Psalm 108
“...Judah, my scepter, will produce my kings.”
There can be confidence and simplicity to life if we want it. I set out by the grace of God 108 days ago to find Jesus in every Psalm. Was I confident? I was mostly confident and if I didn’t find Jesus I knew I was not too many steps away from Him. Still I was less confident that I could get up each day, copy the chapter by hand, and have something to say. But I was willing to fail. And I was praying God would give me daily manna. I also knew I did not have to understand it all. I did not have to explain it all. I did not have to deal with all the questions or language, history, or context. I had given myself a simple task, find Jesus. Everyday it has been like a Where’s Waldo (Wally) puzzle page. But it hasn’t turned out to be difficult. My emotions have been all over the place and my body and mind have offered every distraction possible. But I have four simple steps to accomplish the goal each day.
Make time, which for me works best as early as is reasonable, usually 5 AM. Today it was a half hour later. But I don’t mind.
Copy the chapter by hand, I have found this super helpful in understanding the Bible and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Because I am slow and tedious in my handwriting and messy and undisciplined I give more attention to each letter and word but still have time to repeat each phrase over and over as I copy it. It helps focus an overactive mind. I find peace in writing the Bible with my own hand.
Look for Jesus, the Psalms are a rich mine of references to God’s King and God’s Word, so there isn’t usually far to look to find Jesus who is the ultimate and final King and Word of God. Like in verse 8 today, Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, Jesus is as I said the king, So whatever else I may find I have found Jesus in Psalm 108. I look further then to why is He mentioned here? What is it saying about Him? And I hope to be able to produce a proposition statement, a single sentence that answers the following two questions, 1. What is the subject? As in what does it say about Jesus? 2. Why does that matter? How does it modify the subject? What is the action concerning the subject? A crazy example would be the subject of aerodynamic cars. Now we have the answer to question one. And question two would be what is it saying about aerodynamic cars? The main point is that aerodynamic cars use less energy. And the position statement might look like: Aerodynamic cars will save energy. And the application might be, if you want to spend less money on energy, fuel, then consider a more aerodynamic car.
Just start writing, don’t wait for a complete thought or a complex outline or a catchy illustration. Just write about what you observed about Jesus. So let me do just that now with Psalm 108.
David writes this Psalm with excitement. He wants to make music about God. And He is determined to make noise and get others involved in His praise. The Trinity is such that to praise Father, Son or Spirit is to bring attention and glory and praise to all. I think of that moment when Jesus was baptised and the Father and Spirit show us and say and display pleasure in the Son. David is confident in God. Every day I find a reason to praise God. David had the same thought.
“For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”
So there is a complex, intertwined relationship being expressed here. God’s king, David is excited to serve God and to make known God’s character, purpose and plans. David sees himself as a cheerleader of God among his people and to the other nations. David is a missionary of sorts, an example of someone who sees (praises, glorifies) God and invites others to see (praise, glorify) God too.
Anything that isn’t praising God, ought to be. The other nations will want us to praise something or someone other than God. That could distract God's people from doing what they were called to do. It is only right that everyone should praise God: there is only one real God, and He is full of unfailing love and faithfulness. So of course David knows everyone needs to get onboard with praising God.
David reminds God He promised to help everyone to submit to this plan.
“God has promised this by his holiness: “I will divide up Shechem with joy. I will measure out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh, too. Ephraim, my helmet, will produce my warriors, and Judah, my scepter, will produce my kings. But Moab, my washbasin, will become my servant, and I will wipe my feet on Edom and shout in triumph over Philistia.””
I often have questions that I can’t answer in my daily reflections. I don’t have the time, the resources, the knowledge or the intelligence to retain and connect all the dots in God’s Word. So I must leave some questions everyday unanswered. That’s okay. I want to know, where did God say this to David? In what context was it said? Is it clear in the original languages that this is God speaking and not David? And what does God mean by saying these things to David?
Main Point: God’s plan to rule through His King is for everyone.
David is showing us by example what it means to be ruled by God. David wants to make sure no one anywhere is left out of the choir singing God’s praise. Essentially this is God’s eternal plan. Make Jesus King, get everyone to sing praises forever to Jesus the King.
David is working that plan out. He has divided the plan into two parts. Keep the people singing to Jesus who already are on board with the plan. Make sure everyone is singing from the same song sheet. Anone singing a different song to a different King is considered and enemy and they must be made to join the heavenly Jesus choir.
Are you singing for Jesus the king? If so, great! Keep it up, pull out all the instruments and double your efforts of praise. Nothing should have another purpose.
Are you inviting everyone everywhere to sing in the heavenly king Jesus choir? If not, get to it.
If others are against the heavenly king Jesus choir, then we remind God and ourselves He will deal with that appropriately. They will be conquered. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
Conclusion:
Yippie, King Jesus gets all the praise. Good! He deserves every bit of it. No one will stand in the way of the King Jesus heavenly choir singing up a storm of praise. So there is a simplicity in our purpose and in every aspect of life. We can simply ask, is this helping get everyone to sing to King Jesus? That’s not so hard after all then, is it?
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| Handwritten Psalm 108 |
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