Psalm 17:1–5, 13–15 (NIV)

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CONSIDER THIS

Today’s post is from A Meditative Journey Through the Psalms by Timothy and Julie Tennent. Most recently, he served as the president of Asbury Theological Seminary among other posts he holds across the global church. She is a gifted musician and was one of the driving forces that helped bring to fruition the Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. We will share some of their writing on the Psalms on Sundays.

This is the confident prayer of the righteous man or woman who has oriented himself or herself toward God’s righteousness and thereby prays with the confident assurance that God will hear and will answer our prayers. Here we find the psalmist not in the agonizing silence of God, or preoccupied with the fleeting triumph of the wicked, but in the presence of a God who has not allowed our feet to slip. Here we bask in the glorious confidence of a God who hears us, who answers our prayers, and who has saved us by his right hand (vv. 6–7). We dwell in the shadow of his wings and can say, with confidence, that we are the “apple” of his eye (v. 8). The wicked are still on every side. They still seek to assail us and to speak evil against us with “their callous hearts” (v. 10). The psalmist rests in the assurance that “I will see your face” (v. 15). Heretofore seeing the face of God was a special privilege accorded only to Moses (Deut. 34:10; Num. 12:8), but here, the psalmist sees this as the final inheritance of all of God’s people.

This psalm is one of the early grounds for the resurrection of the dead and the final victory of the righteous over death itself. In the Bible, death is nothing more than sin made visible. Thus, God’s victory over sin must, ultimately, be a visible victory over death. The psalmist is so confident in God’s covenant that he somehow realizes, even a millennium before the time of Christ, that God’s victory extends even through death. He declares, “When I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness” (v. 15). Each day we go to sleep and then, after the night, rise up in the morning. Even this most basic shared experience is meant to be a daily reminder of God’s plan, one of those inbuilt quotidian mysteries for all, especially those who have been united with him. Those who have tasted that final sleep of death will someday also experience that final awakening of the resurrection of the dead.

For the Awakening,
Timothy and Julie Tennent

THE HYMN

Sing Psalm 17 with the Seedbed Psalter today. I suggest the tune ST. ANNE (“O God Our Help in Ages Past”). You can hear the tune played online by Julie Tennent here. If you listen to the podcast audio version, I will sing the psalm in this same tune. For your convenience, the words from the Psalter are printed below. 

P.S. Get the Resources

If you would like to have the meditations and the metrical psalter in a beautiful two-volume set—which I highly recommend— you can order those through the Seedbed store.