Written by: Steve Hollinghurst – Church Army
Psalm 18 v 43-45
You saved me when the people attacked me.
You made me the leader of nations.
People I never knew serve me.
As soon as they hear me, they obey me.
Foreigners obey me.
They all become afraid and tremble in their hiding places.
Notes
I find David’s victory psalms, like Psalm 18, very difficult. If God saved
David when he was attacked, what about the Jews who died during World War
2, or Christians who have been killed in conflicts in the Sudan and Nigeria?
Conversely, would it be right for the US to view its world military dominance
as “God-given”? Does God determine in advance the outcome of every battle?
Is God responsible for the deaths of those who fall on the battlefield?
The people of David’s day tended to view their gods as connected to their nation, so the victory of one nation over another was viewed as a victory of that nation’s deity over the other nation’s deity. In this way, Israel’s fortunes became a sign for the surrounding nations. Yet, whilst the expected happened when David was victorious, the unexpected happened when exile was not to be seen as a sign of God’s weakness but of Israel’s slide out of God’s will.
It would be easy to conclude that those in God’s will win battles, and those outside God’s will lose them. This view, however, is challenged in other areas of the Bible. Jesus often warned that those who follow him will be persecuted. In Luke 13 v 1-5 he denied that those who have suffered are thus shown to be worse; rather, all need to come to God, victor and loser. Similarly, Peter, after finding God at work in the non-Jewish Cornelius in Acts 10 v 34, declared God to be a God of all nations who has no favourites. God is the God of the losers as well as the victors and will not be on “our side” but with all who turn to him. His presence is no guarantee of victory.
In this prayer, remember the conflicts mentioned in the news
at present.
Lord God, we pray for all involved in war, for soldiers and civilians, those
who give orders and those who are powerless. Be with those on every side and
help us to work for peace, for you are the God who loves all people as your
children. Amen
Psalm 18 v 46-50
The LORD lives!
May my Rock be praised.
Praise the God who saves me!
God gives me victory over my enemies and brings people under my rule.
He saves me from my enemies.
You set me over those who hate me.
You saved me from cruel men.
So I will praise you, LORD, among the nations.
I will sing praises to your name.
The LORD gives great victories to his king.
He is loyal to his appointed king, to David and his descendants for ever.
Notes
If David praises God that his enemies are overcome and brought under his rule,
Jesus tells us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, to treat
them as we would like to be treated, to turn the other cheek to their blows
(Luke 6 v 27-36).
The early church often taught that one couldn’t be a soldier and a Christian, that Jesus required pacifism. That all changed when the Roman emperor became a Christian. He had to keep control across the empire and defend the weak from attackers. It was one thing to refuse to use violence to meet violence, but now Christians had responsibility for the protection of the weak and had the power to do so. Soon Christians would generate ideas of “just war”, ideas still looked at today to see if a war can be morally justified. David held similar responsibility and looked to God for help as his appointed king.
Today Christians in leadership hold such responsibility. I don’t envy them. How does one square loving your enemies with the power to declare war against them in order to protect people? Yet how can one justify “doing good” to your enemies but not using your power against them if it means letting them do harm to others?
It may seem that violence is the only way to overcome violence, yet so often it leads to more violence and not peace. Martin Luther King refused violence as a way of securing liberation for black Americans because his vision was not that blacks would be victorious over their white oppressors but that one day they would sit round God’s table and eat together as friends. He gave his life for that vision, but violence could not overcome it.
Prayer
Lord, give guidance to all in power and help them use their power wisely. Be
with all those whose job involves using force when called to do so. Help
them and us to find ways to avoid violence. Help us to make friends with
our enemies and to love all people as you love them. Amen
Psalm 19 v 1-6
The heavens tell the glory of God, and the skies announce what his hands have
made.
Day after day they tell the story; night after night they tell it again.
They have no speech or words; they have no voice to be heard.
But their message goes out through all the world; their words go everywhere
on earth.
The sky is like a home for the sun.
The sun comes out like a bridegroom from his bedroom.
It rejoices like an athlete eager to run a race.
The sun rises at one end of the sky and follows its path to the other end.
Nothing hides from its heat.
Notes
One of the things I like to do is sit outside on a clear night and look up
into the night sky. The heavens do speak to me of the glory of God. Yet as
the psalmist reminds us, this message is voiceless - we somehow feel it,
but it is never totally clear. At the start of his letter to the Romans,
Paul tells us we ought to have learnt from nature how to live with God but
didn’t listen. As a consequence we have so often become separated from God,
each other and creation; indeed, we have even become cut off from ourselves.
The account of creation in Genesis 1 reminds us that women and men are made in God’s image. If the heavens declare God’s handiwork, how much more do human beings? Yet we have become cut off from this reality and so often express the ungodly.
In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul tells us that in Christ God has reconciled all things to himself. He has repaired the damaged relationships so we and all nature can become what we were made to be. Paul than tells us that God has called us to be ministers of this reconciliation, drawing people back to God in Jesus, and also back into relationship with each other, creation and our true selves.
In our culture there are many people seeking to find true spirituality, in nature and within themselves. The secret to unlock the spiritual in both places lies in the power of Jesus to remove the barriers between us and the God who is revealed in all he has made. It is our calling to see God in all things, like the psalmist, and to open the eyes of others that they too may see and praise God.
Prayer
Lord God, you are our true mother and father and all people bear your image.
Open my eyes to see you, not only in my family and friends but in those I
find it hard to love and in those where your image is badly distorted. Help
me to be part of your plan to bring your image to fullness in all I meet,
by helping them to relate to you and in doing so find themselves. Amen
Psalm 19 v 7-11
The teachings of the LORD are perfect; they give new strength.
The LORD’s rules can be trusted; they make plain people wise.
The orders of the LORD are right; they make people happy.
The commands of the LORD are pure; they light up the way.
Respect for the LORD is good; it will last for ever.
The judgments of the LORD are true; they are completely right.
They are worth more than gold, even the purest gold.
They are sweeter than honey, even the finest honey.
By them your servant is warned.
Keeping them brings great reward.
Notes
The psalmist moves from speaking of God as visible in all creation to the gift
of God’s law to creation. For the psalmist this made perfect sense; the universe
was sustained by God’s law spiritually and morally in much the same way we
might see it sustained by the laws of science physically. All such law comes
from God who is creator of all things. To live in tune with creation is to
live by the laws of the creator.
I think many people struggle with “obeying commands”, particularly if they feel they are imposed without justification. God’s commands can often look this way; indeed, many react against a God who seems to be a dictator in the sky ordering people not to do things for no apparent reason. It is easy for Christians to become frustrated with this approach. We know that God’s law is meant for our good and happiness, not our oppression. However, before we react too quickly to defend God’s law I think we need to be slightly cautious. It is sometimes too easy to confuse God’s law with our interpretation of it. This is what Jesus criticised the Pharisees for. This is how western Christians for years believed that slavery was supported by the Bible, and similarly racial segregation in South Africa and America.
We need to be reminded to go back constantly to God’s law and ask the Spirit to show us how it is rightly to be understood. This will help us, not only to supply good reason to what God commands when explaining its value to others, but also allow us to find that sometimes we have been wrong in our understanding of what God has said. In this way we can follow God’s law like Jesus and not like the Pharisees.
Prayer
God, we thank you that you give us guidance to live by. Indeed, your teachings
give us new strength and bring wisdom and happiness. Help us to understand
them correctly and explain them well. Amen
Psalm 19 v 12-14
People cannot see their own mistakes.
Forgive me for my secret sins.
Keep me from the sins of pride; don’t let them rule me.
Then I can be pure and innocent of the greatest of sins.
I hope my words and thoughts please you.
LORD, you are my Rock, the one who saves me.
Notes
The psalmist has been speaking of God’s law and how it brings wisdom and happiness.
Here we see that this does not lead to complacency. It would be easy for
the writer to congratulate himself or herself on knowing God’s law. Instead
it is realised that whilst those who do not know God’s law often cannot see
their own mistakes, it is also true of those who do. One of the great values
of God’s law is that it opens our eyes to our failings, and that openness
becomes a doorway through which God’s transforming Spirit can work in us
to change us.
I suspect the temptation to feel proud of knowing God’s law, and being quick to condemn those who did not, was very much in the psalmist’s mind. It is easy to fall into pride and miss our need to constantly return to God, seeking forgiveness. When we do, we find that God does not condemn but instead, like the father in Jesus’ story of the lost son, runs to greet us and welcome us even before we have made our confession.
We are to be like that father to others. We can’t condemn others who fail to live according to God’s standards when we too fail to do so. If God who is perfect offers open acceptance of all who turn to him, we who are imperfect should do so too. Sometimes we think it is our job to expose the failings of others in order to bring them to God. God, however, brings this realisation by showing us what is right. Our witness is often to be prepared to admit our failings and show that we have a God who welcomes us as we are, but also transforms us more and more into his image.
Prayer
Lord, help me not to be afraid to be shown my failings. Forgive me my secret
sins and keep me from being proud or condemning of others. Help me to be
open before others and use me to open them up to your free and loving welcome.
Transform me more and more into your image day by day. Amen
Psalm 20 v 1-5
May the LORD answer you in times of trouble.
May the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from his Temple and support you from Mount Zion.
May he remember all your offerings and accept all your sacrifices.
May he give you what you want and make all your plans succeed, and we will
shout for joy when you succeed, and we will raise a flag in the name of our
God.
May the LORD give you all that you ask for.
Notes
Blessing people in God’s name is a wonderful thing to do. To be able to say
“may good come to you and when it does I will rejoice” opens our hearts to
others and their needs, and enables us to not just focus on our own needs
and desires. It is a particularly good thing to do when we least feel like
doing so - when we are really struggling, or those we are called to bless
we might in fact want to curse if we are honest.
To bless freely and fully is to be children of a God who blesses all creation and all people, regardless of who they are, what they believe or how they live. Often blessing can be a potent prayer and we see that free offering turn into a place where God’s power can act. However, the gift of blessing isn’t magic. There is no guarantee that trouble will not come on those we bless, or on ourselves either. If blessing is part of what it is to follow Christ, then as Paul reminds us in Philippians chapter 4, so is living with little and suffering as well as plenty and joy. “I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength” (Philippians 4 v 13).
Jesus’ death and resurrection teaches us that the way to blessing does not avoid suffering but often passes through it. This liberates us to be a blessing to others. I am reminded especially of a Christian who went to work on a rubbish tip in South America, knowing that it was shortening his life, for love of those who had no choice but to be there. To bless others may often be a costly calling, but it is in such giving that we so often receive.
Prayer
Jesus, strengthen me so I can bless others as you did. Give me courage to follow
you wherever you lead, and fill me with love for all I meet. Help me to know
that your blessing is always with me, in good times and bad, in life and
death, and for all eternity. Amen
Psalm 20 v 6-9
Now I know the LORD helps his appointed king.
He answers him from his holy heaven and saves him with his strong right hand.
Some trust in chariots, others in horses, but we trust the LORD our God.
They are overwhelmed and defeated, but we march forwards and win.
LORD, save the king!
Answer us when we call for help.
Notes
I guess that not too many of us are likely to trust in chariots or horses as
warriors might in the time of King David. Yet we too will have our own “chariots
and horses” that we trust in sometimes rather than God. It might be our skills
or knowledge, our charm or strength, or perhaps money or status. When we
are weak we know our need of God, but when we are strong, it is tempting
to forget God and go it alone. It is then that we are at greatest risk of
making mistakes.
One of the subtlest ways this can happen for Christians is when they trust in their beliefs and think this is the same as trusting in God. I am reminded of an old joke about a minister who was caught in a terrible flood. A boat came past his window and the captain cried out for the minister to get on board and escape. “I don’t need your boat, I’m relying on God to save me,” replied the minister and let the boat leave. Soon he had to climb onto the roof to escape the rising waters and a helicopter came by and the pilot let down a rope for the minister to climb. “I don’t need your helicopter, I’m relying on God to save me,” replied the minister and let the helicopter go. Soon the minister drowned and went to heaven. He asked God: “Why didn’t you save me from the flood?” God replied: “I sent a boat and a helicopter. What more did you want?”
Sometimes we can be so sure we know what God is doing that we fail to see what he really is doing. To really trust God is to be open to the unexpected.
Prayer
Help me to trust you, Lord, even when things don’t seem to be working out as
I hoped they would. Help me to be confident enough to take risks, to accept
your help when I am strong as well as when I am weak, and above all to never
limit you by the imperfect nature of my own beliefs. Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes