While this psalm doesn't specifically mention the word "hased," the covenant love of the LORD, it is the theme of this song.  Also, the psalm says what many people (even secular people) admit--Israel's history doesn't make sense without the LORD's intervention and the constant and continual salvation that He provides.  It is such an obvious proof for the existence and active involvement of the LORD that Atheists have to dismiss Israel's history as fables and fairy tales and say that the books of Genesis and Exodus couldn't have really happened the way that they did with the miraculous events that were described, nor could such a small group of people conquered armies with such overwhelmingly military superiority.  Israel should have been utterly defeated and wiped out 100-times over (at least) were it not for the LORD's intervention.  We've even seen total genocide against the Jews in places like the book of Esther that failed and in more modern history we've seen the genocide against Jews (and Christians) by the Nazis and Communists fail too.  Now we are at another time in history where another genocide was attempted and failed--the attacks on Israel from Gaza on October 7th, 2023. by Hamas terrorist with the goal of killing all Jews that they found living in the land of Israel. We say we will never forget, but history tells us otherwise, which is why I recorded the date here in this blog so that when we get to the place where we say, "What is he talking about that happened on October 7th, 2023?" we can go back and look it up.  If the LORD was not with Israel on these days, and every day, Israel would not be a people or a nation today.

This should lead the people of Israel to praise the LORD and worship Him with gladness, for He is their Redeemer and Savior (in even greater ways than they realize, for He has not only saved them from their physical enemies, but their spiritual ones through the substitutionary atonement that Jesus provided through His death on a cross, burial in a borrowed tomb, and resurrection on the third day).  The LORD has allowed the people of Israel to escape from all the snares that have been set for them and often turned those very snares against the people who set them so that they fell into their own traps and snares (like Haman being hanged on the very gallows that he meant to use to hang Mordecai).

​Our help and hope (both as Jews and Christians) are in the Name of the LORD--the Redeemer, Defender, and Savior of His people!  He is the one that spoke creation into existence out of nothing--if He can do that, we know that nothing is too hard for the LORD.  We also know that he took us when we were "nothing" and made us something.  We were dead and He made us alive in Christ through the power of the gospel.  He continues to fight for, defend and preserve His people and the Spirit will present us holy and blameless to the Father and Son on the Day of the LORD, for the LORD is faithful to keep us for "Nothing will snatch them out of My hand."

This also is a song of ascents.  As the people were climbing the mountain to visit the Temple (though the Temple didn't exist yet when David wrote this, but he had made the plans for it), they had no choice but to look up and see the Temple, for it was the biggest and brightest building there.  It would have easily been mistaken for the palace as usually the biggest building belonged to the king, and in this case, it did--the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The Temple of the LORD was one of the wonders of the world, yet that is not where He lived.  No Temple could contain Him.  He sits enthroned in the heavens (the entire universe cannot contain Him).  So, while the people literally lifted their eyes up to the Temple, we may literally or figuratively lift our eyes up to the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth, when we are in distress and need help.

We are but servants looking to our Master for help.  We have no resources with which to help ourselves, but He has infinite power and resources at His disposal.  He loves us and cares for us even in our state of poverty and impotence.  He loves to save His people when they call on Him for aid.  All we need to do like Peter was sinking in the sea is cry out, "Lord, save me!" and He will.

The LORD has mercy on us--showing pity and favor to those who are undeserving of it.  We are deeply in need of His compassion, grace and mercy.  Without them, the cross of Christ would have never happened.  Everyone else sees us as contemptable for what we are, but the LORD sees us as what He wants to make us to be--the image of His Son, Jesus, whom He loves and in whom He is well-pleased.  The rich, powerful and proud can insult and jeer all they want because it is not their opinion that counts.  The LORD has given us a new identity and has lifted us up from our lowly estate.  Therefore, the world and the devil may no longer make accusations against us or slander us to the face of the LORD.  He will not listen to them because our identity is in Christ and based off of who He is and what He has done, not in who we were and what we have done.  The one who wrote the books has blotted out all of our transgressions and all that remains is that our name is in the Lamb's Book of Life, and that is all that needs to be seen.  Christ will claim us as His own and we will be glorified so that we will be without trace or stain or sin.

David said it made his heart glad to hear people say, "Let's go up to Jerusalem" (to worship before the LORD there).  While the Temple was not built yet in the time of David, the Ark of the Covenant resided in Jerusalem for a while in a tent that David set up for it, and the priests and musicians ministered before it.  There were also other priests that ministered before the LORD's Altar and the Tabernacle that were set up elsewhere, but this passage refers to people wanting to come worship before the LORD in Jerusalem.  Soon, all the Jewish people would come to Jerusalem to worship together at least three times a year, and this would be one of the songs that they would sing as they were making the journey up to Jerusalem--for it was on the top of a tall mountain.  You will always see the Bible referring as someone going "up" to Jerusalem because they are going up in elevation and "down" when going away from Jerusalem as they are going down in elevation.

Jerusalem holds a special place for the people--it is the place where the LORD put his Name and His Presence, and it is also the place where He established the throne for His princes to rule from (I say princes, because the LORD Himself is the King of the people, and that is how the LORD refers to David and his sons--as princes).

Since this is such a special place for God's people (and they had no idea the significance that Jerusalem held in the eternal plan of salvation nor that the coming kingdom would be called The New Jerusalem) that we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem which can only happen when The Prince of Peace reigns in majesty from His throne--the throne of David--which is located there.  Right now, there is anything but peace in Jerusalem as the world and the devil hate what the LORD loves, and there is a coordinated effort by the evil powers of this world to try to destroy the City of God and the people of God so that the LORD will not be able to keep His covenant promises to His people.  Because of what Jesus did on the cross there in Jerusalem Jews and Gentiles alike can have the peace of God and can have peace with God right now, even with all the wars raging around us and people vying for control over the Holy Land and Jerusalem specifically.  We join with David to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that God's plan for His city and His people would come to fruition soon and very soon.  Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!

The LORD is not like man who is corruptible, and often makes promises they cannot keep.  God is always present, always faithful, and always able to save those who cry out to Him for help.  The one who has the power to speak all of creation into existence out of nothing is the one with the power to deal with any "impossible" situation we run into.  Nothing seems more impossible at this point in the Bible than creating something from nothing, so it is why the act of creation is often used to tell us that God is big enough and powerful enough to handle anything that can come our way.

God does not rest, sleep or slumber.  We see Elijah joke about this with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel when he taunts them saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” (1 Kings 18:27).  Of course, Elijah was saying this in jest because the false gods of the Canaanites didn't even exist--at best, we can say that they worshiped demons that pretended to be gods but had no power of their own other than that which was given to them by God when He created them.  The LORD has always been and is uncreated.  He has no need for rest or slumber, though He rested on the seventh day as a pattern for us because He wanted us to rest on the seventh day and make it holy so that it would be a day to remember His as Creator and Redeemer and Savior--a day set aside for worshiping Him both corporately and individually.

The LORD is at the position of power--the right hand.  He is there to defend us and protect us.  He is there to support us when we are weak, and He is able to keep us from all evil and all harm that would come our way.  In our comings and in our goings both now and forevermore (both in this world and in eternity to come) we rest in the LORD and the eternal security that He provides.  We are safe in Him, and nothing can snatch us from His hand.

This starts a portion of Psalms called the Psalms of Ascent.  These are psalms that the people would sing as they climbed Mount Zion to go to the Temple, specifically during their pilgrimages to celebrate the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.  Many of them focus on themes of salvation and so the people should have been in the right mindset when coming to these feasts that told portions of the gospel story, yet they became so commonplace that the people often missed the meaning of the words they were singing (much like how we can sing songs in church and never really think about what we're singing).

Why was the psalmist in distress?  This time it was not because of a physical enemy that was about to kill him, but it was because the psalmist had to live among people with dishonest, lying lips, or maybe because the psalmist himself struggled with deceitfulness and lying and needed to be personally delivered from that sin that so easily ensnared him.

I think it's the last option here as we see the psalmist speaking to the deceitful tongue as if it is his own tongue he is speaking to.  Not only is the tongue that is controlled by the flesh quick to lie, but also it is quick to injure others.  James tells us that if any man can control his tongue, he is a perfect man, and that the tongue is full of poison and is set on fire by hell itself.

The psalmist laments that he has made his dwelling place among the wicked and now he has started to become like them.  "Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good character."  The psalmist has made his dwelling among men who love violence and war and are quick to destroy other men with their words and with their weapons of war.  The psalmist wants to be for peace, but those around him want to wage war.

Ultimately, the Temple is a place where the people would come to make peace with God and each other.  It would be a place to confess these kinds of sins and the time of confession started as they took the journey up the mountain and could see Jerusalem and the Temple there.  They came with unclean hands and unclean hearts and did not deserve for the LORD to accept their sacrifices, yet year after year He did.  However, the LORD wanted His people to be different than the wicked nations around them that lied and made war with no thought of truth or peace.  They were to be the people of the LORD and they were therefore not only to be known by His name, but also live lives in line with His characteristics and attributes.  We see that the psalmist here realizes he is not walking in the path that was just described in Psalm 119.

We've gone from the shortest chapter in the Bible to the middle chapter in the Bible, and now we have the longest chapter in the Bible (Psalm 117, 118, and 119 respectively).  I've covered Psalm 119 in the past by looking at each individual heading which corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  Each line of these verses for the song starts with these letters.  However, there is a common theme to the entire psalm, and that's what I'm going to try to cover in this article.  

First, let's talk about the general theme of the psalm--the Law of the LORD.  We use different words for the Law here--commandments, precepts, statutes, and so on, but this all comes back to how the Law is a good and perfect reflection of the God who gave us that Law and how the Law is meant to keep us from stumbling and obedience to the Law brings blessing.  You probably know several of the verses from this psalm, but they do not give the full picture.  The psalmist has a different view of the Law than most of us, and that is why I have written about this psalm in the past.  The psalmist loves the Law because he loves the Lawgiver.  Because of the LORD's steadfast lover for the psalmist that has saved him, he loves to obey the LORD.  So, I challenge you to read and meditate on this psalm and on the Law of the LORD.  Make it your delight and think of it like something sweeter than honey from the honeycomb like the psalmist did.  Both Law and Grace reveal the LORD to us, and without the Law, man doesn't see his need for salvation.  Therefore, like the psalmist, we should hide the words of the Law in our hearts, so that we might not sin against the LORD.  We should let the word of God (especially His Law) be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.  We should have his words written on our hearts and we should meditate on them, sing them, and joyfully share them with others.  These are the words that tell us who the LORD is and what He requires of us--requirements that we cannot possibly meet, but He has still made a way for us in His grace and mercy that are revealed, even in the Law.

Like I said before, there is too much here for just one article, but I'll most likely come back to this chapter against and again as I love to see how the psalmist (probably David) loved the Word of God, especially the Law of the LORD, and all that was rooted in the steadfast love he had received from the LORD.  He knew everything that the LORD gave to us was good and perfect because the LORD Himself is good and perfect, so if we break the Law, it is not the Law that is broken, but us who are broken.  Let us cry out with the psalmist to ask the LORD to teach us His ways, so that we might walk in His truth and be wholly devoted to Him.

By most people's definition, this is the "middle chapter" in the Bible and while I have a hard time saying that was God's intent as the Psalms were towards the end of the TNK (the Jewish Scriptures with three divisions--the Torah or Law (T), the Prophets (N), and the Writings (K), it is interesting to have this Psalm at the center of our bibles, but the steadfast love (hased​) of the LORD is a central theme from Genesis to Revelation.  Some even focus on verse 8 as the "central verse," " It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man."  It may or may not be at the center of our Bibles, but that's a good verse for all of us to memorize alongside the main theme of this chapter, "His steadfast love endures forever"--in fact, that has been the refrain for many of the psalms and were the words the people would respond with as the priests called out all the reasons why the LORD was greatly to be praised.  It was a call for the people to participate in the exaltation of the LORD as they came to offer sacrifices before Him.  Why did they do that?  It wasn't just because of their sin that needed atonement, but they came to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to the LORD as well.

That is why the psalm starts off with calling the House of Israel (those in the congregation in the Tabernacle or Temple) and the House of Aaron (those leading worship in the Tabernacle or Temple) and all God-fearing people, including God-fearing Gentiles who would be worshiping in the outer court to lift up their voices and praise the LORD with this song.  

The psalmist (probably David) says that he gives praise to the LORD for His deliverance, especially in times where the situation looked impossible from man's perspective.  The psalmist was in distress and cried out to the LORD for help, and the LORD set him free.  The psalmist is confident to say "The LORD is on my side" and then concludes, "What can man do to me?" (That's a rhetorical question with the assumed answer of "Only what the LORD allows").  "The LORD is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me."  That is to say, the LORD's victory is sure, and no one can take the things away from us that the LORD has promised to us.  Even death cannot separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (see Romans 8).

Then a lesson that I wish the kings of Israel and Judah would have paid attention to.  It would have saved them and their citizens from so much trouble--it is better to trust in the LORD (and the promises that He has made and must fulfil to His people) than to trust in the size of your army or the size of the armies of other nations that you ally with to try to make a stronger army than that of your enemies.  In the last days, all the armies of the world will march against the Lord and His people, but it will be the Lord Himself that will destroy all of them.  The Son of God against all of His enemies, and He will (and must) be victorious over all of them.  By the word of His mouth, they will be dashed to pieces before Him.

Though the Gentile nations of the world surround Israel to try to take the Land and other blessings that that the LORD gives to them that only belong to them, the psalmist (again, probably David) says he will stand firm and fight the battle that the LORD has given him.  Even though from worldly standards, he looks outnumbered and has weaker weapons of war, he has the LORD on his side and can't possibly lose if the LORD fights for His people.  The enemies of the LORD will be cut off.  It may take all of the psalmist's physical strength to fight, but he will obey the LORD and trust the LORD to give him the strength necessary to do what He has commanded.

This leads us to praise the LORD for who He is and what He has done, "The LORD is my strength and my [victory] song.  He has become my salvation."  The encampments of the armies of Israel break out in song when the LORD delivers them with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.  The LORD is mighty to save.

We also know the LORD loves us, because He disciplines His children, though not in the same way that He pours out His wrath on HIs enemies.  We know his correction is not for our destruction, but for our good.  The LORD corrects and disciplines His children because He loves them.

Even when we look death in the face, we need not fear because our salvation is not just from the men of this world, but the LORD provides salvation from our spiritual enemies of sin and death, and He will deliver us to an even better Promised Land of the New Heavens and the New Earth that are being prepared for all of us.  The psalmist (again, probably David) asks the LORD to keep the gates open for him because he knows that death is on the horizon.  Then there is Messianic prophecy slipped in about the stone that the builders rejected becoming the chief cornerstone which refers to how our ultimate salvation would be provided through a Messian that Hsi own people would reject.  Salvation is found in no other name for Jews and Gentiles alike, and there is but one Way to the Father, and that is through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

​21 I thank you that you have answered me
    and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone.
23 This is the LORD's doing;
    it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the LORD has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Amen to that!  The salvation of our souls is the greatest thing that we give thanks for, and it is all the LORD's doing.  It is marvelous (and mysterious) in our eyes.  It is foolishness to those who have not experienced it, yet it is His perfect plan to redeem a people to Himself for His good pleasure and to the praise of His glory.  The "day" being referred to is the day that our faith becomes sight.  We will rejoice and be glad even in that day when we leave the world behind.  For the psalmist, that was by way of death and entering into Paradise to await a future day of even better blessing.  For us today, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and some of us may not even have to taste death if the Lord returns for His people soon in what we call "The Rapture" (The "Catching Up" of the saints that is described in several places in the Scriptures).

The psalmist is in a desperate situation.  Everything he just said is true, and he therefore cries out, "Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!"

Then comes another Messianic portion of the psalm.  The Messiah will come and defeat all His enemies as we've described.  The psalm points to this when it says, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!"  These are the words used by the people to welcome Jesus on His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, for they believed that the words of this psalm were being fulfilled, that He was bringing salvation to them.  He was, but not the kind they expected.  They expected the first half of the psalm to be fulfilled which spoke of a military victory won by a king who led his people into battle against the Gentile nations.  However, they missed the part in the middle about salvation from sin and death and delivering His people to eternal life.  This was the better salvation that the LORD Himself provided by giving us the Son of God.  He is the festival sacrifice (the Passover Lamb) that would be bound with cords and offered on an altar of the cross of crucifixion.  At the very time that the Passover Lambs were being offered in the Temple, He gave us His life for us and said, "It is finished."  (The debt was paid in full, and all that was necessary for our salvation had been accomplished).

For this reason, we will praise and extol Him forever and ever!  The psalm then finishes with the same line it started with, "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!"  We thought we had reason to sing to him in the beginning of the psalm because of the ways in which He physically saved them during military campaigns fought in this real, but we have even better reasons to praise Him for the victory He has secured for us in the heavenly places!  He will deliver His people to a new and better Promised Land where the Curse will be reversed, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4).  If that doesn't give you reason to praise Him, then I don't know what will!