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Listen to my words, Lord,
    consider my lament.
² Hear my cry for help,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.

³ In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
    in the morning I lay my requests before you
    and wait expectantly.

In his fine book, ‘Don’t just stand there, pray something’, Ronald Dunn tells an amusing story of a group of Sunday school children who wrote to a missionary along these lines:

‘Dear Rev. Smith, we are praying for you. We are not expecting an answer.’

It makes one smile, but there is an ‘ouch’ factor. What are we expecting in answer to our prayers?

Recently, I read these words in Luke 18:1: ”Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” ‘Giving up’ is the very thing we are tempted to do, when praying over the long-haul, and nothing seems to be shifting.

PRAYER: Lord, help me this day to align myself with the Psalmist and pray with expectation.

Answer me when I call to you,
    my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
    have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

² How long will you people turn my glory into shame?
    How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?
³ Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself;
    the Lord hears when I call to him.

⁴ Tremble and do not sin;
    when you are on your beds,
    search your hearts and be silent.
⁵ Offer the sacrifices of the righteous
    and trust in the Lord.

⁶ Many, Lord, are asking, ‘Who will bring us prosperity?’
    Let the light of your face shine on us.
⁷ Fill my heart with joy
    when their grain and new wine abound.

⁸ In peace I will lie down and sleep,
    for you alone, Lord,
    make me dwell in safety.

It is generally thought that Psalm 3 belongs to the morning, and Psalm 4 to the evening, but both belong to that period when David was on the run from Absalom. Here, David is facing a second night on the run, and under threat, and again he meets his circumstances with prayer. The idea of prayer, and the prayer-answering God, is threaded throughout the psalm.

‘…we note that to come into the place of prayer (1) is to find oneself in the place of peace (8).’ Alec Motyer

We may feel we want to ask the question in verse 2 of the people of our own day. Many, it seems, are happy to follow delusions and lies, rather than embracing uncomfortable truth. In the context, David’s words are ‘An imaginative appeal to those gathered to Absalom to stop denigrating his glory as king, to abandon their delusions of power and their ‘falsehood’…’ (In the original this is more about ‘lies’ than false gods ).

But let us not miss the heart of this psalm which is one of confident trust in the Lord. David knew what it was to have a table prepared for him in the presence of his enemies (Psalm 23:5).

Lord, how many are my foes!
    How many rise up against me!
² Many are saying of me,
    ‘God will not deliver him.’

³ But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
    my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
⁴ I call out to the Lord,
    and he answers me from his holy mountain.

⁵ I lie down and sleep;
    I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
⁶ I will not fear though tens of thousands
    assail me on every side.

⁷ Arise, Lord!
    Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
    break the teeth of the wicked.

⁸ From the Lord comes deliverance.
    May your blessing be on your people.

We do know something of the life-situation out of which this psalm arose. It is there in the title: ‘A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.’ This was a dangerous, and heart-breaking, time for King David. He had ”many” people against him, not least his beloved son who was leading an internal rebellion. But I am reminded that ‘one with God is a majority’. Also, as someone observed, ‘God is not on the side of the big battalions.’ A David, trusting in the Lord, will fell ‘Goliath’ over and over, if necessary.

”What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31.

When Elisha and his servant were surrounded by enemies in Dothan, Elisha told his fearful servant,’ ”Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” (2 Ki.6:16). Then he prayed, ”Open his eyes LORD, so that he may see.” When God opened the servant’s eyes, he ”…saw the hills full of horses and chariots” (v.17).

In the face of the ”many” David has his ”But”. It is the ”But” of faith. If the outlook was gloomy the up-look was glorious. The life of faith is not one of unreality where we deny facts. Rather we face them, choosing to trust God, and not give way to fear. Whatever people may be saying, we place our confidence in the God we know: The One revealed in the Scriptures, and whose power we have proved in our own experience.

‘Here is a psalm with a clear focal point i.e. that prayer brings confidence to face life (4-6)…the antidote to despondency is, first, to assert divine truth (3), and secondly to seek divine aid (4). The consequence is the blessing of a night’s sleep (5) and fresh confidence for the new day (6)…confident prayer draws on past experiences of grace and begets assurance for the future (8)’ Alec Motyer.

‘God never sleeps (Ps. 121:3-4), so why should you stay awake and worry?’ Warren Wiersbe.

Why do the nations conspire
    and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth rise up
    and the rulers band together
    against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
³ ‘Let us break their chains
    and throw off their shackles.’

⁴ The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
    the Lord scoffs at them.
⁵ He rebukes them in his anger
    and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
⁶ ‘I have installed my king
    on Zion, my holy mountain.’

⁷ I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, ‘You are my son;
    today I have become your father.
⁸ Ask me,
    and I will make the nations your inheritance,
    the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You will break them with a rod of iron;
    you will dash them to pieces like pottery.’

¹⁰ Therefore, you kings, be wise;
    be warned, you rulers of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear
    and celebrate his rule with trembling.
¹² Kiss his son, or he will be angry
    and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
    Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

‘When the world’s noise frightens you, turn to the Lord and let Him take over (Acts 4:23-31)…Over the noise of the nations, listen for the assuring voice of God’ Warren Wiersbe.

There is something wonderful about the word ”installed”. Regardless of the human rejection of God (the essence of sin), the Kingship of the Messiah, Jesus, is immoveable. No wonder ” The One enthroned in heaven laughs…” His Throne is safe. He is far above all the wicked schemes and machinations of those who hate Him and do not want Him. He, in His love, grace and mercy will be a ”refuge” to all who run to Him. But let all who refuse Him ”be warned”. ‘There is no refuge from him: only in him’ (Derek Kidner).

Charles Wesley wrote these majestic words:

”His kingdom cannot fail
He rules o’er earth and heav’n
The keys of death and hell
Are to our Jesus giv’n
Lift up your heart
Lift up your voice
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice’ (From the hymn: ‘Rejoice the Lord is King).

Alec Motyer, in the ‘New Bible Commentary’ provides this excellent summary: ‘The psalm is rooted in 2 Samuel 7, the promise to David of a supreme name, a relationship of sonship to the Lord, and an enduring line. Possibly the psalm was used to greet each succeeding Davidic king on his ascension as a reminder of the ideal, but its fulfilment came in ‘great David’s greater Son’ (Lk.1:31-33), just as the ever-pervasive refusal of the world to have ‘this man reign over them’ (Lk.19:14) reached its climax at Calvary (Acts 4:25-26; 1 Cor.2:8). The age in which we live, however bland and accommodating it may at times appear, essentially hates, opposes and rebels against God in Christ. Historically, the Davidic king was always under threat from the surrounding world; essentially, this reflects the world’s rebellion against God; prophetically, the psalm speaks of the rejection of Jesus.’

He later adds: ‘It is Satan’s delusion (Gn.3:1-5) to represent divine conditions of blessing as hostile restrictions holding mankind from proper freedom.’ (see v.3)

PRAYER: Almighty God, help me to see past the news, with its angles, distortions, half-truths, and even lies, to see things as they really are. Enable me to enjoy the view from ‘the heavenly realms’. Please give me an unclouded vision of spiritual reality

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither –
    whatever they do prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. NIVUK

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendour. Isaiah 61:3b NIVUK

Apparently, the word ”planted” is literally ‘transplanted’: i.e. brought into a new position (see Ps.80:8; Col.1:13).

There is a stability about a life rooted in God’s Word (and ultimately in God Himself), which contrasts with the instability (4) of the ungodly: an instability which will ultimately be exposed on the day of judgment. That day will come. (See also Ps.92:12-15).

This Psalm speaks of the blessedness of the counter-cultural life: one lived out of step with the world because it is in step with God. Its heartbeat is a ”delight” in the Bible – something we do not see in the world at large.

We give our attention to what we love. I have heard ‘meditation’ referred to as ‘the digestive system of the soul.’ Selwyn Hughes likened it to a cow chewing the cud. He said, ‘In the morning the cow eats the grass, and then regurgitates it during the day.’ We can do likewise with Scripture. Chew it over. Rick Warren has said that if you can worry you can meditate! It is just turning something over and over in your mind. In terms of Biblical meditation, this is a positive rather than a negative thing.

Which part of this psalm are you going to ‘worry’ over today?

Thought: The fruit on the tree is for the benefit of others

I remember reading that whereas all Scripture speaks to us, the psalms speak for us.

Martin Luther said essentially the same thing, but a little more expansively: ‘The Psalter is the book of all saints; and everyone, in whatever situation he may be, finds in that situation psalms and words that fit his case, that suit him just as if they were put there for his sake, so that he could not put it better himself, or find or wish for anything better.’

The psalms have been the prayer book/hymn book of the church for centuries. They were used by Jesus and His disciples. Eugene Peterson describes them as ‘prayers that train us in prayer’.

As we begin this new series on the Psalms, I want to encourage you to do at least three things:

• Read the Psalm for the day (preferably out loud) as a prayer to God;
• Make it (or at least some of it) the basis of your ‘impromptu’ prayers;
• Prayerfully look for one word, or phrase, or sentence, or idea that grabs you, and carry it with you through the day. As you have opportunity, turn it over in your mind, and ‘suck as much juice’ out of it as possible.

Eugene Peterson goes on to say in the introduction to his book: ‘Answering God’:

‘That’s it: open our Bibles to the book of Psalms and pray them – sequentially, regularly, faithfully across a lifetime. This is how most Christians for most of the Christian centuries have matured in prayer. Nothing fancy. Just do it.’

PRAYER: Lord God, open our hearts and minds to see everything you want to show us as we read them and pray them. Thank you that we are standing on holy ground.

2 Corinthians is probably Paul’s most personal letter, and shows, more than any other, something of the cost of his ministry.

‘The Corinthian Christians gave their founding pastor, Paul, more trouble than all his other churches put together. No sooner did Paul get one problem straightened out in Corinth than three more appeared.’ Eugene Peterson.

Church life can be hard, and ministry is tough.

Ministry is regularly tough because church life is hard.

But in the triune God, we have all we need both to love courageously and to lead enduringly.

(After a day or two’s break, we will move back into the Old Testament and begin to work through the psalms. More of this shortly).

 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. NIVUK

The Bible teacher, David Pawson, said that the Christian church is:

• The family of God the Father;
• The flock of God the Son;
• The fellowship of God the Holy Spirit.

God the Father, in love and grace, came into the world in the Lord Jesus Christ – in all that He is and did – to bring us into fellowship with Himself and with one another. As we seek to walk in step with the Spirit, He enables us to walk in harmony with one another. The Corinthian epistles are full of raw honesty. They show how difficult this can be, but they hold out the promise of all that is possible in God’s strength, not our own. We have been brought into a supernatural life.

‘…those who are grasped by this love, who have the grace of the Lord Jesus in their bloodstreams, are thereby joined together in a family which the world has never seen before. It is a family based not at all on physical or ethnic descent or relation; anyone and everyone is welcome in it, which was just as challenging to most ancient people as it is to most modern ones. It is a family called to share a common life, and the word Paul uses here, koinonia, can be translated ‘partnership’, ‘association’, ‘participation’, ‘sharing’, ‘communion’, or even ‘inter-change’, as well as the familiar ‘fellowship’. This koinonia has been under enormous strain as Paul and the Corinthians have struggled to work out their relationship through visits, letters, reports, rumours, sorrow, joy, despair and hope. It is because Paul believes passionately that God’s own spirit is at work in both his life and that of the Corinthians that he cannot let them go, cannot walk away and found another church somewhere else, cannot simply bask in the happy relationship he has with his beloved Macedonian churches, but must thrash things out, must let partnership, participation and fellowship have their full expression. Indeed, if you want to know what ‘the fellowship of the holy spirit’ means in practice, a slow and serious reading of 2 Corinthians is a good, if sobering place to start.’ Tom Wright

 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. NIVUK

Through ”the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” we come to experience ”the love of God”.

”God is love” (1 John 4:16). This is always true, but we only come to know it truly and deeply – to experience it – through God’s grace in Jesus. As John writes in the first part of this oh so famous verse: ”And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.” If we take account of the wider context, from verse 7 onwards, we inevitably see that Jesus and His Cross (His grace) are fundamental to our coming to a subjective awareness of God’s love.

Tom Wright says that love ‘…is the very heart, the essence of who God is…And it is noticeable that the Jewish and Christian declaration of belief in a God of love stands out a mile from most other views of God ancient or modern.’

He adds that the ancient world was ‘…full of the anxiety that comes from a fear of superhuman forces that are precisely not loving, but are instead capricious, malevolent, and needing to be pacified or placated. None of the multiple options in that most pluralist of religious worlds spoke of a single God whose innermost nature was love.’

However, for the early Christians, ‘…gazing upon that loving God, and learning to love and trust him in return’ they ‘found themselves embraced in a new kind of spirituality, an intimacy of trust like of children with a father, a warm security of knowing that they were loved with an everlasting love.’

Of course, it is one thing to know the love of God, but quite another to share it. So, for a church which was fragile, in danger of being ripped apart by divisions, Paul prays for the continuing manifestation of God’s love among them. May they (and we!) know this love not only as a theological proposition, but as a practical reality.