Verses from the Psalms

The aim was to read four Psalms a day. It should have taken 38 days, maybe 40 if the very long Ps119 is given three days ; it has taken 62 days. Indolence and forgetfulness played a part.

‘How long shall I take counsel in my soul Ps 13 v 2
‘I will bless the Lord, who has given me counsel, my heart also instructs me in the night seasons’ Ps 16v7

Straight away we plunge into the dynamic between God and man. In the New Covenant, God has taken out our heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh and put a new spirit in us AND His Holy Spirit. So when we go ‘inside’ to take counsel with our own soul, we find the God, the Holy Spirit, witnessing with our spirit. Really the distance between us is not even paper thin.

‘I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness’ Ps 17v15

If you’re thinking death and resurrection, then this verse lines up nicely enough. But if you’re thinking literally, it’s more of a puzzle. ‘Behold,’ says St Paul, speaking about the resurrection, ‘I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep but we shall be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet…the dead will be raised incorruptible.’ But there’s a lead-up to this crescendo: ‘And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit’. Take a look in the mirror in the morning. Takes some faith…O yeah, faith.

‘Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech’ Ps 17 v6 (v Is 55v3)

Here we go again, the dynamic. ‘Listen to me’ we say but somewhere along the line we hear an echo ‘Listen to Me’. It really is a two-way street this true Christianity.

‘You are my hiding place, You shall preserve me from trouble You shall surround me with songs of deliverance’ Ps 32 v 7

Evangelicals will say (correctly in my opinion) that the whole Bible is the word of God. But if heaven is like a warehouse of the bible books and verses, the personal delivery system from heaven is more impressive. The Spirit may pick up a verse and deliver it to your heart faster than Amazon or Deliveroo. The Bible is like a restaurant where all the food is on the menu but along comes the Holy Spirit in disguise, as the waiter with some recommendations. ‘That one tonight, Sir’ or ‘With the lamb, this wine, Madam’. Or it might be, from this Psalm: ‘Hide in me today, John, let Me sing you some songs of deliverance.’

‘The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord’ Ps 32 v5

Faith, fact, and feeling. I remember being unduly irritated by the silly diagram of Faith as a train engine, pulling two carriages, fact and feeling, in that order. It still irritates me. But darn it, here’s one of those verses where your feelings may well let you down, and facts (I write this in the wake of the Syrian and Turkish earthquake) will divert you. The best thing is to keep munching on this verse, then we might be of some use in every circumstance, like Jesus, who had every reason to doubt the accuracy of this verse, harassed as he was all the way from his home church, where they were about to murder him, to Jerusalem, where the plotters finally got their act together and crucified Him. But even on the cross He was talking of Paradise. Faith trumps facts and feelings.

‘O Lord make haste to save me’ Ps 38v22,40v13 memories of All Saints

Only a quick note: the church I was taken to as a child (which successfully inoculated me against Christianity, or so I thought) had a really good choir. You know, frilly collars, unemotional faces, and angelic sound. I can still hear the bass soloist pouring out the words of the liturgical responses ‘O Lord make haste to save us’ with his rich voice, and the accompanying pipe-organ making the whole building reverberate with its deep thundernotes.

The place of jackals

‘You have severely broken us in the place of the jackals’ Ps44v19

Tempting to write more than I should. If you’ve been there with the jackals and been broken, you know two things. You may be functioning externally quite well, but inside you’re like a dying star collapsing into a black hole. You have no strength to climb back out. But the Lord comes, recovery comes. The Jews suffered annihilation at the hand of Hitler’s Nazis but, unbelievably, just three years later, in May 1948, the newly formed Israel celebrated its restoration to the world map ending 2000 years of exile. It is a profound mystery. If you’re being broken, take some strength from this.

‘All your garments are scented with myrrh and cassia’ Ps 44 v 8

On more than one occasion, women felt impelled to soak Jesus’ head or feet or body with scents, spices, or perfumes. It’s an interesting phenomenon. Even the three Magi from the east brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. The word Messiah literally means ‘anointed one’ and the earthly oils used to anoint kings were pictures of the true anointing oil of heaven the Holy Spirit. Now we are ‘entwined with Christ’, ‘in the Messiah’ the ‘Anointed one’, guess what, we share in His anointing. We’re used to the doublet ‘he who has ears to hear’ or ‘eyes to see’, maybe we should add ‘noses to smell’. No, we should.

‘Make me hear joy and gladness; that the bones You have broken may rejoice’ Ps51v8

We’re back to recovery from brokenness. The Bible is full of this. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to …heal the broken hearted’. It’s a common human cycle. Falling over, getting back up. On an individual level but it can be scaled up to whole nations. God does it. He loves us.

‘You number my wanderings; put my tears in a bottle’ Ps56 v 8

Such a poetic phrase. It has inspired me to attempt to write a children’s book.

‘Through our God we shall do valiantly; It is He who treads down our enemies’ Ps 60 v12

That partnership repeating. We’re not expected to overcome difficulties or battle away on our own. He treads down our enemies. First base is handing over the conflict to God. Second base is letting God direct us. First base is all-important. Why is it that it still takes me a while to remember to run to first base?

Early will I seek You

‘O God, You are my God; early will I seek You’ Ps63 v 1

Best time of the day. Don’t be surprised if God plays hide & seek. Some days it’s as if you’re surrounded by divine love and presence, other days you’re walking through a fog with no indication of where to go or anything to see. Sensory deprivation. In the hills, in the fog, you get your compass out and walk according to a bearing. Spiritually? There’s a great passage in 1 Samuel when David is having an acutely bad day, it simply says ‘he strengthened himself in God’. No details. Do you know how to strengthen yourself in God? I preach the gospel to myself.

‘Let the peoples praise You O God
Let all the peoples praise You
Then the Earth shall yield her increase
God, our own God, shall bless us
And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him’ Ps67 v 5-7

No point in being grumpy or wallowing in self-pity. Better to praise God. It might just unlock whatever is overwhelming you, fear, helplessness, anger, frustration, defeat, rejection…and so on. I like Watchman Nee’s statement: ‘The Christian life is like wiping your tears whilst holding onto the plough’. The tears are real, but so is the plough.

‘O God, who is like You?
Who has shown me great and severe troubles
Shall revive me again
And bring me up again
From the depths of the earth’ Ps 71 v 19,20

Again. And again.

‘Thus my heart was grieved
And I was vexed in my mind
I was so foolish and ignorant
I was like a beast before You
Nevertheless, I am continually with You
You hold me by my right hand
You will guide me with your counsel’ Ps 73 v 21-24

Coming to terms with our own wilfulness is painful. It leads us off course, grieves our hearts and vexes our minds. Sins of commission or omission. But this verse holds out hope that once we have admitted our state of mind, God will guide us once more. He’s always the father of the Prodigal, waiting for us to come to our senses and return.

You number my wanderings; put my tears in a bottle

‘Men ate angels’ food
He sent them food to the full’ Ps 78 v 25

Quoting Deuteronomy Jesus said ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’. Bread sustains our physical/biological life but it’s the word of God that sustains our spiritual life…which is life in fact! The phrase in this verse that struck me was ‘to the full’. Sometimes all we need is a quick snack. But there are times for banquets, when God opens up new vistas, or fresh revelations.

‘For the Lord God is a sun and a shieldThe Lord will give grace and glory’ Ps 84 v 11

Psalm 84. One of my favourite Psalms. I can’t remember why this verse stood out. Read the whole Psalm, it’s good ‘un. Maybe ‘grace AND glory’. Some of us content ourselves on grace OR glory. Nope. It’s both.

‘Preserve my life, for I am holy
Save your servant who trusts in You’ Ps 86 v 2

O dear. I am holy. That’s like a left hook to the polite, reserved, and modest British jaw. We spend far too much time in mock humility. The fact is that in Christ we have been made holy, all of us are ‘saints’ not just the special few, like the Catholics suggest when canonising their best. We align holiness and sainthood (both the same word in Greek) too much with ‘goodness’. That’s the fruit not the root. The idea of holiness is rooted in the concept of being set aside for a particular purpose. God has placed us in Christ. By that fact alone we are holy, set aside. St Paul says we are ‘His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them’. True humility is receiving, welcoming, and believing the word of God, then there’s a chance we might actually display the fruit of holiness.

‘Those that are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our Gid
They shall bear fruit in old age
They shall be full of oil and green’ Ps 92 v 13,14

I read this verse on or about my 65th birthday. Am I still middle-aged? That feels like disappearing youth! But the prospect of being full of oil and green, like an old tree, still pushing out bright green leaves and good quality fruit – I’ll take that.

Psalm 100 the whole Psalm

Enough said.

‘The trees of the Lord are full of sap’ Ps 104 v16

As Psalm 92 above.

‘He satisfied them with the bread of heaven

He opened the rock and water gushed out’ Ps 105 v40,41

Anyone interested in rugby during the 1970s will have been in awe of the Welsh rugby side. And Cardiff Arms Park ringing out with Bread of Heaven (Cwm Rhondda) sung in parts, at top volume, all the verses memorised putting Swing Low and Delilah to shame. It was also our school hymn when schools had school hymns. Before I overindulge in nostalgia I should remember the drudgery of school assemblies and how I eventually refused to sing, defiantly staring at our Buddhist headmaster beating out Christian bible readings and hymns that he didn’t believe in. I wasn’t a Christian, but the hypocrisy was too much. Later, in the 6th Form, I joined the rugby team and, as most of us were also in the school choir, we English rugby boys learnt the parts to Cwm Rhonda. When I capitulated to Christ in the January of my Upper 6th year (Year 13 to more recent ears) the school hymn took on a new significance. Tears fall from my eyes when I think of the spiritual decline in Wales since the Welsh revival in 1904. A revival, that amongst other long-lasting effects, taught the hardened rugby players, miners, and hill farmers of Wales the words of Bread of Heaven. When God opens the hard rock of our hearts fresh water gushes out. The miracle of encountering Christ and how he transforms us from the inside out is poured out in hymns and songs. I can still hear Cardiff Arms Park singing ‘Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me ‘til I want no more, feed me ‘til I want no more’.

‘Tremble O Earth at the presence of the God of Jacob
Who turned the rock into a pool of water
The flint into a fountain of waters’ Ps 114 v 7,8

It’s the same transformation. ‘So and so is such a kind person’ we might hear someone say. But the kindest person may be like ‘flint’ to God. Impervious, tough, self-reliant, and rebellious, refusing to acknowledge that even their kindness has been created by God. When I heard the gospel for the first time (not in the church I had been brought up in) I sat at the back of the church trembling, physically trembling, as it dawned on me that the resurrection and much else besides, might, after all, be true. That left me with an awesome decision, but also a sense of excitement at the implications of taking that step of believing…which I did, ironically, whilst repeating the Creed in the church that had inoculated me against Christianity. I had long since abandoned repeating the Creed as I didn’t believe it, but as I opened my mouth that morning, to say ‘I believe in God…’ I believed.

‘The Lord is on my side
I will not fear
What can man do to me’ Ps 118 v 6

A good verse to repeat over and over. Eat it. Chew on it. Come back to it. Man put Jesus on the cross but man could not raise Him from the grave. Man can do a lot to make us suffer but God is also at work. The Bible is a curious combination of acknowledging fear and yet saying ‘do not fear’. Fear is real but it needn’t dominate. I’ve known fear crystallising into panic attacks, uncontrollable anxiety and fear, but deeper down, deeper than ‘panic headquarters’ is the Lord. It’s true. He has the last word.

‘Though I walk in the midst of trouble
You will revive me’ Ps 138 v 7

That’s what life is like sometimes. It sometimes feels as if we’re surrounded by troubles we cannot ignore or escape from. That’s the hope, not that the troubles will subside, although that is included, but the greater hope, that the Lord will revive us. It’s not just the absence of trouble we need, but a revival of life. The kiss of life, an inner renewal. New batteries for the remote!

‘You have covered my head in the day of battle’ Ps 140 v 7

This spoke to me powerfully. Here, we’re on the offensive. We’re taking the battle to the opposition, to external enemies, the circumstance, or the obdurate internal self. I’m not quite sure what ‘covered my head’ means but when I read it, all I can say is that it re-configured my attitude from the passive ‘He will restore me after trouble’ to a more active participatory stance in whatever battle is on.

‘Teach me to do Your will
For You are my God
Your Spirit is good
Lead me in the land of uprightness’ Ps 143 v10

That could be the prayer of one’s whole life. Especially, perhaps, for a teacher! How much have Iearnt? I loved the poetic ‘lead me in the land of uprightness’ that invisible kingdom, the land of uprightness, that pervades every evil war-torn, disease-racked, poverty-induced, slave-ridden sub-section of our world that attempts to set up an alternative power structure to heaven, to the kingdom of God, and may appear to succeed for a while. But it is those who are, despite all that, led in the land of uprightness that win the day. We press on.

‘The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked to the ground
The Lord takes pleasure on those who fear Him
In those who hope in His mercy’ Ps 147 v 6,11

If you’re like me you’ve discovered the truth of both sides of that same coin.

‘Let the saints be joyful in glory’ Ps 149 v 5

Fittingly, we end with (i) saints (ii) being joyful (iii) and submerged in and caught up in glory. No more need be said.