Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 17 (May 8, 2025)

May 8, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 17

Good morning my dear Bible Study friends. One thing I love about the desert is the early morning sky on these clear days. Mountain views, blossoming Palo Verdes, and the desert blooms finally coming on the saguaro cactus all create a wonderful panoramic view of our LORD'S creation. So many people cannot see the beauty in this oft too hot place where we have chosen to make our homes, but I think there is hardly any place I have been that is more grand and lovely than the desert here in Tucson. Our house emergency has at least been repaired, but now the tear out for the wall and ceiling to get to the bad copper water pipes, has left a gaping hole. So, after Mother's Day, we will get a restoration company to make the repairs to the damage, mostly a little insulation and wallboard. We can manage the painting ourselves afterward.

Today we will move on to Psalm 17.

Have you ever been so bold as to offer the opportunity for God to search your heart and mind? That is exactly what David is doing here in this Psalm, and he is saying with confidence that if God will search his heart and mind, He will find it pleasing in His sight! I am pretty confident that there are certainly times when I hope God is not choosing to search my heart and mind. But David was pretty bold about this. I think that some of this has to do with his place as King in Jerusalem, surrounded by people who are unhappy with him, and geographically surrounded by imposing nations who want to take out the king and confiscate the promised land for themselves. I do pretty well with all of this until I find myself in the presence of people who I feel are forgetting even the most rudimentary words or actions of kindness and goodness in their lives. We were at the Costco earlier this week and as we were coming into the store entrance there were many old people, at least my age or older, who never expressed a word of thanks for the courtesy extended to them when others moved out of their way to make their journey out to their car a bit easier.  I hope God didn't search through me right then, I so desperately wanted to shame them for their sense of priority and entitlement! Forgive Me Lord! I am certain that David must have had these times too.

We need to remember that this Psalm is not just about God searching us, it is also about what faithful people, like David come to depend on in this two-way relationship between the Creator and the created. In our journey with the Living Lord, we too have expectations, or maybe the word hopes would be better, that God will be steadfast in all that He has promised. So, we look for the faithfulness of God to his promises. We seek to feel assured of His commitment to us, and that is only possible when we have faith in God ourselves. If you have ever wondered where the phrase wanting someone to be "the apple of someone's (God's in this case) eye", here it is in Psalm 17. Like David, we often appeal to God for His deliverance and favor, but that is nearly impossible for someone who has no Spirit-given faith themselves. That appeal comes with our confidence in Jesus Christ when we ask for forgiveness for our sins and confess our failure to live as God would have us live. There we go, right back to David's boldness and willingness to have God search his very being and trust, and ours, which is just like it when we confess with confidences in Christ's willingness to forgive, setting our feet on the path of righteousness with the Father.  There is a piece of this psalm which we might find a little troubling. It is when David appeals to God for the destruction of evil perpetrators, AND THEIR FAMILIES! This really seems to fly in the face of Christian goodness and forgiveness of others, but we must remember the turmoil between nations in David's time, with thinking that if the father of a family is will to be an imperialist with regard to Israel sovereignty, then his people must also be in the same place, and in conflict, they too will need to be destroyed.  This is really the harshness of the Old Testament times. Could God have done it differently? Yes, by all means. But for the safety of His chosen people, this is how the events of this time in the world unfolded. So, David presents himself with a better morning and a better life when God acts on his behalf, and on the behalf of his people. How do you open each new day? Do you see it as just another awful time to get through? Or do you see it filled with the possibilities of our God who is faithful in all of His promises to bring abundance into our living in this new day?

Thanks for being with me this morning. The God who loves His whole Creation is with each of us all day today, and always.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim