|
Central to this psalm is God issuing his invitations to his people to come to his presence at another level. Verse 1 thru 5 says, “ The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth, from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth, Our God comes and will not be silent, a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages, He summons the heavens above, and the earth that he may judge his people, Gather to me the consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice. This is quite an introduction, and God is making his presence known in a big way and is referring as well in the psalm to other heavenly hosts believed to be angels that are present. In traditional writings, the image of fire has been associated with the Holy Spirit. Verse two mentions the abject beauty from the Lord and any beauty that we see on the earth is made and crafted by God. In these first 5 verses, the tilt is more just towards the sheer awesomeness of God as he is further revealed. It is almost like the sun just rising on the distant horizon over the sea maybe and it’s awesomeness starts to show at the break of dawn. In terms of imaging in prayer, you might think and imagine of just how God can approach you in a big way and his angels are a sign of this approach. A raging tempest, is pretty awesome in and of itself, and not exactly a mild description. Certainly God’s presence is quite stirring and matchless to anything we could otherwise experience. In the next set of verses he issues a correction and a call. Verse 6 thru 15 reads, “And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Hear oh my people and I will speak, O Israel and I will testify against you, I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices which are ever before me, I have no need of a bull from your stall, or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills, I know every bird of the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine, if I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it, do I eat the flesh of bulls? Or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God and fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you will honor me. “ There are a couple of possibilities as to what is going on here. One is that the people who are making the animal sacrifices mean well and think that this is a way to the Lord. Another is that they know more, but are just going through the motions of this sacrifice and think this is enough and at the same time not giving thanks, not following through on a vow and not calling upon the Lord first and only the Lord in the time of trouble. It is possible some people were in either category. But it is also possible that many if not most just weren’t enlightened and this is just a matter of the Lord correcting something that isn’t really a matter of sin, but just something where the understanding of the Lord, his ways and his call need correction. As far as the references to owing all the cattle on a thousand hills, it is something to think about today as we all tend to scramble for riches and materialism is all around us. But this is not only a reference to abundance but also another reference to inclusion as every hill and everything is included, and there are similar references to the sparrows for example in the gospels, as it says in verse 11 here where he knows every bird. When it gets off base is when we lose sight of the call and trip over each other for what we think is a limited piece of pie. Here God is giving access in his call, to these people, and mentioning his ownership of all these things, but interestingly the call is to ask for deliverance in the day of trouble and to give thanks for all the good that is now and is to be rendered. We do thank in advance of course. For example, someone gives you a new house, you do anticipate maybe staying there into the future and not just tonight, so the thanks has a futuristic aspect to it. It doesn’t say anything about giving out parcels of all this property, for the do gooders. The relationship is defined at another level of prayer, which issues greater access that just an animal sacrifice, the Lord is being rather direct here in his call to a position that is all the way to his very presence. Key words from verse 6 is where it says, God is judge himself. The prayer and call for help and deliverance will get right to him, all the way to the big boss and not some underling of the heavenly hosts, who can be used of course, but the message does get all the way through. The prayer itself will get right to God who will judge it himself. And it follows in verse 7 where it says, I am God, even your God. He is both God and the God for you as well, which gives the voice of inclusion. He could be saying to Steve in 2007, the same thing, I am God, and I am your God Steve, so this is a voice of power but also to those who receive those words inclusion. The animal sacrifices aren’t enough to bring proper inclusion. The command and focus is, to include thanks and include calling for deliverance in your walk and talk with God and excluding that, not animal sacrifices is the mistake. From this psalm, you must include thanksgivings and must include calling upon God in the day of trouble. The deliverance from trouble is more known to God and you could make a statement in prayer, I am having trouble with this or that, and specify more the trouble rather than what you expect God to do about it. Identify the trouble spots of the situation you are in with God first and share your troubles with him as you believe they are, without first suggesting the course of action that God should take on these troubles, as the thing to hone in on here, is specifically what it does say, which is to state your troubles to him.. A vow, often uttered while in trouble, is something that if agreed upon by the Lord, should be followed through on. Often it would be more something spiritual in nature and would involve a commitment in some fashion, more often to do something than to not do something. Thanksgiving, is something to ponder as well as being within direct relationship to the Lord, the thanksgiving is going right to his presence and something to think about is how the Lord might be giving something to someone and anticipating the thanksgiving involved. The Lord may be giving what the person is going to be most grateful for and that of course would differ from individual to individual. The reason why the Lord is giving you this, is because of all the people who could receive this, you are the one who would be most grateful for this and that is why you are getting this. But all this is a call that is at a greater level than the rather impersonal standard animal sacrifice and the call it to bring your unique troubles and thanksgivings to the Lord’s very presence. The rest of the psalm is addressed to the wicked from verse 16 on. In verse 22, it mentions the forgetting of God, and maybe this is a convenient forgetting that doesn’t seem to matter but God is clearly right on this. As they go forward with evil deeds, suddenly they don’t remember God’s commands. Forgetting God’s omnipresence, referred to the introductory verses, is a big mistake. Then in verse 17, it says, “ You cast my words behind you." Meaning that their course was chosen with knowledge, basically they did know better, it wasn’t a matter of being naïve to the presence of God. Along the lines of this psalm, they didn’t give thanks or call upon the Lord in the day of trouble. However in the last 2 verses he is still inviting them back, offering his deliverance and specifying the need of thank offerings and extending the offer all the way to ultimate salvation. In this psalm, the first ones addressed are those who might be ardently seeking God but need correction for precision as to what God wants and it might not be a matter of sin as far as correcting. You might ask God for his correction at times, not really saying that you are sinning, but you just need correction in this way or that way, in understanding, perspective, insight, depth, personal vision, enlightenment and so on, all areas that don’t necessarily involve sin but something we can ask the Lord for help in correcting our ways. Then from verse 16, the wicked are spoken to and even in this speech, there is an invitation to digress and turn aside from their wicked and sinful ways and come into the deliverance that God still can have for them.
Related Articles -
prayer, meditation,
|
