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Wednesday 11/06/24
Thru the Bible: Psalm Book II: chapters 67-70
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Zeal for Your house has consumed Me
Tonight we begin with Psalm 67…
Psalm 67:1-7,
This Psalm is of unknown authorship. The superscript says…
“(1) For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm, a song.”
Often a particular music director is mentioned, either Jeduthun, Heman or Asaph. So this psalm is unknown in both authorship as well as the one who was to direct the music.
The Psalm is very simple but brings to our attention a somewhat secondary theme which we witness throughout scripture. That theme is God’s name and power being great before the eyes of the nations of the world.
We first witness this in God’s dealings with Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron – the most clear reference of which is ironically found in the New Testament book of Romans.
Romans 9:17, “For the scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate My power in you, and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
We have made reference to this many times in our teachings and discussions about God’s sovereignty over who holds political power in all the nations of the earth.
The next time this crops up in any significant way was when shortly into the wilderness wanderings, God was ready to destroy Israel and start from scratch with Moses. We see this scriptural subtheme crop up in Moses’ prayer requesting God to spare them. Of course this means that God’s fame and power being known in the earth was a goal and purpose of God which He intended to reveal THROUGH Israel and Moses was aware of it.
If this did not matter to God, Moses’ prayer would have fallen of deaf ears so to speak because it would not align with God’s will, purpose and plan.
Exodus 32:9-14, “(9) Then the LORD said to Moses: “I have seen this people. Look what a stiff-necked people they are! (10) So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.” (11) But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? (12) Why should the Egyptians say, ‘For evil he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent of this evil against your people. (13) Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.’” (14) Then the LORD relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.”
So this is in fact part of God’s overall purpose in the earth. He WANTED to use Israel, but since they rejected their Messiah – having eyes and ears which were blind and deaf as the prophets foretold, they rejected eternal life found in Jesus. So God turned to the Gentiles who received Him and were willing to be used as lights to the world. God’s overall purpose however, has not changed as it never does. It has only been postponed. Paul tells us in Romans that Israel as a nation has been set to one side until the fullness of the Gentiles have entered the Kingdom. He is using the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy and will again turn His attention back to them during the Millennial age following the Great Tribulation.
Now that was an admittedly long preamble to a brief and otherwise rather simple Psalm, but as I said, it highlights a primary subtheme which runs throughout scripture and therefore it warranted our little mini-lesson leading into the reading of this Psalm.
“May God show us his favor and bless us! May he smile on us! (Selah)
(2) Then those living on earth will know what You are like; all nations will know how You deliver Your people.
(3) Let the nations thank You, O God! Let all the nations thank You! (4) Let foreigners rejoice and celebrate! For You execute justice among the nations, and govern the people living on earth. (Selah)
(5) Let the nations thank You, O God! Let all the nations thank You! (6) The earth yields its crops. May God, our God, bless us! (7) May God bless us!
Then all the ends of the earth will give Him the honor He deserves.”
Psalm 68:1-35,
“(1) For the music director; by David, a psalm, a song.
God springs into action! His enemies scatter; His adversaries run from Him. (2) As smoke is driven away by the wind, so You drive them away. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked are destroyed before God.
(3) But the godly are happy; they rejoice before God and are overcome with joy.”
Now it goes without saying that such is not always the earthly lot of God’s people. Sometimes they fall, through sin or simply demonic opposition into temptation, persecutions and trials. As the Psalmist says,
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.”– Psalm 34:19
As children of God under the New Covenant which has both different and better promises as well as different and better objectives – we often are required to be more eternally minded than those of under the Old Covenant. We may not always see justice in our earthly lifetime, but our lifetime is not limited to this brief physical expression here on earth. This is not a religious dodge, but a solid truth which the scriptures are not ambiguous regarding.
Consider those martyred for the faith as they are mentioned in Revelation.
Revelation 6:9-11, “(9) When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. (10) And they cried with a loud voice, saying,
“How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
(11) Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.”
So the godly are in fact happy and rejoice before God and are overcome with Joy… but not always in their everyday experience. We are, in fact, to rejoice in the Lord always, but our experience of Joy fluctuates due to our immediate circumstances in the flesh – or what Paul calls “this present distress”.
Psalm 68…
“(4) Sing to God! Sing praises to His name! Exalt the One Who rides on the clouds! For the LORD is His name! Rejoice before Him!
(5) He is a father to the fatherless and an advocate for widows. God rules from His holy dwelling place.
(6) God settles those who have been deserted in their own homes;
He frees prisoners and grants them prosperity.
But sinful rebels live in the desert.
(7) O God, when You lead Your people into battle, when You march through the wastelands, (Selah) (8) the earth shakes, yes, the heavens pour down rain before God, the God of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
(9) O God, You cause abundant showers to fall on Your chosen people. When they are tired, You sustain them, (10) for You live among them.
You sustain the oppressed with Your good blessings, O God.
(11) The Lord speaks; many, many women spread the good news – (12) “Kings leading armies run away – they run away!”
The lovely lady of the house divides up the loot.
(13) When you lie down among the sheepfolds, the wings of the dove are covered with silver and with glittering gold.
(14) When the Sovereign One scatters kings, let it snow on Zalmon! (15) The mountain of Bashan is a towering mountain; the mountain of Bashan is a mountain with many peaks.
(16) Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, at the mountain where God has decided to live? Indeed the LORD will live there permanently! (17) God has countless chariots; they number in the thousands.
The Lord comes from Sinai in holy splendor. (18) You ascend on high, You have taken many captives. You receive tribute from men, including even sinful rebels. Indeed the LORD God lives there!”
Now these are some interesting verbal pictures which are not immediately clear in meaning. However, I believe this to be a prophetic reference to the Millennial kingdom.
Long after King David, who penned this Psalm had passed away, when the Israelites were freed from their Babylonian bondage – many decided to return to Samaria where they had been during the Assyrian captivity before they came under the power of Babylon.
In Samaria, they took it upon themselves to build a second temple in which they thought to worship God. This was located on Mount Gerizim.
If you remember, the Samaritan woman at the well referenced this second temple when speaking to Jesus. She said,
“(20) Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” – John 4:20-24
Because God had legitimately placed His name in Jerusalem and therefore consecrated that place as the place to worship under the Old Covenant, I believe this statement we read in verse 14-17 is referring to those who tried to call the temple at Mount Gerizim the place to worship and looked at the temple in Jerusalem with disdain which in all reality sprung from jealousy.
The reference to the Lord coming in splendor to ascend on high, I believe to be speaking of Jesus taking His place on the throne in the temple in Jerusalem. At that time we are told that the kings of the earth will bring gold and treasures to Jesus as tribute to His authority, rule and reign which is mentioned in verse 29 of this Psalm.
The laying down among the sheepfold with the wings of the dove covered with silver and glittering with gold I believe could be referring to the Spirit of God in those who took part in the rapture who will be ruling and reigning with Christ Jesus in and over His millennial kingdom. The silver and gold may refer to one of the ways these metals are used symbolically in scripture to refer to freedom and godliness.
All of this is of course mere speculation but it does point to a real future which will be realized in just this way, but which this passage may or may not be referring to prophetically.
“(19) The Lord deserves praise! Day after day He carries our burden, the God Who delivers us. (Selah) (20) Our God is a God Who delivers; the LORD, the sovereign Lord, can rescue from death.
(21) Indeed God strikes the heads of His enemies, the hairy foreheads of those who persist in rebellion. (22) The Lord says, “I will retrieve them from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, (23) so that your feet may stomp in their blood, and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.”
(24) They see your processions, O God – the processions of my God, my King, Who marches along in holy splendor.
(25) Singers walk in front; musicians follow playing their stringed instruments, in the midst of young women playing tambourines.
(26) In your large assemblies praise God, the LORD, in the assemblies of Israel!
(27) There is little Benjamin, their ruler, and the princes of Judah in their robes, along with the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali. (28) God has decreed that you will be powerful.”
This is likely a reference to Jesus’ coming in His earthly ministry which paved the way for His future rule and reign.
You see, a primary Messianic reference to Zebulun and Naphtali is found in Isaiah 9:1-2.
Isaiah foresees that “the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali” will “see a great light”, signifying the coming of the Messiah, even though these regions were considered “spiritually dark” and “in the shadow of death“. This prophecy is directly quoted in Matthew 4:15-16, where it is applied to Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, which encompasses the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.
So in this Psalm God may be saying that Jesus, Who would come and carry out a large portion of His physical and earthly ministry in the territories of Zebulun and Naphtali – they would reject Him – but their fall would not be permanent as we mentioned earlier. God has already spoken regarding Zebulun and Naphtali that they will be powerful and we know that in the future physical Messianic kingdom, all of Israel will be saved which would include these regions of former spiritual darkness.
It may just be coincidence and may not literally even been referring to the temple in Samaria but later in this same passage in Isaiah 9:8-10 it says,
Isaiah 9:8-10, “(8) The Lord sent a word against Jacob, And it has fallen on Israel. (9) All the people will know— Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria— Who say in pride and arrogance of heart: (10) “The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.”
The passage goes on to talk about God destroying what they build.
Of course the temple built in Samaria was destroyed and rebuilt in the second century, only to be destroyed again in 111-110BC by Jewish forces. So while remnants of this temple have been found I personally know little regarding its construction. So the reference to hewn stones and cedar actually may actually have no application or reference to this temple – it is simply a guess as to what this passage is pointing to.
“O God, You Who have acted on our behalf, demonstrate Your power. (29) Because of Your temple in Jerusalem, kings bring tribute to You.”
“(30) Sound Your battle cry against the wild beast of the reeds, and the nations that assemble like a herd of calves led by bulls! They humble themselves and offer gold and silver as tribute.
God scatters the nations that like to do battle.
(31) They come with red cloth from Egypt, Ethiopia voluntarily offers tribute to God.
(32) O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God! Sing praises to the Lord, (Selah) (33) to the One Who rides through the sky from ancient times!
Look! He thunders loudly.
(34) Acknowledge God’s power, His sovereignty over Israel, and the power he reveals in the skies! (35) You are awe-inspiring, O God, as You emerge from Your holy temple!
It is the God of Israel Who gives the people power and strength. God deserves praise!”
Psalm 69:1-36,
“(1) For the choir director: according to “The Lilies.” Davidic.
This Psalm is laden with metaphorical references, but very clearly outlines specific Messianic occurrences in the life of Jesus and are therefore prophetic and predictive.
As so often happens in scripture and in the Psalms and prophets more than any other place, these words have multiple events in view both immediate and known to the writer as well as prophetic.
“Save me, God, for the water has risen to my neck. (2) I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing; I have come into deep waters, and a flood sweeps over me.
(3) I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
(4) Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head; my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me, are powerful. Though I did not steal, I must repay.
(5) God, You know my foolishness, and my guilty acts are not hidden from You. (6) Do not let those who put their hope in You be disgraced because of me, Lord GOD of Hosts; do not let those who seek You be humiliated because of me, God of Israel.
(7) For I have endured insults because of You, and shame has covered my face. (8) I have become a stranger to my brothers and a foreigner to my mother’s sons (9) because zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me.
(10) I mourned and fasted, but it brought me insults. (11) I wore sackcloth as my clothing, and I was a joke to them. (12) Those who sit at the city gate talk about me, and drunkards make up songs about me. (13) But as for me, LORD, my prayer to You is for a time of favor.
In Your abundant, faithful love, God, answer me with Your sure salvation. (14) Rescue me from the miry mud; don’t let me sink. Let me be rescued from those who hate me, and from the deep waters. (15) Don’t let the floodwaters sweep over me or the deep swallow me up; don’t let the Pit close its mouth over me.
(16) Answer me, LORD, for Your faithful love is good; in keeping with Your great compassion, turn to me. (17) Don’t hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me quickly!
(18) Draw near to me and redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies. (19) You know the insults I endure–my shame and disgrace. You are aware of all my adversaries.
(20) Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I waited for sympathy, but there was none; for comforters, but found no one. (21) Instead, they gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
(22) Let their table set before them be a snare, and let it be a trap for their allies. (23) Let their eyes grow too dim to see, and let their loins continually shake.
(24) Pour out Your rage on them, and let Your burning anger overtake them. (25) Make their fortification desolate; may no one live in their tents.
(26) For they persecute the one You struck and talk about the pain of those You wounded.
(27) Add guilt to their guilt; do not let them share in Your righteousness. (28) Let them be erased from the book of life and not be recorded with the righteous.
(29) But as for me–poor and in pain–let Your salvation protect me, God.
(30) I will praise God’s name with song and exalt Him with thanksgiving. (31) That will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with horns and hooves.
(32) The humble will see it and rejoice. You who seek God, take heart! (33) For the LORD listens to the needy and does not despise His own who are prisoners.
(34) Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them, (35) for God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah. They will live there and possess it.
(36) The descendants of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will live in it.”
Psalm 70:1-5,
“(1) For the choir director. Davidic. To bring remembrance.
God, deliver me. Hurry to help me, LORD! (2) Let those who seek my life be disgraced and confounded; let those who wish me harm be driven back and humiliated. (3) Let those who say, “Aha, aha!” retreat because of their shame.
(4) Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let those who love Your salvation continually say, “God is great!”
(5) I am afflicted and needy; hurry to me, God. You are my help and my deliverer; LORD, do not delay.”
Blessings!
Tri
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