Psalm 109

This is not the first imprecatory Psalm we have studied.  This and Psalm 69 are major but there are many that emphasize David calling upon God to take vengeance on his enemies.  Psalm 109 is particularly difficult in that David calls upon God not only to afflict wicked but also the family of the wicked (cf. 109:6-13).  But before we draw the wrong conclusion let us first lay out a framework for this Psalm and then we will make some notes.

·         109:1-5: This paragraph sets the scene for David’s prayer.  If you are prone to be critical of David be sure you do not overlook the evil of his enemies.  Their works reek of deceit, injustice and a major case of returning evil for good.  As to the specific situation we cannot be sure but we can feel for David’s pain.

·         109:6-13: He prays for justice, that his enemy be found guilty.  He also prays that the life of his enemy will be short, leaving his wife and children to suffer without him.  The result would be that his family would not flourish, being homeless or hungry.  Perhaps you saw 109:8, the passage quoted by Peter concerning Judas (Acts 1:20).  The other major imprecatory Psalm also has a reference applied to Judas (Ps. 69:25, quoted in Matt. 23:38; Lk. 13:35).  If nothing else Judas helps us visualize the person who was afflicting David.

·         109:14-20: David continues, praying that this evil man will not stand before God.  He prays that he will not be blessed but cursed and that God will reward his enemy with the kind of thing he has dished out, so to speak.

·         109:21-25: David prays that God will deal with him in mercy and goodness.  But note that he prays God will do this for His glory and honor.  David has been shamed but his request is for God’s glory.

·         109:26-29: David prays that God will humble the wicked man and exalt him, David, the poor and needy man.  He asks God to bless him and not let the curse of the wicked stick; this is opposite of what he prayed for his antagonist.

·         109:30-31: David vows to praise God publicly for His goodness.

Let us note some things that not only explain what is happening here but also gives us encouragement to, in fact, do the same.  First, David is giving vengeance to God, the only One who is able to be perfectly right in His judgment.  We are commanded to do this ourselves (Rom. 12:19).  Further note how often David asks for the wicked what the wicked have given to others.  This is the law of the harvest, God giving us what we deserve.  Third, David leans on another Biblical principle which is that God always exalts the humble and humbles the exalted (e.g. Lk. 1:52; 1 Sam. 2:7-8; Mt. 23:12).  And lastly, David’s ultimate concern is with the honor of God.  We see David’s integrity in the fact that he humbled himself before God.

We would simply say that if our inner motivations were in line with those of David, then our dealings with those who deceive and mistreat us would be honorable.  David has done well in giving God the place of settling scores.

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Psalm 109 Revisited and Improved

I would like to revisit Psalm 109.  In yesterday’s post we talked about “imprecatory” Psalms and what David was trying to do.  While you were reading that, I was in Psalm 109 and seeing the Psalm in a completely different light.  Then I went back in the evening to read the blog that I had written several years ago, and rejoiced that the Lord had not given up on me.  What I am saying is that I think I really missed the boat.  Here is what I see in Psalm 109 now.

·         109:1-5: There is not a word in these verses that Jesus could not have spoken from His cross.  Verses 2-4 are somewhat of a summary of what comes in the rest of the Psalm.  He is not talking about the Romans.  When He arrived at Golgotha He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”  These words did not apply to the religious leaders, the shepherds of Israel.  They did know.  In the final days in Jerusalem leading up to the Cross Jesus warned the people of what was coming because of their rejection of Him.

·         109:6-13: In this paragraph we have a clue.  Peter quoted v8b in Acts 1 when they were choosing a replacement for Judas.  But I know there are many who read these OT quotes and think that the Apostles just pulled these words out of context because they fit what they were doing.  If you follow our blog, you know that we don’t believe that at all.  All the NT quotes come from OT contexts that perfectly fit their point.  Verse 6 begins, “Set a wicked man over him.”  It’s singular.  You can read this stanza again and hear Jesus speaking these words about His betrayer.

·         109:14-20: Now look at v14: Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.  The Psalm now moves to those who used Judas, the shepherds of Israel, the religious leaders.  They were Jesus’ “accusers” (v20).  They brought Jesus to Pilate and demanded that he crucify Him. 

·         109:21-25: You can now hear these words from the cross of Christ.  This is an expanded version of “into Thy hands I commit My spirit.” 

·         109:26-31: And finally, we can hear Jesus pray that God would make it clear that He, God, was at work in all of this.  He concludes by speaking of future ministry beyond the cross and the grace.  This fits Psalm 22 (v22-31) and Isa. 53 (v10-12).

 

Now lest you think we are making this too much about Messiah and not enough about David, let me remind you of two things.  1) Jesus was tempted/tested in all points like we are.  From just a human point of view, David did not experience anything in the way of testing that Christ did not also experience.  We should expect to see Jesus in the testimony of David.  2) Jesus is the “fulfillment” of the Davidic Covenant.  David experienced the rage of proud men (Ps. 2:1-3) and trusted in the promise of God for victory over the nations (Ps. 2:4-9).  But we know that Psalm 2 is a most powerful Messianic Psalm.  Thus, again, we should expect to see David, when he is at his best, showing us what the Messiah would experience.  Psalm 109, like all Scripture, is best understood with a focus on Christ.

Lam. 3:37-42; Rom. 12:1-2, PTSD and the Word of God (7)

Jeremiah has a better understanding of his situation.  He saw as the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and removed the Davidic king.  For Jeremiah this was a challenge to the faithfulness of God.  Yet, he has now come to see the situation more accurately.  God can be trusted to fulfill His promises to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3), even as He had been faithful to His promises to Moses (Deut. 11:26-28; 28:2,15).  The former promised a land and nation and salvation to the world, all of which had become doubtful to Jeremiah; the latter promised judgment on Israel if they were disobedient, all of which was evident to Jeremiah. 

Given his renewed perspective, Jeremiah called the people to two conclusions.  First, there should be no complaining against God since He had done as promised to Moses: Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishments of his sins?” (3:39).  Second, building on the first, the people should turn back to the LORD (repent).  They should acknowledge that in all that happened, God was righteous: We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned (3:42). 

This is the end to which those created in God’s image must come, that God has been righteous in our traumatic experiences.  It is why we have said that our struggles with PTSD will be missing the most fundamental source of healing if we do not, as Jeremiah did, bring our Creator into the picture.  Daniel, in dealing with the same event (Israel’s chastening by the Babylonians), said it clearly: O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face (Dan. 9:7).  Affirming God’s righteousness made it possible for Daniel to then reaffirm God’s mercy: To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him (Dan. 9:9).

But now let us see something that takes us away from Jeremiah.  Under the new covenant, established through the death and resurrection of Christ, sins have been forgiven for those who have received this good news (gospel) of Christ.  On the cross He took our punishment, paying the price for our sin by the shedding of His blood.  By the empty tomb He has defeated death and brought “life and immortality to light” (2 Tim. 1:10).  This life is bound up in the Holy Spirit who has been given to all who put their faith in Christ, having received this good news.  The Holy Spirit enables us to live the life to which we have been called, a life of submission to our Creator.

This fits perfectly with what we have seen from Jeremiah.  To believe in Christ means we submit ourselves to Him: I beseech you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Rom. 12:1).  Day by day we yield ourselves to Christ.  And then, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2).  We can come to a deeper appreciation and embracing of God’s will for our lives as our minds are renewed, as we gain new perspectives through the word of God.  What Jeremiah said you will quite likely find hard to swallow.  The words are strong, especially when we are in the midst of our traumatic experience.  But in submission to Christ there is the desire and ability to be transformed into the person God has called us to be, to see that it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

Habakkuk 1:12-17, PTSD and the Word of God (7)

·       3:34-36: Though the Lord makes use of men as His hand, or rather instruments in His hand, for the correcting of His people, yet he is far from being pleased with the injustice of their proceedings and the wrong they do them.  The immediate context of Lamentations illustrates what Jeremiah is saying.  Judah and Jerusalem were viciously attack by the Babylonian army.  There were a lot of raping and killing and torturing of people who were not part of Judah’s military or who would gladly have given themselves up to the enemy if given the chance.  As Jeremiah struggled with the situation he may have seen that there were people who tried to give up to the enemy but who were killed or treated “unfairly” anyway.  This is actually the way it was: the nations such as Assyria and Babylon and Rome who were used by God in the chastening of His people always went beyond what the Lord had intended for them to do.   

If you have ever read the prophet Habakkuk you will remember that he had this issue with God.  He cried out to God to do something about the evils of His people and God’s answer was that He would send the Babylonians.  The prophet’s response was to question God’s choice: You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.  Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he? (Hab. 1:13).  What Jeremiah is saying is that God is aware of every level and instance of justice.  In my stressful situation I might want to find relief in pointing out the sins of those who have brought about my affliction.  It is quite common to engage in comparisons, pointing out the sins of others as if they are more deserving of affliction than I am.  And maybe they are.  But the problem is that we have taken upon ourselves the role of “judge” and have indicted another person while failing to come to grips with our Creator’s work in our own lives.  Consider this issue of “perspective” when you find yourself blaming parents or other incompetent authorities such as a teacher or supervisor or coach.  Consider it as you think of the the drunk driver or the criminal who got off with a light sentence or no sentence at all.  Assigning blame does not relieve the pain. 

All that Jeremiah has found to be true, these eight perspectives, he says are keys to unlocking the door of hope.  This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope (3:21).  Let me conclude this post by a list of these perspectives.  Then, in the next post, we will seek a path whereby we can go through that door of hope.

·       Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed.  It could have been worse.  And it is because of God’s mercy.

·       His compassions fail not.  God was in the judgment and fury, but there was also evidence of His goodness and compassion.

·       The LORD is my portion.  If I make the LORD my Portion, the source of my happiness, then I can “hope in Him.”

·       The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

·       Afflictions are really good for us, and, if we bear them aright, will work very much for our good. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. 

·       God will graciously return to His people with seasonable comforts according to the time that he has afflicted them. 

·       The LORD does indeed afflict us, but He does not do so willingly or literally, “from the heart.” 

·       Though the Lord makes use of men as His hand, or rather instruments in His hand, for the correcting of His people, yet he is far from being pleased with the injustice of their proceedings and the wrong they do them.

Lamentations 3:25-36, PTSD and the Word of God (6)

·       3:31-32: Here is an important thought with respect to coming to grips with our Creator and His plan and purpose for each of us.  God will graciously return to his people with seasonable comforts according to the time that he has afflicted them.  There are two ideas to consider here.  First, because the Creator is bottom-line merciful and good to those He has created, He will blend into our trials times of comfort and encouragement.  This may come in the form of a good friend or a “chance” encounter with someone who has had similar trials or who just has an observation that we find helpful.  It may come in the form of a brief “escape” from the our burdensome thoughts or pain.  The door is wide open for the various ways God knows we can be helped along the way.  This also means that as we struggle we must not let pride or busy-ness get in the way of these encouragements.

The other idea here is that the Bible teaches that God will see us through to a good ending of our situation is we are willing to wait upon Him.  Jeremiah’s words, the LORD will not cast off forever, are familiar terms to the Old Testament people of Israel.  Over and over the prophets told them that God would chasten them for their idolatry and injustices.  But they always added that God would not cast off forever, He would not renege on the unconditional covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The chastening was never the end of the story, though it was an important part of the story.  Paul in the New Testament said something similar about God and our trials: No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

·       3:33: The LORD does indeed afflict us, but He does not do so willingly or literally, “from the heart.”  This perspective is critical when it comes to our being at peace with our Creator.  Yes, the LORD allows and brings into our lives affliction.  But we must come to terms with the depth of this truth.  He does not do this to satisfy His need to “get even” with us, or to always be victorious over us.  He has our good in mind always, and we must come to grips with this.  We will never be happy in this life or content in this life unless we learn the insidiousness of our pride.  And we will never learn the insidiousness of our pride without affliction.  A life of ease, which also comes from the LORD, will only lead the proud person to exalt himself and his accomplishments that have resulted in the ease.  My riches.  My education.  My abilities. How will we ever be ready for the inevitable trials that come with old age?  Even more, how will we ever be ready to stand in the judgment of the life to come?  How will we ever bless our descendents if we have not shown them how to live through trials?  A loving father/Father chastens his/His son, and through affliction true character and especially a sense of hope are born and matured.  Knowing this opens us up to God our Savior who can sympathize with our weaknesses and grant mercy and grace in time of need (Heb. 4:14-16).  The afflictions do not deny His love but confirm His love!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, PTSD and the Word of God (5)

Continuing with Jeremiah’s stressful situation in Lamentations 3.

·       3:25-26: The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.  I suspect this was an observation based in Jeremiah’s previous understanding of God.  The OT is full of both admonitions and illustrations of the necessity of waiting on the LORD.  Jeremiah spent some time in a dungeon, specifically, a muddy cistern that served as a prison.  In due time he was released and helped out of the muck by friends he may not have known that he had (Jer. 38:1-13).  Earlier, he had struggled when his own family members (priests!) had refused to heed his preaching of the word of the LORD.  In these situations he had likely learned the value of waiting on the LORD. Which leads to the next thought.

·       3:27-30: Afflictions are really good for us, and, if we bear them aright, will work very much for our good. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.  Often, those who deal with PTSD have experienced significant trauma as young men or women.  That is the nature of those involved in the military as well as first-responders.  They may not have had very many difficult experiences by which they could learn.  Further, you may not think it would ever be valuable to have these devastating situations.  But here is something to consider from the Bible: trauma, tribulation, hard times are common for everyone.  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is a passage many people have heard: a time for every purpose under heaven.  But what it is saying is that eventually, typically, we will all experience these things.  If we have suffered in our youth we are better prepared for the sufferings that come later.  It’s called maturity.  And even now, if you are in unimaginable stress, how you see the situation is not only important for today but also for your tomorrow. Jeremiah also said, Let him sit alone and keep silent because God has laid it on him.  In other words, God is at work in us at these times. 

Some may be offended by this thought, that God brings these hard times so as to benefit us.  But this is based on two truths about God.  God is our Creator; He made us and thus owns us and has given us purpose in living.  And second, God loves us!  God is at work in us to give us hope in the hard times.  A strong sense of “hope” must be learned in order to succeed at life.  It is best to begin the building the hope in our early years, to know that life will not always be the “fun times” associated with our youth. 

May I also say there is a lesson here for parents.  Sometimes parents consider it their responsibility to shield their children from trials and tribulations, to always come to their defense even when they have been in the wrong.  It makes so much more sense to say that a good parent will seek to guide their children through the hard times.  This is necessary preparation for a normal life.

2 Cor. 4:7-9 PTSD and the Word of God (4)

We are seeking to hear Jeremiah’s wisdom as he grieves over the traumatic destruction of Jerusalem.  We have posted several times on this passage in Lamentations 3, thought not in this particular context of dealing with trauma.  We have always noted, and do so again here, our dependence on Matthew Henry’s comments that we have found to be exceptional.

·       3:22-23: His compassions fail not. This seems strange, given the extreme horror Jeremiah had witnessed.  Lest you think he was either blind or naïve or living in self-denial, earlier in Lamentations (2:17,21) Jeremiah had been very clear: the LORD had not pitied!  This word pitied means simply, “to spare.”  God had not spared the city or the nation.  Destruction was total.  Well, except, of course, that Jeremiah had been spared.  And his assistant Baruch was spared (Jer. 45). A government worker who had befriended Jeremiah was spared (Jer. 39:16-18).  And many poor people were given the land to cultivate, and people who had escaped Jerusalem before the Babylonians had arrived survived and returned to the city (Jer. 40:6-8).  In other words, there was a remnant, something that meant a lot to Jeremiah.  It meant that there was still the “seed” of a nation through which God could still keep His covenants with Abraham and with David.  God’s compassions had not failed.  This word is actually the term for “womb” and tells us that while God kept His promise of judgment, He still had a deep love for Israel.  The Apostle Paul faced traumatic situations in his life, but this is how he described them: hard pressed … yet not crushed; … perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed (2 Cor. 4:7-9).  Jeremiah, seeing evidence of compassion, realized that they had not failed.  They were new every morning.  Each new day was evidence that his worst fears were subsiding.  He was still there.  He still had a life to plan for and to live.  Concerning God he had to be honest and conclude: Great is Thy faithfulness.  This is Jeremiah, who earlier struggled with the truth that God was in the judgment and fury poured out on His people.  But now he had to recognize God’s goodness and compassion.

·       3:24: The LORD is my portion.  “Portion” in the OT has to do with one’s inheritance.  Jeremiah was from a priestly family (Jer. 1:1).  Of that family, among the priests and Levites, the OT frequently said that “the LORD was their inheritance” (e.g. Deut. 18:2).  They did not receive a piece of land like the rest of the citizens of Israel, but “the LORD was their inheritance.”  In other words, God would provide for them and be the source of their joy.  But now, with the land under the control of the Babylonians, no one owned land anymore.  Jeremiah sought to encourage himself and all who were left, to consider God to be their Portion.  The traumatic situations in our lives give us a definite opportunity to make this fundamental truth a reality in our hearts.  There is coming a time when we will depart this earth and leave it all behind.  As Job put it, Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.  The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed by the name of the LORD (Job 1:21).  If I make the LORD my Portion, the source of my happiness, then I can “hope in Him” as Jeremiah said and did.  (Be patient: we will continue in the next post.)

Lamentations 3:13-24, PTSD and the Word of God (3)

We have noted that Jeremiah reckoned with the fact that God was present and active in the trauma he witnessed.  He does not speak of the darkness brought upon him by the Babylonians.  However, and however long it takes Jeremiah to come to grips with his stress, this has to be taken into account. 

In Jeremiah’s case, he had prophesied the coming judgment of God.  He had witnessed the refusal of the people of Judah to repent as God called them to do.  We believe there is a principle in Scripture by which we can say that God is always at work in and through traumatic experiences.  This would be true of those experiencing the trauma as well as those who are seeing the trauma.  This is certainly the case for those who know Christ. 

It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).  All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).  Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6).

We have another principle of assumption.  We assume that if God is working in our lives through a traumatic situation, He is not going to intentionally hide His purpose.  If, through the New Covenant relationship we have with Him, whereby we learn to listen to Him in His word and speak and cry out to Him in prayer, in time we will benefit through the trauma. 

Let us lay this aside for awhile as we continue to hear Jeremiah’s reasonings.  In stanza #7 Jeremiah is still in the time of “wormwood and gall.”  Yet he says: This I recall to my mind.  Therefore I have hope.  He is about to tell us something about his thought process.  Let’s see if we can hear what he says.

·       3:22: The nation has not been totally decimated.  There is some good news in the midst of the trauma.  There is still life, still some who have survived the judgment.  Even as Jeremiah recognized God’s hand in the trauma, he also sees God’s hand in the positives.  Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed.  It could have been worse.  And it is because of God’s mercy.  You need to understand that this is not the “mercy” word, as in pity.  The Hebrew chesed refers to God’s goodness.  There were actually some good things that could be seen in the trial.  This is not some attempt to trick the mind.  There are things that are not as bad as they could be, and those things Jeremiah attributed to God’s lovingkindness (I think that’s the word to translate chesed on every occasion; it might include His pity, but also His kindness, goodness, forgiveness, provision and so forth)..

Before we conclude this post, please note what Jeremiah has done.  He is dealing with the trauma in “truth.”  If the trauma was affliction by the rod of His wrath (3:1), then the good things need to be seen as the LORD’s lovingkindnesses.  Jeremiah thought like this because this is what he had come to believe about His God.  God was always at work, in every event.  Some things were hard, others were blessings.  Jeremiah was coming to accept them all from God.  In the words of Job, Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? (Job 2:10).