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1 Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. 2 Your tongue devises destruction, Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 3 You love evil more than good, Lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah 4 You love all devouring words, You deceitful tongue. 5 God shall likewise destroy you forever; He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah 6 The righteous also shall see and fear, And shall laugh at him, saying, 7 “Here is the man who did not make God his strength, But trusted in the abundance of his riches, And strengthened himself in his wickedness.” 8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. 9 I will praise You forever, Because You have done it; And in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good. This psalm highlights the betrayed of the mighty man, said to be when Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, and said to him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.” One of the main admonitions of this psalm is warning of verse 7 which says,” Here is the man who did not make God his strength, But trusted in the abundance of his riches, And strengthened himself in his wickedness. This individual built his personal castle on the power he obtained through wealth, and overtly trusted in these riches first and foremost, figuring those riches acted as some sort of buffer when wickedness when delved into can topple any situation that is founded upon seeming wealth and power or advantageous positioning derived from wealth. What he should have done, from this verse, is sought primarily the strength of the Lord in its possible many and varied forms and any accumulation of riches would be a secondary consideration. The misguiding trust in wealth, seems to have formed into a license, to lend into wickedness, and in some cases people are better off with less, if more is going to bring about a misguided idea of now I can get away with this. What could be taken from this verse in particular is what to do. What not to do is try to obtain strength through improper channels. This is a type of charade, that anyone can fall prey to when they are facing difficulties in that they figure a self sought and self obtained strengthening is going to do it for them. When facing various trials and difficulties, call upon first and foremost the strength of the Lord to these trials. The difficulties could be quite varied, say if it were relationship difficulties, you would ask the Lord to strengthen your relationships, or relationship. If it were a difficulty in understanding things, you would ask the Lord to strengthen your understanding. If it were a health matter, you would ask the Lord to strengthen your health in this particular area. A corollary of this is from the book of Acts Chapter 3 where Peter healed the lame man and immediately his legs and ankles were strengthened. The healing involved a strengthening. The passage reads as follows from verses 1 through 10 in chapter 3 of the book of Acts: Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Another point about the undue trust in wealth it is only logical that it can all fall apart rather instantly and even if it doesn't the wider world is subject too much of the chaos and uncontrollable aspects of nature itself once you take away the props. Just contemplating the wildness of the seas, of which is most of the planet is enough to understand that. A good job in a specific say city or country, is premised on that city or country full functioning and humming along nicely and that itself is not always automatic or guaranteed. The second major point is that this errant mighty man could have had his spot in the sun, in the context of the watch and presence of the Lord. No matter what he gained and experienced to his undertakings of power and wealth, it couldn't have been as good as a spot in the kingdom of the Lord. Verse 5 says 5 God shall likewise destroy you forever; He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah He might have a least kept a spot where he could retain his riches and power and though he would have lost his spot in the presence of the Lord in the temple, he did have a spot or dwelling place. But because he went even further, besides trusting in riches he was crossing up the very anointed of the Lord and transgressing into that realm, the Lord would redress for his anointed and take him away. Basically, he compounded his issues by not only being erroneous, but also stepping on the toes of the Lord's anointed, making it that much worse for himself. But he might have number one retained his own wealth and secular spot, had he just kept to wealth accumulation and second if he had reformed and came to the Lord, he might have secured a spot that the Lord may have had for him. So even if he had not transgressed David, and just minded his own business and kept his wealth, he still was in the position of missing out on a vaulted spot in the Kingdom of the Lord, in whatever way that spot would have taken form. He may have initially had a spot and lost it and then went even further and lost his gains by transgressing David. By contrast, David says in verse using the image of the olive tree unencumbered and thriving in nature, “8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.” Like the olive tree, thriving richly and having it spot in nature and in the sun, the Lord had a spot for David, not only in the temporal sense but also forever and ever which indicates an eternal spot. A second major point of this psalm, the first being to call upon the Lord in temporal matters for a specified strength, is contained in this last very special verse, that the Lord may have a spot for you, where you can thrive like an olive tree and missing out on this, for reasons of distraction or whatever the reason is, is truly missing out on the better and what is best. Losing this spot, not finding it or not retaining it, is no small matter in the Kingdom. Too strong a view on the material can be one way of losing sight of your spot although this spot can certainly involve things on the physical plane. You might lose on a host of material matters, and still retain that special spot and favor and putting too strong a correlation on what you see and what you are experiencing on the material realms and not first compassing where you actually are per the view of the Lord, is another mistake that can take many forms. The olive tree shows how images in nature can help us understand the ways and doings of the Lord and the thriving nature of the blessings that come under his purview. The Lord did have his spot for the psalmist David, where he could be like the thriving olive tree in nature and David on his part trusted in the mercy of the Lord for him in doing this and praised him for this.
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psalms, answers, prayer, power, wonder, events, olive tree, prosperity, spot,
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