Psalm 108

Introduction

The title of today’s psalm tells us that this is a psalm of David. And the psalm is an amalgamation of part of two other psalms. So, verses 1 to 5 of Psalm 108 are very similar to Psalm 57:7–11; and verses 6 to 13 of Psalm 108 are very similar to Psalm 60:5–12. David has taken part of one psalm and part of another psalm and he’s put them together to form a new psalm.

Verses 1 to 4

In verse 1 David declares that his heart is steadfast. In other words, he’s committed to the Lord. He’s devoted to God with all of his heart. And he also declares that he will sing and make music with all of his soul. Because he’s devoted to God, he wants to praise him.

In verse 2 he personifies his musical instruments, speaking to them as if they were people. And he tells them to wake up. Wake up, because it’s time to praise the Lord. And he also says that he himself will awaken the dawn. Normally it’s the dawn which wakens people. But David is determined to get up before the dawn in order to praise the Lord. And he wants to praise the Lord, not only in Jerusalem, but he wants to praise the Lord among the nations and to sing praise to God among the peoples. He wants to declares God’s glory to people around the world and to tell them of God’s greatness.

According to verse 4, he wants to praise God like this because God’s love is great: it’s higher than the heavens. And his faithfulness is also great: it reaches to the skies. When he refers to God’s love, he’s using the Hebrew word for God’s steadfast love or God’s covenant love. It’s his love for his chosen people. And David praises God because he knows that God’s love for his chosen people, and his faithfulness towards them, is very great. And so, he’s prepared to get up early to praise the Lord and he’s prepared to praise the Lord among the nations of the world.

Verses 5 and 6

In verses 5 and 6, David addresses God. He says to God in verse 5: ‘Be exalted … above the heavens and let your glory be over all the earth.’ He’s asking God to act in such a way so that his glory will be seen throughout the heavens and the earth. He’s saying to God: Do something to display your greatness in the heavens above and on the earth below.

And what God can do to display his greatness and glory in the heavens above and on the earth below? What can he do to show the nations his greatness? He can save his people, can’t he? That’s what David asks for in verse 6: ‘Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered.’ When he refers to ‘those you love’, he’s referring to God’s people. The Lord has bound himself with a promise to be their God and to love them with an everlasting love. And so, save them. Deliver them. That’s how God can display his glory to the world.

Verses 7 to 9

And so, in verses 5 and 6, David addresses the Lord. And now, in verses 7 to 9, David quotes one of God’s promises.

When I preached on Psalm 60, where these words also appear, I said that some of the Bible commentators think that these verses refer to a promise which God gave to David. However, other commentators believe that David is referring to an older promise from the Lord, because it matches his promises to his people in the days of Moses and Joshua. In those days, he promises his people that he would drive out their enemies from the land of Canaan and to give the land to his people. And at that time, in the days of Moses and Joshua, God promised to assign different parts of the land to different tribes of Israel. And so, he mentions Shechem to represent the land of Canaan on the west of the River Jordan; and he mentions Succoth to represent the land on the east of the River Jordan. Gilead was a place, where Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah are the names of tribes. However, he’s probably mentioned the tribes in order to refer to the land which was given to them. But the point is that the Lord promises to give different parts of the land to the different tribes. And the Lord kept his promise. He brought them over the Jordan and he enabled them to take the land from the Canaanites.

In verse 9, the Lord refers to Moab and Edom and Philistia. These were some of the enemy nations. But they weren’t any threat to the Lord. He was able to overturn Moab the way one of us might turn over a wash basin. He was able to flatten Edom the way one of us might flatten a spider with a sandal. He was also able to shout in triumph over the Philistines. None of these nations was a threat to the Lord.

So, that’s what God promised his people in the past in the days of Moses and Joshua. He promised to defeat the nations and give the land to his people. And the Lord kept his word. He did what he had promised. And the land now belonged to them.

And the reason David mentions God’s promise in this psalm is because he’s probably doing what many of us do. Many of us have a favourite verse or passage which contains a promise from God which we go back to again and again. Whenever we’re in trouble or whenever we’re anxious, we turn back to that verse for encouragement. And when David was writing Psalm 60, he went back to this promise from God. And now he’s doing it again here in Psalm 108. He’s turning back to this promise from God for encouragement. So, according to verse 6 David wants the Lord to save and help and deliver his people. They’re in some kind of trouble and he wants the Lord to save them from it. And while he waits for God’s answer, he strengthens his faith and he encourages his heart by remembering what God promised in the past.

Verses 10 to 13

In verse 10 David asks who will bring him to the fortified city and who will lead him to Edom. This suggests that, when he wrote this psalm, the Edomites were troubling David and his people. And David is trusting the Lord to lead them in victory over them.

However, there’s problem. David refers to it in verse 11: the one he’s counting on to lead them in victory is the Lord, but it seems that the Lord has rejected his people and he no longer goes out with his armies. So, perhaps David’s men had suffered a recent defeat and it seemed to David that God had turned his back on them. And if that’s the case, what hope do they have, because ‘the help of man is worthless’. Human help is no use to him. He needs God’s help.

David knows that with God on their side, they will gain the victory. There’s no doubt about it. If the Lord is willing to help them, they cannot lose, because the Lord is the mighty God and the nations are nothing to him. If the Lord is willing to help them, he will trample down their enemies on their behalf. But is the Lord willing to help them? That’s the question.

And so, to answer the question, David thought about God’s character and God’s promises. He thought about God’s character in verse 4 and how the Lord’s love for his chosen people and his faithfulness to them is very great. And he thought about God’s promises in verses 6 to 9 and how God promised to defeat their enemies and to give them the land.

So, God may have been angry with them for a time, but David is counting on God’s character and God’s promises.

Conclusion

And that’s what we’re to do. We deserve nothing from God but condemnation and punishment because we’re sinners who sin against him continually. He’s under no obligation to help us and we have done nothing to earn it or to deserve it. And we can’t force him to help us.

And so, when we go to God in prayer, we don’t boast about ourselves and we don’t make demands on God as if he’s obligated to help us. Instead we go to him humbly and we rely, not on our own goodness, but on his love and faithfulness towards us in Christ Jesus and on his promises to us, which are all ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Christ. Like David, we’re to rely on God’s character and on God’s promises.