Hidden Treasures in the Titles of the Psalms – Part 3

Committing ourselves to God using the psalms puts our minds right, for we develop the mind of Christ.

The Apostle Paul lists the difficult circumstances Jesus found himself in many times (v. 35). The Apostle himself had his fair share of tribulations, as he mentions in 2 Corinthians:

How did he conquer the fear that he undoubtedly must have experienced? We too may find ourselves in difficult circumstances when we show our love for God and stand up for the Truth. Paul exhorts us to “Be ye followers [imitators] of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1). What did Christ do when he was persecuted?

We should learn from this that we also must commit ourselves to God. We can do this through prayer. Committing ourselves to God using the psalms puts our minds right, for we develop the mind of Christ.

Start of a New Day and Analysis of Psalm 5

How do we, for example, start a new day? We should start with prayer, and there is no better prayer than Psalm 5.

Thinking about an inheritance, we are told:

So, to get an inheritance, we too must set Yahweh always before us. This would change our minds and our behavior. It makes us receive God’s counsel and instructions and teaches us to commit our ways unto Yahweh, every minute of the day. By saying this Psalm with all our heart, we are ready to receive the counsel of God and then we are led by the Spirit, which comes with a great promise: 

David valued the Counsel of God and appreciated it:

David loved God’s law and meditated on it. “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” (Psalm 119:97).

The inheritance we hope to receive can only be obtained in Christ, as Paul explains:

So, to receive the inheritance, we must be able to produce the pledge of the Spirit. Remember that Tamar’s life was saved by the pledge she acquired from Judah. The Psalms will help develop in us the Spirit of Christ, remembering that:

Whatever the day may bring, we face it with our inheritance in view, knowing that we can only receive it when we have developed the mind of Christ. Then we would want to pray to God: “Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.” (Psalm 5:1).

We should have meditated on something, otherwise we cannot say this Psalm and we cannot pray it to God! 

“I direct my prayer unto thee” is in Hebrew: “I will arrange myself with thee.” In Psalm 50:21, this word is translated as “set them in order.” That is how we should begin the day, by thinking about God, as the following verses tell us. (Note six points in Psalm 5:4-6):

1. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness
2. Neither shall evil dwell with thee
3. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight 
4. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity 
5. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing [lies] 
6. Yahweh will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

By thinking about these six points, we are more ready to arrange ourselves, or to set ourselves in order with God in the day before us. We soon find out that we lead a more godly life when we keep remembering our morning prayer throughout the day. Once we get used to praying the psalms, our minds become purer, more like the mind of Christ, and less like our own minds. Our longing for God becomes stronger:

David wrote this Psalm in the wilderness. The nation of Israel was formed in the wilderness, far away from the world’s distractions. But if we love the world more than God, we won’t pray this Psalm. The present world has many attractions, especially for young people. The question is, do we consider this world a wilderness or an attractive place to be in? Are we tempted by the so-called attractions that the world has to offer, or are they distractions to the people of God? Only when we look upon the world in which we live as a wilderness with nothing to offer will we turn to the psalms for meditation and consolation and use them in our prayers.

It becomes clear then that by using the psalms, our minds become purer and sounder, like that of Christ. When we suffer for righteousness, because we do not participate in the things of the world, it becomes easier to bear, for God’s lovingkindness is better than this life (v. 3). That is how it is for the true believer. 

When we pray in the morning, we are in good company. Daniel prayed three times a day (Daniel 6:10).

Other psalms help us in the morning:

• But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. (Psalm 59:16).
• But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. (Psalm 88:13).
• I prevented the dawning of the morning and cried: I hoped in thy word. (Psalm 119:147).

Giving Thanks For Food

Before we go to work, we have breakfast and we give thanks for our food to God. Why not use the words of the psalms? We can make up a prayer by using verses from different Psalms: