Central to this psalm is the close relationship that the Lord has with those who have committed their trust in him.
One of the themes of this psalm is the you are going to see some wicked people outright prospering and doing well. There might be a reaction to this, of anger in that why are the wicked enjoying themselves so much, where is the justice in this, and maybe even crime does pay. Some will be lured in by the rewards of crime and the lack of innocence involved is worth dealing with for the payoff.
There are a number of action points in this psalm. Verse 3 is trust, verse 4 is to delight, verse 5 is to commit, verse 7 is to be still or rest, verse 27 is turn away from or depart from evil, verse 34 is to wait for the Lord, verse 37 is to mark or consider the blameless.
Verse 7 is talking about being still, which is an action, instead of running out and trying to participate in the visible gains of the wicked. There is going to be evidence of the herd mentality, and everybody wants there piece of the pie. Schemes will work and one aspect even if you don’t feel tempted to also go out there you might be disturbed and mentally distracted by what you see. The verse 7 reads, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him, do not fret when men succeed in their ways, and they carry out wicked schemes." In this verse, the Lord showing how he is seeing things from the vantage point of his people and how they are in a situation of having surrounding circumstances where there are inequities, injustices, and things are not balanced clearly towards what is righteous. If there are not right in the path of these things, they are close enough to observe their existence.
Two major interpretations could be made on this verse. One is the call to stillness in and of itself. It is not a means but an end. On the first glance, the idea of getting somewhere by being still isn’t the way to go. By being still, it might be associated with being inactive, not going after what you want, and ultimately ending up in the same place, maybe a little rested and calmed down but not with some obvious movement resulting. The stillness contradicts the activity of the wicked, who are running around and benefiting from it. Because they aren’t sitting still with the Lord, they have extra time available to them for their activities. Here though, there is a call to stillness in and of itself, whether it results in gain or not. Whether it would ever lead to something ulterior we are called to be still with the Lord. It is almost a warning here rather than a consolation not to fret about the wicked, fretting will lead to trouble especially if it is about the success of the wicked. It will lure someone away from the stillness that they are called to and the focus on paying attention to the Lord can be compromised by not stopping for the stillness. Feeling that the drift away from the Lord and the stillness of his presence is going to be of any advantage is just plain false.
Secondary is that this stillness is honing in on the presence of the Lord as he comes to the individual with what he plans to do. I might be running all over the place, not stopping for instructions. And then it might be waiting then on the Lord’s actions, and what they might be. If someone is launching a ship, they might wait on the tides and be still on the shore until the proper conditions arise. So a second interpretation is that this could be stillness before an action, necessary stillness to get the timing of the action and discernment.
This psalm has a lot to do with getting somewhere so the second interpretation has some truth in relation to the overall context of this psalm which is addressing the ways of the individual and how to conduct your own affairs, but leaving out key steps if going to hurt and its going to hurt you if you don’t seek to be still in the presence of the Lord. It is going to be your loss.
Verse 4 says," Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture." Contextual to trusting the Lord is actually doing good, whatever that good may be. Some would argue everybody is doing what they think is good, but what is good in the eyes of the Lord is another thing. We might need to ask the Lord what is good here, especially as trust is fading in the Lord’s plan. As we seek to improve our trust in the Lord, discuss with Him what doing good would be in a given day, we might have a good idea of this but here trust issues are correlated with doing good so it would be good to consult with the Lord as to what the good is as we try and go forward to build trust.
And verse 4 says," Delight yourself in the lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Of course, the desires of your heart differ to each individual with general commonalities but each person would have a unique combination of the desires of the heart. A ticket to a great basketball game might mean something to me, but it might mean nothing to you.
Delight thyself in the Lord, would also be personal in a way as this verse is addressed to an individual, and if the Lord is going to give you the desires of your heart, He obviously is able to read this desire, and craft this. The giving of the desires of your heart mentioned here is about a response from the Lord, contextual to a relationship where you are desirous and delighting in the Lord. The desires are multiple, the Lord being able to match each individual desire with a matching gift. How one could sincerely delight in the Lord is a matter of conjecture. There might be in this very license for a way of praying that you might otherwise have considered not the way to pray. Probably more praise for the Lord would be involved, more joy in just ability to have the chance to speak with the Lord in prayer, and more sensitivity to the currents that the Lord is leading one towards in prayer, which could include intercessory and if the Lord is asking an individual to delight in Him, he will grant leadings as to what to do in prayer towards that end. Also, this would refer to verse 3 as well, so good deeds, would be part of delighting in the Lord as well. But of course we need help and discernment as to what the good deeds are that the Lord might be leading us to. I can substitute as the lifeguard as a help to someone only if I am a capable swimmer. So capabilities need to be examined with the Lord in discerning what good I can do. Then the desires of my heart might be fairly well hidden from myself, as it just wouldn’t reveal itself until I’m more at the scene of what I truly want. As I get closer to what I want, my heart awakens to its presence. So part of what the Lord would be doing is revealing as well the desires of my heart which I could have been partially closed off to as well, I might have let the desires of my heart fly away. The desire of my heart my include lounging on a beach in the Caribbean, but if I have been in far North for a long time, this desire might fade from my view of it.
Continued on Part 2
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I am currently writing in varied areas including on the Christian faith.
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