Psalm 45 - My Tongue is the Pen of a Ready Writer

Psalm 45 - My Tongue is the Pen of a Ready Writer 

I can only hope that my pen is as skilled as the writer of this psalm.  He was inspired to write this song for the king on the occasion of his wedding, and was apparently an excellent singer, as he proclaims that his tongue is like the pen of an experience scribe.  May my scribblings be equally excellent!  

I have found that it is nice to be skilled, but it is much better to be inspired.  If the Lord gives the song, and the Spirit works in the listener's heart to receive it, a lot of flaws in the performance will be overlooked.  That's one of the special blessings of being a church musician.  Once you lead the people into the presence of the Lord, the people don't really see and hear you any more, but are in a spirit of worship, in the presence of their King.

That seems to be the way this writer approached his King.  He credits the king with the beauty and strength that comes from honoring God.  A nation with a Godly ruler is indeed blessed!

In verse 6, the psalmist addresses the Lord himself, and expounds on his glories.  It is this verse that inspired Fred Hammond to worship God in his song "Blessing & Honor".

   45:6 "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; ..." NASB

Listen to Fred and the Radical for Christ choir below:

Fred Hammond and RFC - Blessing & Honor- Psalm 45:6

http://youtu.be/3XYoXWbT2tk

45:17 I will proclaim your greatness through the coming years,

          then the nations will praise you forever.

The psalm continues with the song describing the wedding party and then ends with a proclamation of greatness of the king, who is a type of Christ, so we today can join in and proclaim the glories and greatness of King Jesus.  May the nations praise Him forever!

Psalm 45

For the music director; according to the tune of “Lilies;” by the Korahites, a well-written poem, a love song.

1 My heart is stirred by a beautiful song.

I say, “I have composed this special song for the king;

my tongue is as skilled as the stylus of an experienced scribe.”

2 You are the most handsome of all men!

You speak in an impressive and fitting manner!

For this reason God grants you continual blessings.

3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior!

Appear in your majestic splendor!

4 Appear in your majesty and be victorious!

Ride forth for the sake of what is right,

on behalf of justice!

Then your right hand will accomplish mighty acts!

5 Your arrows are sharp

and penetrate the hearts of the kingʼs enemies.

Nations fall at your feet.

6 Your throne, O God, is permanent.

The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.

7 You love justice and hate evil.

For this reason God, your God has anointed you

with the oil of joy, elevating you above your companions.

8 All your garments are perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cassia.

From the luxurious palaces comes the music of stringed instruments that makes you happy.

9 Princesses are among your honored guests,

your bride stands at your right hand, wearing jewelry made with gold from Ophir.

10 Listen, O princess!

Observe and pay attention!

Forget your homeland and your family!

11 Then the king will be attracted by your beauty.

After all, he is your master! Submit to him!

12 Rich people from Tyre

will seek your favor by bringing a gift.

13 The princess looks absolutely magnificent,

decked out in pearls and clothed in a brocade trimmed with gold.

14 In embroidered robes she is escorted to the king.

Her attendants, the maidens of honor who follow her,

are led before you.

15 They are bubbling with joy as they walk in procession

and enter the royal palace.

16 Your sons will carry on the dynasty of your ancestors;

you will make them princes throughout the land.

17 I will proclaim your greatness through the coming years,

then the nations will praise you forever.

The NET Bible

Psalm 44 - Remember What the Lord has Done

Psalm 44 - Remember What the Lord has Done

Psalm 44:1 O God, we have clearly heard;

   our ancestors have told us 

   what you did in their days,

   in ancient times.

2 You, by your power, defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land;

  

There are many similarities between Israeli and American history.  The Israelis  were delivered out of bondage in Egypt and settled in the promised land.  Our American forefathers  were delivered out of religious persecution in Europe and settled in the new world, our promised land. God performed many miraculous deeds for both nations to deliver them and to establish them in their new lands.  My own ancestors experienced persecution in 1600's Germany, and also experienced the mercy of God in granting them peace and prosperity in America, first settling in Pennsylvania with William Penn land grants in 1736, and later moving on to Illinois to help build the growing frontier. We need to remember what our ancestors have told us and thank God for his blessings to us.

(If you have not been taught these aspects of American history, the I recommend you read 

The Light and the Glory, by Peter Marshall

20 If we had rejected our God,

    and spread out our hands in prayer to another god,

21 would not God discover it,

    for he knows oneʼs thoughts?

Yet many forget.  The ancient Israelis were attacked, conquered, and carried off to Babylon because the forgot what their God had done.  So too, many Americans have forgotten what our God has done for us and we have abandoned His ways.  We've slaughtered our own unborn children, and been let into a seemingly unending series of wars and terrorists attacks. Our leaders say that they care for the poor and downtrodden, but our families are broken and our young men are unemployed and many are dead or in prison.  The war on poverty has become a war on the poor.  When will we return to the God that delivered us and blessed us?  When will we acknowledge that we have gone astray.  It is not God that has abandoned us, but we who have forsaken Him.

17 All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you

    or violated your covenant with us.

18 We have not been unfaithful,

    nor have we disobeyed your commands.

Fortunately, there remain those who can say, with the psalmist, that they have not rejected God nor disobeyed His commands.  These are those who are admonished by the writer of Chronicles to turn from their wicked ways and to call upon His name, that He might heal their land. (2 Chron 7:14). If those who still remember how the Lord has blessed us join together, maybe we can yet one more time, cry out, with the psalmist:

26 Rise up and help us!

     Rescue us because of your loyal love!

Amen

Psalm 44

For the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song.

1 O God, we have clearly heard;

our ancestors have told us

what you did in their days,

in ancient times.

2 You, by your power, defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land;

you crushed the people living there and enabled our ancestors to occupy it.

3 For they did not conquer the land by their swords,

and they did not prevail by their strength,

but rather by your power, strength and good favor,

for you were partial to them.

4 You are my king, O God!

Decree Jacobʼs deliverance!

5 By your power we will drive back our enemies;

by your strength we will trample down our foes!

6 For I do not trust in my bow,

and I do not prevail by my sword.

7 For you deliver us from our enemies;

you humiliate those who hate us.

8 In God I boast all day long,

and we will continually give thanks to your name. (Selah)

9 But you rejected and embarrassed us!

You did not go into battle with our armies.

10 You made us retreat from the enemy.

Those who hate us take whatever they want from us.

11 You handed us over like sheep to be eaten;

you scattered us among the nations.

12 You sold your people for a pittance;

you did not ask a high price for them.

13 You made us an object of disdain to our neighbors;

those who live on our borders taunt and insult us.

14 You made us an object of ridicule among the nations;

foreigners treat us with contempt.

15 All day long I feel humiliated

and am overwhelmed with shame,

16 before the vindictive enemy

who ridicules and insults me.

17 All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you

or violated your covenant with us.

18 We have not been unfaithful,

nor have we disobeyed your commands.

19 Yet you have battered us, leaving us a heap of ruins overrun by wild dogs;

you have covered us with darkness.

20 If we had rejected our God,

and spread out our hands in prayer to another god,

21 would not God discover it,

for he knows oneʼs thoughts?

22 Yet because of you we are killed all day long;

we are treated like sheep at the slaughtering block.

23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?

Wake up! Do not reject us forever!

24 Why do you look the other way,

and ignore the way we are oppressed and mistreated?

25 For we lie in the dirt,

with our bellies pressed to the ground.

26 Rise up and help us!

Rescue us because of your loyal love!

The NET Bible

Psalm 43 - Send Out Your Light

 Psalm 43 - Send Out Your Light

Psalm 43

1 Vindicate me, O God!

   Fight for me against an ungodly nation!

   Deliver me from deceitful and evil men!

2 For you are the God who shelters me.

   Why do you reject me?

   Why must I walk around mourning

   because my enemies oppress me?

3 Reveal your light and your faithfulness!

   They will lead me,

   they will escort me back to your holy hill,

   and to the place where you live.

4 Then I will go to the altar of God,

   to the God who gives me ecstatic joy,

   so that I express my thanks to you, O God, my God, with a harp.

5 Why are you depressed, O my soul?

   Why are you upset?

   Wait for God!

   For I will again give thanks

   to my God for his saving intervention.

The NET Bible

I must confess, lately I've felt more like verses 1 and 2 that 3 and 4.  It seems like we are now living in the "ungodly nation" of verse 1.  How did that happen?  When I was a kid, we were proud to be a Christian nation.  We weren't perfect, but we had just rescued Europe from the Nazis and South Korea from the Communists in the north.  We had not yet gotten bogged down in Vietnam and we were a proud nation, with an optimistic young president, and were on our way to the moon.  With the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam war, civil rights struggles and such, something changed... Still, even though the psalmist faced similar troubles he went on to say "why must I walk around mourning...?"

"Reveal your light and your faithfulness!" Remember that the darkness in the world cannot overcome the light. (John 1:5) Keeping our eye on the light will lead us "back to your holy hill... To the alter of God... Who gives me ecstatic joy."    I must admit that the psalmist is a little ahead of me hear with that "ecstatic joy", but I'm with him when he talks about expressing his thanks to God with his harp.  One of my instruments just has 5 strings, but playing it does bring a lot of peace and joy.  I'm just an old bass (and trombone) player, but participating in the praise and worship is a very uplifting experience.  It's definitely more uplifting that concentrating on the problems in the world!

"Why so downcast, O my soul?" I never noticed until now that the two final verses of Psalm 42 and 43 are identical. I guess it must be important, to bear repeating!   At any rate,  these verses make a wonderful song.  I included the link to one version by Marty Nystrom in the last blog.  But I also remembering my friend, Steve Israel, playing it on his guitar, and that always encouraged me.  So, bottom line, buck up Bucky, and praise the Lord and keep your eye on the light instead of the darkness.

Send Out Your Light- Psalm 43

http://youtu.be/-2BPyJkzo20

Psalm 42 - As the deer panteth for the water

Psalm 42 - As the Deer

Psalm 42:1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks,

so panteth my soul after thee, O God. KJV

Picking a song to go with this psalm was pretty easy. My friend Marty Nystrom wrote this song about 1984.  It was not long after that, that he was living in Mobile, and taught a class in song writing to a few of us at Covenant Church of Mobile. That was quite an experience as Marty is a very talented song writer and has a real heart to worship.  I learned a lot during that time and really appreciate the things he taught me about worship.

This song really expresses the attitude toward worship that can be found throughout the Psalms. Longing for the Lord, thirsting for Him like a deer that has been running a long way to find the stream, is a great image to show what it means to seek the Lord. Have you ever been in such a place, where you were so dry and thirsty that you just had to have a touch from the Lord to continue?  Have you been as desperate as the psalmist in verse 3, "I cannot eat, I weep day and night"?  I am not personally that much of a weeper, but I know some Christians who really know how to cry out and travail until the Lord shows up.  When you need an answer to prayer, when you are desperate for healing or deliverance, that is the kind of brother or sister that you need to pray through with you!

5 "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 

    and why art thou disquieted in me?

    hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him

    for the help of his countenance.

    Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 

    and why art thou disquieted in me?

    hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him

    for the help of his countenance." KJV

Verse 5 is another great encouragement when you are feeling down.  The psalmists talks to himself, "why so downcast, O my soul?", and answers his own question, "Hope in God!" and "I shall yet praise him".  Some may think you are crazy if you talk to yourself, but sometimes you really need to encourage yourself and telling yourself the good things the Lord has promised you can be a big help.   If you set it to music, like Marty does below, then people don't know you're talking to yourself, they just think you are singing with your iPod! 

So keep encouraging yourself and singing to the Lord, and listen to older tunes that came out of Integrity Music in Mobile, part of my personal history...

The Best of Marty Nystrom- As The Deer

http://youtu.be/tdY4Nx0EprI

Marty Nystrom- Why So Downcast (Live)

http://youtu.be/vA-S_0LcRWs

Psalm 42

For the music director; a well-written song by the Korahites.

1 As a deer longs for streams of water,

so I long for you, O God!

2 I thirst for God,

for the living God.

I say, “When will I be able to go and appear in Godʼs presence?”

3 I cannot eat, I weep day and night;

all day long they say to me, “Where is your God?”

4 I will remember and weep!

For I was once walking along with the great throng to the temple of God,

shouting and giving thanks along with the crowd as we celebrated the holy festival.

5 Why are you depressed, O my soul?

Why are you upset?

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention.

6 I am depressed,

so I will pray to you while I am trapped here in the region of the upper Jordan,

from Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

7 One deep stream calls out to another at the sound of your waterfalls;

all your billows and waves overwhelm me.

8 By day the Lord decrees his loyal love,

and by night he gives me a song,

a prayer to the living God.

9 I will pray to God, my high ridge:

“Why do you ignore me?

Why must I walk around mourning

because my enemies oppress me?”

10 My enemiesʼ taunts cut into me to the bone,

as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you depressed, O my soul?

Why are you upset?

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention.

The NET Bible