I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 18-22.

    Every time I read Psalms 18 it evokes the image of a fantasy movie in my mind. Our protagonist has been trapped by his enemies. They have tied him up and placed him where the rising flood waters will drown him shortly. Even if he were to escape his bonds there are more traps between him and safety, he has no hope of escaping. In his desperation our protagonist cries out to his Protector, the Mighty Wizard King. Far away the Mighty King magically hears our protagonist’s cry. He is furious that anyone would dare attempt to bring harm to one under His protection. The entire palace trembles, even the land outside of it. The Mighty King bursts forth from His palace. Not taking time to saddle a mount, He rides storm clouds summoned by His anger to where our protagonist is trapped, firing arrows (think Legolas from Lord of the Rings, only more devastating) and lightning bolts at our protagonist’s enemies who are standing around watching him drown, scattering those who are not killed. Arriving just in time, the Mighty King reaches out His hand and plucks our protagonist from the rising waters and placed him on a high point safe from the waters.

    After this dramatic scene the psalmist tells us the unalterable characteristics of this Mighty King. He is faithful to those who are faithful. He shows His integrity to those who have integrity. His purity is revealed to those who are pure. But those who seek to take advantage of these characteristics by deceit and trickery discover that He is shrewd enough and wise enough to see through their plots. When they think they have found a loophole they can exploit by appealing to the letter of the Law, in violation of its spirit, they discover that the letter of the Law catches them out elsewhere.

    While not as dramatic, Psalms 19, 20, and 21 paint as magnificent of a picture of how God works in this world as Psalms 18. Through them we learn that following God’s commands and instructions lead to greater happiness and pleasure than can be gained from the sins they warn against. The psalmist makes clear that we do not need great training to understand what God says to us in the Bible. As I have read through the Bible over the last several years, this has become more and more clear to me. From time to time, I come across something which insight can be gained by referring to the original Greek or Hebrew words, but such is not necessary to understand the basic meaning anywhere in the Bible.

    Then there is Psalms 22, which Jesus cited as He died on the cross. Every since I became aware of the rabbinic tradition that quoting the first line or so of a Scripture passage invoked the entire passage I have found Jesus’ citing of it uplifting. The psalmist begins the psalm by expressing complete despair. He feels completely abandoned by God. He has declared his faith in God and now his enemies are mocking him with it. The psalmist is defeated and has no hope of rescue. Yet from this position of complete despair, he makes a further declaration of hope and faith. Despite feeling, and appearing, abandoned by God, he is confident that God will bring him through victorious. It appears that he is going down to defeat for the final time, but he is confident this is not the case. The psalmist declares that in the future he will declare God’s greatness before God’s assembled people. The time will come when he will share the story of what happened here as an example of God’s great power and faithfulness. Despite his feelings of great despair, when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” He was declaring His faith that soon He would be telling people that His death was a reason to praise God. We should have similar hope and faith when we face despair. Jesus cried out so that we would know that it is OK to feel despair when we are in the midst of suffering, but we must not allow that despair to cause us to lose hope.