Four Psalms

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We had four psalms in today's reading, two of which establish a new pattern in David's writing. David pleads, and almost DEMANDS, that the Lord come to David's rescue. We'll see many of this type as we read the psalms, but this type has a sense of urgency as well as a clear expectation that the Lord will come to David's defense, and we're given a good reason why this is in Psalm 5:4, which states "You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell."

We've already encountered a number of people in the Bible who started out good and fell by the wayside for any number of reasons--Adam, Samson, Saul, and David and Solomon will join this list as time goes by, but it hasn't happened to David yet. God already anointed David as the successor to Saul (unbeknownst to Saul, by the way, to clear up a bit of table discussion from this morning--1 Samuel 20:31 seems to make this clear), but Saul had taken a dislike of David based on petty jealousy. Imagine you're at work and your boss starts hurling spears at you like Saul did to David (twice--1 Samuel 18:10-11 and 1 Samuel 19:9-10)--probably a good time to get a new job, and in David's case, a good time to hit the road.

As we know, things won't end well for Saul, and the Psalm verse tells us why, and that simple verse can do much in explaining much of the violence that occurs in the Old Testament. God does NOT take pleasure in evil and he will NOT allow the wicked to dwell with him or in his land. I'll say it again, all the war, bloodshed and violence wasn't taken on behalf of a jealous god, but God's response to a people not willing to obey him. There would have been plenty of room for Philistines, Amorites, Amalekites, Hizzites and any other -ite that can be named if they had acknowledged the Lord as their God, but they chose not to, of their own free will. They were witnesses to the power of the God of Israel and chose  to ignore it.

God simply won't allow evil to stand, and today he's still giving every opportunity for people to realize that he IS God and to accept him, because the day is coming when he will again judge and punish the wicked just as he did then. That's why it's so important for us to spread that message of salvation and redemption as far and wide as we can, because even though no one knows the day or the hour, the end of each day brings us one day closer to it.

Scott