Psalms Archives - Page 16 of 36

Psalm 1: Blessed is the Man (CCD)

Christ Church on February 23, 2020

Not a Monkey-Paw-God

Croesus, king of Lydia, died screaming his final words – “Oh Solon, oh Solon, oh Solon, count no man happy until he is dead.” The pagan gods were powerful, but fickle. And the state of man living under them was always uncertain. A short story by WW Jacobs, published at the beginning of the twentieth century, concluded with the moral, in a very creepy way, that you shouldn’t mess with fate. But Psalm 1 tells us that, as Christians, we stand in a very different relationship with God and with the fate that he has decreed for us – “blessed is he,” “happy is he,” “fortunate is he.” There are various ways of translating it. But it all amounts to the same. There is a man that lives, walks, stands, and sits, that you can know lives in the blessing of God, experiences his joy and happiness.

1. The Blessings of the Man Who does not Walk

The word “blessed” (see Gen. 30:13) in the Hebrew is actually in the plural, indicating not just a singular blessing, but an overarching blessedness. This blessing is for the man who does not walk, stand, or sit with the wicked.

You must understand that to be a Christian necessarily requires being set apart. The Jewish Talmud makes this profound observation here – “…if he has walked he will finally stand, and if he has stood he will finally sit, and if he has sat he will finally scorn, and if he has scorned, of him the Scripture says ‘and if thou scornest thou alone shalt bear it.’” Sin is progressive. Faithfulness sees this and cuts it off at the beginning.

2. Delight

Instead of giving himself to sinful fellowship, the godly man gives himself to God’s word, and in it finds an exquisite delight. The Bible is the word of God that called you into this body, that called you to life itself. The command to immerse yourself in the Bible (Deut. 6:6-9, Josh. 1:8-9) is like a command to never skip dessert.

3. The Tree

Don’t rush past this image, because in it is pictured the profound blessing of God that you need to hear. God will make you like a deeply rooted tree (Jer. 17:7-9). So many of your fears, your temptations, your stresses, your pathologies are all answered in this picture. Your fleeting life is made permanent, made fixed when you find yourself inside of this blessedness (Ps. 121:3-4).

4. The Chaff

And you can see the blessedness of the godly even more when you see the curse against the ungodly. They are chaff, which the wind (the Spirit) drives away. Their moment is always fleeting, here for a moment seeming to dominate, and then gone. What a tragedy that someone would trade the permanent blessedness that they have with God in order to walk with the chaff.

5-6. Standing in the Judgment

If we were to simply read the first four verses of this Psalm on their own, it would be easy to come away with a health and wealth interpretation of this passage. But here we see that the blessedness, the permanence that God promises is ultimately fulfilled in the final judgment. There are still a partial fulfillment in this life. But the final fulfillment of this passage is a scene that takes place at the end of history, before the throne of God (John 5:29, Rev. 20:11-13). And those who stand with sinners in this life, will not stand with the righteous in the life to come. The final judgment is a terrifying thing to consider (Acts 24:25, Joel 2:11). But here we are promised that God knows you and he will make you like a tall, thriving tree to stand in that day.

Psalm 116: The Grace of Answered Prayer

Christ Church on February 16, 2020

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Introduction

This psalm is a wonderful testimony of praise, giving glory to God for all the things He did to undertake for the psalmist. The Lord delivered him from grievous trouble, and he is not at all ambiguous about the fact that God is the one who did it. But in order to give thanks this way, we have to adjust some of our modernist assumptions about interpreting the events of history. In his penetrating book about the theological crisis that resulted from the American Civil War, Mark Noll astutely pointed out the fact that the war badly rattled American faith in the intelligibility of God’s governance of the world. Both sides were praying to Him, were they not? And every retreated into the assumption that God’s ways are always and necessarily inscrutable. But how then can we pray as the psalmist does here?

The Text

“I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live . . .” (Ps. 116:1-19).

Summary of the Text

The psalm begins with a profession of love for the Lord, because He listens to prayers (v. 1). He inclined His ear to me, and that is why I call upon Him (v. 2). As long as I live. The psalmist has been in deep trouble before, down to the point of death (v. 3). That is when I called upon His name (v. 4). God is gracious, righteous, and merciful (v. 5). God preserves the simple, and it is a good thing too (v. 6). He helped when I was brought low. Calm down, soul, because God is bountiful (v. 7). God has delivered me in three ways—my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling (v. 8). I am going to walk around this place alive, and in the presence of the Lord (v. 9). Paul quotes this next verse in 2 Cor. 4:13, and does so from a similar context. I believed, and therefore I have spoken (v. 10).

I said, too hastily, that all men are liars (v. 11). This appears to have something to do with men who were the instruments of the answered prayer. When I was in trouble I lashed out at men, but then God used men to deliver. How shall I pay the Lord back for all His benefits (v. 12)? I will take the cup of salvation, and then raise the glass (v. 13). The vows that I promised when I was in trouble are vows that I will pay in the presence of all God’s saints (v. 14). As we saw earlier, God delivered me from death, but here it says that the death of His saints is precious to Him (v. 15). He loves bringing us home. In other words, it would have been an answer to prayer either way. God’s slaves are the ones for whom God has loosed the bonds (v. 16). The sacrifice of thanksgiving is the only way to pay Him back, and so we call on His name (v. 17). Again the vows that were promised will be vows paid—in the presence of all His people (v. 18). Thanksgiving for answered prayer will be offered in the courts of the Lord’s house (v. 19). Hallelujah.

Two Different Moments

When He was praying in the Garden, our Lord Jesus modeled for us what true submission looks like. “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). And the apostle Paul prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed, and was three times denied (2 Cor. 12:8-9).

But then there is this . . .

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13–14). “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24).

Now what many Reformed (non-charismatic) believers do is this. They treat this as though one passage can cancel the other one out, and they retreat to the (very emotionally safe) position of “not my will, but thine” be done. And thus they settle into a life of never asking God for anything specific. And when forced into asking for something specific, as when a loved one gets really sick, they spend all their time internally braced for the inevitable nothat they know must be coming.

These passages are addressing two different kinds of situation. The former is when God wants us to be content, and to be resigned to His will. The latter is when He wants us to engage in prayers that are risky.

But how are we to tell the difference? We are to recognize the differing situations by faith, and we are to resign ourselves by faith, and we are to risk by faith. But—we want to know—how can we learn to risk things in prayer? Well, by taking risks there. No, no, we reply. We want to learn how to take risks without actually taking any. It would be lovely to know how to ride a bicycle, and it would be even more lovely to never have a skinned knee.

In the Presence of All the People

God loves it when we give glory to Him. He is not this way because of some kind of megalomania, but rather because He loves what it does in His people when they see, know, and taste His goodness.

One of the things we need to get better at is the practice of boasting in the Lord, bragging on Him when He answered your prayers.

Out to the Limit

Realize that this psalm expresses two things. The first is the extent of his troubles. He was in deep trouble, and in such deep trouble that he spoke hastily about how awful men were. All men are liars. But then God sent our salvation, the man Christ Jesus. God sent a man who was the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Psalm 115: Shaped by Our Worship of Him

Christ Church on February 9, 2020

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Introduction

God alone is the God of all glory, and so we must turn to Him to bless Him alone. And when we give glory to Him, He in His divine grace has fashioned the world in such a way as to allow us to be a reflected glory.

This wonderful psalm can be divided into 5 sections. The first is an entreaty for God to vindicate His name (vv. 1-2). The second is a contemptuous dismissal of all idolatry (vv. 3:8), followed by the third which is a strong exhortation to the people of God to trust in their shield (vv. 9-15), and to anticipate great blessings from Him. The basic cosmological map is drawn in v. 16, and then the people are reminded that God must be worshiped in the land of the living (vv. 17-18).

The Text

“Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, But unto thy name give glory, For thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased . . .” (Psalm 115:1–18).

Summary of the Text

The psalm begins by rejecting glory—not to us, not to us. Rather glory should go to the name of God (v. 1). Why should the heathen taunt us (v. 2)? Our God dwells over all, and He does whatever He wants (v. 3). Their gods are silver and gold, their own handiwork (v. 4). These idols have all the requisite sense organs, but can’t do anything with them (vv. 5-7). Those who make the idols become like the idols (v. 8). Israel should trust in her shield (v. 9). The house of Aaron should trust in their shield (v. 10). Those who fear the Lord should trust in their shield (v. 11). The Lord will bless all those who do this (v. 12). He will bless those who fear the Lord, whether small and great (v. 13). And if you are a small one, that’s all right because the Lord will increase you more and more (v. 14). You are being blessed by the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth (v. 15). Heaven belongs to Him, but earth was His gift to us (v. 16). The dead are silenced in their earthly praise (v. 17), but the living will praise Him forever (v. 18). Praise the Lord (hallelujah).

Your Shield and Hiding Place

Idolaters trust in something that is manifestly untrustworthy. The idolatry is capable of shaping the worshiper into something ridiculous, but that is the extent of their magnificent powers.

We, on the other, are enjoined to trust in the Lord. We are to trust in the God who is in the heavens, the one who does whatever He pleases (v. 3). Israel is to trust in the Lord (v. 9). The house of Aaron is to trust in the Lord (v. 10). All who fear God must trust in the Lord (v. 11). All three categories are told to trust in the Lord, the one who is their help and shield. Trust the Lord, trust the Lord, trust the Lord.

Your help and shield, your help and shield, your help and shield.

And do not say in your heart, “Behold, I am but a small fry.” The Lord is mindful of us, and He can see strugglers at the microscopic level. He will bless, He will bless, He will bless—both small and great. If you think you are not big enough to bless, He will make you big enough to bless.

Reflected Glory as Salvation

The eternal destiny of your eternal soul is not so much a matter of where you are going as it is a matter of what you are becoming. And we see the central principle in all of it taught here—you become like what you worship.

Those who fashion deaf, dumb and blind idols are demonstrating how deaf, dumb and blind they already are, and show us all how they are on the path, if possible, to becoming even more like that. Those that make them are like unto them. If you bow down to a grotesque and twisted idol (which is what you are doing if you are not worshiping God the Father in the name of the Son through the power of the Spirit), then you are in the process of becoming just like your grotesque and twisted god.

The principle works in the other direction as well because the human race is an imaging race. We are created reflectors. We were fashioned in the image of God; we reflect the image of God. Because of our sin and rebellion, those mirrors are now pointed at absurd things—which is why they reflect absurd things back.

In regeneration, the shattered mirrors are pieced back together, and are pointed in the right direction again. And what happens?

What will happen when we see Christ as He is? We will become like Him for that reason. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

And what is happening here and now, in our worship of the Father?

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).

But the mirror cannot reflect this glory properly unless it is pointed away from itself. Not to us, not to us (v. 1). A mirror cannot generate its own light; a mirror is not a lamp. A moon is not a sun. Chase after your own identity, pursue the glory of your own name, and you are like a man carrying a backpack full of mirrors down into a deep cavernous dungeon, a place with no lights, so that you might generate glory that you need not share with any other. And it all works out because nobody wants the kind of glory you can generate down there. But surrender your own identity, surrender your pride in your own name, and when you’ve been there, ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, you still will not have gotten over it.

Trust in the Lord, your help and shield. What did He say about it? “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).

Psalm 114: Song of the Exodus

Christ Church on February 2, 2020

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Introduction

As we continue through the Hallel Psalms, we come to the second of them, and this is a great song of historical remembrance. When we set ourselves to praise God, to say hallelujah, we are to remember His great works of deliverance in history. Keep in mind that the Christian faith is not a faith in detached theological doctrines, but is rather a faith in God’s meaningful interventions in history—His great deeds among the people, deeds rich with theological gold. And so as we consider this song of deliverance from our older brothers, the Jews, we are reminded of an even greater Exodus, the exodus that all other deliverances point to.

The Text

“When Israel went out of Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, And Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back . . .” (Psalm 114:1–8).

Summary of the Text

The psalm begins with a burst (v. 1). “When Israel came out of Egypt” means that we are talking about the events that were inaugurated by the Red Sea crossing. The house of Jacob went down into Egypt, and did so when Jacob was still alive. Centuries later, they are still the “house of Jacob,” and they come out of Egypt still one family—about two and a half million of them. When they come out, Judah is first and is called God’s sanctuary. Israel is called His kingdom or dominion (v. 2). We then get our first inkling that the poet is treating the entire departure from Egypt and entrance into Canaan as one event, including the key events in between. The sea saw what Judah and Israel were and fled, and the Jordan was also driven back (v. 3). The mountain skipping like rams appears to be a reference to the convulsions that Mt. Sinai (or Horeb) went through (v. 4; Ex. 20:18). We then return to the Red Sea and to the Jordan. What is the matter with you, sea? What is the matter with you, Jordan? (v. 5). The same question is then posed to the mountains that trembled (v. 6). The answer is then given, and it is an obvious answer—the earth should tremble at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob (v. 7). Remember that this means the presence of the God in Jacob (vv. 1-2). He is the one who turned the rock into standing water (Ex. 17:6), the flint into a fountain of waters (v. 8).

The X on the Map

A quick orientation may help. Moving from west to east, picture Egypt, the Red Sea, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Akaba, and then Arabia. The land of Goshen, where the Israelites were living in Egypt, was in the eastern part of the Nile Delta—up north. Now the traditional view is that Mt. Sinai is located in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula. But this view has a number of difficulties associated with it, not least being the fact that it was identified as such by that noted archeological authority, Constantine’s mom, Helena. I consequently prefer an alternative view, which is that the mountain of God (Sinai, or Horeb) was in Midian (which is in Arabia). We see this in the burning bush incident (Ex. 3:1), where God told Moses that he would bring the people out of Egypt and back to that particular mountain (Ex. 3:12). Furthermore, the apostle Paul also places Sinai in Arabia (Gal. 4:25)—as do Josephus and Philo. This means that I believe that the Red Sea crossing was a deep-water crossing, somewhere at the northern end of the Gulf of Akaba. And that would make it a miracle with a capital M.

The Misery of Man

When Israel went through the Red Sea, the Lord was present with them. The glory cloud prevented Pharaoh from getting at them until the sea parted (Ex. 14:19-20). On the other end of their wilderness wandering, they had fashioned the ark of the covenant by this time, and so that is how the presence of God was manifested this time, causing the waters of the Jordan to stop flowing (Josh. 3:8).

The next time the mercy seat came down to the Jordan it was to be baptized by John (Matt. 3:13).

The Great Exodus

On the Mount of Transfiguration (which was probably the mountain called Tabor), Jesus met with both Moses and Elijah. Note that this means that after his life was over, Moses didmake it into the promised land. Note also that it meant that Christ was meeting with two men who previously encountered God on Mount Horeb. Moses went up on the mountain there and he met with God (Ex. 19:20). And Elijah fled to Horeb after the showdown on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 19:8), and it was there that God spoke to him in a still, small voice. But most importantly, what were they talking about on Tabor with Jesus? Luke tells us—they were conversing with Him about the Exodus that He was going to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31).

If we are the people of God, then this means that we are His remembrancers. We are to recallwhat He has down for us throughout the entire history of redemption. You have the Table set before you, do you not?

The Presence of the Lord

What is it that gives victory to the people of God? How is it that enemies are turned to flight? How is it that the adversary is abashed? The Red Sea fled when the Red Sea saw the sanctuary was in Judah, and that the kingdom was with Israel. They saw the presence of the Lord, in other words. “Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob” (Psalm 114:7).

In short, if God is present, who can be against us? “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).

Psalm 113: Praise Jah!

Christ Church on January 26, 2020

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Introduction

This particular psalm begins the section of the psalter that is known as the Hallel. This section is Ps. 113 through 118. It was the custom of Jews to recite this section verbatim festival occasions of praise. The word hallel means praise, and When we are told in the New Testament that Jesus and the disciples sang a hymn after their last meal together (Matt. 26:30), this was very probably the Hallel. This is where the word hallelujah comes from—an intensive expression meaning (much more than) praise Jah.

And this psalm is the threshold of this section, the entryway to the Hallel psalms.

The Text

“Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore . . .” (Ps. 113:1-9).

Summary of the Text

The first words of the psalm are an imperative, directed at the servants of God. All the servants of God are to praise Him (v. 1). They are to praise Him, and they are to praise His name. Boast in Him. The name we are exulting in is a name that is to be considered blessed forever and ever (v. 2). His name is to be blessed throughout time. And then, in the next verse, we see that His name is to be praise spatially (v. 3). Throughout all history, and from the east to the west, let the name of the Lord be praised. The Lord is high over all the nations of men, and His glory is higher than the heavens (v. 4). Who can be compared to Him, as He is the one who dwells on high (v. 5). When He looks at earth and the heavens above the earth, He is looking down. He condescends to look at the highest point of the whole created order (v. 6).

Whatever galaxy is at the top of the whole affair is a galaxy that He looks down on. And yet, He sees and considers the poor man, down in the dust, and He raises him up out of the dust (v. 7). He sees and lifts up the needy man from the landfill, from the dump, from the place of squalor and filth (v. 7). When He does this, it is in order that He might place among the princes of His people (v. 8). And in true tenderness, He looks down on a barren woman, and gives her a home to keep, and children to run around in it (v. 8). So we end with the toddlers, and that brings us to the final hallelujah. Praise Jah. Boast in Jehovah. His greatness is ineffable, and stoops to consider the smallest.

The first six verses are offered up in praise of His excellence. The last three verses are offered up in praise of His kindness, compassion and mercy.

The Greatness of God

God’s greatness is such that He cannot look above Himself. He has no superior. His greatness is such that He cannot look around Himself. He has no peers, no equals. Prior to the creation, there was nothing but the Father’s eternal delight in the Son, and that delight returned, and that delight being Himself the Spirit of the Father and the Son. And once He determined to create, He could only look down.

So God is above the nations, outside them. We cannot get Him to fit within anything made by human hands . . . or minds. God is transcendent. This means, among many other things, that He rules the nations of men. We turn this way and that, and we think we have done marvelous things. But the king’s heart is in the Lord’s hand—He diverts it wherever He pleases (v. 4). We see the rhetorical question—who is like the Lord our God? The answer expected is no one (v. 5)

The Misery of Man

Man was created for dominion—created to be fruitful and to fill the earth. And yet, despite being able to do this with physical children, our corruptions were such that the Gentile nations were spiritually barren. “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 54:1, see Gal. 4:27).

It was not just a matter of our inability to produce wholesome fruit. There was also the question of our diseased state. Picture mankind in all his pretended and glory, in all his delusional pomp, as some kind of zombie in an advanced state of decay. And remember also that this unfortunate zombie is also saddled with a singular lack of self-awareness, and he thinks he is awesome.

Where are the recipients of God’s redeeming love to be found? The answer is that they are found on the dunghill (v. 7). They are found as a cinder on the ash heap. They are found as refuse among the offal. They live on the manure pile—in poorer countries, dung was often used as fuel, and that waste station was their home. They were found as a crushed and soggy juice box out at the land fill.

And this leads to the next point, which is enough to stagger anyone who thinks about it.

The God Who Stoops

And so we have seen how God works with the barren women of Scripture—whether Sarah, or Rachel, or Samson’s mother, or Hannah, or Elizabeth, or even the special virginal barrenness of our Lord’s mother, Mary. God typifies His intention for our fruitless world by hearing the prayers of these women, and by answering their cries. And so with Hannah we are privileged to say, “neither is there any rock like our God” (1 Sam. 2:2). This is the same point made in this psalm before us (v. 5).

God cannot look up, or around. He can only look down, and because He is supreme, and because humility is part of His greatness, that humility is supreme. The lowest of the low is plainly within the Lord’s compassionate sight, and God in His mercy determined to send His Son become one of us. To be born in our midst. To be born of a woman, born under the law. To be born on the dunghill.

His intention was to make us princes in the land (v. 8). Is this not what He has done? He has made us kings and priests (Rev. 1:6: 5:10).

The one who had the name that was to be praised above every name consented to be born in the lowest spot. He did this in order to get under. And He got under because the purpose was to pick the whole thing up. And so He stood, the cosmos itself stretched across His shoulders. The government was on His shoulders, and unless we look with the eyes of faith we will not see it. And that is because the redemption of all things in heaven and earth was cleverly disguised to look like the horizontal beam of His cross.