Monthly Archives: May 2010

Psalm 30

1I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up

and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

2O LORD my God, I cried to you for help,

and you have healed me.

3O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;

you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

4Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints,

and give thanks to his holy name.

5 For his anger is but for a moment,

and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

6As for me, I said in my prosperity,

“I shall never be moved.”

7By your favor, O LORD,

you made my mountain stand strong;

you hid your face;

I was dismayed.

8To you, O LORD, I cry,

and to the Lord I plead for mercy:

9″What profit is there in my death,

if I go down to the pit?

Will the dust praise you?

Will it tell of your faithfulness?

10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me!

O LORD, be my helper!”

11You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

you have loosed my sackcloth

and clothed me with gladness,

12that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Psalm 30:1 – I will extol you O Lord for you have drawn me up. There it is – the truth of everything. We can worship, want to worship, are received by God in our worship, because He has drawn us up. We have not climbed up to Him. We did not seek Him out. “He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him…” The hymn gets it perfectly right. We won’t even know that we owe God our love if not for the fact that He opens our eyes to see it. It is all of grace. And when we talk of grace we are talking about Jesus Christ coming uninvited to rescue all that the Father would give to Him. We worship Him because He has drawn us up. What a great truth. All other truths we will imbibe into our hearts will trace their understanding back to this – He came to us. Thank you Lord for your life giving grace.

Follow the line of thinking in this Psalm:

verse 1a – God draws us up

verse 1b – He draws us up to protect us from our enemies – including the enemy of our souls

verse 2 – When He drew us up we called upon Him. This is the call for mercy, for salvation

verse 3 – Now we are saved from hell and from participating in the lifestyle of those who are bound for there.

Verse 4 – This produces, and will always produce, worship from the heart shown in praise and thanksgiving.

Verse 5 – the believer’s life is still fraught with much trouble

verse 6 – the troubles do not cause us to forsake our God. He keeps those He saves

verse 7 – the testimony of the saints will be that God has done great things for them

verse 8 – the troubles keep coming all throughout our lives and we keep calling upon God to help us – and He does.

Verse 9 – the purpose of our preservation is to praise God

verse 10 – so we keep calling to Him for help

verse 11 – and we find help from Him and therefore continue to praise Him.

Verse 12 – the response of the believing heart is eternal praises to our God. We look forward to an eternity with Him that is free of sin and trouble. This is our hope and it will not be disappointed.

Jeremiah 20:7-18 (ESV)

O Lord, you have deceived me,

and I was deceived;

you are stronger than I,

and you have prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all the day;

everyone mocks me.

[8] For whenever I speak, I cry out,

I shout, “Violence and destruction!”

For the word of the Lord has become for me

a reproach and derision all day long.

[9] If I say, “I will not mention him,

or speak any more in his name,”

there is in my heart as it were a burning fire

shut up in my bones,

and I am weary with holding it in,

and I cannot.

[10] For I hear many whispering.

Terror is on every side!

“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

say all my close friends,

watching for my fall.

“Perhaps he will be deceived;

then we can overcome him

and take our revenge on him.”

[11] But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;

therefore my persecutors will stumble;

they will not overcome me.

They will be greatly shamed,

for they will not succeed.

Their eternal dishonor

will never be forgotten.

[12] O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,

who sees the heart and the mind,

let me see your vengeance upon them,

for to you have I committed my cause.

[13] Sing to the Lord;

praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hand of evildoers.

[14] Cursed be the day

on which I was born!

The day when my mother bore me,

let it not be blessed!

[15] Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,

“A son is born to you,”

making him very glad.

[16] Let that man be like the cities

that the Lord overthrew without pity;

let him hear a cry in the morning

and an alarm at noon,

[17] because he did not kill me in the womb;

so my mother would have been my grave,

and her womb forever great.

[18] Why did I come out from the womb

to see toil and sorrow,

and spend my days in shame?

A prayer of Jeremiah. Not exactly a happy smiley, “I know God loves me” kind of prayer. Many Christian people will try to change Jeremiah’s opening words of his prayer in Jeremiah 20 into something that is good and right and commendable. But they are not. He is charging the God who cannot lie – with lying. Perhaps this goes back to 15:20 where God promised him that he would be as a fortified wall who would prevail when he was opposed by the people. Jeremiah does not feel like a fortified wall in the least. He feels like a defeated, beaten, deserted, faithful one whom God has forgotten. He is wrong in thinking that God has forsaken him. But he is right to express what he is feeling.

Would you dare pray like Jeremiah prayed while still obeying your call and maintaining your faithfulness? While Jeremiah wrongly accused God of deception, he kept calling on God for help and continued to pray. He did not stop giving the Word of God and he kept enduring the opposition from those he spoke to. He feels like quitting (see verse 9), but he cannot. He knows his call and he experiences the power of the Word of God in his life, even while he is perplexed and angry and coming up with conclusions that are not right.

Several lessons from this. 1) When it seems to us that God has not been truthful in what He has said in his Word, we need to be honest enough to admit it. God knows how you are feeling. You cannot think that God is deceiving you and then pray as if you are thinking otherwise. God knows what you are thinking and feeling. The solution to the problem of thinking that God is not treating us according to His promises is not to try to pretend that we think He is. It is wrong to charge God with wrong doing. But it is also wrong to lie to Him. Jeremiah admits to God that his circumstances are making him question God (verse 10). You will not find the solution to your dilemma regarding the faithfulness of God in your calamity if you do not call out to God because of it. This is what Jeremiah is doing. He prays about the way that he feels. He does not try to fool himself and God into thinking that he does not feel that way. Ask God your questions without stating that He has made a mistake.

2) As Jeremiah’s prayer progresses his attitude changes. By the time we get to verse 11 he has changed from charging God with deception to proclaiming that in the midst of his struggles, God is with him as a warrior and he knows that since God is with him his enemies shall not prevail. Jeremiah would not have had this change of heart and attitude if he had not gone to God with his complaint. He went to God with his heart laid bare and God gave him the assurance that his assessment was wrong. He had not deceived him. He gave Jeremiah the confidence to know that God is true and not a liar. God is for him and not against him. It is while Jeremiah is praying that the truth of this comes home to him.

3) Jeremiah comes to see that God has been testing him (verse 13). God makes great promises to His children but He does not fulfill them all immediately and the things that happen to us between the giving of the promise and the receiving of the things promised can be very testing. God is not interested in having followers who only follow when everything goes their way. He wants faith in the midst of trouble, opposition, pain and questioning. Jeremiah has it. Even when he charges God with deception he is talking to God. It is a prayer. How many so called believers just give up on God and never talk to Him again? Not Jeremiah. He passes the test and continues to call upon his God.

4) Jeremiah’s prayer turns into a call for people to sing praises to the Lord (verse 13). He speaks about God delivering the needy. This, no doubt is reference to himself. This is hope in the future. Jeremiah has not been delivered yet. But he now has the sure hope and confidence that he will be. He no longer thinks God has lied to him. He now believes that while his life is a misery there can real joy in it because God’s promises are not all fulfilled now and they are not to be seen as merely giving a prosperous, trouble free life now. He can now tell others that this God, whom he formerly accused of lying, should be praised. He is suffering, but he now has joy in the midst of it.

5) Realizing that God does keep His promises and that this life is going to be full of trouble does not keep Jeremiah from still struggling with all the pain he is being called to endure. This prayer of Jeremiah’s ends with a quite depressing statement that he is sorry he was ever born. Confidence in God and knowing that God is in control of even the bad things and that the promises of God may take a while to be fulfilled do not stop Jeremiah from feeling horrible. This is a great truth that we need to learn. You can cry over your struggles and still have a faith in God that is strong. Far too many Christians equate faith with a “stiff upper lip, grin and bear it” attitude. There is none of that in Jeremiah. He repents before God. He trusts God. He calls on others to praise God. And he wishes that he were never born. How unimaginably gracious God has been to keep this prayer of Jeremiah’s in the Scriptures for us. It is real. It is powerful. It is for us. It is very helpful and it directs us to how we should be praying even when we think, wrongly, that God has dropped the ball. Go to the God who is always faithful. Acknowledge His wisdom and grace and let Him know how you feel.

1 Cor. 10:6-13 (ESV)

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. [7] Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” [8] We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. [9] We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, [10] nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. [11] Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. [12] Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. [13] No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

“Do you wake up grumpy in the morning?”

“No, I let him sleep.”

Old joke. It still gets laughs because it is so true. One a little closer to home has the pastor’s wife saying to her pastor husband, “Let’s reverse things today. Be charming at home and grumpy at church.” Chuckle, chuckle. And I suppose it is funny.

But as we are laughing at such humour which is funny precisely because it smacks of so much truth, we are confronted with I Corinthians 10:6-13. The large context of this passage is that Paul is answering a question put to him by the Corinthians regarding eating meat offered to idols. Is it wrong to eat it or not? He brings up the example of the ancient Israelites under Moses. They were not careful and they fell into horrible sin. Paul mentions four. Four times he says not to be like they were. Look at verses 7, 8, 9, and 10:

Do not be idolaters as some of them were…

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did…

We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did …

nor grumble, as some of them did …

Don’t be like them. They were not careful and they fell. Now take a look at the terrible sins they committed

Do not be idolaters

We must not indulge in sexual immorality

We must not put Christ to the test

nor grumble

Idolatry, sexual immorality, putting Christ to the test and grumbling. One of these things is not like the others. We would never crack jokes about how idolatrous we have become. While the world is sex obsessed I hope we would not start making jokes about how sexually immoral the church has become. We don’t laugh at how much fun it is to test Christ. But we do crack jokes about grumbling.

Grumbling is something that everyone does. Grumbling is acceptable. Grumbling is just one of those things that are a part of our everyday living. Everyone grumbles about something. Grumbling is no big deal. So why does Paul mention it right alongside idolatry and immorality? Grumbling in the children of Israel was due to their lack of faith in God, and their selfishness.

We can talk about how understandable it is that they grumbled. They are in the wilderness eating manna and quail. They have no home to speak of. They belong nowhere. But remember what they have seen. They have seen the ten plagues of God upon Egypt. They have seen the miracle of Passover. They have seen the Red sea open up and allow them passage and then they saw it close up over Pharaoh and his army. They have seen a pillar of cloud by day and one of fire by night. They have seen water come out of rocks. They have seen the bitter waters of Marah turn sweet. The list is very long. And then they grumble.

Their grumbling. Like ours, is a statement of lack of faith. It is a cry that no matter what God has done for us up to this point, He is going to abandon us now. It is saying that God is treating us unfairly. It is saying that if we were in charge then we would do things differently – and better.

Grumbling is an act of “me first”. It says that the most important person on the planet – me – has been treated unfairly and it is time for it to stop. Grumbling is idolatrous, for it places oneself above the ways and will of God.

The life of the Israelites in the wilderness was not an easy one. They had many hardships, many enemies, many obstacles to overcome. But even though this was the case with them, God did not excuse them for their complaining spirit.

We like to think that we are the exception to the rule and that in our case our grumbling and complaining is valid. We just know that God is not upset with us even though we are doing things that He expressly forbids. We think that we are exempt form the general rule. And we are wrong. Our grumbling against spouses and bosses and income and landlords and test results and people who made us wait and a host of others – is sin. It is aimed at God before it is aimed at all the people that we grumble about. And God is not pleased.

But He has done something about it. He sent His Son to die. What it takes to redeem us from our grumbling and the response that God is just in giving for it – is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What it took for God to deal with your grumbling was the death of the eternal Son of God. Try to think of that the next time you are tempted to be like the Israelites in the wilderness and grumble about your lot. It is a very good tonic against this sin that clings so closely to us (Hebrews 12:1).

Psalm 142:1-7 (ESV)

With my voice I cry out to the Lord;

with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord.

[2] I pour out my complaint before him;

I tell my trouble before him.

[3] When my spirit faints within me,

you know my way!

In the path where I walk

they have hidden a trap for me.

[4] Look to the right and see:

there is none who takes notice of me;

no refuge remains to me;

no one cares for my soul.

[5] I cry to you, O Lord;

I say, “You are my refuge,

my portion in the land of the living.”

[6] Attend to my cry,

for I am brought very low!

Deliver me from my persecutors,

for they are too strong for me!

[7] Bring me out of prison,

that I may give thanks to your name!

The righteous will surround me,

for you will deal bountifully with me.

Do you pray out loud? Sometimes it may not be possible, when, for instance, there are other people in the room who would be disturbed or when it would wake a sleeping child. Sometimes we make it not possible because of embarrassment. There may be times when we cannot legitimately call upon God with our voices. But it is worth the work to find quiet places where one can call out to God with an audible voice.

Praying out loud does not enable God to hear you better. God knows the secret intents of the heart. He knows your thoughts from afar (Psalm 139:1-4). But it will help you. Giving voice to your prayers will enable you to remain focussed better than if you only pray internally with your thoughts. Even if all you can do is whisper, at least you are “giving voice” to the thoughts that well up from within that you need to express to the loving Father you call upon.

Praying aloud is also particularly helpful when things are going badly. It is a release. It is an expression of genuineness that the stress you are under demands to make.

We all complain at some point of not having someone to talk to. God is not a flesh and blood person who we can see and feel with the touch (and God provides those as well). But He is real and He is present and not to talk aloud to Him just seems a little bizarre. Praying aloud is an indication of real concern and real pain.

Prayer is a form of worship whether it is calling out to God with shouts of praise or agonizing over the souls of our loved ones. And we are encouraged by the Scriptures to worship with all our hearts with an audible voice. This is in part for the sake of others, so that they can hear us, but it is helpful to you even when you do it alone.

In Psalm 142 David tells us that when he is need of God’s help he calls out with his voice. When he has a complaint about the way that things are going he tells God out loud. He gives the details of his troubles to God by speaking to Him. He talks to God aloud about God’s abilities to deliver. He calls upon God to discover what is happening to him. David knows that God already knows. God knows everything. It is no more strange for us to tell God what our news is than it is to ask Him for help. He knows what our needs are.

Prayer is not about giving God information. It is about expressing faith. It is about showing where our hope is. It is about using a tool that God has ordained to work through. And my suggestion is that this, and more, is better for us and enables us to utilize it better if we do it out loud, whether we are with others or not.

It is doubtful that if there are people who do not pray aloud whether they pray very much at all. Show that you really believe that God is there in the room with you – talk to Him like you would talk to anyone. Express yourself, with words, out loud, to the One who is there to hear you and answer your requests.

Psalm 93:1-5 (ESV)

The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty;

the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.

Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

[2] Your throne is established from of old;

you are from everlasting.

[3] The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

the floods have lifted up their voice;

the floods lift up their roaring.

[4] Mightier than the thunders of many waters,

mightier than the waves of the sea,

the Lord on high is mighty!

[5] Your decrees are very trustworthy;

holiness befits your house,

O Lord, forevermore.

Last night at our church Pastor Hassan Bell preached from Psalm 93 regarding the indisputable, eternal, comforting sovereignty of God over all things. It was a good message. You should have been there.

The Scriptures speak much about the fact that God is in control of the world and they are not shy about saying it even in the face of the horrors that sin has brought into the world. Psalm 93 itself addresses that very question in verses 3 and 4. If God is in control, why do the floods lift up and threaten to overwhelm us? The Psalm does not answer that question but it does uncategorically affirm that even though the floods do lift up God is mightier than the flood waters and the waves of the sea.

Now, today is Victoria Day. The original idea behind this holiday was to honour the longest reigning monarch the British Empire ever had. You can read up a little bit about it here, and of her, here. Whatever you do today as you enjoy a day off from work, think about this: to reign for 60 years is quite an accomplishment. But our God reigns forever and not just over an empire and not just on planet earth. He has not grown weary or lost any power. If He were not in absolute control over everything there would be nothing. He holds the created order together. He is sovereign over all things and all peoples.

If you are a believer, remember that He it is who is sovereign over your soul. He brought you to faith. He sent His Son into the world to retrieve you from your sin and the Son won you to Himself, because He cannot fail to do anything He sets out to do.

We have the day off because Victoria reigned. But the past tense will never be used of the reign of our God. He reigns. He has always reigned and He will forever reign. That should be celebrated every day. And it should lead us to live as obedient servants to a loving Monarch who has given us much to do for His great glory and the betterment of all His subjects. There can never be a holiday from that and we wouldn’t want there to be.

Psalm 127:1-5 (ESV)

Unless the Lord builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.

[2] It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

for he gives to his beloved sleep.

[3] Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

[4] Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the children of one’s youth.

[5] Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127 is first of all about the home. We know this from verses 3-5. Marriage, child rearing. The most important job in our lives and we only get one crack at it. And to come to the end of this episode of our lives and have the Word of God tell us that it was vain is a tragedy far too many have discovered from experience.

To those who are still raising their kids: What do you want for your home? Is the Lord building it? Do you see your children as a gift from God to you? A reward? The heritage of blessing He has granted you as evidence of His love for you? That is what they are. And He has given them for you to shape for glory under His direction. And unless He is the Builder, all the hard work of parenting is vain. The late night feeds, the trips to the doctor, the dental visits – and bills, the money spent on music and sports and college, the time grooming them for being able to live as responsible adults in a cut throat world – all vain if God has not done it.

We tend to underestimate the value that God places on family. One account out of the Scriptures can help with that. In Genesis 12 and 15 we have the accounts of God’s covenant with Abraham. He is going to bless the whole world through Abraham. The promises to Abraham are about Jesus Christ and the salvation of the world through Him.In Genesis 18:19 we read:

19For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

This is stunning. God has chosen Abraham to be the father of all those who will ever come to faith. Paul tells us that all who believe are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7). So God promises Abraham that He will make him to have more descendants than the sand of the seashore and the stars of the sky. And then He says that the way He is going to accomplish this incredible promise is by having Abraham teach his kids the way of the Lord. This is an incredibly encouraging thought. You think that you are not accomplishing much by reciting verses to your children and teaching them the Scriptures. You worry about whether they will take it to heart.

God, from before the foundations of the world, ordained that a vast numberless multitude from every tribe and tongue and people and nation would be redeemed from their sin and for eternity sing the praises of their God and be what sin had prevented the world from being. He will accomplish that great thing through the life and death and resurrection and intercession of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. The Son will come as a real human being as a descendant of Abraham in fulfillment of a covenant made with Abraham 2000 years before Jesus was born. And that covenant would be kept because Abraham taught the ways of God to his children. It is simply too astounding for words. See it repeated in Psalm 78.

Never think that the hidden, unpopular, unwanted, culturally discarded work of training up children in the Gospel is vain work. It is work that omits it that is vain. Tackle this great job with great hope and belief in the promises of God.

No parent watches his or her child leave the home for independent living thinking that they did everything right. We see far too much of ourselves in our children. But our God is so gracious to allow us to be used for His great purposes in bringing lost ones to Him who entered the world as our children. And even when their salvation did not happen and our hearts are broken because we are certain that we cannot say, “the Lord built this house”, He is still able to overcome. And isn’t this the message of the Gospel? He fixes what is irreparable. So even when we mess up in the home His grace can take the vanity of our efforts and turn them into truly meaningful fruits for His glory. What a God.

Jeremiah 15:15-20 (ESV)

O Lord, you know;

remember me and visit me,

and take vengeance for me on my persecutors.

In your forbearance take me not away;

know that for your sake I bear reproach.

[16] Your words were found, and I ate them,

and your words became to me a joy

and the delight of my heart,

for I am called by your name,

O Lord, God of hosts.

[17] I did not sit in the company of revelers,

nor did I rejoice;

I sat alone, because your hand was upon me,

for you had filled me with indignation.

[18] Why is my pain unceasing,

my wound incurable,

refusing to be healed?

Will you be to me like a deceitful brook,

like waters that fail?

[19] Therefore thus says the Lord:

“If you return, I will restore you,

and you shall stand before me.

If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,

you shall be as my mouth.

They shall turn to you,

but you shall not turn to them.

[20] And I will make you to this people

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you,

but they shall not prevail over you,

for I am with you

to save you and deliver you,

declares the Lord.

Take careful note of what Jeremiah says here about what is going on in his life.

1 – He is being persecuted (verse 15). Jeremiah prophecies what God gives him to prophecy and because the people do not like the message they blame the messenger. It is for God’s sake that Jeremiah is hated and opposed.

2 – He is alone (verse 17). By choice, Jeremiah does not join in with others in their sinful debauchery. This leaves him alone and lonely. He does not rejoice in what others rejoice in because it is wrong. His hatred of evil is from God and it costs him friends and fellowship.

3 – He is in pain (verse 18). This could be physical pain from others who have actually assaulted Jeremiah in some fashion, the inner pain caused by loneliness, opposition, hatred from others, or more likely, both.

There is a hint of bitterness in Jeremiah when he asks God if He too is going to fail him. Jeremiah is beginning to wonder if all the troubles that he is experiencing are evidence that God has abandoned him. Jeremiah is in pretty rough shape and it is not hard to see why his questions of God are made.

But Jeremiah says something astounding in his rehearsal of his woes. It appears to not belong here at all. It doesn’t fit with the general tone of all the other comments that Jeremiah makes. It is found in verse 16.

Your words were found, and I ate them,

and your words became to me a joy

and the delight of my heart,

for I am called by your name,

We often think of Jeremiah as being completely devoid of any joy or happiness at all. But that is not true. He did find great joy and satisfaction. He maintained it even when he was being pursued and opposed and assaulted. Even when he was openly questioning God’s faithfulness to keep him. Even when he was wondering if God was going to desert him just like everyone else did. Jeremiah found delight in the Word of God.

This is a truth and experience that is hard to explain to anyone who has not had it. There are numberless believers who can testify of persecution, of wondering where God was in the midst of their pain, of wanting to quit, of thinking that faithfulness was not worth it, and much more, who, at the same time, were able to speak of reading a text of Scripture and being filled with comfort and joy and satisfaction, even though the troubles have not abated in the least.

This is a work of the Holy Spirit. This is the power of the Word of God. This is God answering our prayers about where He is when we are suffering. Bible study and prayer are often the first things to go when life gets tough, and there cannot be a bigger mistake to make than refuse or neglect to open the Word because of trouble. Reading the Bible will not make trouble disappear. But we need to remember that it is the Word of God. It will bring a song to the heart that is absolutely inexplicable. It is an amazing thing.

May you find, when Jeremiah 15: 15, 17, 18 are your story, that verse 16 is your story as well. God will call you to suffer in some fashion. That is without dispute. It is also without dispute that one of the things that He will provide for you so that you can have some joy and delight, is the Word of God.

Life for the believer is never completely joy free. Use what God gives you. If the incomplete Word of God could make the weeping prophet laugh, then what can the whole Word of God do for you who do not suffer as much?