Psalm 21:7
“For the king trusts in the Lord; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.” King David certainly understood who to put his trust in. He knew if he put his trust in fellow man, material things, his own power or his status as a King, he would be let down or eventually disappointed. The world cannot offer us the stability we are seeking because it is shifting sand, always in motion and never stable and secure. David knew only God could provide the stability he needed in order to endure and find victory in all his pursuits. When everything around us is shaking, God remains unshakeable. That is certainly something we can depend on even now, when everything around us is so unstable. We have a Global Pandemic, political and social discord, and natural disasters all around us. Everywhere we look is so unstable, except for God! God is the only One who never changes. Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” We need that stability in our lives now more than ever. David understood this as well. As King of Israel, he was always at risk through either foreign or domestic enemies. His life was in peril on many occasions, from the time of his anointing by Samuel to be the next King to replace King Saul, or from the time he actually became King until his death, he was never secure in his external circumstances. He found his stability and security in God alone and that gave him the confidence he needed in order to fight the many battles that were before him. God’s security is greater than anything we will ever face in this world.That is the only place we can find rest in this wicked and volatile world. Matthew 11:28-30 says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” David knew not to spend his time and his energy focused on lesser things. He found his security, and hence his rest, by putting all of his confidence into God’s ability to protect and provide for him. We would be wise to do the same thing.
Psalm 22:27-28
“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.” David served many roles as King. Military Commander, Spiritual Adviser and National Spokesman were just a few of the roles he played. David was responsible for the fortunes of God’s chosen people in Israel which was a role that would require more than any person could provide by themselves, and David realized this and so he enlisted the help of God. He knew that God had appointed him at the time to be King of Israel, but he also understood that Israel’s true King was God Almighty. He knew all Nations ultimately were under God’s control and He alone had the ability to raise Nations up or tear them down. (Psalm 22:28) David was a successful King because he relied on the One True King and not on his own limited strength or knowledge. God used David to protect Israel from her enemies and to lead Israel in close relationship with Him. David was the man God had chosen, but the man God had chosen knew ultimately God was the One who is in control. That would be wise advice for our leaders today in the United States if they would only realize that God is in control and were to publicly acknowledge our dependence upon Him, and repent for our turning away from Him. God would surely relent from the destruction that appears to be happening to America if we would turn back to Him and remember that it was He who had made our Country great. We never know how much time we have left, but as a Nation we must admit that if we don’t turn back to God quickly we may not have much time at all. Psalm 9:15 says, “The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.” That may be true of America today.
Psalm 23:1
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” David wrote what his heart was full of, and the entirety of Psalm 23 could be viewed as a roadmap for all we will face in this life and how best to respond. I love Psalm 23 with all my heart, and I could write about it all day long, but for this purpose I’m only writing about Psalm 23:1 What if we could incorporate that belief into every thought we ever had? How would our life change if we truly lived out the fact that because “the Lord is my Shepherd I lack nothing?” So much of what hampers our right thinking and enslaves us comes from a mindset of lack. Because we feel we lack, we always strive for more. In just about everything we touch, we always mistakenly feel the solution that will “fix” everything is just a little more. John D Rockefeller, a 19th-20th Century equivalent of today’s Billionaires, when asked by a reporter how much is enough, famously once said “just a little more.” Just a little more sex, just a little more freedom, just a little more sleep, just a little more money, just a little bigger house, just another car. It is the epitome of the if, only syndrome we like to play in our mind. If only I had this, or more of this, then I would be happy, or content, or freer, or satisfied. But the truth is happiness is usually not found in having more of what already has made someone unhappy or at least unfulfilled. What if on the other hand, we simply found incredible contentment and gratitude by just resting in the Lord’s promise that He will provide all we need? In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says “but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” What if we truly believe it and we simply say in every situation we encounter “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.” All those impulses that lead to danger for us would vanish. Greed would be replaced by contentment. Fear by gratitude. There would be no reason to covet, no reason to steal or commit adultery or commit a murder to gain something you perceieve you lack or to take revenge. Oh, and you would find the rest for your soul that at your core is what you’re truly searching for. No more having to live up to others or your own impossible, and usually false, expectations. What a burden falls off us when we even say that, let alone if we could ever live it out. At our core, we want to exit off the treadmill of life that we have been running on, trying to keep up with what society or the world tells us we should be like. We can feel the exhaustion in our soul of trying to always reach for “just a little more,” but the truth is it is a moving target that never actually produces the results we expect. David learned to pray to God as such a staple of his life, that he could experience periods when he could honestly proclaim,”The Lord is my Shepherd,I lack nothing.” Being human, David couldn’t live his entire life this way but he understood the place where he could turn to again and again when he could feel his life slipping out of balance and alignment. He knew where to find contentment, and it was on the other side of gratitude. What a great example Psalm 23:1 is for us to incorporate into all aspects of our own lives. We, like David, will not be able to stay in that mental space forever, but at least once we experience it, we will know how often we need to return there in order to find what we are truly looking for, which is “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” according to Philippians 4:7 A little more of something material will never satisfy our soul, but a little more of God and understanding His immeasurable love for us on a deep, personal basis will.
Psalm 24:10
“Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty— he is the King of glory.” David was King of Israel during a time when there were many false gods being worshiped all around him, both in other Nations and even by some in his own Israel. He was very focused on making sure that Israel knew the One true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Asherah Poles and Baal worship had no place in his kingdom. David knew God intimately because he had spent time reading the scriptures and understanding the prominent role that God had for Israel as His chosen people. He had seen the turmoil that had come upon the land every time they had turned away from their love for and dependence upon God. From the 40 years in the wilderness, to the challenges in claiming and keeping the Promised Land in Canaan, David knew that Israel’s hope was directly tied to their relationship with God. Under his watch, that was always going to be the number one thing that he relied on for his wisdom and leadership, protection and victories. David knew how much he needed God in order to have any level of success. I have learned this to be true in my own life as well. I have experienced occasional glimmers of success apart from God before I knew Him as my Lord and Savior, but they were always short lived and always led to pain on the other side of not being able to handle “success” in the right way or with the right perspective and mindset. Once I learned to depend on God and call upon His wisdom, my life has been more consistently happy and less circumstantially happy.In other words, my happiness and contentment are not tied as much to my circumstances as they were, but are much more tied to knowing God’s love and trusting His plan is an eternal one. I have lots to learn on earth, but I have much more time to learn in Heaven. Understanding God’s sovereignty is a huge burden remover in anyone’s life. David understood this and it gave him clarity and peace, even when his circumstances didn’t warrant it. I have found the same thing in my own walk with Jesus, and I know you can as well. You simply need to get to a place like David did on many occasions and plead for God to rescue you. Sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom before you can begin an ascent up the other side of the Mountain. Life has both peaks and valleys, and perspective is always required, But here is the important thing, God’s wisdom and perspective is much healthier to rely on than our own. Isaiah 55:8-9 says ““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your way and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Psalm 25:11
“For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.” David had a clear conscience because he knew the weight of his sin, and he frequently brought it to the Lord and repented of it. This allowed him to remain humble even though he was a King, because he knew that his failings were always in God’s sight and he knew how much he needed to be cleansed by the Lord. David was keenly aware of Isaiah 1:18 which says, ““Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord.“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” He proactively sought out the Lord to lay his sin before him and humbly ask for forgiveness. When the Lord had granted David the forgiveness for his sins he needed, he then was freed up to go about his business as a King. Without unloading the sin before God in earnest repentance, the weight of that sin would have smothered him. He would have been rendered useless, or worse yet, he would have dug his heels in and fallen deeper into the sin trap that he desperately was trying to avoid. David knew deep in his soul what we all are aware of, whether consciously or unconsciously, that sin destroys us. It is like a festering disease that corrodes us from the inside out. We need to be cleansed from the impurities of sin deep in our soul, and the only way to achieve that is to repent of it to God. Remorse is a different thing that people sometimes confuse with repentance. Remorse is feeling sorry for your actions, but repentance is when we are forgiven by God for our actions. Remorse is only a temporary feeling, repentance actually makes us right before God. David understood that difference and so he ran to God to be cleansed of his sin. He laid it down at his feet. We should be quick to do the same.
Psalm 26:1
“Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.”- David is so real in his relationship with God that it spurs me on to try and emulate that type of relationship in my faith walk. Many times I think we can look and feel foolish in the world’s eyes for following the Lord. They see it as a nonsensical approach to life full of rules and regulations that seek to choke the fun out of living. I have seen it quite the opposite, a rather more structured way to process truth through the eyes of the One who created all things. But there is no doubt that at times the ridicule and abandonment we can all face because of our faith can leave us empty and depleted. So, in this verse from Psalm 26:1 David is asking God, crying out to God, to vindicate his decisions to put all of his hope and trust in the Lord. He is saying “without you Lord showing those who are opposed to me and my faith, I have no hope.” I think we all can feel that way at times, but it is a good place to be when we are fully dependent on God. I have been at a similar place many times in my faith walk where I need God to show up and show out to those who don’t understand my decision to put all of my faith in Jesus. The pressure of living such a counter-cultural life can simply overwhelm us if we are not careful to see the battle as His and to rely on Him to vindicate us. David modeled for us that it’s ok to cry out to the Lord and ask Him to vindicate us. We should do the same as often as necessary, which for me is all the time.
Psalm 27:14
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Many times King David had to wait on the Lord for answers to his prayers. We have all experienced this same thing. If we are being honest, when our prayers go unanswered over long periods of time, or when we see little movement from God on our behalf in areas where we are seeking His direction and input, it can become quite tiring and burdensome. We can literally feel fatigued from waiting on God to move. But many times it is during those long waiting periods where God does His greatest work of transformation upon our lives. It is where He molds us into who we were made to be. We many times ask God to change our circumstances, but He is actually more concerned with changing us. Waiting is one method He uses to bring us to the end of our own understanding, and to draw closer to Him. Some probably run away from Him, being so discouraged in the waiting that they begin to question their very faith. But David gives us great encouragement above in Psalm 27:14 to wait upon the Lord. Notice he says we need to “be strong and take heart,” when waiting upon the Lord. In other words, this is not an easy task. It requires a great deal from us, as we learn to surrender and relinquish control over to Him, and trust in His plan and timing above our way. This is counter-intuitive to everything we have been taught or feel in our flesh. We want to take massive action to fix a problem or solve an issue. But King David has it right when he simply tells us to “wait for the Lord.” God will act in His perfect timing. He is seldom early, but He is never late.
Psalm 28:1
“To you, Lord, I call; you are my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit.” David understood one truth that was more important than anything else in life and that was all his hope was found in God. Without God, David knew his life was in jeopardy. When he cried to the Lord in Psalm 28:1 above, he was saying in essence “Lord if you don’t hear my cries for help and step into the situation, then I am to be pitied above all else. You must hear me Lord and rescue me, or I have no chance at all.” I can relate because I have so often felt like this when I have come to the end of my rope or understanding or strength. I can feel like Gideon in Judges 6:14-15 when Gideon is so stunned that God appears to be calling him to rescue Israel from the hand of the Midianites that he asks God to repeat what he has said to him.Notice Gideon’s response:” The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Sometimes, the obstacles just appear too large and my strength seems too small to achieve what I am being asked to do. In those times I have no choice but to cry out to God “please help me Lord! I have nothing without you.” That’s what Gideon was saying and that’s what David was saying in Psalm 28:1. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it is a great position to be in to totally rely on the Lord. It will feel incredibly uncomfortable and you will have tremendous fear, but God can only really work in our weakness. Paul wrote about this through his own experiences and insight from the Holy Spirit in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 when he proclaims, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” The world will not understand it, but God is all that matters and His strength can carry us through any difficulty. Trust in Him as King David did, even when we need to cry out in our desperation and ask Him to rescue us. He surely will to those who are faithful and believe in His power to achieve mighty victories.
Psalm 29:3-5
“The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.” David revelled in God’s strength. He knew how powerful his God was and he loved to proclaim it to others in his Psalms. David knew when the Lord speaks, stuff happens. God can’t speak and there be no effect- that is simply not possible. David had seen God’s power throughout his life, especially in battles, the most obvious being when God helped David slay Goliath. But even before that, David had seen God move when he was tending to his father’s sheep out in the wilderness. He had put a hand of protection over David and his flock ( 1 Samuel 17:37 ) and numerous times had supernaturally aligned circumstances in David’s favor. David had grown up in a time and in a job as a Shepherd Boy where he spent most of his time outdoors. Therefore, David saw the natural wonder and beauty of God’s creation, and it left him in awe of God’s power. The formation of the planets and the solar system were dazzling to consider. We can learn so many lessons from David’s awe of God’s power to create the Universe. He knew and so can we that God holds the whole world in the palm of His hand ( Psalm 95:4-5 ) and that He can be trusted to hold us up when we stumble ( Psalm 37:24 ). When we do, that perspective can remove fear in us and allow us to be bold in our pursuits and purposes for which He made us. When we focus on ourselves we get depressed, when we focus on others we get distressed, but when we focus on God we get blessed.
Psalm 30:5
“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”- King David was nothing if not resilient. Like all of us, he had his share of setbacks and defeats in life. He certainly experienced heartache and pain, nothing more painful than losing his own son. But David saw everything through a long term lens and was focused on the ultimate goodness of God and on His ability to make Lemonade out of lemons. David knew that God would restore those who earnestly repent of their sins, as he did after his affair with Bathsheba, and while he came face to face with the ugly consequences of his sin, he also knew God hadn’t forsaken him and that he could be restored. David looked forward to the “rejoicing that comes in the morning,” after he had suffered through the seasons of weeping that are an inevitable consequence of our sinful behavior. We all can learn from David’s resiliency and his knowledge that the only One who really mattered was God. David was laser focused as to his mission in life: it was to serve and glorify God. He wasn’t nearly as interested in horizontal living as he was in vertical living and that kept him attached to God's viewpoint and direction in all matters of his life. Alignment matters in our lives, and David understood that God had to be first in all things. Not just another file folder in his life, but the filing cabinet through which all other folders of life resided in. Psalm 31:16 “Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.” David knew that God alone could cause his heart to feel secure and content. He needed to feel God’s love in order to feel alive. He needed to feel that close proximity that one longs for with any special relationship in their life. God was a close companion to David, and without Him David felt lost or broken. He says above in Psalm 31:16 “save me in your unfailing love.” In other words, we need God’s love to make us feel alive. We need to know there is more to life than just our time on this earth. We need to find truth and meaning through Him, that nothing else will satisfy. David knew this and he lived his life expecting that intimacy with God. We can live that way as well, and we should. This life is way too hard as it is, and it is almost impossible without knowing God is real, and He is available to us. The scriptures tell us all about God and His love for us. When we read them, we begin the journey to intimacy. That helps us to see how His Creation is also singing out to us, all around us, letting us see glimpses of the majesty of His beauty.