Psalm 134

Psalm 134:1

Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD,
Who serve by night in the house of the LORD!

Is this the ode to the night shift?  I don't know how much activity there was in an average ancient city at night, but I can't imagine it was much.  You had watchmen keeping a lookout for attacking armies, and whoever else wasn't able to sleep.

So, what were the priests doing at night in the Temple?  Were there preparations that had to be done at night, and they had a group to take care of those types of things?  Was it a group just to keep the candles in the stands lit, per God's instruction?  Or did they perhaps have a 24-hour prayer rotation, so some priests were always praying to God?

Psalm 133

Psalm 133:3

It is like the dew of Hermon
Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forever.

I guess this take some cultural context to understand properly.  My best guess at this is that being in unity is refreshing like the morning dew, which appears every morning to wipe away yesterday's damage.

I'm not sure what the bit in the last line is about.  God game many blessings from the Temple, but I am uncertain which one this is referring to.  Is having unity what results in life forever, or just that unity will mean the people as a nation endure?

Psalm 132

Psalm 132:11

The LORD has sword to David
A truth from which He will not turn back:
"Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.

Is saying that God has sworn something, and that He won't turn back form it, being redundant?  God is the definition of truth, so if He says something, it's automatically true.  Therefore, if He swears something, it's going to happen.

I guess the one reason that you would say all this, and it's somewhat covered in the next verse, is that there are often conditions involved.  We have to do our parts, or it doesn't count.  Also, God does sometimes test us by saying one thing, then allowing us to "persuade" Him to do something different.

Psalm 131

Psalm 131:2

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.

What is it like to have that level of rest?  Being ADD, even imagining this is very hard for me.  My brain never shuts off.  I can't recall how many nights I've been unable to sleep for hours, because my brain just keeps going down some strange avenue.  I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have my brain just rest, and not think about anything.

If it's that hard to quiet my brain, how do I quiet my soul?  What does that look like?  The closest I can come in my imaginings is that it's when I don't think about the things that are troubling me, and simply let myself trust that God has control, and whatever happens He will use for His benefit, if I let Him.

Psalm 130

Psalm 130:5

I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait,
And in His word do I hope.

What does it mean for one's soul to wait?  Does it mean your soul is just quietly sitting there, letting time drift by?  Is it letting any old random stuff occur, just to move things along, until the clock finally runs down and whatever it's waiting for arrives?

Or are the two verbs here connected?  Is waiting a type of hoping?  Is it looking forward to the event in question?  Searching, yearning even, for it to come, and it gets increasingly impatient as the time comes, making the event itself all the more memorable?

Psalm 129

Psalm 129:4

The LORD is righteous;
He has cut in two the cords of the wicked.

Obviously, God is righteous.  So how does that figure into the second line?  Is it saying that because He is righteous, he will not allow the wicked person's bindings to hold?  Is it a sign of vengeance against His people?

Or is it the other way around?  Is it saying that He breaks the bindings, therefore showing that He is not wicked?  If He's not wicked, that would mean He's righteous.  But doesn't being righteous mean more than opposing the wicked?  Doesn't it also mean doing what is good, not just going against the bad?

Psalm 128

Psalm 128:2

When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands,
You will be happy and it will be well with you.

This ties in fairly well with the video in my Sunday School class today.  We're going through Ecclesiastes (not as dry as you'd think), and today was partly talking about how we should enjoy life, because there's so much that we can't control, and worrying about it won't help any.

However, in order to have something to enjoy, we have to work.  If we don't work, we're going to be in need, rather than having what we need.  We might not have a lot, but we should be grateful for what we do have, and we should enjoy it while we can.

Psalm 127

Psalm 127:2

It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

Wow, a couple different ways this could be taken out of context, or outright abused.  First off, it could easily be considered an excuse for lazy people.  Being someone who has to fight against laziness, I can completely understand that mindset.  Who doesn't want to be told to take it easy?

At the same time, I'm curious about those three italicized words in the last line.  I waffle back and forth on whether to bring up stuff in italics, which means that it isn't in the original text, but the translator thinks it was relevant.  Here it could change the meaning a lot.  Is he giving someone what they need, even when they sleep instead of work?  Or is it saying that sleep/rest is as much a gift from God as work/success is?

Psalm 126

Psalm 126:4

Restore our captivity, O LORD,
As the streams in the South.

I'll admit, I chose this verse because I have no clue what it's there for.  I guess I'm missing some cultural context or something, because it makes no sense.  The rest of the psalm is talking about how God will restore or lift up those who are hurting or sorrowful.  So what's this got to do with that?

First, it asks God to restore their captivity.  Why does it need to be restored?  Is captivity a good thing?  If so, what are you captive to?  Or is it asking to restore from captivity, somehow?  Second, what does this have to do with a stream in the south?  Is there something special about those streams?

Psalm 125

Psalm 125:3

For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous,
So that the righteous will not put forth their hands to do wrong.

I'm not sure how literally to take this.  There's obviously a poetic element to it, but is that all?  The poetic is pretty clear.  They are asking for protection against evil, both as individuals and as a nation.  The scepter image suggests that the bad guy is powerful.

However, is there a literal component?  They're asking the wicked scepter doesn't come to their land, so that the people do not do evil.  Does this mean that when a land is evil, the people become evil?  Or is it perhaps vice versa, that wicked people's evil acts spread to others, and infect a whole land?  Or am I just reading more into this than there is?

Psalm 124

Psalm 124:8

Our help is in the name of the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.

This verse was a song, fairly popular when I was growing, so I've heard it for who-knows-how-many years.  However, I don't think the words (as few as they are) ever really got into my head like they did reading them here.

It doesn't say that our hope is in God.  It says our hope is in His name.  Could the very name of God be enough to "scare off" the forces of Satan?  We know that God's name, when spoken properly, can have significant power.  But is His name alone enough for us to hope in, or must we know Him for the name to have power?

Psalm 123

Psalm 123:3

Be gracious to us, O LORD, be gracious to us,
For we are greatly filled with contempt.

Interesting how the author asks for grace, rather than mercy.  The difference between the two is notable, especially in this circumstance.  Mercy is when you ask not to be punished for something you've done, whereas grace is asking for something when you haven't done anything.

So, when we're filled with contempt, why ask for grace, rather than mercy?  That would imply that the contempt is undeserved.  Most things I can think of that would result in contempt, would be well-deserved, so what has happened where it isn't?  Is this the contempt of the surrounding nations towards those silly God-worshipers?

Psalm 122

Psalm 122:1

I was glad when they said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the LORD."

These people were eager to go to the Temple.  They looked forward to it.  For most of them, it only happened a few times a year, at most.  It was a special occasion, and an important one.  They were going to worship, in the specific way they'd been commanded.

Do we view going to church the same way?  For most of us today, it's not much of a journey.  You go, you do the church thing for a couple hours, then go home again.  Rinse and repeat next week.  It may be what we do; we might even see the value in it.  But are we eager for it, or glad when Sunday comes around?

Psalm 121

Psalm 121:5

The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.

Most of the psalm talks about how God will not let harm come to you.  I never agreed with that mentality.  I can understand why the ancient Jews held to it, because back then keeping His people safe was one of the ways that God proved He existed, and had power over other gods.

However, now we do not live under that physical protection.  Today, Christians are to expect persecution and harm.  We may or may not receive it, but we are to understand that when it comes, God will protect our souls from corruption, but not necessarily our bodies from suffering or death.

Psalm 120

Psalm 120:2

Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips,
From a deceitful tongue.

I'm sure the original intent of this verse was to ask for protection against those who lie and deceive against the author.  It's easy to see this, from the rest of the psalm.  He's finding adversaries everywhere, even when asking for peace.

However, when I read this, I thought in terms of all-self.  How often do I ask God to save me from my own lies, the things I deceive others about?  How much do those things harm me, and endanger my witness in the long run?

Psalm 119

Psalm 119:34

Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law
And keep it with all my heart.

Going into this chapter, I thought this would be a very hard one to choose a verse from. Turns out, it was rather simple.  Today in my Sunday School class, we were looking at Ecclesiastes 2.  One of the questions in our discussion guide was about why people seek fulfillment through temporal things.  My answer was that we are wired to see the short-term benefit, not the long-term uncertainty.

If we truly understood the consequences of our actions, how would we act differently?  I know we talk about knowing how bad choices make bad consequences, but that's an abstract we're not really equipped to truly comprehend.  If we really did understand what obeying God would give us, how much less would we disobey?

Psalm 118

Psalm 118:9

It is better to take refuge in the LORD
Than to trust in princes.

So much energy goes in to politics.  From campaigns to legislation, political discussions are always in the news.  Then there's regulation, scandals, and failures that are discussed endlessly.  For how much we discuss politics (me included), you'd think it was the defining factor of our lives.

However, there is something more important.  God has said that He has put authorities over us, by His will.  In America, we are blessed to have some say in what those authorities decide.  However, in the end it still all comes down to God's accepting us because of our faith in Christ, and no leader can make that decision for us.

Psalm 117

Psalm 117: 2

For His lovingkindness is great toward us,
And the truth of the LORD is everlasting.
Praise the LORD!

God's loving kindness is very much great towards us.  We deserve nothing except death and eternal torture.  We don't deserve to ever have been created, because everyone who came before us should never have lived either.  The human race should by rights have ended with Adam and Eve.

But God decided otherwise.  He loved us so much that He withheld His judgment.  However, that doesn't mean that we have the right to do whatever we want.  God's rules are still binding, and always will be.  No amount of change of standards in man's eyes can change God's truth.

Psalm 116

Psalm 116:7

Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

Like most people, I get worked up over what turn out to be little things.  I'm about to make at least one major life change, and I'm both excited and worried.  I get worked up over relatively little things all the time.

However, we don't need to worry.  God has control over everything, and He will do what needs to be done for you.  The only real question is what you will do with what God has guided you to.  Will you follow His instructions and use it to glorify Him, or will you squander the opportunities?

Psalm 115

Psalm 115:8

Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.

The previous verses have just described how useless idols are.  Even though they have the appearance of a person, they have no ability to do anything.  They can't speak, can't hear, can't see, can't smell, can't move.

Now, I'm not sure what the meaning is that those who make idols, or believe in them, will become like them.  Is this referring to death, when one will have a body, but it will be inert?  Or is it talking about some type of curse?  Or maybe it's on a spiritual level, where the person is ignorant of what's really happening, and where the power is?