Monthly Archives: April 2009

Psalm 57:7-11

My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
Awake, my glory!
Awake,O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!

These words of praise and worship to the LORD sound as if they were spoken in the midst of an amazing time of corporate worship. Imagine- the music is Christ-centered and uplifting, the preaching is a faithful demonstration of the Spirit and power, and there are no distractions…great conditions for worship right? Now try these conditions on for size- How about…running for your life and hiding in caves!

These are exactly the kind of conditions in which David found himself when he penned these full-bodied, God-honoring words of worship. Crazy huh? Just goes to show that all of life is about worshipping GOD. ALL OF IT. No matter where you are or how far south things have gone in your life, the fact remains,

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” Psalm 145:3

Oh, that in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, we would be able to have such God-ward vision that we would be able to say with David,

“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!”

To God be the Glory! Always.

Psalm 52:11 (english standard version)

“in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

Several years ago now, I had a series of run-ins with dogs. A few were hilarious and one resulted in a bitten right calf and a newfound anxiety around strange dogs. I’ve never been afraid of dogs before, but since this instance, I’ve developed a consistent “fight or flight” response around most dogs. Weird. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to control it. I tell myself all the time “all dogs don’t want to eat you”, but that doesn’t always work. I can’t seem to remedy the fear a lot of times.Fear is funny. People are afraid of all kinds of stuff; Dogs, loud noises, small enclosed spaces, the dark, clowns, and oh yeah…other people.

In Psalm 56, David offers some surefire advice against fear. He particularly addresses the fear of man. In verses 3 and 4 of the Psalm David says,

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”

David’s advice to those who fear man is to trust in the LORD. I love how he says it so matter of fact-ly.
There’s a saying that floats around in some circles that goes a little something like this, “If you’re scared, go to church.” The implication being that church is for sissies and chickens (figuratively speaking). I think that whole idea is lame.

The advice in Psalm 56, comes from a brave warrior-poet. David killed lions and bears and a giant for crying out loud! Was he able to muster the bravery to do these things on his own, or did his fearlessness come from His trust in the LORD? I’m willing to bet it was the latter.

I’m assuming that David knew well what it was like to be afraid…and he knew who to trust when He was afraid also. I like how he shows us a bit of the progression from fear to trust to fearlessness. In verse 3 of Psalm 56, he starts out being afraid, then he trusts the LORD, then he’s not afraid! Craziness! And you’ve got to love his rhetorical question at the end,

“What can flesh do to me?” (verse 4) “What can man do to me?” (verse 11)

When I read those words, I start thinking, “man can do a lot to you”. People do lots of terrible things to each other. Isn’t that sufficient grounds to be afraid? David says no! Man…I want to live like that; Trusting in the LORD to point where I can say with David,

“in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Psalm 56:11

God is incredibly gracious! He gives people good things they don’t deserve. He gives all people physical life and he gives spiritual life to His elect. More than that, those who believe not only get spiritual life but, we are given”…all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,” 2 Peter 1:3.The LORD has graciously given us what we need to persevere in the faith. Among these things, He has given us His word, which is breathed out by him (2 Timothy 3:16), and carefully preserved and handed down to us. The Bible speaks to us concerning what God is like and how we should live in relation to Him. God has also fixed it in such a way that the Bible is full of real life examples from which we can learn a great deal.

Take for example the life of David. David was the greatest king Israel ever had. He was described as a man after God’s own heart, and yet He was a troubled man. He was troubled by Saul, by other enemies, and by his own sin. He was even betrayed by close friends.

In Psalm 55, we see David as we so often see him- down in the dumps. He’s depressed to say the least. In verse 4 David says of himself,

“My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me.”

This is a gross oversimplification of what’s going on, but let’s just say that there is a lot of drama in David’s life. There’s wickedness all around him and he’s been betrayed by a close friend. From here…from this pit of despair and anguish, David offers this word of encouragement to readers from verse 22,

“Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

If this verse seems at all familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve read 1Peter 5:6-7 which says,

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Peter, writing to a bunch of persecuted Christians, picked up on what David was saying. These men understood intimately what it meant to suffer, and yet in the face of sufferings they found great comfort in the same place. In the same God. Their words are incredibly comforting.

Christian, no matter what hardship you are facing, no amount of difficulty will nullify the truth of these verses. We can cast all of our “cares”, our “anxieties”, our worries on the LORD; knowing that He cares for us and He is faithful to sustain us!

Psalm 52

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”

 ¹Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
   The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
²Your tongue plots destruction,
   like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
³You love evil more than good,
   and  lying more than speaking what is right.
                         Selah
⁴You love all words that devour,
   O deceitful tongue.

 ⁵But God will break you down forever;
   he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
   he will uproot you from the land of the living.
                         Selah

⁶The righteous shall see and fear,
   and shall laugh at him, saying,
⁷“See the man who would not make
   God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
   and sought refuge in his own destruction!”

 ⁸But I am like a green olive tree
   in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
   forever and ever.
⁹I will thank you forever,
   because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
   in the presence of the godly.

Psalm 52 is a psalm written by David. If you read this psalm knowing nothing of the historical context, you’ll more than likely miss some of the richness contained within it. Continue reading →

16(A) And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to(B) have(C) eternal life?” 17And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.(D) If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, (E) “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19Honor your father and mother, and,(F) You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20The young man said to him,(G) “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21Jesus said to him, “If you would be(H) perfect, go,(I) sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have(J) treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22(K) When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you,(L) only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24(M) Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter(N) the kingdom of God.” 25When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26But Jesus(O) looked at them and said, (P) “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27Then Peter said in reply, “See,(Q) we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world,[a](R) when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me(S) will also sit on twelve thrones,(T) judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29(U) And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold[b] and will(V) inherit eternal life. 30But(W) many who are(X) first will be last, and the last first.

When you start talking about life after death, regardless of what beliefs people have (Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Rastafarian, Buddhist), people like to think or at least hope that they can be “good enough” to get some kind of reward when they die; Whether that reward is a better reincarnation in (Hinduism) or 40 virgins in paradise (with Islam) or heaven (in Christianity). People like to think that they are good enough to save themselves. People like to think that they are good enough to be accepted by God.

Well, in Matthew 19, in the real life story of the rich young man. This exact same issue pops up. Here’s the situation…this guy comes up to Jesus…and he’s got something on his mind. You don’t get this in Matthews account, but the book of Mark says that this guy ran up to Jesus and kneeled down in front of Him (Mk. 10:17). So you get the feeling that this man is desperate. There’s something really really important on his mind. And we find out that the thing that’s so important to this guy is this question that we see in verse 16. He says to Jesus, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

A quick note about eternal life: Eternal life isn’t primarily about living for a really really long time. It’s first and foremost about living in a right relationship with the God who made you. It’s about knowing God and being right with Him. Check John 17:3

³And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Now let me make a couple quick observations about the rich young man’s question: 1) He goes to the right person. He knows that, if anybody can tell Him what needs to happen in order for him to have eternal life, it’s Jesus! 2) Even though he goes to the right person, he’s got wrong ideas about how he can have this eternal life that he’s after. He assumes that HE can DO something to earn eternal life.

Jesus spends the next little while trying to get this guy to see that he is not good and that he cannot possibly do enough good to be right with God. Only God is good. God is the standard of goodness and next to him all of us fall miserably short. Check Romans 3:23

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

There is no hope for people to make themselves good enough to be acceptable to God. We can’t save ourselves.

In the case of the rich young man in matthew 19, Jesus finally expose his heart in verse 21 when he says, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” At this point the man goes away sad, because his possessions where more valuable to him than following Jesus-the One who gives life.

And here’s the point: If you want eternal life, if you want to be right with God, you’ve got to follow the one who gives eternal life. You’ve got to follow Jesus. And following Jesus means that you’ve got to give up any and everything that would keep you from following Him.
Here’s what I mean…here’s what you “do”

1)Give up on the idea that you can do enough to be accepted by God. Give it up. Romans 3:20 says, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight….” Nobody gets in good with God by doing a bunch of stuff. Everybody is sinful and guilty before God, and you can’t work your way out of that.
2)Give up anything that would keep you from following Jesus. For the rich young man it was his money, but for you maybe it’s something else…

The question is: what are you clinging to to make you right with God? If it’s anything other than Jesus…give it up. Only Jesus can make us right with God the Father. Only Jesus can save. In Matthew 19, Jesus says that salvation is impossible with man. We can’t make ourselves right with God. But with God, salvation is possible! God graciously saves people. God saves people who give up. He saves people who give up on the idea that they can do anything to make themselves right with Him and instead trust His Son, Jesus.

“I do not no need no help!” These words were belted out by one of my brothers when we were growing up. I don’t remember what he “did not no need no help” with, but I distinctly remember these grammatically incorrect yet funny words! In fact other members of my family and I still like to bring up how he used to say that as a kid (he’s much older now).

With those words, my brother was voicing his feelings of self-sufficiency and independence. He believed, at least on some level that in some cases he didn’t need anything from anybody. The reality is that this attitude of self-sufficiency as revealed in my brothers funny words is typical of not just little kids but of people in general.

We like to think we can do everything. We like to be independent. We think we are self-sufficient. In short, we want to be God. We don’t want to believe that we are accountable to One who is higher than us.

The reality is there is only One who is self-sufficient. There is only One who doesn’t need any help. The LORD doesn’t need anything. That’s part of what makes Him so glorious! He is complete in and of Himself. Nothing can be added to Him.

In Psalm 50, Asaph (the writer of this Psalm) records the following words spoken by God in verses 9-13:

9I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.
10For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11(A) I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12″If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
(B) for the world and its fullness are mine.
13Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?

In the context, God is trying to get his people to realize that He doesn’t need their sacrifices. He doesn’t lack anything. We can’t add anything to Him that would help him out or enhance Him in any way.

In the book of Acts, chapter 17 in verse 24-25, the apostle Paul says this in reference to the LORD:

24(A) The God who made the world and everything in it, being(B) Lord of heaven and earth,(C) does not live in temples made by man,[a] 25nor is he served by human hands,(D) as though he needed anything, since he himself(E) gives to all mankind(F) life and breath and everything.

The point is, God is the only one in all of the universe who isn’t needy. Everybody else has needs. And chief among all those needs is the need to be reconciled to the God who needs nothing. We all need to be reconciled to God, and the good news is that provision for that has been made in the cross of Jesus Christ.

I’ll close with a question: “What do you give to a God who needs nothing?”

Answer: Your life. A life of thankfulness and worship. He doesn’t need it…but He does deserve it!

The book of Ezekiel is full of vivid prophecies; many of which have been horribly misinterpreted. This misinterpretation of these prophecies often occurs because readers fail to consider these prophecies in their historical context. Continue reading →

Trouble has a strange way of bringing out the best and the worst in people. You often get a glimpse of things about yourself that you and or other people don’t normally see displayed. When the “heat of life” is on sometimes we rise above it and evidences of the Lord’s grace shine forth. Consider Peter’s words in chapter one of his first letter to the persecuted believers of his day…

“In this [the work of God described in verses 1-5] you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-7 esv

So, trouble can been a means of purifying us and revealing the genuiness of our faith (or lack of it). However, it must be borne in mind that trouble often brings with it the temptation to fear. It often shakes us up and it has a way (God has a way of using it…I should say) of revealing where our trust truly lies.

Psalm 49 addresses this issue of trouble revealing where a person’s trust really lies. The writers of this psalm also expose the stupidity of trusting anything other than the LORD for salvation. Continue reading →

Verse one takes the guess work out of where the reader’s focus should ultimately be.

“Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God!…” Ps. 48:1

As we read this psalm we are being called to fix our attention on the greatness of God. More than the city, God is the center of attention. He is the One whose presence with His people is like a fortified city.

“He has made himself known as a fortress.”
(from verse 3).

This reminds me of the great hymn penned by Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, which opens with the following line:

“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper, He amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing”

Or as psalm 46 begins… “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (verse 1)

God is the focus of this psalm. The Jews of old delighted to go to Jerusalem because that’s where they would meet with God. The city was symbolic of His presence with His people.

Meeting with God was very much tied to the city of Jerusalem and the Temple then, but now because of the gospel of Christ this is no longer the case. Meeting with God is no longer tied to geography…a place on a map. Now God’s people meet with Him through His Son…Jesus. Jesus is the true temple! It is in Him, that the people of God dwell securely.

Note what John records about Jesus in chapter 4 of his account of the gospel. This is taken from Jesus conversation with the Samaritan woman.

21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:21-24 esv

Psalm 48, this song of Zion is meant to cause us to fix our attention on the God of Zion…and to praise Him for His greatness and for His protection, provision and deliverance for His people. It should cause us to look beyond Jerusalem and it’s physical temple to something greater. To Someone greater. Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God’s presence with His people. In Him, the people of God dwell in safety, having been rescued from the domain of Satan and place securely in the Kingdom of Christ!