Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 21: Wednesday

All three psalms in Wednesday’s Bible reading of Psalms 60–62, are psalms of David. They are prayers in which David again cries out to God for help in desperate circumstances. In Psalm 60 the emphasis is on deliverance psalms, while in 61–62 a key word is refuge.

Rejection or abandonment is another theme found in Psalms (cf. Psalm 13), and as David prays in Psalm 60, he says God has rejected His people. M’Caw and Motyer have some very helpful commentary:

“This psalm conveys the sense of national humiliation resulting from a wholly unforeseen military reverse…

“1 In a typically biblical way, the psalmist regards God as responsible for every happening. Secondary causes, physical, strategical, cultural, etc., were not necessarily held to be significant. Hence this unexpected military reverse had struck a tremendous blow at the people’s morale. 2 It was like an earthquake which rends strong buildings. 3 Divine action had led to defeat; both led to demoralization; the nation reeled as a man who has just drunk drugged wine (cf. Is. 51:17; Je. 25:15ff.). Their defeat was all the more demoralizing in that they believed themselves to be the people of the Lord, 4 under whose banner (cf. Ex. 17:15, 16) they would experience security. The heart of their problem and distress was thus that God’s promises seemed to go unfulfilled…

“5 What is the reaction to an unkept divine promise? Turn the promise into prayer and plead it before God. [See verses 6–8]…

“9, 10 The promises have been quoted; now they will be pleaded. Man cannot fulfill the promises of God; if God does not keep them, they fall to the ground. 11 Nor can man help if God withholds His help. All therefore depends on God, and all is summed up in the single plea, O grant us help. But it is the plea of faith. 12 notes that where human aid avails nothing, God can lead His people to victory, and the psalms concludes with a confident forecast of the victory He will win for His people.”¹

I wrote in my post on Psalm 1–2: The Righteous & The Wicked, that Psalms is a book in which cries of the heart are poured out to God in words that echo our own feelings, yet with words that do not let our deep-felt reactions pull us away from Him, but draw us to Him.  In other words, the Psalms give voice to our emotions in all of their widest ranges, yet give them expression without sin. Psalm 60 does that for us in our moments of distress when we feel as David did, “The heart of their problem and distress was thus that God’s promises seemed to go unfulfilled.” Psalm 60 teaches us to, “Turn the promise into prayer and plead it before God.” Remember as you do so, to look at God’s promises in the context in which He has made them, so that you do not presume.

Notice also M’Caw’s and Motyer’s comment on God’s sovereignty:

“In a typically biblical way, the psalmist regards God as responsible for every happening. Secondary causes, physical, strategical, cultural, etc., were not necessarily held to be significant.”²

In Psalm 60, David believes God is sovereign (indeed, all the psalmmists affirm this). As M’Caw and Motyer diagnosed, “The heart of their problem and distress was thus that God’s promises seemed to go unfulfilled.” I have mentioned God’s sovereignty several times when writing on Job in Job 7–8: Sovereign & Love; Job 9–10: Despair & Hope; and Job 23–24: Tessting & Times; and in Suffering & Lovingkindness. In the book of Job, Job did not doubt God’s sovereignty, but in the face of the accusations of his friends and overwhelmed by his pain, he lost hope. Job’s need was to believe in God’s goodness, benevolence and personal care for him in the face of God’s inscrutable sovereignty in allowing his suffering. He struggled to trust in God in the midst of excruciating affliction.

Assuring someone that God is sovereign is not necessarily a comforting thing. The person may already believe and know that—the spiritual battle may be believing in God’s love during a time of intensely feeling abandoned. This struggle with doubt can even be heightened in pain if the person previously knew continuous fellowship with God and worshiped Him as Job did, but now only knows and feels blow after blow from circumstances. The battle may be to trust in God and believe in His goodness, benevolence and personal care for him in the face of God’s inscrutable sovereignty in allowing his suffering.

If you want to help someone, give balm to the wounds where the battle is. What promises of God does the person have trouble believing right now? What does the person need to be reassured of to be able to grow in trust in God? Pray and ask God for wisdom of what to say and how to say it. (See Suffering & Lovingkindness for more of my thoughts on this.).

David opens Psalm 61 with Hear my cry of lamentation, O God. M’Caw and Motyer title Psalm 61, “A Prayer of a Distraught King.”

“1, 2a This is an impassioned plea from a heart burdened by a sense of distance from God, to whom he must cry from the end of the earth, and of personal feebleness. 2b He craves for a realization of security unattainable by his own efforts, i.e. to be led ‘to a rock that is too high for me’ (cf. RV mg.), i.e. to which of himself he cannot attain. But what is this unattainable rock? 3 Nothing other than God Himself.”³

Look at what David says:

Derek Kidner writes in verses 3–4:

“God’s safe keeping is viewed here in increasingly personal terms, as the aloof ruggedness of the high crag of verse 2 gives place to the purpose-built tower of verse 3, and this in turn to the hospitality of the frail tent (4) with its implication of safety among friends; and finally the affectionate, parental shelter symbolized by thy wings. This, against all appearances, is the best security of all…it is more thatn a fond wish: verse 4b is as confident a prayer as 4a.”⁴

As you read Psalm 62 notice how David describes God: refuge, rock, salvation, strength, stronghold.

Kidner comments:

“This psalm stands high among the many fine fruits of adversity in the Psalter, for it was evidently composed while the pressure was still intense (3), and it shows the marks of growing confidence and clarity as it proceeds. The secret that David learnt alone (1) he impressed again on himself…and urged on others (8), drawing out finally the lessons of experience and revelation for our benefit and God’s honour. It has the immediacy of a prayer that still awaits an answer, and of convictions newly confirmed and deepened.”

So if you find yourself in distress because God’s promises seem to go unfulfilled, read Psalm 60, and follow David’s example in taking God’s promises and making them your prayer and pleading them before God. If someone you know is suffering, do that for them—not just while you are alone, but with that person. He or she needs to hear your voice pleading with God on their behalf. And consider that a part of God’s answer to your prayer may be you acting on behalf of the one for whom you pray.

In Psalm 61, David cried out From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint, asking God to lead him to the rock that is higher than I. David remembers that God has been a refuge to him.

In Psalm 62, David reminds himself and us: Surely wait in silence for God, O my soul; and why: For my hope is from Him.

From David’s prayers when the pressure was intense and overwhelming, we can learn to pray. From David’s prayers we can learn who God is. We can see God as He is when we feel the pressure in our lives is intense and overwhelming.

That’s why we read God’s Word. We are changed by God as in His mercy He helps us through His Word—we are changed through His Word because through His Word we know and meet the Living God.

Father, thank you.

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For a brief overview of the structure and poetry of Psalms see my post, The Five Books of Psalms.
Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Prayer Session: Theindigochxld. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
^1,2,3Leslie S. M’Caw, J. A. Motyer, “Psalms,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, third ed., D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds. (Inter-Varsity Press, London: 1970) 488, 488, 688
⁴Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72, (Inter-Varsity Press, London, England: 1973) 219.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.

Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter