Hi saints, as some of you know, I have been working my way through the Psalms, at the request of the Lord to my spirit, writing a poem for every Psalm. This was daunting to me. Now I have had less difficulty with the poems and more difficulty with the subject matter. I never realized just how much a demand for justice there was in the first 100 pslams, justice and vengence upon enemies. If you do a word search of the word justice, you will see it appear 28 times in the OT, and almost always in conjunction with judgment. The word justice does not appear in the NT. Yet the word judgment appears 74 times in the NT. Justice has been established and fullfilled on Calvary. Judgment is yet to come. Each one of us who know Jesus personally has been justified by the Blood of the Lamb. And so likewise, this love, this passion for the Law that we find in Psalm 119 was fulfilled in Christ. Our passion, the same passion that David had by the Holy Spirit, is for Christ, the Word made flesh. When we love the Lord with all of our heart, a New Covenant heart given by promise, then all is fulfilled. Our passion is now Christ. If David wrote this Psalm today, this Psalm, all of His psalms would exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. In this vein, I have written this poem below based on Psalm 119 and Psalm 119 marks my current progress :) ..........bro FrankI will seek you with my whole heart And learn to walk in your ways I will seek you with my whole heart And follow you all of my days I love your word and your Spirit too And I will praise you with all of my heart Without you I would be forsaken and lost I needed you right from the start With my whole heart I cry to thee Keep me close let us not be apart Speak to me oh Spirit of God Your Word is hidden in my heart I rejoice in the Lord and in all of your ways You have made the crooked paths straight You lead me in the way of righteousness And on your word and your Spirit I shall wait You are the ground upon which I stand Open my eyes that I may see Your glory and splendor, your Spirit and truth You are the Word who has set me free You are the way and the truth and you are my life Oh Lord do not put me to shame My hearts desire is to follow you And to glorify your precious name Oh keep my eyes from worthless things May they only ever see you May I walk in the path that you have set for me And praise you in all that I do I will not be ashamed of the Gospel Its the power of God to salvation I will speak of you before mighty kings And the Peoples of every nation My hope is in the Lord my God For your word has given me life Your song comes to me in the middle of the night As a bridegroom comes to His wife The earth oh Lord is full of your mercy And in that mercy you have kept me from harm I will walk with my brothers who fear you And you shall keep us from all alarm In the midst of my many afflictions I have learned from the error of my ways I am drawn by your tender mercies And they follow me all of my days I delight in your word that dwells in me And I know I shall not be alone For you dwell in the midst of a brand new heart A heart of flesh and not one of stone My heart hungers for your presence oh Lord I walk through a dry weary land Yet through famine and drought my hope is in you And suddenly before you I stand! And the enemy that has sought to destroy me And take advantage of my perilous state Did not reckon on the faithful loving-kindness Of my God wholl not leave me to my fate You are beyond all comprehension And we breathe because you exist You sustain the heavens and the earth below Righteousness and peace they have kissed My strong desire is to do thy will And my soul thirsts to please you oh Lord I am hungry to know even more of you Its so sweet to hear your word Your word is a lamp unto my feet And it keeps me on the road ahead And though I am tempted to stray from it It lights up the path I must tread Every word that proceeds from my precious Lord Is life and salvation to me Keep me close that I may hear you Lord Keep me close so I may be free This Word that burns at the center of my heart Was written by you for me This strong desire that has ruined me for life Makes me desperately want to see To see you high and lifted up Where the train of your robe fills the temple I fall down in fear at this terrible sight Yet I find you so sweet and gentle Your mercy flows like the river wide And your love is as deep as the sea And of your forgiveness there is no end From Calvary it flows eternally And rivers of water run down from my eyes For men have rejected the Son Yet despite their rejections we shall rejoice For the victory on Calvary won I rise before the breaking of the dawn In the wee small hours of the morning I search for you with all of my heart And for the world my heart is in mourning They will not hear, they refuse to listen They are stubborn in all of their ways Yet your children will rejoice with all of their hearts And follow you all of their days This heart, this heart you have given to me Is the greatest treasure of all And your words of love are written on this heart So that I may never fall For I was fallen and dead in my sin Just like Lazarus, dead in the cave Yet you came to me, right where I was And you were mighty to save Arise my child come forth and live I speak to your heart of stone Roll away, roll away, and now become flesh Walk with me and youll never walk alone And so it was, the promise fulfilled All the prophets had longed to see This heart of flesh, the law fulfilled The Christ that has set me free
Frank, a heart lifting poem, thank you.I was reminded of this beautiful psalm today when talking with my wife of my high anglican choir boy days age 8 to 14, when we had to chant out all 176 verses - so boring! How things have changed! You write " Now I have had less difficulty with the poems and more difficulty with the subject matter. I never realized just how much a demand for justice there was in the first 100 pslams, justice and vengence upon enemies."I agree with you there. The psalms cannot be the heart cry of vengeance of the christian. Vengeance is Cain's curse, and we are told "avenge not yourselves".Personally, I see such vengeance cries in the psalms as prophetically the cry of the elect remnant of Jews during the last days of tribulation. This is seen in the parable of the unjust judge in Luke 18.Luk 18:7 And shall not God at all avenge his elect, who cry to him day and night, and he bears long as to them? Luk 18:8 I say unto you that he will avenge them speedily. But when the Son of man comes, shall he indeed find faith on the earth?and in the cry of the same remnant under the fifth seal judgement of Christ in Rev 6.Rev_6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? What do you think?RespectfullyDavid
_________________david
Hey bro David,Wow, chanting all 176 verses :)I do agree that Justice is the Lord's cerainly. We, who know Him, already have our justice, we are justified in His sight and we give up our rights here on earth as we die to our flesh and follow Him in the Spirit. There will be a final judgement obviously and there will be justice for the martyrs who cry out with a loud voice from under the alter. Your escahtology is different from mine it seems brother David. Our opinions on who the elect remnant are would differ because of that, yet that is another subject. The poem was an attempt to write a contemporary version from the born again persepective and coming from a point where the law has been fulfilled in Jesus, therefore David's passion for the law would now be David's passion for Jesus, his Lord...........bro Frank