Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

In Psalm 51, we looked at the confession of a contrite sinner. In Psalm 52 today, we look at an arrogant deceiver. The poet says to the liar:
    Why do you boast, O mighty one,
        of mischief done against the godly?
    You who practice deceit,
        your tongue plots destruction;
        it is like a sharp razor.    
  You love evil rather than good,
        falsehood rather than speaking the truth  (vv. 1-3).

If the psalms are prayers, this is an odd one. The poet is speaking directly to his enemy, not to God. Would you say the poet is praying to his enemy? 

I think this psalm is a prayer because the poet brings his situation into God’s presence. Prayer is not just asking God for stuff, it is not just conversation with God. It is also presenting to God our experiences and feelings and listening for God’s response. Here in Psalm 52, the poet composes a speech to his enemy, and recites that speech before God. 

After accusing his enemy, the poet announces that God will judge him:
    Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
        he will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
        he will uproot you from the land of the living.
    The righteous will see and fear;
        they will laugh at you, saying,
    ‘Here now is the man
        who did not make God his stronghold’. . . (vv. 5-6).

The righteous will laugh at the evildoer? Laughter is often a response to humor, or a way of mocking someone. But it is also a much broader expression of emotion. Here the poet’s laughter probably includes deep relief that evil is not as important as it pretends to be, it is not as powerful and world-changing as it advertises. God will mow down the weeds of evil and pluck up the trees, leaving the righteous standing like an olive tree in the house of God. 

Let’s pray, following the poet’s model:. 

Our father, we speak to the evil of our society.
  Why do you drug dealers sell destruction and sorrow?
  Why do you sex addicts oppress women and children?
  Why do you preachers love money more than God?
  Why do you video game makers delight in murder and violence?
  Why do you Christians go around judging people?
  Why do you nations pursue war and oppression? 

God is watching.
God is waiting.
God is recording your actions. 

Soon he will rise up on behalf of the addicted, the entrapped, the poor and oppressed. He will show his great power against evil, he will destroy the powers of evil, he will install his son as king, he will heal his creation and create a world of peace and justice.Then we will be like the trees of Psalm 1, planted by the stream of God’s water, bearing fruit in season, praising God for his great and lasting victory.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

Today, we look at Psalm 51, King David’s penitential psalm. Here’s the back story: While a soldier named Uriah was posted to a war zone, David got Uriah’s wife pregnant. So David arranged for Uriah to get killed in battle. With Uriah out of the way, David married Bathsheba. The problems were nicely solved. Except that the prophet Nathan visited David and rebuked him in God’s name for adultery and murder. Psalm 51 is David’s response to Nathan’s stinging rebuke. 

I find Psalm 51 is remarkable for several reasons. 

First, David does not name the sin he is confessing. Is it adultery? Murder? Abuse of power to weave a web of lies around his failure? Is it ignoring the covenant relationship with God and acting like an arrogant oriental despot? The psalm doesn’t say. 

Psalm 51 is also remarkable because David does not identify the individuals he sinned against. He says his sin is against God, and God only (v. 4). And he says nothing about the human relationships he has damaged through adultery, murder, and abuse of power.

Another remarkable feature of the psalm is its vivid images of sin. Listen to them: 

• I know my transgressions 
• my sin is always before me 
• against you O God and only against you have I sinned
• I have done what is evil in your sight (vv. 3-4).
• I was born guilty
• I was a sinner when my mother conceived me (v. 5).  
• deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed (v. 14). 

David presents no comforting metaphor of sin as sickness. He does not attempt to justify his actions. He does not hide behind excuses or reasons. All he can offer is a clear confession that evil is present in his person and actions.   

Now listen to the poet’s powerful request for cleansing from sin, for relief from guilt, and for a restored relationship with God. 

• Have mercy on me, O God
• Blot out my transgressions.
• Wash away my iniquity.
• Cleanse me from my sin (vv. 1-2).
• Purge me with hyssop. 
• Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow (v. 7) 
• Hide your face from my sins (v. 9).
• Create in me a pure heart (v. 10)
• And deliver me from guilt (v. 14).

And finally, hear the poet’s remarkable assessment of what God really wants: 
     You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it (v. 16).
     My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit.
         A broken and contrite heart
         you, O God, will not despise (v. 17).
There on the altar of his life David places his broken spirit and his broken heart. What other offering can he make for his sin? 

Let’s pray the psalm.

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love.
According to your great compassion,
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash away my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions.
    My sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done evil in your sight.
You are right when you sentence me
    and justified when you judge me.

Indeed, I was born guilty.
  I was a sinner when my mother conceived me. 
You desire truth in my inward being.
  Teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins,
  blot out my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not fling me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    you who are God my Savior.
    My tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Open my lips, O Lord,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God,
    you will not despise.                                                                         

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

There’s an old Sunday school song that begins “God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” It goes on to say, “He is my father so they’re mine as well.” 

Clearly the songwriter was inspired by Psalm 50, in which God says he doesn’t desperately need all the animal sacrifices the Israelites offer him because he already owns the cattle on a thousand hills. However, I’m not so sure that these cattle are “mine as well” I’m not heading out to the hills any time soon to bag a heifer for my freezer. 

Psalm 50 begins with God summoning all the earth to a meeting. There he addresses his people, those who have agreed that they will live their lives in relationship to the God who provides for them. This agreement was formalized in the covenant Moses negotiated with God at Mount Sinai. It was ratified with an animal sacrifice–the blood of a bull from one of those thousand hills (Ex. 24:8). This covenant implemented a social economy to care for the Isarelites and a system of animal sacrifices to express their continuing relationship to God. In Psalm 50, God gives messages two groups of covenant members: those who honor their relationship with him, and the wicked who ignore the terms of the covenant. 

God starts by reminding the Israelites that he is not their average local deity who depends on sacrifices to keep his table supplied with good quality meat. In God’s economy, sacrifices are not commercial transactions or bribes that manipulate God into producing what the people want. Instead, God offered the Israelites a relationship in which he looks after them as they honor him and create a human community in the pattern he suggests. While the sacrifices are acts of worship that God accepts, what he values most is the heart-felt thanksgiving that accompanies sacrifice (v. 14). 

God also speaks to the wicked In Psalm 50. He points out they they try to use the covenant to manipulate him. They go by the book, they have memorized all of God’s laws. Because they bring the prescribed sacrifices at the right time, they imagine that God is obligated to take care of them. But God complains that they don’t value the covenant relationship. They ignore God’s words, they partner with robbers, adulterers, and slanderers. God promises that the wicked will be destroyed, torn to pieces like the sacrifices they offer on his altar (v. 22). God is not rewarding their sacrifices, he is responding to their hearts.

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we understand a law of contracts–a clear set of requirements that specifies and limits our obligations. Much like the system of sacrifices that gave instructions for exactly what to bring at each new moon or feast day or harvest. 

But in Psalm 50, you say that our duty is not limited by a contract, it is expanded by a covenant. Whenever we bring something to you, you want a heart of thanksgiving, a joy in relationship, our welcoming of your presence and goodness. Is it not enough for you that we attend church and sing in the choir and complain about the sermon and talk with a few friends after? Is your desire that we build a community where we love each other and you? 

The sermons tell us to abstain from evil. But what you want is not mere abstinence, but growth in love and giving and relationship. That is a high standard, God. Perhaps we’re not capable of it.

We invite you then to come to us and change us. As Thomas à Kempis prayed more than 500 years ago:
“Let your love dissolve my hard heart. Let your love raise me above myself. Let your love reveal to me joy beyond imagination… And let me see your love shining in the hearts of all people, that I may love them as I love you.” (Thomas à Kempis, Christ for all Seasons, ed. P. Toon, quoted in Harper Collins Book of Prayers compiled by Robert Van de Weyer. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. p. 359). 

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.