Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

2. God opened the eyes of Hagar as she was crying and dying of thirst in the wilderness. “ Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well.” (Gen. 21:19) Hagar’s tears of sorrow and self-pity kept her from seeing the well that was right beside her all of the time. 3. God opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant when the Syrian army surrounded the city: “’ Don’t be afraid!’ Elisha told him. ‘For there are more on our side than on theirs!’ Then Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes and let him see! ‘ The Lord opened his servant’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.” (2 Kgs. 6:16,17)

Jesus is alive and standing right next to us, there is a well of water to refresh us and there are horses and chariots of fire surrounding us. ‘ Lord, restore light to my eyes! ’

III UNFAILING LOVE - 5,6

“ But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he has been so good to me.”

This little word “but” (on the other hand, in spite of) carries great weight in the spiritual realm. In spite of the overwhelming trials we might be facing we can chose to trust in his unfailing love. We have been given the amazing privilege to choose what we perceive as true. No one can force us to believe, not even God. David makes a choice to rejoice and trust God and that is most fully expressed by his singing to the Lord. Each one of us will face the ‘crisis’ to choose what we will believe. We can join David by a deci- sion that takes place in our will, not in the circumstances of our life. Psalms is the book that deals with our will, the strongest part of our spiritual life. Worship was designed to strengthen our faith by strength- ening our will. There are numerous references to the psalmists choosing to exercise their inner life in favor of God’s love and purpose:

“ I will love you, O Lord, my strength.” (18:1) “ I will give thanks unto you forever. “ (31:12) “ I will not be afraid what man can do…” (56:11) “ But I will hope continually…” (71:14) “ …I will declare your greatness.” (145:6)

In this psalm David is looking back to all the times God has rescued him in the past as a basis for his present confidence and rejoicing. His eyes are filled with the light of eternity and the question of ‘ how long ’ is no longer relevant: “ I will sing to the Lord because he has been so good to me.”(6)

PSALM 14: THE FOOL Fallen Humanity and the Coming Messiah

This psalm begins with the complete depravity of the human race, describes the actions of the fool, and ends with the Messiah coming from Zion with deliverance and joy. It is quoted in the New Testament to emphasize that both Jew and Gentile have fallen short of the glory of God and need to place their faith in Jesus for salvation. It is perhaps a psalm that received its inspiration from David’s encounter with Nabal in 1 Samuel 25. The translation for Nabal’s name is: ‘a fool.’ It is presented in these three sec- tions:

I THE FALLEN RACE - 1-3 II THE FOOLISH MAN - 4-6 III THE FREE SALVATION - 7

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