Boker Tov and welcome back in to Mishkan Katan for this week’s teaching. It may seem odd to do an introduction to our study of the Psalms now, after I have taught on the first two. But, that is exactly how we are going to begin this morning.
The sages have taught that man is a tiny universe in and of himself, each person a miniature world, a creature created in the image of the one, true God. Imago Dei, as it is said, in Latin. And, distinguishing man from all the rest of creation, in him resides a breath of God Himself, the living soul, that ineffable substance breathed into the nostrils of Adam, after his lifeless body was formed from the materials of the earth.
All created creatures “sing praise” to their Creator, each and every day, 24 hours a day. Even in the dark of night, when most creatures who sleep are resting, praise is ongoing. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Psalm 150:6 says. Remember, that is the last verse of the last psalm. Even the non-breathing mineral kingdom praises the Lord. When the tectonic plates of the earth rub together and shuffle themselves around, this too is praise to Creator.
You may be familiar with the Christian hymn, “All Creatures of our God and King”, written 800 years ago, in 1225, by St. Francis of Assisi. It is a song that has endured for generations, and is very much like a psalm. These are the created elements mentioned in the song: burning sun, silver moon, rushing winds, sailing clouds, rising morn, evening lights, tender-hearted lovers of God. The whole Earth in its fullness declares the glory of God.
A related, yet much more contemporary, song of praise is John Rutter’s “All Things Bright and Beautiful”.
When we, as individuals, seek His face, praise His name, and seek to fulfill the calling He has placed upon our lives, we, too, praise Him. This is the goal of friendship, the essence of the Body of Messiah building one another up, to better enable each one whom the Sovereign Lord brings into our circle to be the best imitation of Messiah he or she can be. To the glory of God, the Father.
Psalm 3 is a bit of a puzzle. The first two psalms are very foundational and therefore it makes sense that they would be at the beginning of the list. However, Psalm 3 is a lament about King David’s estrangement from his son, Absolom. This heart-wrenching event occurred near the end of David’s life. So, why would this psalm be listed near the beginning, as Psalm 3? The truth is that the 150 psalms to not follow a chronological order. There are other psalms that describe events from David’s early life which are given near the end of the list. As you have no doubt noticed elsewhere in the Holy Scriptures, ideas are concealed (Book of Esther), given as parables (teachings of Yeshua), presented as imagery without clear explanation (Book of Revelation). I believe, as do many of the sages, that God in His wisdom does this purposefully, so as to draw us into a lifetime of study, so that we will have to “dig out” the mysteries of His grace to us.
We find the more detailed story of KIng David’s flight from Absolom in II Samuel 15. If you have ever been at odds, at serious odds, with one of your children, this story will resonate with you. King David had about 20 children, but Absolom was undoubtedly one of his favorites. The young man came to a very bad end, however. Although he was strikingly handsome and gifted with great charisma, his character was badly flawed.
In Psalm 3 David laments the sad state of affairs that has driven him from his palace, to wander in the wilderness with those loyal to him. Yet, he affirms in verse 4 that Father Yahweh is a shield to him, in verse 5 that Father Yahweh answers when he, David, calls, in verse 6 that he can lay down and sleep in peaceful assurance that Father Yahweh is upholding and supporting him. Verse 7 is a statement that he, David, will not walk in fear. Instead, you can almost hear him shouting in verse 8, “Rise up, Yahweh, and save me, my God!” He is confident in the truth, and in his belief, that salvation only comes from the LORD, and that upon the Lord’s people the Lord’s blessing rests.
Psalm 4 was likewise written at this same critical time in David’s life. However, in Psalm 4, David focuses his attention on the morals and ethics (or lack thereof) of his enemies. He points out that it is not Absolom who is his true enemy, or even the people who are following Absolom in his mutiny, but at a deeper level it is Satan himself who is at work to destroy the kingdom of David. Remember that Messiah was to come through David’s ancestral line. It is little wonder that Satan went after the House of David so hard.
I believe David wrote psalms 3 and 4 not realizing fully what the cost of would be for victory. I don’t think he realized that by asking Father Yahweh to strike his enemies on the cheek and to knock out their teeth, he was signing his own beloved son’s death certificate. David somehow thought Absolom could come out of this with his life, but that was not meant to be. When news reached David of Absolom’s death, he responded thus, as recorded in 2 Samuel 18:33 - - “O my son Absolom, my son, my son Absolom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absolom, my son, my son!” I truly cannot comprehend that level of heartbreak.
So, in psalm 4, David is pleading with his enemies, who are using Absolom for their own self-aggrandizement, to stop being selfish opportunists and to “consider their ways” and to repent. He sought reconciliation, not ruthless revenge, which is the hallmark of a great and godly man.
One of Absolom’s closest advisors was Achitophel, who was the grandfather of Bathsheba and had also been formerly a close advisor of King David’s. Have you ever misinterpreted something? It is astonishingly easy to do, especially in this day of rapid-fire electronic communication. You get a text message and realize there is more than one way to read the “tone” of it. So, you are not sure how to respond....or worse, you respond, and later realize you totally did not correctly discern the sender’s meaning. Well, this guy, Achitophel, had a dream in which it was revealed that royalty would spring from his loins. He misinterpreted this to mean that HE would someday sit on David’s throne. However, what the dream actually meant was that through his granddaughter royalty would emanate, via her son Solomon, who was also son of King David. In order to make his interpretation of his dream come true, Achitophel backed the young pup, Absolom, who was in his early 20s at this time. And, he did so through nefarious motives. His plan involved goading Absolom to violate King David’s 10 concubines, which Absolom then did. Achitophel was planning to bring Absolom up on charges for these atrocities and then to take the throne himself. Needless to say, none of this worked out. The renegades did not repent; they did not heed King David’s warnings, and they died ignoble deaths. Absolom died when his long hair got tangled in tree limbs, dragging him off his horse to dangle in the air until he was murdered by one of King David’s well-meaning allies/soldiers. Achitophel hanged himself in disgrace, when he believed the rebellion would fail.
Psalm 5 is believed by the rabbis to refer to Achitophel, when it speaks of “speakers of deception” (vs. 7) and “the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (vs. 7), “no sincerity in their mouth” (vs. 10), “treacherous inner thoughts” (vs. 10), “their throat an open grave” (vs. 10). David calls Achitophel and his ilk “rebellious”, and points out that it is not truly David they are rebelling against, but more importantly, they are rebelling against God Himself.
Verses 12 and 13 of Psalm 5 are a precious promise to those who hide themselves in the shelter of Father Yahweh’s wings. And, this makes me think of when Yeshua stood on the Mount of Olives and cried out (as recorded in Matthew 23:37 TAW), “O Yerushalayim, Yerushalayim, ... how often I have longed to gather your children like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you did not desire it!” Here are verses 12 and 13 of Psalm 5 from the CJB:
(11) But let all who take refuge in you rejoice,
let them forever shout for joy!
Shelter them; and they will be glad,
those who love your name.
13 (12) For you, Adonai, bless the righteous;
you surround them with favor like a shield.
Psalm 6 is a prayer for anyone in distress, particularly in physical distress, as King David wrote this psalm when he was bedridden with a terrible illness that had thoroughly incapacitated him. In fact, this psalm has been incorporated into the Jewish daily prayers as the Tachanun, a prayer for forgiveness and mercy.
Do you have a “most difficult enemy”? If your answer is “yes”, then that presumes you have more than one enemy, and that one exceeds the rest in his or her difficultness. That’s a tough situation. I think even more challenging is when you have enemies and you are unaware of that fact, or you are aware, but are unable to identify them. In any case, King David had a “most difficult enemy”. Given the turbulence that was often seen in his life it might be hard to say who this person was. Perhaps it was Goliath? No, not that giant. David’s most difficult enemy was also an extended family member. Oh, the pain that comes when an enemy is a member of your own family. It was, in fact, a man who became his father-in-law - - - King Saul.
Do any of you keep a diary? I have journaled for the past 31 years. Just yesterday, I was revisiting my entries from May and June of 1996, as I rested my mind from working on this lesson. The Psalms are not, though a memoir of events long-past, which the psalmist looks back on with the benefit of the passage of time. No, the psalms are a “battle-front diary”, to quote Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer, who wrote the Introduction to the ArtScroll Tanakh Series volume 1 of “Tehillim, The Book of Psalms”. A battle-front diary, indeed.
Let’s read Psalm 7 from the CJB version and imagine David speaking of Saul, who was, at the time of this writing, David’s king and the King of all Israel.
(0) A shiggayon of David, which he sang to Adonai because of Kush the Ben-Y’mini:
2 (1) Adonai my God, in you I take refuge.
Save me from all my pursuers, and rescue me;
3 (2) otherwise, they will maul me like a lion
and tear me apart, with no rescuer present.
4 (3) Adonai my God, if I have caused this,
if there is guilt on my hands,
5 (4) if I paid back evil to him who was at peace with me,
when I even spared those who opposed me without cause;
6 (5) then let the enemy pursue me
until he overtakes me
and tramples my life down into the earth;
yes, let him lay my honor in the dust. (Selah)
7 (6) Rise up, Adonai, in your anger!
Arouse yourself against the fury of my foes.
Wake up for me; you commanded justice.
8 (7) May the assembly of the peoples surround you;
may you return to rule over them from on high.
9 (8) Adonai, who dispenses judgment to the peoples,
judge me, Adonai, according to my righteousness
and as my integrity deserves.
10 (9) Let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and establish the righteous;
since you, righteous God,
test hearts and minds.
11 (10) My shield is God,
who saves the upright in heart.
12 (11) God is a righteous judge,
a God whose anger is present every day.
13 (12) If a person will not repent,
he sharpens his sword.
He has bent his bow, made it ready;
14 (13) he has also prepared for him
weapons of death, his arrows,
which he has made into burning shafts.
15 (14) Look how the wicked is pregnant with evil;
he conceives trouble, gives birth to lies.
16 (15) He makes a pit, digs it deep,
and falls into the hole he made.
17 (16) His mischief will return onto his own head,
his violence will recoil onto his own skull.
18 (17) I thank Adonai for his righteousness
and sing praise to the name of Adonai ‘Elyon.
I don’t know if you have ever been in a position of service or under the authority of an unworthy “ruler” or not, but let me tell you, it is not a pleasant place in which to live. Perhaps you had an abusive parent or were shuffled around from one unhealthy foster home to another. Perhaps you had a boss who was insufferable and made your life a misery. How did you react in a situation similar to one of these? How did those experiences shape your life? Most likely such experiences made a significant impact on you.
Saul was Israel’s first king, appointed by God, over God’s objections. He had not wanted Israel to be a monarchy, but after the people clamored and clamored for a king so that they could be like other nations, He gave them their desire. But, like that instance in Numbers 11 - - where the Hebrews were clamoring for food other than manna and God sent them a flock of quail overnight, after which they gorged themselves on the quail, God afterwards sent a serious plague among the people - - in the case of Israel wanting a king, God sent them Saul.
Now, Saul was not a horrible king, generally speaking. In many ways he was a good and righteous man. But, he did NOT wipe out all the Amalekites, as commanded by God, which set the scene hundreds of years later for Haman (an Amalekite) to attempt to wipe out the entire Jewish nation. Fortunately, Mordechai and Esther, descendants of King Saul, were given an opportunity to save the nation, thereby redeeming their Benjaminite family’s name, the family of Kush. At the top of the psalm you can see a reference to Kush, and that is referring to the family of Saul, indeed Saul himself.
Saul, however, had a mental illness (sent by God), which turned him at times into a raving lunatic. His unstable behavior was a large part of what caused David to be in such peril because of Saul. Mental and spiritual instability plus nearly unlimited governmental power are not a great combo, to be sure.
After David slew Goliath, he was on Saul’s radar as a potential threat to his throne. Saul was provoked to jealousy after David went on to have great victories against the Philistines, causing the people to proclaim, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” (1 Samuel 29:5). Therefore, Saul relentless pursued David with large armies for decades, causing David to live as a fugitive. You would think the natural human response from David would be that first chance he got at Saul, Saul would become food for the vultures. However, that was not David’s attitude at all.
David rightly recognized that Saul was the anointed of God, the anointed, rightly-placed king of Israel. He recognized that it is El Elyon (“Lord Above All lords”) who places people into positions of power and that it should be up to Him when they are removed and replaced. So, even though David had at least two occasions to kill Saul and assume the throne (because remember, he had already been anointed the next king of Israel, by the prophet Samuel, who had also anointed Saul years earlier), David did not take those opportunities. One such opportunity had David place in the same cave as Saul, but incognito. Saul was using the cave as a restroom, whereupon David sneaked up behind him and cut off a piece of clothing. Later, he waved that in Saul’s face, so to speak, which brought Saul to the realization David could have easily killed him, had he been inclined to give into that evil temptation. (1 Samuel 24). On another occasion, (1 Samuel 26), David happened upon Saul as he lay sleeping. This time, he left his clothes intact, but instead he took Saul’s spear. After this, in 26:21, Saul repented and admitted his gross error. Of course, Saul’s conciliatory attitude did not last long.
The sages say that Psalm 7 was recited as “Song of the Day” on Purim, since Mordechai and Esther were descendants of King Saul. Moreover, verse 16 is seen as a prophetic reference to the ignoble death of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, who was hanged on the gallows he had built in his backyard for the hanging of Mordechai.
One last point about this psalm - - in the superscription - - a shiggayon was either a reference to a musical instrument or a musical accompaniment. The only other place we see this word used is in Habakkuk 3:1 “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigyonos.” It would appear this was a liturgical instrument featured in the Levite orchestra of the Temple.
On, now, to psalm 8. I hope you are getting a sense at this point of how this study will continue to go. On some of the psalms, as I did last week, I’ll spend a great deal of time. On others, not as much.
Psalm 8 has been designated the Song of the Day for Simchat Torah, the 8th day of Sukkot, the day on which the Torah is especially celebrated and revered. Simchat means “Joy of”. So, Simchat Torah means “Joy of the Torah”. This is another psalm, written by King David. Of particular note, in this psalm that extols the glory of God through His Creation are verses 4-10 (may be 3-9 in your translation). Let’s look at them together.
(3) When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and stars that you set in place —
5 (4) what are mere mortals, that you concern yourself with them;
humans, that you watch over them with such care?
6 (5) You made him but little lower than the angels,
you crowned him with glory and honor,
7 (6) you had him rule what your hands made,
you put everything under his feet —
8 (7) sheep and oxen, all of them,
also the animals in the wilds,
9 (8) the birds in the air, the fish in the sea,
whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
10 (9) Adonai! Our Lord! How glorious
is your name throughout the earth!
These verses mention the work (singular) of your fingers, referring to God’s fingers, and later on the works (plural) of your hands (in some translations - - here, literally, “what your hands made”. When in the Tanakh the phrase Etz-BAH Elohim (the finger of God) is used, it means that God has made Himself or His work so plain that His presence can literally be sensed in that moment. (Recall the story of the finger of God appearing in Belshazzar’s palace amid the drunken revelry of the banquet, and writing damnation on the wall.) Finger, as opposed to hands, indicates delicate work in creation, signifying the extra care God took to set into place the moon and stars, in this case. His fingers are capable of managing the minutest details, with infinite care. A similar verse is Psalm 19:2, which we’ll study later. It says, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse of the sky tells of His handiwork.”
Verse 6 reveals a fascinating bit of positional information about mankind....that man was made by God only a little less/lower than the angels. The word translated here as “angels” is actually the word “elohim”, with a lower case “e”, to separate it from Elohim with an upper-case “E”, that being one of the names for the Divine, Mysterious Majesty, aka “God”. By contrast, we read in Hebrews 1: 3-4 that Yeshua 3 “is the radiance of His (Father Yahweh’s) glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
The book of Hebrews goes on to distinguish Yeshua as being part of the echad of the Divine Mysterious Majesty we call Elohim or God, as opposed to being part of the angelic host. Some false religions believe that Yeshua was/is similar to an archangel, but this is a heresy devised by man.
So, Man is sandwiched between the angels and the animals, similar to the former by having a living, eternal soul, whereas the latter do not. As much as we love our pets, they do not have living souls like that of man, nor do I find anything in Scripture to indicate our pets will be in Heaven, despite all this talk of “crossing the rainbow bridge” and so forth. I know that this assertion will be troubling to many modern-day people, who put their pets on an equivalent tier with humans, and in some cases an even higher level. Many love their pets more than their biological family. My mother loves her 19-year old cat and feeds him canned mackerel from the Dollar Store every day. He is a very sleek and fat cat, much loved. But, she does not believe she will see him one day in Heaven! Give Ginger Kitty some love from me, Mama, if you are watching. I’m getting rather far afield here, but I get exasperated at some of the topsy-turvy beliefs in this current age. The same people who would leave their fortune to an animal would advocate for killing babies in the womb. It’s demented. Allright, enough of that. I’m really going off on a tangent now.
More to the point, about Man’s God-given position as steward of the Earth and it’s contents, its inhabitants ...
It is for this reason man was given “dominion”, verse 7, over the works of God’s hands. Everything on earth is under man’s feet, under man’s authority. With such great authority, though, comes great responsibility. I’m not a tree hugger or an “earth mother”, nor do I believe in the idea of man-made global warming. But ... mankind bears a responsibility for caring for all of God’s creation. This includes not corrupting the human DNA, or corrupting the food supply by endless cross-pairings that would not occur in nature (making breeds of vegetation which are “naturally” resistant to pests, for instance). I’m talking about genetically modifying our foods. Bioengineered foods, etc. They are actually taking crickets, grinding them up into powder, and adding them to some foods in an effort to add protein. WHAT?! Yes. Sickening. Read your labels. Be a savvy food shopper.
What about manipulating the weather? This has gone on for decades and is just recently being talked about openly. You’ve probably heard the advertisement or adage now, since that ad was decades ago, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” Well, of course, a “Mother Nature” is a pagan concept. But, the idea at the root (if you’ll pardon the agricultural pun) is a good one. We would be wise to rein ourselves in, as far as tampering with God’s holy creation is concerned.
These are just some of several examples of overstepping man’s given authority, if you ask me. I find it very troubling and pray that our current government in the USA will clean up our country’s act in some of these areas.
The psalm ends with a final, glorious exclamation from David, after he has finished relating Hashem’s chesed (lovingkindness, benevolence) to mankind.
Here it is in the Hebrew:
“Yahweh, our Master, how excellent/majestic/mighty your Name in all the Earth.”
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