September 24, 2015

“Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might. Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life; they do not set God before them. Selah

But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life. He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them. With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.” Psalm 54:1-7

“Perhaps you’ve heard the old (saying), “Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh” (or something like that).  If making plans of our own (presumably in the face of God’s plans for us) is laughable, how about issuing commands to God, telling God the Divine’s own business in no uncertain terms? Who would dare to give God orders? Yet this is, in a sense, exactly what Psalm 54 does.

Our psalm begins with a four-fold plea: “save me…hear [me]…give ear [to me].” Each of these pleas — actually imperative verbs — and a fourth “vindicate me” (which in terms of tense is imperfect but in context clearly works like an imperative) quite literally command God’s attention, response, and action. These imperative clauses that form the introduction to the psalm demand God’s attention. And while some Hebrew language grammarians might call this particular use of the imperative a “jussive,” that is really just a delicate way of labeling the act of giving orders to someone who out-ranks you.

The most important technical term used in the psalm comes towards the beginning of the psalm however, in verse 2. And this is also probably the most innocuous of the worship related terms in the psalm, at least at first blush: the psalmist offers a “prayer.” The psalmist calls his appeal a “prayer.” There are several different terms in the Old Testament for “prayer,” but the Hebrew word used here is by far the most common. What may be telling is that this word is probably related to the word which means “judge” (cf. Exodus 21:22). In a sense, then, prayer is in-and-of-itself an appeal to God as judge. The psalmist directs his speech (an appealing or intercessory prayer) to God the Judge, who will speak in response to the false accusations of the psalmist’s enemies, these “insolent” and “ruthless” ones who have risen against him. “  Karl Jacobson, September 23, 2012 Commentary on Psalm 54 (Working Preacher Blog)

Does it hurt too much to see G*d as the judge of your life? Why do I ask that question? Well, it seems to me that so many people do not like being judged in any capacity, manner or form. How often do I have to hear someone say “Don’t judge me”? Here are some scriptural statements on judging:

Matthew 7:1-5 ESV
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Luke 6:37 ESV
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;”

Sounds like we are told not to judge – though we are called to rebuke. But we are also told to expect that when we do judge, we need to expect the same judgment. I was watching the news the other night when the story about the web site “Ashley Maddison” came up for discussion. This is a website for married people who want to meet other married people for the purpose of having an affair. Someone had “hacked” into the website and threatened to release the names and email addresses of people who use this despicable site if the website did not close down. It was mentioned by one of the news anchors that it would only be a short time until someone who is well known would be “outed” for using this site. And sure enough, in just two days, one of the Duggar boys from the reality TV show was outed as a member of this site. He was quoted as saying “I have been the biggest hypocrite.” He said this because he has been an outspoken advocate for “family values”.

Before we judge others and look for specks in their eyes, we better make sure we have no logs blinding our own judgment. The original meaning of the word “hypocrite” was “an actor on stage who plays a role”. In other words, the hypocrites in the vernacular of Jesus were those (like the religious leaders) who presented themselves in one manner, but actually lived in another manner — like the Duggar boy.

What we must decide is this: Are we acting like a Christian, or are we actually living like a Christian? Do we have room to judge others, or should we be constantly discerning how we are living out the Gospel?

Pastor Dave