21 June

Bible In 365 Days                                       

Psalms 40-45

Psalm 40

Again we find in this psalm the perfect structure found in Psalms 27:1-14. Praise prepares for prayer. The experience has mounted higher than in the preceding song (Psalm 39). The singer still suffers diction, but a new consciousness of Jehovah, resulting from having "waited patiently" for Him, inspires a lofty song of praise (Psalms 40:1-10). This gives the soul a great freedom to pour out its complaint (Psalms 40:11-16), after which an affirmation of faith and a final prayer (Psalms 40:17) concludes the psalm.

The patient waiting resulted in the singer's feeling that Jehovah was bending over him and listening to his cry. Then comes a new song which is rightly interpreted at its deepest in the words of the hymn:

"Glory to Thee for all the peace I have not tasted yet".

This is expressed in recognition of the activity of Jehovah God and the certainty that His one purpose for His people is that they should delight in His will and proclaim Him to others.

Then follows the prayer. Sorrow and sin have oppressed the heart beyond the power of its endurance. In distress and yet in confidence, appeal is made to Jehovah. The final word of confidence is very full of beauty:

"The Lord thinketh upon me".

Psalm 41

This whole song depends for interpretation on its opening beatitude. The man who is considerate toward the weak, who is compassionate, is blessed. His blessings are then described. Emphasize "him" and "he" and "his" in verses Psalms 41:1-3. It will then be seen that all these things come to the man at first described, namely the compassionate man. Then the psalmist confesses his sin. In the light of the beatitude the sin is seen to have been lack of compassion, and this is the secret of the bitter hatred of his enemies, which he proceeds to describe.

Returning to his cry for mercy, his words should be carefully noted (Psalms 41:10). What is the meaning of "requite"? Almost all expositors agree it indicates revenge, and then attempt to explain it away. The word may certainly be translated recompense and is far oftener used to indicate a kind action than a vindictive one. If that be so here, the consistency of the argument is apparent. The psalmist has failed in compassion, therefore his enemies and even his friends are against him. He asks for Jehovah's mercy, that being raised up he may treat his enemies differently. The Messianic reference is not destroyed. The wrong of those who harmed the Christ is greater because they acted without cause. Even then His prayer, "Father, forgive," harmonizes with this interpretation. His raising up by God was for blessing on men.

Psalm 42

This is the song of an exile and, moreover, of an exile among enemies who have no sympathy with his religious convictions. He cries out after God with all the intensity of one who knows God and cares supremely for the honor of God's name. His greatest grief is their mocking inquiry after his God. By contrast he remembers being in the midst of worshiping multitudes, their leader and companion.

In the midst of his grief he appeals to his own soul in the language of hope and confidence. A great conflict goes on within, for he affirms, "My soul is cast down." Notice carefully the heroism of the man. He makes his trouble and disquietude the occasion of remembering God. Out of the place of exile he turns his thoughts to God. The result is not deadening his sense of sorrow but rather setting it in right relationship to God. Trouble has come in cataracts and waves and billows, but they are all God's own. "Thy cataracts . . . Thy waves . . . Thy billows." When sorrow is set in this relationship, there is a consciousness of love in the daytime; there is in the night a song and a prayer. The trouble is still there, the oppression and reproach of the enemy, but courage and hope and the conviction of coming deliverance continue also. It is a wonderful psalm and has been the song of many an afflicted yet trusting soul.

Psalm 43

This psalm is either a part of the previous one or is closely connected with it. It breathes the same note of confidence, ending with the same words practically as the two parts of the former. It reaches a higher plane in that it refers only to sorrow and mourning in order to protest against them in the light of the certainty of God's deliverance. From prayer for that deliverance, which he has twice in the previous psalm declared to be certain, he passes to affirmation of how, following the leading of God's light and truth, he will go up to worship. Notice the procession to praise as he describes it. To the hill, to the Tabernacles, to the altar, and then the act of praise. Not yet has the answer come. The darkness and the mystery are still about him, but the shining way is seen; and again the soul is forbidden to despair and hope is encouraged in God.

Psalm 44

The final meaning of this psalm is discovered in its last four verses. It is a prayer for deliverance from defeat. Its strength of appeal lies in its recognition of the government of God. He is the Author of good and evil. Of course, evil is used here in the sense of disaster and calamity. The psalmist sings of the God of good first (Psalms 44:1-8). There is a double recognition of this. History attests it. The testimony of the fathers affirms it.

They had originally come into possession by the act of God (Psalms 44:1-3). Then there is personal recognition of it. Trust is to be reposed in nothing save God (Psalms 44:4-8). The word "but" indicates a change. The day is one of disaster, and this is recognized as the act of God, "Thou hast cast us off." "Thou makest us to turn back," and so on (Psalms 44:9-16). Yet there has been no apostasy. Nay, rather it has been a pathway of suffering for the sake of God and His name (Psalms 44:17-22). Light is thrown on this by Paul's use of the words in Romans 8:36.

Then follows the plea for help and deliverance. It is a perfectly honest and reasonable plea, yet the wonderful advance of Christian experience is nowhere more plainly shown than here. The apostle of the new covenant makes no appeal for deliverance, but rather declares that in all these things we are more than conquerors, and affirms that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Psalm 45

Whether this psalm has, or had, a local application or is wholly idealistic cannot be certainly determined. It matters very little, for it is one of the songs which inevitably is Messianic in its deepest and fullest meaning. After an introduction which speaks of the fullness of his heart, the singer addresses the king, telling of the glory of the king's person, the perfection of his rule, and the beauty of his bride (Psalms 45:1-9). He then turns to the bride, and in view of her high calling, counsels her to forget her own people and surrender herself wholly to her husband (Psalms 45:10-12). If the King in mind was Solomon and the bride the daughter of Pharaoh, the suggestiveness of the song becomes the more remarkable.

The singer then describes the queen gloriously arrayed for her marriage (Psalms 45:13-15) and ends in words of promised blessing to the king. If the inclusive truth of this psalm be larger than we are able to grasp, there is a personal application full of value and full of beauty. It is, as we see, the glory of the Lord that we become ready to renounce all our own people and possessions that we may be wholly to His praise, and so the instruments through whom the royal race is propagated and the glory of the King made known among the generations and the peoples.