Year 1, Week 32, Day 1 Bible Reading Observations

Year 1, Week 32, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Psalm 120; 140-142.

Today’s reading provides us with still more insights to the realities of David’s heart while he was on the run from Saul. While we are reading through the Book of Samuel, some of the Psalms that correlate with the life of David as narrated in Samuel are folded in. I find this correlation helpful. Of the Psalms in today’s reading, only one, Psalm 142, has an ascription or title and links its contents with the timeline of David’s life in our current readings from 1 Samuel. Psalms 140 and 141 are attributed to David, and while they contain themes consistent with what we are reading in 1 Samuel, they lack an explicit historical ascription or title. Psalm 120 is neither explicitly attributed to David (that doesn’t mean it’s not), nor given any specific historical ascription or title. Psalm 120 does contain themes that are applicable to the help that David cries out to the LORD for during this time in his life while on the run from Saul.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the insight that the LORD imparts to us through David’s seeking the LORD amid his troubles: “With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Psalm 142:1). Being on the run for your life and having to hide out in a cave is not idyllic; it is especially traumatic. The experience of David’s troubles and dangers had greatly weakened him and left him feeling isolated: “When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul” (Psalm 142:3-4). But David turns to the LORD for help: “I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him…I cry to you, O LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living” (Psalm 142:2,5). David’s confidence is not in himself and his feelings. So he took himself and his feelings to the Lord. When we are hit by traumatic experiences like running for our lives and having to hide out in a cave, the Psalms provide us the orientation as to what to do—as to Who to turn to. Whether those experiences are actual present traumas of life or the stress of life associated with the aftermath of a trauma, we need not minimize the counsel of turning to the LORD: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue” (Psalm 120:1).

We all turn somewhere for help when troubles and dangers beset us. We all need things like comfort, hope, peace, joy, strength, and counsel; but when we face circumstantial and situational distress, we more acutely feel our need for those things. We turn somewhere to receive those things. We can turn to other people, we can turn to animals, we can turn to things such as foods and substances or even activities and causes; we can even just turn inward to ourselves, but ultimately what we need the most is to turn to the LORD: "Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men…Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men, who have planned to trip up my feet…Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked” (Psalm 140:1,4,8a).

Turning to the LORD, David not only realized that he needed help from the harm that was coming against him, he also acknowledged that he needed help lest he inflict harm on those who came against him: “O LORD, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you!…Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies!” If left without the aid of the LORD’s presence David was not confident that he would respond to the pressing dangers in a manner that was fitting in the LORD’s eyes. Remember, David had the opportunity while in the cave, to kill Saul (see 1 Samuel 24:3-11). But David did not seize that opportunity; his conscience was pricked against acting. David knew that he needed the LORD to guard him from the dangers that still lurked around in his own heart as well as the lurking dangers from others. So the challenge that David models for us is the need to stay focused on the LORD amid our troubles and dangers: “But my eyes are toward you, O GOD, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!” (Psalm 141:8).

The Psalms not only meet us in the troubles that surround us, but the distresses that stirs within us. Maybe our trauma isn’t the experience of being hunted down in order to be killed, but the truths that the Psalms teach us are relevant for big troubles and dangers as well as little troubles and dangers. What the Psalms shows us is pertinent for the present troubles and dangers as well as the memory of and lingering impact of past troubles and dangers. The counsel of the Psalms is timeless: “I say to the LORD, You are my God; give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O LORD! O LORD, my Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle” (Psalm 140:6-7). Knowing and seeking the LORD is ever needed and always available.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe