This post is part of my ongoing series of writing down my thoughts on the Bible passages I read each day. Some days I hope to have great insight that the Lord gives me, and many days, I will likely struggle through the text and not know what to write down based on what I read. My hope and prayer is that as I make this a habit, just as I did daily writing for so long, that I will improve on my ability to read and understand the passages I’m reading. Please keep in mind that many of these posts may be published late at night or with little time studying and simply be my first thoughts after reading. This is in no way a commentary that one should use to discern the Bible, but my own personal thoughts.
God desires good for us.
But not always the good that you’re thinking of. I was taken on a journey in the readings from today. All from David, most likely at a similar time, yet the attitude they convey all seem directly in contrast to the other. I wrote some brief thoughts next to some of the verses I went through. Always important, as I take just a few verses from these texts, I highly encourage you to look at them yourselves instead of taking anything I have to say for anything.
Ps. 81:13-16 – Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
He starts by setting the stage pretty high here. He talks in this chapter about how Israel has gone away from what he has commanded, and this has ended to their own detriment. That He desired to bless them, and if they had listened to Him, he would have, but instead, they have gone their own way and he gave them up to their own false gods.
Ps. 88:18 – You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
He totally switches gears in this chapter and instead of talking about how he would have blessed Israel if they had followed Him, he talks about his own sadness. That even in following God, his friends have shunned him and the people who he thought he could depend on are no longer there. Everything he was depending on before was taken away from Him when he fully pursued Him. So how does that make sense. Here David is basically doing what chapter 81 was talking about. He’s listened to God and gone after Him, and this seems like punishment, not a reward for doing that?
Ps. 92:1 – It is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
Not that this is all in EXACT chronological order, but I like to think of these readings in the mind of what may have gone through David’s head. In this Psalm, he can’t stop talking about how good God is and that how good it is to worship Him. He had trust that even in the difficulty that he talks about in chapter 88, he should still worship God for who he is. Not complaining about his present circumstances. It’s clear he wasn’t feeling great about where he was, b ut he doesn’t dwell on that, he dwells on worshiping God.
Ps. 92:5-7 – How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;
Here he draws the distinction of the mind. How he got from saying “woe is me, my friends have ditched me” to Give thanks and sing praises to God”. It’s the realization of what the purpose of this life is. It is not to live for pleasure or fun. It’s not to have the most full life with what the world tells you is the most full life. That though someone may have the whole world of stuff on this earth, they are doomed to destruction forever. We don’t get the full resolution here, but it starts to draw the picture. Though it seems the wicked are living their best life possible, we understand that what the world perceives as best or good, is not what God created as good and best.
Ps. 92:12-13 – The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.
And here is the final connection. “The righteous flourish”…in what? In the wealth they have? In the amount of friends they have? No. They flourish in the courts of our God. In the eyes of God they flourish. Not storing up for themselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but storing it up in heaven, where thieves do not break in and steal, where moths do not destroy!
The “stupid man” as ch. 92 says, has no way to grasp the difference or the ability to look instead to the future of what God desires for us instead of looking at the short-term pleasures of this life. The fleeting pleasure of doing what God calls “wicked” and the world calls “good”.
This is by no means an attempt at predicting David’s actual thoughts, but more my own thoughts as I read through each of these passages and thinking through what they mean for us in our lives.