Our promise-keeping God

Since we take our bearings in the present by recalling the past, distorted memories disorient us. Together with Psalms 104 and 106, this psalm helped set the Israelites’ record straight.

¹ Give YHWH praise—
call on his name
and tell everyone what he’s done!
² Sing to him
sing his praises.
Tell about all the miracles he’s performed.
³ Boast about his holy character.
Let every heart that seeks YHWH rejoice.
⁴ Search for YHWH and rest in his power—
seek his face always.
⁵ Recall God’s displays of power on our behalf
his wonders and the judgments he’s pronounced
⁶ you descendants of his servant Abraham
offspring of Jacob, his chosen one.

⁷ YHWH, he is our God
and everywhere on planet earth
whatever he says goes.
⁸ He’s mindful of his eternal covenant
the promise he made for a thousand generations
⁹ the covenant he made with Abraham
the promise he swore to Isaac
¹⁰ and then confirmed to Jacob
as an eternal covenant to Israel:
¹¹ “To you I give the land of Canaan
as your allotted inheritance.”
¹² He made that promise
when they were a paltry few
and aliens at that
¹³ wandering from land to land
and from one kingdom to the next.
¹⁴ But refusing to let anyone oppress them
God rebuked kings for their sake, saying:
¹⁵ “Don’t touch my anointed ones
or harm my prophets in any way.”
¹⁶ Eventually YHWH ordered a famine
cutting off their food supply in the land.
¹⁷ But first he sent a man ahead of them
Joseph, sold as a slave.
¹⁸ His feet were hurt with shackles
his neck bound by an iron collar.
¹⁹ YHWH’s word refined him
until Joseph’s word finally came true.
²⁰ Then Pharaoh ordered him released—
the ruler of many peoples set him free.
²¹ He put Joseph in charge of his household
responsible for all his possessions
²² with power to imprison the king’s officials
and teach his advisers true wisdom.
²³ Then Israel migrated to Egypt
Jacob and his family settled
as aliens in the land of Ham.
²⁴ YHWH made his people flourish there
till they became more powerful than their foes
²⁵ whose hearts he turned to hate his people
and double-cross his servants.
²⁶ Then he sent his servant Moses
along with Aaron, the man he chose
²⁷ to perform his miraculous signs among them
his wonders in the land of Ham.
²⁸ He made darkness blanket the land
for hadn’t they rebelled against God’s word?
²⁹ He turned Egypt’s rivers into blood
killing all their fish.
³⁰ Then the land was overrun with frogs—
even the king’s apartment!
³¹ YHWH spoke and swarms of insects came—
gnats everywhere in the land.
³² He sent them hail instead of rain
and fiery lightning bolts throughout the country
³³ wasting their grapevines and fig trees
shattering trees everywhere.
³⁴ He spoke and hordes of grasshoppers came—
ravenous locusts beyond counting
³⁵ consuming the land’s vegetation
devouring every last blade of grass.
³⁶ He killed all of Egypt’s firstborn sons
every Egyptian man’s proof of virility.
³⁷ He brought the Israelites out
loaded down with silver and gold
though no one in all their tribes stumbled.
³⁸ The Egyptians were glad to see them go—
so terrified had they become of the Israelites.
³⁹ God spread a cloud cover over his people
and lit the night sky up with a fire overhead.
⁴⁰ They asked for meat
and he served up quail
and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
⁴¹ He split open solid rock
making water gush out
and stream like a river across the desert.
⁴² He did this because he remembered
his holy word to Abraham his servant.
⁴³ He brought his people out with rejoicing
his chosen ones with songs of joy.
⁴⁴ Then he gave them the lands of other peoples
making them inherit
the fruit of other people’s labor.

⁴⁵ All this he did
so the Israelites would conform to his teachings
and obey his laws.
Praise YHWH!

Psalms 104-106 take readers from earth’s creation to Canaan’s conquest. Here we come to the land grant God, as earth’s creator/owner, made to Abraham—a grant Abraham’s descendants possessed only in the distant future. Taking Abraham’s family on a circuitous route, God brought them back centuries later, in time for his eviction of Canaan’s rebel tenants. Eternal though God’s promise was, it was also qualified: Israel would possess the land only if they trusted and obeyed him. This psalm omits that, however, and many other well-known details since its focus is on God’s grace and faithfulness. Psalm 106 gives us the other side of the equation: Israel’s frequently sorry response.

YHWH protected the nomadic patriarchs and matriarchs roaming the land. He gave the young Joseph, whose oversized dreams antagonized his jealous older brothers, a crash course in character. Joseph’s painful shackles made his early dreams seem like a sick joke till YHWH finally fulfilled his word. Joseph’s years of waiting—in slavery and then prison—were no needless detour. They were instead the shortest route God had of making Joseph into a statesman who could provide for the Israelites in a way Joseph couldn’t have imagined till his dreams finally came true.

Decades after God took his people to Egypt, they suffered oppression. Then he sent Moses to liberate them. God decimated the superpower with his plagues, set his people free, cared for them in the desert, and finally gave them the land he’d long ago promised them.

Focusing on the divine side of the equation throughout, the psalm ends with the point of all God’s faithful dealings with the Israelites: he gave them their own land so they could freely worship and lovingly obey him. He wanted a beachhead, one kingdom on earth where his will was done among the nations. And the Israelites’ obedience was always the result of God’s grace, never vice-versa.

Prayer:

Thank you, Jesus, that your grace always precedes your call to obey. You’ve chosen your Church, like Israel before it, to show the world what life under your loving rule looks like. I worship you, Lord. Help me to rest in your faithfulness till I think and live only as you want me to. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on these words:

All this he did
so the Israelites would obey his laws
and conform to his teachings.
Praise YHWH!

God of all creation

Far from being sequestered in some remote corner of the galaxy, God is more involved in his world than we are. So, worshipping him means cherishing and caring for creation just as he does.

¹ Worship YHWH, my soul within me.
How awesome you are
YHWH my God
robed in honor and majesty!
² You’re robed in incandescent light
you who stretched out the heavens
like a tent overhead.
³ He set the beams of his exalted home
on the primordial sky-sea
and made storm clouds his chariots
riding on the wings of the wind.
⁴ He appointed the winds as his messengers
lightning bolts his ambassadors.

⁵ He set the earth on such a firm foundation
that nothing can ever shake it.
⁶ You draped ocean over it like a robe
covering its mountains with water.
⁷ Then at your rebuke the waters fled
at the crash of your thunder the waters retreated
⁸ with mountains rising and valleys sinking
to the level you’d assigned for them.
⁹ You set a boundary the waters couldn’t cross
so they’d never cover the earth again.
¹⁰ You release springs that gush into streams
flowing out between the mountains
¹¹ enabling wildlife to drink their fill
wild donkeys to quench their thirst.
¹² Birds happily nest in the nearby trees
filling their branches with song.
¹³ From his heavenly home
he waters the mountains
making the earth abound
with the fruit he produces.

¹⁴ You make grass grow for livestock to eat
and plants for farmers to cultivate
producing their food from the earth:
¹⁵ wine bringing joy to people’s hearts
olive oil making their faces glow
bread giving them strength each day.
¹⁶ YHWH’s trees are well watered
the cedars he planted in Lebanon.
¹⁷ Birds make their nests there
storks in the tops of the fir trees.
¹⁸ The mountain heights are home to wild goats
and coneys shelter there among the crags.
¹⁹ He made the moon that marks the seasons
the sun that knows when to end each day.
²⁰ When you make it dark, night falls
letting all the animals in the wild prowl about.
²¹ When powerful lions roar for their prey
they’re seeking their food from God.
²² Then as the sun rises
they head back to their dens
to sleep the day away
²³ just as people head out
to the work that occupies them until dark.

²⁴ What diversity
you’ve imbued the created order with, YHWH!
What wisdom and ingenuity
is behind all the creatures
you’ve filled the earth with!
²⁵ There’s the ocean
deep and wide
teeming with all sorts of lifeforms
great and small.
²⁶ Ships ply its waters too
while the Leviathan deep dives there
the sea monster you created to frolic with.
²⁷ All the creatures you’ve made look to you
to give them their food when it’s time.
²⁸ They take whatever you give them:
you open your hand
and they eat their fill of nourishing food.
²⁹ But they panic when you turn away
and when you withhold their breath
they perish and return to dust.
³⁰ Then breathing your breath anew
you create new life
renewing everything on earth all over again.

³¹ May YHWH’s glory endure forever
and YHWH delight in all he’s made!
³² He just glances at the earth
and it trembles.
His hand grazes the mountains
and they smoke.
³³ I’ll sing to YHWH my whole life long
sing praise to my God till my dying breath.
³⁴ May all my thoughts please YHWH
as I delight in him.
³⁵ May those who rebel against God
be thoroughly displaced
till there’s no more wicked people
living carelessly anywhere on earth.
Worship YHWH, my soul within me.
Hallelujah!

Like Psalm 103, this psalm starts and ends with the psalmist’s self-summons to worship the incomparable YHWH. With her overarching message that everything God has made is good, she celebrates his active participation in creation.* In poetic, not scientific, language, she shows God harnessing the elements he’s made—floodwaters, clouds, wind, lightning, all forces the Canaanites claimed were at Baal’s command. YHWH does everything for good in a creation he’s filled with beauty and birdsong.

While the Israelites’ neighbors worshipped the sun and moon, the psalmist says YHWH appointed them just to mark days and seasons. God opens springs, plants sturdy cedars, and gives animals their food. He gives humankind wine’s enjoyment, olive oil’s healthful glow, and bread’s nourishment. God waters his trees, providing homes for birds. He feeds and rules over wildlife and humans alike, as each seeks their provision within the ecosystems he established. And far from being treacherous, the vast open sea is God’s backyard pool, and fearsome Leviathan his water toy! Everything points to God’s wisdom and delight in his creation.

Though it’s never to be worshipped, creation is God’s handiwork, given to us in sacred trust. So the psalmist wants to live wholly for her incomparable God, as if creation belongs to him personally—which it does. And she prays for the day when God renews the earth, making it a place where everyone exercises the same kind of care for his creation as he does.

Prayer:

I marvel at your creation’s brilliance, Jesus, and rejoice in its rich bounty. Help me to do my part to steward it wisely, knowing you’ve given it to us in trust. I worship you as I await the day when you renew the cosmos and your will is finally done perfectly here on earth. Amen.

In your free moments today, pray these words:

Worship YHWH, my soul within me.
How awesome you are, YHWH my God
robed in honor and majesty!

*I imagine the psalmist here as a woman of faith, like Miriam, Deborah, Hanna, or the Virgin Mary. (See further: Who wrote the psalms?)

God’s lavish love

In some Christian traditions, an angry, vindictive God is just waiting for us to mess up before he pulls the rug out from under us. David here offers the perfect antidote to such a parody of biblical truth.

A David psalm.

¹ Praise YHWH
my soul within me!
With every fiber of my being
praise his holy name!
² Praise YHWH
heart and soul
forgetting none of his good gifts.
³ He forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases.
⁴ He redeems your life from destruction
and crowns you with boundless love and mercy.
⁵ He lavishes such goodness on you
that your vigor is renewed like an eagle’s.

⁶ YHWH vindicates and gives justice
to all the oppressed.
⁷ He revealed his ways to Moses
his feats to ordinary Israelites.
⁸ YHWH is gracious and compassionate
slow to anger
and overflowing in unrelenting love.
⁹ He doesn’t hold onto his anger indefinitely
or accuse us endlessly.
¹⁰ He doesn’t punish us as our sins deserve
or pay us in full for our wrongdoing.
¹¹ Because as high as the heavens
are above the earth
so vast is his unrelenting love
for all who revere him.
¹² As far as east is from west
that’s how far he’s removed our sins from us.
¹³ As a father is merciful to his children
so YHWH is merciful
toward those who revere him.
¹⁴ For he knows full well what we’re made of—
he remembers we’re only dust.
¹⁵ Mere mortals
we’re like wild grass or field flowers
that burst into life and flourish.
¹⁶ Then when the first hot wind blows by
they disappear without leaving a trace.
¹⁷ But YHWH’s unrelenting love
for those who revere him
had no beginning
and it will never end.
He acts with redemptive justice
toward their children’s children and beyond
¹⁸ toward all who are loyal to his covenant
and keep his commandments.

¹⁹ With YHWH’s throne founded
in high heaven above
his rule extends over all.
²⁰ Praise YHWH
all you mighty angels who attend to his word
and carry out his commands!
²¹ Praise YHWH
all of heaven’s armies
you servants on alert to please him in every way!
²² Praise YHWH
all his creatures
throughout all his dominion!
Praise YHWH
my soul within me!

Well-known for its opening lines of self-talk, this psalm urges its songwriter/singer not to take any of YHWH’s mercies for granted or feel entitled. David gives many reasons to praise God:  he forgives, heals, redeems, restores, and renews. David sees God as holy, both just and merciful—vindicating and rescuing the oppressed. We’d be lost without either justice or mercy. And while we struggle to hold these qualities together in tension, God unites the two perfectly.

Some see God as angry and vindictive in the Old Testament, but David sets the record straight: God is just and punishes evil, but his anger is limited, while his love is endless. That was the key point YHWH made when he revealed his glory to Moses. YHWH said the essence of his majesty was his incomparable, unrelenting love (Ex. 33-34). He could easily have obliterated his rebellious people for worshipping the golden calf, but he redeemed and forgave them instead.

David picks up on that theme here, and he’s doubtless speaking from personal experience since God has lavished the same extravagant love on him, sinner that he is. After all the grace God had poured out on him, he had grown entitled and cavalierly stolen both the wife and the life of one of his most loyal soldiers. While David deserved destruction, God graciously forgave and restored him, causing David to warn himself here against taking any of God’s good gifts for granted.

Such redeeming love is cause for celebration on the scale we find in John’s Revelation, where all of heaven joins the redeemed from every corner of the world to worship the Lion who is the Lamb. David ends by urging himself once more to praise God, his praise now finding its place in creation’s great eternal chorus.

Prayer:

Jesus, thank you that you reign over all and are unfailingly merciful and just. Help me to see you truly—gracious, slow to anger, overflowing in lavish love. Empower me to live as you lived, pleasing your Father as only those who know him truly can. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on these words:

As high as the heavens
are above the earth
so vast is his unrelenting love
for all who revere him.

The time is now

What do we do when the bottom falls out of our lives? When God is the only one we can turn to, we find he’s the one we can count on as immutably true.

The prayer of a poor, overwhelmed soul, whose anguish is poured out to YHWH.

¹ Hear my prayer, YHWH
let my cry reach your ears!
² Don’t hide your face from me
when I’m in trouble!
Bend down and listen
answer me quickly when I cry to you!
³ For my days vanish like a puff of smoke
and my bones burn like an oven.
⁴ I’m beaten down and withered
like scorched grass.
Having lost all appetite for food
⁵ I’m nothing but skin and bones
shaken by my heavy groans.
⁶ I’m like a hoot owl in the desert
a screech owl haunting some desert ruin.
⁷ I lie awake
like a solitary bird on a rooftop.
⁸ All day long my foes mock and taunt me
turning my name into a curse.
⁹ I eat ashes for bread
and mix my drink with tears
¹⁰ because of your anger and indignation:
you’ve raised me up
only to throw me down.
¹¹ My days are like dusk’s lengthening shadows.
I wither like scorched grass.

¹² But you sit enthroned forever, YHWH
and your name will be remembered
for all time.
¹³ You will yet take pity on Zion
and act on her behalf.
In fact, the time to show her mercy has come—
the appointed time is now!
¹⁴ For your servants love her stones
and are moved to pity by her very dust.
¹⁵ The nations will revere YHWH’s name
and all of earth’s kings your glory.
¹⁶ For when YHWH rebuilds Zion
he’ll appear in his glory.
¹⁷ He’ll hear the prayers of the broken then
and not ignore the poor.

¹⁸ Write this down for the generations to come
so that a people not yet created
may praise YHWH:
¹⁹ “Looking down from his holy height
YHWH scanned earth from heaven
²⁰ to listen for the prisoners’ groaning
and set free those condemned to die.”
²¹ Write it so the name YHWH God has earned
will resound in Zion
and Jerusalem ring with his praise
²² when all the peoples come together
and the nations worship YHWH.

²³ He cut my life short
drained me of strength in mid-course.
²⁴ So I said:
“Don’t cart me off, God
when I’ve lived out only half my days
you who live on through all generations!”

²⁵ Eons ago you laid earth’s foundations
and stretched out the heavens by your hand.
²⁶ One day they’ll all waste away
but you endure forever!
They’ll wear out like a garment—
you’ll change them like worn-out clothes.
²⁷ But you never change
and your years never end.
²⁸ Your servants’ children will live securely
their descendants safe in your presence.

The psalmist’s rich imagery could mean that she’s facing the aftermath of exile or return from exile.* Whatever her situation, she feels her life is about to end when she’s just in the middle of her life. She’s lost and alone—like an isolated, reclusive bird—mistreated by others, abandoned by God.

Amidst such turmoil and anxiety, the psalmist anchors herself and her people in God. Next to our transience and fragility, he’s eternally, immutably merciful and compassionate. Some imagine God looking down from heaven to wreak vengeance on hapless sinners, but instead he listens for the prisoners’ groans, to release those on death row. He cares about Zion’s brokenness, even as the psalmist does for the city’s broken-down walls and dusty streets.

The psalmist argues that God needs to restore her people now and not just for their sake, but because the nations are all looking on, and future generations will hear the story. When God’s glory is revealed, the nations and their kings will revere him, and earth’s many peoples celebrate his glory. We naturally trust the ground beneath our feet, the sky above. But they’re destined for replacement. God is the only one we can look to in times of chaos. He alone can keep his people safe through all generations.

Prayer:

Thank you, Jesus, that you didn’t just look down from heaven. You came down—came to release captives and care for the lost and broken, to reveal your glory as the gentle, humble one whose mercy and love triumph over evil. Make me as open to receive your grace as you are to give it. Amen.

In your free moments today, pray these words:

You will yet take pity on Zion
and act on her behalf.
In fact, the time to show her mercy has come—
the appointed time is now!

*I imagine the psalmist here as a woman of faith, like Miriam, Deborah, Hanna, or the Virgin Mary (see further: Who wrote the psalms?).