Psalm 46 revisited

I primarily, if not solely, do this blog for my amusement and no one else's amazement.

I really enjoy the psalms.

So here we go with a revisit of Psalm 46. 

    I revisited Psalm 46 in preparation for a funeral.

    Psalm 46 says this. 

 ¹God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Presence. God is with you and me. He said in Heb. 13:5 “I will never leave you or forsake you.” We may feel lonely, but we are never alone. God is there. Jesus said that I go to prepare a place for you but then He also says "I won’t leave you as orphans, I will send you a Comforter." 

     That means Jesus is literally in heaven with those who have trusted Him. The Bible says not only will God be present with us, but after this life is over, we will be present with the Lord. 

In 2 Cor. 5, Paul said this:

1For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7For we live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

     So God is present with us and after this life, we are present with the Lord, immediately and without delay, without fear, without worry.

Promise. Secondly in Psalm 46, I want to look at God’s Assurance in hard times.  ²Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, ³though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. ⁴There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

     God doesn’t promise us a rose garden here on earth. There are going to be times when we are afraid, there’s going to be earthquakes, physically and emotionally. There’s going to be fire and floods. Don't doubt, but believe. If faith in God is worth anything, it is worth it when we go through the mountains falling, the waters roaring, the rivers rising. God never fails us, not really. 

     Why do I say that? How can I say when we go through health problems and death and lonely times and dreams disappointed? Because of God’s promise is that in eternity, only our successes and victories in Christ last. When this life is over, eternity is only just beginning. God’s promise is true.

Power. Third I want to see in Psalm 46 not only God’s presence with us and our future presence with Him, not only do I see God’s promise to get us through life and death. But listen to God’s power.

⁶Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. ⁷The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. ⁸Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. ⁹He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shield with fire.

    Paul said in the New Testament, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation.” 

     Jesus prayed for Thine is the kingdom and power and the glory.” When he was resurrected, He said all power was given to him in heaven and on earth. But He is not selfish with that power, because in Luke 24:49, he says through the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, He will give to us. 

   There is a power that we have from God to go through these tough times, but it is not from us, it is from God. There is a dunamis power from which we get the word dynamite. It’s a power that doesn’t come from within, it is a power that is though it came from an outside source.

      You may say, Pastor Tim, I don’t care about having power. I don’t care a bit about power. Look again at God’s power ⁹He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shield with fire.

    God gives us power to rest. He has the power to end the war that is within us.

   Pilate stood before Jesus and said “Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.

    Jesus gives us power over the grave. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

     He even gives us power to become a child of God. We are all creation but we are not all His children. John 1:12 says “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Peace. Finally back in Psalm 46 there is a fourth part of this message for us today. ¹⁰He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” ¹¹The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

There is a calmness that we have because of God. If you are a believer you know what I am talking about. There is a book that’s called “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.” If I were to write one, it would be “I don’t have enough strength to be an atheist.” 

   Why? Because I love having the peace of God. I love having the God of the universe living within me. No it’s not just the power of positive thinking. It’s not having a good attitude or some Polyanna optimism. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.

     Lord knows none of us  are perfect, but we know the one who is perfect.And He loves us perfectly and gives us perfect peace. 

     We can have peace when we go to a funeral because we can be still and know that God is God. We are going to heaven not based on how good we are, we aren’t that good, but how good he was to send us Jesus to die on the cross. 

     We can have power to become a child of God by believing and receive Him.  We have peace and power because He who promised is faithful and true. 

    And like I wrote at the beginning, we have his presence here on earth and when this life is over we will be present with him in Glory. 

Persevere when all else fails

Key Principle #7: Perseverance (part 2)

Read Acts 5:12-42

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtlJ9LMMxJI

     Perseverance is especially needed by the church. Too often, we are not taught that the rewards of perseverance may in fact be persecution. In the west, it hasn’t as yet resulted in imprisonment, at least not commonly, but we are seeing more and more the world protesting the church when it takes Scripturally accurate stands for Christ.

     This happens in the church and it happens in the world. Maybe at work, you are doing everything you should be doing, but the person in the next cubicle gets the promotion because he went to the bar with the boss and brown-nosed his way to the top. Or you missed getting the title of valedictorian because someone else transferred into your school and the grades transferred in by her weren’t as academically demanding as yours were.

     There are times when a person will consistently tithe and follow God’s leadership and still face financial setbacks or even bankruptcy. A spouse will faithfully keep her marital vows and follow the Biblical commands for a godly marriage, yet see her husband commit adultery and file for divorce. Parents will faithfully train up their children in the way they should go, and yet never see their prodigals come back to the Lord, even when they grow old.

     Whenever I would lead mission trips, especially with teenagers, I would teach the team two simple rules to go by. Rule Number 1: There is a God. Rule Number 2: You are not Him! The point is that we have to follow the rules and that we don’t make them up. Somebody has to be in charge and that typically is not going to be a group of kids who may think they are smarter than the youth minister. 

     Still, we typically think that because God doesn’t play by our rules and because He doesn’t answer our prayers the way that we want Him to, somehow He has failed us. But look in the Bible and you and I can quickly see that God has “failed” a whole lot of people from their point of view, but in reality, He really does know what He’s doing.

    Have you memorized Galatians 6:9? “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

Dear Lord, help me to remember that You alone are God and I am not.
When I want to question You, let me instead trust You.
Do not let me lose heart.

Amen.

When good is repaid with evil...

Key Word Study: Perseverance

Acts 5:12-42

     We at our church just finished the first of what I hope to be several OCLOC ministry days, occurring no less than quarterly and preferably monthly or if need be more often.

     OCLOC stands for Our Church Loves Our Community. The lesson we learn from the early church is that they not only loved their church (Acts 2) but they also loved their community, even when the community didn't love them (at all!). 

      In Acts 5:12-42, we see that it wasn’t just Peter and John preaching, teaching and reaching their community, but now it was all of the apostles who were teaching about Christ. Imagine the boldness it took to be put in prison, miraculously released and then to go back to the same temple all over again.  The Key Word of perseverance is all over the latter part of Acts 5. 

     As  a result of their love and perseverance despite opposition, the community held the apostles in high esteem (see Acts 5:13). 

     Despite the opposition, Simon Peter did not tone down his sermons and did not even try to accommodate those who believed a different way. If anything, he pushed the pedal to the floor and gunned his spiritual motor!

     When I was in eighth grade, I got a paddling for doing something innocent enough: I was smiling at the teacher. Okay, maybe I wasn’t just smiling, I was actually laughing at the teacher underneath my smile, but still I was just smiling. He took me and my friend Paul (who was also “smiling” with me) out of the classroom and gave us “licks” with a wooden “attitude adjustment” board!  Even though I wasn’t thoroughly innocent, I remember the injustice of being punished for something as simple as smiling!

     If you have ever been punished or rebuked for doing something right, you probably understand one of Murphy’s laws: No good, kind, and selfless deed will ever go unpunished.

     The disciples got something much worse than a simple paddling and they were doing things so much better than simply smiling. They were performing signs and wonders, which generally meant they were healing those who were sick; they were maintaining a good reputation with the people; they were in one accord with each other (oh, that churches could do that today!); they were growing and adding to the every day; people were coming from all around to be delivered from their afflictions.

     With all that being done, we would think God would bless their efforts and deliver to them peace, prosperity, and freedom from opposition. But the Scriptures, history and personal experience teaches us that there are times when you do things rightly, sometimes everything turns out wrongly.

     It is this type of perseverance that would eventually lead Peter to write in his first epistle, “But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God” (1 Peter 2:20). Jesus was of course right to change Simon's name to Peter, but based on what we know now, the Lord would not have been too far off to have also occasionally called him “Murphy”.     

     The next few days we will be looking at perseverance in doing well. Consider a memory verse for this week:

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Galatians 6:9

Heavenly Father, today I forgive those who have taken my good deeds and returned evil for the good I do. My greatest example for this is of course found in Your Son and my Lord Jesus Christ. Help me not to grow weary in doing well.

Amen.

Were YOU There?

     “Were you there?” The song has a haunting melancholy flow to it that makes the singer or listener ponder our own sinfulness that led up to Jesus’ crucifixion. I was at a Good Friday service listening to this song and it caused me to think...

     “Were you there” when Jesus asked the disciples to pray? Have you ever been weary and lax in praying, falling asleep when you needed to be vigilant?

     “Were you there” when opposition came to arrest Jesus? We all have had times when we could have stood with Jesus and yet we fled. From a distance we warm our hands at the fire, while Jesus is beaten and mocked. Our gaze leaves the security of the fire only to lock eyes with our Lord who looks at us not so much when condemnation we deserve, but with eays saddened and grieved by our abandonment of Him.


     “Were you there” when mockers questioned whether Jesus was the Christ? No, we wouldn’t taunt Him, but we have questioned him. We’ve been angry with Him. We have put Christ on trial when we go through our trials and somehow we proclaim Him guilty of not being the Messiah we wanted Him to be. Yes, we’ve been there.

     “Were you there” in Judas’ regret? Materialism sways us from following Christ. We’ve compromised for far less than 30 pieces of silver. The hollow and empty return of our investment ends at a pauper’s grave, knowing we’ve betrayed innocent blood in our selfish greed, but it is too late.

     “Were you there” in Pilate’s indecision? Back and forth we go, should we or shouldn’t we? We know what is right, and yet we feel we can do what is wrong and merely wash our hands after the deed is done. We question, look for a loophole, then wind up listening to the crowd. Yes, we have been there.

     “Were you there” with chief priest and scribes? Religious ritualism, not atheism, is the true opposition of Christianity. Security over sacred, familiar traditions over true relationship with God robs us from fellowship with our Lord. “His blood be upon us and our children” is indeed what we need to say, yet we cry out “we have no king but Caesar.”

     “Were you there” in calling for Barabbas to be freed? One guilty goes free, while One innocent pays a price undeservedly. The great exchange does more than free one murderer. Had Christ been freed, we all would be as enchained, imprisoned and ultimately executed as Barabbas should have been. Yet we can walk free. Yes, we were there.

     “Were you there” when He could not carry the cross? Did you weep as He passed, only to hear Him say “weep for yourselves and your children”? We would not have helped carry that cross unless someone forced us to. The weight would be too heavy, the Savior’s blood on the cross would ruin our clothes. We have other things to do than carry that cross, or so we think until we are forced to walk that Via de la Rosa at the pulled sword of the Roman guard.

     “Were you there” on your own cross for your own sins? Which one were you? Taunting until the end, or pleading for a simple remembrance by the Lord when He enters the Kingdom. Pain on your hands and feet fade with His words of Hope, “Today…Paradise.”

     “Were you there” with His mother? Who is His mother? Where are His brothers and sisters? They are not still here on earth, are they? “Behold thy mother,” He whispered. “Behold thy son,” He groaned. The least of these are still among us. “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” He had asked so long ago. “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

     Was I there? Yes, we all were and sometimes it causes me to tremble.


Pray: Precious Lord Jesus. Thank you is not enough. Words are not enough. My life back to You is not enough. Only Your blood was enough to allow me to say simply this: Thank You. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Our battles are real and so is our mighty God

    Psalm 56
February 28
     I find fascinating how versatile and applicable the psalms are to our lives three thousand years later. And while application is always a must, these writings were most applicable to the situations in which they were written.

     We might think, “David was so scared, so afraid” but we must remember that David was in battle, hand-to-hand combat much of the time in which these psalms were written. He had literally killed more than 10,000 men without weapons of mass destruction. David was literally a prisoner of war and there were no Geneva Convention codes back then.

     I say that because I am honored to serve at a church on the doorstep of Fort Hood military installation, the most populous military installation in the world. I see the hardships that many military families go through and as a minister, I want the soldiers and their families to draw strength and healing from the words of the Scriptures, especially the psalms which were mostly written either in the battlefield or with the battlefield in mind.

     “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You,” (Ps. 56:3) is a great verse for children to memorize in a thunderstorm, but it was written by a mighty man of valor. The following verse (56:4), “I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” was quoted in the New Testament (Heb. 13:6) as well as elsewhere in Psalms (118:6) and later in this same psalm (verse 11). Verse 8, “Put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book” was not written by a timid man but shows that God cares and will care for us.

    Whatever you are going through, man or woman, boy or girl, God is with you and He will fight for you!

The greater the love, the greater the capacity for grief

Psalm 55

February 27

 

     Psalm 52 speaks of betrayal from an enemy. Psalm 54 is about a betrayal of a fellow countryman and even a kinsman. This psalm is from a fellow believer. It’s as though David is singing the blues and the hits they just keep coming.

     David said “I could handle it better if it was an enemy or even an acquaintance that I really didn’t like, then I could hide from him” (Ps. 55:12).  “But it was you, my equal, my companion, the one I took sweet counsel from as we walked together to worship.”

     I think about two best friends who used to go to church together and as they grew up, they also grew apart. Something snapped and they suddenly were estranged from each other and while one was indifferent to the distance, the other was devastated by her friend suddenly dropping her. The closer you are to someone, the greater the hurt that can be caused.

     If a total stranger ignored me whenever I said “Hello,” I would think it strange even rude, but it wouldn’t ruin my entire day. But if a close friend and fellow believer suddenly just ignored me, the pain would be magnified immensely.

     Turn that around to the Lord. No one loves you more than He does. And He has given so much to us. But sometimes we forget that not only can God love, He also feels hurt, pain and grief. If His love for us is immeasurable, does it not follow that His grief is also measureless when we “betray” Him in our sins, in our unfaithfulness, in our distance from Him?

     If a believer or a church or even a staff member or pastor has hurt your feelings, I truly am sorry. But undoubtedly you and I have hurt someone else, our Lord, by our actions. The greater the love, the greater the ability to be hurt. Confess the distance you have made between yourself and the Lord as sin and pledge to draw near to Him. He will also draw near to you.

 

The worst hurt of all

Psalm 54

February 26

     It is one thing to be betrayed by an enemy, but to be betrayed by your own? Wow!

     Psalm 52 was written in response to David being betrayed by an Edomite, found in 1 Sam. 22, but today’s psalm is in response to David being betrayed by his own people, based on 1 Sam. 23:19 and verses following.

     Have you had close friends or coworkers abandon you or betray you? Join the club of David and of Jesus. Both David and Jesus were of the lineage of Judah, and yet Judas betrayed Jesus. And the people of David’s own kin and tribe told King Saul, a Benjamite, where David was hiding. Earlier in Psalm 41:9, we read this prophetic passage, “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me,” written by David, but applied to Jesus and Judas Iscariot.

    A church I know has a reputation of terminating more staff members and employees than any other church I have ever seen. I asked one terminated minister how long it took for his wife to get over the hurt of his termination and he said, “I don’t think she’ll ever get over it.” There are worse hurts. Some churches and even entire denominations have reputations of hurting and abusing children. The hurt from friends, family members, and family of God members can be one of the most devastating hurts that there are.

     Where did David turn when his own kin and kind suddenly became “strangers” “oppressors” (54:3) and “enemies” (54:5, 7)? He turned to God. When you need a friend or a brother, remember Jesus has called us friends (John 15:15) and if we have God as our Father, then Jesus is our brother (Matt. 12:50). And He will never betray you.

(This theme continues in Psalm 55)

Some messages bear repeating

Psalm 53

February 25

 

     Psalm 53 is almost identical to Psalm 14 with the exception of a few of the latter verses. Perhaps like our modern hymnals (is that an oxymoron?) where we list the same song to two different melodies, this psalm is sung “according to mahalath” or a different tune. Or maybe the psalmist decided like some of our contemporary artists to bring up an oldie but a goodie and add a few new lyrics.

     The targets addressed in psalm 53 are the atheists, the arrogant, and the antagonists of God’s people. All three had no fear of God… until God shows up at judgment day. Then “they are in great fear, where no fear was.” On the other hand, the people who believe in God, who recognize and repent of their sins, who are not antagonistic against God or His people, can rejoice and be glad (verse 6).

    At times, we believers are no better than the fools who don’t believe, as far as sins go. Paul would later use this verse and show that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23).

    Like the arrogant, we need to remember we have all sinned. Our sin and rebellion against God is not new, seen also in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way…”  But Isaiah doesn’t end there. “And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

    And sometimes we Christians are no better than that antagonists who devour the believers. Galatians 5:15 was written as a warning to Christians, “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!”

    Some messages need to be repeated and obviously this psalm does as well.

Going from bad to worse...to outright evil

Psalm 52

February 24

     There is bad and then there is outright evil. Imagine a political leader, the head of a sovereign nation, ordering the execution of religious leaders simply because they gave his enemy some food. That’s what King Saul had done to 85 priests who had helped Saul’s enemy, David. Additionally, the entire city of priests was also destroyed, priests as well as the women and children.

     People often complain about their government or the bad things that happen to them, but there is true evil in our world, desperately wicked people. How does one get to be that evil?

     A poor shepherd by the name of Doeg saw the priests give David food and simply went and reported it to King Saul. When Saul became enraged by those who helped his enemy, he ordered the priests to be killed but no one would do it…except Doeg. He thought this was his chance to strike it rich. He was from another country so it didn’t matter to him if he killed some Israelites, even an entire city. According to Ps. 52:7, Doeg went from his bad poverty and quickly turned to outright evil.

     David felt the blow personally; after all, it was because of him that the evil had fallen on the priests. Rather than guilt or bitterness, David turned to God and to praising God. Rather than trusting in riches and power and revenge, David said, “I will trust in the mercy of God forever and ever…I will wait on your name, for it is good.”

   There is bad and there is outright evil. But there is good and outright mercy of God forever. Whatever you are going through, deepen your roots like an olive tree in the house of God. You won’t be uprooted.

The best word NOT in Psalm 51

Psalm 51

February 23

    

     There are so many great and wonderful words and phrases in this marvelous psalm of confession, repentance, forgiveness and restoration. But the greatest word is perhaps NOT even in this psalm. Here are the words included:

“Wash me/ cleanse me”
“Create in me”
“Renew a steadfast spirit within me”
“Wash me”
“Restore to me”
“Uphold me”

     The word “Then” is not even in verse 13 in the original language, but is inserted in most English translations, but I think it is possibly the greatest implied word in all of the Bible. If a word is italicized in NKJV/KJV translations, it generally means the word is implied but not directly stated. “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.”

    

The reason why I say that the word “then” is perhaps the greatest word NOT in this psalm is because David’s sins were not merely limited to David. The consequences of his sins, and our sins, extend far beyond us. David sinned against his people by not going out to war, against Uriah and Bathsheba, against his own family with consequences which would plague him even past his death, and against the child conceived by their union and the subsequent death of that child. Therefore, David’s restoration must also extend beyond himself.

   

As marvelous as David’s forgiveness, cleansing, purging, restoration and renewal, the most ultimate importance of all of those things is that verse which starts off with “then” and continues in stating that others may fear when they saw the great consequences of sin.

    

Good men are going to fall, hopefully not as greatly as David did, but the greatest of all things about this psalm is God is NEVER finished with us. God can still “hit a straight lick with a crooked stick.” Sinners can be converted and believers can “learn not to blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1:20) when they see God’s judgment as well as his restoration of even someone after his own heart like David.

      

Jesus said, “as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19). The writer of Hebrews said, “For whom the Lord loves, He chastens” (Heb. 12:6).

      

God loves us the way we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us the way we are.

  

One of the best ways to praise the Lord is doing what He says

Psalm 50

February 22

     Psalm 50 is a perfectly linked to Matthew 23:23, the passage our pastor, Dr. Randy Wallace, preached Sunday. Jesus called out those who tithed on the tiniest amounts but left off the more important elements: justice and mercy and faith.

    A thousand years earlier, Asaph was vocalizing the same thing to the people of God. He said he was not going to rebuke the people for tithing (Ps. 50:8), even though He was the creator and owner of everything, including “the cattle on a thousand hills” (50:10-13).

     Bringing tithes and offerings are important, but it was almost as if the people hated the other instructions from God, which were against stealing, adultery, hurting their brothers and sisters,  lying and evil talking (50:17-20). The people thought they were so godly because they brought sacrifices, “but I will rebuke you.”

    I love the line where God, clarifying why His people should bring sacrifices to Him, says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine and all its fullness.” God didn’t need us to “feed” Him bulls and goats. And today, tithing doesn’t add to God’s riches, it all belongs to Him, any more than our being righteous adds to His righteousness. Being godly does not add to our salvation, since Christ paid it all.

     Our obedience does accomplish one thing, whether it is in giving or in godliness: it praises and glorifies God. A one-sentence summation of this psalm would be “One of the best ways to praise God is by doing what He says.”