Year 2, Day 239: Psalm 108

Psalm 108

Today’s psalm is an interesting psalm.  Psalm 108 begins as though it is a psalm of praise, but it is not.  However, let’s take a moment and remind ourselves that although this is not a psalm of praise, the praise of God still fits within the psalm.  What is the greater message that we can learn here?  The praise of God fits into many different contexts.  The praise of God is always appropriate – assuming it is appropriately done.

So if this is not a psalm of praise, what is the psalm about?  The psalm is actually a petition for God’s help.  As David writes this, he is facing battle.  David is worried.  David fears that the Lord is not going to go out to battle with him and his troops.  Thus, David comes to God with a petition to ask for his help.

Here we can learn a few more things about our relationship with God.  First, to pick up from the point I gave in the opening paragraph, it is always appropriate to give praise to God.  In fact, in those moments when we are preoccupied with our own troubles it is especially appropriate to give praise to God.  Giving praise to God gives us an opportunity to focus on something besides ourselves for a moment.  It helps center us back upon God.

We can also learn that it is appropriate to take our needs and our concerns to God.  Although, notice that the bringing forth of the petitions follows the time of praise.  Once we have taken the time to make sure that we are genuinely focused where we need to be focused, then we can genuinely present our concerns to God in a manner that is not self-serving.  For me, that’s really the key point here.  If we come to God in prayer simply to have Him fulfill our list of needs, then we are treating God much like we treat Santa Clause.  Instead, the idea is to refocus ourselves back upon God so that when we bring our petitions before God we are not interested in having God accomplish our objective.  Rather, when we are properly focused on God we can bring our petitions before God and consider the answer that He would have us accept.

Why should we not go to this God for help?  After all, God has taken a single couple and made them into a nation.  He has taken the Canaanites – the native people of the Promised Land – and displaced them simply because the rejected Him.  He makes the rebellious His footstool.  He makes the repentant into tools for His agenda.  It is God who is in control – far more control than any of us can exert upon this world!

It is this God that we should desire.  We should want Him to fight with us; or rather, we should want Him to shape us so that we are the ones fighting with Him!  We should desire that He brings us into glory and into His presence because of His greatness.  We should desire that relationship to be strong so that we might be established in His presence.

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