God of Justice

I ran across this song a couple of months ago, and thought that it would be a perfect missions month song, but more than that it hits the themes that I think we need to be reminded of over and over again.  Justice.  Mercy.  Loving the unloved.  These themes go hand in hand with worship.

We’ve talked before about Amos 5:21-24.  God hates and despises our worship when it is not accompanied by justice and mercy.  Micah 6:8 follows along the same lines where it says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly before the Lord.”  Yet again we see that theme of the Lord requiring of us justice and mercy and kindness.

How does this happen?  I think Tim Hughes does a great job of reminding us of both the purpose and the method that we might show the world around us love.  That God of justice was a savior to us all.  He came to rescue the weak and the poor.  Most importantly, He came to serve and not to be served.  That is our example, to serve and not to be served!  This was just as countercultural then as it is now.  The disciples were shocked when Jesus washed their feet.  This was the same Jesus who John the Baptist was unfit to tie His sandals, yet He was serving the disciples at a base level.  This of course was a picture for how He came to serve all on the cross of Calvary.

I don’t know about you, but I have trouble with knowing how to answer this call.  This call to go live to feed the hungry and stand beside the broken.  I have been contemplating justice for months now since David Nasser’s talk about being the Bride of Christ in the world.  In a completely unrelated time, I was watching today a message John Piper gave this week about C.S. Lewis and how he is the second most important dead person in his life.  About 50 minutes into his message, he starts talking about what Lewis taught him about the perils of introspection.  He quotes C.S. Lewis, and I’ll repeat the quote here.

This is our dilemma . . . as thinkers we are cut off from what we think about; as tasting, touching, willing, loving, hating, we do not clearly understand. The more lucidly we think, the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality, the less we can think. You cannot study Pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, nor analyze the nature of humor while roaring with laughter. But when else can you really know these things?

You cannot hope and also think about hoping at the same moment; for in hope we look to hope’s object and we interrupt this by (so to speak) turning around to look at the hope itself. . . . Introspection is in one respect misleading. In introspection we try to look inside ourselves and see what is going on. But nearly everything that was going on a moment before is stopped by the very act of our turning to look at it. Unfortunately this does not mean that introspection finds nothing. On the contrary, it finds precisely what is left behind by the suspension of all our normal activities; and what is left behind is mainly mental images and physical sensations. The great error is to mistake this mere sediment or track or by product for the activities themselves.

Then Piper ties it all together by saying this, “What this has meant for me is, first, that I see now that the pursuit of Joy must always be indirect—focusing not on the experience but the object to be enjoyed. And, second, I see that faith in Jesus, in its most authentic experience is suspended when it is being analyzed to see if its real. Which means this analysis always ends in discouragement. When we are trusting Christ most authentically, we are not thinking about trusting, but about Christ. When we step out of the moment to examine it, we cease what we were doing, and therefore cannot see it. My counsel for strugglers therefore is relentlessly: Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus in his word. And pray for eyes to see.”

How do we love justice and mercy?  How do we keep from just singing?  We focus on Christ, always on Christ.  How else will we know justice than to look to the perfect Judge Himself?  How else will we see mercy unless we see Him who showed such mercy and grace at the cross that we must be made speechless?  Our prayer should be, “fill us up and send us out.”  Just as Piper prayed for “eyes to see,” let us be praying for hands to love and eyes to see and feet to go.  I know that if that is truly the desire of our heart, He will open up opportunities, and before we know it, we will look back and say, “wow, look how God was glorified by serving those people!”

So, as we worship, let us remember that our worship is not just songs on Sunday, but rather our songs on Sunday are about our worship throughout our lives!

A Mighty Fortress

As I look through Christy Nockels’ song, “A Mighty Fortress,” I am fairly certain that we could go through the song line by line and find the corresponding Bible verses.  So, in the interests of time, let’s grab some of the major themes.

Let’s start with a concept that isn’t mentioned in the song directly.  This is the image of the separation of the wheat from the chaff that we see throughout the Bible.  I would encourage you to look up chaff and see the illustrations.  The chaff is the seed husks and stalk that get separated out from the wheat.  It is worthless for anything but being burned.  We see throughout the Bible that God separates the chaff from the wheat in our hearts and burns it up.  He separates that which is useless to our purpose of glorifying Him and burns it up.  What a promise!

This is the image that the Nockels paint for us first.  The image of God as a consuming fire.  They get this term from Deuteronomy 4:24, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”  and Hebrews 12:28-29, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

Some people get the wrong idea from the term jealous God.  When God is jealous, he wants the best for us.  He knows that if we would only turn and keep our eyes on Him, we would be satisfied.  Our deepest need is to worship.  As a people, we all respond to that need by worshiping something.  That may be money, or power, or ourselves, or other unsatisfying things.  The Father knows that if we would turn and worship Him, we would be satisfied from the well that never ends.

Next to the idea of God as a Judge.  Do we not want justice?  When we are wronged, do we not want the offender judged fairly?  God is the only righteous Judge.  He alone sees to the core of our being and judges us.  That is why Christ was necessary, because when God looks at us to judge us, He must be fair, and getting judged fairly on our own is bad news for everyone.  When we identify with Christ though, when He looks at us, He doesn’t see our sin and brokenness, He sees Christ’s perfect atoning work on the cross!  What a wondrous love!  What about the murderer who accepts Christ though?  How can God not judge that man or woman for his/her crime?  I would say, have you not committed sins as great either in your heart or in deed.  Have you coveted?  Have you committed adultery by looking where you shouldn’t look?  Have you murdered someone with your words and actions or inactions?  I think if we start looking at ourselves, we start realizing just how great Christ’s sacrifice really was.  It all boils down to the greatest command, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.”  We all fall short, and the only One that ever has completed this command was the One who has existed in perfect harmony with the Father as a part of the Godhead for all eternity.

The other part of the song that Christy talks about is the other half of Hebrews 12:28-29.  Here it talks about the Kingdom being unshakable.   We’ve seen that imagery before of course.  When I read the title of this song, my mind goes to Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” which is based on Psalm 46.  It is the same thought.  We would rather build our Faith on a solid foundation.  The solid Rock that is our Savior Jesus Christ.  In His name we cannot be shaken.  Though storms may buffet, we can never be shaken in Him.  This is a truth to cling to.  This is a promise that He is faithful to keep.  So much more faithful than we ever have been or will be.

So, let’s make this our prayer, to set our eyes on Him and our hearts on Him.  Let us take refuge in the fortress that can never be defeated.  Let us not fear even when the earth gives way and the mountains are moved into the heart of the sea.  Even though its waters roar and foam, though its mountains tremble at its swelling.  Let us be still and know that He is God.  He will be exalted among the nations; He will be exalted in all of the earth!  The Lord of hosts is with us.  The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Amen

How He Loves (part 2)

If it seems like it’s been forever since we did the devotional on How He Loves (Part 1), it’s because it’s been forever!

We left off after verse 1.  The chorus is fairly self explanatory, so we kind of skipped over it.  What I wanted to do here was to go through the second verse.  Of course, by the second verse, I mean the original one with that oh so controversial line in it, “when heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss…”

Before we get there, let’s start at the beginning of verse 2.  “So we are His portion and He is our prize.”  This sounds wrong to me.  Isn’t He our portion?  Well, this line is not only Biblical; it’s straight from the Bible!  We find the thought in Deuteronomy 32:9.  Rather than me with woeful attempts to use the English language try to explain it, I’ll quote Matthew Henry’s explanation here.

“All the world is His.  He is owner and possessor of heaven and earth, but His Church is His in a peculiar manner.  It is His demesne, His vineyard, His garden enclosed.  He has a particular delight in it:  it is the beloved of His soul, in it He walks, He dwells, it is His rest forever.  He has a particular concern for it, keeps it as the apple of His eye.  He has particular expectations from it, as a man has from his portion, has a much greater rent of honour, glory, and worship, from that distinguished remnant, than from all the world besides.  That God should be His people’s portion is easy to be accounted for, for He is their joy and felicity; but how they should be His portion, Who neither needs them, nor can be benefitted by them, must be resolved into the wondrous condescensions of free grace.”

What a wondrous thought.  There are so many blessing that can only be resolved by the wondrous condescension of free grace!  So much so, that we’re drawn to redemption only by His grace.  On our own we wouldn’t desire redemption.  It is only by His grace that we come to Him.  There is so much grace that if it were an ocean we would all be sinking in it!  Even people that neither acknowledge nor worship Him are benefiters of His grace every day.

The most breathtaking display of His grace was when heaven met earth by God the Son taking earthly form, becoming despised and rejected, beaten and crucified, all so that rebels could become worshipers.  That’s where this line, “When heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss” comes in.  Unfortunately this line alone is why we will never sing the song on Sunday morning.  I would have to take 20 minutes and explain what is meant by these lines, and only those that would be there would understand.  John Mark McMillan has blogged about this, so I’ll let his explanation stand.

“The idea behind the lyric is that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth converge in a way that is both beautiful and awkwardly messy.  Think about the birth of a child, or even the death of Jesus Himself.  These miracles are both incredibly beautiful and incredibly sloppy (‘gory’ may be more realistic, but ‘Heaven meets earth like a gory mess’ didn’t seem to have the same ring).  Why does the church have such a problem when things being sloppy?  Do we really think we’re fooling anyone on Sunday morning, especially God?  Are we going to offend Him?...”

A sloppy wet kiss… Both beautiful and messy at the same time.  What a perfect description of what happened at both the incarnation and the cross.  This is why when David Crowder (with John Mark’s permission and blessing) changed the line to “unforeseen kiss.”  It has meant that so many more people have heard and sung this song than would have if he hadn’t changed the line.  The unfortunate part is that unforeseen completely changes the meaning of this verse.   When we consider the shocking way that Christ redeemed His people to the father, we can’t help but be struck by the depth of His love.  When we consider this, we should have no time to consider our regrets because we should be so busy worshiping Him!

Many of you know my dislike for “7-11” songs (7 words repeated 11 times),but when you consider how He does love us, and in such an undeserved way, you just have to repeat to the world that He loves us so much, and the world needs to see that!  Oh, how He loves us!

Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor thing present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39 (NASB)

I need to hear this verse a lot.  It’s actually the verse that comes to mind the most.  If I’m struggling with something, I think through it.  When I am having trouble preparing for worship on a Sunday morning, I sing through it (I know a melody to it that some random person at East Iowa Bible Camp came up with that I’ve remembered ever since).  This verse is a great comfort to me.

What I love most about it is that Paul doesn’t just stop at nothing can separate us from the love of Christ; he goes through all the spectrums.  He contrasts all of the extremes.  Nothing from death to life.  Nothing from angels to demons (and everything in between), nothing in our past, and nothing in our future (in other words, nothing we have done and nothing we will do) can separate us from Christ.  Oh what marvelous Grace He has shown us!  Need you another reason to worship!

It’s no wonder that the hymn writer wrote:

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.  It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.  The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win.  His erring Child, He reconciled and pardoned from his sin.

And my favorite verse (I love the picture that he paints here)

Could we with ink, the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made.  Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade.  To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry.  Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

Oh love of God, how rich and pure!  How measureless and strong!  It shall forevermore endure the saints’ and angels’ song.

We will spend all eternity worshiping Christ our redeemer, yet even that time won’t even begin to describe the love that He showed us at the cross.  Let’s get a good head start yes?  Hope to see you Sunday singing praises to our King! (Or if you’re not in Manhattan, hope you are somewhere singing praises to the King!)

Giants

I was reading Deuteronomy 9 today, and I was struck by Deuteronomy 9:1-3.  Here we have God telling His people that they are going to head into the promised land and they are going to be faced with a people great and tall… giants.  Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of a giant, I think of Fezzig from The Princess Bride.  He’s this huge, hulking man, who incidentally is known far and wide for his fighting prowess.  So, when I read Deu 9, I think of a land filled with a whole bunch of Fezzigs.

The Israelites aren’t stupid, matter of fact, they have a saying, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?”  Well, the answer is simple, the Lord, because no one can stand before the Lord our God!  Long intro for pointing out that what I was struck by today is that there are a lot of giants in the Bible.  Of course, the one we think of most often is David and Goliath.  There we saw a short little guy against the greatest warrior that happened to be a giant, and what happened?  God showed that He can take the most unlikely of people and do incredible things, including defeating giants with one stone.  Why giants?  I think it’s because when Goliath is on the ground dead, no one is sitting around saying, wow, that David is sure some warrior.  Instead, when David says, my strength is the Lord of Hosts, people look and see that there is the reason why the giant was defeated.

What are the giants in your life?  I think God still likes to take unlikely heroes and defeat giants.  And I’m talking both inward giants and outward giants.  I believe that He is using some friends of mine to defeat the giant of unsafe drinking water.  The problem is this huge hulking problem, but with folks like them, and people like you buying filters and supporting them, that giant will be defeated.

We all have inward giants, and we need to know that those giants will be defeated.  Sometimes it happens with a single stone, and the giant is gone.  We need to make sure that He receives the glory for that, and sometimes the giant is defeated through a long campaign, but defeated he will be.  Make sure that God receives the glory for that too.

Really when you boil it down, Christ defeated all of our giants (sin) on the cross, once for all time.  So, if you have doubts, know that the giants in your life have already been defeated!  They are just fighting a rearguard action, but they have lost the battle!  Let us together rejoice in the victory we have in Christ!

     

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Numbers 11

I’ve been following my automatically generated read through the Bible in a year plan, and occasionally, when nothing strikes me to write on my blog, I will likely share with you some thoughts from my daily readings.  For the last couple of days, I’ve been working my way through Numbers, and something struck me today about the contrast betweenNumbers 9 and Numbers 11.

As I was reading about the cloud that covered the tabernacle in Numbers 9, I actually thought, wow that’d make a great blog post.  In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, their pace was determined by a cloud that would descend on the tabernacle when they were to stop, and lift when they should start again.  Sometimes, they would stay in one place for a couple of days and sometimes only a night.  The amazing thing is that the Israelites were completely and totally reliant on the Lord.  They were fed by manna and dew.  Their pace was determined by a cloud, and even the decisions about who was and wasn’t to share in the Passover meal were consulted with the Lord first.  One of the biggest lies that we can convince ourselves of is that we are self-reliant and independent.  It is truly by the Grace of our Lord that we live from moment to moment and that we share in the blessings He bestows.  The Israelites were just more obviously dependant on Him.

Then we get to Numbers 11, and the people start whining.  You know, it was really actually better in Egypt, at least there we got to eat meat.  Now all we get is manna, and there’s only so much you can do with manna.  In Egypt we had fish and cucumbers and leeks and garlic (they must have been Veggietales fans).  Why did we leave Egypt again?  It was really better in Egypt…

Sound familiar?  If it doesn’t, then congratulations on being way ahead of me in your spiritual walk.  The Lord has done some serious leading in my life, but all too often, I look back and complain.  As bad as things were, they really weren’t that bad.  Is this maybe one of the ways that sin creeps back into our lives?  We start craving just that little piece of meat, because all we’ve had is manna.  Sure, manna is from the Lord, and is sustaining us, and showing how much He cares about our wellbeing, but the meat tasted so good.  You know, I won’t eat the whole thing, I’ll just have a bite.  Well, maybe a couple of bites….  Eventually, the Lord gave the people what they wanted in the form of a flock of quail, but it was plague ridden.  How cruel you might say!  Was it?  The Lord was providing manna, and when that wasn’t good enough, He warned them about the alternative, and they essentially said death was better than manna (didn’t they remember Egypt).

This makes me appreciate all the more the Grace that Christ shows us daily!  Even when we keep going back for meat, he keeps standing there with the manna and dew saying, “I have here the perfect sustenance.  Eat of the Bread and drink of the Water that I bring you and you will be satisfied!” May we all find our satisfaction in Him!

Christmas Communion

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As a church family, we were blessed yet again by sharing the Lord’s Table this morning at church.  What I thought was perhaps the most moving part was that as we celebrate Christmas, we look forward to Good Friday and Easter.  I always find it interesting that everyone thought that the Messiah was coming to earth to establish His earthly Kingdom.  The Israelites certainly thought so.  They were so ready for a conquering Messiah that they were actively looking for that Messiah to come and lead them in freedom from the oppressive Romans.  They didn’t realize that their true oppression was from sin.  Even Satan’s temptations were directed at Christ establishing his Kingdom.

So when I look at that night in Bethlehem, I can’t help but wonder if the shepherds, wise men, and even Mary and Joseph were excited about the birth for the wrong reasons.  They heard a message about peace on earth, but did they understand what peace it was that Christ was to bring?  Had they connected Isaiah 53 to the baby in the manger?

Here’s what is certain though, when the Father sent His Son, He did so knowing that the cross was the goal of Christ’s time on earth.  When the angels sang about peace on earth, they were singing about the peace that Jesus was to bring between God and man.  That peace was won through the sacrifice of His Body and Blood on the cross, and we must remember that as we celebrate His birth!  As you consider the cross, here is a hymn that we don’t sing nearly enough, but has such a powerful text.

Alas and Did My Savior Bleed?

Alas! and did my Saviour bleed, And did my Sovereign die! Would he devote that sacred head For such a worm as I!

Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree! Amazing pity! grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide, And shut his glories in, When Christ, the mighty Maker, died For man the creature's sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face While his dear cross appears; Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, And melt mine eyes in tears.

But drops of grief can ne'er repay The debt of love I owe; Here, Lord, I give myself away, 'Tis all that I can do.

The Angels Worship!

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke 2:13-14

I love the scene that Luke paints in his account of the Christmas story. Some shepherds are out in the fields when, suddenly, angels show up. The shepherds respond like everyone else who sees an angel in the Bible responds. They hit the ground with fear (by the way, it’s for this reason, Joseph Smith was either making it up, or he was visited by a former angel, aka, a demon, he says in the book of mormon that an angel showed up, and he had a casual conversation with it!). After a quick explanation of how to find the baby Jesus, the multitude of heavenly hosts bursts into praise! Can you imagine how that might have sounded? Those shepherds got a quick picture of what worship really looks and sounds like.

What I wanted to do really quickly today was take a look at what is was that the angels sang. We’re so used to hearing this (after all we hear it every year when we watch Charlie Brown’s Christmas), that I think the meaning of what they say slips by. Either that or we’ve so politically corrected the angel hosts’ message, that it’s become a justification for the relativism that seems to pervade today’s society. The angels say that God received glory that night, and then they say why God received glory!

What happened that night was one of the most amazing miracles in all of history, along with the Resurrection and Creation. What happened that night was that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God became man; the Father had sent His Son! Why? Because from Adam on, there was emnity between God and man. Despite His revelation to the Israelites, they still consistently failed to draw near to Him. What happened that night was that God began the work of reconciling man to Himself. He predestined that His Son would go to a cross, and pay the price for our sins. He knew that His Son would be despised and rejected, but He still pursued reconciliation. He still desired there to be peace. That is why God receives glory! Because He showed us so much love that night, He showed us what kind of a God He is. He is not the god of Islam that requires perfect obedience, He is not the god of Hindu or Buddhism, or any of the religions that require a lifetime of not quite enough so that in the end he can heap on punishment. No, He is a God who sacrificed so that we might be saved!

When you celebrate Christmas this season, remember the cross, remember what the peace it was that God brought to us that night, and remember Christ our Savior and worship Him! Merry Christmas!

 

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Remembrance (Communion Hymn)

This week is the Sunday for our quarterly communion, and as a part of our worship, we will be singing a new song by Matt Maher and Matt Redman called Remembrance. They say that they set out to write a song for communion because there are few communion songs in the church repertoire. As I sing this song, and think through the lyrics, I love the depth of the lyrics, the poetic quality, and the theological foundation on which they’re based.

Before we get to the best lines, we have to wade through Verse 1, where there is much that could be debated, and much to be misunderstood. The first line, “Oh how could it be, that my God would welcome me into this mystery” isn’t ambiguous, but the next line, “Say take this bread, take this wine. Now the simple made divine, for any to receive” causes me pause and thought.

Let me give you some history.

In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Paul tells us, “²³ For ^xI received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that ^ythe Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for⁵ you. Do this in remembrance of me.”^{6 25} In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death ^zuntil he comes.”

The words that have caused much discussion are the words, “This is my body,” and “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” The cause for division has been the extent to which the church takes the words Christ spoke here. There are three levels of interpretation. The Roman Catholic Church takes Christ quite literally, and they believe that when the elements have been consecrated by a priest, they actually become the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. To follow, they believe that when the bread is broken and the cup is poured, the Body and Blood present are sacrificed and imparting Christ’s grace on those gathered. (By the way, my source here is Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, so Catholic friends, feel free to correct me).

This is why, in the history of the Catholic church, commoners weren’t allowed to drink from the cup. There we a concern that they might spill the literal Blood of Jesus Christ, thus desecrating the sacrifice. The Catholic view assumes that Christ was being literal when he spoke, yet Christ frequently uses symbols when speaking about Himself. For example, He says that He is the vine (John 10:9) and that He is the door through which we must enter the Kingdom (John 6:14). Jesus also frequently made his points using parables as symbols. Therefore, we can be confident in knowing that Christ might use symbols to highlight His point. Also, the disciples at the Last Supper certainly would not have misunderstood Christ’s symbols as He broke the bread and poured the cup. The cup is not itself the new covenant, but rather a picture of what the new covenant is, Christ’s blood poured out for our sins.

The biggest objection to the Catholic view centers on their belief that each Eucharist is a sacrifice for our sins. Hebrews 9:25-28 debunks the idea of this being a sacrifice offered each time for sin. “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” One sacrifice for all time!

The Lutherans meet somewhere in the middle with their belief in consubstantiation, or that Christ’s Body and Blood are present in the Bread and the Cup, much like water is present in a sponge, but the sponge is not water. The last view is that the Lord’s Supper is a symbol that helps us to remember the covenant that we have in His Body and Blood.

Why does all of this matter? Because Matt Maher, one of the two writers is Catholic. “Now the simple made divine” could easily mean, now the bread become the Body, etc. However, I don’t think that’s what they mean here. Matt Redman is not Catholic, and they both stated that as they wrote this song, they deliberately stayed away from doctrinal differences in interpretation. This line would never have made it if it was talking about Transubstantiation. Rather, I think the line is simply saying that the simple act of eating the bread and drinking the cup has a significance beyond simply eating and drinking. We certainly see this from Paul, who says in right after the usual communion passage, “^{27 a}Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord ^bin an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning ^cthe body and blood of the Lord. ^{28 d}Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

Paul wanted to make sure that the Corinthians understood that remembering our Savior is not just eating and drinking. Paul isn’t saying we need to be sinless, rather, he’s saying we must examine ourselves. I don’t know about you, but serious self examination leads me to the cross. As we examine ourselves, we eat and drink together and are reminded that it was while we were yet sinners that Christ gave His life for us. Communion is a symbol by which we can proclaim to the world the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Let’s move on through the song. The last paragraph is summed up in the pre-chorus that says “By Your mercy we come to Your table, by Your grace You are making us faithful.” It is in recognition of His wonderful mercy that we come to celebrate His sacrifice. And it is only by the Grace of God that we are faithful at all!

That brings us to the chorus, which is my favorite part of this song. I love the progression here. Lord, we remember You, and as we remember Your sacrifice, we worship You, and as we worship You, we celebrate Your sacrifice at the Table. As we are responding at the Table, we remember You. What a wonderful cycle of worship! Are we not getting a glimpse of heaven? We see in Revelation that we’ll be before the throne singing Worthy is the Lamb who was slain! We’ll be remembering His sacrifice just as we do when we share the Table, yet in heaven, we’ll really get it. We’ll really understand His majesty! We’ll really understand what He did in becoming man, and we won’t need a symbol to see how He loved us at the cross!

Ouch, I’m into page three, and I’m not even halfway through the song, so I’ll try to hurry up. The next verse shows us both the Hope we have in Christ, and the Grace He shows us. On the cross, He overcame every trial we have faced and ever will face. And not just that, but there is no one who is outside of the range of God’s Grace if they would but come to the cross. All sins are forgiven at the cross. We must share this with the world around us!

Finally, let me touch on the bridge, where the lyric is, “Dying You destroyed our death, Rising You restored our life.” When I hear this line, I’m reminded of the way Pastor Mark baptized people, as they went under water, he would say, “United with Him in His death,” and as he lifted you up he would say, “Raised to new life in His resurrection.” Here is another symbol of how we connect with Christ through the cross. When He died on the cross and then rose from the grave, He won a victory over death itself, and when we follow Him, we too will see victory over death as we live eternally with Him! May He return soon so we might see His face!

 

How He Loves (part 1)

I’ve given it some thought, and I thought we’d take a break for a while from talking about Psalms and talk for a while about the songs we sing, are going to sing, or don’t sing. My intention is to take each song and work through it, talking about the biblical basis for it, or talking about why it isn’t based on sound theology. If you have some recommendations, send them my way!

I thought we’d start with the song How He Loves by John Mark McMillan. I’ve wrestled with this song for a while now. The chorus is great, and blatantly obvious in its meaning. Love the thought there, but the poetic nature of the lyrics made me step back and evaluate. My intention here is to talk about either how I interpret the lyrics, or when possible, talk about the writer’s original intent. The first thing that you learn in Biblical interpretation is that you’re attempting to understand the author’s original intent. Now for the Bible, we have to piece that together, luckily with song writers, we can ask them!

How He Loves starts off with a truth that is not necessarily a popular truth, or an understood truth for that matter. John (when I refer to John, I’m talking about the song writer) starts right off saying, “He is jealous for me.” This is an aspect of God that some people have trouble with, in large part because of the negative connotation that the word jealousy has in today’s society. Let’s break it apart a bit.

In Exodus 20:3, the very first commandment the Lord gives us is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Throughout the Old Testament, there is talk of our jealous God. In the New Testament, we get glimpses of the same picture. In 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, Paul spends some time talking about idolatry, and at the end of the passage he says, “Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy, are we stronger than He?”

Here we come to a discussion of idolatry again. I think we’ve discussed that in God’s eyes, an idol is something that comes before Him. How devoted to God are we? Do our things come before Him? How about our family, does that come before Him? If it does, then it is an idol. Now, I’m not saying that things or family are bad things. I’m saying that they are idols to us if they are more important to us than God. Occasionally in the Bible we see God testing His people to see if they are really devoted to Him. Sometimes people show they are, sometimes not. Perhaps the starkest case is when God calls on Abraham to sacrifice the son that has been given to him after a lifetime of waiting. Abraham immediately obeyed, because he trusted His Lord to provide. His son was not more important to him than his God.

Now, we will certainly never be put in that exact situation, or will we? What if your son or daughter someday feels called to the mission field? Are you willing to give them up to do the Lord’s work? What about if the Lord lays it upon your heart to sell some of your things so that you can give? Are you willing, or are you more attached to your stuff than to your Lord. Let me ask this question, what is more important on a Sunday morning, that the worship sounds/looks the way it needs to so that you can worship the most comfortably, or that you are there with hearts poured out before the Lord regardless of the style? Bob Kauflin has posted a wonderful discussion of idols in worship at http://www.worshipmatters.com. I would encourage you to visit the site and read his discussion. My point here is that idolatry has a tendency to creep up in our hearts, and it’s usually good things that begin to supplant our Lord.

Hopefully, what you realize, as all of us should realize, is that we are hard hearted sheep. We wander aimlessly sometimes and He has to bring us back. The illustration of us being sheep, and the Lord being our good shepherd is one that the more you think about it, and the more you study it, the more apt it becomes. God is jealous for our affections. Why? Because He knows what is best for us, and He knows that the only place we will find satisfaction is in Him. So much like a shepherd sometimes has to aggressively care for his sheep, so sometimes the Lord has to wear our hearts down.

“[He] loves like a hurricane; I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.” A tree is an immovable object. Most trees don’t do a lot of bending on their own, but in the face of a hurricane, a constant pressure, the tree has two choices, it can bend or be uprooted. Our Lord knows our uprooting point though, unlike the hurricane and the tree, and so, He applies the pressures needed, until we finally bend and then….

“All of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. I realize just how beautiful You are and how great Your affections are for me.” We get it; we see the Lord’s working in our lives. We are drawn near to Him, and all we can see is the beauty and majesty of our God. And most of all, when we are once again in right relationship with Him; we understand that all of the trials that brought us to the point of repentance were actually love. Yes, it hurt, but if He had not pushed, we would have remained unsatisfied. We would have remained lost. It hurt coming back, but God loves us so much, that He is willing to see us go through pain, to see us more satisfied. It’s much like as if we had a child that needed an operation. The child doesn’t understand why they must submit to pain. But the parent knows that the pain is but temporary, and will allow the child to live more freely and longer (I’m sure you can think of examples.)

So after we consider such things, we must sing, “Oh, how He loves us!” Next week, sloppy wet kisses and grace.

 

Study in Justice

Amos 5:21-24

21     “I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22     Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

I will not look upon them.

23     Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

24     But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

 

These verses among some other have been consuming my thoughts, prayers and devotions lately.  I can’t help but ask myself the question, “What are we doing on Sunday mornings?”  Are we worshiping?  Or are we just offering empty sacrifices?  Are we just singing words together because that’s what we do?

The Lord makes a pretty strong statement here.    Matter of fact, there are only a couple of times in the Old testament that he talks about hating something.  The Psalms of David talk about hating a lot, but the Lord only expresses hate a couple of times, and oddly enough, each time it is an aspect of His people that He hates.  So here we are, “I hate, I despise.”  Boy that must be something pretty bad to hate and despise it.  Our ears perk up.  Here it comes; God is going to tear down some evildoers.  He’s going to point out his despising of those against Him.  Ready for it?  “I hate, I despise….. your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”  Wow, He doesn’t like our offerings, and he can’t stand the noise of our songs.  That’s pretty harsh.  I mean, come on, we’re singing these songs for You Lord.  We’re sacrificing some stuff for You.  And you hate it.  Why?

I’ll get to that in a second, but this is what consumes my thoughts.  God doesn’t change.  He never has and He never will.  As Christians, we sometimes get this idea of the Old Testament God and the New Testament God.  No difference at all.  Throughout the entirety of the Bible, He has loved His people, He has worked to redeem them, and He has given His Son for them.  Because of Jesus, we have fellowship with Him, and we have forgiveness because of it, but I would ask this, is it still possible that when we show up on Sunday morning and we sing some songs, and we give some money, and we listen to a message that God still hates and despises that?  Is it possible that He’s still shaking His head in frustration because His people still don’t get it?  Is it possible that what we’re doing on Sunday mornings is terribly empty?  We’re just singing cute songs with good lyrics.  Our hearts may even be connecting, and worshiping through the Spirit because of our Savior Jesus Christ.  But Romans 12:1 tells us, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Amos says it this way, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”  Here it is, this is what God wants for worship.  He wants us all week.  He wants all of us.  He wants us to be interested in bringing about justice and righteousness.  Then He’ll listen to us.  Then He hears our worship and says, that is sweet.

See, we have a disconnect.  We sing one thing and we do or act out something different.  In our closing song, we sing, “How beautiful the feet that carry this Gospel of peace to the fields of injustice and the valleys of need.  To be a voice of hope and healing, to answer the cries of the hungry and helpless with the mercy of Christ.”  We sing that, we don’t live it.  I don’t live it.  I’m not sure I know how to live it yet.  I do know this though; we can no longer be content.  We must have a holy discontent with our walk.  I am an excuse guy.  I’ve got lots of reasons why I don’t do things.  I’ve got lots of excuses for the troubles in my life.

So, discouraged, we shut down, we hit the guilt bunker.  We may even say, boy, that’s right, we need to work on that, but look at what Paul said in Romans, “by the mercies of God.”  It all comes back to where are we leaning?  We live in a “me” culture.  If I can steal a turn of phrase from Leonard Sweet, “We have the iphone, the itouch, the ipod, we can’t even spell wii without two i’s.”  We get this idea that we save ourselves.  Right?  We say, I accepted Christ….  I prayed a prayer….  It’s like we get this idea that we recognized our sinfulness and we repented, and we came to Christ, and then He saved us.  Where did we get the conviction of sin in the first place?  What drew us to Christ?  God draws us.  Christ saves us, we don’t do anything.  Who is going to keep us steadfast in the faith?  Well, I’m certainly not.  It is only by God’s mercy and grace I am going to hold to the Faith that saved me.  Who’s going to do justice in the world?  I’m not!  Christ is.  Christ alone.  So if we want to see fruit, where had we better be trusting?  Christ.  Christ alone.  Now I don’t expect to really get this until I’m before Him in heaven, but I sure better be proactively running the race.  Christ will give me strength.  Matter of fact, I’m firmly convinced that Christ brings us through the race, with or without us.  How often is he dragging me?  I wouldn’t even say that I’m fighting against Him.  We’re all too often just dead weight.  Figure out what He wants you to do and do it!  What is he telling you, well we’ve got His word to give us some guidance, we’ve got His Holy Spirit to help us in the right direction, but only if we’re not quenching Him!

 

What does His Word say about worship?  It says things like, let justice and mercy rain.   It says things like, “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’  Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and cloth you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

 

 

There is worship.  Right there.  Do we want to serve our Lord?  Do we want to love Him?  It’s easy to sing a song, but are we showing Him love?  He tells us right here how to show Him love.  He hasn’t changed since Amos at all.  He still wants to see justice and mercy raining down.  So here we are.  It’s a tough spot.  What in the world do we do?  Let me use the Love and Logic answer, something.  Whether that means buying a water filter so that someone might have water do drink, or visiting a nursing home and spending time with the lonely there.  Volunteer with the food pantry.  I know they can use the help.  Becca is organizing a supper for the homeless in a couple of weeks.  Call her and ask her to help.  Let us be more than empty words and hollow promises.  Let us wrestle with this.  Let us not be content.

 

Psalm 27 Part 1

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Psalm 27:1-2 (ESV)

Have you ever been lost in the dark (talking literally here). I’m a stereotypical male in the directions category, so being lost isn’t a cause for great concern. I’ll figure out where we are and where we’re going eventually. Being lost in the dark is a totally different matter though. I don’t like to drive to unknown places in the dark but walking around on a pitch black night can be downright scary. This was us. We weren’t just lost, we were wandering around in pitch black, clueless, no point of reference, no hope that we might find our way. We needed God to light our lives and Christ to set our feet on the path. Listen to the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 42:6-9:

6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

He calls us to show His light to others! This is a common theme throughout the Psalms and the Bible. God is great! Don’t keep it to yourself. Yet we have a bunker mentality as Christians. At whom are most of the ministries of the church aimed at? Who are our friends? It’s almost like we have a “bring them to church/youth group so the pastor can preach the gospel to them” mentality. BTW, I’m preaching to myself above all here. Get to know the “heathens” (kidding) around you. Have them over for a movie night. Have a bonfire. Invite your neighbors over for dinner. Before you venture out, I would encourage you to read UnChristian. It’ll give you a startling view of what your “unbelieving” friends probably think about you. Then become friends with them. Love them as they are. Don’t love them just because you’re going to share the gospel with them. Be friends long enough for them to notice there’s something different about you. For that to happen: a) there has to be something different about you!! b) your friendship has to be solid enough to talk about spiritual matters. Above all, pray for them! We used to talk about 3 friends. Have 3 friends always that you’re praying for that God might open their hearts to the gospel of Christ.

I’ve ventured pretty far off topic here, so let’s return to verse 1! We’re at a severe disadvantage in terms of intuitively understanding the word stronghold here in America. Places like Ft. Riley are strongholds protected by technology and fence. We don’t see the unassailable aspect of it. I grew up next to the Iowa State Penitentiary, but that’s really designed to keep people in, not out. I don’t think I really got the stronghold concept till I visited Ireland. The sheer size of the castles is intimidating. When I read passages like this, I can’t help but think of Ireland and places in Israel like Masada, which was built into the mountain right to the sheer cliff face. Yet all of those fortresses were assailable. Masada was conquered (it took the Romans some fancy engineering to build a ramp), along with the awesome castles in Ireland are the ruined castles. We have something greater yet in the Lord. He is the unassailable stronghold of our lives. With that, who do we have to fear? When evildoers attack, it is they who fail! When you are under siege, remember this and praise the Lord!

Psalm 150

" Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!" (Psalm 150, ESV)

Wow, I think the psalmist managed to put every instrument of the ancient world in here. I suppose he felt the need to hammer his point home. Let’s start with all the instruments and then end up back at the beginning.

Ah, the trumpet! What a biblically foundational instrument to play. Trumpet players must be in a higher echelon of God’s people…. JK. We first hear about the trumpet inExodus 19:16-20, where the trumpet announces the coming presence of the Lord. The trumpet was used to call the people of Israel (Lev 23:24, Num 10:2, Num 10:8). Also, the trumpet was used often in war, but I think it’s important to notice the significance of Num 10:9. The trumpet was used so the people might be remembered before the Lord. Fast forward to the New Testament, and we see in 1 Thess 4:16that the Lord’s coming again will be announced by the sound to the trumpet of God.

Next we praise Him with the lute and harp. Unfortunately we don’t actually know what any of these instruments looked or sounded like. We can infer, but that’s it. When I think of a lute, it’s almost like a guitar with a whole lot of strings, but like I said, that’s speculation. The harp referred to here is the lyre.. I think I’ve got a mental picture of these two instruments, but then I read 1 Chr 16:28 where it says they made loud music on harps and lyres (same Hebrew words). I had pictured these stringed instruments as being a soft sound, but perhaps not. I would guess the author is simply poetically contrasting the “brass” (actually likely a ram’s horn, although in Numbers the Israelites were instructed to make 2 silver trumpets) with the stringed instruments.

Boy, I hate to even bring up the next verse in the Baptist church……. 

The tambourine was an instrument associated closely with dance. We see dance as a part of praise throughout the bible in places like 1 Chr 16:29 where David was being undignified in his praise to the Lord. We get the picture from the ensuing argument with his wife that fear of man should not drive our worship, but rather our reaction to the Lord. How much does the fear of man drive our worship today? Say you’re a person who likes to raise their hands in worship? It’s a biblical expression in worship (Ps 28:2, Ps 134:2, Lam 3:41, 1 Tim 2:8). Some people feel called to lift their hands in worship, some don’t. Both are okay, it’s accepted in the Bible, but it’s not commanded in the Bible. If you were a person called to raise hands in worship, and you were in a congregation with hands down, would you raise your hands? Why not?

The same case of using every instrument we have at our disposal is again built with the cymbals. Clashing cymbals aren’t the most elegant of instruments. There isn’t a lot that you can communicate with a cymbal. There is no finesse to a cymbal. Cymbals are not poetic, or orderly for that matter. Yet the psalmist says that we can praise the Lord in cymbals. For whom do you crash the cymbal? Do you draw attention to the Lord, or yourself?

So who should be doing all of this praising? Everything that has breath!!!! We look forward to the day when every tribe, and every nation and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. How wonderful it will be before the throne, in His sanctuary Praising the Lord.

Psalm 40: Part 4

“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”” (Psalm 40:6-8, ESV)

This portion of the Psalm is wrought with Messianic connections and yet speaks so closely to our hearts as we dive into the text.

Immediately upon reading this passage, I’m reminded of passages like Hos. 6:6,Micah 6:6-8, Isa 1:11 and especially Amos 5:21-24.  (BTW, if you’re on the blog, if you hover your mouse over the reference, the verse should pop up!)  As a worship leader, verses like this hit me pretty hard.  If you spend any amount of time reading worship blogs or books, you begin to realize that there are a whole lot of folks out there that spend a whole lot of time trying to figure out what the right way to worship is.  What songs do we use?  How often do we serve communion?  Should the lights be dimmed or full?  The questions and “biblical” answers go on and on! How we “do worship” has spawned whole volumes of material.

The Jews had a worship manual straight from God.   They had the Law of Moses, handed down directly from God specifying the sacrificial system and worship rites to follow.  There was just one problem.  The sacrifices weren’t about the animals, they weren’t about the ritual.  The sacrifices were about hearts bent towards God!  After all, if ever a group of people “had it together,” it was the Pharisees.  Jesus didn’t react well to the Pharisees.  In Philippians 3:2-11, Paul lays out just how good a Jew he really was.  He was as good of a person as you could be in the Hebrew world.  If anyone could boast, it was Paul.  What does he say about this?  “… I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Our hearts are what are important here.  We are to count all of our works and stuff as nothing compared to knowing Christ!

So what is the Psalm talking about when it says, “You have given me an open ear?” The Hebrew here is a bit ambiguous, but the same phrase is used in places like Ex 21:6 talking about a slave’s ear being pierced.  In one way here, this could be read essentially, though You have not delighted in sacrifices and offerings, you have made me your servant.  The Septuagint translated this phrase, “a body hast thou prepared me,” which is the translation that the writer of Hebrews uses in Hebrews 10:5-7when referencing this passage as a Messianic prophecy.  Since Jesus himself used the Septuagint, we can be fairly certain that it was a faithful translation of the Hebrew into Greek.

Out of curiosity, I spent some time reading Jewish commentaries on this passage where they backlash against the use of this verse in Hebrews saying that the passage is obviously David talking.  They miss entirely the idea that the Spirit speaking through the writer can say something and mean two things.  There is sometimes an obvious meaning and a meaning that won’t be fulfilled until the remote future.  This passage is one of those with amphibological meaning.  There are two different, but fully correct interpretations.

The writer of Hebrews rightly realized the second meaning of these verses as the pre-incarnate Christ speaking through David.  In this section of Hebrews, the writer is pointing out how the sacrificial system was and could never be enough for God.  Christ therefore comes to offer a better way.  Look at this passage from the perspective of Christ saying it,

“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ” (Hebrews 10:5-7, ESV)

The writer of Hebrews goes on to explain, “When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:8-10, ESV)

Let’s head back to the David centered meaning of the Psalm to end up.  David says, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”  Kind of reminds you of Jeremiah 31:33-34 doesn’t it?  We have the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Rather than studying the Torah, we have the Law of the Lord written on our very hearts.   He forgives our iniquities and remembers our sin no more!  What a great truth that is.  Praise God for the work done at the cross!

Psalm 40: Part 3

You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

(Psalm 40:5)

I loved growing up in the country.  We had the aforementioned timber, a pond to fish in, and snapping turtles to shoot BB guns at.  You know what one of the coolest things was?  Stars.  Yes, on a clear night, you could clearly see the stars.  Have you ever lain out at night and started counting stars?  The funny thing is, the more you stare at the sky and focus, the more stars you begin to see.  That’s the picture I get here from David.  The more we see God for who He is, the more we see His glory!

Let me quote the good Dr. Spurgeon here, because he says it better than I ever could.  “Creation, providence and redemption, teem with wonders as the sea with life.  Our special attention is called by this passage to the marvels which cluster around the cross and flash from it.  The accomplished redemption achieves many ends, and compasses a variety of designs; the outgoing of the atonement are not to be reckoned up, the influences of the cross reach further than the beams of the sun.  Wonders of grace beyond all enumeration take their rise from the cross; adoption, pardon, justification, and a long chain of godlike miracles of love proceed from it…. Let our interest in our God be ever to us our peculiar treasure.”

Then we hit a recurring theme throughout the Psalms, and indeed the whole of the Bible.  David says yet again, “I will proclaim and tell of them.”  Noticing is one thing.  Proclaiming is quite another.  How are the lost to hear if we don’t tell them?  The Word tells us that if He so desires, the very rocks can cry out for us, but it is our task to share His gospel.

Are we running out of things to say?  If we are, then we need to open our eyes!  The Lord is doing a work in your life.  He is guiding you, changing you and sustaining you.  Here is where that study of theology comes in.  I’m convinced that the more we study Him, the more we will be drawn to praise Him!  Here’s the part I love most.  No matter how many books have been written, Psalms or Hymns have been sung, preachers have preached, His wondrous deeds are still too much than can be told!  Throughout the whole of human history, we have been trying to tell of the glory of God, and that hasn’t and will never be enough!  If you ever hear someone say they’ve got a grasp on God and His works, they might not quite understand just who God is.

Let us consider the Trinity.  There is a lot out there you can read on the Trinity, and you can come to a good knowledge base about the Trinity.  You can begin to understand the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in oneness as God.  You can read many scholarly works of men who have thought of the Trinity.  You can know that it is a true doctrine through that study.  You can understand many aspects of it, but can you ever truly understand the Trinity this side of heaven?  I’m going to say no.  But that certainly doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pursue a greater understanding the length of our lives.  The nice part is, we can be sure that we will never really understand our Lord until we are faced with Him before the throne, and then we will really worship!

Psalm 40: Part 2

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. 

(Psa 40:2-3 ESV)

When we were kids, my brother and I used to spend our summers “exploring” the timber. Word of explanation. In Iowa, some people own a plot of woods known as a stand of timber. Usually timbers are used for such activities as deer hunting and turkey hunting. On the edge of our timber, Mom put in a pond, and through the timber ran a very small creek. That creek is where my brother and I would lose our boots.

The ground was soft clay, and apparently the combination of clay and water would create what my brother and I would affectionately call “quick mud.” I would be walking along, and then suddenly one foot would go down. Stuck. Trying to pull the foot out boot intact was pointless; the mud’s pull was too strong. The only solution was to extricate (good word usage huh) my foot from the boot, then pulling together, Eric and I could with all our might get the boot out. From that point on in the day, we would be careful to walk on the rocks.

Psalm 40 says, “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay.” How often are we walking through life when suddenly we’re stuck in the mud? The only difference is that we don’t have a boot to take off. The only way to extricate ourselves from the situation is to have someone else pull us out. Going back to verse 1 from a couple of weeks ago, God hears our cry and pulls us out of the mud and sets us on the Rock. Christ. The Hymn writer says, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

How true. Only in Christ can I walk without getting bogged down. Unfortunately, I don’t know about you, but I seem to, more often than not, think that I can handle stuff. I say, “No, that’s okay God, I’ve got this one.” And so begins the mucking about until finally I’m stuck and I have to cry out for help. What would my walk look like if I spent less time getting myself stuck, and more time walking on the Rock?

Speaking of reliance on God, what does this needed reliance say about our worship? “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” He put, not I put! I don’t have any capacity to worship God minus the Holy Spirit. None, none whatsoever. This should and does concern me. Really. Do I quench the moving of the Spirit in worship? I’m talking both private and corporate worship. What gets in the way? The obvious answer is me of course, but what do I do about that? How do I get myself out of the way? I don’t! But I’d better be spending serious time with the Lord, so that when I’m worshipping the focus upward is already in place.

The next verse is great. What is the result of living this way? “Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” Here is a promise we need to grab hold of. If we walk with the Lord, we are going to be different and people are going to notice.

Psalm 40: Part 1

I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

I’m sure that you’ve heard and know quite well that we’re living in a culture of instant gratification. Want a burger? Go to Wendy’s (shameless product placement), order one, and in less than a minute, you have one. Want to hear the new song by Seventh Day Slumber? Go to Rhapsody, look it up and you’re listening. Remember back in the day when if you wanted to watch a TV show, you had to actually sit down at that time and watch it, commercials and all? That, or a tech savvy person could program his/her VCR to record the program on tape, so he/she could watch a scratchy, fuzzy recording later with the ability to fast forward through commercials. Now you can TiVo it, or go only the next day and watch your favorite show with minimal commercials in high quality video.

This instant gratification culture carries into every aspect of our lives. I can’t tell you how many sixth graders were shocked to discover playing an instrument was hard and required work. Our attention spans have become increasingly shorter and shorter. Today, the music is 3-5 minutes long per song. Certainly no time for theme development! The idea of listening though something like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for 74 minutes is totally foreign. Matter of fact, when we would listen to the fourth movement in it’s entirety, I could guarantee one or more students walking out of my class in protest. That was always a fun conversation with the principal. He would ask, “You mean they’d rather have a detention than listen to 30 minutes of music?” I’d reply, “Yep!”

So let’s put this in a spiritual context. Re read things like John 16:23-24 that say, “in that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you…. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Sweet, the ask and ye shall receive verse! We know that one pretty well. Bring on the instant gratification. Does God work like that. Not to say that sometimes He doesn’t answer prayers immediately, but that’s His prerogative, not ours.

Are you frustrated by asking things of the Lord and not immediately seeing answers? We need to hear Psalm 40, “I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me, and heard my cry.” Patiently. Let me say it again, Patiently. You know when Spurgeon wrote on Psalm 40 in The Treasury of David, he barely spends any time at all on that word. Maybe it’s because that word didn’t stand in stark contrast to society then.

This is something my heart needs to hear. I need to be asking the Lord for patience. And I need to patiently ask the Lord for patience! I need to cry out to Him constantly. I need to cry out to Him desperately. When I ask Him to move in the hearts of people, is it a flippant, on the side comment, or is it like the parable of the Persistent Widow. Jesus says in Luke 18,

“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

We read this, and yet, I don’t know about you, but I catch the part about, “He will give justice to them speedily.” I miss the part about, “who cry to him day and night.” Are we persistent and patient? Shouldn’t we be? What does this look like in your life? Have you been crying out for the lost day and night? Do you pray earnestly for our missionaries abroad in the world? I don’t, but just how dissatisfied am I with my prayer life am I? Not enough.

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Guarantees are funny things. Try to do a Google search on guarantee sometime. It’s fun to read the wild claims companies make to try to give you a feeling of security. Here are some examples. “Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise. We do not want you to have anything from [our company] that is not completely satisfactory.” How about this news story from late October? “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) said Sunday on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that he can ‘guarantee’ a win on Nov.4 in a squeaker victory that won’t be clear until late that night.”

How about Biblical guarantees? If you believe some of the television preachers these days, the Bible guarantees that followers of Christ will live healthy, financially secure lives. Really? When I read the Bible, I see a guarantee that we will have storms in this life. I see that followers of Christ will be persecuted. A quick look at the lives of the apostles doesn’t show a life of ease and comfort. How many times was Paul beaten within an inch of his life? Paul was shipwrecked, imprisoned and eventually martyred for his faith. A third of the Psalms are laments. It looks like the one true guarantee we have in this life is trouble.

Our lives are and will be full of trials. God gets this. Matter of fact, we have a loving Father willing to send His Son to endure more pain and agony that we can imagine, so that we might be His children. We have a loving Savior with the power to conquer sin and death, who sits at the right hand of the Father. The Psalmist says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Our refuge, our fortress, our unassailable bunker. He is present through those trials that will besiege us. He stands strong for us in our weakness. The earth can shake, the mountains crash into the sea, and the seas can rise (perhaps the Psalmist heard of global warming), but we can hold fast in the knowledge that our Lord God is with us. What a magnificent promise! Martin Luther often would say to the people around him during times of duress, “Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.” Then they would sing, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, Ein gute Wehr un Waffen,” “A firm fortress is our God, a good bulwark and weapon.”

Not only does the Father stand with us in the storms of life, He supplies us with peace and joy. “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” Are you tapping into that river? When troubles beset you, to which bunker do you head? Do you head for the fear bunker? How about the worry bunker? Personally, I head for the isolation bunker. When the storms hit, I slam the doors and cut the hard lines. There’s no source of joy in any of these bunkers. I tell you what bunker I need. I need to head for the God bunker. In it are things like prayer, the Word, the Body of Christ and the paraclete, the Holy Spirit. In it, there is a river to feed my soul and give me strength. His Kingdom will not be moved though the nations may rage, and the earth may melt. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

I want to camp on one more point from the Psalm here. Verse ten says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The context here is talking about the nations being still, but I think there is application in our lives. I’m a kind of guy who likes to be busy. Jodie will tell you that when we first got married, carving out time for her was a serious issue. I remember my first year teaching when during part of the year, I was teaching Jazz band before school, marching band on the weekends, stage construction and design right after school for the musical I was directing on three nights of the week. On the other nights I either had worship team practice, or I had Attaboy Dave (our college ministry praise band) practice. Sundays were full with church, choir and evening church. My life was crazy, and the weird thing is that I kind of crave that kind of busyness. Jodie has to remind me frequently that I’m on the verge of filling up every night with something. When do I take time to be still? When do I stop, put down the stress and spend time with God? This is an area in which I’ve grown over the last year, but I have a long way to go. When are you being still? Are you taking time to know your God?

Psalm 34 (part 4)

 

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

(Psa 34:15-22 ESV)

 

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Boy, I could read this Psalm over and over again! I have begun the extremely lengthy process of memorizing.

 

Totally off subject tangent. I’m bad at memorization. I mean really bad. There are songs that I have been singing for years, and I still don’t know them. It took me most of Friday night at Bethlehem Revisited to learn verse 2 of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. That’s four hours of constant exposure to learn 4 lines of text. Sad, huh? The really sad thing is that if you were to ask me next week to sing it, I would have no clue. Which brings us to the subject of poor excuses. I was struck at Monday night’s Elder meeting as the Student Mobilization staff used verses to answer every question just how pitiful my learned knowledge of the Word is. My excuse? I don’t memorize well. So! Moses didn’t talk so well. God’s Word tells us that His Word is our sword and shield. I suppose it’s about time I arm myself for the battle.

Tangent finished, back to the Psalm.  When I was a teacher, I was often accused of playing favorites. It used to bother me … a lot. I don’t know about you, but I never liked teachers who played favorites. Of course, looking back, those were the teachers that didn’t have me as a favorite. Anyway, I considered this for many years before I realized that as a teacher, I gravitated towards the kids who wanted to be taught. The indifferent kids (rightly or wrongly) were largely ignored in my interactions with the students that interacted pro-actively. The “bad” kids? My philosophy was to remove them from the classroom when they caused a distraction to the kids who wanted to learn. I’m sure you can see the connection here to the Psalm in my very imperfect example.

God looks towards the righteous and looks away from the wicked. It’s like He wants to spend His time on the people that want to grow. When they cry for help or are brokenhearted, He is right there, guiding and supporting every step of the way. To connect back to the teaching example, God is not like the Algebra teacher who explained the concept and then left the students to flounder on their own. He is like the teacher who would take whatever time it took (you know, the teacher available after class, who was willing to take precious class time to work through problems) to make sure their students understood the concepts at hand. God doesn’t leave His children to flounder! He is good to come alongside and guide us.

But! David says in Psalm 14, “The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no on who does good, not even one.”Doesn’t look so good huh? These two Psalms combined don’t say great things about our chances to be God’s “favorites.”

But! David points to our hope in both Psalms. In Psalm 14 he says, “Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores His captive people, Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.” He’s a bit more subtle in Psalm 34, but verse 20 sticks out like a sore thumb. “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”Where else in the Bible does it talk about broken bones?

Talking about the sacrificial lamb in Exodus, the Lord commands, “… and you shall not break any of its bones.” We have a Lamb whose bones were never broken. John 19:32-33 says, “So the soldiers cam and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.”

Crucifixion was a horrific means of punishment. You would think it would be the nails, or the exposure to the elements that would kill the person hanging there, but actually the person on the cross would die from suffocation. The way the Romans hung a person caused there to be terrible pressure on the chest and lungs, meaning the only way to get a breath was for the person to painfully straighten their legs. This meant putting pressure on the stacked feet with a nail through, scraping the back against the splintery wood, rubbing the skin raw. Often the person would hang for a long time, but the Jews were in a hurry because of the approaching Sabbath. To speed up the process of killing, the soldiers would break the legs of the victims so they could no longer stand. In other words, crucified people had their legs broken, but not the Lamb of God. This fulfilled the requirements set down in Exodus and alluded to in Psalm 34.

Also, as Christ took the sins of the world upon Himself on the cross, the Father had to turn away, as is His nature to turn away from sin. But, Jesus rose from the grave, gloriously conquering sin and death! What’s more, when we are in Christ, when the Father looks at us, He sees Christ. We can finally have God look at us! Psalm 34 then becomes the comfort and truth it was obviously intended by David to be! “The Lord redeems the life of His servants, none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”

Psalm 34 (part 3)

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. (Psa 34:8-14 ESVESV)

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Don’t take my word for it. When was the last time you used this statement? Usually we say it when something just sounds too good to be true. Statements like, “Ireland is green,” or “Hawaii is a paradise,” or “soft boiled eggs on toast is good.” Until you’ve seen Ireland or Hawaii or tasted soft boiled eggs on toast, these statements don’t incite a visceral reaction. It’s almost like David is daring someone here. He’s saying, “See for yourself, the Lord is good.” It also evokes a visceral reaction for those who know that the Lord is good! It brings us to nodding our heads in emphatic agreement.

Do we say this in our words and actions? Do we say, “Look! The Lord is good. Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself.” Who are we saying it to? I don’t know about you, but I’m awfully isolated. I suppose it doesn’t help that I’m antisocial, but doesn’t the Word say, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” How can we step out of our comfort zones? Are you praying for friends to come to the Lord? It certainly won’t happen without the work of the Holy Spirit, and we need to intercede on their behalf.

There we are, right? Share your faith with your friends. Ah, but as the author of The Great Omission points out, we can’t stop there. David goes on to teach us how to taste and see. Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Wait a second! Doesn’t He mean go and make converts? Maybe it was translated wrong. It’s all Greek to me…. Never mind. The word here means either to follow precepts and instructions or to teach or instruct. Teach or instruct. That sounds an awful lot like what David is doing in Psalm 34. It’s not enough to pray our friends in the door, we’re called to make disciples. Who are you pouring into? Whew, talk about Christian jargon. Who are you deliberately teaching and instructing in the Way? Pastor Flack said Sunday that the Gospel isn’t the safety instructions at the beginning of the flight, it’s the whole flight plan. Who’s co-pilot are you?

My reaction to this kind of teaching? I don’t have it together yet. I’ll disciple when things are going right. After all, look at the heroes of the Bible. They had it together. David, Peter, all the other disciples…. Oh wait, not exactly stellar flawless guys. Matter of fact, doesn’t it seem like God uses the unlikely guys to do His work? Why? “When we are weak, He is strong.” Brings us right back to God receiving glory! When it is so terribly obvious that we can’t do something, and God works through us to get it done, it just shows how the Lord has worked.

I’m always reminded of this on Sunday mornings when things don’t go so well. You know, everything sort of collapses in on itself. The screen doesn’t sync perfectly. The guitar strings snap in the middle of a verse, forcing an a capella chorus. My brain fries in the middle of a prayer. Almost without exception those are the Sundays where I hear how wonderful the worship was. Certainly not me, but God be praised. This is how we should be with discipleship and evangelism. Let’s step out in faith. We’ll mess stuff up, because we are only human, but at the end, God will be praised!