Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

There are four major events in scripture where God ‘comes down’ in such dramatic fashion to in- tervene in human history. The first was at the ‘Red Sea’ deliverance: “ At the blast of your breath, the wa- ters piled up! (Ex. 15:8) then at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai: “ All Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire.”(Ex. 19:16) At the crucifixion and death of Jesus: “ At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three 0’clock…the earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened.” (Mt. 27:45,51) His final coming at the end of time: “ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and the with the trum- pet call of God.”(2 Thess. 4:16) As David is describing this massive intervention of God in his life, he is seeing prophetically the rescue of Jesus after his death on the cross. God still responds to his people when he hears their cries. Isaiah prays: “ Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence… (Isaiah 64:1,3) Now begins a ‘HE’ – ‘I’ interchange where God acts on our behalf because of our spiritual posture before him. There are seven actions of God described here; • “ HE reached down from heaven and rescued me;” (16) • “ HE drew me out of deep waters.” (16) • “ HE delivered me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me.”(17) • “ They attacked me at a moment when I was weakest, but the Lord (HE) upheld me. (18) • “ HE led me to a place of safety;” (19) • “ HE rescued me because he delights in me. The Lord rewarded me for doing right; (19,20) • “ HE compensated me because of my innocence.”(20) Next come the five affirmative declarations of ‘I’ denoting David’s innocence of the charges that Saul brought against him. Only Jesus has ‘inherent’ righteousness and is sinless and innocent as stated in this psalm. We, like David, have ‘inherited’ righteousness and our sins are washed away by Christ’s blood sacrifice. • “ …I have kept the ways of the Lord;”(21) • “ I have not turned from my God to follow evil. For all his laws are constantly before me;”(21,22) • “ I have never abandoned his principles.” (22) • “ I am blameless before God;”(23) • “ I have kept myself from sin. The Lord rewarded me for doing right, because of the innocence of my hands in his sight.” (23,24) Only the sinless life of Jesus can truly fulfill these words. The Lord’s Rescue- 16-24 “ To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity. To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the wicked you show yourself hostile. You rescue those who are humble, but you humiliate the proud.” (25-27) This is a “spiritual formula” between God and people. You can fill in the blanks! To the ___________________ you show yourself______________. The good qualities are reciprocated, faith- fulness for faithfulness etc. but the bad spiritual attitudes are reversed; pride results in humiliation. Jesus further explained this in his Sermon on the Mount: “ God blesses the merciful for they will be shown mercy. (Mt. 5:7) “For others will treat you as you treat them.” (Mt. 7:2) The Law of Recompense- 25-27

II THE HORN OF POWER - 28-42

“ Lord, you have brought light to my life; my God, you light up my darkness. In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.”(28,29)

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