The Psalmist

Something isn't it, that King David the psalmist was also a warrior? It's one of the things about David's life that is fascinating to me. He was a musician and a great warrior, who had a tremendous love for the Lord.


From Psalm 1 we get a glimpse of the depth of
his devotion to his G-d. Awesome man indeed. His view was that the one who loves the Lord by loving his law, is truely blessed. 'Blessed' from the hebrew 'esher' is translated about half the time as 'happy'. We know what happy means. 'Delight' is from the hebrew 'Chephets' and is translated as either 'pleasure' or 'desire' most of the time. He was a happy man,who took great pleasure in knowing and doing what pleases the Lord. It's a frame of mind.These days, people sometimes wear an accessory with the letters 'WWJD'. It's the same idea but it always makes me wonder if they really understand that the answer to this WWJD is found in Psalm 1:1-2.


Ps 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in
the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the
way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful.


2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and
in his law doth he meditate day and night.


To elaborate, verse one says that we will not find blessing by 'walking in the counsel of the ungodly'. What does that imply? Well, I would suggest that we have to recognize that there is a difference between the popular secular agenda and the teachings of scripture. We'll be going against the flow here. The creation account is one of the first things that comes to mind. Followed by the Ten Commandments. These are where we need to take pleasure, and to 'Hagah' the hebrew translated, in this context as 'to meditate, devise, muse, imagine'. Instead of wasting time and energy, like I am so often tempted to do, in fretting and grieving over things that I can't control, I can find pleasure in taking time to consider the Lord's plan. That is, to spend time trying to imagine ways that we can do what's right, whatever the circumstances.


Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth.


That's how we got here. And the passage below provides a model for the regulation of lifestyle that provided the great pleasure that was experienced by King David in Psalm 1.


Ex 20:3 You are to have no other gods but me.


4 You are not to make an image or picture of
anything in heaven or on the earth or in the
waters under the earth:


5 You may not go down on your faces before them
or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God,
am a God who will not give his honour to
another; and I will send punishment on the
children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to
the third and fourth generation of my haters;


6 And I will have mercy through a thousand
generations on those who have love for me and
keep my laws.


7 You are not to make use of the name of the
Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes
the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose
will be judged a sinner by the Lord


8 Keep in memory the Sabbath and let it be a
holy day.


9 On six days do all your work:


10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord
your God; on that day you are to do no work, you
or your son or your daughter, your man-servant
or your woman-servant, your cattle or the man
from a strange country who is living among you:


11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, and the sea, and everything in them, and
he took his rest on the seventh day: for this
reason the Lord has given his blessing to the
seventh day and made it holy.


12 Give honour to your father and to your
mother, so that your life may be long in the
land which the Lord your God is giving you.


13 Do not put anyone to death without cause.


14 Do not be false to the married relation.


15 Do not take the property of another.


16 Do not give false witness against your
neighbour.


17 Let not your desire be turned to your
neighbour's house, or his wife or his man-
servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his
ass or anything which is his.


It's not a really complicated or long-winded code of conduct. The problem is that we just don't want to do it, because it conflicts with our self serving sinful desires. The irony of it is that doing our own thing can't produce happiness.


Look at the graphic below. David and Goliath. It's a story everyone remembers because the most loved underdog won that one. But there'salot more to it. David was willing to take a bold individual stand against evil in his day. That's unique, in all times and places. We could call it heroic. What if he had been beaten by Goliath? Then he would not be remembered. It's beating the odds that makes the story of a hero memorable, not being beaten. Divine intervention is what determines the outcome.This is from the book of Proverbs:


Pr 16:33 A thing may be put to the decision of
chance, but it comes about through the Lord.