Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 150: Hallelujah!

A rose from my garden--just one tiny part of God's
praiseworthy creation.

And so we come to the end of psalms. It began with a blessing on the one who follows God above all else. It ends with that follower praising God above all else. Simple in words, deeper than words, lovely just by itself, it is a fitting conclusion and invitation to respond to God with praise, and praise, and more praise. “Hallelu-Yah,” Hebrew for “Praise the Lord.”

Just the word “Hallelujah” prompts many to think of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s oratorio, “The Messiah.” He completed the massive work (my edition of the vocal score is 250 pages) in 24 days in 1741. Tradition says that at its 1743 London premier, King George 2 was present and so moved that he stood, meaning all others had to stand, too.  Some scholars say the king wasn’t there at all, but the custom has persisted. Despite the use of the word “Hallelujah,” Handel’s famed chorus (which concludes the second of three parts in The Messiah) isn’t based on Psalm 150 but on three exultant songs of heaven given in Revelation:

“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.” (19:6)
“The Kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (11:15)
“King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” (19:16).
The focus of Revelation’s “psalms” is the victory of Christ, slain for the sins of the world, risen to be exalted forever. Psalm 150 tells one part of the God-story, looking forward to a Messiah. Revelation is its final chorus, its true Hallelujah.

Yet Psalm 150 has its own magnificent message. It climaxes the psalter’s five final praise psalms, all of which start with “Praise the Lord” or “Hallelujah.”

Psalm 146 praises God’s greatness in creation and His grace in providing for all, including the oppressed, hungry, prisoners, disabled, alien, fatherless and widowed.
Psalm 147 praises God for allowing exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. It also speaks of God’s provision for daily life through the divine plan of growing seasons.
Psalm 148 gives voice to all in heaven and earth in praising God, from sun, moon and stars to the weather, topography and creatures that inhabit it. This psalm reminds me of Jesus’ retort in Luke 19:40.  He had just entered Jerusalem on a donkey to the crowd’s triumphant shouts. But some Pharisees, as usual, disapproved of the love and acclaim Jesus’ followers had given Him. He replied, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Indeed, in a week, the Lord would die and the earth convulse. Then a stone would pull back from a tomb opening. I wonder, did it shout “Victory”? He’d rise again, and all Heaven break out in unfathomable rejoicing.
Psalm 149 describes saints in exuberant praise and how evil will be annihilated.
Then comes Psalm 150, like the loudest of the five very loud concluding songs of praise.

TO WHOM? GOD!

“Praise the LORD” (v. 1), the name here being “Yahweh,” the gracious, attentive, caring covenant-keeping God of indescribable love and absolute holiness.

WHERE?

“Praise God in his sanctuary” (v. 1b)—at that time, the temple. “Praise him in his mighty heavens.” The sky, the vault of heaven, reminds us to look up and praise the One who fills the universe. Worship isn’t to be parceled off to a time at church or Bible study, or even that special “devotional time.” It can happen everywhere, anywhere, anytime. God is too big to put in a box.

WHY?

“Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness”  (v. 2).  One is God’s works, starting with the moment He said, “Let there be light” and proceeded to design and populate the earth. It’s His decision to judge the sin-polluted earth with a flood and give it a second chance via a boatload of hope. His power also sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to earth, to pay for my sins and yours through an excruciating death.

All these lead to awe and praise for God’s greatness and glory. We can praise Him because He isn’t a remote, disinterested or fickle god. He is holy but stoops to the lowly. His love for His creation is beyond understanding or description.

These talented hands belong to our long-time
church organist, who has served God
through music for six decades.

HOW?

God’s people used every instrument of their times at their disposal to praise Him.

“Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet”—probably the rams’ horns (shofar) of those times.

“Praise him with the harp and lyre”—simple stringed instruments, like David played.

“Praise him with the tambourine and dancing”—as also used for Miriam’s victory dance (Exodus 15:20-21), the women welcoming Saul and David as victors (1 Samuel 18:6-7), and David’s uninhibited joy-dance when the ark was returned to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:14-16).

“Praise him with the strings and flute”—again, early ancestors of today’s instruments.

“Praise him with the clash of cymbals…with resounding cymbals”—bronze instruments used by temple musicians like Asaph (1 Chronicles 15:19), credited with Psalms 50 and 73-83.

The fish symbol for this tambourine!

Today, opinions about “appropriate” instruments for worship go across the spectrum. Some “non-instrumental” church bodies, sensitive about instruments once used in worldly places like dance halls, practice singing a capella. At the other end are those using all modern instruments at their disposal (including those orchestras-in-a-box called synthesizers). Though his comments were made more than a century ago, it’s worth noting that William Booth, who established Salvation Army bands for street evangelism, declared that we should sanctify and use our voices and any instruments for the Lord. As for texts, Scripture gives us these guidelines:

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:19-20)

WHO?

“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.”
Another psalm reminds us that even things without breath praise Him:
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
Let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
Let the fields be jubilant and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy. (Psalm 96:11-13)

Devotional poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) famously wrote that “Heaven is revealed to earth as the homeland of music.” Isaiah 55:12 says some day, “the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”  When the Lord spoke to Job about His majesty, He asked, “Where were you….while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4a, 7).

What more could be said for “praise”?  Perhaps just a reminder of the object of our praise, expressed in the final chorus of “The Messiah,” based on Revelation 5:12-13.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.  Blessing and honor, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.  Amen.

 ------------------------

As I end these ten months of studying my “Top 40” psalms, I’m wondering if any readers have been encouraged by any specific posts. The blog “engine” tells me there are readers all over the world, with the top four countries of origin regularly being United States, Ukraine, Turkey, and France. I’d love to hear from you (use the reply form below). To God be the glory! I hope you’ll continue visiting as I seek to write about encouragement from God’s Word.

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 145: Awe

This site awed me--a church that survived the devastating
2014 fires of North Central Washington. Trees around it were
singed, homes in four city blocks to the left destroyed,
but the church was spared. More than 320 homes burned.

Part of a continuing series on selected psalms.

One of the worship choruses sung in my church is about standing in awe of God. In its ancient format—an acrostic built off the Hebrew alphabet—this is the message of Psalm 145.  The last psalm attributed to David (who wrote approximately half the psalms), it is almost breathtaking in its breadth of praising God’s many attributes. Verse 5 puts the message in a capsule: “Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”

 For our times, when many have become careless and even flippant about God’s name, this psalm rightly reminds us that His person and His name are intertwined. “I will exalt you, my God, the king,” David begins. “I will praise your name for ever and ever.” This also went beyond “worship day.” David said, “Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever” (v. 2).  Then, starting with the Hebrew “aleph” and on to “taw,” he offers a teaching psalm about exalting God for His greatness, graciousness,  faithfulness, and righteousness. The word “all” is prominent throughout the psalm, a reminder that worship is not the domain of a select few, but all.
 

GOD’S GREATNESS (vv. 3-7)

As I began underlining and circling words in this section, I realized the statements had a similar grammar form: action verb/direct object. Like a hammer pounding a nail into wood, it gives many ways to exalt God’s greatness:
*Commend/His works to another. This verse specifies: “One generation will command your works to another” (v. 4a)—a reminder that unless we pass on our faith, it’s one generation from extinction.  The Enemy is hard at work! Thus we need to:
*Tell/His mighty acts.
*Speak of/the glorious splendor of His majesty.
*Meditate on /God’s wonderful works.
*Proclaim/God’s great deeds.
*Celebrate/God’s abundant goodness.
*Joyfully sing/of God’s righteousness.

GOD’S GRACIOUSNESS (vv. 8-13a)

This section begins with an ancient jewel:
The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. (v. 8)
This verse is drawn from God’s revelation of Himself to Moses, told in Exodus 34:6. After getting two tablets with God’s “Ten Commandments” for living, Moses came down to find the Israelites foolishly worshipping a golden calf. In anger, he smashed the two tablets. Before long, Moses went up the mountain again to receive replacement tablets, and this time God described Himself with the words partly quoted in Psalm 145:8. God also described Himself as “forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin,” but not letting the guilty go unpunished (Exodus 34:6). Instead of wiping out the fickle nation, God gave them a second chance—just as He does for us. Like the first section, this one also has action verbs for praising and extolling God. We’re to:
*Tell/the glory of God’s kingdom
*Speak of /His might “so that men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom” (v. 12). In other words, we’re to be about soul business!



Eastern Washington grain elevators--symbols of God's supply.

GOD’S FAITHFULNESS (vv. 13b-16)

Psalm 145 wouldn’t be a true “alphabetical” or acrostic psalm without a second part to verse 13, which starts with “nun,” the Hebrew letter between mem and samekh:
The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.
That verse isn’t in the 1611 King James version, but subsequent discoveries of more ancient manuscripts with that verse resulted in it being put in newer versions, at least in footnotes. The verse, like the previous section, paraphrases part of God’s revelation about His nature in Exodus 34:6. More important, it fits the theme of this section, which portrays God as taking care of our daily needs.  He upholds us or lifts us up when negatives strike us. We can trust Him for our daily needs:
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.  You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. (vv. 15-16)
This verse became meaningful to me during lean financial times as a graduate student, when unexpected jobs helped me buy my food. It’s encouragement for those who run “soup kitchens” of food banks for the needy. It’s also about those who have enough to eat and to share. It should prompt us to thank God for those in the food chain, all the way to farmers and ranchers, who depend on God’s gifts of good weather, seed, and soil. They all are part of the hands of God in providing “food at the proper time.” No matter how He orchestrates taking care of our needs, He is faithful. As David prayed while offerings came in to build the temple: “Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (1 Chronicles 29:14b).

GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS (vv. 17-20)

In another allusion to Exodus 34, Psalm 145 affirms that God’s righteousness means He abhors evil but loves the sinner who comes to Him in repentance. Exodus 34:7 speaks of Him:
Maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Then in Psalm 145:20:
The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
Oh, the benefits for those who call on Him “in truth” (in faith):
*He will come near to them (v. 18).
*He will fulfill their desires (v. 19, an echo of Psalm 37:4).
*He will hear their cries and save them (v. 19).
*He will watch over them (v. 20, a frequent benefit named by David, who needed much “watching over”!).
*He will destroy the wicked (v. 20).
The fate of the wicked shadows this psalm about God’s blessing. If God tolerated evil forever, then He wouldn’t be a holy God.  He’d be a compromising deity—and what would be the use of that?

CONCLUSION (v. 21)

Often at a holiday family dinner we will all sing the “Doxology,” the ancient hymn that begins, “Praise God from whom all blessings come.” Psalm 145 also ends with a doxology as David essentially says, “I’ll praise God, but really all of us, even all creatures, should praise His holy name forever.” And so Psalm 145, which began with praising God’s name, ends with that same theme. This is right, for in praising God’s Name, we praise all that He is—His greatness, graciousness, faithfulness, righteousness, and so much more!

Next: Psalm 150.

 

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 139: Known

Part of a continuing series on selected psalms.
When my son and his wife showed me the ultrasound image of my first grandchild, the words of Psalm 139 immediately came to mind:
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (vv. 13-14)
That would probably be my choice for a “key verse” for this exquisitely-crafted psalm. Through remarkable descriptions of the God who is infinite and intimate, it expresses how all of creation, in existence and purpose, is “fearfully and wonderfully made.” English has words for these attributes of God, all starting with the prefix “omni,” from the Latin for “all”: omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence. Those words suggest an outline for the psalm’s first three sections, with the final one inviting us to self-examination. But the simplicity of its structure defies the jewels that could be mined from this psalm that expresses God’s extravagant Being and love for us.
 

OMNISCIENCE (VV. 1-6)

The first two words already provide a stopping point: “O LORD.” This term of address not only establishes it as a prayer, but it emphasizes God’s high and revered essence through use of His holiest name, “YHWH,” which English translations indicate through “LORD” in small capital letters. It’s the ancient “name” of God that no pious Jew would dare write or speak out of profound reverence. David reached deeply into his native tongue to find words expressing God’s all-knowing character—ones we translate in English as search, know, perceive, discern, and are familiar with. God’s perfect knowledge includes a person’s location and subconscious life (thoughts, plans, habits, and soon-to-be-spoken words)—and all this “completely” (v. 4).

To picture God’s constant presence, David used a military expression, “you hem me in—behind and before” (v. 5). Unlike an enemy, which would hem in a city to destroy it, God surrounds us, both past and present, for our good. He is personal in His guidance: “you lay your hand upon me” (v. 5b). This expression brought me great comfort and confidence at change points in my life. When I felt besieged by circumstances and unsure of the future, being confident of God “behind” and “ahead” with His hand upon me, helped me go forward in faith.

God’s “omniscience” is so immense that we barely begin to understand it. No wonder David added: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” (v. 6). We don’t know how He does it, but He does it. In response, we might say with the apostle Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33).

OMNIPRESENCE (VV. 7-12)

I babysit my year-old grandson while his parents work, and if I’m not within his sight, he gets worried. When he wakes up from napping in his crib, he cries for that “people” connection he depends on for just about everything. Similarly, God’s constant presence should comfort us, as Paul observed in the well-known “God works for good” teaching of Romans 8. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Paul asks as a rhetorical question, listing negatives like hardships, persecution, personal deprivations, even death by an enemy. “No,” Paul adds, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through whom who loved us” (Romans 8:35, 37).

As David looks at God’s “omnipresence” or ability to be everywhere, he also touches on the sinful tendency to want to hide from God. “Where can I go from your Spirit?” he asks, “Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7). The answer is nowhere. God is in heaven and in the place of the dead (“sheol”). If we could travel at the speed of light (like the “wings of the dawn”), we couldn’t get away from Him. We can’t hide from Him in some dark place, for even the absence of light is no problem for Him. God surpasses the abilities of forensic law workers, who attempt to solve crimes. He sees crime when it happens. He also sees into the dark hearts of those who commit offenses. Darkness is as light to Him (v. 12).

OMNIPOTENCE (VV. 13-18)

David could not have chosen a better example of God’s all-powerful hand than the miracle of creating a human life from one cell merging the mother’s and father’s genetic codes. He couldn’t know about coils of DNA when he chose the wonderfully appropriate Hebrew word sarak (“to entwine”) that more modern English translators render “knit”: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Even when hidden inside a mother’s womb (now seen in shadows via ultrasound), our growing “beings” were never hidden from God. God also “knew” the life-path for each of us “before one of them came to be” (v. 16). God has a purpose for each human being, as many other Bible verses attest. He described Jews who would return from Babylonian exile as those “whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:7). Each of us has a divinely-crafted role: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). When we go off and do our own thing apart from God, then come back, He will help us change to do “his good, pleasing, and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

Against all these reminders of God’s presence and power, it’s easy to feel insignificant, especially when life’s problems dim our perception of who He is. That’s why the concluding verses of this section are so comforting. They’re a wonderful prayer for those “down days” when God seems distant: “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would out number the grains of sand. When I awake [even when I waken to dread the day ahead] I am still with you [which gives me hope for the day ahead!]” (verses 17-18, my comments in brackets).

RESPONSE (VV. 19-24)

The concluding section almost seems out of place after the majority of the psalm exalts God’s great knowledge, presence, and power. David expresses righteous indignation about his enemies when he asks God to slay the wicked. This seems strange unless we remember that God is holy, and all face the choice of accepting Him in all His holiness, or choosing to sin and reject Him. Sinners are objects of both God’s love and God’s wrath: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). David is also separating himself from the evil around him (vv. 21-22) as he seeks to love and serve only God.

Not only does David abhor the evil of his nation and culture, he wants all of it purged from himself:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (vv. 23-24)
Of course, God doesn’t need to “search” because He knows all about David (and us), anyway. But David is expressing his desire to be shown his sin.  As someone once put it, “Roof off to God.” Paul explained it to one of the New Testament churches, as taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians. 10:5).

A key word for this psalm is “known.” God is so great—so all-knowing, so “everywhere,” and so powerful--that we cannot “know” all that He is. Yet He knows everything about us, from the very first cells that became “us,” custom-designed for His purposes. And that brings us back to David’s awe expressed in verse 6: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.”

Next: Psalm 145

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 138: Purpose

Part of an ongoing series on selected psalms.
Life's unknowns stretched ahead of me like a road with no markers that summer. I was finishing up a graduate degree that I hoped would lead to a new career. But as the weeks ticked away with no job offer, and with my college housing soon to end, I struggled to trust God. I was 31, single, orphaned (so no option of going “home” to sit it out), and wondering if God would allow me to experience homelessness. That’s when Psalm 138:8 burned into my heart: “The LORD will accomplish what concerns me” (NASB).  I will never forget those humbling prayer times, kneeling by my desk chair and confessing, “I’m up against impossibilities, Lord, but I believe you will accomplish what concerns me.”  With just days to spare, He brought both an offer of a job I’d dreamed about and temporary housing with a company employee.

Psalm 138:8 still speaks to us as it focuses on God’s exalted and loving character in our trials. The historical background is God’s promise to David to raise up from his family a dynasty that would “endure forever before me” (2 Samuel 7:16), unlike that of the first king, Saul. During Saul’s stormy reign, God told the prophet Samuel to anoint an unlikely, godly shepherd boy, David, as king-in-waiting. From David’s children would come successive kings. Even though over the next thousand years, Jewish history got quite messy with bad kings and deportations, there would be a “forever king” from David’s line.  Matthew 1 and Luke 3 trace the lineage from David to a humble carpenter named Joseph, whose virgin betrothed, Mary, would bear Jesus, “Immanuel,” God-with-us. Or as Luke reported the angel’s message to young Mary: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32-33). The crucified, risen, and ascended Christ will return to this embattled earth to reign!

PRAISE HIM!

Living in a democracy where we vote for leaders, good or bad, we tend to forget that monarchies have problems, too. Royal families can get complicated (Henry VIII’s many wives, Edward abdicating for love). Even though David couldn’t see into the far future, he was ecstatic that God chose to keep the Davidic line going. That’s why Psalm 138 opens on such an emphatic note of praise:
I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; before the “gods” I will sing your praise.
I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and faithfulness…(vv. 1-2a)
The word “praise” in these verses and in verse 4 comes from the Hebrew yadah, which means “to stretch out the hand, confess.” This was no mindless recitation. David put everything he had into praising God. He wasn’t fazed by any local false gods or offending their deluded worshipers. He was God-focused only. He was also humble. There was no pomp-and-circumstance (“here comes the king to church”). He bowed down in adoration and humility as he praised God.

A key Hebrew word, chesed, almost gets short-changed by its English translation as “love and faithfulness.”  It is a loaded word, referring to God’s covenant love expressed through constancy and fidelity to His people. In praising God for His chesed, David was thanking God for all He is and does. David was expressing the truth that anything good in his life came as a result of God’s chesed toward him.

EMPOWERED!

As a monarch, David had huge prayer requests, and he saw dramatic answers to prayer. He kept the perspective that solutions didn’t come through his cleverness or military strategizing, but the power and constancy of God:
For you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted. (v. 3)
We know God by many names that express His character, and we have learned of them through His Word, the Bible. I am reminded of that on nights when sleep doesn’t come easily. I’ve learned to turn my frustrations over insomnia into praise sessions, speaking back to God His names and attributes, as I have learned them in scripture. False gods simply cannot match all the dimensions of His character.

David apparently had a dramatic answer to prayer, prompting this psalm. Whatever the situation, he had to respond with an uncharacteristic boldness. Similarly, the apostle Paul wrote of times of weakness when God gave him the strength and boldness to persevere. Instead of answering Paul’s prayer to be healed of his debilitating ailment (whatever it was), the Lord Jesus came to Him in a special way (a vision?) and said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”  (2 Corinthians 12:9). From that point, Paul decided not to fuss about his weaknesses and hardships, but instead focus on what Christ could achieve through them.

ADORED!

Today’s headlines of violence and trouble remind us that knees bow to different and hostile philosophies (gods), willing to kill and die for them. But David had the vision of a time when all the kings of the earth would praise the Lord, even sing of the glory of the Lord. This far-forward look to Christ’s final reign as Messiah is what Paul also spoke of with loving anticipation:
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

HOLY AND LOWLY

As if to correct the impression that God is so high and holy that He doesn’t care to bother with lowly people, David adds this comforting truth:
Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar. (Psalm 138:6)
David adds, in a verse reminiscent of Psalm 23: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hands against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me. (v. 7)

My son-in-law photographed a repairman working on my
daughter's violin. It reminded me how we need to yield
to the repairing touch of the Master Craftsman of our lives
so that His purposes are achieved.

PURPOSES

For me, the psalm’s key phrase is in verse 8: “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.” An older translation says the Lord “will perfect” what concerns me, which can be confusing if perceived as saying God will straighten out problems to make my life “perfect.”  But I have learned that He uses the struggles, disappointments and pain to craft my character. David’s work as king was not without conflict—far from it! In this psalm, he alludes to opposition several times. But he also knew that God had purposed for him to have a royal legacy. We often forget that we, too, have a royal legacy:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)
As David ends the psalm, praising God’s enduring love, he adds an interesting postscript: “Do not abandon the works of your hands” (v. 8). This dusting of doubt reminds us that David faced real dangers. Yet he believed that God would direct his life as long as he sought to do God’s will. Or as the apostle Paul said, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
Next: Psalm 139

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 133: Harmony

Ancient olive oil didn't come in bottles
like I buy it, but had many uses in the
holy land, including perfumed anointing oil

Part of a continuing series on selected psalms.

“Get along!”  How often had I uttered those words in raising my children? More important, how many times had God challenged me about being the peacemaker, not troublemaker, as I lived in a world of imperfect people, myself included!  “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity,” Psalm 130 begins. But in reality, we don’t always enjoy that unity.

GRACE  FROM ABOVE

Biblical harmony, Psalm 130 says, is like:
“...precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes.” (v. 2)
To appreciate this allusion, it’s helpful to review the ancient texts about the early Hebrew worship system.  When the Exodus from Egypt occurred about 1440 B.C., the emancipated Jews had a sense of the Great High God who brought about this miracle. But the former slaves needed a unifying religious system, which God outlined in revelations to Moses. These included extensive instructions about worship leaders, the worship center (tabernacle) and rituals, detailed in various parts of the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy. The worship system and its procedures helped teach the Hebrews about God’s holiness and man’s sin. One tribe, the Levites, was charged with spiritual care, with only one man and his descendants in the top leadership role as priests.

Furnishings (like altars) and people were commissioned for priestly service by anointing with an  olive oil perfumed with myrrh, cinnamon, fragrant cane, and cassia (Exodus 30:23-33). Leviticus 8 tells how Aaron and his sons prepared for commissioning by bathing and putting on clean, simple tunics with sashes. Then Aaron, as high priest, received extra ceremonial dressing:  a robe, ephod (a type of apron), breastplate with precious stones, and turban-like crown. Finally, Moses anointed Aaron’s head with the special scented olive oil in enough abundance that the oil dribbled from his forehead and on down his clothes. The anointing represented favor from on High, coming down on God’s appointed servants. As Aaron went about his tasks, the powerful fragrance emanated wherever he passed.

This old house in my neighborhood was soon torn down.

Reading of this reminded me of how 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 spoke of a believer’s spiritual “fragrance”:  “Thanks be to God, who…through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”  But I’ve had my “skunk cabbage” times, too.  One happened in my late twenties when a marginally employed single woman in my church found herself on the verge of homelessness, and asked to move in with me. I lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment but agreed, giving her the bedroom (for privacy with her medical and emotional needs) while I slept on the couch. When the “few weeks” became months of free housing, I allowed resentment to grow. Then, to my surprise, I came home from work one night to find she had moved out to another “free” situation. In my hurt, I indulged in the sins of enmity and backbiting. I became like a boarded-up house, almost cut off from the Holy Spirit’s correcting voice. But my habit of scripture reading helped me from persisting in this sin. When I read Matthew 5:23-24, about interrupting one’s worship (leaving a gift at the altar) to be reconciled with someone you wronged, I was stricken by my sin in this relationship.

By now she had moved out of state, but I got her address from mutual friends.  As I wrote a letter owning my part in our rift, and asking her forgiveness, I broke down and cried. When I dropped that letter in the mailbox, a burden slipped off my heart. I didn’t expect to hear from her, but in a few weeks, she replied, forgiving me and asking forgiveness for her wrongs. As I read her letter, I imagined—as never before—the humbling effects that Aaron must have felt in his drenching with holy, aromatic oil. I felt re-anointed, too, for a fresh consecration to God’s work. As God has prompted me to review my past relationships, I’ve been led to write other letters seeking forgiveness.  Some were gracious and dismissed the offense. One never replied, and while I wish there had been closure with that person, God knows my heart.

FRUITFULNESS FROM ABOVE

The second simile in Psalm 130 also expresses God’s favor:
It is as the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. (v. 3)
Mount Hermon, northeast of the Sea of Galilee and about 130 miles from Jerusalem, at 9,101 feet is the highest mountain in Palestine. Famously heavy dews fall on its slopes, sustaining plant life. In contrast, Mount Zion (Jerusalem) has little rainfall except in September. The first image in the psalm spoke of anointing oil descending over Aaron’s face and onto his vestments. This second image speaks of moisture, so necessary for agricultural fruitfulness, descending from on high. The dew and rains are the work of God. Likewise, the healing that brings unity among God-followers is also a divine work.

It’s worth noting that this poetic study of harmony came from the heart of King David, who lived with more than his share of disharmony. After being anointed king-to-be, he lived on the run from the wrath of King Saul. When he finally came to the throne, he dealt with loyalists to the now-deceased Saul.  Then there were all his wives. Even before Israel had kings, God had declared, “He [a king] must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray” (Deuteronomy 17:17). Scholars find eight “named” wives, believe there were more unnamed, plus his ten concubines.  So many family relationships, and so little time from a husband/dad, understandably led to much dysfunction.

Aside from David’s woes, it’s important to remember that in Bible times, extended families lived in proximity. Grandparents, aunts and uncles were a few tents or partitions away, which allowed for little “personal space” if they didn’t get along. The historical transition from family interdependence to  independent family or single units has brought with it a growing intolerance for one another. 

Perhaps that’s why New Testament teaching on getting along is so appropriate for us. Besides urging the often-dissident Corinthians to be an aroma of Christ in their circle of influence, Paul took great pains in Ephesians 4 to list the negatives he saw in relationships, including “bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (4:31). He urged the Colossian church to “Bear with each other and...forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:13-14).

The message of Psalm 133 also applies to “church wars,” which smolder over issues varying from doctrine (both essential and non-essential) to culturally-affected choices like dress and music. When I walk through the doors of my church, I have my “druthers” about what I see, hear, or think should happen there. But Christ is bigger that my cultural lens.  “In essentials, unity,” wrote the ancient church leader Augustine. “In non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” Or, as I often told my children, “Get along!”—sometimes easier said than done, except for the gracious power of God’s Holy Spirit.

Next: Psalm 138.