Gold for the heart - Psalms 72-77

Psalm 72

0 A Psalm for Solomon. 1 Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the king’s son. 2 He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. 3 The mountains will yield prosperity for all, the hills will be fruitful, because the king does what is right.

King David wrote this Psalm for his son Solomon, It gives us a stunning glimpse of Christ’s millennial kingdom.
God will guide kings wisely if they allow Him to lead them.
When things are done God’s ways the result is peace, blessing, and prosperity.
God’s way is the right way, God’s way works.
War comes when man worships false gods (Judges 5:8)

4 He will judge the poor of the people; he will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor. 5 They will fear you as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. 6 He will come down like rain on the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. 7 In his days the righteous will flourish; and abundance of peace until there is no moon. 8 He will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Oppressors are those who make rules for people that God didn’t make and businessmen who charge too much.
They legally extort money from people by too high taxes or interest rates.
Oppressors are those who rule people wrongly and enforce their wrong policies by violence.

Exodus 15:18 The LORD will reign forever and ever.

9 They that dwell in the wilderness will bow before him; and his enemies will lick the dust. 10 The kings of Tarshish and of the islands/coastlands will bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba will offer gifts. 11 Yes, all kings will fall down before him: all nations will serve him. 12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries: the poor also, and him that has no helper. 13 He will spare the poor and needy, and will save the souls of the needy. 14 He will redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and their blood will be precious in his sight. 15 And he will live, and to him will be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer will be made for him continually; and he will be praised daily. 16 There will be fullness of grain in the earth on the top of the mountains; its fruit will shake like Lebanon: and those of the city will flourish like grass of the earth.17 He will be a son to continue His Father’s name/person forever: his name will be continued as long as the sun: and men will be blessed in him: all nations will call him blessed.

John 5:22 the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son:

John 10:30 I and my Father are one.

The LORD only does wondrous things

18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things. 19 And blessed be his glorious name forever: let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. 20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

Isaiah 6:3 And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Psalm 73

God is good to those who have a clean heart

0 A Psalm of Asaph.1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to those that are of a clean heart.

Jacob (his name means cheater) was Israel’s name before God cleansed his sin, humbled him, and taught him to trust God rather than himself.
When his heart was clean, God called him Israel which means prince of God.

John 15:3 you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you.

2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had nearly slipped. 3 I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For there are no pains in their death: but their strength is fat. 5 They are not in trouble like other men; neither are they plagued like other men. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.

It’s ok to be self-aware, not self-absorbed or self-centered.
Christ is to be our center.
Pride inspires man to do “great things for God.”
Humility looks at what God has done for man.
Humility knows the great treasure of just simply being with God.

7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: They have more than heart could wish. 8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: They speak loftily. 9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth. 10 Therefore his people return here: And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 11 And they say, How does God know? And is there knowledge in the most High? 12 Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world; They increase in riches. 13 Truly I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. 14 For all the daylong have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

God is the only One who is perfect.
The rest of us need much correction.
God’s love for us is the source of our correction.

Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

15 If I say, I will speak like this; behold, I would betray the generation of your children. 16 When I thought to know this, it was too heavy for me; 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. 18 Surely you set them in slippery places: you cast them down to destruction. 19 How they are brought into desolation in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. 20 As a dream when one awakes; so, O Lord, when you awake, you will despise their image.

Job 36:5 Behold, God is mighty, and does not spurn anyone: he is mighty in strength and wisdom.

The Lord holds our hand, guides us, receives us into glory

21 My heart was embittered, and I was pierced in my emotions. 22 So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before you. 23 Nevertheless I am continually with you: you have held me by my right hand. 24 You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 25 Who do I have in heaven but you? And there is no one on earth that I desire beside you. 26 My flesh and my heart fail: but God is the rock of my heart, and my portion forever. 27 For, behold, they that are far from you will perish: you have destroyed all those that go a whoring from you. 28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all your works.

James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Psalm 16:11 In your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 74

The LORD is our King working salvation in the earth

0 An instructive poem of Asaph. 1 O God, why have you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? 2 Remember your congregation, who you have purchased of old; the rod of your inheritance, which you have redeemed; this mount Zion, in which you have dwelt.

1Peter 1:18 you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot:

3 Lift up your feet to the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy has done wickedly in the sanctuary. 4 Your enemies roar in the midst of your congregations; they set up their own standards for signs. 5 Their champion lumberjacks lifted up axes on the thick trees. 6 But now they break down its carved works at once with axes and hammers. 7 They have cast fire into your sanctuary, they have polluted by casting down the dwelling place of your name to the ground. 8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

An invading army, came in and destroyed God’s temple.
God only casts us off for worshipping false things.

Exodus 34:14 For you will worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

9 We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet: neither is there among us any that knows how long. 10 O God, how long will the adversary reproach? Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever? 11 Why do you withdraw your hand, even your right hand? Pluck it out of your bosom.

How long will the adversary reproach? The Holy Scriptures explained how long. But there was no one who knew them to explain it.
God predicted the arrival of Messiah to the exact day that Christ rode into Jerusalem on that donkey.
Daniel discovered it in exile from the sacred writing that they had taken with them the number of years until God would return His people to the promised land and the number of years until Messiah would come.

12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13 You divided the sea by your strength: You broke the heads of the dragons in the waters. 14 You broke the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. 15 You split the fountain and the flood: You dried up mighty rivers.

Leviathan is described in Job 41.
The Red Sea was parted.
The flow of the Jordan River stopped from above as it flowed down.
Also God parted the river for Elisha when he struck the waters with Elijah’s mantle.

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

The day and night are His

16 The day is yours, the night also is yours: You have prepared the light and the sun. 17 You have set all the borders of the earth: You have made summer and winter. 18 Remember this, O LORD, that the enemy has reproached, and the foolish people have blasphemed your name. 19 Do not deliver the soul of your turtledove into the multitude of the wicked: do not forget the congregation of your poor forever. 20 Respect the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. 21 O do not let the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise your name. 22 Arise, O God, plead your own cause: remember how the foolish man reproaches you daily. 23 Do not forget the voice of your enemies: the uproar of those that rise up against you increases continually.

Psalm 75

God is near

0 To the chief Musician, you must not destroy, A Psalm or Song of Asaph. 1 To you, O God, we give thanks, to you we give thanks: for your name is near your wondrous works declare. 2 When I receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.

The word ‘name’ also means person. His person is near. He is near.

3 The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Rest. 4 I say to the boastful, Do not boast: and to the wicked, Do not lift up the horn: 5 Do not lift up your horn on high: do not speak with a stiff neck.

Horns in scripture are symbols of power, lifted up in pride and beauty or to battle against other animals.

We are not to lift ourselves up in pride or to fight against God. The dissolving of earth is spoken of in 2 Peter 3.

2 Peter 3:12 Looking for and hurrying to the coming of the day of God in which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which dwells righteousness.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Promotion comes from God

6 For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 7 But God is the judge: he puts down one, and sets up another. 8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he pours out of the same: but its dregs, all the wicked of the earth will wring them out, and drink them. 9 But I will declare forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 10 All the horns of the wicked also I will cut off; but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.

God’s love fills the cup in His hand.

Those who refuse God’s love will drink the dregs of eternal judgment.

‘God of Jacob’ brings to mind man as a sinner before God has corrected and trained him as His son.

2Timothy 2:12 If we suffer, we will reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him a thousand years.

Psalm 76

0 To the chief Musician on stringed instrument, A Psalm or Song of Asaph. 1 In Judah God is known: his name is great in Israel. 2 In Salem is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion. 3 There he broke the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Rest.

Salem means peace.
Zion is the place of ultimate and final victory.
The word ‘name’ means person. His person is great.
He is infinite and eternal knowledge, power, righteousness, and love.

Psalm 48:2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

Isaiah 2:4 And he will judge among the nations, and will rebuke many people: and they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation will not lift up sword against nation; neither will they learn war any more.

He is most glorious

4 You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. 5 The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands. 6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.

Ezekiel 1:26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, appearing like a sapphire stone: and on throne was the likeness of a man above upon it. 27 And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins upward, and from the appearance of his loins downward, I saw the appearance of fire, and it had brightness around it. 28 Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain was the appearance of the brightness around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.

7 You, even you, are to be feared: and who may stand in your sight when you are angry? 8 You caused judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still, 9 when God rose up to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Rest. 10 Surely the wrath of man will praise you: with the remnant of wrath you gird yourself.

Revelation 6:17 the great day of his wrath is come; and who will be able to stand?

Revelation 11:18 And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and those that fear your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.

11 Vow, and pay to the LORD your God: let all that be around him bring presents to the one who ought to be feared. 12 He will cut off the spirit of princes; he is feared by the kings of the earth.

Psalm 77

God hears our cries

0 To the chief Musician, to praise A Psalm of Asaph. 1 I cried to God with my voice, even to God with my voice; and he listened to me. 2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and did not stop: my soul refused to be comforted. 3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Rest. 4 You hold my eyelids open: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. 6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with my own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. 7 Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more?

Isaiah 54:7 For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.

Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

8 Is his love completely gone forever? Does his promise fail for evermore?

9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Rest. 10 I said, This is my grief: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. 11 I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember your wonders of old. 12 I will meditate also of all your work, and talk of your doings.

Meditate means to ‘chew the cud,’ to bring to mind later the things you have heard and thoroughly ponder them.
Remember Job’s suffering? Here, Asaph, in his suffering began to think about God and then talk of all His doings.

There is none so great as our God

13 Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?

His way is in the sanctuary means three things: The furnishings of the tabernacle all taught about God—To know Him is life eternal—John 17:3
The sanctuary is God’s dwelling—the One we are to love with all our hearts was there in the sanctuary—Deuteronomy 6:5
John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the father except by me.
The sacrifices at the tabernacle showed the way to God.

14 You are the God that does wonders: You have declared your strength among the people. 15 You have with your arm redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Rest.

His hand made all things.
He redeemed us with His arm.
Redemption took more strength than creation.
God purchased mankind back to Himself at the greatest price ever paid for anything.

1Peter 1:18 you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your empty life received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

16 The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you; they were afraid: the depths were troubled. 17 The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: your arrows also went abroad. 18 The voice of your thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. 19 Your way is in the sea, and your path in the great waters, and your footsteps are not known. 20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Ezekiel 34:11 For the Lord God says this; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so I will seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. 13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them on the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and on the high mountains of Israel their fold will be: there they will lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture they will feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up what was broken, and will strengthen the sick…

SUMMARY: Psalms 72-77

The LORD only does wondrous things
God is good to those with a clean heart
He holds our hand, guides us, and receives us into glory
The LORD is our King of old working salvation in the earth
The day and night are His
God is near
Promotion comes from Him
He is most glorious
He hears our cries
There is none as great as our God