# comment

text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the idea of <a href='B:690 5:9-10'>1Jn 5:9-10</a>: "This is the witness of God... He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself... the (i:e. this) witness of God is greater" than that of men. The ultimate proof that the Truth is the Truth is not in the witness of men- be they archaeologists, scientists, good friends or who. The real witness of God is deep in yourself. "Taste and see, that Yahweh is good" is the most powerful appeal. David is here referencing how he had tried to take refuge in Gath [Heb. 'flees for refuge'], and accepting he should have taken refuge in Yahweh and not gone there. This is a psalm of repentance by him after he had been saved by grace from the situation in Gath. The Hebrew for "man" is gibbor, not the usual word for "man". It specifically means a mighty warrior. Again we see the relevance to David; the mighty warrior who lost his nerve and fled to Gath, who ought to have fled to Yahweh instead. So the challenge is that the man who has human advantage and strength will be blessed if he doesn't trust in it, but flees for refuge to God. The idea is continued in :10, where the strong lions actually suffer want and cannot find enough meat for themselves. </p><p>
The words of Ps. 34:8 "taste and see that the Yahweh is good" are alluded to in 1 Pet. 2:3 "If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good". There is some evidence that the early church quoted these words at the breaking of bread. As discussed on :13, Peter will quote several more verses from this Psalm 34 in 1 Peter 3. He sees David's situation as similar to those of his audience- a Jew under persecution and in exile at the hands of his own brethren. And a Jew who had slipped back, and was now repenting of lies and wrong behaviour, albeit as a result of the pressures of a life on the run. The 'goodness' is of the good life of living spiritually and truthfully now; for that is what the eternal life will be about (:13). But Peter wonders if his readers have in fact acquired this taste; whether they really get it, that we are living now the 'good' life we shall eternally life, we love that life and want to eternally live it.  </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh fear Yahweh, you His saints, for there is no lack to those who fear Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David predicates "no lack" upon fearing Yahweh and simply trusting in Him (<a href='B:230 34:8-9'>Psa 34:8-9</a>). Solomon picks up the idea of the righteous experiencing "no lack" but instead claims it is a reward for generosity (s:w. <a href='B:240 28:27'>Pro 28:27</a>). This is a parade example of the difference between David and Solomon. Solomon picks up his father’s words and conclusions, but reframes them to justify himself and works rather than faith:&nbsp; Again I suggest that although the Psalm began as a reflection on David's salvation from Gath (:1), he reapplied it to how Abigail met his every need when just prior to that, he had been desperately in need of all things (1 Sam. 25). We too learn God's grace from one experience, and see it repeated later in life's experiences. Like David, we are to edit and reapply and enforce the lessons learned.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on 9. This is the phrase used of how the Israelites "lacked nothing" in the desert (<a href='B:20 16:18'>Exo 16:18</a>; <a href='B:50 2:7'>Deu 2:7</a>; <a href='B:160 9:21'>Neh 9:21</a>), although they thought they lacked about everything, and neither would they in the promised land (<a href='B:50 8:9'>Deu 8:9</a>):&nbsp; The contrast is how the lions lacked, but David the sheep shepherded by Yahweh did not lack / want (<a href='B:230 23:1'>Psa 23:1</a> s:w:). But now David extends that sense to all "who seek Yahweh". His experience was to be theirs. And the phrase is used of how the restored exiles would likewise not lack (<a href='B:290 51:14'>Isa 51:14</a>).</p><p>Clearly David alludes to how those remaining in the covenant "lack no good thing" (Dt. 2:9; 8:9; 26:11). Although he was weak in entering Gaza and had to lie his way out of the situation, he felt he had still remained within the covenant. Covenant relationship with God is time and again shown to not be the same as not sinning, nor the same as being perfectly obedient. Without justifying nor minimizing sin, to remain in the covenant is perfectly possible even whilst sinning. The OT idea of remaining in the covenant is taken over by the Lord in His teaching about 'abiding' in Him, and by Paul in his theme of being and living "in Christ". </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although the Psalm began at the time of David's deliverance from Gath, he edited or rewrote it to teach to his children later. David had taught his children with these words. Did David say this to his children every evening? And Solomon uses just the same words, even whilst disobeying God’s law at the same time in his own life: “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> I give you good doctrine</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> for I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments and live” (<a href='B:240 4:1-4'>Pro 4:1-4</a>). And so Solomon taught his kids with the same outward form of words, although the personal reality of wisdom was lost on him. He repeats these very words of David when teaching his own son: “My son, keep [retain] my words</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> keep my commandments and live” (<a href='B:240 7:1-2'>Pro 7:1-2</a>). The idea of keeping commandments in order to live is a reference back to the many Deuteronomy passages where Moses pleads with Israel to keep God’s commands and live. But Solomon came to perceive his father David’s commands as those of God, and in his generation he watered this down in his own mind until he assumed that his commands to his children were to be treated by them as the law of God- no matter how far he had strayed himself from God’s law.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The prerequisite is to 'desire life... many days', to actually want to live for ever. And to this day, this is actually lacking in the majority- for all their interest in healthy living and extending lifespans. But the opportunity of eternity is actually not attractive- because their lives are not actually fulfilling because God and His Spirit is not in first place. The idea of the Hebrew seems to be that we desire eternal life because in that life we will "see good": "who loves days to see the good". And the "good" we will eternally experience is defined in the following verses. We are to live the Kingdom life now; in that sense we can "have eternal life" now, as often recorded in John's Gospel. Or as C. S. Lewis put it in Mere Christianity, “very often the only way to get a quality is to start behaving as if you had it already”. And our desire for eternal days is not to be simply because we fear death, and share the fear of endings which is built in to the human nature. Rather the issue is the quality of the life to come, the "good" we will see / experience, rather than the simple eternity of the life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note that in first place was keeping the tongue from evil. David perceived the critical importance of control of our words. But he himself has been noted for how many lies he told, not least in this context both to Ahimelech [resulting in his flight to Gath] and then in Gath (:1). So here we have some kind of repentance for his behaviour in Gath. And this leads to his higher point of faith as discussed on 1 Sam. 22:23.  </p><p>
Ps. 34:12-16 LXX are quoted in 1 Pet. 3:10-12. The context here of Ps. 34 is David's reflection upon how he had been saved by grace from Gath, by pretending to be mad and thus being cast out of the city he was trapped in. He fled there at a time of low faith (see on 1 Sam. 21), in trouble because of lying to Ahimelech. So his warning against telling lies is self critical. We who read the letter of Peter are therefore encouraged to identify with David in his weakness and repent as he did. </p><p>
Speaking truth and not lying was seen by David as the epitome of righteousness. He sees the wicked as characterized by sins of the tongue (Ps. 5:10; 10:17; 12:4,5; 15:3; 31:19; 52:4–6; 64:4; 109:2) and sins of the lips (Ps 12:3–5; 17:1,4; 31:19; 59:13; 140:4,10). Lying or deceitful words are likewise seen as the great sin (Ps. 5:7; 10:7; 17:1; 24:4; 35:20; 36:4; 38:13; 43:1; 50:19; 52:6; 55:12,24). This is quite some emphasis- at least 25 references. The Lord and the later New Testament likewise see the words of man as the basis of his condemnation or salvation. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David several times speaks of the need to fear God and ‘depart from evil’, and the blessedness of the man who does so (<a href='B:230 34:14'>Psa 34:14</a>; <a href='B:230 37:27'>Psa 37:27</a>); and Solomon repeats his father repeatedly on this point (<a href='B:240 3:7'>Pro 3:7</a>; <a href='B:240 4:27'>Pro 4:27</a>; <a href='B:240 13:19'>Pro 13:19</a>; <a href='B:240 14:16'>Pro 14:16</a>; <a href='B:240 16:6'>Pro 16:6</a>; <a href='B:240 16:17'>Pro 16:17</a>). Yet they are surely alluding to Job, who feared God and “eschewed” [s:w. ‘depart from’] evil (<a href='B:220 1:1'>Job 1:1</a>). Without doubt, these allusions indicate that they saw Job as symbolic of all the righteous. And this is no mere piece of painless Bible exposition; Job in all his turmoil really is the pattern for each one of us, the path through which we each must pass.</p><p>"Depart from evil" is 'turn [or, be turned] away from evil". Although this Psalm was written originally after his deliverance from Gath (:1), David has edited it, it seems, in reflection on how Abigail had turned him away from evil towards peace: "He has kept back his servant from evil" (1 Sam. 25:39). "Seeking" and "pursuing" peace are the words used of Saul seeking and pursuing David (1 Sam. 23:25), whereas David sought to live at peace with Saul; "there is no evil in my hand", he assured Saul (1 Sam. 24:12). We are to "pursue" the better spiritual life; just as we "seek" God. Perfectionism isn't in view. Rather a desire for it. That is what characterizes the personality of the righteous. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous, His ears listen to their cry-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst pretending to be mad in Gath (:1), David was in fact crying out to God. Or perhaps his cries of feigned madness were treated by God as cries to Him. Because God sees situations as prayers; the efficacy of prayer isn't a function of our ability to verbalize. Although "the righteous" here is originally David, his whole idea in the Psalm is that he and his answered prayer is representative of all believers. And this is confirmed by the fact that this verse is quoted about all believers in <a href='B:670 3:12'>1Pe 3:12</a>. It could be that Yahweh's "eyes" have special reference to the Angels who operationalize His response to prayer.</p><p>These very words are those used by Solomon when he asks for these things to be so on behalf of the temple he has built (2 Chron. 6:40). But David knew that it happens anyway without any temple. So we see the slide from personal spirituality to mere religion over a generation.  </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of :15, the sense would be that He does not answer the prayers of evildoers. Which means that our experience of answered prayer is therefore a premonition of our ultimate acceptance at the last day.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These are past tenses... cried, heard, delivered. The historical reference is to David crying to God to save him in Gath.  As discussed on :16, the implication is that the experience of answered prayer is therefore a premonition of our ultimate acceptance at the last day. The allusion is to how Israel in Egypt cried and were heard by the God who delivered them from their troubles (<a href='B:50 26:7'>Deu 26:7</a> s:w:). And yet Israel were hardly "righteous". They took the idols of Israel with them through the Red Sea, carrying the tabernacles of their gods through the desert along with that of Yahweh. Again, as so often, David seems to assume that God’s activity depends upon personal righteousness; when after his failure with Bathsheba he came to see that this is not necessarily the case. Because God’s grace is different to that.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is near-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, 'next to', 'neighbour / relative to'. This is how close God feels to the broken hearted and crushed; and conversely, how far He is from the self satisfied and self congratulatory, 'the strong' in secular terms. It is this feature of Yahweh which makes Him unique; no other God has this characteristic of 'nearness' (s:w. <a href='B:50 4:7'>Deu 4:7</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was how David felt as he pretended to be insane (:1) in order to escape. He was driven so low that his spirit was crushed and broken. We note the parallel between the heart and the spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit therefore speaks of a new heart being given.</p><p>The heart was broken but not the bones (:20). His experience at the time of his salvation from Gath here in Ps. 34 was going to help him when he was entrapped and shut in by his own sin regarding Bathsheba. For in his repentance, he had a broken heart and spirit (Ps. 51:19). And again when his heart was broken by reproach at the time of Absalom's rebellion (Ps. 69:21 "reproach has broken my heart"). Truly we can trace how his spiritual progress built upon previous experiences, just as our lives do also. And not only did David grow within his own life, building from experience to experience. This Psalm, like many others, was also rewritten and reapplied [under Divine inspiration] to the exiles. For their hearts were broken (Jer. 23:9) but the broken and crushed in heart were revived and brought back from exile (Is. 57:15; 61:1)- the bones were dry (Ez. 37) but not broken (:20). </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Total deliverance will only be at the last day, and maybe David has this in view.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He protects all of his bones; not one of them is broken-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The prophecy of <a href='B:230 34:20'>Psa 34:20</a> about not a bone of the Lord being broken is clearly applied to Him in <a href='B:500 19:36'>Joh 19:36</a>. But the context is clearly about all of us- any righteous man. The preceding verse speaks of how the Lord delivers the righteous man out of all his tribulations- and this verse is applied to other believers apart from the Lord Jesus in <a href='B:510 12:11'>Act 12:11</a> and <a href='B:620 3:11-12'>2Ti 3:11-12</a>. The chilling fact is that we who are in the body of the Lord are indeed co-crucified with Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Evil shall kill the wicked; those who hate the righteous shall be condemned-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is true so far as it goes, but David and Solomon both had a tendency to eagerly condemn their enemies. It was said almost on the eve of Saul's death (see on :1) and indeed it did come about for Saul. Perhaps David’s idea was that the wicked would be killed in this life, as he knew Saul would be; but also condemned at the last judgment. David has his mind on Saul here, but the Psalm is initially about his salvation from the Philistines in Gath. He surely saw that he was there because of Saul. He focuses on the real cause of things rather than those who ended up being his opponents because of Saul driving him there.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh redeems the soul of His servants; none of those who take refuge in Him shall be condemned- David had taken refuge in Gath and was suffering because of it (see on :1). Perhaps here is a tacit recognition that he should have made Yahweh his city of refuge rather than Gath. But his thought develops to consider that Yahweh not only gives safety in this life, but the greatest salvation is to be saved from condemnation at the last day. That is the ultimate safety and assurance. This is alluded to by Paul in Rom. 8:33,34 and maybe by the Lord in Jn. 5:24. Our redemption means that we will not be desolate [AV] / held guilty [Heb.] / condemned [NEV]. Those whom God has redeemed He justifies, and saves from all condemnation. They are "passed from death unto life" (Jn. 5:24). </p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Like many of the Psalms, this appears to have begun as a reflection upon Saul, and was then used again by David at the time of Absalom's rebellion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These were exactly David’s words about Saul (<a href='B:90 24:15'>1Sa 24:15</a>). David imagined the court of Heaven to be permanently sitting, and he invites God to enter into legal judgment with Saul and then carry out an appropriate judgment. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The 'standing up' continues the legal allusions of :1. We may enquire why God is bidden take hold of defensive things like shield and protective armour. Perhaps the idea is that God was to show to David’s enemies that all their offensive weaponry was nothing compared to His defence.</p><p>Ps. 35:2,3 present God as our armour bearer- if we do His will. He carries our shield and draws out and gives us the spear or weapon we need in whatever conflict, 'With us wherever we go'. Armour bearers were seen as totally loyal- as Jonathan's was to him, and as Saul's was to him. We are therefore given the impression of God's total loyalty to us wherever we go on our initiative in His service.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "Lift up your spear and war ax against those who pursue me". If we stick with "block [the way]", we can think of Saul being turned back from pursuing David by news of a Philistine incursion, or Absalom being persuaded not to follow the advice of Ahithophel in immediately pursuing David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Tell my soul, I am Your salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is asking God to persuade him, to tell him in his soul, deep within him. This is another of the frequent indications in the Psalms that David believed God was capable of talking directly to the human heart over and above His written word; for as we see from Psalms 119, David had access to that word anyway. But he asks God to write the reality of salvation deeper in his own soul.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonour. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul sought&nbsp; to take David’s life. So many of the Psalms contain imprecations against those who were seeking David’s soul- not just his physical life, but seeking to destroy his very being (e.g. <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>; <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 54:1'>Psa 54:1</a>; <a href='B:230 63:9'>Psa 63:9</a>; <a href='B:230 70:2'>Psa 70:2</a>; <a href='B:230 71:13'>Psa 71:13</a>). These imprecations expose the evil of Saul, and asks God to condemn him. Some of those Psalms appear to have been written by David in the Saul days, and then rewritten at the time of Absalom's rebellion- another man who sought David’s soul, and yet whom David loved:&nbsp;The words of this prayer are also in view in <a href='B:230 44:7'>Psa 44:7</a>, where David considers them to have been answered:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The words are repeated in <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>. That Psalm appears to have some reference to David’s sin with Bathsheba, which provoked the plotting against David’s life referred to here. And yet we wonder as to how David could so bitterly wish the destruction of his opponents, when he himself had been saved by grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be as chaff before the wind, Yahweh’s angel driving them on-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David wishes that those who chased him (:6) be chased by God’s Angel in the condemnation process of the last day (see on :6). "Chaff before the wind" recalls the destruction of the image representing worldly empires in Daniel 2. This continual wishing of condemnation upon enemies is certainly out of step with the love and prayerful pity for enemies inculcated in the spirit of Christ and specific New Testament teachings:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea of threshing is often associated with the judgement; the unworthy will be as chaff chased by the Angels. The Angels are made spirit (the same word Hebrew word as 'winds') and are being likened to the wind in this threshing process, driving the unworthy away; as Adam, typifying the rejected, was chased out of Eden by the Angels. "As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more; but the righteous is an everlasting foundation" (<a href='B:240 10:25'>Pro 10:25</a>) appears the basis of the parable of the house on the rock, making the whirlwind correspond to the second coming in judgement. "The whirlwind" is Angel cherubim language; as if it is by that means that the wicked will be destroyed:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let their way be dark and slippery, Yahweh’s angel pursuing them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :6. Again we have to reflect that this willing of men into condemnation is so different to the spirit of the Christ whom David saw in spirit always before his face. The language here is used of God’s confirmation of Judah in their sinful way (<a href='B:300 23:12'>Jer 23:12</a> = <a href='B:230 35:6'>Psa 35:6</a>); whichever path we choose, we are confirmed in. Those who are of a slippery tongue (<a href='B:230 55:21'>Psa 55:21</a> s:w:) will be confirmed in this; they will, as it were, slip headlong into condemnation. Their own chosen way is their judgment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me, without cause they have dug a pit for my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The continued emphasis in David’s psalms upon "without cause" surely reflects a self righteousness (<a href='B:230 35:19'>Psa 35:19</a>; <a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:161'>Psa 119:161</a>). For David’s righteousness was only impressive relative to the wickedness of his enemies; before God, it was filthy rags. It was true that Saul persecuted David "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:90 19:5'>1Sa 19:5</a>), but the experience of "without cause" persecution can lead us to an inappropriate self-righteousness. This is what happened to Job, who also suffered "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>), and had to be convicted of self-righteousness at the end of the story. And it seems this happened to David. David himself intended to shed blood "without cause" and was only saved from it by grace (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:31'>1Sa 25:31</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself; let him fall into that destruction-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This death wish seems to have come true of Absalom rather than Saul; for Absalom's death by his hair catching in a tree and literally falling to his death after being struck dead there would be more appropriate to these words than Saul's death. And David was to bitterly mourn Absalom's death. We need to ask ourselves how we would really feel if our bitter feelings were actually fulfilled by God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul shall be joyful in Yahweh, I shall rejoice in His salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When David’s great enemies (Saul and Absalom) did fall, David mourned and didn’t rejoice.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All my bones shall say, Yahweh, who is like You, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as the description of Absalom's death in :8 didn’t exactly come true for Absalom, so we wonder how David was robbed by his enemies. However he may have in view the fact that Saul and Absalom abused the poor generally, as was foretold of Saul by Samuel. It was this, rather than Saul's actual persecution of David, which David sees as the prime example of Saul's wickedness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Unrighteous witnesses rise up; they accuse me of things that I know nothing about-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we struggle to find much evidence of this in the historical records; but the intrigues after the sin with Bathsheba may well be what is in view. And Saul likely mobilized support for his anti-David campaign by a slander campaign, saying things such as those willingly believed by Nabal (<a href='B:90 25:10'>1Sa 25:10</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is exactly the language of how Saul treated David, who showed him "good" in preserving his life, and was rewarded for it with "evil" by Saul (<a href='B:90 24:17'>1Sa 24:17</a>). This injustice bereaved David, he was deeply hurt by the injustice of it all. We only sense this here in the Psalms; the historical record gives little indication of the psychological trauma David experienced because of it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth, I afflicted my soul with fasting-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul is in view (see on :12). The sickness of Saul was psychological, and David not only played the harp for him but also prayed and fasted in sackcloth for him. This again is something we don't see in the historical records.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My prayer returned into my own bosom-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "I prayed with my head bowed low", ESV "with head bowed on my chest". But it could also be an idiom implying his prayer had gone unanswered (as in <a href='B:470 10:13'>Mat 10:13</a>; <a href='B:230 79:12'>Psa 79:12</a>). Or he could mean that although the prayer was unanswered, a blessing still returned to him because he had prayed (as in <a href='B:300 18:20'>Jer 18:20</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is one verse which to me is a cameo of the extent of the victory which David won against the mind of the flesh, against our massive tendency to repay sin with sin, bitterness with bitterness, anger with anger. If we take nothing else away from this, please focus your mind on this, and keep the memory: Here David protests his love for the one who was persecuting him (:12) and is reflecting upon his attitude to Saul's death. "As one who mourns for his mother". This is surely one of the most powerful figures that could be employed. Picture a young man of say 24, in a dark blue suit, kneeling down at the graveside of his mother, surrounded by friends and relatives, bowing down heavily in his grief. Or picture a man of 34, 44, 54, hair greying and receding now, bowing himself down heavily. Or even 64, 74, alone in his grief, bowing down heavily to the green turf, muttering words about mum. Perhaps some of us haven't yet experienced this; many have. If you haven't, just imagine it. Surely it brings a lump to your throat. Now it was with this intensity of grief that David mourned the death or sickness of his persecutor. This is a wondrous reflection of his devotion, his true love, his triumph over bitterness and anger, over all the human actions that had been directed against him. The heavy bowing down of the Lord Jesus as he wept over Jerusalem, the city that hated and rejected him, whose leaders slew him, whose people screamed for his blood. David wept for Saul as if he was his friend or brother. Who was David’s friend and brother? Surely Jonathan his brother-in-law. But he wept for Saul, David says, as he wept for Jonathan. This is testified to historically by David’s lament of 2 Samuel 1. And still David sought out the house of Saul, “that I may shew the kindness of God” unto them (<a href='B:100 9:3'>2Sa 9:3</a>). It was the experience of Divine kindness that motivated David. As he hoped for fellowship at the King’s table in the future, so David delighted in inviting his former enemies to partake of his table, now he was king (<a href='B:100 9:7'>2Sa 9:7</a>; <a href='B:100 9:11'>2Sa 9:11</a>; <a href='B:100 9:13'>2Sa 9:13</a>). And if we hope to share the Lord’s table in the Kingdom, we must share it with our weaker brethren now. I see in all this such a triumph for David, that a man should reflect the love of God to such an extent, to love in the face of such hatred, to not just love those who loved him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The deep sorrow of the Lord Jesus for Judas and all those who turn away is surely typified here. Right at the bitter end, the Lord still referred to him as His friend (<a href='B:470 26:50'>Mat 26:50</a>), even though a few hours before He had been speaking of how the faithful few were His friends, and how He would give His life for His friends (<a href='B:500 15:13-15'>Joh 15:13-15</a>). Throughout His ministry, the Lord had spoken of the faithful as His friends (<a href='B:490 14:20'>Luk 14:20</a>; <a href='B:490 11:8'>Luk 11:8</a>; <a href='B:490 12:4'>Luk 12:4</a>). This was the spirit of the Lord Jesus in His time of dying, this is what enabled Him to&nbsp; go through the mock trial, the intense degradation, the bitter pain of rejection, without bitterness and the sin of unholy anger. To be like David to Saul, like Paul to Corinth, like Christ to the Jews, like God to us, really is possible. If that's how we can live, we will truly be in the new life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But in my adversity-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally 'limping', a strange term to use, until we perceive yet another allusion to Jacob limping home from exile (s:w. <a href='B:10 32:31'>Gen 32:31</a>). The same word is used of the exiles who were to be regathered and reestablished as a kingdom in the face of all opposition (<a href='B:400 4:6-7'>Mic 4:6-7</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may refer to Saul's various secret plans to kill David, hidden from him even by those supposedly close to him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These feasts may be a reference to idol worship, which was prevalent in Israel at David’s time and amongst his enemies (see on <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>). There may also be reference to Absalom's deceitful feasts of <a href='B:100 13:24'>2Sa 13:24</a>; <a href='B:100 15:7-10'>2Sa 15:7-10</a>. Gnashing of teeth is the language of condemnation at the last day (<a href='B:470 8:12'>Mat 8:12</a> etc:). But those thus condemned will have gnashed their teeth at their brethren in this life. By doing so, they are living out their own condemnation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lord, how long will You look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "Precious life" is literally 'my darling', 'my only one'. I suggest this isn't narcissism, but rather a rightful appreciation of the value and meaning of our own life; which we want preserved so that we can use it for God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give You thanks in the great assembly, I will praise You among many people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s vision was to take the good news of God’s grace to the assembly of God’s people and also to the "many people" of the Gentiles. David knew his sinfulness, he knew his reliance upon the grace of God, more and more as he got older. One would have thought that after the Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David’s desire to teach others of God’s ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two faced allegiance to Achish (<a href='B:90 27:8-12'>1Sa 27:8-12</a>). There is real stress upon this evangelistic fervour of David (<a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 57:9'>Psa 57:9</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 66:5'>Psa 66:5</a>; <a href='B:230 66:16'>Psa 66:16</a>; <a href='B:230 95:1'>Psa 95:1</a>; <a href='B:230 95:8'>Psa 95:8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:5-8'>Psa 96:5-8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:10'>Psa 96:10</a>; <a href='B:230 100:1-4'>Psa 100:1-4</a>; <a href='B:230 105:1-2'>Psa 105:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>; <a href='B:230 145:5-6'>Psa 145:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 145:12'>Psa 145:12</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:230 71:18'>Psa 71:18</a> records the "old and greyheaded" David pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others. David&nbsp;therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the pureness of God’s grace. He didn’t do this as some kind of self-help psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and God’s mercy, and the wonderful willingness&nbsp;of God to extend this to men.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is the struggle of every spiritually minded and righteous man to humble himself to accept he is only part of a far wider congregation, comprised of believers who may frankly be less spiritually minded than himself (<a href='B:230 26:12'>Psa 26:12</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 68:26'>Psa 68:26</a>). David and the Lord Jesus are parade examples of achieving this sense.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For "without a cause", see on :7. "Wrongfully" reflects again David’s deep sense of injustice (see on <a href='B:230 35:7'>Psa 35:7</a>). He uses the word for "false witness", as if they were breaking one of the ten commandments; and he uses it often, heaping condemnation upon any who dare lie / bear false witness about him (<a href='B:230 38:19'>Psa 38:19</a>; <a href='B:230 52:3'>Psa 52:3</a>; <a href='B:230 63:11'>Psa 63:11</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:29'>Psa 119:29</a>; <a href='B:230 119:69'>Psa 119:69</a>; <a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a>; <a href='B:230 120:2'>Psa 120:2</a>; <a href='B:230 144:8'>Psa 144:8</a>; <a href='B:230 144:11'>Psa 144:11</a>). And yet David lied and deceived in order to get Uriah killed so that he could take his wife for himself. Surely reflection upon that sin made him realize that his zeal to condemn dishonesty was at best misplaced; to lament it is one thing, but David was to be taught that he had himself done the very thing he so condemned.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The devising of words reflects David’s deep sense that the essence of spirituality is deep in the mind or heart; words issue from the heart.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion to lions or wild animals is so frequent in David’s thinking. His victories over wild animals in his youth remained an abiding memory.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They said, Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The weakness they thought their eyes had seen was nothing compared to the way Yahweh's eye had seen them (:22):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :21. The plea for God not to "be far from me" is common (<a href='B:230 22:11'>Psa 22:11</a>; <a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 35:22'>Psa 35:22</a>; <a href='B:230 38:21'>Psa 38:21</a>; <a href='B:230 71:12'>Psa 71:12</a>). The emphasis perhaps is to be placed upon David not wanting God to be far from him, seeing that he felt others were 'far' from him (s:w. <a href='B:230 88:8'>Psa 88:8</a>; <a href='B:230 88:18'>Psa 88:18</a>). He accepted his social and psychological isolation from others, but he didn’t want God to be likewise far off from him. In the context of the exiles, God was willing to not be 'far off' from the exiles if they repented (<a href='B:290 46:13'>Isa 46:13</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A window on what communication can be with our creator is provided by considering the&nbsp; ‘imprecatory Psalms’ like this one; where the writer wishes terrible judgments upon his enemies. It is possible to understand these Psalms in terms of the promises to Abraham- that God will curse those who curse the true seed of Abraham. They can therefore be seen to be merely asking for the promises to Abraham to be fulfilled against God’s enemies. But another angle on this problem is to consider how the Psalmists talk to God in a far ‘rougher’ way than we do. They pour out their feelings, their anger and frustration with their enemies, their inability to understand how God is working</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> and they let it all hang down. They seem to have no reserve with God; they talk to Him as if He is their friend and acquaintance. David pleads with God to ‘avenge my cause’ (<a href='B:230 35:23'>Psa 35:23</a>), he protests how he is in the right and how he longs for God to judge him. And so do the prophets, in the interjections they sometimes make in commentary on the prophecy they have just uttered. The emotion which David often seems to have felt was “Damn these people!”, but he pours this out to God and asks Him to damn them. When we like David feel our enemies are unjust, we can:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>1. Seek revenge. But this isn’t a response we can make, Biblically.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>2. Deny the feelings of hurt and anger. And yet, they surface somehow. And we join the ranks of the millions of hurt people in this world, who ‘take it out’ in some way on others.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>3. Or we can do as David seems to have done. Take these feelings, absolutely as they are, with no rough edges smoothed off them</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to God Himself. Pour them all out in prayer and leave Him to resolve the matter. In passing, this fits in with the conclusions of modern psychiatry- that we can’t eliminate our feelings, so we must express them in an appropriate way.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This latter option is how I understand the imprecatory Psalms.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to Your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Time and again in the Psalms, David expresses his good conscience in terms of asking God to come and judge him (e.g. <a href='B:230 35:24'>Psa 35:24</a>). Was this not some reference to the future theophany which David knew some day would come?</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let them say in their heart, Aha! That’s just the way we want it! Don’t let them say, We have swallowed him up!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference may be to Ahithophel's plan to swallow up David at the time of Absalom's rebellion (<a href='B:100 17:12'>2Sa 17:12</a>; <a href='B:100 17:16'>2Sa 17:16</a> s:w:). David’s prayer of <a href='B:230 35:25'>Psa 35:25</a>; <a href='B:230 69:15'>Psa 69:15</a>; <a href='B:230 124:3'>Psa 124:3</a> not to be swallowed up / destroyed was answered, but he was devastated at the answer- for it meant the death of his son Absalom. Again David has Job in mind, who had his 'brethren' arguing that he should be swallowed up / destroyed without cause (<a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour who magnify themselves against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The only other occurrence of the phrase "rejoice at my calamity" is in <a href='B:240 2:14'>Pro 2:14</a>, where David’s son Solomon condemns those who "rejoice to do evil" (s:w:). He is quoting these reflections of David upon the coalition of haters who joined Absalom in trying to overthrow him. Solomon speaks the truth, but he does so with an eye on justifying himself against his brother Absalom and those who had followed him. Always Solomon is harnessing 'truth' to an agenda of self-justification; and we must be warned by thIsa.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favour my righteous cause. Yes, let them say continually, Yahweh be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s desire for the glorification of God rather than himself is always to be noted and commended. His own name had been magnified (<a href='B:130 11:9'>1Ch 11:9</a>), by God’s grace; but he wanted Yahweh's Name to be magnified by as many as possible, as well as by himself. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My tongue shall talk about Your righteousness and about Your praise all day long- Although David asks for his "righteous cause" to be favoured (:27), he rejoices not in his rightness, but in God’s righteousness.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>An oracle is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB is about right: "Sin speaks to the wicked deep in their hearts". The essence of sin is in the self talk of the heart; and that is the real satan or adversary to every believer. </p><p>Saul was characterized by disobedience, and it was specifically for this that he was rejected by God and replaced with David. But David seems overly focused upon the disobedience of others, when he himself was also a sinner. Therefore <a href='B:520 3:18'>Rom 3:18</a> quotes these words about all men, including those like David who are saved by grace through faith. Paul is applying the descriptions of the very worst of humanity and admitting that in essence, this is what is going on within his heart and within the heart of every man. Truly, bad man only do what good mean dream of. We may well enquire how David thought he knew the state of heart [AV "inward part"] of his enemies (<a href='B:230 5:9'>Psa 5:9</a>; <a href='B:230 36:1'>Psa 36:1</a>; <a href='B:230 49:11'>Psa 49:11</a>; <a href='B:230 62:4'>Psa 62:4</a>; <a href='B:230 64:6'>Psa 64:6</a>). Perhaps it was a result of his reflection upon how he had only had a right spirit or heart given by God "within" him as a result of his repentance (<a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a> s:w:). His enemies were impenitent, and so perhaps on that basis he knew what was in their hearts.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to detect and hate his sin-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :1, we may wonder how David can be confident he knows so much about the state of Saul's heart. He had been summoned to play the harp for Saul so that the "evil spirit" or depressed attitude of mind would leave Saul. He was therefore working as an amateur psychologist; his work was not merely to play a harp, but to lift Saul's depression. And this Psalm is as it were his case report on Saul's heart. Self flattery is indeed the reason why personal sin cannot be detected in self examination. And depression, such as Saul suffered, is not of itself humility; it can be, as with Saul, self flattery.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul initially wisely refused to go after those who opposed his kingship, and is presented as thoughtful for his father’s feelings (<a href='B:90 9:5'>1Sa 9:5</a>). But from there he embarked upon a downward spiral of self deception which resulted in being deceitful to others, not least to his servant David. Solomon may allude here in saying that we are to cease (s:w:) from our own wisdom (<a href='B:240 23:4'>Pro 23:4</a>). Saul went the other way; he ceased from God’s wisdom and turned to his own wisdom. His access to Divine wisdom was surely through Samuel's prophetic words to him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He plots iniquity on his bed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David rightly perceived that what a man thinks alone on his bed is a litmus indicator of his essential spirituality&nbsp; (<a href='B:230 4:4'>Psa 4:4</a>; <a href='B:230 149:5'>Psa 149:5</a>), and he condemns Saul for plotting sin on his bed (<a href='B:230 36:4'>Psa 36:4</a>). And yet the same phrase "on his bed" is used for how David plotted the sin with Bathsheba on his bed (<a href='B:100 11:2'>2Sa 11:2</a>). David was surely taught by his sin that he had been too quick to condemn others for their wicked thoughts upon their beds.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He sets himself up in a way that is not good. He doesn’t hate evil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To omit to hate evil is the same as to commit it. The Messianic king was to "hate evil" (s:w. <a href='B:290 7:15-16'>Isa 7:15-16</a>), just as Job did. But Saul precluded all the possibilities to be the anointed / Messianic king by loving evil:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your grace, Yahweh, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> This understanding of "mercy and truth", a phrase often used about the promises to Abraham, was what sustained David when he realized he had sinned with Bathsheba and Uriah. He perceived God’s grace was infinite, and this faith was put to the test by his sin. It's amazing how God works even through human failure to lead us further along the path of knowing His grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, You preserve man and animal-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The infinite height of God’s grace (:6) is compared to the height and depth of His rightness and justice. His grace isn't cheap, neither does it infringe His holiness and righteousness. This is the infinite wonder of it all. Some reverence God’s physical power and majesty rather than His moral majesty. David got the balance right when he reflected that God’s righteousness "is like the great mountains". He saw God’s moral strength reflected in the massive physicality of God’s creation. Job had to be taught this lesson:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How precious is Your grace, O God!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even before his sin with Bathsheba, David talks much about God’s grace. But clearly he never appreciated it fully until after he was personally thrown upon it in moral terms; and the same can be true of us. For who can say they have fathomed God’s grace. There are rungs up the ladder in appreciating it.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The children of men take refuge under the shadow of Your wings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David often says that this is where he personally feels located, under the cherubic wings overshadowing the mercy seat, with the shekinah glory above him and the blood of atonement beneath him. But he invites all God’s people to share his experience; that is the purpose of his Psalms.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of Your house-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although exiled from the sanctuary whilst persecuted by Saul, David knew that finally he would return to it. And he saw himself as representative of all God’s people; which made his Psalms so relevant to the exiles. Perhaps "house" was inserted when the psalms were rewritten for the exiles; for there was no "house" of God in David’s time.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You will make them drink of the river of Your pleasures-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God will "make us" partake of the blessings of the Kingdom of God. It reminds us of how the Lord Jesus said that in His Kingdom, He will "make us" sit down at a table, and He will come and serve us (<a href='B:490 12:37'>Luk 12:37</a>), knowing full well that he who sits at meat is greater than he who serves (<a href='B:490 22:27'>Luk 22:27</a>). It isn't so difficult to imagine this scene: the Lord of glory wanting us to sit down to a meal, and then He comes and serves us. He will have to "make us" sit down and let ourselves be served. Perhaps "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom" (<a href='B:470 25:34'>Mat 25:34</a>) likewise suggests a hesitancy of the faithful to enter the Kingdom, seeing they have had such doubt about salvation. Perhaps this is typified by Joseph's revelation to his brethren; they slink away from him, and he has to encourage them: "Come near to me, I pray you" (<a href='B:10 45:4'>Gen 45:4</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"River" can as well mean "spring" (see :9), and may refer to the Gihon spring near mount Zion; David understood this as representative of God’s eternal blessings which the righteous will partake of. "Pleasures" is related to the word for Eden; David envisaged Eden restored, based around the sanctuary in Zion. He was looking very much ahead; for at that time, Zion was not under Israelite control nor had David yet moved the sanctuary there.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For with You is the spring of life; in Your light shall we see light-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David saw the spring in Zion (see on :8) as a symbol of eternal life, and the day when God’s light would be the light of all His people. No longer would the shekinah glory be just over the ark, but would be global. And perhaps he looks ahead to the Lord Jesus, who was to be God’s light (<a href='B:500 1:4'>Joh 1:4</a>; <a href='B:500 1:9'>Joh 1:9</a>). In that light do we understand all things.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh continue Your grace to those who know You, Your righteousness to the upright in heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is seeing himself and the righteous as Job, and he here continues that connection, seeing that Job is described likewise as "upright in heart" (<a href='B:220 1:8'>Job 1:8</a>; <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>). David sees this as characteristic of all God’s people (s:w. <a href='B:230 11:2'>Psa 11:2</a>; <a href='B:230 19:8'>Psa 19:8</a>; <a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>; <a href='B:230 36:10'>Psa 36:10</a>; <a href='B:230 64:10'>Psa 64:10</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 97:11'>Psa 97:11</a>). He sees the wicked as those who are not upright (<a href='B:230 14:3'>Psa 14:3</a>; <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>). But these words which David writes about the wicked are then reinterpreted as applying to all men, God’s people included (<a href='B:520 3:12'>Rom 3:12</a>). Like Job, David had to be taught that actually he was failing to see the seriousness of sin; righteousness and acceptability with God is imputed to men by grace through faith, because actually there are none who are upright in heart, apart from God’s representative son.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let the foot of pride come against me; don’t let the hand of the wicked drive me away-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Foot and hand are paralleled, as are "pride" and "the wicked". David rightly saw pride as the epitome of wickedness. "Drive away" is s:w. "vagabond" (<a href='B:10 4:12'>Gen 4:12</a>; <a href='B:10 4:14'>Gen 4:14</a>). He didn’t want to permanently be like Cain, exiled from the sanctuary. His love of the sanctuary is repeated throughout the Psalms, and came to full term in his plans to build the temple; his exile from it was perhaps to teach him that God really doesn't live in structures, and is equally present in human hearts wherever they are. Perhaps we all too have David’s tension between his love of the structure on one hand, and his personal spirituality on the other.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There the workers of iniquity are fallen, they are thrust down, and shall not be able to rise- "There" appears to refer to David’s imagination of the outcome of the day of judgment. He sees the punishment of the wicked as being put down permanently into the grave, suffering "the second death"- and not eternal torment.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This psalm of David has clear relevance to the exiles, awaiting a "soon" restoration to the land of Israel. It appears to have been rewritten, under inspiration, with reference to them. The Psalms of David are typically about his own personal desires and hopes for restoration, but this Psalm is solely an encouragement to others.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who "work unrighteousness" is a phrase frequently used of the apostate amongst the exiles in Babylon (e.g. <a href='B:330 18:24'>Eze 18:24</a>; <a href='B:330 33:13'>Eze 33:13</a> cp. <a href='B:430 3:13'>Zep 3:13</a>). The faithful were not to be envious of their apparent success in Babylon but instead to focus upon the hope of restoration to the land.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green plant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of how things were to be at the restoration (<a href='B:290 40:7-8'>Isa 40:7-8</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Trust in Yahweh, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the restoration context, this could be similar to Jeremiah's message for the exiles to dwell in Babylon and establish themselves, but in hope of eternal inheritance of the land of Israel. Or the idea could be that by a return to faith and good behaviour, the flock of Judah would be restored to their land and find safe pasture there, a figure used like this in Ezekiel 34.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The believing life affects every part of human existence. Thus Psalms 37 parallels those who have faith, who do good (:3), who hope (:9), who are meek (:11), pure (:18), generous (:22), just (:28), wise, speakers of truth (:29), waiting for the Lord (:34), peacemakers (:37). It’s not that some of us have faith and another, e.g., is generous. We may be better at some aspects of the Christ-life than others, but our model is Him, as a total person. The image of slavery suggests a total devotion of life to our Lord’s cause. Just as every part of the animal had to be offered, so we as “living sacrifices” (<a href='B:520 12:1'>Rom 12:1</a>) cannot just offer certain aspects of our lives to the Lord.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Also delight yourself in Yahweh, and He will give you the desires of your heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The desires of the heart is paralleled in this Psalm with inheriting the land eternally. If this is our greatest desire, we shall receive it. This is a sublime truth. All those who truly love the Lord's appearing as the master passion of their lives- will be acceptable to Him (<a href='B:620 4:8'>2Ti 4:8</a>). This is why the hope of the Kingdom can never be a mere hobby, but is by its very nature the all consuming passion of human life. Perhaps David alludes to his own overriding passion and desire for relationship with God and salvation in <a href='B:230 38:9'>Psa 38:9</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in Him, and He will do this-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What He will "do" is to grant the desire of our heart (:4), which is defined in this Psalm as eternally inheriting the land. And this will be achieved by imputing righteousness to us (:6). We are to commit our life's way to Yahweh, knowing that it is His desire to grant us our heart's desire- a place in His Kingdom. David speaks of committing our life's way to Yahweh and then trusting that He will bring us to His Kingdom; Solomon tweaks this into "Commit [s:w:] your works unto Yahweh" (<a href='B:240 16:3'>Pro 16:3</a>). We see here Solomon's works-based approach.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will make your righteousness go forth as the light, and your justice as the noon day sun-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the immediate context, this refers to righteousness being imputed as the basis upon which believers can eternally inherit the land; see on :4,5.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David so often parallels righteousness and justice / truth (<a href='B:230 9:8'>Psa 9:8</a>; <a href='B:230 33:5'>Psa 33:5</a>; <a href='B:230 37:6'>Psa 37:6</a>; <a href='B:230 72:2'>Psa 72:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 99:7'>Psa 99:7</a>; <a href='B:230 103:6'>Psa 103:6</a>; <a href='B:230 106:3'>Psa 106:3</a>). Indeed, this parallel is so common in God’s word. What it means is that the righteousness of God is a just righteousness. It's not fake, 'I'll turn a blind eye'. It is true, real, valid, and has integrity underpinned in the very essential justice of God Himself. Justice and righteousness may appear abstract ideas, mere theology. But the result is that the person who believes God’s righteousness is imputed to him or her... will feel this, they will know it to be true, they can by grace, in faith, quietly hold their head up before God. And David after Bathsheba is our example. He believed and felt this imputed righteousness. It's not so much a case of 'forgiving ourselves' after God has forgiven us, but rather of being swamped by this very real and legitimate sense that truly, we have been counted righteous. And Paul in Romans holds up David after Bathsheba as the personal example to " every one who is Godly" in their time of spiritual need. See on <a href='B:230 41:12'>Psa 41:12</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He delays the second coming because He waits and hopes for repentance and spiritual growth from us. But He praises the faithful for patiently waiting for Him (<a href='B:290 30:18'>Isa 30:18</a>; <a href='B:230 37:7'>Psa 37:7</a>). Here we see the humility of God’s grace.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the restoration context, this clearly applies to the "wicked Haman" (<a href='B:190 7:6'>Est 7:6</a>), who apparently prospered and made wicked plots.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don’t fret, it leads only to evildoing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s anger was to cease in the salvation of the exiles (<a href='B:230 85:4'>Psa 85:4</a>; <a href='B:290 10:25'>Isa 10:25</a>; <a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>; <a href='B:290 60:10'>Isa 60:10</a>), as it has towards us. And if we believe this, then we too are to cease from anger and wrath, seeing every provocation of our wrath as an opportunity to live out how God has ceased from&nbsp; wrath with us.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for Yahweh shall inherit the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who wait for Yahweh are clearly the faithful amongst the exiles, waiting for the prophetic word of restoration to come true. These thoughts had their genesis whilst David was on the run from Saul, encouraging those with him that one day soon they would rule the Kingdom which would fall to David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The expectation of restoration and salvation from the wicked in "a little while" is very relevant to the exiles. Our sufferings now are only for a moment compared to the glorious eternity of the Kingdom (<a href='B:230 37:10'>Psa 37:10</a>; <a href='B:540 4:17'>2Co 4:17</a>), and yet the language of the Bible also expresses God’s appreciation that from our perspective, our time of probation is “a long time” (<a href='B:470 25:19'>Mat 25:19</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon in his collapse of faith appears to allude here; but he considers that not finding the place of the deceased is just an example of life's vanity (<a href='B:250 8:10'>Ecc 8:10</a> s:w:). David his father saw it is a triumph of good over evil and a foretaste of how things shall be eternally put right at the last day. But Solomon lost the kingdom perspective, using the words of David his father simply in a secular sense.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the humble shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This "abundance of peace" is the language of the restored Kingdom of God upon earth (<a href='B:230 72:3'>Psa 72:3</a>). The Lord quotes this in <a href='B:470 5:5'>Mat 5:5</a>. The potential possible for the exiles was precluded by their lack of repentance; but the prophecies of eternal restoration are reinterpreted and reapplied to the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus which is to be established at His return.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Just as they will at the last day (<a href='B:230 112:10'>Psa 112:10</a>). Gnashing of teeth is the language of condemnation at the last day (<a href='B:470 8:12'>Mat 8:12</a> etc:). But those thus condemned will have gnashed their teeth at their brethren in this life. By doing so, they are living out their own condemnation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord will laugh at him, for He sees that his day is coming-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord laughing at the wicked is the language of Psalms 2 about the final day of judgment, and also has relevance to the situation in Jerusalem at Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:290 37:22'>Isa 37:22</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Throughout David’s Psalms in Psalms 1-72, he repeatedly asks for torture upon the sinners and blessing upon himself as the righteous. He speaks of how sinners should be “contemned” in the eyes of the righteous (<a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>), the gatherings of sinners should be “hated” and sinners should not be fellowshipped (<a href='B:230 26:4-6'>Psa 26:4-6</a>; <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>) and how God’s uprightness is shown to the upright and His judgment to the judgmental (<a href='B:230 18:25-26'>Psa 18:25-26</a>; <a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>). He invites God’s judgment upon himself and others according to their and his works (<a href='B:230 28:4'>Psa 28:4</a>):&nbsp; Frequently he alludes to Saul as “the violent man”- even though David committed his share of violence- and asks judgment upon him (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>). Only those with clean hands and pure heart like himself could have fellowship with God (<a href='B:230 24:3-4'>Psa 24:3-4</a>). Psalms 37 doesn’t indicate any desire to convert the sinners but rather an expectation of their judgment and destruction. God and David laugh at the wicked because their day is coming (<a href='B:230 37:13'>Psa 37:13</a>). There’s no spirit of grace here at all- perhaps that’s why <a href='B:450 12:10'>Zec 12:10</a> specifically says that the spirit of grace will have to be poured out upon the house of David in the last days. This attitude changed after the sin with Bathsheba, but still something of the old self righteousness and judgmental attitudes are to be found in David in Psalms written after that.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a>). The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. Psalms 37 speaks of the wicked without any apparent interest in their conversion, but rather is there an emphasis upon their condemnation, even a gloating over it, and the [surely incorrect] fantasy that God laughs at the thought of how He will punish the wicked in future (<a href='B:230 37:13'>Psa 37:13</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright in the way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Language used about the oppressors of Judah in exile (<a href='B:290 5:28'>Isa 5:28</a>; <a href='B:290 21:15'>Isa 21:15</a>). David sees uprightness as characteristic of all God’s people (<a href='B:230 11:2'>Psa 11:2</a>; <a href='B:230 19:8'>Psa 19:8</a>; <a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>; <a href='B:230 36:10'>Psa 36:10</a>; <a href='B:230 64:10'>Psa 64:10</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 97:11'>Psa 97:11</a>). He sees the wicked as those who are not upright (<a href='B:230 14:3'>Psa 14:3</a>; <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>). But&nbsp; all men, God’s people included, are not upright (<a href='B:520 3:12'>Rom 3:12</a>). Like Job, David had to be taught that actually he was failing to see the seriousness of sin; righteousness and acceptability with God is imputed to men by grace through faith, because actually there are none who are upright in heart, apart from God’s representative son.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their sword shall enter into their own heart. Their bows shall be broken-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Language relevant to the death of Absalom. But when David’s imprecations against his enemies such as Saul and Absalom came true, he was mortified with grief. We must be careful what we desire, for God reads our desires as prayers. David considers that it is his Divinely given strength which will break the bows (<a href='B:230 18:34'>Psa 18:34</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Better is a little that the righteous has, than the abundance of many wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew seems to mean that the small numbers of the righteous are better than the great numbers of the wicked. David foresaw that even amongst God’s people, both of his time and amongst the later exiles, only a minority would be truly spiritual.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Yahweh upholds the righteous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As we will see on :24, David feels he is the one who has been 'upheld' despite his sin with Bathsheba. He sees himself therefore as "the righteous", but only because he deeply believed in imputed righteousness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh knows the days of the perfect. Their inheritance shall be forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To 'know the days' of someone can be read as an idiom for "takes care of" (as GNB). The idea of eternal inheritance alludes to the promises to Abraham. But as the New Testament makes clear, the "seed" died without receiving the fulfilment of the promises; eternal inheritance can only come when the Kingdom is established upon earth. And there was the potential that this could have happened had the exiles been repentant and desirous of participating in such a restored Kingdom; but they weren't, and so the Kingdom promises have been rescheduled and reapplied.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall not be disappointed in the time of evil; in the days of famine they shall be satisfied-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Under the old covenant, famine was not supposed to come if the people were obedient. So the idea is that even when suffering the punishment for sin, God will still show grace and keep His repentant people "alive in famine".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the wicked shall perish, the enemies of Yahweh shall be like the passing beauty of the fields. They will vanish-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>vanish like smoke-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "the enemies of the Lord at the moment of their being honoured and exalted have utterly vanished like smoke". This could refer to the destruction of Haman, in the context of the exiles. But consumption into smoke is the language of sacrifice. The sacrifices taught Israel that God especially valued the fat- the best parts of their lives were to be freely offered to Him. But the wicked at judgment day will be as the fat of lambs, consumed upon the altar (<a href='B:230 37:20'>Psa 37:20</a>). We either give our best to the Lord’s service now, or He will ultimately take it from us anyway. Cars, houses, flats, valued jewelry, banknotes stashed away, bank accounts, our innermost emotions, jealousy, love... we either give them now, or He will take them from us in the day of judgment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked borrow, and don’t pay back, but the righteous give generously-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that the righteous forgive. They give out, whereas the wicked effectively steal.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For such as are blessed by Him shall inherit the land. Those who are cursed by Him shall be cut off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Another allusion to the blessing associated with the Abrahamic promises. We note that the opposite of blessing is the curse of permanent death- not eternal conscious punishment. "Cut off" is the same word for the cutting of the covenant with Abraham (<a href='B:10 15:18'>Gen 15:18</a>). The idiom was to emphasize that those who rejected the covenant would be "cut off" (<a href='B:10 17:14'>Gen 17:14</a>); blessing and life eternal were only available through the covenant.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A man’s goings are established by Yahweh; He delights in his way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If a man prepares his way after God’s principles (<a href='B:140 27:6'>2Ch 27:6</a>; <a href='B:240 4:26'>Pro 4:26</a>), then God will ‘prepare’ that man’s way too (<a href='B:230 37:23'>Psa 37:23</a>; <a href='B:230 119:5'>Psa 119:5</a>), confirming him in the way of escape. God “delights in every detail of their lives” (<a href='B:230 37:23'>Psa 37:23</a>); and the more we perceive that interest, the more we will live the purpose driven life. Yet the tendency is to just assume these gifts from God as what we have almost by right, and that He is willing for us to live the life He has given us without deeply analyzing our choices and decisions; that our talents are things we can use as we wish because they are what life dished up to us. But they have been granted by an eager Father, anxiously watching how we will use them in His &nbsp;service, not our own. Life is a test, a trust, rather than a few decades pursuing our own happiness. We have been made unique, with unique thumbprints, eyes, voices, and each heart beats to a different pattern. And of course all this is reflected in our unique emotional makeuPsa. All these things are given us to fulfill our unique role in the body of Christ- a part only we can play. We have a huge personal responsibility to use our lives for the God who gave them to us. What is made in His image- i:e. our bodies- must be given back to Him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When Solomon teaches that God must be allowed to establish or direct our way (<a href='B:240 4:26'>Pro 4:26</a>; <a href='B:240 16:29'>Pro 16:29</a>), he is using the same Hebrew words as in <a href='B:230 37:23'>Psa 37:23</a> and <a href='B:230 119:5'>Psa 119:5</a>, when David says the same. It’s as if he was given God’s truth and yet he never quite made it his very own- he still articulated it in terms of the faith of his fathers. And thus he lost it in the end:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with His hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As this was written at the end of David’s life (:25), he had in view his sin with Bathsheba.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yet the exiles and their children did "beg bread" (s:w. <a href='B:310 1:11'>Lam 1:11</a>). The implication therefore is that they did so because they were not righteous.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All day long he deals graciously, and lends. His seed is blessed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We will always be given enough to give to others- if that is what we want to do. The Lord's parable of the friend at midnight seems to be teaching the same (<a href='B:490 11:5-9'>Luk 11:5-9</a>). This is quite a challenging idea, in an age when masses live on minimum wage. The idea that 'If I get wealthy, I'll be generous' is quite different to God’s approach. If we see others' need, and we genuinely wish to meet it, then the resources to meet it will be provided- whether through our own hands or by other means.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Depart from evil, and do good. Live securely forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Depart from evil" could be read as an appeal to repentance; and this was especially relevant to the exiles. If they truly repented and did good, then they would receive eternal inheritance of the land. It is the phrase used to describe how Job hated evil (<a href='B:220 1:8'>Job 1:8</a>); and the exiles were bidden follow his pattern.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake His saints. They are preserved forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Eternal preservation is surely appropriate to the idea of eternity at the Lord's return.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the children of the wicked shall be cut off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wickedness of the wicked is that they influence their children to live in a way which will also merit condemnation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is in direct allusion to the promises to Abraham, and is quoted by the Lord in <a href='B:470 5:5'>Mat 5:5</a>. I noted on :4-6 that David may have in view 'imputed righteousness' when he speaks of "the righteous". He is writing this after his sin with Bathsheba, from which he had learned that lesson (:25). And yet it is possible that he reverted to his previous black and white view of God’s people as divided into sinners and righteous, with no attention paid to the fact that the righteous sin and things are not so black and white.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom, his tongue speaks justice-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The words of the righteous are connected with what is in their heart (:31); a fundamental connection repeated by the Lord in His teaching. The only other parallel between wisdom and justice is found in the description of David’s son Solomon (<a href='B:110 3:28'>1Ki 3:28</a>). But I have elsewhere suggested that even this was Solomon merely living out parental expectation, and finally he turned away from the way of wisdom and justice.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :30. David recognized elsewhere that his steps had slid (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). But at the end of his life, he reflects that the steps of the righteous don't slip (<a href='B:230 37:25'>Psa 37:25</a>; <a href='B:230 37:31'>Psa 37:31</a>). Perhaps David came to minimize his earlier slipping, especially in the matter of Bathsheba, in his old age. Or perhaps he was able to look back and see that despite temporary sliding of steps, ultimately the steps of the righteous don't slide in the overall path of their life:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the eyes of God also watch the righteous, as David often comments; indeed He "watches the nations" (<a href='B:230 66:7'>Psa 66:7</a>). And His Divine watching seeks to save us. In this contest between God and man, God will ultimately win.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The hand of the wicked does at times triumph over the righteous in this life, as David himself experienced. But the ultimate perspective is that at the last day, God will not condemn the righteous. This is to be the final perspective on all suffering of the righteous at the hand of the wicked.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wait for Yahweh, and keep His way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The righteous are to commit their way to Yahweh (:5). But by doing so, their way becomes His way.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And He will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The point of eternal inheritance of the land was to be at the same time as the righteous see the cutting off of the wicked. This implies the resurrection of both categories amongst God’s people to face judgment, and the righteous witnessing the condemnation of the wicked- which will not be to eternal punishment, but to the cutting off in "the second death".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "like the cedars of Libanus", perhaps a reference to the pride of the kings of Babylon, who are likened in the prophets to a tree being cut down.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of the passing away of Babylon and all her pomp (<a href='B:340 2:35'>Dan 2:35</a>). This was particular comfort for the exiles.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Note the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew appears to be similar to the LXX: "Maintain innocence, and behold uprightness: for there is a remnant to the peaceable man". Again this has particular comfort for the exiles, the remnant of Judah who were to be restored to the land- if they were upright.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the connection with the images of all Judah's enemies being destroyed together (<a href='B:340 2:35'>Dan 2:35</a>; see on :36).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But the salvation of the righteous is from Yahweh; He is their stronghold in the time of trouble-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although exiled from the stronghold of Zion, Judah would be saved by Yahweh being their stronghold. He could be a stronghold for His people far from Zion, as David learned in his times of exile. Yah's salvation is ultimately Yeshua, the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh helps them, and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked, and saves them, because they have taken refuge in Him- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea seems to be that they are rescued at some point after they have chosen to take refuge in God. "Saves" is the word commonly used in the restoration prophecies for the salvation of the exiles from Babylon (e.g. <a href='B:290 60:16'>Isa 60:16</a>). But to make that great salvation operational, they needed to consciously take refuge in Yahweh. <a href='B:290 57:13'>Isa 57:13</a> appears to allude to Psalms 37 : "He who puts his trust (s:w:) in Me shall inherit the land".</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David, for a memorial-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 38 appears to be David’s lament of his bad conscience, some time before he makes his confession of Psalms 51. But he wishes his situation then to be remembered, to be memorialized, perhaps because he perceived that so many sinners remain in that limbo position for too long, and need to move forward from a niggle about sin towards the full repentance which David came to. In the context of the exiles, they needed to also make this move; and the same word for "memorial" is used often of how they were intended to "remember" (<a href='B:290 44:21'>Isa 44:21</a>; <a href='B:290 46:8-9'>Isa 46:8-9</a>). "For a memorial" can be rendered "for the memorial offering" [LXX "for the sabbath", referencing some weekly memorial offering?], as if this Psalm was to be recited along with the memorial offering. And the equivalent for us is the breaking of bread. The idea of a memorial is not simply that our memory is jogged; it is also that God will be reminded, or 'rememberanced', hence those who pray are called God's rememberancers. He is put in mind of our plea for help in dealing with our sins and their consequences.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in Your wrath, neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The chastening or "discipline" is the word used for David’s experiences after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 6:1'>Psa 6:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:11'>Psa 39:11</a>). David had been open to Nathan's "rebuke" (<a href='B:230 141:5'>Psa 141:5</a>), which was not given in God’s wrath so much as in His appeal for David to accept His grace. But this verse is quoted in <a href='B:650 12:5-6'>Heb 12:5-6</a> about all of God’s children, who have to go through David’s basic experience in order to become the accepted sons of God. We do all have to be rebuked and chastened, even if like children, like David, we so fear it.</p><p>"Rebuke" is the word translated "chasten" in the promises of 2 Sam. 7:14: "If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men". Nathan's words to David in 2 Sam. 12 were clearly enough this "rebuke". We enquire whether David asks to be rebuked but not in God's wrath; or whether he asks overall not to be rebuked. We note his identical request in Ps. 6:1. The Hebrew word is sometimes translated 'to correct' (Hab. 1:12 "You established them for correction"), even 'to plead with'. David knows he has sinned, but fears the rebuke. Yet elsewhere in the Psalms he urges men to accept the rebuke / chastening / correction of Yahweh. The parallel seems to be in the way that David never rebuked his son Adonijah ["His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why have you done so?", 1 Kings 1:6]. This Psalm 38 features David crying out because of physical and mental affliction; and in later Psalms he says that this is how he was before he confessed his sin. So this Psalm is written before the rebuke from Nathan. David didn't want it, because he suspected it would involve judgment of his "house" or family. He knew he had 'committed iniquity' but didn't want the threatened 'chastening with the rod of men'. And therefore he delayed his confession of 'committing iniquity'. He said "I will [in future] declare my iniquity" (:18). He didn't do it immediately because he feared the consequences, and here in Ps. 38:1 he appears to be trying to cut a deal with God ahead of his intended confession, asking for the 'rebuke' not to come. But he is eventually overpowered by Nathan's rebuke and confesses- and receives the 'chastening' / rebuke he so feared. He acted in many ways like a child. Wanting to confess but fearing the promised consequence. We marvel at the detailed picture of David's psychological state; we could call it his psycho-spiritual state. For there is in every man such a struggle to confess sin as intended. </p><p> David clearly knows he's sinned and God is angry, and he has been struck with some illness- although as discussed later, this could be a stress induced episode rather than some Divine stroke. He begs for salvation from consequences, but there appears no focus upon his confession of sin and true repentance. </p><p>These words however reflect David's great fear of the consequences of his sin. I suggest on Ps. 51 that his strong urge for his sin to be entirely obliterated is because he feared taking the promised consequences for it. He was obsessed with building up his "house" physically and in terms of his family, disregarding the promises to him in 2 Sam. 7 that his Messianic seed was the one who would have and build an eternal house. So the consequences threatened- that evil would arise from his own house and that his house would thereby be judged and self destroyed- were almost a fate worse than death for him.  His prayer here is that of Ps. 6:1 "Rebuke me not in Your anger, nor discipline me in Your wrath". He didn't want Divine discipline, and reflects this by refusing to discipline his sons. Especially Adonijah: "His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why have you done so?" (1 Kings 1:6). This desire for consequence of sin to be removed is a major theme with David: "Consider my affliction [i.e. remove it] and forgive all my sins" (Ps. 25:18); "Remove Your scourge away from me" (Ps. 39:10); "Innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me. Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh" (Ps. 40:12,13). He asks for help and deliverance from the consequences, more than forgiveness. David clearly associates his sins with the consequences for them; and therefore, as discussed on Ps. 51, he seems to want the total eradication of his sin because he wants to be free of the consequences. Especially as those consequences meant that his "house" was not going to be as he planned. In the bigger picture, God was trying to get David to refocus away from any hope that his "house" would be the eternal fulfilment of God's promises, and rather onto the promised Messiah whose "house" would be eternal. So the judgments were not God lashing out in anger, but rather seeking to educate David. His final words possibly reflect how he did on one level 'get there': "Most certainly my house is not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He doesn’t make it grow", i.e. right now in my lifetime (2 Sam. 23:5).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Your arrows have pierced me, Your hand presses hard on me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Soon after the sin with Bathsheba, David was struck with an apparently terminal disease. He realized this was from God’s hand. His sense of being "pierced" means that the language becomes relevant to the piercing of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The Bathsheba psalms are so often those most relevant to the crucifixion experience; because there the Lord achieved total identity with sinful, condemned humanity. He felt exactly as David did- even though He was personally sinless. Solomon seems to comment upon God’s arrows piercing or 'entering' (s:w:) David when he wrote that "A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred lashes into a fool" (<a href='B:240 17:10'>Pro 17:10</a>). True as this is, Solomon was all the same justifying his father’s response to the rebuke of Nathan and the Divine arrows which 'entered deep' to David.</p><p>This pressing of God's hand is what he mentions as happening before he confessed his sin before Nathan: "When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy on me, my strength was dried" (Ps. 32:3,4). We get the impression David is saying 'Enough judgment and consequences!'. We have the same in Ps. 39:8-12: "Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish [but his sins obviously made him a reproach and laughing stock,  and God had said "by this deed you have given great occasion to Yahweh’s enemies to blaspheme" 2 Sam. 12:4]... Remove Your scourge away from me; I am overcome by the blow of Your hand [as if God's hand was too heavy on him, in his view]. When You rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his days like a moth... Hear my prayer, Yahweh". David's repeated requests to have his prayer heard suggests he was praying for the consequences to be taken away. He had already been assured of forgiveness. So what is he now pestering God to give him? He had forgiveness, he had assurance of final salvation in the promises of 2 Sam. 7. But he wanted more- he wanted a great life now free of consequence. All this suggests to me that he still failed to really register the depth of his sins, despite his repentance. For it's quite possible for man to repent and yet still not appreciate the dimensions of what he has done to others.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same language is used in the description of sinful Judah in <a href='B:290 1:6'>Isa 1:6</a>. David is used as a role model for their repentance. "Soundness" is literally shalom. David's lack of peace with God resulted in his body feeling physically not at peace and out of step with itself. David apparently had it in mind to make a full confession of sin (:18 "I will declare my iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin") but it seems he doesn't quite get to it because he is distracted by the fear of consequence and immediate suffering ("But my enemies are vigorous", :19). He could have fast tracked all this personal pain and suffering by making the confession.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my sins have gone over my head; as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It should be noted that the sin of adultery is not highlighted in Nathan's rebuke of David, but rather that David had " killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife" . This is twice emphasized in 12:9,10. This is not to say that the sin of weakness, of the moment, was irrelevant in God’s sight. But the emphasis on how he had taken Bathsheba as his wife hints that this had been his long term intention, further suggesting that his sin with her was the end result of much prior meditation. This further illuminates the way in which David speaks of his sin with Bathsheba as if it comprised a whole multitude of other sins: " I acknowledged my sin (singular) unto thee…I said, I will confess my transgressions (plural)" (<a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> cp. 38:3,4,18). <a href='B:230 25:7'>Psa 25:7</a> also occurs in a&nbsp; Bathsheba context: " Remember not the sins of my youth..." ; as if facing up to his sin with Bathsheba made David face up to sins of years ago, possibly also in a sexual context.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 38 speaks of how the guilt of his sin weighed so heavily upon him (<a href='B:230 38:4'>Psa 38:4</a> NIV), whereas <a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> describes how the guilt of sin has now been lifted from him- implying that he wrote Psalms 38 some time after the sin, but before repenting properly. The point is, he didn’t crash completely, he didn’t turn away from God in totality- he was still writing Psalms at the time!&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We must bear the burden either of our sins (<a href='B:370 2:13'>Amo 2:13</a>; <a href='B:290 58:6'>Isa 58:6</a>; <a href='B:230 38:4'>Psa 38:4</a>) or of the Lord's cross (<a href='B:550 6:4'>Gal 6:4</a> etc:). We will experience either the spiritual warfare of the striving saint (<a href='B:520 7:15-25'>Rom 7:15-25</a>), or the lusts of the flesh warring in our members, eating us up with the insatiability of sin (<a href='B:660 4:1'>Jas 4:1</a>; <a href='B:330 16:28-29'>Eze 16:28-29</a>). Either we will mourn now in repentance (<a href='B:490 6:25'>Luk 6:25</a>; the Greek for " mourn" is often in a repentance context), or we will mourn at the judgment (<a href='B:470 8:12'>Mat 8:12</a> etc:).</p><p>This complaint that his judgment is too heavy for him to bear is very much the spirit of Cain, complaining his punishment greater than he could bear and asking Him to lighten it, which God did (Gen. 4:13). LXX "my transgressions have gone over mine head: they have pressed heavily upon me like a weighty burden" connects with the reference to God's hand likewise "pressing" upon David (:2). His sins press down upon him, and so does God's hand- and David asks God to remove His hand. He fails to perceive that the problem is with his sin, which he needs to seriously deal with instead of bemoaning the results of it. The Lord Jesus clearly alludes to this in inviting men who are heavy laden to come to Him, because He will make the burden light. He thus presents every man as David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David clearly directly connected his illness with his sin. There was likely no medical truth in this; but God worked through his misunderstanding, just as He did through similar misunderstandings about demons in the first century. We may well enquire whether "foolishness" is not rather a mild term for what he had done (also used in <a href='B:230 69:5'>Psa 69:5</a>); surely "wickedness" would have been more appropriate. "Foolishness" is often used in Proverbs to refer to unwisdom and even silliness. But what David did surely requires more extreme language. We note that David has been quick to use a wide range of harsh adjectives and ideas in describing the wickedness of others like Saul who had tried to murder the innocent. And David had actually done so.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am pained-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me" (<a href='B:230 38:4'>Psa 38:4</a>) was spoken before David’s frank confession of Psalms 51. It therefore reveals how David felt swamped by his sense of sin; whilst recognizing it, he couldn't come to terms with explicitly confessing it. Every child of God must have come somewhere near to this feeling. The flesh can deceive us that just recognizing our sin somewhere in our consciousness is all that is needed. The lesson taught by David is that there is the need for frank and total confession; otherwise, the bad conscience will only deepen. "I am pained" (<a href='B:230 38:6'>Psa 38:6</a>) uses Hebrew which is elsewhere translated 'to commit iniquity' (<a href='B:230 106:6'>Psa 106:6</a>), 'to be crooked'. This is David recognizing 'I am a sinner'- but still this did not help him. Specific, uninhibited confession was still not forthcoming.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And bowed down greatly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The word can mean 'to humble'; and this is the required response to sin. David was representative of Israel in their sinfulness (s:w. <a href='B:230 107:39'>Psa 107:39</a>); they were intended to follow his path of penitence.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I go mourning all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Evidence of a psychological and emotional breakdown. David's mourning is stressed in his Psalms regarding Bathsheba. But his lack of mourning for the child who died is also strongly noted in the record. I suggest his mourning therefore was in order to beg God to relent of His judgments against him- he was worried about himself and not others whom he had hurt. He had been forgiven so the relenting he sought was, again, from the consequences of his sins. It was customary for the accused to appear before a court in mourning and David feels he is still before God's court and can somehow change the verdict a bit. “Whosoever comes before this court of the Sanhedrin to take his trial, presents himself in the guise of humility and fear, appealing to your compassion, with hair neglected, and clad in black garments.” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 14.9.3).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my waist is filled with burning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "a loathsome disease". Earlier David had used the word in describing himself as "lightly esteemed" (<a href='B:90 18:23'>1Sa 18:23</a>). What had been mere words expressing theoretical humility were now translated into actual ownership. Our expressions of humility likewise are brought into reality by God’s hand, often working through our own sins.  "Waist" is AV "loins". Although a different Hebrew word is used, the idea is as in 2 Chron. 6:9; David had been promised a son that would come from his "loins". "Of the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne" (Ps. 132:11). But now his body has no soundness in it, and his loins / waist area / private parts are "filled with a loathsome disease" (AV) / "burning". Again we see David's concern that the promises to him of a "house" and eternal seed would not be immediately fulfilled. But this was all a misunderstanding by him of the promises; for they concerned a future Messianic seed who would be God's Son, who would build a house of people for God's Name. So much of David's concern about the consequences of his sin relates to his effort not to relinquish his preferred interpretation of God's words of promise- rather than focus quietly and gratefully upon the future work of the Lord Jesus, the promised seed.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no soundness in my body-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The word used for Judah's woeful condition in <a href='B:290 1:6'>Isa 1:6</a>. It should be noted that David/Bathsheba language is used to describe Israel's spiritually fallen state (e.g. <a href='B:230 38:7'>Psa 38:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:6'>Isa 1:6</a>; <a href='B:230 51:7'>Psa 51:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:18'>Isa 1:18</a>; <a href='B:230 65:2'>Psa 65:2</a> = <a href='B:290 40:15'>Isa 40:15</a>). David recognized this in <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>, where he likens his own state to that of Zion, which also needed to be revived by God’s mercy. As David’s sin is likened to the killing of a lamb (<a href='B:100 12:4'>2Sa 12:4</a>), so the Jews killed Jesus. The troubles which therefore came upon his kingdom have certain similarities with the events of AD67-70:&nbsp; They were also repeated in the Nazi Holocaust, and will yet be. Israel are yet to fully repent after the pattern of David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am faint and severely bruised; I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"I have roared by reason of the disquietness (bad conscience) of my heart" (Ps. 38:8 AV). This helps us locate this Psalm at the time when he "kept silence" in not confessing his sin, before Nathan's rebuke. For "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring" (<a href='B:230 32:3'>Psa 32:3</a>) must refer to David’s roaring to God in prayer (<a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>) before&nbsp; David’s repentance, whilst keeping silent about his sin. In the same context he laments: "I have roared by reason of the disquietness (bad conscience) of my heart" (<a href='B:230 38:8'>Psa 38:8</a> AV). His very separation from God made him pray to God the more, pleading for some form of spiritual healing. But without realistic confession of sin, such prayer was shouting out words into the darkness. David found that attempting to have a relationship with God in such bad conscience only adds to the pain:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>So many of the phrases in the Bathsheba penitential psalms are used elsewhere about the Lord's sufferings. "I am faint and sore bruised" (R.V., as Ps. 51:8) is Is. 53:5,10 about the Lord's sufferings; David's silence before his accusers (:14) is also that of the Lord in His sufferings (Is. 53:7).  So in His sufferings for sin on the cross, the Lord was totally identified with sinners and even felt as we do in sin's separation from God. Thus He felt forsaken even though only sinners are forsaken by God (:20).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lord, all my desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All his desire was for forgiveness and salvation; and this was granted. At the end of his life (<a href='B:230 37:25'>Psa 37:25</a>), David reflected that if we "delight yourself in Yahweh... He will give you the desires of your heart" (<a href='B:230 37:4'>Psa 37:4</a>). The desires of the heart is paralleled in Psalms 37 with inheriting the land eternally. If this is our greatest desire, we shall receive it. This is a sublime truth. All those who truly love the Lord's appearing as the master passion of their lives- will be acceptable to Him (<a href='B:620 4:8'>2Ti 4:8</a>). This is why the hope of the Kingdom can never be a mere hobby, but is by its very nature the all consuming passion of human life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart throbs, my strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to heart problems and failing eyesight, perhaps suggesting David had suffered a stroke soon after sinning with Bathsheba. The language however seems tailored by him to allude to Job, whose sufferings he often feels he fellowshiPsa. And this is how we should be- seeing precedent in Biblical characters for all our experiences.  And yet as ever, we wonder at David's continued allusion to Job- an innocent man falsely accused of sin, who suffered despite his innocence. David likes to think of himself this way, but actually he was absolutely guilty, unlike Job.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague, my kinsmen stand far away-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is possible to infer that David and Bathsheba experienced a falling out of love immediately after the incident- as with many cases of adultery and fornication. In contrast to their previous close contact, she had to send to tell him that she was pregnant. In addition, before David’s repentance he appears to have suffered with some kind of serious disease soon after it: "My loins are filled with a loathsome (venereal?) disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh" (:7 AV). It is even possible that David became impotent as a result of this; for we get the impression that from this point onwards he took no other wives, he had no more children, and even the fail safe cure for hypothermia didn’t seem to mean much to David (<a href='B:110 1:1-4'>1Ki 1:1-4</a>). Therefore "My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore" (<a href='B:230 38:11'>Psa 38:11</a>) must refer to some kind of venereal disease. The Hebrew word translated " lovers" definitely refers to carnal love rather than that of friendship. It may be that an intensive plural is being used here- in which case it means 'my one great lover', i:e. Bathsheba. We have commented earlier how Amnon's obsessive love for Tamar was an echo of David’s relationship with Bathsheba. There may be a parallel in the way in which afterwards, "Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he loved her" (<a href='B:100 13:15'>2Sa 13:15</a>). All this would have been yet another aspect of the emotional trauma which David went through at this time; to fall out of love with the woman for which he had almost thrown away his eternal salvation. And in addition to this, all Israel would have got to know about what had happened- with a fair degree of exaggeration thrown in, we can be sure.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fact that the Father and Son right now accept us should strengthen against the pain of rejection both from the world we preach to, and from our brethren. Thus in <a href='B:230 38:11-15'>Psa 38:11-15</a> David laments at how rejected he is by all, and yet takes strength from God’s acceptance of him. Our conviction that we are accepted of Him should enable us to overcome the waves of rejection that inevitably accompany the preaching of the Gospel, and which discourage so many would-be preachers. We simply must believe that we will be there. David so often looks forward to the day of judgment with eagerness. David’s enthusiasm for the coming of judgment reflected his understanding that it will be a day of the display of Divine mercy.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Bathsheba Psalms all have special relevance to the Lord on the cross. His lovers, friends and kinsmen stood far off from Him, perhaps in a literal sense, perhaps far away from understanding Him. "All his acquaintances stood afar off" (Lk. 23:49). If Mary wasn't initially at the cross, John's connection between the dividing of the clothes and her being there would suggest that she had made the clothes. In any case, the four women at the cross are surely set up against the four soldiers there- who gambled over the clothes. Perhaps the other women had also had some input into the Lord’s clothing. "But there stood by the cross..." makes the connection between Mary and the clothes. It seems that initially, she wasn't there; He looked for comforters and found none (<a href='B:230 69:20'>Psa 69:20</a> - or does this imply that the oft mentioned spiritual difference between the Lord and His mother meant that He didn’t find comfort in her? Or she only came to the cross later?).</p><p>But "from my plague" uses the word specially used of leprosy (Lev. 13:3 etc.). His friends treat him as a leper, standing within sight but at a distance. His "close ones" (LXX "nearest of kin") were now no longer close but stand "afar off". This would suggest that leprosy was not Hansen's disease but a specific judgment by God- from which David was healed and cleansed by hyssop (Ps. 51). His "friends and neighbours" (LXX) would surely refer to his neighbour Bathsheba and her family; and that would also be the reference of MT "lovers and friends". </p><p>  It seems from Psalm 32 that David's illness was in the period between the sin regarding Uriah, and his repentance: "While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”, and you forgave the guilt of my sin". It would be fair to assume that he was struck with leprosy [or something that felt like it] at this time. We wonder therefore why he didn't repent earlier, when this was the obvious thing to do. The delay in repentance is significant- despite the prodding of his conscience by his illness and leprosy. The delay in such circumstances reflects David's proud stubbornness and refusal to openly repent. Even when Nathan prods his conscience with the parable, David initially still doesn't make the obvious connection to himself, and considers it a real situation rather than a parable aimed at himself. In all this we see his major problem with accepting personal sinfulness. </p><p> 
Looking at all the symptoms described in this Psalm, it seems we have here an episode of psychotic depression. David may well have felt this as being "leprosy" even though it may not have been: depressed mood (:6), despair and anxiety (:8), tachycardia [heart throbbing], anergy, anhedonia (:10); and his deafness and muteness in :13,14 would refer to "sensory inattention, inability to concentrate, with depressive mutism or psychomotor retardation". </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They also who seek after my life lay snares, those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems that there were plots against David immediately after his sin with Bathsheba- although the historical records don't appear to mention them. Bathsheba's grandfather, Ahithophel, later sided with Absalom against David. But the language here is relevant to Saul's persecution. David perhaps rewrote a wilderness Psalm with relevance to his later situation, perceiving that circumstances repeat in the life of the believer, and what he had learnt from one situation was to be applied to later ones in our lives.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to how David didn’t hear or see the plans to overthrow him- because he didn’t want to. Just as Samson chose not to perceive in reality that Delilah was going to betray him despite knowing she would, and as the Lord knew Judas would betray Him, but trusted him as His own familiar friend. David likewise must have known the deceit of Ahithophel and Absalom; but he chose not to see it, for love’s sake. See on <a href='B:230 41:9'>Psa 41:9</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or we can read this as meaning that he didn’t pay attention to the bad things said about him at this time. Maybe he was alluding to how Saul, when likewise criticized by “sons of belial”, “was as though he had been deaf” to their words (<a href='B:90 10:27'>1Sa 10:27</a> RVmg:). He saw the good in Saul, he remembered that one good example he showed- and it empowered him to follow it. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on <a href='B:230 51:4'>Psa 51:4</a>. We along with all the righteous ought to “shout for joy” that David really was forgiven (<a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>)- for there is such hope for us now. David is our example. And yet the intensity of David’s repentance must be ours. He hung his head as one in whose mouth there were no more arguments, hoping only in the Lord’s grace (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> RVmg:). In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> AV). The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. </p><p>Possibly David later bitterly resented the rebuke of Nathan. And this was why he refused to rebuke his son Adonijah: “His father had never rebuked him by asking, ‘Why do you behave as you do?’ He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom” (1 Kings 1:6). Possibly this was because he didn't appreciate the seriousness of sin. The usual line of interpretation is of course that David felt unable to rebuke anyone because of his sin, and he became willfully naive and deaf to political intrigue against him, and generally uncritical of others: "I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs" (Ps. 38:14). That would be an understandable psychological reaction to his sin and the consequences.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For in You, Yahweh, do I hope. You will answer, Lord my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s Psalms written before the sin with Bathsheba reflect a profound sense of God’s grace. Now this theoretical awareness is tested in practice. David knows he is guilty of death under the Mosaic law; there is no sacrifice prescribed for his gross sins. And yet he appears so positive of being answered by God. It's wonderful how God uses sin and all manner of human dysfunction in order to help us actualize our previously theoretical understandings of His love and grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I said, Don’t let them gloat over me, or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recognized that his steps had slid (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). But at the end of his life, he reflects that the steps of the righteous don't slip (<a href='B:230 37:25'>Psa 37:25</a>; <a href='B:230 37:31'>Psa 37:31</a>). Perhaps David came to minimize his earlier slipping, especially in the matter of Bathsheba, in his old age. Or perhaps he was able to look back and see that despite temporary sliding of steps, ultimately the steps of the righteous don't slide in the overall path of their life:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I am ready to fall; my pain is continually before me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"In mine adversity (Heb. tsela, limping) they rejoiced" (<a href='B:230 35:15'>Psa 35:15</a>), "I am ready to halt (tsela) and my sorrow (repentance) is continually before me" (<a href='B:230 38:17'>Psa 38:17</a>) uses a word which occurs elsewhere mainly in the context of Jacob limping after the night of wrestling (<a href='B:10 32:31'>Gen 32:31</a>). This is one of many of David’s allusions to Jacob.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many of the Psalms understood by the Jews as relevant to the Nazi holocaust are Bathsheba Psalms. “Out of the depths” they cried like David; and at the entrance to Bergen-Belsen it stands written: “My sorrow is continually before me” (<a href='B:230 38:17'>Psa 38:17</a>), in recognition of having received punishment for sin [note how these kind of plaques contain no trace of hatred or calling for Divine retribution upon the persecutors]. See on <a href='B:540 7:7-11'>2Co 7:7-11</a>:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s genuine sorrow for his sin during this period is still a powerful exhortation to us, whose every sin must be repented of and forgiven after the pattern of David’s repentance. The extent of his sorrow is heavily stressed: "My sorrow is continually before me... my sin is ever before me" (<a href='B:230 38:17'>Psa 38:17</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>). How much sorrow is there for our sins? Have the years mellowed our terror at sin? Things which once appalled us can so easily become sins of habit, the real sorrow we once experienced on committing them can be watered down to just a vague tickle of conscience. The significance of David’s sin and repentance being held up as an example of our own should be a good antidote against such problems. The chilling thing is, despite all this awareness of his sin during the nine month period, when he was told the parable by Nathan- he just didn’t see it. Every part of the story had such relevant application, but David was blinded to it. He knew he had sinned, but this was only on a surface level. “Thou art the man” was still news to him. We have commented that “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments” (<a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a>) was likely written by David with his mind on his follies relating to Bathsheba. The point, is in the ‘lost’ state, he still remembered the commandments. He didn’t turn his back on God; and neither do we, in our semi-spiritual unspirituality. We can likewise be blinded to true, personal understanding of God’s message because of our refusal to truly repent. Corinth and the Hebrews could not understand the strong meet of the word because they were divided; their divisiveness hindered their understanding. Husbands and wives find their prayers hindered unless they are themselves united:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I will declare my iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We can read this as David resolving to in the future declare his sin to God. But he is distracted in the next verse by his fear of the consequences for his sin, and it was this which delayed his repentance. Or we can read this as meaning that David through his Psalms was publically declaring his sin. "For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin" (<a href='B:230 38:17-18'>Psa 38:17-18</a>) may mean that David was so swamped by the trauma of the sin and the distancing from God which he was experiencing, that he could only vaguely resolve that some time in the future he would get down to a serious prayer session, in which he would analyze and confess his sin. But instead he goes on desperately pleading "O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me...". Our own sins so often gives us a nagging conscience; not because we are consciously trying to pretend that we never sinned, but because we will not make the effort to overcome the circumstances which stop us making the mental effort necessary to put ourselves straight with God:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Declare" is the word used for David’s declaration of praise after his forgiveness concerning Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 51:15'>Psa 51:15</a>). The "truth" which David declared after his forgiveness (<a href='B:230 30:9'>Psa 30:9</a>) was the ultimate truth, of God’s forgiveness of him by grace; a 'declaring' of his sin (<a href='B:230 38:18'>Psa 38:18</a> s:w:) and God’s forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David apparently had it in mind to make a full confession of sin (:18 "I will declare my iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin") but it seems he doesn't quite get to it because he is distracted by the fear of consequence and immediate suffering ("But my enemies are vigorous", :19).
"Without reason" reflects again David’s deep sense of injustice (see on <a href='B:230 35:7'>Psa 35:7</a>). He uses the word for "false witness", as if they were breaking one of the ten commandments; and he uses it often, heaping condemnation upon any who dare lie / bear false witness about him (<a href='B:230 38:19'>Psa 38:19</a>; <a href='B:230 52:3'>Psa 52:3</a>; <a href='B:230 63:11'>Psa 63:11</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:29'>Psa 119:29</a>; <a href='B:230 119:69'>Psa 119:69</a>; <a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a>; <a href='B:230 120:2'>Psa 120:2</a>; <a href='B:230 144:8'>Psa 144:8</a>; <a href='B:230 144:11'>Psa 144:11</a>). And yet David lied and deceived in order to get Uriah killed so that he could take his wife for himself. Surely reflection upon that sin made him realize that his zeal to condemn dishonesty was at best misplaced; to lament it is one thing, but David was to be taught that he had himself done the very thing he so condemned. We sense that he has not yet come to full recognition of the enormity of his sin; for to complain that his sufferings are "without reason" is inappropriate given what he did. The implication is that he feels that their hatred is based on misconception and misrepresentation. He appears to have no real sense of the dimensions of his sin and how the punishments are just and appropriate. This is finally true of all who lament that their sufferings are unfair. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They who also render evil for good are adversaries to me, because I follow what is good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :19, we sense that David’s sense of outrage and injustice, insisting he has done "good", is inappropriate considering the enormity of his sin. He still has to come to a fullness of repentance; and indeed it could be argued from some of the post Bathsheba Psalms that he perhaps failed to have the depth of repentance he might have done, or at least rationalized his behaviour over the years. What clearly irks David is his sense of injustice done to him, and their ingratitude. David appears to just not get it, that he has sinned and is spared death only by grace. His sense is "Those repaying evil instead of goodness act as adversaries (against me) because of my pursuing good". But David... you are suffering for your sin of presumption, murder of your own faithful men and adultery. And lying through your teeth about it all. But you say that you suffer because of your doing good? We have no alternative than to conclude David really doesn't register the full dimensions of his sins. I doubt he ever did, but still God forgave him. Just as we are to accept the "Sorry about all that..." from people who clearly have no real conception of what damage their actions caused- or just don't wish to try to fully perceive it. </p><p>  Throughout this Psalm, and many of David's penitential Psalms [are they really that, we ask...], the language without doubt alludes to Job. The descriptions of the physical and mental sufferings are all taken from Job. David clearly saw Job as his hero- a righteous man who suffered not because he had sinned, and who lost his wife and friends and standing in society because of it. But this wasn't the case with David- he was suffering a very light form of judgment for behaviour which deserved instant death. But he likes to see himself as Job the innocent sufferer...  </p><p>  What should David have done, instead of just desperately trying to remove the consequences of his sin and bemoaning the unfairness of his punishment? Surely he should have resigned as leader of the army and as king, asked Nathan and Gad to ask God to find another king, resign from being king, and live in humble awe at the promises made to him. And perhaps focus on his music ministry and fulfilling his promise to teach others about morality. But he clung on to power as men tend to. And it was all a misery for him and all concerned. </p><p> David is not alone in chafing under the consequences of sin. We are often so hurt by the misbehaviour of others toward us but this is because we fail to appreciate that we ought to be dead, and are alive by grace alone. Likewise we like David may repent but without appreciating the huge dimensions of our sins and their impact upon others. Or others may apologize to us for sinning against us, yet we know they have absolutely no idea of the damage caused. Yet God accepted David's repentance. He accepts ours and that of others who sinned against us...</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t forsake me, Yahweh. My God, don’t be far from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David prayed at the time of the Bathsheba incident for God not be far from him nor forsake him (<a href='B:230 38:21'>Psa 38:21</a>). But in <a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>; <a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a> he feels he has been forsaken and that God is "far off". But Psalms 22 is absolutely the feelings of the Lord Jesus on the cross- because He was so intensely identified with sinners. I noted on <a href='B:230 22:3'>Psa 22:3</a> that the historical context of that Psalm was the sin with Bathsheba. The plea for God not to "be far from me" is common (<a href='B:230 22:11'>Psa 22:11</a>; <a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 35:22'>Psa 35:22</a>; <a href='B:230 38:21'>Psa 38:21</a>; <a href='B:230 71:12'>Psa 71:12</a>). The emphasis perhaps is to be placed upon David not wanting God to be far from him, seeing that he felt others were 'far' from him (s:w. <a href='B:230 88:8'>Psa 88:8</a>; <a href='B:230 88:18'>Psa 88:18</a>). He accepted his social and psychological isolation from others, but he didn’t want God to be likewise far off from him. In the context of the exiles, God was willing to not be 'far off' from the exiles if they repented (<a href='B:290 46:13'>Isa 46:13</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hurry to help me, Lord, my salvation- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God’s voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 38 appears to be David’s lament of his bad conscience, some time before he makes his confession of Psalms 51. Psalms 38 shows that David certainly had some faith in God before his confession: "Forsake me not... make haste to help&nbsp; me, O Lord my salvation" (<a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>). Yet it is possible to intensely believe in the mercy of God, His ability to save, and yet not have the real faith- which is to believe that this mercy and salvation really can still apply to us personally. Thus he prays "Make me to hear joy and gladness" (<a href='B:230 51:8'>Psa 51:8</a>). His introspective world of sin and self-hate found joy a paradigm impossible to relate to; as with mercy and salvation, he knew spiritual joy existed, but seemed unable to make this apply to him personally:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>We note all the personal pronouns now used in his relationship with God. "My God... God of my salvation". David had been excluded in shame from society and suffered loss of relationships because of his sin. But this actually brought him closer to his only friend- God. Against whom he had sinned. </p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is similar to Psalms 38, 40, and they all appear to be David’s reflections upon his sin with Bathsheba and his sufferings and resolutions which arose from that. Jeduthun was perhaps "the chief musician" who was to perform the Psalms or teach them to others ().</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I said, I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through&nbsp; David’s repentance he obviously learnt from his sin, as we can from each of ours. <a href='B:230 32:9'>Psa 32:9</a> comments that men ought to learn from David’s example, and not be as horses who must have their mouths kept in with a bridle. In <a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a> David reminisces how he had earlier said [before his sin with Bathsheba] that he would stop himself sinning by restraining himself with a bridle. He learnt that sheer will power is not enough; blind resolution to simply ‘obey’ will fail. Instead, it is a living relationship with the Father, a deep sense of His glory, that creates an environment of life where we just won’t do what David did with Bathsheba. This was what he learnt, and this is what he was so eager to pass on to us in the post-Bathsheba Psalms of&nbsp; David’s repentance.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I was mute with silence; I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This clearly connects with <a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a>. He hung his head as one in whose mouth there were no more arguments, hoping only in the Lord’s grace (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> RVmg:). In describing his feelings after the Bathsheba experience, David comments that he was "as a man that hears not [the taunts of others against him], and in whose mouth are no rebukes" (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> AV), as if he was "mute". The pre-Bathsheba Psalms present David as a man who was so easily hurt by the taunts of others, and whose mouth was indeed full of rebuke of others. &nbsp;Or we can read this as meaning that he didn’t pay attention to the bad things said about him at this time. Maybe he was alluding to how Saul, when likewise criticized by “sons of belial”, "held his peace" and “was as though he had been deaf” to their words (<a href='B:90 10:27'>1Sa 10:27</a> RVmg:). He saw the good in Saul, he remembered that one good example he showed- and it empowered him to follow it. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned: I spoke with my tongue-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This again alludes to some of the scenes in the book of Job, where the friends and Elihu feel an answer brewing up within them, and eventually they let their tongues speak out the thoughts which were boiling up within them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was so sick and depressed that he felt he only had some days left to live, and he asked to be told how long he had left. Or we could read somewhat deeper; as if David recognized his sin, but had not yet come to the full repentance required (see on <a href='B:230 38:1'>Psa 38:1</a>). He realized that, and asked to be taught his frailty.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, you have made my days mere handbreadths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is effectively the answer to his prayer in :4 to be shown his frailty. So often in the Psalms, the answer appears to come during the prayer. I doubt this was because of a flash of supernatural revelation. Rather, as is so true in our own prayer lives, the answers to our questions become apparent within our prayer, as we pray on and remain in God’s presence.We note that Moses in Ps. 90 had this same feeling in his depression, that God somehow doesn't 'get' our mortality and the brevity of our lives- seeing He is from eternity to eternity. But this depressed moment led him to the wonder of the fact that through forgiveness of sin [seeing that death is the wages of sin], we have "hope". Of life eternal, by implication (:7,8). In David's context, these may be his thoughts as he assumed he would have to die for his sin regarding Bathsheba; but he realizes that even if he does, forgiveness of sin means hope for life eternal.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The references to "every man" (:5 also) are typical of the Bathsheba Psalms; David on one hand could be accused of rationalizing his great sins by arguing that he is only human, like other men. Or we could more generously argue that he saw the grace poured out to him as programmatic for all men, seeing all are serious sinners.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In Ecclesiastes, Solomon comes to conclude that although he had heaped up riches, his life was vanity- indeed, all is vanity, because one doesn’t know how wise will be the person to whom one leaves their life achievements. And yet one of David’s songs which Solomon must have sung went like this: “Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” (<a href='B:230 39:6'>Psa 39:6</a>). Solomon didn’t think about the implications of the words of his dad’s hymns. It took him&nbsp; a lifetime to learn the truth of them for himself, and by then it was too late (so it seems to me). So with us, to learn and heed wisdom rather than have to learn it all again by experience- this is one of the hardest things for us, especially if our background was in a home of truth and wisdom.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s hope was simply "You", God; by which he surely means, relationship with God restored. David was waiting for nothing else apart from that. This is the equivalent thought to that in <a href='B:230 38:9'>Psa 38:9</a> "Lord, all my desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You". All his desire was for forgiveness and salvation; and this was granted. At the end of his life (<a href='B:230 37:25'>Psa 37:25</a>), David reflected that if we "delight yourself in Yahweh... He will give you the desires of your heart" (<a href='B:230 37:4'>Psa 37:4</a>). The desires of the heart is paralleled in Psalms 37 with inheriting the land eternally. If this is our greatest desire, we shall receive it. This is a sublime truth. All those who truly love the Lord's appearing as the master passion of their lives- will be acceptable to Him (<a href='B:620 4:8'>2Ti 4:8</a>). This is why the hope of the Kingdom can never be a mere hobby, but is by its very nature the all consuming passion of human life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me from all my transgressions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At this point, David doesn't feel totally delivered from his sins. He has still to come to the total assurance of repentance and forgiveness, whereby in later Psalms he can describe himself as "righteous", so confident was he of imputed righteousness by faith through grace. "Redeem / deliver me from the hand..." is again a quotation from Jacob's words when he found his relative Esau barring his path back home (<a href='B:10 32:11'>Gen 32:11</a>; <a href='B:10 32:30'>Gen 32:30</a>). And the word is used of David’s desire for deliverance from Saul (<a href='B:90 26:24'>1Sa 26:24</a>); and yet this was a redemption unappreciated by him as it ought to have been (<a href='B:100 12:7'>2Sa 12:7</a>). Finally David recognized that this prayer was answered (<a href='B:100 22:18'>2Sa 22:18</a>; <a href='B:100 22:49'>2Sa 22:49</a>). As David had earlier prayed for redemption / deliverance from Saul and his enemies (<a href='B:230 31:15'>Psa 31:15</a>; <a href='B:230 59:1'>Psa 59:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a>), he would later pray for redemption / deliverance from his sins (<a href='B:230 39:8'>Psa 39:8</a>; <a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Despite claiming to have forgiveness as his only hope and desire (see on :7), his fear of shame before others clearly remains.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because You did it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> This could refer to how David suffered a stroke after his sin with Bathsheba, and for some time couldn't speak. See on :2. Another explanation of his silence could be to how David didn’t hear or see the plans to overthrow him- because he didn’t want to. Just as Samson chose not to perceive in reality that Delilah was going to betray him despite knowing she would, and as the Lord knew Judas would betray Him, but trusted him as His own familiar friend. David likewise must have known the deceit of Ahithophel and Absalom; but he chose not to see it, for love’s sake. See on <a href='B:230 41:9'>Psa 41:9</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Remove Your scourge away from me; I am overcome by the blow of Your hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Remove" is the word used for how violence would never depart from David because of his sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:100 12:10'>2Sa 12:10</a>). David prayed for this to "depart" but it never did. David was open to the possibility that through prayer, God can remove the consequences of sin in this life; but such prayer is not always answered. But the "scourge" more comfortably refers to David’s illness. It has been observed that the Psalms contain several usages of language which is specifically related to leprosy. It could be that David was struck with some form of leprosy after the sin. See on :11.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When You rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his days like a moth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The correcting or "discipline" is the word used for David’s experiences after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 6:1'>Psa 6:1</a>; <a href='B:230 38:1'>Psa 38:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:11'>Psa 39:11</a>). “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth: because thou didst it... when thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth” (<a href='B:230 39:9'>Psa 39:9</a>; <a href='B:230 39:11'>Psa 39:11</a>) may all suggest David suffered some kind of stroke, leaving him dumb and without his legendary beauty. In all this he was brought to know the spirit of Christ crucified, in whom there was no beauty that he should be desired, and who was dumb as a lamb before her shearers. The links between the Bathsheba Psalms about&nbsp; David’s repentance and the crucifixion are copious. The Lord on the cross came to know the feelings of David after his sin, He felt a leprous sinner although He never committed sin, so that even when we sin we are not in that sense separated from our Lord. He even then has a fellow feeling with every failure:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely every man is but a breath. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Constantly in the Bathsheba Psalms, David sees his experience as that of every man. The same radical grace is available to us all. The "Selah" in this Psalm is clearly the equivalent of breaking the Psalm into stanzas, even if they are of differing lengths; in this Psalm the divisions are clearly marked by the "Selah". From :1-5, then :6-11, and now :12 to the end.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who we are as persons is effectively our prayer and plea to God. This conception of prayer explains why often weeping, crying, waiting, meditating etc. are spoken of as "prayer", although there was no specific verbalizing of requests (<a href='B:230 5:1-2'>Psa 5:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 6:8'>Psa 6:8</a>; <a href='B:230 18:1-3'>Psa 18:1-3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:6'>Psa 18:6</a>; <a href='B:230 40:1'>Psa 40:1</a>; <a href='B:230 42:8'>Psa 42:8</a>; <a href='B:230 64:1'>Psa 64:1</a> Heb:; 65:1,2; 66:17-20; <a href='B:450 8:22'>Zec 8:22</a>). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: <a href='B:90 1:10'>1Sa 1:10</a>; <a href='B:230 39:12'>Psa 39:12</a>; <a href='B:230 55:1-2'>Psa 55:1-2</a>; <a href='B:500 11:41-42'>Joh 11:41-42</a>; <a href='B:650 5:7'>Heb 5:7</a>, especially in the Lord's life and the Messianic Psalms. "The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer" (<a href='B:230 6:8-9'>Psa 6:8-9</a>) crystallizes the point.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I am a stranger with You, a foreigner, as all my fathers were-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again David pleads his connection with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He too has had no continuing city, has been treated as a foreigner, and thereby he feels he is one of the seed of Abraham, and appeals for the same grace to be shown to him what had been shown to the fathers.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh spare me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David respected God’s words (<a href='B:230 119:117'>Psa 119:117</a>), so he asks God to spare or respect him (s:w:). This is not to be read as meaning that Bible study assures a man of salvation; but rather that there is a mutuality in relationship between God and man. Our respect of His words is reflected in His saving respect of us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That I may recover strength, before I go away, and exist no more- Clearly enough, David saw death as unconsciousness and non-existence; rather than envisaging an immortal soul going to heaven after death. David concludes his prayer with a stubborn refusal to accept the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, asking to be restored from the stroke he had suffered. And by grace God heard this, because he apparently did recover from the stroke. The next Psalm, Ps. 40, appears to be his thanksgiving for this. We would rather have this psalm / prayer concluding with a joyful acceptance of God's grace and his sure hope of eternal life. Instead he concludes by harking back to his basic desire for the consequences of his sin to be lifted.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is similar to Psalms 38, 39 [and parts of it are repeated in Psalms 70], and they all appear to be David’s reflections upon his sin with Bathsheba and his sufferings and resolutions which arose from that. Jeduthun was perhaps "the chief musician" (<a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>) who was to perform the Psalms or teach them to others (1 Chron. 16:41,42,44; 25:3-6).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David now emerges from all his desperate prayers in Psalms 38, 39 whilst sick after the sin with Bathsheba. He triumphs in total rescue from the situation because he presumably was feeling better. But we know that the consequences of the sin were to continue for him. His cry was not completely heard, and his cries of the previous two Psalms were hardly 'waiting patiently for Yahweh'. Like us, he imagines total answer to prayer when in fact things are not that simple. And he has failed in appreciating that the essential desire he had was for forgiveness (see on <a href='B:230 38:9'>Psa 38:9</a>; <a href='B:230 39:7'>Psa 39:7</a>). He recognizes later in this Psalm that the consequences of his sin continue, and he asks for them also to be removed, despite Nathan's words to him to the effect that they would continue. See on :17.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He likens himself to Joseph in the pit, who was saved from it. But Joseph was innocent; David wasn't. And again we get a hint that his repentance was not as total as it might have been. His later Psalms continue to present himself as righteous and suffering "without a cause". When there was a cause.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:290 42:9-10'>Isa 42:9-10</a> says that we sing the “new song” now, because we sing / meditate of the “new things” which will be in the Kingdom. In that day, we will “sing a new song” (<a href='B:730 5:9'>Rev 5:9</a>; <a href='B:730 14:3'>Rev 14:3</a>). And yet this is undoubtedly picking up on the way in which we can now sing the ‘new song’, every morning (<a href='B:230 33:3'>Psa 33:3</a>; <a href='B:230 40:3'>Psa 40:3</a>; <a href='B:230 96:1'>Psa 96:1</a>; <a href='B:230 98:1'>Psa 98:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:9'>Psa 144:9</a>; <a href='B:230 149:1'>Psa 149:1</a>). This was how David felt after receiving God’s grace over the Bathsheba incidents. Likewise, all things will be made new at the Lord’s coming (<a href='B:730 21:5'>Rev 21:5</a>), and yet those in whom the new creation is worked out already have all things made new in their spiritual experience (<a href='B:540 5:17-18'>2Co 5:17-18</a>). The life that the Lord Jesus had and now lives is the essence of the Kingdom life. Who He was and is, this is the definition of the Kingdom life. It’s why one of His titles is “the kingdom of God” (<a href='B:490 17:21'>Luk 17:21</a>). And it’s why it can be said that we ‘have’ eternal life now, in that we can live the essence of the life we will eternally live, right now.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even in the Old Testament, the idea of living in a spirit of newness of life is to be found. David six times invites us to sing with him “a new song” (<a href='B:230 33:3'>Psa 33:3</a>; <a href='B:230 40:3'>Psa 40:3</a>; <a href='B:230 96:1'>Psa 96:1</a>; <a href='B:230 98:1'>Psa 98:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:9'>Psa 144:9</a>; <a href='B:230 149:1'>Psa 149:1</a> cp. <a href='B:290 42:10'>Isa 42:10</a>). Invariably these songs are associated with the experience of God’s redemption (cp. <a href='B:730 5:9'>Rev 5:9</a>). Obviously those ‘new songs’ were intended to be repeatedly sung. Our regular experience of forgiveness and redemption should urge us onwards in the spirit of ‘newness of life’. Like Paul we die daily with the Lord, and the power of His resurrection life likewise daily breaks out in us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt able to praise God despite having many of his prayers and issues still unanswered (:14-17). The experience of forgiveness was enough for him, as it should be for us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we see David convinced that his judgment and forgiveness would lead others to trust in God’s grace, just as he had done. This is critical in coping with suffering- to perceive that whatever we suffer is not simply for ourselves, but so that we might share the comfort we receive with others likewise suffering (<a href='B:540 1:4-7'>2Co 1:4-7</a>). This was why David wrote these Psalms and handed them to the chief musician for mass distribution (see on :1).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even in apparent contrition and joy at grace received, David seems unable to rejoice in it without a sideways swipe at others. He considers his enemies proud, and to be serving idols- for that is the sense of "turn aside to lies". And indeed idolatry was prevalent in Israel, and amongst David’s enemies. Again we have the hint that his repentance was not as thoroughgoing as we might have expected. Note that 'trusting Yahweh' is the antithesis of 'respecting the proud'. We trust that which we respect. It concerns me that some professed believers in God show huge respect to the idols and iconic people of this world, who are nothing but proud and idolatrous. If we respect the modern day idols, we will trust in them. If our respect for God is so great that we respect nobody and nothing else, then we will trust in Him. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many, Yahweh my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to You. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> As we also find in Ps. 139, David perceives that God thinks more about us than we can ever possibly understand, seeing our thoughts afar off before they come into our minds, seeing our downsitting and uprising. This is a profound truth and comfort. Especially when we connect God's untellable thoughts toward us with the fact that we have sinned more times than we can number (:12,13). He 'thinks' about each of those sins and forgives. Yet through these Psalms, David is indeed declaring God’s grace to him (see on :10). But he says he does so with a great sense of inadequacy; for he cannot render back to God according to the grace shown him. Hezekiah is condemned for this (<a href='B:140 32:25'>2Ch 32:25</a>). And yet David admits this is how man is, faced with the extent of God’s grace to him. We have here another example of how two men may do the same thing [here, not rendering back according to God’s grace], and yet be judged differently according to their attitude of mind.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sacrifice and offering You didn’t desire. You have digged my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was aware that God didn’t really want sacrifice, or else he would so eagerly have offered it (<a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>). But there were no sacrifices prescribed for his sins of adultery and murder. Instead, David perceived that what God wanted in essence was a broken and contrite spirit. The Bathsheba incident was programmatic for David’s understanding of God, and his prayers and psalms subsequently can be expected to have constant allusion back to it. We meet the same idea of God not ultimately wanting sacrifice in <a href='B:230 40:6-9'>Psa 40:6-9</a>: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire [but instead] mine ears hast thou opened [Heb. 'digged'- a reference to a servant being permanently committed as a slave to his master]: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come... to do thy will... thy law is within my heart". In <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>, David had reasoned that instead of sacrifice, God wanted a heart that was broken and contrite. Here he reflects that instead of sacrifice, God wants a heart that has the law of God within it. This ultimately is the effect of God’s law being in our heart- it creates a broken and contrite heart. But how? In the experience of most of us, the law does this through convicting us of our inability to keep the it. And so we see how guilt and grace work so seamlessly together. David’s broken heart was a heart which knew he had sinned, sinned irreversibly, and condemned himself. But this, he perceived, was the result of God’s law being within his heart. But the words of <a href='B:230 40:6-9'>Psa 40:6-9</a> are applied in the New Testament to the Lord's death upon the cross. What's the connection, and what's the lesson? In essence, through David’s experience of sin, and the work of God’s law upon his heart, he came through that sin to have the very mind of the Lord Jesus as He hung upon the cross, matchless and spotless in His perfection, as the Lamb for sinners slain. Again and again we see the lesson taught- that God works through human sin, in this case, in order to bring us to know the very mind of Christ in His finest hour of glory and spiritual conquest. We must not only let God’s word work its way in us; but we need to recognize when dealing with other sinners that God likewise is working with them. He doesn't shrug and walk away from sin; He earnestly seeks to use our experience of it to bring us closer unto Himself.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on <a href='B:230 20:3'>Psa 20:3</a>, success in war and answer to prayer was thought to depend upon the offering of sacrifice. After the sin with Bathsheba, David now matures in his understanding- that salvation and God’s operation with His people is by grace and not because He desired sacrifice (<a href='B:230 40:6'>Psa 40:6</a>; <a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This passage is quoted of the Lord Jesus in <a href='B:650 10:5-12'>Heb 10:5-12</a>. It was the Lord's love of the word which made Him endure the cross and obtain that great salvation, both for Himself and for us. His crucifixion was likened to His ear (His hearing of the word) being nailed to an upright piece of wood (cp. the cross; <a href='B:20 21:6'>Exo 21:6</a> = <a href='B:230 40:6-8'>Psa 40:6-8</a> = <a href='B:650 10:5-12'>Heb 10:5-12</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;Paul perceives that firstly, there was the statement that God did not desire animal sacrifices of themselves in order to remove sin; and secondly, the Lord Jesus came to do God’s will, in a way which animals simply could not do. This division into first and second is pressed into a similarity with the first and second covenants, as noted on <a href='B:650 9:1'>Heb 9:1</a>. God’s desire was that sacrifice should be offered under the Old Covenant, but this could not take away sin of itself. What He desired far more ['not A but B' can mean 'not so much A as B'] was the sacrifice of the One who did His will perfectly.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"You have digged my ears" is quoted differently in <a href='B:650 10:5'>Heb 10:5</a> as "a body did You prepare for me". God did want sacrifices, but not for the sins David had committed concerning Uriah and Bathsheba. The Greek word "body" is also translated "slave" (<a href='B:730 18:13'>Rev 18:13</a>). The idea cannot be that a body was prepared on earth, and some Divine Spirit incarnated it and the body became known as 'Jesus of Nazareth'. As noted above, the primary reference of the Psalms 40 quotation is to David after his sin with Bathsheba reflecting that sacrifices were not appropriate, and all he could do was to offer himself as the humble servant of Yahweh for the rest of his days. In any case, reading this as meaning that the 'Spirit Jesus' came down from Heaven and lived inside a specially prepared body is reading too much in to the words. Jesus began as an egg within Mary, which divided and re-divided until it became a fetus, then a child and thence "the man Christ Jesus". Jesus 'was' the body; He didn’t somehow enter into a body which was prepared somewhere on earth. I therefore suggest that we read "body" as "slave" or "servant". And this is in fact what the Hebrew text implies in Psalms 40; Paul is quoting here from the Septuagint, but the Hebrew reads: "My ears You have digged / bored" (<a href='B:230 40:6'>Psa 40:6</a>). The allusion is to how a servant could choose to remain within his master's house as a permanent slave because he so loved his wife and family and his master; and in this case his ear was bored through and nailed to an upright piece of wood (<a href='B:20 21:6'>Exo 21:6</a>). This clearly hinted at the crucifixion. The Lord Jesus was the slave who willingly decided to devote Himself permanently to the service of the Master's household, demonstrating it by His crucifixion; His ministry for us is therefore eternal, unlike that of the Levitical priests. Paul nearly always quotes the Septuagint rather than the Masoretic text, but the sense here is essentially the same, although the readings differ. The idea is that God didn’t want dead animals, but a totally dedicated servant / slave who would perfectly do His will and devote himself to the permanent service of His household. And that person was the Lord Jesus, typified by the repentant David. Php_2:7-8 along with the prophecies of the suffering servant makes it clear that the Lord was supremely a slave / servant in His death on the cross. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then I said, Behold, I have come-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We must remember that these words were first spoken and felt by David, reflecting upon God’s grace which he received after his sin with Bathsheba; and his desire to respond to that grace practically. Although they are applied to the Lord Jesus in <a href='B:650 10:5-12'>Heb 10:5-12</a>, it would be a totally false step of logic to assume that "I come..." means that the Lord Jesus 'came' from heaven to earth at His birth or supposed 'incarnation'. That is clearly not what David intended when he spoke these words about himself.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The quotation from Psalms 40 is of words first thought and spoken by David in reflecting that there was no sacrifice which could be offered to deal with his sin in effectively murdering Uriah and committing adultery. All he could offer God was a broken heart, and a desire to humbly serve Him in whatever days he might be given by grace. The Bathsheba Psalms all have further reference to the attitude of the Lord Jesus on the cross; the brokenness of David at that time, physically and psychologically, pointed forward to that of the Lord in His time of dying. The purpose of this is to teach us to what extent the Lord Jesus identified with hopelessly fallen man especially at the time of His dying; whilst Himself never having sinned. The reference to David is evidence enough that the words of this passage do not demand an incarnation of some Divine Spirit into a body waiting on earth to receive it, as Trinitarians claim. The language of Psalms 40 originally applied to David’s feelings after his sin with Bathsheba. It is interpreted as being appropriate to the Lord's feelings when He "came into the world".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Came into" in <a href='B:650 10:5'>Heb 10:5</a> is the very word which has been used in that section of Hebrews about the Lord's coming into the Most Holy, representing Heaven itself (<a href='B:650 6:20'>Heb 6:20</a>; <a href='B:650 9:12'>Heb 9:12</a>; <a href='B:650 9:24-25'>Heb 9:24-25</a>). The reference could be to the Lord's beginning of His priesthood in Heaven, rather than having any reference to His birth or death on earth. But "into the world" is the phrase so often used in John's Gospel for the Father sending His Son into the world at the start of His ministry at age 30 [not necessarily at His birth]. And the same phrase "came into the world" is used of how "I am come a light into the world" (<a href='B:500 12:46'>Joh 12:46</a>) and how the Lord "came into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth" (<a href='B:500 18:37'>Joh 18:37</a>). That witness began to be given at age 30, which was when the Lord "came into the [Jewish] world". "The world" in John's Gospel nearly always refers to the Jewish world, as it does in this context in <a href='B:650 9:26'>Heb 9:26</a>; and the Lord came into that world when His ministry to them began at age 30. We would therefore interpret this as meaning that the Lord began His ministry with the understanding that God had never wanted the animal sacrifices of themselves, but rather required a representative human being to perfectly do God’s will. And this He dedicated Himself to doing in the ministry which culminated in the final doing of God’s will by dying on the cross. The death of the cross is so often spoken of as the Father's "will":&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is written about me throughout the book in the scroll-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David understood that the law of Moses which condemned him actually spoke (between the lines) about desperate sinners like himself who were condemned by that law. Within that same law were continual hints of God’s grace outside of that law. And these words came to comfortably apply to the Lord Jesus in that He was foretold through the Old Testament.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I delight to do Your will, my God. Yes, Your law is within my heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David knew he was condemned by the law as an adulterer and murderer. And yet he was confident of acceptance in that the spirit of the law was truly in his heart, as Psalms 119 demonstrates. These words naturally came true in the Lord Jesus to a far greater extent.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The will of God is specifically associated with the Lord's death on the cross (e.g. <a href='B:470 26:39'>Mat 26:39</a>). The entire scroll of the Pentateuch [the "roll of the book" known to David at the time of Psalms 40] implied the death of a perfect human sacrifice who would complete God’s will for human salvation in totality. And Paul is applying these thoughts of David to the Lord Jesus as He began His ministry [or perhaps specifically when He died, or when He began His priestly service on entering Heaven; see on :5].</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is quoted and interpreted in <a href='B:650 10:9'>Heb 10:9</a> as: "Then he said: Behold, I come to do Your will. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second". As noted on <a href='B:650 10:8'>Heb 10:8</a>, the "first" statement is associated with the first covenant, the law of Moses. The doing of God’s will by the perfect sacrifice establishes "the second", i:e. the new covenant; and by doing so, the first covenant is made old (<a href='B:650 8:13'>Heb 8:13</a>), or as stated here, 'taken away', or literally 'slain / killed'. This is how totally the old covenant had been taken away. The second or new covenant was "established" in that as explained above, it was based upon the promises to Abraham which already existed, but which were mediated or brought into operation by the Lord's sacrifice. Thereby, men and women could become "in" the seed of Abraham, and the promises which were originally to only Abraham and his singular seed thereby were made to all within the One Messianic seed. These promises, this second or new covenant, was 'established' by the Lord's death; and thereby the "first", Mosaic covenant was done away. To return to that was therefore to reject the Lord's work and to shy away from the wonder of salvation now made so sure and established. This Psalm would have been so relevant to the exiles, who had been told by Jeremiah and Ezekiel that they had broken the old covenant and were urged to accept the new covenant. They are being reminded that king David actually had the same choice and was forced to accept the new covenant. Or face death.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:650 10:10'>Heb 10:10</a> interprets further: "By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all". The "will" of God refers to God’s will that none should perish but all should be saved (<a href='B:470 18:14'>Mat 18:14</a>; <a href='B:500 3:16'>Joh 3:16</a>; <a href='B:500 6:40'>Joh 6:40</a>). That will lead to the giving of His Son; and yet the Son had to freely fulfill that will of His own volition. The incredible will of God for human salvation was demonstrated publically by the offering of the Lord's body. This "once and for all" declared the will of God to save us, ending for all time any doubt or niggling suspicion that He is somehow indifferent to human salvation and is simply leaving us to make our own decisions without any passion or will from His side. The Lord's death was therefore His "will" (<a href='B:470 26:42'>Mat 26:42</a>). The doing of God’s will by His Son is parallel with the finishing of His work (<a href='B:500 4:34'>Joh 4:34</a>), coming to a climax in His last words from the cross: "It is finished". Yet we too are to play our part in the doing of that will- in reaching out to save others by the grace of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:650 10:36'>Heb 10:36</a>; <a href='B:650 13:21'>Heb 13:21</a>). "The offering of the body of Jesus" alludes to how the offering of animal bodies could not save of itself; but again it was the life and person of the Lord Jesus which saves, rather than simply His body, which was like any other human body.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, You know-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through his Psalms, David was proclaiming to all that God was right and he was wrong, and yet thereby he had been saved by grace outside of the Mosaic system of sacrifices. The verse also describes how the Lord Jesus accomplished God’s will as the ultimate sacrifice, through the death of the cross. That death is foretold by the Lord, in the prophetic perfect, as ‘preaching righteousness to the great congregation’ [LXX ekklesia]. In living out the dying of the man Christ Jesus in our daily lives, we are making the witness of Christ. This and :10 speak of how the Lord Jesus would proclaim righteousness to the ekklesia and declare God’s faithfulness and salvation, i:e. the things of His Name. Yet this passage is quoted in <a href='B:650 10:5-7'>Heb 10:5-7</a> about the cross. It was there above all that “thy law is within my heart" and He “preached righteousness". This is why Paul can talk of “the preaching [which is] the cross". He as He was there is the ultimate witness. And this was why the Yahweh Name was written up over Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart. I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation. I have not concealed Your grace and Your truth from the great assembly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 39:9'>Psa 39:9</a>; <a href='B:230 39:11'>Psa 39:11</a> seems to describe an illness with which David was afflicted after his sin with Bathsheba. Psalms 40 then seems to be giving thanks for David’s cure and receipt of forgiveness; and it is replete with reference to David’s desire to spread the word: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>he hath put a new song in my mouth</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> many shall see it, and fear, and turn to the Lord [alluded to in the way the Acts record accounts for the many conversions after the death of Ananias and Sapphira]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> blessed is that man [cp. <a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>)</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have preached righteousness [a ‘prophetic perfect’, meaning ‘I will do this</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>’]&nbsp; in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have declared (LXX euangelizesthai- evangelized) thy faithfulness and thy salvation [unto]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> the great congregation” (<a href='B:230 40:2-5'>Psa 40:2-5</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a> AV). All desire to evangelize must likewise be based in a marvel at God’s grace to us despite our sins.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a connection between our preaching and salvation, because salvation depends upon faith; and if we believe, if we have drunk the living water, it will spring up in us and bubble over to others. Because David did not conceal God’s mercy and truth [a phrase often referring to the Gospel covenant to Abraham] from others, therefore God would not conceal His mercy and truth from David (<a href='B:230 40:10-11'>Psa 40:10-11</a>). The farmer who sows seed is likened to every preacher of the Gospel; and yet his own life and the lives of others depends upon the sowing of the seed. This is how vital preaching is; it isn’t the only virtue which the redeemed believer is expected to demonstrate, but it is one of them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t withhold Your tender mercies from me, Yahweh; let Your grace and Your truth continually preserve me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David appears both confident of having received God’s mercy (see on :1), and yet also asking for those mercies. Perhaps he speaks earlier in the prophetic perfect, certain of receiving what is yet future. Or perhaps he believes he has received forgiveness, but wants help dealing with the consequences. Or perhaps his faith in the receipt of forgiveness is oscillating. "Grace / mercy and truth" is a term often used about the promises to Abraham. David rightly perceived that the essence of the blessing promised was forgiveness, as does Paul in Galatians 3 and Peter in <a href='B:510 3:24-26'>Act 3:24-26</a> - and not just eternal inheritance of land on earth.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For innumerable evils have surrounded me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> David sees his sins and their consequences as "without number", but he uses the same word for God’s "infinite" or "without number" "understanding" (s:w. <a href='B:230 147:5'>Psa 147:5</a>). God understands better than we do the nature of our sins and their consequences. The connection is with how :5 speaks of God's thoughts about us as innumerable. He thinks over each of our sins- and forgives. They aren't forgiven as it were by some autopilot mechanism. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same word is used of Laban's overtaking Jacob (<a href='B:10 31:25'>Gen 31:25</a>); again he takes comfort from the precedents in the story of Jacob. It is the same word for the Egyptians overtaking the Israelites before the Red Sea deliverance (<a href='B:20 14:9'>Exo 14:9</a>; <a href='B:20 15:9'>Exo 15:9</a>). He was like the man guilty of blood whom the avenger of blood had overtaken (<a href='B:50 19:6'>Deu 19:6</a>), and he was desperately seeking a city of refuge in Yahweh. <a href='B:100 15:14'>2Sa 15:14</a> uses the same word for&nbsp; "overtaken". The way he was saved from being overtaken by Absalom in judgment for this was perhaps an answer to his prayer of <a href='B:230 40:12'>Psa 40:12</a>. In the context of the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, David says that his sins and their consequences are "more than the hairs of my head" (<a href='B:230 40:12'>Psa 40:12</a>). But he uses the same phrase in saying that his "without a cause" enemies are "more than the hairs of my head" (<a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>). But again we note that he considers those consequences of his sin to be "without cause", and we wonder at the depth of his repentance and sense of culpability.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart has failed me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues to reference David’s emotional and psychological breakdown after the sin with Bathsheba; the same phrase is in <a href='B:230 38:10'>Psa 38:10</a>. The reference may also be to literal cardiac issues connected with a stroke which temporarily left him dumb and deaf.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God’s voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonour who delight in my hurt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul sought&nbsp; to take David’s life. So many of the Psalms contain imprecations against those who were seeking David’s soul- not just his physical life, but seeking to destroy his very being (e.g. <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>; <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 54:1'>Psa 54:1</a>; <a href='B:230 63:9'>Psa 63:9</a>; <a href='B:230 70:2'>Psa 70:2</a>; <a href='B:230 71:13'>Psa 71:13</a>). These imprecations expose the evil of Saul, and asks God to condemn him. Some of those Psalms appear to have been written by David in the Saul days, and then rewritten at the time of Absalom's rebellion- another man who sought David’s soul, and yet whom David loved:&nbsp;These words perhaps originated in the wilderness Psalm of <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>. But David repeats them here, in this Psalm which appears to reference to David’s sin with Bathsheba, which provoked the plotting against David’s life referred to here. And yet we wonder as to how David could so bitterly wish the destruction of his opponents, when he himself had been saved by grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, Aha! Aha!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s repeated desire to see the condemnation of those who were judging him seems inappropriate for a man saved by grace; for they were the vehicles for receiving the consequences of his sins.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You. Let such as love Your salvation say continually, Let Yahweh be exalted!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we query why and how David continues to see people in such black and white terms, divided between the righteous and unrighteous, when he himself had been revealed as a righteous man who had sinned seriously.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The faithful are described as "those that seek (God)... such as love Your salvation". But there are none who truly seek God (<a href='B:520 3:11'>Rom 3:11</a> - the context concerns all of us, believers and unbelievers); and yet we are those who seek Him. We must be ambitious to do the impossible. Those who truly love righteousness and the Kingdom will be rewarded with it. Likewise Paul in <a href='B:530 8:2-3'>1Co 8:2-3</a> describes the faithful man as one who accepts he knows nothing as he ought to know, but truly loves God. <a href='B:650 9:28'>Heb 9:28</a> is clear: "Unto them that look for (Christ) shall He appear the second time... unto salvation". Those who truly look for Christ will be given salvation.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David responded to their seeking of him by seeking God more. He uses the language of the hunt and chase to describe how he was drawing closer to God: "My soul followeth hard after thee" (<a href='B:230 63:8'>Psa 63:8</a>; Psalms 63 is a wilderness psalm, see title). “Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul... let all those that seek thee rejoice" (<a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 40:16'>Psa 40:16</a>). In this sense, David felt he wasn't fleeing from his enemies as much as fleeing to God: "Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies (from whom he was running): I flee unto thee to hide me" (<a href='B:230 143:9'>Psa 143:9</a>). This fleeing to God didn’t mean that David and Jesus didn’t respond or retaliate verbally; both of them, especially the Lord Jesus, did. They both pleaded their innocence, and accused their enemies of being unfair and hypocritical. Yet this must have been done from a genuine motive of love; as David loved Saul, as the thought of Saul's death must have torn at his heart, so the Lord Jesus loved Israel, weeping over Jerusalem, wishing to himself like a child for the impossible: that they would know him as their Saviour. Both David and Jesus had a real sense of direction, they could see that their mental, emotional and physical sufferings were leading them towards an altogether higher relationship with the Father. They took those sufferings as an almost welcome push towards the Father. They had a sure sense of spiritual direction in all their afflictions; this accounts for the human loneliness which they both felt.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God- He recognizes towards the end of this Psalm that the consequences of his sin continue, and he asks for them also to be removed, he is "needy" for answers, despite Nathan's words to him to the effect that they would continue. Yet in :1 he triumphs that his prayers have been heard and all is well; he has come up out of the pit (:2). This could therefore be read as assuming that because he was over his sickness, all his other issues were resolved. Or those earlier statements could be read as faith that he would be ultimately delivered from all the problems which his sin had caused.</p><p>"May the Lord think about me" isn't the strongest spiritual ending to the prayer. For in :5 David has rejoiced that God's thoughts about him are more numerous than he can ever count; and his sins are likewise innumerable (:11,12). God has thought with grace about each one. And in :5 he has effectively says that his brain trips at trying to conceive how much God thinks about him. But now he begs God to have a thought for him. In the Psalms we see spirituality at its most real and raw. This is indeed how it is with man; we perceive truth about God on one level, and extol and praise it. But then we so easily disbelieve it and fail to experience and personally feel it in reality.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Jeduthun was perhaps "the chief musician" (<a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>) who was to perform the Psalms or teach them to others (<a href='B:130 16:41-43'>1Ch 16:41-43</a> <a href='B:130 25:3-6'>1Ch 25:3-6</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>  In the context of Ahithophel and Absalom's rebellion, David would here be asking for blessing upon those who came to his support with food and sustenance as he fled from Absalom. Barzillai and the others who were on his side are considered "blessed" by David. Or he may be reasoning that his goodness to the poor surely meant he ought to be blessed at this point, a very legalistic view. The Hebrew for "consider" really means to understand- that’s how it is normally translated. To be sensitive to the poor, to understand them, to have a heart that bleeds for them- this is what God seeks in us. And yet David appears here to be justifying himself as delivered from his day of evil because he had been generous to the poor- when in fact David was saved by grace and not by such good works. Many of the Psalms are clearly relevant to David, and yet just as clearly relevant to Hezekiah and other Kings. Thus Psalm 41 is David’s reflection on the situation of 2 Samuel 15 - but evidently it’s been re-written with reference to Hezekiah, also afflicted with an “evil disease”; and Ahithophel’s part in David’s life was played out in Hezekiah’s life by Shebna (<a href='B:290 22:15'>Isa 22:15</a>). It seems apparent they were re-written over time, and hence have relevance to various historical settings. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, David was preserved by grace and not by the fact he had been generous to the poor (:1), as he liked to imagine. Ps. 41:1-3 appear to be a general statement by David about how God saves those who have been generous to the poor- because he goes on to recount how at the time of Absalom's rebellion, God saved him. However, he is thus missing the point completely. He had sinned, was worthy of death, had been saved by grace, but had agreed to take the consequences of sin in this life. He begged for some of those consequences to be removed, implying he was suffering unjustly. By doing so, he showed how over time, he had come to rationalize his sin, and had thus diluted his sense of God's grace. And yet despite this, God shows David even more grace, in that He does in fact ameliorate some of the consequences of David's sin. He does in fact restore David's physical health and gives him victory over his enemies, restoring the throne to him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The previous Psalms (Psalms 38-40) have described David on his bed of apparently terminal sickness after the sin with Bathsheba, being saved by grace. And he wishes to encourage all men to share in his path of healing and experience of grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I said, Yahweh, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Have mercy" here and in :10 is the term used in David’s plea for forgiveness in <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>. The cry for mercy suggests the moral guilt of the sin with Bathsheba, which had its consequence in David’s mortal sickness with which it seems he was stricken soon afterwards (as in <a href='B:230 30:8'>Psa 30:8</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My enemies speak evil against me: When will he die, and his name perish?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s prayers for restoration after the crisis with Bathsheba do indeed include a bald admission of sin as in :4. But his prayers seem to spend far more time in asking for deliverance from his enemies, avoidance of personal shame, and judgment upon them- again suggesting his repentance was not all it might have been.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes outside, he tells it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The LXX puts this in the past tense. In the context of Absalom's rebellion, this would apply most comfortably to Absalom, who is recorded as coming to see David and then going outside the palace and slandering David to the men of Israel. This isn't recorded of Ahithophel, although it could be argued that the person in view is his "familiar friend" of :9. He doesn't perhaps name Ahithophel because these Psalms were written whilst he still felt the possibility of restoring his relationship with Ahithophel and didn’t want to openly state what he knew Ahithophel (Bathsheba's grandfather) was up to. Whilst on his bed of sickness, it seems Ahithophel visited David, speaking falsehood to him, and then went outside and slandered him to the world, as in :8.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:100 12:19'>2Sa 12:19</a> speaks of David’s courtiers whispering about him soon after the sin with Bathsheba. So we can assume that his courtiers are in view here, caught up in the conspiracy to overthrow him, putting around the idea that he was too weak to resist any conspiracy (:8).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>An evil disease, they say, has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Heb. 'a disease of Belial'. The idea was that because David had sinned, some kind of supernatural 'devil' or demons had smitten David and he would die. We notice that David didn’t share this mistaken, paganic view; instead he repeatedly attributes his disease to Yahweh, and believed that therefore Yahweh could lift it. There is plenty of evidence that David was sick when fleeing from Absalom. Beds were brought out for him (2 Sam. 17:28) and three times it is stated that David was "weary" at this time (2 Sam. 16:14; 17:2,29). Barzillai "had provided the king of sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim" (2 Sam. 19:32). It seems David's condition was known, hence Ahithophel's advice to come upon David and kill him whilst he was "weary" (2 Sam. 17:2).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The person in view is clearly Ahithophel, David’s counsellor, the "man of my peace" (<a href='B:100 15:12'>2Sa 15:12</a>), referenced also in <a href='B:230 55:13-14'>Psa 55:13-14</a>. The king's counsellor in oriental courts always ate at his table. The Lord's invitation to all, sinners included, to eat at His table... is therefore a sublime insight into how radically inclusive He was and is. But David just doesn't get it, that his "friend" is no longer going to be his friend if he sleeps with their granddaughter and murders her husband.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The verse is quoted specifically about Judas in <a href='B:500 15:18'>Joh 15:18</a>. The Lord knew beforehand that Judas would betray Him, just as Samson knew surely that Delilah would; although neither man could admit it to himself. This is just a psychological condition typical of human beings. It helps explain why the Lord Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas would betray him (<a href='B:500 6:64'>Joh 6:64</a>), and yet how He could really trust in Judas as his own familiar friend, confide in him (<a href='B:230 41:9'>Psa 41:9</a>), tell him that he would sit with the other eleven on thrones in the Kingdom (<a href='B:470 19:28'>Mat 19:28</a>). This was ever a serious contradiction for me, until considering the Samson : Delilah relationship in depth. A man can know something about someone on one level, but act and feel towards them in a quite different way than this knowledge requires.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Has lifted up his heel against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Apparently an allusion to how the seed of the woman would strike the seed of the serpent with his heel (<a href='B:10 3:15'>Gen 3:15</a>). Ahithophel was treating David as the seed of the serpent, rather than realizing that a member of the seed of the woman can still sin, be forgiven and remain on the Lord's side rather than that of the serpent.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But You, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4, the cry for mercy and being raised up from the bed of sickness was primarily in the context of David’s sin with Bathsheba. But even in that dire situation, David is still thinking of repaying his enemies. Grace is such a difficult concept to totally grasp, and the old ways of behaviour-based judgment die so hard. There is no surprise therefore that Ahithophel kills himself rather than fall into David's vengeful hands. There is no grace at all in David despite all the grace shown him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By this I know that You delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me-</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Tenses in Hebrew aren't exact (unlike in Greek). Seeing this is a prayer for help (:10),, the idea may be 'I will now that You delight in me if you save me from my enemies'. This would be manipulative. David has previously claimed that his only desire is for forgiveness; whereas here he reveals how desperately he wanted to be saved from the consequences of those sins. And Nathan's prophetic word had made it clear that God intended him to suffer those consequences.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, and set me in Your presence forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He looked forward to eternity as being in God’s presence eternally. His focus was not upon living on a perfected earth, true as that may be; but rather upon relationship with God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Bathsheba Psalms, and those written after that time, clearly reflect how David had a sense of integrity before God. <a href='B:230 41:4'>Psa 41:4</a>; <a href='B:230 41:12'>Psa 41:12</a> is a good example: “I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever”. How could David, David the adulterer and the murderer, speak of his integrity</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>? Only, surely, because he truly believed in imputed righteousness. Although I have noted the possibility throughout the Psalms that David was perhaps not as repentant as he might have been for his sin. Yet forgiven sinners- and none of us are essentially any different to David- can have genuine integrity before God and men, because of this wonderful thing called imputed righteousness, justification by grace, call it by whatever theological term we like. But the bottom line in practice is that we can have genuine integrity before God and man. Yet, of course, men are no so willing to accept this</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> those who break that 11th commandment ‘Thou shalt not be caught!’ are very often treated as if they can never have any integrity, and are for ever second class citizens in their community. But this isn’t the way of those who seek to reflect God’s way of dealing with sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen- David was bidding all people share in his experience of grace through joining in with his Psalms; he wishes them to say "Amen and amen" on a personal level, thus personalizing his experiences to themselves.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon. But the Psalm clearly has reference to David’s time at Mahanaim, which could have been months (<a href='B:100 17:24'>2Sa 17:24</a>; <a href='B:100 19:32'>2Sa 19:32</a>), whilst fleeing Absalom. This was the original context of the Psalm, but David sitting by the waters in exile was obviously relevant to the captives sitting by the rivers of Babylon. Hence the title in the Syriac: "A Psalm which David sung when he was an exile and desired to return to Jerusalem"; the Arabic "A Psalm for the backsliding Jews".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The theme of water in this Psalm (:7 too) is appropriate to David being by the waters of the Kidron and then the Jordan as he fled from Absalom. David sitting by the waters in exile was obviously relevant to the captives sitting by the rivers of Babylon.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This reveals David’s special longing for the sanctuary in Zion, where he 'appeared before God' to keep the Mosaic feasts (<a href='B:20 23:17'>Exo 23:17</a>). But the application to the Lord Jesus is very clear- His was the ultimate, actual appearance before God in Heaven. Although David decided not to take the ark with him, he clearly still hankered for being in its presence at this time; he had not retained his earlier understanding that he was in the very presence of God even in the desert far from any physical symbol of God's presence.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, Where is your God?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would imply that David’s enemies had access to him whilst he lay at Mahanaim in exile from Absalom; we recall how Shimei followed David on the route, cursing him as he went. Or perhaps his own supporters were saying this. The exiles were likewise mocked in Babylon; and the Lord Jesus likewise on the cross:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These things I remember and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is David recalling how he used to lead the people towards the sanctuary on Zion on feast days. "God’s house" however suggests the temple, and this was not built in David’s time. So this may well have been added under inspiration when the Psalm was used by the sons of Korah in the Babylonian exile; see on :1.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This kind of self-talk should characterize all of God’s true people. For this is the very essence of spiritual mindedness. Psalms 42 has many echoes of the cross, although primarily it refers to David’s longing for the tabernacle whilst exiled by Absalom:&nbsp; "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" (:5 AV) is the same in the Septuagint as <a href='B:470 26:38'>Mat 26:38</a> "Now is my soul troubled". But these may not be merely rhetorical questions. David on the run from Absalom frequently asks and laments "Why?". When the answer surely was clear- he was taking the consequence for his sins. But he just refuses to accept that.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I shall still praise Him for the saving help of His presence-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps applicable to a vision of glory appearing to the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane, transferring some of the glory of His countenance to Jesus as He did to Moses, so that the Lord's arresters initially fell down when they saw Him. David spoke of praising God for the health of His face; and then talks of how God is the source of the health of his face (<a href='B:230 42:5'>Psa 42:5</a>; <a href='B:230 42:11'>Psa 42:11</a> RV). It’s as if the glory of the invisible God rubbed off upon David, as it did literally for Moses, whose faced became radiant with the glory of the Angel who spoke to him:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My God, my soul is in despair within me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Despite his undoubted physique stamina, David was a broken man, depressed, and even quite early in his life, prone to fits of introspection; dramatic mood-swings (cp. <a href='B:90 24:14'>1Sa 24:14</a> with <a href='B:90 25:6'>1Sa 25:6</a>; <a href='B:90 25:22'>1Sa 25:22</a>; <a href='B:90 25:34'>1Sa 25:34</a>;), sometimes appearing a real 'softie' but hard as nails at others (consider <a href='B:230 75:10'>Psa 75:10</a> and the whole of Psalms 101); easily getting carried away: be it with excessive emotional enthusiasm for bringing the ark back, in his harsh response to Hanun humbling his servants, his over-hasty and emotional decision to let Amnon go to Absalom's feast when it was obvious what might well transpire, his anger "flaring up" because of incompetency (<a href='B:100 11:20'>2Sa 11:20</a> NIV),&nbsp; or in his ridiculous softness for Absalom. He had a heart cruelly torn so many ways. All these traits are amply reflected in the Psalms: <a href='B:230 6:7'>Psa 6:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:10'>Psa 31:10</a>; <a href='B:230 42:3'>Psa 42:3</a>; <a href='B:230 42:6'>Psa 42:6</a>; <a href='B:230 38:8'>Psa 38:8</a>; <a href='B:230 55:4'>Psa 55:4</a>; <a href='B:230 56:8'>Psa 56:8</a>; <a href='B:230 69:3'>Psa 69:3</a>; <a href='B:230 69:29'>Psa 69:29</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>; <a href='B:230 88:9'>Psa 88:9</a>; <a href='B:230 94:19'>Psa 94:19</a> (what introspection!); 102:4; 116:3; 143:4.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may have been the area of Mahanaim, where it seems David remained whilst in exile from Absalom (<a href='B:100 17:24'>2Sa 17:24</a>). "The heights of Hermon" is literally 'the Hermons', LXX "the Hermonites", perhaps referring to the mountain range which began at Mount Hermon and continued to the Mahanaim area. "Mizar" is unknown, but could be read as "the little hill" (LXX). However, this interpretation of the geography could appear forced, especially with the reference to "cataracts" in :7. Hence Ray Stedman suggested that David was recalling "an experience that he had when he was in the northern part of Israel near Mount Hermon, at the head of the Jordan River, on a little peak of the range where Mount Hermon is located, called Mount Mizar (which, incidentally, means "little mountain"). On that occasion he could hear the waterfalls of that mountainous region, the thundering cataracts. He became aware of how they seemed to be calling to one another, "deep calling unto deep," and it reminded him that the deeps in God call out to the deeps in man".</p><p>GNB "Here in exile my heart is breaking, and so I turn my thoughts to him. He has sent waves of sorrow over my soul; chaos roars at me like a flood, like waterfalls thundering down to the Jordan from Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar". The language of exile indicates yet again that David's psalms when in exile were adapted, under inspiration, for the exiles in Babylon. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deep calls to deep at the noise of Your waterfalls. All Your waves and Your billows have swept over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Waterfalls" is better "cataracts", perhaps referring to the spot on the Jordan River where he was sitting as he composed this Psalm. See on :6. David like Jonah feels he has drowned and is in a living death.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will command His grace in the daytime. In the night His song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh's song connects with how the exiles also by the waters (of Babylon) were asked to sing Yahweh's song, the Psalms used in temple worship. David says that he will sing Yahweh's song, the temple liturgy, even though in exile from the temple. For he realizes that God’s presence is not limited to the sanctuary. GNB may be correct in suggesting: "May the LORD show his constant love during the day, so that I may have a song at night". "The God of my life" could mean the God who alone could preserve David’s life; or the God who was the focus of David’s life.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will ask God, my rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Again we see David at a loss to understand his sufferings, when the answer was obvious- they were the agreed consequence for his sins. His repentance was more from a fear of consequence. "I have sinned" was on his lips, yes, but it was also on the lips of Pharaoh and Judas. The prototype of Christ feeling forsaken was in David feeling forsaken by God when he fled from Absalom (<a href='B:230 42:9'>Psa 42:9</a>; <a href='B:230 43:2'>Psa 43:2</a>; <a href='B:230 88:14'>Psa 88:14</a>); but clearly he was not actually forsaken. Despite these feelings, David was spiritually mature enough to still consider God as his "rock", even though he felt God wasn't coming through for him as he expected. He expresses the same in <a href='B:230 43:2'>Psa 43:2</a>. "Oppression" was what God’s later people were to suffer at the hands of their enemies (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a>; <a href='B:50 26:7'>Deu 26:7</a>); David’s suffering was seen as that of God’s later people, and so his Psalms were reused in this context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, Where is your God?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was sensitive to words; whilst in exile from Absalom, his enemies clearly had access to him and were communicating with him "continually". And he felt those words as swords. The sword that pierced Christ's soul on the cross was the sword of the abuse which was shouted at Him then (<a href='B:230 42:10'>Psa 42:10</a>); and the piercing of Christ's soul, Simeon had said, was the piercing of Mary's soul too. In other words, they were both really cut, pierced, by this mocking of the virgin birth. Neither of them were hard and indifferent to it. And the fact they both stood together at the cross and faced it together must have drawn them closer, and made their parting all the harder. She alone knew beyond doubt that God was Christ's father, even though the Lord had needed to rebuke her for being so carried away with the humdrum of life that she once referred to Joseph as His father (<a href='B:490 2:33'>Luk 2:33</a>). For everyone else, there must always have been that tendency to doubt.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise Him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Despair" is the word used of David’s feelings after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 38:6'>Psa 38:6</a>). It is the word for bowing down, for humility. But nobody likes being bowed down in humility, and David likewise wriggles against it. But we see here the kind of self-talk which is characteristic of all those who are truly spiritually minded. This 'bowing down' was to characterize the sufferings of Judah for their sins (s:w. <a href='B:290 2:11'>Isa 2:11</a>; <a href='B:290 5:15'>Isa 5:15</a>; <a href='B:290 26:5'>Isa 26:5</a>). David was possibly asking himself a rhetorical question- Why was he bowed down? Because God wanted to humble him so that He might restore him. But "help" is the usual word for 'salvation', and "countenance" is the usual word for 'face'. 'Save my face' would be a fair translation. And here again we encounter our concerns as to whether David’s repentance was as thorough as it might have been. He did indeed confess his sin and seek forgiveness. But so much of his praying at this time is for God to save him from shame, and to judge and destroy and eternally condemn those at whose hands he was receiving judgment for his sins. And this was the problem with the exiles whom he later came to represent.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many Biblical characters worked their way through this problem of being distracted by others in their community. <a href='B:230 43:1'>Psa 43:1</a> begins with David lamenting how he had been unfairly judged by an “unmerciful nation” of Israel, but concludes with him focusing back on his personal relationship with the Father: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?... hope thou in God... who is the health of my countenance and my God” (:5 AV). David felt that his judgment by his nation in the wake of his sin with Bathsheba was unjust, and he asks God to legally plead his case against them. But before the court of Divine justice, David had been verily guilty. Again we sense that his desire for forgiveness was genuine enough, but the extent of his penitence was continually limited by his abiding sense that he was better than his nation, and his fear of shame in their eyes.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of the exiles, the "ungodly nation" was Babylon; the "wicked men" were initially the supporters of Saul and Absalom, but then became the Babylonians.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You are the God of my strength. Why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Despite these feelings, David was spiritually mature enough to still consider God as his "strength", even though he felt God wasn't coming through for him as he expected. David of all people appeared confident in his relationship with God and his personal hope of salvation. And yet he frequently felt at times “cast off” (<a href='B:230 43:2'>Psa 43:2</a>; <a href='B:230 44:9'>Psa 44:9</a>; <a href='B:230 60:1'>Psa 60:1</a>; <a href='B:230 74:1'>Psa 74:1</a>; <a href='B:230 77:7'>Psa 77:7</a>; <a href='B:230 88:14'>Psa 88:14</a>; <a href='B:230 89:38'>Psa 89:38</a>; <a href='B:230 108:11'>Psa 108:11</a>), using a Hebrew word elsewhere commonly used about God’s final rejection of sinners. David genuinely felt a condemned man- and yet he rejoiced in God’s salvation. Few of us get the balance so right. The prototype of Christ feeling forsaken was in David feeling forsaken by God when he fled from Absalom (<a href='B:230 42:9'>Psa 42:9</a>; <a href='B:230 43:2'>Psa 43:2</a>; <a href='B:230 88:14'>Psa 88:14</a>); but clearly he was not actually forsaken. "Oppression" was what God’s later people were to suffer at the hands of their enemies (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a>; <a href='B:50 26:7'>Deu 26:7</a>); David’s suffering was seen as that of God’s later people, and so his Psalms were reused in this context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh, send out Your light and Your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy hill, to Your great tent-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David sees himself as Israel in the wilderness, being led by the light of the shekinah glory in the cloud and fire. So often we have noted that David felt the presence of God in exile just as much as he did in the sanctuary in Zion; thus he often comments that he is under God’s wings, as if he felt located on the mercy seat with the blood of atonement beneath him and the cherubic wings and shekinah glory above him. But still he is so desperate for the sanctuary in Zion, as if he maybe hadn't quite learned the lesson; and maybe this was why he was so insistent upon building a physical temple there, even though God had said this was not in fact what He wanted:&nbsp; "Your light and... truth" may refer to the Urim and Thumim within the breastplate, which flashed out guidance to difficult questions. On the run, David was without this. But he asks for God's guidance all the same. He was being led by his circumstances to personal spirituality rather than the things of religion; yet he still struggles with his strong desire to be back at the tabernacle with all the visible signs of religion around him.  </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise You on the harp, God, my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> We again note that the literal altar in Zion was David’s greatest joy; see on :3. He seems to equate "God" with "the altar of God"; as many do today, he failed to separate religious externalities from God. But then we can also note that as we go through the life of David, it is evident he went along roads few others have travelled. For example, who else would offer his sacrifice upon the altar and then start strumming his harp in praise as he watched the animal burn (<a href='B:230 43:4'>Psa 43:4</a> Heb:)? This was a new paradigm in Israelite worship. It speaks in this case of his feeling of joy at the same time as sacrificing. For to sacrifice is frequently associated with joy. There is no joy in anything that doesn't involve personal sacrifice in some way.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise Him: my saviour, my helper, and my God- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Despair" is the word used of David’s feelings after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 38:6'>Psa 38:6</a>). It is the word for bowing down, for humility. But nobody likes being bowed down in humility, and David likewise wriggles against it. But we see here the kind of self-talk which is characteristic of all those who are truly spiritually minded. This 'bowing down' was to characterize the sufferings of Judah for their sins (s:w. <a href='B:290 2:11'>Isa 2:11</a>; <a href='B:290 5:15'>Isa 5:15</a>; <a href='B:290 26:5'>Isa 26:5</a>). David was possibly asking himself a rhetorical question- Why was he bowed down? Because God wanted to humble him so that He might restore him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV has as in <a href='B:230 42:11'>Psa 42:11</a> "Praise Him who is the health of my countenance". But "health" is the usual word for 'salvation', and "countenance" is the usual word for 'face'. 'Save my face' would be a fair translation. And here again we encounter our concerns as to whether David’s repentance was as thorough as it might have been. He did indeed confess his sin and seek forgiveness. But so much of his praying at this time is for God to save him from shame, and to judge and destroy and eternally condemn those at whose hands he was receiving judgment for his sins. And this was the problem with the exiles whom he later came to represent.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. A contemplative Psalm</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm appears to be reflection upon Israel's defeat, at least temporarily. This isn't recorded in the historical records of David’s life. But the Psalm has many connections with Psalms 60, which is Davidic <a href='B:230 60:1'>Psa 60:1</a>; <a href='B:230 60:10'>Psa 60:10</a> = <a href='B:230 44:9-10'>Psa 44:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 60:11'>Psa 60:11</a> = <a href='B:230 44:26'>Psa 44:26</a> etc:). So it appears to be a comment upon a temporary set back and defeat during this campaign against Edom. See on 2 Sam. 8:1 and Ps. 60. Much of Psalm 60 is repeated in Psalm 108 as a victory song. Likewise in Psalm 44. The war with Edom clearly had a far larger dimension than the simple note in 2 Samuel 8 that David defeated Edom. He did, but after a stunning defeat, and an amazing victory by God's grace alone, for which David gave ample thanks in at least three Psalms, 44,60 and 108. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We have heard with our ears, God; our fathers have told us, what work You did in their days, in the days of old-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the times of mass illiteracy, the history of Israel would have been repeated orally. This was not to be just the job of the priests, the teachers of Israel, but of the "fathers" of all the tribes. The emphasis in the Psalm is upon God’s work being greater than any human work.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You drove out the nations with Your hand, but You planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but You spread them abroad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "them" is Israel, contrasted with "the nations / peoples". "Drove out" is the word for "inherit" in the promises that Abraham's seed would "inherit" the land (:3; <a href='B:10 15:7-8'>Gen 15:7-8</a>; <a href='B:10 28:4'>Gen 28:4</a>). As in our experience, there is always a primary fulfilment of God’s promises and eternal covenant, which was based around the promises to Abraham. This was of particular comfort to the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:230 69:35'>Psa 69:35</a>). Although God appeared not to be coming through for them at the time (see on :1), they were to take comfort in the covenant with Abraham; God’s hand had worked in the past and would do so again, and the land was ultimately theirs. Even if at the moment their enemies were in the ascendancy.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Your right hand, and Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You were favourable to them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This contrasts with how Jacob's final words were to the effect that he had carved out his own inheritance at Shechem by his sword and bow (<a href='B:10 48:22'>Gen 48:22</a>). David is recognizing that this attitude was wrong; and yet the spiritually weak "Jacob" was still to be saved by God’s grace (:4).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are my King, God. Command victories for Jacob!<strong>- </strong></p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David the king repeatedly calls God his "king". His exaltation didn’t lead him to pride, as he was always under the deep impression that he was not the ultimate king (<a href='B:230 5:2'>Psa 5:2</a>; <a href='B:230 10:16'>Psa 10:16</a>; <a href='B:230 29:10'>Psa 29:10</a>; <a href='B:230 44:4'>Psa 44:4</a>; <a href='B:230 47:6'>Psa 47:6</a>). His personal relationship with God was, he believed, the basis for "victories for Jacob", all God’s weak and wandering people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through You will we push down our adversaries. Through Your name will we tread them under who rise up against us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The connections with Psalms 60 (see on :1). lead us to conclude that this prayer was heard in the final victory against Edom (see on <a href='B:230 60:1'>Psa 60:1</a>), who had 'risen up' against Israel.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The more closely we analyze the Bible heroes, the more apparent it is that they were shot through with weakness; and some of those weaknesses it seems they unsuccessfully battled with until the day of their death. I think of Jacob, always trusting in his own strength, being progressively taught to trust in Yahweh's strength. And yet right at the very end of his life, he lets slip a comment which would seem more appropriate to his earlier life: "Shechem... which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow" (<a href='B:10 48:22'>Gen 48:22</a>). The wrongness of this attitude seems to be alluded to in <a href='B:60 24:12'>Jos 24:12</a>, which says that God drove out the Amorites "but not with your sword, neither with your bow" . And here in <a href='B:230 44:3'>Psa 44:3</a>; <a href='B:230 44:6'>Psa 44:6</a> also. So Jacob, right at the end of his life, still hadn't completely overcome that besetting weakness of self-reliance. This is, of course, a dangerous road to go down. In no way can we be complacent about our urgent need for spiritual growth. But on the other hand, we will never reach the stature of Christ without righteousness being imputed to us. In this sense, true Christian believers aren't good people. Perhaps David had learned from the demise of Saul and Jonathan, whose "bow... and sword" were used by them in the fateful battle on Gilboa (<a href='B:100 1:22'>2Sa 1:22</a>), yet didn’t save them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But You have saved us from our adversaries, and have shamed those who hate us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm will go on to complain that now, their adversaries were in the ascendancy (:22,23 etc:). But David refuses to thereby forget that God has indeed amazingly come through for His people in the past. So often, the sense that God is not coming through for us right now leads people to discount all His amazing historical grace. And that is one function of Biblical history.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In God we have made our boast all day long, we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :7, it is quite a reflection of David’s faith and spirituality that he could praise and boast of God, even when (as the Psalm goes on to state), he feels God has not come through for him as He ought to have done.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But now You rejected us, and brought us to dishonour, and don’t go out with our armies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even when feeling rejected by God, David still praised God and boasted of what He had done in the past (:7,8). This should be our attitude- that even if rejected by God, or feeling rejected, our basic love and respect of Him should continue. God not going out with Israel's armies, and their turning back from their enemies (:10), is all the language of the punishments for Israel breaking the covenant. Instead of confessing this, David instead focuses upon the sinfulness of their enemies, and asking God to reverse the situation. As in his own attitude to his sin with Bathsheba, he appears more interested in seeing the consequences of sin taken away than in actually repenting and receiving forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who hate us take spoil for themselves-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :9, turning backs before enemies was a curse for breaking the covenant. David should have recognized this, and confessed it and urged Israel to repent. Instead, rather like in his own difficulty in repenting over his sin with Bathsheba, he instead focuses upon the consequences for sin and begs God to remove them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have made us like sheep for food, and have scattered us among the nations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was surely added, under inspiration, by the exiles using this psalm of David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You sell Your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would imply that Yahweh as the seller considered His people worthless, and was pleased to get rid of them for nothing. This is far from a fair description of what happened at the captivity. The explanation as to why they were sold for nothing is given clearly in <a href='B:300 15:13'>Jer 15:13</a>: "Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil without price and that for all your sins". Just as David struggled to accept that the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba were appropriate and just, so did the exiles. They had sold themselves into captivity, according to their own prophets. If God has as it were profited by their sale, then they would have criticized that too. In fact, <a href='B:290 50:1'>Isa 50:1</a> presents God’s lack of gain from their 'sale' as an example of His love and grace: "Thus says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, for which I have put her away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You make us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was exactly as the prophets had warned would happen if they continued in their sins (<a href='B:330 23:32'>Eze 23:32</a>; <a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos 7:16</a> etc:). To complain about it was simply refusing to accept the consequence for sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :13, this was exactly as the prophets had warned would happen if they continued in their sins and suffered the curses for breaking the covenant (<a href='B:50 28:37'>Deu 28:37</a>; <a href='B:300 24:9'>Jer 24:9</a> etc:). To complain about it was simply refusing to accept the consequence for sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All day long my dishonour is before me, and shame covers my face-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Verses 13 and 14 are clearly the feelings of the exiles, but they were based upon David’s own feelings of shame over the sins connected with Bathsheba and Uriah. Again we note that he seems more concerned about the removal of the consequence for his sins, especially his shame, rather than in receiving forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>at the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses, because of the enemy and the avenger-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the term used of Goliath in <a href='B:230 8:2'>Psa 8:2</a>. But the taunts of the likes of Shimei, reproaching him for being a "man of blood" (<a href='B:100 16:8'>2Sa 16:8</a>), were largely true. Shimei's words were painful to David, perhaps because they contained a fair amount of truth.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten You, neither have we been false to Your covenant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language now again returns to "we", the exiles. Perhaps at best they were saying 'We have not broken the covenant, so it is unfair we are suffering the results of our fathers breaking the covenant'. Ezekiel was up against the same argument. And his answer was that indeed God punishes men for their own sins and not those of their fathers- and the new generation of exiles had indeed sinned themselves. And also to be factored in to this is the fact that sin often brings consequences to others. That is part of what sin Isa. Like David, they were struggling to accept consequences of sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps strayed from Your path-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To judge oneself as innocent of any sin of the heart is surely arrogance. 'Turning back' is associated with idolatry (<a href='B:290 42:17'>Isa 42:17</a>). And there is plenty of evidence within Ezekiel that the exiles were still idolatrous. We note how the names 'Mordecai' (based upon 'Marduk') and 'Esther' were reflective of idolatry.</p><p>A lack of acceptance of personal sin and its consequence is often at the root of complaints about God's supposed injustice. Several of the Psalms which lament God's inaction and judgment totally fail to make any reference to human sin (Ps. 44 especially), or tend to gloss over this factor. Thus Ps. 44:18 complains "our hearts have not gone astray" when Jer. 17:9; 18:16,17 specifically blames the tragedy of the exile on the state of Judah's heart.  </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>though You have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "The haunt of jackals" is likely a reference to Babylon, seen as the land of the shadow of death. David had felt "broken" (s:w. "crushed") because of his sin with Bathsheba and the consequences (<a href='B:230 51:8'>Psa 51:8</a>). It seems the exiles edited his words and applied them to themselves- whilst missing the point, that David suffered rightly, and so did they. Their 'covering' with death was appropriate judgment (s:w. <a href='B:290 29:10'>Isa 29:10</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread forth our hands to a strange god-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 44:20'>Psa 44:20</a> balances the sin of omission against the sin of commission: “If we have forgotten the name of our God [omission], or stretched out our hands to a strange god” [commission]. It makes a good exercise to watch for how many times the Proverbs treat sins of omission as if they are sins of active commission. "He that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster" (<a href='B:240 18:9'>Pro 18:9</a>)- 'mere' laziness, as we may see it, an omission of working- is the same as the commission of a purposefully destructive person. But as noted on :18, the exiles generally were guilty of idolatry. So even if those now appropriating David’s Psalm to themselves were innocent, they needed to be far more honest and realistic about the state of their community.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>won’t God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David confidently asked God to search his heart, so did the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:230 139:1'>Psa 139:1</a>; <a href='B:230 139:23'>Psa 139:23</a>). But Judah were in captivity exactly because God had searched their hearts and found them seriously astray from Him (s:w. <a href='B:300 17:10'>Jer 17:10</a>). It was their duty now in exile to search their own hearts and repent (s:w. <a href='B:310 3:40'>Lam 3:40</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, for Your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "For Your sake" implies God was somehow unjust in treating them as sheep for the slaughter. It was the Lord Jesus who was to save them by becoming the "sheep for the slaughter", identifying with their condemnation, so that any who identified with Him could be saved from it. But instead, the exiles here lament their situation and asked for these consequences of their sins to be removed- with no mention of repentance or guilt.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This verse is quoted in <a href='B:520 8:36'>Rom 8:36</a>, in the context of talking about the condemnation of sin (<a href='B:520 8:34'>Rom 8:34</a>). In the context of Romans, Paul has been arguing that we are all rightly condemned. But his final point at the climax of his argument here at the end of Romans 1-8 is that despite that, God’s love is still with us and He shall by grace save His true people from that condemnation which they rightly experience (<a href='B:520 8:37-39'>Rom 8:37-39</a>). This was the perspective which the exiles, and David, ought to have had; and Paul uses this verse precisely in the way I have suggested we interpret it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wake up! Why do You sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To accuse God of sleeping seems as inappropriate as the disciples' demand for the Lord Jesus to awake from sleep because His apparent sleeping showed that He didn’t care that they perished (<a href='B:480 4:38'>Mar 4:38</a>). He did of course care for their perishing. He gave His life for that. David in better moments realized that God doesn't sleep (<a href='B:230 121:4'>Psa 121:4</a>). Likewise it was inappropriate to claim that God was going to reject His people forever (also in <a href='B:230 74:1'>Psa 74:1</a>). The prophets had made it abundantly plain that God would not reject forever. Israel had "the hope of Israel" as surely as the planets are in the sky:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why do You hide Your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Oppression" was what God’s later people were to suffer at the hands of their enemies for their sins (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a>; <a href='B:50 26:7'>Deu 26:7</a>); David’s suffering was seen as that of God’s later people, and so his Psalms were reused in this context. But that suffering was judgment and consequence for sin. It was the cloud of their sin which hid them from God’s face, rather than Him losing interest in them and looking somewhere else.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "Bowed down" is used of the exiles in <a href='B:310 3:20'>Lam 3:20</a>. But it is David who speaks of his body clinging or cleaving to the dust (<a href='B:230 119:25'>Psa 119:25</a>). Again we have to conclude that the person feelings of David after his sin with Bathsheba are appropriate by the exiles, and his Psalm rewritten in their context.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rise up to help us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the appeal of David personally (<a href='B:230 35:2'>Psa 35:2</a>), but now appropriated to the exiles.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Redeem us for Your grace’ sake- After all the insistence that they are suffering unreasonably (see on :13,14), there does come an appeal to God’s grace. We would perhaps rather see confession of sin and of Divine justice; but at least there is an awareness of grace.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. Set to The Lilies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the word for "trumpets". It was a song to accompany the trumpet symphony at a wedding.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A contemplation by the sons of Korah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A wedding song-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggest all of Psalms 1-72 were written by David (<a href='B:230 72:20'>Psa 72:20</a>), so we can assume this was David’s song for Solomon, as was Psalms 72. However it may well have been rewritten and used for Hezekiah's marriage to Hephzibah (2 Kings 21:1; Is. 62:4).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David expected Solomon to be the next king.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My tongue is like the pen of a skilful writer-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The inspired writer of Psalms 45 says that his tongue is like the pen of a writer (<a href='B:230 45:1'>Psa 45:1</a>). The writer is God. God was using the inspired person’s words as His pen, with which to communicate to men. Ezra likewise saw himself as a “scribe of the law of the God of heaven” (<a href='B:150 7:21'>Ezr 7:21</a>). The God who is in Heaven wrote through a scribe here on earth. That’s the idea of inspiration.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Men marvelled at the unusually gracious way of speaking the Lord Jesus had (Lk. 4:22). Whilst this Psalm is quoted about the Lord Jesus in Hebrews 1, we must remember that the initial context was David’s prayer for Solomon at his wedding. He clearly assumes Solomon's excellence above all his brothers, perhaps referred to as "the sons of men", and automatic blessing from God as the one anointed by grace to the kingship. It was exactly these parental expectations and unrealistic assumptions which were to be Solomon's undoing in later life. "Excellent" is AV "fairer" and appears to be a reference to Solomon's beauty, glorified in <a href='B:260 5:10-16'>Son 5:10-16</a>. Solomon seems to have proudly reflected upon this Psalm, liking to think that he was his father's beloved son because of his gracious words: “He that has gracious lips, the king shall be his friend” (Prov. 22:11). We see here the myth in human relationships: the father imagines the son is very gracious, and loves him for the image he has of his son. The son notices his father is doing this and so proudly, and wrongly, concludes that he is in fact the awesome person his father had imagined.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Strap your sword on your thigh, mighty one, in your splendour and your majesty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be David drunk with fatherly pride as it were, as he sees Solomon riding to the nuptials to claim his bride.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In your majesty ride victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This speaks in the Hebrew text of 'meekness-righteousness', as if meekness is the very essence of righteousness; and it was this which Solomon was to fight for.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon was envisaged as conquering the surrounding nations. David rejoices that Divine "arrows" were sent to destroy his enemies (<a href='B:230 7:13'>Psa 7:13</a>; <a href='B:230 18:14'>Psa 18:14</a>; <a href='B:230 45:5'>Psa 45:5</a>; <a href='B:230 64:7'>Psa 64:7</a>; <a href='B:230 144:6'>Psa 144:6</a>), in fulfilment of God’s promise to do so to the sinful within Israel (<a href='B:50 32:23'>Deu 32:23</a>; <a href='B:50 32:42'>Deu 32:42</a>). But David was to later realize that those same arrows had been fired by God into him in judgment for his sin (<a href='B:230 38:2'>Psa 38:2</a>). This realization was perhaps to help David understand that his rejoicing in Divine arrows of judgment being fired at his enemies had not been mature; for he himself had to realize that he was worthy of the same.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A sceptre of equity is the sceptre of your kingdom-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We must ever remember that this Psalm is primarily David addressing his son Solomon at his wedding. Solomon was not "God" so we can interpret this as being used in the sense of "mighty one", as in :3. The New Testament quotation of it about the Lord Jesus is not, therefore, declaring Him "God" in a Trinitarian sense; but rather emphasizing His highly exalted status. David was wrong to imagine that his son would have an eternal Messianic kingdom; although that may have been potentially possible, had Solomon been obedient. But his misplaced expectation is applied to the Lord Jesus, who will ultimately fulfil it. David imagined that Solomon's reign was to be characterized by "equity"; but in fact this didn’t work out. For Solomon ended up abusing his people. And so whatever possibilities there were for him to be the Messianic ruler, they were precluded by his later unfaithfulness. And so the language is reapplied and rescheduled to the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; therefore God, even your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The anointed of God naturally leads us to think finally of the Lord Jesus, whatever initial application there was. This is applied to the Lord Jesus in <a href='B:650 1:9'>Heb 1:9</a>. The Lord Jesus had a wondrous mixture of "grace and truth" which has so eluded Christianity. His hating sin more than any other man was one reason for the height of his exaltation above all others by the Father. But <a href='B:650 1:9'>Heb 1:9</a> understands the "fellows" as referring not only to men but Angels; for it is used in the course of arguing that the Lord Jesus although once human, is not an Angel; He is greater than or "above" Angels. This is typical of Jewish midrash (interpretation). Words are quoted not perfectly in context, and then the words are given an interpretation appropriate to the point being made. &nbsp;The emphasis upon "God, even your God" is evidence enough that the Lord Jesus was not God; for God the Father is His God, as He Himself said (<a href='B:470 27:46'>Mat 27:46</a>; <a href='B:500 20:17'>Joh 20:17</a>):&nbsp; This is not the only passage where there is an intentional juxtaposition of language about the Lord Jesus; He is called "God" (but see on :6), but now we read of 'his God', God the Father, as <a href='B:650 1:9'>Heb 1:9</a> interprets it. Out of this dialectic comes the true interpretation; the Lord Jesus was totally human, He was not God in the Trinitarian sense, God the Father was His Father and God; but because He was morally perfect, He was exalted to a status that can only be described in the highest possible terms.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is also worth asking the question, in the context of Solomon: 'Who anointed him above his fellows to be king? Who judged him as such a spiritual person?'. The answer is surely his father David. And "God" / "mighty one" (note the word Yahweh isn't used here) could simply be a Hebraic way of referring to David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of the ivory palaces the stringed instruments have made you glad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Having addressed the groom, the Psalm moves to address the bride, as she walks out of an ivory palace to the sound of stringed instruments. Ahab had an ivory palace (<a href='B:110 22:39'>1Ki 22:39</a>; <a href='B:370 3:15'>Amo 3:15</a>), so it is not unthinkable that there was such a "palace" in Jerusalem at the time of Solomon's wedding. He himself made an ivory throne for himself. It would appear that this woman was a foreigner, perhaps the daughter of the queen of Sheba (:9) or an Egyptian woman. But Solomon,&nbsp; just&nbsp; like&nbsp; the foolish young man he later wrote about, had gone right ahead down the road to spiritual disaster he so often warned others about. He warns the young man of the dangers of the Gentile woman who perfumes her bed with myrrh (<a href='B:240 7:16-17'>Pro 7:16-17</a>)- and then falls for just such a woman (<a href='B:230 45:8'>Psa 45:8</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Kings’ daughters are among your honourable women-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Presumably these were not David’s daughters, but the bridesmaids. It seems clear that this woman was a Gentile daughter of a king and queen; probably from Egypt.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps she was the daughter of the queen of Sheba, and her mother was present at the wedding. Solomon's bride was in any case the daughter of a queen, and her sisters acted as her bridesmaids; they were king's daughters. The marriage of the "son of David" to a Gentile indeed fits the type well, regarding the marriage of the Lord Jesus. But in the immediate context, David and Solomon were surely wrong to go ahead with marrying outside of the covenant:&nbsp;There is Hebrew tradition that Solomon married the queen of Sheba and had a child by her. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may be David’s desire for his new daughter in law to turn her ear to the God of Israel and convert. But this ought to have been done well before the wedding day. "Turn your ear" is a phrase used about responding to Yahweh's wisdom (<a href='B:230 49:4'>Psa 49:4</a>; <a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a> and so often in Proverbs).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Forget your own people, and also your father’s house-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Separation from the world unto the things of God is brought out in the way <a href='B:230 45:10'>Psa 45:10</a>; <a href='B:230 45:16'>Psa 45:16</a> alludes to the Mosaic laws about a Gentile woman forgetting her father’s house. Indeed the Psalm appears to have relevance to Solomon’s marriage to a Gentile [and note the allusions to Joseph’s marriage to a Gentile]: “Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house [this is the ‘separation from’ the world]</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, which thou mayest make princes in all the earth [land- of Israel]”. The emotional pain of separation from her father’s world would be offset by her bringing forth Godly children within the hope of Israel. The whole process of separating from and yet also separating unto seems to me to create a kind of synergy from the whole dialectic. It's by separating from the world that we go back into this world in service and witness and caring concern. And if we don't find ourselves 'separated unto' those things- have we actually separated from this world in the way God intends?</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So the king will desire your beauty; honour him, for he is your lord-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is saying that his son will be yet the more attracted to her beauty if she accepts the God of Israel (see on :10); but this of course should have all happened well before the wedding day.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift, the rich among the people entreat your favour-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems David was friends with Hiram king of Tyre (<a href='B:110 5:1'>1Ki 5:1</a>), and the court of Tyre was represented at the wedding. The Hebrew could be rendered: "O daughter of Tyre, with a gift shall the rich of the people intreat your favour", making the bride a Tyrian princess. Seeing Tyre was the closest trading partner of both David and Solomon, this would make the marriage a political alliance, although David is glossing it with spiritual allusion.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The princess inside is all glorious. Her clothing is interwoven with gold-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This can easily be understood in the type as the Lord's bride being internally "glorious", with the gold of faith interwoven in her clothing.  But "inside" could refer to the bride being within a building, to be brought out and led to the bridegroom as described in :14,15.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>She shall be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of embroidery, gold and the spices of :8 is that of the tabernacle and priestly garments. It's as if David wishes to present this Gentile girl as somehow connected with the external symbols of the true faith of Yahweh; even though :10 implies she was not in fact converted to Him at this point.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With gladness and rejoicing they shall be led; they shall enter into the king’s palace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that these Gentile girls (:9) would come and live with the bride in Solomon's palace. David was wishing to see in all this a foretaste of the gathering of the Gentiles to Israel's God. But in reality :10 implies she was not in fact converted to Him at this point. And Solomon would be led astray by these women in the long term. The same ultimate hollowness is to be found throughout the Song of Solomon.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your sons will take the place of your fathers; you shall make them princes in all the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With Solomon as king, his bride's children would be princes in the land of Israel. So David imagined. And this would take the place, psychologically, of her sacrifice of her relationship with her "fathers"; see on :10. Solomon's sons were indeed made rulers throughout the land in the new system of administration which he established.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the peoples shall give you praise forever and ever- Again David comes over as somewhat arrogant and ahead of himself in thinking that this daughter in law would be made by him to have an eternal name in Israel, and also be the praise of the Gentiles. For :10 implies she was not in fact converted to Israel's God at this point. The mere external tokenism was to lead to this marriage going terribly wrong in spiritual terms, leading to the spiritual demise of Solomon. The name of the wicked shall perish, we are often told in scripture; the name of the righteous only endures because their character endures. David was quite wrong to think that he could make the name of his so to be eternally remembered.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>According to Alamoth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Virgins". This is a musical direction, perhaps implying it was to be sung on high notes, with voices&nbsp; like those of "virgins".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the Hezekiah context, this could be seen as the answer to Isaiah's prayer in <a href='B:290 33:2'>Isa 33:2</a>: “May You be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble”. The Psalm appears relevant to a time when Zion was surrounded by armies, and yet God destroyed them and saved His people. This would fit the deliverance from the Assyrians at Hezekiah's time; probably a Psalm written by David commemorating a great deliverance was edited and reapplied to this incident.</p><p>The Hebrew is "a present help in distresses has He let Himself be found". We have to seek God, but He lets Himself be found. "If you seek Him, He will be found by you" (2 Chron. 15:2). In the Hezekiah context, the Jews trusted in the "strength" of Pharaoh and "took refuge" in Egypt- these same words for "refuge" and "strength" are found in Is. 30:1-3: "Woe to the rebellious children, says Yahweh, who take counsel, but not from Me; and who make an alliance, but not with My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked My advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion". So the statement in Ps. 46:1 that "God is our refuge and strength" was that of an individual or minority group, trusting in God's deliverance when the majority of God's people were trusting in the world / Egypt. The immediate reference was to Isaiah and his faithful remnant in Jerusalem at the time of the Assyrian invasion. Understanding this, we could read the Psalm as meaning that the faithful would not fear if the eretz / land was indeed taken over and destroyed, and the great mountain, of Zion, cast into the seas of the Gentile world. Even without a temple, they trusted there was the true sanctuary of God in Heaven; and one day, His Kingdom would come and Zion would be eternally established on earth. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore we won’t be afraid though the earth shakes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Mountains" may be an intensive plural for the one great mountain, of Zion; and it looked likely to be cast into the seas of the Gentiles, surrounded as Zion was by Assyrian trooPsa. I have suggested on <a href='B:730 8:8'>Rev 8:8</a> that the mountain cast into the seas in the Apocalypse also refers to Zion. The "we" refers in the first instance to Isaiah, Hezekiah and the faithful remnant within Jerusalem.</p><p>Psalm 46 is a Korah Psalm, so we note the references to rebels falling alive into the depths with a roaring underworld beneath them (Ps. 46:2-7). The allusion is to what happened to the father, brothers, sisters and relatives of the "sons of Korah". But the Psalm goes on to talk of how "we" will not fear because ultimate salvation for "us" is certain. We have an insight into the mind of Korah's sons.</p><p>The Lord clearly alluded to this verse, in saying that the disciples could tell "this mountain"- clearly mount Zion- to be cast into the sea, if they had faith. He spoke of taking the temple to the Gentiles, the sea of nations. He understood all this figuratively, not literally. And that on one level is what the Psalmist is also saying.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The mountains, the great mount Zion (:2), did tremble with fear because of the roaring of the seas of nations around it. But later Isaiah was to glory in the fact that just as the waters roared at the Red Sea and God calmed them, so He came through for Judah at this time (<a href='B:290 51:15'>Isa 51:15</a>). But there was to be a time when the waters of Babylon would likewise roar, and overcome Judah (s:w. <a href='B:300 6:23'>Jer 6:23</a>), and the latter day Assyrian confederacy against Zion will do likewise (s:w. <a href='B:230 83:2'>Psa 83:2</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> As discussed on :1, the psalmist seems to be saying that even if Jerusalem and the temple falls and the land of Israel is destroyed- the righteous will still be "like a tree planted by the rivers of waters" (Ps. 1:3). "The city of God" is clearly parallel with "Zion", the temple mount (Is. 60:14; Heb. 12:22). </p><p>The roaring of the mighty waters of the surrounding Gentiles is contrasted with a tiny stream within Zion. Under siege, Jerusalem has no natural water supply; and so Hezekiah had built a conduit bringing a trickle of water into Zion from the Gihon (<a href='B:120 20:20'>2Ki 20:20</a>). And the city was "glad" of that. This tiny stream kept the people alive. And the Psalmist sees in this a symbol of God’s abiding deliverance of His people. The tiny Gihon stream was underground and largely invisible, emerging at the pool of Siloam. And the psalmist sees this as the preserving power and presence of God amidst the raging of the 'waters' of nations around Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The holy place of the tents of the Most High-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The tents of the Assyrians around Jerusalem are contrasted with the invisible tents of God’s Angels camped within the besieged city. Things may appear hopeless in secular terms, but in spiritual terms God’s saving power is ultimately far superior to whatever we may apparently be outnumbered by. The contrast is with how the king of Babylon wanted to sit on Mount Zion and thus declare himself as "the Most High" (Is. 14:13,14). </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God is in her midst, she shall not be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :1, we could read this as the Psalmist saying that even if the great mount Zion was destroyed and the land of Israel shaken... there was still God literally in the midst of His Heavenly sanctuary. He is "in the midst" of His true people, and their hearts will not be moved- the same word used of the mountains being "moved". No matter what happens around us, our heart will not be influenced by it; because the world is "moved" doesn't mean our heart is. His help for them will be "at dawn / in the morning", the ultimate morning of the Lord's coming and arising as the sun of righteousness. The fact is that Zion and Jerusalem were moved and destroyed. The promise that "she shall not be moved" must therefore ultimately apply to the "Zion" of second Isaiah, God's true people and their unmoved hearts.</p><p>This connects with David’s statement that he personally "shall not be moved" in <a href='B:230 16:8'>Psa 16:8</a>: "I have set Yahweh always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved". The context is of David’s desire to take the hill of Zion from the Jebusites, and for it to become his by conquest (see on <a href='B:230 15:1'>Psa 15:1</a>; <a href='B:230 16:5-6'>Psa 16:5-6</a>). He was confident he could do this in God’s strength, and by saying "I shall not be moved" he identifies himself with Zion which "shall not be moved" (<a href='B:230 46:5'>Psa 46:5</a>). And indeed God came through for David. Because he put Yahweh "always before me", he was given mount Zion and established his kingdom there. This verse is then quoted about the Lord Jesus- who likewise shall establish His Kingdom upon David’s throne in Zion (<a href='B:490 1:34-35'>Luk 1:34-35</a>) because of His trust in Yahweh.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God will help her at dawn-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A reference to how the 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were slain overnight, and their corpses discovered by the Jews "early in the morning" (<a href='B:120 19:35'>2Ki 19:35</a>). ), in allusion to how the Egyptians were found dead "in the morning" (Ex. 14:27).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved. He lifted His voice, and the earth melted-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here we have made explicit that the raging waters of :2,3 represent the nations confederate with Assyria. God’s lifted up voice presumably refers to the quiet prophetic words uttered by God through Isaiah, to the effect that He would deliver His people. Those quiet words were perceived by the faithful as God roaring so loud that the earth melted.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s "armies" are the Angels, and it was just one of them who went out and slew 185,000 of the surrounding soldiers. "The God of Jacob" is a phrase which elicits the reflection that Jacob was not spiritually strong, and his God saved him by grace; and that was indeed the case at the time of the salvation of Zion from the Assyrians.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David sees that Yahweh will be a "high tower" or place of refuge at the day of future judgment (<a href='B:230 9:8-9'>Psa 9:8-9</a>, quoted about this in <a href='B:510 17:31'>Act 17:31</a>). But David feels God has been like this to him in this life (<a href='B:100 22:3'>2Sa 22:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:2'>Psa 18:2</a>; <a href='B:230 46:7'>Psa 46:7</a>; <a href='B:230 48:3'>Psa 48:3</a>; <a href='B:230 59:9'>Psa 59:9</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16-17'>Psa 59:16-17</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:22'>Psa 94:22</a>; <a href='B:230 144:2'>Psa 144:2</a>), and He was like this by grace to the Jews of Isaiah's day. David therefore sees a seamless experience in his relationship with God in this life, and at the future day of judgment. God saves us right now and is a refuge for us in countless life situations; and this is the guarantee that He will be likewise at the last day. As discussed on :5, the refuge spoken of here is ultimately spiritual and not referring to some literal refuge in mount Zion. God being "with us" is likewise ultimately true in Emmanuel, God with us (Is. 7:14). For it is simply untrue that God was "with us" in the sense of always saving Jerusalem from their attackers. It was exactly this kind of wrong understanding that led to the distress and spiritual collapse recorded in Lamentations. Lamentations alludes to psalms like this, lamenting that apparently God hasn't come through as promised. And this is the problem with all who seek immediate blessing and preservation in this life, grabbing Bible verses out of context to justify themselves. Seeing Jerusalem in ruins appeared to make a nonsense of Psalms like Ps. 46- but that was because they had imposed a literal understanding upon the Psalm which was actually what they themselves wished to be true. They wanted to understand the "high tower" or place of refuge as literally the heights of mount Zion. But David sees the high tower as God's grace and ultimate spiritual protection- and not anything nor anywhere physical (Ps. 9:9; 18:2; 20:1 etc.).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Come, see Yahweh’s works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :10, the prophetic intention was that the victory over Assyria and her confederacy was to lead to Judah inviting those nations to come and "see" Yahweh's works, and therefore to accept Him as their God. But Hezekiah failed miserably in thIsa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What desolations He has made in the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Desolations" is the word used about the threatened judgments upon Judah (<a href='B:290 5:9'>Isa 5:9</a>; <a href='B:290 24:12'>Isa 24:12</a>; <a href='B:300 19:8'>Jer 19:8</a>). "Made" translates a Hebrew word with a wide range of meaning, translated "change" in <a href='B:100 12:20'>2Sa 12:20</a>; <a href='B:220 17:12'>Job 17:12</a>. Perhaps the idea is that the nations were to be invited to consider how the desolations threatened upon Jerusalem had been "changed"- by the repentance of a remnant. And this would have been intended to elicit repentance amongst the nations.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Several of the prophecies against Judah's enemies include the threat of Divine fire; it is likely that the Angel used fire to destroy the Assyrians. Remember that God makes His Angels as a flame of fire (<a href='B:230 104:4'>Psa 104:4</a>). However this was at best only a primary fulfilment of these words. At later points, Zion was captured and the temple destroyed. Wars did not cease. These words can only finally be true at the latter day salvation of Jerusalem. Only then will Yahweh be "exalted among the nations". </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Being still or slack is the term used in <a href='B:430 3:16'>Zep 3:16</a> for the people of Zion actively going out to war. The idea is that the Jews in Jerusalem were not to do anything, apart from trust in Yahweh. They were not to answer a word to their reproaches, but to trust in Yahweh (<a href='B:290 36:21'>Isa 36:21</a>). They were to resign all attempts at resolving the invasion in their own strength. The intention was that Israel's God would be exalted, or accepted as alone worthy of praise, in the entire eretz promised to Abraham. But Hezekiah let the ball drop. The surrounding nations came and were allowed by Hezekiah to influence Judah, rather than Hezekiah and Judah bringing these nations beneath Israel's God. He was not "exalted in the earth" as was intended and as was potentially possible. Instead we read the same word of Hezekiah's heart being "exalted" or lifted up.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah- See on :7, where this verse is repeated.  Regardless of the fate of physical Zion, the essence is of God's presence in the hearts of His people, He with or within us, and we in or within Him. This is the priceless mutuality possible between God and His individual people. He indwells us and we locate ourselves as "in" Him.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm may follow on from Psalms 46, which gives glory to God for saving Zion at the time of the Assyrian invasion. The last part of that Psalm speaks of the prophetic intention that the victory over Assyria and her confederacy was to lead to Judah inviting those nations to come and "see" Yahweh's works (<a href='B:230 46:8'>Psa 46:8</a>), and therefore to accept Him as their God. But Hezekiah failed miserably in thIsa. The intention was that Israel's God would be exalted, or accepted as alone worthy of praise, in the entire eretz promised to Abraham. But Hezekiah let the ball drop. The surrounding nations came and were allowed by Hezekiah to influence Judah, rather than Hezekiah and Judah bringing these nations beneath Israel's God. He was not "exalted in the earth" as was intended (<a href='B:230 46:10'>Psa 46:10</a>) and as was potentially possible.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But Psalms 47 emphasizes this potential. The language of shouting and clapping alludes to the salute given to a new &nbsp;king on his accession&nbsp; (<a href='B:120 11:12'>2Ki 11:12</a>; <a href='B:90 10:24'>1Sa 10:24</a>). In <a href='B:40 23:21'>Num 23:21</a>, “the shout of a king” refers to the shout celebrating Yahweh as king. The nations were intended to accept Yahweh as their new king.  I will discuss on :5 how the Psalm may have originated in David's bringing the ark to mount Zion, hence the idea of God going up with a shout (:5). David was the human king, but he is seeking to give all glory to God as the true King of Israel.</p>


text:
<h2>For Yahweh Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God is king over all the earth, and He was then specifically over the eretz promised to Abraham. But the peoples of the eretz still had to come to acknowledge Him as their king, and it was the prophetic intention that after the victory over Assyria, they would do so- in response to Judah's invitation to them. For the king of Assyria had termed himself "the great king" (Is. 36:4). This psalm was likely slightly re-written in Hezekiah's time with reference to God's victory over him. But the original Psalm had earlier reference than that. Yahweh was elyon, "most high". In the Ras Shamra inscriptions, this title belonged to a supreme Canaanite deity. But as victor over the Canaanite gods, Yahweh is given this title. He is awesome over all idols- that is the takeaway for His people of all generations, living as we do surrounded by the idols of this world. </p>


text:
<h2>He subdues nations under us, and peoples under our feet-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is to the subduing of Assyria and the confederacy with her, after the miraculous Angelic destruction of their army. But Hezekiah never drove home the victory; Assyria continued as a nation for some time, and instead Judah submitted themselves under their gods, rather than the other way around.</p>


text:
<h2>He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom He loved. Selah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Jacob gloried in his future inheritance in the Kingdom in that he spoke of Shechem in about his last words (<a href='B:10 48:22'>Gen 48:22</a>), and wanted to buried in Canaan rather than in the opulence of Egypt. We will each have an individual future within God’s Kingdom, chosen by Him, and we are to glory in that above all secular things. God here declares His special love for Jacob, and by far His most common title is "God of Jacob / Israel". Jacob was so slow and stubborn in his spiritual development, only calling Yahweh "my God" in his closing years. But God was thrilled with how Jacob got there in the end, and seems to subsequently love calling Himself the God of the Jacob whom He so loved.</p>


text:
<h2>God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Gone up" suggest the ascension of the throne (as GNB). The language of shouting and trumpets&nbsp; alludes to the salute given to a new &nbsp;king on his accession&nbsp; (<a href='B:120 11:12'>2Ki 11:12</a>; <a href='B:90 10:24'>1Sa 10:24</a>). In <a href='B:40 23:21'>Num 23:21</a>, “the shout of a king” refers to the shout celebrating Yahweh as king. The nations were intended to accept Yahweh as their new king. Possibly the Psalm began with reference to the bringing up of the ark to Zion with a shout (2 Sam. 6:15). Perhaps the immediate reference is to these words being sung as the ark was carried up mount Zion. There are other connections- the ark was "brought up [high]" (2 Sam. 6:12), the same root word used of how Yahweh is the "most high" (Ps. 47:2). The ark of God was seen as His throne, and so that throne being established in Zion (:8 "God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne") was envisioned by David as looking ahead to a day when all the Gentiles would come there to worship, and would accept His enthronement there. The ark was brought to Zion after David had taken Zion from the Gentiles (2 Sam. 5:6-10). But he saw Zion as in fact becoming a place where the Gentiles would come and worship Zion. This didn't happen at the time, Israel were not the light to the Gentiles they were intended to be. But the essence of the Psalm has come true in the conversion of the Gentiles to the God of Israel, and even more fully so in the Kingdom age (see on :9).
This Psalm has 36 words prior to the word "Yahweh" in this verse, and 36 words afterwards. The whole stress is upon Yahweh being perceived as the absolute centre of human life. It has also been observed that between the Yahweh Name in verse 2 and the Yahweh Name in verse 5 there are exactly 26 Hebrew words, with the number 26 being the numerical value of "Yahweh". And this central verse 5 consists of precisely 26 Hebrew letters, again, the numerical value of "Yahweh". And elohim is used seven times in the Psalm. All this continues the theme of a God centred worldview which the Gentiles would adopt. 
</p>


text:
<h2>Sing praise to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is an appeal to the Gentile world to sing praises to "our king", Israel's King, Yahweh. It was this appeal which Hezekiah and Judah ought to have been making to the Gentiles after the rout of the Assyrians (see on :1).</p>


text:
<h2>For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally "has become the King", language appropriate to an enthronement ceremony, and continued in :8 "God has taken His seat upon His holy throne" (NEV "God sits on His holy throne"). Surely Yahweh in a sense was always king of His creation. David is perhaps being too literalistic in thinking that because he had brought the ark to Zion, symbolizing God's throne, therefore he had as it were enthroned Yahweh as king of all the earth.  For in his wilderness psalms, David clearly sees the location of the ark as irrelevant to the experience of fellowship with God. But clearly the psalm is also a vision, of the nations within the earth coming to Zion in acceptance of Yahweh as king there. In the Christian dispensation, this all has a fulfilment in our acceptance of the kingdom of God, the dominion of His kingship, with the Lord Jesus now enthroned in the heavenly Jerusalem as king of all kings.  The Gentiles were asked to accept Yahweh as king of the entire eretz promised to Abraham; but they were not to give lip service praise to Him, as subjected peoples typically did to the gods of the victors. They were to sing praise "with understanding". And this would require Judah to teach them- which they did not, at that time. The scenario however is rescheduled and reapplied to the final establishment of God’s Kingdom in Zion at the Lord's return.</p>


text:
<h2>God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, "God has taken His seat upon His holy throne"; see on :7. The throne of God is envisaged as being in Zion, and from there all the nations in the eretz (:7) were to be ruled over. This was what was intended to come about after the Assyrian defeat.</p>


text:
<h2>The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The peoples" apparently refer to "the nations" (:8) of the entire eretz promised to Abraham (:7). But they are "the people of the God of Abraham". Abraham rather than Jacob is mentioned because the peoples dwelling in the eretz were mainly descended from Abraham. The vision is of the day when the Gentile nations within the eretz or land, and perhaps the whole earth, have become the people of Abraham's God. This we know to have become possible through all baptized into Abraham's seed becoming heirs of the Kingdom promises made to him (Gal. 3:27-29). "I will be their God" was one of the terms of those promises (Gen. 17:11)- and the psalmist envisions the day when that will be true for the Gentiles, and the God of Abraham will be their God. This is the same vision as in the surrounding Psalms, of the Gentiles becoming Yahweh's people (Ps. 46:10; 48:10).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted!- "Shields" is another way of referring to the "princes"; it is s:w. "ruler". The rulers of the peoples in the eretz each had their shields or banners, but they potentially all belonged to Israel's God; they were potentially His people, and the Psalm is appealing for them to actually exalt Him as their God in reality. This is what we are doing in our appeal to people today.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2>A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain-</p><h2> The call to praise God in Zion is because of the idea the psalmist will develop that God is somehow eternally present in Zion; see on :8. But Zion was to be destroyed and fall to her enemies. This psalm is a far cry from the David who felt God's presence far from any ark or tabernacle. I suggest this Psalm may follow on from Psalms 46 and Psalms 47. These Psalms were originally by David with reference to the enthronement of Yahweh on Mount Zion when he brought the ark there, but were later rewritten (under Divine inspiration) and applied to later contexts. One such later usage was in giving glory to God for saving Zion at the time of the Assyrian invasion. The last part of Psalms 47 invites the surrounding nations to accept Yahweh of Israel as their God; and <a href='B:230 46:8'>Psa 46:8</a> speaks of the prophetic intention that the victory over Assyria and her confederacy was to lead to Judah inviting those nations to come and "see" Yahweh's works, and therefore to accept Him as their God. But Hezekiah failed miserably in this. The intention was that Israel's God would be exalted, or accepted as alone worthy of praise, in the entire eretz promised to Abraham. But Hezekiah let the ball drop. The surrounding nations came and were allowed by Hezekiah to influence Judah, rather than Hezekiah and Judah bringing these nations beneath Israel's God. He was not "exalted in the earth" as was intended (<a href='B:230 46:10'>Psa 46:10</a>; <a href='B:230 47:8'>Psa 47:8</a>) and as was potentially possible. The intention was that the nations would come and praise God on "His holy mountain" of Zion, just as <a href='B:290 2:2-4'>Isa 2:2-4</a> had prophesied as being possible in Isaiah's time.</h2>


text:
<h2>Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sennacherib wanted to set his throne on the temple mount (compare <a href='B:290 14:13'>Isa 14:13</a> and <a href='B:230 48:2'>Psa 48:2</a> and notice the many allusions in Psalms 48 to the raising of Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem). But now the city of Zion was to be perceived as the joy or praise of the entire eretz promised to Abraham.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I noted on <a href='B:230 15:1'>Psa 15:1</a> that "Yahweh, who shall dwell in Your sanctuary? Who shall live on Your holy hill?" was written before David took the hill of Zion from the Jebusites. He felt they shouldn't be living there because of how they lived so immorally, and was eager to make it his own inheritance by conquest; and it seems from <a href='B:230 16:5-6'>Psa 16:5-6</a> that David considered Zion his personal inheritance where he was to live. He considered Zion his great joy (<a href='B:230 137:6'>Psa 137:6</a>), the ultimately pleasant place (<a href='B:230 48:2'>Psa 48:2</a>).</p>


text:
<h2>God has shown Himself in her citadels as a refuge-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The entire eretz had seen that Yahweh, the God of Zion, had been a refuge there for His true people. But the Psalm was likely an edit of an earlier Psalm of David; according to <a href='B:230 72:20'>Psa 72:20</a>, this Psalm was one of David’s. David sees that Yahweh will be a "high tower" or place of refuge at the day of future judgment (<a href='B:230 9:8-9'>Psa 9:8-9</a>, quoted about this in <a href='B:510 17:31'>Act 17:31</a>). But David feels God has been like this to him in this life (<a href='B:100 22:3'>2Sa 22:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:2'>Psa 18:2</a>; <a href='B:230 46:7'>Psa 46:7</a>; <a href='B:230 48:3'>Psa 48:3</a>; <a href='B:230 59:9'>Psa 59:9</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16-17'>Psa 59:16-17</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:22'>Psa 94:22</a>; <a href='B:230 144:2'>Psa 144:2</a>). He therefore sees a seamless experience in his relationship with God in this life, and at the future day of judgment. God saves us right now and is a refuge for us in countless life situations; and this is the guarantee that He will be likewise at the last day.</p>


text:
<h2>For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the scene of Psalms 2; the nations assembled against Zion in Hezekiah's time, in that the Assyrian army was really comprised of a confederacy of local nations, just as will be seen in the attack of the latter day Assyrian. "Passed by together" is LXX "they came together". The desire to take Zion was what unified them; and so will the Jerusalem issue for the latter day Assyrian confederacy.</p>


text:
<h2>They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would refer to the fleeing of the remnants of the Assyrian confederacy after they saw the slaying of 185,000 soldiers in one night by one Angel.</p>


text:
<h2>Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The image of a woman in her time of delivery may imply that</p>


text:
<h2>With the east wind, You break the ships of Tarshish-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be as NET and GNB, which sees this verse as developing the theme of 'trembling' of :6: "like ships tossing in a furious storm". This version of the text omits the word "Tarshish". If we retain it, then we are to understand that the destruction of the enemies of Zion will include the destruction of their "ships of Tarshish". I have argued on Ezekiel 38 that Tarshish is one of the ten surrounding peoples listed in Ezekiel 38 who will come against Zion in the last days. Tarshish is therefore again demonstrated to be against Zion and not for her. This is another nail in the coffin of the idea that Tarshish refers to&nbsp; Anglo Saxon support of Israel in the last days. Tarshish is here presented as against God’s people, not for them, and Ezekiel 38 says likewise.</p>


text:
<h2>As we have heard, so we have seen-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Isaiah's prophetic word came true. This psalm is praise for faith being turned to sight, and we will also experience this in the last day.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the city of Yahweh of Armies, in the city of our God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There were armies of Angels within the besieged city, and just one of them slew 185,000 soldiers.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God will establish it forever. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The eternal establishment of Zion is the language of the Kingdom prophecies. The Kingdom of God established in Israel could have come in some form at Hezekiah's time. But it was precluded by Hezekiah's personal failure, and the refusal of the people to accept Isaiah's teaching. The psalmist initially felt that Zion and Jerusalem would last eternally- hence the disillusion of Jeremiah and other faithful ones in Lamentations, when they saw Jerusalem and the temple in ruins. This is quite a common Old Testament experience- disillusion because the believers were obsessed with seeing the Kingdom situation as right now in their lives. The psalmist seems to have reasoned that because God is in Zion, therefore Zion must be eternally preserved, because God is there. This is repeated in :13,14: "Set your heart on her rampart, number her citadels, so that you may recount to another generation, that this is God, our God forever and ever". "This is our God" seems to conflate God with Zion. His eternity means Zion's eternity- in the mind of the psalmist. See on :12 for another example. "Jerusalem the eternal city" is only true ultimately; for Zech. 14 and the Lord's Olivet prophecy are clear that Jerusalem will again fall to her enemies in the last days. But this failed to take into account the message of the prophets- that God's people had departed from Him and He would therefore depart from them. He would not remain in Zion from that time forth and for evermore. Likewise :3 wrongly suggests that because God is literally in Zion, therefore refuge and salvation is found in physical Zion. This had some truth at the time of Hezekiah, when all Judah fell to the Assyrians apart from Jerusalem. But it was wrongly extrapolated to be a global and eternal truth. For salvation ["refuge"] is in no physical place, but ultimately in God's Son, the Lord Jesus. And it is eternal salvation from sin and death which is of the essence. </p>


text:
<h2>We have thought about Your grace, God, in the midst of Your temple-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could imply that the holy place in the midst of the temple was now open to all. And there was the reflection there that Zion had been saved by grace- because Judah were not at all spiritually strong at the time of her deliverance.</p>


text:
<h2>As is Your name, God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s right hand had judged the Assyrians, and His Name or reputation was rightly earned; the news of Him was true, and the ends of the eretz, including Babylon, had heard correctly about Him. Hence their ambassadors came to Hezekiah. But instead of leading them to accept Israel's God, Hezekiah failed.</p>


text:
<h2>Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of Your judgments-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The daughters of Judah would refer to the cities around Jerusalem which had fallen to the Assyrians but were now liberated.</p>


text:
<h2>Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, "encircle it". It was the Assyrians who had encircled Jerusalem. It was their military commanders who had numbered her towers as they planned their assault (<a href='B:290 33:18'>Isa 33:18</a>). Instead, the believers were to as it were do the same, assessing Zion's defences- and as explained on :13, to conclude that her defence was in her God and His grace. This Psalm may well have been sung in a procession around Zion, feeling that God was the "guide" leading it (:14). "Number" is 'to count' and is a form of the word to "tell" or 'recount' in :13. The idea is that the physical strength of Zion would be recounted for eternal generations. Again, we see a wrong understanding that Zion would abide eternally (see on :8). It is elsewhere stressed that the towers of Zion would fall "in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall" (Is. 30:25); "Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?" (Is. 33:18). This seems a direct allusion to this counting of Jerusalem's towers in Ps. 48:12. 
The kings of Judah were later noted for building towers in Jerusalem: "Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem... and fortified them... He made in Jerusalem engines, invented by skilful men, to be on the towers and on the battlements (2 Chron. 26:9,15); "he raised it up to the towers, and the other wall outside, and strengthened Millo in the city of David" (2 Chron. 32:5). But there would come "a day of the trumpet and alarm... against the high towers" (Zeph. 1:16). They forgot that "the name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe" (Prov. 18:10). David had forgotten that in his wilderness years, "You have been a refuge for me, a strong tower from the enemy" (Ps. 61:3). He built a particularly strong tower in Jerusalem which became known as "the tower of David" (Song 4:4). In all this we see a slide from personal faith and spirituality into the things of visible, external religion, considering Jerusalem and the temple to be eternal and impregnable. Having God as your strong tower was replaced by having physical strong towers in Jerusalem- which were all brought down in due course. 
</p>


text:
<h2>Mark well her bulwarks-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or NET "defences". This then connects with :14 NET: "Our God is our defender for ever". Zion's defence was Yahweh. And the Psalm invites us to "mark well" what her defence was- her God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Palaces" is NET "fortresses", but the strong tower, or fortress, of Zion was her God.</p>


text:
<h2>For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death- See on :8,13. "Guide" is a military term for leading forth an army. Judah never fought against the Assyrians; but spiritually they were led forth as an army of faith by God:&nbsp;</h2><h2></h2>


text:
<h2>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"By" can as well be "for", so the Psalm may still be Davidic, but is dedicated to the memory of the sons of Korah. Korah had died in rebellion against God, but his children had been preserved (<a href='B:40 26:9-11'>Num 26:9-11</a>); they therefore became representative of all who had overcome bad background to worship Yahweh independently, regardless of the sins of their fathers. They were therefore inspirational to the righteous remnant amongst the exiles in Babylon. Or these "sons of Korah" may refer to a group of musicians who were to perform the Psalm, the Levitical singers mentioned in <a href='B:130 26:1-2'>1Ch 26:1-2</a>; <a href='B:140 20:19'>2Ch 20:19</a>. Or if we insist on reading "by", it could have been a Davidic Psalm edited and as it were released by a group called "the sons of Korah" during the captivity in Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David, or whoever the Psalmist was who used his Psalm, was interested in appealing not just to Israel but to the Gentiles. The message of rejection of materialism was to be presented to them too. The moral teachings of the true God were and are attractive to secular Gentiles.</p>


text:
<h2>both low and high, rich and poor together-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Trust in wealth and materialism, which this Psalm addresses, is a problem not just for the wealthy but in fact for all of society, including the poor.</p>


text:
<h2>My mouth will speak words of wisdom, my heart shall utter understanding-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be a claim to direct Divine inspiration in the truths about materialism which are now to be sung about.</p>


text:
<h2>I will bend my ear to a proverb, I will open my riddle on the harp-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems that :1-4 are an introduction, and the song begins from :5 onwards. The mention of the harp reminds us that the Psalm at least originated in David (<a href='B:230 72:20'>Psa 72:20</a>). But as noted on :1, the Psalm may have been directed to the exiles in Babylon, who were tempted towards materialism. Their wealth, hinted at in the conclusion of the book of Esther, was what likely stopped the majority from obeying the call to return to the land and rebuild God’s Kingdom there on the ruins left from the Babylonian invasion.</p>


text:
<h2>Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity barks at my heels, surrounding me?- </h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If we read "days" as an intensive plural, the idea would be that a great day of evil is coming upon "me", all of us, when sin finally catches up with us like a dog barking at our heels, and we must die. In that day, wealth cannot save us- that is the theme to be developed now throughout the Psalm.</p><p>The riddle may be as to how and why a wealthy family member cannot redeem a man from eternal death. The answer to the riddle is therefore "Through Jesus the Messiah as redeemer". Another answer to this riddle is that absolutely everything in life is time limited, and in the perspective of eternity, present wealth is irrelevant. The great day of evil could refer to the time of crisis in future life which every man fears, and which explains why man seeks to gather wealth. Man wants ever more money and assets 'in case' some great day of evil comes. And so the surrounding context of the psalm is about the irrelevance of wealth, and that the ultimate day of crisis is not some future catastrophe in this life- but the day of judgment. At which wealth and powerful relatives will not redeem man.
The riddle of :5 is to be solemnly pronounced to the entire world, to every man of every social station. This is intensely laboured in the opening verses of the psalm. Because the riddle basically has the answer: Jesus the Christ. The answer is the Gospel. Verse 3 labours that a very profound, unique message is to come. The message that wealth is futile and can't save from death is true enough. But it is far from unique in wisdom literature. What is unique and ultimately profound is that wealth cannot redeem your brother from death. But there is a redeemer who can, in a glorious morning light to come when the dead shall rise (14) and of course, wealth in this life will play no role. No wealthy man can use his wealth to achieve this kind of redemption; but God can. Hence the Psalm will conclude "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave" (:15). The riddle was to be sung upon a harp (:4) as if this is a matter of joy. The vanity of wealth is a comfort to the poor and over worked, but if we understand the riddle as eternal salvation in Jesus Christ- it makes sense to joyfully sing and proclaim this riddle.
GNB and other versions tend to gloss the original Hebrew with renderings like "I am not afraid in times of danger when I am surrounded by enemies, by evil people who trust in their riches". The thrust of the argument would then be that the psalmist is a poor man being cheated (CEV) or otherwise abused by wealthy enemies; but he copes with that by reflecting that wealth will not save them in the day of judgment, and their worldly advantage will ultimately be meaningless.
</p>


text:
<h2>Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord and Paul appear to allude here in saying that those who trust in riches will find entrance to the Kingdom very hard (<a href='B:480 10:24'>Mar 10:24</a>; <a href='B:610 6:17'>1Ti 6:17</a>). This Psalm explains why- wealth gives the subconscious persuasion that it can resolve all things. But life's biggest question is death and salvation, and wealth hinders salvation, it cannot at all save from death. We marvel at how the disciples were surprised that a rich man would find it hard to enter the Kingdom: "Who then shall be saved?". This reflects their belief that wealth could in fact somehow buy salvation.
The riddle addresses the question of how can man be saved from death and life for ever. Wealth cannot be trusted at all to achieve that. Rather are we to "trust" in Yahweh's grace for forgiveness (Ps. 32:10; "I trust in the grace of Yahweh for ever", for everlasting life, Ps. 52:8) and eternal salvation (Ps. 37:3; Is. 12:2).
</p>


text:
<h2>none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>
The argument in these verses appears to be that although a man can be a go'el, a redeemer, for his brother in this life- no man can be such a redeemer who redeems his brother from eternal death. This is the riddle of :5. And the answer is "Jesus the Christ is the redeemer who can redeem you from death". He is our brother, the close relative who had our nature, who can pay the huge ransom to redeem us from eternal death. "No payment is ever enough" (:8)- this is a literally priceless redemption. Human wealth might save a man from the death penalty, but that only gives him a few more years to live. A payment beyond human wealth is required to save from the grave and give eternal life (:8). This explains why even wisdom will not achieve this redemption (:10), wise and foolish will die for ever. Usually the "wise" are commended; but even spiritual wisdom alone will not redeem from death nor give eternal life. A redeemer who can pay more than money is required. The Lord may well allude here when speaking of how He would give His life "a ransom for many". He redeemed not just one brother, but all humanity who accept His ransom payment.
We may well ask as to why the Psalm doesn't simply say that the wealthy cannot save themselves from death. But instead the angle taken is that they cannot redeem their brother from death. The reason perhaps is to raise the suggestion that there is in fact a redeemer who can redeem his brother, but not by wealth. David would have understood that redeemer as God, but in reality His redemptive work was to be achieved in His Son, whose redeeming blood is far more costly than secular wealth (<a href='B:670 1:18-19'>1Pe 1:18-19</a>). We note that this redemption therefore is for His brothers rather than universal.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of redeeming life with money is based upon the law's regulations that in some cases, such as if an ox gored a man to death, the guilty party could pay money to avoid the death penalty (<a href='B:20 21:30'>Exo 21:30</a>; <a href='B:40 35:31'>Num 35:31</a>). This seems to be in view, because the same language is used. But the point is that ultimately, death itself is inevitable and cannot be staved off by money. And perhaps the idea is that the offender personally had to pay from their own money, and no relative could pay for them. Whereas the redemption God could and would provide was for others, because we simply cannot pay ourselves.</p><p>This is a psalm of the sons of Korah, whose father and family perished in rebellion. They realized they couldn't save them.</p>


text:
<h2>For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A temporary stay of execution for money is one thing (see on :7). But no payment can ultimately redeem a person from death itself. This recognition of utter bankruptcy in the face of death was being used by the Psalmist to appeal even to Gentiles (see on :1), because awareness of this is a subconscious truth for all men. The Davidic origin of the Psalm is indicated by the way that Saul used the same phrase of David’s saving of his life: "My soul was precious in your eyes" [s:w. "life is costly"] (<a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>). David is alluding to this; Saul's human life had been precious or costly to him, but he was unable to redeem Saul eternally. Only God could do that, if Saul by faith accepted God’s grace. David wished that Solomon would have the same perspective, considering the soul or life of people to be "precious" or "costly" (<a href='B:230 72:14'>Psa 72:14</a>). But sadly Solomon abused his people later, as it were whipping them with whiPsa. In the restoration context, God appreciated the preciousness of the soul or life of His people, and offered to eternally redeem them (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:4'>Isa 43:4</a>). See on :15. The relevance to the redemption of the exiles, not for human money but by Divine grace, is that "You [the exiles] were precious [s.w. "costly"] in My sight" (Is. 43:4).</p>


text:
<h2>that he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David clearly saw death as "corruption" and as the cessation of life. Unlike many around him at the time, he rejected the idea of an immortal soul and conscious survival of death. The riddle is answered by understanding that wealthy man cannot "redeem" his brother from "corruption". But God can, through His Son. And so the same word is used of God in Ps. 103:4 "Who redeems your life from destruction [s.w. "corruption"]". He alone can resurrect, as Jonah realized when he praises God "who brought up my life from corruption" (Jon. 2:6). Hezekiah felt that he had been "delivered from the pit of corruption [s.w.] because You have cast all my sins behind Your back" (Is. 38:17). Redemption from corruption / eternal death requires achieving Divine forgiveness. And that cannot be purchased with money. This Psalm surely has relevance to the exiles, who were "redeemed" by God from exile in Babylon without money, but by His priceless grace. And so the same word is used in Is. 51:14: "The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit of corruption" of Babylonian exile. But it was a redemption refused.</p>


text:
<h2>For He sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is secular wisdom which is in view; for these apparently wise men still have the same basic human assumption that they will somehow survive death (:11). We are to live as dying men, who see so clearly how pointless was their acquisition of wealth seeing they are leaving it to others. Ecclesiastes makes the point that often enough, inherited wealth is inherited by fools and wasted.</p>


text:
<h2>Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is profound psychological insight into how the unspoken, subconscious assumption is that somehow, we will exist beyond death; and our wealth and secular achievement can guarantee thIsa. It is this subconscious eagerness to believe this which explains the huge popularity of the false doctrine of an immortal soul in most religions. And this is why the hard truths of the Bible in this area are unpopular. Even if we are in some form remembered for a few millennia- this too shall pass. And death remains death. Only Divine redemption can change thIsa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We may well enquire how David thought he knew the state of heart [AV "inward part"] of his enemies and wealthy people (<a href='B:230 5:9'>Psa 5:9</a>; <a href='B:230 36:1'>Psa 36:1</a>; <a href='B:230 49:11'>Psa 49:11</a>; <a href='B:230 62:4'>Psa 62:4</a>; <a href='B:230 64:6'>Psa 64:6</a>). Perhaps it was a result of his reflection upon how he had only had a right spirit or heart given by God "within" him as a result of his repentance (<a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a> s:w:). His enemies were impenitent, and so perhaps on that basis he knew what was in their hearts. Or this may simply have been the result of Divine inspiration (see on :3).</p>


text:
<h2>But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :11. We could not wish for a clearer statement of conditional immortality and a denial of the immortal soul concept. This sublime truth is repeated twice in this Psalm (:12,20). And remember that is it being used in order to preach good news to Gentiles (:1). Likewise in Isaiah 40, the good news is that "all flesh is as grass". For those fearing immortal torment after death, this was in a sense good news; but the true good news is that if we accept this truth, then we can turn to God for the redemption intimated in :8. This theological attack on the immortal soul concept was relevant for the exiles, who were tending to accept the Babylonian theology on these issues, and thus lose their focus upon the final day of Israel's Hope as the resurrection of the dead.</p><p>The context of the Psalm is of how wealth cannot save from death, which is man's ultimate day of evil (see on :5). The comparison with beasts is because wealth in those days was measured by head of cattle owned. Just as it is in poorer societies today. The rich man, who owned many animals, would due like they do. Those animals were also mortal, just like their owner. The man and his wealth, his animals, are therefore paralleled here and in :20. Many secular people are likewise identified with their wealth. Take away their wealth, and they perish- even in life. And certainly in death.</p>


text:
<h2>This is the destiny of those who are foolish, and of those who approve their sayings. Selah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "wise" of :10 are hereby declared fools. As are all who look to the wealthy as wise. The readership of "follow my example to get rich" books is huge. But this is presented as approving foolishness. Sin is associated by God with utter and derisible foolishness (e.g. <a href='B:40 12:11'>Num 12:11</a>; <a href='B:620 3:9'>2Ti 3:9</a>); but this isn't how man in his unwisdom perceives it at all. Indeed, to him self-denial is inexplicable folly and blindness to the essentials of human existence:&nbsp; The folly of sin is only fully evident to God.</p>


text:
<h2>They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that they are experiencing a living death, they are following the shepherd "death" to an eternal grave. The implication as noted on :8 is that there is another shepherd and another flock- leading to life.</p><p></p>Korah’s sons didn’t die (Num. 26:11); they separated themselves from their father and his supporters in time. Their names were Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph (Ex. 6:24)- 'Prisoner', 'God will obtain for me' and 'father of gatherers'. We could possibly see reflected here Korah's sense that his family were imprisoned by their inferior [as he saw it] position, but would obtain and gather more for themselves. And yet these sons of Korah separated from their bad background, they rose above the 'chip on a shoulder' mentality, and became the authors of many Psalms. The Psalms of the sons of Korah have 'deliverance from sheol' as a major theme, especially Ps. 49. Not only does this reference resurrection, but is a reflection of their own deliverance from the 'sheol' where their relatives died. They glory that God saved them from this- even though it was their own decision, they are glorifying the way in which even our own decisions for salvation are of Him and He is to be praised for them. And yet they perceive that the death of their families was in fact the death of all men. For all have sinned: "Like sheep dragged to Sheol, death shall graze on them; the upright shall rule them in the morning". And yet the sons of Korah realized that they were in essence no better than their rebellious ancestors; for they too would go to sheol, but be saved from it by the grace of resurrection: "But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol".  </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we have the implication (see on :8) that the tragedy of eternal death need not be so for all. "The upright" will reappear "in the morning". A morning is coming- for the upright. The day of resurrection from the dead to eternal life.</p>


text:
<h2>But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me. Selah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David here states clearly that although no man can redeem his brother, nor himself, yet God can. God is therefore presented as a redeemer, an understanding to be articulated through the future work of His Son. "Receive" is the same word translated "carry away" in :17. Secular man carries nothing away from this life, ultimately. But God carries away His people, although they are unconscious; they are in His care, and shall be revived again at the resurrection. In this life, David felt his prayers had been "received" (s:w. <a href='B:230 6:9'>Psa 6:9</a>). His experience of answered prayer was therefore a foretaste of his faith that God would finally receive or accept him (<a href='B:230 49:15'>Psa 49:15</a>; <a href='B:230 73:24'>Psa 73:24</a> s:w:). The redemption in view is that of eternal life at the resurrection . The psalmist, initially David, was sure of this. As discussed on :5, the answer to the riddle is 'Jesus the Messiah'. And David foresaw his lord Jesus always before his face.</p>


text:
<h2>Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why does secular man fear when others become rich? Because they fear that actually the materialistic dream will not in fact be true for them. They consider that wealth is a kind of lottery- if another man wins it, then there's less chance we shall win it. Again we have a powerful insight into modern day psychology when it comes to wealth. These ancient words are intensely, bitingly relevant to modern man- in a way that only Divinely inspired words could be.</p>


text:
<h2>For when he dies he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It was common in Egypt and Babylon to bury a man's wealth with him. His glory did descend after him- but he could not carry it away anywhere. For death is total unconsciousness.</p>


text:
<h2>Though while he lived he blessed his soul-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> and men praise you when you do well for yourself-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This again is an observation so true to life. Spend a fortune on an expensive cruise- and you will be praised by your neighbours. The wealthy and successful become the pinups of the poor. The wealthy congratulate themselves on their wealth, and are congratulated by others. But the perceptive minority will see through this, and it is to these people worldwide (see on :1) that the Psalm / song is addressed.</p>


text:
<h2>he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is addressing Gentiles (:1), who would not be resurrected as they are not responsible to Divine judgment. Yet they were being offered the opportunity of redemption from death, if they accepted the good news of Israel's God and His covenant.</p>


text:
<h2>A man who has riches without understanding is like the animals that perish- </h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We could not wish for a clearer statement of conditional immortality and a denial of the immortal soul concept. This sublime truth is repeated twice in this Psalm (:12,20). And remember that is it being used in order to preach good news to Gentiles (:1). Likewise in Isa. 40, the good news is that "all flesh is as grass". For those fearing immortal torment after death, this was in a sense good news; but the true good news is that if we accept this truth, then we can turn to God for the redemption intimated in :8. This theological attack on the immortal soul concept was relevant for the exiles, who were tending to accept the Babylonian theology on these issues, and thus lose their focus upon the final day of Israel's Hope as the resurrection of the dead.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm by Asaph-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Although all of Psalms 1-72 were by David (<a href='B:230 72:20'>Psa 72:20</a>), it seems they were rewritten and edited, under inspiration, for use in later contexts. This "Asaph" could be the Asaph of Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:290 36:3'>Isa 36:3</a>) who used the Psalms in the context of the events of the Assyrian invasion. The Asaph Psalms all have parts in them relevant to that context (Psalms 50, 73-83). Or the "Asaph" may have been the singers who were relatives of Asaph, prominent at the restoration (<a href='B:160 7:44'>Neh 7:44</a>; <a href='B:160 11:17'>Neh 11:17</a>; <a href='B:160 11:22'>Neh 11:22</a>). It could mean that the psalms were a part of a collection from the Asaphites, and the name "Asaph" was therefore simply used to identify the temple singers. And again, parts of the Asaph psalms also have relevance to the restoration. But Asaph was the "chief" of the Levites to whom David assigned the ministry of praise before the ark (<a href='B:130 16:4-5'>1Ch 16:4-5</a>). It seems he did compose his own Psalms, which were used by Hezekiah at his time (<a href='B:140 29:30'>2Ch 29:30</a>). So I would again suggest that all the Asaph Psalms were composed originally by David "for" [not necessarily "by"] Asaph, but were rewritten and edited for later occasions.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>However there is a clear linkage between Psalms 50, 51. The language about God not wanting sacrifice is clearly related (<a href='B:230 50:8'>Psa 50:8</a> = <a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>). The Psalm is a threat of judgment upon God’s people, but clearly it is relevant to David. There is a structural connection between the Psalms:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A 50:1–6 About sacrifice and Zion</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B 50:7–15 Deliverance and sacrifice</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C 50:16–21 The rebuke</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D 50:22–23 The call to repent given judgment to come</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>E 51:1 The appearance of Nathan to condemn David</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D 51:1–2 An appeal to God’s grace</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C 51:3–9 Confession</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B 51:10–17 About sacrifice and deliverance</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A 51:18–19 About sacrifice and Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The chapter is about judgment; God "speaks and summons the earth" (ESV) from east to west. The call or summons is to judge His people from wherever they are (:4). And they need to prepare for that judgment and act appropriately.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that the judgment happens at Zion, the place of God’s throne, when His glory will visibly shine forth from it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before Him, it is very stormy around Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalmists often complain that God 'keeps silent'. But finally He will "come", with all the fire and wind associated with His previous theophanies.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that He may judge His people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The call to judgment is for those who are responsible to God, Israel "His people" (:5). The calling to heavens and earth may refer to how His judgments of His people affect both those in the ruling classes ("heavens") as well as the ordinary people ("earth"). This is exactly the language of <a href='B:290 1:2'>Isa 1:2</a>, where the heavens and earth of Judah are called to judgment.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Saints" doesn't have to imply 'holy ones' in the sense of righteous ones; it is simply the title for God’s separated out people, Israel (<a href='B:20 19:6'>Exo 19:6</a>; <a href='B:230 79:2'>Psa 79:2</a>; <a href='B:230 85:8'>Psa 85:8</a>). And there is much negative to say about them in :7-15. They are perhaps "saints" only in that God has imputed righteousness to them. The old covenant appears to be the covenant in view, for that was dependent upon Israel's offering of sacrifice for inauguration (<a href='B:20 24:3-8'>Exo 24:3-8</a>; <a href='B:650 9:18'>Heb 9:18</a>). The new covenant, based upon the promises to Abraham, was a promise of salvation by God’s unilateral grace; it didn’t require sacrifice by Abraham for it to come into effect. The offering of the Lord's body was to confirm that covenant, to commend it to us; it was not of itself required for the covenant of grace to be made with Abraham.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God Himself is judge. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There could be no doubt that the judgment of Israel was just / righteousness; the whole heaven and earth declare that God is a just judge.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear, My people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appeal to "My people" appears in contrast to the address to the "wicked" in :16. But the condemnation of "the wicked" in :16-23 is appropriate to those who are within Israel and responsible to God. So it could be that the section from :7-15 is addressed to the weak but potentially spiritual within God’s people, His true Israel; whereas :16-23 is to those in Israel who had totally turned away from Yahweh.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before Me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although this is a Psalm of Asaph (:1), it may well have been a rewrite of one of David’s psalms. The allusion is to how after his sin with Bathsheba, David perceived that God didn’t require bulls and goats, but rather the sacrifice of&nbsp; contrite heart (<a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>). See on :1. David had been open to Nathan's "rebuke" (s:w. <a href='B:230 6:1'>Psa 6:1</a>; <a href='B:230 38:1'>Psa 38:1</a>; <a href='B:230 141:5'>Psa 141:5</a>), which was not given in God’s anger so much as in His appeal for David to accept His grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This connects with the teaching in the following Psalm, that God didn’t require sacrifice from David for his sins, but rather a broken and humbled heart (<a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>). It would seem therefore that this Psalm originated with David, although it may have been edited subsequently. This was comfort for the exiles, who would have been unable to offer sacrifice away from the temple. God didn’t want sacrifice, essentially. But rather trust in His ability to forgive and restore, after the pattern of David’s experience.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For every animal of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God apparently is not a fan of 'sacrifice' because humans inevitably think that they are giving God something; it suggests that man owns things which God doesn't. David therefore says that all the sacrifices and gifts for the temple were in fact only giving God what He had already given to the 'donors' (<a href='B:130 29:16'>1Ch 29:16</a>); thus all apparent generosity to God is only a giving back to Him of what He already knows.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are Mine-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God not only owns the wild birds, but knows them. Wild animals are typically used as representative of Israel's enemies; and these too are known and owned by Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all that is in it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fact that "the earth is the Lord's" is used to highlight the wonder of the fact that therefore how much moreso do His people belong to Him, and are cared for by Him with such sensitivity (<a href='B:20 19:5'>Exo 19:5</a>; <a href='B:50 10:14'>Deu 10:14</a>; <a href='B:230 50:12'>Psa 50:12</a>; <a href='B:230 89:11'>Psa 89:11</a>). Just as the eretz / earth / land promised to Abraham is Yahweh's, so is in fact the entire planet (<a href='B:230 24:1'>Psa 24:1</a>), and His purpose was perceived by David as incorporating the entire planet and not just Israel. The argument here continues that God is not "hungry" for ritualistic obedience, but for His people to be spiritually minded, praising Him and trusting in Him (:14,15). The Father's hunger was reflected in the hunger of His Son for fruit on the fig tree (<a href='B:470 21:18'>Mat 21:18</a>). Even if it were immature fruit, His hunger was such that He would have accepted it. But instead He found only leaves, the appearance of spiritual fruit, but no reality.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :12, the Father's hunger is not for flesh and blood, but for spirituality. Such flesh and blood was indeed offered to God but He found it an irritation, for it was not a reflection of spirituality (<a href='B:290 65:5'>Isa 65:5</a>; <a href='B:370 4:4'>Amo 4:4</a> and often in the prophets). God was not a pagan deity, placated by flesh and blood.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving, pay your vows to the Most High-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Heartfelt praise was what God hungered for (:12), not ritualistic sacrifice. To this day, He is thrilled by from the heart thanksgiving, and actions of gratitude for what He has done ["pay your vows"].</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Call on Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honour Me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The intention of David’s Psalms were to share his experience of God’s grace and salvation with others. It was David who had been answered in his 'days of trouble', and set on high (<a href='B:230 20:1'>Psa 20:1</a>). His desire was fulfilled- for this verse of the Psalm clearly was reapplied to the "day of trouble" of the Assyrian invasion (s:w. <a href='B:290 37:3'>Isa 37:3</a>) and also to the Babylonian traumas of the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:300 16:19'>Jer 16:19</a>; <a href='B:300 30:7'>Jer 30:7</a>; <a href='B:410 1:7'>Nah 1:7</a>; <a href='B:420 3:16'>Hab 3:16</a>). See on <a href='B:20 25:8'>Exo 25:8</a>. God didn’t want sacrifice as much as He wanted faith in His promise of deliverance.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But to the wicked God says, What right do you have to declare My statutes and to have taken My covenant on your lips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The appeal to "My people" in :7-15 appears in contrast to this address to the "wicked" in :16. But the condemnation of "the wicked" in :16-23 is appropriate to those who are within Israel and responsible to God, having taken His covenant onto their liPsa. So it could be that the section from :7-15 is addressed to the weak but potentially spiritual within God’s people, His true Israel; whereas :16-23 is to those in Israel who had totally turned away from Yahweh. The division amongst God's people is therefore between the hypocrites, and those who fail to be ritually obedient but trust in God's mercy and power to save.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>since you hate instruction-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon later accuses any who refuse his Proverbs of doing just this, hating instruction, which here in <a href='B:230 50:17'>Psa 50:17</a> means 'You are condemned' (s:w. <a href='B:240 5:12'>Pro 5:12</a>; <a href='B:240 12:1'>Pro 12:1</a>; <a href='B:240 15:10'>Pro 15:10</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And throw My words behind you?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Nobody would have said they did that to God’s words. But here we have an example of where God interprets human attitudes for what they are in practice. But we must sound a caveat- we can too quickly say that 'Because you said A, therefore, that means B'. And often we are wrong. But God has the right and ability to judge in this way.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is not to teach guilt by association; for the Lord ate with sinners in order to bring them to Himself. But 'consenting with' a thief is paralleled with committing the same sin as adulterers. The idea is that by mixing with such company, what begins with consenting to their behaviour leads men to actually commit the sins of those they consort and consent with. "Consent" is the word for approval, delighting in, agreement with (s:w. <a href='B:230 49:13'>Psa 49:13</a>). We may begin by vicariously approving the behaviour of sinners and mixing with them, and this will lead us into committing their sins. Perhaps the parallel between theft and adultery is because adultery is a form of theft.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You give your mouth to evil, your tongue frames deceit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is an example of how the final judgment will involve God giving people flashbacks from their lives (see on :21). But the present tense is used, because they were impenitent, and therefore in essence continue in those positions right up to judgment day.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You sit and speak against your brother, you slander your own mother’s son-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This example of a flashback at the day of judgment (see on :21) involves the virtual photograph of a man sitting and speaking slander against his brother. The body language and circumstance is recorded. On <a href='B:230 51:5'>Psa 51:5</a> I suggest that this may in fact be a rebuke of David having slandered his own brother.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggested on :1 and <a href='B:230 51:5'>Psa 51:5</a> that Psalms 50 is judgment directed at David. This verse would therefore in that context speak to God’s apparent silence after David’s sin, and then rebuking and accusing him through Nathan:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In a more general sense, the day of judgment will be a face to face meeting between God and man, with flashbacks of human life provided to those who are to be condemned. We tend to see ourselves as little sinners, just a fraction over the line, we come to the end of the day with no real sense of having offended God, no sense of how deeply sin and indifference hurts Him. Perhaps we see God as altogether too human, like us not very shocked at habitual sin, comfortably numb to the fact that sinful thoughts really are as bad as the action. God’s words to Israel are so relevant to us, living in a world where sin means nothing, and where God never openly intervenes in judgment. And it can be that we also lack the faith, or perhaps the concentration and reflection, to meditate on the actual reality of sin forgiven that we have experienced in Christ. Our temptation is to think that God sees things as we see them, to think that God is merely an ideal human being. But the day of judgment will reveal otherwise (<a href='B:230 50:21'>Psa 50:21</a>). He is God, not man. It is not for us to set the terms. As the Lord taught in His parable of the approaching army, it's either total, abject surrender before the King of Heaven, accepting whatever terms He asks, or a foolhardy attempt to meet Him in head on confrontation (<a href='B:490 14:31'>Luk 14:31</a>). Those who challenge the harder side of God are often called 'brave'; but their 'bravery' is foolhardy rebellion against the sovereign Almighty.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be none to deliver-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The deliverer was God (:15). But He would not do this if they forgot Him. The threat of tearing to pieces uses a term especially relevant to lions (<a href='B:230 17:12'>Psa 17:12</a>; <a href='B:230 22:13'>Psa 22:13</a>), a symbol of Judah's later enemies (<a href='B:300 5:6'>Jer 5:6</a> s:w:), who would be used by God to inflict such tearing into pieces (<a href='B:350 5:14'>Hos 5:14</a>; <a href='B:350 6:1'>Hos 6:1</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies Me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him- God is not practicing universal salvation. His salvation, Yehoshua, Jesus, is to those who prepare their way to desire it. Heartfelt praise was what God hungered for (:12), not ritualistic sacrifice. To this day, He is thrilled by from the heart thanksgiving, and actions of gratitude for what He has done ["pay your vows", :14].</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's repentance in 2 Samuel 12 appears very short and sweet, with forgiveness immediately granted as if it were a rubber stamp. But the issues were serious- the sin of presumption [despising Yahweh's word], murder and adultery. The Psalms give a deeper insight into David's depth of repentance. The two perspectives are helpful because repentance at times can involve overthinking and over analysis, to the point we miss the simple truth of God's forgiveness. The deal is that simple, in one sense. But we have no entitlement to His grace, and it does require the lengthy matters of the heart we have in the penitential Psalms.
It is amazing how sudden David’s proper repentance seems to have come. There is no reason to be unduly afraid of a sudden, emotional confession of sin, prompted by a certain circumstance, as David’s was by Nathan's parable. Psalms 51 may well have been prayed but moments after Nathan finished his parable. And Psalms 32, describing the joy of David’s repentance, would have followed soon after. The Psalms are several times presented in pairs which are related to each other; and Psalms 50, 51 are certainly connected.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language about God not wanting sacrifice is clearly related (<a href='B:230 50:8'>Psa 50:8</a> = <a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>). The Psalm is a threat of judgment upon God’s people, but clearly it is relevant to David. There is a structural connection between the Psalms:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A 50:1–6 About sacrifice and Zion</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B 50:7–15 Deliverance and sacrifice</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C 50:16–21 The rebuke</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D 50:22–23 The call to repent given judgment to come</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>E 51:1 The appearance of Nathan to condemn David</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D 51:1–2 An appeal to God’s grace</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C 51:3–9 Confession</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B 51:10–17 About sacrifice and deliverance</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A 51:18–19 About sacrifice and Zion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Have mercy on me, God, according to Your grace. According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Mercies and truth are often references to the promises to Abraham- to bless his seed with forgiveness of sins (<a href='B:510 3:25-26'>Act 3:25-26</a>). Like us, in crises we are thrown back upon the basics of our faith. The promises to Abraham which re the basis of the new covenant. It is noteworthy that Peter appeals to Israel to repent and be converted “that your sins may be blotted out” (<a href='B:510 3:19'>Act 3:19</a>)- quoting the words of <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>, where the sin of David with Bathsheba is ‘blotted out’ after his repentance and conversion. Each sinner who repents and is baptized and leads the life of ongoing conversion is therefore living out the pattern of David’s repentance:&nbsp;“Have mercy on me, O God</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>” is quoted by the publican in <a href='B:490 18:13'>Luk 18:13</a>. He felt that David’s prayer and situation was to be hIsa. And he is held up as the example for each of us:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s experience of God’s grace stayed with him when he faced up to the results of his errors in the future, too. From experience, he can ask to fall into the Lord’s hand rather than man’s, because “his mercies are great” (<a href='B:100 24:14'>2Sa 24:14</a>)- using the same two Hebrew words he had used when Nathan came to him here in <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a> AV: “Have mercy upon me</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> according unto the multitude [Heb. ‘greatness’] of thy tender mercies”. And so the experience of God’s gracious mercy over one sin fortifies us to believe in His grace when, sadly, we fall again; although, in passing, I think that in 2 Samuel 24, David himself didn’t really do so much wrong. Yet he perceived himself to have sinned, so the point is still established:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We find the Psalms so often expressing David’s intense anger- even to the extent of contradicting his other more gracious statements about people, and also being at variance with his own beggings for mercy and grace at the time of his sin with Bathsheba. Consider “Hold them guilty, O God; Let them fall by their own counsels; Thrust them out in the multitude of their transgressions; For they have rebelled against thee” (<a href='B:230 5:10'>Psa 5:10</a>). Yet David has to use these very words about himself in <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a> when he pleads with God to be merciful to him:&nbsp; In the bigger picture, God used David's sin with Bathsheba to try to correct David's judgmentalism against others. David’s ‘imprecatory Psalms’, in which he asks for bloodcurdling judgments upon his enemies, are hard to justify in the light of Christ’s teachings. They appear to be a continuation of the moments of bitterness, anger and brutality which we saw in the above mentioned historical examples.</p><p>"Mercy" or grace is the same word David used in 2 Sam. 12:22 ["who knows if God will be gracious to me"], and confirms our suggestion there that David's begging for grace about his sick child was really praying for grace for himself. The child's death was understood by him as his salvation through sacrificial atonement. Which is why he doesn't mourn the child's death but is so upbeat and positive afterwards. </p><p> Blotting out sin is clearly alluded to in the encouragement to the exiles that "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers them no more" (Is. 43:25). Time and again we find David's experience presented as that of all God's children.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David perhaps alludes to how Bathsheba had washed herself after sex with him, at his home, before she returned to her house. This in New Testament terms would equate with the desire to be washed and regenerated in baptism. "The washing of regeneration" (<a href='B:630 3:5'>Tit 3:5</a>) may allude here. The Mosaic rituals required sinners or unclean persons to wash themselves, and to cleanse themselves of uncleanness through performing rituals; but David moves closer to the understanding of grace by realizing that he has to ask God to wash him. For there was no help for him in any of the Mosaic rituals, given the nature of his sins. This need for washing from sin is relevant to Judah in their later sinfulness (s:w. <a href='B:300 4:14'>Jer 4:14</a>). Israel were to be encouraged by David’s experience that they coild receive "plenteous" redemption (<a href='B:230 130:7'>Psa 130:7</a>; s:w. "wash me thoroughly from my iniquity" in <a href='B:230 51:2'>Psa 51:2</a>), and be "abundantly pardonned" (s:w. <a href='B:290 55:7'>Isa 55:7</a>). There is a totality and abundance in God's forgiveness- a quality we find hard to understand seeing we never experienced this quality of forgiveness when men forgave us.</p><p>David asks God to wash him from his sins (Ps. 51:2). The Hebrew means literally to tread out or down, alluding to how a fuller trod clothes to remove the dirt or old stain; he needed more than mere rinsing, he perceived that his sin was deeply ingrained. This is the sense of how the word is used in Mic. 7:19: "He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea". The Lord's clothing is presented as whiter than any human fuller can whiten; this is the extent of our forgiveness and the total nature of the righteousness imputed to us. Judah of Micah's time were invited to experience the same cleansing as David had. The washing, cleansing and blotting out (:1) speak of the removal of a stain in the way that only God can do. The stain of David's sin wasn't removed from him in a social sense- the consequences were ever before him and God's judgment of him involves exactly that. So the removal of the stain was achieved by God only in David's conscience and inner parts of his heart. This may account for his subsequent proclamation of himself [in his later Psalms] as innocent and his desire to see judgment upon other sinners. On the other hand, these statements may well reflect a diminution in his sense of sin and repentance as time went on. As ever with David, we are left to ponder his apparently divided heart.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I acknowledge my transgressions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This very phrase was used by David in insisting that he did not acknowledge any transgression in him whilst in exile from Saul (<a href='B:90 24:11'>1Sa 24:11</a>). What he said and felt then may have been relatively true, compared to the unspirituality of Saul and the false accusations against him. But perhaps there was an element of the overly self righteous in his words, and the sin with Bathsheba made him realize thIsa. It is the same phrase which is as it were put in the mouth of the repentant exiles in <a href='B:290 59:12'>Isa 59:12</a>; they were intended to follow David’s path of repentance.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My sin is constantly before me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> David’s confession of sin in <a href='B:230 51:3-4'>Psa 51:3-4</a> is packed with Job allusions; as if Job's physical trials brought about the same effect as David’s full recognition of his sin. The extent of his sorrow is heavily stressed: "My sorrow is continually before me... my sin is ever before me" (<a href='B:230 38:17'>Psa 38:17</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a> AV). How much sorrow is there for our sins? Have the years mellowed our terror at sin? Things which once appalled us can so easily become sins of habit, the real sorrow we once experienced on committing them can be watered down to just a vague tickle of conscience. The significance of David’s sin and repentance being held up as an example of our own should be a good antidote against such problems. The chilling thing is, despite all this awareness of his sin during the nine month period, when he was told the parable by Nathan- he just didn’t fully see it. Every part of the story had such relevant application, but David was blinded to it. He knew he had sinned, but this was only on a surface level. “Thou art the man” was still news to him. “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments” (<a href='B:230 119:176'>Psa 119:176</a>) was likely rewritten by David with his mind on his follies relating to Bathsheba. The point, is in the ‘lost’ state, he still remembered the commandments. He didn’t turn his back on God; and neither do we, in our semi-spiritual unspirituality. We can likewise be blinded to true, personal understanding of God’s message because of our refusal to truly repent. Corinth and the Hebrews could not understand the strong meat of the word because they were divided; their divisiveness hindered their understanding. Husbands and wives find their prayers hindered unless they are themselves united:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have noted on :1 and :5 that Psalms 51 is presented as David’s response to the message of general judgment in Psalms 50. The connection here is to <a href='B:230 50:8'>Psa 50:8</a>, where God says that He doesn't ask for sacrifices to be "constantly before Me" (s:w:). David realizes that. What God wants is for us to have constantly before us a realization of His grace and our position as sinners before Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Against You, and You only, have I sinned-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps David uses the idea of "only" in the sense of "You above all", for he had sinned against Bathsheba, Uriah and other related parties. Or more negatively, we could wonder whether again he is limiting his recognition of sin, by reasoning that he had not sinned against Uriah since he was dead, nor against Bathsheba in that David [wrongly] counted her as equally culpable.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And done that which is evil in Your sight; that You may be proved right when You speak, and justified when You judge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He recognized that God works through our sinfulness- he is effectively saying 'I sinned so that You might be justified…'. These words are quoted in <a href='B:520 3:4-5'>Rom 3:4-5</a> in the context of Paul's exultation that "our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God"- in just the same way as David’s did! Because God displays His righteousness every time He justifies a repentant sinner, He is in a sense making Himself yet more righteous. We must see things from God’s perspective, from the standpoint of giving glory to God’s righteous attributes. If we do this, then we can see through the ugliness of sin, and come to terms with our transgressions the more effectively. And Paul quotes David’s sin with Bathsheba as our supreme example in this. We along with all the righteous ought to “shout for joy” that David really was forgiven (<a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>)- for there is such hope for us now. David is our example. And yet the intensity of David’s repentance must be ours. He hung his head as one in whose mouth there were no more arguments, hoping only in the Lord’s grace (<a href='B:230 38:14'>Psa 38:14</a> RVmg:). Notice too how <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a> “Have mercy on me, O God</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>” is quoted by the publican in <a href='B:490 18:13'>Luk 18:13</a>. He felt that David’s prayer and situation was to be hIsa. And he is held up as the example for each of us:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was very conscious that his sin had been "in Your (God’s) sight" (<a href='B:230 51:4'>Psa 51:4</a>). He thought he had sinned secretly, even though the record describes how his servants and messengers knew what was going on. Now he recognizes the utter folly of thinking that any sin can be kept secret from God. We live in His sight, mentally and physically. The psalms of repentance have several examples of him talking like thIsa. It may be to this Davidic theme that the parable of the prodigal son (i:e. each of us) refers: "I have sinned... in Your sight" (<a href='B:490 15:18'>Luk 15:18</a>; <a href='B:490 15:21'>Luk 15:21</a>). It is significant that our Lord's supreme parable of repentance refers back to that of David. It has been observed that there are many connections between the Psalms related to the Bathsheba incident, and those which are especially prophetic of Christ's crucifixion. David’s intense suffering on account of sin was therefore prophetic of our Lord's mental and physical suffering for the same reason. He there felt as a condemned sinner, whilst personally spotless, because of the depth of His identification with sinful man. It is truly breathtaking to discern how God works through our sins, to the extent that through the struggle for repentance which they engender, they can associate us with the sufferings of His sinless Son:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In <a href='B:520 3:4'>Rom 3:4</a>, Paul speaks of how God will “overcome when You are brought to judgment [Gk:]”. “Overcome” is the legal word for winning a case in court. It is our doubts as to the extent of God’s grace, that He abides faithful even throughout our unfaithfulness, which is effectively our bringing God to court, to judgment. Paul is here quoting <a href='B:230 51:4'>Psa 51:4</a>, which were David’s words of reflection upon his sin unto death, and God’s forgiveness of him. He reflected that he had sinned so that God might be justified when He is brought to judgment by us. Again we are up against an amazing grace. God uses our sin, our doubt of His forgiveness, in order to declare Himself yet more righteous when He is put in the dock to answer against our false charges: ‘Is He really able to forgive me that? Will He really not hold this eternally against me? Will I really be saved, sinner that I am? Can God really accept me after what I have done, all I have failed to do as I should, all I have not been…?’. These are the kinds of questions with which we accuse God. Effectively the case against God’s grace is that He will not actually forgive, justify and save weak sinners. And He gloriously wins the case against us. And He even uses our sin, as He used David’s (who becomes a figure of us all), in order to prove this to us and to the world. And so, in a matchless logical tour de force, Paul triumphs in <a href='B:520 3:5'>Rom 3:5</a>: “Our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God". The immediate context of the quotation in Romans 3 is Paul's argument that God has not forgotten His people nor been unjust to them. He is willing to show the same amazing grace to them as He showed David. Any denial of our sin is to condemn God, to bring Him to judgment. This was Job's mistake: "Will you altogether annul my righteousness, condemn Me, that you may be righteous?". And this is the answer to all who wallow in spiritual depression and complaint that God is unreasonable, too harsh and unreasonably distant from them. David sinned "so that" God might be justified and glorified. David didn't surely intend this to be the outcome as he stood on the roof gaping at Bathsheba. But in God's bigger purpose, He used that sin as He does all human failure to His final glorification. And we can only marvel at the triumph of His grace in this.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David confession that he had sinned against God uses the very language of faithful Joseph who refused ongoing sexual temptation with these words (<a href='B:10 39:9'>Gen 39:9</a>). Could this not imply that Bathsheba wife of Uriah was seen by David as similar to Potiphar’s wife?&nbsp;Perhaps she was; or perhaps we are to see here another example of David seeking to mitigate his sin:&nbsp; There is no hint in the psalms of David’s regret for having sinned against an innocent Bathsheba. Her child had to die; the retribution did not just come upon David. The incident is referred to as "the matter of Uriah" (<a href='B:110 15:5'>1Ki 15:5</a>); her name does not figure in those sinned against. "She came in unto him, and he lay with her" (<a href='B:100 11:4'>2Sa 11:4</a>) is an odd way of putting it; it reverses the usual Biblical reference to intercourse as a man coming in to the woman. The reason for this inversion seems to be to balance the blame. And there seems an evident similarity between the way the sin occurred within the city, and the way <a href='B:50 22:24'>Deu 22:24</a> says that in cases of adultery both parties were to be stoned if the sin occurred within a city and the woman didn’t cry out. Bathsheba doesn’t seem to have cried out- and so she bears equal blame, it would seem. This makes Bathsheba more of a sinner than a saint. This said, Nathan's parable describes David as killing the sweet lamb (Bathsheba); if she was partly guilty for the actual act, this may suggest a killing of her spirituality by David, at least temporarily:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Justified", that God is right and man is wrong, is the central point of the argument, and is the crux of repentance:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A :1 blot out</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B :2a wash</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C :2b cleanse</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D :3 I know</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>E :4a I sinned</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>F :4b you are justified</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>E :5 I... a sinner</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D :6 teach me</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C :7a clean</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B :7b wash</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A :9 blot out.</p><p>However, we have to ask how these words "Against You alone have I sinned" were accepted by those who first heard them- by the families of Uriah, of Bathsheba, of the other slain soldiers. Indeed, David had sinned against all his soldiers and against all Israel. He never apologizes to them; there is no public confession nor apology from David. That seems significant. We rather expect it, but never hear it. In today's world, this would be absolutely required by all sides. Again we have a sneaking suspicion that whilst David is indeed spiritually minded, there is always some possible element of ignorance of the real dimensions of his sin, a struggle to accept consequences for actions. We think of how he strangely doesn't mourn the death of his child by Bathsheba and instead is eager to have sex with her and produce a replacement child. And of his enigmatic words in :7 "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me". Theologically, this isn't true. It's no sin to be a fetus. He may wrongly imply that this is the case, or at best he is blaming his sin upon having been born into a sinful situation, as he was the result of his mother having an extra-marital affair. However we read it, we again have a suspicion that David is on one hand now recognizing how sin permeates everything; but on the other, he is seeking to justify his sin by placing it within the wider context of all the sin going on in humanity and in his own family historically. Whatever, this militates against personal confession of failure and responsibility for it.  </p><p> But the logic here still leads to a slight suspicion that David is just slightly justifying his son. For he is saying that he sinned so that God might be justified and glorified. Indeed God works through human sin, but still there remains the possibility that David is seeking at least some slender percentage of justifying himself through saying this. When put together with all the other such slight possibilities in other verses in this Psalm, we are left with the conclusion that there was a small element of self justification in David's approach to his sin. And it seems this grew over the years until he complains bitterly at the unfair consequences of his sin and presents himself as an innocent man. Although it is also possible that he has these attitudes because he truly believes that God had eradicated his sin. Such internal conflicts are known to us all.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It could be that David was incorrect in thIsa. His sin made him perhaps blame it upon his being conceived out of wedlock; which would explain the tension between him and his much older brothers. But our biological background is no excuse for sin. Or perhaps David was blaming his sin upon some false idea that human conception, birth and being is of itself sinful. But this isn't the true picture of human nature. For whatever we posit about human nature, we are saying about the Lord Jesus, who fully shared our nature and yet was holy, harmless and undefiled (<a href='B:650 7:26'>Heb 7:26</a>). Clearly being human, having human nature, doesn't of itself alienate God from man. Nor are we inevitable sinners. So it seems to me that here David is here excusing his sin by wrongly blaming it upon such other factors. Again we get the sense so often that David’s repentance was not as thorough going as it might have been.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But there is another, somewhat complicated, explanation of these strange words. I noted on :1 that Psalms 50, 51 are related. By considering this in more detail, we see that this verse is the match to <a href='B:230 50:20'>Psa 50:20</a>:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A 50:2, 5: "Out of ZION... a covenant with me by SACRIFICE"</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>B 50:8 "your BURNT OFFERINGS are continually before Me"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>C 50:9 "I will not accept a bull from your house"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>D 50:15 "call on me... I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me"</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>E 50:18–20 recitation of Decalogue</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>F 50:20 "You slander your own MOTHER’S child"</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>G 50:22 call to repentance: you who forget GOD</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>H 51:1 Nathan’s confrontation of David</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ga 51:1 prayer of repentance:</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Fa 51:5 "a sinner when my MOTHER conceived me"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ea 51:6 "teach me wisdom"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Da 51:14 "deliver me from bloodshed... and my tongue will sing aloud"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ca 51:16 "You have no delight in sacrifice"</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ba 51:16 "if I were to give a BURNT OFFERING"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Aa 51:18, 19 Do good to ZION... then You will delight in right SACRIFICE"</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had been accused of slandering his own mother's son- namely himself and perhaps his brother. Here in <a href='B:230 51:5'>Psa 51:5</a> he admits that what he has said; he has accused his mother of conceiving in sin, out of wedlock. Perhaps David’s tensions with his brothers had led to him accusing one of them of being illegitimate.</p><p>"Brought forth" is AV "shapen". "Shapen" is from a Hebrew word to twist around, and can have the sense of moral perversion. David appears to be blaming his sins on being born twisted, a sinner even in the womb. But this is not the case, for the Lord was likewise conceived and didn't sin and was holy and harmless. So it is hard not to think that David isn't trying to justify himself by blaming his nature and conception. On the other hand, contrition over a particular sin quite rightly makes us perceived how very sinful we are in so many other ways. No doubt David felt like that, but it seems he goes a tad too far in blaming his sins upon his human condition.</p><p>Psalm 119 gives us the impression that David loved God's commandments, but lamented he had not followed them in his life- indeed he fears some kind of shame if his sins catch up with him. His fear of shame is often repeated (:6,22,31,39,46,51,80,116,141); this could refer to some public shame for an openly revealed sin. Or it could reference his sense of shame that "in sin did my mother conceive me" and his sense of shame that he was a poor man now in the opulence of court life. Possibly his illegitimate background had been hushed up, although it was known by "the one who taunts me... the arrogant mock me... utterly derided me" (:42,51); but when his sin with Bathsheba is revealed, he openly states for all the world to know that his mother conceived him "in sin". Yet despite this potential shame, David says he will cling to God's word of promise that he would be king. If his mother were a Moabite or non-Israelite, accounting for his red hair, he may have assumed that he as an illegitimate Gentile could never be king of Israel- if that were known about. We recall how Jephthah and Abimelech were the sons of prostitutes and how this militated against their leadership (Jud. 8:29-31; 11:1,2).  Jesse was asked to parade his sons before Samuel in order for a king to be chosen. None of them are chosen; but when asked if he has any other sons, Jesse answers rather awkwardly and obliquely that there is David who is minding the sheep. That sounds an excuse as the family did have a "keeper" of the sheep apart from David (1 Sam. 17:20). This would be appropriate if David were in fact illegitimate. He was therefore "a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother’s children" (Ps. 69:8). "Stranger" is Hebrew muzar which is related to mamzer or bastard / illegitimate. All this rejection and lack of attention set David up for what was likely some form of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Dt. 23:2-4 was clear that a Moabite could not enter the congregation of Israel until the 10th generation. And David was descended from Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 4:13-17). And so his faith in God's word of promise, that he would really be king, is in tension with his fear that he would be shamed and never accepted as Israel's king- seeing he was illegitimate, and not fully Hebrew. In addition to this Dt. 23:2 likewise says that an illegitimate man couldn't enter for ten generations: “One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of Yahweh".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Desire" can be translated simply as 'love'. God loves truth in the inward parts- not a list of theological propositions called "the truth", but the final truth is that we deeply confess our sins in our innermost heart, and are recreated there by God's Spirit. This should be our greatest desire; for it is God's greatest hope and desire for us. "Desire" is the word used by David at the end of his life of how God desired or delighted in him (<a href='B:100 22:20'>2Sa 22:20</a>). Perhaps this desire or delight was because of the "truth" in David’s heart in recognizing his sins and accepting God’s grace. God did not "desire" sacrifice as much as this truth (s:w. <a href='B:230 40:6'>Psa 40:6</a>; <a href='B:230 51:16'>Psa 51:16</a>).</p><p>Truth is something God wants to find in us, it is what we give to God, not answer of intellectual truths He gives to us. To know the depth of our son and also of our salvation, to see us as God sees us- this is the final Truth. The truth to live by. "I acknowledge..." in :3 in Hebrew puts the stress upon the "I". David now perceives that God indeed saw all aspects of his sin. And now he too sees it. He sees himself as God does, and this is the "truth" which God desires. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through his experience, David came to know what he calls 'truth in the inward parts': that the required sacrifice was a desperately broken and contrite heart (<a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>). Repentance is really about recognizing this truth within us; this, and not a set of theologically pure propositions, is the ultimate "truth". According to Paul's use of the Bathsheba incident, David’s learning curve must be ours. There are other links which show that David’s sin, desperation and restoration are typical of the experience of all God’s true people (e.g. <a href='B:230 51:7'>Psa 51:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:18'>Isa 1:18</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His very innermost being would then be able to learn more deeply of God’s real wisdom. There is a connection between David knowing God in his "hidden part", and <a href='B:230 32:7'>Psa 32:7</a>: "Thou art my hiding place" , or 'hidden part'. This shows that David felt that after his repentance, God Himself would live in David’s 'hidden part', that part of his mind and thinking which no one else knows. Through knowing God, God would come and live in that part which truly knew God. The tabernacling of God in our 'hidden part' also requires us to come to know Him, as David did:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You teach me wisdom in the innermost place-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here again we see the activity of God’s Spirit on the very innermost parts of the human psyche, the "heart". The "innermost place" is "the secret heart"; the Hebrew battuhot is related to the Egyptian word Thoth, used for the Egyptian god of the secret heart. David had sinned "secretly", but he now realized that the use of messengers meant that actually all Jerusalem knew what he had done; and likewise God knew what he had done, it was all done "in Your sight". He now realizes that the secret place of his inner heart where he had hidden the sin was what needed reformation. He asks God to enter it and teach him there, and create there a pure heart. God can create in us a new heart, even though the mind of the flesh is still present with us (Rom. 7). He can place His way and wisdom in that new heart; Job 38:36 speaks of God putting wisdom in the inward parts, and giving understanding to the heart.  </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Purge" is literally de-sin, to 'unsin'. The Hebrew word is based around the standard word for sin, chata. This de-sinning is a strange idea for us, because the forgiveness we experience in human relationships cannot ultimately take away our sin, or as Paul would put it, cleanse the conscience. This de-sinning is shown by God's "play on" to David and acceptance of his marriage to Bathsheba, and choosing the blood line of His Son through her children. John appears to apply these words to every man: "The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). "All sin" doesn't just mean all committed sins, but sin in all its forms. Verses 5-9 seem to use every possible Hebrew word for sin, reflected in the translations iniquity, sin and transgression. David perceives sin in all its forms and dimensions. Or as Paul would put it, "the exceeding sinfulness of sin" which the Lord dealt with in His death- atonement for sin in all its forms, aspects and dimensions. David's appeal for God's total deep pardon and obliteration of his sins contrasts with the surrounding view of sin at his time. Sin was dealt with by appeasing a deity; the deity was never asked to obliterate the sin but rather to just overlook it and keep showing favour and material blessing to the offender. But the one true God has that unique ability. Likewise today, no amount of psychotherapy can obliterate sin, no amount of rationalization or self-understanding. Only God's work through the blood of His Son.
It should be noted that David / Bathsheba language is used to describe Israel's spiritually fallen state (e.g. <a href='B:230 38:7'>Psa 38:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:6'>Isa 1:6</a>; <a href='B:230 51:7'>Psa 51:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:18'>Isa 1:18</a>; <a href='B:230 65:2'>Psa 65:2</a> = <a href='B:290 40:15'>Isa 40:15</a>). David recognized this in <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>, where he likens his own state to that of Zion, which also needed to be revived by God’s mercy. As David’s sin is likened to the killing of a lamb (<a href='B:100 12:4'>2Sa 12:4</a>), so the Jews killed the Lord Jesus. The troubles which therefore came upon his kingdom have certain similarities with the events of AD67-70:&nbsp;&nbsp; They were also repeated in the Nazi Holocaust, and will yet be. Israel are yet to fully repent after the pattern of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Purge me... and I shall be clean... create in me a clean heart" (<a href='B:230 51:7'>Psa 51:7</a>; <a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a>) shows that David understood the 'me' which needed cleansing as being his own mind. This was clearly a result of the great level of self-examination which brought forth his real repentance. "Against thee, thee only have I sinned" (<a href='B:230 51:4'>Psa 51:4</a>) was a conclusion wrung out of so much reflection about what he had done; as is his recognition that his "sin" had involved many "transgressions" (<a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>):&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hyssop was used in the rituals for cleansing leprosy, and it is possible that David was struck with something like this disease after his sin with Bathsheba. This would explain why all his family and friends kept distant from him at that time of illness.</p><p>"Whiter than snow" suggests a forgiveness that no human agency can achieve. It is the figure of how the Lord's clothes were whiter than any fuller could whiten them. We can only achieve that status by being baptized into Him and having His clothing, His righteousness imputed to us.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let me hear joy and gladness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is possible to intensely believe in the mercy of God, His ability to save, and yet not have the real faith- which is to believe that this mercy and salvation really can still apply to us personally. Thus he prays "Let me hear joy and gladness". His introspective world of sin and self-hate found joy a paradigm impossible to relate to; as with mercy and salvation, he knew spiritual joy existed, but seemed unable to make this apply to him personally:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So that the bones which You have broken may rejoice-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Here we see the contrast with the Lord Jesus, who identified with David’s feelings after the sin with Bathsheba, but whose bones were not broken:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hide Your face from my sins-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :4, David recognized that he had sinned in God's sight, before His face. The paradox is that once we recognize that, we can ask God not to look at our sins. Paul can speak in Romans 7 as if he is two different people; “I myself serve the law of God”, but “my flesh” serves sin. Likewise David asked God not to hide His face from him, David personally, (<a href='B:230 27:9'>Psa 27:9</a>; <a href='B:230 69:17'>Psa 69:17</a>; <a href='B:230 102:2'>Psa 102:2</a>; <a href='B:230 143:7'>Psa 143:7</a>), but to hide His face from David’s sins (<a href='B:230 51:9'>Psa 51:9</a>). And one wonders whether the way the records of the Lord’s temptations are written implies some similar recognition by the Spirit of the two ‘men’ within the Lord.</p><p>David's requests to have his sin totally obliterated are of course commendable. His faith in God's mercy is outstanding. But again we wonder whether he doesn't also have in mind that if this request is granted, then the threatened consequences for his sins would thereby be abrogated. And his later Psalms, calling down judgment upon violent men who take others' lives, presenting himself as innocent, all rather suggest he struggled with taking any consequence for his behaviour.</p> <p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And blot out all of my iniquities-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note with concern that in a Psalm written apparently after this time concerning the time of Absalom's rebellion, David asks that the sins of his enemies not be blotted out (<a href='B:230 109:14'>Psa 109:14</a>). Again we wonder as to whether David maintained an awareness of the enormity of God’s grace to him. In the context of the exiles, they were comforted that God would likewise blot out their iniquities- if they repented as David did (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:25'>Isa 43:25</a>; <a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here we see clearly enough that God can work directly on the human heart or spirit, through the work of His Holy Spirit (:11,12). His Spirit works upon the human spirit. And the same word for "create" is used of the natural creation; here we have the doctrine of a new creation in the hearts of people, of the kind repeatedly offered to the exiles in later Isaiah- if they followed David’s path of repentance. This direct work of God on the heart is likely what is in view when God offers to circumcise the heart of His people (Dt. 30:2,6,10) if they abide in the covenant. For in that figure we again have the picture of God working delicately and intricately on the most personal and sensitive parts of man. Here we have the OT equivalent of the "new creation", a new and clean heart created. Not the old heart slightly adapted and improved, but the creation of a new heart / mind. But this is the promise of the new covenant in Ez. 36:26,27.  The new covenant was therefore based upon what was done to David after his repentance. And it was initially offered to the exiles who also had no chance to offer sacrifices; and so much of the language in Ps. 51 is applied to the exiles. But the offer was if they would accept that David's sin was theirs. And that is how things are today. The new heart isn't created in so many because they refuse to accept the desperation of their position before God. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit after the Lord's death is therefore an intensified form of what was already possible even for Old Testament man. Tit. 3:5 surely has this passage and the whole David and Bathsheba affair in view: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done [cp. "sacrifice and offering You do not desire"] but by His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit". This new heart is clean, has the spirit of freedom / willingness, "where the spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free" as Paul puts it; it is renewed, fresh, experiencing newness of life, rejoices in the certainty of salvation, assured that all sin has been washed and all stains removed for ever, aware that God sees all that is in it. But that heart is also convicted of sin and described as broken and contrite. This is the heart we are to have, what Paul calls "the spirit", the mind of the spirit, Christ in you the hope of glory. The mind of the flesh is still with us and wars with it. But this is the real me. Most people live life in survival mode, in crisis management mode living day by day, worrying about their work, financial issues, conflict with children, parents, relationships, partners; worried they aren't putting money aside for retirement, stress in the workplace, at home, health issues. As believers we aren't exempt from any of these things. But this is all life in the flesh, and yet parallel to that we have the life in the Spirit. And that heart, created in us by the Spirit, must be our real heart of hearts, inward parts identity. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt that his youth was renewed like the eagle's in his repeated experience of God’s grace (<a href='B:230 103:5'>Psa 103:5</a>), that his soul was restored (<a href='B:230 23:5'>Psa 23:5</a>), and that a right spirit could be renewed by God within him (<a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a>). This is the equivalent of the "newness of life" which is promised to us through acceptance of God’s Spirit. As God doesn’t faint or weary, so somehow those who identify their lives with His will also keep on keeping on- even now (<a href='B:290 40:31'>Isa 40:31</a> cp. 29).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had earlier understood that for the humble and righteous, God can "prepare their heart" (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>). This is evidence enough that God works directly upon the human heart and psychology, which He does today through the work of His Spirit upon the human spirit. For it is men who must prepare their heart in prayer and relationship toward God (s:w. <a href='B:140 12:14'>2Ch 12:14</a>; <a href='B:220 11:13'>Job 11:13</a>; <a href='B:230 7:9'>Psa 7:9</a>). But God can also do this for the humble. Hence David later asks God to create in him a 'prepared' heart (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a>). And God heard; for the same phrase is used of how God 'prepared' or (AV) "fixed" his heart (<a href='B:230 57:7'>Psa 57:7</a>; <a href='B:230 108:1'>Psa 108:1</a>; <a href='B:230 112:7'>Psa 112:7</a>). In allusion to this, Solomon was to later reflect that God can direct or 'prepare' (s:w:) the heart of man, even if he is thinking to direct his steps elsewhwere (<a href='B:240 16:9'>Pro 16:9</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t throw me out from Your presence, and don’t take Your spirit of holiness from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication seems to be that whilst we are in God’s presence, in covenant relationship with Him, then His Holy Spirit is working in our lives and hearts (:10). This is the litmus test as to whether we are in fellowship with God- rather than acceptance of any particular set of theological propositions. The request for restoration of the Spirit in :12 could suggest that God had withdrawn His Holy Spirit from David in the time between the sin with Bathsheba and his repentance; but see on :12.</p><p>If we go with AV "Holy Spirit" we may have a reference to an Angel, for the term is used in Is. 63 of the Angel that was with Israel in the desert. And David was aware of how the Angel of Yahweh encamped around him. But the context here is of matters of the deepest heart, and God's work upon the human heart to cleanse it and renew it (:10). David perceived the working of the Holy Spirit as it works today, in the hidden places of the human heart, and he dearly wants this work and presence to continue. The parallel between presence and Spirit is found again in the teaching about the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit. It is repeated in Ps. 139:7: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?”.</p><p>The work of the Holy Spirit here in Ps. 51 is in line with how the New Testament speaks. This gift of a holy spirit has been made yet more powerful through the Lord's death, whereby the Spirit is poured out into human hearts far more abundantly. But here we see what it looks like- God's presence, joy of salvation, a free or willing to give heart. David's fear he may lose this surely alludes to his experience when first anointed [a symbol of receiving the Spirit] in 1 Sam. 16:13. He fears he will be treated like Saul, and have this gift of the Spirit's abiding presence withdrawn from him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, uphold me with a willing spirit-</p><p>The new heart, filled with the Holy Spirit, is convicted of sin and yet is certain of salvation, and rejoices in this. This is the "truth" God desires in the inward parts, the new heart. The heart of the flesh is still with us, with all its doubts and fears. But the new heart, "the spirit", is certain of salvation. This explains why believers still have doubts within them of salvation- but that is the old man, the flesh. The words for "joy" and "salvation" are found in Zeph. 3:17, where it is God who rejoices over saving us ["He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy"]. In the new heart, we see ourselves as God sees us- sinners, with no sin hidden from His seeing, and yet saved. His joy in our salvation is to be ours.</p><p> Paul teaches that where the spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free. And he surely had these words in mind, again applying David's experience to us all. <p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 51:11-12'>Psa 51:11-12</a> speaks of God’s "free spirit" [AV, or 'willing spirit' NEV], paralleling it with God’s Spirit, His "presence", the "joy of thy salvation". All those terms are parallel. God wills us to be spiritual, with His "willing spirit". The spirit of God is His presence, His salvation, joy, freedom. The Hebrew translated "free" really means 'generous'- the generosity of God’s Spirit / mind / ways is shown in His forgiveness and saving of us. If God’s spirit is His character, then, it is free, joyous, generous etc. Human beings can also have a "free heart" - the same Hebrew word appears translated like this in <a href='B:140 29:31'>2Ch 29:31</a> etc:- i:e. a spirit of generosity. When we have this, we are reflecting the "free spirit" / attitude of God. Whenever we are generous, His Spirit, with all its generosity, dwells in us and becomes our spirit. It is in this sense that I see a window into understanding the gift of God’s spirit into the heart / mind / attitude of the believer. If God’s spirit is free / generous, then so is ours to be; if His Spirit is joyous, just, true etc, then so is ours to be. In this sense we receive of His Spirit by reflecting His free and generous mind to others.  We have here the picture of what it is to live in the Spirit, to receive God's Holy Spirit. TEV puts it: “Give me again the joy that comes from your salvation, and make my spirit obedient”. The gift of the Holy Spirit helps our spirit to be obedient. We are assured of salvation, and rejoice in this. </p><p>A free or willing spirit / heart is the idea behind the description of those who offered to the work of the construction of the tabernacle with a free or willing heart in Ex. 35:5,22. David may have in mind that his response to God's grace would be to freely, generously give things for the construction of the temple. But here again he is slightly not getting it, for he had been told specifically not to do </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is good reason to think that David did not spiritually crash completely, during the months in which he refused to fully acknowledge his sin. Although he no longer felt confident of having God’s salvation, he still felt that God’s Spirit / presence was with him. Hence he prayed in his confession: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me (i:e. he felt that he had these things even then). Restore unto me the joy of salvation…thy free spirit" (<a href='B:230 51:11-12'>Psa 51:11-12</a>). He was very conscious that God was so closely watching him: " Hide thy face from my sins…against thee (have I) done this evil in thy sight" (<a href='B:230 51:4'>Psa 51:4</a>; <a href='B:230 51:9'>Psa 51:9</a>). " Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me" (<a href='B:230 32:4'>Psa 32:4</a>), he later recognized as he reflected upon God’s close scrutiny of his life during those unrepentant months:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, sinners shall be converted to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Being so certain of having received God’s mercy, and therefore knowing the joy of living in good conscience with God, led David to preach to those around him. And he was certain that if he were forgiven and restored, he would make converts on the basis of&nbsp; this wonderful grace being publicized. Note too that Psalms 32 is a 'Maschil' psalm- 'for instruction', or teaching of others. If we have really experienced the mercy of God, we will preach to others from our personal experience. 'Preaching' will not be something which we will have to will ourselves to do, nor will it be just a compartment of our lives. Like David, our very existence, the very spirit of our lives, will be an open proclamation of what God’s mercy has achieved in us:&nbsp;And indeed David turned men to God after he himself had turned back to Him in repentance about Bathsheba. And we will only be powerful preachers if we preach likewise:&nbsp; </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Morally disgraced in the eyes of all Israel and even the surrounding nations, not to mention his own family, it could be argued that David didn’t have a leg to stand on when it came to telling other people how to live their lives. A lesser man than David would have resigned all connection with any kind of preaching. But throughout the Bathsheba psalms there is constant reference to David’s desire to go and share the grace of God which he had experienced with others (Psalms 32 title; 51:13). He titles them ‘maschil’- for instruction / teaching. “Have mercy upon me, O Lord... that I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates” (<a href='B:230 9:13-14'>Psa 9:13-14</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When David wrote that “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee” (<a href='B:230 51:13'>Psa 51:13</a>), he was paralleling his teaching with others’ conversion- in a way that suggests he was so confident that his preaching would certainly bring forth conversion. Yet distribution of leaflets, countless conversations... all these preaching activities are inevitably repetitious, and so few respond that we can lose our basic love for our fellow man, and lose the hopeful spirit which pervades throughout the self-revelation of our Heavenly Father.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliverance from blood guiltiness is the language of Ez. 3:17-19; 33:7-9. There, it is achieved by warning others of the judgment for their sins, and this is exactly the context of the preceding :13. This is David's vow to warn others against sin, based on his own experience. It could be argued that the existence of these Psalms, especially the maschil / teaching Psalm 32, is the fulfilment of these vows. But historically, there is no record of David warning others against the sins of adultery and murder. Instead we read of him not disciplining his children in regard to these very things, and his continued advocacy of murder to his son Solomon. Again we ponder whether David maintained the feelings he now expresses.
Deliverance from sin was to be the prayer of the exiles (<a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a> s:w:); again, David’s path of repentance and restoration is set up as the pattern for the exiles. Solomon often speaks of righteousness delivering the wise; he has missed the desperation of his father, who prayed for God to deliver him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s prayer of repentance and request to be saved from "blood guiltiness" (<a href='B:230 51:14'>Psa 51:14</a>) is literally 'from blood'. He was a man of blood and was guilty of Uriah's innocent blood. David had asked for 'men of blood' to be slain (<a href='B:230 55:23'>Psa 55:23</a> s:w:), those who had taken the blood of the innocent (<a href='B:230 94:21'>Psa 94:21</a>), and for 'men of blood' to be expelled from his presence (<a href='B:230 139:19'>Psa 139:19</a>). And it is not at all clear whether all those Psalms were written before his sin with Bathsheba. God was trying to teach David that he was the type of person whom he condemned. And yet it is unclear if he learned that lesson. Solomon liberally condemns the man who sheds innocent blood (<a href='B:240 6:17'>Pro 6:17</a>; <a href='B:240 28:17'>Pro 28:17</a>), refusing to recognize that his much lauded father had done just this, and was only saved by grace and not by any obedience to wisdom. There is so little grace in the book of Solomon's Proverbs because Solomon had failed to perceive the grace shown to his father.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The desire to be saved from blood guiltiness could also be read as a desire to be saved from the consequences of the shedding of Uriah's blood. Ahithophel, Bathsheba's grandfather, turned against David because of it. Again we note that his desire to be saved from shame and the consequences of the sins appears greater and more frequently stated than his desire for forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lord, open my lips; my mouth shall declare Your praise-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>During the illness David endured after the sin with Bathsheba, it seems he may have suffered a stroke which left him dumb. He wanted healing so that he could then praise God. "Declare" is used here for David’s declaration of praise after his forgiveness concerning Bathsheba; the "truth" which David "declared" after his forgiveness (<a href='B:230 30:9'>Psa 30:9</a>) was the ultimate truth, of God’s forgiveness of him by grace; a 'declaring' of his sin (<a href='B:230 38:18'>Psa 38:18</a> s:w:) and God’s forgiveness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it; You have no pleasure in burnt offering-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on <a href='B:230 20:3'>Psa 20:3</a>, success in war and answer to prayer was thought to depend upon the offering of sacrifice. After the sin with Bathsheba, David now matures in his understanding- that salvation and God’s operation with His people is by grace and not because He desired sacrifice (<a href='B:230 40:6'>Psa 40:6</a>; <a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>). This was spoken by David perhaps more concerning this sin of presumption for which there was no sacrifice prescribed, rather than about the actual sin of adultery. The sin of presumption, however, must not give us the impression that David was a hard, callous man. Everything we know about him points to him be a big hearted, warm softie. David’s sin with Bathsheba was in that sense out of character. Yet such is the stranglehold of sin that even he was forced to act with such uncharacteristic callousness and indifference to both God and man in order to try to cover his sin.</p><p> The situation here is again alluded to when Isaiah suggests that Judah are in the same position as David, in that sacrifice will not help them: "The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me? says the LORD. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats" (Is. 1:11).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :7. oel 2:12,13 applies this to all God's people: "Rend your heart and not your garments". David had "despised" God's word (2 Sam. 12:9) but he is confident that he will not be despised by God in return, because of the state of his heart. Again we have just a slight possible concern that David is using his state of heart as a bargaining chip with God, rather than just begging for grace.  As noted on :1, this is David’s response to the judgment threatened in <a href='B:230 50:8'>Psa 50:8</a>. David was aware that God didn’t really want sacrifice, or else he would so eagerly have offered it. Instead, David perceived that what God wanted in essence was a broken and contrite spirit. The Bathsheba incident was programmatic for David’s understanding of God, and his prayers and psalms subsequently can be expected to have constant allusion back to it. We meet the same idea of God not ultimately wanting sacrifice in <a href='B:230 40:6-9'>Psa 40:6-9</a>: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire [but instead] mine ears hast thou opened [Heb. 'digged'- a reference to a servant being permanently committed as a slave to his master]: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come... to do thy will... thy law is within my heart". In <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>, David had reasoned that instead of sacrifice, God wanted a heart that was broken and contrite. In Psalms 40 he reflects that instead of sacrifice, God wants a heart that has the law of God within it. This ultimately is the effect of God’s law being in our heart- it creates a broken and contrite heart. But how? In the experience of most of us, the law does this through convicting us of our inability to keep the it. And so we see how guilt and grace work so seamlessly together. David’s broken heart was a heart which knew he had sinned, sinned irreversibly, and condemned himself. But this, he perceived, was the result of God’s law being within his heart. But the words of <a href='B:230 40:6-9'>Psa 40:6-9</a> are applied in the New Testament to the Lord's death upon the cross. What's the connection, and what's the lesson? In essence, through David’s experience of sin, and the work of God’s law upon his heart, he came through that sin to have the very mind of the Lord Jesus as He hung upon the cross, matchless and spotless in His perfection, as the Lamb for sinners slain. Again and again we see the lesson taught- that God works through human sin, in this case, in order to bring us to know the very mind of Christ in His finest hour of glory and spiritual conquest. We must not only let God’s word work its way in us; but we need to recognize when dealing with other sinners that God likewise is working with them. He doesn't shrug and walk away from sin; He earnestly seeks to use our experience of it to bring us closer unto Himself.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Do well in Your good pleasure to Zion, build the walls of Jerusalem-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems apparent the Psalms were re-written over time, and hence have relevance to various historical settings:&nbsp; Psalms 51 down to :17 is clearly relevant to David’s sin with Bathsheba. But then, in order to make the entire Psalm an acrostic, we find verses apparently ‘added’, referring to God building the walls of Jerusalem and acceptable sacrifice being offered again in the temple [which didn’t exist in David’s time]. David’s sin and restoration was evidently understood by some inspired scribe or prophet at the time of the exile to speak to Judah’s sin, punishment and restoration. Hence the apparent changes of some passages from “I” to “we”.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David saw his sufferings as being bound up with those of Israel; those who hated him hated Zion, those who blessed him blessed Zion, and God’s salvation of Israel was being expressed through God’s deliverance of him in the daily vicissitudes of life; as God had chosen Zion, so He had David His servant; David’s joy was Zion's joy, and her exaltation would be David’s&nbsp; (<a href='B:230 51:18'>Psa 51:18</a>; <a href='B:230 69:35'>Psa 69:35</a>; <a href='B:230 87:2'>Psa 87:2</a>; <a href='B:230 106:5'>Psa 106:5</a>; <a href='B:230 121:3-4'>Psa 121:3-4</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>; <a href='B:230 128:5'>Psa 128:5</a>; <a href='B:230 146:10'>Psa 146:10</a>; <a href='B:230 149:2'>Psa 149:2</a>). This is how we are to make sense of suffering- by understanding that it plays a role in the salvation of others, and is part of a wider nexus of Divine operation. We suffer so that we may be able to minister the comfort we receive to others (<a href='B:540 1:4'>2Co 1:4</a>). Job likewise came to realize that his sufferings were not so much for his personal maturing, but for the teaching and salvation of the friends.</p><p>Although indeed this Psalm may have been rewritten during the exile, hence the reference to the building of Jerusalem's walls, it is quite possible that David even in his humiliation and contrition reverts to his old dream- of Zion, his own citadel, being built up as a temple. We note that Solomon built not only the temple but also at the same time, a wall around Jerusalem (1 Kings 3:1)- presumably because this was part of David's vision for Zion. The promises of 2 Samuel 7 had sought to correct his vision about this- but even in his desperate contrition, he clings on to that hope and fantasy of a literal temple being built in his own backyard of Zion. Psalm 102, another penitential Psalm within the Bathsheba context, has even more to say within the Psalm [and not just apparently added on, as in Ps. 51] about how David wanted his restoration to be understood as the restoration of Zion.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then You will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bullocks on Your altar-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "Then..."  connects back to the statement in :17 that God wants a broken heart rather than a sacrificed animal. The idea is that sacrifice will then be offered with the understanding that the animal represents the broken heart of the offerer. This surely alludes to the statement in the previous Psalm that God doesn't delight in burnt offerings as much as in trust in Him in the day of trouble (<a href='B:230 50:8'>Psa 50:8</a>). See on :1. After his sin with Bathsheba, David perceived that God didn’t require bulls and goats, but rather the sacrifice of&nbsp; contrite heart (<a href='B:230 51:16-17'>Psa 51:16-17</a>). But here he again envisages offering sacrifice. We could conclude that he means sacrifices now offered in the right spirit. Or we could see this as a slip back from grace towards the old way of works-based thinking.</p><p>The force of "then" God would be pleased with sacrifice may suggest David still nurses the wrong idea that somehow a physical house of God would make the sacrifices pleasing to Him. The same word for pleasing or desiring is in :16 " You do not desire / are not pleased with sacrifice". But David reasons that when the temple is built, then God willing be pleased with sacrifice. He apparently still has a willful misunderstanding of the promises about his house and Messiah's house of people.  </p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2>For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, David has come to Abimelech’s house-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This incident caused the slaughter of the 85 priests of Abimelech's family (<a href='B:90 22:18'>1Sa 22:18</a>). These are David’s reflections upon this. Doeg being detained before Yahweh  in 1 Sam. 21:7 may have been because he had made a vow, or possibly, was becoming a proselyte. This then adds more background to David's ranting against him in Ps. 52:1-4 as being a liar, using deceitful words. What were these words? No specific lie of Doeg is recorded, but the accusation of being a serious liar makes sense if he had made false vows to Yahweh. Psalm 52 was likely later rewritten, under inspiration, during the exile; for Edom was a much hated ally of the Babylonians who eagerly destroyed Jerusalem and murdered the priests (Lam. 4:21,22; Mal. 1:2–5; Joel 3:19; Ez. 25:12; 35:3,15; Ps. 137:7; Obadiah 11). </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God’s grace endures continually-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Doeg apparently boasted about the slaughter of the priests. "Mighty man" is the word used of Goliath the "champion" (<a href='B:90 17:51'>1Sa 17:51</a>). As his proud boasts had been brought down by God’s grace working through David, so David believed Doeg would eventually be conquered likewise; see on :2 for another allusion to Goliath. We can also look to past precedents in our lives for encouragement as to how God will finally come through for us. Betrayal and having another man boasting against you is here answered by the recollection that God's grace is eternal. Betrayal and boasting are for a brief moment. God's grace gives us eternal life. This is one window onto how to cope with betrayal and abuse.</p>


text:
<h2>Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was to later plot the destruction of Uriah by his words; and when he repented of this in <a href='B:230 32:2'>Psa 32:2</a>, he says that lack of deceit / guile (s:w:) is only possible through imputed righteousness. David’s intolerance of "deceitful" persons (<a href='B:230 52:2'>Psa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 120:3'>Psa 120:3</a>) must be compared with the fact that he himself was only counted as not deceitful by grace; for he was very deceitful regarding Uriah. "Razor" is the same word used for the sheath of Goliath's sword (<a href='B:90 17:51'>1Sa 17:51</a>); the same verse speaks of Goliath as the "champion", s:w. "mighty man" in :1.</p><p>The power of 'mere' words is yet again shown. As James says, the tongue is a fire that consumes. The tongue is elsewhere compared to swords, spears and arrows (Ps. 55:21; 57:4,; 59:7; 64:3; cp. Prov. 26:18). Words are never "mere" words, in God's book.</p>


text:
<h2>You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Lying" reflects again David’s deep sense of injustice (see on <a href='B:230 35:7'>Psa 35:7</a>). He uses the word for "false witness", as if they were breaking one of the ten commandments; and he uses it often, heaping condemnation upon any who dare lie / bear false witness about him (<a href='B:230 38:19'>Psa 38:19</a>; <a href='B:230 52:3'>Psa 52:3</a>; <a href='B:230 63:11'>Psa 63:11</a>; <a href='B:230 101:7'>Psa 101:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:29'>Psa 119:29</a>; <a href='B:230 119:69'>Psa 119:69</a>; <a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a>; <a href='B:230 119:118'>Psa 119:118</a>; <a href='B:230 120:2'>Psa 120:2</a>; <a href='B:230 144:8'>Psa 144:8</a>; <a href='B:230 144:11'>Psa 144:11</a>). And yet David lied and deceived in order to get Uriah killed so that he could take his wife for himself. Surely reflection upon that sin made him realize that his zeal to condemn dishonesty was at best misplaced; to lament it is one thing, but David was to be taught that he had himself done the very thing he so condemned.</p><p>The Bible often reduces spirituality down to whether we love God and good, and hate evil and sin. Mic. 3:2 condemns those “who hate the good and love the evil”. Paul says that all who "love His appearing" shall be saved; the wicked are "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:4), and Paul in Romans 7 sums up all his spiritual struggles by saying that he hates his sins but loves the law of God and the spiritual life. Here we have another example. To love God is not to never sin. Many of these passages suggest there is a degree of loving God and good, but the love of sin and evil is greater. They are "lovers of pleasure [more than being] lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:4) It's a question of where the balance is. This feature of many of these passages cuts deep into our self examination.
The historical record shows Doeg as being strictly truthful in what he said to Saul about David. "David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest" (1 Sam. 21:2) and this is exactly what Doeg says: "I saw the son of Jesse come to Nob to Ahimelech the priest." (1 Sam. 22:8). Doeg informs that the priest gave David the sword of Goliath. That is exactly what happened: "The sword of Goliath... is here... David said, "There is none like it; give it to me"" (1 Sam. 21:10). Doeg informs Saul that the priest provided David with food, and that was the case: "The priest gave him holy bread" (1 Sam. 21:7). But David repeatedly claims that Doeg was a liar and had a "deceitful tongue". We could assume that in fact Doeg said other things about David which aren't recorded, and here we have a typical case of where the Biblical evidence must be put together in order to get the complete picture. Or it could be that even by saying things which are truthful, we can do so in a way that is in fact proactively destructive ["devouring", :4) and deceitful- in the sense of being unfaithful to David. We wonder why David's anger is not so much with Saul but with Doeg. It was Saul who commanded Doeg to kill Abimelech and the priests because of Doeg's informing on him. Possibly he as it were forbad himself to curse Saul- and so he redirects his anger with Saul onto Doeg. Rather than taking a more spiritual attitude. We also wonder why David's anger is with Doeg for being a liar, rather than a murderer: "The king said to Doeg, You turn and attack the priests! Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod. He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, men, women, children and nursing babies, and cattle, donkeys and sheep" (1 Sam. 22:18,19). David apparently never mentions this, but rather rants about Doeg being such a liar. Possibly Doeg had become a proselyte, and therefore was deceitful to then kill Yahweh's priests.  
We also observe that it was David at this time who was the liar. But he likes to focus on Doeg as a liar. Doeg was more a murderer, seeking to ingratiate himself to Saul his boss in return for power and wealth- than a liar. I suggest that David is making Doeg out to be a liar and punishing him because this is what David is guilty of. Rather like the pastor committing adultery who beats up on a member of his congregation for falling into sexual sin. The evidence for David's lying at the time is significant. He lies to Abimelech: "The king has commissioned me with a matter and said to me, "Let no one know anything of the matter with respect to which I am sending you and about which I have commissioned you" (1 Sam. 21:3). David was in fact fleeing from Saul, who was determined to kill him (1 Sam. 20:30-42). He totally fabricates words which he claims Saul had spoken and that he is quoting verbatim. Neither did he receive any commission from king Saul. This was all deliberate deception. When asked why he is travelling alone, David lies by saying that his "young men" are going to meet up with him soon at a pre-arranged location: "And as for the young men, I have made an appointment for such and such a place" (1 Sam. 21:3). David wants the priest to believe that David is accompanied by an entourage from the king. When asked by the priest if the young men for whom he asks food are ceremonially clean, David tells another lie: "Indeed women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?" (1 Sam. 21:5). The record is clear that David was alone and didn't have these "young men" actually with him. David comes to Nob alone (1 Sam. 21:1,2), and leaves Nob alone (1 Sam. 21:11). Then he alone flees to Philistine territory unaccompanied (1 Sam 21:11-16), and he leaves Philistine territory alone (1 Sam. 22:1). No one joins him until we learn from 1 Sam. 22:1,2 that after reaching the cave of Adullam, "his brothers and all his father's house heard and came down there, and there were gathered to him any man in distress". David's reason as to why he had no sword is so blatantly untrue that surely Abimelech must have wondered whether David was being truthful: "I took in hand neither my sword nor my weapons because the king's commission was urgent" (1 Sam. 21:9). If indeed he was commissioned by Saul to do something that needed a weapon, surely he would have taken the weapon with him. David's lies therefore led Ahimelech to a position which cost Ahimelech and his family their lives. Hence David later rues that he was responsible for their deaths, and we could even argue that Psalm 52 is David's self hatred over this matter, condemning himself as a liar.
</p>


