Psalm 21:7; 27:4, Thoughts from the 1st Book of Psalms

The “first book of the Psalms” is Ps. 1-41, fyi!  In that “book” there is a word that is used several times to speak of “security.”  The English versions translate it as “moved” except in cases where the context has to do with one’s spiritual “walk,” where the term is “slip” or “slide.”  There are 8 places to examine.

·       Ps. 10:6: The enemies of the LORD speak with arrogance, “I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity.”  To this person “security” (not being moved) is the same as not having adversity. 

·       Ps. 13:4: The context here is “how long” (13:1).  In other words, the godly man is already in adversity.  Again, it is the “enemy” who will “rejoice when I am moved.” 

·       Ps. 15:5: This is the Psalm of the “righteous,” the person who is qualified to enter the mount of the LORD.  Because he pursues righteousness, he “shall never be moved.”

·       Ps. 16:8: The Psalmist, because he has set his affection on the LORD, he can say, “I shall not be moved.”  His security rests on who God is and what God does, not on the absence of afflictions.

·       Ps. 17:5: Here the Psalmist prays, asking God to “uphold” his steps that his “footsteps may not slip.”  In righteousness the saint has “kept away from the paths of the destroyer” (v4). 

·       Ps. 21:7: This Psalm is considered by many to be useful at the inauguration of a king.  The king “trusts in the LORD; and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.

·       Ps. 30:6: In this Psalm the righteous are “prospered” by the LORD.  It is in that “prosperity” that he says, “I shall never be moved.”  His praise comes against the backdrop of a death-defying situation (v7-8).

·       Ps. 38:16: Here the Psalmist is in prayer during a trial.  The request is that God would deliver Him “lest, when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me.”

The first use of this word in the OT is Lev. 25:35 where it speaks of a time when “one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty.”  In other words, he slips into an affliction.  Jesus noted that there would always be people in society who are materially “poor” (John 12:8), who have moved into poverty.  

It is God’s goodness that establishes the righteous; it keeps them from “moving” or “slipping.”  As for the righteous, they are those who put God in His rightful place and who seek His righteousness.

Now, on a completely different situation, but one that relates to what we just studied, consider the wicked King Ahaz (2 Kings 16:10-16).  For political favor with the Assyrian king, in order to establish his own throne and bring about security in the face of the Assyrian army, Ahaz instructed the priest to build a second altar near the door of the temple.  He sacrificed sin offerings on the new Assyrian type altar; he “inquired” at the other altar.

Psalm 27:4 says that the saint’s relationship with God is, “to behold the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple.”  What Ahaz did was to behold the beauty of the god of the Assyrians.  He built this temple because the Assyrians had helped Judah by dealing with the kings of Israel and Syria.  Ahaz considered that “god” to be beautiful to behold.  But in the other part of his “quiet time” he inquired of the LORD, the God of Israel.  That destroys the Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one!”  Needless to say, Ahaz’ reign was anything but secure.  It was constant trouble, even from the Assyrian king that he admired.