Servant song

If we truly submit to God as Lord and Master, we can bring all our challenges—physical, mental, financial, interpersonal—to God, knowing that he cares and will meet us wherever we are.

A David psalm.

¹ Bend your ear and answer me, YHWH
poor and helpless as I am.
² Protect my life for I’m devoted to you:
you’re my God.
Rescue your servant who trusts in you.
³ Have mercy on me, Master
because I cry out to you all day long.
⁴ Fill your servant’s heart with joy, Lord
because I pour out my heart to you.
⁵ You’re so kind and forgiving, Master
rich in mercy to all who call on you.
⁶ Hear my prayer, YHWH
listen to my pleas for help.
⁷ When I’m in trouble I call on you
because you answer my prayers.

⁸ None of the gods is like you, Lord.
None has done anything
comparable to what you’ve done.
⁹ All the nations you’ve made
will come and bow before you, Master
and honor your name
¹⁰ because you’ve shown your greatness
by doing the impossible.
You alone are God!
¹¹ Teach me your ways, YHWH
that I may walk in your truth.
Make me wholehearted
in my reverence for your name.
¹² I will praise you with all my heart
and glorify your name forever
Lord my God.
¹³ Your unfailing love for me is profound
saving me from the worst possible death.

¹⁴ An insolent rabble is after me, God!
A gang of thugs is determined to kill me
and they have no regard for you.
¹⁵ But you, Lord
are a merciful and compassionate God
slow to get angry
overflowing in mercy and truth.
¹⁶ Have mercy on me
and strengthen your servant—
save your servant-girl’s son.
¹⁷ Give me a sign of your favor, YHWH
so all who hate me will see to their shame
that you’ve helped and comforted me.

Though he desperately needs God’s help, David waits until the poem’s final section to state his problem. God’s enemies are closing in on him. But as dangerous as his enemies are, David knows they won’t decide his fate. The two deciding factors are its two other players: David and God.

David focuses on YHWH, who is so great he blows all his rivals—whom St. Paul refers to as “evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world” (Eph. 6:12)—out of the water. While the gods of the nations are arrogant, demanding, petty, and short-fused, God is their opposite in every respect. They’re also impotent next to him who, as creation’s Lord, can do the impossible and will yet rule over the nations in glory. So God holds the title, undisputed.

David repeatedly emphasizes his being God’s servant, calling God “Lord” or “Master” seven times. Servanthood is at the core of his identity, and by definition, servants had no resources or power of their own in the ancient world. Instead, their masters were fully responsible to protect and provide for them.

This poem’s chiastic, or reverse-image, structure highlights its center point: God must teach David his way and give him a heart that longs to walk in it. Only then can he live with integrity, single-mindedly revering and obeying God.[1] This is the linchpin binding Master and servant together. It isn’t enough that everything looks good on the outside. David’s heart must be fully yielded to his Master as well.

Prayer:

Lord, deliver me from thinking I’m fine so long as I keep up appearances. Make me single-minded, never asking you to share the throne of my heart with rival gods. Teach me to revere your name and walk with integrity so I can bring all my needs to you, knowing that you’ll answer my prayers. Amen

In your free moments today, pray this prayer:

Teach me your ways, YHWH
that I may walk in your truth.
Make me wholehearted
in my reverence for your name.

[1] The psalm is structured as follows:  A: Save your servant (1-2), B: Have mercy on me (3-4), C: You are rich in mercy (5), D: When in trouble, I call on you (6-7), E: All of earth’s peoples will glorify you (8-10), F: TEACH ME YOUR WAY AND GIVE ME A HEART TO WALK IN IT (11), E: I will glorify you for rescuing me from death (12-13), D: I’m in trouble now (14), C: You are rich in mercy (15), B: Have mercy on me (16a), A: Save your servant (16b-17).

When grace and truth embrace

What do you do when you’ve badly squandered God’s grace and feel unworthy of more? What else can you do other than cast yourself again on the God who graciously restores penitent sinners?

¹ YHWH, you once delighted in your land
restoring Jacob’s prosperity.
² You forgave your people’s iniquity
and pardoned all their sin.
³ You held back all your fury
and turned away from your burning anger.

⁴ Turn our lives around again, God our savior.
Let go of your anger against us.
⁵ Will you be outraged forever
and hold onto your wrath for all time?
⁶ Won’t you give us life again
so that your people can rejoice in you?
⁷ Show us your unfailing love, YHWH
grant us your saving help.

⁸ I’m listening to what YHWH our God says.
He promises well-being to his people—
to all who trust in him.
But let them not return to their folly.
⁹ Yes, he’s about to rescue those who revere him
so his glory may reside in our land.
¹⁰ Grace and truth embrace—
justice and peace kiss.
¹¹ Loyalty will spring up from the earth
and justice beam down from heaven above.
¹² YHWH himself will grant us the good life
and our land will yield its harvest.
¹³ Justice will march out before him
making a path for him to walk.

The psalmist seems to be writing after the Babylonian exile, when the Jews struggled to rebuild in a situation far harder than before it. Regardless, the psalm offers one ground alone for seeking restoration from God—that he graciously pardons and restores rebels, as the psalm’s opening verses recount. Indeed, his covenant promised Israel not only punishment for violators, but also restoration for penitents.

And God doesn’t just forgive and grant material blessing. He also promises to unite grace and truth, righteousness and well-being, among his people. We find it virtually impossible to hold grace and truth, mercy and justice, together as one. Some even think that whatever you gain of mercy you lose of justice. The Bible rejects that thinking, but we can hold justice and mercy, grace and truth, together only to the degree that we’re one with the God in whom they are one.

So this union is God’s doing. As his people embrace his saving grace by faith, they know all-encompassing harmony and his glory makes its home in their land. This happens as God’s will is done on earth—human loyalty sprouts from the ground and divine justice smiles down from above. This redemption—yielding a prosperous, just, and harmonious land—is what his people are to seek as they await his coming.

Prayer:

Prone to wander and leave the God I love, Lord, I seek forgiveness and restoration. Keep me clinging to your grace, refusing to be drawn back into my foolish ways, till doing right means doing well, your grace and truth become one in me, and your glory fills my life. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on these words:

I’m listening to what YHWH our God says.
He promises well-being to his people—
to all who trust in him.
But let them not return to their folly.

Holy desire

Beauty and desire go together. Our marketers exploit this, telling us the more beauty we can snag the happier we’ll be. But what if our longing for God—beauty personified—trumped everything else?

A Korahite psalm.

¹ How lovely is your residence
YHWH, Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
² How I long, how I ache
for YHWH’s courts!
I cry out, body and soul
for the living God.
³ Even little birds have found a home
common sparrows a nest
to lay their young by your altars
YHWH, Lord of Heaven’s Armies
my God and my king.
⁴ How fortunate all those
who get to live in your house
and praise you all day long!

⁵ How blessed are those
who find their strength in you—
in whose hearts the road to Zion runs.
⁶ As they traverse the vale of tears
it becomes a place gushing with springs
and the early rains cover it with blessing.
⁷ The pilgrims grow stronger and stronger
with every ridge they climb
till at last the God of gods appears on Zion.

⁸ YHWH, God of Heaven’s Armies
hear my prayer.
Listen, God of Jacob!
⁹ Behold our shield, O God—
look down on the face of your anointed.
¹⁰ Better a single day in your courts
than a thousand anywhere else—
to sleep on the threshold of God’s house
than to live comfortably among the wicked.
¹¹ For YHWH our God is a sun and a shield.
He gives grace and glory.
Nothing good does he withhold
from those who walk with integrity.
¹² YHWH, Lord of Heaven’s Armies
how blessed are those who trust in you!

The psalmist speaks of pilgrimage in company with others, a pilgrimage crowned by the pilgrims’ meeting God in a sacred festival. Joyful songs fill God’s glorious temple-home and—like his angels above—the pilgrims are overcome by awe.

Most Israelites attended these life-giving events in Jerusalem annually at best. The psalmist pines for the temple’s beauty, which represents God’s transcendent loveliness. Seeing small birds nesting in the eaves of the temple court, she wishes she could live there too. Saint Augustine said the good believer’s whole life is “a holy longing,” a longing that transforms us.

God strengthens all who long for Zion and turns the journey’s vale of tears into a place of blessing. Though most of the journey is uphill, pilgrims are energized in anticipation of their goal, their physical and spiritual ascent being one.

The psalmist prays for blessing for Israel’s “shield,” their king, whose just rule makes her pilgrimage and all it represents possible. She’d rather spend one day in God’s presence than any number elsewhere, would rather find herself at the temple’s periphery than enjoy all the prosperity and perks of the self-serving. For the God who guides and protects us withholds nothing that’s for our good. And the good life is marked by the intimacy with God the psalm pictures.

Prayer:

God, you are perfect beauty, goodness, truth and joy—the very things I long for, though often apart from you. Still, my true home is where you are, the pilgrim path is in my heart. So, help me keep my eyes on you, walk with integrity and trust you for all the path ahead. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on this truth:

YHWH our God is a sun and a shield.
He gives grace and glory.
Nothing good does he withhold
from those who walk with integrity.

[1] Scholars suggest the Valley of Tears, of Baca, or of Balsams here, though none are known locations. But whatever our translation choice, the context suggests it was a difficult or dry part of the journey.

Seeking God’s salvation

Like ancient Israel, the Church today is up against great odds—attacked by the media, entertainment industry, and secular educators in a sex-saturated, materialistic society with no moral compass.

An Asaph psalm.

¹ God, don’t remain mute on me!
Don’t sit there voiceless—
don’t hold back, silent, God!
² See what an uproar your enemies are in
how those who hate you
rear their heads in revolt.
³ Making cunning plans against your people
conspiring against those you treasure
⁴ they say, “Come on!
Let’s obliterate them as a nation
until the very name of Israel is forgotten!”
⁵ With that one goal in mind
they’ve formed an alliance against you.
⁶ Edomites, Ishmaelites
Moabites, Hagrites
⁷ together with the people of Byblos
Ammon, Amalek, Philistia and Tyre.
⁸ Assyria has joined in too
as the powerhouse
behind Lot’s descendants.

⁹ Deal with them
as you did the Midianites—
Sisera and Jabin at the Wadi Kishon
¹⁰ destroyed at Endor
and left lying on the ground like dung.
¹¹ Treat their generals like Oreb and Zeeb
all their leaders like Zebah and Zalmunna
¹² who said, “Let’s take possession
of God’s pasturelands!”
¹³ My God, make them like tumbleweed
like stubble in the wind.
¹⁴ Like a wildfire devouring the forest
an inferno that sets mountains ablaze
¹⁵ pursue them with your hurricane
and terrify them with your tempest.
¹⁶ Cover their faces with shame
so they call on your name, YHWH.
¹⁷ May shame and panic be their constant lot
until they disband disgraced.
¹⁸ May they acknowledge that you alone
whose name is YHWH
reign supreme over all the earth.

The psalmist urges his silent God to speak and act against an international mob in uproar, God-haters engaged in a genocidal war against his people. The word “cunning” implies that these enemies are descendants of the serpent of old, in which case they’re asking to be crushed along with him. While the nations listed encircled Israel and often threatened its existence, this particular alliance matches nothing recorded anywhere else. The reference to Lot’s descendants—Moabites and Ammonites—makes the alliance more bitter since the Israelites had tried to honor these peoples, their relatives through Abraham, just as Abraham had honored his grasping nephew Lot. And Israel was not allowed to take land from the Edomites, Moabites, or Ammonites, suggesting that these nations’ attacks on the Israelites were unprovoked.

The psalm’s second half mentions events in which God gave the Israelites resounding victories over oppressive nations, despite Israel’s extreme vulnerability. The psalmist hyperbolically seeks a rout so complete that the vanquished army won’t even be able to bury their dead. Because like the enemies mentioned, this current alliance is treating God and his people with utter contempt.

Facing such an existential threat, the psalmist asks God to crush those hellbent on destroying Israel, to chase them so hard that they’re left panic-stricken and disgraced, their alliance destroyed. The surprising twist comes in the psalmist’s request not that these nations be obliterated, but rather that, acknowledging God’s supremacy, they seek the mercy he’s so well known for and serve him too. That is, that God’s judgment would bring the nations to know and serve him.

Prayer:

Lord, while we’re not fighting for our lives, we similarly find our faith attacked on every hand. Yet you reign supreme. Turn us back to you, O God our savior. And show your enemies that you’re sovereign over all so they humbly seek your grace. Amen.

In your free moments today, pray this prayer:

May the nations acknowledge that you alone
whose name is YHWH
reign supreme over all the earth.