RR Psalm 51:20,21 Part 18

Shalom,

Psalm 51:20 In Your favor do good to Zion. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. 21 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on Your altar.

Some scholars have viewed Psalm 51 as a favorite of the prophet Isaiah, who lived about 300 years after King David (who wrote it).  In many places, throughout Isaiah’s 66 chapters, Isaiah echos the themes and subjects of Psalm 51.  Compare Isaiah 60:7 with today’s verses at the end of Psalm 51. Isaiah 60:7 All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you. Nebaioth’s rams will minister to you. They will go up with favor on My altar, and I will beautify My glorious House.”  

Just a few verses later, Isaiah goes on… Isaiah 60:10 Foreigners will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you. For in My fury I struck you, but in My favor I will show you mercy.  Here we find the phrase, “Build up the walls” in both Psalm 51:20 and Isaiah 60:10 (although Isaiah calls them “your walls.”).

Let’s go back to Psalm 51:9 Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Sounds unmistakably similar to Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says Adonai. “Though your sins be like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they will become like wool.”  So then, without a doubt Isaiah read and loved David’s Psalm we now call “Psalm 51.”  If Isaiah loved it so, maybe we should love it too.

But wait, there’s more… Both Psalm 51 (in our subject verses) and Isaiah 62 mention the walls that surround and protect Jerusalem.  Isaiah 62:6 On your walls, Jerusalem, I have set watchmen. All day and all night, they will never hold their peace. “You who remind Adonai, take no rest for yourselves.”

I want to close this for today with the very next verse of Isaiah.  Isaiah 62:7 And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.  Today, Jerusalem is not yet a “praise in the earth.”  In fact, quite the opposite is true.  The earth (the whole world) seems to rejoice in finding fault with Jerusalem.  We must… 1Thessalonians 5:17 pray constantly.  Give God no rest from our petitions.  Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem—“May those who love you be at peace! 7 May there be shalom within your walls—quietness within your palaces.”  Shalom shalom.

Day 32 of the Omer
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Wed6-May-202619th of Iyar, 5786 Le 25:39-26:9Jer 2Job 22Ro 3 (Mt 22)