Psalm 33 is an “anonymous” psalm, that is we are not told who wrote it. It sounds much like the psalms of King David we have read that extol the virtues of the LORD and offer Him praise. The psalm emphasizes the LORD’s power and superiority over any army or other force in the world. It focuses on the LORD’s creative power, and in that sense is something of a creation psalm. It also reminds us the LORD is with the righteous, with those who follow His ways. The psalm serves as a helpful reminder to us that the LORD is sovereign and we do well to praise and obey Him.
The introduction to Psalm 34 tells us King David wrote it when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech. David found himself in a difficult position, his own king, Saul, had vowed to kill him, even though David had always been faithful to Saul. David and his men were forced to go on the run. He decided it would be “safer” to go to the land of the Philistines, Israel’s enemy, than to stay in Israel. The plan worked far better than David could have imagined, and for a time he, his men, and their families lived in relative peace. The psalm offers praise to God for protecting those who call out to them, to those who face difficult challenges, who are willing to obey Him. The circumstances of the writing of Psalm 34 help us to remember we can always praise the LORD, we can always call out to Him, and He is with us in our most difficult challenges as well as in our times of blessing and ease.
In Psalm 35, King David calls on the LORD to protect him from his enemies and to destroy those enemies. David “reminds” the LORD he has shown mercy and compassion to all, even to his enemies, but when they have the opportunity they gloat over David’s misfortune. This psalm petitions the LORD to vindicate David and judge his enemies. While we might assume it is always better to pray for mercy on everyone, David calls on the LORD’s justice in this situation and to respond accordingly. When we offer such a prayer to the LORD, it is vital we are, indeed, walking in His ways ourselves.
As we turn to Luke 5, Luke offers us an account of Jesus interacting with Peter, Andrew, James, and John that differs from the accounts we read in Matthew and Mark, about how Jesus came to call them to follow Him. In Luke’s account, Jesus asks the men to let Him board their boat, and uses it as a “pulpit” from which to teach the crowds. After the message has ended, Jesus calls the men to take their boats out into the lake and lower their nets for a catch. Peter “knows” this is not the time of day to fish. After all, he was a professional fisherman. He protests he and his partners and fished all night (when one is supposed to fish!) and caught nothing, but he obeys Jesus’ command. The result is an unprecedented catch of fish. The boats become so filled with fish they start to sink. On seeing this, Peter exclaims, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Peter called Jesus “Lord.” Peter recognized the power of God in Jesus’ discernment, and in providing the catch of fish. Peter’s response in the presence of such goodness and holiness, is to recognize his own sinfulness.
Jesus’ response is so helpful. He didn’t say, “Peter, your sins are forgiven.” After all, Peter’s protest was that he was a sinful man, implying his unworthiness to be in Jesus’ presence. Yet, Jesus responded, “Do not be afraid…” Jesus realized Peter’s true response was fear. He responded to Peter’s fear and promised they would catch people if they followed Him. Peter and the other’s responded by heading back to shore, leaving their boats, (and possibly the amazing catch of fish, although some biblical scholars believe they sold the fish so their families would be supported while they followed Jesus) and following Jesus. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, we might feel unworthy, and we will certainly feel fear. Peter’s example helps us to realize Jesus is greater than our unworthiness and our fear.
In the rest of Luke 5, we read of events, which are quite familiar to us after reading Matthew and Mark. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the “synoptic” gospels, which means “seen together,” because they are so similar in content. As we read them, we see how connected they are, and yet how the details differ–as we would expect, given Luke was not an eyewitness, but a historian, Matthew was one of the disciples, and Mark was most likely recording the events from Peter’s perspective. In the remainder of Luke 5, Jesus touches a leper and heals him. He then heals others. Next, Jesus heals the paralyzed man who was brought to Him by four friends. Before the healing, Jesus forgave the man’s sins, showing He is God’s Son, because only God can forgive sin. Next, Jesus called Levi or Matthew, and finally, Jesus had a discussion about fasting with the religious leaders. Jesus pointed out that His disciples didn’t fast, because no one fasts when the “bridegroom” is present. (Jesus was [and is] the bridegroom!) He pointed out fasting would become part of the disciple’s spiritual discipline after He left. He also pointed out it was a time of new realities, and used an analogy of putting new wine in old wineskins, to show, that such an action ends badly. Thus, Jesus bringing new realities would bring them in “new wineskins.” As we seek to live out our faith in Jesus, we will find ourselves struggling with traditions from our upbringing and even the free-wheeling culture in which we live. In those times, let’s remember Jesus didn’t come to bring us back to where we were, but to give us a whole, new life!