Open the heavens, LORD, and come down.
Touch the mountains so they billow smoke.
Imagine waiting for God to send a sign of His presence that dealt with all your enemies, made you the top of the world order and blessed you with abundance of all things. Sounds too good to be true. And when it happens you think, whoa, wait a minute, this isn’t how it was supposed to happen.
When God came to Moses at Mount Sinai It was with such power that anyone in the vicinity would die, the ground quaked, the heaven shook, thunder and lightning filled the skies. It was a scary scene. The people asked Moses to make it stop.
Although a baby out in the animal shed may wake the chickens, it seems like it is a far cry from God’s presence in Mount Sinai.
He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him. He makes the nations submit to me.
Have you ever felt oppressed and at the mercy of an unfair government official or an unreasonable system of bureaucracy seemingly made to discourage you? Have you lived under domination and humiliation? Have you felt like a refugee in your own land or an exile no matter where you go? If you have had any of those feelings, you will understand the allure of Psalm 144:2. There seems to be to me a disconnect between David and some of the things said in this Psalm. The title says it is a Psalm of David but after 144 Psalms I think I sort of recognise David’s voice and this doesn’t sound exactly like the David I have come to know. Plus the talk of captivity seems odd for David's time.
“May there be no enemy breaking through our walls, no going into captivity, no cries of alarm in our town squares.”
On one hand I hear heaven in these verses, I hear the presence of God, I hear the blessings of the heavenly kingdom, and these prayers of blessing seem like the kingdom as Jesus described it in the Sermon on the Mount.
How confusing it must have been for the disciples of Jesus to live expecting all this and getting a crucified King.
Recently in our weekly morning prayer meeting Henk Van Dorp reminded us of the time Elisha prayed the eyes of his servant would be opened. And then his servant could see the surrounding heavenly army in chariots of fire.
All I can say today is I pray God will open our eyes to see the spiritual world so we could see what is of real value. Oh if we could see where the real suffering is, where the real blessing is, where the real power is. I can tell you one thing. We need to see everything differently than we do.
“O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them,
mere mortals that you should think about them?”
Verse 3 of this complex Psalm reminds us of the gulf between God and us. This is what makes the incarnation and the birth of Jesus so extraordinary, the God-among-us nature of Christmas too much to understand.
There is Jesus in a manger, there is Jesus hanging on a cross with a sign for all to see, King of the Jews. Oh that Jesus would be your king. For Jesus is not just the king of the Jews, but He is the king of the universe, He is the king of all Kings, He reigns and rules above all things. And His kingdom is full of blessings.
Confusion is normal if you are overwhelmed by the bright lights and the abundance of blessing found in the heavenly realms. Oh that we could see these great riches of peace and prosperity on our souls and in our relationships. Often we are captives. We are captives of doubt, we are captives of sin, we are captives of unrest. The enemy didn't have to break the walls down because we let them right in.
James, the brother of Jesus, writes in the New Testament letter bearing his name that life is but a vapour.
“For they are like a breath of air;
their days are like a passing shadow.”
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
We are also compared to the grass or a flower that withers and fades away. But we have been given eternal life by an eternal God King and Saviour who rescues us. That is the clear message of this Psalm, that we can be rescued by God, the God who is eternal and who blesses us with eternal blessings.
Yesterday I kept thinking about the picture of heaven in Isaiah 25. I spoke to a few people about it.
Let me share it here below. I think that Psalm 144 stands like the crib and the cross. I think it is a Psalm that recognises the here and now and longs for and promises another realm, a higher existence. Psalm 144 asks God to come down and to rescue us from the here and now so that we are lifted to an eternally blessed existence.
The more I look at the Psalm, the more I see heaven and the more I see the King of heaven who came as a baby and died as a criminal but promised an eternal kingdom.
6 In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
will spread a wonderful feast
for all the people of the world.
It will be a delicious banquet
with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat.
7 There he will remove the cloud of gloom,
the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.
8 He will swallow up death forever!
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.
He will remove forever all insults and mockery
against his land and people.
The Lord has spoken!
9 In that day the people will proclaim,
“This is our God!
We trusted in him, and he saved us!
This is the Lord, in whom we trusted.
Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!”
10 For the Lord’s hand of blessing will rest on Jerusalem.
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| Handwritten Psalms 144 |
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