Day 11 | Charly Adams

There was a lot of talk about God’s judgement in last week’s psalms, and a lot of talk about David’s enemies as well. I’ve pulled out a couple of verses that I think keep that theme going a little bit and I hope they connect the pattern through these three psalms.

Psalms 19:9 “The fear of Jehovah [is] clean, standing to the age, The judgments of Jehovah [are] true, They have been righteous–together.”

Psalm 20:7-8 “Some of chariots, and some of horses, And we of the name of Jehovah our God Make mention. They–they have bowed and have fallen, And we have risen and station ourselves upright.”

Psalm 21:11-12 “For they stretched out against Thee evil, They devised a wicked device, they prevail not, For Thou makest them a butt, When Thy strings Thou preparest against their faces.”

David knows from the get-go that the choices God makes will be righteous and that it is correct to respect the Lord. (The fear of Psalm 19:9 isn’t a terror kind of fear; is a respect and reverence).

This makes Psalm 20:7-8 a little more powerful. David is saying that some people trust in worldly things and we (originally he and his armies, but also us as people of God) trust God and that because of who/what people have chosen to trust, their successes and failures have been made.

Psalm 21:11-12 extends the idea from Psalms 20:7-8 in that for choosing the world and then acting against the people of God, in unrighteousness, and hindering God’s path they have been punished (though we’re reminded by Psalms 19:9 that this is a just punishment).

So, I get the sense here that David has written a series of praises for a victory in battle. These show the faith David puts in God and how much he believes in God’s power. It so easy to attribute our success or victories to ourselves and our skills and talents while asking God to help in the hard times, which frankly is a little contradictory because all victories come out of times of strife. And if we’re asking God for help in times of strife, then aren’t the victories a result of His help?

Side note: we had a bit of a discussion last week about God’s anger and I’d love to hear your thoughts as informed by these two different translations of Psalms 21:9.

“Thou makest them as a furnace of fire, At the time of Thy presence. Jehovah in His anger doth swallow them, And fire doth devour them.” YLT98

“When you appear for battle, you will burn them up as in a blazing furnace. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and his fire will consume them.” NIV

Day 11 | Charly Adams

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