Psalm 18: How can ‘perfection’ make ‘imperfection’?
Psalms Part 18 of 150
For the Chief Musician. By David the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said,
Why does God allow his fair haired little boy to even have enemies?
1 I love you, Yahweh, my strength.
2 Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer;
And your imaginary friend.
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
3 I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised;
and I am saved from my enemies.
Why you and not others? Plenty of people call on him and are never answered. What makes you so special?
4 The cords of death surrounded me.
The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
5 The cords of Sheol were around me.
The snares of death came on me.
And God allowed it.
6 In my distress I called on Yahweh,
and cried to my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple.
My cry before him came into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled.
The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken,
because he was angry.
So the earth rumbles and quakes like it has always done and you want to attribute it to Daffy Duck? Moron.
8 Smoke went out of his nostrils.
Consuming fire came out of his mouth.
Coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down.
Thick darkness was under his feet.
That sounds like any other volcanic eruption.
10 He rode on a cherub, and flew.
Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him,
darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Drama Queen.
12 At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed,
hailstones and coals of fire.
13 Yahweh also thundered in the sky.
The Most High uttered his voice:
hailstones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
Yes, great lightning bolts, and routed them.
15 Then the channels of waters appeared.
The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
Natural phenomena and you start crying for your security blanket.
16 He sent from on high.
He took me.
He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
Must have been his wishes then.
18 They came on me in the day of my calamity,
but Yahweh was my support.
19 He brought me out also into a large place.
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness.
I doubt it very much or you’d be dead.
According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
But you did depart.
22 For all his ordinances were before me.
I didn’t put away his statutes from me.
23 I was also blameless with him.
I kept myself from my iniquity.
No, read your story again.
24 Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
Then he must be blind as well.
25 With the merciful you will show yourself merciful.
With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect.
26 With the pure, you will show yourself pure.
With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
With the smart he will be known as fake, imaginary and unnecessary.
27 For you will save the afflicted people,
but the haughty eyes you will bring down.
28 For you will light my lamp, Yahweh.
My God will light up my darkness.
29 For by you, I advance through a troop.
By my God, I leap over a wall.
You think you are Superman now?
30 As for God, his way is perfect.
The word of Yahweh is tried.
He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
Is that why everyone who has ever followed him is dead? Some shield he is.
31 For who is God, except Yahweh?
Zeus? Krishna? Shiva? Allah? Screw it, go here.
Who is a rock, besides our God,
Asked and answered.
32 the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?
33 He makes my feet like deer’s feet,
Animism?
and sets me on my high places.
34 He teaches my hands to war,
Real ‘gods’ wouldn’t and shouldn’t be warmongers.
so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have also given me the shield of your salvation.
Your right hand sustains me.
Your gentleness has made me great.
War and gentle aren’t two words I’d put together about a supposed god.
36 You have enlarged my steps under me,
My feet have not slipped.
37 I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them.
Neither will I turn again until they are consumed.
Peace? Truce? Treaty? Ever heard of them?
38 I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to rise.
They shall fall under my feet.
Have you no humanity left in you? Why so nasty?
39 For you have armed me with strength to the battle.
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
They rose up against you because you follow a murderous, genocidal deity. Let your god fade into history and try to live in peace with your fellow man.
40 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
that I might cut off those who hate me.
41 They cried, but there was no one to save;
even to Yahweh, but he didn’t answer them.
42 Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind.
I cast them out as the mire of the streets.
Could you not have shown mercy?
43 You have delivered me from the strivings of the people.
You have made me the head of the nations.
A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
44 As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me.
The foreigners shall submit themselves to me.
Why should they? You are no more than they. Certainly no more worthy.
45 The foreigners shall fade away,
and shall come trembling out of their close places.
46 Yahweh lives; and blessed be my rock.
Exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 even the God who executes vengeance for me,
What need is there for vengeance? It’s not what I would want of a ruler or god. Pathetic really.
and subdues peoples under me.
48 He rescues me from my enemies.
Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me.
You deliver me from the violent man.
Why not deliver them from you? You’re a violent man.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations,
and will sing praises to your name.
50 He gives great deliverance to his king,
and shows loving kindness to his anointed,
to David and to his seed, forever more.
Yahweh is a pretty pathetic choice for a god I must say. He has so many qualities that shouldn’t even be thought of as belonging to a god. Get over yourselves.