Psalm 108
1 My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being! [Hebrew with my glory]
2 Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!
This psalm is a combination of Psalms 57 and 60 but without the superscriptions to give us context. The context of Psalm 57, the first half of this psalm is when David was in a cave hiding from Saul and David had the opportunity to kill him. It is a song of deliverance from the hand of his enemy and the vindication of his character. Without that superscription though the psalm is simply a declaration of praise and devotion that can be prayed in any situation. The word “steadfast” is fairly common and often means “established, set, firm”. It suggests that the psalmist has stubbornly made up his mind to worship. It is a conviction that doesn’t change with the circumstances. He’s determined to sing and psalm (make music with an instrument) with even “his glory”. In this case the writer doesn’t say “soul”, probably a more common expression in the psalms, rather he is determined to make music with even his glory. When “glory” is used of a person, it refers to their reputation, their honor, all the best of themselves. David is putting it all out there, offering the very best of himself as an artist and musician. In the next verse he commands the harp and lyre to wake up. These two common instruments are summoned to psalm with him. He’s about to make some early morning music. That’s the likely meaning of the phrase, “I will awake the dawn!” David rises while it’s still dark (or maybe he’s stayed up all night) so that he’s playing his music as the sun rises. He wants to be the first one to praise God today, before the sunrise has the opportunity to do so. It is a wonderful expression of eagerness to worship. How do you wake up? What is the first thing on your mind? David’s established choice was to grab a guitar and sing in the sunrise.
3 I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
4 For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
David promises to extend his worship from the personal to the public. What started in the early morning hours in the privacy of a cave he vows to continue wherever people gather. There may be a distinction here between the people (fellow Jews, his community) and the nations (the broader world, although the word translated “nations” here is not “goyim” [Gentiles] but a variant of the word “peoples” in the first line of verse 3. In any case, the force of his promise is that he will not shy away from using words to proclaim the good news of God’s salvation to anyone and everyone. He will do this verbally and in song, utilizing the gifting training he has enjoyed as a musician. The motivation for his steadfast worship is the steadfastness of God. YHWH’s covenant love (hesed) and faithfulness are more vast than can ever be known. In parallel lines, David declares that God’s hesed is both great and above the heavens. In Jewish cosmology there was nothing above the heavens, suggesting that God’s covenant love is infinite, beyond knowing or measuring, limitless. The second line declares that his faithfulness (truth) extends to the clouds. The clouds were in the sky, nearer than the heavens but still well beyond the reach of men, (until the Wright brothers came along). There is one Hebrew word for “faithfulness” and “truth”, and it is the root of the word, “Amen” (that’s right, that’s true). I think of truth as “reality”, the way things really are. So the reality of God fills the earth and sky beyond measure. There is no place on earth where you can go to escape God’s truth, reality. This is one of the challenges of the modern age, reality has become entirely subjective. Not only is everyone entitled to their own reality, but the rest of us are required to applaud those who choose their own (false) reality. The only reality that really matters is the reality of God and it fills all of life. David has experienced this reality in his recent deliverance from the hand of Saul. The reality is that God anointed David king, promised him the throne, and He will keep his promises. This is the underlying motivation for David’s praise. He is grateful for the nature of God that is demonstrated in his good promise keeping.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer me!
In the first verse of this psalm David promised to bring the full weight of his own glory to the task of elevating God through music. In these verses he expresses that desire in the form of a prayer: that God would be exalted above the heavens just like his high flying faithful love and that the whole earth would be covered in the weight and brightness of God. God accomplishes those things himself. He doesn’t need any help from David or from us for that matter. The heavens are declaring his glory and everywhere one looks the evidence of a good, powerful, and glorious God can be found. Rather this is a prayer that the people and nations would recognize the reality that David is experiencing, a world that is shot through with the glory of God, beauty and majesty in the sunrise, peace and stillness in the falling snow, the sanctuary stained glass colors of the autumn leaves, and the incomparable power of a thunderstorm ushering in both terror and new life. God’s glory is on display everywhere if we would but look. Next David’s prayer gets more specific and then personal. He asks that God’s beloved would be delivered and that he himself would be answered and saved by God. David is ultimately concerned with God’s glory first and foremost, but this leads to his second desire -- his own salvation and that of his people. In the original context of this psalm (Psalm 57), David is running and hiding from Saul and the nation is divided within and facing enemies without. That is likely the salvation that he is speaking of, but there is more to it. Jesus said not to fear the one who can only kill the body, rather fear the one who can cast both body and soul into hell (Luke 12:4,5). The salvation that the world so desperately needs is salvation from sin, from ourselves, from the consequences of our rebellion. David isn’t praying for that, but we sure can. We can pray for the right hand of God to spring into action and do something about this rupture in our relationship with God. Our prayers are answered in Jesus, the right hand of God that reached into our world and demonstrated the vastness of the love of God. David’s prayer of salvation is answered in Jesus, and God will answer our prayer for salvation in the same way.
7 God has promised in his holiness: [Or sanctuary] “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter.
The remainder of this psalm is taken from Psalm 60, a lament turned to praise and confidence in the ultimate deliverance of the nation from Edomite treachery. If the first half of this psalm is David in a cave, the second half is David on the battlefield. His prayer actually begins with words from God rather than to God. David reminds himself of the sovereignty of God, putting these words in God’s mouth so to speak: “I will divide up the land among my people. They are all mine. The land is all mine. Ephraim (northern tribes) is my helmet (top, head covering, shield from the north) and Judah (southern tribes) is my scepter (ruling, making decisions, issuing judgments).” The language of dividing and portioning the land recalls the conquest of the land during the days of Joshua. In his perfect timing, God brought long overdue judgment on the inhabitants of the land for their abuse of children (among other things) and in the process provided a place for the Jewish people to settle having just spent the last 440 years enslaved and wandering in the wilderness. God’s justice and mercy on display at the same time -- that was the conquest. David recalls this experience and is confident that God will protect his inheritance that he so faithfully established in the days of Joshua. This time the threat is from the south, a surprise attack while Israel was in a state of disarray. David’s assertion that God is sovereign over the clans and tribes of Israel reminds us that he is sovereign today over communities, states, and governments. Of course human free will enters the equation, but the evidence of history and the confession of the biblical text is that God is ultimately moving the chess pieces. He is sovereign over the nations. He divides up the land, exalting some and humbling others. It’s impossible for us to see this in the midst of our times, but God sees the whole scope of human history and all of it is his. As the hymn declares, he is the “potentate of time” (Crown Him with Many Crowns). We cannot know the mind of God in this, so we must trust his sovereign hand as He works in our nation and among the nations.
9 Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
The LORD continues to speak of his sovereignty, this time describing his rule over Israel’s neighbors who have treated her treacherously. Not only is God sovereign over Israel, he is sovereign over the nations. The text presents three metaphors of domination. First, God declares that Moab is his pot for washing. Moab is located in the area east of the Dead Sea, so perhaps there is even a reference here to the Sea itself as a washbasin. In any case, it is not a positive reference. Referring to someone as a common ordinary container that contains dirty water is not a compliment. Further to the south and west is the land of Edom, home to the famous city of Petra and the Wadi Rum. The metaphor here is of ownership, represented by a sandal. Property was marked off by walking it, so the shoe came to represent ownership. Abraham was told that he would receive the land wherever he walked. So when God casts his sandal on Edom, He is declaring that he owns it. So he bathes in Moab and walks on Edom. Finally, over Philistia he shouts in triumph, a war cry of victory! The point here that the psalm is making is that we need not fear. God is sovereign over the nations. These nations have invaded Israel from the south (although we have no evidence of Philistia doing so at this time, it’s likely they were cheering the others on). Later Edom would cheer as the Babylonians demolished the city of Jerusalem (Psalm 137). This is how it works in the world, nations will take whatever they can. We cannot understand the work of God in human political history. We do not have the perspective of God. There have always been wars and conquests, and in some cases this has resulted in the spread of the gospel through the movement of refugees. It is evidence that God can redeem even the worst of human evil. This is what we must hope.
10 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
David asks three rhetorical questions as he prepares for battle. He seems to entertain doubts about whether God is on their side or not. For some reason he feels that God has rejected his people, perhaps simply because of the fact that a foreign army has been allowed to invade their country. Based on the superscription on Psalm 60 from which the last half of this psalm is taken, the occasion for the psalm was the battle with the Edomites in the Valley of Salt (2 Samuel 8, I Chronicles 18). There’s not much to go on in the historical narrative which simply states that Israel’s army defeated 18,000 Edomites and David set up garrisons throughout their land. This psalm and Psalm 60 suggest that there was some Edomite treachery involved and some doubt as to the outcome of the battle based on God’s willingness to support Israel. In this text David is saying that “If God is not with me, how can I advance against an army and encircle their fortified city?” He flatly states that “God does not go out with our armies.” If this is true then he surmises that they have no hope of victory. David is not questioning God’s power, but rather his will. This is the age-old question isn’t it? Why doesn’t God act when we think that he should? On the eve of battle, David has questions about God’s presence. Perhaps this just shows that he’s human. We read the accounts of David’s victories in battle and we assume they were easy because he won them all. I doubt that any battle is easy or that victory is assured. War is a fight to the death, and the outcome is never guaranteed. No plan survives the first contact with the enemy. With a march toward the enemy underway, David asks God, “Are you with us?” “What guarantee do we have of victory?” Life in the ancient world was tenuous. An invading army could sweep in and dominate another nation and do as they pleased. There were no rules of warfare. It was “might makes right.” David may have been envisioning what failure would look like as he penned these words of doubt, imagining his kingdom overrun and his family put to the sword. It was a reasonable question, “Are you with us God?”
12 Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man!
13 With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.
In the final two verses, the questions turn to prayer and confidence as is so often the case with the psalms. David simply asks for help against the foe while recognizing the limits of human strength. The help of man (lit. adam) is useless, not just limited. This goes back to the sovereignty of God. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The corollary is also true, “If God is against us, who can be for us?” If God is with us we will do valiantly. The word valiantly is translated variously as strength, efficiency, wealth, and army. These are all strong words to describe God’s effective presence in the battle leading to ultimate and complete victory. The final line is a recapitulation of the image in verse 9, that of the LORD tossing his sandal on Edom. If tossing the sandal indicates ownership, trampling one’s foes suggests the effect of that ownership. This is a corollary of Kierkegaard’s statement of God’s sovereignty. “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” It’s one thing to pray this when you are thousands of miles from a battlefield and another to claim it on the eve of a war. I am not facing such a war, but there is a war of a different kind over which these same truths apply. For the battle we face is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Whatever enemies we might be facing today, it’s clear that with God shall do valiantly for He shall stomp on our foes. Romans 16:20 tells us that the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath our feet. Hebrews 2:14 reminds us that in his death and resurrection Jesus destroyed him who holds the power of death, that is the devil. The victory that David’s army would experience over the Edomites in this psalm, is another picture of the victory that is ours when we are with our enemy-stomping God.