Introduction
It’s been a while since we studied the psalms together, but you might recall that there’s a small collection of Davidic psalms near the end of the psalter from Psalm 138 to Psalm 145. And some commentators think that they were placed here originally to remind God’s people after the Babylonian exile that the Lord their God had not forgotten his promise to raise up a new king for them to save them from their enemies and to rule over them for ever. And that new king is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God’s Only Begotten Son, who came into the world as one of us to give up his life on the cross to pay for our sins. And after his death, he was raised from the dead on the third day and he now rules and reigns in heaven over all things for the sake of his people. So, these Davidic psalms at the end of the psalter are really about Christ our King.
And today’s psalm is about Christ’s victory and the blessings we receive because of it. In verses 1 to 11 the king appeals to the Lord his God for victory. And in verses 12 to 15 the king’s victory leads to blessings for his people.
Verses 1 to 11
In verses 1 and 2, David praises the Lord, his covenant-keeping God who has bound himself to his people to be our God and to take care of us.
And he praises the Lord for being his rock. As his rock, the Lord provides him with security and stability. He also trains his hands and fingers for war. The Lord equipped David to fight against Goliath and all the other Philistines. And God the Father equipped the Lord Jesus with the Holy Spirit to enable him to stand up to the spiritual attacks of the evil one.
David also describes the Lord his God as his fortress and his stronghold and deliverer and his shield. These are military images and he says at the end of verse 2 that he takes refuge in God and God subdues people under him. God gave David victory over his enemies and God the Father enabled the Lord Jesus to triumph over satan and his demons. The demons cringed in fear when the Lord Jesus appeared before them, because they knew that they could not overcome him.
So, most of the images are military ones. However, David also refers to God as ‘my loving God’. More literally, he calls God ‘my steadfast love’. God loved him with a steadfast love which is never-ending. And so, God’s love is like an inexhaustible fountain of goodness which continually flows out to us. And whenever David thinks of God, he thinks of God’s steadfast love towards him. Whenever he cries out to God, he bases his appeal on God’s steadfast love towards him. Whenever his enemies draw near to attack him, he reassures himself with the thought of God’s steadfast love towards him. God’s steadfast love towards him is precious to David. And when the Lord Jesus was baptised by John, God the Father declared his love for him. And he did it again on the mount of Transfiguration. And, of course, the Father loves his Son from all eternity and to all eternity. The Father’s love for his Son is eternal.
In verses 3 and 4 David marvels at the thought of God’s love for him. What is man that you care for him? And what am I that you think of me and pay attention to me and love me? All I am is a breath of air that comes and goes. My life is like a fleeting shadow. Compared to God who is eternal, I am nothing. And yet, God knows me and cares for me and loves me. And so, David is astonished at the goodness of God towards him. And, of course, the the Lord Jesus could express the same kind of astonishment, because though he is the Eternal Son of God, he came down to earth as one of us. He became a breath of air and a fleeting shadow like us. Or as another psalm says, he was made a little lower than the angels. And yet, God the Father still cared for him and was mindful of him.
And because God cared for David, David could appeal to the Lord in verses 5 to 8 and ask him to come down from heaven, as he did at Mount Sinai in the days of Moses. And to send forth lightning bolts to scatter his enemies. And he could ask the Lord to reach down from on high to deliver him from the mighty waters. He’s using the image of a flood to convey to us the danger he was in and how his enemies were surrounding him like flood waters. He also appeals to the Lord to rescue him from the hand of foreigners. And when he refers to foreigners, he means his enemies who were not part of God’s people. Their mouths were full of lies and their right hands were deceitful. He mentions their right hands because we normally raise our right hand to swear an oath. But his enemies could not be trusted.
And the Lord Jesus was faced with many enemies who hated him and who plotted against him. Think of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the teachers of the law who came to him, pretending to honour him, but really they were trying to get him to say something they could use against him. And think of how false witnesses spoke against him when he was before the Sanhedrin. And, of course, his greatest enemy is the devil, who is the father of lies.
And God the Father did indeed rescue his Son from his enemies by raising him from the dead and by exalting him to heaven far above his enemies and every power. God the Father reached down into the tomb and raised his Son from the dead.
In verses 9 and 10, David says he will sing a new song to God. Every time God defeated their enemies, the people sang a new song of victory to the Lord. And so, since God had once again rescued David, then he will sing a new song of praise to the God who gives victories to kings and who delivered David from the deadly sword. And God the Father delivered the Lord Jesus from death by raising him to life.
In verse 11, at the end of the first part of the psalm, David once again appeals to God to deliver him and to rescue him from his enemies whose mouths are full of lies.
Verses 12 to 15
If the first part is about the victory God gives to his king, the second part — verses 12 to 15 — is about the outcome which the king’s people can expect from the victory of their king. It’s about the blessing they will enjoy as a result of the king’s victory.
David says in verse 12 that our sons will be like well-nurtured plants and our daughters will be like pillars in a palace. In other words, they will be strong and healthy. And our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands and even by tens of thousands. Our oxen will draw heavy loads; and presumably he means heavy loads of good things.
There will be no breaching of the walls as there were in the past when the Babylonians besieged and took Jerusalem. There will be no going into captivity either. There will be no cry of distress in our streets as there used to be when the Babylonians captured the city and killed so many of the people before taking the rest into exile.
David is saying that his people can expect blessings from the Lord as a result of the king’s victory. God will give the king victory over his enemies and his people will live in peace and they will prosper and they will have families and they will be safe and secure. And therefore: blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the Lord, who does great things for his people.
And while we receive many good things from the Lord in this life, because of Christ our Saviour who died to make peace for us with God, nevertheless we have to wait until Christ’s return for the full enjoyment of all of God’s blessing. Christ our King — who has already gained the victory over sin and satan and death — will come again to bind up satan and all his demons and all who sided with him; and he will cast them into the lake of fire to be punished for ever. And all of Christ’s people will live with him in the new heavens and earth where there will be nothing to harm us and where we’ll enjoy all the blessings of the Lord: fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. There will be no more death and no more sorrow, but only perfect peace and everlasting joy. And these blessings will come to us, because of the victory of Christ our King over sin and satan and death.
And whenever we suffer in this life, or whenever we’re tempted to give up the faith, we should comfort and encourage ourselves by remembering the blessings which Christ has won for us and which he has stored up for us in the life to come. As Paul says, our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us and in us in the life to come. And so, with the help of a psalm like this one, we should fix our eyes not on what we can see around us, but on the glory which we cannot yet see, but which we will one day see and enjoy for ever because of Christ our King.
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