Fighter Verses

David sometimes asserts his own righteousness and faithfulness as the basis for God to vindicate him and destroy evil men. For example, Psalm 26 begins,

Vindicate me, O LORD,
for I have walked in my integrity,
and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering …
I walk in your faithfulness.
I do not sit with men of false hood,
nor do I consort with hypocrites.
I hate the assembly of evildoers …
[Psalm 26:1, 3-5]

And if we thought David’s request for God to test and try his heart and mind were evidence that David sees sin in his own heart, we see that in context it is just the opposite. It is in the midst of the above verses (Psalm 26:1-5), that David challenges God to examine that he is righteous:

Prove me, O LORD, and try me;
test my heart and my mind.
For your steadfast love is before my eyes,
and I walk in your faithfulness.
[Psalm 26:2-3]

So, what does David mean in this week’s fighter verse? After all, it is directly after speaking against the wicked (Psalm 139:19-22), that he says,

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
[Psalm 139:23]

Does David claim sinless perfection?

The next verse is enlightening as we ask this question. For in it, David admits that there may be hidden sin in him:

And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
[Psalm 139:24]

In David’s mind then, it is right and fitting for him to admit real or potential sin (see also Psalms 19:12-14; 51:1-9). And, at the same time, it is consistent for him to claim his righteous living as the evidence that he is righteous.

This is the paradox of the gospel. It is “by grace you have been saved through faith … not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). And yet, what are we saved unto? And how do we know we are righteous in Christ? Ephesians continues, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works …” (verse 10; see also 1 John 2:3-6; 9-11; 3:6-10). And the rhythm of the truly righteous life in Christ is to ask God to seek out sin and repeatedly confess it to him:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[1 John 1:9]

David has some fiery words to say about his enemies in Psalm 139:19-22:

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain! Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

Why aren’t we memorizing them? John Piper explains:

The Fighter Verse team made a judgment call that these “problem” verses of Psalm 139:19-22 did not directly serve the tactical aims of the memory program, and might require so much explanation as to be distracting from the goal of strengthening faith.

Later in the article he gives some concluding thoughts about how we should handle portions of the Psalms that call for God to judge the wicked:

Conclusion: We will grant to the psalmist (usually David), who speaks, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the foreshadowed Messiah and Judge, the right to call down judgment on the enemies of God. This is not personal vindictiveness. It is a prophetic execution of what will happen at the last day when God casts all his enemies into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). We would do well to leave such final assessments to God, and realize our own corrupt inability to hate as we ought. While there is unforgivable sin for which we are not to pray (see #4 above), we are told to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us, and return good for evil (as David did, see #2 above). This is our vocation by faith. Let us tremble and trust God, lest we fail, and find ourselves on the other side of the curse.

Read the whole thing.

David’s words about waking up to God remind us of that day when we, like all flesh, will be tucked one last time into our earthly beds, returned to rest in the dust from which we came until the day of resurrection.

In his poem, “The Naked Seed,” C. S. Lewis considers our utter helplessness in death but also the hope that waits for those who have God’s Spirit:

My heart is empty. All the fountains that should run
With longing, are in me
Dried up. In all my countryside there is not one
That drips to find the sea.
I have no care for anything thy love can grant
Except the moment’s vain
And hardly noticed filling of the moment’s want
And to be free from pain.
Oh, thou that art unwearying, that dost neither sleep
Nor slumber, who didst take
All care for Lazarus in the careless tomb, oh keep
Watch for me till I wake.
If thou think for me what I cannot think, if thou
Desire for me what I
Cannot desire, my soul’s interior Form, though now
Deep-buried, will not die,
— No more than the insensible dropp’d seed which grows
Through winter ripe for birth
Because, while it forgets, the heaven remembering throws
Sweet influence still on earth,
— Because the heaven, moved moth-like by thy beauty, goes
Still turning round the earth.

I awake, and I am still with you.
[Psalm 139:18b]

There is an experience of God, which in this life I’ve only barely tasted, but its full experience eludes me. Have you tasted it?

It’s that thrill I have when once in a blue moon I wake up at night and my heart is thumping in awe of God’s recent wonders. I try to chase it down, but then it vanishes.

It’s that ethereal reminiscence I have when I read David saying, “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night” (Psalm 63:5-6).

It’s that kinship I feel with Jeremiah as God is revealing the New Covenant to him. God is in the midst of saying, “‘… For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish,’” when Jeremiah interrupts, “At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me” (Jeremiah 31:25-26).

Have you tasted that satisfaction? If he’s your trust, you will. Oh, we will in fullness. When we lay down to sleep for the very last time, we can say with David, “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15; see also 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10).

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
[Psalm 139:17–18]

In the Old Testament, sand is a common metaphor for expansiveness. For example, God promises Abraham, “I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17). Likewise, when a number of kings and their troops gather against Israel, the book of Joshua explains, “And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots” (Joshua 11:4).

Interestingly, and more related to Psalm 139, Solomon’s mind is likened to the sand in expansiveness:

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. (1 Kings 4:29–30)

Therefore, if Solomon’s breadth of mind was like the sand on the seashore, Jesus’ mind is like a thousand seashores.

The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:42)

On Wednesday Phil gave 3 reasons for why “God is the perfect biographer.”

1. He knows every exhaustive detail about his subject
2. He is aware of those details before they happen
3. He doesn’t merely document the story. He determines it.

But not only is God the perfect biographer. Every one of his biographies is likewise perfect.

If a holy and all-knowing Creator has determined each of our days, then what else can we say about them except that they too are perfect?

This means that every event of your life—every gain and loss, every pain and pleasure, every success and failure, every plan and outcome—all come from God and occur just as he has determined them.

And all are perfect, in the sense that they provide what is necessary for perfecting God’s ultimate story, his anthology of every biography—his autobiography.

… in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there were none of them.
[Psalm 139:16b-d]

Why does David express this in three different ways? Why not just say, “You know all my days”?

One answer is that poetry expresses beauty, and it is fitting to praise God’s “wonderful works” in abundantly beautiful expression. But beyond that, it teaches more nuances of the truth in its multiplied expression than stating simple omniscience about David’s life.

God knew the events of David’s days better than a biographer knows his subject’s. A biographer—even if he were a man’s wife or parent or brother—cannot know and write every event of a man’s days like God does (16b). Furthermore, a biographer only knows the days he writes about after the fact. But God fully knew before the days happened (16d).

So, God is the perfect biographer, more exhaustive at writing his subject’s days than any human biographer and knowing beforehand. Lastly, all the more beyond any biographer, God’s writing of David’s days is his determination of them. God ”formed” every one of David’s days (16c). He is omniscient and sovereign in the events of David’s life.

Here’s what James Montgomery Boice has to say about Psalm 139:

Sometimes we speak of “doing theology” today, and we often talk about the conflict between the head and the heart, saying that either one alone is inadequate. A theology that is all of the head is cold, dry, barren, and of little practical value. A theology that is all heart may be warm, comforting, and practical, but it will lack substance, and because it does it will be subject to every theological fad that comes along and will not hold up in hard times. Psalm 139 has both head and heart. It is strongly theological, dealing with such important doctrines as God’s omniscience (it is probably the weightiest part of the Bible for discussing God’s omniscience), omnipresence, and omnipotence; but it is also wonderfully personal, because it speaks of these attributes of God in ways that impact the psalmist and ourselves. [Psalms: Volume 3 (Psalms 107-150), pg. 1201]

In his article “An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture” (PDF), Andy Davis suggests 5 habits for memorizing Scripture:

1. Give priority to reviewing old verses
2. Continue repeating verses over a long period of time
3. Memorize the verse numbers
4. Photograph the verse with your eyes
5. Say the verse out loud

To hear the rationale for each habit, see the section of his article titled “Daily Procedures.”

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
[Psalm 139:13-14]

The high, resounding note here is that God is intimately and wonderfully involved in the formation of every single baby. And as in nearly every realm of God’s providence, we know that the wonder of his work is demonstrated in more than one way.

That is, God gets glory by making healthy babies with bodies that function nearly perfectly. And God gets glory by making babies who are blind, crippled, or diseased (Exodus 4:11; John 9:2-3).

But I am not the best person to speak to this reality. John Knight, Director of Development at Desiring God and father of Paul, who was born with multiple disabilities, spoke about this very issue earlier this year in his seminar at the Children Desiring God National Conference.

Here’s how he summarizes his message:

Because God is good, some of his creation will live with a disability. Many hold the view that a good God would never purposefully create that kind of suffering for any of his creation. But God uses disabilities to point us toward himself.

You can read his outline, listen online, or download the audio.