Psalms 108 – 110
Verse 108:4 works for our minds, but actually limits God when you think about it:
For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Our minds can easily limit God’s faithfulness to the clouds since that is huge, but it reaches far beyond the clouds. We have spent so much time reading the words of the Bible and putting God “in a box”. Think about how we try to personify God and make Him in “our image” and not His. We portray God as some muscular old guy, lounging in the clouds sending lightning bolts off his finger. When if that was the case and He was limited to a body, how could He be “omnipresent”?
Sometimes tend to parse out one little phrase and miss the “big picture” with most of the Psalms. We must realize they are more just prayers written mostly by David, that reflect the mood he is in at that moment. Often we search through the Psalms for truths and must realize while there are many, these truths are just reflecting revelations the Psalmist have had from reading them. It would be scary to see what people thought if I wrote my prayers down and then someone dug them up some 2000 years later.
Verse 109:4 is a good example of the “mood” of David:
In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer.
This was most likely written when he was hiding from Saul. David did only good for Saul, yet Saul became a mad man trying to kill David before he became too much a threat. Interestingly, David never took the threat as justification to challenge Saul but rather he honored Saul too his death. He had chances too even when Saul was, excuse the expression, taking a dump. So David actually lived these words and not just said them!
Verse 109:28 is one we should always remember:
Let them curse, but you will bless!
They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
God will always be by our side to “bless” us. What appear to be “curses” from God are often just normal bumps in the road. And what we often times believe are “blessing” from God are just normal highs in life. Don’t get me wrong we need to thank God for everything, but not just the good. He has made this world for us to enjoy and “live life to the full” so take the good with the bad and praise God in either state. Remember most of the “Biblical” stories never have the line; he lived the easy life and died rich. Even David who was “anointed” to be king, yet struggled to live for 15 years before he took the kingdom and even then it was initially a partial kingdom.
Verse 110:1 may sound familiar to you:
The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
The reason so is this verse is quoted a bunch in the New Testament in Luke, Acts and Hebrews. In times of turmoil and strife we all like to think it would be nice to oppress our “enemies” who are making life difficult. But rather than look at oppressing them back, why not change the focus and try to bring them to Christ and make them a new ally.