Psalm 78:1-8

My people, hear my teaching;
    listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable;
    I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
3 things we have heard and known,
    things our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
    we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
    his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
    and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
    to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
    even the children yet to be born,
    and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
    and would not forget his deeds
    but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their ancestors—
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
    whose spirits were not faithful to him.
 

This psalm recounts the history of Israel from its deliverance from Egypt to the kingship of David. Its negative lesson is that this history not be repeated in the lives of the listeners. The positive lesson is that believers be marked by true faith. We should not just know the truth about who God is but must trust him from the heart and show this  saving faith through a changed life of obedience. Throughout history many have honored God with external behavior but failed to have converted hearts (Isaiah 29:13; Jeremiah 4:4). Are you just going through the motions of religion, or have you been born again (John 3:1-16)?

Psalm 73:21-23

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

The antitoxin for envy and self-pity is humility. The psalmist first saw that his sin hurt him and then that it hurt others, but finally he sees he has been as arrogant toward God as the people he despised. There is in us a fierce, instinctive self-will as unthinking and inhuman as that of a wild beast. Augustine remembered stealing pears only because it was forbidden. Deep in us something snarls, "No one tells me what to do." Only by admitting this darkness within can the glorious word of grace - "yet" dawn on him (v.23). God never let him go. Only when we see the depth of our sin will we be electrified by the wonder of grace.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 73:15-20

If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.

The first step out of the sinkhole of resentment and envy is worship. The psalmist enters the sanctuary, and in the presence of the true God his sight clears and he begins to get a long-term perspective (vv. 16-17). He realizes that the rich without God are on their way to being eternally poor; the celebrities without God are on their way to being endlessly ignored (vv. 18-19). Without the confines of a dream, you may be very intimidated by some powerful being, but as soon as you wake, you laugh at its impotence to harm your real life. All the world's power and wealth are like a dream. They can neither enhance nor ruin a Chrisrian's deepest identity, happiness, and inheritance.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 73:1014

Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?” This is what the wicked are like—always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.

What have I gotten out of it? 

The psalmist concludes that a good life has not brought him wealth or freedom from troubles (verse 12) and therefore has been "in vain" (verse 13). But this unmasks his heart. His obedience was not a way of pleasing God but rather a means of getting God to please him. When we sat to God, "I'll serve you only if X happens," then it is X that we love, and God is just a necessary apparatus for obtaining it. The shock of this admission begins to clear his mind. In every difficult circumstance we may hear God saying to us: "Now we will see if you came to me to get me to serve you or so that you could serve me."

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 72:8-14

May he rule from sea to sea and from the River[a] to the ends of the earth. May the desert tribes bow before him and his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and of distant shores bring tribute to him. May the kings of Sheba and Seba present him gifts. May all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him. For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.

Healing the Nations

The races and nations - always at war with one another - now offer themselves in service (vv 10-11), not because they have been conquered but rather because they have been attracted like a magnet by the perfect justice and compassion of this king (vv. 12-14). No earthly king has ever been like this. This healing of racial strife and the elimination of poverty and injustice are the marks of God's kingdom, but governments, even the best ones, don't come close. Yet when Jesus was born, gifts were offered from afar (Matthew 2:1-12), and when the church was established, the races began to be unified (Ephesians 2:11-22) and the needy helped (Acts 2:44-45, 4:32-36). The kingdom of God had entered history.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 72:1-7

Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. May he judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. May the mountains bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. May he defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; may he crush the oppressor.  May he endure[a] as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations. May he be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. In his days may the righteous flourish and prosperity abound till the moon is no more.

Only if you have experienced life in a country in which the state is corrupt and the rule of law has failed can you appreciate the blessing of good government. The great king depicted here brings social justice to the poor and the marginalized. The economy thrives because of good stewardship of assets and the deep trust among people that is necessary for commerce. God is a God who is deeply concerned about these things. But the heading says this is a psalm of "Solomon," and even he, David's son, became an oppressor of his people (1 Kings 12:4). So the psalm provokes us to long for a better king than the best government has ever been.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

Psalm 122

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”  Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up— the tribes of the Lord— to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel.  There stand the thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure.  May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.” For the sake of my family and friends,   I will say, “Peace be within you.”  For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity.

Those attending the annual festivals approached Jerusalem with joy! They loved the city and prayed for its flourishing. What Jerusalem was to the ancient Jews the church is to believers in Christ. When we come to faith in Christ, we become citizens in the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22-24; Philippians 3:20). The manifestation of that heavenly (and future) city is the counterculture of the Christian church, a society where the world can see human life lived according to God's will. Through the Gospel, different races and nations are "closely compacted together" (Ephesians 2:11-22). People who would never get along outside the church love one another inside it. We must joyfully seek out the church; the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,