Find rest today

It’s easy to worship God outwardly while inwardly doubting his goodness. This psalm reminds us that God wants our worship to express our heart’s devotion.

¹ Come, sing for joy to YHWH!
Let’s shout our praise to the rock who saves us!
² enter his presence with songs of thanksgiving
and raise the roof with psalms of praise.
³ Because YHWH is a great God
a great king—far above every other god.
⁴ Earth’s deepest depths belong to him
its highest heights are his to command.
⁵ The sea is his since he made it
dry land also, sculpted by his own hands.
⁶ Come, bow down and worship
let’s kneel before YHWH, our creator.
⁷ He is our God
and we’re the flock he shepherds
the sheep of his pasture.

If only you’d hear his voice today:
⁸ “Don’t harden your hearts
as you did at Provocation Point
in the day of testing in the wilderness
⁹ when your ancestors put me to the test
and tried me, even though they’d witnessed
everything I’d done for them.
¹⁰ Forty long years
was I grieved by that generation, declaring,
‘They’re a people whose hearts continually stray!
They haven’t learned a single thing about my ways!’
¹¹ That’s why I angrily swore this solemn oath:
‘They’ll never enter into my rest!’”

Churches often use this psalm as a call to worship—minus the second half, with its sober ending. Yet from God’s perspective, the two halves belong together. The psalm begins with rousing calls to worship God as our creator, redeemer and shepherd-king. Its images of water and dry land bring together God’s creation of the earth and of Israel—in the Exodus. God’s having the whole world in his hands was vital to his redemption of Israel, as he used water and other natural forces to defeat Egypt’s gods, Pharaoh included.

But the Exodus revealed not just God’s shepherd heart, but also the Israelites’ wayward hearts. The psalmist recounts how unresponsive the Israelites were in the wilderness, refusing to listen to God or believe he had their best interests at heart. In their big test, they clearly needed water to drink, but their fear turned God into a monster who had dragged them out into the wild to destroy them (Ex. 17:1-7). Though they had just witnessed his power and amazing grace displayed in their dramatic rescue, they gave in to fear and felt sure they were better off trusting themselves than him.

Lamenting his people’s refusal to believe in his goodness and power—even as Jesus did centuries later—YHWH said they hadn’t learned a single thing about his way of doing things or what he wanted of them, and he swore they’d never enter his promised rest. Thus, the psalm’s ending implicitly asks, Which will we be: sheep whose refusal to believe God leaves them restlessly wandering the wild or sheep who trust their gracious shepherd to lead them home? If we’re willing to trust him, then no matter what tests we’re facing, we can live in the psalm’s first half, praising God for his faithful care. But since God never forces himself on those who refuse to trust him, he had no choice but to leave the Israelites struggling on their own.

Prayer:

As my good shepherd, Jesus, you laid down your life for me, calling me to hear your voice and trust you. But how easily I doubt your goodness and demand you do things my way. Free me from thinking I can be in control. Help me believe your dreams for me are far bigger than mine. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on these words:

If only you’d hear his voice today:
“Don’t harden your hearts
as you did at Provocation Point
in the day of testing in the wilderness.”

Avenging God

God longs to bless his people. But what if their leaders, judges, and police are virulent thugs? God will assuredly take all such evildoers down. And in the meantime, he’ll stand by his own.

¹ YHWH, avenging God
blaze, avenging God!
² Rise up, earth’s final judge
and give the arrogant what they deserve.

³ How long will evildoers, YHWH
how long will evildoers party and prance?
⁴ All these wicked people spew out invective—
they bluster and brag to beat the band.
⁵ They crush your people, YHWH
they oppress your very own.
⁶ They kill widows and migrants
and murder the fatherless
⁷ assuring themselves,
“YHWH isn’t looking!
Jacob’s God hasn’t got a clue!”

⁸ Listen, you stupid fools!
When will you wise guys wise up?
⁹ Do you really think
the one who made our ears can’t hear
and who made our eyes can’t see?
¹⁰ Is the fount of all knowledge so dense?
And do you really think
the one who disciplines entire nations
isn’t up to rebuking you?
¹¹ YHWH knows what big plans
they have for themselves
and that every last one of them
will come to nothing.

¹² How blessed are those you discipline
instructing them in your word, YHWH.
¹³ You grant them rest during dark days
while a pit is being dug
to take down the wicked.
¹⁴ Because YHWH doesn’t forsake his people
he never abandons his own.
¹⁵ Judgment will once more be just
the longings of people of integrity fulfilled.

¹⁶ Who will side with me against evildoers
and defend me against the wicked?
¹⁷ If YHWH hadn’t helped me
I’d have suddenly been consigned
to the silence of the grave.
¹⁸ But the moment I cried out:
“My foot’s slipping!”
your unfailing love held me fast, YHWH.
¹⁹ When my anxiety mounted
your comfort brought me sweet relief.

²⁰ Can unjust leaders be your allies—
those who abuse the weak
under cover of law?
²¹ The wicked gang up on God-seekers
and condemn the innocent to death.
²² But YHWH is my fortress
and God is my rock of refuge.
²³ God will make their sins recoil on them—
their own evil crash down on their heads.
YHWH our God will utterly put an end to them.

What can God’s people do when the wicked gang up on them and God seems impotent or even indifferent? We must hold onto the need for his judgment of evil, knowing that God’s vengeance is never arbitrary: he always judges the predatory on behalf of the vulnerable. But vengeance isn’t ours to take, though God may well use human agents to enact his judgment.

Evildoers will be destroyed, their plans will backfire, though not fast enough for most of us. So the psalmist mocks the evildoers for their folly and, like the martyrs of the Apocalypse, she asks, “How long till you avenge, God?”

Justice will eventually come. But while we wait, what blessing is there for God-seekers, especially those with little chance of worldly success? Anyone who seeks God can experience him in all his transforming power. No matter how weak and poor we are, we can know the blessedness of God’s friendship: companionship, instruction, guidance, patient correction, protection, rest, and joy. God never abandons his own.

God freely transforms all who submit to him—transforms us into his likeness, giving us a dignity, strength, and wisdom, evildoers know nothing about. And no matter how dark the night, we can walk in the assurance that we’re on the winning side, that God’s just rule will yet triumph and transform our entire world.

Prayer:

Jesus, I lament the evils of all who abuse your poor under cover of law. Stand up and restore justice on behalf of the weak, I pray. May your will be done on earth as in heaven. Help me submit to you as you make me more just, compassionate, and humble—more like you. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on these words:

How blessed are those you discipline
instructing them in your Word, YHWH.

Sovereign majesty

Whenever chaos threatens, we struggle to believe God is in control and, even more, to live like he is. This psalm’s proclamation of God’s sovereignty is all the more vital because the world so vigorously denies it.

¹ YHWH reigns
robed in majesty.
YHWH has armed himself with power
having established the earth so firmly
that it can never be shaken.
² Your throne has stood strong
since the start of time—
you’ve reigned from all eternity.
³ The floodwaters raised, YHWH
the floodwaters raised their roaring voice
the floodwaters raised their crashing waves.
⁴ Mightier than the roar of their billows
mightier than the crash of their breakers
YHWH, who rules over all, is mighty!
⁵ Your decrees stand firm—
your house, YHWH
is characterized by holiness forever.

When chaos comes calling, we immediately wonder if anything we cling to—even God—will hold firm. When Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and most Israelite survivors were taken captive, God’s people suddenly lost their temple, capital city, Davidic throne, homeland, and freedom—most of what had defined them for as long as they could remember. Against that backdrop, this psalm assured them that, tragic though those events were, God’s throne wasn’t even jostled by them. His majesty and power remained untouched.

The creation story pictures God imposing order on earth’s chaotic floodwaters—think tsunamis,  mudslides, and tornadoes, all-in-one. The Canaanites and Babylonians each told stories about their high god’s having subdued earth’s primordial floods. Here the psalmist uses that familiar picture to proclaim that God has always reigned high above earth’s chaos and always will. He hasn’t changed, no matter how weak and vulnerable we feel or how hard it is for us to hear it.

So, the psalmist proclaims God’s reign, however much her circumstances appear to deny it: everything he decrees stands firm, being rooted in his eternal character.* He rules his people with justice since holiness perfectly characterizes his royal house and always will.

Prayer:

Jesus, you proclaimed God’s reign in a situation that made many reject your words. You still reign supreme, even though today’s encroaching chaos makes it equally hard to believe. Help me believe your goodness and mercy won’t fail us, that the wind and waves still know your name. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on this truth:

Mightier than the roar of the floodwaters’ billows
mightier than the crashing of their breakers
YHWH, who rules over all, is mighty!

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

Fresh oil

More than ever before, we now see self-reliance as a far better bet than trusting God—with all the guesswork we think that would require. This psalm says such thinking couldn’t be more wrong.

A sabbath song.

¹ It’s good to give thanks to YHWH
to sing praise to God Most High
² to proclaim your unfailing love at dawn
your faithfulness at night
³ with a ten-stringed lute
and the music of the lyre.
⁴ Because the things you’ve done
have made me glad, YHWH
I sing for joy
over what your hands have made.
⁵ How fantastic your feats, YHWH
how profound your plans!
⁶ Yet the senseless never understand—
the clueless never get it. 

⁷ Wicked people spring up like grass
and evildoers flourish briefly
but only to be utterly destroyed
⁸ while you, YHWH
reign supreme forever.
⁹ See your enemies, YHWH
see how your enemies perish.
See how all evildoers are decimated.

¹⁰ You will raise up my horn
like that of a wild bull.
You will anoint me with fresh oil.
¹¹ With my own eyes
will I see my foes’ debacle
and with my own ears
hear my evil attackers’ downfall.
¹² But God-seekers will thrive like palm trees
and grow as strong as the cedars of Lebanon.
¹³ Planted in YHWH’s house
they’ll flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ Vigorous and green
they’ll still bear fruit in old age
¹⁵ showing how righteous YHWH is.
He is my Rock
and there’s no fault in him.

Though similar in theme to Psalms 37 and 73, this psalm is the only one in the entire Psalter assigned to a specific day, Israel’s rest day. This suggests that it points to our need to listen to God, thank him for his mercy, and rest in him, in sharp contrast to the world’s urging us to rely on ourselves.

We so easily miss what God is doing, but his love and faithfulness carry us both day and night—good reasons for us to praise him continually. He hasn’t forgotten us, no matter how we feel. So, responding with praise and thanks isn’t just positive thinking. It’s connecting with reality.

Verse 8, the psalm’s focal point, says God reigns supreme over all.[1] It’s set between two mentions of evildoers, who flourish briefly before being totally destroyed, underscoring the fact that God really is in control, however much it may look otherwise.

The rest of the psalm gives us two images of power and two of flourishing and, between these pairs, two mentions of his enemies’ defeat. The images of power are of a bull or desert oryx’s raising its horns triumphantly and of the psalmist’s being anointed with fresh oil. Anointing for service was typically a once-in-a-lifetime event, but David was anointed king multiple times, as he gradually secured his kingdom—by God’s sovereign working, not his own machinations. David was first anointed to reign over his own tribe and then the entire nation in fulfillment of Samuel’s earlier prophetic anointing.

Unlike grass, which dies off as fast as it grows, God-seekers thrive like fruitful date palms and magnificent cedars. Planted in God’s inner garden, these trees remain fruitful even in old age. This assures us that God is someone we can always count on to do right by us.

Prayer:

As tempting as it is, Lord, trusting in myself alone is disastrous. The more I think I’m in control of my life, the more mistaken I am. Give me eyes to see all you’re doing and a heart to believe your ways are higher than mine and that I can count on you always to do right by me. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on this truth:

God-seekers will thrive like palm trees
and grow as strong as the cedars of Lebanon.
Planted in YHWH’s house
they’ll flourish in the courts of our God.

[1] On each side of verse 8, there are exactly fifty-two Hebrew words in seven lines of text. The poem’s contents on either side of the verse also evidence a quasi-chiastic structure, pointing, again, to its midpoint.