Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

Paul addressed his own strenuous effort to keep the law to make him right with God as being dung and garbage: “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage (dung), so that I may have Christ and become one with him.” (Phil. 3:8, 9) ‘ What a dunghill was that upon which we lay by na- ture. What a mass of corruption is our original state 4 .’ All of mankind is on the garbage dump of un- righteousness until Christ in his mercy lifts us up.

“He gives the barren woman a home, so that she becomes a happy mother.” (9)

This last verse takes its inspiration from the song of Hannah. In her barrenness she asked: “O Lord Almighty, (high above us) if you will look down upon my sorrow (here among us) and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you.” (1 Sam. 1:11) The Lord did ‘stoop down’ and gave her the great prophet Samuel for her son. In her song of praise and gratefulness she sings words re- minding us of this psalm: “He lifts the poor from the dust–yes, from a pile of ashes! He treats them like princes, placing them in seats of honor.”(1 Sam. 2:8) All of the barren women in the Bible, who sought God and became joyful mothers from Sarah on- ward, are pictures of the barren church seeking God for children and fruitfulness. Paul quotes Isaiah the prophet to illustrate this: “But Sarah, the free woman, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. And she is our mother. That is what Isaiah meant when he prophesied, ‘Rejoice, O childless woman! Break forth into loud and joyful song, even though you never gave birth to a child. For the woman who could bear no children now has more than all the other women!’” (Gal. 4:26, 27) Spurgeon says of this passage in psalms: ‘The Gentile church is a spiritual example upon a large scale of the gift of fruitfulness after long years of hopeless barrenness; and the Jewish church in the lat- ter days will be another amazing display of the same quickening power…long forsaken for her spiritual adultery, Israel shall be forgiven, and restored, and joyously shall she keep that house which now is left unto her desolate 5 .’ As the people of God break forth into loud and joyful song, as the ‘servants of the Lord’ praise him from the east to the west, the transcendent God ‘stoops’ to answer the prayers of the barren church giving us an abundance of children and an exceeding joy.

1 Scroggie 2 Scroggie 3 Keil & Delitzsch

4 Spurgeon, page 31 5 Spurgeon, page 32

PSALM 114: WHEN ISRAEL WENT OUT OF EGYPT Miracles of Water

This most poetical ode in the psalms forcefully celebrates three miracles involving water: the Is- raelites deliverance from Egypt by the parting of the Red Sea, the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promise Land; and the flowing of water from the rock in the wilderness journey. All of this was accom- plished because of one surpassing reason; “the presence of the Lord.” (7) Nowhere ‘is so much said so briefly and beautifully 1 .’ ‘True poetry has here reached its climax; no human mind has ever been able to equal, much less to excel, the grandeur of this psalm 2 .’ This psalm is part of the ‘Hallal’ (113-118) that is celebrated in the ‘festival liturgy of the 8th day of Passover.’ Though it is a strong historical song recounting the greatest of Israel’s events, it points to the sal- vation Christ accomplished for us as he ‘came out of Egypt’, was baptized in the Jordan and miraculously supplies the ‘water’ of the Holy Spirit from the rock of his own endless life. Every modern day believer must experience the delivering, empowering and sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit that is symbol- ized by water in scripture. The ongoing work of the Holy Spirit within the individual and in the corporate life of the church is to be accompanied continuously by songs such as this.

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