Teachings from the Psalms 2
Psalms 84, 85, & 86
Teachings From the Psalms
I. Re-cap and Introduction
II. Read Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord of heavenly forces!
2 My very being longs, even yearns, for the Lord’s courtyards. My heart and my body will rejoice out loud to the living God!
3 Yes, the sparrow too has found a home there; the swallow has found herself a nest where she can lay her young beside your altars, Lord of heavenly forces, my king, my God!
4 Those who live in your house are truly happy; they praise you constantly. Selah
5 Those who put their strength in you are truly happy; pilgrimage is in their hearts.
6 As they pass through the Baca Valley, they make it a
spring of water. Yes, the
early rain covers it with blessings.
7 They go from strength to strength, until they see the supreme God in Zion.
8 Lord God of heavenly forces, hear my prayer; listen closely, Jacob’s God! Selah
9 Look at our shield, God; pay close attention to the face of your
anointed one!
10 Better is a single day in your courtyards than a thousand days anywhere else! I would prefer to stand outside the entrance of my God’s house than live comfortably in the tents of the wicked!
11 The Lord is a sun and shield; God is favor and glory. The Lord gives - doesn’t withhold! - good things to those who walk with integrity.
12 Lord of heavenly forces, those who trust in you are truly happy!
A. We’ll look at different translations of the first verse and then ponder this question: what and where is God’s dwelling place?
1. Note the word yedidot. This is generally translated as lovely, though the KJB translates it as amiable. Why is “lovely” better?
(The Hebrew word means love. There, thus, is an intensity in the text the psalmist is seeking to convey, the depth and emotion of love for God’s dwelling place and being there.)
2. The word for dwelling place is mishcunotecha, which means tabernacles in Hebrew. What do we think of when we consider the idea of dwelling places of God?
(Discussion. Recall Pamela Greenberg’s translation - those places we perceive God.)
B. What do we make of the metaphor of the bird in verse 3?
(Some
say this bird has made her nest in the spaces between the stones of the Temple
in Jerusalem. That suggests a home close to God, where we are comforted,
protected. R. Hirsch: one seeks its nest where one has nurtured the most
precious treasures in life. We might add that it is also where we are best
supported/nourished.)
C. We’ll look closely at verses 5-7. These are complex but extremely important and beautiful verses.
1.Note again the use of the word ashrei, truly happy. It brings to mind Psalm 1. It’s as if the one who is truly happy is one who is near God, who lives with God, in God’s dwelling place. This is a person we see here as one who praises God constantly, puts strength in God, and undergoes a journey that is described in the following verses.
2.What is that journey, and who is on it?
(There are so many possible explanations that come from the various versions in translation.
One possibility to consider: Praiseworthy are the persons who on upward paths focus on their hearts (or those whose hearts and minds are focused on the pilgrim paths), those who pass through the valley of thorns and tears and transform it into a wellspring.
That is, those on the journey are those who seek to go upward to God in their lives, knowing that they will always encounter adversity and pain and respond to those challenges by transforming them into limitless wellsprings of opportunity to serve and grow closer to God. Those who use these opportunities in this manner will be blessed with rain and support from heaven.)
What is the pilgrimage here? What might the upward paths be? The highways?
What’s the Valley of Baka? What does it represent?
(Some other translations: "valley of tears"; valley of thorns". Believed to be a very arid valley that pilgrims to Jerusalem passed through on their way to visit the temple.
What is meant by transforming its springs? And blessings of rain or pools?
One possibility to consider: Praiseworthy are the persons who on upward paths focus on their hearts (or those whose hearts and minds are focused on the pilgrim paths), those who pass through the valley of thorns and tears and transform it into a wellspring.
That is, those on the journey are those who seek to go upward to God in their lives, knowing that they will always encounter adversity and pain and respond to those challenges by transforming them into limitless wellsprings of opportunity to serve and grow closer to God. Those who use these opportunities in this manner will be blessed with rain and support from heaven.)
And the meaning of verses 10-12?
A day in God’s presence is better than all other days elsewhere. What could this mean?
(One
possible idea: we should see each day of being near God as that day. There’s
almost an eternal feel to time should we live each day that way.)
III. Read Psalm 85
1 Lord, you’ve been kind to your land; you’ve changed Jacob’s circumstances for the
better.
2 You’ve forgiven your people’s wrongdoing; you’ve covered all their sins. Selah
3 You’ve stopped being furious; you’ve turned
away from your burning anger.
4 You, the God who can save us, restore us! Stop being
angry with us!
5 Will you be mad at us forever? Will you prolong your anger from one generation to the next?
6 Won’t you bring us back to life again so that your
people can rejoice in you?
7 Show us your faithful love, Lord! Give us your salvation!
8 Let me hear what the Lord God says, because he speaks peace to his people and to his faithful ones. Don’t let them return to foolish ways.
9 God’s salvation is very close to those who honor him so that his
glory can live in our land.
10 Faithful love and truth have met; righteousness
and peace have kissed.
11 Truth springs up from the ground; righteousness
gazes down from heaven.
12 Yes, the Lord gives what is good, and our land yields its produce.
13 Righteousness walks before God, making a road
for his steps.
A.
This is a psalm about responding to distance from God that is created by our
straying from God’s ways. How do we return? What’s the effect of doing so? What
are the elements of the nearness that results from return? Look at verse 4.
What does it mean?
(It involves turning. It could be our turning back to God. We might do the turning and/or God might help us turn back. Or it could be our hope that God turns back to us. Or it might be both. One thing is clear: our salvation is very much caught up in our return, our restoration to nearness to God.
B. Look at verses 10-13, some of the most beautiful verses in sacred or indeed any other literature.
1.What does it mean that loving-kindness and truth meet?
(This is a powerful idea. It’s not easy for this to happen. Truth can be hard, tough, and painful, often incompatible with loving-kindness. The idea here seems to suggest that when the two meet and perhaps reconcile, both retain their integrity and, at the same time, affect and improve the other. The truth is softened by kindness, and kindness is firmed up by meeting truth. It seems like being with God again helps introduce us to a world in which we have a new sense of loving-kindness and truth in which they go well with each other and support each other as foundational to our lives.)
2. Then righteousness and peace kiss. Meaning?
(One of the great challenges of following God is to bring to bear two of the most important principles of the Divine, that is, that we be both righteous and “peace-promoting.” When truth and kindness meet in God’s place, it’s possible for us to see how we can foster peace and righteousness together. Where peace and righteousness kiss is where God lives!)
3.We
leave the psalm with a keen sense, especially in its last verse, of how
important righteousness is to God. Righteousness is what gazes down from
heaven; it is also what walks before God.
III. Psalm 86
1 Lord, listen closely to me and answer me, because I am poor and in need.
2 Guard my life because I am faithful. Save your servant who trusts in you - you! My God!
3 Have mercy on me, Lord, because I cry out to you all day long.
4 Make your servant’s life[a] happy again because, my Lord, I offer my life to you,
5 because, my Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of faithful love for all those who cry out to you.
6 Listen closely to my prayer, Lord; pay close attention to the sound of my requests for mercy.
7 Whenever I am in trouble, I cry out to you, because you will answer me.
8 My Lord! There is no one like you among the gods! There is nothing that can compare to your works!
9 All the nations that you’ve made will come and bow down before you, Lord; they will glorify your name,
10 because you are awesome and a wonder-worker. You are God.
Just you.
11 Teach me your way, Lord, so that I can
walk in your truth. Make my heart focused only on honoring your name.
12 I give thanks to you, my Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever,
13 because your faithful love toward me is awesome and because you’ve rescued my life from the lowest part of Sheol.[b]
14 The arrogant rise up against me, God. A gang of violent people want me dead. They don’t give a thought for you.
15 But you, my Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy; you are very patient and full of faithful love.
16 Come back to me! Have mercy on me! Give your servant your strength; save this child of your servant!
17 Show me a sign of your goodness so that those who hate me will see it and be put to shame - show a sign that you, Lord, have helped me
and comforted me.
III. Psalm 86
A. Look at verse 4 - Gladden the soul of your servant because to you, O Lord, do I lift it (my soul). What does this mean?
(I offer up/dedicate/lift up my essence to You, God. You are my focus, my priority, the One whom I serve and to whom I submit. I pray. I worship. I offer up deeds of righteousness and loving-kindness that I do in the world in Your Name. In return, you gladden me at my core. Through the means of the soul, which guides me to serve You, you bless me.
This has the feel of the Priestly Blessing.
B. Look at verses 11 and 12. We seek to unite our hearts to focus on honoring God’s Name, to be wondrous of God’s Name, in allegiance, awe, and, yes, fear. This has the feel of the call and command of the great commandment, to love God with all our hearts, as verse 4 does as to loving God with all our souls.
C. We leave this psalm with this idea of what it means to dwell with God: Home is where I offer up my soul to God and bring a united heart in allegiance. And there my soul is gladdened, God loves me, and I am delivered.
IV. Conclusion.
Scripture taken from the Common English Bible®, CEB® Copyright © 2010, 2011 by Common English Bible.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. The "CEB" and "Common English Bible" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Common English Bible. Use of either trademark requires the permission of Common English Bible.