Christ ChurchThe Hand of God, Wall Street, and You
Introduction
When God shakes the nations, or we think He is about to shake the nations, He does so in order that we might return to the basics.
The Text
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God” (2 Cor. 9:6-11).
Summary of the Text
In this section of 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul is outlining the basic laws of generosity. First, the one who sows sparingly will reap in the same way (v. 6). The one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. This should proceed from an understanding of the way the world is (because it was made by God, and He is a certain way). This means that generosity should not be grudging or because it is required, because God loves cheerfulness in generosity (v. 7). However your financial future goes, it will never be the case that God leaves you without the means to be self- sufficient, and—this is key—to abound in every good work (v. 8). As Scripture says, God has dispersed abroad; He gives to the poor; His righteousness is not like the stock market (v. 9). God governs the world this way. He gives seed to the sower, and He gives bread to you, and the opportunity for you to multiply your seed sown—through generosity (v. 10). We are enriched through His goodness, and enabled to multiply, which in turn enables us to multiply thanksgiving to God (v. 11). And that summarizes how our life together should be—in flush times and in hard times. We must be a grateful people, and we must be an openhanded people.
Why Is This Happening?
Like the rest of our lives, our financial lives are governed by certain, fixed inexorable realities. God is not mocked, and if a man sows morning glory, he will reap morning glory. If a nation sows morning glory, they will reap morning glory. If financial markets sow leveraged stupidity, then they will reap leveraged stupidity. If giant corporations bet the farm in the hope that the laws of farming will not apply to them, then they will lose that farm. The first principle for us to remember is that this is God’s governance of the world. This is the way He does it, and as His people, we must stand back and say amen. The judge of the whole earth shall do right. It should delight us that He does what is right. Note in our text that His “righteousness remaineth forever.” Delighting in what the Lord has determined to do with us is not masochism. We know that this is a hard providence for many, and we are not without natural affection. But we know that we are a stupid and foolish race, and that there are times when we need hard providences to prevent us from destroying ourselves.
As Nebuchadnezzar knew, no one can stay the hand of God and ask what He is doing.
The Nature of Panic
When financial markets tumble, as they have in recent weeks, the panic is often driven by each person assuming that the disaster looms largest for them. In other words, they isolate and detach themselves from everybody else, assume that the worst will land on them (with whatever happens to others not really being relevant), and then they take (frenzied) steps accordingly. But in our text we see that, as we are called to life together, we will be equipped to weather this and other storms in koinonia fellowship. We are a community.
Near and Clear
We have previously studied the spiritual law that our duties, including our duties in the realm of generosity, are near and clear. And this is qualified, of course, by the recognition that “near” is not necessarily on your street, and that “clear” is not But the principle is that we must start where we live; we must start with our neighbor, which “neighbor” being defined as whatever person God has put in front of us.
Sufficiency for Every Good Work
If you lose your shirt, and you are sitting down to a meal of stewed carrots, and there are not very many of them, you need to remember that God has equipped you to abound for every good work. Now God adjusts according to scale, which means that if your only possession is that carrot stew, you are admirably situated to share your carrots. God sees this; He delights in it.
The Basic of Blessed Wealth Creation
When a believer gives of his substance, in imitation of the God who gives from His bounty, God has arranged the world in such a way that what he has given is treated as seed. If you did not know how crops worked, putting edible seed into the dirt would not seem to make much sense. But putting seed into the dirt is not to be done grudgingly, or of necessity—such a person is just following a formula by rote, and does not know how God delights to govern the world. And when you don’t know how God governs the world, it is perilously easy to lose sight of where you are in that world. Open-handed giving is the best way to have an open hand available when God wants to return to you. Having a tight, closed fist is the best way to have a tight, closed fist when God would be willing to bestow on you.
So Let Him Give
We are still in the early stages of this roller coaster ride. We do not know what will happen to global markets. We do not know what will happen to our stock market. We do not know what will happen to our auto industry, and so forth. We do not know. This means that we do not know where we will be in all this turmoil. At the same time, we can (and should) determine what kind of people we will be in all this turmoil. That means are two basic questions that we should settle in our hearts and minds. First, as individuals and in our families, will we respond to all this with a tighter first, hoarding and grasping? or will we be open-handed and generous? Second, will we navigate this difficult period as members of a community? Or will it be every man for himself, and devil take the hindmost?
Every man, as he purposeth in his heart, without being second-guessed by generosity nazis, should determine to overflow. You may not have much, but you can alway arrange to overflow with it.
Psalm 49: Wealth and Death
Introduction
We come now to a very potent expression of the biblical take on blind wealth in the face of inexorable death. As we treat the subject of our riches, let us take care, first, to remember the whole counsel of God on this subject, and let us take even greater care to not allow the whole counsel of God to dilute the force of the text before us.
The Text
“Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: Both low and high, rich and poor, together. My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding . . .” (Psalm 49:1-20).
Summary of the Text
An invitation to the entire world is extended—give ear to this (v. 1). The teaching applies to all, whether high or low, rich or poor (v. 2). The words to follow are words of wisdom and understanding—the understanding that is lacking in v. 20. The psalmist will hear a parable, and will open up a dark saying as he sings (v. 4). Why should the godly fear when a supplanter is right behind him, right on his heels (v. 5)? There are those who trust in wealth and in the multitude of their riches (v. 6). Not one of these guys can redeem or ransom any of the rest of them (v. 7). The price of immortality is way more than they have (vv. 8-9). Anybody can see that everybody dies, and that everybody leaves their possessions behind (v. 10). But their inward thought is otherwise; they are vain all the way down. They think they can secure a posterity for themselves (v. 11). Nevertheless, rich men still die, just like dogs do (v. 12). But even though this keeps happening, the next generation doesn’t learn a single blessed thing from it (v. 13). Think about this. Death gathers them; death is their shepherd, and the upright will replace them (v. 14). The godly are not claimed by death in a final way at all (v. 15). This also is worthy of meditation. When some fool grows wealthy, and the glory of his house increases—don’t worry about it (v. 16). He is not going to be taking all that with him when he goes, and he will go (v. 17). While he was alive he got a lot of praise, which is to be expected (v. 18). Everybody flatters the rich guy. Nevertheless, he will still descend to join his fathers in darkness (v. 19). An honorable and wealthy man, one who does not understand the wisdom of this psalm (vv. 1, 20), is like the beasts that perish.
A Dark Saying
The third verse here is striking for several reasons. “I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.” It is very similar to Psalm 78:2, which Jesus quotes in Matthew 13:35. This is important for several reasons. Jesus tells dark parables—His teaching was not accessible to the educated, the wealthy, the secure, and the well-established. Psalm 78 is about their failure to understand the meaning of their history, and their failure pass a true understanding on to subsequent generations. This psalm addresses one of the principal reasons for men forgetting their God that way. And Jesus applies it both ways. He is teaching Israel on their threshold of their great judgment, at the climax of their history, and He was doing so while reminding them of the deceitfulness of riches (Matt. 13:22). The Pharisees loved their covenant position, which they misunderstood, and they loved their money, which they also misunderstood. Jesus once told them that they could not serve both God and mammon. “And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him” (Luke 16:14; cf. 12:19). Money is one of the great hermeneutical blinders of men.
The Final and Funniest Folly
In his Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce defines a mausoleum as the “the final and funniest folly of the rich.” The sentiment expressed lines up nicely with the theme of this psalm. You have heard it expressed many ways, many times. You can’t take it with you. There are no hitches for the U-Haul behind a hearse.
But being able to rattle off a proverb like this is not the same thing as understanding it. As one Puritan put it, “speaking bad words of worldly riches doth not exempt us from trusting them.” Saying it and getting it are quite different.
This psalm makes the point bluntly enough. A rich banker will rot just as quickly as a dead cow (vv. 12, 17, 20). There is no mutual insurance company that will accept premiums to enable you to forestall death (v. 7). All your goods are simply leased, and death ends the tenure (v. 17). The clown and the sage both die, and they both leave their stuff behind (v. 10). The idolatrously wealthy follow the way of folly, and that is why their posterity build them monuments, and put their sayings in brass (v. 13). The more gold you have, the faster you will sink into the darkness (v. 19). And so we must always remember that all of us must swim the river of death naked. Look at your right hand—in a matter of time, no one knows how long, that same hand will no longer be clothed in flesh. It will be whited bones, and that is all. On that day, all your other stuff—house, car, china, silver, savings accounts, furniture and more—will be in the possession of others. Those others will either be foolish like you, or wise like you. Those are the only two options.
Groundlings
In verse eleven, they call their manicured grounds after their own names. But verse twelve can be rendered, “But the groundlings, in the midst of splendor, do not endure.” Worldlings are of the world. Groundlings are of the ground, and return to it. When someone is a groundling, their thoughts are vain clean through (v. 11). Their inward thoughts make no sense. Like the rich fool in the parable, they talk this way to themselves (Luke 12:19).
High and Low Alike
This psalm is directed to all of us (vv. 1-2). Everyone that breathes needs to hear it. You don’t need to have money to be centered on it, or absorbed by it. Even the wealthy idolater is more absorbed by the money he doesn’t have than the money he does. Rockefeller was once asked how much money he needed, and he said, “Just a little bit more.” If the wealthy can be distracted by money they don’t have, how much more can the poor be? After all, they “don’t have” a lot more.
The God Who Goes Poof
As providence would have it, this message on Psalm 49 is being preached a week or so after a trillion or so dollars in the U.S. economy went poof. Some god. But we do not say these things out of some kind of christoplatonic disparagement of material things. Not in the slightest. The issue here is understanding (v. 20). As for the meek, who will inherit the earth, this is promised us. “The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning” (v. 14). The grave awaits the believer also, but the grave does not triumph over us (v. 15). This is because we have been redeemed, not with silver and gold, but with the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:18).
If your heart is wrong on money, on economics, on wealth and poverty—you cannot be right with God. If your eye is dark, your whole body will be full of darkness. If your eye is light . . .
Psalm 48: Walk About Zion
Introduction
This jubilant psalm is not credited to any particular writer, but the tone and content make it likely that it was written in the aftermath of the great victory over Ammon, Moab, and Edom in the reign of Jehoshaphat—the time he sent the choir out in front of the army.
The Text
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation . . .” (Psalm 48:1-14).
Summary of the Text
First, here are just a few reasons for placing this psalm in Jehoshaphat’s time.
“And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high . . . For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another . . . And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much . . . And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish: and they made the ships in Eziongeber” (2 Chron. 20:19, 23, 25, 36).
God is great, and is to be praised on the mountain of His holiness (v. 1). The city of Jerusalem is beautiful, and is the joy of the whole earth (v. 2). Her rulers, those who dwell in palaces, know that God is a refuge (v. 3). Confederate kings gathered, and were thwarted (v. 4). The reason they were defeated is because they panicked (vv. 5-6). God broke up the ships of Tarshish (v. 7). As we have heard of God’s faithfulness, so we have seen (v. 8). God has been remembered in His temple (v. 9). God is praised according to His worth; His right hand is filled with righteousness (v. 10). Let the city sing, let her daughters rejoice—because of God’s judgments (v. 11). Walk around Zion and look at it (v. 12). Reflect on the glory, so that you might tell the next generation all about it (v. 13). For this God is our God—the one who will lead us beyond death (v. 14).
In the Mountains of His Holiness
God is certainly great, and we ascribe this to Him by definition. How could He be God and not be great? But if we leave it at the level of theological definition, we will wither as a people. We also must take care to rejoice in the fact that God’s greatness is manifested in His deliverances of His people. He is praised in the city of our God (v. 1). Notice also that He is praised on the mountain of holiness. The city from which He is praised is the joy of the whole earth, and is the beautiful city of the great king (v. 2).
Known in Her Palaces
Notice that this was a time when Israel’s rulers feared God. And not a generic deity either—the palaces of Jerusalem were a place where God was known as a refuge. “And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah” (2 Chron. 20:3). Jehoshaphat was the king, and he humbled himself. He lived in a palace, and he humbled himself. Compare this to our situation—rubes and cornpones in the red states may believe in Jesus, but what about our great urban centers, what about our leaders, what about our sophisticates?
The Glory of Panic
One of the things that God promises us, as one of the terms of the covenant, is that when we are out-gunned, out- maneuvered, out-generaled, and out-classed—and we turn to Him in faith—He will give the gift of panic to our adversaries. This is what happened in 2 Chron. 20:23. These great armies came marching against Zion, and though they came and saw, unlike Caesar, they did not conquer. They assembled, but when they saw the city of God, they were troubled, they fled, and a fearful panic took hold of them—like a woman in travail (vv. 5-6).
God delivered Jehoshaphat this way, and this is referred to in Psalm 48. God delivers us in this way. “This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee” (Dt. 2:25). “And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword” (Lev. 26:8).
But this is not just an “old covenant” thing. “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them” (Acts 5:12-13).
Walk About Zion
Scriptures are full of the covenant duty that we have to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Walk around Zion—and study her turrets. Examine her palaces, and her walls and bulwarks. And why? So that you can tell it to the next generation. We are to bring up our children in such a way that they have a knowledgeable pride in, and loyalty to, the city of their God. They are not to be shipped off to a boarding school in Babylon so that they can study their turrets.
This God is Our God
Although the first Zion, the earthly Zion, no longer occupies the place it once did, the God of Israel has not changed. All His promises are yea and amen, and they are fulfilled in Christ, the Lord of the New Jerusalem, the new Zion. And this means that all these promises are still in our hearts and mouths, and then some. If the old Zion was to be holy, how much more the heavenly Zion? If her rulers and leaders took refuge in God alone, how much more should this be the case for the ministers and rulers of the new Zion? If God delivered His people in the old covenant by means of sending panics in among their adversaries, why would He stop doing that? And if they were to teach the next generation faithfully, how much more should we be doing so? This is because “this God is our God for ever and ever.”
Psalm 46: A Mighty Fortress
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Introduction
This next psalm was one of Martin Luther’s favorites, and was the inspiration for his hymn “A Mighty Fortress.” There were plenty of times during the Reformation when everything looked pretty black, and Luther would cheerfully say to Melancthon, “Come, Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm.” We have considered the importance of dogged tenacity in times of trouble, but there are also times of trouble when we are privileged to exult in the power of our God. With salvation’s walls surrounded, thou mayst smile at all thy foes.
The Text
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble . . .” (Psalm 46:1-11).
Structure and Summary of the Text
The psalm divides readily into three sections, each section concluding with a call for meditation—Selah. The first section says that God is our refuge, even if the entire world around collapses (vv. 1-3). The second section says that the heathen rage without, but God is present within (vv. 4-7). The last section shows that God will establish peace on the earth—peace through superior firepower (vv. 8-11).
God is a present help, a refuge, a fortress (v. 1). Consequently, we who trust in Him shall not fear—though mountains be thrown into the sea, and the earth be moved. It is worth remembering that Jesus spoke of the judgment of Jerusalem under the figure of a mountain being cast into the sea, and that the choir singing this were sons of Korah—whose famous ancestor had perished when “the earth moved.” Though the water roar and the mountains shake, we will not be troubled (v. 3). Think and pray about it.
The streams of a certain river gladden the city of God (v. 4). God is in the midst of her, meaning that God is the river (v. 5). God shall provide help, and He will do it early. The heathen raged, and empires were set in motion. God spoke and the earth melted (v. 6). The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuse (v. 7). Think and pray about it.
Come and look at the desolations of the Lord (v. 8). He makes wars to cease throughout the earth. He breaks the bow, and cuts the spear, and burns up chariots in the fire (v. 9). He does more, with escalating means of destruction, to tanks, aircraft battle groups, satellite reconnaissance, torpedoes, lasers and guns. Be still and know that God is the Lord (v. 10). He will be exalted among the heathen, and this exaltation will happen on the earth (v. 10). The Lord of hosts takes sides. He is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge (v. 11). Think and pray about it.
The Voice of Triumph
We have seen in some of the previous psalms that God doesn’t want His saints pretending in their prayers in order to keep us some pretense of piety. If you want to know where God has gotten to, then ask Him. Do not do it as a querulous whiner, but rather imitate David, or better yet, the Lord Jesus Himself. Remember the cruciform prayer. But there are other times when you are in need of a refuge, and the events outside look dismaying beyond belief, and yet you are untroubled. The earth may be removed, but we will not be. The mountain ranges may be pitched into the depths of the sea, but we will remain right here. This is a psalm to match that attitude of triumph.
Present and Early
God is our refuge, and note that He is a present help in trouble (v. 1). God will rise up to help and He will do it early (v. 5). We have seen other times that God loves to deliver at the last moment. Abraham’s arm is upraised, and he is going to slay his son, and then God intervenes. On the mount of the Lord it will be provided. The people of
Israel have the waters of the Red Sea lapping at their feet, and Pharaoh’s army is right behind them. The Lord does love a good cliffhanger. But He is not so predictable as to do that every time. There are times when we look to Him, and He is there immediately. He delivers us early.
The River of God
The city of God, which is the Church, has a river flowing right through her center. God the Father is our river (Jer. 2:13). God the Son is our river (Zech. 13:1). God the Holy Spirit is our river (John 7:38). The Temple at the center of the City of God is the source of this river (Ez. 47:1-12), and as this river flows through the New Jerusalem, which is the Church, we see that trees grow on both sides of the river, and the leaves of those trees are for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2).
God of Desolations
As one historian once observed, the God of the Bible is no buttercup. In this passage, He makes wars to cease on the earth by force. We know from the rest of the Bible that this is not the entire story—He is the suffering servant as well. He conquered sin and death by means of the humiliation of the cross, certainly. He rose again from the dead three days later, establishing our justification. He also—forty years after His death, burial, and resurrection— destroyed Jerusalem with a rod of iron. It is a grave mistake to relegate desolations to the Old Testament.
In the twenty-first century, we still are dealing with the scourge of war, and this means that we must still submit to the God who will at the last deal with our arsenals the way a victorious general does after he has put down the insurrection.
Peace That Passes Understanding
This psalm is a good representation in the Old Testament of that attitude that St. Paul commended to us in Philippians. “Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7). Note that God calls all of us as Christians to this grace. And when this grace is given, it is grounded on thanksgiving. And in this triumph of faith, note also that the peace of God protects your hearts and minds; it is not the other way around. Your hearts and minds do not protect the peace of God. The peace of God is in between you and the melting earth, the roaring seas, and the mountains being hurled into the oceans. And from your place on that wall, you may smile at all your foes.