Psalm 83
Psalm 83
is a fairly vindictive psalm.
Essentially, Asaph is calling out judgment upon his enemies. Asaph is calling out judgment upon those
nations that have decided to rise up against the nation of Judah. Certainly from a Christian perspective – love
your neighbor – there should be some inherent chafing against this psalm.
However,
at the same time we need to remember what is happening in Asaph’s life. The king of Assyria marches on the northern
kingdom of Hebrew people, called Israel. Israel is captured and the king of Assyria takes
the people captive. A few years later a
new king of Assyria decides to also march of Judah, the kingdom in which Asaph
lives. Hezekiah is king over Judah at
this time. While God reassures Hezekiah
that Judah will not fall, that does not mean that they are not without
hardship.
Now we
enter into the world of the psalm. Asaph
is lamenting because in the midst of all of these troubles with Assyria all of
these surrounding nations are coming and picking on the people of Judah. Essentially, Asaph is complaining because the
nations surrounding Judah have adopted a “kick ‘em while they’re down”
mentality.
Nobody
likes to be picked on from every angle.
Nobody likes the feeling that the vultures are circling. Nobody likes the feeling that they are
friendless and nobody cares. That’s
about where Asaph is in life. Because
Asaph sees trouble on every side, he turns to the only source of help to which
he can turn: God.
While I
might not agree with Asaph’s desire to call his enemies into judgment, I cannot
fault Asaph’s emotion. Nor can I fault
his desire to turn to God and recognize that God is the only source of
help. All of those are good things, and
we can learn from Asaph’s example in this respect. When the world circles around us and plans to
kick us for as long as we’re down, where else should we turn but God?
Psalm 84
Psalm 84
is another psalm of great imagery. The
psalm begins with a call to long for the courts of the Lord. I can really resonate with this thought. I long to have a life where all the people
around me abide by God’s will. Not that
I long to shorten my life here, but I do long to be with God. I think this is also echoed by Paul in
Philippians 1:23-24.
The next
stanza contains more familiar imagery.
The sparrows find a home in God.
Even the little seemingly forgettable birds are cared for by God. Again we find a similar image in the New Testament
when Jesus teaches in Matthew 10:29-31.
Even the sparrows are loved by God; if God can love all the sparrows He
can certain love all of us.
In verse
10 we find more similar teaching. A day
in the court of the Lord is better than a thousand days here on earth. Peter says a similar comment in 2 Peter 3:8
when he says that a single day is as a thousand years. In other words, nothing beats being in the
presence of the Lord.
In the
second half of verse 10 we get another impressive analogy. The psalmist says that he’d rather be a
doorkeeper (servant) in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of
wickedness. In other words, the psalmist
would rather be a servant to God than a master of his own evil. This is almost an identical sentiment that
Jesus speaks in Matthew 18:7-10. Better
to cut ourselves away from sinfulness entirely than master it and be in Hell.
After
looking at these images, I can agree with the psalmist. Blessed is the one who places his trust in
the Lord. It is about God, and there is
nothing better than being with Him.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment