This is a psalm in which David contrasts the ways of the wicked and the consequences of these ways with those of the righteous.  The contrast is radical.  The verses on which I focus portray the ways of the righteous.

Through David – human antecedent of Jesus – God gives four mandates.  A mandate, of course, is a command.  He also gives the consequences of living out these four mandates.  The commands are:

• Trust in the Lord and do good!

• Delight yourself in the Lord!

• Commit your way to the Lord!

• Be still before the Lord & wait patiently for him!

The four mandates can be summarized in the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:33: Seek first God’s Rule and His Righteousness …  Notice that Jesus uses an action word – seek – to make clear that this is something we must do and can do.  Let’s look then, at these four mandates of our psalm.

1) TRUST  in the Lord and do good!  To trust in the Lord is to obey the First Command God gave Moses (Exodus 20): “You shall have no other gods before (but) me!”  The four mandates will all repeat this theme: PUT GOD FIRST!  This first mandate is put powerfully in Proverbs 3:5,6:

         Trust in the Lord with all your heart

         and lean not on your own understanding;

         in all your ways acknowledge him

         and he will make straight your paths straight 

The second part of this command is: do good!  He we have an example of what some call faith THAT works!  True trust or faith is not mere feeling.  It is action.

2) DELIGHT yourself in the Lord!  One Christian scholar (John Piper) calls this Christian Hedonism.

GOD is our first and foremost pleasure and treasure in life.  In our Lord’s Model Prayer we are commanded: Father in Heaven hallowed be your name!  To hallow God’s name is to treasure Him.  To take great pleasure in Him.  To DELIGHT in the Lord.  We are called to reverence God.  We are called to obey Him.  And, we are commanded to delight in our great God!

3)  COMMIT your way to the Lord!  This command elucidates the meaning of the first mandate – to trust in the Lord.  Those who trust in God surrender to Him.  There is a story of a tightrope expert walking across Niagara Falls on a rope.  He asked the crowd if they truly believed he could do it after he demonstrated he could.  He then asked for a volunteer to sit in a wheelbarrow and let him wheel the person across on the rope.  He wanted them to commit.  In effect, to put their money (life) where their mouth was.

To say “Jesus is Lord!” and to live out surrender to this Lordship is to be committed.  It is to say and mean: YOU ARE THE BOSS OF ME!

4) BE STILL before the Lord and wait patiently for him!  We live in a noisy, chaotic, clamoring world. Do we not?  Psalm 46:10 urges us to – Be still and know that I am God!  The implication is clear.  We must quiet ourselves.  To be still is to know experientially that God is God.  Israel was at the Red Sea.  The Egyptians were close behind them, ready to take them back to Egypt as slaves.  Moses, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, called out to this fearful band: Fear not!  Stand firm!  And see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today …  The Lord himself will fight for you!  YOU HAVE ONLY TO BE STILL (Exodus 14:13,14, RSV).

To be still is the life of grace.  It is to recognize and live out the words of Zechariah 4:6 – It is not by human might nor by human power but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.  This is the life of trust, of delight, of commitment.

A final, important note.  All four mandates are in relation to the Lord.  Lord here translates the Hebrew word – YAHWEH.  The name means: I am Who I Am.  OR, I am He who causes things to be.  The Creator, Sustainer God.  Incarnate in Jesus Christ.

So, when we trust … delight … commit .. be still – it is to Yahweh we do so.  Only to Him.  To do so is to live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Indeed, he is our – Savior … Sanctifier… Healer … King!

Amen!

By David Root