Sometimes when reading psalms it is
beneficial to remember that we are reading poetry. Perhaps that seems a little obvious, but too
often we try to read poetry the same way we read prose – at least, I know I do. I read and think, “What’s the point
here? What message am I supposed to get
from the text? What is this word
communicating?”
Poetry is not purely about
communication. It’s also about
communion. Poetry makes us slow down,
read it again, spend some time, and soak in the words. Biblical poetry slows us down to rest in the
LORD, and to commune
with Him. This psalm is less about
teaching us doctrine than it is about revealing our need for God in every
aspect of our lives. We read and slow
down from our breakneck pace of life. We
spend time with God, and God spends time with us. We are refreshed and our lives are filled
with real, God-given, life.
Having slowed down, we extol the LORD. The Hebrew word means to lift something
up. We are exalting God, lifting Him up –
not because He needs us to extol or exalt Him, He is glorious in and of
Himself, but we want to recognize Him as such and have Him in the proper place
in our lives. Interestingly, we lift God
up in praise because he drew us up – like Moses being rescued from the Nile or
Peter being saved from the waves on the Sea of Galilee. Our praise is always tied to the salvation
Jesus won for us!
But where have we been drawn up from? The language of the psalm is not that of
water, but of the grave. Depending on
what translation you are using it will either say that God, “brought up my soul
from,” either the grave or from Sheol.
Sheol is just the Hebrew word for where dead people go. There is not value assigned to it like Heaven
or Hell. It is simply the place of the dead.
Pause on that thought for a moment. God drew us up, brought us up from Sheol, and
restored our lives from going down to the pit.
That must mean we were dead. Indeed,
verse 5 points us in that direction speaking of God’s anger flaring in a
moment, while His favor lasts a lifetime.
Verse 7 asks what profit there is in the death of a sinner. We know that death is the consequence for
sin and God will not tolerate sin.
I see a beautiful picture here of Ephesians 2
being meditated upon here. We were dead
in our trespasses and sins, but now God has raised us up in Jesus. He drew us up from the depths of death and
has made us alive in His mercy and grace.
While we were dead, we were objects of God’s wrath, self-secure, saying
to the world, God, and anyone who would listen, “I shall never be moved!” While in truth, the only security and strength
we had was because of the LORD’s favor. We only know that truth
because of the new life we have been given in Jesus. We are bold to cry out, “O LORD, be merciful
to me! Be my helper!” because we know
that is His true desire in dealing with us.
The motif we are dealing with here is that of
moving from death to life. Does that
seems backwards? We usually talk about
matters of life and death. Not so with
our faith. As we deal with God in terms
of sin and salvation it is very much a matter of death and life. We have been made alive! Our mourning has been turned to dancing! The clothes of sorrow have been exchanged for
gladness, and this great exchange gives God glory. What he has done in our lives brings Him
praise. We praise Him, and those who see
His salvation at work in us praise Him, too.
O God, my God, how amazing and wonderful You are! While I was dead in my sin, You drew me up
and made me alive. Be glorified in me,
and use my life as a testimony that You desire to save sinners. Amen.
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