Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 46: Fortress

Left:  "A Mighty Fortress."  On right, "Be Still my Soul,"
also inspired by Psalm 46.

Part of a continuing series on selected psalms.

Growing up in a liturgical church, I looked forward to the times when the majestic cadences of Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” would pour from the church organ, especially on “Reformation Sunday,” the end of October. Later, as a young adult who played occasionally for services, I learned to pull out all the powerful horn stops to accord the grandeur this song conveyed.  No wimpy “strings” or “flutes” would do for “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.” Yet for all the years I sang and played that hymn, I never connected the dots for its historical settings in Israel and Germany, its origins in Psalm 46, or for the personal message it offers me. I know more now, yet I have much more to discover of the depths of this magnificent psalm.

MARTIN LUTHER’S HYMN

The connection to Martin Luther happened about 500 years ago when he led the Protestant reformation, fighting the mother church over unscriptural doctrines and practices. The turning point came in October 1517, when he nailed his “95 Theses” or list of church wrongdoings to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. Especially he was grieved by the church’s fall from the doctrine of salvation by faith.

As a religious troublemaker, Luther soon had a bounty on his head, and for a time had to go into hiding. He knew that no human fortress could fully protect him, but God could. He turned his energies to translating the Bible into common German, writing commentaries, and composing numerous hymns. He felt the church needed culturally relevant songs that taught scriptural truth. “A Mighty Fortress” was one of them. The four theories over what inspired the hymn all connect with various crises in Luther’s stance against error in the traditional church. Accomplished on flute and lute, Luther composed both lyrics and melody sometime between 1527 and 1529. Translations soon spread, including 30 into English, with Frederick Hedges' 1853 effort the most popular today.

HEZEKIAH’S “HYMN”?

The real historical background of Psalm 46 goes to the time of King Hezekiah, who came to the throne about 240 years after the death of David, and 200 years after the nation split into north and south monarchies. Hezekiah belonged to the “south” part (Judah) and was watching the northern kingdom disintegrate and fall to Assyria. Because Hezekiah was a poet as well as king, it’s quite possible he wrote this psalm to celebrate how God miraculously spared his nation from falling to Assyria. The history is told in 2 Kings 18-19, 1 Chronicles 32, and Isaiah 36-37. Basically, the Assyrians were ready to overtake Jerusalem, which unlike other great ancient cities wasn’t situated near a major river.  The Jordan is miles downhill. But Hezekiah had the foresight to cover over a spring outside the city walls, and reroute it into the city about a third of a mile through a conduit chipped out of solid rock. This gave the city critical water supplies while under siege.

The Assyrians came, taunted, threatened, and humiliated. At one point Hezekiah took the enemy’s letter to the temple, literally spreading it out before the unseen God as he pleaded for wisdom.  God answered, basically, “Trust me.” Before the enemy could attack, a death angel visited, killing the entire enemy camp.

THE HYMN: THE CRITICAL “THEREFORE”

Psalm 46 breaks into three distinct sections, with the first affirming one’s faith and setting up a worse case scenario. “God is our refuge and strength,” it begins, “an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear.”  Then come descriptions of cataclysmic destruction.  The earth heaves, the mountains collapse, the seas churn. Everything seems to be falling apart. Such geographic things didn’t happen to Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time, but the specter of death and deportation hung darkly over the city as the enemy waited. Today we know that the worst is still to come at the end of times, when the earth will convulse with prophesied destruction. Even worse things will happen than the catastrophe of “9-11”—for which Luther’s hymn was chosen to comfort a stunned, grieving nation attending or watching the national prayer service on Sept. 24, 2011. No matter what, God is our refuge and strength. He will be there for us.  And thus the section ends: Selah—a musical pause to stop, think about it.

At times, when I’ve given in to fretting and worry over negative circumstances that seem rolling out of control, I am dragged back to that truth:  God is…therefore, do not fear!  He is my inner strength.  As Charles Spurgeon once remarked, correcting a common misquote, “God helps those who cannot help themselves.”             

THE HYMN: THE CRUCIAL “WITHIN”

The “selah” gives us time to think about worst-case scenarios, then the second section flows into the psalm like a peaceful river. Verses 4 and 5 seem to allude to Hezekiah’s tunnel project to bring water into the city. There’s unmistakable spiritual analogy here, one that would culminate in Jesus’ declaration that He is the water of life (John 7:37-39). He refreshes us and sustains us spiritually like nothing else.  God was “within” Jerusalem (v. 5) just as much as He can dwell within us by faith. I cannot help but think of another river of the future: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city” (Revelation 22:1-2). Just what this really means is beyond my limited understanding. But it tells me that God will bring to completion this whole idea of a life-giving source coming from Him alone.

The comment in verse 6, “God will help her at break of day,” was literally true for Hezekiah when widespread death came to the enemy by daybreak.  I’m reminded of Psalm 30:5: “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” Often, in our darkness, we just need time to recognize God’s hand in circumstances. Sometimes, it’s literally after a good night’s sleep.  Sometimes, it’s in the slow dawn of spiritual understanding as we crawl out of our dark times of pain and disappointment.  Thus, another “selah”—stop and think about these truths.

THE HYMN: THE CONCLUDING “COME”

These caves, pocking a basalt rock face hundreds of feet high,
 remind me of the concluding verse: "The God
of Jacob is our fortress."

“Come and see the works of the LORD,” the psalmist invites us. He pictures wars ending and the implements of war being destroyed. Yet for thousands of years we’ve had warfare and disruption throughout the earth. But that’s not God’s ultimate plan.  No wonder we’re given this counsel: “Be still, and know that I am God.”  The literal meaning of “be still” is “Take your hands off!  Relax.” Because we tend to be hands-on people who like to manage our lives, that’s hard. God is big enough and mighty enough to do what’s right. But it’s a hard lesson. We’re given a reminder of that as the psalm concludes. The writer exalts “the LORD Almighty,” also translated “the LORD of Hosts,” indicating the most holy and most powerful God of all. Then he adds: “the God of Jacob is our fortress.”  Jacob was a cheat who tried to play “god” and arrange his own circumstances. He learned to “let God be God” the hard way.  But God never gave up on him.

So it is for us. When life seems impossible, when we’re in tight places, God knows all about it.  Sometimes He allows these overwhelming circumstances to grow our faith.  But He never gives up on us, inviting us to trust Him even when there seem to be no answers. Even if death comes—and for a believer, that’s just a transition—He is still there.  John Wesley, another great reformer two centuries after Luther, was losing his voice as he lay dying. But he cried out, as his last words, a declaration from Psalm 46:11: “The best of all is, God is with us.”

Next: Psalm 51.

 

Making ‘Psense’ of Psalms—Psalms 42-43: Hope

Sunset on a stormy day--photographed at Moscow, Idaho--
an appropriate visual for spiritual hope in life's dark times

Part of a continuing series on Psalms.
 “Well, they have ‘down-in-the-dumps’ right,” I reflected after reading Psalms 42 and 43. At some time, I’d probably whined my own version of the psalms’ refrain: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted ["disturbed" in NIV] in me?” (42:5, 11; 43:5).  I was the guest of honor at my personal pity party. Then the refrain’s conclusion grabbed me with its remedy for being down-in-the-mouth: “Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.”  The “cure” for those downcast, “poor me” times was turning attention from myself to the hope I have in the Lord. These psalms need to be read together. Indeed, in early Hebrew manuscripts (before the assignment of chapter-and-verse headings), they were linked. Attributed to the “sons of Korah” (temple musicians), there’s no historical subtitle. But the imagery and intense language transcend time as they speak to us today, particularly when we feel depressed.

THIRSTY

Psalm 42 opens with a picture of desperate thirst: “As the hart [deer] panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” Unlike camels, whose fatty humps help them survive long periods in desert terrain, deer must have regular access to water. I live in “high desert” with miles and miles of rocky scrublands, bisected by a life-giving river. The highway along the river is a death trap for deer trying to get to water. Despite warning signs for drivers, deer still get hit. When I see a deer carcass while traveling, I’m reminded of Psalm 42 and its truth through this image that our true spiritual survival depends on sating our thirst for “the living God” (42:2). 

Spiritual opposition can heighten our thirst. The psalmist tells of non-believers who scoff, “Where is thy God?” (42:3). Deceitful and unjust people jeer the believer (43:1). The psalmist also pines over missing the festive worship at the temple in Jerusalem (42:4). Worship in those days involved processions, dancing and singing.    

LONESOME

Some scholars think the psalm’s author may have been far away, near Mount Hermon, about a hundred miles from Jerusalem as the crow flies. Though separated from the temple worship with all its festive trappings, he found there a new way to connect with God. He refers to Hermon and a lesser hill, Mizar, plus what might be the cascading headwaters that eventually drain to the Jordan (42:6, 7).  He also senses God’s power and plan in the cycle of day and night (42:8). What we today call “natural revelation” reminds him that he can worship God even  away from the temple. Even today, people find special spiritual encouragement by simply getting away to reflect on God’s creative power.

Thinking about God’s attributes encouraged the psalmist. Embedded in both Psalms 42 and 43 are numerous names for the works and character of God. He is “the living God” (42:2, a phrase found in another yearning-for-God psalm, number 84).  He is “my God” (42:6, 11: 43:4), with the pronoun “my” indicating a personal connection to this great God of all.  He is “the LORD” (v. 8), rendered in small capitals in English Bible translations to indicate the name that Jews considered so holy that they would not speak or write it.  We know it as YHWH or “Jehovah.” The psalmist also addresses God as “God of my life” (42:8), suggesting submission.  He is “God my rock” (42:9), a solid and reliable God, a term that shows up in nearly twenty other psalms. He is “God of my strength” (43:2), the source for “keeping on.”  He is “God my exceeding joy” (43:3), who will bring me out of that “downcast” condition. 

Even before studying this psalm, I had begun a practice of meditating on the names and attributes of God.  When problems kept me awake at night, I started going through the alphabet, recalling the names of God that gave me courage and encouragement.  I considered Him as the “Almighty One,” my Burden-bearer, my Compassionate Comforter—and on and on. By “Z,” peace and sleep would usually come. The practice reminded me that God, in the fullness of his deity, is far greater than any problem I might face.

FACE-BRIGHTENER

The last part of the psalms’ thrice-repeated refrain also reminded me of God’s care in difficult experiences: “Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” One more recent translation renders this “my Savior and my God” (NIV). The idea is that the God who lifts our saddened faces to show us His profound love is indeed the One who “saves” us from this despondency.

For me, the refrain’s key word is “hope.”  The apostle Paul reminded us “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). He emphasized that life’s tribulations can lead us, in God’s plan, to hope that never disappoints (“maketh not ashamed,” Romans 5:5 in KJV).

Psalms 42 and 43 are no longer the “despondency” psalms for me.  Yes, they describe someone who is downhearted.  But the psalms’ refrains don’t leave me stuck on “downcast.”  They remind me to hang on to hope. As John Stott remarked in Favorite Psalms (Baker, ’88, ’03, p. 50): “The cure for depression is neither to look in at our grief, nor back to our past, nor round at our problems, but away and up to the living God.”

Next week: Psalm 46.

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 40: Rescued

"He set my feet upon a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."--Psalm 40:2b.
This huge basalt rock wall is about 30 miles from my home.

Part of a continuing series on selected psalms.

When there’s no chance of survivors in a disaster, the language among responders changes from “rescue” to “recovery.” For the massive March 22 landslide that swept away the Western Washington river community of Oso, that word change came early as workers and machines picked at the mammoth mucky debris pile. Photos of the mess brought to mind the opening lines of Psalm 40, which by coincidence I was studying at the time:

            I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.
            He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire…(vv. 1-2)
Sadly, few were “lifted out” alive from the tons of debris. Some dead may never be found. But Psalm 40 isn’t about an Oso-style landslide. David used a metaphor for an “entrapping situation” to illustrate difficult times in his life.

It’s worth noting, however, that the Bible does tell about a “slimy pit” experience of a prophet who lived about four hundred years after David. As punishment for his negative prophecies, the king had Jeremiah dumped into a city “cistern,” a huge water collection hole with a small opening at top. Though empty (otherwise Jeremiah would have drowned), its accumulated mud bottom sucked his body down. He would have perished there without the kind intervention of a palace official. Jeremiah 38 says it took thirty men pulling on ropes to extricate Jeremiah.

We could dismiss that as an interesting historical aside—except for its powerful symbolism of the “pits” any of us encounter in life’s journey. I often use the analogy in my prayers for people I care about: “Lord, I pray that they’ll escape the grips of their emotional/spiritual/relational ‘stuckness.’” A good definition of such pits comes from the late James Montgomery Boice in his book Psalms Volume 1 (Baker, 1994, 348-349):

*The pit of sin. Those who’ve turned away from sin know its powerful downward pull.  Romans 1 describes how one depraved choice leads to a worse one. King David surely knew its pull in the whole Bathsheba mess.

*The pit of defeat. Some people complain of defeat in relationships, education, or work.  They’ve never succeeded enough at anything to want to keep going, so they give up instead of believing that God has important things for them to do.

*The pit of bad habits. These may be destructive addictions (drugs, cutting, anorexia) or life patterns (temper, self-pity, laziness, overeating). But, Boice added, with Christ these can be overcome.

*The pit of circumstances. For a what-can-get-worse example, Boice pointed to the extremes of physical, emotional and spiritual distress that Paul experienced in telling his world about Christ. Yet Paul was able to say, “We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9).

One way to outline the message of Psalm 40 is through four R’s: Rescue (1-2), Response (3-5, worship and proclamation), Reamed (6-10, ears “opened” to hear and obey), Remembrance and Reprise (11-17).

RESCUED

Psalm 40 opens significantly with a phrase of hopeful anticipation. David doesn’t cry, “I’m in a terrible mess! Where’s God in all this?”  Instead, he says, “I waited patiently for the Lord.” He believed God saw every detail of his life. A couple psalms earlier, he wrote, “All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you” (Psalm 38:9). Romans 8:30 reaffirms that absolutely nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” David trusted, and God turned and heard David’s cry, lifted him out of the pit of negativity, and set his feet on a rock of renewed hope. For us, that Rock is the Lord Jesus!

RESPONSE

David didn’t mope, “Well, it’s about time you showed up, God.” Instead, he praised God with a “new song” with the desire that “many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord” (v. 3). What a lesson for the rest of us—to use our stories of help to bring glory to God and woo others to Him!

REAMED

Some members of my family have problems with earwax buildup, requiring occasional medical help to remove the compacted wax so they can hear again. Although the outline word “reamed” implies a sharp tool (which would be dangerous for ears!), that’s the basic idea conveyed in Psalm 40:6. David wrote that obedience to God is the best sacrifice, and that God had “opened” his ears (v. 6). The Hebrew word for “opened” is kara and in other scriptures is translated "dig," "make," and "pierce."

Older commentators connected this to the practice described in Numbers 21 of piercing a hole in the ear of a slave wanting to stay with his master after his six-year required labor. This marked him physically as a servant for life. But “ears” in Psalm 40:6 is plural, and that rite pierced only one ear. More recent commentators believe it refers to "dug" or "opened up," to imply that the obedient person's ears have opened up to take in God's truth. Open to God’s counsel, that person says, “I desire to do your will, O my God, your law is within my heart” (40:8).  Living out divine truth is how he is rescued from his pits of sin, defeat, bad habits or circumstances. More than that, he wants to share the good news of a relationship with a loving God with all around him (vv. 9-10).
 
REMEMBRANCE AND REPRISE
With verse 11, David seems to continue to face troubles and enemies. But he comes back to where he began: to patiently trusting God for life in this imperfect world: “You are my help and my deliverer,” he says (v. 17). “Oh my God, do not delay.” We have an even more encouraging word from the Lord Jesus:  “In this world you will have trouble. Take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Next blog: Psalms 42-43

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 37: The Meek and the Mean

Part of a continuing series on selected Psalms.
“In three seconds, everything washed away,” The Seattle Times headlines read on March 23, 2014.  The previous day, an entire rain-drenched hillside collapsed, smothering a small community in mud and debris. Some victims were trapped in their homes as the structures were torn from foundations. The disaster was quickly ranked as among the state’s worse, up there with the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens, earthquakes and horrific windstorms. As I processed the news coverage of this sad, unexpected disaster, I was also thinking of lessons from my study of Psalm 37. Only God knows the true spiritual condition of each who died, and some were likely solid Christians. But the enormity of the landslide made me wonder what will happen at the end of time, when Psalm 37 says the wicked will be destroyed. Jesus also taught about the sobering suddenness of events when He returns: “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left” (Matt. 24:40-41).
 
Psalm 37 is one of seven acrostic psalms, built off the Hebrew alphabet. In Bible times, alphabet songs helped teach spiritual truth to children and adults. The big idea behind Psalm 37 is finding spiritual peace in the midst of the age-old battle between good and evil. Or, to simplify it to two “m” words, between the “meek” and the “mean.” Verse 5 is a key: “The meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace” (37:5). In His sermon on the mount, Jesus reiterated that truth: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). He didn’t elaborate, but David had already, hundreds of years earlier, in this psalm.

MEEKNESS

The same Hebrew word for “meek” in Psalm 37:11 (anayw) was also used to describe Moses’ humble reaction when his siblings criticized Moses’ choice of a wife: “Now Moses was a very humble (anayw, “meek” in KJV) man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3 NIV). A common definition of this Biblical trait is “strength under control.” Moses lived out the proactive responses David gave in Psalm 37:
 “Fret not”—literally, don’t get heated up. Stay cool. As if for emphasis, “fret not” is repeated in verses 7 and 8. It’s easy to fret when bad seems to be winning out, and bad people seem to prosper, but God says keep the long view in mind.

 “Trust in the Lord”—Trusting in God includes practical steps of doing good and doing your best in your circumstances (“dwell in the land”).

“Take delight in the Lord”—Delighting in the Lord shows others that He is worthy of our love and worship, not the frowning, legalistic deity that non-believers tend to see Him as. The promise to give us the “desires of our heart” means that when our desires match up with His, we will know those blessings. It’s not a cart blanche promise to receive any frivolous thing out there.  Sometimes God needs to protect us from our unwise desires.

“Commit your way to the Lord”—The original language is a picturesque term of “rolling off our burdens.” Years ago, visiting a banana planation in Panama, I watched workers shouldering huge just-cut stalks, laden with dozens of green bananas.  They took these burdens to trailers, gently rolling them off into padded platforms. Similarly, God says to roll our burdens onto Him—as 1 Peter 5:7 expresses it:  “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

 “Be still before the Lord”—Waiting on God goes hand-in-hand with waiting patiently for His perfect timing. David put it another way in Psalm 62:5: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.”

“Refrain from anger”—God wants us to guard against anger, instead fully trusting Him when facing injustice and disappointment.

MEANNESS

Psalm 37 gives various names for the “mean”: “the wicked” (14 times in the King James version), “those who do/are evil,” “who do wrong,” “who carry out wicked schemes,” “those he [God] curses,” “enemies,” “wrongdoers,” and “sinners.” This conflict between the “godly” and the “wicked” goes back to God’s covenant with Israel, told in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 27-30. If Israelites obeyed God, they could live in the Promised Land and enjoy its blessings—the reason behind “the land” or “inheritance” repeated eight times n Psalm 37. If they disobeyed God, they’d be chastened by invasion, drought, or famine. Chronic disobedience would mean removal from the land—which is exactly what happened during 70 years captivity under foreign rulers.

In David’s time, however, hundreds of years before captivity, the faithful saw wicked people prospering, contrary to their thinking that God should only prosper those who followed Him. In this psalm, David was teaching them to trust God’s character. He would punish the wicked—and thoroughly: “All sinners will be destroyed; there will be no more future for the wicked” (v. 38). In the meantime, they weren’t supposed to give up on the Promised Land and move elsewhere (as did Naomi’s family in the book of Ruth).

Our modern economy has changed customs of inherited lands. One good result of this is the freedom to move to different places to do God’s work. On the other hand, it allows people to give up when God might want them instead to stay and work through problems. One who has learned to listen to God’s call to “wait” or “go” is Edith Schaeffer.  Her words in Common Sense Christian Living (Nelson, 1983, p. 227) are worth considering: “You and I often want to know, ‘What comes next?’ God is saying, ‘Trust Me,’ He is saying, ‘Stay in the place where you are until I show you [in a variety of ways, usually not mystical at all] what comes next.’ He is saying, ‘Blessed is the person who waits in the dark, holding My hand.’”

One more important reason to stay put: our witness to the “mean” or ungodly. This quote by 19^th century preacher Charles Spurgeon says it well: “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies.  If they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees.  Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”  That’s a “bold” assignment for the “meek”!