Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

us to be faithful in these moments: “Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak.” (Mrk. 14:38) • “My eyes are blinded by my tears. Each day I beg for your help, O Lord; I lift my pleading hands to you for mercy.” (9) Jesus’ prayer was the most intense ever recorded as he was about to face the cross, the greatest trial in history: “He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.” (Lk. 22:44) Some authors, including Delitzsch feel that the writer of these verses was suffering from leprosy, a disease that is the physical representation of the effects of sin…’it is death itself clinging to the still living man 5 …’ Leviticus 13:46 says: “As long as the disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean and must live in isolation outside the camp.” Jesus had a special love and compassion for those afflicted with the cruelest disease of his day: • Lk. 5:13- In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he fell to the ground face down in the dust, begging to be healed. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘if you want to, you can make me well again.’ Jesus reached out and touched the man. ‘I want to,’ he said. ‘Be healed!’ And instantly the leprosy disappeared.” • Mt. 26:6- “Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had leprosy.” Heman asks six questions that contrasts God’s actions and attributes with the powers of death. He ar- gues that death would not allow God’s miracles, praise, love, faithfulness and righteousness to be dis- played by his life. • “Of what use to the dead are your miracles?” (10) It is better to experience God’s miracles than the numbness of death. • “Do the dead get up and praise you?” (10) Do the ‘rephaim’, the shades or shadowy ghosts join the choirs that praise you? • “Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love?”(11) As Spurgeon says, he ‘meditates at the mouth of the tomb 6 ‘ • “In the place of destruction, can they proclaim your faithfulness?”(11) Can those in ‘Abaddon’, the place of perdition and loss talk about your love? • “Can the darkness speak of your miracles?”(12) The darkness absorbs all thought and speech. • “Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness?”(12) The land of for- getfulness was an ‘end of all thinking, feeling, and acting…where the monotony of death, devoid of thought and recollection, reigns’ 7 . When God allows temporal suffering for a higher, eternal purpose, then by reason He also controls it. If God did not control it, then our suffering moments would be without meaning. Heman sees the nega- tive side of affliction in this song but there is also another perspective, it is the positive aspects that come from the resurrection power of Christ: • “O Lord, why do you reject me?”(14) Christ experienced the rejection of the cross so that the Father might receive us: “He was despised and rejected…” (Isa. 53:3) • “Why do you turn your face away from me?” (14) God turned his ‘face’ from his Son at the cross so that we might look upon his glory; “For God…has made us understand that his light is the brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6) • “I have been sickly and close to death since my youth. I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.” (15) He carried our sicknesses in his body and suffered the tormenting fear of death for us all; “…and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” (Heb. 2:14, 15) • “Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me.” (16) Christ suffered the fierce anger of God so we might know his peace. • “Your terrors have cut me off.” (16) Jesus suffered the terror of God so we might know his ten- der-mercies. • “They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long. They have encircled me completely.” (17) This descent into suffering and death is described in the ‘Jonah-like’ language of person drowning in the depths of ocean. Like Jonah in the belly of the fish, Jesus was three days and nights in the tomb. III DAY BY DAY - 13-18 “O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day.” (13)

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