Psalms 57 – 59
Sometimes David states the obvious, like the “theme” for Psalm 57. Here David is asking for got to “let your glory be over all the earth.” Again it doesn’t matter if David prays for this or not, it just happens. Verse 57:1 is a great start to this Psalm:
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
As magnificent and glorious this world is, sometimes the storms need to be ridden out. We need to ask if the “storms” we need to ride out are “natural” or “man-made”. No I am not talking about global warming, but rather the financial mess we are currently struggling through. Often times we ask for protection from these events, but most of the time they are self-inflicted.
With David, I often wonder if his requests are asking for protection from the fallout from his affair. As with David, I have created personal financial “storms of destruction” in my life. Once I strayed from sound Biblical finances and borrowed with regard to potential hiccups in the economy, my personal storm became difficult. In 2007 I prayed for this to be lifted and in December of 2008 decided to apply Biblical principles to our finances. It’s been 4 years and the end is still far off, but a huge dent has been made.
God will judge the earth and everyone’s actions, some earlier than others. Psalm 58 addresses God’s sovereignty over the world and its people. Verse 58:11 show David hanging his hope on God being just to the “righteous”:
Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.”
One can parse this out and realize there are no “righteous” people on this earth. Sure many may be close, but only one was truly “righteous” and fortunately that one ensured that our “unrighteousness” would be forgiven. Honestly I wonder about the “reward” God offers, and how we view it. God’s view of a reward may be health, where ours is a big bank account. We remain unhappy because God’s “reward” did not match our expectations.
Psalm 59 is one that David as a king can relate to, but really most of us never have to endure. Verse 59:1 starts this prayer:
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;
protect me from those who rise up against me;
On one hand today we have few “enemies” who will “rise up against” us. Sure there is the occasional crook or wrong doer, but for the most part we do not experience nations as “enemies” unless we are in the military. For the most part our “enemies” are far from us and do little harm. Of course as I say this I think of the “effect” the terrorist has had on travel and the effect the “economic terrorist” in the banking world has had on our economy. So maybe this is a valid prayer for all, even today?