You are my Shepherd,
You are my God and my King,
Your suffering mercy spills
And anoints me still.
I cannot contain Your greatness
Nor Your mercy, compassion,
Or love,
I am the sheep that strayed
From the green pastures of Your heart.
I am Your father David,
On whose throne one day You will sit
Even in the clouds of glory
I will see my Shepherd still.
- Cathryne Allen
PSALM 24:3-5:
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his
soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the
Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
There is a lot of
emphasis in the scriptures on an organ in the body that gives us spiritual as
well as the physical life and that is the heart. Spiritually, the heart is the
seat of our emotion, the center of our being where the moral choices live. It
is a conduit for spiritual guidance that enables us to decide our truest
values, commitments and the direction of our lives. It also acts as a bridge of empathy,
compassion and desires. The Biblical and
Christian view is that the heart is the dwelling place of God, where the person
meets the divine.
I went through a period
of time a couple of years ago where I engaged in some serious introspection of
myself and my life. I viewed myself as an emotional female who always followed
her heart rather than her head and ended up with a less than a desirable life.
I wondered if my life would have come to be better if I had made different choices.
What I discovered was that my choices and decisions corresponded perfectly with
the deepest desires of my heart which brought me to God and which was exactly
where I wanted to be. I learnt through my introspection what it means to yield
one’s heart to God:
“Heart, soul, and mind
were the encompassing words of Christ in describing the first commandment,
which is constantly, not periodically, operative (see Matthew 22:37). If it is
kept, then our performances will in turn be fully consecrated for the lasting
welfare of our souls (see 2 Nephi 32:9). Such totality involves the submissive
converging of feelings, thoughts, words, and deeds.” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Consecrate
Thy Performance, in CR April 2002)
Consider the imperative
role the heart plays in deciding the state of our being (D&C 121:35-38):
-
When the hearts of men are set on the
things of the world, they will act in ways detrimental to spiritual growth,
including covering their sins, gratifying their pride and vain ambitions and
exercising unrighteous dominion over others. These actions cause the heavens to
withdraw themselves and the Spirit of the Lord to be grieved.
-
When the hearts of men are set on the
things of God, and aspire to God’s approval, they will act in ways beneficial
to spiritual growth, including repenting of their sins, humbling themselves,
seeking the kingdom of God first, and exercising love and charity toward
others. These actions cause the spirit of the Lord to be near and an increase
in power from on high.
If we reflect upon the
world of our day, it is easy to see that we have as a whole rejected the very
first commandment: “Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5). We have neglected our hearts and because of this ‘the whole earth is in commotion
and men’s hearts are failing them, the love of men is waxing cold and iniquity is
abounding’ (D&C 45:26,27). Sin of every kind is dominating us: murder,
rape, fraud, deceit, theft, selfishness, vanity, pride…..
A pure heart is somewhere
that God can live. The more we yield
our hearts to Him, the more of His love will be planted in us. For
that reason, He stands at the door and knocks.
You
knock at the door of my heart
And
I often forget to turn the key.
With
sorrowing steps you retreat
Hoping
that one day
I
will remember Thee.
Of
my undying love
I
give Thee a token,
I
will keep the door open.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Psalm 50:3-5 –
Our God shall come, and shall not keep
silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round
about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he
may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a
covenant with me by sacrifice.
Psalm 96:12,13
– Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of
the wood rejoice before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the
earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his
truth.
Psalm 98:8,9 –
Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the
Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the
world, and the people with equity.
When the Lord comes the
second time, He will come in the fulness of His glory. The effect of this
fulness on the earth and its inhabitants will be such that:
1.
Mountains will flow down at His presence
(D&C 133:40,44; Micah 1:4)
2.
The waters on the earth will boil (D&C
133:41)
3.
All nations will tremble at His presence
(D&C 133:42)
4.
The sun will hide, the moon will withhold
its light, and the stars will be hurled from their places (D&C133:49)
5.
The wicked will be burned by the
brightness of fire of the glory of the Lord (Malachi 4:1-3; 2 Thessalonians
2:8)
“When Christ comes the
saints who are on the earth will be quickened and caught up to meet him….A change
will come over all who remain on the earth; they will be quickened so that they
will not be subject unto death until they are old. Men shall ‘die’ when they
are one hundred years of age, and the change shall be made suddenly to the
immortal state. Graves will not be made during this thousand years….death shall
come as a peaceful transition from the mortal to the immortal state. (Elder
Joseph Fielding Smith, Way to Perfection, pp 298-99, 311)
Nephi saw us in our day
and testified that the ‘power of the Lamb of God descended upon the saints of
the Church of the Lamb’, and upon the covenant people of the Lord…and we were
armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory’ (1 Nephi
14:14). It is time for us, the covenant people, to rise to that privilege. We
are the chosen for this time and this place to usher in the greatest event of
the history of mankind. The winding up scenes will not be easy, they will not
be pleasant, but they will be worth the sacrifice, the perseverance, the wait…and
when He comes, the tears of the faithful…..
When You appear
in the Millenial day;
Those who know Your grace
Will gather like Your sheep
In the blazing sun of glory
To come to Your embrace.
- Cathryne Allen
David’s
concluding psalm of Book 2 is titled “A Psalm for Solomon” which could be understood as
David’s wishes and hopes for his son but knowing of David’s prophetic streak
Psalm 72 presents Solomon as a type of Christ. Consider the following verses to
this end:
·
He shall judge thy
people with righteousness…(v 2)
·
He shall judge the
poor of the people and break in pieces the oppressor (v 4)
·
In his days shall the
righteous flourish and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth (v 7)
·
He shall have dominion
from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth (v 8)
·
Yea, all kings shall
fall down before him: all nations shall serve him (v 11)
·
His name shall endure
for ever…men shall be blessed in him and all nations shall call him blessed (v
17)
·
Blessed be the Lord
God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things (v 18)
I was
surprised when I read this psalm. I would have never made Solomon a type of
Christ. Whereas his father was a disappointment in the case of adultery and
murder, Solomon, in my mind, was worse because he abandoned the worship of the
God who gave him so much wealth and stature in the world. Solomon reigned over
Israel in extravagance and grandeur which lasted for 40 years. This is all it
took to destroy Israel's course forever.
David went
to his grave worshipping the God of Israel with full contrition, a broken heart
and a contrite spirit. Solomon, on the other hand turned his back on Jehovah by
turning his heart to idolatry. His foolishness exceeded all his wisdom. Whereas
he might have started as a type of Christ judging by the abovementioned
scriptures, he went against all that typified him in such a light and concluded
his life as a failure…..and this despite the warning.
Following the dedication of Solomon's temple, the Lord
appeared to Solomon for the second time and acknowledging the dedicatory
prayer, accepted the temple which Solomon dedicated to Him. At the same time,
however, he issued a grave and serious warning to the king of Israel. He warned
Solomon that if he and his children do not keep his commandments and if they go
and serve other gods and worship them, that He will cut off Israel out of the
land which He had given them, that He will destroy the temple which was built,
and 'Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people' (1 Kings
9:6,7). It’s beyond my understanding how he could ignore this warning.
It is interesting to me that the Lord appeared to Solomon
for the first time following Solomon's marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of
Egypt. This alliance was the greatest act of Solomon's foolishness and the
beginning of his downfall. It was then, nevertheless, that the Lord was willing
to give him the gift of wisdom (1 Kings 3:5,9-13). I don’t know if Solomon came
to believe at this point that God gave him licence to do whatever he wanted
because he proceeded to marry many idolatrous women out of the covenant. That,
in itself, was problematic, but the many political alliances signalled that he
had more faith in them than in God who was willing to fight and win Israel's
battles.
One cannot but think that Solomon used his wisdom to judge other
people in righteousness but not himself…..it’s like he had no common sense. You
might say he was beginning to lose the plot.
God who knows all things from beginning to the end knew
that Solomon was heading in the direction he should not want to go. So why make
the promise of wisdom and wealth and honour if it was going to be all wasted in
the end? I suspect it was more of a punishment than a blessing for Solomon's
fall was proportionate to his greatness. Marrying foreign women who led him and
all Israel into idolatry aborted his ability to endure to the end and changed
the course of Israel's history. From that point on, the history of Israel was a
losing battle fought by prophets against the forces of disloyalty to God.
If we can see the foolishness of people of old but not our
own, we should not get too comfortable. President Spencer W. Kimball gave a
warning to modern Israel regarding idolatry:
“ As I study ancient scripture, I am more and more
convinced that there is significance in the fact that the commandment “Thou
shalt have no other gods before me” is the first of the Ten Commandments. Few
men have ever knowingly and deliberately chosen to reject God and his
blessings. Rather, we learn from the scriptures that because the exercise of
faith has always appeared to be more difficult than relying on things more
immediately at hand, carnal man has tended to transfer his trust in God to
material things.
“Therefore, in all ages when men have fallen under the
power of Satan and lost the faith, they have put in its place a hope in the
“arm of flesh” and in “gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood and
stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know (Daniel 5:23) – that is, in idols.
This I find to be a dominant theme in the Old Testament. Whatever thing a man
sets his heart and his trust in most is his god; and if his god doesn’t also
happen to be the true and living God of Israel; that man is labouring in
idolatry.” (“The False Gods We Worship”,
p 4)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
I have written about King
David extensively over the years but it seems I am not finished yet. I watched
an AI generated film about him yesterday and it was done so well that I don’t
know who I cried about more, the David who rose to the throne or the David who
fell from it.
The fact remains that
David’s accomplishments are astounding. His name comes from the ancient Hebrew
root word dod which translates to a beloved person, love, a friend….pronounced
Dah-veed in modern Hebrew. As a youth, he was said to be a man after the
Lord’s “own heart” and as a man, he spoke by the Spirit and had many
revelations (1 Samuel 13:14).
In his rising to the
throne he conquered his enemies by his supplication to God for help and
protection ‘not fearing what man can do to him’ (see Psalm 55:11). He was
fearless in his dedication to his people by his awe inspiring way he believed
in the cause in Israel when he, a mere
shepherd boy, slew Goliath, considering him of no regard, a mere ‘uncircumcised
Philistine, who dared to defy the armies of the living God’ to whom he stated
without fear: “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel whom thou hast defied…...and I will smite thee and take thine
head from thee….that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Samuel
17:26,45,46). All the earth, indeed…..
The zeal with which he
lived his early years is absolutely mind blowing. What tears at my heart the
most are the psalms he wrote as a reflection of his incomparable love for the
God of Israel. His faith gave him a
prophetic voice to testify of Christ who would one day sit on his throne. Apostle
Peter testified of this fact in Acts 2:22-36. Psalms worthy of notice to this
end are:
·
Psalm 16 (thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption);
·
Psalm 22, which closely matches details of
the Crucifixion, including “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (v 1); “they pierced my hands and my feet” (v 16); “They
part my garments….and cast lots” (v 18);
·
Psalm 110, which Jesus and the apostles
use as messianic, including “The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right
hand” (v 1); the prophecy of Christ as “a priest for ever after the order of
Melchizedek” (v 4);
·
Psalm 41, often connected with betrayal: “mine
own familiar friend…hath lifted up his heel against me” (v 9), which Jesus
quoted at the Last Supper (John 13:18);
·
Psalm 69, linked to the suffering of
Christ: “in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (v 21);
·
Psalm 118, used repeatedly in the New
Testament about Christ: “The stone which the builders refused is become the
head stone of the corner” (v 22) and “blessed be he that cometh in the name of
the Lord” (v 26).
David did three things for temporal Israel that typify what Christ will do for spiritual Israel:
Firstly, following Saul's death, Israel's
kingdom was divided in two for seven years. The tribe of Judah accepted David
as their king and the rest of the tribes of Israel were ruled by Ishbosheth,
one of the sons of Saul, whom Abner, Saul's commanding general set up as the
new king (2 Sam 2:8-9).
Despite being anointed as Israel's king, by Samuel, the prophet,
David refrained from taking action against Ishbosheth in honour of the covenant
he made with Jonathan not to retaliate against Saul's family when he came to
power. Following Ishbosheth's murder David showed great wisdom and judgment by
executing the two men responsible (see (2 Samuel 3). This brought him into
favour with the tribes under Ishbosheth and ultimately united all twelve tribes
into one nation under the ultimate leadership of God.
Secondly, David succeeded in winning the whole extent of the
promised land for the covenant people. For the first time the chosen people of
the Lord controlled the whole land promised to Abraham's posterity nearly a
thousand years earlier.
Thirdly, David established Zion or Jerusalem as the spiritual and
political center of Israel. Under David's reign Israel reached its golden age.
Never before had Israel achieved such heights of power nor did they ever again.
(Old Testament Student Manual, Book 1 p 291)
David was anointed to sit on the throne of Israel and to establish the royal family line that would produce the King of Kings who would one day sit ‘on the throne of his father David’ (Luke 1:32-33). My question is this: was David chosen to be an example of the good King who was to come or was he chosen to show that no king can be as good as the King that was to come????? The answer is obvious, no king can be as good as the King that is yet to come because that King would never and will NEVER fall. I often think our present day governments will with their weakness and corruption accentuate the blessing that the King of Kings will be when He comes to govern the world.
“Even so, come Lord Jesus” (Revelation
22:20).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
“Our
God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and
it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from
above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints
together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
(Psalms 50:3-5)
Psalm
50 reads more like a revelatory instruction to Jehovah’s saints than a song of
praise. It accentuates thanksgiving and praise of God above the animal
sacrifices of the day. Psalm 51 goes further to explain that the sacrifice God
wants from us is that of a ‘broken and contrite heart’ (vs 15-17).
Psalm
51 was written by King David following that fateful visit of Nathan the prophet
who exposed David’s sin with Bath-Sheeba. It is one of the most heart wrenching
story of the Old Testament. After giving David a touching story of a poor man’s
lamb being taken away by a rich man to sacrifice for a single meal of a
traveller, David was outraged and claimed that the rich man needs to be put to
death but Nathan simply replied ‘thou art the man’ and outlined the seriousness
of what David had done despite all the blessings he had received at God’s hand (see
2 Samuel 12:1-14). It humbled David to the dust.
The
word (Hebrew root dkh) translated as “contrite” means “to crush”,
therefore, “a broken or contrite heart or spirit is one that is crushed,
smashed, broken to pieces…The symbolism of our smashing or breaking or crushing
our hard, wilful heart into pieces and offering the result to God is significant,
because a smashed heart no longer exists in a recognizable or retrievable form….It
is at this point that the Lord can replace our now broken, offered heart with a
new one” (see Ezekiel 36:26). (Dana M. Pike, “3 Nephi 9:19-20: The Offering of
a Broken Heart” in Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture)
I
think David understood this principle well when he pleaded with God: “Hide thy
face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean
heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:9,10)
When
the Saviour comes to judge His people, He will require the spirit of repentance
from us. Placing our sins on the altar of sacrifice is the ultimate we can give
and if our hearts are pure and sincere, forgiveness will be HIS to give and He
will be glorified for the salvation of our souls.
Before
the birth of Christ, animal sacrifice was required in expectation of His
sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ fulfilled this requirement and in itself
denotes a broken and contrite heart offered in the Garden through His submission
and humility and upon the cross through His willingness of extreme suffering. How little is asked of us
in comparison to the greatest sacrifice of all!
I gave you my all:
My heart, my body, my soul.
I paved the way
And conquered death.
Come and take my hand;
Eat and do not hunger,
Drink and do not thirst.
I am in your midst;
I am the only,
I am the last,
And I am the first.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Book
Five (Psalms
107-150): Celebrates restoration, features the Songs of Ascent, and ends in
massive praise.
“O
give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (107:1)
“Christ
has, on occasion, been rightfully angry with backsliding Israel, but that has
always been brief and temporary – “a small moment”. Compassion and mercy always
return and prevail in a most reassuring way. The mountains and the hills may
disappear. The water of the great seas may dry up. The least likely things in
the world may happen, but the Lord’s kindness and peace will never be taken
from his covenant people. He has sworn with a heavenly oath that he will not be
wroth with them forever.” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant [1997],
290)
The
final chapters of the book of Psalms gives a clear understanding to the reader
that Judah had learnt well about sorrow in its’ captivity: “By the rivers of
Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (137:1).
These chapters are grounded in God’s mercy and
hope of the nation’s restoration: “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the
Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities” (130:7,8). In remembering past deliverance from
their enemies and bondage, the reliance on the Lord’s mercy became foremost in
their minds. Psalm 136 is so heavy on gratitude that every one of 26 verses
ends in “for his mercy endureth for ever”.
Judah
was delivered from the Babylonian and Persian captivity in two colonies between
515 B.C. and 458 B.C. The temple was rebuilt and Jerusalem’s restoration began and
became what it is today. Not all the Jews chose to return to their land,
however, and so began a voluntary world-wide dispersion referred to as diaspora
which endures to this day.
“The
Lord never intended for Israel and Judah to remain scattered. Isaiah prophesied
that “the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant
of his people…and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together
the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:11-12).
Psalm 147:2 reads: “The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the
outcasts [diasporai] of Israel.” Nephi added this significant idea to
the teachings of the restoration of the Jews: “After [the Jews] have been
scattered…even down from generation to generation….they shall be persuaded to
believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement” (2 Nephi 25:16).
“Elder
Wilford Woodruff, issued an epistle to the world on 22 February 1879 and, in
part, addressed himself to the dispersed of Judah: “For the fulness of the
Gentiles has come in, and the Lord has decreed that the Jews should be gathered
from all the Gentile nations where they have been driven, into their own land,
in fulfilment of the words of Moses their lawgiver. And this is the will of
your great Eloheim, O House of Judah, and whenever you shall be called upon to
perform this work, the God of Israel will help you. You have a great future and
destiny before you and you cannot avoid fulfilling it; you are the royal chosen
seed, and the God of your father’s house has kept you distinct as a nation for
eighteen hundred years, under all the oppression of the whole Gentile world.
You may not wait until you believe on Jesus of Nazareth, but when you meet with
Shiloh your king, you will know him, your destiny is marked out, you cannot
avoid it.” (Old Testament Student Manual Enrichment: The Persian Empire, the
Return of the Jews, and the Diaspora; In Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford
Woodruff, pp 509-10)
The
Messiah will come. He will descend on the Mount of Olives with the nail prints
in His hands and His feet and the Kingdom of Judah will come to know that there
is no Saviour beside Him; none else in heaven
above, or earth beneath, or waters beneath the earth, nothing, nobody, nowhere,
there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ
whereby man can be saved (Isaiah 43:10-11; 45,5,6,14,18,22; 46:9; Deut 4:35,39;
5:8; 1 kings 8:60, 2 Nephi 2:8; 25:20; 31:21; Moses 6:52; D&C 76:1)
Then they
will say:
We are Israel, Thy chosen seed
Who in times past disregarded Thee
But now through Thy infinite love
We are gathered to Thee.
In Thine mercy Thou has sought to gather
us
In Thine heart Thou hast chosen to
cherish us;
In Thee is deliverance from our barren
years
In Thee is mercy for our penitent tears.
Book
Four (Psalms
90-106): Shifts focus to God’s eternal reign and comfort during hard times.
For
the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all
generations (100:5)
The
Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy (103:8)
For
as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that
fear him (103:11)
But
the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear
him…(103:17)
I
have noticed that the scriptures focus a lot on Christ’s greatest attribute,
that of mercy. I have also noticed that the medium the prophets have used for
this is the tradition of ‘remembering’. Even Psalms bring this to light. They
remind Israel to remember the Abrahamic covenant (105:9; 42) and their
deliverance from Egypt’s captivity (106:7,21).
God’s
admonition to ancient Israel to remember their deliverance from ‘the house of
bondage’ was so engrained in them that they took it to the new promised land in
ancient America. Some
notable references to this important part of their history in the Book of
Mormon are: 1 Nephi 4:2,3; 17:23-42; Mosiah 7:19; Alma 36:28-29. Remembering
became a legacy amongst God’s people. King Benjamin spoke of ‘remembering’ 15
times in his farewell speech to motivate his people to obedience to God (Mosiah
1:3,4,6,7,17; 2:40 twice, 41 twice; 4:11,28,30; 5:11,12; 6:3).
Remembering
God’s mercy in our lives brings us to accept His most notable role, that of
being an Advocate before the judgment bar of God: “…for he cometh to judge the
earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.”
(98:9)
When
we come before that judgment bar, we will need mercy more than ever before. This
mercy will be offered only to the penitent and is not to be used as excuse for
our lack of repentance, as a lot of people tend to do (see Alma 42:24,25; Ether
12:24; D&C 38:14; 50:16; 101:9)
I
used to think, through my study of the scriptures, that the Saviour was overly
merciful, especially to the House of Israel which He called the ‘backsliding’ ‘rebellious
house’ (see Jeremiah 3:6,8,11,12,14,22; Ezekiel 12:2,3,9,25). Then one year I
had a great insight into the Saviour’s mercy. I realised He could have never endured
the cross if it wasn’t for his abundant mercy towards those lesser than Him. It
was that mercy in Him that drove Him through the last leg of His suffering
journey.
“I
will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever……” (89:1)
Will
You come and carry me
When
all my strength is gone?
Will
Your mercy spill from You
When
I can walk no more?
Will
Your mercy lift me higher
To
glimpse my eternal home?
Will
I see my soul there
Before
Your gilded throne?
When
the sum of my life is done
Will
You bring me home to keep?
I’ll
want to kneel and honour You
Before
Your Mercy Seat.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Book
Three (Psalms
73-89): Grapples with crisis, national pain, and the Babylonian exile.
The
seizure of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 B.C. was horrific:
“The
siege lasted for eighteen months, during which time the people of Jerusalem
were starved to the point of cannibalism (see Lamentations 4:8-10). As the
final defences broke down and the Babylonians became victorious, King Zedekiah
and his army fled toward the Jordan River but were captured. He was forced to
watch as his family was murdered, and then the Babylonians put out his eyes and
took him captive to Babylon.
“The
city was burned, Solomon’s temple was destroyed, and the kingdom of Judah came
to an end. According to Jeremiah, the Babylonians took the remnant of the
people captive to Babylon except for some who were left behind under Babylonian
rule (see Jeremiah 39:8-10). Thus Nebuchadnezzar was able to control Judah by
keeping the leaders in captivity, and some few of the people were allowed to
remain behind to harvest the crops. The breakup and displacement of the Jews removed
the threat of national revival. (Old Testament Student Manual Book 2: The
Lasting Effects of the Fall and Captivity of Judah)
The
Book of Psalms lets us experience this painful event in Judah’s history first-hand
through the lamentation of Asaph:
“O
God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; they holy temple have they
defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. How long, Lord? Wilt thou be angry
for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? For they have devoured Jacob and
laid waste his dwelling place. O remember not against us former iniquities; let
thy tender mercies speedily prevent us; for we are brought very low. Help us, O
God of our salvation for the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and purge away
our sins, for thy name’s sake. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy
face to shine; and we shall be saved” (Psalm 79:1,5,7,8,9; Psalm 80:7).
I
literally cried reading this. There is a great lesson to be learnt in
repentance and that is that even forgiveness of our sins cannot wipe away
consequences. They serve a mighty purpose, the memory of suffering through them
deters a return to former sins:
“The
captivity had a profound effect on Judaism. Scholars almost universally agree
that the Jews never returned to image worship after the captivity. The fall of
Jerusalem was a great turning point in Israel’s religious life. From earliest
times the sin of idolatry had existed in Israel, and the prophets of every age
had combated it. After the fall, idolatry eased to be a problem for the Jews.
“The
captivity seemed to impress upon the minds of the Jewish people that the God of
Israel was, indeed, a jealous God. The prophets had been right in their
warnings of the doom and destruction that would follow if the people did not
repent and follow their God and Him only. The nation, as a whole, accepted the
verdict that God’s wrath had been poured down upon them for the sin of image
worship. They reached the conclusion that only the God of Israel should be
worshipped. Henceforth, Israel became a very zealous nation for its God. This
zeal took the form of devotion to Jehovah’s law, which led over the years to
the creation of numerous rules of conduct that went beyond the law itself. This
has been described as building “a hedge around the Law to render its
infringement or modification impossible” (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and
Times of Jesus the Messiah, 2 Vols.; Old Testament Student Manual 2: The
Lasting Effects of the Fall and Captivity of Judah)
The
captivity of Judah was like a cleansing fire that brought the nation to its
senses which purged the sin of idolatry from their very being. The Messianic Psalm
89 echoes the mercy, greatness, justice and judgment of the Holy One of Israel
and Judah’s vision of the coming of Messiah to restore the throne of David through
Christ, God’s Firstborn. What hope such
words must have been to the suffering of the souls of Judah’s nation in the midst
of their repentance:
“I
will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever: with my mouth will I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. For who in the heaven can be compared unto
the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? The
heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness
thereof, thou hast founded them. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy
throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. For the Lord is our defence
and the Holy One of Israel is our king.” (Psalm 89:1,6,11,14,18)
The
scars of sin do not last forever. The sin is purged when sin is discarded and
our hearts are turned to Him who can make us whole again. He is our Saviour,
our Redeemer, our all…
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Book Two (Psalms 42-72): Focuses on deliverance,
longing for God and kingship.
In
the words of C.S. Lewis: “The heart can and should obey the head”. David, the
King of Israel is concrete proof of these words. His transgression with Bath-Sheba
cost him dearly and led to many family and national tragedies. He spent the
rest of his life regretting what he did. In one psalm he expressed his mental
torment and pleaded for forgiveness:
“Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly
from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my
transgressions; and my sin is ever before me…..
“Create
in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not
away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:1-3, 10-11)
David
paid a high price for the example that he set for his children. That example
created so much turmoil and complexity within his family life that prophet
Nathan told him “the sword shall never depart from thine house” (2 Samuel
12:10).
Psalms
42-72 speaks a lot about David’s enemies and his supplication to God for
protection and deliverance. And this is the tragedy of all tragedies…..imagine
your greatest enemy coming from your own family. Many of us have family
conflict but what David experienced was another level of family strife.
David’s
example of following his bodily lust with Bath-Sheba played itself the second
time around with his first-born son and heir Amnon who developed a consuming
lust for his half sister Tamar. After the rape he rejected her and hated her
‘exceedingly’ (2 Samuel 13:15-22). Knowing that she had been disgraced and
would therefore be deprived of a husband, Tamar mourned in the manner of a
widow (vs 19,20). And she mourned for two years in the house of her brother
Absalom who took her under his protection.
David
was furious with Amnon but his own conduct with Bath-Sheba had left him without
basis for condemnation: “Because of his own guilt, David did not act to correct
this great abomination in his own household. David learned the sad lesson that
a man’s sins can often visit him even to the third and fourth generation (see
Exodus 34:7)” (Old Testament Student Manual Genesis – 2 Samuel, The Price of
Sin: Tragedy in the House of David)
After
two years of watching his sister mourn, Absalom was enraged that his father did
nothing to correct the injustice done to her so he took matters in his own
hands. He arranged the murder of his brother Amnon at the feast he held for the
annual sheep shearing and escaped to his grandfather’s home in Geshur (2 Samuel
13:23-39).
From
there things progressed so far that Absalom plotted to overthrow his father as
king. He began to act like a king and campaigned to gain favour with the people
and ‘stole the hearts of the men of Israel’ (see 2 Samuel 15:1-12). I can see how
both injustice and love for another human being can drive a man to extreme
behaviour. I don’t know which drove Absalom to such extremes but his love for
his sister touched me deeply.
The
first time that David, a man of war, turned his back on his enemies was the
time he fled Jerusalem in the face of insurrection from his son. This was a
highly uncharacteristic thing for him to do considering that Jerusalem was a
fortress to be reckoned with. Instead of facing the enemy “he appears to take
all as coming from the hand of God; therefore he humbles himself, weeps,
goes barefoot, and covers his head! He does not even hasten his departure, for
the habit of mourners is not the habit of those who are flying before the face
of their enemies. He sees the storm, and he yields to what he conceives to be
the tempest of the Almighty.” (Clarke, Bible Commentary, 2:350)
Some
believe Psalm 55 was written by David to express his feelings over Absalom’s
revolt. Note especially verses 12-14 and 20-21.
This
is the outcome of David’s tragic life: The two armies who fought for the throne
slaughtered 20,000 men (2 Samuel 18:7). Even though David’s army prevailed and
he regained the throne, the personal tragedy of his family never ended. His
charismatic son Absalom, whom David loved deeply, was murdered by the captain
of David’s army and David wept: “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If
only I had died instead of you – O Absalom, my son, my son! (2 Samuel 18:9-17, 33)
“It
is almost as though after his sin with Bath-Sheba and the murder of Uriah the
light that gave David his political genius went out. His actions during this
extreme crisis were of blind loyalty to an evil son and of one foolish decision
after another.” ((Old Testament Student Manual Genesis – 2 Samuel, The Price
of Sin: Tragedy in the House of David)
But
there is more…..under advice to show Israel that his father hated him, Absalom sexually
defiled all ten of his father’s concubines (2 Samuel 16:21-23). Under the Mosaic
law (see Leviticus 18), once defiled, married women could not again enjoy the
married state. When David returned to his house, he shut up these women and fed
them ‘unto the day of their death, living in widowhood’ (2 Samuel 20:3).
Yes,
there is still more….David promised Bath-Sheba that her son Solomon would succeed
him and sit on his throne instead of Absalom’s brother Adonijah who was next in
succession. I suspect guilt had something to do with it. When Adonijah started
asserting his right to the throne, Solomon had him put to death to secure his
place on the throne of his father David (1 Kings 1:13,17;29,30; 2:15,:23-25). And
so David lost three sons and went to his death having lost his exaltation (D&C
132:38,39).
David’s repentance and godly sorrow led to his gratefulness for the resurrection of the unjust which is known as ‘the sure mercies of David’ (see Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 272).
David went to his death honouring the
justice and mercy of God:
“….
my heart is glad…..for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell…..” Psalm 16:9,10)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
