^{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.

^{Ps 41 1} Blessed is he who has regard for the weak;
the LORD delivers him in times of trouble.
² The LORD will protect him and preserve his life;
he will bless him in the land
and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.
³ The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed
and restore him from his bed of illness"

The Psalmist is teaching that the way to be delivered from our trials is to always be aware of our responsibility to take care of the weak.I do not think any person is able to go though life without being given the privilege of giving yourself for someone else who is not completely healthy. This Psalm is teaching that our lives as Gods people are blessed because we have others that we carry.

God has covenanted with us and sworn to meet all of our needs. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. You see in this Psalm a person who in the first part extols the virtues of helping other people but at the same time he speaks the curses. ¹⁰ But you, O LORD , have mercy on me;
raise me up, that I may repay them." The Psalmist is teaching us the covenant mentality of life. He is showing how tenaciously God acts toward us to keep His covenant. In this sense the hardest thing in life to learn is the value of Gods word. It is through Gods covenant that we learn there is really nothing that we do that is pleasurable unless it is received by us in the boldness of arguing on the basis of Gods covenant. In our natural view it is very easy to take everything that we have for granted. We naturally devalue everything by not understanding Gods work in pursuing us. This is why we do not get passionate about things that do not profit us. The times where our losses for others are our greatest gains. Because we do not see life through the lens of Gods covenant.

This is what the Palmist is teaching. The world is full of covenant breakers. Gods is drawn to the weak and helpless by covenant. God is pleased with Himself according to His own work that needs no outside help. This is why Gods most valuable trophies are those who cannot help or prove their value to God. This spirit of self determination and self confidence is the very attitude that causes us to devalue Gods covenant. In the covenant motif everything that we have and are come from God in abundance according to Gods perfect and faithful word. It is this covenant conviction that gives us an overflowing thankfulness and a pleasure in God. We are most happy when we are free to come to God empty handed and in need of everything. On the one hand God is passionate about being exalted through weakness and on the other hand He is deeply jealous of us and the potential dangers that we face. This is why the Psalm is both a promise and a curse.    

^{Ps 125 3} The scepter of the wicked will not remain
over the land allotted to the righteous,
for then the righteous might use
their hands to do evil".

 The law of God pronounces death to lawbreakers. The law is the scepter of Gods justice.  45 6Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom".In other words no one can escape the consequences of rebelling against Gods kingdom because He controls life and death. In 45 the Psalmist is describing the identity of a citizen of Israel. Every male is part of the military. A child becomes a man and gets married. He is not really a husband but soldier. So the scepter is the prosecutor of the law against the nations. It is the instrument of the curse.

Here in 125 the wicked curse the righteous.  102 8 All day long my enemies taunt me; those who rail against me use my name as a curse." Gods word is a legal description of His sovereign action in creating and sustaining all things. To redefine Gods word is to take the legal authority away from God upon oneself. All words are moral because they distinguish the personality of all things. The Psalms teach that all corruption of Gods word is the seed of violence on the earth. We are talking about the misrepresentation of the obligation that man has of God and his neighbor. This gets very complicated. Because in order for God to establish freedom to choose He must weight the moral system toward salvation. So He must contain evil rather than mark it in the philosophy of an eye for an eye. So God pronounces death on every kind of sin. So I believe the scepter is the whole contained judgement of death that is pronounced in the curses. In the christian world the foundation of the success of Gods kingdom is that all opposition has been destroyed by death.

We must understand that every miss representation of the law of God is an attempt to control others. It means that we are defining the obligation of law attempting to force that person under the control of a god. So corruption in the world can be transferred through violence. We can produce guilt, fear, shame by association. Now we are beginning to describe the paradigm of freedom and control. Its kind of like if you repeat something long enough it will become the norm. This is how the redefining of Gods law erodes the freedoms that we have in Christ. Not only is it enforce in a message but it also  transferred as a curse to others by association. So the scepter in the curse is necessary in enforcing the freedom that promotes Gods word as the function in understanding a persons identity.

All communication has reward and punishment paradigm. This is why over time pragmatism is the most destructive view of life. Because as the standard is forced downward as the pragmatic line is moved and the spread of associative disease is passed on from one person to another. This is why the Psalms teach that mans culture of control is enforced by violence but Gods salvation is moved along by the freedom of grace. But we must understand that the line of justice never moves. As the force of man is applied in the continued decline and loss of freedom ,Gods law pronounces death to the smallest threat. So the Psalms teach that curses that are pronounced create the freedom of the culture and the general disposition of liberty and pleasure that is created in Gods elect. 

This difference in the spiritual value of finding satisfaction in using the things of this life for the glory of God is found in the gift we enjoy of our renewed desires.
Psalm 21 2 You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips. "Selah"
3 You welcomed him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him-- length of days, for ever and ever.
5 Through the victories you gave, his glory is great; you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.
6 Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the LORD; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.
8 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes. 9 4 For you have upheld my right and my cause; you have sat on your throne, judging righteously.
5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
6 Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished.
7 The LORD reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment.
8 He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice.
Here we are taught that our human desires are united with Gods desire when we are saved. Because salvation is not really having control over ourselves as the means to obtain blessing but they are united with our desires so that we might be preserved in this world. If you look here he is saying that our desires are fulfilled based upon Gods unfailing love and not upon our activity. " through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken." He is saying that those who resist him are resisting God. Just like those who resist God resist Gods people. How can a sinner be seen as already overcoming all opposition through his united desires as the proof that God is a saving God? Because the success is contained and is irrevocable. Salvation is in God and cannot be thwarted on any level.
This is why Ive been saying that we dont really enter into a private personal relationship with God but a total contained preservation in which our desires are accepted on the basis of the fulfilling of Christ desires. I do not like to create a dichotomy between our desires and kingdom desires.The Psalms teach that denying self is placing the outcome of our desires in Gods hands. They do not look at it as how pure the desire is by how it is opposed to Gods desire ..but rather they teach that salvation is too wonderful for us to imagine 40 5 Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require."You see the context of this passage that is spoken of in the NT about self denial. So the Psalmist is teaching that there is no end to the blessing that we receive by our desires in teaching that salvation is secure.
Our desires are the same desires as a kings desires. The Psalmist speaks the law, covenants, curses, promises, and the commands that are contained words that bring us to mystery. So these desires go beyond the constraints of this world but they are according to our need for survival.We are always opposing those who oppose our cause because the definition of the success of Gods kingdom is the success of our cause that are contained even tho the desires are mixed with sinful motives.

 
<sup>The earth belongs to God and He rules over all people.

145  1 F229</sup> I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
² Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

The christian message is passed down unhindered from one generation to another.

 ³ Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
⁴ One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.
⁵ They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works. ^F230
6 They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
⁷ They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.


Gods covenant with His people is never thwarted or destroyed. 
  
⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
⁹ The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
¹⁰ All you have made will praise you, O LORD ;
your saints will extol you.
¹¹ They will tell of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might,
¹² so that all men may know of your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.

The Lord keeps His promises to His people.

 The LORD is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made. ^F231
14 The LORD upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
¹⁶ You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

The Lord is the perfect judge who makes absolute judgements at all times. 

¹⁷ The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all he has made.
¹⁸ The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
²⁰ The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

Gods purpose in creating the earth and ruling over it is for His praise.

 ²¹ My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD .
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.

The Psalmist is teaching that God rules over human kings. God deserves to be the King because He created all things by the word of His mouth. Not only did God create everything by the word of His mouth but He sustains it by passing down that word from one generation to another, fulling His covenant to His people, being faithful to all His promises, acting as the perfect Judge at all times in order to preserve His elect and bringing praise to Himself through His creation so that in His freedom we are free. You see the Psalmist is teaching that everything in time is ordered by God according to His law, covenants, promises, curses and statutes. We must understand that this is Gods teaching that His elect belong to a family in which our Father is the Judge.

Its interesting that we only find one reference to the opposition. 20b "but all the wicked he will destroy." So the Psalmist is teaching that the world is a place where Gods condescending speech to His elect is shown by His works. Every thing that comes into existence spoken by God and cannot be thwarted. But there is the murmuring of the wicked. In other words Gods success by His word is clearly seen by His works and understood by His people. But the wicked are like beggars who are reduced to murmuring and muttering like an animal.  This Psalm teaches us that because God rules over the earth His elect  have been given the status of kings and priest over the earth.We are implanted with His word. We are given these gifts to pronounce in the absolute power and majesty as Gods kings over the earth.

The Psalmist is teaching that because we have His revealed word we can speak of God as our personal King. We are given the pronouncements and the covenants in the Psalms that create the success of teaching the next generation, of pronouncing the covenant that creates the success in our space in this world, petitioning God on the legal foundation of His promises that promote our physical and spiritual well being, pronouncing the curses that overcome and contain all of our opposition, and living in the reality that the world is united under the authority and the beauty of God.

The Psalms are written to be on our lips for the purpose of putting our opposition under our feet. In the modern day comparison is it putting the wicked on a leash. Because this Psalm that is at the end of the book is teaching us that God purposely removes the description of the struggle with the opposition in order to show the insignificance of their power in comparison to their ability to create success in the order and the symmetry that is necessary to be respected as co regents of Gods creation. In other words Gods word on the lips of His elect put the opposition of no significance. Its worth a very small mention in this Psalm.