Ps 65 1 Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion;
to you our vows will be fulfilled.
2 O you who hear prayer,
to you all men will come.
3 When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave our transgressions.
4 Blessed are those you choose
and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
of your holy temple".

The covenant keeping God speaks from Zion. Because God is faithful then we are faithful to our vows. He is saying that God establishes His law in Zion. This law establishes Gods government. It was necessary for Christ to be the law keeper so that He could be the head of the covenant. So this is the government in which we live by atonement. This is why Ive been saying that Gods law becomes our defense. We begin a different relationship to the law. He is saying that our rebellion against the lawful authority in this kingdom has been covered by atonement. We have become one with the law keeper.
We are taught that when we are saved God no longer marks our sin. How can you price righteousness if there is not longer wickedness to your account? We must be enabled to use the law as our defense. If God still marks our sins then we cannot be defended by the law. The law would mark our sin. This is where most people present our position as being under the law but being in Christ. But the Psalmist uses the law to curse the wicked. Some people teach that the Psalmist must be legally justified in himself in order to be in position to speak judgement. But isnt the Psalmist in need of atonement? And we taught here that we sin continuously. This sin is one of the more defiant sins. Its a sin against lawful government of God. The context is our innocence by atonement in our use of the law of God.
So we go from being under the law as a school master to being defended by the law in order to stand in the position of blessing. He is saying that because God continuously atones for our lawful rebellion to His kingdom that we are the recipients of His goodness or blessing. Where does the Psalmist say that Gods blessing is given upon confession or repentance from the condemnation of the law?
The Psalmist is using alternation through this first verse. Gods covenant faithfulness is voiced from Zion..our covenant faithfulness is dependent upon Gods. Its interchangeable. Our need for blessing is by atonement. Atonement is the same as all good things that we receive in the blessing. Out of atonement comes blessing. The curse has been lifted and the law becomes our defense. Grace is valuable by the our power to put to death the opposition in the curse and by the blessing that flows to us that is free

Ps 33 6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth....
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm."
From before the foundation of the world God designed all things in His eternal counsel. This Psalm is teaching that God created every thing by speaking it into existence. He gave life by the breath of His mouth. Every thing that God created is given the desire to survive over wanting to die. In this sense even sin is accomplished to bring good to ones self. Because every thing in the world is corrupted and is not acceptable to God.
I have thought about this for years and I believe that the standard of perfection in this imperfect world is the line between blessing and cursing. Every person is unable to attain to this standard. I dont believe that our desires that are expressed as we react in relationships are based in reality. I believe that we can only trust that God works all things at all times by uniting the curses and the blessing. This is the context of Gods power being breathed in the creation and sustaining of all things. In other words because we are corrupted our desires are always frustrated. So the process by which God renews all things is to redeem every thing that exist. He does this by His perfect justice. That line. "15 he who forms the hearts of all,who considers everything they do".
Its hard for us to distinguish between emotion and desire. To be overly emotional is to interpret our satisfaction of people or things in this life by pragmatism. In other words we devise a scheme in this we control the things of this world by our determination. This practice actually does the opposite of what we are taught as growth in Christ. It builds an emotional imaginative world that guilt enforces obedience.
But we must understand that God speaks every thing into existence. God does not wait to act. God does not look at pain in feeling and sharing but God always acts. He does not react. This is what distinguishes God from man. The Psalmist says the "help of man is worthless" compared to God. When we are teaching about redemption it is always God speaking His word and all things are united and made new. We must look at the way that God acts without emotion. This is why we have been saying that God works to redeem all things by bringing cursing together with blessing. You see cursing is the ultimate judgement of silencing the opposition. And blessing is the pure reception of Gods gifts.
Our natural desire is to identify with Christ work by emotion. In this way we are trying to create the circumstances of the cross. But this is just a pragmatic imagination. You see Gods work on the cross and His choice that determines all things is based upon His pure justice. The terrible judgement is beyond our ability to reproduce it by our feelings. The extent of the beauty and the unimaginable results of Gods work is too much for us. So God gives us pronouncements in the curses and blessings that contain the standard of His justice that we cannot control. These pronouncements are just an expression of Gods will to act. These expression are so powerful and universal that they swallow up our anger and joy. Gods word challenges our emotions. The word contains the reality. This is how we are converted. Gods ways never start with human emotion but by His will to act that is contained in the pronouncements.

Ps 39 10 Remove your scourge from me;
I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
11 You rebuke and discipline men for their sin;
you consume their wealth like a moth-
each man is but a breath.
Selah
This verse is interesting because it is describing God allowing the elect to feel like evil in the world and in other people is so terrible and huge that it defines how we think about ourselves as being totally depraved. The poetry is actually written for the sound and not the reason. Its being in a state of paranoia. But I do not believe that the Psalmist is out of control. I think he is describing the vanity and has been brought low enough to experience the uselessness of this life like the wicked.
The Psalmist has made a rule for himself. This rule is that he will not think about anything or any relationship in this world unless he has first viewed it through meditation. So it is normal for the Psalmist to stay close to God in meditating in silence in the company of men.This is exactly what the Psalmist is saying here. He is sitting around in the company of the wicked and he is quietly meditating.
As he is meditating he begins to experience divine illumination and pleasure. We must understand that every person creates a disposition of blessing or cursing. So it is natural for a man who meditates to have a desire to push the curse away. The Psalmist is burning inside with the desire to overcome the cursed disposition as he is quietly sitting in the company of the wicked. In this way he reasons that it is impossible for his experience to be part of the normal human interaction. This is why he becomes disheartened and feels like he is locked into his own experience. The opposition of sin and evil is too strong.
Ive experienced this in many occasions throughout my 35 years. I thought about this for many years. Why do we feel so helpless to change the normal way that people live as they interact in society? I believe the Psalmist is describing the circumstances of the curses power and influence over the spread of the blessing. Some times when we pronounce the curses we are identifying with the experience of the wicked. We get into these situations where we experience a big conflict in the quiet of our meditation.We are bringing into our own experience the feelings and the struggle with the sins of the wicked. The Psalmist calls going down into the curse as a scourge. We live in a wicked world where we suffer personal lose by being under the power of the curse of the wicked. This is how God disciplines us. We push the curse down in order to create the blessing. So the Psalmist says 39 For I dwell with you as an alien,a stranger, as all my fathers were.13 Look away from me, that I may rejoice again before I depart and am no more." He is saying to God ...Unite my experience of meditation and the burning with the culture that i live in. Do this before I depart this earth...in other words it is so important to me that i would meditate until I die to find all things unified in my life again.

Ps 40 11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD ;
may your love and your truth always protect me.
12 For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me."
God is a covenant keeping God. Now listen , ever thing that was ever created by God was gifted to man through covenant. When we say that God cannot be pleased with anything outside of Himself we are saying , He must not only design what is accomplished but He must create and act perfect in order for it to be pleasing. Every thing that man possesses is borrowed from God. In other words God must give the gift to man upon the authority of His own character. In other words God must swear to His own hurt if He is not faithful, kind, generous, loving and long suffering in accomplishing His glory as He provides His elect with all that they need.
We see that God has established covenants between men. We have seen our leaders place their hands on a bible and take and oath to uphold Gods law. So ever man lives a righteous life by his covenants. But Gods covenant with us and mans covenant to God and other men are not the same. In order to understand salvation and deliverance we must grasp the teaching of the covenant. Because the covenant is interrelated with the law of God. And there is no reality without it being described according to the law of God. The law stands over all created things. It does not matter what we think about perfection or obedience. The law of God is never lessened by our inability to understand it completely , our miss application, or our lack of ability to meet its standards. The law always allows and prevents according to the working of God. We cannot do one good thing without Christ.
But the law and the covenant are the only instruments by which God orders all things for His glory. The reason that God can only give gifts to man by covenant is because man fails to rise up to the standard of law keeping. So what ever believe about salvation and our need for deliverance is tied how we view the covenant.You see the covenant is Gods promise in acting on our behalf according to His faithfulness, kindness. etc. God had to pronounce death to all violators of His law. So the curse stands over all men. This makes it impossible for us to come to God according to the demands of the law. God views His covenant as proof of the reality of relating to us. So when we approach Him on the basis of His law it strikes against His faithfulness , kindness,,etc. This attitude of man being confident in his own works is detestable to God. This is why the Psalmist views the evil of the wicked as a threat to Gods covenant word of promise.
Evil is not dangerous in itself. Evil is only dangerous by its power to devalue and blind Gods covenant word of promise. In other words evil is a violation of the terms of relationships. This is why the Psalmist curses the wicked. Because as the beauty of Gods covenant to us fades so does our salvation. As the covenant is maligned, treated with disdain and mocked at so our faith is attacked.
This is why the curses are so important. Because man naturally believes that the display of the love of God is based upon mans actions and behavior. But Gods covenant to us is secure by His ability over life and death. You see God hates anyone who comes to Him according to the law. He despises proud men. The Psalms say that God will burn them like a candle for eternity. This is why a covenant attitude of anger in the elect is satisfied in Gods curses.Because these curses are building a conviction that we can only be saved by God proving Himself! This is why there are so many covenant breakers. Because man naturally believes that he can keep his covenants by his own ability. So man builds his own world and glory's in his own ability. When man does this he curses himself. His witness is that the universe is man centered as he rises to the top. But God rules every thing by His covenant faithfulness! Man is not on display but God is. So God had to curse the wicked in order to save His people from being covenant breakers. You see the covenant is the basis of our happiness, our spiritual health, and our ability to endure this life as we go from one deliverance to another. And in the covenant there is only one way to be delivered and it through cursing and blessing. This person will not be a covenant breaker.

We are taught in the Bible that when we are saved we receive a new will. Our old will is destroyed with is cursed desires and we get new desires.I do not believe that just because we still are corrupted that our old desires are strong enough bring us into a conflict between with our new desires. I do not believe that we can be divided once we are saved. The reason is because in fulfilling our new desires we are renewed. Ps 9 4 For you have upheld my right and my cause, sitting enthroned as the righteous judge. The Psalmist is teaching that Gods success is dependent upon the Psalmist success.
Now this seems to be too much for us to handle. But when we are saved we enter into a new kingdom. The success of this new kingdom is sealed in His covenant promises to us. We now are made free by grace. Everything that we have and are is gifted to us by God. The focus is not on an equation in which what we do adds up to the kind of grace that we enjoy. Some people teach that there is always a price for us which adds up to a quality of grace. It could be good works, the pleasure of the new life, the amount of devotion we have etc. But its simply give me what I desire and I will have a righteous cause. God has made it an open end on our side. He has given us the amount of freedom that He has provided in the success of His Son.
After living for 30 years in petitioning, arguing and pronouncing these Psalms im gonna give you my experience in the returns.This Psalm is teaching us how to develop our causes like strengthening and muscle. Ive taught over many years that the Psalms pronouncements are contained in the success of the word. The word not only gives us the standard by which God measures righteousness but it creates from nothing. So the word creates the desire to create our cause that renews our hearts. "My heart says seek His face, Your face Lord I will seek." This face to face relationship is the total victory over all enemies. 2 Tim. 4 18 "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Here is a personal confession by the apostle in which he describes what his desire was in glorifying God.
As we oppose evil with our desire we learn the purpose of our lives. This is what the Psalmist means when he says do not turn to the right or the left. We are always becoming like we already are. This way of righteousness is the most fulfilling journey that a person can experience. We start with a very immature desire and we grow into deep convictions.
We start by enjoying meditation for meditations sake. In other words our experience in the word is more important than the personal effects that we experience over time. There comes a point as we build one scripture upon another that we grow in going from the word to the Person. As we grow into a mature man we enjoy the success of our occupation. We experience Gods pleasure in our success. We experience the uniting of our causes with Gods desire in the success of His Son. These past experiences are taught in an eternal mindset. So these inward experiences are outside of the constraints of time. They come up from the depths of our souls like they are present enjoyments. These fulfilled desires are profitable in this world. This direction of growth is upward.
But there are times when we must grow downward. When we grow downward we do not see the success of God in this world. A lot of people think that God causes us to grow downward to mature us but this is not entirely true. There is no force that we need to make our wills united with Gods will. God is absolutely just at all times. He never judges in between blessing and cursing. We are like God in that we enjoy success by thinking thoughts after God. Gods motive always is to defend His elect in blessing and cursing. If you memorized the Revelation you will see this connection between the smoke from the sacrifice that rises up to the heavens as a sweet smelling aroma to God. Its a mirror in heaven that brings about the enactment of judgment upon the earth. Heaven has a altar in which through out the history of the earth God has used the prayers of His elect to bring about the Apocalypse that brings a nation down and exalts others. So when we oppose the kingdoms of this world by the woes of Revelation we are using the curses to bring the reality of the future judgement into our present experience. We enjoy glimpses of the future judgement.The Psalmist expressed this glimpse in Ps 58 11 "Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.” The Psalmist in going through trials grows down by pronouncing the curses on wayward nations. There is not much success that he enjoys in this world but the Psalmist is storing up judgement for his reward in heaven. All of the anger and sorrow that he experiences is used to pronounce judgement. I will talk about the evolution of desire again.

We must learn to trust our judgements as much as we trust ourselves to be the sacrifice and the atonement for the world. Its natural for us to think of morality that is seen is a measurement between good and evil. But we must see that the full price of good is the eternal value placed upon it. How can any natural man understand these eternal consequences on the level of the standard that is required that must be met?.
To get to a genuine understanding of the value that places on man and things we must conclude that all of creation has a value according to Gods work. In this way we must acknowledge that all things that all men receive are a gift from God. If we measure the standard by our own understanding then we are able to control the creation of everything. We must die to this desire. You see death is what frees us from the pain of the meager returns we get from our natural way of placing value on Gods work.
This is why God has cursed the corruption of His creation. Because God is the only one who could control that corruption by death. He ended the tension between good and evil on the cross because He destroyed the power of evil. The problem is not the other guys evil but its our natural desire to control evil short of the curse of the law. This why the bible talks about the whole creation groaning as in the pains of childbirth because there is a principle that the corruption is forcing itself upon us as the voice of the curse. But God spoke the curse of the law to silence the corruption and anything that opposes true good. In speaking these Psalms we experience the loss of tension because of the pronouncement of death to the voice of the curse in the corruption. We muse..you see... out of a sense in this experience between blessing and cursing...we experience a quietness..the Psalmist experience of rest. You know that rest is an experience. You can develop a silent nature where you are attracted to solitude...you call from the depths in cursing and blessing ..that experience where we learn that disposition of rest. This freedom is infectious where we create allowance and prevention,

Ps 94 12 Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD ,
the man you teach from your law;
13 you grant him relief from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the LORD will not reject his people;
he will never forsake his inheritance.
15 Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart will follow it."
This Psalm is describing the reasons that Gods elect are disciplined. We are taught that God disciplines us for our own good. Even tho God disciplines us in this way , yet the over all purpose of our discipline is because of the waywardness of the wicked. We must understand that Gods salvation is not centered on our personal objectives. Our salvation is purposed in goals of Gods kingdom advancement. We are born into a world in which we are caught in war between God and Satan.
So God uses the circumstances that are caused by the wicked to refine His elect. The reason that God does not discipline us in order to further our corruption is that His wrath is His curse that is holding the wicked under His judgement. The question is if we have been justified in Christ then is there any further work of the law that is needed in order to promote further righteousness? If God is our Father then how come the wicked are always seen as being under His universal love while the elect are always having Gods displeasure pointed at them? This way of explaining Gods discipline is common in our culture.
We must understand that Gods law is never a respecter of persons. God does not treat a person different from another person because of a physical or deposition characteristic.Gods law is His absolute government over all people. The law condemns sinners at all times. We may read something about people who are under a trail with something that is biased because we do not approach God with the correct orthodox and legal petitions.It is impossible to be totally balanced in our assessments of people and trials. This is why there is no man who is the ultimate judge. There is only one Judge. Any time a judgement is made it comes from a perfect and all knowing source. God says judgement is Mine!
So we are responsible for growing so that we can be of help to others in our approaching the throne of grace. God promises to allow us to be completely satisfied and to prevent evil from its destructive hold if we approach God correctly You see all men stand before God with the potential of being cursed to eternal damnation The elect are saved from the curse in the judgement. So we should understand that our prayers are eternal and not small and faithless. This is why we are taught a government approach to the trials that the elect face. God has spoken all things into existence. He views all lives by his omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence. We must speak to God as God views the individual trials of His people. We see here that the elect are suffering from being in a cursed world that is refining them. But they never suffer the dominion of the curse. God blesses His people as the proof of His promise to preserve His people by His covenant. How does He do this , by taking from the wicked who abuse the righteous and repaying them according to our covenant Representative.

Ps 19 1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge"......
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is hidden from its heat.
Gods elect have both human desires and spiritual desires. We must understand that our frustrations about the events of this life are experience by our miss understanding of these desire. Everything that we understand about ourselves and God is displayed as we speak. So we can teach truth but the order of our teaching and the application exposes our personal understanding of how we relate to God and to the physical universe.Everyone who teaches or gives an opinion will expose how they feel about themselves and how they relate to God. We used to say that a preacher is exposing himself when he preaches.
Now listen , we must understand that the unity and the beauty of creation is showing who God is. You can sit under the stars and experience the communication of God as He is. Because there is symmetry, order, warmth, beauty ,unexplained movements, exposure of knowledge, the mystery of power and expanse that swallows our space. Its God standing before us and opening Himself up as He speaks with authority about something that we see but also experience in mystery. With God nothing is surprising or out of order. In other words what God says will happen and He cannot order things that He has not decreed from eternity past. God is very simple.
We must understand that God is not like us. We are very complicated. God created us like Himself in that what we desire would be successful. The very fact that we experience opposition is not natural to us. God never changes but we change all the time. So this opposition is coming from a source that was introduced when we fell into corruption
This is why the Psalmist gives us the order of this majestic view in repetitious days. In other words what appears to us as complicated is happening by an order that is simple. This simplicity is enforced for the purpose of believing that God has revealed a certain amount of words that cannot be overturned. God could have written all that He has done and who He is in books that would be printed through eternity. But God only gives us promises and pronouncements that spoken over and over again that orders and sustains all things. So God orders things by simplicity to complexity,
This is why we have a desire for complexity. We must experience mystery in order to be whole. Some people miss use knowledge and application. They say that knowledge is learned by simplicity. But this is not how we apply the bible. We study the meat of the word as the means by which we purify the simplicity of the gospel. This is how we differentiate the teaching from the exposure of the teacher. In other words when we attempt to simplify the scripture we expose the shallowness of our understanding of God. Everything that we are is a book before others. So this is why the Psalmist pronounces the simple and limited words of God that lead to mystery. The word that is eternal cannot be used enough.

Ps 19 1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world."

The heavens display Gods law in action. They are a display of who God is. Everything that is created or works according to their purpose is order by the spoken word of God. 147 15 He sends his command to the earth;his word runs swiftly.147 16 He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles.Who can withstand his icy blast?18 He sends his word and melts them;he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow."The Psalmist is teaching what is behind a snow storm as it moves and falls to earth as well as melting on the ground. In this sense the Psalmist is alluding to the King who pronounces the event.
So we see that activity of the law is both in the creation of the beauty which is the snow falling and also in the taking away of the beauty which is the snow melting.18 15 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils." Here is the same metaphor for Gods word that is compared to blasting of His breath, He is describing time in the battle when the enemy turns and runs away. He is saying that Gods curses have been successful so that His blessing will follow. The Psalmist is describing the different effects of Gods word according to the human characteristics. If you only pronouncing Gods law without it affecting the creation then it would be mysticism. But Gods law goes and does not return void.
This is why man has a natural lack of faith in Gods word. Its hard for us to believe that when God speaks it is miraculous. If we really believed that Gods word is the cause of the physical universe then we would use it for our benefit and the good of others.138 4,5 May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth. May they sing of the ways of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD is great." The pronouncement of Gods word that is on our lips is eternal . At some point in the history of man on the earth it can create the total unity of all kings and nations. We are given universal pronouncements. We can rule the earth without being the king by occupation. The Psalmist is uniting our future eternal experience with our ability in this corrupted earth by pronouncing Gods word to rise up to the mystery in experience of something that is too wonderful for us to understand. It will be experienced in reality in the eternal state.

^{Ps 16 2} I said to the LORD , "You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing."
³ As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight."."

The Psalmist teaches that God is our refuge. Our refuge is established by a Creator who sustains and upholds all things in His creation. We must understand that this Creator spoke all things into existence according to His laws, decrees, statutes, curses,covenants and promises. When we are saved or delivered this Creator prevents us from the curse of the law by taking the curse upon Himself.  For his elect then , everything is recreated for the purpose of redemption. This means that God speaks a final blessing upon His elect. This is what the Psalmist does here. He says ³ As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight."

Now here is the problem. All people who are saved have a past. In the human society they are marked with their past sins. They are described by the wrongs that they did and the things that they talked about. But in the christian context that past is completely erased when they are saved. You see when we are saved we are implanted with the word of God and we are definitively sanctified. We are made completely whole and righteous. Our sins are no longer remembered by God.

Why is it then that our old sins are brought up in the christian culture? I think its because we only view salvation as a change in behavior that is caused by our sins being forgiven. We do not teach that our sins before we were saved were marked by God as the reason that we were cursed. We do not think about the entire teaching of sin and how it effects our legal relationship with God. The Psalmist teaches that to "mark a sin" is to "curse" the person. The "curse" is the voice of the violation of the law that is pronounced upon us. We must understand that God did not take away all of our sin in salvation and then reapplied it to our account in sanctification. The bible does not teach this kind of two line theology.  In the pagan world change only comes after a person has redeemed himself by acknowledging and repaying the wrong done. But in the christian world the person who is saved is already perfected but not yet obtaining that perfection. The christian view is the opposition of the worlds view of redemption. The christian gets better by "counting" our selves dead in Christ.

Now a lot of theologians teach that in sanctification we are required to confess our sins to one another. They say that we will not experience forgiveness in the sanctification paradigm. But this is not what the bible teaches. Our forgiveness is based upon counting what has already been accomplished in Christ. This reason that this distinction is very important is we first must argue for our innocence on the basis of our legal justification that was accomplished by Christ. Justification is going from a state of blame to a state of blessing. This pronouncement by the Psalmist is the line that we cannot cross. We cannot revisit those sins in the old life.   ³ As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight." I teach that in our old life the law stands as our accuser. This is what we call standing in a relationship with God under the curse. But when we are saved we take our position on the other side of the law. Now the law becomes our defense.

So we are still sinners but our sins are not marked. This is why a simple counting our selves dead in Christ makes us better. We cannot go back to trying to atone for ourselves. There is nothing that we can do to gain forgiveness with God. This is why Calvin says that we confess sin but our sins have already been taken care of in Gods sovereign work on the Cross. The reason that sin becomes an issue is that we are trying to please other men. Because God gave us a gift that we now are aware that we are sinners. Its impossible for us to go back to being blind about our sin. When we mark our sins we are trying to be something that we are not. The only people who need their sins marked are the ones who are blind to being sinners. They are genuinely in need of marking. 

We all are great sinners. Paul said that he was the chief of sinners. God usually does His greatest work through notorious sinners. We all are notorious sinners. When sin entered the world it not only corrupted the whole world but it became the agent to prevent us from enjoying the highest experience of pleasure and peace. You must see that it does not matter how we view sin. There is no man who views sin as it is. Every man views sin for his own benefit. This is the problem with a very narrow understanding of the destructive nature of sin. The very fact that anyone is corrupted with sin is the reason that we miss apply the nature of peace and the success of ability. There is more preventing of ability in the cultural of corruption than in a personal decision. We are all in Adam who brought the culture into opposition to the ability to act at the highest standard. 

The bible teaches that just being a sinner is the same as being infected with a destructive form of speech. The danger is not that sin exist but its that there are two people who are sinners and because of that they prevent each other from the perfect example of righteousness. Any time we add to the miss guided view of perfect righteousness we prevent others from walking in the perfect way. This is why the reality is that we all stand before God as individuals. Because we are unable rise up to the standard of the perfect man and be able to renew the corruption. In some sense we would fair better if we were all alone without the wrong example. Sin is more than just disobedience but it corrupts the culture of success.

 
^{Ps 5 7} But I, by your great mercy,
will come into your house;
in reverence will I bow down
toward your holy temple.
⁸ Lead me, O LORD , in your righteousness
because of my enemies-
make straight your way before me."

The Psalmist is teaching that prayer should be ordered in laws, decrees, statutes, curses and covenants. Gods elect belong to a kingdom in which God created and sustains it by these pronouncements. When the Psalmist talks about His position in coming to the throne of God, he is under the constraints of Gods government. In other words the only authority in these gifts of law etc is Gods unfailing love. This is why the Psalmist distinguishes the elect from the wicked by the simple statement that they promote violence in redefining Gods law. ⁶ You destroy those who tell lies;
bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors." The problem is much bigger and more disastrous than just a violation of the law. So it requires a pronouncement of death to all those who redefine Gods law. ¹⁰ Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you." You see this is a legal curse upon the wicked. He is laying down some fast principles that give us the reasons that he pronounces curses upon the wicked in the entire book. He is teaching us the order of Gods kingdom.

The basis of his authority is in Gods mercy. Gods mercy , grace, faithfulness, kindness, long suffering, gentleness, and forgiveness is based in His covenant love for His elect. This love is what the only foundation that the Psalmist applies to when he pronounces the gifts. Now listen the Psalmist is establishing his argument that even tho the elect cannot order their prayers in a perfect way under the authority of Gods word yet the object of prayer is to establish Gods righteousness upon the earth. So God had to send a Perfect man who spoke and acted perfectly according to all of Gods law. This is why the elect are implanted with the entire word of God and seen as complete.

God created all things according to His perfect law. Everything that works together works according to Gods law. Gods work is more complex than any man could ever understand. His work is so detailed and complete that the power and the ability would evaporate us in a second. So God gave the Psalmist pronouncements in this book in order to command Gods work in a simple way with the  mysterious experience of His power. In this way the pronouncements are like fighting in war. We use them to further be consumed in their affects. The Psalmist describes Gods rest as coming the line between blessing and cursing...being consumed in Gods supernatural power in the pronouncements. Being weened from the world in the mysterious experience. This is the way that God establishes His covenant on the earth. This is the foundation of the success of Gods law.     

The bible is written as a prophetic book. This means that when God talks He describes future events that will be part of the ongoing description of that account later in the same book. It is most evident when God speaks of the events in nature. The bible always speaks of God as a He sustains creation in causing all natural disasters.We must understand that Gods actions and mans actions are not equally important. Because God controls the choices of man that cause all the problems in history. We must describe history in the context of redemption and not in the pagan context.
As well as cause natural disasters God has also cursed the earth. This means as time goes on something that simply is not used as a resource is degenerating. Everything that God created is not only degeneration from one generation to another but also over thousands of years. It is impossible for man to keep up with the earths process of degeneration. This is why the Revelation describes the earth causing deaths in generations. In other words the curse has made the earth our enemy in the sense that it naturally degenerates and is causing diseases in the human race.
We must understand that in comparison to Gods view of us, we are completely in the dark. We cannot see all of time in every space in the universe. But God sees the hidden parts. For us to make a case that we are able to change something about us or in our world is on very shaky ground. We would need to see every molecule and the movement in time to be able to describe the reasons for the existence of all things. You see we cannot see what God is doing in the hidden and very small things.
The Psalmist is saying that God searches us. He is acknowledging that God does things in the Psalmist circumstances and on a personal nature in the Psalmist that is undetectable. We cannot even see what is going on inside our bodies. We must conclude that God does things to sustain our lives and our circumstances that we do not know about.
God designed creation before the foundation of the world. He has promised that the earth cannot be moved. Its not talking about movement in space but the foundations of the earth cannot be destroyed. God has promised that there is no man who is able to destroy the earth.This includes the control that God has over man in the amount of destruction that he could cause with the ability and the action to clean it up. In this sense Gods law that speaks death is balanced by Gods blessing over all things. Because God controls all things.

The OT is written in historical accounts that teach a theological truth. The written accounts are not exhaustive but rather are written to prove the teaching and application that is in the worship book. The worship book is the ot confession of the doctrines of grace in which we are guided in applying the doctrine. So you have all the historical accounts that are funneled into a specific confessional application in the Psalms. The Holy Spirits ministry in applying the holistic truth of salvation has limited our application of the ot accounts to the worship book.

In this sense the words that are used in these historical accounts are given their context in the teaching of the worship book. If you were to memorize the worship book you would be able to identify words and in these historical accounts phrases that come from the worship book. This is how the Holy Spirit draws us to the application in the teaching through the historical account.
Gods description of all the events in the OT are contained in His work in salvation. These events are written to show Gods work in redemption. He has made a covenant of redemption with His elect. We enter into a covenant that is contained. Every historical account is proving that He is the beginning and end in salvation. The saving of His people is given as a gift and the end of receiving that gift is Gods total victory over evil and the curse. So the health of His elect is contained in the teaching that is revealed and the effects of the full power of God that is mysterious that answer all of the concerns of His people in the rising and falling in the application of the teaching in the voices of His law which are blessing and cursing. Salvation is in God alone.

^{Ps 80 17} Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
the son of man you have raised up for yourself."

This Psalm is teaching that a nation will be restored when God as the judge brings together His blessing with His cursing. This is why the Psalmist calls upon the Lord God Almighty ..or the Lord of host. The Psalmist is pleading with the God who is the Most High seated above the cherubim.  The cherubim are carrying out Gods judgement of the seals that are opened up against the idol worshipers that are in Israel. This prayer is a intercessory prayer of Gods elect on behalf of a rebellious nation. The only hope of restoration is when God judges the idol worshipers and blesses His elect. This ultimate judgement of nations was displayed by the Man at the right hand of the Most High.

This Psalm is a prayer that addresses the waywardness of a nation in two ways. When the nation is rebellious the Psalm is directed as a curse. Until the Most High responds to the prayers of the curses then there is no restoration. We must understand that all restoration is proceeded by a reviving of the people. This is why we should think seriously about a movement within a nation where many people are united in their desire. The national restoration follows the uncommon unity of the desires of the citizens. Our attitude about the change is seen in our spiritual awareness that God has done something in the people to restore the nation. This Psalm is a petition to restore the nation.

All Psalms are written to fight like physical war. Physical war is simply fighting in order to establish Gods law. When the enemy is silenced then the law will be upheld. So every man lives with the frustrations of the violations of the law in expressing them in blessing and cursing. All anger is a response to living in a world that is corrupted and lawless. Anger directed at self is a failure of Gods people to rise up to divine wrath by speaking the curses. Any attempt to create a balance between anger and love ..or any pragmatic view of the world is simply trying to play God. Its man trying to control his reaction in a way that is not orthodox or submissive to scripture. We seek to be revived by rising up to divine reactions to corruption and putting all of our hatred and anger in Gods hands. When we have emptied our human anger then we are filled with divine passion and reviving.

The Psalmist teaches us that the curses in the law are like ravaging wolves. When men turn to other gods the only hope is for the law to ravage them and silence them. But the blessing of the elect is like mammals under water. Gods law is holistic. God prevents us from moving away from its simplicity. Gods law constrains us and blesses us by protecting us from the complexity of the teaching of rebellion. At all times the saint petitions God , submitting to the rule of this Psalm in desiring correctly in both the negative pronouncing of judgement and positive pronouncement of the blessing. In this we glory in the Son at His right hand. 

 
 


 ^{Ps 103 1} Praise the LORD , O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the LORD , O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
³ who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,

The Psalmist is saying..All that is within me , blesses all that is within God Himself. This is both an acknowledgement that God is sufficient and needs nothing to be completed outside of Himself ..and that the Psalmist is like God in that he is offering himself. God is holy because He is complete in designing and ordering all things. This God who is the creator and giver of all things passes over our sins. This is more than forgiveness. Its acting as a judge who avenges the wicked who carries out his wrath in passing by us as showing us our value by judging the wicked for us according to the value of Christ work. This is the most miss understood teaching in the American church. In my 30 years of mediation I have seldom been like minded about the teaching of true redemption. Ive had all of my most cherished deliverance's being opposed by both semi palagians and pagans. But we must follow the rule of scripture..the clear pronouncements and the curses. Let me give you the order.

We are taught in redemption that God is more concerned for our trust in Him than for our struggle with sin. The people who do great works for God know the goal and keep their eye on that prize no matter what. There is no one who is fully confident that does not apply this logical argument of the Psalmist in all of our accomplishments. Most all men are caught in fighting phantoms and putting up road blocks that are from their own imaginations.141 10" Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety."We have this same idea about "passing by". We are "passing by" judgement because God is "passing by" our sin.105 ¹⁹ till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the LORD proved him true." Here we speak the laws, covenants etc which are the prophecy that is on our lips that come true.141  ⁶ their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs, and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken." Here the Psalmist is saying that every thing that his counsel was opposed and as he walked through the grave yard of the enemy he said "they should have listened to me."So we have the pronouncements that lead to the counsel that leads to the sign of the success of Gods word.86 17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me." The redemptive success is in the art of pronouncing and speaking. To neglect this is to ones own hurt.

We naturally bring God down. We must be convinced by speaking at all times like God has taught us. Because the reward of redemption is higher as we are weaker and subject to constant words of faithlessness.  In other words we should be able to bring others to our position by the confidence we have in pronouncing. The person who has hope in the times of hopelessness and our general nature of cheerfulness when we are struggling with people who are always complaining. We must know the purpose and the goal for which we cannot be thwarted. We must know our times. 111  ⁴ He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
the LORD is gracious and compassionate.
⁵ He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
⁶ He has shown his people the power of his works,
giving them the lands of other nations.
⁷ The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
⁸ They are steadfast for ever and ever,
done in faithfulness and uprightness.
⁹ He provided redemption for his people;
he ordained his covenant forever-
holy and awesome is his name.
The Psalmist is teaching that our pronouncing is the activity in redemption that brings about the future reality. THis is the promise of His covenant of redemption. We believe that reality is not our natural view of the circumstances but they are put through the laws, covenants etc. Everything that we receive from God is gift that is repaid to us on the basis of Gods vengeance carried out according to the value of the work of His Son.This is the whole paradigm of Him passing by our sin.  

^{Ps 9 10} Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD , have never forsaken those who seek you."


When God created man , He put all things under mans feet. 8  ⁶ You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:" When man fell into sin God had to renew mans original position by covenant. God reestablished His law in creation by a covenant.  We must understand that all power on this earth is borrowed and is scrutinized by Gods law. God always establishes human power in an eternal republic. Every person who ever governed the earth entered that position by a covenant. He swears upon his own life that he will be faithful to Gods governing law. This is what David is saying in this verse. So any man who lowers the covenant lowers Gods law. You must understand that anyone who prays the Psalms knows that these pronouncements are a sworn promise of God to deliver His people.  But the problem is that God always upholds His end of the covenant but man is never compliant.

This is why the laws, covenants, curses , promises and statutes are not given in a system of shared powers. Every person has been implanted with Gods law and is required to full obedience. We never have a position by being in that position. We always have a position in life with the law being the judge. So Gods covenant is only authoritative by Him acting according to the full demands of the law.  These pronouncements of His law, etc cannot be pragmatic. These pronouncements are the laws of governing that have absolute power over all things. Salvation is a sworn testimony that all the full weight of the curses fall on anyone who presents himself as able to obey Gods pronouncements in himself. A lot of people teach that salvation is simply getting grace that we do not deserve. In our culture salvation has become an intellectual description of the purity of grace as that which represents the conviction of ones belief. But salvation is in a military context. It is swearing upon Gods covenant that God would work according to His law, covenants, curses, etc at all times in pronouncements that overcomes all opposition. The whole of salvation is our dependence upon God as we pronounce His law and covenants that must be established in order for us to be delivered! We swear upon the curses that God alone will be glorified upon enacting the full weight of the law on anyone one who worships another god.

We must understand that the covenant is a promise by God to preserve His people for eternity.In order for God to be faithful His word must be absolute. These pronouncements cannot be thwarted. The words" I will never leave you" are equal to saying my pronouncements will never fail. Without Gods word creating and recreating at all times man would speak and act as a traitor to Gods standard of salvation and deliverance. This is why we spend so much time praying and pronouncing the Psalms.

 

 Ps 27 12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.

13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD ;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD .' We live in a the reality that God creates what ever comes to pass. All reality is how God describes everything that is put together , how it works, and how it is related to us. We must understand that anything that cannot be explained in a logical way is immoral. Everything that God creates is according to His perfect law. When we are saved we are implanted with everything that we need. This means that we are given the whole word of God. The bible says that we cannot divide Gods word. It is all tied together by a string. We describe this as the renewed self. The Psalmist expresses the presence of the renewed self as wanting something that is complete but being frustrated that it cannot be obtained. In other words its something that is present but its always hidden behind the door. We can describe it as a feeling of wholeness or a deep seated joy that is mysterious. In other words the joy has no relationship to our physical interaction with the environment of our own world. We taught that everything that we ever relate too either in the physical or meta physical realm is put into a description by God . If we were totally satisfied with everything then God would speak the new word. So this the best understanding of self that gives us the most courage. That in the redeemed self is the total description of our entire lives ,the reasons for our existence and the satisfaction in understanding why they exist. We must understand that when we begin to use Gods word we are uniting this total explanation that is mysterious to us with creation of God in the future event. We are saying that nothing ever exist in itself. It always exist in how every person views it. Only God knows the exact replica of the truth of everything. So we dependent upon God not only for understanding the total description that is implanted in us but also for the moment by moment idea of the reality. We become aware of the purpose and the reality of ongoing events as they appear to us in Gods revealed word that illuminates our view of reality. In other words is not what might happen but its what we feel about what might happen by the total description of God according to His entire understanding. We must use Gods word as the Psalmist does in creating the circumstances of our lives and knowing by illumination that it was related to our pronouncing.

^{Gal. 1 8}But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! ⁹As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! "

The OT curses were part of the creation ordinance.  God created man and established his purpose in the creation ordinance. Every man was given a free will to rule the earth. God established mans authority on the earth through His law. God has given each man the desire to rule without opposition according to Gods purposes. We find this creation ordinance in the days of creation. For six days God creates and on the seventh day He rest. (The seventh day being the curses and the blessing coming together...our authority is established absolutely. Its defined in the OT as rest.) God established His law by the work that He accomplished on the 6 days of creation. His law blesses Gods elect and it curses the wicked. 3 ¹⁴He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." ¹⁰All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." In the creation ordinance God has renewed the earth by Christ taking the curse upon Himself.  ¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

In the new creation man is restored to His original purpose in ruling over creation. Where as man in the garden was free to obtain all that he desired, now he must overcome the opposition. The way that man overcomes the opposition is to be in Christ who established mans authority over the opposition in the relationship of Father and son.  ²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." In other words God returns us to the former blessing and success that He purposed in giving man ruler-ship of His creation. But God also established a new relationship to His law. We are no longer ²⁵Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." We are led to Christ using the law as an instrument of death. ²⁴So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ^F14 that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." He is saying that as we use the law to destroy the opposition because we are declared righteous in Christ , we stand on the other side of the law. (No longer under the supervision.) You see the law pronounces death on all law breakers but we are raised to new life in Christ and now we are related to a loving Father who is the Judge.

This is why the apostle acted as a prophet in extending the curse to the whole world. Because the gospel has spread to the ends of the earth. Just like the apostle teaches that we are grafted into the OT blessing of Gods people, ¹⁴He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus"... so the apostle pronounced the curse upon all who preached another gospel1 8b.If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! "

When Paul extended the curses to the ends of the earth, the law that was  given by Moses that pronounces death to all law breakers outside of Christ became a universal standard. 3  ²⁴So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ^F14 that we might be justified by faith." The apostle is teaching that we cannot know Christ through the curse. We cannot curse Christ and be loyal. This is teaching there are a two different sides to the law. The wicked stand on the condemning side of the law. The apostle says that their relationship to the curse of the law is rebellion which is to curse Christ. But we are declared righteous because we have been justified in Christ. So the apostle pronounces a curse in extending it to the ends of the earth. This is why the apostle can pronounce his own preservation. Because the law pronounces death on all opposition. And the saints now enjoy a relationship with our Father who judges absolutely at all times. 

2 Tim 4 18 "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." All scripture is given for our profit...may it be.

Ps 7 9 O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.
10 My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.
12 If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow.
13 He has prepared his deadly weapons; he makes ready his flaming arrows.
14 He who is pregnant with evil and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment.
The law of the curse is like a war between the Lord and the wicked. The Law given to Moses had in each one a proclamation of death to law breakers. When the Psalms speak about Gods fight with those who oppose Him it is in the context of adding weight until the person is crush under the weight of the curse. When the curses are pronounced we are fighting with spiritual weapons. 7 16 "The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head. 17 13 Rise up, O LORD, confront them, bring them down; rescue me from the wicked by your sword. 5 Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again"
This is why we are taught that our fight with earthly weapons are of no consequence to this eternal struggle with evil. We may have the responsibility to protect our home but this is an earthly attempt that is constrained by the moment in time 44 1" We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.
2 With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them..But this struggle through pronouncing the curses has been going on since the beginning of creation."20 7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Because we fail to fight with spiritual weapons we are of no value in overcoming evil. Because we trust in temporary fixes we never overcome the evil.Gen 4 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
One generation teaches the next generation the works of the Lord. The works of the Lord rise and fall according to the pronouncement of the curses and the blessings. Through the decree.....44 4 You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob.5 Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes.6 I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory;7 but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. Through Gods name is simply the use of Gods law as an instrument of war. This is what the apostle teaches us about sanctification. We sanctify the culture by His word. The arm of the flesh is to trust in own horses. The working of the word is a trust in Gods decrees alone. This rising and falling through pronouncing the curses is a work that is done on the heart of Gods elect to wrestle with evil until it is subdued. The confession is.... I do not trust... you put weight on the adversary....44 6 I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory;7 but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.
The curse is like moving closer to danger and resisting it by pushing it away. The inward battle is always our destroying any opposition through the pronouncement of death while we appear to be as harmless as doves. We are most free when everything that we go through becomes unified in life and death. When we experience the line between blessing and cursing. This is our secret protest that cannot be overcome.

A lot of people teach that God will hide His face from us when we sin. But these complaints in the Psalms about Gods anger or His rejection are not talking about the context of salvation in a relationship but salvation in the absolute terms. Salvation is physical deliverance from the deadly wound in war. Gods wrath is according to His justice. God cannot hate His own work that His Son accomplished. It would be like cursing Himself.
A lot of people play fast and loose with this language. But these Psalms are written to pronounce and not as a class room study. They are written with forms of speech and in a language of absolute context. They are written as hate speech that is on the lips of Gods people toward the destruction that is practiced by the wicked. The general attitude of the Psalmist is an absolute hatred expressed by God in cursing. So if the anger was directed toward Gods covenant people the prosecuting identity would be of no value.

This is why there is no such thing as two line. The curse leads to destruction and the blessing leads to eternal life. One line is going in the opposite direction of the other line. To love God is to oppose Gods opposition absolutely. To love ones neighbor it to express the full anger of God toward his destruction. Love and hate used as positive redeeming attitudes. Only two line teaches that hate is good in bringing righteousness.
When the Psalmist complains about a problem it is in the absolute words. There are no pragmatic expressions in the Psalms.27 9 Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior". The Psalmist is speaking as a prosecutor and enforcing the curse by alluding to the death that he sees in the battle field ...this is an expression like if" I forget Jerusalem may my right hand forget its skill." This statement is making it doubly trusting of Gods faithfulness on His side of the covenant. The same thing here ..saying that he is experiencing the pain of the curse like all of the enemy lying on the ground ..dead.

Ps 17 15 And I--in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness". When we are saved we are declared righteous. Our old will is not made new...but that will is destroyed...God replaces our old will with a new will...this is called being implanted with the seed of the word of God...When we are implanted with this seed we understand all the words of God ...we may be very small in our understanding but because we understand one word we understand the spirit of all the words. Now listen..as the Apostle says that because we are saved there is no attempt to thwart our growing in Christ that can overcome us.
The Psalmist is saying that because the Psalmist is declared righteous he now enjoys a face to face relationship with God. A new birth voice that is reflective.17 8 My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek." Without this new relationship we could never receive anything from God without our adding to it. Everything that we receive is gifted to us. This new face to face relationship is bathed in covenant language. In other words face to face means that we are in a relationship with our Father as if Christ was coming to Him. When we are saved we get a whole new image. This is the image of Christ. It has already been given to us in its fullness. This image becomes clearer as we reach our final destination which is His eternal kingdom. But we already understand it because we cannot be made unbalanced since we accept that the word of God unifies all of Gods reality.
When we are saved we go from the strongest opposition which is inside of us to fighting with outside opposition. It is incorrect for us to cures ourselves by saying that we have an equal war between good and evil that we fight on the inside. Rather we are taught that the voices that oppose God are outside of us. 4 6 Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD". We are taught that the evil that we face is like noise to our ears. As society gets more and more evil we are confronted by noise that gets louder and louder. This is how we face opposition. Because we believe that the power of the curse is no longer speaking from the inner man. But its coming from the wicked...It is expressed by the Psalmist as a threat that we hear that argues against our face to face relationship with God. 10 11 He says to himself, "God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees." This faithless expression that is meant to develop a distrust for God is" He trust in God let God rescue him" This is the most Satanic voice to convince us that we are not face to face with God.
But we enjoy the face of God which shines the glory of Christ. This glory is not goose bumps from hearing that God loves us but its the promise that we have an absolute and final defense that dwells in us ..its the pronouncement of death which is our ability to fight a spiritual war as if we were in a physical war...we have been gifted with covenant words that give us full protection. This protection is described in the way that God overcame Israels enemies by the light from His eyes. 4 6 Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD". Gods face shines upon us so that we live in the reality that everything that opposes us will die and everything that is for us will promote our eternal life. We overcome through this perfect face to face relationship that is gifted to us by the work of Christ. Me

"We need to silence this view that Gods response to evil is a way of controlling it. God views every evil and has determined where it is performed and who does the act from before the creation of the world. When we are convinced that evil is in Gods hands we are free from tension. How does God look at evil?
He looks at evil with perfect judgement. There is no time where God treats evil in a struggle of two wills. God has taken care of evil before it is committed. Even tho we live under the constraints of time ...God determines all reality as if we were before Him in the judgement. There is nothing that opposes God whose power of will or the level of disgust in the act that is not made powerless by Gods curse. God never loses power or respect at any time in the whole history of the earth.
Why do we react as if there was a will that was in competition with God? Why do we feel the tension between good and evil? If there is grace on the earth then it has taken care of evil. Where grace exist evil is dead. The power of evil is the same thing as a small spark being consumed by an ato mic bom. The presence of grace is the reality of Gods absolute rule as if we were all present in the future eternal kingdom without any opposition. Grace tears down any opposition to Gods will. The reason that we struggle with tension is because we are corrupted in every part and we are touched with the curse of pragmatism. " Me

^{Ps 46 10} "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."


Luther says that we should know the word of God so that if we were cut by a sharp object we would bleed that word. We are taught in this Psalm that all of reality on this earth is from the simple description of God of all time. The natural man believes that life is made up of our plans and our successes. In other words we communicate in order to perform an activity. We think about what needs to be done and then we act upon it. But reality is not a process or succession of events. Reality is always determined by Gods creation and recreation. God speaks and it is accomplished.


The question is then do we just sit back and do nothing? This Psalm is teaching that doing something for its own sake is compared to the way the nations plan , speak and act. In other words there is a difference between doing something mechanical and being fulfilled in accomplishing that task or doing something with the full enjoyment in the effort. This is what the Psalmist is comparing. He is saying that the condition and the disposition of the wicked is different from the condition of the elect. Because of Adams sin man is born with an anxious and troubled heart. You see the big difference between the elect and the wicked is one of inability. The Psalmist is describing two different ways of communicating.

Its really compared to a one dimensional view of the world with a two dimensional.  The Psalmist is saying that the wicked only view the world as a series of processes. But the elect are united with God through His word. This is what the Psalmist is using as a metaphor for the streams of God. The wicked are born into a world of communication that is like waters roaring and foaming. The reason is that they do not view reality in the truth of Gods ongoing creative word. Because all reality is created by Gods law, decrees, statutes , curses and promises.

We must understand that before the foundation of the world God has planned and spoken all things into existence. Every little particle is ordered by God. And as time goes on the foundation and the creation of all things is being played out by an unchanging God who orders all things by His unchanging word. This is why we have the continuous flowing of the stream that goes through Zion and provides the sustenance of the city. It is always flowing. So we live in world where our full reality of an event or a task that we perform is determined by unity that we experience in understanding Gods word. It is hidden and its so quiet that it is not understood in this world. We have a kingdom in which all the great powers and movements of this world are ordered in the inner life of Gods people. We can bow our heads and experience the power of God that is greater than any power that we observe in this world. In other words Gods power and beauty can be pursuing us.

This is the greatest goal of our lives is being filled with Gods word and experiencing the effects as we meditate upon it. You see it is so hard for us to believe that just as the hand of the clock passes in front of our eyes that God is fully present in all space and calling out from the depths everything that transpires around us. He is speaking His law, covenants etc as the fullest reality ...a reality that would swallow us up if we understood the difficulty and the extent of all reality that is in God. But you see we have His word. The word of God is written so that we might experience the reality of God creating in this ongoing reality that we live in. We can get lost in beauty and wonder of Gods universe. We can be over come by the beauty of Gods creation in being united with the reality of the miraculous performance  of God in moving time. You see God comes and will not be silent. Be still and know that I am God. God is pronouncing His covenants, laws, etc as time moves in our lives. The fullness of God is available by the use of His word.   

 
^{Ps 40 17} Yet I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay."


This Psalm is teaching that when we are saved we are made completely new. We believe that God performs this renewal through recreation. This means that we complete because we have been implanted with the seed of the word of God.So the problem with experience with sin and corruption is a problem of knowledge and understanding. God has given us His completed word. In this way He has united our desires with His desires through our new creation.

Gods word is the cause of reality. Nothing exist unless it is decreed by God. We are new creatures according to all that God thinks, and plans in Him speaking every thing into existence that is greater in number and mysterious to our understanding. This means that we are renewed from a source that is abundant in its possession and performance. Its like a deep well of Gods holistic healing. Its a connection of all the preordained thoughts and plans of God for us that build the strength and the success in our lives. In this sense the wellspring of life is the unifying of Gods purposes with our desires that fill us and overflows .

God has given us a salvation that He has spoken to us in words that allow and prevent. He has created us like Himself. He has given us His word as the instrument to create. How can you create another being with a mind will and emotion and not make them like a robot? God has gifted us with a language that He speaks. It must be a language that we can understand and that answers all of our desires. But the problem is that God is so much greater in His knowledge and understanding that it is impossible for us to relate to Him on His standard. So He must complete us with a language that we can understand and yet be united with His purposes in the mysterious creation of God. God does this by giving us pronouncements and petitions that we can speak without understanding all the thoughts of God and the reasons for His plans for us. This is why the Psalmist says "May the Lord think of me." The Psalmist is pronouncing the entire scope of Gods thoughts and purposes that are united with his desires for his good.

We must understand that our renewal has ended all frustration of our desires. 
¹³ Be pleased, O LORD , to save me;
O LORD , come quickly to help me.
¹⁴ May all who seek to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
¹⁵ May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
be appalled at their own shame.
¹⁶ But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
"The LORD be exalted!" The question is then why do we become frustrated and anxious? If we have been made blameless and are secure in being completely renewed then why do we become weak and struggle like it is ineffective? Because we live in a world that is in which the well of corruption and blame is greater than our inward renewal. You see the opposition to God renewal in us is less then the deep well of Gods preordained success . God has performed the work in meeting the standard of righteousness and He has declared us righteous. So God speaks His reality in us according to the completed acceptance of the perfect man. This is why the Psalmist pronounces an open ended plea of whatever God knows about what the Psalmist needs that will work for the Psalmist deliverance.

In Gods world our connection in relationships is successful in viewing every one and every thing by our imagination of what could be in Gods future kingdom. Our success is built upon our vision and not how the elect is defined in this corrupted world. Every christian deserves the highest success and the greatest opportunity. In other words our natural disposition as Gods elect in this world is to lower Gods view of how He views His people.

So God has given us these pronouncements in order to transform our minds to believe that we are naturally fit for a perfect kingdom. We must fight against the downward pull of the world and the blame worthy way they relate. We do this by the war of pronouncements. In other words we a like kings who pronounce curses and blessing in order to rule absolutely. The problem is that we do not think and feel according to our identity in Christ because we do not think, speak and feel  according to the pronouncements of the Psalms. This is how we live by faith and not by sight. 

Suffering is not really a result of sin. Suffering is a result of some kind of pain. It could be physical or emotional pain. If we attribute suffering to sin then we are saying that change comes from some kind of force of the will. It is important for us to explain a problem with the right terms in order to get to the causes. The more detailed we are as we observe the problem the more we are aware of the ways to be healed. We must make a distinction between sin and the curse.

This is what we are taught in the Psalms. The Psalms teach us about the presence of sin. But there is a much deeper problem than the presence of sin. If sin is the cause of pain then we could end the pain through an act of the will. Sin is not the cause of pain but its the reason there is corruption in this world. This is why we are taught that all the corruption that exist in this world was put into existence because of the sin of Adam. What happened as a result of the first sin? Sin brought death. So the problem with pain is not the presence of sin but the consequences of sin which is death.
This is why the Psalms teach that the opposition to the elect must be narrowed down beyond the presence of sin to the consequences of sin which is corruption. This is why we are taught that our sin has been taken care of by God. The presence of corruption results in pain. Pain is the communication of the opposition. When we experience pain we experience some form of death. We experience the weight of the opposition to blessing.This weight is what we describe as the curse.
We are taught that our experience with the opposition is the logical description of our image. So we could say that sin, righteousness, corruption , cursing and blessing is part of the communication that we hear as our experience of sorrow or joy. If we describe our experience without a logical explanation of the causes then we are just adding to the weight of the pain. This is why the Psalms teach that God no longer keeps a record of our sin. We are always tempted to apply the wrong remedy. The presence of sin is not necessary the most dangerous opposition. Because God allowed sin to continue and the bible says that God controls each sin we commit. God could have made the consequences of sin instant death. But the presence of sin is part of His activity in redeeming His elect. In this sense God took away the power of the law by eliminating the reasons that the present sin could cause us to escape His control. God forgets our sin. If sin is not Gods main enemy then what is it? And we must explore the power and the communication of the curse.

 
Every man is born to rule himself. God has given every man the ability to rule his kingdom through the law. God has made man like Himself. He has written His law on mans heart. Our natural way of expressing our power is to measure ourselves against Gods law so that we can rule. But when sin entered the world we became our own god. We now miss apply the law for our own benefit. Since we do not judge correctly we are our own enemy. This imaginative process by which we view ourselves is called the process of destruction or the curse.

Because we naturally judge everything around us by comparing it to the law it is impossible to reverse our thinking and view everything by how we use the law. This focus on how we use the law must be gifted to us in receiving eternal life. The old process by which we obtained power by using the law to benefit ourselves was killed. But we are required to put it to death by word and Spirit. There is nothing that opposes the elect that can overcome the pronouncement of death. When the bible says that our old life is past it is saying that the whole reality that we lived in before we were saved was put to death.
This death pronouncement was Christ taking upon Himself our punishment of death and giving us eternal life. He became a curse for us. But because we still are corrupted and sinful we must oppose the curse. If we do not oppose the curse then we will be hardened through the natural guilt, fear, sorrow that still dwells in us.
How do we oppose the curse? By putting to death the flesh. The law is not a guideline to follow. The law is God Himself speaking in creation and recreation. All of Gods law is always present as if God were speaking. What is the power in the law? It is not correction but it speaks death. The law is the instrument by which God allows and prevents. Because the law changes everything by killing the opposition it is the absolute standard of God that controls all things in this world. If we break the smallest commandment of the law we must die. You see the law is not a human institution that establishes human authority but it stands over all things and controls all things by Gods pronouncements.
In our natural state we put hope in our best efforts,the temporary function of the law to judge people and the self protected standard by which we rule over people. But the Psalms teach that these half measures are our attempt to usurp Gods authority and become our own god. We seldom apply the law through the pronouncement of death. We seldom use the law to prevent and allow. But we are required to use the law to kill the flesh.