Our "New Song"
My Help and My Deliverer: To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
"I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. 2He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. 3He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. 4Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie" (Psalm 40:1-4)!
The outlaw. The famous outlaw who is pursued, justly or unjustly, for his crimes. We glorify the outlaw in our western movies. "Unforgiven," in which Clint Eastwood is haunted by a past, shows us in a newer movie that the old outlaw western is still popular. Kevin Costner's "Open Range" does much the same as an old Civil War rebel has buried his past, but it comes out in a gun battle royale at the end of the movie as he helps his boss, played by Robert Duvall (pause for a moment of reverence), overcome the "law" in the town that "doesn't like free-grazers."
Often times in westerns the outlaw depends on who owns the law. In truth, the law usually was a hired gun on the frontier, hired by the largest landowner, or the largest stakeholder (railroads). The frontier was wide-open and settling it took money. Investors didn't like it when people threatened their investment. It's best portrayed in Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider," possibly the greatest western ever made in this person's opinion as it takes time to draw out the various interests that settled the west, and plays on the greatest theme in any movie - revenge. (John Wayne fans take heart, including myself and my vast collection of John Wayne movies, but it has to be said that Eastwood delivers in "Pale Rider" - also in my collection).
Our psalmist today is David, and the opening line in the commentary is that it is likely written when David was pursued as an "outlaw" by King Saul. In truth, David has been chosen by God as the man to eventually lead Israel, and Saul is slowly losing his mind since he lost favor with God. In his rage and anger, he is unjustly pursuing David.
David, out in the wilderness in hiding, is coming up from a low point. A very low point it appears, the pit of destruction, a miry bog., but now it appears as if David has gotten his footing as he stands on a rock. His feet are on a firm foundation now.
1st Samuel 23 and 24 vividly and dramatically tell this story of Saul's pursuit, but David uses a psalm to tell of his deliverance at God's hand.
When were you at your lowest? Are you there now or just off a recent "rock bottom" experience? How did you manage when you were there? What eventually delivered you or is delivering you?
God asks us to turn to him in our time of trouble. God is a very present help in our time of trouble (Psalm 46). Job, in his time of trouble, turns to God for deliverance. Christ turns to his Father in John 17, the "High Priestly Prayer," just before he's arrested as an outlaw.
As David notes, Christ is our "new song." The old song of a promise and covenant delivered to save us. Christ is for whom we deliver our thanks and praise to God for delivering us from the miry bogs we find ourselves in from time to time.
Pray with me: Gracious God, Heavenly Father, You know me and have known me since before I came into this world. You know my goings and comings, and you know when I am in the bogs of life, and when I am not. Help me to focus on you in good and bad, and to seek your counsel now and every day I live on this earth. Help me to turn and to return to you daily. Help me to sing this new song, the song of salvation through Christ our Lord, Amen.