Read Psalm 144
Questions from the Scripture text: Whose psalm is this (superscript)? Whom does he bless (Psalm 144:1a)? What does he call Him? What two things has He done for him? What six things does he call Him in Psalm 144:2a–c? What has He done for him (verse 2d)? What two questions does Psalm 144:3 ask? What answer does David himself give in Psalm 144:4? What does David ask YHWH to do in Psalm 144:5-6? With what effect? What personal thing does he ask YHWH to do in Psalm 144:7? From whose hand? What do they do (Psalm 144:8a)? What is in their right hand (verse 8b)? What will David do in Psalm 144:9a? Unto Whom? In what manner (verse 9b)? How does David identify God in Psalm 144:10a? In what specific instance has God done this (verse 10b–c)? What does He again ask the Lord to do in Psalm 144:11a (cf. Psalm 144:7b)? From whom (Psalm 144:11b–c, cf. Psalm 144:8)? What results does David hope this will produce with their sons (Psalm 144:12a)? With their daughters (verse 12b–c)? With their barns (Psalm 144:13a–b)? With their flocks (verse 13c–d)? With their herds (Psalm 144:14a)? With the security of their cities (verse 14b–c)? What would be making them happy (Psalm 144:15a)? What, most of all, would make them happy (verse 15b)?
What does Jesus pray for? Psalm 144 looks forward to the opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these fifteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Jesus prays that we may be redeemed unto blessed nobility and prosperity, but especially unto the infinite blessedness of belonging to God Himself.
Whom we know God to be unto us, Psalm 144:1–4. This is a kingly psalm. Some parts (e.g., Psalm 144:2d, Psalm 144:10a–b, Psalm 144:12-15). Because he is the Lord’s anointed, how things go with David have implications for all of God’s people. In this, he is a type of Christ. And, however much David has known the Lord to be these wonderful things to himself, Jesus knew/knows the Lord to be this to Him all the more!
It is into this wonderful relationship with the Lord that the Holy Spirit has brought believers by uniting them to Christ. And it is into the experience of this wonderful relationship that the Holy Spirit brings us, as He applies Christ to us. Reading John 17, we realize that our coming into Jesus’s fellowship and delight in the Lord, in light of His kingly glory, is the focus of the entire divine mission in all of time. And Psalm 144 whets our appetites for what/Whom we will know God to be to us, as this work is done:
- our Rock ▫our Trainer ▫our Covenanted love
- our Fortress
- our High Tower
- our Deliverer
- our Shield our Refuge
- and, best of all, the one Who subdues us under Christ, Hallelujah!
All of this the Lord does for these vapor-shadow-creatures (Psalm 144:3-4). What glorious, generous grace!!
Whom we ask God to be in our circumstances, Psalm 144:5-11. Man may be nothing, which makes the prayer in Psalm 144:5-8 a request for the most enormous of mismatches: YHWH, Who bows the heavens, and singes and scatters mountains (Psalm 144:5-6), vs the lying/false foreigners (Psalm 144:7-8). In the ancient world, they thought of their kings as the ones who would save them (cf. Hosea 13:10). But as a king, David knows that the kings need saving. We pray to Him to display His almighty arm in saving us, so that we may sing (Psalm 144:9a), in His public worship (verse 9b), of Him as the King of kings (Psalm 144:10)!
Whom we know God will be unto us in the end, Psalm 144:12-15. The Lord is gathering and perfecting for Himself a people. Psalm 144:11 picks back up the request of Psalm 144:7-8, but now with a view to the end result. The deliverance is not merely for escape from trouble, but for the grand construction project of God.
His house is made up of these sons who are as plants (full of life and promise of future fruitfulness and usefulness) and daughters who are as corner pillars in palace style (women of both great strength and great beauty, upon whom a lasting kingdom can rest).
And, in His house, is abundant provision (Psalm 144:13-14a) and peace (Psalm 144:14b–c). This, indeed, is the blessed condition (Psalm 144:15a)! But its blessedness goes far beyond the people’s nobility or prosperity. Here, again, God being infinitely greater is the key: the blessedness of this people is that their God is YHWH!
How little are you? Yet, in what ways have you known the Lord to be each of the things in Psalm 144:1-2 unto you? Who deserves to have Him be those things to Him, and how was it that you ended up being brought into such blessedness? What trouble are you in right now? But to what blessed end is that trouble bringing you?
Sample prayer: We bless You, O Lord, our Rock, our Lovingkindness, our Fortress, our High Tower, our Deliverer, our Shield, and the One in Whom we take refuge. Though we are as breath and shadow, You are the almighty God, Who bows the heavens and burns the mountains. You have delivered us, to make us into Your holy temple. So make our sons as vigorous plants, and our daughters as corner pillars for strength and beauty. Put Your new song in our mouth, accompanied by the priesthood of Christ. And make us to know ourselves as that blessed people whose God is the Lord, in Christ—through Whom we ask it, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP144B “O God, in Praise to You” or TPH144B “O Blest Be the LORD God”
No comments:
Post a Comment