Eternal grace and psalm 143

By: Chris Gaffney

Psalm 143 reads as follows from the Oxford Annotated Bible:
Hear my prayer, Oh Lord, Give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness:
Answer me in your righteousness.
Do not enter into judgment with your servant, For no one living is righteous before you,
For the enemy has pursued me, Crushing my life to the ground,
Making me sit like darkness like those long dead,
I remember the days of old, I think of all your deeds,
I meditate on the work of your hands, I stretch my hands to you,
My soul thirsts for you like a parched land,
Answer me quickly, O Lord, My spirit fails,
Do not hide your face from me,
Or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit,
Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning,
For in you I put my trust,
Teach me the way I should go, For to you I lift up my soul,
Save me, O Lord, from my enemies, I have fled to you for refuge,
Teach me to do you will, For you are my God,
Let your good spirit lead me on a level path, for your name's sake,
O Lord, preserve my life, in your righteousness bring me out of trouble,
In your steadfast love cut off all my enemies, And destroy all my adversaries,
For I am your servant.

This psalm depicts that David is suffering from across the board desolation that pervades every area of his life. The desolation he is experiencing is physical, he has been pushed into the darkness, it is spiritual as his spirit faints within him, and it is emotional as his heart within is appalled.

It is at the level of soul as well, as his soul thirsts for the Lord like a parched land. Parched land represents a landscape that was once thriving, but now has become dry and withered for lack of rain and sources of water. To become parched, it would have had to have been previously thriving and then lost.

He does remember and recall what the Lord had been for him in the past, even in the distant past. He still has the ability to think and meditate on the prior deeds of the Lord, even though he is now at a loss at all levels.

The exact details of what had happened to David are to a degree uncertain but it is clear that the desolation was such that he had nothing left.

In verse 10 and 11 it says, Teach me to do your will, For you are my God, Let your good spirit lead me, On a level path, For your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life, In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.

How could David possibly be making such requests? It was seemingly too late and it really was too late. He was indeed sitting in darkness, without a glimmer of hope and in the throes of total desolation. He asks for preservation, for level paths, where there is nothing left in fact to preserve. If someone is completely broke, how can they ask for preservation of their wealth. If someone has lost their occupation, their relationship, their house, their way, how can they speak of finding a way or preservation of something that isn't there to preserve? How can a path be found from the place of total darkness and desolation where all is in fact lost?

It is interesting that there is a mega best selling book called the Secret right now. If there is any psalm that contains a outright secret, this is certainly one of them. How could David possibly call out to the Lord for level paths, for preservation from the points of total darkness and total loss. The ship has already sunk.

It is a matter of conjecture and interpretation as to what the secret of this psalm is. It is clear though, the what was the seeming end, was not the end. It is also clear that the mysterious requests that David is making, are calling upon something that is secretive and unknown for almost anyone who might have been in similar straights at that time and era or anytime and era. With the Lord, what is seemingly over, or ended may indeed not be ended. This is why someone could ask the Lord to preserve their vast wealth for example, when they have nothing in the bank. This is why someone can ask the Lord to preserve their relationships, when the haven't a friend left in the world.

It is beyond a stretch for someone to ask for level paths when the upheaval has been complete, and David was at the end here on all possible roads forward.

When this psalm speaks of a level path, it is certainly talking about an unimpeded path, a path that is not overly fraught with difficulties and unmanagable circumstances. This can be used as practice to discernment. Proceeding in a way that is rather thorny might sometimes be a sign that other pathways might be better and more desirable that what is being currently negotiated.

It is good to be persisent, but often the actual way of the Lord is in the realm of the easiests way or has an element of ease.

Then the other aspect to this is maybe leave out the word level and just ask the Lord for a path or any path. For some situations, it doesn't seem that there is any path forward, outward, or beyond.

How can David ask for level paths in the parched landscape of a desert? There are no level paths on the sweeping dunes of the vast Sahara for example. There is no preserve, no oasis. David is asking for something that no longer seems to exist. What then is the influx of making what is impossible and no longer in existent or now at an end back into the realm of what is yet again possible in the manner of a pathway.

I remember spending a summer working in Glacier County in Montana. Initially when I arrived there, it had been raining heavily for almost a month just about every day. The result was a strikingly green landscape to where it was incredible just to see this. .

Later in the season, as things began to dry out, that same land began to look by contrast in certain valley's to a degree parched as the rainy season tapered away to almost no rain. The lack of recent rain and water was physically evident. Yet it was the exact same terrain that otherwise was so verdant only a matter of weeks ago.

The idea of parched is something to meditate on, where it could be a matter of simply not using talents, gifts, abilities, spiritual or otherwise that become parched or withered due to any number of reasons and circumstances. It may also be from the matter of good intentions or of focusing, to where this gets left out completely and becomes an aspect of the personal landscape that becomes parched.

The secret of this psalm, could be something called eternal grace. Eternal grace, a type of grace that by definition is unending. This is what I believe David was calling upon in this situation, a type of grace that was beyond the walls of the end he was facing, a grace called eternal which in mysterious fashion is interjected into the world of the temporal. In the seen world, David was at the end, there was nothing left. His call upon eternal grace to come into his dire situation of total desolation was the source of a beginning, a new dawn that he refers to in verse 8 which says, " Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning."

For the faithful that are seeking the Lord from a position of total desolation, the first call and the call is to ask for the presence of eternal grace, this is the horn of Jericho for those who are at the end of temporal hope

Article Source: http://www.articles.narrowisthepath.com

Please Share and Bookmark this Article