Category Archives: Psalms

Day 301: God’s crazy global strategy

Psalms 13-15; 1 Timothy 3-4

The church…

…the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15).

“Church” is a mind-blowing idea! First, God calls us his “household.” He’s calling us his family!!! Then he promises that he will live among us. The church is where God’s presence dwells. And finally, the church’s role is to support and hold up the gospel to the world…to be the “pillar and buttress of truth.”

What an amazing calling!!! He doesn’t call us as individuals to reach the world with the gospel…No!! He calls us as members of his church! We are not supposed to do it alone.

This idea of living covenantally is not unique to the New Testament but originates in God’s Covenant Promises given in the Old Testament. God’s promise to establish a people for himself, “that He shall be their God, and they shall be His people” is a promise that weaves its way throughout all of Scripture. This promise manifests itself in God’s holy nation of Israel and then expands to the nations in the New Testament and includes all the members of His Kingdom, namely, His church.

In Psalm 14, David prays – not for individuals to be saved – but for community salvation!!

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad (Psalm 14:7).

Our culture is so individualistic that it’s hard to comprehend the importance of our role in the church body – but the church is extremely important to God…so important that Paul takes great care to instruct Timothy how to both lead and organize it…how to choose men for elders and deacons, how to fight false teaching, and finally, Paul affirms Timothy’s calling to lead God’s church – despite his youth.

God’s church is the vehicle through which he spreads his gospel to the world! It’s a mind-bending strategy…completely foreign to this world, yet you are called to be a part of it…

God is calling you to forsake your individual rights and throw your lot in with other redeemed sinners. He promises to dwell among you and change the world through you collectively. It’s not a popular way-of-life and will certainly be difficult. But it’s God’s idea and God’s calling… Are you in?

Day 300: Uncomfortable teachings

Psalms 10-12; 1 Timothy 2

This is my 300th post and I’m dealt 1 Timothy 2?? Ugh. It is offensive to so many !

It is problematic for the Calvinists who believe that God chose some “before the creation of the world” to be saved. If God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 TIm. 2:4), then why didn’t he choose everyone?

The last half of this chapter presents major problems for Egalitarians (and most of our modern culture) in its teaching about the roles of men and women in the church – specifically that women should not be preachers or elders in the church (1 Tim. 2:12).

Great. Just great. Who do I want to offend first?!!

Well. This is what I have to say. It is Scripture. I didn’t write it, so I don’t have to apologize for it.

Calvinists will just have to deal with the fact that God desires ALL people to be saved and all of the implications of this wonderful statement. But Calvin is with the Lord, so I’m sure he understands :)

And Egalitarians can’t discount Paul’s words about gender roles in the church by calling them “cultural” because Paul makes a point that man’s authority over a woman was instituted in creation…. before the fall (1 Tim. 2:13). That’s significant, and can not be ignored.

So what do we do with these uncomfortable texts? We look inside our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal why they make us uncomfortable!

Do you bristle when Paul writes that women are not to have authority over a man in the church? Well, ask God to reveal how the culture has distorted your thinking.

Do you stumble over Paul’s teaching (that God wants everyone to be saved) because it seems to contradict Paul’s previous teaching of predestination? Well, maybe God is bigger than human logic!

There, I said it. You can throw virtual tomatoes at me through your computer screens… I think I’ll just stand behind the words of Psalm 12 ;)

The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.
You, O Lord, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever (Psalm 12:6-7).

Day 299: God’s far reaching Grace

Psalms 7-9; 1 Timothy 1

1 Timothy is the first of Paul’s three pastoral letters (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus). In it he encourages Timothy to stand strong against false doctrine and to rely on Christ to lead the church in Ephesus effectively.

The best defense against false doctrine is truth! But Paul doesn’t deliver a dry sermon outlining systematic theology…No! He writes to Timothy of the grace he experienced through his own conversion…

…formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 1:13-14).

Who is this God that saves the worst of sinners? He has stooped so low to have a relationship with us!

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. (Psalm 9:1-2)

Day 298: Striving for simplicity

Psalms 4-6; 2 Thessalonians 3
(Psalm 3 was read on Day 119)

Even though we live in a fallen world, we are still created to enjoy God – and often, we do this through simple pleasures…working our hands in the tilled ground, washing away our thirst with cold water, rising early to watch the sun rise or sleeping after a hard and satisfying work day.

There’s a simplicity to following God that is hard to find in the busy-ness of our western culture. If we can break through all the many demands on our time and attention – and just be in the presence of God, we will find rest.

There is no striving at the foot of the cross. Only trust. A very still sense that God is faithful and he will accomplish it – whatever the it is that we are anxious about…he will accomplish it.

The truths of Scripture can lead us into rest. Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 3 remind me of the elegant simplicity of following God… trusting in his faithfulness (3:3), working quietly to earn a living (3:12), and praying for God’s peace and presence (3:16).

Even the Psalms echo these sentiments. They speak of pondering in our hearts (Psalm 4:4), sleeping in peace (4:8), seeking God in the morning (5:3), and the comforting truths that God hears our weeping and accepts our prayers (6:8-9).

It’s a paradox, but I challenge you to strive to live a simple life. For in simplicity we find… rest, a quiet trust, and peace. Ultimately, we find Jesus.

“You can have all this world. Just give me Jesus.” -Fernando Ortega

Day 297: The balm of Truth

Psalms 1-2; 2 Thessalonians 1-2

Soon after Paul sent his first letter to the Thessalonians, he must have received a disturbing report back from the church, because he penned 2nd Thessalonians just after 1st Thessalonians.

This letter addressed three specific issues:

  1. God’s purposes for allowing persecution and suffering (Chapter 1),
  2. Detailed teaching regarding Jesus’ second coming (Chapter 2), and
  3. Exhortations against laziness and presuming upon wealthy Christians (Chapter 3).

We learn in the beginning of Chapter 2 that the Thessalonians (wrongly) believed that the day of the Lord had already come…that somehow they had missed Jesus’ second coming!

Paul allotted most of his teaching to this one topic. The Thessalonians were alarmed because they believed false teaching. Paul calmed their hearts and minds with TRUTH!

Note: For a more detailed discussion of the implications of Paul’s teaching on Jesus’ second coming, this sermon by John Piper is an excellent resource!

Paul also addressed the young church’s afflictions in the wake of relentless persecution. Paul writes,

Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels (2 Thessalonians 1:4-7).

Paul teaches that God doesn’t just allow suffering, he ordains it. It is his righteous judgment (1:5) in the context of this fallen world. In other words, because of our struggle with sin, God’s purposes for suffering are loving and good!

Paul lists three good purposes for suffering in these verses… First, suffering helps to refine (not punish) the unholy believer so that he is fit for the holy kingdom of God (1:5). Second, God will repay those who sin against believers. He will execute perfect justice (1:6). And third, we will be comforted when Jesus comes again to defeat Satan and evil and to usher us into His final rest (1:7-8).

Paul wrote these truths to calm and comfort the young Thessalonian church. Likewise, these truths should comfort our souls. They should burrow their way down into our hearts and serve as a spring to water our parched lives. These truths should be our delight!

Blessed is the man […]
[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither (Psalm 1:1-3).

Day 273: Humble faith

Psalm 132; Psalm 147; Psalm 149; Galatians 2

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16).

This is the crux of the gospel…and one of the hardest principles to live by – both for the first-century and modern-day Christian.

When Paul uses the word, “justified” he is referring to the legal term, “justification” which means “declared righteous.” Justification is binary… you’re either justified or you’re not, you’re either innocent or guilty. There are no “in-betweens” – no gray areas.

In order to be justified by the law, one would have to keep the whole law perfectly. And the only person to ever do this was Jesus.

When we inevitably fail to keep the law, we can choose one of two responses: Self-justification or humble repentance.

Knowledge of God’s loving-kindness can help us choose the humble path…

The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground (Psalm 147:1-2;6).

The Psalmist doesn’t say, “The Lord lifts up the righteous,” he says, “The Lord lifts up the humble.” It’s interesting that the psalmist chooses the word “humble” as the antithesis to “wicked” in verse 6.

But if you think about it, humility is closely tied with righteousness – the kind of righteousness that comes through faith!

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:20-21, NIV)

We don’t want to make Christ’s death meaningless by trusting in ourselves to obey the Law, do we? No! That’s preposterous! Our only hope is to turn to the Lord in humble faith – trusting that Christ’s perfect life and sacrifice are all we need for the salvation for our souls.

Day 272: Unmerited peace

Psalm 125; Psalm 126; Psalm 128; Psalm 129; Galatians 1

We are continuing our reading through the Psalms that would have been relevant to and/or sung by the restored people of Jerusalem.

These Psalms depict a Jerusalem at peace, secure in the protection of God. The restored community experienced the fulfillment of God’s peace in part. We look to the final and “full” fulfillment of His peace in the new Jerusalem!

This peace is made possible by Jesus, the Son of God, who put on flesh so that he might die in our place and take the penalty for our sin. And because of his resurrection, we too can share in his life. Jesus offers this new life to all who believe, both Jew and Gentile – and because he perfectly obeyed the law on our behalf, we are no longer under the law, but under grace.

It is this concept of grace, or unmerited favor, that has become a stumbling block for the Christians in Galatia. For false teachers were infiltrating the churches in Galatia trying to convince the newly converted Gentile Christians to be circumcised.

This is the context in which Paul is writing to the churches throughout Galatia. He begins by asserting that the gospel he preached is the only gospel and he defends his authority to preach this gospel. This authority was given to him by God, alone – in Christ, alone – by grace, alone!

Just like Paul, we have nothing to boast in apart from our life in Christ. The peace we have in our relationship with God and the peace that we will experience in the new Jerusalem is accomplished by God, alone – in Christ, alone – by grace, alone!!

Day 271: Strength in weakness

Psalm 107; Psalm 116; Psalm 118; 2 Corinthians 13

As we come to the end of 2 Corinthians, let’s consider a theme that has been prominent throughout both of Paul’s letters to Corinthian church.

The Corinthians were lured away from the gospel by their worldly culture. Whether it be by the world’s lax moral standards or by “impressive” false teachers, the Corinthians failed to grasp the paradox of God’s kingdom… True strength can only be found in weakness!

Consider this chart*: (I love charts!) *adapted from ESV Study Bible, Crossway

Verse Weakness Power (or strength)
1 Cor. 1:25 The weakness of God is stronger than man
1 Cor. 1:27 God chose what is weak to shame the strong
1 Cor. 2:3,5 in weakness and in fear but in the power of God
1 Cor. 15:43 sown in weakness raised in power
2 Cor. 12:9 I will boast…of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me
2 Cor. 13:3 not weak in dealing with you but … powerful among you
2 Cor. 13:4 he was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God
2 Cor. 13:4 we also are weak in him but … live with him in the power of God
2 Cor. 13:9 we are glad when we are weak and you are strong

This chart illustrates the importance of the paradoxical relationship between strength and weakness. If you think back to the restored-exiles in Jerusalem, they surely grasped this concept of strength and weakness – considering that they had lost their nation and were subject to the whims of a foreign king … yet through God’s strength they persevered to re-build Jerusalem!

All three of today’s Psalms would have been meaningful to the restored exiles of Jerusalem as they speak of God “helping” or “rescuing” those in distress.

Psalm 118 is especially poignant because it describes a joyful celebration after God saved the people from “the nations” (Psalm 118:10). Many believe this Psalm could have been sung at the dedication of the walls of Jerusalem recorded in Nehemiah 12 (Psalm 118:19-20).

The people definitely sung parts of this Psalm as Jesus entered Jerusalem hundreds of years later (Psalm 118:26; Luke 19:38). The people were celebrating what they thought was their future king entering Jerusalem to take his throne and overthrow the Roman government in order to return Israel to its former glory.

But Jesus was not coming in strength. He was coming in weakness. He was coming to die – not to conquer. He was coming to make the final sacrifice.

This is the way of God’s kingdom. Strength is found in humility, service, sacrifice and love. Strength is manifested through weakness.

The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation (Psalm 118:14).

Day 270: Forget not His benefits

Psalm 78; 2 Corinthians 12

Before we continue on to the book of Esther, let’s pause for a few days and consider the Psalms that relate to the restored people of Ezra and Nehemiah’s day…

Psalm 78 is a historical Psalm – written to preserve God’s work in Israel from generation to generation. No doubt, this Psalm was a useful teacher to the restored exiles in Jerusalem – working to reestablish their Jewish community and heritage!

Fast-forwarding in history to Paul’s day, he is still defending his authority as an apostle of Jesus in 2 Corinthians 12. Remember, he is writing in response to false allegations made against him by false teachers. Paul is reluctant to list his qualifications, and responds to his offenders by focusing on his weaknesses, rather than his strengths!

In today’s reading, we find Paul’s famous assertion that he was given a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from being conceited after receiving glorious visions of paradise, the place where God dwells.

This passage has always been comforting to me…for two reasons!

  • First, it reinforces my hope of heaven…that there really is a spiritual realm where God dwells – and that place is like paradise (2 Cor. 12:3)!
  • And secondly, it gives a good purpose for pain. In this case, so Paul would not become conceited. God gave him a constant trial to keep and grow Paul’s godly character. God gave Paul the “thorn” because He loved him.

If you are going through a trial, are you convinced that God still loves you? If we struggle to persevere in our faith during life’s trials, we must take a lesson from the Israelites. We must look backward in our history and remember his faithfulness to us in the past. 

The act of “remembering” is sprinkled throughout Psalm 78…

…so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God (78:7);

They did not keep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
They forgot his works
and the wonders that he had shown them (78:10-11);

They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer (78:36);

They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember his power
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe (78:35-36).

When the Israelites failed to remember God’s faithfulness, they fell away. But when they remembered, they were encouraged to draw near to God! We must not forget His goodness to us!!

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:2-5).

Day 229: Has God rejected His people?

Psalm 106, 123, 137; Romans 11:1-24

Today’s Psalms must be read in the context of history. They were spoken by a people in exile… A people who probably wondered the same question with which Paul opened Romans 11… “Has God rejected His people?”

We know from Psalm 106 that the exiles looked backward in time to gain the answer to this question. As they contrasted Israel’s consistent rebellion with God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, they trusted that God had not rejected them, but rather, planned to restore them!

Paul also looked back through history to prove that God had NOT rejected his people, but, had preserved a remnant of faithful Jews who trusted in Jesus as their Messiah (11:5). But God has now opened the door of the Kingdom to the nations, so that we, Gentiles, have been given a great mercy from God!  We have been grafted into the family of Abraham and enjoy the same covenant promises given to the Patriarchs of the faith!

But Paul warns us that we must not become arrogant (11:18). There is no room for antisemitism among Christians. For if the “natural” branches (Jews) could be cut-off from the root – how much more could the “unnatural” branches (Gentiles) be cut-off (11:21)! Paul exhorts us to persevere in the faith by looking at both the kindness and judgment of God (11:22).

Paul is not teaching that we can lose our salvation. But he is encouraging us to continue in the faith – by running toward God’s kindness and away from his severity.

So consider the context of history if you are ever tempted to believe that God has rejected you. We, as objects of God’s mercy, must look backward to the saving work of Christ – and forward to the fulfillment of all of God’s Redemptive History – where the full number of Israel and the Nations will stand together in the enduring fellowship of the glory of our King!