V.1-2 When the Psalmist speaks of God’s faithfulness and steadfast love, he is thinking in terms of God’s relationship with His people. You probably would not talk about this if you were addressing a pagan audience.
In other words, if you are speaking to a non-Christian audience living in independence and rebellion against God, the faithfulness and steadfast love of God would not be positive attributes with respect to them! God’s faithfulness to who He is, for example to his holiness; his love for his name and for justice would mean your rebel audience is under God’s wrath! This is what they really need to understand and be convince of! It would not be loving to enforce any possible misconception that everything is going to be fine in the end because, after all, God is faithful and loving. These attributes of God are for the encouragement of a limited audience.
Psalm 25:10, “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”.
V.3-4 God refers to David as “my chosen one”. The focus is on God’s choosing, His right to choose, his right as God to do whatever He wants – the focus is not on David being the “choicest” or most worthy or whatever. It was the same with the Israelite nation as a whole. God chose them out of all the nations on the earth to be his people. And as their subsequent history showed they certainly didn’t deserve to be the chosen people of God. The subject and the focus of the Bible is God, not man; it’s on what God has done, what God will do, what God’s will is, etc.
One of the biggest struggles we have is coming to terms with the fact that he is God and we are not. It is God who deals the deck; it is our job to accept and play the cards we’ve been dealt. It is so easy to be resentful of the cards we’ve been given; so easy to be jealous of the better hand we perceive others to have! But this is all counterproductive and deep inside we probably know it to be!
God, help me to be content! Thank you, that no matter what cards I’ve been dealt, when it comes to the final judgment and the dispensing of eternal reward, what will be evaluated is faithfulness, not fruitfulness, with the cards you’ve given me!
“I have” and “I will” – the reference is to what God has done and will do.
God’s people need to know, then believe, and then trust in what God has said he will do! It is God’s steadfast love and God’s faithfulness that creates the foundation for our hope and confidence! Our hope is in who he is! We must be thoroughly educated in who he is! There is too much at stake; it is too dangerous to be placing our confidence and hope in a God of our own invention; a God who does not actually exist.
V.5-8 The Psalmist is very aware that there is another dimension beyond the reality in which we live. “Holy ones” and “heavenly beings” refer to angels who assemble and hold council in the eternal dimension. The word “horde”, which is used often of Angels, reflects their vast numbers!
V.9-13 God is in control of all of nature. The universe belongs to him because he created it. “Rahab” refers to a mythical sea monster who stands for the forces of evil and chaos. It was frequently applied to Egypt.
The Psalmist rehearses these facts about God, about God’s power over nature, for example. Why? Because it builds his confidence in God’s ability to take care of himself and his fellow Israelites!
V.14 Four moral attributes of God are emphasized: righteousness, justice, steadfast love, faithfulness.
Scripture tells us that God is Holy – this refers to everything about God that sets him apart from us and makes him an object of awe, adoration and dread to us. Justice is one expression of God’s holiness – it means He does what is right in all circumstances – it is basically parallel to saying He acts righteously; He acts right. He displays his justice as THE Lawgiver and THE Judge and as promise-keeper and pardoner of sin.
For example, when God justifies sinners through faith in Christ, He does so because it is just, it is right to do so. It is “just” because the punishment the sinner deserves has already been taken care of through the punishment endured by Christ their substitute. God is not justifying us through grace and mercy at this stage; No, at this stage it is the just, the right thing to do. It was God’s love/grace/mercy that was in play when He asked his Son to pay the price on our behalf to begin with! And it was the love/grace/mercy of God that moved him to regenerate and call us to himself and apply the substitutionary work of Christ to our particular need!
Steadfast love and faithfulness are parallel concepts. Again, these are two attributes that God’s people, that I, need to be convinced of in order for us to have something solid to build our hope upon.
V. 15-18 We are blessed when we are willing and able to praise God.
WHY? Those who praise God are focused on him. Those who praise God are acknowledging their dependence upon him. Those who praise God are rehearsing in their praise what is true about God. Our praise of God is a mind-full activity. But it also needs to incorporate necessary and very needful emotional connection with God! Emotionless, dead praise is not what this passage is referring to.
We are blessed when we live in the “light of God’s face”.
In ancient times there was no artificial light! Dispelling darkness was not easy – no flashlights, no floodlights, no headlights, etc. In their world darkness was dreaded more than it is today because they could not broadcast light out any distance like we can. They had to walk within the circle of light from whatever torch or lamp they carried. And often at night it was a stationary light source, like a camp fire that they had to physically stay close to. When they moved outside that circle of light they entered the danger zone!
In order to live in the light of God’s face we must stay close to him! The light of God’s face enables us to see what is right and wrong, what is actually there, we can see danger, we can see the path, etc. We are not blind; we are not living in darkness! There is no other light source that can dispel spiritual and moral darkness!
(16a) To “exult in God’s name” means to rejoice in high spirits in who God is. I must put ‘meat on this bone’ by thinking through and rehearsing exactly who he is. This is what this Psalmist has been helping us do!
(16b) Blessed are the people who.. “in your righteousness are exalted” – the people of God, the Israelites at that time, had been elevated in rank, power, wealth, prestige among the nations of their day; they had a special place in the plan of God for the world as a result of God’s good and right behavior towards them.
(17-18) The Israelites were very powerful during the reign of David and Solomon. But their military strength was not to their own glory, it was to the glory of God who enabled them to be victorious; the Psalmist is recognizing that the strength of the Israelis was sourced in God’s strength!
God’s favor was the source of their King’s exaltation (elevated rank, power, wealth, prestige).
Mary was addressed as “O favored one”; she “found favor with God” (favor is literally – grace). Luke 1:28, 30. To paraphrase: “Mary, in God’s grace you have been chosen to be the mother of His child.”
The King (and his army) was their shield and their king/shield belonged to God – the all-powerful all-faithful God! Their security was not in the size of the army or how many chariots they had compared to their enemies, their security was in the fact that their shield belonged to the Lord.
