Psalm 61

Introduction & Background

“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries, and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms. And today, we’ll be looking at a rather short psalm, Psalm 61. It’s only eight verses long, and it divides cleanly in the middle.
The first four verses, traditionally, at least according to Malbeam, the great commentator, are supposed to have been composed by David when he was being chased and persecuted by Saul. And David was running for his life and asking God to preserve his life. And then the last four verses traditionally are thought to have been composed by David after he had been anointed as king. And he’s praising God for his faithfulness and loving kindness. So that may be as it is, but it certainly is a convenient way to look at this psalm, and it makes perfect sense as we read it.
The psalm begins with a very standard superscription to the choir master with stringed instruments of David. We have seen this all the way back beginning with Psalm 4 and many times since, and we’ll be seeing it quite a few times in the future. So let’s look at the first four verses.”

The Word “Reenah”

“Most translations say, Hear my cry, O God.
But the word for cry there is the word reenah, which you can see here near the bottom of the screen and my marker will work, reenah. And I rather translate it here, O God, my song or my glad song or even a glad shout. So you can look at various translations to see how they deal with this word reenah.
Reenah is found 35 times in the scriptures. It doesn’t occur at all in the Torah. It’s only in the writings and in the prophets. And the first place it is found is in First Kings 8:28 at Solomon’s dedication of the temple. It says, yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, Adonai, my God, listening to the reena and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day.
And the last time it’s found is in Zephaniah, this beautiful prophecy. Zephaniah 3:17, Adonai, your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exult over you with reena, a loud song or shouts of joy.”

Balance of Praise and Prayer

“So in the first one, it’s Solomon providing a reena to God. And in Zephaniah, it’s how God will also have shouts of joy and glad song over us.
So it’s a beautiful word and it’s found here. It’s found, in fact, almost half the time it occurs in the Bible, it is in the Book of Psalms. So hear, O God, my reena, listen to my prayer.
I find this interesting that we’ve got this reena here, this kind of outward, loud shout of joy or loud song. But then over here, we have prayer, which is more contemplative, quiet and internal. I like that balance because I think we can tend to be the person who’s very introvert and I’ll just pray quietly in my closet. But we never openly praise God with a song and with a shout of joy.
Another is a more extrovert. They’re all into praise and singing and dancing, but maybe their own personal quiet time and personal prayer and intimacy with God is lacking. I think we need to follow what we see laid out here by David.”

Refuge in God

“We need to have both of these. From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint, you lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever. Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings.
Selah. When I see a Selah, we don’t know exactly what it means, but it is marking a distinction and a separation in the psalm. And whatever the word means, I think it’s good to pause and really ponder what we’ve read.
And what I find interesting here is that David is referring to God in five different ways. And I have highlighted them and made them bold and green, but let’s just list them here. He calls God the rock that is higher than I.
What that means is it’s a rock whose top is unreachable. The word here is dzur, which can be like a huge cliff. God, you are a rock to me, a rock whose top is so high that I don’t have to worry about anybody getting me if I am there.
And my refuge, a mighty tower of strength and a tent, and then hiding under the shadow of God’s wings.”

From Strong to Weak – But Spiritually Stronger

“Now, it’s kind of interesting. As you look at this, you see it goes from large, powerful, strong things down to things that seem to be less significant, things that are more tentative, things that are less permanent.
So the list seems backwards. It seems like I’m under the shadow of your wings, I dwell in your tent, you’re a tower to me, you’re my refuge, you’re the rock that’s higher than I. That seems like the way to build.
But may I suggest that David is actually building? Because he seems to be moving from things that have a lot of physical presence, things that are physically powerful into things that are physically weaker, but maybe, just maybe, are spiritually much more powerful.
And we have one thing on the list that’s actually alive, and that’s the last one, wings.”

Wings – The Living Image

“Now, he discusses dwelling under the shadow of his wings, but if there are wings involved, it means we can also mount up on wings as eagles. And you know what? If you’re mounting up on the wings of our great God, we can even go much higher than the rock.
That is unreachable. So, there’s an important lesson here, I believe. I hope you can catch this.
We tend to put faith in things that are big and physically solid and powerful and strong. And we tend to think of temporal things and less physical things as being weak. And yet, it’s in the weak things that God’s strength is often found.
These are the things that seem foolish to this world, in which we find God’s wisdom. And as we go down this list, and when we think of the tent, the commentators pretty much all agree that this is referring to the tabernacle. This is God’s own house.
And even if his house is merely a tent, I can’t imagine a safer place to be. Because if God is at home, and we’re there with him, we have nothing to fear. So it’s as if David is saying, Seila, pause here, stop and consider this.
And don’t put your faith and your hope in the physically impressive. Put your faith and hope in the living God. And he can use very weak things to overthrow the strong. And he can use foolish things of the world to accomplish incredibly powerful things. So put your faith in him himself. Let him use what he will in our lives to bring a mighty deliverance.”

Heritage of Those Who Fear God

“Okay? And then we go on to the last half of this short song. For you, O God, have heard my vows.
Now, what kind of vows did he make? Well, we see this word vows again in the last verse. So when we get there, we can see if we can figure out what his vows were.
It’s not unusual for a person to make a vow to God if God will provide a deliverance, if God will answer a prayer, if you do this, then Father, I vow, I’ll do that for you. So let’s see if we can figure out what this is as we get to the end. You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
In other words, David is thinking of the great heroes of the scriptures who had a healthy and holy fear of God, love as well, but also a fear of God, a high respect and high regard for God. And David is suggesting that people in this category have a special heritage from God, because they treat God as if he is real.
And that’s kind of how I defined fear of God. Fear of God, I believe, are those who really live their lives as if God does exist, that God matters. And when we do that, it means we realize we’re being watched, we’re being heard, and we’re going to be given an account of our lives.
God is real. He matters. That in itself is a very simple definition of fear of God. And there’s a special inheritance. There’s a special heritage, I believe, that belongs to such people.
I want to be one of those. I hope you do too.”

Prayer for the King & Midrash of Adam

“Prolong the life of the king. May his years endure to all generations. Now David, of course, knows he’s not going to live physically here for eternity.
But it’s like, may I leave a mark in this world that will endure for eternity. May I do something that’s going to have an eternal effect upon your people. And here we are, about 3,000 years after David’s life, studying his words, looking at his life, seeing foreshadowings of our Messiah and the deeds and the successes of David.
Now, there’s a tradition in Judaism that comes from a special, kind of an oddball, midrash. You know, there are various different midrashes. This is the midrash Raba and the midrash Tangkuma.
And these are like ancient Bible studies and insights on the scriptures. But there’s one that’s just kind of really offbeat. It’s kind of fun to read. And it’s almost comic bookish in some of the things it says, but still very profound.
And it’s the midrash DeRabbi Eliezer. And in that midrash, he says that this verse, prolong the life of the king, may his years endure to all generations. He says that this verse was prayed by Adam himself.
And then he gives the background story. He says that Adam originally was destined to live for exactly a thousand years. And as God allowed Adam to look down through the generations, Adam saw this one little boy, stillborn. And he saw that the soul that was assigned this little boy was a soul that was great and special and deserved to live.
And so Adam prayed that God would take 70 years from his own life and give it to this little boy. And so Adam lived only to 930 years, but the little boy was David who lived to be exactly 70 years. And together that makes a total of a thousand.”

Chesed v’Emet – Lovingkindness and Truth

“Now it’s a very fanciful story, but what I find interesting about this is that when we read Paul’s writings in Romans and also in 1 Corinthians, we read about the first Adam who lived 930 years.
And we learn about the last Adam or the second Adam, who is Yeshua, the son of David. And so Paul makes a connection between Adam and Yeshua. And to think that Rabbi De Eliezer, I think I’m getting his name wrong, but it’s the Midrash, the Midrash is called Midrash Perkei de Rabbi Eliezer. Perkei means the verses or the statements.
So it’s just an interesting kind of a fun thought I thought I would share with you. In verse seven, may he be enthroned forever before God, appoint loving kindness and truth to watch over him.
You’ll find this phrase, loving kindness and truth, chesed v’emet, a number of times in scripture. But the passage that really ensconces this phrase and frames it in a way that is extremely profound is in Exodus chapter 34, where God reveals his 13 attributes of mercy to Moses. It’s a profound passage.
And there we read, Adonai passed before him and before Moses proclaimed, Adonai, Adonai, God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in chesed v’emet, loving kindness and truth. Loving kindness and truth.
You know, at the beginning of the study, we looked at Reena, and we looked at Tefillah, prayer. One’s very external, one’s internal. A loving kindness and truth. Loving kindness is something you do.
This is something God pours out upon us. But truth is what he is. And we should also, as we bear his image, and we want to be disciples of Messiah, we want to exercise and practice loving kindness.
But we want to do it out of a heart of truth. So it’s important what we know internally, that we’re in tune and aligned with truth. But it’s also important what we do, and we should be doing chesed, acts of loving kindness.”

David’s Vow of Praise

“And then the last verse. So will I ever sing praises to your name to fulfill my vows day after day.
Now, he said that he was going to perform his vows, that God had heard his vows. What were his vows? It seems that his vows were, that I will ever sing praises to your name. Day after day.
What an interesting vow. What if this is exactly what David did? Father, if you will deliver me from Saul and his persecution, if you will spare my life, if I make a vow to you, I will sing your praises every single day.
Now, most people when they make vows, it’s a vow that I’ll give up smoking, or I’ll give up drinking, or I will tithe, or I’ll double my tithe, or I’ll give this amount of money to you, or I’ll become a missionary, this great thing. But I love this. David’s vow seems to be, I’ll sing your praises every day.
I’ll not let a single day go by, even if it’s a miserable day, even if it’s a day that I’m so sick I can’t get out of bed, I will sing your praises, because I made a vow to you that I would.
And maybe it’s because of this vow that David made that we have the Book of Psalms today. And maybe if he hadn’t made that vow, and he hadn’t composed these words of praise, we wouldn’t have these Psalms. Just a thought, I don’t know.
But anyways, this short eight verse Psalm to me is quite beautiful, and it’s so balanced, and it speaks so much to my heart. And I hope it does to yours as well.
And maybe we should make a vow, or at least a good intention, that every single day we will sing God’s praises. That might be a real life-changing habit to start, huh? So until next time, I wish you shalom and may God bless.”