Epaggelia

There are at least seven lessons in this Psalm. It is an acrostic (Alphabetic) Psalm where in Hebrew each line begins with the successive Hebrew letter. However, it is irregular. One letter (vau) is missing and another (pe) is repeated. There are only a few Psalms written in this style, many Rabbis say they are primarily used for teaching children, as well as praise. The title says, “A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech (King Achish) who drove him away, and he departed.” This refers to the events of 1 Samuel 21:10-15 where David, because he was afraid, acted like he was crazy before Achish, the king of Gath. The Psalm does not indicate any attempt to vindicate David’s action. In fact, in the Psalm, David makes no comment about his conduct. He merely recalls his feelings at the time of his deliverance. 

A. The point of the Psalm is to praise Jehovah as our provider, protector, and deliverer. God gives us in this Psalm many good reasons for trusting Him while in trouble, so that we grow courageous for the next trial that comes our way, to see how God helps us.

B.  Fear must be taught (v. 11). If we fear God, we have been taught to fear God. If we want our children to fear God, we must teach them to fear God. When we wonder why some of our children have no use for God or his word, we would do well to consider that maybe we didn’t teach them to fear God.

C. What it means to fear God. The term “fear” is equated with several other expressions. These terms serve as a commentary on what is involved in fearing God, v. 8 describes one who “trusts in him.” v10 says “seek the Lord.”  v15 calls this one “righteous.” v22 says he is a servant.

D. The Lord protects those who fear him (v. 7, 15, 17, 19). The Lord cares about his people. He delivers them from their troubles.

E. The Lord blesses those who fear him (v. 8-10). God gives us all that we need (2 Pet. 1:3). There is no promise that the Lord will give us all we want. He did promise that he would grant all we need. While the young lion may hunger, his people will not lack any good thing (v. 10).

F. Those who fear God are those who really enjoy life (v. 12). Those who seek pleasure from life without the fear of God, have no idea of what lasting joy is. 

G. God listens to those who fear him (v. 15-22). What a privilege to have God’s ear tuned to our request! Such an honor is not granted to just anyone. It is an honor bestowed only on those who fear God. (1st Peter 3:12)

John the disciple Jesus loved, was keen to show how in reality, Jesus was indeed the Lamb of God, fulfilled in David’s messianic prophecy, Psa. 34:20. Moses commanded that when a lamb was sacrificed, (Ex. 12:46) none of the bones should be broken, indeed the care taken in it’s death was shown through the careful guidance God had in giving his Son as The Lamb, ensuring not a bone was broken, John 19:36. How could this be achieved while undergoing all the savage inhumanity inflicted on Jesus’ body? God is in control, and is our Deliverer. The resurrection was in sight all the while, and indeed with perfect timing, a reality.

Historians have pointed out that from the 4th century AD, the famous theologian Augustine, had this Psalm inscribed on his bedroom wall to help him memorize it better. Augustine claimed it as one of his favorite Psalms. It is very much in tune with Psalm 51, where a soul can rejoice in the wonders of God’s grace & mercy dealing with sin, comforting sorrow and instructing the ignorant. The word “Maskil” in the title is sometimes translated by Rabbi’s to mean “instruction”, and there are at least a dozen Psalms that have this word as part of the title. So here we know God expects us to learn something from His praise, read Colossians 3:16, and anticipate The Teacher’s instruction!

v1. David had plenty of opportunities to know the blessed refreshment of forgiveness in his own life. Israel’s great King – a man after God’s heart – nevertheless had some significant seasons of sin and spiritual decline. Notable among these were David’s deceitful time at Ziklag (1 Samuel 27, 29, 30) and wrongful murders (27:8-12). It was when David had a lot of mouths to feed with his mighty men and running for his life while King Saul chased him, besides, there weren’t a lot of job openings in Ziklag. So they began making guerrilla raids on the pagan villages. There were times in Israel’s history when God ordered His men to wipe out certain pagan groups as judgment for their sin. But God didn’t command David to do that here. David was acting on his own. These villagers were apparently allies with Achish. David didn’t want them talking. So he slaughtered them all and then lied to Achish so that he thought David was attacking Jewish villages. He’s playing a dangerous con game. When wrong thinking leads you into wrong actions and wrong company, then you feel compelled to engage in more wrong actions to cover your tracks and to maintain your lifestyle. Whenever a person gets snared by sin, there is always deception, both the sinner deceiving others and deceiving himself by rationalizing his sin: But you are just digging yourself deeper!

Then there was David’s personal sin with Bathsheba and public sin against Uriah (2 Samuel 11). After these incidents, David came to confession, repentance, and felt forgiveness so real, that he was moved not only to fast, but by God’s Spirit, to sing about it. We are blessed to have his written lyrics maintained for millenia to enjoy.  David knew what it was like to be a guilty sinner. He knew the seriousness of sin and how good it is to be truly forgiven. He knew – as Paul would later state in Romans 4:6-8 – the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from our own works. If David were judged on works alone, then The Righteous God must condemn him; nevertheless he knew by experience, blessed is he whose trespasses are forgiven, whose sin is covered. The psalmist declares that the forgiveness of sin, of whatever kind of sin, whether against God or man, whether great or small, whether deliberate or accidental, or whether by omission or commission, real total forgiveness is to be found in our God, Jesus Christ. Our challenge is to emulate Him, Eph. 4:32-5:1-2

v5,  Real, deep, true confession of sin has been a feature of every genuine new birth as we awaken spiritually to be alive in Christ. As demonstrated by the revival in Ephesus recorded in Acts 19:17-20. But there are too many who make confession, having no broken hearts, no humbled spirits. Know this, that even if there be ten thousand confessions, if they are made by hardened hearts, if they do not spring from sorrowful spirits, they are only additions to our guilt as they are just deep hidden mockeries of the Almighty’s offer to forgive the repentant, not the unrepentant. Integrity is everything!

This seems to be a popular song among God’s children through the ages. Jonah seems to quote v6 (Jonah 2:8) with his prayer from the belly of the great fish. Jeremiah quoted v13 six times! (Jer. 6:25, 20:3,10, 46:5, 49:29 & Lam. 2:22) Our beloved apostle Paul referred to v24 (1st Cor. 16:13) Most significantly, v5 was quoted by Jesus Christ on the cross as His final words just before He died.(Luke 23:46) and don’t forget Stephen, the first martyr of the church, alluded to v5 (Acts 7:59). This usage of the Psalmist’s praise by the Holy Spirit, merits our time & study in His words.

Early in the 16^th century, a German monk and seminary professor named Martin Luther taught through Psalms, at the University of Wittenberg. In his teaching he came upon this statement in Psa. 31:1-2.. The passage confused him; how could God’s righteousness deliver him? The righteousness of God – His great justice – could only condemn him to hell as a righteous punishment for his sins. One night up in a tower in the monastery, Luther thought about this passage and also read Romans 1:17. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. Luther said he thought about this day and night, until he finally understood what the righteousness of God revealed by the gospel is. It is not speaking of the holy righteousness of God that condemns the guilty sinner, but of the DIVINE righteousness that is given to the sinner as a gift, who puts his trust in Jesus Christ. Luther said of this experience: “I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Therefore I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise….” Martin Luther felt renewed in a new life and the reformation began in his heart. Historians have written that this was “the happiest day in Luther’s life.” 

v5, Into Your hand I commit my spirit: David asked to be delivered from his enemies and their traps, but not so he could live for himself. He utterly cast himself on God, committing the deepest part of himself to God. Jesus expressed His total surrender and submission to God on the cross when He quoted this line from Psalm 31 recorded in Luke 23:46. – and then Jesus gave His last breath on the cross. Jesus did not surrender his life despondently for destruction, but with a triumphant attitude towards His Father for resurrection. And also, this dedicated attitude of the soul towards God the Father is not reserved for David and the Son of David alone. Stephen, the first martyr of the church, had the idea of these words in mind with his final words, see Acts 7:59.

v24, good courage:  if you want to get out of apathy and timidity, you must TAKE good courage. This is mandatory, for the text puts it so:’ Do not sit still, and rub your eyes, and say, ‘I can’t help it, I must always be like this.’ You must not be so; in the name of God, you can pray believing God commands you ‘be of good courage.’ If you are not like that, you must not expect the Spirit of God to work on you as though you were a block of wood, and could be made into something against your will. Oh, no! You must prayerfully determine to be of good courage! Jesus did it while facing death, we can do it while facing Him in prayer. Do you believe He can change your heart to be courageous?

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.

These two psalms are linked together by an Acrostic which is irregular and broken, just like the troubled times which both of these psalms address. This Acrostic tells us that the subject of the two Psalms is one and that they are to be connected together. From 9:1 to 10:17, each line of each Psalm starts with a letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and they each appear in order, except for the third letter, the gimmel, and there are 3 letters missing, but the rest of the alphabet is used in order. Psalm 9 is written with a note as authored by David, whereas 10 is not noted, like an addendum added by the same author, but written at a later date. Many theology scholars explain this by defining “Muth-labben” (the tune psalm 9 is to be sung with) meaning “the death of the man who went out between camps”. This word is used of Goliath in 1st Samuel 17:4. So it’s plausible David wrote Psalm 9 soon after the incident of killing him and he could have written Psalm 10, much later upon reflection on one of his last battles with the Philistines mentioned in 2nd Samuel 21:15. Whatever the case, it is referenced in the New Testament, See Romans 3:9-20, as verse14 is where Paul quotes from Psalm 10:7, Why? Because the nature of sin that we all explore and experience is exactly what God’s enemies live like. Both of these Psalms are praising God for his eventual victory over the enemies of God’s children.

The deeds David refers to here in 9:11 are likely the wonderful acts the Lord performed on behalf of Israel (Psalm 9:1–6). This might have implied His deliverance of His people from Egypt and His miraculous provisions for them in the wilderness. However, the actions in question might be more personal: what God has done in the lives of the oppressed. Christians today should declare how much God has done for them (Luke 8:39; 1 Peter 2:9–10; 3:15; Romans 10:14–15) in spite of our failings with sin or problems or discipline. Praise God!

Psalm 9:13 has the term “the gates of death” found in Job 38:17, Psalm 107:18, and Isaiah 38:10. It echoes the idea of death as crossing some barrier or border, from which there is no escape until the resurrection. David believed the Lord could and would preserve his life. Believers need not fear death, because it ushers them into the presence of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). The apostle Paul regarded death, for the Christian, as gain (Philippians 1:21).

Psalm 10 reflects the natural frustration we feel in the face of evil. In our limited understanding, we cannot grasp why God is not intervening right here, right now, and in exactly the way we’d prefer. As with other Old Testament passages, the psalmist later returns to the idea of God’s established faithfulness, but the initial cry of his heart is one of a disturbed spirit. Though the passage began with a sense of frustration and anguish, it ends with a hopeful, faithful tone. What God has accomplished for His people produces confidence: a trust that He will hear and act according to His perfect goodness.

v1, God is magnificent, in that he has displayed his glorious nature throughout heaven and earth, See Romans 1:19-20. In our physical universe we have tangible evidence of a superior intelligence that is powerful in nature and beautiful in design. 

v2, “From the mouths of babes”, David here touched on a familiar theme in the Bible: the idea that God uses otherwise weak things to display His glory and strength. 1st Corinthians 1:27 is an example of this idea: But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. Jesus quoted from this Psalm as recorded in Matthew 21:15-16, but his critics hated it. Jesus warned them that if people didn’t praise him with the purity of an innocent child, the rocks would cry out to praise Him. Never forget the power of praise from your own lips, no matter how insignificant you seem in the world’s view. God has done great things through praise, He has even won wars with praise. Jesus told His accusers who He was and who they were. Since the little children praise God in Psalm 8, Jesus identified Himself as God. In this, Jesus also identified the indignant scribes and teachers as an enemy described in this psalm. C.H. Spurgeon put it this way, “Aha! O adversary! To be overcome by a behemoth might make thee angry; but to be smitten out of infants’ mouths causes thee to bite the dust in utter dishonor. Thou art sore broken, now that ‘out of the mouth of babes and sucklings’ thou art put to shame.”

v3, “Consider the heavens”, With the naked eye, we can see about 5,000 stars. With a four-inch telescope, we can see about 2 million stars. With a 200-inch mirror in a great observatory, one can see more than a billion stars. The universe is so big that if we were to travel at the speed of light, it could take 40 billion years to reach the edge of the universe, and it is EXPANDING! Considering the heavens makes us see the greatness of God. 

v4-5 is quoted in Heb. 2:5-9 to reinforce and build upon this exact point. In it he notes that man’s low estate relates only to this world, and not the world to come. More pointedly, the writer of Hebrews used this passage from Psalm 8 to show that Jesus really did add a genuinely human nature to His divine nature and so became a little lower than the angels in our humanity and in this way has “crowned him with glory and honor. Though for a little while we are set lower than the angels, man’s destiny is one day to be crowned with a glory and honor that surpasses even the angels. It is the destiny of redeemed men and women to one day be lifted above the angels, see 1st Corinthians 6:3 & Revelation 1:6, 5:10.

v6-9, For now, on this side of eternity, we have a wonderful domain over His creation, but Jesus has even more, Matthew 28:18. What a Lord we follow! Praise Him.