Daily Reader for Day 276: Psalms 1 - 8


by Dave Moore

You will quickly notice that Psalms is unlike any other book we’ve read.  It is a compilation of songs and prayers that were produced by worshipers of the LORD over multiple centuries. Many of them, if perhaps not all of them, were intended to be set to music.  They are poetry, not prose, and so are full of alliteration, metaphor, rhythm and emotion.  They are not passive observers of history, but are reflective, contemporary and active. 

While each Psalm stands as an autonomous product, there are often themes and threads that produce intersections between them.  It might be helpful to think of the book of Psalms like a crossword puzzle.  Each answer on a crossword has its individual meaning, but they intersect other words to produce an entire puzzle – if not a work of art.  Looking for those intersections can be one of the joys of reading the book in its entirety.  Notice, today, as the theme of righteousness binds Psalms 1 and 2 and reaches a climax in Psalm 5, and how the LORD’s salvation and refuge thread together Psalms 3, 4, 6, and 7. 

Another treat is starting to decipher the structure and rhythm of the Psalms.  Take just a glancing look and notice that Psalm 1 fits an A – B pattern: the first half trails a righteous man and the second half trails the wicked.  Others, like Psalm 8, follow an arc that begins and ends at the same point.  “O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!” is the launch point, followed by an assertion of creation’s testimony.  The pinnacle is in the center: “What is man that you are mindful of him…yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, [and] given him dominion…” over this very creation that declares the LORD’s majesty.  The Psalm lands back at home plate, if you will, by again proclaiming “O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

Finally, Psalms gives us a view into what it was like to live and worship the LORD in real time.  A few Psalms we’ll read today were written or commissioned by King David during specific events.  Look back at 2 Samuel if you need to be refreshed on the tragic story of his son, Absalom, or the insults he endured at the hands of the Benjamites.  And now see how those events were channeled into prayers that were both effective in context and, importantly, connect people of every age through their emotion, reflection, and longing. 

Our verse for this week is Luke 16:13: No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Psalms 1 through 8.  Now let’s read it!

Psalms 1 - 8

1:1   Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
  nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
  but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.
  He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
  that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
  In all that he does, he prospers.
  The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
  for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

2:1   Why do the nations rage
    and the peoples plot in vain?
  The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers take counsel together,
    against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
  “Let us burst their bonds apart
    and cast away their cords from us.”
  He who sits in the heavens laughs;
    the Lord holds them in derision.
  Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
    and terrify them in his fury, saying,
  “As for me, I have set my King
    on Zion, my holy hill.”
  I will tell of the decree:
  The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
    today I have begotten you.
  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
    and the ends of the earth your possession.
  You shall break them with a rod of iron
    and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
  Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
    be warned, O rulers of the earth.
  Serve the LORD with fear,
    and rejoice with trembling.
  Kiss the Son,
    lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
    for his wrath is quickly kindled.
  Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

3:1   O LORD, how many are my foes!
    Many are rising against me;
  many are saying of my soul,
    “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah
  But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,
    my glory, and the lifter of my head.
  I cried aloud to the LORD,
    and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
  I lay down and slept;
    I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
  I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
    who have set themselves against me all around.
  Arise, O LORD!
    Save me, O my God!
  For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
    you break the teeth of the wicked.
  Salvation belongs to the LORD;
    your blessing be on your people! Selah

4:1   Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
    You have given me relief when I was in distress.
    Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
  O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
    How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
  But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
    the LORD hears when I call to him.
  Be angry, and do not sin;
    ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
  Offer right sacrifices,
    and put your trust in the LORD.
  There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
    Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
  You have put more joy in my heart
    than they have when their grain and wine abound.
  In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
    for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

5:1   Give ear to my words, O LORD;
    consider my groaning.
  Give attention to the sound of my cry,
    my King and my God,
    for to you do I pray.
  O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;
    in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
  For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
    evil may not dwell with you.
  The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
    you hate all evildoers.
  You destroy those who speak lies;
    the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
  But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
    will enter your house.
  I will bow down toward your holy temple
    in the fear of you.
  Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies;
    make your way straight before me.
  For there is no truth in their mouth;
    their inmost self is destruction;
  their throat is an open grave;
    they flatter with their tongue.
  Make them bear their guilt, O God;
    let them fall by their own counsels;
  because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
    for they have rebelled against you.
  But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
    let them ever sing for joy,
  and spread your protection over them,
    that those who love your name may exult in you.
  For you bless the righteous, O LORD;
    you cover him with favor as with a shield.

6:1   O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath.
  Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
  My soul also is greatly troubled.
    But you, O LORD—how long?
  Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
  For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?
  I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
  My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.
  Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
  The LORD has heard my plea;
    the LORD accepts my prayer.
  All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
    they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

7:1   O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge;
    save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
  lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
    rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
  O LORD my God, if I have done this,
    if there is wrong in my hands,
  if I have repaid my friend with evil
    or plundered my enemy without cause,
  let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
    and let him trample my life to the ground
    and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
  Arise, O LORD, in your anger;
    lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
    awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
  Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
    over it return on high.
  The LORD judges the peoples;
    judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
    and according to the integrity that is in me.
  Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
    and may you establish the righteous—
  you who test the minds and hearts,
    O righteous God!
  My shield is with God,
    who saves the upright in heart.
  God is a righteous judge,
    and a God who feels indignation every day.
  If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
    he has bent and readied his bow;
  he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
    making his arrows fiery shafts.
  Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
    and is pregnant with mischief
    and gives birth to lies.
  He makes a pit, digging it out,
    and falls into the hole that he has made.
  His mischief returns upon his own head,
    and on his own skull his violence descends.
  I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,
    and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

8:1   O LORD, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
  You have set your glory above the heavens.
    Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
  you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.
  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
  what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?
  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,
  all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
  the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
  O LORD, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

(ESV)


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