August 12, 2012 – Psalms 19 – 21

19 – Unto the End – When we are having troubles, the first thing we need to look at is where we are putting our trust.  The Psalm talks about placing our trust in the Lord and if our trust is in Him, He will take care of us.  Those that place their trust in Armies and Worldly Power will disappear.  It makes you wonder about the US.  It used to seem that we were trying to spread our ideologies around the world.  At some point it switched to relying on our military power to influence people.  As we rely more on might, our list of enemies will grow. 

20 – Verse 12 talks about the plans of those against God and how they will not succeed.  We know this is true, maybe we don’t see it in the short term, but long term, Christ has told us that the Gates of Hell will not prevail. 

21 – Here we have the Psalm that Christ references on the cross.  The Jews back then would likely have the Psalms almost completely memorized.  We hear, “God why have you abandoned me”, and think that there is a separation, that Christ is no longer God or God has been divided.  A Jew would have heard this and known almost instantly what Psalm was being referenced.  Many would have immediately been reminded of the words, “they have pierced me” or “the derided me” or “they divided my garments” and seen that this was all happening to Christ.  They would have known that this was no normal crucifixion.  The Jewish leaders almost certainly would have known what Christ was referencing.  The only people that wouldn’t know what was really happening were the Romans, who wouldn’t have any understanding of the Psalms.  They were the ones acting it out. 

The end of the Psalm is full of hope.  While the Jewish leaders may have been fearful of hearing Christ and seeing the Psalm come to life before them, the Jewish followers of Christ should have heard Him and rejoiced in the coming Hope.  The Gentiles, the ones that were running the crucifixion and didn’t know about the Psalm, should have been the ones rejoicing the most because the Psalm talks about a hope for them through God, not just the Jews.