Epaggelia

v1, The Spirit inspired David to sing this because of the plain evidence that there is a God: There is evidence in both creation and human conscience that Paul described in Romans 1. The fact that some people insist on denying the existence of God does not erase God from the universe; it instead speaks to their own standing as foolish. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:22, Professing to be wise, they became fools. Most people taking the atheist stance in this life are merely ignorant of the fools they are following, but because of some academic intellectuals “professing to be wise”, they became fools. “The Hebrew word for fool in this psalm is nabal, a word which implies an aggressive perversity, epitomized in the husband named Nabal, ref: 1 Samuel 25:25. The God-denying man David has in mind is not merely troubled by intellectual objections to the existence of God; in his heart he wishes God away, typically for fundamentally moral reasons. The Apostle John explains it this way in John 3:20, For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. This means that the man David had in mind is not an atheist for primarily intellectual reasons. Honest intellectual agnosticism does not necessarily produce immorality but dishonest emotional atheism always does.”

v2, The LORD looking down from heaven upon the descendants of men, is not a condescending attitude of our Creator, but while men may wish to forget about God, God never forgets about man. He is always observing us. In man’s rejection of God, there is often the wish that God would just leave us alone. This is an unwise wish, because all human life depends upon God, see Acts 17:28, Matthew 5:45. This is an impossible wish, because God has rights of a creator over His creation. The words remind us of God descending from heaven to observe the folly of those building the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:5) What do you think he sees today? How many times have you spoken to someone about Jesus and found out they understand the words you used, but they are totally confused about why you said it? They don’t have enough understanding about God, to even follow the reasoning behind what you said about Him, much less believe it! This should evoke sympathy from us, not anger.

v3-6, The whole idea of “none” doing good, is the reason the Apostle Paul quotes it in the context of both Jews & Gentiles needing the New Testament’s gospel in Jesus. Jews have no advantage over anyone else in the world, when it comes to dealing with the problem of sin. It ruins their desire and ability to do good, as well as ours and any other nationality. Just because you’re born in the USA doesn’t give you an advantage over sin corrupting your ability to do good, see Romans 3:10-12.

v7, The Restoration of Israel, is a phrase David uses to describe the sentiment of victory he has upon remembrance of bringing the Hebrews out of Egypt, and as he looks to the future, he knows God can do it again, and again, and again. The best restoration of Israel was during the first century anno domini  AD33 in Jerusalem as the church was born, spiritual Israel was given a new creation in the body of Christ, and when Christians lose their direction as a whole, descending into denominationalism, God can restore us again! Worse yet, when churches lose their identity in the world, repentance is necessary before God can restore them. Thank God this praise has a lot to do with teaching us what our priorities are towards erroring children of God.

v1 “How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?

David’s friend advises with a well meaning direction, but it’s ungodly. Like when Peter advised Jesus to not go the way of the cross, Matthew 16:22-23. Peter meant well, but he was really being used by the devil. We must always be careful with the advice we give to others. First, we must always mind our own business and not be busybodies, 1st Thess, 4:11 & 1st Tim. 5:13. Second, we can be too confident in our own perception of a situation. Job’s friend confidently said, “I will tell you, hear me; what I have seen I will declare” (Job 15:17), but he was wrong. Our motive is good but the advice is wrong.

v6, This shall be the portion of their cup: What people deserve is generally what they get, sooner or later, and the image of the cup as a container of judgment reminds us of Jesus’ prayer in the garden: O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will (Matthew 26:39) The cup Jesus dreaded was the cup that contained the wrath of God against sin, wrath that we deserved, but Jesus drank for us.

v7, He loves righteousness: David knew that as he walked righteously, he would keep [himself] in the love of God (Jude 21). It isn’t that we must earn God’s love by our personal righteousness; instead, our pursuit and practice of righteousness keeps us flowing in the benefits of God’s love which was poured out into our hearts by grace on the day we were baptised into Christ by faith, Romans 5:5-6:7. God’s love extends everywhere. Nothing can separate us from God’s love, and He loved us while we were still sinners, (Romans 5:8) But we can deny ourselves the benefits of God’s love, until we, by faith are buried with him in baptism, then His love is poured out into our hearts to drink and drink, forever! The water of Life. Christians who don’t keep themselves in the love of God end up living as if they are on the dark side of the moon. The sun is always out there, always shining, but they are never in a position to receive the light or warmth of the sun. We can choose to be like the Prodigal Son of Luke 15, who was always loved by the father, but for a time he did not benefit from that love. “His countenance beholds the upright”. Translators debate if this means “God’s upright people see Him” or “the LORD sees His upright people.” Most modern translations think it speaks of God’s people seeing Him: Upright men will see his face (NIV), The upright will behold His face (NASB),The godly shall see his face (LB). However, it really doesn’t matter, because both are true. God shines His face on His people. God’s people will see Him. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God  (Matthew 5:8). In fact, the desire to behold God is one of the greatest motivations to an upright life and heart.