OVERVIEW:
Thanks for the Lord’s goodness to Israel; response to Israel’s captivity; thanksgiving for the Lord’s blessing; God’s omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence; prayer for protection against the wicked; prayer for sanctification and protection; prayer for help in trouble; prayer for deliverance and guidance.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
Psalm 136 is a masterful and beautiful way of showing and stating that the God of the Bible, who is…
- “THE Lord;” (136:1)
- “The GOD of gods;” (136:2)
- “The LORD of lords;” (136:3)
- “The GOD of creation;” (136:5–9) and…
- “The GOD of heaven,” (136:26)
…is tremendously merciful, and has been demonstrating His mercy throughout all of history! (136:5–26) Twenty-six times in 26 verses we are reminded: “for his mercy endureth for ever.” To help us to contextualize “mercy”, as well as to help us have a genuine appreciation for it, keep in mind…
- JUSTICE is God GIVING us WHAT we deserve.
- GRACE is God GIVING us what we DO NOT deserve.
- MERCY is God NOT GIVING us what we DO deserve!
Psalm 137 is a tremendously sad song about God’s people being taken captive by the godless Babylonian empire (representative of Satan’s false kingdom of religious systems in the Bible). This song (psalm) can and should, likewise, be felt and sung by those of us living during this time of “Laodicean” captivity! (Revelation 3:14–22)
Psalm 138:2 is one of the most important statements in all of the word of God concerning itself! The psalmist says: “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” In light of what the Lord’s “NAME” actually is (i.e. the sum total of all of His attributes!), and what the Lord says regarding His own name (i.e. Nehemiah 9:5: “Blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted ABOVE ALL blessing and praise!”), how then, could anything possibly be exalted “ABOVE” His name? It’s certainly a great question that also has a great answer! God magnified His word “ABOVE” His name, because it is only through the word of God that all that God is (His name), is revealed to us, and it is only through His word that we actually learn how to “magnify” (Psalm 138:2), “exalt, bless, and praise” (Nehemiah 9:5) His “glorious” name!
In a world that has totally gone mad with reconstructive and plastic surgery to recreate what we don’t appreciate about “the look” God gave to us when He created us, Psalm 139 teaches us that the God who is omniscient (139:1–6), omnipresent (139:7–12) and omnipotent (137:13–17) made us look just like we look for His purposes! Rather than being all bummed and depressed about how He made us, we need to accept it, get over it, and use our “look” to fulfill His purposes for our lives! It is a wonderfully freeing day when we can thank God for all of the physical “features” that we at one time would have changed if we could!
Psalm 140:1 says, “Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man.” The “evil man” is one of the main characters of the book of Proverbs of which we will go into detail in the coming days. We will see in the doctrinal/prophetic application, the “evil man” is none other than the antichrist of the Tribulation Period. Note the “singular” reference to the “evil man” and the “violent man” in verse 1, as if the psalmist were referring to just one individual, and yet, notice that the pronoun in verse 2 is plural: “Which imagine mischiefs in THEIR heart.” In 1st John 2:18 God provides us the necessary cross reference to help us understand the psalmist’s terminology: “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist (singular) shall come, even now are there many antichrists (plural); whereby we know that it is the last time.”
As we’ve seen continuously through the Psalms, at the end of the Tribulation Period, the antichrist will have united the nations (UN) in war against the nation of Israel. Notice that 140:2 states: “continually are they gathered together for war”. Then, notice the key word, that helps us to set the context, appears in verse 3: “Selah.” Once again, God reveals that as the nations of the world have united to “wipe Israel off the map”, just when Israel looks utterly helpless and hopeless, our Lord Jesus Christ will then return to judge His/their enemies and establish His rule and rest in His millennial kingdom, as the King of Israel! That context (see it set in verses 3, 5, and 8) prevails throughout this entire Psalm, pointing to “that day” when “the upright shall dwell in thy presence” (140:13) on the earth. It’s amazing the “doors” that open in the word of God with just a few simple “keys” of Bible study!
Verse 2 of Psalm 141, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense”, has beautiful scriptural ramifications. In the Old Testament tabernacle, the altar of incense was set just outside the veil where the Lord dwelt in the Holy of Holies. The incense that burned at that altar provided a delightful and beautiful aroma that made its way into the Lord’s presence. But make sure you recognize, that Old Testament tabernacle was actually just a picture (Hebrews 8:5) and when John was caught up to see the “True Tabernacle” in heaven (Hebrews 8:2), he wrote in Revelation 5:8: “And when he (the Lord Jesus Christ) had taken the book (the title deed to the earth), the four beasts and four and twenty elders (the church) fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps (the MUSIC of our lives!), and golden vials full of odours, WHICH ARE THE PRAYERS OF SAINTS.” Oh, may we recognize today, that our prayers are now that beautiful and delightful aroma that arises as incense to become a sweet savor in our Lord’s presence! May that incredible reality be just one additional and monumental motivation to cause us to pray more fervently!
In Psalm 142, the historic background and context is set for us in the title: “Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave.” (i.e. When Saul was seeking David’s life.) This is another great psalm to use as a guide during those times in our lives:
- when we find ourselves pressed by our “troubles” (142:2);
- when our “spirit is overwhelmed” within us (142:3a);
- when our enemies have “laid a snare” for us (142:3b);
- when we feel we’ve been forsaken by everybody and nobody “cares” (142:4);
- when we’ve been “brought very low” (142:6a);
- when we’ve been “persecuted” (142:6b); and…
- when it feels like our very “soul” is in “prison” (142:9).
It is encouraging to know that David teaches us by his example in this psalm that we can be honest with God about our circumstances of life and how they’ve caused us to feel! There are times in life when pouring our souls out before the Lord in the fashion of Psalm 142 is not only very necessary for us, but also very healthy for us, spiritually speaking. Yet, may we also constantly live with the recognition that there are billions of people who are alive on this planet, at this very minute, who have no idea that this psalm, that is so descriptive of their spiritual condition even exists! The reality is, if they knew enough about their spiritual condition to be able to articulate it, sadly, to our shame, they could repeat verse 4 with David, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” Oh, that God would use us to be that man or that woman today (and every day!), who will genuinely and passionately care for the souls of the lost, pointing them to the refuge, the mighty cross! Amen and Amen!
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
- As the ONE WHO DELIVERS SOULS FROM PRISON — Psalm 142:7 (Luke 4:18)