PSALM
93 – “Yahweh malak”
Psalms
93-99 (with the exception of Psalm 94) are grouped together as
“Royal”, “Kingship” or “Enthronement” Psalms (also
includes Psalm 47). These psalms joyfully celebrate God as King over
all creation. Ultimately, they give us a look forward to Jesus'
eternal reign over the earth. It is believed that these poems were
sung to remind Israel WHO God was. There are no titles or claimed
authorship to these psalms.
Vs. 1 –
“Yahweh malak” are the first words of this psalm
and are interpreted as: “Jehovah reigns” or “Jehovah is king”.
The Hebrew word for “reigns” (malak) is a verb that implies
completed action or an established condition. “The Lord reigns”
occurs in 93:1; 97:1, 96:10; and, 99:1.
Vs. 2 – Earthly thrones are temporary; only God's throne is eternal.
“There never was a time in which God did not reign, in which he was not a supreme and absolute Monarch; for he is from everlasting. There never was a time in which he was not; there never can be a period in which he shall cease to exist.” (Adam Clarke)
Vs. 5 – “Your testimonies are very sure”: “Testimonies” are a poetic reference to God’s Word. The psalmist understood that the might, sovereignty, and strength of God was powerfully expressed in and through His Word.
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PSALM 94 - “The Thoughts of Mankind are Futile”
This is
a Community Lament calling out in the same spirit of “Thy Kingdom
come”.
It
puzzles scholars why this psalm is placed here, interrupting the
sequence of divine kingship psalms. Perhaps it is placed here with the clear message that God will destroy kings and rulers who do not obey him.
“In this song we see how the very things which assault faith, and threaten to produce despair, may be made the opportunity for praise, in the place and act of worship.” (G. Campbell Morgan)
VERSES
1-2: THE INTRODUCTION
Vs. 1 –
Rarely does “vengeance' apply to Israel. It generally describes
God's judgment on the nations. God's vengeance is vastly understood
by unbelievers. It is based on righteous justice rather than angry
revenge. Jeremiah 51:56 tells us,
“For the Lord is a God of retribution; he will repay in full”.
VERSES
3-7: THE LAMENT
Vs. 7 –
Foolish arrogance toward God could only come from not knowing Him.
“They
were blindly wicked because they dreamed of a blind God. When men
believe that the eyes of God are dim, there is no reason to wonder
that they give full license to their brutal passions.” (Charles Spurgeon)
VERSES
8-11: THE APPEAL
Vs. 9 –
“Can the one who shaped the ear not hear, the one who formed the
eye not see?” How can the One who created the ears and eyes be deaf and blind? He is the Omnipotent, Omniscient God who will hold His creation to account.
Vs. 11 –
“The LORD knows the thoughts of mankind; they are futile.”
The Apostle Paul later quoted this verse in 1 Corinthians 3:20 and Romans 1:21, speaking of the futility of man's wisdom against that of God.
VERSES
12-23: THE CONFIDENCE
Vs.
12-13 – God will discipline those He loves to bring them back into
relationship with Him.
💛NUGGET:
God's blessings to His faithful are sometimes disguised as
discipline.
Vs. 14 –
Compare to verse 5... “For the LORD will not cast off His
people”: This verse contradicts any notions of God abandoning Israel. He makes it abundantly clear: God will never forsake His
inheritance.
Vs. 23 –
“He has brought on them their own iniquity”:
"When a man has once sinned, it is part of his punishment that he is inclined to sin again, and so on ad infinitum.” (Charles Spurgeon)
PSALM
95 – “Worship Cures Hearts”
This can
be called a Historical Psalm in
the sense that it is meant to help the readers learn from the mistakes of a
rebellious and stubborn generation in Israel's history. Although no author is given, it is accredited to David in a quote from Hebrews 4:7.
Psalm
95:7-11 is quoted extensively in Hebrews 3:7 through 4:13 to explain
how the “Sabbath rest” is fulfilled in Christ. Without this
perspective of Hebrews, it would be easy for us to miss the depth of
this psalm.
VERSES
1-7a: INVITATION TO WORSHIP
(Exhortation
to worship God in praise as the Creator of earth.)
Vs. 1-2
– Many forms of worship:
- Sing to the LORD
- Shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation
- Come before His presence with thanksgiving
- Shout joyfully to Him with psalms
💛NUGGET:
Maybe we should start a Shouting Psalms Club?
Vs. 3 –
Three names of God are celebrated with three different implications:
- EL (God's strength)
- JEHOVAH (The essence of God)
- ELOHIM (God's covenant relation with man)
Vs. 5 –
Jonah 1:9 quotes this verse about his identity.
Vs. 6 –
Where verse 1 exhorted the readers to worship in PRAISE, this verse
is an exhortation to worship God in HUMBLE REVERENCE. Both are important. Three words are used to illustrate a posture of humility:
- PROSTRATE
- BOW DOWN
- KNEEL
"Let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker." Not before a crucifix, not before a rotten image, not before a fair picture of a foul saint: these are not our makers; we made them, they made not us. Our God, unto whom we must sing, in whom we must rejoice, before whom we must worship, is a great "King above all gods": he is no god of lead, no god of bread, no brazen god, no wooden god; we must not fall down and worship our Lady, but our Lord; not any martyr, but our Maker not any saint, but our Saviour: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation." Wherewith: with voice, "Let us sing;" with soul, "Let us heartily rejoice"; with hands and knees, "Let us worship and bow down: let us kneel"; with all that is within us, with all that is without us; he that made all, must be worshiped with all, especially when we "come before his presence". (John Boys)
Vs. 7a –
He is our God AND our shepherd.
VIDEO: "O, Come Let Us Worship" by Felix Mendelsshon
VERSES
7b-11: WARNING OF WRATH
The
following verses refer back to Israel's days of wandering in the
wilderness. It was not their wandering, but their
wondering that got them in trouble. They wondered
why God wouldn't give them everything they wanted when they wanted it
and they wondered why they even needed God and they wondered
why they couldn't return to Egypt and their easy life of
slavery. All that wondering hardened their hearts against God. The
author of Hebrews found this “warning” about hard hearts
important enough that he referenced these verses three times (Hebrews
3:7; 3:15; 4:7).
💛NUGGET:
Hebrews 3:7, “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says”:
leaves no doubt that the words of Psalm 95 were inspired by the Holy
Spirit.
Vs.
7b – Hebrews 4:7: “God
again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a
long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already
quoted:
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Vs. 8 –
The psalmist switches to first person. God is talking:
“Harden not your heart as in the day of provocation (Meribah), and
as in the day of temptation (Massah) in the wilderness.”
Meribah and Massah were places named by Moses where the people tested
God (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:2-13). After all God had done for
them, all the miracles they had witnessed, they complained because
the Creator of the oceans and seas had left them thirsting for water.
Their hearts had become hardened.
Hard
hearts don't just happen. A hardened heart no longer has faith. A
hardened heart is no longer in submission to God. That's why it's so
important – especially during those times we're wandering in the wilderness – to heed God's warning
of verse 8. Don't allow Meribah and Massah to enter your heart. Soft hearts are
worshiping hearts. Soft hearts are submissive and surrendered to God.
💛NUGGET: Even if you're parched, pucker up and praise God!
Vs. 9 –
“When your fathers tested Me”: Just as the Israelites
tested God by their unbelief, so do we. We test Him in small ways by
our complaining and in big ways when we refuse to trust only in Him.
Vs. 10 –
‘It is a people who go
astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways.” They
did not know God's ways, so they chose their own... to their demise.
Vs. 11 –
“They will not enter my rest”: In the wilderness context,
“God's rest” was to be found in the Promised Land, but it is also
an image of enjoying God's presence forever (Hebrews 4:11).
This
psalm ends abruptly and not in a "happily-ever-after" way. We are
presented with two ways to live: We can be people whose hearts are filled with joyful praise or we can be hard-hearted
grumblers.
“There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If manna and miracles could not satisfy Israel, neither would they have been content with the land which flowed with milk and honey.” (Charles Spurgeon)
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PSALM
96 - “Sing, Sing, Sing!”
The
psalm is often considered to be a continuation of Psalm 95. While the previous psalm ended in Israel’s rejection of God, Psalm 96 moves forward to a new purpose and mission of
proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles.
There is
no authorship attributed, but this psalm contains some of the verses of
the song David sang when he brought the ark of the covenant into
Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16:23-33), which suggests David as the author.
In fact, the Greek OT (Septuagint) adds the superscription,“When
the house was built after the exile. A song of David.”.
This
psalm also shares many common themes with Isaiah 40-66.
VERSES
1-6: SING!
Vs.
1 – This “new song' was a new note of fresh praise to God for His
invitation to ALL nations to hear of His salvation.
Vs. 1-3
– Four ways to glorify the Lord:
- SING
- BLESS
- PROCLAIM
- DECLARE
- He is great.
- He is to be feared above all other gods.
- Honor and beauty are before Him.
- Strength and beauty are His sanctuary.
💛NUGGET:
In verse 5, the words “gods” (elohim) and “worthless idols"
(elilim) sound alike, making a play on words. In English, this play
on words could be translated: “These mighty beings are mighty
worthless!”.
VERSES
7-9: ASCRIBE!
Vs. 7-9
– The three repetitions of “ascribe” parallel the three
repetitions of “sing” in verses 1-2. “Ascribe” literally
means to “give”. No, we can't give God anything that is already
His... and He lacks nothing. The idea here is to recognize God's majesty
and to worship Him in recognition of that Glory. (Compare these
verses to Psalm 29:1-2.)
Vs. 10 –
The people of the world need to hear us proclaim that the LORD REIGNS
over all the earth which He has FIRMLY ESTABLISHED and will one day
JUDGE RIGHTEOUSLY.
VERSES
10-13: SAY!
Vs.
11-13 – This is a message of joy celebrated by all creation... HERE
COMES DA JUDGE!
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PSALM
97 – “Those Who Love the Lord”
This
psalm continues in the same theme as Psalm 96, while emphasizing God
as Judge. Again, we do not know the history or the author of Psalm
96. Some attribute the song to David. Others believe it to have been
written after the exiles returned from Babylon.
This
psalm pieces together phrases and verses from other psalms and OT
passages. Alexander Maclaren described Psalm 97 as follows:
“The psalmist’s mind is saturated with old sayings, which he finds flashed up into new meaning by recent experiences. He is not ‘original,’ and does not try to be so; but he has drunk in the spirit of his predecessors, and words which to others were antiquated and cold blaze with light for him, and seem made for his lips.”
Vs. 1 –
Like Psalm 93, this psalm begins with the proclamation: “The Lord
Reigns”! And the entire earth should rejoice. The phrase
“multitude of isles (or coast land)” refers to all the far
corners of the earth.
Vs. 2 –
Clouds and darkness and fire and lightning and melting mountains
could describe nothing other than a state of Divine judgment.
Vs. 6 –
The heavens declare the righteousness of the ‘LORD’ (Yahweh) and
all the peoples see the glory of the ‘Lord’ (Adonai). Yahweh is
the Lord of all heaven and earth.
Vs. 7 –
We shake our head in wonder how any of the ancients could have
worshiped gods made of stone and wood. But y'all... anyone who is
not in submission to God has replaced Him with just another idol. If
we boast in anything other than the Lord as our deliverer, we are
boasting in stupid idols.
Vs. 9 –
Compare to Ephesians 1:21: “...not only in the present age but
also in the one to come”.
Vs. 10a
– “Those who love the LORD.” If you love God, you should hate evil. Period. As Christians,
we have often focused on God's love to the exclusion of overlooking
His “holy-ness”, which cannot look upon sin. We just skim right
over verses like Psalm 5:5-6: “You hate all who do iniquity. You
destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lord abhors the man of
bloodshed and deceit”. And
also Romans 6:23;12:9, Proverbs 8:13; 6:16-19, Psalm 119:104, Hebrews
10:26-31... just to name a few. God will not allow sin and evil to
go unpunished.
Vs. 11 –
What a beautiful picture these words paint of God “sowing” or
planting light in our lives... a light that grows over time with the
nourishment of His Word until our “upright hearts” are filled
with gladness.
Vs. 12 –
“Be glad IN THE LORD”: He
is the only source of everlasting joy.
💛NUGGET:
Joy that withstands all the darkness of the world can only be found
in obedience to Him. We have to work for it.
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READING FOR TOMORROW: Chapters 98-102
LINK TO READING PLAN:
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