Praising God Before the Elohim

I will praise You, O LORD, with all my heart;
Before the “gods” I will sing Your praise.
I will bow down toward Your holy temple
And will praise Your name
For Your unfailing love and Your faithfulness,
For You have exalted Your solemn decree
That it surpasses Your fame.

(Psalm 138:1-2 NIV 2011)

As I began my time with the Lord this morning, I was suddenly impressed to sing the common doxology to the familiar tune of the “Old Hundredth.” So I picked up my guitar and began strumming the chords and singing the words. I looked toward the icon of the baptism of Jesus, which so beautifully depicts the Trinity: The voice of the Father in heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and Jesus the Son, standing in the baptismal waters, and the Holy Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. And I sang to the Lord, repeating the words of the doxology again and again.

Then I turned to my prayer book (I use The Paraclete Psalter), to the psalm laid out for today. But along the way, my eye fell on Psalm 138, and I was caught up by it. So I began to pray it:

I will praise You, O LORD, with all my heart;
Before the “gods” I will sing Your praise.

Let me get technical for just a moment. The Hebrew word for “gods” is elohim. It is the word that is usually used to refer to God Himself. But, clearly, that is not its use here because the psalm writer is speaking to God in the first person, but he refers to the elohim in the third person.

Elohim is a plural form, and so it can be translated as “gods.” It can refer to angels, as it perhaps does in Psalm 8:5, “For You have made him [man] a little lower than the angels,” where the Septuagint translates the Hebrew word elohim with the Greek word angelos.

Or it can refer to judges, as it appears to do in Exodus 21:6 and Exodus 22:8-9. This could be how the psalm writer uses it in Psalm 82:1, where God judges among the “gods,” who were themselves supposed to judge justly, but had failed to do. God warns them, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes” (Psalm 82:6-7). So, here elohim could refer to kings and rulers and heads of state, who were supposed to bring justice to the people God entrusted to them. It could also refer to the principalities and powers, the fallen spiritual entities who so often influence the political and cultural affairs of humanity.

But, back to what happened in prayer this morning: As I began praying Psalm 138, I suddenly found myself standing in the courts of the Lord, to do what I had just read — to praise God with all my heart, singing it before the elohim. I saw them as angels, parted on either side of me and waiting for my song to begin. Peter says that the angels long to explore the mysteries of the gospel and the salvation of humanity (1 Peter 1:12). And that is how I sensed them here.

I found myself overwhelmed as I stood in the clearing and in the silence of that moment. But as the psalm writer says in Psalm 138:3, “When I called, You answered me; you greatly emboldened me.” And I knew it would all be alright.

Now, it was obvious what the song should be, because I had been singing it just moments earlier in what had turned out to be a practice session for this encounter. And now I realized why that hymn had “popped” into my head — God had placed it there especially for me to offer for His pleasure in a “command performance.” So I lifted my voice and began to sing, softly at first and with some trembling:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

As I sang, I began to realize that I was offering this praise to God not only before Him and His angels, but also in full view of the principalities and powers, reminding them of their defeat at the cross. For that is what always happens in the spiritual realm when the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are worshipped and adored. And I was aware that our worship calls even to all the kings and queens of the earth and the rulers of nations, who will all one day bow, whether willingly or not, before God. The hope of the psalm writer is that it will be willingly:

May all the kings of the earth praise You, LORD
When they hear what You have decreed.
May they sing of the ways of the LORD,
For the glory of the LORD is great.

(Psalm 138:4-5 NIV)

That is my hope, too, as I sing to the LORD with all my heart before the elohim.

A Tale of Three Kings in the Psalms

The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD;
And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

(Psalm 21:1)

This psalm is called “a psalm of David.” Which mean it was written by him, or about him, or perhaps in the Davidic style. As we see from the first verse, this psalm speaks of “the king” and the joy he has in the strength and salvation that comes from the Lord.

There are many psalms which speak of God as King, but there are also many that speak of the king of Israel — of David, and the descendants who would sit on his throne. As I pray through the psalms, which is one of my spiritual practices, whenever I read about the king, as in Psalm 21, I am always aware of three kings to whom it rightfully applies.

• First, there is David himself, whom God anointed to be king over Israel. And God made a promise that a descendent of David would reign on that throne forever. Of course, it soon became apparent that David and his heirs often fell far short of the glorious things that were ascribed to the king of Israel.
• The second king is Jesus, the Son of God who became human. In His humanity, He is a the son of David who fulfills the promise God made to David. He is the Messiah, whom God anointed to be King over Israel and the nations forever. He is the divine embodiment of everything the psalm writers were longing for.
• The third king is … me. Actually, it is all who know King Jesus and belong to Him by faith. Paul says that God has raised us up with Him and seated us with Him, and Jesus is seated on His throne at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:19-22 and 2:4-6). In King Jesus we, too, are made “kings and priests” to God our Father (Revelation 1:6 and 5:10).

When I come to those places in the psalms where God makes promises concerning the king and the king responds to God, I see a this three-fold overlay: King David, King Jesus and me. King David and I find our highest identity and fulfillment in King Jesus, and through King Jesus receive the full blessing of God.

So it is in Psalm 21:1, “The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD,” I find David and Jesus and me, taking great joy in God because we have all experienced the strength of the Lord in amazing ways. “And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!” We “whirl and twirl for joy” (the word here for “rejoice” indicates to “spin”) because of the salvation God has worked on our behalf. For David and me, He worked that salvation through Jesus (Hebrew, Yeshua), whose very name means “salvation” (yeshuah). And He worked salvation for Jesus by raising Him from the dead.

You have given him his heart’s desire,
And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.

(Psalms 21:2)

God never refused the desire of David’s heart. For David delighted himself in the Lord, and the Lord gave him the desires of His heart (Psalm 37:4). Because David delighted in the Lord, his desires were God-shaped desires.

God also never refused the desire of Jesus’ heart. “For the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand” (John 3:35). What was the desire of Jesus’ heart? “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). And God heard Him, for “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

And God will not refuse the desires of my heart or yours. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). King Jesus has given us this promise: “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God” (John 16:26-27).

So now, as the psalm writer continues, see what God has done for David, for King Jesus, and through Him, for you and me:

For You meet him with the blessings of goodness;
You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.
He asked life from You, and You gave it to him —
Length of days forever and ever.
His glory is great in Your salvation;
Honor and majesty You have placed upon him.
For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
For the king trusts in the LORD,
And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.

(Psalm 21:3-7)

Paid in Full

Working through Paul's letter to the Jesus believers at Philippi, I came across a Greek verb that caught my interest: apecho. It is a compound word, made up of apo and echo. The first part, apo, is a preposition that literally means “off” or “away.” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says that, “in composition (as a prefix) it usually denotes separation, departure, cessation, completion, reversal, etc.” The second word, echo, means to hold or to have.

Apecho has a number of meanings and uses. Thayer’s Greek Definitions shows these:

1) have
     1a) to hold back, keep off, prevent
     1b) to have wholly or in full, to have received
     1c) it is enough, sufficient
2) to be away, absent, distant
3) to hold one’s self off, abstain

But it is one use in particular that interests me, one that is commonly attested in ancient Greek documents. It was frequently used in a commercial sense, as a matter of accounting, specifically as a receipt to acknowledge that payment in full had been made. In A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich), the first entry under apecho has it as a commercial term, to “receive a sum in full and give a receipt for it.”

That is how Paul used it in Philippians 4:18, speaking to the believers at Philippi as partners in the ministry of the gospel. They had a relationship of “giving and receiving” (v. 15; the Greek words were commonly used of credits and debits, or expenditures and receipts). He brought them the gospel and discipled them in the faith; they sent him out with financial assistance and other support to carry the ministry to other cities and regions. In his letter to them, Paul acknowledged the gift they recently sent him when he was under house arrest in Rome for preaching the gospel: “I have all,” is how the NKJV puts it. The NIV and ESV bring out the meaning more precisely: “I have received full payment.” The NRSV says, “I have been paid in full.”

We can find apecho used with this same significance elsewhere in the New Testament. In the Sermon on the Mount, for example, where Jesus says:

Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have [apecho] their reward. (Matthew 6:2)

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have [apecho] their reward. (Matthew 6:5)

Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have [apecho] their reward. (Matthew 6:16)

Jesus chastises the hypocrites (used of actors or stage players) for the showiness of their giving, praying and fasting. They are engaged in a bit of theater, to be seen well by others. And that is all they will receive for their efforts. God has nothing for them — they have already had their payment in full, the paltry praise of men. Luke’s parallel account of Jesus’ Sermon records this:

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received [apecho] your consolation. (Luke 6:22-24)

For those who love and trust and serve their riches, there is no reward for them in heaven. They have already received their payment in full, in the uncertainties of material wealth.

We have already looked at Paul’s use of apecho in Philippians, but he uses it again in his letter to Philemon. Philemon had a slave, Onesimus, who ran away to Paul for relief from his master. Paul then brought Onesimus to faith in the Lord Jesus, just as he had earlier led Philemon to the Lord, and Onesimus proved to be a great help in Paul’s ministry. Legally, however, Onesimus needed to be returned to Philemon, his master. So Paul wrote this letter, desiring that Philemon would now receive Onesimus not as a slave but as a brother in Christ.

For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive [apecho] him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave — a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. (Philemon 15-16)

In receiving Onesimus as a brother in Christ, Philemon would be gaining much more than he would from having Onesimus as a slave, and in this way he would be “paid in full.”

One other thing I find interesting about this word is this: In the “negative” instances, where the hypocrites have their reward and the rich who trust in their riches already have their consolation, there is no more that is coming. No more reward and no more consolation.

On the other hand, in the “positive” instances (Paul’s use of apecho), there is the sense of full receipt plus more besides. In Philippians 4:18, “I have received full payment and even more” (NIV). And in Philemon, “That you might receive [apecho] him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave — a beloved brother.” That speaks to me about the abundance the grace of God brings.

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There is Always Joy!
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Philippi
Bite-Sized Studies Through Philippians
by Jeff Doles

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