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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Everyone lies to his neighbour, they speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Untruth is related to flattery. People are dishonest and hypocritical because they want to flatter others and thereby make themselves look better. And these verses are quoted in Rom. 3 about every man. We need to humbly accept every man does this or has done it, and that includes us. David asks for "help" (:1) from this situation, using the word yasha, salvation, related to Yahoshua- Jesus. In the end, only He can save us from our own miserable situation and society. David is very critical of all his enemies, especially Saul. He sets up a contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous. But his attitude changed somewhat after his sin with Bathsheba, in connection with which he did much of what he accused Saul of, not least willfully exposing Uriah to an ambush so he would be murdered. Therefore <a href='B:520 3:10-14'>Rom 3:10-14</a> alludes to Psalms 12 (from the LXX) and applies it to all men, the righteous included; leading to the conclusion that we are only made righteous by grace through faith.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks great things-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These "flattering lips" may have been of false prophets, for the phrase is used in this connection elsewhere (<a href='B:290 30:10'>Isa 30:10</a>). Probably Saul had false prophets who assured him that he was in fact doing the right things. For kings of those times usually had their entourage of such prophets. See on :8. Note the parallel between flattery and "great things", AV "proud things". Flattery appeals to the latent tendency to pride in the recipient of the flattery. We can thus safely deduce that humility preserves us from the danger of being flattered.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who have said, With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own, who is lord over us?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This great confidence in their words may be because they were false prophets, claiming they were inspired by God; see on :3. One unusual, indeed unique, claim of Yahweh upon men was that their words and thoughts were culpable. Other gods focused upon external behaviours and ritualism. Just as the false gods of our age do likewise. <a href='B:350 14:2'>Hos 14:2</a> speaks of our lips being offered as calves of sacrifice to our God. Our words are so critically important, and they will influence our eternal destiny (<a href='B:470 12:37'>Mat 12:37</a>).  "Who is lord over us?" reflects man's vain desire for freedom, to be without any overlord or moral restraint. "The glorious liberty of God's dear children" will only come if now we change masters, becoming slaves of God rather than slaves of self. For now, we change masters.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise, says Yahweh; I will set him in safety from those who malign him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s prayer of :1-4 now appears to be interrupted by God’s word directly to him, assuring David that He is going to arise in judgment. Or we can understand "I will now arise" as meaning that when the groaning of the weak and needy is as it were loud enough, when they are oppressed enough, God will then "now" arise and save them. God's arising is surely ultimately a reference to the Lord's second coming. The implication is therefore that there will be intense oppression of the weak and needy, and they will cry to Him so strongly that He 'arises'. And yet we are also to see that God will arise 'simply' because of the words of others who "malign" and thereby so hurt His people. "Malign" is Heb. 'to puff at', 'to blow air at', alluding to how words are merely air. But they cause "groaning", and God feels the pain of words upon His people and will "arise", visibly intervene, because of this.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The words of Yahweh are flawless words, as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggested on :5 that David has been praying in :1-4 and then in :5 God speaks directly to him, giving him a prophetic word assuring him of vindication. And now in the rest of the prayer (:6-8), David rejoices in those words of :5, although his comment upon the nature of God’s words is also globally true. "Flawless" is the usual word for "pure". Yahweh's words are being contrasted with the impure words of the wicked, which have been the burden of David’s complaint so far. Indeed, his complaint has specifically been about the untruthfulness of human words that pervades society. And her perceives the utter contrast with God's words of ultimate truth. This is why continued reading of God's words and living in an environment of them is so helpful- it in turn leads us into an environment of truth telling and realism. 
</p><p>We ask, however, how God's true words can be refined or purged / tested seven times. If God's word is true from the beginning, how can it be purged or demonstrated genuine through a furnace? The idea may be that the utter truth of God's word is proven true to us by our experience of them in the furnace of our affliction. Which would fit the context of David's original experience in this Psalm. It is not that there were originally impurities in God's word that had to be purified. Rather is the idea surely that as we pass through the fire of affliction, the purity of God's word of promise becomes the more intensely apparent to us. For it is man who is tried as silver is tried (Ps. 66:10 "You have tried us, as silver is tried"). "The word of the Lord is tried / tested / proved right" in our experience (Ps. 18:30).
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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You will keep them, Yahweh. You will preserve them from this generation forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David appears to see the righteous in Israel at his time as a minority, persecuted by "this generation", society as a whole at the time. It may seem at times impossible to be uninfluenced by society; but although the wicked walk everywhere glorifying what is vile (:8), yet God will keep us from this generation. "Forever" could mean that this promise is true in every generation. We are often told to make our own effort to keep / preserve God's law, to "keep your tongue from evil" (Ps. 34:13), "I will keep my mouth with a bridle" (Ps. 39:1). But the same word is used of God's 'keeping' of man spiritually; if we keep our tongue from evil, then God will "keep the door of my lips" (Ps. 141:3). Our conscious attempts to keep His way will be matched by His keeping of us in that way. "Keep your heart" (Prov. 4:23) and God will keep our heart through the work of His Spirit. For He keeps and waters His vineyard "every moment... night and day" (Is. 27:3), "keeping" us as the apple of His eye if we "keep" His covenant (Dt. 32:10; 33:9).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked walk on every side, when what is vile is exalted among the sons of men- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Vile" is a word usually associated with idolatry, the pervasive weakness of Israel in every generation. It would seem that the false prophets of Saul (see on :3) were also associated with idolatry, and this was behind their persecution of Samuel and David. See on <a href='B:230 16:4'>Psa 16:4</a>.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How long, Yahweh? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By the end of the Psalm, David is rejoicing (:5,6). This doesn't have to mean that half way through the prayer, an answer came. Rather is this absolutely true to the experience of prayerful men. We begin prayer in desperation, but in the course of that prayer we are persuaded of God’s action, and conclude the prayer in grateful peace with Him. "How long?" is the cry of the exiles, so the Psalm was likely reused in their context. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?<strong>- </strong></p><p><'Taking counsel in our own soul' is typical depressive human response (Ps. 13:2). We think our best and only counsellor is ourselves, in our self talk, we ask ourselves the questions and get often wrong answers. The spiritual mind takes counsel in God; David speaks in Ps. 119:24 of God's words being his counsellor, and describes God's words as His "counsel". If those words are in our hearts, then that will be the response we get. Otherwise we are mired within ourselves, bogged down with endless self talk and introspection which leads to no good answer, and often to very contorted and wrong self advice. "There are many advices [Heb.] in a man's heart; but the counsel of Yahweh shall stand" (Prov. 19:21). Job 18:7 says that a man's "own counsel [s.w.] shall cast him down". God's comment on Job is that he had "darkened [God's] counsel by words without knowledge" (Job 38:2). Job did this by doing what David is here tempted to do, taking counsel in his own soul. Job had refused the "counsel" of the friends, which was wrong; but had turned into himself for counsel and thus had "darkened" or obscured the light of God's counsel. Job agrees with this when he confesses that indeed he has hidden, or hidden himself, from [God's] counsel, and he was without knowledge. That is my paraphrase of the difficult Hebrew of Job 42:3: "Who is / how is he that hides counsel without knowledge. Therefore have I uttered that I understood not". 
</p><p>We must factor in Ps. 16:7 "I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons". In Ps. 13:2, David took counsel with his own soul and ended up depressed, because he had not listened to God's counsels in His word. In Ps. 16:7, David seems to have matured. For now he feels that the self talk of the spiritually minded person becomes effectively God advising them.
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"My enemy" is clearly Saul (<a href='B:90 18:29'>1Sa 18:29</a>; <a href='B:90 19:17'>1Sa 19:17</a>). The David who had once triumphed over his enemy Goliath now felt that Saul was triumphing over him. This, in the bigger Divine picture, may have been to keep David from pride at the amazing victory and triumph. David was indeed to triumph / be exalted over Saul (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>), but he saw it is God triumphing / being exalted (<a href='B:230 18:46'>Psa 18:46</a>). His praise Psalms are full of this word and idea- of the exaltation of God (<a href='B:230 57:5'>Psa 57:5</a>; <a href='B:230 57:11'>Psa 57:11</a>) and not himself.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Look, and answer me, Yahweh my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was persuaded that he would one day be slain by Saul (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>), yet here in <a href='B:230 13:3'>Psa 13:3</a> and often in the Psalms he persuades himself, in the course of the same prayer, that in fact God will save him and keep His promise to make him king in Saul's place. By the end of the prayer, David is in quite another mood. But there is no record of any revelation to him during the prayer. He has asked that God "look" upon him... and surely as his prayer progressed, he realized that of course God sees and knows all things, and was indeed looking at him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him; lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of the shame-based mentality in which he lived, David seems to fear more than death the thought that his enemies would rejoice over his dead body. Saul sought to "prevail against him" (<a href='B:230 13:4'>Psa 13:4</a>), but Saul used the same word in telling David (in a rare moment of reality and humility) that he knew that David would prevail against him (<a href='B:90 26:25'>1Sa 26:25</a>). Those flash moments of reality and humility which Saul had are to be our warning. The Psalms condemn him as generally proud. We must live life in a spirit of humility, rather than just experiencing a few flash moments of it.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I trust in Your grace. My heart rejoices in Your salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :1, David rallies himself to the joy which comes from faith in grace. Perhaps there was a significant gap in his prayer between verses 4 and 5. He may have in view final salvation. For he didn't ultimately know whether God was going to save him out of his immediate crisis; but he was assured that God would finally save him eternally. And it is that which gave him perspective and peace. He grasped the link between grace and salvation, in an almost Pauline sense. I testify to the same experiences, praying to God as every man does when facing extreme danger, and during the prayer becoming convinced that I shall live eternally, I shall be saved. And that puts into context the immediate crisis. This is what David was experiencing here.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will sing to Yahweh, because He has been good to me- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Like us, our faith that God will finally come through for us in the future should give us joy now. This faith in God finally 'being good' to David led him to be the same to Saul- the word is used of how David was 'good' rather than evil to Saul, not slaying him when he had the opportunity (<a href='B:90 24:17'>1Sa 24:17</a>).  Although quite possibly David was also looking back in his life to all the times God had historically been good to him, and took them as an encouragement that He would again be good to him and save him. </p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A comparison of Psalms 14, 53 illustrate the process of re-writing at Hezekiah's time. These Psalms are both "A Psalm of David", and are virtually identical apart from <a href='B:230 53:5'>Psa 53:5</a> adding: "There were they in great fear, where no fear was; For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath rejected them". This surely alludes to the Assyrian army encamped against Jerusalem (<a href='B:140 32:1'>2Ch 32:1</a>), put into fear by the Angels, and returning "with shame of face to his own land" (<a href='B:140 32:21'>2Ch 32:21</a>). Yet both Psalms conclude with a verse which connects with the exiles in Babylonian captivity: "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Then shall Jacob rejoice, and Israel shall be glad". So it would appear that the initial Psalm was indeed written by David; the version of Psalms 14 which is now Psalms 53 was added to and adapted in Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:240 25:1'>Pro 25:1</a>), and both versions had a final verse added to them during the exile.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It should be noted that <a href='B:520 3:13-18'>Rom 3:13-18</a> are quoting from the Septuagint of Psalms 14 - but those verses aren’t found in the Hebrew text. Time and again the inspired New Testament writers quote from the LXX rather than the Hebrew Masoretic text, often preferring the LXX over the MT, and in this case accepting the LXX addition of verses which the MT omits. It’s hard to gauge the wider significance of thIsa. The LXX versions of the genealogies in Genesis would, e.g., not support the contention that the Genesis 1 creation occurred 4000 years before the birth of Christ. The quotation in <a href='B:520 3:10'>Rom 3:10</a> from <a href='B:230 14:1-3'>Psa 14:1-3</a>; <a href='B:230 53:1-3'>Psa 53:1-3</a> is about the fools who say in their heart that there is no God. Yet Paul applies this to every one of us, himself included. What he’s doing here is similar to what he does at the end of Romans 1 - he speaks of the grossest sins such as sexual perversion and reasons that we are all in essence guilty and condemned as serious sinners before God. Here he quotes passages which speak of effective atheism and applies them to us all, himself included- even though atheism was abhorrent to the Jews, and Paul may have seemed the last person to be an atheist. But the ‘atheism’ of <a href='B:230 14:1'>Psa 14:1</a> occurs within the psychological thought processes of the human mind- the fool says in his heart that there is no God. In the context of Romans, Paul is arguing that we call God a liar when we disbelieve His offer of justification and salvation. To deny this is to effectively say in our hearts that there is no God. If God is, then He is a Saviour God. To deny that He will save me is effectively to say He doesn’t exist; for a God who won’t save me may as well not exist. Far too many people claim some level of belief in God’s existence, but in their hearts deny Him, in that they personally doubt whether His promised salvation is really true for me.
The denial of God need not refer to atheism as we understand it; for atheism was almost unheard of in David's time. Rather does it refer to the inner mentality which acts as if there is no God. The same phrase is used in Ps. 14:1, and the Targum on that verse is ‘There is no government of God in the earth’. God may exist theoretically, but is not a factor in human life. And we too can be effective atheists in this sense. "There is" has been added by the translators. The fool says "no God" in his heart. But that is how God interprets man's self talk; for those two words aren't said consciously by men. We marvel that the God who knows every human thought in advance also knows and perceives the effective implication of those thoughts. This is an example of where God reads our thoughts and actions for what they effectively mean to Him. "The wicked has no room in his thoughts for God" (Ps. 10:4). "They say, how does God know?" (Ps. 73:11). "They say in their heart, Yahweh will not do good neither will He do evil" (Zeph. 1:12). "They have denied Yahweh and said, It is not He" (Jer. 5:12). "They refused to have God in their knowledge" (Rom. 1:28).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt that no one else understood (<a href='B:230 14:2'>Psa 14:2</a>, a wilderness psalm) or was really seeking towards God as he was doing (<a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>; <a href='B:230 27:8'>Psa 27:8</a>). The Hebrew for "understand" here is that translated "wise" concerning David in 1 Samuel 18:&nbsp;But there appears an allusion to God’s coming down to view Sodom and investigate, as it were, whether they had done according to the cry which came to Him. David was expecting God’s intervention in judgment to be similar to that of His judgment upon Sodom- through direct, supernatural involvement. Effectively, David was looking ahead to the day of final judgment at the Lord's return.
David clearly assumed that although this was generally the case, he and the righteous did understand and seek after God. But as noted on :1, Paul sees David as being overly generous to himself, and "concludes all under sin", including the righteous. We note that understanding God is paralleled with seeking after Him. Nobody arrives at 100% understanding of God; the true understanding is to have a heart which seeks to understand Him. The extent of God's knowledge is amazing. He sees every man's downsitting and uprising, and sees the thoughts of every man before he has them (Ps. 139). He "sees all the sons of men... He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth" (Ps. 33:13,14). Our genuine interest in Him must be a bright light in the gross darkness of what He sees. On one hand we can read these verses as God's opinion of literally every human being. But :4 speaks of these sinful masses eating up "My people", as if in fact the generalized statements concern the unbelieving world. But Paul interprets these words further, applying them to literally all of us.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is very critical of all his enemies, especially Saul. He sets up a contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous. But his attitude changed somewhat after his sin with Bathsheba, in connection with which he did much of what he accused Saul of, not least willfully exposing Uriah to an ambush so he would be murdered. Therefore <a href='B:520 3:10-14'>Rom 3:10-14</a> alludes to Psalms 14 (from the LXX) and applies it to all men, the righteous included; leading to the conclusion that we are only made righteous by grace through faith.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David often describes himself as "upright in heart" just as Job was (s:w. <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>). But 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Knowledge" is used here in the Hebraic sense of relationship. The sinners had no relationship with God; the idea is not so much that they had the wrong theological knowledge of God, but rather that they lacked relationship with Him, what the New Testament would simply call "the Spirit". The eating up of "my people", Israel, could refer to the eating up / devouring of the men of Saul during the civil war (<a href='B:100 18:8'>2Sa 18:8</a>). Yet David is mature enough to see Saul's men as all the same "my people", members of the same people of God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There they were in great fear because God is in the generation of the righteous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew is difficult, and may be David looking ahead to the final day of justice: "But then they will be terrified, for God is with those who obey him" (GNB).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You frustrate the plan of the poor, because Yahweh is his refuge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or, "but the LORD is their protection" (GNB). In this case we see that we "the poor" do have our plans frustrated by bullies and those more powerful than us, in whatever sense. But Yahweh is our refuge, not unaware of the situations, and we shall be finally justified and saved by grace.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When Yahweh restores the fortunes of His people, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad- Many NT passages mix a number of OT passages in one 'quotation'; e.g. " The deliverer will come from Zion" (<a href='B:520 11:26'>Rom 11:26</a>) is a conflated quotation of <a href='B:230 14:7'>Psa 14:7</a>; <a href='B:230 53:6'>Psa 53:6</a> and <a href='B:290 59:20'>Isa 59:20</a>. And <a href='B:650 13:5'>Heb 13:5</a> combines quotes from <a href='B:10 28:15'>Gen 28:15</a>; <a href='B:60 1:5'>Jos 1:5</a> and <a href='B:50 31:16'>Deu 31:16</a>. <a href='B:650 13:5'>Heb 13:5</a> doesn’t quote any of them exactly, but mixes them together. This Psalm which was clearly David’s originally is now reapplied, under inspiration, to the desire for the exiles' fortunes to be revived.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, who shall dwell in Your sanctuary? Who shall live on Your holy hill?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps this 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 (see on <a href='B:230 17:14'>Psa 17:14</a>). The priests didn’t live in the sanctuary, indeed the High Priest could only enter the most holy place briefly once / year. David seems to have had insight into the fact that ultimately that most holy place would be opened and the "blameless" (:2) would be able to not only enter it but live there permanently. These are the very ideas developed in Hebrews, developing the implications of how the Lord had torn down the veil through His death- that we might enter in and dwell there in God’s presence and fellowship.</p><p>Literally, "Who shall dwell in Your tent?", as if worshippers are invited to God's home to stay as guests, but they end up permanently dwelling there. Hence Ps. 61:4 "I will dwell in Your tent forever". The tendency was for the people of Jerusalem to think that God lived amongst them (Mic. 3:11; Is. 48:2). But in fact, the essence of abiding with God is that we dwell in His home. It has been suggested that this Psalm was used as the worshippers came before Yahweh at the feasts, specifically to the sanctuary on Mount Zion. But the question posed is not who can attend the feasts, but who shall go further and dwell permanently in the tent of meeting with God. Those who came to the feasts at best three times a year and just for a few days, were to see this as looking forward to actually settling and dwelling on Mount Zion and permanently living in God's tent- even more intimately than the priests or even the High Priest on the day of Atonement. What was possible for the priests for a few moments or hours was to be the permanent experience of all believers. Just as we may reflect that the intense feelings of spirituality and fellowship experienced at church gatherings are but a foretaste of the eternal felicity and spirituality of God's Kingdom.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who walks blamelessly, does what is right-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> 
</p><p>This Psalm states that only those who do the right things and don't do wrong things can dwell in Yahweh's tent and hill. David on one hand is to be commended for seeing that behaviour and the state of the heart is the qualification for coming close to God- rather than performing entrance rituals or ancestry, i.e. being a Levite. But the truth is that it is God who causes people to approach unto Him, and that 'causing' is all of His grace: "Their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from their midst; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to Me: for who is he who has had boldness to approach to Me? says Yahweh" (Jer. 30:21). "Even him whom He shall choose, He will cause to come unto Him" (Num. 16:5). Israel had earlier felt that God's moral requirements for coming near Him were too high for any man: "Everyone who comes near to the tent of Yahweh dies! Will we all perish?" (Num. 17:13). Putting these passages together, it is indeed the case that the moral requirements for approaching Yahweh are too great. No man of himself has that "boldness to approach to Me". But He does cause men to approach Him. And He brings them close, by grace. David is still at the point of thinking that steel willed obedience to God's ways is the sole requirement for drawing near to God. Heb. 10:19-22 takes the idea further- only through the Lord's blood can the human conscience be purged of sin, and thus we can not only approach but approach boldly into the most holy place: "boldness to enter into the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water". The implication is that seeing all men are sinners, in fact no man can approach God, let alone boldly, let alone dwell permanently in His presence, as David suggests we can. Only those covered by forgiveness and grace- and for us, the Lord's blood- can do so. David's idea is far less mature- he thinks that by doing good deeds and avoiding sin we can achieve this. In reality nobody ever achieved it by following David's stipulations here. The argument of Hebrews is that only now, in Christ, is man able to confidently enter the Holy Place. It is quite possible that this is the Spirit's answer to David's immature position in Psalms 15 and 24. Ps. 24 contains similar ideas: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully" (Ps. 24:4). Hebrews is saying that clean hands and heart are only possible through the cleansing work of the Lord's blood. Psalm 24 continues: "He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation" (Ps. 24:5). Paul is clear that the blessing of righteousness can only come by grace through faith in the Lord's work. Not by having a supposedly pure heart. Is. 33:14-17 has the same style of asking the double question 'Who can enter / fellowship with God?', conditions given similar to those in Psalms 15 and 24, and then blessings of fellowship with God pronounced: "Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning [referring to the shekinah glory of God burning in the sanctuary]? He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil- he will dwell on high... Your eyes will see the king in His beauty, they will see the land that is distant". So if, as some claim, these psalms were used as an entrance liturgy for entry into the temple- then David was in a sense misleading subsequent generations by predicating dwelling with God upon personal righteousness and blameless thinking and living. They would have led to the well attested practice of priests standing at the temple gates and assessing the worthiness of worshippers by posing questions to those seeking entrance. Possibly this is alluded to in Am. 5:10: "They hate him who reproves in the gate and they abhor him who speaks truthfully / honestly [an allusion to Ps. 15:2 "he who speaks truth"]". And possibly this was what Eli was doing as he interviewed Hannah at the entrance to the sanctuary. It is also attested that the worshippers stood outside the temple gates and had to ask: “Who is worthy to enter the temple?”. The priests, from within, then responded to them by reciting Psalms 15 and 24, as conditions of entrance. The ten entry requirements of Ps. 15 were recited, using the ten fingers of the human hands. And who in all honesty could have said "Yes" to having a clean heart and pure hands, "he whose walk is blameless" (Ps. 15:2), without faith in the Lord's blood? At best this bred hypocrisy.
David at this stage had a far too simplistic view of spirituality, dividing men into the sinners and the perfect. He speaks of "those whose ways are blameless...  he who walks blamelessly" (Ps. 119:1; 15:2). He considered that he was "blameless": "I was also blameless before Him... I will be careful to live a blameless life... he who walks in a perfect way will serve me" (Ps. 18:23; 101:2,6), whereas in his more honest moments in Ps. 119 he recognizes he had gone astray from God even in his younger life. Yet he confidently asks God to judge him according to his [supposed] integrity (Ps. 7:8; 26:1,11). Paul shows a far greater realism and maturity in Romans 7. David often states that the righteous will never be moved. This was part of his too simplistic division of men into super righteous or super evil, cowboys or Indians. He himself was "moved" by the events surrounding his sin with Bathsheba (Ps. 38:16; 94:18). In the bigger picture, this was God's attempt to get him to a greater maturity and realism.   
We wonder at David’s possible arrogance in assuming that he or any man can walk blamelessly. Only the Lord Jesus fits thIsa. And yet this is the phrase used in God’s command to Abraham and his seed (<a href='B:10 17:1'>Gen 17:1</a>). It was only possible for Abraham to do so by his faith in imputed righteousness, by grace through faith. But it's questionable as to whether David at this point realized that; he had to learn it through reflection upon the wonder of how God had counted him righteous after the sin with Bathsheba.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And speaks truth in his heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is to be commended for so often perceiving the importance of internal spiritual mindedness, at a time when religion was perceived merely as ritualism and externalities. It is part of being human that we speak to ourselves, and often our self talk can be fantasy / imagination about things which are not true. But this will lead to doing what is not right, David reasons. To speak the truth in our hearts all the time is perhaps the litmus test of our spiritual mindedness. See on <a href='B:230 16:2'>Psa 16:2</a>.</p><p>Speaking truthfully in our heart leads directly on to not slandering with our tongue (:3). In reality, this is how slander begins: the slanderer nurses untruthful narratives about a person and keeps speaking them in their self talk. And those narratives expand. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Those internal false narratives about another are then spoken out as words of slander.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>he who doesn’t slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor casts slurs against his fellow man-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This&nbsp; offers commentary upon gossip in relation to our “neighbour”: “He that... speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor receiveth / endureth a reproach against his neighbour” (<a href='B:230 15:2-3'>Psa 15:2-3</a> AVmg:). To gossip / backbite is paralleled with receiving gossip. To listen to it and accept it is as bad as to create it in the first place. The antidote is to have a mind that thinks of those things which “are true... lovely... of good report”. We live in a world of conscious untruth and half truth. In our unshareable self, our inner thoughts and musings, let us seek to have only that which is true passing through our meditations. And then we will not want to receive a gossip against our brother, indeed by implication we will not ‘endure’ it, we will tell the gossiper to cease, and certainly not act upon it:&nbsp; AV "nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour" is a fair translation. In which case the idea is that we are not to 'take up' gossip with our neighbour, but treat it as gossip. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>in whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who respects those who fear Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>
The psalm is a chiasm, and this verse is actually the centre of it. As if he [wrongly?] sees the despising of those whom God refuses as the apex of spirituality. As discussed on :2, David is far too judgmental. He divides men into those who are "reprobate" ["vile"] and those who fear Yahweh. He is speaking within the context of Israel, who were all God's people. The reality is that man is on a journey, and at times acts in "reprobate" way and at times fears God. And the heart position of man may be one way, but his external behaviour another way. David here assumes that he can decide who is "reprobate" and who fears Yahweh. But that decision is only ultimately made by God, and will be made on the basis of a man's fully lived life. Only in the Kingdom age will "the vile no longer be called liberal" (Is. 32:5). "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because Yahweh has rejected them" (Jer. 6:30). Only if God rejects someone can we call them "reprobate". And that will only be after judgment day. This is why there will be a public element to judgment- so that we enter eternity understanding each other. We cannot come to that understanding by our own unaided judgment. David was judging men whilst they were still alive, unaware of how they might later change. He offers few appeals for repentance to men; his Psalms tend to simply categorize men as they are right now, in his opinion.  
However the word translated "vile" is that rendered "rejected" about God's rejection of David's older brother and also Saul (1 Sam. 15:23,26; 16:1,7). David speaks of "a vile / rejected man" rather than the vile / rejected man, so he has talking in general terms. But surely he has Saul specifically in mind. And he urges men to do as he does, and 'despise' him. We wonder therefore to what degree his lament over Saul was political and theatrical, if in fact he so despised Saul. But with Saul, it was not over until it was over. While there's life there's hope, spiritually. We may despise those whom God has finally rejected- but only after they are dead, and if we know from God's word that they are indeed rejected. God "rejected" [s.w. "[made] vile"] all the seed of Israel (2 Kings 17:20; 23:27; Ps. 78:59) but still loves them with an everlasting love, and surely doesn't despise those He rejects; and He goes on to say that this 'rejection' had only been temporary (s.w. Is. 41:9 "I have chosen you and not cast you away / despised", also Jer. 31:37; 33:24,26). David claims that God "despises" people (Ps. 53:5).
But God doesn't despise any (<a href='B:220 36:5'>Job 36:5</a>). 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 “despised” 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'>He who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'><a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>, in evident allusion to Jephthah, describes those who will attain the Kingdom as fearing Yahweh, and swearing to their own hurt and changing not. Some may swear and change and attain the Kingdom; but we are invited to follow Jephthah to the highest level. The principle of Jephthah's vow is seen in many other Bible characters.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken- This appears to be commentary upon the state of affairs under Saul's kingship; and therefore his kingdom and dynasty was "shaken" and removed. Bribing judges and lending money for interest were only possible for the wealthy. This leads us to think, as discussed on :4, that although David speaks in general terms of the man who will be accepted by God, he seems to have an agenda of proving that therefore some specific wealthy, powerful individuals like Saul will not therefore be accepted by God. This is an inappropriate pre-judgment of men. And yet, on the other side of his character, David did have great love and grace toward Saul. In this he presents as so realistic. We have the possibility to show love and hate, grace and condemnation, to the same person at pretty much the same time. 
At this point, David prides himself for not doing sins which actually he had little chance to commit anyway. For David whilst on the run from Saul was poor, so he had no opportunity to bribe judges nor lend money for interest. He states that he who refrains from doing these things "shall never be shaken". But he later admits that he had wrongly said "I shall never be shaken" (Ps. 30:6), and at the time of his sin with Bathsheba he openly admits that he was "shaken" (Ps. 38:16; 94:18). So to never slip / be shaken is unrealistic, just as is the attainment of the requirements for this.
</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Poem by David. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Preserve me, God, for in You do I take refuge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that God was David’s city of refuge. These cities were for those who needed to flee when being chased by the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:26'>Num 35:26</a>). The imagery is very appropriate to David when fleeing from Saul and Absalom. David’s constant meditation upon God’s law would have included the sections about the cities of refuge; he realized that actually no such city was available for him, but the spirit of the law led him to reflect that Yahweh was his refuge, wherever he was. David tends to open wilderness Psalms with this reflection, just as we may tend to begin prayers with the same opening phrase and thoughts (<a href='B:230 7:1'>Psa 7:1</a>; <a href='B:230 11:1'>Psa 11:1</a>; <a href='B:230 16:1'>Psa 16:1</a>; <a href='B:230 31:1'>Psa 31:1</a>; <a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>; <a href='B:230 71:1'>Psa 71:1</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul, you have said to Yahweh, You are my Lord. Apart from You I have no good thing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s addressing of his own "soul" or person is what we might call self talk. David is to be commended for so often perceiving the importance of internal spiritual mindedness, at a time when religion was perceived merely as ritualism and externalities. It is part of being human that we speak to ourselves, and often our self talk can be fantasy / imagination about things which are not true. But this will lead to doing what is not right, David reasons in <a href='B:230 15:2'>Psa 15:2</a>. To speak the truth in our hearts all the time is perhaps the litmus test of our spiritual mindedness. See on :7; <a href='B:230 15:2'>Psa 15:2</a>. The truth in David’s heart was that God alone was his Lord, and he had nothing apart from Him.</p><p>"Apart from You I have no good thing" could be translated as LXX "You have no need of my goodness". Again we would then see David having a Pauline sense of salvation by grace.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David on the run from Saul was aware that there were others in the earth / land who were faithful, and Samuel was obviously one of them. "Excellent ones" is the usual term for nobles or rulers. And so it happened; those who took David’s side in the wilderness years were the ones exalted to office in David’s kingdom.</p><p>We should consider the NET translation of these verses: "As for God’s chosen people who are in the land, and the leading officials I admired so much- their troubles multiply; they desire other gods. I will not pour out drink offerings of blood to their gods...".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is further evidence that idolatry was being practiced at David’s time (see on <a href='B:230 12:8'>Psa 12:8</a>; <a href='B:230 18:31'>Psa 18:31</a>)."Sorrows" is literally 'grief'. Sin doesn't bring joy but grief. Paul likewise speaks of those who wish to be wealthy piercing themselves through with many sorrows (1 Tim. 6:10). And yet human sin grieves God, just as it grieves the sinner. The same word is used of how Israel "grieved Him in the desert" (Ps. 78:40), when they "vexed [s.w. grieved] His Holy Spirit" (Is. 63:10). 
</p><p>"Give gifts" is literally 'to haste after', as AV. Whenever Yahweh appeared not to have come through for them, they went running after other gods. This attitude is totally cut down once we accept that truly there is only one God, Yahweh, and everything else is fake.
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take their names on my lips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David knew God well enough to act like the High Priest even when he was not a Levite (<a href='B:100 6:13-20'>2Sa 6:13-20</a>; and <a href='B:100 19:21'>2Sa 19:21</a> = <a href='B:20 22:28'>Exo 22:28</a>), he came to understand that God did not require sacrifices, he came to see that the Law was only a means to an end. David’s sons, although not Levites, were “priests” (<a href='B:100 8:18'>2Sa 8:18</a> RV). He could say that the Lord was his inheritance [a reference to how he as the youngest son had lost his?], and how he refuses to offer the sacrifices of wicked men for them (<a href='B:230 16:4-5'>Psa 16:4-5</a>; <a href='B:230 119:57'>Psa 119:57</a>)- speaking as if he was a Levite, a priest, when he was not</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup, you made my inheritance secure-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion is to the promise to Aaron and the Levites: "I am thy part ["portion"] and thine inheritance among the children of Israel" (<a href='B:40 18:20'>Num 18:20</a>). It follow straight on from David’s reference (noted on :4) to how he acted as a priest, although from Judah. David is presenting himself as a king-priest, after the order of Melchizedek (<a href='B:230 110:4'>Psa 110:4</a>). This is developed in the New Testament, presenting him as a type of the Lord Jesus in this respect. And the following verses in this Psalm are therefore applied to the Lord in the New Testament.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; truly I have a good inheritance-</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. "The lines" refer to inheritance markers, and 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><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. We are God’s portion / inheritance (<a href='B:50 4:20'>Deu 4:20</a>; <a href='B:50 9:29'>Deu 9:29</a>; <a href='B:560 1:18'>Eph 1:18</a>), and He is our inheritance (<a href='B:230 16:5-6'>Psa 16:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 73:26'>Psa 73:26</a>; <a href='B:310 3:22-24'>Lam 3:22-24</a>; <a href='B:560 1:11'>Eph 1:11</a> RV); we inherit each other.</p><p>The word for "pleasant" is not very common, but is found again in :11, for the eternal "pleasures" David awaits at God's right hand. The pleasant place is therefore defined in :11 as being in God's presence, at God's right hand. It was eternal relationship with God which David saw as his inheritance, rather than anything material- although he did also have a strong liking of Zion, which he clearly considered his personal material inheritance.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The parallelism seems to suggest that David’s heart and Yahweh's counsel were the same thing. Perhaps the idea is that the self talk of the spiritually minded person becomes effectively God advising them. See on :2.</p><p>In Ps. 13:2, David took counsel with his own soul and ended up depressed, because he had not listened to God's counsels in His word. In Ps. 16:7, David seems to have matured. For now he feels that the self talk of the spiritually minded person becomes effectively God advising them.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have set Yahweh always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The context is of David’s desire to take the hill of Zion from the Jebusites, and for it to become his by conquest. 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'>The Lord Jesus so struggled against sin, He so groaned beneath the mental weight of our sins, that it was as if&nbsp; He had been through everything David went through emotionally and spiritually. The main reason why there is so much deep personal detail about David is because we are intended to come to know him as a person, to enter into His mind- so that we can have a clearer picture of the mind and personality of the Lord Jesus. Likewise the book of Genesis covers about 2000 years of history, but almost a quarter of the narrative concerns Joseph; surely because we are intended to enter into Joseph, and thereby into the mind of Christ. This is why the thoughts of David in <a href='B:230 16:8-11'>Psa 16:8-11</a> are quoted as being the very thoughts of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:510 2:27'>Act 2:27</a>). David’s ultimate success in taking the hill of Zion and establishing his Kingdom there was because God foresaw His own work through the Lord Jesus. And so Peter suggests that David appreciated this, and that his trust in Yahweh was in fact his trust in the future Messianic figure who would one day rule upon his throne, and be the basis of his salvation. And so Peter says that so Christ-centered was David’s mind that he "foresaw (not "saw" - disproof of the pre-existence) the Lord (Jesus) always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved" (<a href='B:510 2:25'>Act 2:25</a>). David was obsessed, mentally dominated, by his imagination of Christ, so much so that his imagination of his future descendant gave him practical strength in the trials of daily life. Small wonder we are bidden know and enter into David’s mind.</p><p>We can also read the quotation of Psalm 16 in Acts 2:25-28 as David prophesying about the Lord Jesus. When he says "I have set Yahweh always before me...", Peter would be saying that David was prophesying the feelings and thoughts of the Lord Jesus. And yet clearly enough these are David's thoughts about himself. His 'prophesying' may have been totally unconscious; or it could be that he said, wrote and felt these things about himself, knowing he was experiencing the feelings which would be experienced in the future by his great descendant, the Lord Jesus. Or we may simply have here an example of the way the New Testament writers, like the rabbis in their commentaries, take Old Testament words apparently out of context and apply them in another.
</p><p>David here protests that he shall not be moved, just as he does in many Psalms. But after his sin with Bathsheba, he looks back and reflects how "in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved" (Ps. 30:6), when in fact he did 'move' or slip. His foot slipped at the time of the Bathsheba sins, and his enemies rejoiced at the fact: "When my foot slips, they magnify themselves against me" (Ps. 38:16). He realized it was only by God's grace that he was now not slipping / being moved: "When I said, My foot slips; Your mercy / grace, O Yahweh, held me up" (Ps. 94:18). 
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also lay to rest in hope-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was singing this Psalm ["my tongue rejoices"] because he believed that even if he didn’t permanently inherit Zion in his lifetime, he would be resurrected to receive it, and to see his Davidic throne eternally established there; see on :5,6. It is therefore absolutely appropriate that these words are applied to the Lord Jesus. But as noted on :6, he also reflected that his ultimate inheritance and joy was at the future resurrection, eternally enjoying God's presence.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will You allow Your holy one to see corruption-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Greek word translated "leave" or "forsaken" occurs in <a href='B:510 2:27'>Act 2:27</a>, where Peter quotes from Psalms 16 concerning how Christ was always aware of His own righteousness, and therefore confidently knew that God would not "leave (forsake) his soul in hell". In <a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>, our Lord was doubting these previous thoughts, as expressed here in <a href='B:230 16:10'>Psa 16:10</a>. He then feared that God had forsaken / left Him, when previously He had been full of confidence that God would not do so, on account of His perfect character. Because Christ felt such identification with us, He carried our sins deeply, and perhaps for a moment He even doubted if He really was the Messiah. Because Christ felt such a sinner deep within Him, He even doubted if He really was the Messiah. This is how deeply, our Lord was our representative, this is how thoroughly He bare our own sins in His own body on the tree, this is how deeply He came to know us, to be able to exactly empathize with us in our spiritual weakness; this was how He became able to have a fellow feeling with those who are out of the way, who have lost the faith, "for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity" (<a href='B:650 5:2'>Heb 5:2</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy, in Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "For the joy that was set before him" Christ endured the cross (<a href='B:650 12:2'>Heb 12:2</a>). "Set before" can imply a vision, as if Christ saw something in front of Him as He hung on the cross. The spirit of Christ in <a href='B:230 16:11'>Psa 16:11</a> describes Christ looking forward to fullness of joy in God’s Heavenly presence, because "at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore". Christ is now at God’s right hand interceding for us. Therefore one aspect of the joy set before Christ in vision as He hung on the cross was the joy of His future mediation for our sins, as we repent of them and confess them in prayer.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Prayer by David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear, Yahweh, my righteous plea; give ear to my prayer, that doesn’t go out of deceitful lips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David has elsewhere lamented the deceitful lips of his opponents, and he comes over as being convinced of his own righteousness, often comparing himself with them, even when he is in God’s presence. The mention of "lips" suggests David prayed out loud. And prayer out loud, even if the words are only whispered, is important in prayer. If we only and always pray in our minds, our mind tends to race too fast and the ideas become mixed- and so easily the mind wanders. Prayer out loud slows us down in a way appropriate to those in God's presence. We note too the corresponding reference to the words of God's lips in :4. Here is the mutuality possible between God and man. The words of our lips find answers as He speaks to us through His word- which although apparently just printed words, is effectively the words of His lips. Such is the power of an inspired Bible.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my sentence come forth from Your presence, let Your eyes look on integrity-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David imagines the heavenly throne room sitting right now in judgment upon him, and a favourable sentence coming forth in response to his prayer (as in <a href='B:230 9:4'>Psa 9:4</a>; <a href='B:230 9:7'>Psa 9:7</a> and often). He therefore saw prayer as a foretaste of judgment to come. The New Testament does likewise, speaking of our "boldness" in prayer now (<a href='B:650 4:16'>Heb 4:16</a>; <a href='B:650 10:19'>Heb 10:19</a>) and also our boldness in the day of judgment (<a href='B:690 4:17'>1Jn 4:17</a>). The request for the sentence to come forth suggests David hadn't yet received the answer to his prayer, but was very confident of receiving it (:6).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sensitivity of God to sin is far higher than we would think. He even notices "the eye that mocketh at his father" (<a href='B:240 30:17'>Pro 30:17</a>); even body language is analyzed by Him, as are our unconscious thoughts as we sleep (<a href='B:230 17:3'>Psa 17:3</a>). But David seems rather over confident of his total purity, for no human heart can be tested by God and 'nothing found' wrong. It was a case of false accusation leading David to assume his total perfection, the same mistake Job made. The Bathsheba experience was used by God to help David quit this attitude. But we can also note that the Saul experience led David to self examination. Reading through the book of Psalms in one or two sittings reveals that frequent and intense self-examination was a leading characteristic of David:, especially while on the run from Saul; as if he began to pick up false guilt from how he was being treated, wondering if it was all in fact justified (<a href='B:230 4:4'>Psa 4:4</a>; <a href='B:230 7:3'>Psa 7:3</a>; <a href='B:230 17:3'>Psa 17:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:20-24'>Psa 18:20-24</a>; <a href='B:230 19:12'>Psa 19:12</a>; <a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>; <a href='B:230 59:3'>Psa 59:3</a>; <a href='B:230 66:18'>Psa 66:18</a>; <a href='B:230 77:6'>Psa 77:6</a>; <a href='B:230 86:2'>Psa 86:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:2'>Psa 101:2</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 139:23-24'>Psa 139:23-24</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for the works of men, by the word of Your lips I have kept myself from the ways of the violent-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be a reference to how the sons of Zeruiah urged David to slay Saul when he had the chance. But he refused, because he believed Samuel's prophetic word that he would finally be king as being words which dropped from God’s liPsa. This was how deeply he understood Divine inspiration, and it motivated him to obedience.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My steps have held fast to Your paths, my feet have not slipped-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be moved" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). Solomon didn’t learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father’s mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have called on You, for You will answer me, God. Turn Your ear to me, hear my words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, David hadn't yet received the answer to his prayer; but he is absolutely confident of the answer. But we note that he parallels the "answer" with God 'hearing my words'. The answer is in the hearing, although the answer may not be as we imagine.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Show Your marvellous grace, You who save those who take refuge under Your right hand from their enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although David seems to insist God answer him because of his own self-perceived righteousness (:2,3), he does here recognize that the answer would be by God’s grace alone. And this is so true to human spiritual experience; we can within moments, within the same prayer, recognize that all is of grace; whilst also asserting our own self righteousness. Being at God’s right hand suggests David felt he was before God’s throne; the immediate reference is to the ark of the covenant. See on :8.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Keep me as the apple of Your eye, hide me under the shadow of Your wings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is an appeal for God to treat him as He treated His true Israel (<a href='B:50 32:10'>Deu 32:10</a>). The shadow of God’s wings alludes to the mercy seat, upon which the blood of atonement was sprinkled, overshadowed by the cherubic wings. David saw himself as being right there. This was the throne of God, as it were, where David felt he was safe. See on :7; <a href='B:230 18:28'>Psa 18:28</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are the apple of God’s eye (<a href='B:230 17:8'>Psa 17:8</a>; <a href='B:50 32:10'>Deu 32:10</a>), and His word must be as the apple of our eye (<a href='B:240 7:2'>Pro 7:2</a>). We dwell in God, and His word dwells in us (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>from the wicked who oppress me, my deadly enemies, who surround me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These enemies were "deadly" in that they wished his death. Saul and his supporters are in view. But the word for "oppress" is often used of Judah's Babylonian and Assyrian enemies who surrounded Jerusalem (e.g. <a href='B:300 4:20'>Jer 4:20</a>; <a href='B:300 4:30'>Jer 4:30</a>), especially in the surrounding of Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time. Again we see a Psalm of David reused, under inspiration, in later history.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would have special relevance to the proud boasts of Rabshakeh outside the surrounded Jerusalem (see on :9).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have now surrounded us in our steps, they set their eyes to cast us down to the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again, the language of surrounding is very relevant to the Assyrian lion (:12) surrounding Jerusalem.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, as it were a young lion lurking in secret places-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :9-11, this has been reapplied to the lions of Judah's subsequent invaders and abusers, Assyria and Babylon.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Arise, Yahweh, confront him. Cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by Your sword-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of the casting down of the kings of Babylon and Assyria. David’s personal salvation from Saul was to be seen as the guarantee that if Judah were likewise faithful, their enemies would also be thrown down.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>from men by Your hand, Yahweh, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> David’s portion or inheritance he expected to be a kingdom in his own personal inheritance of mount Zion (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 had hoped to receive this fully at the resurrection (<a href='B:230 16:8-10'>Psa 16:8-10</a>), whereas the inheritance or portion of Saul and his men would be only "in this life".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You fill the belly of Your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here David sounds like Job, whose story he was evidently familiar with and identified with. The wicked prosper, for now- and that is evidence that a future day of judgment and eternal justice is yet to come. Although married, David’s family life was a source of grief to him. He comments that the men of the world “are satisfied with children” (AV), but for him, the only satisfaction would be when he resurrected to behold God’s face and to be turned into that same image: “As for me, I shall behold thy face</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness” (<a href='B:230 17:14-15'>Psa 17:14-15</a> RV). This was his satisfaction; the satisfaction of men of the world was simply in their children, and to “leave the rest of their substance to their babes”, i:e. their grandkids. And David’s perspective must be that of us all:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for me, I shall see Your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing Your form- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Doubtless spurred by the insensitive prying into his private spirituality by his friends / brethren, Job seems to almost exult that he would see God for himself, in his own way, and nobody else (<a href='B:220 19:21'>Job 19:21</a> "and not another") would see God in this way. David had a similar vision; he looked to the day of resurrection when he would be satisfied, when he awoke, with seeing the face of God with a good conscience. These are the sort of pictures which should be embedded in our own private spirituality. Nobody, not even faithful brethren, can have dominion over our faith; by our own faith we stand (<a href='B:540 1:24'>2Co 1:24</a>, filling in the ellipsis). David’s vision of future reward was to see God’s face, a thought unthinkable for many in Israel; and to do so "in righteousness", because righteousness had been imputed to him.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By David the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We naturally want to know when this time was, when David was delivered from Saul and all his enemies. Abner's words in 2 Sam. 3:18 seem relevant. He tries to persuade the elders of Israel to have David as king by arguing that "For the Lord promised David, ‘By my servant David I will rescue my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies’". This may then be the moment at which David sung this. We note how Nathan quotes these words back to David at the time of the Bathsheba failure: "I anointed you king over Israel, and delivered you from the hand of Saul". This would again associate these words of David with his becoming king. The Psalm concludes with a reference to David as the anointed, so this could be a Psalm composed when Saul was slain and David was finally declared king, and his anointing came to fulfilment. It is a "song" but it has no strophes (unlike most of the Psalms), perhaps because it was intended for use at a procession. But quite possibly what was originally a song of thanks at David's declaration as king over Judah was then edited by him at the end of his life. Because parts of the song allude to the promises made to him in 2 Sam. 7, which was after this accession to the throne. Further 'his enemies and Saul' suggests he had many enemies but the greatest one was Saul. This is a style found elsewhere- e.g. "Nineteen men and Asahel" (2 Sam. 2:30); "Go spy out the land and Jericho" (Josh. 2:1); "King Solomon loved many foreign women and he loved the daughter of Pharaoh" (1 Kings 11:1).
</p><p>This Psalm is basically 2 Samuel 22 and there seems no reason to me to consider 2 Samuel 21-24 as anything but chronological. The day of David's deliverance from his enemies is only logically at the end of his life.  </p><p>
As Abner recalled, God had promised David that He would use him to deliver Israel from their enemies: "For the Lord promised David, ‘By my servant David I will rescue my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies'" (2 Sam. 3:18). But David adapts this, even twists it, to apply to his personal enemies. Possibly there is here a reflection of David's narcissism, and lack of appreciation that it was not all about him, but about the good he could do for others.</p><p>
David doesn't see his deliverance from Saul as God saw it. Nathan has used the very words "saved / rescued out of the hand of Saul" in condemning David: "You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul”. God saw this fact as making David's sin with Bathsheba all the more shameful. David sees this fact as demonstration that he is of pure hands and was delivered because of his own righteousness.</p><p>
Perhaps in this song David is alluding to things which had not been recorded or perhaps were generally unknown- like a great theophany to him, and Divine rescue of him from certain death at the hands of his enemies. Coming out in older age with such testimonial tributes to God's grace in earlier life is psychologically credible, and what many have done. This would be similar to how the previous chapter talks about a major sin of Saul's, and its consequences, which was unknown to the Biblical record. </p><p>
We note the similarity between the Hebrew words for Saul and sheol, the grave, and indeed David now goes on to thank God for saving him from death on various occasions. And yet the greatest salvation from death he experienced was that from the death penalty for his sins with Uriah and Bathsheba.  But he makes no specific reference to this, unless we take his talk of being dramatically saved from some great death by a theophany, God coming down, as referring to that. And even then we wonder why he had to reference it in such an oblique and disguised manner. After all, he had vowed in Psalm 32 to publically tell the world of his salvation from the death penalty for those sins, and this song at the end of his life would seem the obvious place to do so. But he doesn't, at least not specifically.
This song quite rightly [on one level] celebrates how God had saved David from certain death in various military confrontations, and had given him great victories. But David is sanitizing his past, talking in terms of conflict-deliverance-glorious victory, just as many kings boasted. His references to God as a rock, tower and stronghold seem to have in view his deliverances from Saul; see on :49. Rocks and strongholds feature much in the record (at least ten references- 1 Sam. 22:4,5; 23:14,19,25–28; 24:1,3,23). But that was in his earlier life pre-Bathsheba, and he has little to say about the majority of his kingship after that. And David carefully omits to mention God's salvation of him from his greatest 'death'- the Divine death penalty mandated for his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband and other men to try to cover it. And he makes no more than passing allusion to the huge grace shown him in 2 Sam. 7, where he was promised a pretty well unconditional eternal salvation through resurrection to behold his future descendant reigning eternally on his throne. Like every man, David had a strong tendency to whitewash himself, assuming the passage of time had worked a kind of quasi atonement for his sins. And yet God, as predicted through Nathan at the time, worked constantly to jog and nudge David to realize the dimensions of his sin with Bathsheba and his subsequent sinful behaviour. In the hope he would come to a higher grade of repentance. All these failures in appreciation by David are a relevant challenge to all of us, especially those who have already walked many years in the Lord.</p> 
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I love You, Yahweh, my strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This bald statement "I love You" is intentionally startling, and is the only place where we read this; usually we read the word of God’s love to man. Here, David simply tells God "I love You".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of rocky terrain, the type where Saul chased David and God saved him multiple times.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower-</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>). 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; and I am saved from my enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s focus of all his praises upon Yahweh was what he wanted his people to follow (<a href='B:230 22:3'>Psa 22:3</a>). The implication of "worthy" could imply a contrast with other gods, as in <a href='B:230 96:4'>Psa 96:4</a> "He is to be feared / praised above all gods". This would confirm the hints we have that Saul was an idolater (see on :31; <a href='B:230 12:8'>Psa 12:8</a>; <a href='B:230 16:4'>Psa 16:4</a>), and that idolatry was prevalent in Israel at the time.</p><p>We can render "derided, I called to the Lord; I called for help from my enemies", in which case the allusion is to his feigning madness before Achish, calling for help and being delivered (1 Sam. 21:14). As nearly always in this song, the reference is to the events of David's glory days in his 20s and not to the bulk of his life. He is sanitizing his past. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The cords of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid-</p><p>"The cords of death" is alluding to Saul trying to ensnare David in a trap that will lead to his death (1 Sam. 18:21). The allusion is also to Saul calling David a "son of death", certain to die, in 1 Sam. 20:31. Always the allusions are to David's life in his 20s, his dramatic deliverances during his halcyon years. Never to his not so wonderful life post Bathsheba. It could be argued that David is writing or singing these words after he was made king and Saul was dead. But he still had many "enemies" to be saved from (:1), and the placement of this song at this point in the narrative surely suggests it was David doing what most kings of the time did at the end of their lives- recount the glory of their lives and thank their god for all their victories and deliverances. "The day" when God had delivered David from all his enemies (:1) is surely only the "day" of the end of his life.</p><p>"Ungodliness" is 'ungodly men', 'men of Belial'. We think of Nabal, a man of Belial (1 Sam. 25:17,25). But he was saved from killing Nabal by God's grace to him through Abigail. David makes no reference to this. See on :27. But probably the reference is to large numbers of such men rising against David and almost killing him (:6), which would apply more naturally to the time of Absalom's rebellion. David's fear is not much hinted at in the record, but here he himself admits to it. 
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt as if he had been a sacrifice bound to an altar, and therefore about to be pulled into the grave (:5). The allusion is to Isaac and his miraculous deliverance from such cords, thanks to the ram in the thicket whom David is later to understand as representative of the future Messianic saviour; for the Lord quotes David’s "My God, why have You forsaken me?" (<a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>) as the Aramaic sabachthani, "entangled", the word used of the ram entangled in the thicket.</p><p>Psalm 18 speaks of a time when David is surrounded but miraculously delivered by an eartquake. We wonder whether this applies to the time when he was surrounded by Saul's men in his home with Michal. The house was surrounded, but Michal let him down out of a window and he escaped. How come, if the house was surrounded? An earthquake would explain how this was possible: "The cords of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The cords of Sheol were around me, the snares of death came on me [all referring to Saul's men surrounding his house]... Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken... He sent from on high. He took me [Ps. 59:1 "lift me on high from those who rise up against me"], He delivered me from my strong enemy [Saul] [Ps. 59:1 "Deliver me from my enemies"], from those who hated me [Saul's men surrounding his house]; for they were too mighty for me. They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support. He brought me forth also into a large place [David fled to Samuel]. He delivered me, because He delighted in me. Yahweh has judged me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands has He recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God [Ps. 59:3,4"not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh. I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me"]" (Ps. 18:4,5,7,16-21).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The cords of Sheol were around me, the snares of death came on me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>see on :4. David felt he had come face to face with death, to the point that his salvation was effectively a resurrection. The response to this near death situation is described in :7-12, but it is hard to locate such an incident in the historical records. Perhaps there was a particular salvation from death at Saul's hands which isn't recorded, but David alludes to it here.</p><p>"Cords" is literally the pangs, hence AV "sorrows" (as in Acts 2:24 "having loosened the pangs of death"). David saw even the death which he feared as the birth pangs to a rebirth in resurrection. Just as had been hinted at for him in the promises of 2 Sam. 7. But because he was saved out of imminent death, perhaps his focus on that future resurrection was diminished.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Came on me" is literally 'went before me'. The same word is used in <a href='B:230 59:10'>Psa 59:10</a>: "My God will go before me with His grace". David was inside his house surrounded by his enemies (<a href='B:230 59:1'>Psa 59:1</a>), and escaped through a window. As he planned the escape, he believed that God’s grace would go before him. At the end of his life he appears to reflect upon this incident, glorying that although he was "compassed about" with the threat of death, seeing the house was surrounded by Saul's men intending to kill him; yet God’s grace had somehow gone before David and prepared a way of escape (<a href='B:230 18:5'>Psa 18:5</a>; <a href='B:230 18:18'>Psa 18:18</a> s:w:).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of His temple; my cry before Him came into His ears-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David again imagines his prayers as coming into the heavenly throne room, and eliciting a response. His later obsession with building a physical temple for God was a departure from how he had earlier perceived God’s temple- as being in Heaven, and accessible by faithful prayer.</p><p>The reference to "my distress" could be to how David returned to find that the Amalekites had plundered Ziklag and taken his wives and children captive, and his men turned against him. "David was greatly distressed, for the men spoke of stoning him because they were grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters... David inquired of Yahweh" (1 Sam. 30:6-8). The theophany which is now described could possibly refer to some unrecorded events at the time when David pursued after the Amalekites and recovered the captives. The references to pursuing after a "troop" and overtaking them  would then refer to this too. Likewise "You have delivered me from the contentions of my people" (2 Sam. 22:44) would refer to David regaining control of his mutinous men at this time. Another alternative is that the theophany refers to how David heard the cherubim "marching on the tops of the balsam trees" in 2 Sam. 5:24.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, because He was angry-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The response to the near death situation of :4,5 is described in :7-12, but it is hard to locate such an incident in the historical records. Perhaps there was a particular salvation from death at Saul's hands which isn't recorded, but David alludes to it here. Or perhaps the language here is that of theophany and God manifestation; it may not literally describe things which happened, but the hand of God in saving David was no less than as if He had appeared as He did at Sinai. For the language of earth shaking and quaking is that of the Sinai theophany and the deliverance from Egypt.</p><p>The theophany described in :8-16 clearly alludes to that at Sinai (Ex. 19:16-18; Jud. 5:4,5; and how David understood Sinai's events in Ps. 68:8; 77:16-18). David could be referring to some unrecorded amazing theophany and deliverance that he experienced; or he could be making the point that God's grace and salvation shown to him personally was as awesome for him as the vast outpouring of God's power, meaning, covenant, love, grace and awe on Sinai. Which is something we can relate to. The unrecorded amazing deliverance of David may be his way of describing his salvation from the Divine death penalties regarding Bathsheba and Uriah. For he makes no mention of this deliverance... which was the greatest deliverance.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Smoke went out of His nostrils, consuming fire came out of His mouth; coals were kindled by it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :7, this sounds like the symbolic language of theophany and God manifestation, rather than describing actually observed events in literal terms. The allusion is clearly to what happened at the exodus and Sinai; see on :15.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He bowed the heavens also-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same phrase used of Moses stretching out his hands toward the heavens, and God responding by delivering His people (<a href='B:20 9:22-23'>Exo 9:22-23</a>; <a href='B:20 10:21'>Exo 10:21</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And came down, thick darkness was under His feet-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As Yahweh came down at Sinai (<a href='B:20 19:11'>Exo 19:11</a> s:w:). The idea is that as God had miraculously intervened for the salvation of His people in history, so David felt He had in his life; although there is no historical record of such dramatic scenes as on Sinai and at the Red Sea. We likewise experience His interventions; they aren't as dramatic as in history, but none less dramatic in ultimate reality. This coming down in a saving theophany was what David had in fact prayed for in <a href='B:230 144:5'>Psa 144:5</a>. He asked for a theophany to save him, no less that what happened at Sinai (s:w. <a href='B:20 19:18-20'>Exo 19:18-20</a>), when again God had as it were made the mountains smoke by His touch. We marvel at David’s spiritual ambition, unafraid to ask for a similar theophany to save him. And here he reflects at the end of his life that this prayer was in fact answered. The relevance to the exiles is that Yahweh was prepared to "bow" (s:w. "stretch out") the heavens and "come down" to restore the exiles; but they chose not to make use of that huge potential (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:22'>Isa 40:22</a>; <a href='B:290 42:5'>Isa 42:5</a>; <a href='B:290 64:1'>Isa 64:1</a>). See on :14.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, He soared on the wings of the wind-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Wind" and "spirit" are the same words in Hebrew. The cherubim chariot are presented as God’s vehicle of manifestation, and this was language the exiles would've been familiar with through the visions of Ezekiel. Yet this is not to say that David also had such a vision. Rather did he perceive God’s huge cherubic activity through the various experiences of salvation and grace he had in his life. And this is the same for us.</p><p>The reference may simply be to God as it were riding on clouds in glory: "He makes the clouds His chariot, He walks on the wings of the wind" (Ps. 104:3).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He made darkness His hiding place, His pavilion around Him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the scene at God’s manifestation on Sinai. This could also be an allusion to the exodus. Rashi suggests: "He put [a protective] darkness around", alluding to how the pillar of cloud and the darkness separated between the Egyptians and Israelites (Ex.  14:20).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At the brightness before Him His thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals of fire-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "coals of fire" speak of Divine judgment (<a href='B:230 140:10'>Psa 140:10</a>), and were part of the cherubim vision (<a href='B:330 1:13'>Eze 1:13</a>; <a href='B:330 10:2'>Eze 10:2</a>). Hail and thick clouds were the judgment threatened upon the Assyrians in Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:290 28:2'>Isa 28:2</a>; <a href='B:290 30:30'>Isa 30:30</a>). David’s experience becomes developed as relevant to the manifestation of God in salvation in other contexts.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh also thundered in the sky, the Most High uttered His voice: hailstones and coals of fire-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hailstones and fire suggests the destruction of Sodom. And yet there is no recorded incident of God consuming David’s enemies like thIsa. But he felt that God had indeed come through for Him in no less powerful a way. And we can feel and experience the same.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He sent out His arrows, and scattered them; yes, great lightning bolts, and defeated them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the thanksgiving that his prayer of <a href='B:230 144:6'>Psa 144:6</a> had been answered. He had asked for a saving theophany of the magnitude of what was seen at Sinai; see on :9. Now at the end of his life, David was thankful that this prayer had in fact been answered. 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 had realized 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>). But David appears unaware that he is rejoicing at the arrows fired at his enemies, when his sin with Bathsheba also merited Divine arrows to be fired at himself. 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><p>"And confused them" (2 Sam. 22) is the language of God's enemies being destroyed (Ex. 14:24; Josh. 10:10; Jud. 4:15; 1 Sam. 7:10). Possibly there had been some supernatural intervention by God against Absalom's army, when we read that the forest consumed more of the enemy than did the sword. But there seems no other such example. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then the channels of waters appeared, the foundations of the world were laid bare at Your rebuke, Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The opening word "then" is significant. As the channels of water were laid bare at the exodus, so God had acted for David. As discussed on :7, this section sounds like the symbolic language of theophany and God manifestation, rather than describing actually observed events in literal terms. The allusion is clearly to what happened at the exodus and Sinai; the essence of what God did then was experienced by David, just as it can be by us in our crises.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He sent from on high. He took me, He drew me out of many waters-</p><p>The allusion is clearly to Moses, drawn out of the waters and thereby saved from death (Ex. 2:10). David is saying that the salvation he had experienced was no less than on the level and significance of what God did for Moses. We can look at His work in our lives likewise, and thereby cease considering that men like Moses had far more dramatic and significant experiences of God than we do.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Waters" are usually symbolic of armies or nations. David felt he had been surrounded and faced with certain death, but had been as it were airlifted to safety by God. The language here says that God has done this, but it is parallel with David’s prayer for this to happen in <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a>. This triumphant song is therefore praise for the prayer of Psalms 144 being answered. We cannot locate any particular historical incident of fulfilment; perhaps it was too personal and wonderful to be recorded. Just as a Christian man or woman might feel it inappropriate to record God’s most dramatic salvation of them when they write their autobiography.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That thanksgiving was because he had prayed for salvation from "those who hate me" in <a href='B:230 9:13'>Psa 9:13</a> (s:w:). We have here a direct example of gratitude for answered prayer. It seems Saul and his supporters were the initial reference of the "strong enemy" (see on :1). These words are an allusion to his prayer of <a href='B:230 69:14'>Psa 69:14</a>, asking to be delivered from "those who hated me" at the time of Absalom's rebellion. So we can reject the idea that this Song was written early in David's life; it is indeed his end of life reflection. Now at the end of his life David reflects that he has been delivered from those who hated him (s:w:). At the time, he wept bitterly for Absalom's death; but now in maturity he realized that this was in fact an answer to his prayers.</p><p>On one level, David's thanksgiving and gratitude is commendable. But his biggest and worst enemy was himself and his failure to recognize that reflects immaturity rather than spiritual maturity. We would far rather see a recognition that he had been his own worst enemy, but by grace he had been saved from himself. But we don't see that.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :5. The phrase "day of calamity" is consistently used of a day of Divine condemnation, especially of Judah at the hand of the Babylonians (<a href='B:50 32:35'>Deu 32:35</a>; <a href='B:220 21:30'>Job 21:30</a>; <a href='B:300 18:17'>Jer 18:17</a>; <a href='B:300 46:21'>Jer 46:21</a>). Perhaps the Psalm was reworked as comfort for the exiles, that they could be saved even out of the day of their condemnation. And maybe David has the idea that he had been worthy of Divine condemnation, and the judgment was being articulated at the hands of his enemies- but by grace alone, God saved him from it:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>"Support" is literally 'my stay', a staff for David. Possibly the reference is to the time of Absalom's rebellion in Ps. 23:4 "Your rod and staff [the rod and staff that is You] comfort me".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me, because He delighted in me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When the Lord’s mockers jeered "If he desireth him" (RV), they were alluding to the LXX of <a href='B:230 18:19'>Psa 18:19</a>; <a href='B:230 91:11'>Psa 91:11</a>. God cannot be tempted, otherwise He would have responded. 'If God likes Him', is what they were really implying.</p><p>Being brought out or escaping to freedom may be a reference to the night he escaped from his house with Michal's help. </p><p> Or he may have in mind the time when he was saved from effective captivity in Gath: "You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy, You have set my feet in a large place'.
At the time of Absalom's rebellion, David's critics mocked "Let Yahweh rescue him, if He delights in him" (Ps. 22:8). David himself considered God's delight in him to be open to question and over to God to prove: "he king said to Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I find grace in the eyes of Yahweh, He will bring me again, and show me both it, and His dwelling place; but if He say thus, ‘I have no delight in you;’ behold, here am I. Let Him do to me as seems good to Him" (2 Sam. 15:25,26). David seems to now triumphantly consider that Yahweh does delight in him. But he does so on the basis that he considers that Divine delight in him to be a reward for his righteousness and clean hands (:21). Whereas the deliverance from Absalom was because Yahweh by grace alone 'delighted' in David.</p><p>
"Delighted" is the same word as in Ps. 51:6 "Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts".  This is the word here used by David at the end of his life of how God desired or delighted in him. Perhaps this desire or delight was because of the "truth" in David's heart in recognizing his sins and accepting God's grace. He had left God to decide whether He delighted in him when he fled Absalom (2 Sam. 15:26), and now he triumphs that God had done so, by grace (2 Sam. 15:25). And yet we could equally argue that indeed, God delights in confession of sin when it is the "truth" in the inward parts, But at the point of this song, is this how David still understands it? He seems to reason that God delights in him because of his righteousness. And not because of his inner contrition, as he had earlier understood at the time of Ps. 51.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh has judged me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands has He recompensed me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :14, David was yet to learn that he himself was a sinner and no man apart from the Lord has clean hands or total personal righteousness:&nbsp; Yet David twice repeats this self righteousness (:24).</p><p>David seems to have in mind 1 Sam. 26:23 "Yahweh will reward every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, because Yahweh delivered you into my hand today and I wouldn’t put forth my hand against Yahweh’s anointed". Likewise Saul says that David had "rewarded" him good when Saul had "rewarded" David evil (1 Sam. 24:18). He considers that he got saved from Absalom (see on :20) because of his good and gracious action towards Saul years before that. But that is salvation by works. He considers his hands were clean in relation to Saul and therefore this, he considers, saved him from the post-Bathsheba judgments. But those judgments were exactly because he did have blood on his hands. And the fact he didn't previously was no atonement or cleansing. Ps. 24:4 may suggest that David perceives 'cleanness of hands' to be a way of saying he hadn't worshipped idols (see on :24), as the ideas are paralleled: "He who has clean hands... who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood".</p><p>
But from another angle, we recall how it was the wise actions of Abigail which saved David from getting blood on his hands by killing her and her kids, as David had intended to do. He was saved from having blood on his hands by grace, God's grace, working through Abigail (1 Sam. 25:30,31). But there is no mention of that now by David, rather a simplistic persuasion that he had pure guiltless hands and that is why he was preserved and delivered by God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God-</p><p>It would be hard to better describe David's sins with Bathsheba and Uriah than 'wickedly departing from God'. If David at the end of his life could say that he was upright and had kept himself from his iniquity (2 Sam. 22:21-24). He could only say this by a clear understanding of the concept of imputed righteousness. Paul's claim to have always lived in a pure conscience must be seen in the same way. And yet it seems to me that David ought to have added what we would all add if saying this- that this is only by grace, and me a sinner being counted righteous.  </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Wickedly departed" is the word usually translated "condemn" (e.g. <a href='B:230 37:33'>Psa 37:33</a>). Those who depart from God condemn themselves. This is a major Biblical theme; that the condemned are more self-condemned rather than condemned by God. "We make the answer now". But later David was to realize that he too had wickedly departed from God, and confession of that was vital for salvation (s:w. <a href='B:230 106:6'>Psa 106:6</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>&nbsp;David felt preserved by God from Saul and his other enemies (<a href='B:90 30:23'>1Sa 30:23</a>; <a href='B:100 22:44'>2Sa 22:44</a>), because he had preserved or obeyed [s:w:] God’s ways (<a href='B:100 22:22'>2Sa 22:22</a>; <a href='B:100 22:24'>2Sa 22:24</a>; <a href='B:230 18:21'>Psa 18:21</a>; <a href='B:230 18:23'>Psa 18:23</a>); whereas Saul didn’t obey / preserve them and was destroyed (<a href='B:90 13:13-14'>1Sa 13:13-14</a>; <a href='B:130 10:13'>1Ch 10:13</a>). Hence <a href='B:230 145:20'>Psa 145:20</a>: "Yahweh preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy". And yet in all this David is without grace, thinking on the basis of human merit soliciting Divine response.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Reading through the book of Psalms in one or two sittings reveals that frequent and intense self-examination was a leading characteristic of David:, especially while on the run from Saul; as if he began to pick up false guilt from how he was being treated, wondering if it was all in fact justified (<a href='B:230 4:4'>Psa 4:4</a>; <a href='B:230 7:3'>Psa 7:3</a>; <a href='B:230 17:3'>Psa 17:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:20-24'>Psa 18:20-24</a>; <a href='B:230 19:12'>Psa 19:12</a>; <a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>; <a href='B:230 59:3'>Psa 59:3</a>; <a href='B:230 66:18'>Psa 66:18</a>; <a href='B:230 77:6'>Psa 77:6</a>; <a href='B:230 86:2'>Psa 86:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:2'>Psa 101:2</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 139:23-24'>Psa 139:23-24</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For all His ordinances were before me, I didn’t put away His statutes from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Put away" is the word used for how God departed from Saul because he didn’t keep God’s statutes (<a href='B:90 16:14'>1Sa 16:14</a>; <a href='B:90 18:12'>1Sa 18:12</a>; <a href='B:90 28:15'>1Sa 28:15</a>). David is therefore comparing himself favourably with Saul; for this is his triumph song after Saul has been slain (see on :1). And yet in essence, David and Saul did the same sins and David was preserved by grace thanks to his heart for God- and not because he sinned less than Saul. “And his statutes did I not put away from me” (Ps. 18:22). We think about his adultery, murders, lies... And especially in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, be broke so many Divine statutes. “You shall not murder”, “You shall not commit adultery”, “You shall not steal” (2 Sam. 12:4,7–10) and “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife”.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I was also blameless with Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A true seed of Abraham, who were to walk with or before Yahweh blameless (s:w. <a href='B:10 17:1'>Gen 17:1</a>). David may be using 'perfect' in the sense of complete, undivided. In which case [as noted on :21] he may be protesting that the fact he didn't worship idols therefore made him somehow "perfect towards" Yahweh. And perhaps his lack of idolatry led to him thinking that lies, adultery, murder and family smashing were all quite legitimate because he didn't worship idols. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I kept myself from my iniquity-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This sounds like a boast in his iron willed self-control. He would never be able to boast like this after the sin with Bathsheba. It is God by His grace who keeps men from sinning (<a href='B:10 20:6'>Gen 20:6</a>), and not he rigid self-discipline of the deeply religious. "My iniquity" could suggest some specific temptation David had. He boasts that he kept himself from it. But yet he did so many other sins... Alternatively David may refer to how "my iniquity" lurks in every man but we are to keep ourselves from it, having recognized it as always being latently there. David surely alludes to his words to Jonathan that there is no "iniquity" in him (1 Sam. 20:1,8). But now at 70 years of age, it is not exactly of integrity to take those earlier words of youth, uttered in a specific context of having done no iniquity to Saul, and use them as explanation of why God had been so good to David throughout his life. God's goodness had been on the basis of grace, and not David's lack of iniquity towards Saul at an earlier point. He broke his promise to Saul not to slay his descendants, and as argued on 2 Sam. 21, this was a sin of David's and was from political reasons. So David would have been wrong to argue that he was totally blameless in his actions toward Saul. </p><p>erses 21-25 sound as if David is really commending himself. Possibly he was indeed too self congratulatory at this point. But his words clearly allude to the requirements for Israel's king in Dt. 17:18-20. If, as suggested on :1, he sung these words when he was first made king, he could be reflecting God's position that David was the king whom He had chosen in line with His requirements in Dt. 17:18-20: "When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he must write for himself a copy of this law in a book... It shall be with him and he must read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them. Thus his heart will not be raised up above his brothers, and he will not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, so that he may prolong his days in his kingdom".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His eyesight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :14, David was yet to learn that he himself was a sinner and no man apart from the Lord has clean hands or total personal righteousness:&nbsp; Yet David twice repeats this self righteousness (:20). 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. <a href='B:230 18:23-26'>Psa 18:23-26</a> has David describing his own uprightness before God, and how God only shows His grace to the pure and upright. How little did he understand grace! Worse still, he several times bids God judge men according to their sins (<a href='B:230 5:10'>Psa 5:10</a>). It is against this background that we must understand the significance of David’s statements that after Bathsheba, after how God did not deal with him according to his sin, there were no rebukes of others now in his mouth. Realizing the extent of his personal sin and the depth of God’s grace led David to not only be less reproachful of others; but also to be less hurt by their unkindness to him. And in these things we surely have a great lesson to ourselves.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful. With the perfect man, You will show Yourself perfect-</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>we have here the mixture of spirituality and yet arrogance which we can often detect in ourselves. David recognizes his salvation has been through God’s mercy; but he sees himself as having earned this mercy by being "perfect". The same word is used of Job, but he had to be taught that that status was a case of having righteousness imputed to him by grace; and because David was unwilling to really learn this, he had to be taught it through the righteousness imputed to him after his sin with Bathsheba.</p><p>"Merciful" can also be translated "faithful", as in GNB "you are faithful to those who are faithful to you". In this case, David would be alluding to his faithfulness to his covenant with Jonathan. His idea is that God has been faithful to His covenant with David in 2 Sam. 7 because David has been faithful to his covenant with Jonathan. This totally disregards the huge grace behind the covenant with David as commented upon on 2 Sam. 7. David significantly omits to accept he had not been faithful to the oath he made to Saul before Yahweh, not to harm his seed. For we have seen on 2 Sam. 21 that he did do so, and at several points appears to have tacitly ensured Saul's descendants were cut off if they appeared a potential threat to his throne. He was not a faithful covenant keeper, and was hardly faithful to Uriah and many others. David is certainly being selective about his past, and sanitizing himself.</p><p>
"The perfect man" could refer to David's idea that he has 'perfect' devotion to God in that he worships no idols. And God will match this by a similar focus upon us. Or the Hebrew could be rendered "the upright hero", which raises the ugly vista of David considering that his heroic victories as a young man made him somehow worthy of God's acceptance in later life. </p><p>
This verse is at the center of the song. There are 365 Hebrew words in the song, 182 on each side of the word "perfect". The centerpiece of David's argument is his innocence, rather than God's grace. And that says... not much for David's maturity and perception. On one hand, he was indeed made pure from his sin by grace, as he exalts in Psalms 32 and 51. But as ever with David, his spirituality is not pure. On one hand yes, he can rightly reason that God has treated him as justified, counted righteous, and had indeed cast David's sins behind His back. But if any of us were to tell the world of our spotless moral purity, we as convicted sinners would naturally add the rider that this is only by Divine grace through the Lord, seeing we eagerly confess that we of ourselves are sinners. But there is none of that here with David. Psalm 119, composed during his wilderness years on the run from Saul, has many references to his own sins. But that now seems far from him. And the spirit of Psalms 32 and 51, glorying in Divine grace and justification of sinners by grace alone, is likewise now far from him... As with Gideon and so many others, he reached pinnacles of understanding and spirituality which he spent the rest of his life receding from. And yet will still be ultimately saved. David is presented as the very opposite of what we might expect from a spiritual hero- progressively growing in grace until he faces his grave planks in gentle, calm spirituality and closeness to God. His final words recorded to Solomon breathed judgment and hated rather than any grace or personal expectation of future glory at the resurrection.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With the pure, You will show Yourself pure; with the crooked You will show Yourself shrewd-</p><p>"The pure" connects with David's please for a pure heart to be restored to him after his sin with Bathsheba (Ps. 51:10). We could argue that he considered that he had been so cleansed of that sin that he was treated as pure. Or it could be that he simply forgot how he had been so impure in what he had done. </p><p>
David's claim here is that God blessed the righteous and cursed the wicked, confirming each in their way. This may have some truth to it, but his claim is a tacit reflection of his failure to understand the grace shown to him. Theoretically he had grasped it in Ps. 32, staying that God counts as right those who are not right, by grace. But now he reasons as if he has no grasp of the grace concept. </p><p>
"Shrewd" or 2 Sam. 22 "Tortuous" translates a Hebrew word pathel which is very similar to the Hebrew for Ahithophel, David's one time confidante and counsellor, Bathsheba's grandfather, who betrayed him to Absalom. David was saved from Ahithophel's counsel by grace alone and by the loyalty of Hushai. But instead he appears to gloat over how God, as he saw it, had punished Ahithophel and justified himself. He appears to be oblivious to the fact that Ahithophel had good reason to be against him; and wishes all manner of curses upon him in the Psalms composed at this time. 
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David sees himself as the pure, and Saul as the crooked. 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You will save the afflicted people, but the proud eyes You will bring down-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> Again David perceives Saul as proud, and Saul's initial apparent humility must therefore be considered in this context. Perhaps he became proud, or maybe he had always been that way, and only appeared humble. But the word "people" may have been added when the Psalm was used by the exiles, for salvation for "the afflicted people" was the prophetic message to them (s:w. <a href='B:290 49:19'>Isa 49:19</a>).</p><p>David may be alluding to how he had proclaimed his own humility in God's eyes in dancing before all when the ark came to Zion: "I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased [afflicted / brought down] in my own eyes" (2 Sam. 6:21,22). But humility is hardly something that a man self proclaims...</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You will light my lamp, Yahweh. My God will light up my darkness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The phrase is only used of the lighting of the lamps in the tabernacle (<a href='B:20 25:37'>Exo 25:37</a>; <a href='B:40 8:2'>Num 8:2</a>). I noted on <a href='B:230 17:8'>Psa 17:8</a> that David seems himself as located on the mercy seat, in the Most Holy place. "You will light my lamp" refers to his Messianic hopes for his family.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For by You I advance through a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Such victories were given to David against the Philistines; the idea is as in GNB "You give me strength to attack my enemies and power to overcome their defenses". "Troop" is the word used of the Amalekites whom David overcame (<a href='B:90 30:8'>1Sa 30:8</a>; <a href='B:90 30:15'>1Sa 30:15</a>). The leaping over a wall may refer to the way that Zion was captured (<a href='B:100 5:6-8'>2Sa 5:6-8</a>):&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for God, His way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tried in the furnace. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The word" specifically in view may be the prophetic word that David would be king and thereby overcome all of Saul's machinations (see on :1).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For who is God, except Yahweh? Who is a rock besides our God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David perceives his victory over Saul (:1) as the vindication of Yahweh above other gods. This would confirm the hints we have that Saul was an idolater (see on <a href='B:230 12:8'>Psa 12:8</a>; <a href='B:230 16:4'>Psa 16:4</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A reference to his victory over Goliath without human armour, trusting completely in God (see on :33,34).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He makes my feet like deer’s feet, and sets me on my high places-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As in ::34, this may be a reference to his victory over Goliath, which he saw as the epitome of all his victories. For he ran swiftly towards Goliath before releasing the stone which slew him:&nbsp; Or as mentioned above, getting his high places may allude to the conquest of Zion from the Jebusites.  </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of bronze-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps alluding to how it was David’s dexterity of hand as a slinger which gave the victory over Goliath. But he recognizes that this was all of God. He is careful not to exalt as if his strength was his own.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have also given me the shield of Your salvation. Your right hand sustains me. Your gentleness has made me great-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s gentleness, His humility / bowing down (Heb:) has made us great, lifted us up (<a href='B:230 18:35'>Psa 18:35</a>). And we respond to it by humbling ourselves. Paul's take on "the shield of your salvation" is that it means "the shield of faith" (<a href='B:560 6:16'>Eph 6:16</a>). If we enquire 'Faith in exactly what?', the answer is 'faith in salvation at the end of the day, that God will finally save me'.</p><p>The Hebrew can mean gentleness but it has the idea of condescension, so the idea may be 'Your answers to my prayers for help'.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have enlarged my steps under me, My feet have not slipped-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be moved" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). But now at the end of his life, he considers his feet haven't slipped. But David's feet did slip terribly in relation to the Bathsheba affair. But he looks back on his life and whitewashes himself. Solomon didn’t learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father’s mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them. Neither will I turn again until they are consumed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is written after God had subdued Saul and David’s other enemies (:1). He is taking this as a portent of future victory against all other enemies. But I will explain on :39-42 that David did not use all the potential authority and power of judgment which he was given. David pursuing his enemies alludes to David pursuing and overtaking a band of his enemies (1 Sam. 30:8). But again, David is alluding back to heroic deliverances and victories in his twenties. But human life isn't solely the halcyon years of youth. His life post Bathsheba was nothing to write home about. And he makes hardly any reference to it now at age 70 as he looks back on his life. In Ps. 18:37 “overtaken them", alluding to Ex. 15:9- again, David is saying that God's work for him was as dramatic as His salvation of Israel at the Exodus.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to rise. They shall fall under my feet-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :37. This refers to the potential power of judgment David felt he had been given, but this is not to say he would use it.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You have armed me with strength to the battle, You have subdued under me those who rose up against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In <a href='B:230 18:39'>Psa 18:39</a> (<a href='B:100 22:40'>2Sa 22:40</a>), David reflects how his victory in battle by God’s strength meant that all was subdued under him (s:w. <a href='B:230 8:6'>Psa 8:6</a>), a Psalm about the victory over Goliath). The victory in battle which he had in view was supremely that over Goliath, his most major and applauded victory,  where he stood over Goliath in triumph. But again, he is harping on about his halcyon days and not taking into account the majority of his adult life post Bathsheba. To a far greater extent, the victory of the Lord Jesus meant not simply the subjugation of Israel beneath Him, but of all creation, including the natural creation.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who hated David surely refer to the house of Saul (:1). But David did not cut them off- even though he was given the opportunity of doing so. Literally, "I silenced those who hated me". The reference would then be to the defenders of Jebus / Jerusalem who hated David / were hated by David (2 Sam. 5:8). Perhaps his 'leaping over a wall' (:30) references his capture of the walled city of Jebus. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They cried, but there was none to save; even to Yahweh, but He didn’t answer them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A reference to God refusing to answer Saul just before he died (<a href='B:90 28:6'>1Sa 28:6</a>). David is enjoying making the point that his enemies had no salvation, Saul's shield was cast away and he died in battle: "the shield of the mighty was shamefully cast away, the shield of Saul was not anointed with oil" (2 Sam. 1:21). David rejoices that in contrast, "you gave to me the shield of Your salvation" (:36). David fails to realize that the historical record actually paints Saul and himself as sinning in parallel. If anything, David sinned worse than Saul. He was saved by Divine grace because he had a heart for God. But instead he here posits that God chose to save him and not Saul because he was somehow more pure and righteous than Saul. He totally misses the grace of God towards him. </p><p>
In their extremity even the Gentiles cry for mercy to the “unknown God” of their enemies (as in 1 Sam. 5:12; Jonah 3:7); there are no atheists on a plane going down.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I cast them out as the mire of the streets-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I noted on :40 that David didn’t execute the judgments against the house of Saul which he could have done. The language of being "cast out" and being driven by the wind is that of Divine judgment. It could be that David intends us to understand that although he was given the opportunity of judging them ["that I might cut off...", :40], he didn’t- he left it to God’s judgment.</p><p>2 Sam. 22 adds "and spread them abroad". The 'spreading abroad' may refer to him making Moabite captives lay down and be slain: "he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive" (2 Sam. 8:2). This was hardly David at his best, and surely is an example of how he shed blood indiscriminately. But he rejoices in it as if it were some special reward from God for his piety.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have delivered me from the strivings of the people, You have made me the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known shall serve me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David expected in faith that now he was solidly established as Israel's king, the surrounding Gentiles would come to serve him and his God (see on :49). We could render "You kept me as head of the nations" in which case the allusion would be to how under Achish the Philistine he was made “keeper of my head” (1 Sam. 28:2). Again, an allusion to his pre Bathsheba life.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me; the foreigners shall submit themselves to me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s vision was that his kingdom would take the good news of Israel's God to the surrounding Gentiles (see on :49). Some of them would submit to David and his God, whereas others would not (:45). But if we read as past tenses, the reference would be to how at the mere rumour of David’s victories, Toi king of Hamath submitted to David (2 Sam. 8:9). But the Hebrew for "submit" is strictly 'to feign obedience'. This is exactly what happened with the Amalekite who lied about killing Saul (2 Sam. 1:2–16), coming kneeling to David; and Baanah and Rechab (2 Sam 4:5–12), who each came to David expecting a reward from him. Again we note these were all incidents pre-Bathsheba.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The foreigners shall fade away, and shall come trembling out of their close places-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may allude to how Saul's persecutors of David included "foreigners" such as Cush (see on <a href='B:230 7:1'>Psa 7:1</a>) and Doeg the Edomite (<a href='B:90 22:22'>1Sa 22:22</a>). We should read in the past tense, "faded away", like plants scorched by the burning sun, which is the figure in Ex. 18:18. The idea repeatedly is that as God did for His people at the Exodus, so He had done for David. And so He does for us all.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh lives; and blessed be my rock. Exalted be the God of my salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had earlier lamented that Saul "My enemy" (= Saul, <a href='B:90 18:29'>1Sa 18:29</a>; <a href='B:90 19:17'>1Sa 19:17</a>) was "exalted over me" (<a href='B:230 13:2'>Psa 13:2</a> s:w:). The David who had once triumphed over his enemy Goliath now felt that Saul was triumphing over him. This, in the bigger Divine picture, may have been to keep David from pride at the amazing victory and triumph. And he learned the lesson. David was indeed to triumph / be exalted over Saul (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>), but he saw it is God triumphing / being exalted (<a href='B:230 18:46'>Psa 18:46</a>). His praise Psalms are full of this word and idea- of the exaltation of God (<a href='B:230 57:5'>Psa 57:5</a>; <a href='B:230 57:11'>Psa 57:11</a>) and not himself.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>even the God who executes vengeance for me, and subdues peoples under me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>An allusion to how David had restrained himself from murdering Saul when he could have done, and instead had trusted in God to execute vengeance. Here David reflects that God had indeed cast down the peoples under him (<a href='B:100 22:48'>2Sa 22:48</a>; <a href='B:230 18:47'>Psa 18:47</a>); by saying this he considers that his prayer of <a href='B:230 56:7'>Psa 56:7</a> has been answered: "In anger cast down the peoples, God". Perhaps when he prayed it, he just wanted God’s anger to be poured out immediately, the day of judgment to come there and then, when the scales will be adjusted and men and nations cast down or lifted up. But he reflects that in a sense that had happened in his life, in that the peoples were cast down beneath him.</p><p>This is what Baanah and Rechab told David when they presented him with Ishbosheth’s head: "Behold, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; thus, the Lord has given my lord the king vengeance this day on Saul and his descendants"  (2 Sam. 4:8). As ever, David is alluding to things in the pre-Bathsheba part of his life. And he is citing his own refusal to personally take vengeance on Saul (1 Sam. 24,26 ,"May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you" (1 Sam 24:13)) as the basis for God giving him the throne over the people, who had [so David claims] been brought down under him. David's response to Baanah and Rechab is to comment that "Yahweh... has redeemed my life from all distress" (2 Sam. 4:9). He alludes to how he had told Saul "so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, and may He deliver me from all distress (1 Sam. 26:24). Even at that point, he had the idea that his deliverances by Yahweh were because he had not taken vengeance upon Saul. Now apparently at the end of his life, he has the same attitude. Grace to him by God doesn't seem to be in his thinking. David also seems to have forgotten that he had intended taking vengeance on Nabal, but was stopped from this by God's grace through Abigail's wisdom urging David not to avenge himself with his own hand (1 Sam. 25:23–35). It was only because this stopped him taking vengeance that God took vengeance for him. But the grace of it all is lost upon David. </p><p>
We can read "who brought down the people [peoples could be an intensive plural for the great people, Israel] under me". The reference would be to his overcoming the internal opposition to his rule. But that opposition was because of the great disillusion with David because of his actions over Bathsheba and Uriah and his subsequent politically foolish moves. He ought to have resigned the kingship, but he didn't. Yet here he credits God for keeping him on the throne, leaving us to ponder whether he really appreciated God's undeserved grace in this... And again he is sanitizing how things were. The series of revolts against David in the later years of his reign rather question his claim that the people had been "brought down" beneath him. The cry of Sheba the Benjamite "To your tents O Israel! What portion have we in the son of Jesse?" was to be repeated at the end of Solomon's reign. Even on his deathbed, David had to deal with a rebellion by his son Adonijah, backed by Joab his own general. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He rescues me from my enemies. Yes, You lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man-</p><p>"Deliver" translates the word commonly used in the record of David's escape from Saul when his house was surrounded one night (1 Sam. 19:10,11,12,17,18). Again we see David harking back to his glory days and the deliverances when he was a young man- and glossing over the majority of his kingship. David's enemies were the Philistines and other nations, from whom God had given David "rest" at the time of 2 Sam. 7:11 ("Yahweh has given you rest from all your enemies"). But the term is also used of Absalom and his followers by Ahimaaz and the Cushite (2 Sam. 18:32 "the enemies of my lord the king [are] like the young man" Absalom). But God's deliverance of David from Absalom and his supporters was not at David's hand; he didn't go out to fight in the battle. The victory was because of Joab daring to disobey David's order not to kill Absalom. And Joab rightly mocks David for having more sympathy with his enemies than with his own men. This was hardly David at his most glorious and heroic on the battlefield,  but he likes to spin it that way.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :46. The violent man was initially Saul (see on :1). The Hebrew word hamas [basically meaning 'physical violence arising from wicked plans'] is quite common in Scripture, and the usages speak of how God is provoked by hamas to bring judgment upon the enemies of His people (<a href='B:10 6:11-13'>Gen 6:11-13</a>; <a href='B:400 6:12'>Mic 6:12</a>; <a href='B:430 1:9'>Zep 1:9</a>) and also to intervene in order to save His people (<a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 72:14'>Psa 72:14</a>). How amazingly appropriate that an organization actually called hamas has arisen in these last days to do violence to Israel! If Biblical history means anything to us, clearly enough God’s intervention in appropriate judgment and salvation cannot be far off. Note how Hagar's persecution of Sarah- typical of the Arab-Jew conflict- is described as her hamas (<a href='B:10 16:5'>Gen 16:5</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore I will give thanks to You, Yahweh, among the nations, and will sing praises to Your name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we see how David was one of the few in the Old Testament who had a sense of taking the good news of Yahweh's covenant to the Gentiles. And he apparently did so through exporting his musical productions to the surrounding peoples, who may well have been able to understand David’s Hebrew.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He gives great deliverance to His king, and shows grace to His anointed, to David and to his seed, forevermore- </p><p>"Deliverance" is 'salvation'. This could be a reference to how at the time of Absalom's rebellion people considered that "there is no salvation for him in Yahweh" (Ps. 3:3). It's good to see that David does end with gratitude for grace and that he does mention the eternity of the promises made to him in 2 Sam. 7. David's song is presenting himself as the ideal king of Israel, who loved Yahweh and His word, saved Israel and was eternally blessed. We as readers know this is a highly sanitized view of himself. But in his "last words" in 2 Sam. 23 David appears to admit that his "house" was "not so with God", and "he that rules over men must be just"- and he had not been that.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm concludes with a reference to David as the anointed, so this could be a Psalm composed when Saul was slain and David was finally declared king, and his anointing came to fulfilment. But the reference to eternal salvation for "his seed" could suggest it was composed after he had received the promises of 2 Samuel 7.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The heavens declare the glory of God, the expanse above shows His handiwork-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 8 records David looking up at the skies after his victory over Goliath, marvelling at God’s grace to man. Perhaps this is the same scene. Psalms 19 speaks of how the sun, moon and stars speak to humanity with no voice nor words. And yet that very passage is applied in the New Testament to the preachers of the Gospel. In mankind's meeting with us they should be seeing the same unspoken message which there is in the heavens above. We really can lead them on from their vague sense that there's something else out there in life and existence. They may feel that the answers lie shrouded by some impenetrable fog. But we need the spirit of Paul, when he noticed an altar to an unknown God. "Whom you ignorantly seek / worship, Him I will declare to you". People are fast realizing that advanced technology, social reforms, a rational approach to life... simply isn't the answer to our spiritual needs. People are seeking something beyond. They're asking the right questions, but seeking answers in the wrong places.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Having spoken of the vital need for preachers, Paul quotes this verse as concerning the preaching of the Gospel: "Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world" (<a href='B:520 10:18'>Rom 10:18</a>). Paul is doubtless alluding to the great commission here. But he says that it is fulfilled by the preachers spoken of in <a href='B:230 19:1-4'>Psa 19:1-4</a>, which he quotes. This speaks of the "heavens" declaring God’s gospel world-wide. In the same way as the sun 'goes forth' all over the world, so will the "heavens" go forth to declare the Gospel. The 'heavens' do not just refer to the twelve in the first century; the New Testament says that all in Christ are the "heavenlies"; we are all part of the "sun of righteousness". The arising of Christ as the sun at His second coming (<a href='B:460 4:2'>Mal 4:2</a>) will be heralded by the church witnessing the Gospel of His coming beforehand. The enthusiast will note a number of other preaching allusions in Psalms 19 : "The expanse shows &nbsp;His handiwork" uses a word (in the Septuagint) which occurs in <a href='B:490 9:60'>Luk 9:60</a> concerning the publishing of the Gospel. "Their voice is gone out through all the earth" (:4) is picked up by Paul in describing his preaching (<a href='B:540 10:13-16'>2Co 10:13-16</a> AVmg:). The idea of 'going out' throughout the earth was clearly at the root of Christ's great commission (<a href='B:480 16:15'>Mar 16:15</a>). Yet the "heavens" to which this refers in Psalms 19 are interpreted by the New Testament as referring to all&nbsp; believers in Christ.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Day after day they pour forth speech, and night after night they display knowledge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :1, the New Testament interprets this as meaning that the lights of the heavens declare God’s glory in the same way as Christian preachers constantly and continually present an unbroken witness to the Gospel. This means that David isn't saying that any amount of stargazing will of itself reveal the truths of the Gospel to men. The New Testament quotations (see on :1) are saying that as the stars and the sun daily pour out their testimony to the whole earth, so do the Christian preachers. This rather deconstructs the idea that God’s truth is held only by one small group in some suburb who keep that truth largely to themselves.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :1, the New Testament interpretation is that as the stars and the sun daily pour out their testimony to the whole earth, so do the Christian preachers. And that Gospel is to go to all languages and peoples. And yet that witness is in who we are. The heavenly bodies, like the Christian preachers, are simply there, who they are. And this is the witness which will go to the ends of the earth. We can get all too caught up with ‘mission work’ in the sense of taking the message to all the earth through advertising and visits; but the essential witness, which will extend to the very core of this world, is the silent witness of who we are. Hence RV "Unheard is their voice", just as men can be won for Christ "without the word" (<a href='B:670 3:1'>1Pe 3:1</a>). We have assumed that there are men and women sitting in their homes trying to figure out whether, e.g., God is a trinity or not, just waiting for our preaching to reach them. Yet this just isn’t the case. When men and women saw the result of the Lord’s ministry, they asked: “What new doctrine is this?” (<a href='B:480 1:27'>Mar 1:27</a>). Now this is how we need people to be with us- to ask us, with the implication they are ready and willing to listen, what exactly it is that we believe. But they only get to that point by seeing the effect of our lives and witness.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX offers "It is not a speech or words whose voice is unintelligible". The simple message of the Gospel is as clear as the sunlight; it doesn't require any great process of theological interpretation before it is seen for what it Isa.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is picked up by Paul in describing his preaching (<a href='B:540 10:13-16'>2Co 10:13-16</a> AVmg:). The idea of 'going out' throughout the earth was clearly at the root of Christ's great commission (<a href='B:480 16:15'>Mar 16:15</a>). See on :1. "Voice" is "line" in some manuscripts. The idea is that the territory of dominion for the message has been defined- and it is the whole world. As explained on :1, this is well interpreted in the New Testament with reference to the universality of the great commission, to take the Gospel to the whole planet and to every language upon it (:3).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And yet that huge work has been split up by God in His providence. We each have our specific area, either of people or the world, in which God intends us to make a witness. Paul thus spoke of how both he and other brethren had their specific "line" or sphere in which they were intended to witness (<a href='B:540 10:16'>2Co 10:16</a> cp. <a href='B:230 19:4'>Psa 19:4</a> AVmg:; <a href='B:370 7:17'>Amo 7:17</a>). We each have ours, whether it be the people who live in our block of flats, an area of our own country or city; or another part of the world.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In them He has set a tent for the sun-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The special attention given to the sun is surely because it was a symbol of Messiah (<a href='B:460 3:2'>Mal 3:2</a>). This is singled out as the major witness. Yet the witness of the heavenly bodies is understood as a representation of the witness of God’s people to the Gospel (see on :1). They are "the sun" in that their witness is in Christ, they are Him to this world. The sun was a common symbol for a person, and the "tent" in view is the temporary abode at a wedding feast, which is the theme continued in :5.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>which is as a bridegroom coming out of his room, like a strong man rejoicing to run his course-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As the sun arises and passes across the sky (:6), so the Messianic sun (:4), the bridegroom, comes out. The dawn is therefore symbolic of Messiah's coming out from heaven to marry His bride, the church. This going forth of the bridegroom from his "chamber" clearly looks ahead to the going forth of Messiah when the Davidic kingdom is finally fully established and all Judah's enemies destroyed (s:w. <a href='B:360 2:16'>Joe 2:16</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His going forth is from the end of the heavens, his circuit to its ends; there is nothing hidden from its heat-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Heat" is carefully chosen. For men can hide from the light of the sun, but not from its heat; sinners ultimately cannot hide themselves from God’s sun (s:w. <a href='B:220 34:22'>Job 34:22</a>). The witness of the sun, reaching to every man, is being used as the pattern for all the witness of God’s people who preach His word (:1,2). It cannot fail to have its impact and that word preached will not return without achievement and effect. "Circuit" is a poor translation and means simply "end", which is how the Hebrew is usually translated. It would be incorrect to base any argument for circular motion upon this word:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s testimony is sure, making wise the simple-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sudden change of subject to God’s word is not at all out of context; for as explained on :1-4, the interpretation is that as the stars and the sun daily pour out their testimony to the whole earth, so will the preachers of God’s word. The sureness of the sun's activities and the perfection of its light are therefore seen as reflections of the nature of God’s word, especially as it is manifest in the flesh of Messiah (:5):&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :7. It is quite likely that <a href='B:230 19:8'>Psa 19:8</a>; <a href='B:230 19:10'>Psa 19:10</a> were written with Jonathan's experience of 1 Samuel 14&nbsp; in mind: "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes... sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb". Psalms 19 may well have been written in the Bathsheba period: "Cleanse (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:2'>Psa 51:2</a>) thou me from secret faults". So the memory of Jonathan stayed with David all his life long. "Enlightening" is the word used of lights appearing at creation, on account of Gods spoken word (s:w. <a href='B:10 1:15'>Gen 1:15</a>; <a href='B:10 1:17'>Gen 1:17</a>). The idea is that there is a new creation being achieved through the witness of that word, with lights going on in the darkness of previously darkened minds.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The context is all about God’s law and word. So the idea may be that we read n an ellipsis: 'the word which teaches the fear of Yahweh…'.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :7. This may sound axiomatic, but the idea is that those influenced by God’s word become "true" themselves. Truthfulness is therefore an essential psychological response in all those influenced by God’s truth.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The power of transformation in God’s word is priceless. No human wealth or enjoyment of the senses [eating of honey] can equal it.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Moreover by them is Your servant warned-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "Warned" is "taught". The idea is that the laws and principles of God become teachers of themselves. There is an upward spiral in spirituality. Obedience leads to an experience of God’s word as a teacher, obviating the need to rely upon human interpretations; the commandment itself comes to be the teacher of itself. That is the idea here.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In keeping them there is a great reward-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It might help if we try to visualize the practical benefits of keeping the Mosaic laws (as in <a href='B:20 15:26'>Exo 15:26</a>). "In keeping of them is great reward", David commented (<a href='B:230 19:11'>Psa 19:11</a>). Moses likewise: "The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes... for our good always" (<a href='B:50 6:24'>Deu 6:24</a>)- not for their irritation, or as a pointless test of obedience. Perhaps this is why the giving of the Law is described as an expression of God’s love for Israel (<a href='B:50 33:2-4'>Deu 33:2-4</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who can discern his own errors? Forgive me from sins of ignorance-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Reflecting upon the power and necessity of God’s law and word elicits a natural awareness that we often must have failed to obey. And so David prayed for cleansing from "secret faults" (AV)- things which we do not specifically repent of, and yet which are still sinful in God’s sight. All sin is sin- sin is not definable according to our awareness of it (as witness the Mosaic trespass offerings). If we disagree that we are forgiven for sins which we do not specifically repent of and forsake, then we must conclude that we actually know every one of our sins; and that just one sin, unrepented of, will keep us from salvation. None of us has the self knowledge, nor the appreciation of God’s&nbsp; righteousness, to be confident that we do know each of our sins. It is only the self-righteous who claim that they have confessed every one of their sins. So we are driven to rely on salvation by grace- believing that we will be forgiven for sins we commit, which we do not recognize. If we hope for any amount of forgiveness without specific repentance, then we ought not to make it a principle that we will never forgive our brother unless he outwardly shows his repentance. For we all somehow hope for forgiveness without repentance.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps David went so far down the road of self-examination that the sin with Bathsheba made him realize that it was probably associated with many others which he did not even realize: "Who can understand his own errors? cleanse (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>,2 re. the Bathsheba affair) thou me from secret faults" (<a href='B:230 19:12'>Psa 19:12</a> AV). If our own self-examination and repentance is after the pattern of David’s, we will appreciate how that each of our sins is associated with so many others. We will be aware how that each spiritual event in our life makes us either weaker or stronger in facing the next one, how that each temptation is intertwined with others, so that in reality we do not commit (say) three or four sins per day. We are constantly failing and winning, and therefore we live in God’s mercy; we do not just experience it for the few seconds in which we pray to Him for forgiveness to be granted. David’s sin with Bathsheba is a process we each go through in one way or another.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Paul says that although he knows of nothing that would stand against him at the judgment, this doesn't justify him, because the Lord sees differently to us (<a href='B:530 4:4'>1Co 4:4</a> RSV). David likewise knew that his own self-examination was unable to give him an accurate picture of his status before God; "Who can understand his (own) errors?" (<a href='B:230 19:12'>Psa 19:12</a>). All too often one hears it said: 'It's OK in my conscience, so there's nothing wrong with it'. Yet my comment is that our 'conscience', our natural sense of right and wrong, won't jump outside of us at judgment day and stand there and judge us. There is one thing that will judge us: the word of the Lord (<a href='B:500 12:48'>Joh 12:48</a>). Morality isn't relative; there is such a thing as ultimate right and wrong, regardless of what our intuitive sense Isa:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright, I will be blameless and innocent of the great transgression-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A fair case can be made that David’s sin with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah was in fact a sin of presumption. David confessed that there was no sacrifice appropriate to his (singular) sin; his many individual sins associated with the matter were perceived as one sin, and that was the sin of presumption. The fact that he is condemned for having "despised the commandment of the Lord" (<a href='B:90 12:9'>1Sa 12:9</a>) indicates that He knew all along what God’s will really was. The fact that the flesh took over does not in any way mitigate his responsibility in thIsa. This is a direct quote from the Law's definition of the sin of presumption: "The soul that does anything presumptuously... because he has despised the word of the Lord... that soul shall utterly be cut off" (<a href='B:40 15:30-31'>Num 15:30-31</a>). Knowing David’s emotional nature and also the fact that he did not completely turn away from God afterwards, we would have expected a quicker repentance if it had been a passing sin of passion. It would therefore seem reasonable to assume that the sin was of presumption rather than passion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In this case, we can reflect that God will keep men from sinning, but only if they wish to be kept from sinning. And David didn’t wish for this at the time. In this case,’the great transgression" would refer to the sin of presumption. Or we can read this as meaning that David is writing after the time of his sin, and is asking to be held back from repeating it, lest he become guilty of the "great transgression", the sin with Bathsheba. In this case, he felt as if he was as it were forgiven of that sin conditional upon not repeating it.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, Yahweh, my rock and my redeemer- The request is for God to "let" or allow us certain mental attitudes. Again and again in the psalms, we see David recognizing the direct operation of God upon the human spirit or heart- and that continues to be effected to this day, by His Spirit.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It's possible to understand this Psalm as composed when David came to the tabernacle to offer sacrifice before going to war. The people pray for him in :1-3, then in :4 the High Priest speaks; then David and the people in :5; then once the offering has been burnt, the High Priest in :6, then :7,8 by David and his soldiers; and then :9 as a chorus by all present. It seems Psalms 21 is a psalm of thanks forr the victory given; and I note on <a href='B:230 21:1'>Psa 21:1</a> that this may have specifically been the victory over the Ammonites which David was given by grace right after his sin with Bathsheba.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high-</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. This Psalm is very clear- David is saying 'May this be true for you as it was for me'. And this is really the basis of all our witness. 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>. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>send you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The perception was that God lived in the sanctuary, perhaps symbolized by the shekinah glory there. This Psalm was written therefore after the ark had come to Zion. See on <a href='B:230 80:1'>Psa 80:1</a>.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>remember all your offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, success in the war and answer to prayer was thought to depend upon the offering of sacrifice. After the sin with Bathsheba, David was to mature 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>May He grant you your heart’s desire, and fulfil all your word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is God’s word which is fulfilled, but if His word dwells in us, then our word becomes His word (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>); progressively, therefore, as we grow in Him and His word, we have an ever more impressive experience of answered prayer because our desires, the things we pray for, are in line with His desires and word.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We will triumph in Your salvation, in the name of our God, we will set up our banners-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The setting up of banners implies going out to war; see on :1.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>May Yahweh grant all your requests-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may be the response of the priest or the people to the confident prayer in the first half of the verse.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Now I know that Yahweh saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven, with the saving strength of His right hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sanctuary was seen as "heaven" on earth, located then in Zion (:2). The conception was that there was a little place on earth where God was king, heaven on earth. The Lord later develops this idea; the kingdom of heaven is to become the kingdom of God on the entire earth, not just a small spot on mount Zion.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust the name of Yahweh our God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, this is relevant to prayer before going into battle- when apparently disadvantaged by obedience to the Mosaic command not to use horses and chariots. Solomon’s obsession with large numbers of horses and chariots (<a href='B:140 1:14'>2Ch 1:14</a>) was a marked contrast to these words of one of David’s songs which Solomon must have often hummed to himself. He knew this, but the knowledge resided in just one part of his brain- in reality, he went ahead and did the very opposite.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They are bowed down and fallen, but we rise up, and stand upright-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was a prayer before going into battle (:1); but David exemplifies the command to believe that prayer is answered even before it is (<a href='B:480 11:24'>Mar 11:24</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save, Yahweh! Let the King answer us when we call!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was the king, but he and the people are taught in this song (see on :1) to believe that Yahweh is their ultimate king, and David was merely reigning on His behalf.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The king rejoices in Your strength, Yahweh! How greatly he rejoices in Your salvation!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm could be thanks for David’s becoming king after Saul's death, when he had the crown placed upon his head (:3). But the reference to being given eternal life at this time (:4) means that the "salvation" in view is surely not limited to David’s miraculous salvation from Saul and establishment as king of Israel. It perhaps refers to his greater belief that his Messianic son would become an eternal king of Judah. But there are many connections with Psalms 20, which I explained as a Psalm before going into battle, perhaps against the Ammonites (see on <a href='B:230 20:1'>Psa 20:1</a>). The crowning of David in :3 could however refer to the crowning of David with the gold crown of the Ammonite king (<a href='B:100 12:30'>2Sa 12:30</a>; <a href='B:130 20:2'>1Ch 20:2</a>). This however was straight after his sin with Bathsheba. So David’s joy in God’s salvation was due to his sense that God had given him this victory by grace when he himself was a sinner. His thanks for giving him eternal life (:4) was therefore in the sense that he believed that despite his sin, he would be eternally saved, and he saw the victory against Ammon as a foretaste of that.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his liPsa. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Often, “desire” is seen by God as prayer (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>; <a href='B:230 21:2'>Psa 21:2</a>; <a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>; <a href='B:230 59:10'>Psa 59:10</a>; <a href='B:230 92:11'>Psa 92:11</a>; <a href='B:230 140:8'>Psa 140:8</a>; <a href='B:230 145:19'>Psa 145:19</a>; <a href='B:470 18:32'>Mat 18:32</a>; <a href='B:520 10:1'>Rom 10:1</a>; <a href='B:690 5:15'>1Jn 5:15</a>). God interprets that inner desire as prayer, even if it is not articulated in specific requests. The heart's desire in this case was the prayer for victory against the Ammonites in <a href='B:230 20:4'>Psa 20:4</a>.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You meet him with the blessings of goodness, You set a crown of fine gold on his head-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference would be to he crowning of David in :3 could however refer to the crowning of David with the gold crown of the Ammonite king (<a href='B:100 12:30'>2Sa 12:30</a>; <a href='B:130 20:2'>1Ch 20:2</a>). This however was straight after his sin with Bathsheba. So David’s joy in God’s salvation was due to his sense that God had given him this victory by grace when he himself was a sinner.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He asked life of You, You gave it to him, even length of days forever and ever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His thanks for giving him eternal life comes after his forgiveness for the sin with Bathsheba (see on :1-3). It was therefore in the sense that he believed that despite his sin, he would be eternally saved, and he saw the victory against Ammon as a foretaste of that.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His glory is great in Your salvation; You lay honour and majesty on him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David marvelled at this because he was such a sinner who had just been forgiven for the sin with Bathsheba. The victory against Ammon assured him that God was going to eternally save him, as it was a foretaste of God’s great salvation (see on :1-4).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>for You make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with joy in Your presence-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>After the sin with Bathsheba, David had asked for God to restore to him the joy of God’s salvation (<a href='B:230 51:12'>Psa 51:12</a>), and here he is thanking God for having done so, through the blessing of God’s grace. See on :1.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>for the king trusts in Yahweh. Through the grace of the Most High, he shall not be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be moved" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). As explained on :1, this Psalm may well have been written immediately after receiving forgiveness for the sin; and so David is asking that he shall never slip like that again. Solomon didn’t learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father’s mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your hand will find out all of Your enemies; Your right hand will find out those who hate You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David saw the victory over the Ammonites as an encouragement that all his future enemies would likewise be overcome; but by God’s hand / operation / strength, rather than his own military prowess (:3).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of Your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in His wrath, the fire shall devour them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of the condemnation of the last day (<a href='B:470 13:42'>Mat 13:42</a>). David sees a portent of future things in his victory over the Ammonites, and the Divine judgment and salvation by grace meted out thereby. See on :1-3.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You will destroy their descendants from the land, their posterity from among the children of men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David saw these Ammonites as a seed which should be destroyed from the eretz. His vision was of the eretz promised to Abraham full of the righteous. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they intended evil against You, they plotted evil against You which cannot succeed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a strange connection of ideas here with Joseph's comment to his brothers that "You thought / intended evil against me; but God meant it unto good... to save much people alive" (<a href='B:10 50:20'>Gen 50:20</a>). The connection shows Joseph to be far more gracious spirited than David, who seems to relish the thought of God’s destruction of his enemies (despite his recent forgiveness for the Bathsheba / Uriah incident, see on :1):&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You will make them turn their back when You aim drawn bows at their face-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :11, this appears a far too bloodthirsty attitude. So often in the psalms, David reveals a vicious desire for the blood of his enemies. Perhaps it was because of this bloodlust that David was precluded from building the temple because he had been a man of wars and had shed blood (<a href='B:130 28:3'>1Ch 28:3</a>). Solomon also shed blood as did many of God’s servants, so that alone seems no reason why David couldn't build the temple. Perhaps it was his bloodthirsty attitude, albeit tinged with moments of great grace, forgiveness and gentleness, which led to God’s prohibition. Shimei called David a "bloodthirsty man" (<a href='B:100 16:7-8'>2Sa 16:7-8</a> s:w:). And the same words are used by God about David (<a href='B:130 28:3'>1Ch 28:3</a>). So we can wonder whether David was too quick in <a href='B:230 5:6'>Psa 5:6</a> to assume that the 'man of blood' was hated by God and was of course not him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be exalted, Yahweh, in Your strength; so we will sing and praise Your power- Whatever David’s weakness of attitude noted on :11,12, he is very deeply and genuinely aware that he is strong only in God’s strength, and this awareness was the basis for his absolutely genuine praise of Yahweh; despite having wrong attitudes in other sectors of his life. And all the same he was accepted by God.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician; set to The Doe of the Morning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The hind is the symbol of grace and innocence (<a href='B:260 2:7'>Son 2:7</a>; <a href='B:260 2:9'>Son 2:9</a>). This is in intentional contrast to the abusers who are called bulls, lions and dogs. Perhaps "the morning" alludes to the hope of resurrection.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Not all the experiences listed here appear to have been true of David, nor of any Biblical character. We conclude that some of the language of piercing and crucifixion was therefore initially intended symbolically. But it all came together in a literal sense for the Lord Jesus.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt as if he had been a sacrifice bound to an altar, and therefore about to be pulled into the grave (<a href='B:230 18:5-6'>Psa 18:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 116:3'>Psa 116:3</a>; <a href='B:230 140:5'>Psa 140:5</a>). The allusion is to Isaac and his miraculous deliverance from such cords, thanks to the ram in the thicket whom David is later to understand as representative of the future Messianic saviour; for the Lord quotes David’s "My God, why have You forsaken me?" (<a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>) as the Aramaic sabachthani, "entangled", the word used of the ram entangled in the thicket.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This verse is quoted by the Lord Jesus just moments before He died, and it has been suggested He cited the entire Psalm on the cross, as the last verse finishes (in LXX) with something similar to His last words, "it is finished". It certainly reflects a crisis in the Lord in His last few minutes of human life. He had been crying out aloud for deliverance, presumably for some time, according to <a href='B:230 22:1-6'>Psa 22:1-6</a>, both during and before the unnatural three hour darkness. He felt that His desire for deliverance was not being heard, although the prayers of others had been heard in the past when they cried with a like intensity. The Lord Jesus was well aware of the connection between God’s refusal to answer prayer and His recognition of sin in the person praying (<a href='B:100 22:42'>2Sa 22:42</a> = <a href='B:230 2:2-5'>Psa 2:2-5</a>). It is emphasized time and again that God will not forsake those who love Him (e.g. <a href='B:50 4:31'>Deu 4:31</a>; <a href='B:50 31:6'>Deu 31:6</a>; <a href='B:90 12:22'>1Sa 12:22</a>; <a href='B:110 6:13'>1Ki 6:13</a>; <a href='B:230 94:14'>Psa 94:14</a>; <a href='B:290 41:17'>Isa 41:17</a>; <a href='B:290 42:16'>Isa 42:16</a>). Every one of these passages must have been well known to our Lord, the word made flesh. He knew that God forsaking Israel was a punishment for their sin (<a href='B:70 6:13'>Jdg 6:13</a>; <a href='B:120 21:14'>2Ki 21:14</a>; <a href='B:290 2:6'>Isa 2:6</a>; <a href='B:300 23:33'>Jer 23:33</a>). God would forsake Israel only if they forsook Him (<a href='B:50 31:16-17'>Deu 31:16-17</a>; <a href='B:140 15:2'>2Ch 15:2</a>). The Lord was so identified with our sin that He felt as a sinner, although he wasn't in fact.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Greek word translated "forsaken" occurs in <a href='B:510 2:27'>Act 2:27</a>, where Peter quotes from Psalms 16 concerning how Christ was always aware of His own righteousness, and therefore confidently knew that God would not "leave (forsake) his soul in hell". In <a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>, our Lord was doubting His previous thoughts, as prophesied in <a href='B:230 16:10'>Psa 16:10</a>. He now feared that God had forsaken Him, when previously He had been full of confidence that God would not do so, on account of His perfect character. Because He felt such a sinner deep within Him, He even doubted if He really was the Messiah. This is how deeply our Lord was our representative, this is how thoroughly He bare our own sins in His own body on the tree, this is how deeply He came to know us, to be able to exactly empathize with us in our spiritual weakness; this was how He became able to have a fellow feeling with those who are out of the way, who have lost the faith, "for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity" (<a href='B:650 5:2'>Heb 5:2</a>).</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In every other recorded prayer of His in the Gospels, the Lord addressed the Almighty as “Father"; but finally He used the more distant “My God", reflecting the separation He felt. But therefore His mind flew to <a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>, and He quoted those words: "My God, why have You forsaken me". But the fact His mind went to the Scriptures like that was His salvation. There is reason to think that in His last few minutes, the Lord quoted the whole of Psalms 22 out loud. . Thus He asked for a drink "that the Scripture might be fulfilled", or finished, and then His words "It is finished" followed- which are actually an exact quote from the Septuagint of the last verse of Psalms 22. Psalms 22, 69 can be clearly divided into two halves; the first half speaks of the confused thoughts of the Lord Jesus as He hung on the cross, but then there is a sudden rally, and His thoughts become clearly more confident and positive, centered around the certainty of our future salvation. As Christ quoted or at least thought through Psalms 22, He came to the glorious conclusion: Of course this is how Messiah must feel, He must feel forsaken, as Psalms 22 prophesied, but He would go on to save God’s people! Just because Messiah would feel forsaken didn’t mean that He Himself had sinned! We can almost sense the wave of reassurance that swept over our Lord, that deep knowledge of His own good conscience. And therefore how desperate He was, despite that ravaging thirst, to utter to the world that cry, "It is finished" ; to show to us all that He had achieved God’s work, that He had perfectly manifested the Father, and that thereby He really had achieved our redemption.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why are You so far from helping me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Helping" is Yeshua. The words clearly have relevance to the Lord Jesus; He wondered whether He was really 'Jesus'.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And from the words of my groaning?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, as AV, "roaring". This is how David felt at the time of desolation he felt after the sin with Bathsheba (s:w. <a href='B:230 32:3'>Psa 32:3</a>). This was probably the historical context of the Psalm. And yet it is those Psalms written whilst far from God which are most appropriate to the Lord Jesus on the cross. He didn’t sin; but on the cross He was so identified with us as sinners that He felt as a sinner, and the words of David whilst far from God therefore seemed appropriate to Him. See on :19.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The same word is used of the roaring of the enemies as lions (:13). In response, David / Jesus roared to God. Because the weight is on the arms, the crucified can't speak easily. The whole conversation between the thief and the Lord would probably have been whispered, with long intervals between words. The final two loud cries of the Lord must have been made with immense pain. It also explains why they confused His "Eli, Eli" with 'Eliyahu' (Elijah); He was probably speaking very quietly. There is no recorded reaction of the crowd to His prayers. Yet <a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a> speaks of His prayer as a lion roaring to God, and yet He felt that the abuse of the crowd was like the ravening and roaring of a lion (<a href='B:230 22:13'>Psa 22:13</a>). It may be that they hurled abuse back at Him in response to the roaring of His prayers.</p><p>R.V.mg., "far from my help are the words of my roaring" reflects a sense that prayer has not in fact helped. The Lord's prayers in Gethsemane to not drink the cup had not in that sense helped. Unanswered prayer is part of the Christian experience and the Lord shared it.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My God, I cry in the daytime, but You don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As suggested on :1, the Lord did so both during and before the unnatural three hour darkness.</p><p>We note that the repeated cry out to "My God" is always immediately followed by a sense of distance from God (:1,12,20). This is so true to human spiritual experience; a sense of closeness to God and yet distance at one and the same time. And the Son of God was truly Son of Man, and knew this experience so keenly in His final moments. Likewise :19, "Don’t be far off, Yahweh. You are my help". The Lord was always with the Father and felt His presence: "I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (Jn. 16:32). In His death, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself". And yet at one and the same time the Lord felt forsaken by God. </p><p>
The Lord's crying out in the night season may also refer to His experience in Gethsemane the night before. And "I am poured out like water" (:14) sounds like the Lord's sweat as great drops of blood. Yet the clear reference of the Psalm is to the Lord's crucifixion sufferings. But surely He has in mind His intense prayer some hours earlier in Gethsemane, for the cup to pass from Him. And in His crisis, He felt that prayer was apparently unanswered. Despite His acceptance, on one hand, that He must do God's will and not His own. We note that Heb. 5:7-10 speaks of the Lord's loud, anguished prayer to be saved from death, and thus alludes to the Lord's words both on the cross and in Gethsemene. </p><p>
"And am not silent" is as R.V. mg., "but find no rest". The torture of the crucifixion process was that there was no let up in the pain.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But You are holy, You who inhabit the praises of Israel-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The simple take away from this is that whether or not God comes through for us as we hope or expect, or even think He should- we accept He is right and holy, and we are never to charge God foolishly. Both David and the Lord were very aware that they were not alone, but there was an "Israel" of God’s true people over time and space who were still faithful- even if they were not immediately visible.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s focus of all his praises upon Yahweh as alone "worthy" of praise was what he wanted his people to follow (<a href='B:230 18:3'>Psa 18:3</a>; <a href='B:230 22:3'>Psa 22:3</a>). The implication of "worthy" could imply a contrast with other gods, as in <a href='B:230 96:4'>Psa 96:4</a> "He is to be feared / praised above all gods". This would confirm the hints we have that Saul was an idolater (see on :31; <a href='B:230 12:8'>Psa 12:8</a>; <a href='B:230 16:4'>Psa 16:4</a>), and that idolatry was prevalent in Israel at the time.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our fathers trusted in You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> they trusted, and You delivered them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, whether or not God comes through for us as He has done in history is no reason to charge Him foolishly. This experience is to humble us, as we see in :6. See on :20.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>they cried to You, and were delivered. They trusted in You, and were not disappointed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea in the Lord's mind was surely that men less spiritual than Himself had received miraculous deliverance, but His cry for deliverance was unheeded. As explained on :6, this brought Him to the final humility required before His death. The nature of the argument requires that the Lord expected some form of immediate deliverance, as David did. And we naturally struggle to reconcile this with His clear awareness that He must die on the cross and be resurrected. But this is the same question as to how He knew Judas would betray Him, and yet treated Judas as His own familiar friend in whom He trusted. It is a legitimate part of being human that we may know something on one level, and yet desperately believe and feel in a different way. We think of Samson trusting Delilah when he surely knew the inevitable was going to happen. Love and identity with others can be reasons this happens- and they were exactly what the Lord was full of in His time of dying.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Php_2:4-7 speaks of the Lord Jesus as being progressively humbled right up to the point of His death. The Lord quoted this Psalm just moments before His death. What brought Him to this final humility was the reflection that although God had come through for men who were less perfect than Himself (:5), God had not done so for Him, at least not immediately. "Worm" is the word for 'scarlet' but probably the idea is simply of a worm, and this Psalm was likely used in the context of the exiles, "you worm Jacob" (<a href='B:290 41:14'>Isa 41:14</a>). They too had to be humbled before they could be saved and become the salvation of others. The reference to "worm" maybe significant in that worms "are simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning&nbsp;worms&nbsp;have both male and female reproductive organs. During&nbsp;sexual&nbsp;intercourse among&nbsp;earthworms, both sets of sex organs are used by both&nbsp;worms. If all goes well, the eggs of both of the mates become fertilized". Some worms are capable of parthenogenesis&nbsp;(asexual reproduction). There could therefore be a reference here to the virgin birth.</p><p>The LXX of Ps. 22:6 is alluded to in Mk. 9:12 and applied to the Lord: "How then is it written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt" (s.w.). </p><p>
All these ideas and words here find a parallel in Isaiah's descriptions of God’s servant Israel; a worm (Is. 41:14); whom men despise (Is. 49:7, Is. 53:3); from whom they shrink with horror as scarcely human (Is. 52:14, Is. 53:2,3). The Lord as He hung there was our representative.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All those who see me mock me, they insult me with their lips, they shake their heads and say-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is again the language of Job, whose book David would have been familiar with. The connection between <a href='B:230 22:7'>Psa 22:7</a> and <a href='B:470 27:39'>Mat 27:39</a> would suggest that the 'passers-by' were there with the express intent of taunting Him. Because His eyes were inevitably downward, it would have been difficult for the Lord not to look at them. Their words were exactly those of the Sanhedrin (<a href='B:470 26:61'>Mat 26:61</a>), so presumably they came from there- the work colleagues of Joseph and Nicodemus.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He trusts in Yahweh; let Him deliver him. Let Him rescue him, since He delights in him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We wonder why men so versed in the Old Testament would actually quote these words about the Lord. For by quoting them, they were presenting Him as the suffering believer of Psalms 22 who was to be justified. It seems that it was a case of hate blinding the eyes and sense of those caught up in it. They knew the words, and quoted them out of context, as they thought. They surely later realized what they had done. And were driven either to even deeper psychological blindness, or repentance.</p><p>There is a remarkable parallel to this passage in Wisdom of Solomon 2:16 where the ungodly decide to torture those who claim to be sons of God, in order to see if God would come and save them: “He makes his boast that God is his Father. Let us see if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him. For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies”. It seems they were alluding to this and therefore torturing the Lord to the uttermost.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But You brought me out of the womb, You made me trust at my mother’s breasts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord’s mother and aunty stood by the cross- the tragedy of His mother being there needs no comment. If dying men do indeed think back to their childhood, His thoughts would have been with His mother. She would have seen the blood coming from the feet. Her head would have been parallel with His knees. His face marred more than the sons of men (<a href='B:290 52:14'>Isa 52:14</a>), sore from where His beard had been pulled off (<a href='B:290 50:6'>Isa 50:6</a>), teeth missing and loose, making His speech sound strange, fresh and dried blood mixing... and His mother there to behold and hear it all. She must have thought back, and surely He did too; for He was only a man. Mother around the house as a child, mending clothes, getting food, explaining things, telling Him about Simeon's prophecy, of how a sword would break her heart as well as HIsa. This isn't just emotional speculation. <a href='B:230 22:9-10'>Psa 22:9-10</a> emphasizes the Lord's thoughts for His mother and His babyhood with her: "Thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou keptest me in safety (AVmg:- a reference to Herod's persecution) when I was on my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly". The temptation would have been to go on and on. Was I too hard on her in Cana? How I must have stung her when I said " Behold my mother and my brethren" are these half hearted, superficially interested people (<a href='B:470 12:49'>Mat 12:49</a>). She was the best mother I could have ever had. Like any man would think. And He was a man. Not a mere man, but a man. I wonder if He said those words of breakage, of severance, between Him and her, because these feelings welling up within Him were affecting His concentration on the Father.</p>,p>He thought back to His deliverance from Herod's pogrom and His time in Egypt, as well as His infanthood. This is typical of men facing death. To think of their mothers and early childhood experiences. Truly the Lord was of our nature.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I was thrown on You from my mother’s womb; You are my God since my mother bore me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on ::9. The Lord's thoughts for His mother are absolutely psychologically credible; for she was the only person who knew for sure that there had been a virgin birth, and He was God’s Son.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near; for there is none else to help-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"None else to help" felt so appropriate for the Lord, for His mother and few loyal friends stood "far" from the cross. The same words are used for how Israel and the exiles were under persecution with none to help apart from God (<a href='B:230 107:12'>Psa 107:12</a>; <a href='B:310 1:7'>Lam 1:7</a>). The paradox was that God saved His people through the Lord Jesus exactly because they had "none to help" (<a href='B:290 63:5'>Isa 63:5</a> s:w:). But He Himself had to go through that experience of having none to help (<a href='B:230 22:11'>Psa 22:11</a>). Their salvation was achieved through His being their total representative.</p><p>The same sense of "none to help" is in another crucifixion Psalm, Ps. 69:20. He was alone in this wondrous work . The Lord's experience on the cross of absolute, existential loneliness enables Him to meet every man in this experience. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It could be in the historical application that David felt surrounded by enemies from Bashan. Bulls don't usually encircle a man to kill him. There is a sense that there is a supernatural, divinely controlled way in which the opposition was being orchestrated. The parallel is in :16, where it is the assembly (NEV "company") of the wicked who do this, alluding to the Sanhedrin.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The same word is used of the roaring of the enemies as lions (:1 AV). In response, David / Jesus roared to God. The repeated reference to lions may reflect the later usage of the Psalm at the time of the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions, where again the imagery of lions was used.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The emphasis upon David’s sense of dehydration looked forward to the Lord's thirst on the cross. Every word He spoke out loud was an expenditure of effort and saliva. He was intensely aware of thIsa. He realized that unless He had more moisture, He just would not be able to speak out loud any more. And yet He so desperately wanted His last words to be heard and meditated upon. His sweat in the Garden had been dropping like blood drops; the nervous tension of bearing our sins sapped moisture from Him. There would have been a loss of lymph and body fluid to the point that He felt as if He had been "poured out like water" (<a href='B:230 22:14'>Psa 22:14</a>); He "poured out his soul unto death" (<a href='B:290 53:12'>Isa 53:12</a>), as if His sense of dehydration was an act He consciously performed; He felt that the loss of moisture was because He was pouring it out Himself. This loss of moisture was therefore due to the mental processes within the Lord Jesus, it was a result of His act of the will in so mentally and emotionally giving Himself for us, rather than just the physical result of crucifixion. The same word for "poured out" is used of pouring out the soul to the Lord (<a href='B:90 1:15'>1Sa 1:15</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 102:1'>Psa 102:1</a>; <a href='B:230 142:2'>Psa 142:2</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart is like wax; it is melted within me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The language of condemnation (<a href='B:230 68:2'>Psa 68:2</a>; <a href='B:230 97:5'>Psa 97:5</a>); and meting or fainting hearts is the description of the faithless (s:w. <a href='B:50 20:8'>Deu 20:8</a>; <a href='B:60 2:11'>Jos 2:11</a>; <a href='B:60 7:5'>Jos 7:5</a>; <a href='B:230 112:10'>Psa 112:10</a>; <a href='B:290 13:7'>Isa 13:7</a>). As discussed on :1, the Lord felt like a sinner, totally identifying with the feelings of sinners and their condemnation, whilst being personally innocent.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My strength is dried up like a shard of pottery; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, the initial context of the Psalm was David’s collapse of health after the sin with Bathsheba. The dehydration would be associated with various serious diseases. And it pointed forward to the Lord's thirst on the cross. David felt dead, already back to dust, when he wasn't. Perhaps the Lord likewise reasoned (for a moment, in the crisis of the cross) that He might somehow experience effective death without dying. Although before that He clearly predicted His death for three days. Perhaps the extreme language is because David is continually alluding to Job's feelings in suffering.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For dogs have surrounded me, a company of evildoers have enclosed me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The assembly (AV) of the wicked who do this alludes to the Sanhedrin. They are unclean animals (as in :11)- when they prided themselves upon their purity.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have pierced my hands and feet-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :1, not all the experiences listed here appear to have been true of David, nor of any Biblical character. We conclude that some of the language of piercing and crucifixion was therefore initially intended symbolically. But it all came together in a literal sense for the Lord Jesus. There is also the possibility that there were historical sufferings of David which are simply not recorded, and yet are alluded to in the Psalms.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I can count all of my bones, they look and stare at me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may refer to the extension of his body when the whole of its weight hung upon the nails which attached his hands to the horizonal beam of the cross. The body being extended, the principal bones were prominent, and easily discernible.  This is from the perspective of the crucified Lord Jesus looking downwards at His own body. And yet on the cross He saw all His bones, which represented the future members of His body (<a href='B:560 5:30'>Eph 5:30</a>). David was presumably seriously, perhaps terminally ill as a result of the sin with Bathsheba; and the Psalms written at that time are descriptive of the Lord's time of dying. For then He was supremely identified with sinful people.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They divide my garments among them, they cast lots for my clothing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we wonder as to how this could be done without people instantly perceiving a fulfilment of the Psalm. As noted on :8, it seems that it was a case of hate blinding the eyes and sense of those caught up in it. They knew the words, and quoted them out of context, as they thought. They surely later realized what they had done. And were driven either to even deeper psychological blindness, or repentance. We note the plural "garments" and singular "clothing", exactly fulfilled in the decision of the soldiers to cast lots for the Lord's outter garment rather than divide it.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But don’t be far off, Yahweh. You are my help: hurry to help 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 this Psalm is absolutely the feelings of the Lord Jesus on the cross- because He was so intensely identified with sinners. I noted on :3 that the historical context of this Psalm was the sin with Bathsheba. 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Life is perceived rightly as our most precious possession. The Lord's desire for deliverance, like David’s, meant that He wanted immediate deliverance; He had to come to realize that the prayer would be answered, but not immediately. Such deliverance from the sword became appropriate to the salvation from Assyria (s:w. <a href='B:400 5:6'>Mic 5:6</a>). But it is a quotation from the situation of Moses, who was saved from the sword of Pharaoh (s:w. <a href='B:20 18:4'>Exo 18:4</a>). Moses was one of the 'fathers' whose prayers for deliverance had been heard (:4,5). The pinnacle of the Lord's humility just before He died was in realizing that others less spiritual than Himself had been delivered. What seemed so unfair and unjust, God coming through for him or her but not for me... caused the Lord to reach the required acme of humility with which He died (Php_2:6-12). And yet for many, those issues of injustice lead them to lose faith in God, because they refuse to humble themselves.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save me from the lion’s mouth! Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen, You have answered me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At this point the tone of the psalm changes. Whilst at the lion's mouth, the Lord Jesus felt answered. It seems He perceived that the answer was going to come in resurrection, rather than in immediate deliverance after the pattern of Isaac (see on :1). This of course was what the Lord had earlier believed, reflected in His clear teaching that He was to die and be dead for three days.</p><p>The primary reference in the life of David would have been to the time when he said he was saved from a lion, which he went on to kill: "Yahweh who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine" (1 Sam. 17:34,36,37- note how David three times recalls this incident). David was not only "saved from" the lion, but slew the lion. This was exactly the Lord's position in His battle against sin, the adversary like a roaring lion. "The wild oxen" is literally "the reem", and may refer to David having been lifted aloft on the horns of a wild animal. His salvation from that experience led him to cry out in faith that God would also save him from the mouth of a lion about to close upon him. The title of the Psalm "Concerning the Hind of the Dawn", could be a reference to a gazelle being sent to distract the lion.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will declare Your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will praise You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The Name was declared in the Lord’s death, as He had foretold (<a href='B:500 17:26'>Joh 17:26</a>). Forgiveness of sins is through baptism into the Name (<a href='B:510 2:38'>Act 2:38</a>), as even in OT times forgiveness was for the sake of the Name (<a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a>). And yet through the cross and blood of Christ is forgiveness made possible. His blood and death therefore was the supreme declaration of God’s Name; through His cross the grace and forgiveness, love, salvation and judgment implicit in the Name was all enabled and revealed in practice. <a href='B:230 22:22'>Psa 22:22</a> prophesied that “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation [ekklesia, LXX]", and this is quoted about the Lord Jesus and His church in <a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a>. "In the midst of..." is interpreted in <a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a> as a reason for understanding that the Lord had our human nature. He died with the vision of being one with us, singing along with us; not of being above us. It was to us His brethren that the Name was declared; in the eyes of an unbelieving world, this was just another crucified man, a failure, a wannabe who never made it. But to us, it is the declaration of the Name. It was and is done in the midst of the ecclesia, as if the whole church from that day to this beholds it all at first hand. And our response is to in turn “Declare his righteousness" (<a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>), in response to seeing the Name declared, we declare to Him</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>in lives of love for the brethren. For the Name was declared, that the love that was between the Father and Son might be in us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord died with the vision of us His "brothers", the congregation in whose midst He would walk and fellowship, as He does today. We, and His fellowship with us, was the vision He died with and was His comfort all through His time of dying. So the Lord's prayer thoughts to the Father on the cross included His awareness that the ekklesia, the church or "congregation", were His brothers. For He realized that it was through His sacrifice that a new family was being created. The declaration or preaching of the Father's Name to us was supremely through the Lord's death on the cross. The cross was the supreme declaration of the Name (<a href='B:500 17:26'>Joh 17:26</a>); the first letters of the Hebrew title over the cross spelt 'YHWH'. And that declaration of the Name in the naked, bleeding, betrayed and crucified Christ was to us. And the Lord looked forward, perhaps in literal terms, to singing praise to the Father in the midst of His brothers. This all hardly sounds as if the Lord Jesus was "God the Son". He positioned Himself in the midst of His brethren, singing God’s praise- even after His exaltation.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You who fear Yahweh, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him! Stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The seed of Jacob, the true Israel, were understood by the Lord as "my brothers", the ekklesia (:22), the "humble" (:26), the new people who were to be born through His sacrifice (:31). This was to be the new Israel of God. The Lord died with us in view.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither has He hidden His face from him; but when he cried to Him, He heard-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"He heard / answered" is in contrast to the initial lament that God has not answered. The Psalmist, looking forward to the Lord Jesus, is overcome by this wave of recognition that in fact, the lack of answer was the answer. and what an amazing answer it was. Through the Lord's death, so much was achieved. And the desperate prayers for salvation were heard in the resurrection of His body. Exactly as it shall be and is for us all who are in Him.</p><p>In deep sickness or depression it can simply be that we find formal, verbalized prayer impossible. <a href='B:230 77:4'>Psa 77:4</a> speaks of this: "I am so troubled that I cannot speak" (formally, to God). It's in those moments that comfort can be taken from the fact that it is our spirit which is mediated as it were to God. Tribulation is read as prayer- hence even the Lord's suffering on the cross, "the affliction of the afflicted", was read by the Father as the Lord Jesus 'crying unto' the Father (<a href='B:230 22:24'>Psa 22:24</a>). This is sure comfort to those so beset by illness and physical pain that they lack the clarity of mind to formally pray- their very affliction is read by the Father as their prayer.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Of You comes my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Verse 22 prophesied that “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation [ekklesia, LXX]", and this is quoted about the Lord Jesus and His church in <a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a>. "In the midst of..." is interpreted in <a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a> as a reason for understanding that the Lord had our human nature. He died with the vision of being one with us, singing along with us; not of being above us. And here we have the same idea; the Lord looked ahead to the day when along with other God fearers, He would pay his vows before God. His God was their God, as He specifically stated after His resurrection (<a href='B:500 20:17'>Joh 20:17</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :1, this was originally a Psalm written at the time of the sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. David increasingly recognized his sinfulness and his reliance upon the grace of God. 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The humble shall eat and be satisfied, they who seek after Him shall praise Yahweh. May your hearts live forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Psalms 22, 69 describe the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross foreseeing "the great congregation" gratefully and humbly eating in memory of Him (cp. the breaking of bread), serving Him, inheriting Zion and declaring His righteousness and His victory on the cross to others down the generations. Let us remember this as we break bread and witness to Him (<a href='B:230 22:30-31'>Psa 22:30-31</a>).</p><p>The Psalm opens with a detailed musical direction, suggesting this Psalm was to be sung or used in a collective context. Many of the Psalms are clearly like this. The superscriptions mention being used for the memorial offering (Psalms 38, 70), the Sabbath day (Psalm 92) and the thanksgiving offering (Psalm 100).  The reference to paying vows (:25) suggests Psalm 22 may have been used in the context of paying vows and the freewill offering associated with that. The vow being paid would have been gratitude for deliverance from a time when the psalmist or user of the Psalm felt God had forsaken them (:1). The individual worshippers were to see themselves in the Psalm. It was used in a "great assembly" when individuals paid their vows (:25). And there was to be an 'eating and being satisfied' (:26). This collective meal would have been when the offerer made a freewill offering and ate part of it before the priest, with the other part being given to God to show His eating with the offerer. This was the Old Testament equivalent of the "table of the Lord", the breaking of bread service. But the Psalm has clear reference to the Lord Jesus on the cross, firstly in His desperation (:1) and then in His progressive self persuasion of the glory that was ahead for Him, and His death in absolute confidence that God's Kingdom would come. Yet the Psalm was to be used or sung by individual Israelites as they did their equivalent of the 'breaking of bread' at the Lord's table. Which originally was the altar on which they placed their offering before eating part of it. The Lord's experience is intended to be that of every man in Him. And is especially relevant to our dedication to Him at the breaking of bread service. The words of :16 are specifically applied to the Lord as if they were His words; but the Psalms uses them of every man using the Psalm at a gathering of the believers: "I will declare Your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will praise You".
"Your heart shall live for ever" is a promise repeated in Ps. 69:32, with an eternal heart again promised to those who "seek" Yahweh and again in a crucifixion Psalm. The attitude of seeking Yahweh is part of our spirit / personality that will be eternally preserved. Seeking Yahweh can mean to praose Him but it can also mean simply to want to be like Him. The Lord thus speaks of those who seek and thirst to be righteous even if they don't totally get to spiritual maturity in this life. It's the desiring God and His ways that matters and is so significant to Him. This is why prayer and seeking to be spiritually minded is perhaps what should be our strongest desire.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh, all the families of nations shall worship before You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As a result of the Lord being lifted up on the stake, “all the ends of the world shall</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> turn unto [s:w. ‘convert to’] the Lord” (<a href='B:230 22:27'>Psa 22:27</a>). <a href='B:500 12:38-41'>Joh 12:38-41</a> draws a parallel between being converted, and understanding the prophecies of the glory of the crucified Christ. To know Him in His time of dying, to see the arm of Yahweh revealed in Him there and to respond, is to be converted:&nbsp;This is why the cross is at the center of all truly Christian witness:&nbsp; The Lord saw a new community developing from His dead and resurrected body, comprised of people from all nations, and thereby fulfilling the implications of the promises to Abraham.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In <a href='B:490 24:45-47'>Luk 24:45-47</a> we read how Christ explained to the disciples that their preaching of the Gospel "among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" was foretold in the Psalms and prophets. So the Bible student asks: Where&nbsp; in the Psalms and prophets? The Lord spoke as if the prophecies about this were copious. There do not seem to be any specific prophecies which speak of the twelve spreading the Gospel from Jerusalem in the first century. Instead we read of the Gospel being spread from Jerusalem in the Kingdom, and often the phrase "all nations" occurs in a Kingdom context, describing how "all nations" will come to worship Christ at Jerusalem (<a href='B:230 22:27'>Psa 22:27</a>; <a href='B:230 67:2'>Psa 67:2</a>; <a href='B:230 72:11'>Psa 72:11</a>; <a href='B:230 72:17'>Psa 72:17</a>; <a href='B:230 82:8'>Psa 82:8</a>; <a href='B:230 86:9'>Psa 86:9</a>; <a href='B:230 117:1'>Psa 117:1</a>; <a href='B:290 2:2'>Isa 2:2</a>; <a href='B:290 66:18'>Isa 66:18</a>; <a href='B:290 66:20'>Isa 66:20</a>; <a href='B:300 3:17'>Jer 3:17</a>; <a href='B:340 7:14'>Dan 7:14</a>; <a href='B:440 2:7'>Hag 2:7</a>; <a href='B:450 8:23'>Zec 8:23</a>). This selection of "Psalms and prophets" is impressive. Yet the Lord Jesus clearly interpreted these future Kingdom passages as having relevance to the world-wide spreading of the Gospel. "All nations" also occurs in many passages exhorting us to praise Yahweh among all the nations of this world. The reason for this is that God’s glory is so great it should be declared as far as possible by us. <a href='B:130 16:24-25'>1Ch 16:24-25</a> is typical of many such verses: "Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations. For&nbsp; great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised…for all the gods of the people are idols". World-wide preaching is therefore an aspect of our praise of Yahweh, and as such it is a spiritual work which is timeless.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the kingdom is Yahweh’s, He is the ruler over the nations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "for" connects this with surrounding verses, where the Lord has foreseen the new community of worshippers as emerging from the dust of death through a resurrection of the body similar to that which was to be His experience, in answer to His prayer in this Psalm (:29). And this was to be at the time when Yahweh's Kingdom was established over the nations; that new community which was to be created (:31) would comprise peoples from all nations (:27):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A number of Psalms appear to have some verses relevant to the exile, and others relevant to earlier historical situations. It would seem that an inspired writer inserted the verses which spoke specifically to the exilic situation. Psalms 22 thus appears to have had vv. 28-32 added or rewritten with reference to the exiles; other examples in Psalms 9, 10; Psalms 59; Psalms 66; Psalms 68; <a href='B:230 69:34'>Psa 69:34</a>; Psalms 85; Psalms 107; Psalms 108, 118.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship, all those who go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who can’t keep his own soul alive-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In :26, the community envisaged by the Lord who would "eat ad worship" were "the humble". He looked to the day when the poor would become the eternally rich, and the hungry would eat. This situation was envisaged as happening when those humble ones who had returned to dust would again "bow before Him". As the Lord Jesus perceived that the answer to His prayer was to be through resurrection, so He further perceived that this would enable the resurrection of those in Him. They are characterized as those who recognize they cannot keep their own soul alive. They denied that they had any inherent immortality (no immortal soul), and their search for a resurrection of the body by grace was to be met in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Posterity shall serve Him, future generations shall be told about the Lord-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "a seed". The Lord perceived that through His death and resurrection (in answer to His prayer for deliverance from death in this Psalm), the "seed" of promise would be developed. They were to be comprised of people from "all nations" (:27,29), and as noted on :31, the Lord perceived that the new community of saved ones would be characterized by telling others about Him, His death and resurrection. The implication could be that the sufferer had no seed, but a seed would be written or created for him. Exactly through his sacrificial death without a seed. This is the very teaching of Is. 53.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall come and shall declare His righteousness to a people that shall be born, for He has finished it- The seed of Jacob, the true Israel, were understood by the Lord as "my brothers", the ekklesia (:22), the "humble" (:26), the new people who were to be born through His sacrifice (:31). This was to be the new Israel of God who were 'to come'; their lead characteristic was that they would "declare His righteousness" to others. Witness is to be at the core of the redeemed community. The Lord died with us in view.</p><p>The last phrase seems to be what the Lord said at the very end of His life, "It is finished ". What was finished was the declaration of God's righteousness. The cross was that declaration, just as it was the declaration of the Name as discussed above. Surely Rom. 3:25,26 allude here. The Lord's shed blood achieved the ultimate declaration of God's righteousness in that sinners who believe in what it achieved are counted righteous eternally: "whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to declare God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to declare His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David. Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall be in need of nothing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father&nbsp; is essentially mutual. David was a shepherd, but Yahweh was his shepherd (<a href='B:230 23:1'>Psa 23:1</a>), and he was to shepherd Israel (<a href='B:100 5:2'>2Sa 5:2</a> Heb:). It seems this Psalm was written when David was on the run from Absalom, having fled Jerusalem for his life, and now making his way along the banks of the river Kidron into the wilderness (<a href='B:100 15:23'>2Sa 15:23</a>), to be surprised by the feasts prepared for him in the desert (:5) by Ziba (<a href='B:100 16:2'>2Sa 16:2</a>) and Barzillai (<a href='B:100 17:27-29'>2Sa 17:27-29</a>). With no clear plan or course of action apart from to get away from Jerusalem, wandering in the desert... David felt all the same that God was his shepherd and was leading him. As having nothing, he had all things. </p><p>Shepherd is a title for a king. Although himself not effectively king, and with Absalom's claim to kingship lacking legitimacy, David is confident that in any case, Yahweh is the shepherd / king of His people; and of David too. We see in this David's humility. He was losing his crown, but he in any case had always seen Yahweh as Israel's true king. </p><p>
An element of unreality in the imagery here is that sheep are herd animals; separated from the flock, they will always seek to return to the flock. But this sheep, or even lamb (see on :2), has a one on one relationship with the shepherd. There is no mention of the flock. This reflects how David felt at the time, fleeing from his narcissistic son, betrayed by many of his inner cabinet and lifetime friends and political allies. And this is indeed the comfort of personal relationship with the good shepherd. We could go further and posit that the one on one relationship here between shepherd and sheep is because this is about a lost sheep. David would thereby be tacitly recognizing that his flight from Absalom was because he had gone astray; but through his exile, through the crisis of apparent failure, he was being led back to God. </p><p>
The promise that we shall lack nothing is repeated and clear in Ps. 34:10; 84:11. It takes some perceiving. As it did for David at that time. Being "in need of nothing" or "I lack nothing" was an amazing thing for David to feel at a time when materially and socially, he had lost everything. Absalom had even slept with David's wives on the rooftop of the palace. But like Jacob, David was brought to realize that if we have God's grace (:6), we have "all things". David quotes here from Dt. 2:7, where Israel "lacked nothing" in the wilderness. They of course thought they lacked everything- new clothing, the food of Egypt etc. But they "lacked nothing" because they had been saved from Egypt and were assured of salvation- if they remained within the covenant. Israel doubted whether Yahweh could "spread a table in the wilderness" (Ps. 78:19)- but He did in that He provided manna and quail. And provided David likewise with a table in the wilderness (:5). </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He makes me lie down in green meadows, He leads me beside still waters-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of sheep lying down and being led. As noted on :1, David had no clear plan when he suddenly had to flee Jerusalem. But he has a strong sense of being led. The still waters and green meadows may refer to how the Kidron brook began, but <a href='B:100 15:23'>2Sa 15:23</a> notes that David’s path soon went from there into the desert. So maybe he is perceiving the wilderness as "green meadows" because God is leading him. Perhaps he had in view how God lead (s:w:) Israel through the desert, but with the waters of the stream from the rock going with them (<a href='B:20 15:13'>Exo 15:13</a>). The restoration application is to God’s promise to "lead" (s:w:) the exiles on the desert journey back to Zion (<a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:290 49:10'>Isa 49:10</a>).</p><p>We can equally translate: "In grassy pastures he lets me lie, chewing the cud". It has been observed: "Sheep remain standing while they are eating, but they lie down to chew the cud, that is, ruminate on their food, which they will happily do for several hours a day". This is the picture of not only a sheep but specifically a lamb. Lying down and peacefully feeding. And yet David was madly rushing against the clock, trying to escape death at the hand of his own narcissistic son. Despite that external reality, he felt inwardly this kind of peace. And we must make the beloved point that the Hebrew shepherd lead rather than drove the sheep.  </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He restores my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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). 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 23:3'>Psa 23:3</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.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The great restoration prophecies of <a href='B:300 23:1-8'>Jer 23:1-8</a> and <a href='B:330 34:1-31'>Eze 34:1-31</a> speak of the flock of Israel going astray due to bad shepherds, being saved by the good shepherd, being delivered / gathered, and then returning to the land. The Hebrew word shub means both 'to return' in the sense of returning to the land, and 'turning' in the sense of repentance. But these restoration prophecies are packed with allusion to the great shepherd Psalms 23. Here, David says that the good shepherd 'causes me to repent' (<a href='B:230 23:3'>Psa 23:3</a> Heb:). This is matched in Ezekiel 36 by the idea of God giving Israel a new heart. And the Lord's amazing parable of the good shepherd (<a href='B:490 15:1-7'>Luk 15:1-7</a>) brings together Psalms 23 and also these restoration passages, in speaking of how He goes out and finds the lost sheep and brings it back home (Kenneth Bailey brings together all the many points of similarity between Psalms 23, <a href='B:300 23:1-8'>Jer 23:1-8</a>, <a href='B:330 34:1-31'>Eze 34:1-31</a> and the parable of the lost sheep (<a href='B:490 15:1-7'>Luk 15:1-7</a>) in his book Jacob And The Prodigal (Downers Grove: IVP, 2003) p. 70). The sheep is found, and accepts being found- there is no actual mention of repentance. Thus the 'return' of Judah to their land was intended as a work of God- He would make them return, He would give them repentance [note how <a href='B:510 11:18'>Act 11:18</a> speaks of God granting men repentance]. This is all such wonderful grace. The even more incredible thing, though, is that Judah refused to accept this grace; they didn’t 'return' to the land because they saw no need to 'return' to God. They willingly forgot that they were only in Babylon because of their sins; to 'return' to the land was a 'return' to God, which He had enabled. But they were like the lost sheep refusing to sit on the shepherd's shoulders, preferring to sit in a hole and die... and this is the warning to us. For truly, absolutely all things have been prepared for us to enter the Kingdom. It's only those who don't want to be there who won't be.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here is yet another evidence that there can be a higher hand in the achievement of human spirituality. This guidance is part of God’s sovereign ability to act "for His Name's sake"; if a man wants to be righteous, he will be confirmed in that path. Right paths are literally straight paths. This is a major theme. The cherubim led Israel back to the land with straight feet, God's paths are straight, without the agonies of constant struggle in decision making which characterize the unbelieving life.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sheep has just been led through the picture of tranquility in :2,3, and now it finds itself in danger, in a dark valley. Through these sudden changes of circumstance, with things coming at us out of left field, the Lord is still our shepherd. After the valley of death, or even within it, there is the surprise feast prepared. And then the hope that the sheep will be led to live in the Lord's house for ever. The immediate context was David fleeing Jerusalem at the time of Absalom's rebellion. He passed through a valley from the top of which Shimei, one of Absalom's supporters, threw rocks at him and cursed him (<a href='B:100 16:13'>2Sa 16:13</a>). There was naturally the fear of an ambush, for David’s location was thereby clearly known to his enemies.</p><p>The place of the shadow of death is a term used in Job 10:21 for death itself. David knew that even if he died at Absalom's hand at that time, the good shepherd would lead him through that valley to resurrection. The allusion is also to the wilderness journey of Israel, through the land of the shadow of death (Jer. 2:6). </p><p>
Shepherds keep sheep in order for them to be slaughtered. Any care they may show the sheep is only within the context of that final overall intention. But this shepherd restores the life of the sheep (:3), and guides it through the valley of death to eternal life at the end; the Psalm ends with the word "forever" (:6). 
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will fear no evil, for You are with me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This was the fear of ambush just described. David’s sense that 'God is with me' is that of 'Emmanuel', God with us, the great comfort to the exiles in Isaiah's restoration prophecies. He felt the essence of the result of the yet future work of the Lord Jesus.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your rod and staff, they comfort me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This returns to the idea of David being God’s sheep in :1. He believed he was suffering God’s rod of correction, the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba; and yet at the same time, God’s staff of protection against his enemies. "Comfort" is the word used for repentance or change of mind. Although he had repented for the sin with Bathsheba, his experience of the ongoing consequences led him to further repentance. And likewise in our experience, repentance tends to be a process, moving to ever deeper levels and further dimensions over time.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We enquire: Who sets a royal banquet before someone? It is a king who does this to show favour to His guests. David had himself done this to Mephibosheth as a sign of grace and acceptance. The King is God, the shepherd of David (:1). It's as if David saw in the feast of Barzillai a reconfirmation of God's covenant love for Him, and assurance Yahweh was still King regardless of what Absalom was playing at. I noted on :4 that David’s flight from Jerusalem was not in secret; Shimei and other "enemies" were aware of his path. The reference is to the feasts prepared for him in the desert by Ziba (<a href='B:100 16:2'>2Sa 16:2</a>) and Barzillai (<a href='B:100 17:27-29'>2Sa 17:27-29</a>). But the phrase "prepare a table" is that used of the preparation of the table of shewbread (<a href='B:20 40:4'>Exo 40:4</a>), and it is used in a religious sense in <a href='B:290 65:11'>Isa 65:11</a>; <a href='B:330 23:41'>Eze 23:41</a>. Perhaps David held some kind of religious ceremony whilst on the run, the equivalent to our breaking of bread meeting. And his experience of the Lord's table strengthened him with great encouragement, as we also can experience.</p><p>"Before me" suggests that the shepherd has gone in front of the sheep to prepare the table. The shepherd has been next to him in the valley of death ("You are with me"), and yet has led the sheep earlier, going before him. "He guides me" (:3) could suggest guidance from behind, as to be guided is a slightly different image to being led. Behind, next to / with and in front, the shepherd is always "there" on the journey which Ps. 23 describes. And the whole journey from pasture to wilderness, shadow of death and the temple, the Lord's house, is all relevant to the experience of the exiles by and for whom this Psalm was surely used.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You anoint my head with oil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>RV has "anointed" in the past tense. David reflected as we can on the fact we have been anointed and called to kingship, even when it seems a bridge too far, too great a disconnect, between present experience and that future weight of glory. David recalls how Samuel had anointed him as a teenager. He was the anointed king of Israel. And he had learnt from Saul's demise that this could only be undone by God and not by man. We too have to recall our earlier calling to the Kingdom, for "He that anointed us is God", and the anointing, as John says, abides within us. But in times of crisis and rejection we have to consciously remember that.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My cup runs over-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With everything against him, fleeing from his own son Absalom who had garnered mass support, with no clear plan as to where to go or how now to act, David felt he had blessing above blessing- because he had experienced God’s grace. The cup can refer to destiny, and the Lord in Gethsemane spoke of His cup in this way. Our cup . destiny is overflowing; and David perceived this when at the nadir of human experience. </p><p>
This verse must be read with the awareness that the previous four verses have been about a sheep or a lamb being led by a loving shepherd. Instead of assuming that the metaphor now changes to that of a host, we could see an element of total unreality in the story at this point: the lamb / sheep finds itself suddenly confronted by a banquet table, is anointed, and is given an overflowing cup. This is the extremity of the inappropriate grace David felt he had encountered. The Lord uses the same figure when His parable speaks of the lost sheep coming into the home of the shepherd and apparently attending the banquet to which the neighbours are invited. Indeed "I shall dwell" is strictly "I shall return". David at this time was being followed by Absalom's men; but he feels God's grace is following him. In this Psalm he inverts everything; the dry desert becomes green meadows, the roaring stream becomes still waters, his random path is in fact a path that is under Divine guidance, God's rod of correction is a source of comfort. Moffatt renders "Goodness and Kindness wait on me", continuing the banquet image of the previous verse. God's grace and kindness are as it were the waiters at the feast. They refer to the covenant mercies to David; that covenant, like God's covenant with us, endures through rejection by men and death itself. We can experience something of this at the breaking of bread, where we take the cup of the covenant to again proclaim ourselves in that covenant. </p><p>
I discussed on :5 the possibility that the metaphor of sheep and shepherd continues throughout the Psalm. Shepherds keep sheep in order to lead them to slaughter at the end of their lives. That is why shepherds keep sheep. All this is reversed; this unusual shepherd leads the sheep to eternal life, in God's house.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely goodness and grace shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in Yahweh’s house forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> see on <a href='B:10 28:20-21'>Gen 28:20-21</a>. As explained on :5, despite being at the nadir of his life at the time of Absalom's rebellion, David felt he was so blessed with God’s grace and kindness. The fact God had saved him from execution after the Bathsheba incident... was felt by David to be such an experience of saving grace, that nothing else mattered. Although now heading away from the sanctuary in Zion, he was certain that finally he would dwell in Yahweh's sanctuary eternally. Perhaps he is displaying faith that he would ultimately return to Zion; but more likely he has in view his eternal future in the Kingdom yet to come.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm may have been used when David brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the sanctuary on Zion (<a href='B:100 6:12'>2Sa 6:12</a>). Perhaps the Levites who carried it sung this, or it was sung by a choir of Levites at this time. Maybe these were the words of final blessing said by David at the time of 2 Sam. 6:18 "When David finished sacrificing... he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh of Hosts". It has been suggested that Psalm 68 relates to the setting out of the procession, Psalm 24 to the entrance up to Zion and Psalm 87 to the joy of the entrance with dancings and shouting.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The earth is Yahweh’s, with all its fullness; the world, and they who dwell 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, and His purpose was perceived by David as incorporating the entire planet and not just Israel. </p><p>If this Psalm was composed when the ark was brought to Zion, then "Unto Yahweh belongs the land / earth" is an example of David's emphasis that Yahweh is the true king of Israel, not David of himself; the land is Yahweh's not David's. Ps. 89:11 is a commentary on the promises to David, and comments that the "heaven and earth", i.e. Israel, are Yahweh's. The people of the earth / land may have been under David, but they were really Yahweh's people more than David's. David's correct attitude at this point in bring the ark to Zion (2 Sam. 6) was therefore commended by Yahweh in 2 Sam. 7, when He explains that David's kingdom and "son" were to be His Kingdom and Son.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The eretz in view in :1 was the territory promised to Abraham, greater Israel. It is presented as founded upon the seas and rivers ("floods") of Gentile nations; for as noted on :1, the eretz is paralleled with the entire world. David perceived God’s intention was that the Gentiles should also come to Israel's God:&nbsp; </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who may ascend to Yahweh’s hill? Who may stand in His holy place?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This rhetorical question is given in the context of having implied that people well beyond Israel had a place in God’s Kingdom. But that Kingdom was not just for any Israelite; it was for anyone who kept His ways as later defined in the Psalm. And it seems David is saying that the sanctuary on mount Zion, God’s holy hill, was open to all regardless of ethnicity. And even entrance into the holy place was no longer just for Levites, but for whoever was spiritually qualified. David himself was not a Levite but at times acted as one.</p><p>In the context of bringing the ark to Zion, this may be David's reflection on how the sons of Eli and Uzzah were destroyed for wrongfully handling the ark. The rhetorical question "Who may...?" echoes the spirit of David's words after Uzzah had been killed, and the words of the men of Bethshemesh about the ark in 1 Sam. 6:20: "Who can stand in attendance on the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?”. David says that those who have the ark must be "He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood" (:4). He clearly refers to himself. But his later behaviour with Bathsheba showed him to be none of those things. And yet the ark remained with him, along with the Shekinah glory of Yahweh; but he would have perceived that this abiding presence of Yahweh with a man of unclean hands and heart, famed for his falsehoods, was by grace alone.</p><p>It could be argued that :3-5 are alluding to a temple  tabernacle entry liturgy. Along with Psalm 15 and Is. 33:14-17, the passage begins with the double question 'Who can enter / fellowship with God?', conditions given similar to those in Psalm 15 and Is. 33:14-17, and then blessings of fellowship with God pronounced. See more commentary on this on Ps. 15:2.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully-</p><p>David may have in view how Uzzah was slain the first time he tried to bring the ark to Zion. The hands he stretched forth to touch the ark were not "clean" and [seeing others touhed the ark without dying], his heart was clearly not "pure". Possibly Uzzah was an idolator and deceiver and intended to make the ark stay on that threshing floor- and threshing floors are often associated with idolatry. Clearly something more than well intentioned touching of the ark was concerned.</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 24, 25, 26 are full of David explaining that fellowship with God was dependent upon a man's "integrity", walking in truth, hating sinners, personal innocence, "uprightness", clean hands and pure heart. And throughout these Psalms, David holds up himself as the great example.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He shall receive a blessing from Yahweh, namely righteousness from the God of his salvation-</p><p>It was Obed Edom who received a blessing from Yahweh for looking after the ark. So possibly he is the one in view in :4 who had clean hands and a pure heart. </p><p>
The priests clothed with righteousness in Ps. 132:9 parallels them being clothed with salvation in Ps. 132:16. This reflects the Pauline teaching that salvation is brought about by being counted righteous by God's grace. And that is the basis for the joy of the saints. Ps. 24:5, like Ps. 132, is also in the context of the ark coming to Zion, and the same point is made- those who have salvation have received the gift of righteousness from God. And quite possibly it is the Gentile Obed Edom who is in view- making it sound even more like Paul's argument in Romans.
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This passage implies that our purity is not so much from forsaking sin, but rather from the imputation of God’s righteousness to us. The letter to the Romans makes it clear that such imputation depends upon faith, not works (e.g. rectifying marriage problems). It is God’s righteousness which is credited to us, not our own (<a href='B:540 5:21'>2Co 5:21</a>). And as noted on :3, David is open to the idea that all people, regardless of ethnicity, could partake of this imputed righteousness by grace through faith.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are frequently reminded in the prophets that the spiritual way of life is one which is seeking God. We are to seek His face (<a href='B:230 24:6'>Psa 24:6</a>; <a href='B:230 27:8'>Psa 27:8</a>)- which it is impossible to behold (<a href='B:20 33:20'>Exo 33:20</a>). Actually finding God in the ultimate sense is therefore unattainable in this life; but our whole mortal life must be lived in this spirit of seeking ultimate perfection. Seeking God is often defined in the prophets as forsaking our sins and desiring to be righteous (<a href='B:370 5:5'>Amo 5:5</a>; <a href='B:370 5:8'>Amo 5:8</a>; <a href='B:370 5:14-15'>Amo 5:14-15</a>). None of us are completely successful in our seeking of God, and therefore it follows that none of is completely forsakes all our sinfulness.</p><p>"Face" is 'presence'. David seems to reason that those who seek God's presence will come to the ark. But in his wilderness years, driven away from the ark and from the tabernacle, his Psalms express his sense that he had found the presence of God out in the desert, without the ark. He even felt he dwelt beneath the cherubim wings on the mercy seat, covered with the blood of atonement. But now he is slipping from that to the idea that God's presence is only mediated through the ark and tabernacle system. He has slipped from the spiritual back to the religious.  </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Even that of the God of Jacob. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Every reference to "the God of Jacob / Israel" is effectively saying: 'I'm the God that stuck with mixed up, struggling Jacob. And I'll stick with you too, through spiritual thick and thin, and bring you through in the end'. This is the love of God for Jacob. So close is the association between God and Jacob that there are times when the name 'Jacob' becomes a synonym for 'the God of Jacob'. <a href='B:230 24:6'>Psa 24:6</a> is an example: "The generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob" (cp. other examples in <a href='B:290 44:5'>Isa 44:5</a>; <a href='B:300 10:16'>Jer 10:16</a>; <a href='B:300 51:19'>Jer 51:19</a>). The name of Israel therefore was paralleled with the name of God- Joshua feared that the name of Israel would be cut off, “and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?” (<a href='B:60 2:9'>Jos 2:9</a>). &nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lift up your heads, you gatekeepers! Be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, the immediate reference was to the ark entering Zion. The mercy seat over which the glory of the shekinah was seen was understood as enthroned there. In this sense God was king there. And yet His entry into the sanctuary is parallel with the entry of righteous people into it, of all ethnicities (see on :1-5). The gatekeepers are being exhorted to lift up their heads and open the gates- both to God in the ark, and to all righteous people. This mention of gates, walls and gatekeepers reflects David's fantasy even at that stage for a temple to be built to house the ark.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who is the King of glory? Yahweh strong and mighty, Yahweh mighty in battle-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Who Isa…?" matches the same rhetorical question in :3. The entry of God and that of His people is paralleled:&nbsp;  Note the word play- Yahweh is the "mighty", the izuzah, and smote Uzzah for mishandling the ark. David's Psalms for bringing the ark to Zion often mention Yahweh as the King, victorious against His enemies. Yet bringing the ark to Zion was part of David's establishment of himself as king after his victories over his enemies. He is to be commended for stressing that actually, Yahweh is Israel's true king and not himself. Despite his bad motives and trust in human strength, David still has spirituality at one and the same time. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lift up your heads, you gatekeepers; yes, lift them up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This states that when the gatekeepers of Zion lift up their heads [to God in truth], then the King of glory will come in. And the Lord applies these words to His true people of the last days in <a href='B:490 21:28'>Luk 21:28</a> - they are to likewise lift up their heads [so that] their redemption will draw nigh, or be hastened. Israelite repentance is a condition for the Lord’s return.</p><p>The "everlasting doors" may reflect David's fantasy that the temple he would build for the ark would last eternally. God corrects this in the promises to him in 2 Sam. 7- God would build an eternal house for David in the sense of a people, not a building. And of course Yahweh eventually destroyed the physical temple, with the record emphasizing the destruction of the walls and gates [and the record of their rebuilding stresses the need to rebuild the destroyed walls and gates]. David's fantasy was misplaced, and so we likewise can read his claims that God loved Zion more than anywhere else in Israel as likewise his assumptions about God's positions. When in fact he seriously misunderstood God's grace. Even when God showed him the huge grace of the unconditional promises of 2 Sam. 7 about David's house and seed, he is still ultimately unmoved by them and presses on with his plan to enable Solomon to build a physical house. To my mind that stands heavily against David.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Who is this King of glory? Yahweh of Armies is the King of glory! Selah- Using the title Yahweh of Hosts recalls how this is the title used to describe Yahweh enthrned between the cherubimin the record of bringing the ark to Zion: "Then David and all the troops that were with him set out from Baale of Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God to which the Name was attached, the name Yahweh of Hosts, enthroned on the Cherubim" (2 Sam. 6:2).
The entry of the ark into Zion looked forward to the final entry of God’s glory into Zion in the person of the Lord Jesus in the last day. Christ's approach to Jerusalem is described in Psa. 24:10: "Who is this King of glory? The Lord of Hosts (Angels), he is the King of glory". Thus Christ, the Lord of glory, will be especially clearly associated with the Angels as He approaches Jerusalem. He comes with all the Holy Angels with Him, with “saints”, i:e. Angels, to relieve the invasion of the latter-day Sennacherib.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm is based around the alphabet. But the letters beth and vav are omitted, instead of koph there is resh; and the he section is doubled at the end. This isn't careless construction or corruption, but rather does Hebrew poetry function through such intentional omissions or departures from an expected pattern:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To You, Yahweh, do I lift up my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. David lifts himself up to God (<a href='B:230 25:1'>Psa 25:1</a>; <a href='B:230 28:2'>Psa 28:2</a>; <a href='B:230 86:4'>Psa 86:4</a>), and asks God to lift up Himself in response (<a href='B:230 7:6'>Psa 7:6</a>; <a href='B:230 10:12'>Psa 10:12</a>; <a href='B:230 94:2'>Psa 94:2</a>). Lifting up is the language of sacrifice; David sees himself as a priest offering himself.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My God, I have trusted in You; don’t let me be shamed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let my enemies triumph over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These are the words of Hannah (<a href='B:90 2:1'>1Sa 2:1</a>). David had the humility to be influenced by a woman's words, something unusual for males of his time.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Truly, no one who waits for You shall be shamed. They shall be shamed who deal treacherously without cause-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, David had to be taught that those who wait upon / serve God can be shamed, by their sins. And it was David who dealt with Uriah treacherously without cause.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Show me Your ways, Yahweh, teach me Your paths-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Seeing David had access to the existing scriptures, as Psalms 119 shows, this indicates that David believed that God could show him His ways in a way other than simply reading the text of the Bible. Just as is true today, and as is often mentioned in Psalms 119, God is willing to operate directly on the hearts of men in a way over and above His written word. David realized this, and asked to be taught and shown God’s ways (<a href='B:230 25:4'>Psa 25:4</a>; <a href='B:230 143:8'>Psa 143:8</a>). "Show" is the usual word for 'to know'. Knowledge in its ultimate, spiritual sense is not attained simply by reading or hearing the text of the Bible; not that I am at all decrying that. But there is a higher, Divine hand at work in making us know Divine knowledge. Moses had prayed the same words in <a href='B:20 33:13'>Exo 33:13</a>: "Show me [make me to know] Your way, that I may know [s:w. "show"] You [and] find grace in Your sight". The gift of knowledge, in the Hebraic sense of relationship, is related to God’s grace. That knowledge which is in view is not the same as technical, theological knowledge. Moses' prayer was answered; the same words are used in saying that God "made known His ways to Moses" (<a href='B:230 103:7'>Psa 103:7</a>):&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Guide me in Your truth, and teach me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4, the desire for guidance or being led suggests that there is a higher power available, beyond a man engaging alone with God’s word and seeking to obey it in his own strength. The idea is beyond that of guidance; the same word is translated "make me to go in the path of Your commandments" (<a href='B:230 119:35'>Psa 119:35</a>). It is the word used for a bow being bent; the idea is of God’s hand directly and forcefully acting upon a willing human mind. The idea of the gift of the Holy Spirit is the New Testament equivalent of thIsa.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You are the God of my salvation; I wait for You all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David wanted to be guided because he knew that the end point of the path was "my salvation". His 'waiting' can be understood as an idiom for 'serving', or a waiting for salvation to be revealed in his lifetime.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, remember Your tender mercies and Your grace, for they are from old times-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Mercy and grace often refer to the Abrahamic covenant, made in "old times". David perceived God’s entire path with His people as being of "tender mercies", whereas the skeptic will not see His path in history that way.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions-</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 <a href='B:100 12:9-10'>2Sa 12:9-10</a>. 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'>Remember me according to Your grace, for Your goodness’ sake, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Remember me" carries the connotation of 'remember me for good and therefore forgive me at the judgment' in <a href='B:70 16:28'>Jdg 16:28</a>; <a href='B:490 23:46'>Luk 23:46</a>.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore He will instruct sinners in the way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David felt that his sin and its forgiveness was a time of instruction for him, and he vows to in turn teach sinners God’s way (<a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a> etc:). God wishes to manifest Himself through our witness; He wants to use each one of us as a witness to Himself. <a href='B:730 12:11'>Rev 12:11</a> may imply that our testimony to others is proportionate to our victory against the devil. Preaching is therefore an expression of basic righteousness. God teaches sinners His ways because He is essentially good (<a href='B:230 25:8'>Psa 25:8</a>); and if we are righteous, we will manifest Him in thIsa.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will guide the humble in justice; He will teach the humble His way-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To receive the guidance and teaching discussed on :4,5, we must be humble, as the clay must be soft to be worked by the Divine hand. Comparing with the context of :8, David parallels “the meek” and the repentant sinner (:8,9). The publican was so worried about his own position before God that he paid no attention, so we sense, to the hypocritical brother next to him: “The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (<a href='B:490 18:13-14'>Luk 18:13-14</a>). That sin-conscious man is an essay in self-humbling.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the ways of Yahweh are grace and truth to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Grace and truth" is a term associated with the promises to Abraham, which formed the new covenant. If that covenant was kept, then God would lead those within it- in grace and truth. See on :13.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Your name’s sake, Yahweh, pardon my iniquity, for it is great-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on <a href='B:20 32:32'>Exo 32:32</a>. David, realizing he was seen by God as a representative of his people, prayed for forgiveness in that he realized that he was thereby a pattern for all the wayward people of God. “For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity; for it is great” is an undoubted reference to Moses praying for Israel’s forgiveness relating to the golden calf (<a href='B:20 32:30-31'>Exo 32:30-31</a>). He saw himself as both Moses in prayer and also guilty Israel. He saw Bathsheba had been his golden calf idol, mixing as it had done sexual abandon with an appearance of Yahweh worship. There was nobody to pray for him apart from himself. He saw himself as all Israel, savable only by pure grace and the sincere prayer of a mediator- even if the mediator himself was guilty. God’s Name is His character and personality (<a href='B:20 34:5-7'>Exo 34:5-7</a>), and integral to that is His desire to forgive.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What man is he who fears Yahweh? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The man who fears Yahweh is the repentant, humbled sinner who is open to instruction (:8,9). This is the man who fears Yahweh and His judgments in a way they should be feared. The Father opens up new ways of understanding for us each, of His choosing and according to our individual needs, in response to our living a God-fearing life. If our hearts are knit together in brotherly love, the more we will understand- for true understanding is, in the end, to fathom the depths of God’s love (<a href='B:580 2:2'>Col 2:2</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His soul shall dwell at ease, His descendants shall inherit the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David here appropriates the promises to Abraham to himself (see on :10). He saw the outcome of the promised blessing as peace with God, knowing that we have been forgiven (:8,10). And this is how the New Testament interprets the Abrahamic blessing (<a href='B:510 3:25-26'>Act 3:25-26</a>):&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear Him; He will show them His covenant-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Friendship" is better "secret" or "council". What is so awesome is that the Hebrew word sod, 'council' or 'court', is something open to us as mortals. In Biblical times, Kings had their sod, their gathering of intimate advisors and ministers. But we, mere mortals on earth, are invited to be part of the sod of God Almighty, having His purpose and plans revealed to us (<a href='B:230 25:14'>Psa 25:14</a>; <a href='B:220 29:4'>Job 29:4</a>). But sod members weren't passive listeners; they gave their advice and requests, and the King factored that into His decision making. This is a picture of the power of prayer from those who have understood the way and essence of the King of Heaven.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s doctrines are described as a secret, a mystery; the Hebrew word used in this connection means ‘A confidential plan revealed to intimate friends’; and yet they are revealed to the true believers (<a href='B:370 3:7-8'>Amo 3:7-8</a>; <a href='B:300 23:18'>Jer 23:18</a>; <a href='B:300 23:22'>Jer 23:22</a> AV mg:; <a href='B:230 25:14'>Psa 25:14</a>; <a href='B:560 3:3-6'>Eph 3:3-6</a>). Therefore the congregation of true believers is called “the secret assembly of the saints”(<a href='B:230 89:7'>Psa 89:7</a> Heb:). There are many Bibles around, but God’s doctrines are to some extent a secret, and not understood by many of those who possess and read the Bible. It therefore follows that the Bible must be written in such a way as to conceal Truth from the majority of readers.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My eyes are ever on Yahweh, for He will pluck my feet out of the net-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The metaphor suggests that instead of looking carefully at his feet to ensure he didn’t step into a net or trap, David’s eyes instead were looking upwards to Yahweh. See on <a href='B:230 26:3'>Psa 26:3</a>.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Turn to me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The phrase used of God having respect to those in covenant with Him (<a href='B:30 26:9'>Lev 26:9</a>); the theme of covenant relationship is clearly in David’s mind (:10,13,14).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would be appropriate to how David felt when ill and politically isolated after his sin with Bathsheba.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These troubles of the heart surely refer to his feelings at the time after the sin with Bathsheba. David’s mind was on how Jacob and Joseph had been rescued from their "troubles" (s:w. <a href='B:10 35:3'>Gen 35:3</a>; <a href='B:10 42:21'>Gen 42:21</a>). Such "troubles" come to those who break covenant (<a href='B:50 31:17'>Deu 31:17</a>; <a href='B:50 31:21'>Deu 31:21</a>), and David is asking for covenant relationship to be restored (:10,13,14,16).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider my affliction and my travail, forgive all my sins-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David perceived that his affliction was a result of his sins; yet he saw it as "travail", pregnant with the hope of restored relationship with God and a new birth to a new life with Him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consider my enemies, for they are many; they hate me with total hatred-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sin with Bathsheba led to David having enemies, within his own family, and also within Bathsheba's family. For Ahithophel David’s counsellor was her grandfather.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Disappointed" is s:w. "ashamed" in :2. Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> If David means that his own previous integrity and uprightness should preserve him, then he was arguing for salvation by works. And if he intended to from then on promise integrity, then he also failed in that. He still hasn't come to a total casting of himself upon God’s grace. “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul” was surely a collapse of faith and "uprightness" (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). And it led to the way in which David deceived Achish by pretending he was attacking Jewish towns, when in fact he was going out and attacking the Amalekite settlements, killing all men, women and children in them so that nobody was left alive to tell that it was David who had attacked them (<a href='B:90 27:8-10'>1Sa 27:8-10</a>). Innocent people were slain by David’s sword for the ‘political’ reason that he had to keep Achish ‘in the dark’ about what he was really up to. And so in case a 5 year old say something incriminating later, David simply killed the little boy. Indeed, when Achish later says that David would be best not to go with him to fight Saul, David hypocritically says: “But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant so long as I have been with you unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies [i:e. Saul] of my lord the king?” (<a href='B:90 29:8'>1Sa 29:8</a>). This was hardly an example of the “integrity” and “uprightness” which David glorifies in his Psalms, and which he insisted he was full of (<a href='B:230 25:21'>Psa 25:21</a>). Indeed he claims that his integrity is the basis of his acceptance by God (<a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Redeem Israel, God, out all of His troubles- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David parallels his own afflictions and need for forgiveness with Israel’s need for redemption (<a href='B:230 25:18'>Psa 25:18</a>; <a href='B:230 25:22'>Psa 25:22</a>); or how the saving strength of Yahweh’s anointed (i:e. David) was to be Israel’s saving strength likewise (<a href='B:230 28:8-9'>Psa 28:8-9</a>). This is why his Psalms were reused in later historical contexts within Israel. The feelings and pulse of David are expressed at more length than those of any other Bible character; and therefore in these we are to see something of the Lord we follow. It is significant that David is seen as the representative of Israel, just as was and is the Lord- hence, e.g., the confusion between “the city of Judah” and “the city of David” (<a href='B:120 14:20'>2Ki 14:20</a> cp. <a href='B:140 25:28'>2Ch 25:28</a> AVmg:). But this is an alphabetical Psalm, the :21 was already the last letter of the alphabet, and it is now repeated. This could imply that this verse was added later, under inspiration, because it was so well perceived that David was a patter for all God’s subsequent people.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What David learnt from the Bathsheba failure is in essence what we all have to learn. Psalms 26 was surely written before he sinned with her. He speaks of how he had walked in integrity before God “without wavering” (<a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a> RV), and how his foot did not slip (<a href='B:230 26:12'>Psa 26:12</a>). He was yet to "walk" upon the roof of his house and lust after Bathsheba. What else does this evidently pre-Bathsheba Psalm indicate about David’s attitude, and what changed after Bathsheba? He speaks in <a href='B:230 26:5'>Psa 26:5</a> of how he refuses to sit at table with sinners. Yet the Lord rejoiced to do just thIsa. He contrasts his righteousness with the sinfulness of the wicked (<a href='B:230 26:10-11'>Psa 26:10-11</a>)- a far cry from Paul’s insistence in Romans that we have sinned just as much as the world has, in the sense that we desperately need salvation by grace. When David asks for forgiveness in <a href='B:230 26:11'>Psa 26:11</a> (“redeem me, and be merciful unto me”), he therefore was apparently asking for mercy in an almost technical way, perhaps seeing the only mercy he required as a resurrection from the dead. &nbsp;All these attitudes changed radically after his Bathsheba experience. He could look back and reflect how “As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved” (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), perhaps looking back to <a href='B:230 26:10'>Psa 26:10</a>, where he had felt confident his foot had never been moved. And he speaks of how he only stands strong because of God’s gracious favour (<a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>). God works through sin and failure- to bring us to know His grace. We follow the same learning curve as David, if we are truly God’s man or woman.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>“I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul” is surely a collapse of faith (<a href='B:90 27:1'>1Sa 27:1</a>). And it led to the way in which David deceived Achish by pretending he was attacking Jewish towns, when in fact he was going out and attacking the Amalekite settlements, killing all men, women and children in them so that nobody was left alive to tell that it was David who had attacked them (<a href='B:90 27:8-10'>1Sa 27:8-10</a>). Innocent people were slain by David’s sword for the ‘political’ reason that he had to keep Achish ‘in the dark’ about what he was really up to. And so in case a 5 year old say something incriminating later, David simply killed the little boy. Indeed, when Achish later says that David would be best not to go with him to fight Saul, David hypocritically says: “But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant so long as I have been with you unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies [i:e. Saul] of my lord the king?” (<a href='B:90 29:8'>1Sa 29:8</a>). This was hardly an example of the “integrity” and “uprightness” which David glorifies in his Psalms, and which he insisted he was full of (<a href='B:230 25:21'>Psa 25:21</a>). Indeed he claims that his integrity is the basis of his acceptance by God (<a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me; test my heart and my mind-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was confident not only of legalistic obedience but also of a heart in which God would find nothing wrong. Indeed David had been considered a man after God’s own heart&nbsp; (<a href='B:90 13:14'>1Sa 13:14</a>), but it seems this led David to assume that from then on, his heart would be always found perfect before God. He didn’t remain the idealistic, spiritually minded shepherd boy. And this assumption that how he was at one point in his life was how he would always be... led him into his sin with Bathsheba.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Your grace is before my eyes, I have walked in Your truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Grace and truth often refer to the covenant with Abraham, which David so often alludes to and feels bound to. We notice that his eyes were not upon the path of his feet, but were toward God and His grace; that meant that in practice, he would walk in "truth". The same idea is in <a href='B:230 25:15'>Psa 25:15</a> "My eyes are ever on Yahweh, for He will pluck my feet out of the net". The metaphor suggests that instead of looking carefully at his feet to ensure he didn’t step into a net or trap, David’s eyes instead were looking upwards to Yahweh. And so here too, if the focus of our eyes is upward towards God’s grace, then we will naturally walk in the path of truth. So often religious people have put the emphasis the other way around; truth in the sense of theoretical purity of understanding has been given the priority, and with eyes down upon that, the wonder of God’s grace has not been the guiding light of their walk.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So often David makes reference to his hypocritical enemies within Israel, and the judgments to come upon the wicked (<a href='B:230 1:1'>Psa 1:1</a>; <a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 5:5'>Psa 5:5</a>; <a href='B:230 15:4'>Psa 15:4</a>; <a href='B:230 26:4-5'>Psa 26:4-5</a>; <a href='B:230 35:3-8'>Psa 35:3-8</a>; <a href='B:230 45:7'>Psa 45:7</a>; <a href='B:230 52:6'>Psa 52:6</a>; <a href='B:230 58:6'>Psa 58:6</a>; <a href='B:230 104:35'>Psa 104:35</a>; <a href='B:230 109:5-20'>Psa 109:5-20</a>; <a href='B:230 137:8-9'>Psa 137:8-9</a>; <a href='B:230 139:21'>Psa 139:21</a>). The hypocrisy in view may refer to the prevalent idolatry which was deceit against God, and not simply to their two faced behaviour to David personally.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked-</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>). 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will wash my hands in innocence-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s insistence upon his own purity (see on :2) may not necessarily be naive self-righteousness, but rather a reflection of his faith in God’s cleansing, which has thereby made him innocent before God. This is also an allusion to the priests washing before they came to the altar (<a href='B:20 30:17-21'>Exo 30:17-21</a>). We note David acted as a priest even though he was not a Levite.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So I will go around Your altar, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Walking around the altar in procession was not required by the Mosaic law, but was clearly done by other religions. We recall the priests of Baal doing so on Mount Carmel. Perhaps this and other Psalms were sung during such processions around the altar.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>that I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard, and tell of all Your wondrous works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :6, it would appear that whilst marching around the altar, this and other Psalms were sung in praise, including the recounting of God’s works in history.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, I love the habitation of Your dwelling place, the place where Your glory dwells-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David contrasts his love of the sanctuary (where God dwelt, <a href='B:20 25:8'>Exo 25:8</a>) and the shekinah glory with his dislike of the gatherings of sinners (:5). The implication could be that those gatherings also had a religious dimension, which involved idolatry. We see the power of idolatry in that despite the visible presence of the shekinah, men still worshipped idols- proof enough that visible miracle is no absolute basis for faith or spiritual behaviour:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst on the run from Saul, David longed to be in the "place... and habitation / dwelling" of Yahweh, at the sanctuary operated by Samuel. There was no temple, but Yahweh still had a place and dwelling on earth. But later in <a href='B:230 132:5'>Psa 132:5</a> David seems to feel that Yahweh needed a more grandiose "place... dwelling" (s:w:), otherwise He would have no dwelling place. Over the years, he had come to focus more upon the physical and external rather than upon the essential and the spiritual. This is a tendency for all of us:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men-</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 24, 25, 26 are full of David explaining that fellowship with God was dependent upon a man's "integrity", walking in truth, hating sinners, personal innocence, "uprightness", clean hands and pure heart. And throughout these Psalms, David holds up himself as the great example.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>in whose hands is wickedness, their right hand is full of bribes-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be commentary upon the state of affairs under Saul's kingship and Absalom's corruption; but the later prophets so often criticize the leadership of Israel for taking bribes, and perhaps this was rewritten in order to make this point to those later generations.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The two halves of this verse are an intentional contrast. David is persuaded of his own integrity, but he realizes he still needs mercy and redemption; he therefore asked for forgiveness for his sins of ignorance:&nbsp; Paul had a similar sense (<a href='B:530 4:4'>1Co 4:4</a>). It was this abiding sense of the need for God’s mercy which was David’s salvation.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My foot stands in an even place-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be as in <a href='B:230 27:11'>Psa 27:11</a>, that he felt he was being led in a path where there were no spiritual stumblingblocks.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the congregations I will bless Yahweh- 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><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The references to armies and war being against David (:3) suggest this Psalm was written whilst fleeing Saul or Absalom. David’s great longing was for the sanctuary (:4) which he was excluded from, and his desire was to return there. And yet he still feels God’s presence with him in exile. These Psalms were therefore understandably used for the exiles in captivity.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is my light and my salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> of whom shall I be afraid?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference to "light" may be because David so loved seeing the shekinah glory over the ark in the sanctuary: "Yahweh, I love the habitation of Your dwelling place, the place where Your glory dwells" (<a href='B:230 26:8'>Psa 26:8</a>). On the run, he had no access to the sanctuary, and had actually sent the ark back to Zion when he fled from Absalom. And yet he feels that God’s "light" is still with him wherever he Isa. And all those unable to access church meetings and the visible gatherings of God’s people can know the same. Likewise David was fleeing away from the "stronghold" of Zion, but felt that God was His strength or stronghold.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Came upon me to eat up my flesh" (AV). This is what Ahithophel proposed at the time of Absalom's uprising; to 'come upon' David, as the dew falls (<a href='B:100 17:12'>2Sa 17:12</a>), aiming to totally destroy David. But they were the ones who were to fall (s:w:):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps a reference to Ahithophel's advice to surround David with a huge army, at the time of Absalom's rebellion. The conditional "though an army..." is appropriate in that Ahithophel's advice was not actually implemented.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after: That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, to see Yahweh’s beauty, and to inquire in His temple-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s simple desire was to be able to again worship God in the sanctuary on Mount Zion. Under inspiration, this is rewritten and reapplied to the exiles and their desire to return to the temple; for there was no temple in David’s lifetime.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Often, “desire” is seen by God as prayer (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>; <a href='B:230 21:2'>Psa 21:2</a>; <a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>; <a href='B:230 59:10'>Psa 59:10</a>; <a href='B:230 92:11'>Psa 92:11</a>; <a href='B:230 140:8'>Psa 140:8</a>; <a href='B:230 145:19'>Psa 145:19</a>; <a href='B:470 18:32'>Mat 18:32</a>; <a href='B:520 10:1'>Rom 10:1</a>; <a href='B:690 5:15'>1Jn 5:15</a>). God interprets that inner desire as prayer, even if it is not articulated in specific requests.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For in the day of trouble He will keep me secretly in His pavilion, under the shadow of His tabernacle He will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although David was exiled from the sanctuary (:4), he felt he was within the tabernacle, even under the shadow of the cherubic wings over the ark; with the shekinah glory as it were around him, over the blood of atonement sprinkled upon the mercy seat. Again and again, Old Testament incidents taught that the intensest presence of God was not in fact in the Jerusalem sanctuary, but in the hearts of sincere, exiled believers. And so it has often been in the later Christian experience; spirituality and the most active presence of God has often been experienced in exile from the established, visible sanctuaries. See on <a href='B:230 29:8'>Psa 29:8</a>.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David looked forward to returning to the sanctuary in Zion and praising God for his salvation from his enemies. However when Absalom was slain, his head was not at all lifted up.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Have mercy" or 'give graciously' is the word of Jacob when seeking to return from exile, yet facing apparently insuperable obstacles (<a href='B:10 33:5'>Gen 33:5</a>; <a href='B:10 33:11'>Gen 33:11</a>). Time and again we see the example of taking strength from historical (Biblical) precedents.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When You said, Seek my face, my heart said to You, I will seek Your face, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This can be understood as David’s plea to be allowed back into the Jerusalem sanctuary to worship / seek God. Hence GNB "When you said, "Come worship me," I answered, "I will come, LORD"". But David appears somewhat manipulative in this argument, because he is experiencing the sanctuary presence of God from far outside it (see on :5).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are frequently reminded in the prophets that the spiritual way of life is one which is seeking God. We are to seek His face (<a href='B:230 24:6'>Psa 24:6</a>; <a href='B:230 27:8'>Psa 27:8</a>)- which it is impossible to behold (<a href='B:20 33:20'>Exo 33:20</a>). Actually finding God in the ultimate sense is therefore unattainable in this life; but our whole mortal life must be lived in this spirit of seeking ultimate perfection. Seeking God is often defined in the prophets as forsaking our sins and desiring to be righteous (<a href='B:370 5:5'>Amo 5:5</a>; <a href='B:370 5:8'>Amo 5:8</a>; <a href='B:370 5:14-15'>Amo 5:14-15</a>). None of us are completely successful in our seeking of God, and therefore it follows that none of is completely forsakes all our sinfulness.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The historical point when God invited David to seek His face may have been when Samuel anointed David, and gave him the message that he was to be king. And doubtless David was told at the time that he was to seek God’s face. When under persecution by Saul, when the promise of kingship seemed so far from fulfilment, David reminds God that he had indeed sought His face as required; and asks God to fulfil the prophetic word about kingship (<a href='B:230 119:58'>Psa 119:58</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t hide Your face from me; don’t put Your servant away in anger. You have been my help, don’t abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David feels that his suffering at Absalom's hand is a result of his sin with Bathsheba (which indeed it was), but is making the mistake of assuming that suffering the consequences of sin means that sin hasn't been forgiven. Or we can reflect that 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>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> He evidently loved his parents and expected their passing when he wrote thIsa. Perhaps therefore the Psalm had its genesis in David’s experience when fleeing from Saul, when he sent his parents to Moab for safety (<a href='B:90 22:3'>1Sa 22:3</a>). But now he edits the Psalm and develops it with reference to his flight from Absalom. And yet 'forsaking' could imply they turned against him. This would then make David’s sufferings the more poignant. David loved his parents, especially caring for their safe keeping in his wilderness years; only to be forsaken by them (the Hebrew means just that), and to be rejected by his brothers and sisters (<a href='B:230 27:10'>Psa 27:10</a>; <a href='B:230 38:11'>Psa 38:11</a>; <a href='B:230 69:8'>Psa 69:8</a>; <a href='B:230 88:18'>Psa 88:18</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This speaks Messianically of the Lord’s sense of being forsaken. The disciples forsook Him (<a href='B:470 26:56'>Mat 26:56</a>), His mother left Him, on John’s arm, and so the words of <a href='B:230 27:9-10'>Psa 27:9-10</a> started to come true: "Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God... when my father and my mother forsake me" . All His scaffolding was being removed. He had leaned on His disciples (<a href='B:490 22:28'>Luk 22:28</a>), He had naturally leaned on His mother. Now they had forsaken Him. And now His mother had forsaken Him. And so He pleaded with His true Father not to leave Him. And hence the agony, the deep agony of <a href='B:470 27:46'>Mat 27:46</a>: "My God, my God, Why hast thou (this is where the emphasis should be) forsaken me?".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Teach me Your way, Yahweh. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When David fled Jerusalem from Absalom, he apparently had no clear game plan. He didn’t know quite where to go, as Absalom appeared to have garnered mass popularity. And yet David felt he was being led in a straight path; God likewise would lead the exiles in a straight path if they repented and wished to be truly restored to Zion (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:4'>Isa 40:4</a>; <a href='B:290 42:16'>Isa 42:16</a> s:w:).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So many of the Psalms contain references to Saul's smear campaign against David (<a href='B:230 27:12'>Psa 27:12</a>; <a href='B:230 31:13'>Psa 31:13</a>; <a href='B:230 109:23'>Psa 109:23</a> cp. <a href='B:90 26:19'>1Sa 26:19</a>). This frequency of reference in itself indicates the weight with which this tragedy rested upon David’s mind:&nbsp;And it seems this situation repeated at the time of Absalom's rebellion, to which this psalm was reapplied by David:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be another reference to David’s desire to be restored to the sanctuary in Zion, to see the shekinah glory which he saw as the quintessence of God’s goodness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wait for Yahweh, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we see David understanding his experiences as setting a pattern for others. This is the way to use suffering, as <a href='B:540 1:4-7'>2Co 1:4-7</a> makes clear. The way David’s Psalms were rewritten for use in other contexts is evidence enough that his desire was fulfilled. The hearts or spirits of others were to "take courage". The Greek and Hebrew words translated&nbsp; 'spirit' don't only mean 'power'. They frequently refer to the mind / heart. We read of God giving men a new heart, a new spirit; of Him working on men's hearts to make them do His will. He gives them a new spirit. This doesn't mean that they of their own volition have the power of the Holy Spirit gifts, as, e.g., some in the early church did. God will strengthen the heart / spirit of those who try to be strong (<a href='B:230 27:14'>Psa 27:14</a>; <a href='B:230 31:24'>Psa 31:24</a>). He can even, somehow, withhold men from sinning (<a href='B:10 20:6'>Gen 20:6</a>), and keep us from falling (<a href='B:720 1:24'>Jud 1:24</a>). We should therefore have no essential objection to the idea of the Lord granting us His Spirit, in the sense of His thinking, His heart / mind.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We’re familiar with the references to God hardening the heart of Pharaoh (<a href='B:20 14:8'>Exo 14:8</a> etc:). However, the same Hebrew words occur in a positive context- for God also hardens or strengthens the hearts of the righteous (<a href='B:230 27:14'>Psa 27:14</a>; <a href='B:290 35:4'>Isa 35:4</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:290 35:4'>Isa 35:4</a> speaks of how the righteous shouldn’t have a weak or [Heb:] ‘fluid’ heart, but rather a hardened one. Clearly enough, God solidifies human attitudes, one way or the other. This is a sobering thought- for He is prepared to confirm a person in their weak thinking. But on the other hand, even the weakest basic intention towards righteousness is solidified by Him too.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To You, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me; lest, if You are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rocks are only a place of safety if they have caves within them. The imagery suggests this is a wilderness Psalm, whilst David was on the run from Saul. Indeed this is how probably most of the Psalms originated, although they were edited for relevance to later situations and generations:&nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear the voice of my petitions when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward Your Most Holy Place-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. David lifts himself up to God (<a href='B:230 25:1'>Psa 25:1</a>; <a href='B:230 28:2'>Psa 28:2</a>; <a href='B:230 86:4'>Psa 86:4</a>), and asks God to lift up Himself in response (<a href='B:230 7:6'>Psa 7:6</a>; <a href='B:230 10:12'>Psa 10:12</a>; <a href='B:230 94:2'>Psa 94:2</a>). David at this point is in exile from the sanctuary but still prays towards it. This therefore became appropriate material for the Jewish captives of later generations.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t draw me away with the wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of final condemnation. David is asking not to be condemned along with the wicked at the last day.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Clearly David has in view specific people with whom he mixed, but knew they would be condemned at the last day. We query whether such judgment of others' salvation was appropriate. David himself had spoken peace with his neighbour Uriah, giving him presents etc., when mischief was in his heart- he took his neighbour's wife and had his neighbour murdered. But David at this point sees poor behaviour to one's neighbour as the epitome of the wickedness that deserved Divine condemnation, and he insists he is not in that category. Seeing most of the Psalms were evidently rewritten by David over the years, we wonder why he didn't as it were edit out such earlier self righteousness. The truth is that he never really accepted much guilt over the Bathsheba incident after he was spared the death sentence.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the working of their own hands; bring back on them what they deserve-</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>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because they don’t respect the works of Yahweh, nor the working of His hands, He will break them down and not build them up-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is alluded to in <a href='B:540 10:8'>2Co 10:8</a>; <a href='B:540 13:10'>2Co 13:10</a> about how we ought to build up the weak and condemned, rather than destroying them. It's as if Paul felt David had things the wrong way around at this point. See on :3,4.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be Yahweh, because He has heard the voice of my petitions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As so often in the Psalms, there appears a change in attitude half way through them. What begins as desperate pleading turns into a peaceful sense of having been answered by God. This could have been because of some visible or audible answer coming in the course of the prayer. But I would suggest it is far truer to the experience of prayerful people that in the course of prayer, we who began in urgent pleading with God for action become convinced that in essence He has already responded. And we see this often in the Psalms.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in Him, and I have been helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is another reference to Abraham, for whom Yahweh was a shield (<a href='B:10 15:1'>Gen 15:1</a>). As noted on :6, David feels motivated to thank God for answers which he has apparently not yet received.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh is their strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Strength" is Yeshua. So we have here an allusion to 'Jesus Christ / the anointed'. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He is a stronghold of salvation to His anointed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In Old Testament times, God described His whole people as His anointed one, His Christ: “The Lord is a strength unto his people, and he is the saving strength of his anointed” (<a href='B:230 28:8'>Psa 28:8</a> RVmg:). The whole people were His anointed King, His Messiah, the anointed one. And so it is for all those today who are “in Christ”. Thus the prophecy about Christ personally that He would tread upon snakes and wild animals (<a href='B:230 91:13'>Psa 91:13</a>) is quoted as being fulfilled in the disciples, who ‘were’ Christ on their preaching mission (<a href='B:490 10:19'>Luk 10:19</a>; <a href='B:480 16:18'>Mar 16:18</a>). Zion was the stronghold, but even outside the sanctuary, David realized God was just as much present and active.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The feelings and pulse of David are expressed at more length than those of any other Bible character; and therefore in these we are to see something of the Lord we follow. It is significant that David is seen as the representative of Israel ["be their shepherd also"], just as was and is the Lord- hence, e.g., the confusion between “the city of Judah” and “the city of David” (<a href='B:120 14:20'>2Ki 14:20</a> cp. <a href='B:140 25:28'>2Ch 25:28</a> AVmg:). Or consider how David parallels his own afflictions and need for forgiveness with Israel’s need for redemption (<a href='B:230 25:18'>Psa 25:18</a>; <a href='B:230 25:22'>Psa 25:22</a>); or how the saving strength of Yahweh’s anointed (i:e. David) was to be Israel’s saving strength likewise (<a href='B:230 28:8-9'>Psa 28:8-9</a>).</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The last verse concludes: "A Song for the Dedication of the Temple". Perhaps this was written by David before his death in anticipation of the building of Solomon's temple.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ascribe to Yahweh, you sons of the mighty, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to the Angels in the court of heaven (<a href='B:230 89:6'>Psa 89:6</a> cp. <a href='B:230 29:5'>Psa 29:5</a>; <a href='B:230 29:7'>Psa 29:7</a>). David saw his praise of God in the sanctuary as reflecting that of the Angels in the heavenly sanctuary, which was mirrored in the earthly one (<a href='B:650 9:23'>Heb 9:23</a>). &nbsp; </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to His name. Worship Yahweh in holy array-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :1, this was "A Song for the Dedication of the Temple". David therefore feels that the heavely temple is reflected in the earthly temple. As the priests in the earthly temple were clothed in “holy garments for glory and for beauty” (<a href='B:20 28:2'>Exo 28:2</a>) so were the Angels above.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is all the language of theophany (<a href='B:20 9:23'>Exo 9:23</a>; <a href='B:230 18:9'>Psa 18:9</a>; <a href='B:230 18:13'>Psa 18:13</a>; <a href='B:230 104:3'>Psa 104:3</a>; <a href='B:730 10:3'>Rev 10:3</a>). Perhaps David expected a theophany at the dedication of the temple, and the voice of Yahweh to be heard as at Sinai. But I have argued elsewhere that David’s obsession with the physical temple was misplaced idealism. God only reluctantly accepted it; His immediate response to David’s request to build Him a house was that He didn’t want one. Therefore it could be that here we have David as it were running ahead of himself in expectation that God would respond to the temple with the theophany he expectantly hoped for in this psalm.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice is powerful. Yahweh’s voice is full of majesty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sanctuary was full of power and majesty (<a href='B:230 96:6'>Psa 96:6</a> s:w:); David imagines God’s voice booming in majesty through the new temple.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had made plans for cedars to be brought from Lebanon for the new temple. He imagines the voice of Yahweh tearing through the temple as a wind, stronger than the cedars.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He also makes them to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>GNB "He makes the mountains of Lebanon jump like calves and makes Mount Hermon leap like a young bull". It is as if the temple comes alive with joy now that God has entered it. And there is the idea that Lebanon and Hermon, from where the cedars came from, would join in response to God’s word. For David ever had the hope of Gentile response to Israel's God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language of theophany (<a href='B:20 9:23'>Exo 9:23</a>; <a href='B:230 18:9'>Psa 18:9</a>; <a href='B:230 18:13'>Psa 18:13</a>; <a href='B:230 104:3'>Psa 104:3</a>; <a href='B:730 10:3'>Rev 10:3</a>), which David hoped and expected would happen when the temple was dedicated; see on :1.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice shakes the wilderness, Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Kadesh" is the same word as "sanctuary" (e.g. <a href='B:230 20:2'>Psa 20:2</a>; <a href='B:230 63:2'>Psa 63:2</a>). The idea is that the wilderness is as holy as the sanctuary. This is a common theme in the Psalms. Although David was exiled from the sanctuary (<a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>), he felt he was within the tabernacle, even under the shadow of the cherubic wings over the ark (<a href='B:230 27:5'>Psa 27:5</a>); with the shekinah glory as it were around him, over the blood of atonement sprinkled upon the mercy seat. Again and again, Old Testament incidents taught that the intensest presence of God was not in fact in the Jerusalem sanctuary, but in the hearts of sincere, exiled believers. And so it has often been in the later Christian experience; spirituality and the most active presence of God has often been experienced in exile from the established, visible sanctuaries.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In His temple everything says, Glory!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :8, David had learned that the glory and presence of God was as real in the wilderness and forests as in the Jerusalem sanctuary. And so in this proposed dedication of the temple, he makes the point that the same voice of God which would thunder "Glory!" in the temple was just as present and active in the desert.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh sat enthroned at the flood; truly, Yahweh sits as King forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference would be to the mercy seat as a kind of throne for God. As He had judged the earth at the time of the flood, so He would as it were reign in judgment when the ark was permanently settled in the new temple; that was David’s idea. Note how 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>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh will give strength to His people, Yahweh will bless His people with peace. A Psalm. A Song for the Dedication of the Temple- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :1. The allusion is to the priestly blessing of <a href='B:40 6:24'>Num 6:24</a>. This was to be given from the new temple which David envisioned.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The primary context may have been David’s relief at having been healed and forgiven after his sin with Bathsheba.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will extol You, Yahweh, for You have raised me up, and have not made my enemies to rejoice over me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The political threats to David immediately after his sin with Bathsheba aren't detailed in the historical narratives, but the Psalms often refer to them. However, David suffered so much from Bathsheba's grandfather Ahithophel, his own son Absalom and others. So his rejoicing as if all consequences of the sin were somehow annulled is in a sense incorrect.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh my God, I cried to You, and You have healed me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst this applies to David’s healing of his mortal sickness after the sin with Bathsheba, the same word for "healed" is used of Hezekiah's healing (<a href='B:120 20:8'>2Ki 20:8</a>). So many of the Psalms were clearly rewritten with reference to Hezekiah.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh, You have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Brought up" is the language of resurrection. The language on one hand suggests a kind of living death; and yet there is also the clear hint at resurrection, because finally it was only true of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sing praise to Yahweh, You saints of His, give thanks to His holy name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> David wanted the whole world and brotherhood of his time to praise God- because of the grace shown to him. This was the great positive outcome of David’s awful sins:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For His anger is but for a moment; His grace is for all our lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no indication in the historical records that God’s anger was visibly poured out upon David because of his sin. But the Psalms so often imply thIsa. The silence of the historical record about his mortal sickness at the time is perhaps because the record reflects the forgiveness and blessing given at the time. God’s anger with the exiles is likewise likened to being only for a relatively short moment; a night of weeping to be followed by an eternal dawn. The restoration prophets are full of these images.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What David learnt from the Bathsheba failure is in essence what we all have to learn. Psalms 26 was surely written before he sinned with her. He speaks of how he had walked in integrity before God “without wavering” (<a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a> RV), and how his foot did not slip (<a href='B:230 26:12'>Psa 26:12</a>). What else does this evidently pre-Bathsheba Psalm indicate about David’s attitude, and what changed after Bathsheba? He speaks in <a href='B:230 26:5'>Psa 26:5</a> of how he refuses to sit at table with sinners. Yet the Lord rejoiced to do just thIsa. He contrasts his righteousness with the sinfulness of the wicked (<a href='B:230 26:10-11'>Psa 26:10-11</a>)- a far cry from Paul’s insistence in Romans that we have sinned just as much as the world has, in the sense that we desperately need salvation by grace. When David asks for forgiveness in <a href='B:230 26:11'>Psa 26:11</a> (“redeem me, and be merciful unto me”), he therefore was apparently asking for mercy in an almost technical way, perhaps seeing the only mercy he required as a resurrection from the dead. &nbsp;All these attitudes changed radically after his Bathsheba experience. He could look back and reflect how “As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved” (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), perhaps looking back to <a href='B:230 26:10'>Psa 26:10</a>, where he had felt confident his foot had never been moved. And he speaks of how he only stands strong because of God’s gracious favour (<a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>). God works through sin and failure- to bring us to know His grace. We follow the same learning curve as David, if we are truly God’s man or woman. The soliloquy of David is commented upon in <a href='B:520 4:6'>Rom 4:6</a>: “David pronounceth blessing upon the man [i:e. any man, each of us] unto whom God reckoneth righteousness</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>” (RV). <a href='B:520 4:9'>Rom 4:9</a> RV likewise speaks of David in the soliloquy of Psalms 32 pronouncing blessing upon us.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It has been rightly noted that David’s remaining at Jerusalem " at the time when kings go forth to battle" (11:1) is the classic example of the devil finding work for idle hands. It was the set up for David’s sin with Bathsheba. That he was lying down on his bed in the late afternoon rather than working would exemplify the same thing. He appears to recognize his attitude problem in <a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>: " In my prosperity I said, I shall never be (spiritually) moved" . In the lead up to the sin, God had given him victory after victory- leading him to think that he must therefore be spiritually OK because of his many physical blessings (<a href='B:130 18:6'>1Ch 18:6</a> RV). His conscience had been blunted. David may have cleverly alluded to this when he comments that the ark was abiding in a tent, and therefore he would not go down to his house (<a href='B:100 11:11'>2Sa 11:11</a>). The tension between a tent and a house is surely intended to take David back to his words in <a href='B:100 7:2'>2Sa 7:2</a>, where he laments as unacceptable the fact that he lives in a house but the ark is in a tent. And David was ‘tarrying’, living in a settled way, in a house in Jerusalem now:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fact that he is condemned for having "despised the commandment of the Lord" (<a href='B:100 12:9'>2Sa 12:9</a>) in David’s sin with Bathsheba indicates that He knew all along what God’s will really was. The fact that the flesh took over does not in any way mitigate his responsibility in thIsa. This is a direct quote from the Law's definition of the sin of presumption: "The soul that doeth ought presumptuously... because he hath despised the word of the Lord... that soul shall utterly be cut off" (<a href='B:40 15:30-31'>Num 15:30-31</a>). Knowing David’s emotional nature and also the fact that he did not completely turn away from God afterwards, we would have expected a quicker repentance if it had been a passing sin of passion. It would therefore seem reasonable to assume that the sin was of presumption rather than passion. In his prosperity he had said “I shall never be moved” and he was determined that he couldn’t be (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>). Hearing those words from Nathan must have struck real fear into David- he was being incriminated for the supreme sin of presumption, for which there was no provision of sacrifice or repentance.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be moved" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). Solomon didn’t learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father’s mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You, Yahweh, when You favoured me, made my mountain stand strong; but when You hid Your face, I was troubled-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s mountain presumably refers to his kingdom. The troubles that came to David’s kingdom as a result of his sin with Bathsheba never really left him; the kingdom was never really "strong" as it had been before. It was full of division and infighting.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I cried to You, Yahweh; to Yahweh I made supplication-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Supplication" is the same word translated "have mercy" in :10, and 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 41:4'>Psa 41:4</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise You? Shall it declare Your truth?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These are very much the thoughts of Hezekiah when terminally ill. But David clearly had these same thoughts. There is the clear implication that there is no conscious survival of death. After death there is no praise of God; and that points up the critical importance to use life to praise Him. The implication of David’s argument, even if it could appear somewhat manipulative, is that God ought to keep him alive as he can then praise God. But God isn't interested in receiving praise for its own sake; otherwise there would be no death in this life for the righteous. So there seems some error of logic in the argument, although it is true so far as it goes. "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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Earlier David had sought Yahweh's help (s:w:) on the basis that he had been obedient to God’s word (<a href='B:230 119:173'>Psa 119:173</a> s:w:), and was innocent (<a href='B:230 119:86'>Psa 119:86</a> s:w:). But the sin with Bathsheba led David to beg for God to be his helper purely on the basis of grace (<a href='B:230 30:10'>Psa 30:10</a> s:w:). He had asked for God’s words to be his "helper" (<a href='B:230 119:175'>Psa 119:175</a>), but now he quits his academic study and begs directly for God Himself to be his "helper".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David removed his sackcloth when his child died (<a href='B:100 12:20-22'>2Sa 12:20-22</a>). It was perhaps at this point that he realized that he had been truly forgiven; hence the strange and much observed paradox of David’s relative rejoicing at a time when he was supposed to be mourning for his child's death.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To the end that my heart may sing praise to You, and not be silent. Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to You forever!- David often uses the idea of ‘confession’, in the double Hebrew sense of both confessing sin and yet also confessing the knowledge of God to others (e.g. Psa. 30:12 AV cp. NEB). Imagine his attitude in preaching! There must have been a true humility in his style of speaking, his body language and in his message- coupled with an earnestness and intensity few have since matched.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In You, Yahweh, I take refuge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that God was David’s city of refuge. These cities were for those who needed to flee when being chased by the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:26'>Num 35:26</a>). The imagery is very appropriate to David when fleeing from Saul and Absalom. David’s constant meditation upon God’s law would have included the sections about the cities of refuge; he realized that actually no such city was available for him, but the spirit of the law led him to reflect that Yahweh was his refuge, wherever he was. David tends to open wilderness Psalms with this reflection, just as we may tend to begin prayers with the same opening phrase and thoughts (<a href='B:230 7:1'>Psa 7:1</a>; <a href='B:230 11:1'>Psa 11:1</a>; <a href='B:230 16:1'>Psa 16:1</a>; <a href='B:230 31:1'>Psa 31:1</a>; <a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>; <a href='B:230 71:1'>Psa 71:1</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in Your righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame [s:w. "disappointed"] more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me quickly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The way men like Abraham and Moses reasoned with God and changed His stated purpose indicates the condescension of God to us. The way He hears and responds to human prayer is humility itself. David realized this: " Bow down thine ear to me" he prayed, recognizing that it was through His humility that God hears human prayer (<a href='B:230 31:2'>Psa 31:2</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be to me a strong rock, a house of defence to save me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Exiled from the stronghold of Zion, David looked instead to God, whose 'Zion' he now perceived to be wherever he was.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You are my rock and my fortress-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>or the allusion to Zion, see on :2.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Therefore for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew for "lead" is only used elsewhere in <a href='B:230 23:2'>Psa 23:2</a> in the context of God leading David as he fled Jerusalem during Absalom's rebellion. Perhaps he had in view how God lead (s:w:) Israel through the desert (<a href='B:20 15:13'>Exo 15:13</a>). The restoration application is to God’s promise to "lead" (s:w:) the exiles on the desert journey back to Zion (<a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:290 49:10'>Isa 49:10</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for You are my stronghold-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although David fled the stronghold of Zion during Absalom's rebellion (see on :3), he felt God was still his stronghold, and he needed no human strength. The net secretly laid clearly alludes to Absalom's deceitful plans. The net secretly laid would refer to Absalom's lengthy planning of his rebellion.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Into Your hand I commend my spirit. You have redeemed me, Yahweh, God of truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These words were quoted by the Lord on the cross as His very last words (<a href='B:490 23:46'>Luk 23:46</a>); and we wonder whether "You have redeemed me" were His first words upon resurrection. The context is Absalom's rebellion (:3,4), and again we see how the Psalms most appropriate to the crucifixion are those written about David’s experience of the consequence of his sins. The Lord on the cross suffered the consequence of sin whilst personally innocent.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If we place the seven last sayings of Christ chronologically, we find that the number of words Christ uttered runs 12-9-4-3-1-1-8. This indicates that He found speaking increasingly difficult on the cross. Now He breathes His last using these words, literally giving His Spirit to God. The Greek translated "commend" means literally to place beside, to lay down beside. The Lord Jesus had a sense that His character would not be forgotten by the Father, it would take it's place beside the Father as it were, as He later would physically. This is not, of course, to give any support to the notion of disembodied spirits. Existence can only be in an animate, bodily sense. Yet the word "commend" in the Greek does suggest that Christ felt that the place He would soon take beside the Father was due to the fact that His spirit / mind had found acceptance with Him first. The Father's hands no doubt is an idiom for His care, His preservation (cp. <a href='B:470 4:6'>Mat 4:6</a>). Christ was taking comfort in the fact that His character, those endless minutes of spiritual effort, of struggle to develop and preserve a spiritual mind, would surely not be forgotten, it would be preserved in the Father's hands.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He could have avoided His final death; but He chose not to, and in this sense He willingly gave His life rather than had it taken from Him. The death of human beings can be seen as a result of physical processes over which they have no control. They are killed, often against their will, or disease takes hold of them and eventually forces them to a point where they breathe their last. There is never a conscious giving up of the last breath as an act of the will. Death either occurs in a state of semi-consciousness or unexpectedly, in a moment. We usually, in the final analysis, cling to life at all costs, throwing our feeble best into the fight we have no chance to win. Truly did Dylan Thomas observe that men do not "go gentle into that good night" but "‘rage, rage against the dying of the light". The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was altogether different- and the death of the thieves next to Him would have highlighted thIsa. It is so often emphasized that He gave His life for us: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" in itself suggests that the death of Christ was an act of the will. He gave His flesh for us (<a href='B:500 6:51'>Joh 6:51</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord was at great pains to emphasize this aspect of His death, saying the same thing time and again: " I lay down my life for the sheep…therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life…no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself…this commandment have I received of my Father" (<a href='B:500 10:15-18'>Joh 10:15-18</a>). The death of Christ was therefore a conscious act of giving, it was not simply a result of being murdered by the Jews or Roman soldiers. No man took Christ's life from Him, He laid it down of Himself, i:e. of His own will. It is therefore apparent that Christ's death was not solely a physical result of being impaled on the stake. The fact He died abnormally quickly is proof enough of thIsa. And it explains why the centurion when he saw how the Lord so cried out was by this fact persuaded that He was the Son of God (<a href='B:480 15:39'>Mar 15:39</a>). That last outbreathing, that death as an act of the will, was something phenomenal. We are therefore driven to the conclusion that Christ was in a position to give His life at a certain point in time chosen by Himself. "He poured out his soul unto death" (<a href='B:290 53:12'>Isa 53:12</a>) suggests that the actual point of His death was a result of mental activity within the mind of the Lord Jesus. He was the servant who "makes himself an offering for sin" (<a href='B:290 53:10'>Isa 53:10</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Greek para-tithemi means literally to place or lay down beside. Tithemi is the same word translated "lay down" when we read of Christ laying down His life for us. It is the word used to describe the palsied man being laid down at the feet of Jesus (<a href='B:490 5:18'>Luk 5:18</a>), or the laying of a foundation stone (<a href='B:530 3:11'>1Co 3:11</a>). It is also translated to bow down. The point at which Christ laid down His life, bowing down before the Father, was therefore when He commended His spirit to the Father. When Christ "yielded up the spirit" (<a href='B:470 27:50'>Mat 27:50</a>), He was commending His spirit to God, laying down His life for us. The Greek for "yielded up" is para-didomi, to yield or give beside, and is evidently related in meaning to para-tithemi, to commend, to lay down beside.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So the idea of Christ giving Himself for us therefore refers to that final moment of giving up, yielding, laying down His breath for us. Paul was evidently moved by this; he marvelled at how Christ "gave himself for me" (<a href='B:550 2:20'>Gal 2:20</a>), using the same word as in <a href='B:500 19:30'>Joh 19:30</a> concerning him giving up His spirit. And we can enter into that sense or marvel and wonder. Paul again alludes to this in <a href='B:560 5:2'>Eph 5:2</a>: "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour". And therefore, Paul goes on, fornication, covetousness, foolish talking etc. should not even be named amongst us, "but rather giving of thanks" (<a href='B:560 5:3-4'>Eph 5:3-4</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That wondrous moment when Christ reached such self-control as to give His life for us, to breathe out His last breath for us as an act of the will, that moment was evidently deep within the mind of Paul. Because of it we should find ample inspiration to "walk in love" towards each other, to be so full of praise for this that we have no time to even speak about the sins to which are earthly nature is so prone. These are high ideals indeed, yet in Paul (another sin-stricken human) they began to be realized. They really can be realized in our lives, we truly can begin to appreciate the intensity of that yielding up, that laying down of the life spirit of our Lord Jesus- and therefore and thereby we will find the inspiration to respond in a life of true love for each other. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems likely that Peter was at the cross, and therefore his letters are packed with allusions to it. What he saw there had a lifelong impact upon him. He makes at least two allusions to the words of Christ on the cross, and bids us enter into the spirit of it. "Hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his stePsa... who... when he suffered, threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (<a href='B:670 2:21-23'>1Pe 2:21-23</a>). This is the same word as used about Christ commending His spirit to God in that final agony. We really are bidden enter into His example and follow Him. Christ overcame the temptation to react wrongly to His sufferings by instead committing Himself to God. This idea of laying Himself down for us was what enabled Him not to get bitter. The antidote to our own bitterness is likewise to enter into this spirit of laying down our lives. </p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The hands of God are also connected with the Angels, the means by which God performs His actions. Moses' hands being upheld by the hands of others can be seen as a type of the Lord Jesus being sustained by Angelic hands on the cross, connecting with the Messianic prophecy of <a href='B:10 49:24'>Gen 49:24</a> concerning the hands of Messiah being strengthened for His mediation by the hands of God. Throughout Scripture, God’s hands are associated with His creative work in the natural creation (e.g. <a href='B:230 8:6'>Psa 8:6</a>; <a href='B:230 95:5'>Psa 95:5</a>; <a href='B:650 1:10'>Heb 1:10</a>)- work which was and is performed through the Angels.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This would be another hint in the Psalms that David’s enemies, be they Saul or Absalom, were involved in idolatry; whereas David trusted Yahweh alone. See on :14.</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>), how he hates them, how 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will be glad and rejoice in Your grace, for You have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Adversities" is the word used of Jacob and Joseph when in exile situations apparently lacking any human hope of restoration (<a href='B:10 35:3'>Gen 35:3</a>; <a href='B:10 42:21'>Gen 42:21</a>). The comfort that God sees and knows leads David to joy in an otherwise joyless situation.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy, You have set my feet in a large place-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This language of constriction, being shut up, was perhaps based upon David’s living in caves at the time of his exile from Saul; and he reuses those Psalms when under persecution from Absalom and others. It continues the allusion to Joseph in the pit noted on :7. He saw those constricted places as "a large place", and here we have a timeless encouragement for all who find themselves constricted in whatever way.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Grief" is the word used for the wrath of God (<a href='B:230 85:4'>Psa 85:4</a>), but could also refer to the anger of others- perhaps the family of Bathsheba, or the followers of Saul, was originally in view. A sense of fading vision would be appropriate to both his physical and emotional state. In the Bathsheba context it would seem that during his illness, there arose "adversaries" against him. But the Psalm may have originated whilst under persecution by Saul.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my sin, my bones are wasted away-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> What is in places a wilderness Psalm was clearly reused by David during his illness after the sin with Bathsheba. In our lives too, circumstances repeat under God’s good hand, as He repeats the lessons and we learn them through that repetition. Despite his undoubted physique stamina, David was a broken man, 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 25:6,22,34;), 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbours, a fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s family appear to have later disowned him during Saul’s persecution (<a href='B:230 31:11'>Psa 31:11</a>), fleeing from him, as the Lord’s friends also did (<a href='B:230 31:11'>Psa 31:11</a> = <a href='B:470 26:56'>Mat 26:56</a>). Here we have another allusion to Job. It is twice stressed that David’s brothers "followed Saul" (<a href='B:90 17:13-14'>1Sa 17:13-14</a>); is it possible to argue back from this that Christ's brothers were strong Judaists?&nbsp; The "neighbours" could also here refer to the neighbouring nations around Judah. The recoiling from David "on the street" could refer to some visible skin disease, perhaps leprosy.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man; I am like broken pottery-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>According to how Jeremiah later uses the metaphor of pottery, this would imply that David felt as if he were the vessel which God had broken. There is continually the sense that his physical condition was a judgment for his immorality.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So many of the Psalms contain references to Saul's smear campaign against David (<a href='B:230 27:12'>Psa 27:12</a>; <a href='B:230 31:13'>Psa 31:13</a>; <a href='B:230 109:23'>Psa 109:23</a> cp. <a href='B:90 26:19'>1Sa 26:19</a>). This frequency of reference in itself indicates the weight with which this tragedy rested upon David’s mind:&nbsp;And yet the pain of slander&nbsp;continued at the time of his sin with Bathsheba, and later during Absalom's rebellion. The plot to take away David’s life could specifically refer to Ahithophel's advice to Absalom.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I trust in You, Yahweh. I said, You are my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> The stress may be upon "You", given the note on :6 that David’s enemies, be they Saul or Absalom, were involved in idolatry; whereas David trusted Yahweh alone:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My times are in Your hand-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be an admission that the time of his death was in God’s hand, but he committed his life into God’s hands (:5). LXX "My lots are in thy hands" could mean that he rejected the idea of drawing lots in order to know where to run or how to act; or that if he did, he recognized that God’s hands would control the outcome.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Redeem me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Make Your face to shine on Your servant; save me in Your grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At this time David rejoiced in God’s grace (:7), and yet also felt God’s face was not shining upon him. We can still rejoice in Divine grace even if we don't have a buzz of emotional awareness that God is shining upon us.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let me not be disappointed, Yahweh, for I have called on You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Disappointed" is 'shamed'. It is likely that the Lord was crucified naked, thereby sharing the shame of Adam's nakedness. The shame of the cross is stressed (<a href='B:650 11:26'>Heb 11:26</a>; <a href='B:650 12:2'>Heb 12:2</a>; <a href='B:230 31:17'>Psa 31:17</a>; <a href='B:230 69:6-7'>Psa 69:6-7</a>; <a href='B:230 69:12'>Psa 69:12</a>; <a href='B:230 69:19-20'>Psa 69:19-20</a>). And we are to share those sufferings. There must, therefore, be an open standing up for what we believe in the eyes of a hostile world. Preaching, in this sense, is for all of us. And if we dodge this, we put the Son of God to a naked shame; we re-crucify Him naked, we shame Him again (<a href='B:650 6:6'>Heb 6:6</a>). He was crucified naked, and the sun went in for three hours. He must have been cold, very cold (<a href='B:500 18:18'>Joh 18:18</a>). Artemidorus Daldianus (Oneirokritika 2:53) confirms that the Romans usually crucified victims naked. Melito of Sardis, writing in the 2nd century, writes of “his body naked and not even deemed worthy of a clothing that it might not be seen. Therefore the heavenly lights turned away and the day darkened in order that he might be hidden who was denuded upon the cross" (On the Pasch 97). The earliest portrayals of the crucified Jesus, on carved gems, feature Him naked.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the wicked be disappointed, may they be silent in Sheol-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Clearly David understands the punishment of the wicked to be silence in the grave, and not eternal torment.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the lying lips be mute, which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This implies David was a victim of slander far more than the historical records suggest. The silencing of the lying lips may connect with the wish that the wicked "be silent" in the grave. This wishing of death upon slanderers seems rather extreme and out of step with the later spirit of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have worked for those who take refuge in You, before the sons of men!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s thoughts in :18,19 have been upon the final future condemnation of the wicked. Therefore the goodness "laid up" for the righteous would refer to the future reward of the Kingdom of God. The nature of our eternal existence will be unique to each of us, and God is developing or 'working' it right now through our experience of life. We note that David’s trust in Yahweh was unashamed and public, "before the sons of men".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the shelter of Your presence You will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference may be to the plotting of Absalom and his party to overthrow David, which went on many years before Absalom's putsch. The pain of words is difficult to deal with; here David imagines himself as living in a Divinely provided pavilion which was somehow soundproofed against "the strife of tongues". And again David sees himself as dwelling in the shadow of the cherubic wings over the mercy seat, where the shekinah presence of Yahweh was to be seen. And he felt that wherever he was.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise be to Yahweh, for He has shown me His marvellous grace in a fortified city-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could refer to David’s escape from Keilah, or how he got out of Gath when he fled there and the Philistines turned against him (<a href='B:90 21:10-14'>1Sa 21:10-14</a>). Or maybe this refers to how safe felt in his fortified city of Ziklag.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As for me, I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Your eyes. Nevertheless You heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If "eyes" refer to Angels, this could be a prophecy of the Lord Jesus’ fear of losing the Angelic presence whilst He was on the cross- hence <a href='B:470 27:46'>Mat 27:46</a>.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh love Yahweh, all you His saints! Yahweh preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David persistently sees the problem of his enemies, be they Saul or Absalom, as pride. And yet when the 'full recompense' of death came upon those men, David genuinely mourned and was heart broken. Sometimes we get the impression that the Psalms, although inspired, are very much a flow of consciousness statement.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is another teaching to the effect that God will strengthen human hearts. The Greek and Hebrew words translated&nbsp; 'spirit' don't only mean 'power'. They frequently refer to the mind / heart. We read of God giving men a new heart, a new spirit; of Him working on men's hearts to make them do His will. He gives them a new spirit. This doesn't mean that they of their own volition have the power of the Holy Spirit gifts, as, e.g., some in the early church did. God will strengthen the heart / spirit of those who try to be strong (<a href='B:230 27:14'>Psa 27:14</a>; <a href='B:230 31:24'>Psa 31:24</a>). He can even, somehow, withhold men from sinning (<a href='B:10 20:6'>Gen 20:6</a>), and keep us from falling (<a href='B:720 1:24'>Jud 1:24</a>). We should therefore have no essential objection to the idea of the Lord granting us His Spirit, in the sense of His thinking, His heart / mind.</p><h2></h2>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David. A contemplative Psalm-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or maschil. 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. "Then will I teach transgressors&nbsp; thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee" (<a href='B:230 51:13'>Psa 51:13</a>). Note too that Psalms 32 is a&nbsp; 'Maschil' psalm- 'for instruction'. 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;Morally disgraced in the eyes of all Israel and even the surrounding nations, not to mention his own family, 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; <a href='B:230 51:13'>Psa 51:13</a>). 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'>Blessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven" (<a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>), David wrote, after experiencing God’s mercy in the matter of Bathsheba. But Paul sees this verse as David describing "the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works" (<a href='B:520 4:6'>Rom 4:6</a>). Each of us are in need of a like justification; therefore we find ourselves in David’s position. The Spirit changes <a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a> ("Blessed is he&nbsp;whose transgression is forgiven") to "Blessed are they" (<a href='B:520 4:7'>Rom 4:7</a>) to make the same point.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Paul quotes David’s rejoicing in the righteousness imputed to him when he had sinned and had no works left to do- and changes the pronoun from “he” to “they” (<a href='B:520 4:6-8'>Rom 4:6-8</a>). David’s personal experience became typical of that of each of us. It was through the experience of that wretched and hopeless position that David and all believers come to know the true ‘blessedness’ of imputed righteousness and sin forgiven by grace.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>After his sin with Bathsheba, David was a desperate man. Sin is serious. He had to die, and he was shamed before all Israel. What he had done could not be undone, nor could it be forgiven through sacrifice. No amount of re-interpretation of the texts could get round it. Having been confronted by his desperation for nine months, he found a miraculous forgiveness. And he uttered a soliloquy: "Blessed is he (himself- David) whose transgression is forgiven" (<a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>). <a href='B:520 4:6-7'>Rom 4:6-7</a> slightly changes this, with the preface that these words describe "the blessedness of [any] man" who finds true forgiveness: "Blessed are they whose iniquities [plural] are forgiven". The point is plain: David’s desperation is that of every one redeemed in Christ.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Blessed is the man (e.g. David, or any sinner- David is our example) to whom Yahweh doesn't impute iniquity" is alluded to in <a href='B:540 5:19'>2Co 5:19</a>: "God was in Christ... not imputing (the world's) trespasses unto them":&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In whose spirit there is no deceit-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In Christ there was no guile (<a href='B:670 2:22'>1Pe 2:22</a>), as there was not in David (or any other believer) after the justification of forgiveness (<a href='B:230 32:2'>Psa 32:2</a>). "Blessed is the man…i n whose spirit is no guile"&nbsp; is picked up in <a href='B:730 14:5'>Rev 14:5</a>: "In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God". The picture of forgiven David in Psalms 32 is what we will each be like after acceptance "before the throne of God". Yet David’s experience can also be ours here and now; in those moments of true contrition, we surely are experiencing salvation in prospect.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the same way as God did not impute iniquity to David, so David did not 'impute iniquity' to Shimei for cursing him, and did not carry out a rightful death sentence against that man (<a href='B:100 19:19'>2Sa 19:19</a>; <a href='B:100 19:21'>2Sa 19:21</a>). Note how Shimei uses the very same wording which David used in his repentance: "I have sinned" (<a href='B:100 19:20'>2Sa 19:20</a>). It makes a good homework to now look through the New Testament, looking for David allusions.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This 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>). 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For day and night Your hand was heavy on me, my strength was dried as in the heat of summer. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David found his sins associated with Bathsheba "as an heavy burden... too heavy for me... I am (thereby) bowed down greatly" (<a href='B:230 32:4'>Psa 32:4</a>; <a href='B:230 32:6'>Psa 32:6</a>). Surely our Lord was thinking back to David when He invited all of us: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden (with sins), and I will give you rest... for my... burden is light" (<a href='B:470 11:28-30'>Mat 11:28-30</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I acknowledged my sin to You, I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon inserts parts of his father’s Bathsheba psalms in his prayers for how all Israel could be forgiven if they “confess thy name... when thou afflictest them... saying, We have sinned... forgive thy people... and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed” (<a href='B:110 8:35'>1Ki 8:35</a>; <a href='B:110 8:47'>1Ki 8:47</a>; <a href='B:110 8:50'>1Ki 8:50</a> = <a href='B:230 32:5'>Psa 32:5</a> etc:). On the basis of David’s pattern, all God’s people can find forgiveness, if they make a like confession.</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 <a href='B:100 12:9-10'>2Sa 12:9-10</a>. 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For this, let each one who is Godly pray to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The serious but repentant sinner is here called "Godly". This is alluded to in <a href='B:540 7:7-11'>2Co 7:7-11</a>. Paul wished to interpret the news from Titus as meaning that the Corinthians had repented of their deep immorality: "Ye were made sorry... ye sorrowed to repentance…ye were made sorry after a Godly manner (cp. "every one that is Godly...", <a href='B:230 32:6'>Psa 32:6</a>)... for Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation... ye sorrowed after a Godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation (cp. David’s in <a href='B:100 12:5'>2Sa 12:5</a>)... what zeal... your mourning, your fervent mind" (AV). Allusion after allusion to David is being piled up here. The eight references to their "sorrow" in four verses is surely a signpost back to David’s intense sorrow for his sin with Bathsheba: "My sin is ever before me (<a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>)... my sorrow is continually before me... I will be sorry for my sin... many sorrows shall be to the wicked" who, unlike David, refused to repent (<a href='B:230 38:17-18'>Psa 38:17-18</a>; <a href='B:230 32:10'>Psa 32:10</a>). This association between sin and sorrow is a common one (<a href='B:220 9:28'>Job 9:28</a>; <a href='B:610 6:10'>1Ti 6:10</a>; <a href='B:20 4:31'>Exo 4:31</a>; <a href='B:290 35:10'>Isa 35:10</a>. The last two references show how Israel's sorrowing in Egypt was on account of their sinfulness). We must pause to ask whether our consciousness of sin leads us to a like sorrowing, whether our repentance features a similar depth of remorse. It would appear that Paul is likening Corinth to David. They too were guilty of sexual "uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness" (<a href='B:540 12:21'>2Co 12:21</a>). As David’s repentance was made in a "day of salvation", so in <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a> Paul told Corinth that they were in a similar position to him; they too had the chance of repentance. Those who had heeded this call earlier had experienced the zeal and clear conscience which David did on his repentance (<a href='B:540 7:9-11'>2Co 7:9-11</a>). In this case, Paul would be likening himself to Nathan the prophet. This zeal which was seen in both David and Corinth is a sure sign of clear conscience and a joyful openness with God. Again, we ask how much of our zeal is motivated by this, or is it just a continuation of a level of service which we set ourselves in more spiritual days, which we now struggle to maintain for appearances sake?</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In a time when You may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is alluded to in <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a>: "In a time of acceptance I hearkened to you, and in a day of salvation did I succour you. Behold, now is the time of acceptance; behold, now is the day of salvation". This quotation is in support of the statement that we have received God’s grace, charis, gift of the Spirit; but we are not to receive it in vain, but rather make use of it. The 'succouring' in view refers to just that. The same word is used in <a href='B:650 2:18'>Heb 2:18</a> of how the Lord Jesus gives us such help in time of temptation. Seeing that temptation is internal to the human mind, this help is surely psychological, within the heart- which is exactly what the gift of the Spirit is all about. Forgiveness is indeed in view, but beyond that- strength against falling into sin.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For every sinner, for whom David is our example, now is the time when God may be "found" in the sense of experiencing His forgiveness. God is love towards men, He is forgiveness. To experience this and respond back to it is therefore to find the knowledge of God. This "time when You (i:e. God’s forgiveness, which is God) may be found" which David speaks of is that of <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a>: "Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation". Paul was speaking of how all sinners, baptized or not, need to realize this; we are all in David’s position. Some complain that they did not experience a very great upsurge in finding and knowing God at the point of baptism. This may be due to an insufficient emphasis on the need for repentance and appreciating the seriousness of sin before baptism; and not being willing to make use of the Spirit gift which we are then given. We must not think that we know God because we believe a Statement of Faith and have been baptized. "Now is the accepted time", Paul wrote to the baptized Corinthians, to truly take on board the marvel of God’s forgiveness, to know it and respond to it for ourselves, and thereby to come to a dynamic, two-way relationship with God.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David "found" God through experiencing His forgiveness, so can " every one that is Godly" today. It is quite possible that "seek and you shall find" (<a href='B:470 7:7'>Mat 7:7</a>) was uttered by the Lord with his mind on <a href='B:230 32:6'>Psa 32:6</a> and David’s experience. After all, we cannot expect this to be a blank cheque offer, that whatever we seek for we must receive. But if these words are an allusion to David’s seeking and finding forgiveness in <a href='B:230 32:6'>Psa 32:6</a>, then the promise is more realistic. If we seek for forgiveness and a living relationship with God, then we have this unconditional promise that we will find thIsa. Yet in a sense, the time when we will ultimately find God will be at the judgment: we will "find mercy of the Lord in that day" (<a href='B:620 1:18'>2Ti 1:18</a>), so that "ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless" (<a href='B:680 3:14'>2Pe 3:14</a>). We will find God, as He will find us, in that great moment of consummation; "for then shall (we) know (God), even as also (we) are known" by Him (<a href='B:530 13:12'>1Co 13:12</a>; ). Then we will "be found in him…that I may (then) know him" (Php_3:9-10). Yet David says that after forgiveness, we can find and know God. It is as if whenever we sin, we in a sense face our judgment seat.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You are my hiding place, You will preserve me from trouble, You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"In the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom" (<a href='B:230 51:6'>Psa 51:6</a>) David meditated, as he looked forward to his new life with God after receiving forgiveness. 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>: "You 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'>David came to know the marvel of all thIsa. And David is our example. His response was to eagerly desire to spread the knowledge of God which he acquired through his experience of God’s forgiveness. "I will instruct thee and teach thee" he exalts in <a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>. He knew that as God would surround him with songs of deliverance on forgiveness, so "he (anyone) that trusteth in the Lord (as David did), mercy shall compass him about" (<a href='B:230 32:10'>Psa 32:10</a>). "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways" (<a href='B:230 51:13'>Psa 51:13</a>) is another example. Likewise, Peter (<a href='B:490 5:8-10'>Luk 5:8-10</a>), Isaiah (<a href='B:290 6:5-9'>Isa 6:5-9</a>) and Paul (<a href='B:560 3:8'>Eph 3:8</a>) all received preaching commissions straight after their experience of forgiveness. Our knowledge of God through receiving it should be a powerful stimulus to our personal witnessing. There is every reason why some of our witnessing should include personal testimony of what the Lord has done for us.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go, I will counsel you with my eye on you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These could be God’s words to David, assuring him that He would use this experience of sin and restoration to teach him and lead him further in the way to life. Or as noted on :1, seeing this is a Psalm for instructing others, these may be David’s words, seeking to bring others to know the way he himself had trodden. "Counsel" is the word used of Ahithophel, David’s counsellor who was Bathsheba's grandfather, who later betrayed him and turned against him (<a href='B:100 15:12'>2Sa 15:12</a>; <a href='B:100 16:23'>2Sa 16:23</a>). Perhaps David is reflecting that due to his experience of grace, he is now qualified to counsel others; and therefore Ahithophel, Israel's renowned counsellor, was thereby further offended. See on <a href='B:230 33:18'>Psa 33:18</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon taught his son obedience to him as a father, but not to God Himself. He tells him: “I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths” (<a href='B:240 4:11'>Pro 4:11</a>), repeating the words of David in <a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye”. But those words in their context were wrung from a David desperately grateful for God’s forgiveness of his sin with Bathsheba. Solomon hadn’t gone through this contrition- he was a self-justified womanizer, and yet he used the same outward form of words as his father. &nbsp;Solomon was playing God by implying that his words carried the weight of God’s words.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t be like the horse or like the mule which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Through 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. "Come near" is a common idiom for offering sacrifice and worshipping God. The idea may be that God doesn't want to force men to come near to Him through using the force of bit and bridle; rather does He want genuinely repentant sinners like David, in awe of His grace, to come to Him of themselves with the "understanding" of Him as the God of all grace. But God all the same causes men to "come near" to Him (<a href='B:230 65:4'>Psa 65:4</a> s:w:); but not be coercion, rather by the experience of His grace.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many sorrows come to the wicked, but grace shall surround him who trusts in Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The nervous effects on David may well have continued throughout the rest of his life. Despite exalting in the fact that he has now confessed his sin and been forgiven, David uttered <a href='B:230 32:4'>Psa 32:4</a>: "Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me (in the days before repentance): my moisture is (present tense) turned into the drought of summer. Selah" (AV). Is this not an eloquent picture of the David who was once so sure of himself, full of vitality, now shrivelled up, at least emotionally? "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about" (<a href='B:230 32:10'>Psa 32:10</a>) may also give insight here. It does not say 'Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but the repentant will have joy'. Instead, the contrast is made between sorrow and experiencing God’s mercy; as if to imply 'The sorrows brought about by sin will go on and on in this life, but knowing you are surrounded by God’s mercy more than compensates'. It takes little imagination to realize how that after his sin, David must have become a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, tortured with deep and manic depressions. David’s repentance comes as a relief to the reader.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!- see on <a href='B:230 51:4'>Psa 51:4</a>. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We along with all the righteous ought to “shout for joy” that David really was forgiven- for there is such hope for us now. David is our example. No matter how we have sinned, we can still like him feel and be "upright in heart" before God. 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:). 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><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rejoice in Yahweh, you righteous! Praise is fitting for the upright-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may continue from the previous Psalm, which has conclude that those like David who have seriously sinned and yet been forgiven... are the joyfully "upright in heart" who can legitimately "rejoice" (<a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a> s:w:). Psalm 33 is without a title, which is unusual for the first book of the "Psalms of David". It could be a follow on from the previous Psalm 32. We note other connections throughout these notes; especially how Ps. 32:8 = Ps. 33:17,18. Psalm 33 is clearly intended for use in collective worship accompanied by instruments (:1-3, and note the final three verses are a kind of collective chorus). As Paul likewise reasons, we are to all rejoice in David's forgiveness regarding Bathsheba and Uriah. For his sin is in essence that of every man. "Rejoice" or 'Shout for joy' is the same verb as in Ps. 32:11 where all men are hidden rejoice and shout for joy at the grave shown David regarding Bathsheba and Uriah. Clearly Ps. 33 follows on from Ps. 32. Ps. 33 marvels at the creative power of God's word, seen at creation and in rescuing Israel from Egypt. The "word" in the immediate context was God's word of grace through Nathan, and His response to David's subsequent requests for God to create in him a new heart. He accepts God's word through Nathan was correct: "The word of the Lord is right" (:4). The same awesome power used at creation is used in the new creation of contrite men. Hence :10 "has brought … has made", grammatically implying particular reference to some recent event. Which was God's forgiveness and re-creation of David. Thus :15 speaks of God forming hearts; a creation of mindsets. This is the supreme work of the Holy Spirit today. This is why both Psalms speak of the blessedness of God's people; in Ps. 32:1,2 it is David who is blessed with forgiveness, whilst in Ps. 33:12 is is all God's nation who are "blessed". Both psalms end with a call to rejoice (Ps. 32:11; 33:21) in faith / trust (Ps. 32:10,11; 33:21) in God's grace (Ps. 32:10; 33:18,22). Ps. 33:5 sees God's grace as supreme, filling the earth; which is the whole essence of David's experience in Ps. 32.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre, sing praises to Him with the harp of ten strings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This continues the theme of Psalms 32 (see on :1); David is inviting praise to be offered for his forgiveness, and for that which is now demonstrated as possible for all repentant sinners. He was renowned for his harp playing; and he now invites us all to follow him and also take up the harp in worship of the grace shown him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sing to Him a new song, play skilfully with a shout of joy!<strong>- </strong></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>There are a significant seven references to singing a "new song"; this is the first (Ps. 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Is. 42:10). Life after baptism leads to living in "newness of life". This ever-new aspect of spiritual life is unique to true, Bible-based spirituality. The "new song" was to be sung by the returning exiles (Is. 42:9,10), and may suggest the new covenant they were intended to enter with a new heart created in them (Jer. 31:31-33). Hence Psalm 33 speaks of the heart formed or created by God as all important. Sadly they spurned that opportunity. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the word of Yahweh is right, all His work is done in faithfulness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The specific word of Yahweh David may have in view is the message from Nathan the prophet which condemned him for his sin with Bathsheba. Part of repentance is acceptance that God is right.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the grace of Yahweh-</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><p>We can perceive instances of the earth being filled with Yahweh's grace and other aspects of His righteousness. They may be in the lives of others not just our own. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By Yahweh’s word the heavens were made-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God's word is paralleled with His breath, His Spirit. I suggested on :4 that the word of Yahweh which David initially had in view was the message from Nathan the prophet which condemned him for his sin with Bathsheba. But just as that one prophetic word had produced a new creation within David, so that same word called into existence all of creation.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All their army by the breath of His mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many passages clearly identify God’s spirit with His power. In order to create the earth, “the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (<a href='B:10 1:2-3'>Gen 1:2-3</a>). God’s spirit was the power by which all things, e.g. light, were made. “By His spirit He has created the heavens; His hand has formed the crooked serpent” (<a href='B:220 26:13'>Job 26:13</a>). A comparison of <a href='B:470 12:28'>Mat 12:28</a> and <a href='B:490 11:20'>Luk 11:20</a> shows that “the finger of God” and “the spirit of God” are parallel - God in action is His spirit. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (<a href='B:230 33:6'>Psa 33:6</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s spirit was seen at work in the creation: “By his spirit he has created the heavens” (<a href='B:220 26:13'>Job 26:13</a>) - the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters to bring about the present creation (<a href='B:10 1:2'>Gen 1:2</a>). Yet we also read that “by the word of the Lord” the world was made (<a href='B:230 33:6'>Psa 33:6</a>), as shown by the Genesis narrative recording that “God said” things were to be created, and it happened. God’s spirit, therefore, is very much reflected in His word. Likewise our words express our inner thoughts and desires - the real ‘us’ - very accurately. Jesus wisely pointed out: “Out of the abundance of the heart (the mind) the mouth speaks” (<a href='B:470 12:34'>Mat 12:34</a>).</p><p>The Psalm alludes clearly to the power of God's word and breath over the waters at creation, but goes on to allude to the deliverance at the Red Sea. This was again by the breath of Yahweh (Ex. 15:8), and the waters were again gathered into a heap (:7 cp. Ex. 15:8). The relevance to the exiles was that just as God's word had brought about creation, so His prophetic word of restoration was powerful to come true too. Just as the large army and horses of the Egyptians couldn't stop the Exodus of God's people to journey to His sanctuary, so neither could any human strength stop the restoration (:16,17).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s response to his experience of grace was to commit himself to teaching others God’s ways (see on <a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>). And perhaps his idea of building a temple was an outflow from that. As God gathered the waters together, so David responded by gathering together the Gentiles within Israel ("the waters of the sea") to construct a temple (s:w. <a href='B:130 22:2'>1Ch 22:2</a>). And in the restoration context, God was likewise willing to gather together the exiles from the seas of the Gentiles (s:w. <a href='B:230 147:2'>Psa 147:2</a>), repeating the miracle of the Red Sea deliverance, where God’s word also made the waters stand as a heap (s:w. <a href='B:230 78:13'>Psa 78:13</a>). As God "lays up... in storehouses", so David laid up all the required materials with which Solomon was to build the temple.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let all the earth fear Yahweh, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s vision was of all the people within the eretz promised to Abraham coming to fear the God of Israel- all because he had sinned grievously and had been forgiven. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood firm-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4,6, the word of Yahweh which David initially had in view was the message from Nathan the prophet which condemned him for his sin with Bathsheba. But just as that one prophetic word had produced a new creation within David, so that same word called into existence all of creation. David likewise was made to 'stand firm' despite his sin (s:w. <a href='B:100 22:34'>2Sa 22:34</a>; <a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:8'>Psa 31:8</a>).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no power-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhaps a reference to how by grace God gave David victory over the Ammonites straight after his receipt of forgiveness over the matter of Bathsheba. He saw in that victory an assurance of God’s acceptance of him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David likewise was made to 'stand firm' despite his sin (s:w. <a href='B:100 22:34'>2Sa 22:34</a>; <a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:8'>Psa 31:8</a>). See on :9. God’s word reflects His thoughts and intentions. David felt he was to become part of that eternal purpose, and his kingdom or "mountain" would stand fast as part of that (<a href='B:230 30:7'>Psa 30:7</a>). He perceived that his kingdom was to be God’s Kingdom.</p><p>There is a contrast in :10,11 between the counsel / plans of the Gentile world, and those of God:
"The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nought;
He frustrates the plans of the peoples.
"The counsel of the LORD stands for ever,
the thoughts of His heart to all generations".</p><p>
"Plans" and "thoughts" are the same Hebrew word. In an exilic context, the connection is clearly with Jer. 29:10,11: "For thus says the LORD: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.  For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope". And yet these plans went largely unimplemented, because the exiles acted and thought like the Gentile nations.
</pP


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on <a href='B:230 31:6'>Psa 31:6</a>; <a href='B:230 31:14'>Psa 31:14</a>, idolatry was prevalent in the Israel of David’s time. But their God was to be Yahweh exclusively, for He had exclusively chosen Israel as His people.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yahweh views from heaven; He sees all the sons of men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As will be noted on :14, God was seen as looking down here, yet His dwelling place was also seen as being in Zion:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From the place of His habitation He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That place of habitation may refer to Zion rather than Heaven Himself. For the idea is of God looking out from there upon the peoples of the eretz, rather than looking down upon them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He who fashions all of their hearts; and He considers all of their works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We have here two apparently contradictory ideas; works reflect thoughts / hearts. Yet God fashions or directs human hearts, and yet He judges their works. Yet from this dialectic comes the conclusion that God indeed works directly upon human hearts, but only in confirming their freewill decisions. And therefore He can legitimately judge their works. In the restoration context, this refers to how God was prepared to fashion or create out of the exiles a new people with new hearts (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a>; <a href='B:290 43:21'>Isa 43:21</a>; <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 64:8'>Isa 64:8</a>). The word is also used in the Hezekiah context (<a href='B:290 37:26'>Isa 37:26</a>). David realized that as God fashioned the earth (<a href='B:230 95:5'>Psa 95:5</a>), so He can fashion human hearts (<a href='B:230 33:15'>Psa 33:15</a>). His word and Spirit work in doing both things, with the same boundless possibility and power. David after repenting of his sin with Bathsheba begged God to "Create in me a pure heart" (Ps. 51:10) and he is saying the same here. His repentance and restoration was intended to be a template for the exiles. The idea that God forms hearts is found also in the title "the Father of spirits" (Heb. 12:9). Psalm 139 marvels that God knows every movement and thought of every man, before it even is thought or done. He also sees all the possible outworkings of every man's freewill. The amount of 'data' is beyond us to even conceive of. And yet for the believer, this creates transparency before God and is a huge comfort. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is no king saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The numbering of Israel was a weak moment for David (note <a href='B:100 24:3-4'>2Sa 24:3-4</a>; <a href='B:100 24:10'>2Sa 24:10</a>), leading to suffering for others. Yet this same David had written that “there is no king saved by the multitude of an host” (<a href='B:230 33:16'>Psa 33:16</a>). David apparently wrote this before that realization. He knew the theory, but failed to apply it in reality.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was carefully obedient to the Mosaic legislation about not using horses, but instead trusting in the cherubim horses of God’s salvation (<a href='B:50 17:16'>Deu 17:16</a>; <a href='B:50 20:1'>Deu 20:1</a>). Solomon his son totally ignored all this, having so many horses he had to build cities to house them all. And yet Solomon was quite obsessed with "David my father"; but when it came to real issues, he ignored David.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, Yahweh’s eye is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. Our eye is upon Him (<a href='B:230 25:5'>Psa 25:5</a>; <a href='B:230 69:3'>Psa 69:3</a>; <a href='B:230 123:2'>Psa 123:2</a>), as His eye is upon us (<a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>; <a href='B:230 33:18'>Psa 33:18</a>). The Lord stresses, with apparently needless repetition, that to the man who responds to His word, "I will sup with him and he with me" (<a href='B:730 3:20'>Rev 3:20</a>). And David took this mutuality even further; for in <a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a> David says that in response to his experience of forgiveness regarding Bathsheba, "I will counsel you with my eye on you":&nbsp;</p><p>We hope for God's grace, but the earth is now full of His grace if we look for it (:5). These evidences of grace are all guarantees of the great grace to be brought to us at the Lord's return. </p><p>
GNB gives "constant love" in :18,22. Constant love is hard for us to believe, because all the human love we were ever shown blew hot and cold. There were disagreements and even arguments, something got jaded over the years, there were peak expressions of love and then long periods of passion less co-existence together. The constant nature of God's love is hard for us to believe and feel because our love for Him is not constant. But we are to meditate on the unfailing and ever present intensity of His love for us individually, and to let ourselves be persuaded by it to the point we feel it constantly.
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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Under the old covenant, famine was not supposed to come if the people were obedient. Remember that the context is about his experience of forgiveness regarding the Bathsheba incident. 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>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Our soul has waited for Yahweh; He is our help and our shield-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on <a href='B:230 32:1'>Psa 32:1</a>, David was resolved to make his experience of salvation by grace the pattern for all men. And so the Psalm concludes by emphasizing that David’s path is "ours":&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For our heart rejoices in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These words could have been part of David’s original Psalm, as suggested on :20; or they could have been added under inspiration by those who later perceived that indeed David’s forgiveness and restoration was to be programmatic for all God’s people.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let Your grace be on us, Yahweh, according as we have hope in You- There was no sacrifice prescribed for David’s sins with Bathsheba and Uriah; the death penalty was required. But David’s vision of God’s grace was large enough for him to ask for forgiveness, and his hope for it was not disappointed. But it all depends upon the breadth of our vision. Perhaps the most telling example is in Abraham’s request that God would spare Sodom for the sake of fifty righteous men there. He then lowers the number to 40, and then finally to ten, assuming that surely Lot’s family were righteous and would comprise ten righteous. If Abraham had left off praying at, say, forty... then this would have been the limit God set. If there were ten righteous there, the city wouldn’t have been saved. But Abraham went on to set the limit at ten. But we wonder, what would have happened if he had gone further and asked God to save Sodom for the sake of one righteous man, i:e. Lot? My sense is that the Father would have agreed. But the city wasn’t saved for the sake of the one man Lot, because Abraham limited God’s desire to save by the smallness of his vision. This principle can possibly be extended even wider.</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. &nbsp;David’s view of God’s mercy was that it would be only according to, proportionate to, our hope in God (<a href='B:230 33:22'>Psa 33:22</a>)- it was only through his Bathsheba experience that David came to know that grace is simply not proportionate to any human virtue. And yet it is also true that the man who asked the Lord to help if He were able is almost rebuked- for the Lord replies that if he believed, all things were possible. It is we and not the Lord who limit things. We think of Ps. 81:10, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it”; or Ps. 37:4, “delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart”. We are to "hope in You" but in :18 "Hope in His grace". God and His grace are paralleled. He is grace. He will save us. To trust in Him is to trust that.
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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By David; when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm is based around the alphabet. But the letters beth and vav are omitted, instead of koph there is resh; and the he section is doubled at the end. This isn't careless construction or corruption, but rather does Hebrew poetry function through such intentional omissions or departures from an expected pattern:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will bless Yahweh at all times; His praise will always be in my mouth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We are to imagine David leaving Gath, which had seemed like a trap in which he would certainly die, and then feeling the words of this Psalm- and then writing them down for others to sing with him (:3). </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul shall boast in Yahweh. The humble shall hear of it, and be glad-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was not going to brag that he had slipped out of encirclement in Gath (see on :1) by his own strength and initiative; rather would he boast in Yahweh's salvation of him. Others who were humbled by their situations would be glad, because David’s salvation would be perceived by them as programmatic for them too:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh magnify Yahweh with me, let us exalt His name together!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We can "magnify" God! We can make God greater by praising Him in humility. Given God's essential greatness, this is an amazing conception. The same idea is found in the idea of 'extolling' God (Ps. 30:1); likewise Dt. 32:3 "I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God". Constantly we see David’s earnest desire to reach out to others, so that they would make his feelings and essential experiences their own, and also magnify Yahweh. 'Magnify' or 'making great' is a theme of God’s relationship with the patriarchs. Abraham's seed was to be magnified / made great (s:w. <a href='B:10 12:2'>Gen 12:2</a>), with His grace magnified toward them (<a href='B:10 19:19'>Gen 19:19</a>). And in response, David wants to magnify Yahweh with the other members of the seed.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I sought Yahweh and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion is clearly to 1 Sam. 21:12 "David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath".  Those fears were that he was in an enclosed Philistine city, and they had recalled his slaughter of Goliath and many other Philistines whose relatives were in the city. And yet because of that deliverance, David knows that God will likewise save others amongst His people from their difficult situations. “The righteous cried, and the Lord heard”, he could write, with easy reference to his crying to God when with Abimelech [see Psalm title]; but he goes straight on to say that God delivers all the righteous out of all their troubles (<a href='B:230 34:4'>Psa 34:4</a>; <a href='B:230 34:6'>Psa 34:6</a>; <a href='B:230 34:17'>Psa 34:17</a> RV).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They looked to Him, and were radiant:; their faces shall never be covered with shame-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Radiant" is the word used of the restoration of the exiles (<a href='B:290 60:5'>Isa 60:5</a>; <a href='B:300 31:12'>Jer 31:12</a>; <a href='B:400 4:1'>Mic 4:1</a>). David’s restoration is used as a pattern for the exiles, but the reality was that they didn’t repent as he did. His salvation from the Gentiles by grace was a pattern for them. Beaming faces are unashamed; this is how David felt as he reflected on his otherwise very low point, spiritually and personally, there in Gaza. Or we can read this as an imperative, as LXX, "Look to Him!". Looking within ourselves all the time is miserable, looking around at the situation all the time is terrible. Look to Him and your face becomes radiant.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Troubles" is the word used about Jacob, whose cry from exile was heard and he was delivered from his troubles (<a href='B:10 35:3'>Gen 35:3</a>). And the theme of Jacob continues later in the Psalm.</p><p>David had called himself a "poor man" in 1 Sam. 18:23. He had prayed in 1 Sam. 26:24 Heb. "save me from all distress". David later reflects in Ps. 34:6 that he, the poor lowly man, has indeed been saved from all his distress. But Ps. 34 is titled as having been written after David escaped from Gath the first time, in 1 Sam. 21. It seems David rewrote his Psalms, tweeking them as new experiences occured which confirmed his earlier deliverances. And so he now makes this edit to Ps. 34 after his deliverance from Saul and his realization that his prayer of 1 Sam. 26:24 "Save me from all distress" had been answered. </p><p>
Or we can read this another way. David was confident after his deliverance from Gath that Yahweh "heard [me] and saved [me] out of all [my] troubles". But he prays later in 1 Sam. 26:24 Heb. "save me from all distress / troubles". He was taught here, after the Gath deliverance, that Yahweh would deliver him from troubles. But that faith and confident statement in this prayer / hymn of praise was then put to the test later. Just as we may confidently sing the words of a hymn in church- and then have to show that faith or attitude in real life alone, some time later in the week.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Encamps" could imply that the Angel circles around us like a watchman on guard. Or it could suggest more 'to settle down'- the Angel does not rush into our lives at our frantic behest when we are in a sudden crisis, but has settled down around us for a long time in preparing that trial. This promises that the Angel of the Lord will encamp /Mahanaim around all His servants, just as the Angel did at Mahanaim for Jacob. The allusion is to Jacob. His struggle at [or with] Penuel strikes a chord with each of us. Frank Lake has pointed out that each person struggles to find peace in their relationships with others and also with their God- whether or not they are conscious of those struggles. Jacob’s experience is clearly set up as representative of our own:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Although this Psalm was written about the deliverance from Gath (:1), I suggest it was later edited to also reference how David approached Saul's sleeping body with his soldiers "encamped around" him (1 Sam. 26:5), and was preserved by an Angel encamping around him. We think of how the Angels were encamped around Dothan to protect Elisha (2 Kings 6:16).</p>


