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Central to this psalm is the closeness of the Lord. Psalm 138 reads as follows from the New Oxford Annotated Bible: I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart, Before the gods I sing your praise, I bow down toward your holy temple, And give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, For you have exalted your name and your word, Above everything, On the day I called, you answered me, You increased the strength of my soul, All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, For they have heard the words of your mouth, They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, For great is the glory of the Lord, For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, But the haughty he perceives from far away, Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve me against the wrath of my enemies, You stretch out your hand, And your right hand delivers me The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me: Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever, Do not forsake the work of your hands. This psalm is saying a whole lot, and much of it reverberates from the closeness of the Lord as it is recognized by the psalmist. The haughty he perceives but according to the psalmist it is from far away which is in direct contrast to what the psalmist David is experiencing which is a manner of closeness to the Lord. There is closeness to the haughty in that all of their actions and thoughts are perceived totally but it is at a distance that is indicative of a degree of separation. The beginning of the verse 6 says, “For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away. This is not necessarily to be interpreted as it might seem to say on the surface, that being lowly in maybe some societal or situational sense is the way to get the Lord’s special attention. It is outright talking about the Lord’s perception and just how he regards someone. Anybody, even the King, can be considered lowly in comparison to the Lord and even our physical size dictates lowly in comparison to the monumental size of what is found in nature More so what this verse is saying, is that it is up to the Lord whether he will proceed into the type of relational closeness that is spoken of here, and since it is his choosing, it can be the lowly or whomever he chooses. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that the lowly are indeed that way in society because in verse 4 it says, “ All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth." The lowly for example, could also be someone who is very young, and doesn’t have a aloft standing in society at such an early age. And this at one point was the position of David, earlier on. Verse three says, “On the day you called me, you answered me, and your increased the strength of my soul." This verse is an indication of closeness, the closeness of getting answered right up front, in the very same day of the prayer request. This verse is also an indication that David has found the Lord, even possibly right in the middle of some vast difficulties. For the Lord to increase the strength of someone’s soul, is something you can only get from the Lord’s hand and out of closeness to the Lord. No matter what else you could own or obtain, you can’t get this unless it comes from the Lord’s hand. This is something we can seek in prayer not only for ourselves, but for those we are praying for, that the Lord’s closeness come to an individual and increase the strength of their soul. Related to this is where it talks about the renewal of someone’s youth like the eagle as it does in the prophetic book of Isaiah. This type of renewal can actually happen, but only from the hand of the Lord. An example of this was Caleb, one of Moses helpers, who was later on as strong as he was 40 years earlier. The Lord preserved and even increased Caleb’s strength over a good stretch of years. In the very first line, David says I will give thanks to you with my whole heart. It takes some strength to start with to do that. The Lord may indeed give an increase in strength, but you can wholeheartedly thank him with the strength you already have. Someone still might be on the down and outs in some ways or many ways, but the strength that remains to pray and to thank the Lord with wholeness, can still be used. When this verse refers to the whole heart, it also refers that the Lord wants us to bring our whole heart in prayer and thanksgiving and not hold back. The call is wider, to the whole world, yes, but also to the whole heart of the beloved individual person. Someone getting a prayer answered right in the same day is not of the situation of being perceived from afar as the haughty are. This type of answer is indicative of the closeness of the Lord and comes from his regard for an individual. A prayer answered years later can also come from the closeness of the Lord, but a prayer answered in the same day or same moment is an outright indication or sign of the Lord’s closeness of the type mentioned here in this psalm. Verse 7 has a direct relationship with the shepherding of the Lord mentioned in what is probably the most famous of psalms, psalm 23. Verse 7 says “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies, you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me." This verse is exactly the shepherding of the Lord, his closeness in extending the helping and delivering hand right in the middle of the trouble that the psalmist is walking in. He is still standing and still moving, but the realization is that he is in the middle of lot of trouble, but also the realization is that the Lord is right there with him, with a closeness that involves the very hand of the Lord being extended to him, which is not something that happens from afar but the symbolism and actually reality is that the Lord’s hand is right there. The final verse, verse 8 says," The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me: Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever, do not forsake the work of your hands." This final verse reverberates back to verse 7. In verse 7, even though he walks in the middle of trouble, just like in psalm 23 where there is a walk through darkness, maybe in the darkest of valleys, that right hand is extended to him and delivers him. This is done out of the Lord fulfilling his purpose for this psalmist, and from his enduring steadfast love for the one who is in the midst of trouble in dark valleys, and that enduring love breaks through into the dark valleys. It is not a matter of getting out of the dark valley and other then finding the Lord’s steadfast love. Something to ponder then is that the Lord has purpose fulfillment in mind that comes to the psalmist even in the middle of trouble. The moral is that don’t just look the Lord’s purposes after you get out of trouble; from this psalm the Lord will look to work his purpose for you right in the midst of the very trouble you are in the middle of and now contending with. The very last verse, which says, Do not forsake the work of your hands, can be interpreted in a number of ways. It could be that it is saying don’t leave me. It could also be saying don’t let go of this fulfillment that you are purposing. Or is could be also referring to the Lord as your very maker, which is also true. But we also understand from the last verse, the purpose arises out of steadfast love of the Lord, and fulfilling purpose is ordered from that steadfast love. It can be somewhat wrong to always say, God has a purpose and I need to find that purpose. From this psalm, any purpose that the Lord brings to you derives out of his steadfast love, and it is this steadfast love that is being cited first and foremost in whatever is happening with regards to purpose. It also can’t be automatically be said that the haughty that are being perceived from afar are also not being within subjection of troubles. They may also be in the middle of trouble, yet still maintain haughtiness in not seeking the Lord in their troubles. It is possible that the haughty are relatively trouble free and that may be contributing to their haughtiness, but it is not specifically mentioned here in this psalm that they are. In other parts of the Bible, such as in Isaiah, it mentions prosperity as a contributing factor to haughtiness. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that this is either the cause or result of this state. But from this psalm, they are at least at the beginnings of being forsaken, David sees that it can happen to others, and maybe it could also happen to him. He concludes this psalm saying that he wants to stay in the Lord’s high regard and his high regard can come to him, to a King or anyone. To be out of the Lord’s high regard, a high regard which can come to the lowly, however they might be defined, would be what forsaken means in the context of this psalm. It is out of the Lord’s personal regard for an individual, that he does extend his hand, delivers, and fulfills his personal plans and purpose all under the banner of his steadfast personal love. There might also be a tendency to figure if I’m in this much trouble, I must be out of God’s favor so I’ll just break away further. The truth of this psalm is that the Lord can be quite close to someone who is in a heap of trouble, as indeed David was at times. The discernment process is not only towards the trouble, it’s meaning and the possible escapes from the trouble, but also of the degree of closeness of the Lord to you, and the continuation and preservation of that close relationship, even if it is now found in the context of deep troubles. If your lost in the middle of trouble, and in the darkest valleys, you first look is to God’s love for you, and also realize that this love works purpose even in the middle of trouble, and it is not just a matter of getting to safer points, trouble free zones, to find God’s purpose and the love he has for you. And it doesn’t even have to be trouble, in the middle or midst of anything, realization must be made towards the presence of the Lord’s steadfast love, manifest in his shepherding. And the first order is not to find your purpose or even God’s purpose, but his steadfast love and then after that whatever may arise from this steadfast love that manifests as purpose.
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