Psalms

In this Psalm we see the Psalmist struggle with what he knows to be true and what sees with his eyes.  In the first 37 verses he gives us his theology.  It is a deep and profound belief in who the Lord is and Israel's place in the eyes of the Lord.  The Lord raised up David and made a covenant.  The Psalmist rejoices and sing praises for all these things.  Then, in what could be seen as a confusion, the Psalmist speaks of how God dealt with the disobedient Israel.  The throne is broken down, the crown cast to the ground.  The Psalmist feels bears the pain of the people.  Yet, in the end, the Psalmist doesn't change his view of God.  He doesn't accuse God of changing or try to explain it away any other way.  The eternal throne seems to have been thrown down.  The Psalmist grieves, yet says, blessed be the name of the Lord. 

Is there a sense of faith in the Psalmist?  Is there anticipation to see how God will work out this seeming contradiction?   Don't we live our lives in what appears to be a contradiction?  We live by faith, not by sight.  Our eyes tells us what is happening and our heart wants to follow.  But the Lord says, have faith.  The Lord says we don't have to worry, we can cast our cares on Him.  By all indication, in many cases by the worlds standard we should be wringing our hands with fear and trembling.  Yet, we live in peace with the joy of the Lord in our heart.  Even as Christians, as sojourners passing through a foreign land, we find contentment because of the Lord.

Think of a time in your life when your faith called for one reaction while the circumstances seemed to call for another.  How did you react?

A Contemplation of Ethan the Ezrahite.

Ethan was a Levitical singer.  He is mentioned in the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 6:42.

¹ I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever;
With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations.
² For I have said, "Mercy shall be built up forever;
Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens."

The Psalmist lays the foundations of his belief.  No matter what happens; no matter what apparent contradictions he faces, he declared he would sing forever.  This was the calling on Ethan's life.  It was to sing to the Lord and make known His faithfulness to every generations.  As we read his words, we can say, Ethan did quite well.

Mercy doesn't fade away or pass away.  The mercy of God is new every morning.  The faithfulness of the Lord will establish His kingdom in His way on His time.  Before Ethan states the apparent contradiction, he states his faith in the Lord to be faithful.

³ "I have made a covenant with My chosen,
I have sworn to My servant David:
⁴'Your seed I will establish forever,
And build up your throne to all generations.'" Selah
The Davidic covenant was established in 2 Samuel 7.  God said that Solomon would build him a house, and Solomon would rule from the throne.  In the covenant there was also a prophetic part of it when he said that throne would be established forever.  Christ will come and rule from that throne. 

David was God's servant.  He brought him out of the sheepfolds to make him a king.  And by that Davidic line, the messiah would come and rule forever.

⁵ And the heavens will praise Your wonders, O LORD;
Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints.
⁶ For who in the heavens can be compared to the LORD?
Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the LORD?
⁷ God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints,
And to be held in reverence by all those around Him.
God is to be viewed as faithful and constant.  He is unchanging.  If he said that the line of David would be the rightful heir to the throne then it could be trusted.  After all, if you can't believe God's word there is nothing worth believing.  Nothing and no one compares to Him.  Among the saints, God is to be exalted as the Most High.  He is to be feared and held in the highest place, regardless of the appearance of things.  The 'sons of the mighty' are the angels in heaven.  Certainly no angel comes close to comparing, even the fallen angel that wants to be like God.

⁸O LORD God of hosts,
Who is mighty like You, O LORD?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
⁹ You rule the raging of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.
¹⁰ You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one who is slain;
You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
The pagan nations had their many gods.  They saw these false gods as having limits in capability and geography.  But the Lord is mighty beyond any of these false gods.  His hand is not just far reaching, it has no limits.  The Lord rules the raging sea, he rules Egypt (Rahab), he rules all His enemies.

¹¹ The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.
¹² The north and the south, You have created them;
Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name.
Tabor and Hermon are mountains in Israel.  They join in the rejoicing of the name of God with all the heavens and all the earth.  The world and that is in it was founded by the hand of the Lord.  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10).

¹³ You have a mighty arm;

Strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand.
¹⁴ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;
Mercy and truth go before Your face.
¹⁵ Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!
They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance.
¹⁶ In Your name they rejoice all day long,
And in Your righteousness they are exalted.
¹⁷ For You are the glory of their strength,
And in Your favor our horn is exalted.
¹⁸ For our shield belongs to the LORD,
And our king to the Holy One of Israel.
By the hand of God, a godly king was established on enthroned as the king over God's people.  It is through him that the people are blessed.  Even though David was a fallen man like any other, through David the people saw the hand of the Lord.  They experienced the reach of the God's far reaching hand; they experienced righteousness and justice; they experienced mercy and truth.  David was a man after God's own heart.  This brought joy to the people.  David reflected the God he served and by him the people lived in the countenance of the Lord.  God was the power, blessing, honor, protection, provision and all else behind King David.

¹⁹ Then You spoke in a vision to Your holy one,
And said: "I have given help to one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
God spoke through the prophets, sometimes in visions.

²⁰I have found My servant David;
With My holy oil I have anointed him,
²¹ With whom My hand shall be established;
Also My arm shall strengthen him.
²² The enemy shall not outwit him,
Nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
²³ I will beat down his foes before his face,
And plague those who hate him.
God's favor was on David because he had humbled himself and sought after the Lord all his life.  God used him to lead the nation of Israel and defeat the enemies of Israel and God. 

Satan is a liar and deceiver.  He works constantly to outwit us.  That's all the more reason we need to be wise in the ways of the Lord.  Because of David's faithfulness and diligence in seeking the Lord, the son of wickedness didn't afflict him.  God fought David's battles.

²⁴ "But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him,
And in My name his horn shall be exalted.
²⁵ Also I will set his hand over the sea,
And his right hand over the rivers.
²⁶ He shall cry to Me, 'You are my Father,
My God, and the rock of my salvation.'
²⁷ Also I will make him My firstborn,
The highest of the kings of the earth.
²⁸ My mercy I will keep for him forever,
And My covenant shall stand firm with him.
²⁹ His seed also I will make to endure forever,
And his throne as the days of heaven.
God will set his king over all his inheritance.  This land is the covenant land promised to Israel, much of which was never claimed.  As David declares the Lord to be his heavenly Father, God will declare David as his firstborn.  The firstborn always maintained a special status.  David was declared by God to be the firstborn King and this high honor also granted that his descendant would also be king and endure forever.  We can quickly think this is a reference to Solomon but quickly realize this speaks of the Jesus.

³⁰ "If his sons forsake My law
And do not walk in My judgments,
³¹ If they break My statutes
And do not keep My commandments,
³² Then I will punish their transgression with the rod,
And their iniquity with stripes.

Breaking the laws of God required punishment.  The Psalmists was very aware of this.  He saw the punishment the nations suffered as if it were a stripes delivered by the rod.  In our eyes, we know that Jesus took the stripes we deserve.  It is by his stripes we are healed.

³³ Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him,
Nor allow My faithfulness to fail.
³⁴ My covenant I will not break,
Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.
³⁵ Once I have sworn by My holiness;
I will not lie to David:
³⁶ His seed shall endure forever,
And his throne as the sun before Me;
³⁷ It shall be established forever like the moon,
Even like the faithful witness in the sky." Selah
While God will punish the nation and just justly and rightly, his lovingkindness will never end.  His faithfulness to his promise wouldn't fail because of the people.  While the people broke this covenant, God would not.  This covenant didn't rely on the people, it relied on a faithful God.  God's word does not fail.  And the Psalmist says again that it will last forever. 

³⁸ But You have cast off and abhorred,
You have been furious with Your anointed.
³⁹ You have renounced the covenant of Your servant;
You have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
It appears to the Psalmist that God has cast off and abhorred the king and the nation.  It appears to him that God is furious with the one who was on the throne.  Ethan believed that God had renounced the covenant of David.  To cast the throne to the ground was to disrespect it and show it had no power. 

⁴⁰You have broken down all his hedges;
You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
⁴¹ All who pass by the way plunder him;
He is a reproach to his neighbors.
⁴² You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries;
You have made all his enemies rejoice.
⁴³ You have also turned back the edge of his sword,
And have not sustained him in the battle.
⁴⁴ You have made his glory cease,
And cast his throne down to the ground.
⁴⁵ The days of his youth You have shortened;
You have covered him with shame. Selah
Everything changed from the times of David.  Suddenly the enemies seem to be having their way with the nation of Israel.  Their walls are broke down, the strongholds destroyed and any nations that comes against them defeats them and plunders.  The king and Israel was not sustained by the Lord in battle.  This whole passage is a picture of the human condition without the Lord.  It is weak and pathetic, without hope or sustenance.  There is no life or vigor and shame is all they have to bear.

⁴⁶ How long, LORD?
Will You hide Yourself forever?
Will Your wrath burn like fire?
⁴⁷ Remember how short my time is;
For what futility have You created all the children of men?
⁴⁸ What man can live and not see death?
Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave? Selah
Time drags on when you are down and in pain or sorrow.  Ethan sees that his time is short, life is short, he wanted to see the Davidic covenant restored.  He wanted to see his nation returned to its former glory.  Ethan saw the futility of men.  Their nation was feeling the affects of sin.  Life without the lord was hard and their only hope was a restoration of the nations.  Man can't avoid death, he has no power over the grave.  When times are prosperous, men are sometimes fooled into thinking that death is a long way off, not worth thinking about.  "I'll worry about it later," we say.  Death can come at any time.  Only by the resurrection power of Jesus can we be delivered from the grave.

⁴⁹ Lord, where are Your former lovingkindnesses,
Which You swore to David in Your truth?

This is like saying, God we know your faithful, we know what you said.  When will it come about?  When will the Davidic throne be occupied again?

⁵⁰ Remember, Lord, the reproach of Your servants-
How I bear in my bosom the reproach of all the many peoples,
⁵¹ With which Your enemies have reproached, O LORD,
With which they have reproached the footsteps of Your anointed.

⁵² Blessed be the LORD forevermore!
Amen and Amen.

The Psalmist felt the reproach of the nation.  Ethan was suffering personally as were many other peoples because of the reproach their enemies brought on them.  Many have brought reproach against the footsteps of God's anointed.  Through unbelief and false teachers, many don't believe the Lord is coming back.  They scoff and mock but the Day of the Lord will come.  The King will once again sit on His throne and rule.  And it won't be like the good ole days, it will be beyond our wildest imaginations.  God will rule among men.