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Psalms 86-89
We are in the Wisdom Stream reading from the New Living Translation this week.
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Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis
God, all we can say is that you are good and you are good all the time and that you are good to us. Amen
86 – This is a Psalm from King David who had been through it all, seen it all, won it all, lost it all, enjoyed is all, suffered through it all and brought it all back home. David’s life models that we can take it all to God. The worship in this Psalm is among the best. The pleading, the longing, the exalting of God, the call for learning and cleansing and reassurance and favor. David asked for it all from God and God showed Himself to be true.
87 – The glory of Jerusalem. Those who love God are drawn there. People of other countries relish the place. The Psalm can also be about the glory of the Church that was founded by Christ Jesus 900+ years after this Psalm was written. And v. 6 can be symbolic of the Lamb’s book of Life – in whose names are found the souls who are going to live eternally as citizens of Heaven.
88 – is the saddest of the Psalms. There is no resolution. There is no relief or let up from the suffering. The suffering is prolonged and terrible. The loneliness of it could have even been the worst part. This soul feels like everyone is gone and that God has ditched him as well. The reason this Psalm is part of the the Psalms is because even when you are feeling this way, God is there in the middle of it all too getting each of us through it.
89 – This is God’s promise that David’s throne will be an eternal throne. The Psalm is written by Ethan the son of Kushaiah who is mentioned in I Chronicles 15:17. This Psalm reads like a wonder of wonders in its gloriousness as we read of God’s regal goodness and how he has expressed His love for all things good and right; … and His love and commitment to David; the man He made king. The Psalm reads along rather triumphantly and then it takes a turn downward. God is punishing – though this does not change the fact of His love, His commitment and the truth of what He said from the beginning and what God says eternally whenever He makes any statement. God did not change…He is acting accordingly toward a soul that has changed his commitment to dubious behavior. It’s like when my husband once said in a sermon that the Bible is not a contradictory book – it is a testimony that is written the way it is for it is trying to show love and God’s goodness TO A CONTRADICTORY PEOPLE. Do not assess that God is fickle and flighty just because one of His followers is behaving that way; – against how God has instructed all of us to behave. God has made a promise in the Bible, it is mentioned in this Psalm and what God has said, and what is true does not change.
And this ends the third book of Psalms; the third of five total.