9/7/22

Since we’re reading the Psalms together, I’ve used the last few Pastor’s Notes to (hopefully) help us understand, appreciate, and apply what we’re reading. Last week, I wrote about how in the Psalms, God is Someone we can know; Someone we can address, and Someone we can reach. God is not some mystic “presence,” nor is God so far above us that he is beyond our knowing. In the book of Psalms, God isn’t addressed with all sorts of fancy titles, nor does the Psalmist flatter God (like the pagans did with their gods). No, in the book of Psalms, there is no hoping or guessing who God is – God is simply addressed as “you,” and we know who this “you” is because of the relationship God has with us.

As you read the Psalms, you’ll notice some keywords describing who God is repeated over and over. The common ones are “steadfast love,” “faithful,” and “righteous.” You’ll run across several verses that will sound very similar to 145:8, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

Where did the psalmists learn this about God? They certainly learned it from their own experience, but they also learned it from God’s own mouth. One of the key passages in the Old Testament is Exodus 34. In this chapter, God, having hidden Moses in the cleft of the rock, passes by him and proclaims:

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).

With these words, God revealed to Moses who he will be in his relationship with his people, and all throughout the Psalms we see the people celebrating this “you” who is merciful, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. These are the types of psalms that jump to mind when we think about the Psalms (and that’s the first of the 3 types of psalms: psalms that say “life is good”).

However, as I pointed out a few weeks ago, the majority of the psalms grow out of a different experience. Life is not always easy. Sometimes life can be very challenging, troubling and downright hard! The second type of psalms are those Lament Psalms that say “life is terrible.” These psalms insist that “you” be the God you said you were going to be and fix whatever intolerable situation in which the psalmist finds himself.

And not only do the psalmists pray this way (sometimes with shocking boldness), but they invite us to pray this way, too.

Where did they learn to pray like this? From Moses. Back in Exodus 34, God told Moses who he was going to be and in Numbers 14, Moses reminds God of what he promised. In Numbers 14, Moses has led the people to the edge of the Promised Land. They’ve seen the wondrous works of God: the deliverance at the Red Sea, Manna in the wilderness, God speaking to them on Mt. Sinai, etc. Yet, when they spy out the land and hear about the giants that live there, the Israelites rebel! They want to abandon God and Moses, elect themselves a captain and go back to Egypt!

And God has had enough! “I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they” (Numbers 14:12). But Moses argues with God saying, “And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and the fourth generation’” (14:17-18).

See what Moses is doing there? He’s praying God’s words back to Him, reminding God who God said He would be! Talk about bold!

And so from Moses, Israel learned to pray God’s words back to Him.

So, of course, in Praise Psalms like Psalm 145, the psalmist uses God’s words to celebrate the faithfulness of God. But in other psalms, like Psalm 86, the psalmist finds himself in a hostile situation:

“O God, the insolent rise up against me; a band of ruffians seeks my life, and they do not set you before them” (86:14).

But this is not the way things are supposed to be! The psalmist has been faithful to God, and yet he is being persecuted by unrighteous people. So the psalmist reminds God:

“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (86:15).

See what the psalmist is doing there? He’s doing the same thing Moses did by reminding God about who God said He would be back in Exodus 34. And on that basis, the psalmist makes his petition:

“Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant; save the child of your maidservant. Show me a sign of your favor, so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me” (86:16-17).

This isn’t a joyous celebration of God’s faithfulness but a bold insistence that God turn this upside down world back upright again, a petition grounded in who God said he would be back on Mt. Sinai.

Reading and praying the psalms invite us to do the same. If you’ve noticed, I begin most of the prayers I pray with those very words from Exodus 34 - that’s the God we serve! I’d encourage you to memorize them and use them in your prayers as well. When life is going well, use them to celebrate God’s faithfulness. When life isn’t going so well, use them to remind God (and remind yourself) Who God said God would be, and let this be an anchor to your soul in the bad times. And look for other times the psalms quote these words – you might be surprised just how often you see them.

I have one other example of the Old Testament’s use of God’s words from Exodus 34, but I’ll save that for next week.

Blessings!
Pastor Terry