Summary: David confesses that God satisfies him, like cool water or fine meat after being in the wilderness. This is why he thinks about God day and night, delighting in the very thought of God.
Response: (yes, there's also a kill-my-enemies part, I'm ignoring that for today) God is amazing all on His own, whether or not we choose to acknowledge it. I pray I would seek and find Him more and more and have the boldness to call it out when I see it.
Summary: David can't find anyone to trust but God. The humans all around him will break trust given the first advantageous opportunity. So he goes all in on God.
Response: Now this one I think I get. You can't quite say "God alone" and then extol the virtues of anyone else. If it's God alone, He's it. I pray I could lift Him that high mentally, even though He deserves so much more.
Summary: David compares God to the top of a mountain, at which one is safe.
Response: Hey, other than an oddly placed "long live the king" segment, this one was fairly normal. David wants to be like a welcome visitor or one under temporary shelter with God; how cool then that God wants to offer permanent residence in Him!
Summary: David notes God's rejection of His people. He asks to be saved from his enemies.
Response: Again, feeling rejection and feeling salvation. Maybe it's that feeling a change in your own heart is really difficult? I don't know. Still we press on.
Summary: David compares his enemies to a pack of wild dogs and more or less asks God to put them down.
Response: I briefly considered not posting about this one today. Still, I want to work through this, even though I've done it before. Yes, I get that David's life was literally at stake, that he is really faithful to God and that his enemies are really bad guys. But it's hard to reconcile a kill-'em-all mindset with a Jesus I know that, when His enemies threatened to kill Him, literally died and took their sin with Him. Compared to that, David's pleas for his versions of justice or revenge just seem unloving.
Summary: David belittles the wicked who, though they have power here, do not have it for long. He calls on God to judge them harshly and makes several grisly metaphors.
Response: I continue trying to persevere through these psalms. God grant me patience!
Summary: David, hiding from enemies, praises God as safe Shelter but also a great Glorious One, whose might and praise stretch farther than the eye can see.
Response: Yes there's the enemy-snare thing; I'm not worried about it just this second. Help me to dwell in You, Lord, when stress comes; help me to join freely in the praise You deserve.
Summary: David asks for God to destroy his enemies, promising to serve joyfully in return.
Response: Hey, we got something! I guess that's not fair to David, literally captured by a neighboring country. Still, the last verse is something I can really sink my teeth into.
Summary: David, betrayed by a close friend, wants to hole up in God's presence and let Him kill off the traitors.
Response: I am glad these psalms are here for when we feel betrayed, but the simple fact is that, if anything, I feel more at fault for any wrong that comes my way.
Summary: David asks again for God's help to (you guessed it) kill his enemies.
Response: God, keep me patient. Help me to defeat myself and my selfish desires. Help me submit to Your will.
Summary: Just like the last psalm, David opens by discussing sinful people, who delight in the destruction of God's people even as they become more aware of the consequences. He prays for God to help protect them.
Response: I dunno? Having a hard time connecting with this one. Have all sinned, or just the non-Israelites? I know God forgives, but I have trouble discerning confidence David might have with arrogance.
Summary: David summarizes the wicked, people who lie and steal for their own benefit. He knows the fate awaiting them includes God taking all that was ill-gotten. By contrast, the wise put their trust in God to be kind and also just in His judgement.
Response: It's becoming more and more clear that God has to prune. Not every ministry started has to continue indefinitely, and few really can without being corrupted or twisted. Not every tongue can be counted on to stay true with its message. I pray I have the patience to seek God's discernment as, to be honest, I have a big change coming up soon in my life.
Summary: David knows he has sinned big time (not in this story, but he sleeps with a married woman and has her husband killed in military action). He pleads with God for forgiveness. David boldly asks not to be left without God's presence; he also gets past the Law and its sacrifices, noting God would rather have hearts that turn to Him than empty offerings.
Response: Here again is Relatable David. Yeah, I've done some sinning in even my short life; and I've gone through the motions in worship services at times. It's very easy for me to get lost in musical details and never get "into" worship (or to get right out of it soon thereafter). Lord, make me ever more dependent on You, that I need Your presence every day.
Summary: The psalmist paints a picture of God as almost a natural disaster, clearing His path off the holy mountain. God doesn't want empty sacrifices, He says; He wants a real change in people's hearts, from fear and obligation to joy and gratefulness.
Response: (Asaph, our psalmist, was probably a singer for the Temple?)
(Holy crap, fifty psalms! A third of the way in, I can't say I'm impressed with all of them, but I've enjoyed digging deeper and getting some real treasures.)
I say natural disaster because it talks about God carving out trees and a burning fire on His way down the mountain. As it says, He isn't hiding.
And His judgement comes with a plan forward or at least an alternative. I can only pray I make such an attitude adjustment.
Summary: The psalmist proclaims as equal the rich and poor, with both dying at the end of their lives. Still, he says that all the rich and their belongings will burn like trash.
Response: What then to do with wealth? Place it in God's care and/or aid His people.
