Year 2, Day 281: Psalm 144

Psalm 144

Here we have another psalm of David.  This one opens with imagery with which those of us New Testament minded folks may not be comfortable.  It is God who trains David’s hands for war.  It is God who trained his fingers for battle.

Wow.  I’m not going to kid you.  There was something inside of me that really was repulsed by that thought.  Could God really want me to go out and do battle?  Could God really want these fingers to do battle?

Then I thought of this a little differently.  Has God not begun to train this tongue for spiritual battle?  When I open my mouth to speak the name of Jesus, and I not waging war with the world?  Is there any difference between my tongue and my hands?  Can not the same God who trains my tongue to do battle train my hands?  Are we not to rise up and go and do what God desires of us?

After all, it is He who is our shield.  It is He who provides.  It is He who delivers us.  It is He who is our fortress.  It is He who gives the order to subdue.  He is righteous.  When I use my hands or my tongue to wage my own battle, I am guilty.  But when I use my tongue or my hands at His beckon, it is righteousness! 

Ironically, as I wrote that last line I watched my fingers steak across the keys.  Are not my fingers instruments of war as I type these very words?  Talk about a 2 Corinthians 10:4 moment right there!  I love it when I start out feeling like the Old and the New Testaments are at odds and then through the Word I see how the Old and the New Testament are in agreement.  That’s God at work there! And speaking of 2 Corinthians 10:4 – any hard-rockers out there will appreciate an pair of old Christian Rock songs by a group named Deliverance: Supplication & Weapons of Our Warfare.

In a way, that leads me right into verses 3-4.  What is man that He is mindful of him?  What am I that God should care whether I understand His Word, His plan, or His salvation?  Yet, God does care.  He doesn’t have to.  He doesn’t need to.  But He still does!  We are like a breath passing before His existence, but it is a fragrant and pleasing breath to Him.  We are like a shadow in His sight, but it is a shadow He gazes into and out of which He pulls life out.

This naturally leads me into verses 9-11.  Who can come through those thoughts and not want to give God praise?  Who can be faced with their finitude, come to an understanding of God’s grace, and not want to sing praises to God?  But seriously.  When we sit back and think about all that God has done for us and how much none of us deserve it – can there be any response other than How Great Is Our God?

Then I turn to the final words of this psalm.  I hear the hope in David’s words.  He genuinely believes God will bless his people.  David genuinely believes that God will look favorably upon those who are loyal to His ways.  And David’s faith is well founded.  God does desire to lavish blessing upon us if we but turn to Him and be in relationship with Him.

However, do we not also know the truth?  How many generations did it take for the Hebrew people to fall away?  Did not the fall itself begin with David’s own sons?  David’s hope in God is not unfounded.  Humanity’s ability to genuinely come to God and be in relationship with God is what is in question.

However, that point doesn’t change any of the truth in David’s closing words.  Regardless of our loyalty to God, He is loyal to us.  Regardless of our sin, He is rich in blessing.  He certainly gives us far more than we deserve.

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