Thursday, 4 May 2017

Psalm 108 - Relate with God through prayer and praise

In Psalm 108 David put some parts of two of his previous Psalms together, just making minor changes to the wordings. Verses 1-5 are taken from Psalm 57:7-11, while verses 6-13 are taken from Psalm 60:5-12. In this Psalm, David’s confidence of victory could be seen with a very minor reference in verses 12-13 to the national lament over their existing enemies.

There are clearly two parts to this Psalm. In verses 1-5, David personally expressed his praise to God. In verses 6-13, he was determined to exalt God and to give thanks to Him. His words showed his resolute steadfastness to exalt God. He would sing and would come worshipping Him early before dawn with the harp and lyre. David also would worship God publicly among the people. He provided two reasons for his open and unabashed worship. It’s because of the Lord’s great mercy and enduring truth.      

In verses 6-13, David expressed his personal confidence in Him. While verses 11-12 give the impression that they felt deserted by God, but nonetheless they were also aware that God truly loved them and would grant them the victory. In verse 6 David prayed and was confident of deliverance. David’s confidence stamped from remembering the promises of God made to them as a nation. God had promised them Shechem, Succoth, Gilead, Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah, and even enemies’ territories such as Moab, Edom, and Philistia. With that confidence, David reminded everyone that through God they would do valiantly for He would help them to fight their enemies.  

Like David we must cultivate a life of praise as well as a life of prayer. He praised God for what He had done, but he prayed and trusted God for things he was presently encountering. Let’s praise and thank Him for who He is, and let’s trust Him for what He would do for us. Prayer and praise should not just be functional activities, let us make them relational activities with the Lord as well! 

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