Total victory

Injustice and oppression fill our daily news feed. This psalm celebrates God’s resounding victory over evil, confident that he reigns supreme, no matter what else is happening.

An Asaph psalm.

¹ God is known in Judah
his name honored in Israel.
² He made his lair in the city of Salem
his den in Zion.
³ There he shattered the fiery arrows
swords, shields, and other weapons of war.
⁴ How resplendent you are—
more majestic than the everlasting mountains!
⁵ The brave heroes have all been plundered.
Having sunk into deep sleep
none of the champion fighters
could find their hands!
⁶ When you roared, God of Jacob
both horse and rider stopped dead.

⁷ You, you are awesome!
Who can stand against you
when you become angry?
⁸ You pronounced your judgment from heaven.
The earth fell silent with dread
⁹ when you rose to enact justice
and deliver all the oppressed of the earth.

¹⁰ Ultimately human rage only brings you praise
as you respond
with the very least of your anger.
¹¹ So make vows to YHWH, your God
and keep them.
Let all around him
bring tribute to the Awesome One
¹² who curbs the ambition of princes
and strikes terror in all of earth’s kings.

The psalmist celebrates God’s conquest, as warrior-king of Salem, the Jebusite fortress David made Israel’s capital city. Asaph’s use of “lair,” “den” and “roar” implicitly likens God to a lion whose majestic roar stops his enemies cold in their tracks—think Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia. God instantly puts them to sleep, the sleep of death. This renders them unable to “find their hands,” like we can’t find our limbs or voices in nightmares. It’s one thing if soldiers can’t find their weapons. It’s something else entirely if they can’t find their hands. Having disarmed his enemies and destroyed their weapons, YHWH is more majestic than the sun-gilt mountains.

The psalmist also pictures God pronouncing his sentence in heaven’s court and then enforcing it on earth, ending injustice and rescuing the oppressed. Zion is where heaven and earth come together as one, and Israel’s warrior-king is like no other since he utters universal judgments in favor of the downtrodden. He’s done tolerating arrogant human self-assertion and the violent oppression it spawns. Even responding with great restraint, he extinguishes human fury, as he did to Pharaoh in the Exodus, for example. Thus, instead of displaying his enemies’ power, their anger ultimately showcases God’s power, which brings him praise.

These images call for three responses: reverence since our king effortlessly shuts down earth’s rebels, humble devotion—making and keeping vows and faithfully giving him gifts—and praise for his restoring justice and peace on the earth.

Prayer:

Jesus, you revealed your majesty on Zion’s holy hill, disarming your foes, making an utter spectacle of them. But earth’s oppressed still cry out for justice. Help me believe you will yet renew all things. And help me live reverently, faithfully, generously. Amen.

During your free moments today, offer these words of praise:

How resplendent you are—
more majestic than the everlasting mountains!

At the time of my choosing

Seeing gross injustice—and sometimes just a minor injustice against us personally—we want God to judge it right away. Asaph says God alone decides the timing of his judgment.

An Asaph psalm.

¹ We thank you, O God.
We thank you that your name is near
and recount the wonderful things you do.

² “At the time of my choosing
I will judge with justice.
³ When the earth
and all its inhabitants careen
I’m the one who steadies its pillars.  Selah.
⁴ I say to the arrogant
‘Enough boasting!’
and to the wicked
‘Enough lifting your horn up high!
⁵ Do not lift your horn up
or speak defiantly against the Rock.’”

⁶ Blessing, honor, and power
come not from the east or the west
nor from the wilderness either.
⁷ God alone is judge
raising one up and making another fall.
⁸ YHWH holds a foaming cup in his hand
filled to the brim with mixed wine.
When God pours it out
earth’s evildoers drink it
right it down to its dregs.
⁹ As for me
I’ll proclaim this forever
making music to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰ “I will cut off all the horns of the wicked
but the horns of the just will be lifted up.”

The Psalms anthologist placed this psalm where they did as the divine response to Psalms 73 and 74’s wrestling—personally and corporately—with feeling abandoned to the arrogance of evildoers. The Temple may be gone, but God’s ability to answer his people’s prayers remains unchanged. All the grace and power his name stands for is fully accessible to his people wherever they are. And however bad things are, God is still sovereign, steadying the earth when catastrophe makes it careen and limiting the unbelievers’ evil and self-assertions.

The arrogant are warned not to assert their dominance like a horned animal that’s defeated a rival. Their continuing dominance in no way suggests that God won’t yet judge them because he alone decides when to ring down the curtain on evil. He’ll eventually make the Babylonians drink down his judgment, but only when he says it’s time. God’s people must wait on him, not order him to do what they want: they can’t equate their will with his. They may be tempted to look anywhere else for blessing, honor, and power—from one horizon to the other or for some windfall from the wilderness. Given how short the shelf life of this world’s blessing and honor is, they should look to God since true blessing and honor comes ultimately from him.

Asaph embraces these truths wholeheartedly, in word and song, convinced that God will yet take down all evildoers and raise up all who truly trust in him.

Prayer:

Hurt by others’ evil, Lord, I want justice now. In my pain, I sometimes want relief and honor now, no matter the source. But true blessing and honor come from you. Thank you that you’re holy, sovereign, and never late in judging or blessing. Help me look to you for all my needs. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on these words:

God alone is judge
raising one up and making another fall.

Turtledove

What do you do when God has in some way let evildoers ravage your life or your community? Do you say, “Any God who would let that happen couldn’t possibly love me”? Or do you cry out to God in faith?

An Asaph psalm.

¹ O God, why have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smoke
against the flock under your care?
² Remember the people you chose so long ago
the tribe you redeemed
for your very own—
Mount Zion, your earthly home.
³ Tour these everlasting ruins—
survey the utter devastation
the enemy has wreaked on your sanctuary.
⁴ Your foes roared triumphantly
inside your meeting place.
They set up their symbols as the true signs.
⁵ They hacked away
like someone taking down
a tangle of trees with axes—
⁶ smashed its intricate carvings
with pickax and maul.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire
and desecrated the house that bears your name
razing it to the ground.
⁸ Telling themselves
“We’ll totally crush them!”
they torched every single place
God had met us in our land.
⁹ We see no signs to guide us now
there are no prophets anymore
and no one knows how long this will last.
¹⁰ How long is the foe to scoff, God?
Will the enemy revile your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back—
your hands folded in your lap?

¹² You’ve been my king from ages past
performing acts of deliverance on earth.
¹³ You split the sea apart by your power
and crushed the heads of the sea serpent—
¹⁴ smashed the writhing heads of Leviathan
tossing him as food to the sharks.
¹⁵ You opened up springs and torrents
you dried up wild floodwaters.
¹⁶ Day and night are both yours—
you set both sun and moon in place.
¹⁷ You set the limits of everything on earth
both summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember, YHWH
how the enemy has scoffed at you.
A foolish people has reviled your name.
¹⁹ Don’t surrender the life of your turtledove
to the beast.
Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.
²⁰ Remember your covenant
because every dark corner of the land
is now haunted by violence!
²¹ Don’t let the oppressed retreat in shame.
Let the poor and downcast praise your name!
²² Stand up and defend your cause, God.
Remember how these fools insult you all day long!
²³ Don’t ignore the outbursts of your foes
the uproar these upstarts raise against you
without ever letting up.

Imagine the psalmist sitting in the smoking ruins of Solomon’s temple after Jerusalem’s fall to the Babylonians in 586 BC. The psalm’s central section seems to counter the Babylonian myth of the god Marduk’s defeat of the seven-headed sea goddess Tiamat, conflating Tiamat with Tannin, the sea monster in Egyptian mythology. It thus makes the imagery do double duty by also evoking God’s defeat of Egypt at the Red Sea, which led to Israel’s creation. Now it is Babylon that has enslaved God’s people.

Beyond being Israel’s pride and joy, the temple was the center of Israel’s communal life and relationship with God, the center of every Israelite’s universe. But while its destruction seemed to say God was forever done with them, his covenant encouraged Israel to believe he would restore his people even after their sin had led to their being punished and exiled.

So instead of turning away, the psalmist turns to God, asking how he could abandon his sheep to their enemies. He tells him to survey the ruins, describing the enemy’s degrading behavior and how they’d replaced Israel’s symbols with pagan symbols of power. He laments his people’s lostness—without prophets, signs, or any idea of when God might speak again.

Then from Jerusalem’s smoking ruins and with the Babylonians’ boasts ringing in their ears, the psalmist insists with theological chutzpah that God still reigns supreme. This may seem a wilful denial of reality. But the psalmist knows that, while God’s judgment has fallen, as his prophets had said it would, Babylon’s days usurping God’s place are numbered. The psalmist also knows God can still bring beauty out of Jerusalem’s ashes. So he pleads with him to remember his covenant, defend his cause, and end the enemy’s abuse of his name.

Prayer:

Surrounded by oppression, Jesus, where do I turn? You alone offer healing and hope. You alone have the words of eternal life. Don’t ignore the evildoers’ abuse and surrender your dove to the beast. Remember your covenant, sealed with your blood. Defend the honor of your name. Amen.

In your free moments today, pray these words:

Don’t surrender the life of your turtledove
to the beast.
Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.

On the good life

The power of arrogant evildoers raises hard questions for us today, as in ancient Israel. But behind those questions is an even more basic one: what does it mean to live the good life?

An Asaph psalm.

¹ How good God is to Israel
to those who are pure in heart!
² But as for me
my feet had almost stumbled—
I nearly lost my footing
³ envying the arrogant as I did
seeing how well-off evildoers are.

⁴ They live pain-free lives
their bodies healthy and strong.
⁵ Not struggling like the rest of us
not suffering like ordinary people
⁶ they wear pride like a necklace
and cover themselves with violence like a cloak.
⁷ So bloated are these tycoons
they have more than their hearts wish for.
⁸ They sneer and spout pure poison
and from their lofty position
they threaten to crush the little guy.
⁹ Making boasts that reach to high heaven
these bigmouths strut around
as if they own the earth.
¹⁰ So God’s people keep going back to them
drinking in every word they say.
¹¹ They say, “What does God care?
And what does the Most High know?”
¹² That’s what the wicked are like—
always amassing power and wealth
with never a care in the world.

¹³ I’ve clearly kept my heart pure
and my hands spotless for nothing
¹⁴ seeing that I’m beaten down all day long
and each new day begins another round!

¹⁵ But if I’d openly subscribed to that
I would have betrayed all your children.
¹⁶ Yet whenever I tried to make sense of things
it was way beyond me.

¹⁷ That is, till I entered God’s sanctuary
and saw where their path leads.

¹⁸ Truly, you put them on slippery ground
and make them fall to their doom.
¹⁹ How suddenly they’re ruined
utterly swept away by terrors!
²⁰ On rousing yourself, Lord
you’ll totally reject them
like one shakes off a nightmare on waking.

²¹ When I was devastated
I was emotionally wounded.
²² I became senseless and ignorant
a brute beast before you.

²³ Yet I’m always with you:
you hold onto my hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel
and will afterward receive me with honor.
²⁵ Who have I in heaven but you?
And there’s no one I desire on earth beside you.
²⁶ My body and spirit may fail me
but God is the source of my inner strength
my reward forever.

²⁷ Those far from you will certainly perish
you’ll destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
²⁸ But me?
The closer I am to God
the better life is.
I’ve made Sovereign YHWH my refuge
and will recount all you’ve done for me.

From the first psalm on, the Psalter claims that God-seekers are enviable, contradicting the nearly universal belief that self-seeking gets us ahead. This psalm straddles that fault line by recounting Asaph’s crisis of faith. Having envied the self-indulgent rich who arrogantly think the rules don’t apply to them, he almost agreed that pleasing God was a lost cause since it brought him only trouble, while self-seekers all seemed to live trouble-free lives.

Faith often raises hard questions. Under a just leader, evildoers are punished and the innocent thrive. So why does God let the egotistical rich get richer at the expense of the poor? Ready to trash his Torah faith, Asaph encounters God in the sanctuary and is kept from acting like a dumb animal and betraying his faith community.[1]

When Asaph begins that encounter, the wicked are secure while he’s on slippery ground. When he emerges from it, the wicked are on slippery ground while he’s secure. But dramatic as that shift is, it’s only his perspective that changes. His outward situation remains the same. Still, he sees that—for all their wealth, ease, and acclaim—the wicked don’t know peace. What truly makes life good is God’s presence, his shelter, his power enabling his people to please him, and the peace that comes with it.

Prayer:

Delighting in you, Lord, I look to you alone for blessing. Thank you for holding onto me when I’m tempted to seek wealth instead of you. Your hold on me matters more than mine on you. Help me live always in your presence, protection, power, and peace. Amen.

In your free moments today, pray these words:

Who have I in heaven but you?
And there’s no one I desire on earth beside you.

[1] The psalm’s chiasm underscores Asaph’s life-changing encounter with God:  A. Asaph in relation to God’s goodness and the self-seeker’s end (vv. 1-3), B. The self-seeker’s prosperity (vv. 4-12), C. Asaph’s regret (vv. 13-14), D. Asaph’s realization (vv. 15-16), E. ASAPH’S GOD-GIVEN EPHIPHANY (vv. 17), D. Asaph’s realization (vv. 18-20), C. Asaph’s regret (vv. 21-22), B. The God-seeker’s prosperity (vv. 23-26), A. Asaph in relation to God’s goodness and the self-seeker’s end (vv. 27-28).