A Love Song Psalm (45) set to "Lilies"

PSALM 45

1 For the leader. Set to "Lilies." By the descendants of Korach. A maskil. A lovesong: My heart is stirred by a noble theme; I address my verses to the king; My tongue is the pen of an expert scribe. 2 You are the most handsome of men; gracious speech flows from your lips. For God has blessed you forever. 3 Warrior, strap your sword at your thigh; [gird on] your splendor and majesty. 4 In your majesty, succeed, ride on in the cause of truth, meekness and righteousness. May your right hand teach you awesome things. 5 Your arrows are sharp. The people fall under you, as they penetrate the hearts of the king's enemies. 6 Your throne, God, will last forever and ever; you rule your kingdom with a scepter of equity. 7 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy in preference to your companions. 8 Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia; from ivory palaces stringed instruments bring you joy. 9 Daughters of kings are among your favorites; at your right stands the queen in gold from Ofir. 10 Listen, daughter! Think, pay attention! Forget your own people and your father's house, 11 and the king will desire your beauty; for he is your lord, so honor him. 12 Then the daughter of Tzor, the richest of peoples, will court your favor with gifts. 13 Inside [the palace], the king's daughter looks splendid, attired in checker-work embroidered with gold. 14 In brocade, she will be led to the king, to you, with the virgins in her retinue. 15 They will be led in with gladness and joy, they will enter the king's palace. 16 You will have sons to succeed your ancestors; you will make them princes in all the land. 17 I will make your name known through all generations; thus the peoples will praise you forever and ever.

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This is a Royal Psalm and is a love song celebrating the marriage between the king and his bride. It therefore has a flavour of the Song of Solomon about it. Allegorically it is therefore a reflection (as every marriage is intended to be) of the relationship between Christ and His beloved Church. Paul exhorts husbands to sacrifice and dedicate their lives to their wives as Christ gave His life for the Church (Ephesians 5:25) "that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her with the water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." I still haven't learned to be such an effective husband as God would have me to be after over 33 years of marriage, but I still tell my wife I love her and even (not often enough) give her some flowers.

The Psalm also is an enlargement of the scope of of the Messianic prophecy we read in Psalm 2. Whoever the king is that this Psalm was originally written about, He depicts one greater than any Davidic king and definitely speaks of Our Lord and Saviour.

Read the Psalm again and allow God to speak to you about marriage and the wonderful relationship we can enjoy with Him as being part of the Bride of Christ. My favourite section is verses 6-9: "Your throne, God, will last forever and ever; you rule your kingdom with a scepter of equity. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy in preference to your companions. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia; from ivory palaces stringed instruments bring you joy."

What an encouragement and gracious privilege it is to follow and serve one whose throne lasts forever, rules with justice, is beautiful beyond description and delights to hear the music and worship of His true followers.

Some Thoughts and Comments on Psalm 145

David playing the harp

PSALM 145

1Praise. By David: I will praise you to the heights, my God, the king; I will bless your name forever and ever. 2 Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever and ever. 3 Great is ADONAI and greatly to be praised; his greatness is beyond all searching out. 4 Each generation will praise your works to the next and proclaim your mighty acts. 5 I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on the story of your wonders. 6 People will speak of your awesome power, and I will tell of your great deeds. 7 They will gush forth the fame of your abounding goodness, and they will sing of your righteousness. 8 ADONAI is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and great in grace. 9 ADONAI is good to all; his compassion rests on all his creatures. 10 All your creatures will thank you, ADONAI, and your faithful servants will bless you. 11 They will speak of the glory of your kingship, and they will tell about your might; 12 to let everyone know of your mighty acts and the glorious majesty of your kingship. 13 Your kingship is an everlasting kingship, your reign continues through all generations. 14 ADONAI supports all who fall and lifts up all who are bent over. 15 The eyes of all are looking to you; you give them their food at the right time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. 17 ADONAI is righteous in all his ways, full of grace in all he does. 18 ADONAI is close to all who call on him, to all who sincerely call on him. 19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. 20 ADONAI protects all who love him, but all the wicked he destroys. 21 My mouth will proclaim the praise of ADONAI; all people will bless his holy name forever and ever.

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I was greatly blessed by hearing some excellent exposition and comment on this Psalm yesterday whilst visiting my mother's church and what a wonderful Psalm it is in uplifting and exalting our great God high above everything and all principalities and powers that ever have been, are now or ever shall exist. David declares here that he is resolved to bless God every day for ever and ever. As followers of Yeshua, are we resolved in our hearts to do the same as the example set by the Psalmist King of Israel who most likely wrote the original musical setting to this Psalm? How I would love to have heard that original performance, but unfortunately the CD hadn't been invented then.

We learn from this Psalm that David praised God for His work in Creation, abounding goodness, compassion and righteousness. Here David declares in verse 10 that all God's creatures and faithful servants will bless Him. He then goes on to declare His kingship and the fact that His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, in stark contrast to the passing and fading governments of the kings and presidents of this world. Do you know and recognize the Kingship of God in your life today?

We then discover in verse 14 that God is a support to all who fall and lifts up those who are bent over or stooped. In verses 15 and 16 we see that He is our provider of food and clothing and satisfies the desires of every living creature. Have you experienced His provision in your life, particularly during hard times?

In verse 19 we see that He fulfils our desires and hears the cries of those who call out to Him, and responds by saving them, as He did when the Israelites needed deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Have you known His saving hand and deliverance in your own personal experience? Do you know what it is to be set free from sin and slavery to sin, addictions or bad habits of one kind or another?

If you cry out in your need, whatever it may be today, God will bring deliverance, salvation, healing and wholeness through the perfect sacrifice of Yeshua who died to take away our sin and reconcile us to God. You will then be only too willing and prepared to praise God and bless His holy name for ever, day after day, just as David declared he would in this wonderful Psalm.

This article was originally written for the Messianic Faith and Public Policy group on Facebook.

The King of Glory: Psalm 24

A warm welcome to all my brothers and sisters in Christ wherever you may be in God's wonderful world. I am Erik Retallick, a servant of Christ who seeks to honour Him and uplift His name in all the earth in my own shy Southern UK style. I live in Eastbourne on the South East UK coast where the entry sign to the town says "Welcome to the Sunshine Coast." This is because we have the highest sunshine record in the UK and we are the second to top vacation destination in the UK, Blackpool being number 1, (I'm not sure whether that counts, because it's on the North West coast?).

In a former life I was a musician and can still act out the role if required and anyone can bear the noises I make, but I still love to worship God through music and lead others to do the same. I still enjoy playing piano, organ, guitar, keyboard, recorder and a bit of flute, but I only play them one at a time. The flute playing is very basic, by the way, I've a lot more to learn in that area.

Enough about me, I want to share today some thoughts on the first half of Psalm 24 which is close to my heart at the moment and gives me great excitement and encouragement. I may share the second half with you at a later stage, the Lord willing. As a musician the Psalms are very close to my heart as you may imagine. I have conducted and accompanied choirs singing them in many different styles and traditions over the years.

Psalm 24: The King of Glory A PSALM of David

1 The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein,

2 For he has founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the rivers.

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?

And who shall stand in His holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to what is false

and does not swear deceitfully.

5 He will receive blessing from the LORD

and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

6 Such is the generation of those who seek Him,

Who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Sela (probably Hebrew for a music interlude)

Above All

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E628akXb-A

Lenny Leblanc in action

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I attended a large conference in 1976, as a student, in which Ern Baxter was one of the main speakers. He started one of his talks by stating "The world belongs to God!" For some inexplicable reason that came as a total revelation to me. Somehow, as a result of previous teaching I had received, the Christian tradition I had been brought up in or a quirk in my thinking, I believed that the world belonged to one who before man was made had sought to become greater than God and was cast out of Heaven with a host of other angels who were his followers. In my thinking they kidnapped or hijacked the world and made it their playground to bring back chaos, disorder and confusion where God had created order out of chaos and brought harmony where there was previously cacophony.

In another place the enemy of our souls is described as the prince of the power of the air, which seems to me to ascribe more worthiness to him than he really deserves. Let me reaffirm verse 1 of this wonderful Psalm, "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof," which includes everything He created in His infinite wisdom, birds, trees, millions of species of animals, every kind of plant and tree, the hills, valleys, seas; it's an inexhaustible list. What an awesome God we serve! We can read all about it in Genesis 1 of course, and it amazes and thrills me every time I read it.

In verse 3 the question is raised, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?" In other words, who is worthy? The answer given could be summed up as anyone who is perfect. That excludes 100% of us, I think. Oh dear, not good news. However, don't despair, God has made it possible by sending His Son Jesus from the heights of glory to this planet where we live (His world!) and by His sacrifice on the cross, as the only perfect one, through believing in Him and asking for His forgiveness for our sins, we are declared worthy to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place. When the temple veil was torn in two when Jesus died, access was made into the Holy of holies, symbolic of entering the very presence or throne room of God, Heaven itself.

Following on to verse 4 there's yet more good news, a promise from God who, unlike earthly leaders, never lets us down or fails to deliver what He promises. "He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation." The righteousness we possess is the righteousness of Christ, we can't earn it by our good works, Bible knowledge or what we call 'Brownie points' here in the UK, but He clothes us His righteousness. It is imparted and imputed to us, when we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour and put our faith and trust in His complete work. When He declared, hanging on the cross, "It is finished," the redemption price was paid and our salvation was secured.

Verse 6, I feel, really ties in with the mission with which we are involved, that of reconnecting a broken world to God and Christians to fellowship and the visible and invisible church. "Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob." Brothers and sisters, we have friends, colleagues, family, Facebook friends and fellow Twitterers who are a generation of those who are seeking something, often they don't know what. I think it was St. Augustine who said that there is a God-shaped hole in all our lives. We try to fill it with hobbies, music, cars, football, baseball, money and many other things, but these things just don't fit, they are the wrong shape and not large enough to fill it!

I believe we are on the verge of a massive harvest, bigger than any that has ever been seen since the Church was born at Pentecost. Yes, there have been great revivals and outpourings of the Spirit of God over the centuries, but now, every day I read news about what God is doing across His world. It may not be happening on our doorstep right now, but it's started and is going to snowball! Look at Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. God is raising up people there who are bold in their witness to Him even though it means being ostracised by family and friends. A young 21 year old Indonesian told me this week that they have been burning down church buidings since before she was born, but they can't stop the advancement of the real church, the kingdom of God! The kingdom of hell will not prevail against God building His church.

I am humbled to be working alongside brothers and sisters who are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation! Yet so often, here in the UK, where it should be so easy, I hold back in talking to people about the Lord. May the Lord give us boldness and fearlessness as shown by the example and testimony of these wonderful brothers and sisters, with whom it is such a privilege to work! May we count everything else as rubbish in order that we may follow Him, who has given us everything and to whom the whole world belongs.