Read Psalm
7-9 & Acts
17:1-15
To discover:
As you read note how God’s kingly
nature is displayed.
To ponder:
Again, David is seeking refuge, but
from a particular enemy (“Cush,”
see title), who may be leading others. His cry is for deliverance before they
destroy him (7v1-2). Yet key in David’s prayer is his ability to call on God as
a witness to his innocence. So he can pray that “if” he has done evil or robbed
his foe, then God can let his enemy take his life (7v3-5). But knowing his
innocence he then prays for God to rise in anger and justice against his
enemies. 7v7 suggests David sees this as a component of God’s wider justice of
all peoples (perhaps at the final judgement). In the light of that he calls God
to judge him according to his righteousness (ie. the fact that he is upright),
and more broadly to end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous (ie.
faithful Israelites) secure. And he can declare that God is his shield
specifically because of his wider commitment to save the “upright in heart” –
distinguishing those who genuinely love God, from those who are just outwardly
moral. David is adamant that as a “righteous judge” God daily expresses his wrath
with deadly weapons, and this is seen by the fact that the wicked end up
harming themselves. And we do see this: many end up disillusioned or depressed,
some find their schemes backfire, and others end up the victims of violence
(7v14-16). So David can thank and praise God for his righteousness, here
meaning his commitment to doing right with respect to justice.
Although
perfect justice will come at Christ’s return, the Psalm suggests we can appeal
to God’s justice when we plead with him for ourselves or others. Moreover, we
should see the fall of tyrants or criminals as a working out of that justice in
the present as a forestaste of God’s ultimate justice to come. So whatever
God’s purposes in permitting evil to some degree now, he doesn’t just allow it.
He often judges it.
Psalm
8 famously portrays the “majesty” (ie. kingly splendour) of the LORD in terms
of the cosmos (“heavens” here refers simply to the sky). There God displays his
“glory” (ie. the display of his excellence), so that, as we saw in Job, the
majesty of who he is (his “name”), is known throughout the earth (8v1). The
praise from the lips of children may therefore refer to their instinctive awe
at the immensity of the universe (meaning the sky) as it points to God. It is
unclear how this silences the foe and avenger – perhaps by rendering them
without excuse for ignoring the reality of God when even simple children
recognise it (see Rom 1v18-20).
In
the light of God’s cosmic work, David marvels that God condescends to think
about and even care for human beings. Indeed, as in Genesis 1-2 man is a little
lower than angels, but a kingly vice-regent to God, “crowned” with glory and
honour – ie. something of God’s own excellence in imaging him. In our fallen
state, we see this fully displayed only in Christ, whilst we wait to experience
it fully ourselves in the creation to come (Heb 2v5-9). The point seems to be
that as humanity are made by God to rule over the entire creation, his glory is
displayed both in the wonders of the universe above and in the role of human
beings below. As we ponder both, we should gain an appreciation of just how
magnificent a king God is, and join David’s praise.
Psalm
9 is a commitment to God, to tell of his wonders by praising him with joy
(9v1). No doubt David means that as he sings, those who hear, hear of what God
has done. This is a key component to praise in the church (Eph 5v19).
Strikingly, the works David will sing of are God’s acts of justice. First, he
has upheld David’s cause so that his enemies turn back. Second, God destroys
the wicked more broadly too. Here David is probably looking to the final
judgement. And so he declares God’s eternal reign in justice, and how we will
judge rightly and so be a place of safety for the oppressed who know, trust and
seek him (9v7-10). David therefore calls people to praise God and proclaim his
deeds to the nations, describing him as enthroned in Zion
in the sense that he dwells in a special way in Jerusalem.
In the light of God previously dealing with David’s enemies and his commitment
to aiding the needy, David goes on to call on him for deliverance from current
enemies who have brought him close to death. His motivation is a concern to
praise God with joy in Jerusalem
for saving him (9v13-14). David is so consumed with God’s honour, that it is
his priority even when at death’s door. It encourages us to be as concerned
with testifying to God’s acts in our life – supremely that of saving us from
sin, Satan and death through Christ.
David
ends again reflecting on how the acts of the wicked (this time the nations) act
like a boomerang, bringing themselves harm. Once more, this, is an act of God’s
justice (9v15-16). Affirming that although the nations that forget God will
suffer the grave, God will never forget the needy, he then prays for justice
against the nations, so that men will not “triumph” but know they “are but men”
(9v19-20). So the great need is for God to check and humble the wicked. We
might echo these sentiments in praying against oppression today.
Praying it home:
Praise God for his justice
expressed in the present and to be completed in the future. Pray that he would
thwart the plans of wicked nations and protect the needy.
Thinking
further:
None today.
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