Summer Reading, part thirteen

Do you like to listen to sad songs when you’re sad? Songwriters know how to bring us to tears with an emotional ballad. We listen and cry along, and maybe identify with the person in the ballad.

David wrote psalms or songs which told of his many problems. Psalm 69:3 tells us woefully, “I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.” Psalm 69:20, also woeful, tells us, “Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.”

David also wrote Psalm 69:30, “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.”  Verses 3 and 20 sound like someone in the midst of trouble, but verse 30 seems different. What changed?

Nothing changed. David praised God before, during, and after trouble came. Having trouble in his life didn’t make David stop praising God.

David kept telling those around him about God’s presence in his life. He sang about his relationship with God. He wrote about it. He did this even though he knew that praising God wasn’t going to keep him out of trouble. He knew that when trouble came, God would be there for him, as he described in Psalm 71:3, “Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go.” Psalm 71 is another example of David giving God praise in the midst of trouble. Psalm 71:14 tells us, “As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.”

Psalm 72 continues David’s praises to God. We can see in these verses how full of love for God David’s heart is. He ended this psalm with verse 19, “Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.” And then verse 20 tells us, “This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.”

Next time we’ll cover Psalms 73 through 79. Happy reading!