PSALMS LESSON 111

     We will begin by giving the 108th Psalm in metre, to show how it
might be sung.

                   THE PSALMS OF DAVID IN METRE

                             Chapter 108

Verse 1  "My heart is firmly fixed, O God, I'll sing and praise thy
         name to laud; My glory, harp, and flute awake, The morning I
         will vocal make. "
Verse 2  "I'll thank thee' mid the nations, Lord, Among the people
         praise accord; The heavens vast thy grace transcends, And to
         the clouds thy truth extends. "
Verse 3  "Be thou o'er heavens high, O God, Thy glory o'er the earth
         abroad; That thy beloved free may stand, Hear us, and save
         with thy right hand.
Verse 4  "God spoken hath with holy voice, And I will triumph and
         rejoice; I'll Shechem's fields by lot assign, O'er Succoth's
         vale will draw the line."
Verse 5  "Manasseh, Gilead too, are mine, On Ephraim shall my head
         recline; My ruler I shall Judah greet, In Moab I shall wash
         my feet."
Verse 6  "To Edom I will cast my shoe, In triumph o'er Philistia go.
         Who to the city fortified-- To Edom, who will be my guide?"
Verse 7  "O God, do thou our leader be, Though we are now cast off
         from thee; And when our hosts to battle go, O God, do thou
         thy presence show. "
Verse 8  "From trouble help, and us relieve, For vain the help that
         man can give; In God will we great valor show, And he our
         foes will overthrow. "

     We will begin the verse by verse study of chapter 108 of Psalms.
Psalms 108:1 "{A Song [or] Psalm of David.} O God, my heart is fixed;
I will sing and give praise, even with my glory."

     The one thing that set David aside from other sinners, was that
his heart was always stayed upon God. Even though he fell to the
temptation in the flesh with Bathsheba, he still desired in his heart
to please God. The first few verses of this Psalm are found in an
earlier Psalm. I will not even give you the number, because I feel
that God would have us look at it again, perhaps with another view, or
He would not have it here. When David says, his heart is fixed, it
means unmovable. He has determined in his heart to praise and worship
God in song, as well as prayer. There are so many distractions in this
world today, that if we are ever to pray or praise, we have to
determine in our heart that we will do it regardless of the
distractions.

     Psalms 108:2 "Awake, psaltery and harp: I [myself] will awake
early."

     I love this particular verse, because my favorite time to
fellowship with God is at three A.M. It seems the fellowship is
better, if it is first, before any of the hustle of the day starts.
David is saying, before anything else begins, he plays and sings
praises to God.

     Psalms 108:3 "I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I
will sing praises unto thee among the nations."

     The other verse was speaking of a private time with the LORD, and
this verse is speaking of public praise and worship. David is saying,
that he is not ashamed to praise God publicly. This seems that David
not only praises God there in his place of worship, but tells other
nations of the greatness of God, as well. He even sings praises in
these other nations.

     Psalms 108:4 "For thy mercy [is] great above the heavens: and thy
truth [reacheth] unto the clouds."

     Not that he needs to, but David gives the reason for his worship
and praise of the LORD here. This is, possibly, the subject of his
praises, as well. David is saying in this, that the truth of God is
the same in the heavens, as it is on the earth.

     Psalms 108:5 "Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy
glory above all the earth;"

     David is speaking a desire for all the earth to worship God here.
David is expressing, again, that there is no greater. He is above all
in heaven as well as the earth. Glory to God in the highest. We really
do not know just how high up God dwells, but we do know that there is
no one above Him. In my own spirit, I feel that it is in the seventh
heaven, but I have no Scripture to prove that. We know that there is
more than one heaven, because Paul was carried to the third heaven.
II Corinthians 12:2 "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago,
(whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I
cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven."
The reason I believe God is in the seventh heaven is because 7 means
spiritually complete.

     Psalms 108:6 "That thy beloved may be delivered: save [with] thy
right hand, and answer me."

     As we have said so many times, Jesus Christ is the Right Hand.
The Right Hand of God is the doer part of the Godhead. He is the
Deliverer. He is the Saviour of the world.

     Psalms 108:7 "God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I
will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth."

     David was King along with being the servant of the LORD. He had
his promises well in hand. Now he promises God that he will do the
necessary house cleaning here on the earth. His rejoicing in the
promises of God will not curtail him from doing the things that God
has requested him to do. At this time, Shechem was a problem.
David determines to straighten the problem out to God's satisfaction.

     Psalms 108:8 "Gilead [is] mine; Manasseh [is] mine; Ephraim also
[is] the strength of mine head; Judah [is] my lawgiver;"

     Ephraim had given David over 20,000 soldiers to help him. This is
speaking of the power to control all these tribes that David had. I
believe this is, also, a prophetic Scripture. Ephraim {head}
represents the Christians in prophecy of whom Jesus is the head. Judah
is lawgiver has to do with the Lord Jesus being from the tribe of
Judah.
Jesus Christ is the giver of the new law of grace.

     Psalms 108:9 "Moab [is] my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my
shoe; over Philistia will I triumph."

     Moab will be conquered and made to serve David. David had a small
amount of love for Moab, since Ruth was a Moabite woman. Edom was a
country greatly opposed to David and all of God's people. David will
overcome them, and have them under his foot. Edom is never really
forgiven of God for the way they treated the Israelites. It seemed
that David had subdued the Philistines more than once.

     Psalms 108:10 "Who will bring me into the strong city? who will
lead me into Edom?"

     David is fully aware of the strength of Edom. He knows that God
must be with him, and even fight for him, for this to be a victory.
David is well aware that God will be with him, because even as a boy,
God had helped him win over Goliath. The strong city mentioned here is
Petra.

     Psalms 108:11 "[Wilt] not [thou], O God, [who] hast cast us off?
and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?"

     David is assured that God will be with him. This, perhaps,
happens after the Bathsheba incident, and David reminds God that God
for a moment in time had walked away from David. David feels sure, in
his heart that God will help him in this battle and that he will be
victorious. Edom has been God's enemy, as well.

     Psalms 108:12 "Give us help from trouble: for vain [is] the help
of man."

     David knows that even though he has the help of Ephraim, that is
not enough. He needs the help of God to come against so powerful a
group as Edom. Man can not help him. His help must come from God.

     Psalms 108:13 "Through God we shall do valiantly: for he [it is
that] shall tread down our enemies."

     You can easily see that David wants God's help. God has always
helped in David's battles. That is what David is depending on here.

                             Questions 111

1.  What was one thing that set David aside from other sinners?
2.  There are so many distractions in the world today, what must we do
    if we are to have any time for God?
3.  Why does the author particularly love verse 2?
4.  I will ________ the among the people.
5.  What is the difference in the praise in verse 2 and the praise in
    verse 3?
6.  How high does the Lord's truth rise?
7.  Quote 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 2.
8.  Verse 6 says, save with thy _____ _____.
9.  Who is the Right Hand?
10. In verse 7, he says he will divide ________.
11. How many soldiers did Ephraim send to help him?
12. Judah is my ___________.
13. ______ is my washpot.
14. Over ______ will I cast out my shoe.
15. Why did David have a little love for Moab?
16. Why is Edom never forgiven?
17. Who are the Philistines in verse 9?
18. What is the name of the strong city?
19. What does David know is the only way he can defeat Edom?
20. Give us help from trouble: for _____ is the help of man.
21. Quote Psalms chapter 108 verse 13.