Psalm 86: The Reasons Why

As the proud daddy of a three year old, I’m getting used to the constant echo of “Why?” through the house.  My favorite “why” was after hearing a dozen questions in rapid fire.  I told Cara that she sure had a lot of questions, to which she asked, “Why do I have a lot of questions, Daddy?”

Big people have questions, too.  In Psalm 86 David answers at least three big, urgent questions: Why would God listen to our prayers?  Why can I confidently pray to God?  Why is there hope and comfort in the midst of trouble?  Read more at Life and Godliness:

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Psalm 74: How to Pray When God Pulls Back

One of the most precious truths the Bible has for us is that God does not forsake His people.  But if we have been in Christ for any significant length of time, we’ve almost certainly faced times where we felt alone, where all visible, detectable evidence said, “God has walked away; you’re on your own.”  Maybe you’re there right now.  Maybe you’ve been asking, “O God, why have You cast us off forever?” (Ps. 74:1).  Maybe you’re wondering how to pray to a God that doesn’t seem to be there anymore.  In Psalm 74, the Holy Spirit reminds us that others have been in the same hole before, and He teaches us what to do.

The Enemies’ Roar (v. 3-8)

The first thing to notice is that Asaph doesn’t try to comfort himself by saying things aren’t that bad.  He’s begging God to remember His people (v. 2) because the bad guys are destroying everything in sight.[1]  They have vandalized the temple (v. 3), disrupted worship with their shouting and their banners that remind the Israelites that they have been conquered (v. 4), and systematically attacked every reminder of the presence of God with His people (v. 5-8).

If someone were to come up to Asaph and remind him of one remaining sanctuary that the enemies somehow overlooked, would that have comforted him?  Too often Christians respond to (others’) trouble with something like, “It’s not so bad; it could have been worse.”  Worse still, sometimes we let ourselves fall into a game of one-upmanship: “You think you have it bad?  Why, I had the same procedure, but I had to have it twice!  So there.”  (We don’t say, “So there,” but it comes through loud and clear.)  Don’t minimize troubles, whether ours or others’.  Let’s start out by being honest with God about what is terrifying us.

God’s Silence (v. 9-17)

What hurts even more than the problem, though (in this life we can expect trouble), is the sense of abandonment.  As the onslaught hits, the people aren’t hearing from God, and there is no sense that He is about to rescue them.  Doesn’t God care that these bad guys are laughing at Him, as though He is powerless?  Why doesn’t God do something (v. 9-11)?  It’s not like He can’t help—from ancient times we have the record of God’s faithful rule.  He shattered the Egyptian superpower and tore apart the sea to rescue Israel, supernaturally fed them in the desert, and controls even the patterns of nature (v. 12-17).  This silence isn’t because God wants to help but can’t—it just doesn’t make sense!  Why would God pull back (v. 11) right when we need Him most?

The People’s Cry (v. 18-23)

As the people of God cry out for help, notice the big themes that give them (us) reason to pray when everything is dark:

• Those who attack God’s children are also attacking God (notice Jesus’ comments in Acts 9:4-5); His character guarantees that He will answer in due time (v. 18, 22-23).
• He loves us—we are His precious inheritance (Eph. 1:18), His turtledove.  We may well be poor, but we are His poor (v. 19).
• He has made a covenant with His people, and He always keeps His promises—a certainty made all the sweeter and more vital when darkness and cruelty seem to fill the earth (v. 20).
• Ours is the God who protects the weak, the oppressed, the helpless—if that’s where we are, He will come for us (v. 21).

God’s Delayed Answer

Psalm 74 leaves us waiting for an answer.  Unlike many of the psalms, where we get to see the psalmist give thanks for what God did in answer to earlier prayers, this psalm is set right where many of us are, waiting to see what God will do.  Yet it’s interesting how the next two psalms emphasize God’s mighty justice and His fearsome power to rescue.  They make the perfect complement to this anguished question, “Why don’t You do something?”[2]  God doesn’t always answer quickly, but He won’t stand back forever.  Keep praying—He is nearer than we think.

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

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[1] We aren’t told how all the psalms fit together, but I wonder if this reflecting on this kind of chaos and unbridled destruction, apparently left unchecked by God’s hand, led to Asaph’s despair in Psalm 73:4-14.

[2] Compare the confused despair, the sense of abandonment with no hint of relief in Psalm 44 with Psalm 45’s joyful assurance that the King is coming for His bride and the rock-solid Refuge of Psalm 46.

Psalm 69: O God, You Know

What do we do when we feel like we’re drowning, when we’ve cried so long and so hard that we’re exhausted, when there seems to be no end to the list of people who are out to get us?  David, a certified expert-by-reason-of-living-it on hurting, sorrow, wicked enemies, and interpreting life experience in light of who God is, shows us the way forward in Psalm 69.  As the Holy Spirit teaches him to pray, he tells God about the pain, prays for God to rescue him, prays for God to judge his enemies, and praises God even now for the way He will rescue His people.

 

David starts where we often start, with the pain (v. 1-12).  He’s about to drown, stuck in quicksand, straining his eyes watching for God to come to his aid, and yet the bad guys keep coming.  He hasn’t done anything to deserve enemies, but they still falsely accuse him, and people believe the lies (v. 4).  This kind of misery pushes David to reflect on himself, to take realistic stock of his life.  Often you and I will get out of balance at this point, either joining in with the enemies in beating ourselves up or getting defensive and seeing only how wonderful we are; instead, an accurate look will see both remaining sin and the good things that God is working in our lives.  So David says, “God, You know my foolishness, and my sins are not hidden from You,” and he asks that God’s people wouldn’t be thrown off track by the wrong he has done (v. 5-6)—you and I need to pray likewise.  And then David turns and says, “For Your sake I have borne reproach;” my family has deserted me and everyone who hates God hates me because I’m trying to follow God.  Is our life marked by such urgent, single-minded love for God that we’re paying a price for it?  Jesus says it’s coming if we follow Him (John 15:18-20).  In short, David tells God all about his situation—not because God missed out on what is happening (He already knows), but because He invites hurting people to come to Him and trust Him and talk to Him.

 

Then David begins praying in earnest.  He isn’t running to people to fix the problem, isn’t counting on the problem to solve itself; He’s running to the LORD, the covenant-keeping God of Israel, his merciful God, for help (v. 13).  As he prays, certain big ideas stand out: “deliver me” (v. 14), “hear me” (v. 16), “do not hide Your face” (v. 17), “draw near to my soul” (v. 18).  And, sweetest of all, “You know” (v. 19).  Even as he prays fervently and constantly for God to do something, David realizes that God knows his situation intimately; He knows how terrible things are.

 

And that brings David to the third part of his prayer.  When he sees the horrible injustice of what has been done to him, it isn’t enough for the attacks to stop.  Justice demands that the guilty be judged.  David, believing that when God says He is the one who will bring vengeance on the wicked (Deut. 32:35, Rom. 12:19), asks God to do exactly that (v. 22-28).  Rather than seeking his own revenge, David asks that God pour out all sorts of suffering and horror on his enemies—giving them a taste of their own medicine, repaying them for what they have done to people whom God loves.  And finally, David asks God to destroy them, not even allowing for repentance (v. 27-28).

 

Those of us living this side of the cross often squirm when we hear such a prayer.  Some have tried to explain this away as a barbaric, ungodly prayer—but that forgets that Scripture is written not only by men, but by men led by the Holy Spirit in a way that ensures these are also the words of God.  Others, especially those who have faced horrific abuse and mistreatment and seen no justice in this life, see carte blanche permission to hate their enemies.  That isn’t it, either.  As people who have been commanded to love our enemies, and as people who have heard Jesus pray for His enemies, “Father, forgive them,” we must do exactly that, praying that our enemies would find forgiveness in the cross of Jesus.  And elsewhere David, too, prays for his enemies (Ps. 35:13-14, for example).  At the same time, prayers for God’s judgment remind us that God has promised that He will judge unrepentant sin, including those sins done against us.  There will be justice, and it is not wrong to long for that day to come: “Come, Lord Jesus!”  We are taught to take heart, that even as we pray that these enemies would turn to Christ and find their sins judged at the cross, we know that if they refuse, nothing they have done will be overlooked.

 

Finally, David turns to praising God for coming rescue (v. 29-36).  He is poor and sorrowful, but salvation is coming.  Thanking God for His kindness and power is better than sacrifices, and He is worth praising, because He doesn’t ignore weak and helpless people (v. 32-33).  All of creation should praise this God, because He takes care of His people—He may not have done so completely yet, but He’s going to.

 

One last thought: did v. 20-21 sound familiar?  A thousand years after David, as Jesus was led out of Jerusalem to be judicially murdered for the crime of being God, He found no comfort, only attackers—slandered by religious people, beaten by soldiers of an oppressing regime, mocked even by criminals on death row, and finally abandoned even by His Father as God counted all of our sins against Christ.  When He was thirsty, all they offered Him was a bit of sour vinegar on a dirty sponge.  Jesus died with no help in sight.  But God raised Him from the dead on the third day; God’s salvation truly did set Him on high (v. 29; see also Ephesians 1:19-21).  When we pray to Jesus about undeserved trouble and vicious enemies, He knows—and He has promised to help us trust and obey as we wait for Him to come and bring justice.  He will come—He promised that, too.

 

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

Psalm 67: God Bless Us…God Shall Bless Us

The wonderful thing about praying the words of Scripture is that we can be sure that God will answer; He delights to respond to the prayers He has taught us to pray.  In Psalm 67 the psalmist starts out praying, “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us,” echoing the blessing God told the high priests to pray over Israel: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you” (Num. 6:24-25).  Through Moses God had told Aaron that when Aaron and his sons gave this blessing, “they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them” (v. 27), and in Psalm 67 the psalmist is asking God to do just that.

 

He doesn’t just pray for the sake of God’s people Israel, though.  The psalmist asks that God would bless His people so that God would be known throughout the earth, so that His salvation would spread “among all nations” (v. 2), so that all peoples would praise God and sing for joy (v. 3-4).  As others see how good and kind God is to His people, there is an invitation for people from every tribe and nation and tongue to join the people of God in worship of the only true God.  As the Bible’s revelation continues, we see this prayer begin to be answered, and especially in the New Testament as Jesus comes not only to Israel, but to gather both Jews and Gentiles into one body, breaking down enmity and bringing all of us into the sweet promises of God (see, among many places, Eph. 2:11-22).  Do other people in our lives see and hear from us how good God is?  Do they hear the invitation to share in the blessings of God through Jesus?

 

The psalmist doesn’t stop with this prayer that God would carry out what He has promised.  Because God always keeps His word, Psalm 67 ends by moving from a request to a statement about what has happened and will happen.  He again calls all nations to praise God (v. 5), because God has caused the earth to be fruitful (v. 6a), a mark that God has already begun blessing us.[1] That reminds us that we can be confident that “God, our own God, shall bless us.  God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him” (v. 6b-7).  God will keep His promise, and He encourages us to pray to Him in light of what He has said.  It isn’t that God needs reminded of what He has said—He didn’t forget—but such prayer reminds us and teaches us to confidently wait for God to do all He has said.  In the meantime, we look forward to seeing God bless His people, and through us to spread news of the promise of His salvation to the entire world.

 

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

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[1] Many translations have something like “the earth shall yield her increase,” but Derek Kidner notes that this is the only past tense verb in the psalm (Psalms 1-72, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009], 237), which is reflected in the ESV, “The earth has yielded its increase.”

Psalm 36: God Greater Than All Their—and Our—Sin

A world that does not fear God, a world full of people who simply do not care about their sin against God and others, is a scary place.  It always has been; a world in which “every intent of the thoughts of [people’s hearts] was only evil continually” is not a safe place to be, and that was the assessment since right after the Fall (Genesis 6:5).  Yet even as some roam about, priding themselves on their iniquity and their hatred (Ps. 36:2), turning from godly wisdom in favor of carefully plotted wickedness (v. 3-4), we need not fear.  Not only is grace greater than all our sin, as the hymn rightly celebrates, but God Himself is greater than the sins and sinners who threaten us.

His mercy towers beyond all that we can see or imagine, and His righteousness extends beyond all limits (v. 5-6).  Because He so faithfully keeps His promises, we can trust Him for safety and provision, and even blessings beyond need and far into sheer delight (v. 7-8).  He is the source of all life and light, the giver of all good and perfect gifts (v. 9; cf. James 1:17-18).  When danger looms, we can confidently run to this God, this covenant-keeping LORD, in prayer; the request that God would continue in His lovingkindness—the lovingkindness that already knows no end—is not a stretch.

When we read the psalms, we as Christians must always approach them both as those who pray and as those who sin.  We are no strangers to v. 1-4 in terms of knowing how others have fearlessly sinned against us, but apart from Christ (and in pockets of ongoing disobedience now) we also in terms of knowing what it is to love sin and chase after it, not caring what God thinks.  That’s why we of all people must know what it is to cry out to God for His mercy that comes only because Jesus never “ceased to be wise and to do good,” never “devised wickedness on his bed,” and yet took our death penalty for sin so that we could receive the kindness and love that only the perfectly Righteous One deserves.  That’s why we of all people must pray that He would increasingly change us so that we will be righteous as He is righteous, even as we rely on His righteousness instead of our own.  And as He answers that prayer, we will find that He is not only greater and more powerful than sinners who are against us, not only greater and more powerful than the sins that have held us captive, but also greater and more valuable and worthy than those sins that we once loved.

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

Psalm 31: Slowing Down Enough to Believe

In this prayer, David repeatedly bounces from speaking of his trust in the LORD to the urgency of his need, and back again.  This is the prayer of someone facing such dangers, hurts, and fears, that he can’t ignore them, and yet the prayer of someone confident that the LORD alone can and will rescue him.  He is the safest place for us to go when we don’t know what to do.

But there is another angle worth seeing in this psalm.  In v. 22 David says, “I said in my haste, ‘I am cut off from before Your eyes’; nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You.”  How often is that our first response when trouble hits?  “Lord, where are You?  Didn’t You see this coming?  Why did You let this happen?”  Yet the truth is, as it was for David, that God does hear us, does answer us, at exactly the right time, whether we see it as the right time or not.  This week, will we slow down long enough to believe that the LORD is faithful to His promises, to us, or will we run in circles as though we were left to shift for ourselves?

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

Psalm 25: Real Help for Real Trouble

As David prays for help in trouble, he continually comes back to that help coming only through knowing and obeying God.  In praying for freedom from shame, David not only asks that his enemies not succeed, but he points to the basis for his prayer: that he trusts and waits on God (v. 1-3), and that will be true only if the LORD teaches us to follow Him (v. 4-5).  When he prays for God to remember His mercy and kindness, David remembers that this can be so only when God refuses to remember sin and transgression—and such mercy comes as He pardons, teaches, and corrects sinners (v. 6-11).  As we learn to fear the LORD, we find blessings, in part through blessings in this life, but especially the blessing of being taught God’s ways more and more clearly and knowing His promises more and more (v. 12-15).  Finally, as David returns to his original prayer for rescue from desolation, affliction, troubles, distresses, affliction, and pain, he sees the threat of enemies—and his own remaining sin (note v. 18).  Only God can preserve from this double threat of outsiders and ourselves, and this rescue comes to those who trust God and imitate His integrity and uprightness (v. 20-21; compare God’s goodness and uprightness in v. 8).

What David takes as a given, but what we must constantly remember, is that David does not pray for rescue based on his own natural goodness and righteousness; he has not earned the right to pray this prayer because of his sinlessness or perfect wisdom.  Instead, David’s integrity and uprightness has come out of believing God’s promises and God’s commands; he has learned from God what God wants, and has been taught by God—in hindsight we would say by the Holy Spirit—to walk in upright paths.  And in hindsight we also see more clearly what David saw in part in Psalm 51:10, that David’s uprightness could only be acceptable if God Himself cleansed David—and that is only finally possible through David’s greater Son Jesus.  Because a Savior would come from David’s line (2 Sam. 7), David’s sins could be pardoned, and he could be led out into God’s way.  And so it is with us.  Psalm 25 does not teach us to be really good people so that God will bless us, but to throw ourselves on God’s pardoning mercy, and based on that to trust His goodness in rescuing us from all other dangers.  Our prayer for today is that He would never stop teaching us His way.

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

Wise Prayer for Hurting People

A few years ago I noticed that my study Bible has a note beside the start of Psalm 22: “Unwise Prayers.”  Because God does not forsake His people, apparently the author of the notes took “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” as something that was wrong to pray.  When we see that the psalms are the Holy Spirit teaching us to pray, though, we dare not dismiss it; there are times when it sure feels like we are left alone.

When I hear Psalm 22 preached or read, I almost always hear it put solely in terms of prophesying about the crucifixion.  It is no less than that; the vivid depiction of enemies closing in, of pierced hands and feet, of gambling for clothes and mocking the helpless victim, are startling as we realize that David penned this prayer a millennium before Jesus was born.  But it is also more than that.  These are the words of a specific man, David, praying a specific prayer about specific enemies.  He didn’t just write this so that Christians could point and say, “He’s talking about Jesus!”  He wrote this because his enemies were really out to get him, were clearly winning, and it seemed that the God who had promised him the kingdom had left him to fend for himself.  When we feel all alone, when it seems there’s no way out, when those who hate us jeer and ask us about our all-powerful God that can’t seem to help us now, this is how the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray.

But notice that the psalm doesn’t stop there.  While some psalms leave the matter unsettled (like Psalm 44 and 88), this prayer has a turning point: “You have answered me” (v. 21).  Even as David has been crying out, telling God his troubles, just as we are told to do (1 Peter 5:7), God has been at work rescuing David.  This Lord does not ignore His weak and fragile people, but acts for their good in His good time.  For my brothers and sisters who are asking, “Why have you forsaken me,” don’t despair; do not fear to talk to God about feeling alone, but do not forget that none of His children are forgotten.  Because this God has listened and delivered Jesus from the dead, because He is faithful and has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5), we can trust that He will answer, and that He will rescue.

Grace and Peace, Mike Yates

When God is Silent: Psalm 13

Psalm 13

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

This is one of my favorite Psalms. It answers one of the believer’s greatest questions: “What do I do when trouble is all around and God is silent?”

David was a man who knew about God’s mighty power. He saw firsthand God’s awesome wonders; yet, he asks, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” David knew that God had not left him, but he still questioned when facing destruction at the hand of his enemies. Nevertheless, David’s faith proved true in the end. In the writing of this Psalm, David exemplified the right attitude when confronted by the enemy and the apparent silence of God.

I like to summarize David’s point this way:

Because I placed (past tense) my trust in God, and He has dealt (progressive past tense) bountifully with me by means of loving-kindness and salvation; I will (presently and in the future) rejoice and sing to the Lord even when He is silent in times of trouble.

When it seems that God is not answering our heart’s cry when difficulty comes our way, we need to remember the times His mighty hand has delivered us in the past. Praise Him for what He has already done even while in the present storm. This is the right action when trouble is all around and God is silent.

Basking in His grace,

Joe Swords