Ruth: Introduction, part 3; the spirit of Ruth's great-grandson David.

Title: Ruth: Introduction, part 3; the spirit of Ruth's great-grandson David.

 

As the contents of the book of Ruth leads to the threshold of David's birth and his history, the spirit of the book also leads to David's spirit, as in the Psalms.

 

Just to get a flavor for the spirit of David and therefore the spirit of the book of Ruth, before we roll up our sleeves and work on our translations and interpretations, we examine a few of the psalms. We examined Psa 16, and began Psa 36, which we will complete and then finish with Psa 45.

 

When the believer is able to see the glory of God in all things, then he will be poetic in his own soul.

 

One of the key words in Ruth is checed, lovingkindness, steadfast love, and covenant love. David writes of it in Psa 36.

 

Before he writes of checed, David writes of transgression as if it is alive. His warning, is to not live in Judges or in Gibeah, but to live in Ruth, in Bethlehem.

 

Psa 36:1 For the choir director. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord.

 

Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; There is no fear of God before his eyes.

 

Psa 36:2 For it [transgression] flatters him in his own eyes, Concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.

 

Psa 36:3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; He has ceased to be wise and to do good.

 

Psa 36:4 He plans wickedness upon his bed; He sets himself on a path that is not good; He does not despise evil.

 

Psa 36:5 Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies.

 

God's lovingkindness lies like a thin vapor all over the earth. The believer, if he has eyes to see, can see the glory of God all around him every day, no matter where he is or what is going on. The gospel of Christ is a part of that glory and so also sits over all the earth. Any person is one faith decision away from becoming a partaker of the glory of God, Jew or Gentile.  

 

Psa 36:6 Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God; Thy judgments are like a great deep. O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.

 

One of the wonderful things about poetry is its imagery. Would we look at a mountain and think of the righteousness of God? Maybe from now on we will. The mountain is symbolic of being immovable.

 

When we think of the great deep of the ocean or deep fissures in the earth that we dare not enter, we might think of those aspects of God which are incomprehensible and unsearchable. These are God's judgments.

 

Why do some believe and embrace God and some do not? This is the unsearchableness of His judgments.

 

Why do some come to love ungodliness instead of coming freely to God and receiving reconciliation and forgiveness?

 

Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

 

Gave His only begotten Son from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Boaz and Ruth, onto David, and from him, protected all the way, newborn after newborn comes the One at the fullness of times, incredibly also a newborn, as frail as all the rest, but protected by the power of God.

 

Rev 12:4-5

And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

 

Luk 2:10-12

And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger."

 

Joh 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.

 

Joh 3:18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

 

Joh 3:19 "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.

 

Joh 3:20 "For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

 

Joh 3:21 "But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

 

Theologians and teachers have offered their own reasons over the years as to why some men came to believe the light and become lights themselves and why some loved darkness, from Calvinism to Arminianism, to Lordship salvation, to Gnosticism, and on and on. But no one knows. God wills all men to be saved, 1Ti 2:4, and yet they are not. It is incomprehensible and unsearchable. They might as well try to swim to the deepest bottom of the ocean (the lowest we know of is 36,000 feet below sea level).

 

Psa 36:5 Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies.

 

Psa 36:6 Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God; Thy judgments are like a great deep. O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.

 

The righteousness of God is a mountain: immovable.

The judgments of God are a great deep: unsearchable.

 

Man and beast are preserved alive, but what will become of them? Will they find mercy or judgment? What can they do to escape judgment? Certainly, as condemned ones, they can do nothing. Their fate is sealed, or is it?

 

Then, David leaps in his heart in adoration of the unfathomableness of God's love and mercy.

 

Psa 36:7 How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings.

 

Psa 36:8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Thy house; And Thou dost give them to drink of the river of Thy delights.

 

They drink of the fatness of God's house. God's sanctuary, the place of His protection and His abundance, David wrote of in Psa 23.

 

Psa 23:5 Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; Thou hast anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

 

Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

By contrast, in the second appendix of Judges, the old man from Ephraim, who took in the Levite and his concubine, did not protect those in his house when the enemy surrounded it. He offered the evil mob his virgin daughter and the concubine.

 

Psa 36:7 How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings.

 

Psa 36:8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Thy house; And Thou dost give them to drink of the river of Thy delights.

 

God uses the imagery of rivers to portray His abundance of gifts which continually flow to the believer.

Eden had four rivers, but they flowed from one unnamed river that was their source, Gen 2:10. The abundant river of God's delights on the earth all have Him as their source.

 

God alone is the fountain of life. He alone is the river of living water, which if we drink of it, we will never thirst again. For all eternity, from the throne of God and the Lamb of God will flow a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, having the tree of life on either side.

 

The imagery is wonderful. The closer we draw to God, the more we know the Lord and walk in His calling, the more draughts of this water do we drink, and the more capacity has the throat of our heart to guzzle more of His abundance.

 

Psa 36:9 For with Thee is the fountain of life; In Thy light we see light.

 

Not only is the Lord the fountain of life, but He is also the light of the world. He has opened the eyes of the blind. He opened the eyes of the man born blind, as all of us have been born spiritually blind. In Him we see.

 

We see His light, and we finally see darkness for what it really is, so that when transgression speaks to us kindly and flatters us, we know the one who is speaking and we turn to him with a resounding NO!

 

He closes his poem with a six line strophe of prayer.

 

Psa 36:10 O continue Thy lovingkindness to those who know Thee, And Thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

 

Psa 36:11 Let not the foot of pride come upon me, And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.

 

The foot of arrogance is pictured as a tyrant pressing down upon the neck. The wicked are pictured as those who entice us from our home in God's sanctuary to go into exile with them. The prayer is for us who know the Lord and desire to be upright in heart more than anything, to not be caught up with the arrogant and the wicked. It is casting our worries upon Him. It is asking Him to help us be alert and sober. It is demanding that He reveal more and more of Himself to us and to draw His wings over us and around us more broadly and tightly.

 

And then David confidently sees the future, where those who have opposed God and loved darkness will be judged and come to a final death. Though they oppress God's saints, their end is sad and tragic while the saints are drinking of the river of life without cost.

 

Psa 36:12 There the doers of iniquity have fallen; They have been thrust down and cannot rise.