Psalms for the Soul: Psalm 64: Daily Bible Study, Daily Devotional, Hearing Jesus

Affirmations for walking in purpose and wisdom. God created you for a reason. Your life is not an accident and your steps are not random. He has a plan for you, a purpose that brings glory to Him and fulfillment to your heart. Today as you listen to these affirmations, let them remind you that God is leading, guiding, and equipping you for everything He has called you to do. Listen for the affirmation, then repeat it after me, and then I'll read the scripture that it comes from. God has a purpose for my life and I walk in His plan. Jeremiah 29-11, for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. I trust in the Lord to guide my steps. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways submit to Him and He will make your path straight. I seek wisdom and God gives it freely. James 1-5, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you. God is directing my steps and I do not walk alone. Psalm 37-23, the Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him. I am a light in this world shining for Christ. Matthew 5-14, you are the light of the world, a town built on a hill cannot be hidden. God has prepared good works for me to do today. Ephesians 2-10, for we are God's handy work created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. I am equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3-17, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. I walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Acts 1-8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Al Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. I will walk in faith, not in fear. 2 Timothy 1-7, for the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. 3 God's word lights my path. Psalm 119-105, your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. I choose obedience knowing God's ways are best. Due to Ron Me 5-33, I walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land you will possess. I live with purpose and do not waste my time. Ephesians 5, 15, and 16, be very careful than how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. I am called to make an impact for God's kingdom. 2 Matthew 28, 19, and 20, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. I have the mind of Christ and seek his wisdom daily. 1 Corinthians 2, 16, for who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ? I am a vessel for God's work. 2 Corinthians 4, 7, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that all surpassing powers from God and not from us. I will not grow weary in doing good. Galatians 6, 9, let us not become weary in doing good, for the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. God's purpose for me cannot be stopped. Job 42, 2, I know that you can do all things, no purpose of yours can be thwarted. I do everything for the glory of God. Galatians 3, 23, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. God is using my life to accomplish his plan. Romans 8, 28, and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. I am bold in sharing the gospel. Romans 1, 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. I walk in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5, 25, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. I remain steadfast in my calling. 1 Corinthians 15, 58, therefore my dear brothers and sisters stand firm, let nothing move you, always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor and the Lord is not in vain. God will finish the work he started in me. 1 Philippians 1, 6, be confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. I live with an eternal perspective. Colossians 3, 2, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. I press forward in my faith knowing my reward is in heaven. Philippians 3, 13, and 14, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining forward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Father, thank you for calling me to a life of purpose. Help me to walk in wisdom today, seeking you in all I do. Give me clarity where I need direction, courage where I need boldness, and a heart that is always ready to serve you. Let my life bring you glory. In Jesus' name, amen. I hope these affirmations spoke to your heart today. If you want to go deeper, just keep listening. Your Bible study episode is coming up next. As we spend time listening for God's voice, there are moments when he invites us to step out of our normal routines and to follow him more intentionally. Bible Study Live is an in-person Bible study experience that I've built around traveling with that kind of purpose. We gather to open scripture together, to pray, to learn and walk through the Bible in community, all while being fully present in these meaningful places. We've recently added a second location, and many of the spots are already filled by alumni who've gone on previous trips with me before. Because of that, space is limited. If you've been sensing that God may be inviting you into a deeper season of growth, I'd love to have you join us on one of this year's trips. You can learn more at Biblestudylive.org. Hey friends, I'm Rachel Grohl, and I'm your host for the Hearing Jesus podcast, where I help you to know God and to make him known. Today, we are looking at the Psalms, and we're looking at this idea of God as warrior. And sometimes that can be a little unsettling for people. We seem to have no problem thinking about God and Jesus and even the Holy Spirit as the shepherd or the Father, but we sometimes have this hesitancy to think of him as warrior. I pray it's a blessing for you. Today, we are continuing our study of the Psalms. We are in Psalm 64, and if you are new to our Psalm study, you can go back and start with the introduction to the Psalms. We go through each Psalm one by one. There is a journal that includes some journaling prompt and some space for you to kind of get your thoughts down on paper that's available at shehears.org. I think it's like $5. You can go ahead and grab a copy of that. That's just a good way to help you get the information from your head to your heart. What we're doing is we're going through the Psalms because that is the songbook, the hymn book, the prayer book of Jesus and the disciples and helps us have a clearer picture of what they were talking about when they referenced some of this material. So I'm going to start in verse one of Psalm 64 and I'm reading from the NIV. And this is a Psalm of David. Hear me, O God, as I voice my complaint, protect my life from the threat of the enemy. Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from that noisy crowd of evildoers. They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows. They shoot from ambush at the innocent man. They shoot at him suddenly without fear. They encourage each other in evil plans. They talk about hiding their snares. They say who will see them. They plot injustice and say we have devised a perfect plan. Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning, but God will shoot them with arrows. Suddenly they will be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin. All who see them will shake their heads and scorn. All mankind will fear. They will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done. Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart praise him. This Psalm is a Psalm that has this big idea that God is defeating and I guess out-strategizing the evil and their perpetrators that are attacking the Psalmists. David is in a situation where we recognize that he's being attacked. It is kind of coupled with Psalm 63. It's a compliment to Psalm 63 that we read yesterday. If you haven't listened to that, I would go back and encourage you to listen to that first. This is a Psalm that is considered an individual lament, a lament Psalm. There's this threat of the enemy and there's malicious talk against him. There's some insight into the strategy of the wicked. It presents for us God's response to evil and the evil of David's enemies. We can see this human reaction to what God is doing on his behalf. It boils down to two key themes that we see in this Psalm. We see first that there's this powerful understanding that words can be turned into weapons. The second key theme we see is that evil has a boomerang effect. Those are two key themes that we even understand today from today's culture. For many of us as Christians, we have walked through situations where we have felt words be used as weapons against us. We can even see the evil that is prevalent in the world, in this fallen world that we live in. Some scholars would say that Psalm 64 also could be referring to the Persian officials who plotted against Daniel. Remember the story of Daniel who got thrown into the lion's den? Some scholars would attribute 64 to be talking about that situation. While the two situations could be this content could be attributed to both of those, most of the scholars attribute this to David. But certainly as much as this Psalm can affect and inform us, it certainly could be applied to lots of different situations in scripture that we see where there's just a prevalence of evil. So in the first verses in 7 and 8 actually, there's a different description of the punishment of the wicked who if we're comparing this to yesterday's Psalm where we're talking about 63, it talks about in 63 about them being poured out. And now the metaphor kind of changes and the objects of God's arrows. And so there's still this element of God dealing with the evil and the enemies of David, but it's done in a little bit different way. And I think we'll see that as we kind of unpack the rest of this Psalm. In yesterday's Psalm, it's implied to be God when it references the right hand. And that is an implication that we see throughout the Psalms. But in Psalm 64, it goes beyond that where it identifies God as the warrior himself who's shooting back arrows at the wicked. And so it's not even implied here. It calls him Yahweh, the Psalm calls him Yahweh, and it takes it a step further because that is God's covenant name. And so it identifies him as the source of what we can rejoice in as believers, as the righteous, because we have a God that not just protects, but that defends us. And that's what we're going to see throughout today's Psalm. There's a couple of things I want to point out to you that I think might be helpful as you're studying the Psalm. In verse one, when it's talking about, let me read it, I hear me, oh God, as I voice my complaint, protect my life from the threat of the enemy. It's talking about I voice my complaint. It's talking about this very act of complaining. And we know that that is an expression of a grievance that we have that is done in words. And that is also seen in 1 Samuel, where the word for complaint is the same word, but it's translated as the word anguish. And the word threat here means fear. And so another way that we could read that, instead of saying, I voice my complaint, we would say, I voice my anguish, protect my life from the fear of the enemy. And so maybe if we read this as I voice my complaint, protect my life from the threat, complaint and threat to me do not sound as severe as I think what is actually going on here. To me, the word anguish and fear, it helps us have a whole different understanding. And I don't know about you, but I have had moments of anguish and fear. And that's a very real human experience that many of us have experienced from time to time in our lives. And the understanding that Psalm 64 is speaking to the anguish that comes from being in fear of something, it helps us understand and pay attention a little bit more because I feel like that's a little bit more of a reality than the softness, I think that comes across when we say, complaints or threat. In verse four, it's talking about the innocent. It says, they shoot from anguish at the innocent man, they shoot at him suddenly without fear. And so what this is talking about is an attack on the innocent. And the victims, the innocent ones, they're innocent in two different ways. Morally, they're innocent in the sense of he's saying, look, we did nothing wrong. We're being attacked. And it's not even something we did to evoke this. We're completely innocent in this. And then also this word innocent can mean completely unaware, unaware of the danger. And sometimes it means both. But this attitude when it says, without fear, they shoot at him suddenly without fear, basically it's implying that these enemies that are shooting at the innocent are without fear of fear of God, fear of man, fear of consequences, they just are and do not have any concern for the consequence of the attack that they've gone on. In verse five, they encourage each other in evil plans, they talk about hiding their snares, they say who will see them. This is a picture of this first part of the verse where they're talking about how they're hardening themselves in order to be able to accomplish these evil deeds. And the hiding of the snares, we remember, if you know, like I live in rural Pennsylvania, you'll know that snares is a hunting metaphor. And in this instance, it's referring to the nets that are used for trapping animals and humans. The evil doers here are not even acknowledging that God is involved in the world. And they think that he's not involved at all in the day to day ongoing happenings of the life of David. And they also think that he's not even interested. And so when they have that question, who will see it? It's this rhetorical question that the implication is no one God's not going to see it, who will even know what we're doing? And I think that's telling that's telling of the attitude of those that are attacking David, because they don't even recognize or acknowledge that God is involved in the lives of his people. And then in verse seven, it says, but God will shoot them with arrows. Suddenly, they will be struck down. This is a turning point we see in the song, because up until this point, it's this description of this evil that is coming after the innocent. And then that famous phrase that we all know, but God, but God will shoot them with his arrows. And the evil that is designed is churned on the evil doers. And that is such a picture of God not just intervening and protecting us, but God is a God of justice. And he goes on the defense to defend us. God is defenders, what we're seeing in this picture. And in verse nine, it says, all mankind will fear they will proclaim the works of God and wonder what he has done. All people will fear. See, there's a contrast here, because the wicked, the ones that are not following God, the ones that have no acknowledgement for God's even involvement in the world, they have no fear of anyone. But now when the tables are turned and God goes on the offensive and the defensive, he now has changed things to this point where all people, all people will recognize that the fear of God is something to be reconciled, is something to be reckoned with. And we see this play out through this song. And what I love about this is this is not God standing by and just watching people get destroyed. But it is God then exhausting those enemies using his own weapons to defend his own people. And it's this beautiful picture of God, not just as the protector, but as the defender. I want you to think about that for a moment. That when we are being attacked, sometimes we're attacked by words. Words can be weapons. There have been times in my life where I have received words that have hurt, that have stayed with you, that have been detrimental. I don't think we escape this human experience without experiencing that on some level. And the reality is, is those words are not just heard by us. But if we are believers in Jesus, and we have come to faith in Christ, there is a defender that stands between us and those words that turns around and says, uh-uh, you're not going to mess with my kid. Because what we know is that God is a good father. He is not just a protector, but he's a defender. I'm going to share just something really quickly about my own family. There was a situation a couple years ago where you have to know something about my husband. My husband is, you might not even know it now if you just met him. But my husband was a Marine, and you know, once a Marine, always a Marine, it affects the way that they see the world. And we live in a rural area, and there is woods behind us. And there's a situation where the police were doing a roadblock. I don't know if they were looking for somebody that stole something, or if it was just like a drug and alcohol roadblock. I don't remember exactly what it was, but there was a family that was in a car that obviously did not want to be caught up in this roadblock. And I don't even remember the exact situation of how things went down. But they took off running, and there was a police chase. I think they might have even been looking for them. There was a gun involved. There was some sort of crime committed. And perhaps it's foggy for me to understand now, but I just remember that there was this threat. And it was close enough to our house that the police had surrounded the entire area. And they were pretty convinced that they were in the woods up behind our house. But the woods behind our house are like tons and tons and tons, hundreds and hundreds of acres. And so, you know, it wasn't as easy as just flashing a flashlight and finding them. They were pretty deep into those woods. And I wanted to leave, you know, I wanted to go stay in a hotel or something. And my husband, the Marine was like, uh-uh, we're not leaving our house. We're just going to set up camp here. And so, he, as the protector of our family, was not just the protector, but he was the defender. And this is what I picture when I think of this scenario. He booby-trapped our entire house. So, all, we all slept in the same room. The kids, we all just kind of had a camping overnight experience in our bedroom. And I'm talking like the ironing board and the chairs upside down and barricades and my goodness, I felt like it was almost this excuse to have all this pent up marine energy that had not been used for, you know, a decade and a half. It was just a way for him to, to get all of that stuff out. And so, it ended up that they caught the family very early in the morning. It was like in the middle of the night. And it ended up being a family that we had known and we had worked with in a ministry that we had done. We knew the kids and the family. And I believe that, of course, God would have protected us. And had we come face to face with that family, they would have recognized us and they wouldn't have, you know, they wouldn't have shot. That's me. That's my faith, faith approach, as I would be hiding in the hotel room. But my husband, it was, it was so interesting because it wasn't just like he, you know, had a weapon on the bedside table, but he, he had it set up so that if anybody dared enter our house, they would rue the day that they step foot on the girl property. And so, I just think about that as a father. He was not just going to protect us, but he was going to defend us. And I think about that in terms of our relationship with God. As a mama bear, I have been known once or twice to go on the defensive when somebody has wronged one of my kids. I think we, we can relate to that. But it's this understanding that, that what this Psalm is showing us is that words can be weapons, but we have a guide that cares intimately about how those words affect his children. And so what we see, of course, like with lots of other Psalms is this war imagery that is using to describe this conflict that David is having. And his enemies essentially are using their tongues as weapons to destroy him. And even that is enough to see that those enemies are now God's enemies because they're coming against God's people. And God takes up this role of warrior, and then aims his arrows at the ones that had the arrows aimed at David. And that imagery can make us a little bit uncomfortable, but it's this idea of God's participation in our human conflict or these attacks that we're facing and how God intimately cares about the things that are causing us suffering, even if it's just words, even if it's just words, because he's a good father. You know, I care about my children as a parent, if they come and they tell me that somebody has attacked them, even if it's just words, I immediately rise up to, okay, what do we need to do? Do I need to coach you through this situation? Do I need to call a parent? Do I need to go to the school? Do I need to take off my pastor hat and put on my mom their hat? Like what needs to go down? And more often than not, you know, 99.9% of the time, we coach them how to work through these situations. But the initial reaction is like, you ain't going to mess with my kid. And that's what I see when we read this Psalm. And that's what we can understand when we look at our relationship as God, as the defender of us, as his children. And you know, the church, the big C, not like the church that you attend, but the Christian church, the body of Christ has often interpreted this Psalm to have a foreshadowing of Christ. So what I mean by that is a lot of times in the New Testament, and even early church, they would view David as a figure of Christ. And what I mean by that is there are certain figures throughout scripture, like Adam is another one, where there is an element of their story that foreshadows a fulfillment in Christ. And it points forward to what we're going to see ultimately fulfilled in a relationship with Christ. And so the church has interpreted this Psalm to mean that Christ is this figure, and his enemies are the enemies of Christ in the cross. That's what it's kind of foreshadowing. And so if we're thinking along those lines of thinking, this is a Psalm that's not only interpreted as a historical event, but this prophetic vision of the suffering of Christ and how God was going to step in and intervene on his behalf. And so it gives us this Psalm 64, it gives us this picture of God as the archer in verse seven, it calls him the archer. And we're not really bothered by the scriptures when it calls God a shepherd. But for whatever reason, when we think about God as archer, it gives it can initially give us this sense of like, Oh, I don't know about that. But yet if you look at this as a snapshot of how God is a good father, it gives us this other kind of perspective, where we understand that God enters into our human conflict, and he intervenes on our behalf. And not only was he there when this happened for David, but he participates in the conflict that comes against us as our defender. And while we don't necessarily have to deal with the kinds of things that David had to deal with, like physical war, most of us are not going to be dealing with physical war. In the very real sense of the word, we are in a battle. We are at war, because we have an enemy that hates us, we have an enemy that's uses words against us to attack us. The words that are spoken against us are straight from the pit of hell to keep us bound to keep us discouraged to keep us from stepping into God's calling in our life to keep us bound in this place where we are not growing and we're not leaning on a relationship with God. That's the whole point, the enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. And so what we can see in this picture is this reminder that when we are struggling with these issues in life, when we are struggling with those who are opposing us, or we're struggling with those who oppose God, that's the very time that we have to recognize that God is in that struggle with us, because he is fighting on our behalf. And when Second Chronicle says the battle is not yours, it's God's, there's an opportunity for us to experience peace, because we are not doing this alone. We are not in a place where we have to just fight on our own and we have to figure it out, and we don't know which way is up. Instead, we can listen to God's voice, because he is the one that is going to battle for us. Real quick, I'm just going to do a quick comparison side by side so you can see what I'm talking about. So when it's talking about these these evildoers, these people that are attacking David, it says in verse three that they in cruel words, like deadly arrows, but then, but God, what does God do in 64 verse seven? God will shoot them with his arrows. So even though they are taking aim with arrows, God intervenes and he shoots them back with his arrows. In 64, it says they shoot suddenly without fear. And then 64 seven says that they will suddenly be struck down by God. So we see this God's response to their action. In 64 verse two, it says they lay the traps. And then in 64 verse eight, God will cause their tongues to trap them. In 64 four, it says they plan their secret ambush 64 eight, it says God will expose them publicly. So what they plan a secret, God's exposing them publicly 64 four, they do not they do their unscrupulous work with no fear. What does God do in 64 verse nine? God does his work so that people fear him. And so what we see is the opposite of what they are planning. God intervenes and he steps in and he says, uh-uh, you ain't going to mess with my kids. I love that. I love that because we have a God that is a good father. If you are somebody that has not grown up with a good experience with an earthly father, I want you to know that we have a God that is a good father that not only protects, but he defends his children. So I'm going to reread Psalm 64. I pray this helps resonate with you and helps you to understand God's role and his desire to be involved in the things of your life. Starting in verse one, hear me, oh God, as I voice my complaint, protect my life from the threat of the enemy. Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from that noisy crowd of evildoers. They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows. They shoot from ambush at the innocent man. They shoot at him suddenly without fear. They encourage each other in evil plans. They talk about hiding their snares. They say, who will see them? They plot injustice and say, we have devised a perfect plan. Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning, but God, verse seven, but God will shoot them with arrows. Suddenly they will be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin. All who see them will shake their heads and scorn. All mankind will fear. They will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done. Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart praise him. Father God, we thank you for being our defender that you are intimately involved in, in every aspect of our lives. And when people rise up, when the enemy rises up against us, you say, uh-uh, you're not going to mess with my kids. God, thank you. Thank you for being a good father. Thank you for intervening on our behalf. God, when we are feeling attacked, help us not to sink to this place of despair and defeat and difficulty like the enemy would have us, but help us to rise up and know our identity as sons and daughters of the Most High King. Help us to know our identity. Thank you, Jesus. Oh God, Father, right now I just pray for the person that is listening to this right now that needs to hear this word. God, drop this word into their heart in a way that they can receive and understand and walk confidently as their identity in Christ. God, I just sense that even right now there's somebody that so needs to hear these words and hear them at a soul level, at a deep soul level. God, would you break through those barriers? Break through those barriers that they have. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Peace. Peace in the name of Jesus. Peace for you in the name of Jesus, friend. God, we thank you for your presence and the way that you reveal yourself to us through your word. In Jesus' name, amen. The Hearing Jesus podcast is so excited to partner with Compassion International. We believe in Compassion's mission to release children from poverty in Jesus' name. I've seen the impact myself through the letters and the updates that I've received as a sponsor. It's not just changing the lives of children, it's changing entire families, whole communities, always through the local church and always in Jesus' name. When you sponsor a child, you ensure access to quality education, medical checkups, healthy food, clean water, and most importantly, the love of Jesus. Delivered through a church in their community because of a generous, caring sponsor like you. And you can speak life, love, and hope to your sponsored child through personal letters that you'll exchange. I hope you'll join me in sponsoring a child through Compassion today. All you have to do is pull out your phone, open up a text, and text Hearing Jesus to 83393. You'll get back a text with a picture of a child who is waiting for a sponsor and a link to sponsor that child. You can also go to compassion.com forward slash hearing Jesus to choose a boy or a girl to sponsor. When you sponsor a child, we will send you a copy of She Hears, Learning to Listen to Jesus, My Bible Study, as a token of our thanks for investing in the life of a child. Thank you for joining me in sponsoring a child through Compassion today.