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Psalm 144 Within this Psalm of David, the theme of rescue is mentioned 3 times. In verse 7 it says" Stretch out your hand from on high and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens. There is immediacy to the need for rescue, the example of being overwhelmed by mighty waters is obvious. God is sitting on the lifeguard chair, to be rescued He has to come to us in the situation we are in to effect a rescue. If I am in Hawaii type super waves, and I can’t get out, my rescue has to come to me. In verse 13 it says" May our barns be filled with produce of every kind, may our sheep increase by the thousands, by tens of thousands in the fields." People may be in some situations, particularly but not only financial where they might be secretly hoping for a ridiculous increase and we can see the evidence by the amount of people waiting on line to by lottery tickets. At the same time, God must at least in some areas be offering the possibility of such exponential increases. Today it might not be sheep, it might be something else that matters to us. This is something we could at least test, and see if the increase does begin and if it continues, then watch out. But also, this would be a matter of trust, that God is following through with a continuous increase that just isn’t going to stop. Some people, if they have good fortune, believe it can only last for a little while and things will even out. These verses say that it could be otherwise. Verse 15 say, “ Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall: happy are the people whose God is the Lord." Such blessings are a correlate to happiness, and there is a link between God’s blessings and happiness, so happiness both for ourselves and others is something we want to bring into the prayer of asking for an increase and blessings. The prayer discussion should also revolve around happiness as well. There is no reason to close our eyes and hope, we can be very specific with God about how a wanted blessing, the falls upon us, meaning it is properly targeted, involves our happiness. Imagine asking for rain, but it falls on the next State away. That is not a blessing that falls upon us. Psalm 143 Verse 6 “ I stretch out my hands before you, my soul thirsts for you like a parched land." Gee, just as I’m reading this, I forgot to water my plants. But thinking about this verse, maybe sometimes we don’t want to admit or realize we are on a parched land in some areas of our lives. It could be a working situation, relationship situation, where the metaphor of parched could be applied, and it becomes as issue of the soul as well. So we can ask specifically that God help the soul of ourselves and others and how soul problems can show a physically visible manifestation of the thirst of the soul. Verse 10 says, “ Teach me to do your will, for you are my God, let your good spirit lead me." You do read and hear lots and lots of talk about doing God’s will. But then, what does God want me to do? More than likely, I am somewhat unsure of that in some degree. Here the psalm is very specific. Ask for the good spirit to lead you, in matters that refer to God’s will. In matters that are maybe a little bigger and more important than the mundane, and the mundane can be a matter of prayer as well, we want to ask as we seek God’s will, that the leading of the good spirit be with us in this particular matter, meaning partly that the Spirit goes ahead of us a bit in the matter, because the leader is usually at the front. Think of someone leading a hike for example, he or she is at the front of the group or the other individual. Verse 11 says" For your names sake, O’Lord, preserve my life, In your righteousness bring me out of trouble. The psalmist is relying specifically on the righteousness of the Lord. This righteousness, is what is going to bring him out of his troubles. Going back to verse 2," Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one is righteous before you. “ He is not looking for judgment, or to claim his own righteousness, he is looking to lean on the righteousness of God, which is a powerful presence, to right the wrongs, and is realy ultimately the only reliable source of making things right. Psalm 142 Verse 1’ With my voice I cry to the Lord: with my voice I make supplication to the Lord." One thing to meditate on is the power of the voice, and even if God likes the sound of your voice. If it is one of the voices He is looking to hear from a little bit more often or in different ways. But the voice you carry with you, in the sense of prayer, is more important than the wallet in your pocket. Verse 2 and 3" I pour out my complaints before him: I tell my trouble before him, When my spirit is faint you know my way." Pouring out your complaints is really emptying out the bottle so to speak. When you are pouring a liquid to drink, eventually as you keep doing this, all the liquid ends up in the glass or cup. You don’t just want to tell God about the good things, but also tell him rather specifically that this or that is indeed troubling me, and it could be personal or something in the outer world, you could say, hey the world is in trouble. God is the confidant for any and all troubles we might encounter and as we are outright fading or fainting, or something akin to giving up, or not feeling up to something, God is the one who still has the light on the way to go. Verse 5, “ I cry to you, Oh Lord, I say," You are my portion in the land of the living," For the palmist, God is the portion and this is emotional for him. He literally cries for the Lord, and the Lord is his portion, here and now, in this life. The last sentence in verse 7 says," The righteous will surround me, and you will deal bountifully with me. “ As things turn around for this troubled man, he is surrounded by righteous people as he finds his way out of his troubles. The Lords dealing with an individual seem to fit a bigger picture that can be seen. To be literally surrounded by righteous people is a big picture event. Psalm 141 Verse 2" Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting of my hands as evening sacrifice." Here the theme is incense rising and the prayer itself rising to the presence of the Lord. The prayer itself is something that the Lord beholds. It is also saying the prayer counts. In the society and world right now, there is certainly a lot of counting, but think about this, prayer counts. Verse 4 “Do not turn my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds, in the company of those who work iniquity, do not let me eat of their delicacies. ‘ This verse shows how the wicked can be quite sophisticated and intricate in the designs of their deeds, and in some ways there is an attractiveness to what they are doing. Wicked deeds tend to sap away time as well, and a characteristic is that the people involved with them are often quite busy about doing these wicked things, and how it could occupies the greater part of time. Verse 10 ‘ Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I alone escape." You might be the only one out there at times, that will escape. It is interesting that wickedness can be seen as setting traps for others. The wicked like to bring others into the fold. Ultimately, they may fall into the exact trap they set for others. In verse 5 it says, Let the righteous strike me, let the faithful correct me." As the psalmist is continually praying, he is still spotting some trouble and asking that the righteous help him by pointing out things. An actual turning away from the Lord, could encompass getting busy with wicked deeds. You would be better off sleeping or doing nothing than going that route. Psalm 140 The focus of the psalm is the protecting and deliverance from evildoers, especially the violent. Verse 4 says, “ Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked, who have planned my downfall." This verse is the psalmist asking God to guard him, something most people don’t concentrate on asking for in prayer, but it is something to think about, asking the Lord, especially as danger arises. Verse 11" Do not let the slanderer be established in the land, let evil speedily be hunted down the violent. This is a prayer not so much for the individual but for the land itself, that the violent don’t get a chance to set up house, that they get chased down, actually hunted which has a stronger connotation, and again, by embracing this violence, those who do this may themselves be quickly hunted down.
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