Psalm 90 has traditionally been used in funeral services and while it is about death, I think that use might miss the point. Eugene Peterson says this psalm teaches us to "pray our death" and I think that is much closer to the mark. It is a meditation on the relative shortness of human life when compared to God. We moderns haven't defeated death, but we've made ourselves feel like we have. Technology, medicine, entertainment, and our inveterate addiction to distract ourselves from what is painful keep the reality that we will all die on the cloudy margins of our consciousness. This psalm acts something like smelling salts, jerking us from that fantastic stupor. We must wake up and smell our death. You've got seventy, maybe eighty years. That's it. Yes, from time to time folks make it beyond that, but it is still a pretty reliable average. That means I personally have twenty five or thirty five years to go. That, of course, doesn't account for what state my health might be in during that time. The point is, [...]

This is the low point of the psalter. I don't mean "low" in quality but in tone. Scholars have called this the darkest psalm. It is essentially one long cry of abandonment and it does not end on a positive note. Our favorite Scriptures tell us a lot about ourselves. It is interesting, for example, that our favorite psalm in the modern West is probably psalm 23. We love the sense of comfort, joy, harmony, and familiarity that it brings. The early church, by contrast, loved psalm 110--a military psalm about the enemies of God's anointed being crushed. They seemed to long for justice and universal acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus; we seem to want to feel better. So, if we like comfort and warmth, we probably avoid or ignore psalms like 88. It is squirmingly uncomfortable to read. It offers no hope. It is the cry of a person who feels utterly abandoned by God and others. There is little information in the psalm to indicate when it took place or what were the circumstances of its composition. The [...]

Psalm 87 is something of a puzzle. It starts out straightforwardly enough: God loves Jerusalem. This is the city in which he has chosen to live, the city where he has settled down and set up his house. Jerusalem, then, is the capital of the world. Of course, that gets complicated with the details of history; God has "moved out" in anger on many occasions. But still, Jerusalem holds a special place in his heart. And that love points toward God's ultimate desire for a city where he and his people dwell together in harmony. But then it gets really weird; it seems to indicate that pagan nations have come to know God and even that they have in some sense been "born there." Weirder still, the nations mentioned are Israel's classic arch-enemies; Egypt (Rahab is an old way of referring to Egypt), Babylon, Philistia, et al. The enemies of God have come to believe in the God of their enemies and when they do so, they become citizens of Jerusalem. This came about historically when the people of God [...]

There isn't much new in Psalm 86. In fact, almost every phrase in the psalm has occurred at some other point in the psalter. This is not a weakness, however, but a reminder of one of the main points about the psalms: we learn to pray by praying others' words and making them our own. This psalmist, like Mary in her "Magnificat," has soaked in the prayers and praises of others and put them together in new ways for a new dire circumstance. We don't need to sound original in prayer. But there are a few unique things about this psalm. For one, it is absolutely drenched in the language of personal relationship. Some psalms teach the congregation, others address the gentiles; this one addresses God and God alone. A Hebrew suffix which means "you/your" occurs 23 times in this psalm. So, this is a primary place to learn prayer that is personal, relational, and intimate. The primary way the psalmist refers to God here is "master" or "lord" and the primary way he refers to himself is "your servant." [...]

Psalm 84 is about longing and desire. The psalmist longs for the "dwelling places" of God. That longing, that desire, is called blessed and happy. Of course, we all know of desires that are not blessed; there are desires that destroy lives. But longing for God's presence is deemed one of the greatest goods in Scripture. God has dwelt in many places. First he inhabited the traveling Tabernacle in the wilderness and then settled down into the Temple that Solomon built. Of course, that Temple was destroyed due to the people of God's idolatry and God went "nomad" again, appearing to Ezekiel in the mobile throne chariot powered by spectacular beasts and living wheels. The most startling of God's habitations was the man Jesus; for the first time God dwelt in a human being that was also divine. As Jesus traveled ancient Palestine, he was a walking, talking temple--the unique place where people encountered God through cleansing, deliverance, and teaching. How lovely indeed is the dwelling place of God, Jesus Christ. The revolution continued, however, when God took up his [...]

Psalm 83 is another one of those psalms that make us squirm. How can you pray for God to curse your enemies? Here, it will be useful to remind ourselves of the larger biblical story. Most importantly, remember that God chose Abraham to bless every nation of the earth. Within God's promise to Abraham was a promise that he would bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him. From the beginnings of God's plans, he has determined to bring curses on those who oppose his people. The list of enemies in psalm 83 is a who's who of those who had plotted against Israel in their history. Opponents from Israel's journey to the promised land are mentioned as well as the latter day super power Assyria. Also, if you were to look up each of these nations on a map, you would see they they literally encircle the territory of Judah. These nations plotted against Israel and cursed them, so the psalmist very biblically prays that God would curse them. Notice too, that this psalm expands on [...]