Arguing With God Can Be A Good Thing: Psalm 17

Did you know that arguing with God can be a good thing? In the Psalms David always presents his arguments to God to make his case about why God should answer his prayers. God wants people to do this. God told Isaiah to say to the people, "Come, Let us reason together." God wants us to give reasons for our prayers because it helps us to evaluate whether we are praying for the right things and it builds our faith to know that our prayers will be answered. One of the most common reasons David gives about why God should answer his prayers is based on God's character. To do this, we need to have a good understanding of God's character. Psalm 17 is the first real prayer in the Psalter and it is a good one to illustrate this point because David uses 4 arguments in it.

Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry!
    Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
 From your presence let my vindication come!
    Let your eyes behold the right!

 You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night,
    you have tested me, and you will find nothing;
    I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
 With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips
    I have avoided the ways of the violent.
 My steps have held fast to your paths;
    my feet have not slipped.

As you can see, David's first argument is his innocence. In the Bible, when people claim innocence or blamelessness, they do not mean sinlessness. They mean that they are innocent of the charges brought against them by others, and that they are innocent of deliberate defiant sins against God. Leading an upright life is a strong basis for appeal to God. You need to ask yourself: Am I breaking any of God's commandments? Are there important duties I am neglecting? Am I being selfish? Is there some wrong that I should make right? Are my priorities in order?

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
    incline your ear to me; hear my words.
7 Wondrously show your steadfast love,
    O Savior of those who seek refuge
    from their adversaries at your right hand.

The second argument David uses is based on God's character and love. "Hesed" is the Hebrew word that is translated "steadfast love," and it refers to God's covenant love for His people. So David is appealing to what God has already revealed Himself to be. Now he can be confident that his prayer will be heard and answered.

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
    hide me in the shadow of your wings,
 from the wicked who do me violence,
    my deadly enemies who surround me.

 They close their hearts to pity;
    with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
 They have now surrounded our steps;
    they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
 He is like a lion eager to tear,
    as a young lion lurking in ambush.

 Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!
    Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
 from men by your hand, O Lord,
    from men of the world whose portion is in this life.[b]
You fill their womb with treasure;[c]
    they are satisfied with children,
    and they leave their abundance to their infants.

David's third argument is based on the danger he is in. He says of his enemies, "they close their hearts to pity" which in the Hebrew literally means "they are enclosed in their own fat" --LOL!  This means our enemies can be implacable. No matter what we do, they will never be satisfied. They have no mercy and they speak with arrogance. And they track us down, intent on destroying us. Our biggest enemy is Satan, but he often gets others to do his work. 

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
    when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Finally, David's last argument is that he is on intimate terms with God. So much so that he reflects God's image. 

David is teaching all of us how to pray. We need to evaluate our prayers to see if they are truly founded in God's character and promises and if they are, we can be assured they will be answered because God's character never changes. Here are just a few of His character traits that we can rely on: His steadfast love, his (outrageous, scandalous) grace and mercy, his righteousness and justice, and his kindness. And it is OK to argue your case before God! He loves  it!

A Psalm to Read By Moonlight...Psalm 8

O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
     Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.

This Psalm is about the majesty of God and also the significance of man. In a very short Psalm, we are taken back to the very beginning of time when God created man in his own image and crowned him with glory and honor and gave him dominion over everything, and we are taken above the heavens and to the very end of time! God's majesty is everywhere! 

But look at verse 2 in this Psalm--at first glance it doesn't seem to fit. What is all this talk about foes and enemies and avengers doing in the middle of a Psalm about praise? As you read through the Psalms you will notice very quickly that the psalmists are always talking about enemies. And in spite of the fact that they were at war A LOT, the weapon they feared the worst was...slander. David talks about slander constantly because words can destroy people in ways that swords can't. So when we read in verse 2 "Out of the mouths of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger" it means that mere babies can silence God's enemies by simply praising God! 

Did you know that Jesus quoted this verse to the Pharisees on Palm Sunday? They were all bent out of shape because the people were praising Jesus and they came to Jesus and told him to make them stop. Jesus quoted this verse to them, but he left out the last line: "to still the enemy and the avenger." But they knew he was talking about them, and that he was referring to them as God's enemies. 

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
 what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

Do you see why you need to be reading this by the light of the moon? You have to look up at the night sky to see how big this cosmos is and even then you can't see all of it. Then look at yourself and see how small you are by comparison. So you can see why David wonders why man is the crowning glory of creation when he looks so pathetic!

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings[b]
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,
 all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

 O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Adam and Eve were made a little lower than heavenly beings and were crowned like a king and queen and they were given dominion over all the rest of creation. Well, I don't need to tell you how badly they blew it. But when the second Adam (Jesus) came, he did everything right. David knew this would happen and so he ends the Psalm just the way he started it: "O LORD our Lord how majestic is your name in  all the earth!" 

David understood that by sending a second "Adam" God was giving the first Adam (and all the rest of us) a measure of outrageous, scandalous grace! And he knew that someday, we will live on a new earth and we will be crowned with glory and honor and we will be given dominion over the new creation--only this time with no creepy serpent coming in to wreck it all. 

So next time you are outside at night, and you look up at the moon and stars, remember this Psalm and remember God's outrageous, scandalous grace. And let praise come out of your lips "to still the enemy and the avenger." 

O LORD our Lord How majestic is your name in all the earth!

Do You Have A Lot Of Enemies? Psalm 3...

Save Me, O My God

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.

 3 O Lord, how many are my foes!
    Many are rising against me;
2 many are saying of my soul,
    “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah

3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
    my glory, and the lifter of my head.
4 I cried aloud to the Lord,
    and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah

I like writing about the Psalms because I literally live in them! A long time ago, some very wise person told me to get in the habit of reading 5 Psalms every day and when I tried it I got addicted. Now I can't live without them. Turns out there is a Psalm for every situation life can throw at us. I am not going to write about every single Psalm, but I am going to ponder a few of my favorites because maybe they can help you too.

Psalm 3 is about having a lot of enemies and it was written by David when his own son was against him! Sometimes our family members betray us or try to get rid of us. Absalom was trying to kill David! Sometimes it is our best friend who betrays us by gossiping about us or slandering us. Sometimes our enemies are people we don't even know. 

Our enemies may not put us in physical danger, but we face a battle every morning! The number of people who are our enemies doesn't matter--it only takes one person to make our lives miserable. Do you see the word "selah" at the end of verse 4? That means stop and think about this for a minute. What are we supposed to think about? Just this: Whatever distress you have, it is precisely in the midst of this that God will appear to deliver you!

Do your enemies keep you awake at night? God will take away your anxiety so that you can get a good night's sleep. That is one way you can know that God is helping you. 

5 I lay down and slept;
    I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
    who have set themselves against me all around.

7 Arise, O Lord!
    Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
    you break the teeth of the wicked.

8 Salvation belongs to the Lord;
    your blessing be on your people! Selah

You can also pray like David did. In verse 7 David calls on God by saying "Arise, O LORD!"  That was Israel's battle cry. David was calling on God to go to battle for him. And something really awesome happened when he did that. When David changed his focus from his enemies to God, he had peace. He knew that God was watching every single thing that was happening to him. And he knew that God would see that justice was done and that his enemies would be destroyed. 

Our enemies are like ospreys looking for fish to devour! That is why David says in verse 7 "break the teeth of the wicked." 

Ospreys on the lookout!

Caught ya! LOL

I think that is one thing I like about the Psalms. They show us in a very real way that when our perspective changes, everything changes. We can start out focusing on ourselves and our circumstances, but the longer we pray, the more we realize that God is already working and he is on our side. We will be vindicated and our enemies will be destroyed. 

Some people think it is a sin to pray that wicked people will be destroyed because in the New Testament Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. But when people are acting in evil ways that do not glorify God, we are right to pray that their schemes will fail and that the evil they try to do to others would turn on themselves. We just have to leave the vengeance up to God and not take revenge ourselves. God says, "Vengeance is mine...and I WILL REPAY. That's a promise!

Are You In Pursuit of Happiness? Psalm 1...

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked

nor stands in the way of sinners

nor sits in the seat of scoffers

but his delight is in the law of the LORD

and on his law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1 is the gateway to all the Psalms. It is the text to which all the other Psalms are the exposition. This Psalm shows divergent ways and gives us two portraits, one of the wise man and one of the wicked. "Blessed" means supremely happy or fulfilled. The Hebrew word is plural which means lots of blessings are in store for this man. 

Notice the progression of temptation in a downward spiral: "walks not" "nor stands" "nor sits".  With each, the time spent lengthens just a little until the tempted person gives in and sits down. The wise man doesn't even give temptation a chance. 

But the wise man "delights" in the law of the LORD.  C.S. Lewis says "delight" is "ravished by moral beauty." Notice one other thing: "on his law he meditates day and night." The truly blessed person "studies" the Word of God in the morning and again at night, and he thinks about it throughout the day. 

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in season

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind blows away.

Let's look at that wise man. The imagery makes it easy to understand. He is like a tree that is planted, rooted, nourished and fruitful. And he doesn't die! He is successful in everything he does. But the wicked fellow is like chaff. In ancient times, threshing floors were on hilltops to catch the best breezes. Grain would be crushed by animals or by threshing instruments and then thrown high into the air where the wind would blow the chaff away. The chaff would either be scattered or burned up. The good grain would fall to the floor to be gathered up. 

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,

for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish. 

There are two kinds of people and two kinds of outcomes. The wicked will never be with the LORD or with the righteous. They will perish, but the righteous will live. 

There has only ever been one righteous man who never gave in to temptation and that was Jesus. But all of those who confess their sin and trust in Him have eternal life because God has taken away all their sins and given them the same righteousness as Christ.