There are many important verses in this Psalm and it’s hard only only pick a handful, but here it goes.
“O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’ He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, to give him rest from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked. for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. But the Lord has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the Lord our God will wipe them out.” (v3,6-7,9,12-13,15,17-19,22-23)
The psalmist sounds frustrated with the wicked people around them, and understandably so. The wicked are literally getting away with murder, and the psalmist pleads for God to intervene: “O God of vengeance, shine forth!” (v1b)
How often have I grown frustrated with this world and some of the people in it? More often than I’d like to admit. Have I wanted God’s justice to put someone in their place? Of course, God gave us a heart that craves justice (if you don’t believe me, watch any legal/crime drama, of which countless have been made, where the “bad guy” meets their just end). I can relate to the opening of this psalm.
Then the psalmist takes a turn – “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, to give him rest from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.” (v12-13) Pardon me? Blessed are the people who are disciplined? Most shows I’ve seen the criminal doesn’t look blessed, they look depressed and disappointed. How would someone feel blessed about being disciplined?
Well, God is the creator of irony, and He basically designed it so His laws would condemn us to receive His discipline if we failed to keep them: “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” (Rom 2:12) But those who keep the law are righteous: “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” (Rom 2:13)
The irony comes in when we realize it’s not humanly possible for us to keep the law – God lays down a covenant He knows we cannot keep. How fair is that? It’s not, which is why God provides grace and forgiveness through Jesus: “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 7:7, 8:1-4)
This is why when the psalmist’s “foot slips” or discipline is received in conjunction with the law, it is counted as a blessing, rather than a curse. This is also how the psalmist can proclaim that God is a refuge and stronghold who has steadfast/enduring love – because God freed us from the law of sin and death to which we would otherwise be held accountable. God allows suffering and discipline, and uses them as waypoints and indicators that help point us to the grace and mercy available through Jesus.
Father God, we recognize that we fall short and cannot uphold our covenant with you – we cannot keep the commandments, we are too entrenched in the sin of the flesh. Praise be to You for Your divine deliverance and wise solution – grace and mercy through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who freed us from the law of sin. Please forgive us our sin Father, and please help us to remember that discipline, consequences, suffering and struggles are to be counted as blessings, since they point us back to You. Thank you as well for this inspiring line from the psalmist that really caught my attention: “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” (v19) Father, Your presence soothes and Your grace and mercy heal – thank you for Your many consolations that bring joy to our souls. Amen.
~ Conqueror in Training