[Brother V]

Psalm 131-135

Psalm 131

Here's another short one, three verses.

1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

Haughty means proud. The person who wrote this, claims to be humble.

2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

Weaned means that they don't breast feed anymore. So the person is claiming to be an adult, who is humble.

3 Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.

What this verse has to do with the rest, I have no clue. It sounds like a politician speaking.

I am humble, I am an adult... GO USA!!!

Psalm 132

1 Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions:

A Davidic psalm.

2 How he sware unto the LORD, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob;

Weird that they would not call him the God of Abraham.

5 Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

Remember, David wanted to build God a temple, but God said No, I like my tents.

8 Arise, O LORD, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.

Odd, this psalm makes it sound like David built the temple, and not Solomon.

11 The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.

Sounds like there should be an "IF" coming up...

12 If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.

Or maybe a couple of generations. The question is, why would an omnipotent, all knowing, future making God, make the promise to a guy, knowing that someone will not hold up their end of the bargain. God seems to do that often. Makes me think, one should never make a deal with God. Thankfully, God has sort of stayed hands off since about the year 0.

Psalm 133

1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

David and Jonathan? (2 Samuel 1:26)

2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;

We discussed the Holy Ointment, back on Day 26.

It was possibly a hallucinogen. The psalmist considered brothers living together in unity as like a drug.

Psalm 134

1 Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.

This would be a psalm by the levites. They don't really get much play in the bible. Mostly just some rules in leviticus, but here, the psalmist (probably also a levite) is making a psalm for them.

2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.

How many times when people pray today, when they do their list of blessings, do they actually stop to say, "dear God, bless yourself" ?

Psalm 135

1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the name of the LORD; praise him, O ye servants of the LORD.

Sounds like another levitical psalm.

2 Ye that stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God.

Yep, levites.

13 Thy name, O LORD, endureth for ever; and thy memorial, O LORD, throughout all generations.

Even though we don't really know what it is... it will endure for ever. And that memorial... is that the temple of Solomon? that too will survive all generations... even though it was destroyed by the Romans.

15 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

We know this to be true (the Bible is an accurate history book) there have been found silver and gold idols from the time of Solomon's Temple.

16 They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;

17 They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths.

18 They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.

Those idols are lifeless and not gods. Granted, some of them are being found thousands of years later, but they are just as dead today as they were at the writing of this psalm that mentioned that the temple would last through all generations!

19 Bless the LORD, O house of Israel: bless the LORD, O house of Aaron:

This psalm would probably have been written by a Kohanim, someone directly in the line of Aaron, the people who were the high priests.

20 Bless the LORD, O house of Levi: ye that fear the LORD, bless the LORD.

I find it odd that the blessings go from all Jews to a specific branch of the Levites, to the full levites, to everyone that fears the LORD. Normally, you'd either make the list go from smallest to biggest, or biggest to smallest. Perhaps that didn't rhyme in hebrew.

Bless the LORD everyone, Bless the LORD jews, Bless the LORD levites, Bless the LORD descendants of Aaron. (or reversed)

So what have we learned today?

1. We had 3 chapters today with only 3 verse each, this was a quick read.

2. Brothers living together is pleasant.

3. Some Levites actually decided to write some poems.

YIC
V

[SUV]

Brother V, can you yet tell us that Job got a Job?

That will put 'Paid' to the nattering nabobs of negatism who continue to lambaste the condition President Bush left the economy in