OVERVIEW: David’s prayer of deliverance from his enemies; David’s confidence in God’s promises; David’s exhortation to praise God for His goodness; the blessings of God upon His people; God’s judgment upon His enemies; David’s prayer in time of trouble.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
Have you ever felt like the psalmist did in Psalm 64, like the whole world is against you? Take comfort today in the fact that even the “man after God’s own heart” had many people who continually spoke evil of him! Don’t forget, Jesus said, “Blessed are ye, when (notice, not “IF,” but “WHEN!”) men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.” (Matt. 2:11) The reality is, the closer we grow toward Christlikeness and the more we are used by Him to accomplish His work, the more we can expect it! Biblically, that’s just the way it works; it comes with the territory! Jesus went on to say, however, that rather than allowing the persecution to consume us and/or discourage us, we should “Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” (Mat. 5:12) In other words, we should rejoice in the fact that we’ve ascended into the ranks of a whole bunch of godly people that God has been using all through the centuries to bring glory to Him! Again, the reality is, they all experienced the same exact treatment! We will not be the exception to the rule. Obviously, even Jesus Himself wasn’t!
The good news is, the psalmist says, in effect, “What goes around, comes around.” His actual wording is perhaps a little more articulate, “So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves.” (Psa. 64:8) Paul’s similar warning was, “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” (Gal. 5:15) The principle is, when people use their tongue as a weapon, it will inevitably come back to rip ’em to shreds!
Don’t you just love how the psalmist addresses God in Psalm 65:2? Listen to it: “O thou that hearest prayer.” If we’re ever looking for a ‘reason’ we should pray, how about this one: the God who created the entire universe and is holy beyond our wildest possible imagination and comprehension, said He’d listen! Wow! With a reason like, we certainly don’t need to look for too many others! You may even want to take a minute right now to humbly tell God, “Thanks for listening!” Notice that the psalmist is back on this same glorious reality of the God of the universe actually “hearing us” in Psalm 66:18–20!
Note that the word “terrible” found in today’s reading in Psalm, verses 65:5; 66:3; and 68:35, is the old English equivalent of the modern-day usage of the word “awesome”.
Note, also, how the psalmist/God sets the context of Psalm 66:4 by his/His usage of the word “Selah” at the end of the verse: “All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. SELAH!” The “whole earth” hasn’t worshipped or sung to the Lord since Adam sinned in the garden, and what’s more, it won’t until the Lord Jesus Christ has set in motion “the times of restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21) at the beginning of the Millennium, again, noted by the word at the end of 66:4, “Selah.”
Psalms 66, 67 and 68 provide great insight into just how glorious the second coming of Christ and His millennial reign on the earth will actually be. Don’t miss it in these psalms! It certainly gives a whole new meaning to the “New World Order” to which politicians from every nation are referring in these last days!
The name of God in Psalm 68:4, “JAH”, is short for Jehovah (Yahweh), the “self-existing One”, or the God who is “ever/always in the present”. Psalm 68:18 prophesies the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul explained the meaning of this psalm as a prophecy concerning Christ in Ephesians 4:8. Christ conquered death and Satan, both of which held mankind in captivity until His resurrection. (Heb. 2:15)
In Psalm 69, David is literally singing “the blues”. He voices what we’ve all felt at certain times of our lives, as his song is being sung out of a “sea of troubles.” (69:1–2) Psalm 69:9 was historically true of David: “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” Yet, prophetically, John lets us know in John 2:17 that it was, likewise, fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. In light of the devotional or inspirational application of scripture, we would do well to ask ourselves whether this verse is, likewise, true of us. Are we so passionately in love with our Savior, and are we so completely zealous for Him to be glorified, that when His name is “reproached” (also translated “defied” and “blasphemed”), that the reproach of it falls upon us the same way it falls upon Him? In other words, when God’s name is blasphemed and defied, do we feel what God feels?
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
As the One who LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE — Psalm 68:18 (Eph. 4:8)
As the One who was BROKENHEARTED and FULL OF HEAVINESS — Psalm 69:20 (Mat. 26:37)
As the One given VINEGAR TO DRINK IN HIS THIRST — Psalm 69:21 (Mat. 27:34; John 19:28–30)