Previously in Chapel time we talked about Psalm 28, and as we read through the verses, we came to three points for them (and myself) to remember:
First, we can talk to God. When nobody else is around, we can talk to Him. When everyone else is around, we can still talk to Him. Also, we can be real with Him – as casual as David got with Him in the Psalms. We don’t need to go through the whole song and dance of appeasing Him, appealing to Him, and so on – and I know this, WE ought to know this because it’s only by the finished work of Christ that we have the boldness to not only look at Him face to face, but to run to Him, as a child runs to his or her father in their own time of need.
Second, He hears us – and not only does He pick up the sound of what we’re saying, He listens to us – willing to hear what we have to say, excited beyond all that He knows to hear what we know and what we feel about who we are and what’s happening to us at any given moment. I draw what I’m saying here from 1 Peter 5:7, where he tells those who read that we can cast our cares upon Him, because ‘He cares for us‘ – and, really, that’s more powerful than whatever I’ve been saying so far: On top of the Creator of the Universe being able to hear us, He is willing to listen to us… why? Because, ultimately, He cares for us.
Third, and finally: He strengthens and protects us. We can go ahead and craft all sorts of expectations following our being real with the Lord and crying out to Him in prayer, but the one thing that I’m assuming is real and true whenever we pray is that He is our Strength, and He is our Shield, just as mentioned in Psalm 28:7. As a general response to all that we throw at Him, for all that it’s worth, our Father responds to it all by being our Strength, and being our Shield – our power, and our protection.
I may have gotten a little too ahead of myself earlier, but the entire point here is that we have the confidence of making these bold assumptions – as infinitely inferior creations making assertions regarding their Creator – not by our claims of power, knowledge, moral superiority, or any other sort of ‘value’ we think we have, but again, through Christ and His finished work.
Now this coming Friday is March 7, and I believe it’ll be nice for us to take a look, therefore, at Psalm 7.
Psalm 7
In You Do I Take Refuge
A SHIGGAION OF DAVID, WHICH HE SANG TO THE LORD CONCERNING THE WORDS OF CUSH, A BENJAMINITE.
Before anything else, there’s no mention of Cush the Benjaminite anywhere else in the Bible. We looked, and we also asked AI, and did not come up with a result… more, that is, than what was provided.
Considering the words of this upcoming Psalm and the fact that it was mentioned that Cush was a Benjaminite. He was of the same tribe that King Saul, who was King before David and jealous of him and his fame after slaying Goliath and delivering Israel from the Philistines that time. So with this in mind, AI insists (and I’m inclined to agree) that Cush was betraying David for Saul. As to the real reason, well, we will probably never know the specifics.
It’s because of the words of this Cush that David composes what is called a ‘shiggaion’ – and when I looked this up, I found out that this is the type of song that is overly emotional, and full of ‘impassioned imagination‘. So keep that in mind as we start this Psalm off.
1 O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
As in Psalm 28, David cries out to the Lord, right away – David takes refuge in the Lord, and asks merely to save him from all who pursue him, before they take him down and tear him apart; And we really do need to take cover and hide in Christ, in this day and age – for, indeed, He is our refuge and in Him we are safe from those who are wild as lions, threatening to rend us in pieces.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,
5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
David continues by deciding, in his song, to apologize to the Lord for anything he may have done that would have ended up with him pursued like this. He confesses any wrong that is ‘in (his hands)’, going as far as to mention stuff he’s probably done – repaying his friends with evil, plundering those he calls his enemy without any cause or reason, to be precise.
He tells the Lord that if he did any of this, he expresses how he would take ownership – by letting his enemies have their way with him, going as far as to chase him down and overtake him – all of him, down to his soul, his life, and his glory/reputation.
David confesses, knowing that it was wrong for him to transgress, and I suppose there’s remorse in him that would better be suffering in the clutches of his enemy more than to be in the refuge of the Lord, with ‘wrong in (his) hands’.
… and ‘Selah’ would have us pausing at this part of the composition, meditating before we move on.
Fortunately, for us in the body of Christ, we are automatically delivered, in spite of all we say or do – safe in the His refuge, no matter what happens to us. We WILL suffer the consequences of our actions, but it just feels good that through it all, He was the One who pursued our souls, He was the One who raised our life from the ground, becoming Life Himself – and finally, because Christ is resurrected, so He is glorified, and we are glorified in Him.
6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous— you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!
He may have felt good that he paused, because right after his cries for refuge, he calls on the Lord ‘in (His) anger’, from being his Protector to being his Avenger. Lift yourself up, David says, “awake for me“.. and then, he says, let the assembly of the people gather around and about You, and take Your seat on high, above and over the assembly.
Seems like David continues by calling out to the Lord – the One who is above the assembly of the people, the One who tests our minds and hearts – to preside as Judge over the people, good and evil, David, his enemies and his friends. He calls on the Lord to judge himself, and to judge him ‘according to (his) righteousness and according to the integrity that is in (him)‘… but on the other hand, he follows up by implying that by the same judgment, ‘let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous‘.
Just one observation here – David calls out to be judged according to his righteousness, and his integrity; This, versus what we know for ourselves in the New Covenant – that is, that we have been saved by Christ’s righteousness and Christ’s integrity.
And I couldn’t help but bring up what we’ve been talking about as we’ve also been going through the book of John, in Chapters 12 and 13 in particular – that is, as early as the crucifixion of Jesus and when He has been raised up: not only have we been drawn to Him, but Satan already has been cast out, and the world has been judged.
Through Christ, who was born within David’s bloodline, the evil of the wicked has indeed come to an end, and the righteous have been established. We have essentially been saved by dying to sin and being born righteous and reconciled to the Father, with new hearts and new minds!
10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
Gosh, how far into this am I going to go, considering the kids I’m going to be covering this with?
Well, first, I’ll continue to build up on what we established in Psalm 28 – that we can call out to God as we are, and He hears us, listens to us, and cares for us.
But from there, on top of the fact that He is our Strength, here we’ll keep building up on His being our Protector – not merely being our Shield, but our Shield being with Him – what’s the difference? Besides His being our Shield Himself, so all our means of protection are also with Him. He is not only with us, but also with everything we build in our defense.
Why? He is a Judge, and a righteous Judge, ready with indignation against the perpetually rebellious and actively unrepentant..
..Not that the wicked need help, because by their own words and actions, their mischief returns upon their own head, and even upon their own skull.
What am I to tell the kids? Newton’s Third Law of Motion states, ‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’; Here, we read, that for all that we say and do, there is a consequence and effect, as well as a response from God, the righteous Judge.
But this is not for me to scare them, but rather, for us to place our trust in the Lord even more – for our God may be a Judge, but He is a RIGHTEOUS Judge – to whom we who have believed in Christ have been reconciled.
This means that these kids, and myself, should not be too afraid or overthinking to make a move, putting too much thoughts on the impact and effect – but, rather, we should go forth in confidence, knowing that we are in Christ, and He is always with us, guiding us to the right actions that lead to life, and keeping us from death and harm.
This is why we pray, and this is why we appreciate why He listens to us.
And this is why I pray, as early as now, that this… works.
Until the next post, God bless us all.
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