Monthly Archives: June 2009

Psalm 145:4 (ESV)

One generation shall commend your works to another,

and shall declare your mighty acts.

An Alberta cabinet minster recently got into trouble for saying, among other things: “when you are raising children, you don’t go off to work and leave them for someone else to raise. This is not a statement against daycare. It’s a statement about their belief in the importance of raising children properly ”. All other arguments aside there is great truth in this little statement all by itself. It is especially true in the matter of teaching our children the Scriptures and the Gospel.

The first way in which God calls us to keep the knowledge of God alive on the earth is from parent to child. God is a great God and the parent that will not tell his child such a thing is not parenting according to the reason he/she was given children. God has ordained that the normal way for the truth to be passed on is from parent to child. God’s plan for passing on the Abrahamic blessings to the whole world was through parental instruction in the ways of the Lord (Genesis 18:19). Psalm 78 is plain that the way in which the truth will become known is through the transmission of it from parent to child. Parents are to bask in the wonders of a great God so that their children will also be struck with wonder at who and what God is. Parents are to recognize the works of God all around them so that they can show them to their children.

The abrogation of this God given parental duty and privilege is a shame upon people who claim to know God, especially those whose work is the teaching and preaching of the Word of God. Far too many Christians act as if they believe that it is the church’s responsibility to teach the Scriptures to their children. It is not. The church is to help parents do their job better, by making disciples.

We live in a culture that increasingly believes that for important work to get done right it must be done by a knowledgeable expert. And expertise is measured by education, intelligence and skill.

Becoming a parent is signing up for the most important job that there is. It does not demand education, although an ability to read and put cogent thoughts together is definitely an asset. The requirements to pass on the knowledge of God to children are – to know God oneself through faith in Jesus Christ, to have a passion for God, to love children enough to want them to have the knowledge of God too, to pray for the ability to do this all important job properly and perseverance. It is a God given task that cannot be handed over to others. Parents have no choice. They are to commend the works of God to their children.

Psalm 146

1 Praise the LORD!Praise the LORD, O my soul!

2I will praise the LORD as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3 Put not your trust in princes,

in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

4When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;

on that very day his plans perish.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the LORD his God,

6 who made heaven and earth,

the sea, and all that is in them,

who keeps faith forever;

7 who executes justice for the oppressed,

who gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets the prisoners free;

8 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.

The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;

the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD watches over the sojourners;

he upholds the widow and the fatherless,

but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 The LORD will reign forever,

your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the LORD!

God alone is worthy of our trust. No matter how important we see political leadership, medical expertise, educational skill to be, God is the One who is in charge of absolutely everything. This Psalm calls us to never put our trust in princes. Princes cannot save. They cannot heal the soul. They are, as verse 3 reminds us, victims of death, just like the rest of us. Why, the Psalm makes us wonder, would anyone put their eternal hope in one who is a victim of the fall and unable to rescue us from its consequences? The prince dies and his plans die with him (verse 4).

The Lord, on the other hand will reign forever and triumphs over death (verse 10). This is a Psalm about Jesus Christ. Note the use of the phrase “son of man”, in verse 3. We do not trust in a son of man whose plans die when he dies. We put our trust in the Son of Man who defeated death and now reigns as Ruler of all the created order. The God Man has come and done what no other man could ever have hoped to do. He has defeated death for us. Put your hope in no one less than He who makes death cower. There is only One and He receives all who seek Him. What a God.

Psalm 143:1-2 (ESV)

A Psalm of David.

Hear my prayer, O Lord;

give ear to my pleas for mercy!

In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!

[2] Enter not into judgment with your servant,

for no one living is righteous before you.

How can sinners dare go to God and ask Him for mercy? The God that David served was not a God who was unapproachable. David could ask for help from God based on the characteristic of God of faithfulness. Faithfulness to what? Faithfulness to His own promise to be for David. Faithful to the covenant He had made with David. Faithful to His mercies and love for His children.

This ultimately points us to Christ. We can go to God through Jesus Christ and ask God for help (forgiveness, strength, hope, …) because Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, has  defeated death for us, has promised to help us. For God not to hear and help us when we come through faith in His Son would be for Him to be unfaithful to what Christ has accomplished for us.

God will never be unfaithful to Christ. We can go to God with great boldness because we have a priest who has offered sacrifice for our sins and enabled us to go. We are not able to ask because of our righteousness, but because of His. We can lose our confidence in being heard and helped by God when Christ ceases to be our faithful high priest and refuses to plead the merits of His death and resurrection to our case. And that will be never.

This is, of course, a blessing only for those who trust Christ. Those who have seen that their righteousness is as filthy rags, who have been convicted of their sin, who have seen Jesus as the only hope for the forgiveness of their sins and who rest in Him alone.

What a God. What a Saviour. What a work He has done for us.

Psalm 140:1-3 (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men;

preserve me from violent men,

[2] who plan evil things in their heart

and stir up wars continually.

[3] They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s,

and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah

David calls out to God to be delivered from evil men who plan evil and stir up wars continually. What is it that they are doing? What war is David involved in? What plots have been hatched so that now he fears for his life? Is his cook poisoning the food? Is this written during Absalom’s rebellion? Verse 3 does not tell us the details but it does help us eliminate much from our consideration.

No one at this time, is trying to kill David. No terrorists planting explosive devices. They are using their tongues to destroy him. They are speaking evil against him. They are gossiping and slandering (verse 11) and ridiculing and generally speaking evil. The old adage, “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”, is simply untrue.

Words can destroy and kill and ruin and incapacitate. They can cause wars to begin and wars to end (loose lips sink ships). David’s agony that we see in this Psalm is caused by the words that have been used against him and he is suffering much because of it. We do well to remember the power of words and develop habits that help us think before we speak. We should never underestimate the power of the tongue for good and for ill.

Read James 3 and pray to have the fruit of the Spirit that is self control in the area of the tongue. Here is one area where we see the need for the miraculous power of the indwelling Spirit of God. So many Christians proclaiming various signs and wonders as evidence of the work of the Spirit in their lives. You don’t need to chase after such things. Demonstrate the power of God by holding your tongue when there is opportunity to speak evil and let it wag when you can honour God with it.

James 3:5-12

5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Psalm 139 (English Standard Version)

1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

3You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

5You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

9If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

12 even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

13For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

God knows everything. God is everywhere. God is in charge of everything. It is hard to imagine how some believers can still read this Psalm and hold so tenaciously to concepts of God that maintain He does not know everything, cannot be in all places at all times and, most of all, is not in sovereign control of absolutely everything, down to the smallest detail.

But the point of this Psalm is not just to point out to us that God is the undisputed champion of all that takes place in the world. It is to cause us to wonder. Verse 17 – “How precious to me are your thoughts O God.” There is not, and there cannot be, anything more comforting to the believer’s heart than this – God is involved in the details of your life and God is on your side.

The combination of the sovereignty of God and love for all His children is the most satisfying and comforting and holiness inspiring concept there is, in the mind of this writer. The sovereign Ruler of all things, who can do whatever He pleases, has been pleased to send His Son into the world to die for you so that you can live. The God who reigns over all things for the praise of His own glory, sees fit to bend an ear to hear your prayers and alter things to answer them.

This is beyond wonder. And the glory of it is lost if we have less than an absolutely reigning God who has principalities and powers bowing before Him. The whole creation cannot stand before this God and He calls us His heirs and our inheritance is eternal, reserved in heaven for us and cannot fade away.

The next time you begin a prayer with the words “Our Father”, stop to consider what a mind numbing privilege it is. Stop to remember that what it took to give you the privilege of calling God Father was the death and resurrection of the Son of God for you. Get a proper view of the unmeasurable greatness of God and then bow down in worship, for it is a veritable wonder that He allows you to worship Him.

Hosea 4:6 (ESV)

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;

because you have rejected knowledge,

I reject you from being a priest to me.

And since you have forgotten the law of your God,

I also will forget your children.

Hosea 4:14 (ESV)

I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,

nor your brides when they commit adultery;

for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes

and sacrifice with cult prostitutes,

and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

The sin in Hosea 4 is that of ignorance. People are perishing because of lack of knowledge and God holds those whose responsibility it is to teach the people, accountable. See verses 1, 6 (note especially the latter part of the verse where the priests are held guilty for the lack of knowledge of the people), 8f. In verses 12-13 God outlines the specific sins that the people are committing.

God’s attitude in this does not seem to me to be one of anger at the people themselves so much as it is against those who are responsible for teaching them and pastoring them and helping them do better. Verses 12 -13 has the tone of “look what the teachers of Israel have caused the people of Israel to do”.

This is particularly the case in verse 14 where God says He will not punish the women who practise prostitution. Rather, He will punish the men who purchase them. Women could not be prostitutes if men did not purchase them. Men are called by God to teach truth and demonstrate holiness so that their wives and children will not go awry. Hosea 4 is a fierce condemnation against those who have been given a responsibility by God to show people the God who is over them. He is addressing His words of judgement against the leaders of the temple – the priests, and the leaders of the home – the men.

What a necessary word for today. Ever since Adam tried to escape responsibility for his actions by focussing attention on his wife’s actions husbands have been doing this. The most natural thing in the world is for people to escape responsibility by blaming someone else. But believers have been rescued from doing what is natural when what is according to nature is sinful.

Too many Christians and churches have purchased the lie being sold the culture about leadership in the church and home. Men are being held accountable by God for what is taught and lived in the home while much of the contemporary Christian culture is saying that they should not be. How we need godly men and fathers and pastors who will lead as God directs, to the joy of those who are called to follow them, the glory of the One who calls them to it, and the salvation of a community that needs to see that God’s ways produce people changed for the better.

Psalm 137

How Shall We Sing the LORD’s Song?

1By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

2On the willows there

we hung up our lyres.

3For there our captors

required of us songs,

and our tormentors, mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song

in a foreign land?

The Psalm speaks of the Babylonian captivity. The songs of Zion cannot be sung by those enslaved to the enemy. Babylon is life outside of Christ. It represents slavery to sin. It represents what sin does to us. It enslaves. It prevents real joy. It settles for second best.

Not everyone in Babylon was enslaved in those spiritual ways. The Book of Daniel shows us at least four men who were able to sing the songs of Zion even while living in the midst of the enemy. They were enslaved physically, but not spiritually. They were bound in the body but not in spirit.

“This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through …” the old southern Gospel song says. The Lord has put a new song in our mouths and praises to our God on our lips. We are filled with a glorious and inexpressible joy because we are receiving the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls. But we are not home yet. And we hope for something far better than what we have already.

Even though we do not have the full reception of all that God has promised us does not mean that we cannot sing the songs of Zion now. We can sing with great joy even now, even though we are plagued by our own sins, the sins of others, persecution, opposition, doubt, ignorance, pain … . If we have to be home in order to sing the songs of Zion then we will never sing while in this life.

But we are commanded to sing and we are told that we can sing and we have found that there is much that gives us real joy and peace and comfort and hope. How can we NOT sing? Our longing to be home and to be free from the sins that so easily beset us is no reason to deny the great joys that are ours because of all that God, in Christ has already done and what He has promised He will do. How can we not sing the songs of Zion?

There is only one perfect Father and that is the Father of lights “with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” James 1:17. But that does not mean that there are not fathers worthy of our respect and admiration.

The father of the author of these devotionals was born in Clown’s Cove, Freshwater, Carbonear, Newfoundland. His parents had been brought to faith in Jesus in a ripple effect of the Welsh revival of 1904. The village of Freshwater was a fishing community of Welsh immigrants and when the revival hit in Wales, a preacher from there came to the village to preach the Gospel. I am a third generation spiritual descendant of the Welsh revival and all four of my children are the fourth. Some have said that revival didn’t produce any long term effects. My family is living proof that that is not true.

My father was not the perfect father. But he let us know growing up that we needed Jesus. And he showed us through a life of prayer, faithfulness, tenacious adherence to the Word of God, and compassion for hurting people, what God can do in and through sinners saved by great grace.

If you met my father for only a few minutes you would come away impressed with his tenderness, godliness and humility. It oozed out his pores. Some who knew him for a long time called him great. He may have responded by saying that he was not great. He may have agreed with you. But he would not let it end there. He would complete the compliment by saying that if he was great it was because a great God had made him so and he would make you great too if you would submit yourself to Him. He believed that in Christ we can do anything and that without Him we can do nothing.

I said in a devotional the other day that fathers should do their devotions with their doors open so that their children could see them at it. This was what I grew up with. My father kept a study in our home where he prepared sermons and did his reading. I can remember as a young boy walking past that study and seeing my father on his knees praying. I remember him taking me to pre-service prayer meetings at the church he pastored in Sackville New Brunswick and hearing him pour out his heart to the God he loved. Years later I sat in a prayer meeting with him as a fellow pastor and marvelled at the sense of the presence of God in the room when that man prayed. He was conversing with Someone he knew deeply, personally, intimately. To see that 6’4″, 250 lb.  frame, full of arthritis, creek down to its knees and talk to his Friend was a gift from the perfect Father to me so that I could see what grace can do in a man. My father was told by the leaders of his church once that he was not welcome any more as their pastor because he had said in a sermon: “Instead of sitting on your fannies you should be on your knees in prayer.” I am so glad that he said that, that he meant it, and that he was not making demands on his people that he was not making of himself.

My father was an old fashioned Fundamentalist, hell fire and grace preacher. His face would turn crimson when he preached against the sins that he longed for his people to abandon. It was frightening for a young boy to sit through one of his messages. But one of my favourite memories in relation to his preaching is this: after he would preach those terrifyingly feel-the-heat-of-hell sermons with his face almost purple and his fist pounding the pulpit, I would run to the door of the church as he greeted people. I can still see his wide open arms encouraging me to come and his huge body scooping me up in a loving hug that told me I was greatly loved. I feared nothing when I was in that place of safety. I was glad that that giant of a man hated sin because I knew he would not tolerate anyone hurting me. It is a great thing to be loved by someone powerful who will use his power for your protection and good. For all my dad’s imperfections, he showed me the Fatherhood of a great loving God who hates sin and yet loves me and won’t allow anything into my life except that which will ultimately benefit me.

There are several things that my father and I disagreed about theologically. Once, when I preached in his church and said something that he wasn’t quite sure was right, he went home after the sermon and sat down and studied the passage I had preached from. After about two hours he got up, came over to me and said “that was a good message”. He wouldn’t give me the compliment until he had checked it out in the Scriptures. This is what I am most grateful for in my father. He taught me this great truth – the Bible is true.

My father has been gone for almost ten years. I wish he were here. But I have a better Father who is still with me. I love Him because the father God gave me was faithful in his beliefs and commitment to the Scriptures.

Have a Happy Father’s Day. Be a gift from God to your children. They will always thank you for it and more importantly, they will thank God.

Clown's Cove