Reading: Psalm 58-60

QUESTIONS
  • Psalm 58: How does it make you feel when you see wrongdoing go seemingly go unpunished? How does the truth of verse 11 provide perspective to the sin and evil you see in the world?
  • Psalm 59: What comes to mind when God is described as a fortress? How does it make you feel to know that He is also a loving God? How do these two characteristics of God help you navigate through times when you feel under attack?
  • Psalm 60: David and his people had disobeyed God; what were the consequences for their disobedience? How did David respond? Does our disobedience result in earthly consequences? How should we respond in those moments? 
DEVOTION

Psalm 58: A Plea for Just Rule

I’ve recently read a book on the Middle Ages (approximately 500-1,500 AD). It’s a rogue’s gallery of leaders who pursue power and wealth oftentimes at the expense of their own family. What seems to matter in the end is power and the willingness to use it ruthlessly. The same could be said for almost every period of human history, including David’s.

“Do you rulers indeed speak justly?” These are the first words of the Psalm, and they are provocative. It comes as no surprise when in verse 2 he answers his own question: “No, in your heart you devise injustice and your hands mete out violence on the earth.” A good reading of the Psalms will always take into account the passionate language of the writer. We may not share the Psalmist emotions, but we will want to pay attention to them. To me, the emotional tone of Psalm 58 is frustration undergirded by desire. The frustration is that human beings—in this case rulers—often act with heedless wickedness. Under the gaze of a reliably just God, the leaders of David’s day—at least those he is addressing—are twisting God’s justice in a way that is painful to watch. “Injustice, violence, waywardness, lies….God are you going to let them get away with it?”

Sometimes the Psalmist asks that question, sometimes not, but it always hangs in the air: “this is wrong God, and you are just, so what are you going to do to make this right?”

Which brings us to David’s desire. He yearns deeply for a world where “the righteous are rewarded and “surely there is a God who judges the earth.” This is a longing I believe we share with David. We want to see the good prevail and see evil punished. Maybe the picture of the righteous “bathing their feet in the blood of the wicked” is a bit strong for us in our day and age, but it made sense to David’s original audience, who lived short lives adjacent to cycles of violence and retribution. A prayer: God, thank you that you have “established justice” in your world. Unlike the false gods of our day and days past, your ways are true, your lines straight your measures fair and accurate. We can trust you to judge rightly. Bless your name! Lord, following Jesus’ example, we turn the sword of vengeance over to you….asking you to judge rightly, particularly when we feel that we have been treated unjustly. Be our defender, all the while teaching us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. 

May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen

Psalm 59: In a Tight Spot

“I did not think you would accept my help, since I am only waiting here to kill you.” It’s one of the many memorable lines from the movie The Princess Bride, uttered by hired swordsman Inego Montoya to the mysterious “man in black” as he helps him up a cliff. When he gets to the top both men expect a swordfight that will end in the other’s death. In context it is very funny. 

David, the composer of Psalm 59 is also dealing with an enemy who is only waiting to kill him. King Saul is unraveling more by the day as his jealousy of David grows from its bitter roots into terrible resolve. David must die. In context it isn’t remotely funny. And so the Psalm begins with this plea: “deliver me from my enemies Oh God; protect me from those who rise up against me.” Saul has posted several men outside of David’s house, with the instructions to “watch it and kill him in the morning.” (1 Samuel 19:11). God will answer these prayers through David’s wife Michel, who also happens to be Saul’s daughter. She will help him escape.

In the meantime, David is in a desperate situation. Men who remind him of “snarling dogs” lurk outside of his door, ready to attack him. It’s unlikely that you have ever been in a situation quite like this. But you probably have had someone or a group of someones who wished you harm in some way. Maybe you have been the one who wished harm. 

David’s plea is rooted in his experience of God’s love, compassion and protection. We’ve seen in Psalm 58 that God is—unlike other contemporary gods—a reliably just God, one who will take up the cause of the innocent and powerless against those intent on exercising power and inflicting evil.

Hidden in plain sight is this idea: God ultimately metes out justice, defending his people from the designs of the evil, whether they are thugs outside of the door or the nations David refers to in this Psalm. It doesn’t typically mean resignation to death at the hands of our enemies, but it puts the sword in God’s hand not ours. The judgement may land in this life or the next, but it will land.

Psalm 60: God of the Nations

Twelve step communities such as Alcoholics Anonymous begin with a confession of helplessness: “our lives have become unmanageable……” This is a Psalm that has a punch line that has a similar confession in a different context: “Give us aid against the enemy for the help of man is worthless.” There is a life-threatening problem here that cannot be solved by human effort. If God helps, there is hope, if not it is game over. Psalm 59 is a “me” Psalm (I’m in trouble, please rescue me), while Psalm 60 is an “us” Psalm (you have rejected us, now restore us). Israel is in a season of intense conflict with neighboring nations and although David’s general Joab has recently scored a great victory against the Edomites, things are not going all that well. It seems as though Israel’s enemies are too strong to overcome.

So David comes before God on his people’s behalf, understanding that their plight may very well reflect God’s righteous judgement, not just on the idolaters that surround Israel, but on God’s idolatrous people. We are reminded of Peter’s words that “judgement begins in the house of God.” (1 Peter 4:17)

It is in the midst of acknowledging this that David remembers God’s words: it’s not just Manessah, Ephraim and Judah that are his (tribes of Israel), but Moab, Edom and Philistia (the idolatrous nations that surround Israel). God is Lord—not just of Israel—but of all nations and tribes and he can and will bring them to heel. This is a reminder of the truth we see in Psalm 24, “the earth is the Lords and all those who dwell therein.”

This is an invitation for us to at once acknowledge that we, as God’s people have no hope apart from Him, and that He is in charge, not us. It is also an invitation to consider our own failings, not just as individuals, but as God’s people. A prayer: We acknowledge you oh Lord, as the sovereign ruler over the church, our nation, and every nation and people group who inhabit the earth, have inhabited it in the past and ever will live in the future.

We acknowledge our own culpability as sinners individually and corporately and ask that you would help us be aware of our sin and come to you with repentant hearts. Remind us that that nations are but a drop in the bucket to you and that we need not live in fear no matter our circumstances. In Jesus Name,Amen

– Dan Dupee