The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22
Lamentations 3 is very similar to Psalm 102. Jeremiah suffered great affliction but continued to trust God.
Introduction
The title of this psalm is “A prayer of one afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord”. So, this is an example of how we can call out to God when we are distressed.
The psalm does not tell us the occasion for its writing, but some the language indicates it may be written during the exile of Israel in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587-586 B.C. Solomon’s temple, the first temple, was destroyed along with the city.
Those who went into exile lost their homes and possessions. Some of their family and friends died during the invasion or the trip to Babylonia. They were forced to live in a foreign land, subject to the will of their captors. In losing the temple, they lost the ability to practice their religion as they had done. You can see why they were suffering.
The Distress
102:1-11
The psalmist calls out to God, begging him to hear and respond to his prayer of distress. (1-2) He asks this four times: “hear my prayer; let my cry come to you; incline your ear to me; answer me speedily”. The repetition shows his desperation.
His distress has created physical symptoms:
The reason for his suffering is God’s wrath. God has cast him (and maybe all of Israel) aside, evidently due to sin since God’s wrath is involved. We see God’s wrath as the psalmist seeks of God’s indignation and anger. (10) This would match with the suffering in exile. And it could be that the taunting came from the Babylonians who would claim the psalmist’s God was not helping them.
Who The Lord Is
102:12-17
The psalmist turns his focus from his suffering to the character of God. In contrast to the life of the psalmist, which is vanishing, God is eternal and eternally reigning (“enthroned forever”). Because God is eternal and sovereign, his promises cannot fail. And God promised to deliver Israel from captivity when they repented and the duration of their time of punishment was over. (Leviticus 26:40-44)
The psalmist believes God will have compassion\mercy on Israel in exile (“you will arise and have pity on Zion, v.13). He has hope. He might remember the words of the Lord through Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you.” (Jeremiah 29:11-12)
He believes the time has come for him to show favor to Israel. It may be that he, like Daniel, was aware of Jeremiah’s prophesy concerning the length of the exile and believes, as Daniel did, that the time for deliverance is at hand. (Jeremiah 25:11-13 and 29:10)
The psalmist also believes the time will come when the Gentile nations will fear the Lord because he rebuilds Zion. (15) God will appear in glory, meaning his glory is manifested in his deliverance of his people.
But also would apply to the second coming. When Jesus comes to redeem his people, he will also appear in glory. (Matthew 16:27; 24:30)
Hope For The Future
102:18-22
The psalmist believes God will deliver his people, so he wants the psalm written and preserved so future generations will read it, know what God did, and praise him for it.
God did preserve the psalm. We read it today and praise God and we learn how to handle affliction. The apostle Paul wrote:
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)
The Israelites will return to Jerusalem, referred to as Zion, and praise God. This again may point toward the second coming of Christ, for the psalmist says all people will worship God. As Philippians 2:10-11 says, “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.
Prayer For Extended Life
102:23-24a
God shortened the psalmist’s life through suffering, but the psalmist asked God to let him live longer. He does not want to die in exile and wants to see God’s deliverance of his people.
God Is Eternal (Not So The Earth)
102:24b-28
In contrast to the psalmist’s short life, he knows God continues, eternal through all generations. He created the heavens and the earth, but they will eventually cease to exist in their present form. God will change them. (26) and his people will live in his presence: the Israelites when the temple is rebuilt, and all believers in the new heavens and earth. (Revelation 22:3)
The writer of Hebrews quoted these verses and applied them to Christ. (Hebrews 1:10-12) He is eternal. He is with us now, he hears and answers our prayers. In John 14:14, Jesus tells his disciples, "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it”. He will return and deliver us into his presence. (John 14:3)
Takeaways
We can cry out to God when we are afflicted.
We can have confidence that God is willing and able to keep his promises.
The ultimate promise is that we who have come to faith in Christ will be taken to be with him either at death or at his return.
PSALM 101
DAVID’S PLEDGE
Introduction
Psalm 101 is attributed to David in the Hebrew text. The occasion for the psalm is not given, but it is David’s pledge to the Lord to govern righteously. So, he may have written it when he was anointed as king over all Israel. In fact, when David first tried to bring the ark to Jerusalem and failed because he had not observed the Lord’s requirements for it, he said “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?”, words similar to those in verse 2 of this psalm. (2 Samuel 6:9)
So, let’s look at David’s pledge.
First, To Worship God
101:1
David’s first pledge is to worship God. He will praise God for his steadfast love and justice. God’s steadfast, covenantal love for Israel is the basis for their continual existence. He chose them, made them, and provides for them. So, David pledges to acknowledge that in his reign and to praise God for it.
David also acknowledges that God is just and praises him for it. God reigns in justice, establishing righteousness and overthrowing evil. Being attuned to God’s justice will also allow David to rule and judge justly as king. God wants his people to live justly. Micah 6:8 tells us:
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Second, To Live A Holy Life
101:2-4
We see continually in the Bible that our relationship to God is two fold: we worship him and we live holy lives to please him. David pledges to do the same.
To pursue holiness, David ponders that which is blameless. He will study God’s word and conform his life to it. He will know the moral law summarized in the 10 commandments. He will be the blessed man of Psalm 1:2 whose delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He will also find what is unholy in his life and remove it. (2)
He will also seek God’s presence (“come to me”) in prayer and meditation on the Word. David’s psalms, addressed to God, are prayers. It is the experience of God’s presence that gives the believer strength in faith, hope, and peace of mind.
David also pledges to walk with integrity within his own household. A hypocrite shows himself to be righteous in public, but reveals himself to be wicked in his own household. There is no better compliment that to have your spouse and your children recognize your integrity. There is no greater harm to your spouse and children than to be a hypocrite.
David then gets specific. He will not look anything that is worthless. What we see on a regular basis affects our thoughts and actions. R. C. Sproul once said a man does not fall all at once, it happens a little at a time. And that often happens by seeing, thinking, and acting in small things that are unholy, a little at a time.
David proved this himself later in life when he sinned with Bathsheba. His act of looking at her bathing led to grievous sins of lying, adultery, and murder. It damaged him spiritually and adversely affected his reign as king.
Here is a contemporary example. In our time, looking at pornography has become an epidemic. It is estimated that 67% of American men and 41% of American women view online porn each year. The website Pornhub alone reported more than 2 billion visits in a single month in 2023.
Even if not pornographic, television shows, movies, articles, and books that glorify, or normalize, unholy sexual relationships can affect how you think of them and lead to temptation. In contrast, reading, studying, and meditating on God’s word always builds up your faith and guides you into holiness.
David will also not follow those who fall away from faith and obedience and develop perverse hearts, in order that he may avoid evil. David, as king, will seek holiness and cultivate it among his people. (4)
Third, He Will Establish Righteous Standards For The Community
101:5-8
David listed the things he will not tolerate in the community of the righteous: slander, haughtiness and arrogance, deceit, lying. (5,7) He will destroy wickedness and exclude evil doers from the community. (8)
He will, however, give favor to those who are faithful and live in obedience to God. Those are the people he will allow to serve him as he rules the people.
Takeaways
When David reigned with these principles, he reigned successfully. When he ceased to do so, he failed spectacularly.
We can apply David’s standards to the one who leads his family.
We can apply these standards to the one who leads a church.
In order to understand the sanctification of the believers properly, one must see clearly that Christ is our sanctification in the same sense that He is our righteousness. He is a perfect and adequate Savior; He does not accomplish His work in part only, but actually and perfectly saves us; and He does not leave off His work until He has caused us to share fully in eternal life and the heavenly blessedness. By His righteousness, therefore, He not only restores us to the state of the righteous, of those who stand free in the judgment of God, in order for the rest to leave the matter in our own hands, so that, so to speak, we ourselves now proceed to earn eternal life by doing good works and conforming ourselves to the image of God; no, Christ also finishes all this work for us. He bore the guilt and penalty of sin for us, and He also kept the law for us and earned eternal life. His obedience was both passive and active, and it was both at the same time.
Bavinck, H. (2016). Our Reasonable Faith (H. Zylstra, Trans.; p. 455). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD - GOD IS ETERNAL
The first words we read in the Bible are “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1). So, the first thing we learn about God is he is eternal. He has always existed. He has no beginning. He will always exist.
But Genesis 1 is not the only place the Bible presents God as eternal. It consistently states that God is eternal. For example, Isaiah 57:15 says He (God) is the “High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity”. He transcends time.
Psalm 90:2 says “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God”.
Charles Ryrie wrote: “The attribute of eternity means that God exists endlessly. His existence extends endlessly backward and forward (from our viewpoint of time) without any interruption or limitation caused by succession of events.”
God has always existed. He will always exist. He will always be there.
Since God is eternal, his love is eternal. He has always been a God of love. He always will be.
PSALM 100
This psalm has a title as part of the Hebrew text: “A Psalm For Giving Thanks”. It is a call to worship God in thankfulness.
Sometimes a Bible translation will give titles to the psalms, but they are not part of the Hebrew text. The translation editors put them there to help you understand the meaning and purpose of the psalm.
For example, Crossway puts a heading on this psalm for the English Standard Version that says “His Steadfast Love Endures Forever”. But the titles inserted by the editors are not scripture. Only the titles in the Hebrew text are scripture.
This psalm is also considered the last of the enthronement psalms by many commentators, although it does not explicitly mention God’s reign. It does speak of believers being God’s people.
The Call To Joyful Worship
100:1-2
The psalm begins with a call to worship. The command is to make a joyful noise to the Lord, literally to “shout for joy”. It calls for exuberance in worship.
The psalms are full of calls for joy in the worship of God. In fact, that instruction resounds throughout the Bible. So, this instruction is not about ritual, but about attitude. We should not come before the Lord grudgingly, as something we do just because we are supposed to, but with joy that leads us to shout, sing, and worship when we come into his presence. Philippians 4:4 tells us to rejoice in the Lord. Paul actually says it twice in that verse for emphasis.
“Serve” in this context is to participate in the worship of those assembled. That is how we get to our term “worship service”. Reading the bulletin, thinking about work, surfing on your phone, or otherwise distracting yourself is not serving the Lord with gladness.
Notice that the call for worship here is not limited to believers, but to all of the earth. All are commanded to worship God with joy. In Psalm 46:10, God says “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” We may not see that happen in our lifetime, but the church should certainly model it for the world.
Who God Is & Who We Are
100:3
Our joyful worship of God begins with knowing who he is. The psalmist declares that YHWH (“LORD”) is God. There is a god and he is it. There are no others. That is why we are commanded to worship only him. He is who he says he is in the Bible and we are not to redefine him.
God made his people and they are his. The psalmist meant Israel by this. The Lord called them “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made”. (Isaiah 43:7)
Those who have come to God through Christ are God’s people. He made us in the sense that he chose us and set us apart for himself. (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 2:9. ) That is part of what sanctification is: being set apart for God’s purposes.
Because God made us, we are his. God reigns over us. He may use us as he pleases. But, he also assumes responsibility for us. We are the sheep of his pasture, meaning he is the owner and shepherd. He owns us, but he also guides us and protects us. Knowing these facts should lead us to joyful worship and service.
Entering His Presence With Thanksgiving
100:4
We are to come into God’s presence with thankful hearts expressed by giving thanks with our mouths. This addresses both our attitude and actions. We are to be thankful and to give thanks.
The imagery here is of the temple in Jerusalem. Worshipers entered the temple complex through gates and stopped in the courts surrounding the temple to worship. They could not come into the temple itself.
Those who are in Christ may now enter into God’s presence without the barriers of gates or walls. We have Christ as our mediator and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Reasons For Praise
100:5
The character of God leads us to thanksgiving and praise. Three attributes of God are mentioned here: (1) God is good; (2) his steadfast love for his people endures forever; and (3) his faithfulness also lasts forever. It never fails.
This psalm inspired the writing of a hymn for the 1551 Gneva Psalter. It was referred to as the Old Hundredth. It set the words of the psalm to a tune. The Baptist Hymnal included it under the name “All People That On Earth Do Dwell”, the first words of the hymn. Today we sing the tune to what we call “The Doxology”.
Takeaways
God is worthy of our worship and entitled to it.
We are to worship joyfully.
If we are not worshipping joyfully, we need to examine ourselves to find out why, then repent and do whatever else is necessary to do what God commands.
