Psalm 17, 35, 54, and 63 and My Leather Class

Psalm 17, 35, 54, and 63

Psalm 17 is another prayer of David for justice and help, but you can tell that David has been examining himself. He tells God the prayer comes from honest lips and that God had tested his thought and examined his heart and found nothing wrong. David had to examine himself in order to know this.

I think David is looking forward to the resurrection when he says, “Because I am righteous, I will see you. When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied.”

In Psalm 35, David is once again seeking God’s protection and the defeat of his enemies. It also sounds as if David is afraid the Lord might abandon him. He also asks for great joy to those who came to his defense.

Don’t you love the Psalms that are specific about when and why David wrote them? And this one is to be accompanied by stringed instruments. Don’t you wonder how the music part of it went? Do you suppose it was like Israeli music today?

David is once again laying out his problems before the Lord, but he also is praising God for being his helper and keeping him alive. When he talks about sacrificing a voluntary offering to God, I think his next words indicate what that offering is: praising God’s name, for it is good. It is easy to be happy and joyful and praise God when everything is going our way, but a real sacrifice to praise God when we are troubled and afraid and under attack. May we emulate David and offer praise to God, no matter the circumstances.

Psalm 63 is a testament to David’s love of God. It is obvious that his heart was overflowing with praise for God, in spite of his circumstances. David spent a lot of time keeping away from Saul and others who pursued him and yet, he was almost speechless about what God meant to him, about how much he longed for God. He spent a lot of time meditating on God, even to the point of lying awake at night thinking of him. May we seek God in this way – but I hope we don’t have to go to the wilderness to do so.

Tomorrow, it’s I Samuel 28 – 31 and Psalm 18.

My Leather Class

Tonight, I have a 3-hour class on coloring leather. Boy, do I need it. You wouldn’t believe how many projects I botch because I don’t know what I am doing. I hope I learn what I need to know tonight.

Yntil next time…