Psalms Readings – Week 7
February 14 – Psalm 48
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.
4 When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,
5 they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labor.
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind.
8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord Almighty, in the city of our God:
God makes her secure forever.
9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
10 Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation.
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.
This song praises God’s holy mountain, Zion, or Jerusalem. Almost every psalm of the sons of Korah has focused on Zion, either directly or indirectly. This one pulls out all the stops in full-throated praise of the place where God chose to dwell.
While God created all things and is himself above and beyond the farthest reaches of the universe, the Bible reveals that the one place God most identified with was Mount Zion. It’s the place where he dwelt “enthroned between the cherubim” of the ark of the covenant, which was housed in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle and temple.
The term Zaphon means “north” and is the name of a mountain marking the boundary between the Holy Land and Syria. The Canaanites believed that Baal resided there. The Canaanite’s also referred to this mountain as Baal’s “beautiful hill,” his “inheritance,” his “holy mountain,” and a “lovely, mighty mountain.” So, as this psalm speaks similar things about Mount Zion, it argues that Yahweh and His dwelling place are greater than Baal.
Mount Zion has no merit on its own. It is the great mountain because God chose to place his name there, to locate his temple there, to dwell there. His righteous judgments emanate from there. Because of God’ presence, God’s people meditate on His unfailing love within the temple, and his praise extends to the “ends of the earth.”
This psalm praises God for the beauty and glory of the place where He dwells. As Christ-followers, we have been promised that God’s presence dwells within us. The amazing description that is spoken about Mount Zion can be said about us! Not because of our own greatness, but because of the Holy Spirit within us that we enjoy the glory of God that makes us beautiful and a witness to the world.
May we own our high value in Jesus!
Memory Verse: Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Question(s) to Consider: Will you claim your infinite worth because God dwells within you?
February 15 – Psalm 49
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
1 Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, 2 both low and high, rich and poor alike:
3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.
4 I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle:
5 Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me—
6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?
7 No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—
8 the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—
9 so that they should live on forever and not see decay.
10 For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish,
leaving their wealth to others.
11 Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations,
though they had named lands after themselves.
12 People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish.
13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.
14 They are like sheep and are destined to die; death will be their shepherd
(but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).
Their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions.
15 But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.
16 Do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendor of their houses increases;
17 for they will take nothing with them when they die, their splendor will not descend with them.
18 Though while they live they count themselves blessed— and people praise you when you prosper—
19 they will join those who have gone before them, who will never again see the light of life.
20 People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.
This psalm is a source for, “You can’t take it with you.” This central thought of the psalm calls for us to consider how we live now in light of eternity. Are we amassing earthly fortunes for no eternal good? Or are we living with a larger sense of purpose that is centered on the eternal plan of God?
This is classified as a wisdom psalm which exhorts the godly not to envy the prosperity of the ungodly because all people die and their wealth with them. Instead, the incredible news is that God redeems the faithful to himself.
This teaching gives us the clear difference between the wise and unwise. Those who live unwisely trust in themselves and in what they have accumulated. The wise trust only in God. This psalm gives us one of the rare peaks of the hope for life after death in the Old Testament. Such hope is obviously very common in the New Testament after Jesus died and resurrected and offers the same hope to all believers.
This psalm boldly declares, for the wise and godly, that God will redeem His people from the dead and take them to Himself. This is the prize of all prizes. This is wealth of all wealth. So, please do not settle for anything which is far less that cannot save or redeem you for all eternity.
Memory Verse: Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Question(s) to Consider: How are you putting into practice what the psalmist and the Apostle Paul say, “Set your hearts and minds on things above where Christ is seated, not on things below”? Would you tell the rest of us what works for you?
February 16 – Psalm 50
A psalm of Asaph.
1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
2 From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.
3 Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.
4 He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 “Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.
7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God.
8 I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices
or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.
9 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,
10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High,
15 and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16 But to the wicked person, God says: “What right have you to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips? 17 You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers.
19 You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son.
21 When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you.
But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you.
22 “Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
23 Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”
This is a rare psalm where God is the one speaking rather than the psalmist speaking to God or to others about God. Through Asaph, a director of worship, God speaks that His people do not understand the purpose of sacrifice or the essence of a relationship with Him.
Unlike what many think, God is not indebted to those who bring sacrifices. They are not favors bestowed upon God or food that he needs to survive. He owns it all and has everything He would ever need if He actually were hungry.
Instead, the purpose of sacrifice or true worship is to be a heartfelt response of thanksgiving for who God is and what He has already done for His people. Of the five major offerings, the fellowship offering was the only one that allowed the worshiper to participate in the communal meal associated with it. Included among these were thank offerings which were voluntarily given as an expression of love and gratitude to God. They symbolized rich fellowship and peace with God. Far from forced, routine ritual, God wants our hearts filled with thanksgiving, freely offered vows of devotion, and genuine prayers of petition. The God of the universe wants a real relationship with us!
Memory Verse: Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Question(s) to Consider: In light of this psalm, what would God say to you about your worship? Would he say it was routine or heartfelt? Freely offered or forced? A duty or a delight?
February 17 – Psalm 51
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
We clearly know the circumstances of when this psalm was penned and prayed first by David. The king, the spiritual leader of the nation, had committed adultery and murder. (2 Samuel 11-12.)
In this passionate prayer of confession, David poured out his heart, asking for forgiveness after Nathan the prophet had exposed his sins. It is written from David’s perspective before he had experienced forgiveness in contrast to Psalm 32 which speaks of the delight of confessed sin.
It reminds us that the best among us can sin and mess up in an ugly fashion. Even greater than that, it reveals the beauty of God’s grace to forgive and cleanse if we are humble and willing to confess.
David gives us an emotional prayer that we can use as our own to express our repentant heart.
David, not only wanted to be forgiven, but given a clean heart and a renewed and faithful spirit to be placed within him. He pleaded for God would not to cast him away from His presence and asked for his joy to be restored that had been robbed by his overwhelming guilt. He did not stop there.
On the other side of this, he promised to sing God’s praise and teach others how they can turn back to God. This the very thing he did by writing this prayer for the billions who would go on to pray it!
Memory Verse: Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Question(s) to Consider: What encouragement does this psalm give you? What does it tell you about God? Of the many declarations and petitions in this prayer, which one speaks to you the most?
February 18 – Psalm 52
For the director of music. A maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: “David has gone to the house of Ahimelek.”
1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero? Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
2 You who practice deceit, your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor.
3 You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
4 You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue!
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at you, saying,
7 “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!”
8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.
9 For what you have done I will always praise you in the presence of your faithful people.
And I will hope in your name, for your name is good.
David confronts a cruel enemy, Doeg the Edomite, who was one of King’s Saul’s shepherds. He cruelly massacred 85 priests, along with rest of the town, at King Saul’s order, because their leader Ahimelek had aided David (1 Sam 21:7; 22:6–23). Doeg practiced deceit which is far more than shading the truth now and then. It identifies a fraudulent, scheming person who loves and plots all manner of evil as in the mass murder in which he participated. He trusted in his great wealth thinking it would somehow save him rather than making God his source of strength.
This is the first in a sequence of psalms in which David’s enemies feature prominently and in which he finds himself crying out for help (Psalms 52–64). Several of these psalms are from before David became king while Saul was pursuing him.
David went through astounding difficulties and opposition after he was anointed to be king yet before he took the throne. David had done nothing wrong to deserve all of this. Yet God was able to use these experiences to prepare him, to refine him, to draw him closer, to create a total dependency on Him so that David might be a righteous king who would effectively lead the people in the way of the Lord.
David made it clear that Doeg’s life would end in great punishment for his unrepented evil. In contrast, David gives a picture of himself flourishing as an olive tree, which has an average lifespan of 500 years. He is in the house of God, in God’s presence and protection. He believes in and keeps on trusting in God’s unfailing love. He keeps on praising God for what He has done. His hope will be solely in the good name of the Lord.
In the midst of all our difficult life experiences, may we see ourselves as David saw himself, trusting, hoping, and flourishing in God’s presence allowing God to refine and transform us.
Memory Verse: Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Question(s) to Consider: Will you maintain faith and hope regardless of your difficult circumstances? Can you envision yourself flourishing in the presence and protection of God?
February 19 – Psalm 53
For the director of music. According to mahalath. A maskil of David.
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
4 Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread;
they never call on God.
5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread.
God scattered the bones of those who attacked you; you put them to shame, for God despised them.
6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!
Psalm 54
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, “Is not David hiding among us?”
1 Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might.
2 Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.
3 Arrogant foes are attacking me; ruthless people are trying to kill me— people without regard for God.
4 Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.
5 Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.
6 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good.
7 You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.
If Psalm 53 sounds familiar, it is because it is almost identical to Psalm 14. Paul quotes Psalm 53:3 in Romans 3:12 and then says in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
The statement, “the fool declares there is no God” reveals how depraved and fallen humans can be.
In a recent television commercial featuring Ron Reagan, son of the former President, he is recruiting people to join him in the Freedom from Religion Foundation as it works to keep church and state separate. He closes the commercial by proudly stating, “Ron Reagan, a lifelong atheist, not afraid to burn in hell.” This takes my breath away every time I consider the implications of what he boldly and foolishly proclaims.
David declares God’s overwhelming victory over anyone who dares to deny or oppose Him. However, this does not bring God any pleasure for we know His heart’s desire is for all to be included in the family of God. It is the very reason Christ has yet to return. 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
In Psalm 54, David deals with another enemy, the Ziphites. On two different occasions, they told King Saul where David was hiding. As David faced these ongoing, fear-inducing moments throughout his life, he affirmed his faith over and over, “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.”
David models for us how to speak faith as often as we face the trials and troubles of this world.
Memory Verse: Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Question(s) to Consider: What words will you use to speak faith into your current troubles?
February 20 – Psalm 55
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David.
1 Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea;
2 hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught
3 because of what my enemy is saying, because of the threats of the wicked;
for they bring down suffering on me and assail me in their anger.
4 My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen on me.
5 Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.
6 I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.
7 I would flee far away and stay in the desert;
8 I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.”
9 Lord, confuse the wicked, confound their words, for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they prowl about on its walls; malice and abuse are within it.
11 Destructive forces are at work in the city; threats and lies never leave its streets.
12 If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide.
13 But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend,
14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God,
as we walked about among the worshipers.
15 Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the realm of the dead,
for evil finds lodging among them.
16 As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me.
17 Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.
18 He rescues me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change—he will hear them and humble them,
because they have no fear of God.
20 My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.
21 His talk is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.
22 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.
23 But you, God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of decay;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you.
This psalm continues a series of psalms focused on David’s enemies. As it veers from topic to topic without any orderly fashion, it may reflect the deep turmoil in which David finds his soul. If David’s current sufferings were not enough on their own, they are made worse because they come from a once-trusted “companion” or “a close friend.” They were so close that they enjoyed fellowship together at “the house of God.” David’s despair is so hurtful that he passionately longs to escape far from his troubles, even going off to the desert to find rest and peace.
If we have ever been betrayed or abandoned by a close friend, spouse, or fellow worshiper, we know the depth of pain that David is expressing. Beyond the circumstances of life itself, the pain of losing a friend to make the journey with can be overwhelming.
But David talks to himself as he talks to us, when he says, “Cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.”
Memory Verse: Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Question(s) to Consider: Do you identify with this psalm? Will you claim the promise of verse 22?