we try to trust our leaders, but experience shows that they are no better, they speak mischief, and thousands are conned into believing them.  As a King, David was well-versed in political games, and he soon saw through the arrogance and duplicity of those who opposed him. I apologise for being cynical, but this is the way of the world, there are few people we can really trust, everyone seems to have an agenda. I used to tell myself that most of my work colleagues were playing games, all I had to do was to decide at what level I would play along and at what point I would say, “no more”. If we do that, we become players too, but at least we have choices and are in control of our own destinies! David constantly make...

Psalm 140:8 A prayer against the wicked This Psalm is a far cry from the watered-down mantras of the liberal church where love and tolerance to everyone is promoted. I watched a short excerpt from the BBC’s Songs of Praise recently where a vicar was promoting community, inclusivity, the common bonds between all races and nations, and how the church is there to bring people together and to create unity and kinship. It all sounded wonderful, but there was no mention of the Gospel or of repentance from sin. These are the things that God sets before us in His Word as being fundamental to our walk with Him, and from these grows a community of love and fellowship that crosses all racial and international borders. Through the Gospel broken families are restored and individuals learn to love each other. What’s the point of constantly promoting the outcome if we do not teach and preach the means and the cause? It's against the background of tolerance, a word that is extremely popular today,...

Psalm 140:7 Shield my head in the day of battle I wonder if the Apostle Paul was thinking of this verse when he wrote about the armour of God and in particular, the helmet of salvation? (Ephesians 6:17.) When David wrote these words he could, have course, been referring literally to his head, the part of his body where his brain lived! He could also have been referring to his headship, in other words, when he went into battle the Lord God protected the head of Israel, He looked after the monarchy. Maybe what was in his mind was his thoughts and decision-making processes, the judgements that needed to be made in the heat of the moment, when danger was all around and, as we would say, the king needed a clear head.  After our journey through Psalm 139 it should be obvious that the Lord is able to be all of the above, we could simply say that when the battle rages God is with us, He is our protector, our inspiration, our guide, our deliverer and our salvation. Let’s transfer that infor...

Psalm 140:6 You are my God! It’s no coincidence that we are confronted here by David’s heart cry to God, something that the next few Psalms will replicate, for we all need to stop at times and ask, “Who is our God?” Most Christians would look indignant when asked this question and reply, “The God of the Bible of course. The God we worship in our church. The God of our ancestors. The God who created heaven and earth. The God of the Christian faith.”  And yes, our God is all of those things but is He truly God of you and me? Is He the One who we worship above everyone and everything? Is He the One we turn to in trouble? Is He the One we think of when we lay down to sleep and when we awake? Is He Lord of all that we possess or own? Is He God of our families, our relationships, our work and our play? Is He our God when we sit in front of the TV or scroll through Apps on our phones? Is He the God who made every tree and blade of grass that grows around us and every cloud in the sky...

Psalm 140:5 Traps and snares This verse puts us in the territory of poachers and gamekeepers, especially those who do not use guns. In ancient times there were no guns, prey had to be caught with bows and arrows which could be a tricky business. Therefore, the hunters became very proficient at setting traps and snares, using nets and cords. There are many skills involved, you must study the habits of the prey and work out the tracks that they regularly use.  You need to know at what level they travel, for instance a fox trap needs to be higher than say, a rabbit. It’s best to avoid ditches and water courses of any kind and you need to prepare nets and cords that will hold the prey once it has been caught. The methods and equipment vary from animal to animal, and a successful “trapper” has to be able to outwit the animal he is hunting. All the above demonstrates that guile, deceit, experience and an amount of satisfaction in catching and killing prey, has to be part of the qual...

Psalm 140:4 There's always a battle This is a personal plea for the Lord’s protection, and like David, we need to pray for our own security before we can pray for the safety and defence of our families, friends, churches, even our nation. In David’s world the threat was physical and tangible, his enemies at the time he prayed really did want to physically hurt him, and they devised all sorts of devious plans to cause harm to him and to his reputation. If we read his life story in the books of Samuel, we will see that David faced enemies and persecution almost every day of his life. There’s no doubt that true disciples of Jesus Christ suffer for their faith. It is not a popular thing to be a Christian and to wear that badge of honour with pride. We will always be misunderstood, treated with contempt by some and mistrust by others. Our faith will seem to them to be a pointless fantasy, based on scientifically and historically proven fables. They may like us, but they treat our belief...

Psalm 140:3 All about  snakes! The serpent is not a popular animal in the Bible. It usually spells trouble, and it all begins, of course, with the serpent who appeared to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the UK, the only poisonous serpent is the Adder, and few people have ever encountered one of these simply because they are extremely timorous creatures. David was, of course, writing this Psalm in Israel, a country that has over 40 species of snakes, 9 of which are venomous! These include vipers and cobras but most of the snakes to be avoided live in the southern deserts. There are two poisonous vipers to be found in the north named, maybe appropriately, as the Palestine and the Lebanon vipers. (The former is the national snake of Israel.)  There are very few people who really like snakes and even fewer who would go out of their way to handle them! All snakes have forked tongues which allow the animal to collect chemical particles to interpret scents, their tongues are s...

Psalm 140:2 Devisers of evil There is a certain kind of person who continuously plots evil. Psalm 36:4 says, “ Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong.”  Proverbs 6:12-14 talks about “ A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks maliciously with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deceit in his heart – he always stirs up conflict.”  Isaiah broadens the picture by describing corrupt institutions and even nations where, “ No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.”  Isaiah 59:4. The problem is that we live in so-called times of cultural tolerance where excuses are made for those who are evil, and are brainwashed into believing it is not fair and right to point the finger. Devious practices are accepted in all areas of ...

Psalm 140:1 Protect me from the violent Oh dear, at first sight this Psalm is the absolute antithesis of those beautiful songs of joy that we have studied over many months. There is not much to celebrate here, no popular verses to commit to memory. However, the truth is that none of our lives are permanently lived on the mountain tops where we sing songs of joy all day long. The reality is that most of us struggle through the valleys of life, and the heady mountain top moments are a welcome relief from either the ordinariness of our days or the constant battles that we are engaged in. The toughest times are when the battles involve family, friends, colleagues and contemporaries who are utterly opposed to who we are, what we believe and who we believe in. These conflicts can bring us down, not least because they are often orchestrated by the Satan who launches relentless attacks on our minds, our integrity and on our faith. David knew the human cost of all of this, and he writes on beha...

Psalm 139:24 Know me and all my faults “See if there is any offensive way in me.”  The Satan has been very clever over the centuries, he knows that sin produces shame, and shame leads to a cover up. We only have to go back to the Garden of Eden to discover this. After Aam and Eve had sinned we read,  “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and the woman heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”  Genesis 3:7-8. Do you see what sin and guilt do? They bring shame and we cover it up from one another and then we are driven to hide away from God. David’s Psalm is the antidote to all of this, instead of hiding he urges us to reveal ourselves, to be open with God and to permit Him to have full access to all our secrets, after all the Psalm has shown that...

Psalm 139:23 Search me, God We are coming to the climax of this extraordinary Psalm, we’ve been walking with King David as he investigates the full knowledge that the Lord God has of each of us and frankly, it’s a bit scary! As we have seen, He knows us better than we know ourselves, He reads us like a book, He even knows what’s in the next paragraph before we get to it! There’s no escaping the scrutiny of our God and so, with David, we must now dare to ask Him to search our hearts. It’s all very well having a rant against the enemy but what if we too are acting in opposition to the Lord?  Dare we ask the Lord to, “Search me, O God, go deep, look at my motives and my selfish heart. Take note of my empty promises and misguided intentions. Seek out and expose the real truth behind what I say and do. Uncover my secret thoughts and my purposes. Show me who I really am and what has made me this way. Uncover the deepest parts of my heart and mind and show me all that I am and have done t...

Psalm 139:22 God's enemies are my enemies This is the last throw of the dice in David’s indictment of God’s enemies, and it is no less condemning than what has already been said. There is a point to this that we have not considered, and it has to do with taking sides.  It’s always a joy to travel to new destinations and to seek out a congregation of believers amongst whom we immediately feel at home. We’ve never met these people before, but it feels like we’ve always known them! Many years ago, I was a travelling preacher and regularly visited churches and chapels that were previously unknown to me. The welcome offered and the reality of fellowship turned these into special occasions, especially when I was invited back! The point is that God’s friends are our friends, His children are our brothers and sisters, we are family. If that is true, then the opposite is also true; believers in Jesus Christ have no place amongst the idolaters, the liars, the blasphemers or any who openly re...

Psalm 139:21 Hating God's enemies Remember what we said in v19? It’s right that we should seek to be at peace with all men and we should make efforts to put things right with our personal enemies. Family members, ex-friends, work colleagues, church members – all of these can annoy us just as we annoy them, we can even feel hatred towards them and if this happens, we need to take a hard look at ourselves and repent and then seek to repair the relationship.  It’s another matter when people we meet or know exhibit genuine hatred towards God. There are whole countries, cultures and religions who have turned away from the one, true God and who worship material gods or pagan, false deities. It is very hard for us to have hearts of love for such people, and I can only applaud those who go out of their way to show compassion and mercy to God-haters. In truth, rebellion against our God is all around us today and there are so many traits and trends in our own society that take pride in abusi...

Psalm 139:20 Do not abuse His Name In Romans 5:10 Paul writes,  “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!”  In Colossians 1:21 the apostle says,  “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.”  These passages teach us that we were all alienated by our sin and rebellion, we opposed God and rejected His love and sovereignty over our lives. We were in a very treacherous place for we disregarded the One who created us and gave us the rights and ability to enjoy a life on His earth. Only the gospel could change this and thank God, He opened our eyes and brought us into His family as sons and daughters. Wow! The verse from Colossians above tells us that evil behaviour is what cuts us off from God and makes us His enemies. Included in that is the way we speak about Him and David highlights this fail...

Psalm 139:16 The heavenly Register As we have seen, nothing is hidden from the Lord our God. Forget about pre-natal, ultrasound scans, another set of eyes was watching us from the moment of conception. God knew us long before even our mothers were aware that we had been conceived! Isn’t it lovely to think of those eyes watching with pleasure as another life begins its short journey through time, and in each case, the Lord already has a plan and a purpose for this new life that He has granted. Perhaps there is a Register somewhere in which each arrival, and departure, is recorded? You see, God does not only monitor our birth into the world, but He also designates the time and date we will leave the world. There is extraordinary comfort in knowing that all of this is pre-planned, nothing is left to chance. Equally, we humans need to remember that we don’t really have a say in it, God knows exactly when we will leave this planet, and He also knows in what state we will leave it. Whether i...

Psalm 139:15 Made in the secret place Think about it, the womb is a solitary place and most definitely “secret” for no one can enter or share this confined space with those who are conceived within it! The womb is dark, damp and separated from all that is visible and tangible. What a bewildering moment it is when a new life emerges into light and colour and a symphony of sounds. We all did it! Has it ever occurred to us that there was one Being who did observe those first 9 months of maturity, whose eyes saw the frame that was being created? The Lord God observed our development from the moment of conception, and it is He who oversees the creation of every life until a tiny human form breaks out into the world for the first time. What a glorious, mysterious and miraculous moment it is when all senses kick in! Here in the Psalm the womb is described as  “the depths of the earth.”  Usually, in Bible texts this phrase refers to the realm of the dead, a place that is dark, damp an...

Psalm 139:14 Fearfully and wonderfully made We could be forgiven for wondering if David was looking in the mirror when he wrote these words! Indeed, he was, but not at his own reflection, what he saw was the handiwork of God, everything that was visible was designed and created by the Lord and it made David tremble with fear and wonder. The world spends much of its time looking in mirrors and flattering itself, a mirror can be the biggest aid to our egos or maybe the most damaging. What if we could all stop looking at ourselves and instead see the stamp of our Maker, the mark of His genius, the ultimate reflection of His careful planning and creative energies! What do we see when we look at ourselves, a beautiful reflection or a repugnant image? The true view is neither of these, we are made in God’s image and everyone of us is the product of careful and intricate design, we are exactly as He meant us to be. In truth, none of us is able to fully comprehend the wonder and complexity of ...

Psalm 139:13 God knows everything about us The scene changes and God’s knowledge of us becomes even more bewildering! This verse reminds us that we were not simply the products of a moment of passion or the fulfilled desire of parents to have a family. No, we are part of God’s creation, it was His plan for us to be born and to have a life in this world. Notice that it is our “ innermost beings ” that He has a particular interest in. The Hebrew word here is literally “kidneys” for in ancient thought, these organs (along with the heart) were the centre of our emotions and moral character. Thus, when God searches us (v1, 23), He scrutinises our innermost organs or perhaps more accurately, He examines our deepest motives and consciences.  It is a sobering to realise that it is not just our words and actions that God knows and evaluates, it’s not just our thoughts that He scrutinises, He also has access to our motives and our conscience so that He is able to determine what lies behind t...

Psalm 139:11-12 Darkness cannot hide us It’s not possible to separate these two verses; they continue the theme of the first half of this Psalm as David explores all the possibilities for anyone who is trying to avoid the Lord God! Remember, that we began our journey through Psalm 139 by suggesting that it is an invitation for the Lord to know us intimately, to search us and expose everything about us. There’s not much left, so far we have seen that God is everywhere and in everything, in fact His knowledge of us all far surpasses what it is possible to know about ourselves!  There’s one more possibility, maybe God isn’t so good in the dark, maybe He is unable to see what goes on when the sun sets or when we hide in the shadows. Let’s face it, all humans break His laws and rules, many do it with total indifference, but others seek to cover up their actions and the best time to get away with things is when it is dark. But the Lord is even better than the CCTV cameras that are everyw...

Psalm 139:9-10 His right hand holds me tight David is still pondering the possibility that there might be some way of avoiding the searching eyes of the Lord God. But no, he cannot think of anywhere where this might be possible. In Israel the sun rises in the east, perhaps there was some location on the far eastern horizon where God did not dwell! The sea would of course be the Mediterranean, to get to the far side would mean that David would have to travel west; perhaps there was a place far beyond the western boundaries of the Great Sea where God could not be found? “Actually” says David, “It can’t be done, wherever we go on the earth, God can be found.” Consequently, there is no place where the hand of the Lord cannot guide us, there is nowhere on earth or in heaven that is beyond the reach of His mighty right hand. Some folk might find that intimidating, but for those of us who love Him and worship Him, the thought that God is omnipresent is extremely comforting.  Many children...

Psalm 139:8 God os omnipresent Ancient beliefs about worlds and kingdoms beyond our own were many and various. Every culture had its gods and its belief systems about where those gods lived and how they exerted their power over the earth. The true God had promised Himself exclusively to Israel and the other nations were overseen by lesser gods, all of them identified through sacred places, temples and shrines, through idols and sacred objects. In fact, the idea of there being no God did not sit well with anyone in western cultures until the “so-called” Age of Enlightenment in 16 th  century. What all religion had in common was this idea that the “gods” were greater than humans and that they therefore occupied and controlled worlds beyond the earth.  The one, true God does indeed dwell in a kingdom that far surpasses the constraints of this world, He reigns over the heavens and the earth, over a tangible world and also over the spiritual realms that exists within it, around it ...

Psalm 139:7 The presence of God's Holy Spirit We are all aware of the dramatic arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as recorded in the early chapters of the Book of Acts. This was a new experience for the apostles and other disciples, but one that Jesus had prepared them for. The coming of the Spirit of God, poured out from heaven, brought power, boldness, gifts and a sense of the presence of the Lord that these early believers had not expected, and it turned their lives upside down - or the right way up! As members of the body of Christ we all have access to this same Spirit and are eligible for His empowering, if we are willing to submit to Him. Many students of the Bible fail to notice that the Holy Spirit is spoken of frequently in the Old Testament.  God brought about creation through His Spirit and His Word. He equipped His servants for their appointed tasks by His Spirit. The Spirit of God inspired the prophets and directed their ministries and David himself had ear...