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Psalm 64 | King James Audio Bible
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Psalm 64 is a prayer with urgency and desperation. The psalmist cries to God, seeking God’s divine intervention and protection from those who conspire against him. It is a prayer of a righteous soul facing peril, invoking presence of God as refuge and strength.
Psalm 64 expresses themes of divine protection, justice and inherent tension between righteous and wicked. The psalmist perceives God as a protective shield, a refuge and a fortress. The psalm is an acknowledgment of God’s power to shield the faithful from harm and danger. Use of such imagery underscores unwavering trust and faith of the psalmist in God’s ability to provide sanctuary amidst turmoil.
Simultaneously, there is longing for justice in this prayer. The psalmist believes that God will hold the wicked accountable for their malicious deeds. The psalm reflects a broader theological theme: the faithful look to God not only for protection but also for moral and ethical guidance. The plea for justice signifies belief in a divine moral order, where wrongdoing is eventually set right.
The psalm’s ending verses express the psalmist’s unwavering trust in God. The psalm becomes a message of hope, declaring that, in the face of adversity and persecution, strength can be found in faith and trust. Even when confronted with schemes of the wicked, the righteous can find refuge in their relationship with God.
Psalm 64 | King James Audio Bible KJV | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.
But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.
The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.’
Key Themes Of The Psalm For Reflection | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
- Thirst For God: The psalmist expresses an intense longing for a deeper connection with the divine, comparing this to a thirsty soul in need of water. This theme emphasizes the deep spiritual yearning and desire for God’s presence.
- Trust In God’s Protection: Despite facing adversities and challenges, the psalmist places unwavering trust in God’s protection and deliverance. This theme highlights profound faith and confidence in God’s sovereignty.
- Seeking Refuge In God: In moments of distress, the psalmist finds refuge in his faith, using it as a source of strength and solace. This theme underscores the idea that God is a sanctuary in times of trouble.
- Praise And Thanksgiving: The psalmist expresses gratitude and praise for God’s loving-kindness and faithfulness. Even in challenging circumstances, there is recognition of God’s goodness.
- Spiritual Sustenance: The psalmist conveys the idea that God is the source of spiritual nourishment, and the relationship with the divine is depicted as essential sustenance for the soul.
‘Death,’ says His Grace, ‘throws it all apart. For we are not as we should be. Faith requires our adjustment to God’s truth. God’s triumph in a very real sense requires in us the loss of our everything. Which, as with Mary at the other end of Jesus’s life, is God’s truth.’ The Gospel reading is of John 11: 1-45, which is a long passage, and His Grace’s homiletic theme commences in textual wilderness. Our brokenness – in this place – a family home. Our faith, our doubt, our death… The irruption – death, doubt, fear – within our precious scenes and our most intimate places. Our domesticity. His Grace speaks from the chair, as is a bishop’s prerogative, and says: ‘So much is obscure in the Gospels. We’re always reaching through them. We’re never there. Really, we never are. Our knowledge, our understanding, of the Gospels is never complete, and with each reading comes a new revelation. There are always new riches there. Just as there are between all of us, between myself and you. The Gospels are living texts. This is a part of the conversation we have with our own Christianity. It is a part of who we are in our relationship with Jesus. We are in this sense always on the brink. ‘So yes, there is plenty that doesn’t seem to make sense. As one of the order of bishops, we would be lying if we said that weren’t the case. They are not easy texts to encounter, if by that word we may signify something more than a superficial glancing off against, but rather a profound search for the word of God. The Gospels are written by people who had their own ideas, and often didn’t know what had really happened. Luke is quite explicit on this point. His is an investigation, from the explicitly claimed point of view of an historian, rather than that of a first-hand witness, who attempts, so he says, to set out an orderly account, out of the chaos, the sheer muddle, that has been handed down to him. It is possible to imagine Luke researching and composing his account after many years, when there has arisen a desire to know what exactly happened, and this implies a certain call to faith and certain demands of historicity, to historical exactitude. So in these different ways, the people of the first years of Christian faith are in the dark. There is also a decisive need to define the life of Jesus. And people didn’t get Jesus. The whole meaning of Christianity is only now beginning to take root throughout the composition. So much needs to be evangelized. The light shines almost in tentative fashion like that first star, which drew the wise men from the east to our Lord’s cradle. ‘John’s is widely held to be a very late Gospel. There are others who say that John’s Gospel might have been the first to acquire its true shape, because it most fully expresses Jesus, as we know him to be, as members of the Catholic Church. We don’t really know when any of this is being written, but we get a feel in John of a Gospel refined over many years, through a community. So there’s a lot going on there that I’d like you to think about. ‘What I would like to suggest to you is that, while within the Gospels we are often confronted with clues, guesswork, stories that have been handed down through so many people, and so in this sense we might find ourselves to be in the wilderness, this is the very desolate space itself to which we must give ourselves in order to experience Christ’s full redemption in our lives. I suggest it is for God’s glory that we do so. ‘As we become aware of ourselves, in this seminary, we find ourselves in a very secure, comfortable setting, and there are signs of Easter everywhere. Within the very fabric of these buildings, our Lord is risen; our Lord lives. But now this is our Lenten journey, where death enters, where death breaks us. We are to ride into Jerusalem in triumph, and then we are to be utterly broken, all hope gone, our hope extinguished. And really, I suggest to you, it is only by inhabiting this thought, as if we don’t know Easter is there, that our new life can follow, just when we have given up all hope, when every promise that Jesus made to us seems to have been cancelled. ‘And here now we have the story of Lazarus. I should like to suggest to you that we have a very powerful call now. In our very comfortable space, our domesticity, with all this comfort, where so very little might seem to happen each day, so it might seem to you, there is a disturbance within all of this comfort, and that is a disturbance within ourselves, and that is our call to Jesus. I think it is correct to say that our most comfortable places break in the light of Jesus from the inside, in order that we may take the necessary steps to be with Jesus. ‘Faith is not comfortable. I think that we can all receive the message of the rolling away of the rock from the tomb of Lazarus to say something of vital importance to ourselves concerning our openness to God’s love. The rock we roll away can come in all sorts of guises, but we know when we are blocked, and I firmly believe if we are truthful then we know where those blocks might be. ‘Next Sunday, which will be Palm Sunday, we process as it were to Jerusalem, to begin our Holy Week. Now as I speak to you we are on the brink. Even now, I suggest it might be very good for all of us to lay aside what we think we know, to fall apart a little, and so […]
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