28-Psalms 18 – 59

Psalms 18 – 59

Jul. 4, 2009

We will continue our study this week in the Book of Psalms in Psalm 18. Last week we started the book and learned about its purpose and looked at the first seventeen Psalms. We may be going at a rapid pace, but we need to cover forty two Psalms this week to keep to our schedule! This week we will begin with Psalm 18. In Psalm 18 David praises the Lord for delivering him from his enemies. We will see the idea behind David’s words in verses 1-3 repeated often as we go through the Psalms. “I love You, O Lord, my strength.” The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” David understood that the Lord was his rock and salvation. Psalm 19 is one of my favorites. It shows that the proof of God’s existence is evident in the heavens by its majesty and order. The second half of the Psalm tells us how wonderful also is the Word of God. The words in verse 14 are what we who love the Lord should live by. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”

    In Psalm 20 David again prays to the Lord for help over his enemies. In the Psalm David says that men rely on weapons, but he relies on the Lord and that the Lord saves His anointed.

Psalm 21 is another of David’s prayers for deliverance. He says in verse 11 “Though they intended evil against You and devised a plot, they will not succeed.” You can feel and sense some of the passion of David in Psalm 22 on his anguish over his sin. This Psalm is also prophetic in verses 16-18 that describe truths about the crucifixion. “For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” The next Psalm we will cover is one of the most loved Psalms in the Bible, Psalm 23. In this Psalm David compares the Lord to a shepherd. This is a very good analogy of the relationship between God and His people. The men of Israel were sheepherders and understood how important the shepherd was to his sheep. The shepherd protected, led and provided for his flock. This Psalm was fulfilled by Jesus when He said in the Gospel of John 10:14-15 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; And I lay down My life for the sheep.” Reading all of John 10 will give you more complete understanding of what our Lord said. Psalm 24 says that everything belongs to the Lord and looks forward towards the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Psalm 25 is a prayer of David for the Lord to teach him His ways. David knew that God is the only one with the authority to forgive sins and determine the truth. The path of the Lord leads to salvation, and the path of man leads to death. In Psalm 26 David asks God to separate him from sinful men. His words echo the words of Psalm 1 in that David reminds the Lord that he has followed what was said. He asserts that he is not like the wicked, but has placed his trust in the Lord. Psalm 27 is also about trusting the Lord. The words of verse 1 tells where David gets his strength. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?” David touches on trust, deliverance, salvation, and his strong relationship with God in this Psalm. The words of verses 13-14 tell us David’s attitude towards his Lord. “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.” In Psalm 28 David asks the Lord to treat the wicked according to their evil deeds. He does not want their works to go unpunished. In the end of the Psalm David praises the Lord and thanks Him for answering his prayer. In Psalm 29 David speaks of God as the Voice Out of the Storm. We saw last week in the Book of Job how God spoke to Job out of a whirlwind. This imagery shows the power of God and how awesome He is. Psalm 30 is a Psalm of thanksgiving by David to the Lord. He thanks the Lord for healing him and keeping him alive. He also says an important truth about God in verse 5 “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” He also in verse 9 reminds God on why he created man in the beginning. “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?” Jesus does answer David’ s question in the Gospel of Luke 19:40 “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” He spoke this when the Pharisees tried to silence His disciples from worshiping Him during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. David speaks in Psalm 31 of the hardships of his life because of his sin and his trust in the Lord. He knows that his strength comes not from himself, but from the Lord. Psalm 32 says how we who know and have placed our trust in the Lord should feel. We are blessed because the Lord has forgiven our sin and not placed on us the penalty sin requires. David tells us that they who know the Lord should rejoice! In Psalm 33 the author exhorts us to praise the Lord for who He is and for what He has done. God deserves all the glory because everything that is, comes from Him. David’s heart is again shown in Psalm 34. We should also have the same attitude as verses 1-3 “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord; The humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.” We also see in verse 8 that we can know the Lord with all our senses “O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” We have all said at some time that something was so good we could taste it! This Psalm is also prophetic about the cross in verse 20 “He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken.” None of the bones of Jesus were broken on the cross. Psalm 35 is another of David’s prayers for rescue from his enemies. If you remember the story of David’s life from the Books of 1 and 2 Samuel we saw how David was pursued by his enemies for most of his life. King Saul wanted him dead, and also did the people he went to war with for Israel, even members of his own family. We do know one thing for sure, David turned to the Lord in his times of need. Psalm 36 is a contrast between wicked man and the loving-kindness of God. David again uses the illustration of a bird protecting its young under its wings to describe God in verse 7 “How precious is Your loving-kindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.” Psalm 37 is also a contrast similar to Psalm 36. This time David contrasts those who trust in the Lord to those who are wicked. A good verse for us to keep in mind today during these difficult economic times is verse 25. “I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” Of all the people in the Bible, David shows us best what a believer’s attitude towards sin should be. In Psalm 38 he gives us another powerful graphic example of the weight of sin on his heart. David shows us that only God Himself can deliver us from the burden sin has put upon us. We should realize that if our sin does not affect us like David we need to check who our heart belongs to. Psalm 39 is David’s request for God to show him how insignificant man is and how life is vanity. In verses 4-5 He shows the truth about man. “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.“Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; surely every man at his best is a mere breath.” David, when he was sick wrote Psalm 41. In this Psalm he also places his trust in God and complains that the person he thought was his friend had turned against him. This ends the first of the five ancient books that make up our Book of Psalms. Psalm 42 was written by the sons of Korah who were the descendants of the Levite that led the rebellion against Moses and Aaron recorded in the Book of Numbers 16. Korah and his co-conspirators were killed by the Lord for their actions, but his sons were left unharmed. The family’s duty was to transport the Ark of the Covenant and the other tabernacle furniture when Israel was in the wilderness. They were given the position as the choir for the Lord’s House by David when the temple was to be built in the Book of 1 Chronicles 6:31-48. In this Psalm the writers equate their longing for God to a thirsty deer panting for the cool refreshing water of a brook. This is said in verses1-2 “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” Psalm 43 is another prayer for deliverance. The author is not indicated but it carries the similar theme as other Psalms that ask God for deliverance from the ungodly and unjust. Psalm 44 is another Psalm by the sons of Korah. It is a Psalm that tells of how the Lord delivered Israel in the past and that they were in trouble again and in need of help. Psalm 45 also by the sons of Korah is a Psalm that celebrates the marriage of the king. It speaks of the joyous event, and also talks about a King that is bigger then any king on Earth. Psalm 46 is a Psalm that says that God is our refuge. Verse 1 says it best “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” This Psalm was Martin Luther’s inspiration when he composed the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” The entire Psalm speaks of God’s strength. Psalm 47 acknowledges the Lord as the King of the Earth, and speaks of His majesty. This Psalm was also written by the sons of Korah. The city of Zion is in Psalm 48. A key verse is verse 1 “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, His holy mountain.” Jerusalem is a special place on Earth to the Lord. It is His city and the central point of God on the Earth. Psalm 49 is the last Psalm in this group of the sons of Korah. The Psalm is about the folly of wealth. It says our trust should be placed in the Lord and not on our wealth. All our money cannot purchase salvation. All we accumulate here on Earth will be left here when we die. The Psalm says in verses 19b-20 “They will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish.” Psalm 50 is the first Psalm by Asaph in the Book. Asaph was commissioned by David to write Psalms. Another Psalm of Asaph was ordered by David for the day the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem. This Psalm was recorded in the Book of 1 Chronicles 16. Psalm 50 is a declaration by Asaph that the Lord is the Judge of all. Everything belongs to the Lord and He has the authority to judge both the righteous and the wicked. Psalm 51 is another important Psalm for a believer to understand. David wrote this Psalm after he was confronted by Samuel on his sin with Bathsheba. David is devastated by his sin and asks the Lord to forgive him. Some key verses in this Psalm are verse 10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Also verse 12 “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.” Un-confessed sin will separate us from God and rob us of our joy. The tongue is the subject of Psalm 52. David says the tongue of a worker of deceit is like a sharp razor. What you say can bring a blessing or cause much destruction. In Psalm 53 David describes man without God. The key is in verse 1 “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.” Paul picks up this concept in the beginning of the Book of Romans 1:20-23 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.Professing to be wise, they became fools,and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” And also in verses 10-12 “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, there is not even one.”

    Psalm 54 is another of David’s Psalms for defense from his enemies. David calls God his helper and sustainer of his soul.

In Psalm 55 David prays for God to destroy the friend who turned against him. You can sense his anguish in verses 13-16 “But it is you, a man my equal,
My companion and my familiar friend; We who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng. Let death come deceitfully upon them; Let them go down alive to Sheol, for evil is in their dwelling, in their midst. As for me, I shall call upon God, And the Lord will save me.” Psalm 56 is David’s acknowledgement to God for his deliverance from the Philistines in Gath when they captured him. His words of thanks are in verse 13 “For You have delivered my soul from death, indeed my feet from stumbling, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living.” David prays in Psalm 57 for rescue from Saul as he was pursued. He again uses the illustration of taking refuge under the wings of a bird from his enemy in verse 1 “Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by.” In Psalm 58 David again asks for the wicked to be punished by the Lord for their actions. We will finish up this week with Psalm 59. In this Psalm David prays for deliverance from the men King Saul sent to watch his house and kill him. This ends our study for this week. Next week we will continue in the Book of Psalms.