Ps. 80:8-13 A Parable Of A Vineyard, A Confession

This parable is a confession of the goodness of God and the sins of His people. Israel was like a vine. God drove out seven wicked nations to plant it.  The ground was prepared, and it was easy for it to grow. The vine grew to cover great trees and mountains. It grew from the sea to the river – the geographic area of the height of the united kingdom. This is reminiscent of the prophecy made to Jacob, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a spring; Its branches run over a wall.” (Gen. 49:22)

But now the vine has lost its protection, the hedges that protected it have been broken down. Passers-by take its fruit and wild animals eat at its base.  This is same message as the prophets preached. The good vine God made corrupted itself and had to be pruned, and later removed. “Yet I planted you a choice vine, A completely faithful seed.  How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?” (Jer. 2:21) “Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, Planted by the waters; It was fruitful and full of branches Because of abundant waters… But it was plucked up in fury; It was cast down to the ground…” (Ezek. 19:10-14)

So the next section of this psalm (vss. 14-19) is aprayer for restoration. The nation God planted, but has now chastised, would be received back. Vs. 17 could first refer to the priests that their prayers might be heard again, to the king as God’s anointed, or even to the nation of Israel as the son of God.  But it is hard not to see this applying also to the Messiah, the ultimate “man of God’s right hand.”  That is when the full restoration came.

Psalm 94 Accepting God’s Discipline

12     Blessed is the man whom Thou dost chasten, 

    O LORD, And dost teach out of Thy law;

13     That Thou mayest grant him relief from the days of adversity, 

    Until a pit is dug for the wicked.

14     For the LORD will not abandon His people, 

    Nor will He forsake His inheritance.

15     For judgment will again be righteous; 

    And all the upright in heart will follow it.

This psalmist takes the same view of Godly discipline as the Hebrew writer. The chastened one is not hated, but he is loved and corrected so that he better follows God’s law.  This is the one who is cared for and protected. 

Heb. 12:5“and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;

6FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”

7It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”

It is the unchastened who are unloved (in the peculiar sense of loved as children, since are are under the love of God generally for all mankind, Jn. 3:16), and who uncorrected go to destruction.

Psalm 3 I Cried, He Answered

Christian have the monumental admonition to “pray without ceasing.”  Over a thousand years before this, under the lesser light of revelation of the Old Testament, there was a man who lived the same teaching, King David.

3:1    O LORD, how my adversaries have increased! 

    Many are rising up against me.

2     Many are saying of my soul, 

    "There is no deliverance for him in God." Selah.

3     But Thou, O LORD, art a shield about me, 

    My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

4    I was crying to the LORD with my voice, 

    And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.

David was surrounded by an ever increasing number of enemies. They mock, they ridicule, and the specifically attack him for his faith in God. God is still the shield, glory, and power of David. These attacks did not drive David from God, but closer to Him.

David was not disappointed in his hope in God, but He was answered and could go in peace because of it. Selah — stop and think about God answering prayer. 

God is approachable in prayer. He answers prayer, He delivers the oppressed. Thus, as Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  (Jn. 14:27)

Ps. 1 How To Begin A Godly Life

As the psalms begins we are told that there are two types of men: 1.) those who delight in the law of the Lord and 2.) the ungodly.  

Notice that the godly man is describe in 3 way.  FIRST - What he does not do: He doesn’t walk, stand or sit with the ungodly, the sinners or the scornful. These corrupt good morals rather than promote them.  

SECOND - In order to build good qualities the godly man is described as delighting in and meditating on God’s law. He does this day and night.

THIRD - This man is secure and fruitful. The tree planted be the water never lacks for sustenance and has shelter. In much of Palestine (like the western parts of this country) the land is arid and rough. But down by the streams and water courses there are massive stands of trees. This is where the biggest and most fruitful trees are because of the abundance of water, and since water runs to low places, the trees down in the river bottoms are sheltered from the wind. So in the deserts of life, the godly man is a massive, well watered and sheltered tree. Truly he will “prosper in whatever he does.”

But what of the ungodly man, the sinner? He has no stability or fruitfulness at all. He is chaff - the dry, useless husk driven by the parching winds. He cannot last, the cannot stand. He cannot have his works judged, for then nothing would be left.  

So one will stand mightily, another fall completely.