The City of the Lord Almighty, the City of our God (Ps. 48:8)

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Psalm 48

February 20

 

    Are you as excited about the “city of God” as this psalmist is? He was speaking literally about the Jerusalem of his day, but prophetically, he was writing about the coming city of God which will descend out of heaven.

“Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2, NKJV).

“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,” (Rev. 21:10).

“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” (Rev. 21:23).

    There are several things in Psalm 48 that was not yet true yet of that day, and it is certainly not true today about the city of Jerusalem. But when we read this psalm with an eye on the heavenly city of God, it makes us excited about God’s present and future reign. Prophetically the psalmist wrote that at some point in the future “God will establish it (the city of God) forever” (verse 8).

     This political season is about the worse I have ever seen. The United States is getting less and less united and more and more divided. Our world fares no better than our country. But soon and very soon, we are going to see our King. What does it take to be a resident of the City of God, the New Jerusalem, that “city” that now exists in heaven? The final book and final two chapters of the Bible mentions the city of God 11 times in merely 48 verses.

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.” (Rev.22:14, ESV).

     Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? They only can be if you are among those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14). The Bible says “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin…If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7b, 9).

Sing praises...with understanding

Psalm 47

February 19

 

Being a parent of four diverse kids has always been interesting. Now that they are adults, it is even more … well interesting is an understatement. New child, new job, new school, ending school, new mission, joy, sadness, fear. Imagine God’s perspective of His children.
 

I wonder if the “sons of Korah” (the music leaders in the Old Testament days) ever led congregational singing with people who didn’t want to sing. Perhaps that is why this psalm was written with so much encouragement to sing and participate in the praise of the Lord. Look at verses 5 and 6: “Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth, sing praises with understanding.” That word understanding I think means, “sing with the experience and knowledge of your victory.”
 

Maybe the writers were simply overwhelmed with the greatness of God and wanted to put out there a song of triumph and praise, and to encourage others to sing. I remember when it used to be undignified or thought irreverent to clap your hands in church, and yet it is commanded for us to do so here. If we shout and cheer for our sports team, how much more should we sing for our awesome God who has brought us into victory?
 

In my era, there was a popular song of encouragement to sing which said, “Sing your praise to the Lord / I could never tell you just how much good / That it's gonna do you just to sing / Anew / The song your heart learned to sing / When He first gave His life to you / Well, life goes on and so must the song.”
 

I hope you haven’t lost your song, your song of salvation, your song of God’s deliverance. There is a time to weep, yes, and a time to mourn, but there is also a time to dance and a time to laugh (Ecclesiastes 3:4).
 

Whatever you are going through, there will be a shout, a song. And if you are in a congregation this Sunday and God has brought you through the valley and now on a mountaintop, then, “sing, sing, sing, let me hear you now sing, sing, sing.”

And if you are only familiar with Amy Grant's version of the song, listen to composer Rich Mullins' version. Truly awesome

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

 

"Be still" ... No, He's not just talking to the storms

Psalm 46

February 18

    A friend of mine told me years ago that worry is a subtle form of atheism. If that is true, I have symptoms of subtle atheism. Not really, but like the psalm from a few days ago, I frequently ask myself “why are you downcast, O my soul? Put your trust in God.”

     Psalm 46 has words to defeat the worrisome and stressful subtle absence of faith. From the beginning words of “a very present help in trouble,” to the ending oft-quoted verse of “be still and know that I am God,” this psalm is a Biblical refuge for those in need of God’s protection.

    There is no pie in the sky here. Believers are not immune from a healthy dose of reality. Yet, even if the earth is moved, mountains shake and fall into the sea; even if oceans roar, nations rage and kingdoms fall, the writer declares his refusal to give in to fear. He knows God is with him and in Him, he will take refuge. He knows God is Elyon, the most High God who can make even the wars of the earth to suddenly declare peace.

    One dark night the disciples were fearful that they would be drowned in the Sea of Galilee and woke the Lord, asking “don’t you care that we are about to die?” Jesus instantly calmed the storm and then had a question of His own: “Where is your faith?” They too had a question of themselves, “Who is this that commands even the winds and water?”

    Excuse me, as I need to read Psalm 46 again and then go speak to the gathering storms. I need to tell the winds and water that I am renouncing my subtle atheism.

Come away in reckless abandon

Psalm 45

February 17

    Like Proverbs 31 and the Song of Songs (Solomon), one cannot read this psalm and wonder if a woman contributed to the composition of this extremely beautiful psalm. The King James Version introduces this as a “song of loves.” The poetry of the first verse is striking, “my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”

  If the previous psalm cries out for a lack of response, this psalm resounds with beautiful intimacy. Whether known or not by the author, this is a psalm about the coming Christ, who was as much as a thousand years away in coming the first time (see Heb. 1:8-9). I would encourage you to read Ps. 45 in the exquisite language of the King James Version.

   Within the content of this psalm, we, the reader, identify with the role of the bride of Christ, and the Father of the Warrior is none other but God the Father. We frequently say we love God and Christ loves the church, but few passages of Scripture capture the emotionalism of such love in the sense of grandeur and poise and grace. As you read this psalm, ask yourself, “Do I truly love Christ? Do I understand God’s love for me?”

    "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him."
As a man, I often find it hard to identify a love relationship with Christ as a bridegroom and myself as the bride, the church. And yet in a platonic, spiritual and nonphysical way, we must rid ourselves of the earthly, distorted view of love and fall without restraints into an abandoned love for our Savior.

   Oswald Chambers first etched the word “abandon” onto my spiritual heart, “stating whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him.”

   The psalmist wrote of such abandonment. Like a lover whose fear has been replaced with reckless trust, fall deeply for Christ today, arouse your spiritual passions to follow this King into a relationship of devotion. 

Angry at an absent God

Psalm 44:9-26
February 16

When I went to South Padre Island to be the managing editor of the newspaper, the publisher looked at my resume and said, “Tim, I see you have been a pastor and are a seminary graduate. How are you going to report on the all the drinking and what goes on at Spring Break?”

“Are you asking me if I am a prude?” I said, “When I report on a car wreck, I don’t have to approve of it, I just need to report it accurately.”

The Bible is like that. Some of the things in the Bible are not only wrong, they are disturbing. But yet the Bible reports it accurately. The writer of the 44^th psalm wrote glowingly about God for the first eight verses, but bitterly for the last 18 verses. Ten times, he blames God for the calamity he is facing and professes his innocence. The writer accuses God of being asleep and hiding His face.

I told a man whose wife was losing her Christian faith that there really are no atheists, just people who are angry with the God they claim not to believe in.

I’ve heard people say that we need to be honest with God, even when we are angry with Him, and this psalm is one doozy of an example in support of that. What’s more, even the Apostle Paul quotes this psalm and not the first part, but the bitter end. Compare Ps 44:22 with Romans 8:36, when Paul surrounds this Psalmist's angry cry for help with the comforting words of “who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” and “I am persuaded that (nothing) shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If you feel abandoned by God, or even agnostic or atheistic, remember that weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Ps. 30:5). For a moment, it may seem God hides His face, “but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you” (Isa. 54:7-8). See also about the “sufferings of this present time” in Rom. 8:18, and what this “momentary light affliction” is producing in us in 2 Cor. 4:17.

Today's story is tomorrow's glory

Psalm 44:1-8

February 15

    If history is repeated for those who fail to heed the lessons from it, I would dare to say that God will manifest Himself in ways reminiscent and consistent with His ways for those who remember them. A more sure basis for that truth is because the Scriptures say that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever,” (Heb. 13:8) and “I am the Lord, I change not,” (Mal. 3:6) and “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He not said and will He not do? Or has He spoken and will He not make it good?” (Num. 23:19)

    In Psalm 44, the writer begins by reminding the Lord (as if He needs reminding) of God’s faithfulness in the past. Tomorrow, we will read of his disappointment in the present, but for today, we need to remember to remember. We must believe that history is in fact His story. And trust that some of God’s brightest revelations came on darkness nights (Ps. 44:3, also 43:3). He allows storms so that He can calm them. Without a cross there is no resurrection.

    Hindsight is 20/20. Perhaps you are in the middle of a future hindsight right now. If so, act like it! Look to the past glories and deliverances in the Bible and in Christian history, and even in your own life. Trust the God who hasn’t failed yet and rest assured He will not change. Not even for you! Today’s story is tomorrow’s glory!

God's truth makes a good lighthouse

Psalm 43

February  14

If you didn’t know better, you might just think you were reading something by the Apostle John in this passage of Psalm 43, especially verse 3: “Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle.”

            Light and truth went hand in hand in John’s writing, making Psalm 43 a prophetic psalm. Like the psalmist, Jesus surely felt frustrated being in an “ungodly nation” even though He was born into God’s chosen people. Nevertheless, He came to His own and they did not receive Him.

If you ever feel like you are stumbling in the dark, not knowing what direction you should go in, just keep practicing the truth you do know and walk in the light that you see. 1 John 1 says, “^5b…God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

            What happens however is that we don’t always walk in the light or follow the truth and then wonder later on why we are stumbling over things that we should have seen. We often will lose our our joy, our song (Ps. 43:4) and our countenance is not as bright (43:5).

How much is light and truth leading you in your walk? Jesus said that “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:21).

The first Valentine's Day card

Psalm 119:159-168

February 14 Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day and Psalm 119 mentions love more than any other psalm. You may think, "Well of course it does, it is the longest psalm." Even so it mentions a form of love 14 times out of 176 verses, or on average every 13 verses. And this passage at the end of this great psalm mentions a form of love five times in nine verses.

Last night at a political debate there was not a lot of love shown, primarily because the candidates, especially one, was attempting to belittle and push down others in order to elevate himself. That type of self love is not love at all and will eventually self-destruct. True, Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but there is a healthy self-love and the other self love is not love at all but selfishness. 

How can we truly experience God's love and a healthy love? "According to Thy lovingkindness" (Ps. 119:159). We can only know truly of God's love first by His word, so in a sense, we can only understand love when we understand "God's word." 

Seven times a day, the psalmist would praise God (119:165) out of his love for God and His word. He kept God's commands not for salvation, but because God's love saves us. If you have a hard time loving God's word, remember that as a result of God's love for us, His Word became flesh (John 1:1,14) and lived with us, died for us, and raised before us so that eternal life could be in us. Love God, love others, and love His word. It is His Valentine's Day card to us.

Where can I go, but to the Rock

Psalm 42

February  13

This is one of my favorite psalms and songs. As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee. A deer will run to water when thirsty, but also when in need of shelter from danger, when combating an opponent, or when sick with fever, and needs the water’s refreshing coolness. In times of spiritual isolation, danger, battle, and affliction, we will spiritually thirst for God’s presence in prayer. God uses our bad circumstances to get us to cry out to Him.

Adversity did not lead the psalmist to give up on God. He was cast down in his soul, but not in his relationship with God.

“Yet shall I praise Him.” (Ps. 42: 5, 11; 43:5) Perhaps he remembered ancient Job, who said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” (Job 13:15). Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego may have remembered this psalm when they said, “even if He does not deliver us, we will not serve your gods.” Peter would say, “to whom shall we go, You have the words of life.” (John 6:68)

Paul wrote the following: 8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; we are perplexed , but not in despair ; 9 Persecuted , but not forsaken ; cast down , but not destroyed ; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Don’t despair. Don’t be downcast. “The Lord will command His lovingkindness” (42:8), God will send His light and His truth (Ps. 43:3). There is a “yet to be” in your future; you will go to the altar of God, not in tears, but in joy and delight; you will sing praises again (Ps. 43:4).

Have your hardships driven you to yearn and thirst for God? There is a “Yet to Be” in your future. In your darkest night, let His song be with you, a prayer to the God of your life.

The Least of These, My Brothers

Psalm 41

Feb. 12

“Blessed are they who consider the poor, for the Lord will deliver them in time of trouble.” Being kind to the poor is a given in Christianity. Isn’t it? We give regularly to meet the needs of the needy. Or do we? A beatitude is a verse with the word “blessed” in it, which essentially means “happy.” The word implies that you will receive a blessing from God. We have benevolence envelopes mailed each month to the homes of our members, but sadly most end up in the trash.

Beatitudes in the psalms are beautiful but especially when they are echoed in the Beatitudes found in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

The Bible does not glorify the poor and needy. We can be the most greedy and selfish when we are the most needy and wealthless. The Bible commends and commands all of us, poor and rich alike, to give to those who are in need. No one is exempt from helping the poor.

Why care for the poor? It honors God (Prov. 14:31), God will repay us (Prov. 19:17), God will answer our prayers (Prov. 21:13), it is commanded (Ps. 82:4, Luke 14:21) practiced by the early church (Rom. 15:26), and in so doing, we do so as unto Christ (Matt. 25:40).

Consider giving to benevolence by clicking here. If you are a member of FBC Killeen, click here.

How do we appreciate the Lord?

Psalm 40

February 11

Nathan's "God and Family" pizza box project
made a parable for his Boy Scouts' project

    What makes a person say, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.” (Ps. 40:7)? Look at the verses around this one and remember the word “appreciate”. Appreciation is a funny word. It can mean understand (“I do not believe you appreciate the danger you are in”) or it can mean increase in value (“my stocks appreciated”) but most typically it means to be grateful (“I appreciate your kindness”).

    First we need to understand that God is in charge of us (sovereignty). “In the scroll of the book it is written of me.” God opens our ears to His good news (Ps. 40:6). God writes the name of every true believer in the Book of Life (Phil. 4:3, Rev. 21:27), before the foundation of the world! Rev. 13:8 says unbelievers were never written in the book, but believers and unbelievers are written in the book of the living (Ps. 69:28, Exod. 32:32-33).

    Second we need to increase our value of what God has done. He delivers us (v. 2), gives joyful new songs (v. 3), innumerable blessings (v. 5), and has forgiven us (v. 11-13). We should “raise our praise” as we increase our value of our Lord. Again the phrase “the Lord be magnified” is used in verse 16 as it was in Ps. 34:3, 35:27, and will be again in 69:30, 70:4 (NKJV).

    Third, we need to appreciate or be grateful that “The Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God” (v. 17) By waiting for the Lord (v. 1) we are refined, tested. A 10-year-old Boy Scout named Nathan came to my office today and showed me his “God and Family” book, which describes our spiritual life together as being like a pizza. All the ingredients come together, but the pizza is only truly ready when we bake the pizza, by the testing of the fire and heat. The Psalmist David waited for the Lord but only after the fire could he truly appreciate the Lord.

Despite the drama, trauma and tragedy, make this short life count

Psalm 39

February 10

I don’t know if David suffered from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) but Psalm 39 seems to the broken words of a broken man. At a young age, this future warrior who will kill his tens of thousands, killed a giant, decapitated him and carried his bloody head around. So solemn of a psalm is this that it is often read at funerals.

David felt so oppressed and was so much in despair that he got silent. It kindled up like a fire and thought about what is the whole purpose of life, how short it is like the width of his hand, like a vapor or a shadow. He had seen his fellow soldiers fall and die, often due to his own commands, and yet he survived. Even though he was silent, thoughts swirled in his head but he didn’t share them with anyone, except for God.

Rich and poor; those who live long or die young; good and bad people alike; all of them are virtually nothing compared to God. In verse seven, David asks “what am I waiting for?” Why am I still here on earth? In all my crying, in all my sins, as God gazed and stared David down, he realized all his imperfections and how much of a traveler, a sojourner, he was through this world. Like Jeremiah, the fire of silence that was shut up in his bones could not be kept silent forever. Finally, through tears and the writing down of this song, he lets it all out; he asks God to give him the strength to go on. He ends the psalm by asking God to help him make a difference before he dies.

If you, like David, are going through or have gone through a hard time, recognize this: life is short! Before this beautiful life melts away like a moth eats away at clothes, before the vapor of life evaporates, before the breath of life is blown away, make a difference here on earth. Yes, life is tough. Yes, all of us have had drama, trauma and traumatic tragedies in our lives. But don’t waste the precious few days we have left, living and reliving the sins and pain from the past. Seek God for “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Great is God’s faithfulness.”

With God, your past can never foil your future

Psalm 38

February 9

Today's psalm is wonderful for those who are going through it. Either their sins and guilt overwhelm them or their adversaries are overpowering them.

Confessing sin is very much personal, and so often hard to do. Confessing my sins to God is easier than to another person. Maybe because I know God will forgive and not hold it against me. Or use it against me. God is trustworthy. But people...well, that's a different story.

We need to find a trustworthy person who will hold our confidence. Keeps our secrets secret. Gives a empathizing nod, not a judgmental look. A listening ear rather than a lecturing word. We need someone to really pray and not just say they will pray. Maybe confession of sins to one another would happen more if the people of God were more like God; if we were willing to forgive and not bring to remembrance the sins of the past. If we would bury the sins others may share with us in the depths of the sea. Today I am convicted that I not only need someone like that...I need to be like that!

As I read today's psalm, I think about Jesus; I am thankful because, unlike David, my residence is A.D., not B.C. I live with the cross in history, not prophecy. I know that when I confess, He is faithful to forgive my sins and cleanse from all unrighteousness (1 John1:9).

⁹ Lord, all my desire is before You;
And my sighing is not hidden from You.
¹⁵ For in You, O Lord, I hope;
You will hear, O Lord my God.
²² Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!

With God, your past can never foil your future!