There's something I left out of my last post about Psalm 16 because I felt like it was a significant enough thought to stand alone and not be buried among other musings. It's a relatively simple idea based on the word, "therefore."
Therefore is a transition word that not only signifies a switch from one thought to another, but also shows causation. The following thought is caused by the previous thought. "I forgot to study. Therefore I failed the test." "I forgot to put away the leftovers. Therefore my dog thought it was acceptable to climb on the table and eat them." Or, you could read those backwards. "I failed the test because I forgot to study." "My dog climbed on the table because I forgot to put away the leftovers."
So, when I get to verse 9, I think the same way. "My heart is glad and my tongue rejoices" because of whatever is mentioned previously. So, what is mentioned in the preceding verses?
Verse 1 - "I take refuge." I act. I have an entire post that talks about this idea of taking refuge.
Verse 2 - I recognize that "apart from [God] I have no good thing."
Verse 4 - I do not worship false Gods.
Verse 5 - I recognize God as "my portion and my cup." I admit that He is everything that I need to sustain me.
Verse 6 - I praise the Lord because he counsels me.
Verse 7 - "I keep my eyes always on the Lord." My focus is unwavering.
THEREFORE "I will rest secure."
I will rest secure because I keep my focus on God, praise Him, accept His counseling, recognize that he will sustain me, do not worship other gods, realize that apart from God I have no good thing, and take refuge.
Taking refuge, recognizing God's power and provision, praising Him, and keeping my focus on Him will allow me to rest secure.
I think I'm just going to let that sink in for a little while.
This psalm is pretty much the opposite of Psalm 8, which proclaims how glorious man is. In stark contrast, Psalm 14 exposes how foolish and corrupt man is. This contradiction serves to clarify the depth of how far man has fallen.
Psalm 8
Psalm 14
Verse 1
How majestic and glorious is God’s
name
Verse 1
Fools say there is no God
Verse 2
God has ordained praise to silence
foes
Verses 2 and 3
God notices that no one seeks him –
they
Verse 3
God’s works are awe-inspiring
Verses 6 and 7
He needs to be a refuge and restore
his people
Verse 4
What is man?
Verses 1 -7
Corrupt and evil!
Verse 5
Man is glorious, made in God’s image
and rules over Earth
Verse 1
Man is corrupt and vile – no one is
good
Verse 9
How majestic is God’s name
Verse 5
He is present with the righteous
I think I can summarize like this:
How majestic and glorious is God's name? And yet, fools say there is no God. These fools are evildoers, but the Lord has ordained praise to silence them. Unfortunately, mankind has turned aside and no longer seeks God.
Since God is capable of such awe-inspiring works, he needs to restore his people and provide refuge to them. Mankind is in need of this refuge because they have become corrupt and evil. The same mankind that God has created to be glorious, made in his image, has become corrupt and vile. Now good is left in them.
But still, God is majestic and has everything under control. He is present with the righteous in the midst of all the chaos, corruption, and evil.
Want to know the scariest part of all this? I can be described more aptly by corruption and evil than by glory and majesty most of the time. It's not like I'm constantly purposefully denying God or choosing a path apart from him, but I'm not purposefully choosing him, either. I want to be one of the people who seeks God, not one that has turned away.
This psalm really does summarize my feelings. I'm no longer angry at God (except every now and then), but I definitely understand questioning him. I still feel like he is far off. Really, I could echo most of the first two verses, claiming them as my own. Then even put into words things I've had trouble explaining adequately.
For example, "Will [God] forget me forever?" Are things ever going to get better, meaning am I ever going to get to the point where I no longer feel abandoned or distant? "How long will [He] hide his face from me?" And, why does it feel as if God is hiding his face from me? Finally, "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?" Really, how long do I need to wrestle through the Psalms before God feels near to me again? I really do feel like wrestling is the most apt description as I am battling for each and every minuscule amount of progress.
I wonder if David's demands for an answer were, in fact, answered. He tells God to look on him and answer him, two very bold commands. It encourages me to know that I can be equally as bold in asking God to answer me. But, I also wonder, have I not been bold enough yet? Or, have I been too bold? Or, maybe it's just going to be awhile. Did David get answered quickly?
David also had reasons to back up his demands. What reasons do I have? It's not killing me, as David alludes to in his own psalm. I don't think the distance I'm feeling is making any enemies triumph over me. What reasons could I possibly claim?
Finally, as I've noted repeatedly, David ends the psalm with praise and a promise of trust, even though no answer had been given. It seems odd to me that he chooses to say he trusts in God because of his unfailing love, though. After all, he was just complaining that God had basically turned away from him. How could that possibly make him trust in God's unfailing love? Could he perhaps have been only restating a long-ago accepted truth about God to reassure himself that God was, in fact, trustworthy?
Then, to end it all, David says he will sing praises because God has been good to him. Again, it doesn't mesh with the previous verses. Is David intentionally reminding himself of his blessings?
This, to me, is very frustrating. I know I went into reading the psalms ready and willing to ask the tough questions and I said that I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up with even more questions. However, I did not fully estimate the frustration that could come from 1) ending up with more questions than answers, and 2) not feeling any closer to God - at all. I'm committed to keep working at it, but it's quite possibly even harder than I expected.
Well, this is a little different from the previous few psalms, even though it is still written by David. Here's what I understand to be the basic ideas of Psalm 8:
Verse 1 - The Lord is majestic.
Verse 2 - He has ordained the praise of children to silence his foes.
Verse 4 - Man is nothing in comparison to the awesomeness of God's creation.
Verse 5 - God has put man in a place of honor.
Verse 9 - The Lord is majestic.
When I was growing up, my church used to sing a song based on Psalm 8 - all the time. The video below isn't exactly high quality, but the singing reminds me of what it was like at church growing up.
The song is so simple and repetitive and while there's nothing innately wrong with that, I think that combined with the frequency with which we sang the song made me immune to the complexity of what Psalm 8 is saying.
MAJESTIC
I did a quick search on Bible Gateway and found that the word "majestic" is used only 14 times in the entire NIV translation of the Bible, six of those times being in Psalms. The word majestic is an adjective meaning showing majesty. According to the Google online dictionary, majesty means "impressive stateliness, dignity, or beauty" or "royal power."
In thinking about just the words majesty and majestic, I know that I have never taken the time to truly let this psalm sink in. Majesty is a HUGE word. It's awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping power and beauty. It's supreme dignity and worthiness. How could I ever have let myself believe that Psalm 8:1 could be written off as being a simple statement, neatly wrapped up in a repetitive song?
ORDAINED PRAISE
I'm not going to pretend I have this at all sorted out in my head. It says that "through the praise of children and infants [God] has established a stronghold against [his] enemies, to silence the foe and avenger." So, God makes children praise him, which quiets his enemies? How and why would that work? I feel like I'm missing something here, so if you have any insight into this, share it with me.
INSIGNIFICANCE OF MAN
I challenge you to read Psalm 8:3-4 and NOT feel small and insignificant. God made every intricate working of the universe, from the things we can see and generally understand to things we can't even begin to comprehend, even things we aren't even aware exist. Then, he made humans.
HONOR
Keeping in mind how much significance I should have (none) I read Psalm 8:5-8. What a startling contrast to the last two verses. Man should mean nothing in comparison to the enormity of creation. Yet, God created man to be just a little bit lower than angels. He made man to rule over everything he created. What responsibility.
PRAISE
Now that I've taken time to really start digging in to Psalm 8, I can't believe I ever just skimmed through it, thinking, "Oh yes, here's the one about how majestic God is. It reminds me of that song..." The very last verse of the psalm repeats the first one, "Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" For the first time in a very long time, I understand how inconceivable the majesty of God really is- and more than that, I feel it.
Do you know that feeling you get when you're trying to remember something, but you just can't. Well, when I try to think of a way to explain how thinking about the majesty of God has made me feel tonight, I get that tip-of-the-tongue feeling. So, I'm just going to end with a list of synonyms for the word majesty:
grandeur
greatness
illustriousness
nobility
stateliness
power
sovereignty
supremacy
excellence
perfection
loftiness
eminence
prestige
splendor
merit
Maybe that will help someone else comprehend how incomprehensible the majesty of God truly is. I've been blindsided by it tonight. It's seemed like forever since I've felt like I could praise God this easily, without a hint of cynicism or bitterness.
I know I've done this with nearly every entry, but I am once again going to divide this psalm into sections because that seems to be an easy way for me to make it more personal.
David asks for refuge (verses 1-2)
David claims he is innocent (verses 3-5)
David appeals to God for justice and vindication (verses 6-9)
David proclaims confidence that God will reply (verses 10-13)
David asserts that the evil with suffer (verses 14-16)
David praises God (verse 17)
REFUGE
I mentioned before that I started reading through the Psalms in January, quit, and then began again with the blog to hold me accountable. Ever since I first read Psalm 5 on February 17, I have clung to the word "refuge" and David uses the word once again in Psalm 7:1. I'm not going to focus on it right now, but have an insight to share when I post about Psalm 11. That insight is something that started a major shift in my thinking, but I digress.
INNOCENCE
David points out that he did nothing that could make himself guilty, and that if he had done evil, he would feel as if he deserved what was happening in his life.
I understand this feeling. In many ways, I feel like I did nothing to deserve some of the burdens I've faced in the past and recently - the burdens that have ultimately pushed me farther from God than I ever have been in my life. In fact, the struggles recently have seemed to be because I followed God's direction. If I hadn't done what I felt God was calling me to do in becoming a foster parent, I never would have dealt with many of my recent struggles. Please don't take this to mean that I regret any of the placements we have accepted so far, just that they come with an understandable amount of added stress. That stress is compounded because I have felt like God has abandoned me at the most difficult moments.
JUSTICE David once again makes demands of God, telling God to rise up against the wicked and bring an end to their evil. He demands that God also make the righteous secure.
I have trouble sometimes seeing God as a "just" God based on my own experiences and things I've witnessed. So, when I struggle so much because I follow God, I don't understand why it seems like God's wrath is focused on me instead of the evil around me. From my perspective, it's not fair, and as a human, I equate fairness with justice. I have so many questions for God on this topic, but I don't think now is the time for me to dive into searching for answers on that particular topic. We'll see what the rest of the Psalms bring for me in that area.
CONFIDENCE David knows that God is his shield and will save him. He also knows that he will defend him from evil and let loose his wrath on the wicked.
I know these things also, but only on an intellectual level. I know God will protect me and will bring wrath against wickedness, but it's all in my head. Where did David's confidence come from? Was it just something he believed intellectually, but didn't really feel in the moment? Is intellectual belief enough to be called faith?
When you read this, I know a lot of you are experiencing the urge to answer those questions or say something to defend God in this area. Trust me, I think all those things too, even as I'm honestly writing what is in my heart. I know the textbook "churchy" answers, but, as mentioned before, this is my chance to be sincere about what I'm dealing with, and I have faith that God can handle my questioning and even appreciates that I'm seeking. So, please, if you want to give me something else to ponder, that would be awesome. Just don't expect neatly packaged answers to be earth-shattering to me at the moment.
ASSERTION David uses common sense and modern wisdom to reinforce his earlier confidence. It's almost like he is giving himself a little pep-talk so that he can keep his earlier confidence.
This leads me to believe that maybe David's confidence in the earlier section really was intellectually based. Otherwise, why would he need this section of verses to bolster his earlier claims? So, maybe my problem has been that when my trust and confidence in God is merely intellectual, I automatically assume that means my faith is weak and sometimes give up. Perhaps there is significance to a faith that is based on clinging to truths you know about God even when you can't feel them.
PRAISE David ends by saying he will give thanks and praise God because of God's righteousness. It's almost like he's convincing himself that he will still thank and praise God, even though things are falling apart. He also says he will do this because of God's righteousness.
It's interesting that he picks this one attribute of God to focus on. It's almost like it was one thing he was able to agree with intellectually, so he focused his praise on that. It wouldn't make sense to praise God for refuge at this time, so he doesn't. Instead, he asks for refuge and deliverance, but praises God for righteousness. That way, his praise and thanksgiving remain honest and sincere. He's not having to lie to himself or to God.
This gives me hope as I have been finding it hard to praise God without feeling insincere. I beat myself up at church for singing words that don't seem to honestly reflect the state of my heart, just because that's what I'm supposed to do on Sunday. Looking at Psalm 7 leads me to the conclusion that it's okay to separate your requests from your praise. I can ask for what I need, be honest about my struggle, and still praise God for what I know to be true. Sincerity doesn't demand that I can't praise God unless my faith is perfectly unshaken or radiating freely from my heart; it just means that I might be praising him for the beauty of his creation while I am begging for refuge that doesn't seem forthcoming.
