Using a Scripture Union Bible guide, every Sunday I read an Old Testament Psalm. Yesterday’s reading was Psalm 16. Probably because I’d just finished an essay on 1 Corinthians 8 and food sacrificed to idols, the opening lines of the psalm stood out to me:
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”
I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.
This was a real concern for the Old Testament Jew. They were supposed to be different to the nations around them. They weren’t supposed to engage in the worship of the surrounding nations’ ‘gods’ but to remain faithful to their God.
They didn’t. The Old Testament is full of occassions when the Jews worshipped anything but the God of the Bible. They put themselves into a spiritual fast from God and consequently God put them into a state of exile: spiritual and physical.
This is why the psalmist, possibly David, is so concerned with the holy people of the land. He knows what impact it will have on the nation. The Israelites have been told this, long before David’s time back in Deuteronomy 8:
If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.
That’s pretty clear. And it’s exactly what happened.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They camped outside the city and built seige works all around it…So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.
A physical captivity, and a spiritual captivity too.
The Jews physically returned to their land when the alloted time of exile was complete. But the post-exilic period was a bit rocky. To think that everything was all sorted out was to miss the reality of the situation.
This is a very long-winded preamble to tell you just why I like the song O Come, O Come, Emmanuel so very much. Not only is it musically beautiful, it also poetically captures the deep, spiritual longing of God’s people that only the birth of the Messiah can rectify.
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
I was reflecting on thankfulness last week. There’s something about those lines that make the spiritual pain of Israel so tangible. In doing so, they heighten the correct response to the nativity:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
The rescuer of God’s people took captive those who had captured us as it says in Ephesians. It truly is a beautiful thing to be free: physically and spiritually. Christ, God’s promised rescuer does this for us. This profound truth is what gives us joy at Christmas.
No wonder the psalmist says at the conclusion of Psalm 16:
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
Only God can do that.
Yours reflecting on a Sunday psalm,
Alison
