Monthly Archives: November 2008

Psalm 29:1-2, 10-11
1Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.
…
10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;
the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.
11May the LORD gives strength to his people!
May the LORD bless his people with peace!

Psalm 29 is a call for all the created order to worship the One Great God who is. It resounds with testimonies to the power of God in nature (verses 3-9). The voice of God, it tells us, does marvelous things. When God speaks, trees break, whole geographic areas are sent into chaos and flames of fire engulf the land. It is because God speaks that the “natural” events such as animals giving birth and leaves falling take place. All of nature is under the intricate sovereignty of God.

Psalm 29 is a grand testimony of a grander God. The great thing for us who are mortal and struggle through this life in weakness and ignorance, is the last verse. After poetically proclaiming the unsurpassable power of God in nature, the Psalm ends with this:

Psalm 29:11 (ESV)
May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!

What a great thing this is for the faithful. God, who speaks animals into birth (v. 9) is the one in whom we are permitted, commanded, encouraged to find our strength. God uses His strength for the good of His people. There can be nothing more peace giving, comforting, emboldening, soul stirring, liberating … than that.

This is the story of the cross. God, in Christ uses His power to redeem us from sin, death, hell. O Lord, thank you for what you have done, what you do and what you promise to do for those you have won from death with your great power and love. Thank you for the cross of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 32:2 – Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.

What an incredible statement. The Lord, for some reason, counts against a man NO iniquity.

Nothing less than absolute perfection is required for entrance into the presence of God and God accomplished that for us through Jesus Christ. Those whose faith is in Christ alone have credited to them the very sinless perfect righteousness of the Son of God. In Christ, as this verse states, NONE of our iniquities are counted against us.

If all our sins are not dealt with at the cross and if the merits of that death and resurrection are not applied to us through our faith in Him, then there is no point in having any dealt with at all. Christ’s work is finished. He has taken the punishment for all the sins of all His people.

Where is your hope for forgiveness and a right standing with God? If not in the finished work of Jesus Christ, then the Lord still counts iniquity against you. It need not be so.

Acts 18:24-26 – 24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately

Apollos was “competent in the Scriptures” (v.24), “taught accurately the things concerning Jesus” (v.25), “spoke boldly in the Synagogue” (v.26). Yet his views about baptism were faulty (v.25), and when Priscilla and Aquila heard him preach they heard things that were not right and they took Apollos aside to teach him “the way of God more accurately” (v.26).

No matter how competent we are in the Word of God, no matter how accurate we are in the things of Jesus, and no matter how bold we are in giving the gospel to the lost, we can still be wrong in some things and in need of instruction.

There is never a time when we cannot be taught by someone else. There is never a time when we may not need to come down from the place of authority and teaching and take the place of a student and be taught more accurately. An unteachable spirit is an ungodly thing. It is the opposite of the Gospel – no matter who we are and no matter how much we get right. There is always room for improvement. This is humbling and that is a good thing for pride is what hell is full of.

Let us be thankful for the teachers God puts in our paths to correct us and set us on a more truthful path. We have no record of Apollos balking at being taught by Priscilla and Aquila. In fact, the way the account reads demonstrates just the opposite. He “greatly helped those who through grace had believed” (v.27) and, “powerfully refuted the Jews in public showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus”.

Here is the pattern: teach accurately, learn more accurately, teach again. If you think you do not need to learn from others, you are not fit to teach.

Psalm 25:3 “none who wait for you shall be put to shame”.

We are a culture of people who are in a hurry. We do not like to wait and we have many “conveniences” that cater to that impatience.

In Christian circles, the temptation, in the face of many good desires to see good things happen in the lives of Christians and the world at large, is to run ahead of God and convince ourselves that our timing is His. We can be so anxious for good things to happen that we do not wait for God in the biblical sense of the term.

It is not easy for us to wait on God. There will be those who voice the concern that we are not called to sit around and wait for a voice from God before we do anything – and this is true. God leads those who are active. Waiting on God is not inactivity. It is contentment doing what God has called us to do and not attempting to do what only He can do.

This is where many fine intending Christians go awry. They end up orchestrating converts, membership additions, baptismal candidates … . There is much that goes on in the Christian church, particularly in the evangelical wing of the church, that is done simply because people did not know what it meant to wait on God. We do well to understand the concept, for the Bible speaks much about it, and we do well to never transgress into God’s territory when He has given us so much to do in our own.

Waiting on God is a feeding of the soul. It is contentment. It is freedom from the frenetic. It is faith at work. We neglect it to our own spiritual hurt.

Psalm 25
6Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
7Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!

“Remember not the sins of my youth…” What a glory to be able to pray such a prayer! The sins of our past are not a hindrance to the future in our lives if we have gone to God through Jesus Christ for grace and forgiveness. This is a marvellous liberating thing. Do not dwell on the past. To do so is to challenge the grace that He has lavished on us in the forgiveness of all our sins. How many Christians are miserable and ineffective because of dwelling on past sins? God has forgotten them and we would do well to do the same.

The thought that we were too sinful in the past to be forgiven and useful does not come from God and it certainly does not bring praise to God who saved us for His glory. Our past sins are a horrible mark upon our lives and many times they affect us and others for a long, long time. But we should not allow them to continue to render us useless.

Only the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was powerful enough to get you from under the punishment they deserve and if you are a true believer, that is exactly what He has done for you. Don’t live as if He couldn’t handle all your sin. He loves you too much for that.

Acts 18:5-7

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. [6] And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” [7] And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.

It is wrong to suppose that we never give up on people. In one sense it is very true. We should never stop praying for any lost person we know to come to faith in Christ. But that does not mean that we never give up working with them. Paul knew that he would be wasting his time in Corinth continuing to try to evangelize the Jews there who were refusing to accept the Gospel. So he went to others. We are not all itinerant evangelists who have the option of leaving a people group to spend time with another, but we should use wisdom to know when it is time to spend time in more productive fields. It is not a denial of the power of the Gospel to work where the people are more receptive. Let us pray for wisdom to know when God is saying “persevere” (as He did to Paul later in the same city) and when He is saying “leave this place” (as He seemed to have done with Paul in this instance).

10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
“… when they arrived [in Berea] they went into the Jewish synagogue.”

This is an incredible thing that Paul and his companions went into the synagogue in Berea. In Thessalonica it was the teaching in a synagogue that got things all stirred up and got them running from there for the safety of their lives. The synagogue should be the last place they would go. And sure enough, trouble gets stirred up there by those who had been in Thessalonica (v.13). So Paul runs to Athens and teaches in the marketplace and in the synagogue every day (!) Then it is off to Corinth where he goes directly to the synagogue and also when he goes to Ephesus. The point? Romans 1:16 – to the Jew first. Opposition to the Gospel never means that the Gospel should not be delivered, especially if you know your call is to a particular people and God has put a burden in the heart for those people (Romans 9:1, 10:1). If opposition is what is going to stop you, save yourself the bother of even starting. You won’t last, for the Gospel is going to bring opposition.

10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Psalm 2:11 – “Serve the Lord with fear…” This is a commandment of Scripture particularly directed at nation leaders to serve the God of Scripture, the only God there is, with fear and rejoice with trembling, to make homage to the Son of God lest He be angry with them.

Any nation leader who does not consciously worship the triune God of Scripture, is sinning against God. This is true of course about anyone who does not worship God. But this is a solemn warning to rulers to lead their people as worshippers of the one true God or suffer at the judgement seat.

The Psalm makes it clear also that it is the Son of God whom they will answer to. Jesus Christ is to have the pre-eminence in everything (Col.1:18) including the lives and rulings of the kings of the earth.

Pray for those in authority over us. Every law that is not born out of the fear of God and reverence for the Son is another sin for which they must account. Frightening.