I
long to reside in Your presence;
To
never know sadness
Or
the wretched heat of my tears.
I
know I will be safe there
Where
fears cannot find me
And
trials cannot scar me.
I
know there will be safety
In
the shadow of Your wings
My
burdens You will lift
And
wipe away my sins.
- 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
How
dear to the heart of the Shepherd
Is
the flock of His sheep;
With
tenderness and love
He
watches over those in His keep.
How
much do they love their Shepherd!
How
closely they stay by His side!
With
every footstep they follow,
To
forever with Him abide,
All
eternity wide.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
King David
of the Old Testament is one of my favourite heroes. His love for the God of
Israel inspired in me such admiration for him that his fall from grace has been
one of my biggest disappointments. At the same time, we are all sinful in this
most imperfect life called mortality so my heart aches for him.
His Psalms
are sublime and his testimony of the merciful heart of the Saviour shines
through like the rising sun from the east in the most popular Psalm of them
all. Psalm 23 titled The Lord Is My Shepherd is honoured by all of
Christianity throughout the world. We don’t know when this Psalm was written
exactly but the common consensus is that it was most likely written by ‘earlier
David’ because of the shepherd imagery which feels personal and natural for
someone who literally watched sheep.
When Samuel anointed David as the King of Israel, he did so with oil and “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David” (1 Samuel 16:13). David used this anointing in Psalm 23 as a symbol of protection from his enemies, mercy and comfort. There is an ancient and traditional practice that is an interesting parallel of this concept. It has to do with sheep and shepherds who anoint their heads with oil and this is why:
We are like
sheep; tormented, wounded, conflicted. Indeed we are sheep, of the greatest
Shepherd of all time who anoints us with oil of gladness, out of His great
mercy.
Today in
the Church the Melchizedek Priesthood holders consecrate olive oil before it is
used to anoint the sick or afflicted in need of healing, comfort, and protection.
The Church stipulates strongly that no other oil can be used for this purpose
(General Handbook 18.12). It has to do with the symbolic olive tree which is
the emblem of the House of Israel. The emblem includes two olive branches
flanking a temple menorah which the prophet Zechariah saw in a vision
(Zechariah 4:11-14). The olive branch is a long-standing symbol of peace,
reconciliation and hope, with roots in ancient Greek and Roman cultures. This
symbol has been carried throughout history and is still recognized today.
Have you
ever wondered why the olive tree? The research on this subject is extensive but
here is a summary: the olive tree is a symbol of longevity, prosperity,
indestructibility and generosity (relative to the fact that it produces
abundant fruit even when it is over a thousand years old. It is a living
testament to resilience, generosity and ancient wisdom. I once saw a picture of
an olive tree which was over 2,000 years old and I understood its significance
that is relative to the House of Israel.
In the Book
of Mormon, Zenos used
the olive tree as a powerful symbol of God's love and relationship with the
house of Israel (Jacob 5). The olive tree is an evergreen, meaning its' leaves
do not seasonally fade or fall. They are continually rejuvenated through
scorching heat or winter cold. It is however a sturdy tree which produces new
shoots from apparently dead roots. Its' gnarled trunk gives an impression of
travail, endurance and ancient life. Because of the unique quality of this tree
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland affirmed that "no symbol could serve more
powerfully and profoundly of God's expansive, constant, redeeming love - including
especially the love represented in the gift of his Only Begotten Son- than does
the olive tree." (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p
163-64)
Can
you see the relevance of olive oil as the oil of gladness, that is expressed
from timeless olive trees, and the connection to the timeless House of Israel
who we are? Next time you read this Psalm, remember who your God is:
“The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me….to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to
give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. (Isaiah
61:3)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
I looked up to You
When in my beginning.
I saw Your strength,
Your care, Your undying love,
And I knew only You
Could make up for what
I alone could not do.
You are my Shepherd,
You are my King,
You are my Holy Grail,
You are my everything.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
