Daily Meditations

Psalm 45:3 Gird Your Sword As I perused this verse, I immediately recalled images from modern Royal Weddings where the military men dress in uniform and have a sword at their side. No doubt a similar picture is being painted here; the bridegroom is attending his wedding, but he is still armed and ready for battle. This symbolism is meant to convey the idea of strength and might, of preparedness and vigilance, of courage and honour. Here is a hero from the battlefield, a man of war, a man to be looked up to and who will lead his army to victory. The theme continues,  “Clothe yourself with splendour and majesty”  cries the song writer, let everybody know that you are invincible, you are our conquering King. We cannot help but contrast this with the Lord Jesus while He was here on earth. His longest encounter with the enemy, at the beginning of His ministry, was alone in the desert. There were no spectators and no swords being brandished in that solitary place except, of course, ...

Psalm 45:2 A bridegroom unlike no other! A lot rides on appearances doesn’t it? If someone is excellent, they literally excel. One Bible version expresses the Psalmist’s description of the King as,  “You are fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into your lips.”   The King described here was obviously good looking to the point where He was almost godlike. 1 Samuel 9:2 exalts Saul as a king who was,  “as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else.” Of David, a servant of Saul said , “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.” Obviously, the status of a king in those days, was embellished if he looked the part! Strangely, this did not seem to apply to our King, Jesus, in His earthly guise. Isaiah speaks of Him as,  “Having no beauty, or majesty to attract us to Him, n...

Psalm 45:1 A Wedding Song! Oh joy! Oh joy! Oh joy! After the deep sighs and woes of a number of recent Psalms we come now to a feast of delights. It’s the Sons of Korah again, writing at their very best. These men whose whole lives were dedicated to music and celebration in the Temple Courts, have turned their creative attentions to a song suitable for the King’s Wedding Day. And what a song it is, I only wish we knew the tune, apparently it was called “Lilies” so we must imagine beautiful, pure, white blossoms and music to match. No Bridal March here, but instead, the gentle chords of the harp and strings, music that flows and fills with joy, not that the words are all other-worldly! The Psalm divides into two parts, in general verses 1-9 depict the King and verses 10-17 speak of his bride. It looks as if the bride, at this wedding, is a foreign princess (v10, 12) and much is made of her beauty and her fine wedding robes. The King is depicted as a mighty warrior who subdues his enemie...

Psalm 44:26 Because of Your unfailing love The first eight verses of this Psalm were full of praise and celebration as the writer(s) boasted in the victories of the Lord God. From verse 9-25 it has been a depressing read, full of woes, recriminations and worst of all, an outpouring of blame and reproach, aimed at the Lord God for His failure and forgetfulness towards His people. The accusations are probably foreign to most of us, how dare anyone say the kind of things that are recorded here? How can anyone speak to the Lord God Almighty in such a derogatory way? How can a song reflect such a sense of despair and attribute this to a forgetful, uncaring, and obviously, vengeful Deity, who visits shame and disaster on His people for no apparent reason?  There can only be two answers to those questions. Either the people who wrote the Psalm did not know God intimately and they had no personal relationship with Him, or their plight was so awful that they just did not care what they said...

Psalm 44:25 Brought down to the dust It is from dust that we are born!  “The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”  Genesis 2:7. When God made Adam there is every reason to believe that his existence on the newly formed earth would be timeless. But, as we all know, Adam and his wife sinned and so God passed judgement upon them. Listen to His words. “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”  Genesis 3:19. To be  “brought down to the dust”  is to return to the earth, in other words, to die or to be close to death.  The ancient church fathers invented Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of Lent, to remind us of our low estate and I think, in the Roman Catholic tradition, that ashes are handed to worshippers to remind them of this.  Let us rem...

Psalm 44:24 Why do You hide Your face? As we have seen before, to see the face of God was beyond the hope and expectation of ordinary men and women. Moses is the only man who experienced God, on Mount Sinai, and afterwards his face shone and had to be veiled. He was a mediator between God and man of a Covenant that still echoes down through the ages. Jesus is the only other mediator, and He initiated a new Covenant with God that has been the supreme divine contract with mankind for 2,000 years. Although they could never see God every inhabitant of Israel longed to know that God’s face shone upon them. The idea became a by-word for God’s blessing; if the Lord’s face shone upon them, things were going well in the land. If God hid His face, then trouble ensued, and the people were lost and in despair. I think we can guess how they felt at the time this Psalm was written. We’ve seen the outpourings of the Psalm writer and we know that there was a national emergency – God must, therefore, h...

Psalm 44:23 Awake, Lord! Anguished impatience v God’s inaction. Have you ever felt that way? I think we can reasonably argue that the Lord God does not doze off!  “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”  So it is written in Psalm 121:2-4. In fact, that is a good Psalm to read today for it reminds us all that the Lord is watching over us every second that we are alive, and He will watch over us forevermore. So, it’s pointless our getting impatient but oh how often does He keep us waiting!  It’s all about our view of time I suppose. We always have so much to do. We are always in a hurry. Our little world rotates around us and there are things to be done but when we ask the Lord for help or for guidance, He seems to be asleep! Or at least too busy with other matters to pay us attention. Please remember this, He ha...