Psalm 23
 

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

God has a celebration meal with us not after we finally get out of the dark valley but in the middle of it, in the presence of our enemies. He wants us to rejoice in him in the midst of our troubles. Is our shepherd out of touch with reality? Hardly. Jesus is the only shepherd who knows what it is like to be a sheep (John 10:11). He understands what we are going through and will be with us every step of the way, even through death itself, where "all other guides turn back" (Romans 8:39).

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 69:19-21

You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

David is suffering without relief despite his prayers. Suddenly there is a startling reminder of Jesus - how on the cross he was scorned, disgraced, and shamed, helpless, friendless, and offered vinegar to drink (John 19:28-29). Jesus knew - and knows still - the pain of unanswered prayer when he asked if another way could be found to save us besides the agony of the cross (Luke 22:42). God answered that prayer by saying, in effect, "There is no other way to save them...If they are to be saved, I must not save you." This not only answers the question: Is there another way to be saved besides Jesus? (No.) It is also the ultimate comfort when we sense no answer to our prayers.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 68:32-35

Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth, sing praise to the Lord, to him who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens, who thunders with a mighty voice. Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the heavens. You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God.

This final chorus of praise is characterized by almost uncontainable excitement, one of the marks of true worship. It also exhibits the two poles between which Biblical worship incessantly moves - awe and intimacy. While it reasserts the cosmic power of God, it names him still the God of Israel, no diffused and faceless deity. The psalm bears witness to its grasp of this reality, this union of immense power and intense care, the God whose majesty is over Israel and His power is in the skies. If our prayer life discerns God only as lofty, it will be cold and fearful - if it discerns God only as a spirit of love, it will be only sentimental.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 68:24-31

Your procession, God, has come into view, the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary. In front are the singers, after them the musicians; with them are the young women playing the timbrels. Praise God in the great congregation; praise the Lord in the assembly of Israel. There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them, there the great throng of Judah’s princes, and there the princes of Zebulun and of Naphtali. Summon your power, God; show us your strength, our God, as you have done before. Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring you gifts. Rebuke the beast among the reeds, the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations. Humbled, may the beast bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in war. Envoys will come from Egypt; Cush[b] will submit herself to God.

Our God will one day be worshipped by people from all nations, not because we vanquished them but because God overcame their rebellious hearts. The international assembly never happened at the physical temple in Jerusalem. Only in Jesus - the final temple uniting a holy God with sinful humanity (John 2:18-22) through his final sacrifice - have people from all nations be drawn together. Jesus says that prayer in his house should unite all nations (Mark 11:17), and indeed, as depicted in this psalm, nothing unites people across racial and cultural barriers like prayer and praise. Even language differences can be overcome in such assemblies. God's worship is the key to healing the divisions of the human race.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 68:19-23
 

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
    who daily bears our burdens.
Our God is a God who saves;
    from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.
Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies,
    the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins.
The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan;
    I will bring them from the depths of the sea,
that your feet may wade in the blood of your foes,
    while the tongues of your dogs have their share.”

Here is a God we long to hear more about: who "daily bears our burdens" and provides a way to escape death. To bear someone else's burdens is to sympathize, identify with, and become involved in the person's life so they do not have to face it alone. In Christ, God literally identified with us, becoming human, bearing not only the sufferings of mortality but also the judgment we deserve for sin, a weight that literally crushed him (Isaiah 53:4-5; Luke 22:41-44). Death used to be just an executioner, but for those in Christ it is now a gardener, "an usher to convey our souls beyond the utmost stars and poles."

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 68:7-18

When you, God, went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance. Your people settled in it, and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor. The Lord announces the word, and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng: “Kings and armies flee in haste; the women at home divide the plunder. Even while you sleep among the sheep pens, the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold.” When the Almighty[c] scattered the kings in the land, it was like snow fallen on Mount Zalmon. Mount Bashan, majestic mountain, Mount Bashan, rugged mountain, why gaze in envy, you rugged mountain, at the mountain where God chooses to reign, where the Lord himself will dwell forever? The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands; the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary. When you ascended on high, you took many captives; you received gifts from people, even from the rebellious—that you, Lord God, might dwell there.

This commemorates the exodus and the journey to the promised land. God fought for his people and ascended his throne when the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the tabernacle on Mount Zion (2 Samuel 6:12,17). Paul saw this as a picture of a greater ascension in which Christ delivers us from sin and death and then shares with us the gifts of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:7-16; Acts 2:33). We activate these gifts by using the Bible as a weapon in our warfare with temptation and doubt (Ephesians 6:10-20). If we do, we will find that God still fights for us.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 68:1-6

May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; may his foes flee before him.  May you blow them away like smoke—as wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God. But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

In the world "the strong eat the weak," as the saying goes. But God's strength is seen in his care for the weak, so we should be famous for sacrificially loving the poor and marginalized. This reflects the Gospel itself, for God does not call people to earn salvation by strength. He came in weakness to die for us, to save those who admit their spiritual helplessness. God also created people to thrive best in families (Genesis 2:21-25). But for those without spouse, parent, or children there is God's family, the church (Mark 3:31-35), united by the common "life blood" of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 4:4-6), providing fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and children (1 Timothy 5:1-2) for the lonely.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,