Category: psalms

Fight against those who fight against me

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

A little encouragement from Amy Carmichael this morning:

Ps 35.1 Fight against those who fight against me.
Ps 35.3 (Kay) Be a barrier against my pursuers.

What are the things that fight against me?  Let us not lose the comfort and power that is in this word for us by relating the prayer to the larger things only, it touches the smallest.  The wave that sweeps over the great rock, is the same that sweeps over the tiny shell on the shore.  It is the little things of life, the minute unimportant-looking things, that are most likely to shatter our peace; because they are so small that we are very likely to fight them ourselves, instead of looking up at once to our Strong God, our Barrier between us and them.  “Close the gate, or bar up the way:–as the cloudy pillar formed a barricade between the Egyptians and Israel” is Kay’s note.

Fight against those who fight against me–the feelings, the little foolish feelings that want to keep us back from saying to the blessed Will of God “I am content to do it” [Ps 40.10], fight Thou against them, O God; “and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in His salvation . . . Lord, Who is like unto Thee, Who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him?” [Ps 35.9, 10]

What a joyful life ours is, continually proving His tenderness in the very little things.  There is nothing too small for Him to help.  He is indeed a Barrier between us and our pursuers.  How precious is His lovingkindness. [Ps 36.7]  Now for a day of joy!

His love has no end

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

I have been meditating on Ps 136 this past weekend.  The RSV begins: O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever–or as Derek Kidner points out, the better translation is: for his love has no end. This phrase repeats itself after every verse of the psalm–for his love has no end, for his love has no end, for his love has no end. Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, an Orthodox pastor,  has a wonderful commentary on this phrase:

Psalm 136 insists, literally in every verse, that the root of all God’s activity in this world, beginning even with the world’s creation, is mercy–hesed.  This mercy is eternal–le’olam–“forever.”  Mercy is the cause and reason of all that God does. He does nothing, except as an expression of His mercy.  his mercy stretches out to both extremes of infinity.  “For His mercy endures forever” is the palimpsest that lies under each line of Holy Scripture.  Thus, too, from beginning to end of any Orthodox service, the word “mercy” appears more than any other word.  The encounter with God’s mercy is the root of all Christian worship.  Everything else that can be said of God is but an aspect of His mercy.  Mercy is the defining explanation of everything that God has revealed of Himself.  Every Orthodox service of worship, from Nocturnes to Compline, is a polyeleion, a celebration of God’s sustained and abundant mercy.  What we touch, or see, or hear, or taste–from the flames that flicker before the icons and the prayers our voices pour forth, to the billowing incense and the mystic contents of the Chalice–all is mercy.  Mercy is the explanation of every single thought that God has with respect to us.  When we deal with God, everything is mercy; all we will every discover of God will be the deepening levels of His great, abundant, overflowing, rich and endless mercy.  “For His mercy endures forever” is the eternal song of the saints.  (Christ in the Psalms, p. 272)

“I remember Thee”

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

I noticed something this morning as I was meditating/studying Psalm 42.  The psalm seems to fluctuate between feelings of desperation and self-encouragement to hope in God for “I shall again praise him.”  The “something” I noticed was a shift from focus in v. 4 to v. 6.  In v. 4, the psalmist attempts to lift up his spirits by remembering things in the past, ways that he had led worshipers in giving thanks to God for things He had done, the remembering of which should surely give him hope.  Not a bad thing to do when you’re discouraged.  Definitely a step in the right direction. But in v. 6, when his “soul is cast down”, he “remembers thee“.  He remembers God, and God alone.  How much better to lift our minds and hearts to God rather than just dwelling on the things of God?  Things and events may change, but God is always immoveable and unchanging, and that implies that His Love is unchanging . . . for He is Love.

What others say about us

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

Have you ever found yourself getting down or discouraged because of what someone else has said or even because of what you yourself are saying inside your own head?  Here’s a little perspective from Amy Carmichael:

Ps 3.2 Many are saying of me, there is no help from God.

Have you ever been discouraged and distressed because of something people said, or the voices inside you said?  Such people and such voices talk most when one is in trouble about something.  “Many are saying of me, there is no help from God.”  That was what the many said who were round about poor King David in a dark hour.  But he turned to his God and told Him just what they were saying, and then he affirmed his faith, “But thou, O Lord, art a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.” (v. 3)

We cannot use these words if we are pleasing ourselves in anything, and doing our own will, not our Lord’s.  In that case what the many say is only too true.  There is no help for us in God while we are walking in any way of our own choice.  But when all is clear between us and our Father, even if like David we are in trouble because of something we have done wrong in the past, then those words are not true.  There is help for us in God.  He is our shield, our glory, and the lifter up of our head, and we need not be afraid of ten thousands of people [v.6]–ten thousands of voices–for the Lord our God is our very present Help.

Twice in Psalms 3 and 4 we find David taking the unkind words of others and putting them into a prayer.  It was the wisest thing he could have done with them.  The alternative would have been either to brood over them, or to talk to others of them; but no, he turns like a child to his father, “Many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God.” “Many say, How can we experience good?” [Ps 4.6]

This last “many say” will come home to some of us, I think.  It was spoken, as the first was, in a difficult time, and it was a hopelessly discouraging word: Who will show us any good?  How can we experience good?  Everything is going wrong.  There is no comfort anywhere.  This is how those voices speak.

But David is not confounded.  He refuses to be cast down, let the many say what they will.  “Lord, lift up the light of Thy countenance upon us” [Ps4.6].  If only we can look up and meet His ungrieved countenance, what does anything matter?  And we shall experience good.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” [Ps 27.1]

The Hill Mizar

Sr. Dorcee, beloved3 Comments

Did you ever wonder about Mizar in Ps 42–where it was and what was its significance?  (Maybe you didn’t, but have I piqued your curiosity?)  Here’s Amy Carmichael’s take on it:

Ps 42.6  The Hill Mizar

Did you ever feel that you had nothing great enough to be called a trouble, and yet you very much needed help?  I have been finding much encouragement in the hill Mizar.  For Mizar means littleness–the little hill.  The land of Jordan was a place where great floods (the swelling of Jordan) might terrify the soul, and the land of the Hermonites was a place of lions and leopards [FYI: these are the places mentioned in this verse]; but Mizar was only a little hill: and yet the word is, I will “remember You from . . .  the hill Mizar”, from the little hill.

So just where we are, from the place of our little trial, little pain, little difficulty, little temptation (if temptation can ever be little), let us remember our God.  Relief will surely come, and victory and peace; for “the Lord will command His lovingkindness” (v. 8), even to us in our little hill.

Leaning upon your Beloved

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

From Amy Carmichael:

I want to give you a word that helped me all yesterday and will help me today.  It is the “through” of Psalm 84.6 [“As they go through the bitter valley, they make it a place of springs”] and of Isaiah 43.2 [“When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you”], taken with Song of Songs 8.5 [“Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?”].

We are never staying in the valley or the rough waters; we are always only passing through them, just as the bride in the Song of Songs is seen coming up from the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved.

So whatever the valley is, or however rough the waters are, we won’t fear.  Leaning upon our Beloved we shall come up from the wilderness and, as Psalm 84.6 says, even use the valley as a well, make it a well.  We shall find the living waters there and drink of them.

Quiet time

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

We were talking this morning at breakfast about how busy this Lent has been for some of us.  What happened to Lent being a “retreat”?  For many of us it’s been a time of providing more spiritual help for others–Sr. Ann has been out of town a lot doing retreats, I’ve had some unexpected spiritual direction meetings, etc.  Nonetheless, it is so important to guard our times of personal prayer–especially during this season.  Here’s a word about this from Amy Carmichael, commenting on Ps 28.9:

Ps 28.9: Save . . . bless . . . feed . . .  lift up . . .

What an inclusive prayer!  nothing is left out.  The word that speaks to me specially is “feed”.
I do not think there is anything from the beginning of our Christian life to the end, that is so keenly attacked as our quiet with God, for it is in quietness that we are fed.  Sometimes it is not possible to get long uninterrupted quiet, but even if it be only ten minutes, “hem it in with quietness.”  Enclose it in quietness; do not spend the time in thinking how little time you have.  Be quiet.  If you are interrupted, as soon as the interruption ceases, sink back into quietness again without fuss or worry of spirit.  Those who know this secret and practise it, are lifted up.  They go out from that time with their Lord, be it long or short, so refreshed, so peaceful, that wherever they go they unconsciously say to others, who are perhaps cast down and weary, There is a lifting up.

Bless the Lord, O my soul

Sr. Dorcee, belovedLeave a comment

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live . . .    (Ps 103.2-5a)

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!  (Ps 106.1b)

Bless the Lord, all our souls!   A blessed Thanksgiving to each of you.

New every morning

Sr. Dorcee, beloved1 Comment

Some mornings it’s just hard.  It’s hard to get up.  It’s hard to pray.  It’s hard to face another day of living for others rather than yourself.   That’s where my thinking was going this morning.  So I did as I usually do when I wake up early, I reached for my Amy Carmichael devotional, Edges of His Ways.  (One of the main reasons I like to read her is because she always draws me deeper into Scripture.  I don’t end up with reading just some nice words, but I end up reading God’s word.)  Today’s entry is entitled “Ps 22.  Title LXX [in the Septuagint] Concerning the Morning Aid”  Well, that obviously struck home.   I stopped reading and grabbed my RSV.  The RSV reads “According to the Hind of the Dawn.”  So I then pulled out my Kidner commentary, in which he said that indeed the more faithful translation according to the Greek is “On the help at daybreak”.   Psalm 22, as you know–and as Amy reminds us–makes us think of the darkness and suffering of Calvary.  I’ll let you read the rest of what she wrote, and may you experience it as I did this morning, as the prophet writes in the Book of Lamentations: “His mercies are new every morning.” 

When we think of Psalm 22, we think most of the darkness and suffering of Calvary.  We know that it was in our Savior’s mind through those most awful hours; He quoted the first verse, He fulfilled all the verses.  Even though there is a burst of triumphant joy in that psalm of pain, it is chiefly the pain that comes to mind when we think of it.  But its title is not about pain, it is a word of beautiful joy: Concerning the Morning Aid. As I pondered this, my thoughts were led on to a familiar New Testament story: “It was now dark and Jesus was not come to them . . . They see Jesus walking on the sea”.  Looking back on that night the most vivid memory must have been, not the darkness or the weariness, not the great wind and the rough sea, but the blessed Morning Aid that came before the morning.
     So let us not make too much of the storm of the night.  “Even the darkness is not dark to Thee” [Ps 139.12]; “And He saw that they were distressed in rowing” [Mk 6.48].  The wind was contrary unto them then, perhaps it is contrary to us now.  But just when things were hardest in that tiredest of all times (between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.), just then, He came.
      “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” [Jn 14.18], He said, and He does come.  He always will come.  “His coming is as certain as the morning” [Hosea 6.3].  His Morning Aid comes before the morning.  If we do not see Him coming, even so, He is on His way to us.  More truly, He is with us.  “I am with you all the days, and all the day long” [Mt 28.20 Moule].

As I say in my sidebar, I started this blog to share things that have increased my hope during challenging times–those challenging times are not just in the past, but also in my present.  My prayer is that you, especially any of you who are so aware of your need for Him this morning, may know His help at daybreak, and to know that He is coming, and is indeed already with you.

“When he was in the cave”

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I have just recently been paying more attention to the subtitles of the psalm, and this one caught my eye today regarding Psalm 142: “A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave.  A prayer.”  When he was in the cave.  I feel that way often–do any of you as well?  That you’re in some kind of cave?  So I took some time to read Derek Kidner’s commentary on this psalm.  I can’t go into all of what he had to say in this brief post, but there are a few things I’d like to pass on.  But, first, the psalm:

Psalm 142 [141]

A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer. 1 I cry with my voice to the LORD, with my voice I make supplication to the LORD, 2 I pour out my complaint before him, I tell my trouble before him. 3 When my spirit is faint, thou knowest my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. 4 I look to the right and watch, * but there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me, no man cares for me. 5 I cry to thee, O LORD; I say, Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. 6 Give heed to my cry; for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors; for they are too strong for me! 7 Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to thy name! The righteous will surround me; for thou wilt deal bountifully with me.

What I gleaned from Kidner’s comments:

  • Ps 57 is also a psalm David wrote while in a cave.  That one is more “bold and animated, almost enjoying the situation for the certainty of its triumphant outcome.  In the present psalm the strain of being hated and hunted is almost too much, and faith is at full stretch.  But this faith is undefeated, and in the final words it is at last joined by hope.”
  • v. 1: with my voice has the sense of “aloud”.  Made me consider the importance–and “okay-ness”–of calling out loud to the Lord in our distress.  “David, Like Bartimaeus in the gospels, knows the value of refusing to lapse into silence.  That way lies despair.”  That way, lies despair.  Even if all we can do is cry out loud to the Lord, that will save us from despair . . . 
  • v. 2: my complaint can be translated “my troubled thoughts”   Kidner also points out about this verse David’s frankness, indicated by the words pour out and tell. 
  • One last comment on v. 3: The TEV translates When my spirit is faint as “When I am ready to give up.”  But Kidner also points out, there is almost a double emphasis on the word Thou–and, here we find the first of three “modest summits” in the psalm: “Thou knowest my way.”  And doesn’t that–the fact that God knows your way–make all the difference?  Can you find the other two summits in the psalm?