The Still Pond. Psalm 148.

“Steven, are you sure you understand what do?”

“It’s drawing,” I said, “I always understand drawing.”

I was in the second grade. My teacher, Ms. Foster, was so nice to me. She tolerated my short attention span, my outbursts, my inability to follow directions. She had decided I was “artistic” and she loved that about me. I could do no wrong in Ms. Foster’s class. (I had so few teachers like her!)

The assignment was based on a story the class had read the day before. But I had been absent the day before. Still, how hard could it be? It was drawing, right? I loved to draw. In the second grade, I LIVED to draw!

The story was called “The Still Pond” and each of us was going to illustrate it.

I collected my 11 x 17 manila paper and my box of crayons and I got to work! I started with the pond, of course. And a tree next to it. And a frog jumping into the water. And a turtle. Make that a family of turtles. And a family of ducks, with lots of little ducklings. And fish leaping from the water.

What else lives around water? I asked myself. Oh yeah! I drew lobsters. And crabs. And seagulls. And pelicans. And geese. And swans. And two men fishing. And a motorboat. And water skiers. And a bear catching a salmon in its mouth. And sharks attacking killer whales. Blue whales blowing water from their blowholes. And dragonflies. And cattails. And lily pads. And snakes.

And I kept asking myself the same question: What else happens around water? And then I would add another detail to the picture. A waterfall. A geyser. A wave with someone surfing. Two children building sand castles. Rubber rafts. Canoes. Sailboats. Yachts. Ocean liners.

By the time I was finished, I had drawn something more complicated than an engineering schematic, the busiest, most over-drawn, ridiculously crowded picture you can imagine. But Ms. Foster loved it. She hung it up for the school’s open-house the following week.

When my parents came to the open-house, all the adults had a good laugh. I could not figure out what was so funny. This was a masterpiece! All the other kids just drew a tiny blue pond with one bored frog over on the bank doing nothing. My drawing had more animals than Noah’s Ark!

Eventually my mom explained to me that a ‘still pond’ was a pond where nothing was happening. Where things were still. I had created a fantastical picture of all the busy marine life in the world gathered around a single little pond. The wealth of detail was pretty good for an eight-year-old. But of course, I had completely missed the point.

Nevertheless, the differences between things often come down to details. It is details that tell the story. Details transform a room into a home. Details transform vague, general notions into well-developed ideas.

The Bible encourages praise. But that statement alone is rather general. By contrast, Psalm 148 tells us to praise the Lord—and then specifically encourages praise from every creature in the universe. Read the detailed words of this song lyric. Read it slowly enough to let it paint a picture in your mind. Try to imagine every creature and created thing the songwriter mentions:

Praise the Lord! …
Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all stars of light!
Praise Him, highest heavens,
And the waters that are above the heavens! …

Praise the Lord from the earth,
Sea monsters and all deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
Mountains and all hills;
Fruit trees and all cedars;
Beasts and all cattle;
Creeping things and winged fowl;
Kings of the earth and all peoples;
Princes and all judges of the earth;
Both young men and virgins;
Old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord …
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 148:1-14.

Dear God, thank You for Your amazing word that shows us how to live—and how to praise. May we praise You always, honoring You in the manner that You deserve. Train us to “Rejoice always,” to “praise the Lord at all times.” Give us details that we can mention as we praise You: Your attributes, Your greatness, Your holiness, Your love, Your grace, Your salvation, Your wisdom. We praise You for all your amazing qualities. Teach us to appreciate those details.

AΩ.

Salvation is a Deep Well of Joy: Part Two–Rescue. Isaiah 12.

Have you ever faced death? Stood on a cliff and felt the danger in slippery gravel or a gust of wind? Have you looked in the face of a mad dog or a dangerous wild animal? Narrowly escaped a terrible car accident? Or worse, faced down an angry and dangerous man, perhaps one brandishing a weapon? Maybe you have suffered an illness or an injury that would have taken you out but for the healing hand of God and the intervention of modern medicine. If so, you understand something of salvation. Salvation is rescue. You have been rescued. In 2023, my brother was rescued—saved—from a case of double pneumonia that nearly killed him. In 1997, I survived a car accident witnesses considered unsurvivable. I was rescued. Saved.

A few years ago while stopped at a red light, I heard popping noises and realized I was in the middle of a shootout. People were running between cars firing guns and using the vehicles to shield themselves from bullets. There were shooters in front of my truck and shooters behind. Suddenly I realized just how thin the sheet metal on a pickup truck really is. But I was rescued. I was saved.

Realizing what was happening, drivers ignored the red light and began darting across the traffic on Westheimer Road—a six-lane street so heavily traveled it has its own Wikipedia page.  I did the same without hesitation. I was interested in justice, in identifying the shooters, in doing my part to assist law enforcement. But I was more interested in not making my children orphans.

Oh, there is joy in rescue. Being saved from death is joyful!

When David commits the most destructive sins of his life, he prays, “restore to me the joy of your salvation” Psalm 51:12. David knows he is going to heaven. He knows he is forgiven. But he is filled with remorse and regret and pain and needs joy. Sinners need the joy of salvation.

When we sin, we need our joy to be restored. We need God to renew in us the joy of having been rescued.

Isaiah knows this joy. Isaiah says:

“God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid … He is my strength and my song and He has become my salvation. Therefore, with joy shall you draw water from the well of salvation” Isaiah 12:2-3.

Is God your rescue? I know He is your provision. He gives you life and food and abundance. “In Him we live and move and have our being” Acts 17:28. God provides for everyone. But have you given God your life? Have you accepted His free gift of rescue, eternal rescue? Give your heart to Jesus. Then you will discover true joy, a joy like nothing else. A joy that is deeper than the deepest well. The joy of salvation is a joy that has no end.

“With joy shall you draw water from the well of salvation” Isaiah 12:3.

AΩ.

  • By the way, this was not a case of being on the wrong side of town after dark. The gunplay happened around three o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. I had just left Mod Pizza and was across the street from Panera Bread. Based on what my friends and I could discover later, including the police activity records available online, no one was injured.

Salvation is a Deep Well of Joy: Part One–Provision. Isaiah 12.

Image: children celebrating a new well provided by Living Water, https://www.livingwaterwells.org/

Restore to me the joy of thy salvation—Psalm 51:12.

With joy shall you draw water from the well of salvation—Isaiah 12:3.

I recently watched a stand-up comic (Randy Feltface, the puppet of stand-up comedy) do some crowd work. The writing that goes into the scripted bits of a stand-up act fascinates me. But the impromptu conversations called “crowd work” lose me when they devolve into mocking the audience for cheap laughs. But this conversation was interesting:

“And what do you do for a living ma’am?”
“I work at HEB.”
(Cheers.)
“Wait. What? What do you do? Why is everyone cheering? ‘H-E-V’?”
“H-E-B.”
The comic was still confused. Soon the entire room was yelling, “H-E-B! H-E-B! H-E-B!”
“Oh. H.E.B. Got it. And what is ‘HEB’?”
The crowd yells out, “a grocery store!”
The performer is astonished. “A grocery store?” He looks at the woman. “You mention that you work at a grocery store and the entire room applauds? Seriously? What kind of grocery store is this?”
Someone yells, “the best kind!”
“Are you kidding me? I have performed around the world, in cities all over the United States and everywhere else. I come to San Antonio and the crowd gets excited about a grocery store? Man! That’s crazy.”[1]

I laughed as I witnessed this exchange, and I thought about how good it feels to walk into HEB. I was there Sunday. In fact, there is no store I shop in more often. There have been weeks I stopped in seven days in a row. They have all the food you could ever imagine. And gas. And my prescriptions. Everything for pets. Plants. Lawn furniture. They have a smattering of hardware, tools, kitchen appliances, and household goods. It smells good. It is well lit and I know where things are (until the biennial shuffle that always make me hate the place for about six months). As I watched the crowd cheer for HEB, I realized I agreed with them. I do not like shopping, but I like HEB. It makes no sense. But it’s a great place and I literally feel joy when I walk in. I think I honestly do. I feel joy.

I’m sure HEB pays a cracker-jack staff to come up with the perfect layout, lighting, smells, and products. There is a science to the frictionless way the carts roll silently along the linoleum. Someone studied exactly which music to pipe in through the tiny speakers, a whisper of pop tunes to keep things feeling upbeat and hopeful. They know what time of day to brew coffee and bake bread and truck in fresh flowers and pull cookies, cakes, and pies from the ovens. Everything smells like delicious abundance, like holidays, like love and family and happiness. Millions have been spent to cultivate the perfect ambience.

But on a deeper, primal level, we shoppers remain hunters and gatherers. It feels good to put your hands on food and stash it in your cart. It feels good to provide for your family. It feels good to fill up the food cache, the meat locker, the egg basket, the fish box, the bread bin, the cheese cellar, the cracker barrel. It is a great feeling to have so much provision stored away that scarcity is not a threat. Doing without is not a threat.

That is one of the joys of salvation. Buying groceries at HEB gives us a chance to trade our money—our labor—for food. No one is going to go hungry. Such ‘food security’ equates to provision, to abundance, to the joy of salvation.

Isaiah compares salvation to a well from which we might draw joy.

If you have ever seen people who lack access to clean water, you can understand the joy of a deep well. Talk about provision! All the food in the world means nothing to a thirsty soul with nothing to drink.

The provision of food brings great joy and the provision of drink also brings great joy. Consequently, Jesus describes Himself as both the Bread of Life and Living Water. Jesus is essential. He is the food and water we need if we are going to survive, to thrive, to have joy. The salvation Jesus provides is a well of deep joy!

But there is more to the joy of salvation than the joy of provision. There is also the joy of rescue.

Salvation is a deep well of joy, joy created not only by a Savior who provides for all your needs, but by a Savior who rescues! See part two.

Dear God, we thank you for your provision! Thank you for meeting all our needs, both on earth and in heaven. Thank you for providing so much more than we need. Honestly, you give us so much, you bless us so deeply. Thank you for your compassion, your mercies, your kindness to us. Thank you for the way you do not give hesitantly, but you give lavishly. Thank you for your ‘reckless love’ that gives us so, so, so much more than we need. You are so good to us. You are a good, good Father. Thank you.

AΩ.

[1] Normally I might track down a video and replay it line-by-line in order to quote it accurately. In this case, I chose to paraphrase. The original, which includes foul language, can be seen at this link: https://www.google.com/search?q=crowd+work+heb+puppet+stand+up&oq=crowd+work+heb+puppet+stand+up&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRirAtIBCjEzNDM0ajBqMTWoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:058e3d1a,vid:lLbd5fpDhCo,st:0

Managing Emotions. Psalm 142.

Season 11 of the survivalist television show ALONE features a librarian by the name of Peter Albano. After about ten days of absolute solitude, Peter begins to talk to the camera about his son, whom he describes as a small child who feels big emotions. Peter, on the other hand, has perfected the skill of feeling nothing. He explains that as a father, he has been trying to teach his son to keep his emotions to himself, believing that there is strength in an unfeeling stoicism. Peter says he has been married about fifteen years, “and my wife has never seen me cry.”

Just about the time I began arguing with the television, everything began to change. After ten days insulated from the threat of other people’s scorn, Peter’s emotions begin coming to the surface. Although he does not show it on camera, Peter reports crying all the time and thinking about traumas and tragedies he had not thought about for many years. This development struck me as good news, healthy somehow.

But then Peter tapped out. He reached for his satellite phone and called the show’s producers to come and rescue him. As he put it, he was afraid the emotions were going to overwhelm him, taking him to a dark place from which he would struggle to return.

When Peter left his lean-to 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, he made a decision to  learn how to handle emotions, to examine them, live with them, and help his son understand them. It sounded like a healthy change. Like growth.

I knew my father well enough to know how deeply he felt emotions of all kinds—but he was private about his strongest feelings. I watched his life for 55 years and I only saw him shed a single tear, and that was during his own father’s funeral.

In fact, I have known many great men who did not reveal emotions—and I do not criticize them for that. But I think King David found the perfect balance. The warrior-poet provides a healthy example of a powerful, man’s man who is nevertheless comfortable and honest about his emotions. David was confident enough to drop his guard and let people see his emotional pain. (And of course, Jesus did the same, as noted in everyone’s favorite short Bible verse: “Jesus wept,” John 11:35.)

David’s Psalm 142 has a subtitle: “A maskil [song] of David, a prayer when he was in the cave.” Imagine hiding out in a cave, a fugitive on the run. The king himself is obsessed with ending you. David, who grew up playing music for King Saul, who has killed Goliath and led the nation’s warriors in battle, is now living in the wilderness, running for his life from a man who should be heaping upon him trophies and praise. David feels alone and betrayed and he cries out to God. David shares all his emotions—but notice with whom he shares them:

“I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble.

When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watches over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me” Psalm 142:1-7.

David is not uncomfortable with his emotions. But he does not share them with everyone.

As Jesus might put it, David does not ‘cast his pearls before swine’ Matthew 7:6. As Peter Albano and a million other men could tell you—the world is filled with those who do not deserve to hear about your emotions. There is a time to be vulnerable. “There is a time to weep” Ecclesiastes 3:4–and there is a time not to.

David owns his emotions. He will explore them, feel them, and share them. But David does not share his emotions with everyone. He shares them with God, his Shepherd who “restores his soul” Psalm 23:3.

Do you share your deepest emotions with God? You should.

Few things will do more for your relationship with God than deep and honest prayers—conversations—about your emotions.

One easy, practical way to do that is to grab a cheap notebook and begin writing prayers to God every day. A spiritual journal will not only enrich your prayer life, it may help you begin to hear more from God than you ever have before. Regularly writing prayers to God is a powerful tool!

Finally, look at David’s conclusion. After he shares his emotions with God, his loneliness, his feelings of betrayal, and his desperate prayers for rescue, he knows God is going to bless him:

“Set me free from my prison, that I may praise Your Name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of Your goodness to me” Psalm 142:7.

This psalm, this prayer that is a song, begins alone in a cave where David feels “no one is concerned for me … no one cares for my life” (v.4). But by the end, David is no longer alone.

“Then the righteous will gather about me because of Your goodness to me.”

That is how good God is. Not only will God bless you, but He will surround you with encouragement from the righteous. They will gather around you because they can sense that God has been good to you.

Dear God, teach us to manage our emotions. To handle them with wisdom and discipline. To remember that we can choose how we react and we can choose to cultivate gratitude and forgiveness and a good, Godly attitude. Teach us to share emotions honestly, especially in prayer. And we thank you for the promise of comfort not only from You but from Your people.

Then will the righteous gather about me because of your goodness to me.

AΩ.

Night Owls and Misfits. Psalm 134.

I have a confession. I am a night owl. It’s not a small thing. I suffered insomnia from age five to thirty-five. Morning coffee cured me, leaving me sleepy at night for the first time. But old habits die hard. I remain an absolute night person—and yes, I struggle not to feel shame about it!

They say nothing good happens after midnight. The hour between 12 and 1 a.m. is known as “the witching hour,” because of the belief that witches and demons are most active in the middle of the night. Late one night Hamlet, finally resolved to take revenge on his murderous uncle, describes the middle of the night as the time when ghosts come out of their tombs and the evils of hell walk the earth:

“Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breaks out contagion to this world” (Act 3, scene 2).

It sounds great on stage or in a horror movie. But we exaggerate the evils of darkness. That’s not to say I have not felt a creepy sense of foreboding at night. I have. But I attribute those feelings to (1) being in dangerous locations after dark, or (2) being awake so late, the foreboding was simply a warning I would ruin the following day if I did not quickly go to bed.

I do not believe night time is intrinsically evil. For most of us, it may be a foolish time to be out on the roads, and perhaps a bad time even to be awake. Both activities pose risks.

But what if you must work nights? What if you are a security guard? Or a police officer or fire fighter? What about my mother who spent thousands of nights in the O.R. working as a surgical nurse? The pay was better, and she enjoyed some of the ways in which working nights differed from working days.

My grandfather did shift work at the Esso Refinery in Baton Rouge. There were three 8-hour shifts a day, and three crews who rotated. Every third week, my grandfather’s crew worked the night shift. He had no choice.[1]

The Levites at the temple in Jerusalem also had to work nights. In its three short verses, Psalm 134 encourages the night watchmen in their important role:

“Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who is the Maker of heaven and earth” Psalm 134:1-3.

I love that. These temple watchmen have to stay up all night standing guard. And there is nothing wrong with that—in fact, their job is crucial. They have to work. At night. There is no other way to get the job done.[2]

And the psalmist encourages them to praise God while they are working:

“Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord” Psalm 134:1.

Do you ever have to work at night? Most of us have worked at night—some rarely, some often. Maybe you had to stay up all night writing a research paper or finishing a project at the office. Others of us have spent long nights on the road or sitting in an airport. It can be a strange experience to look at a clock and realize you are awake at what is so often described as “an ungodly hour.”

Yet, the hour itself is not ungodly. Your God who is omnipresent is also always-present. He is with you during the so-called witching hours. Talk to Him. Praise Him. Give Him a few minutes of worship and He will redeem those hours of overnight work that can otherwise feel so strange.

A final thought. My wife and I just agreed to teach a Life Bible Study class (a Sunday school class) on Sunday nights. There is a worship service at 4 p.m., then class begins at 5:30. It is strange for us, having attended Sunday morning worship our entire lives. But you know what? I am going to hang on to Psalm 134:1. Maybe we will make this our key verse!

“Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord” Psalm 134:1.

AΩ.

[1] During my grandfather’s career, the crews at the Esso refinery worked 8-hour shifts that rotated counter-clockwise. One week you might work 7 to 3. The next week you would work 11 to 7. And the third week you would work 7 to 11. The problem is, rather than staying up an additional eight hours, you had to figure out a way to go to sleep eight hours earlier—which seems impossibly unnatural. He worked at Esso over forty years. Sounds like a lifetime of jet lag!

[2] Jesus often “worked nights.” Not only did He stay up late, but He also got up while it was still dark so He could be alone in prayer. He stayed up all night praying before calling His disciples, Luke 6:12. Following a long day of miracles, He rose while it was still dark to pray, Mark 1:35. He stayed up all night after feeding the 5,000–praying for several hours, then walking on the water just before dawn, Matthew 14:22-32. Jesus also prayed all night before His arrest, Matthew 26:36-46. The Apostle Paul also preached all night long, Acts 20:7-11.

Hidden Mysteries: The Devil Did Not Understand Messianic Prophecy. 1 Corinthians 2:7-8.

“Behold my servant, … in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him:
he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
… A bruised reed shall he not break,
and the smoking flax shall he not quench:
… I the Lord … will give thee
for a light to the Gentiles;
to open the blind eyes,
to bring out the prisoners from the prison,
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house” Isaiah 42:1-7.

When everyone around me starts making their super-specific predictions about the End Times, my go-to response is to point out that not a single Bible prophet completely understood the Messianic prophecies. Not one—not Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, David, Moses—not one person whose words predicted a coming Messiah understood that He would come twice, first as a Suffering Servant, and then a second time as a Conquering King. And because the prophets were unable to tease out that distinction, the priests and rabbis who lived in the time of Christ also missed it. Only Jesus Himself understood.

I sometimes imagine a young Jesus, perhaps a teenager, studying the scroll of Isaiah and understanding for the first time that the Messiah would have to die on a cross first, and return as a Conquering King later. He would live His entire life alone with that revelation. (Can you imagine carrying that knowledge around with you?)

And thus, my point about the End Times: if God did not reveal the full meaning of all Messianic prophecies to even the prophets writing those prophecies, perhaps we should not be too dogmatic about our interpretations of End Times prophecies.

But there is another point to be made about Old Testament prophecy. You know who else did not understand Messianic prophecy? Satan.

After all, the crucifixion of Jesus provided salvation to untold millions. In fact, the Bible makes clear that crucifixion was the only path to salvation. Had Satan understood that the crucifixion would be the cause of his ultimate defeat, he would have made sure Jesus was not crucified. Consider Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth:

“We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” 1 Corinthians 2:7-8.

Some writers and preachers have argued the phrase “rulers of this age” includes both earthly political powers and invisible spiritual powers. One such argument was published by the late Michael Heiser; I found it persuasive enough to quote at length:

“Have you ever wondered how it was that the disciples never seemed to get the things that Jesus told them about himself? Think about it. When Jesus told them that it was time for him to go to Jerusalem and die, it angered and scared them (Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32). No one replied, ‘That’s right—I read that in the Scriptures.’ Peter even rebuked Jesus for saying such a thing (Matthew 16:21-23). The truth is that the disciples had little sense of what was going on. Even after the resurrection their minds had to be supernaturally enabled to get the message (Luke 24:44-45).

“We shouldn’t be too hard on the disciples. They weren’t dumb. Their ignorance was the result of God’s deliberate plan to conceal messianic prophecy. Paul talked about the need for that when writing to the Corinthians: ‘But we speak the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory’ (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). Had Satan and the other powers of darkness known that instigating people to kill the Messiah was precisely what God had designed to accomplish their own doom, they never would never have done it. The gospels are clear that Satan and demons knew the prophesied son of David had come (Matthew 8:28-29; Luke 4:31-35). The Old Testament was clear that would happen at some point. But what it concealed was the plan of redemption.

“Let’s take Isaiah 53 as an example. It’s clear that God’s servant would suffer for sins—but the Hebrew word translated “messiah” (mashiach) never occurs in the passage. It occurs only once in all of Isaiah—and then it is used of Cyrus, a pagan king. The word never occurs in Jeremiah or Ezekiel, and is only found once in the Minor Prophets (Habbakuk 3:13) where it speaks of the nation. The occurrences in the Psalms refer to Israel’s king. Only a handful of them are quoted by New Testament authors of the messianic king—but their application only became clear after the fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Even the label “son of God” isn’t helpful since Israel is called God’s son in Exodus 4:22-23, and kings like David got that title, too.

“As shocking as it sounds, there isn’t a single verse in the Old Testament that refers to a suffering messiah (mashiach) who would be God incarnate, die, and rise again.

“That’s deliberate. What we do get in the Old Testament are all the pieces of that profile scattered in dozens, even hundreds of places. The portrait could only be discerned after the fact. The plan of salvation was a cosmic chess game that had to be won. The rest of prophecy figures to work out the same way—fulfilments hidden in plain sight.” – Michael Heiser, The 60 Second Scholar: 100 Insights That Illumine the Bible[1]

Dear God, how amazing to think that mysteries hidden for centuries have been revealed to us. Thank You for Your amazing plan of salvation! It is incredible to consider what Jesus endured for His people. Thank You for Your love and compassion and for going into battle for us!

AΩ.

[1] https://www.cjfm.org/blog/2019/10/31/if-it-so-obvious-jesus-messiah-why-didnt-disciples-understand-it/#:~:text=We%20shouldn’t%20be%20too,it%20speaks%20of%20the%20nation.

Psalms & Hymns Teach the Faith and Encourage Worship. Psalm 132.

Maybe I watched too much television as a child. In fact, I’m sure I did. I even watched the commercials. And I still remember so many TV commercial jingles:

My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R …

Gillette, the best a man can get!

Raise your hand if you’re Sure!

Be all that you can be, find your future, in the Army!

Handy Dan, Do it Yourself! We’re gonna’ show ya’ how!

Academy Sports and Outdoors, the right stuff, the right price!

Kmart is the savings store, where your dollar buys you more!

I could sing a dozen more. There’s something about a well-written jingle: it sticks in your head—sometimes for a lifetime![1] I’m sure you have noticed.

Which is easier to recall, words set to music or words you read in your Bible? Most would agree that words set to music have a way of getting into your head and staying there.

That seems to be one reason God created music—it is one of the best tools for memorizing things, whether facts about God, or stories of God’s dealings with His people, or the words of the Bible themselves.

In a world where many families did not own scrolls of the Bible, or perhaps could not have read a scroll if they had owned one, you can understand the extraordinary value of music as a tool to aid in memorizing God’s stories.

The writer of Psalm 132 composes a song that teaches some history. The song remembers God’s dealings with King David, the way the temple came to be built, and God’s promise to bless the line of David forever. If you imagine Psalm 132 set to the right tune, you can see how effectively it would teach people about God and remind them of His truth.

The psalm is divided into three parts:

Part 1. The singer asks God to bless Israel because David built God a temple.

“Remember, O Lord, in David’s favor,
    all the hardships he endured;
how he swore to the Lord
    and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,
‘I will not enter my house
    or get into my bed;
I will not give sleep to my eyes
    or slumber to my eyelids,
until I find a place for the Lord,
    a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob’” Psalm 132:1-5.

Part 2. The singer reminds God and God’s people that God promised David one of his sons would sit on the throne forever.

“The Lord swore to David a sure oath
    from which he will not turn back:
‘One of the sons of your body
    I will set on your throne.
If your sons keep my covenant
    and my testimonies that I shall teach them,
their sons also forever
    shall sit on your throne’” Psalm 132:11-12.

And my favorite thing about this psalm is what I am calling part three (the big finish!):

Part 3. The singer reminds us of God’s mercy and God’s prophetic promise of a future Messiah-King.

God had promised David his sons would forever reign on the throne in Jerusalem … if they would be faithful to God: “If your sons keep my covenant…” The promise was conditional. David’s descendants would reign as kings forever—if only they could be good. I wonder what David thought about that?

Let’s consider what we know about David. Could he make any predictions about his progeny? Consider the giant-killer’s knowledge of human nature: David was born the youngest of eight sons. He killed Goliath. He refused to kill Saul though Saul was after him for years. David loved God and walked with Him deeply most of his life. David was also a man of war and bloodshed, a brilliant leader on the battlefield who witnessed (and caused) an extraordinary number of deaths. And this ‘man after God’s own heart’ also committed sins so egregious they set the stage for an uprising by one of his sons, for treason, and for civil war.

David is a poet, a songwriter, a deep thinker. David is a man who has seen it all if anyone has. David has seen it all.

Something tells me David understood human nature well enough to know his heirs were never going to obey God for generations. Let’s face it: David was probably the best of the lot and he made tragic missteps.

But God.

But God had other plans.

“I will make a horn to sprout for David;
    I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.
His enemies I will clothe with shame,
    but on him his crown will shine” Psalm 132:17-18.

David knows his descendants will fail. (He must know.) And God certainly knows David’s descendants will fail. But God promises that He will raise up One son of David who will not fail: “I will make a horn to sprout for David … on him his crown will shine.”

Jesus will be a Son of David. Jesus will never fail. And Jesus will occupy the throne of Israel forever and ever. Thus, in spite of the failure of nearly all of the sons of David, God will have mercy, He will forgive, and He will bless David and fulfill His promise to David in spite of the fact that David’s line would be unable to fulfill its end of the bargain.

Isn’t God good?

How often has He blessed us when we did not deserve it?

Isn’t God good?

Dear God, thank You for Your mercy. Thank You that You love to bless us, You delight to bless us, even when we fail spectacularly. You are so merciful, so loving, so kind, so generous. Thank You for music that teaches us not merely Your truths, but Your words! May we love psalms, hymns, worship music, and even contemporary Christian pop songs more every day. Grant us wisdom to discern between strong lyrics and weak.

AΩ.

[1] Many of the most memorable jingles from the 70’s and 80’s were written and performed by Jake Holmes. Even as a child, I learned to recognize the pop sound of his clear tenor voice. However, Holmes neither composed nor sang for the Folgers ads (pictured). His biggest hit may have been “I’m a Pepper” for Dr. Pepper. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2770F30E303AD3CB

Charles Spurgeon Calls Men to Christ With a Sermon on Psalm 130:3-4.

The great preacher of Victorian London was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. You might think of him as the Billy Graham of the 19th century. He began preaching at 19 and “quickly gained a reputation as an electrifying preacher. Spurgeon’s sermons were characterized by their passion, wit, and biblical depth, and he was able to connect with people from all walks of life” (quoting https://www.inspirationalchristians.org/reformers/charles-spurgeon-biography/).

Known as “the Prince of Preachers,” Spurgeon preached as many as ten times a week, and his sermon collection fills 63 volumes (!) making it the largest collection of books by a single Christian author. In fact, he preached some 600 sermons before the age of 20, and he developed such a strong voice, he once preached to a crowd of 23,000 with no microphone or sound system.

To this day, Spurgeon remains one of the most quoted, most talked-about preachers of the last two hundred years. While looking at commentaries on Psalm 130, I stumbled across an entire sermon Spurgeon preached in the summer of 1887. I read the sermon and can only imagine how striking it would have been to have heard it preached.

Spurgeon titled his sermon, “There is Forgiveness,”[1] and because he is such a famous preacher, a Calvinist-Baptist evangelist, I thought it would be useful to quote at length his discussion of Psalm 130:3-4. Here is that passage:

“If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared” Psalm 130:3-4.

And now some words excerpted from Spurgeon’s sermon on these verses:

“You have not sinned so greatly that you have exceeded God’s forgiveness. Thou hast not gone beyond his mercy; thou canst not go beyond his mercy if thou wilt trust his Son. “There is forgiveness” [Psalm 130:4]. Let this whisper drive away despair. What a blessed whisper it is! “There is forgiveness.” “There is forgiveness.” Let it enter thy soul, and drive those grim ogres and hobgoblins of despair away into the sea of forgetfulness. “There is forgiveness” … 

“The law says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” [Ezekiel 18:20] and the law knows no mercy, it cannot know any mercy. Sinai [symbolizing the given there] has never yet yielded one drop of water to cool the parched tongue of a guilty sinner. Never did a shower reach its craggy peaks; it is a fire-mountain, and the thunder rolls over its summit, with the sound of a trumpet loud and long, making all who hear it to tremble. God, when he comes to judgment, must judge according to justice; but— but— but— but there is forgiveness …

“There is another Law-giver besides Moses; there is Jesus the Son of God. There is another covenant besides the covenant of works, there is a covenant of rich, free, sovereign grace, and this is the essence of it, “There is forgiveness.”

Oh, that I could convey that whisper into the ear of every sinner who is here! I can do that; but oh, that God the Holy Ghost would put it into his heart, that he might never forget, “There is forgiveness”! …

“Turn to the Old Testament, and you will see that it reveals sacrifice,— lambs, and bullocks, and goats. What did they all mean? They meant that there was a way of pardon through the shedding of blood; they taught men this, that God would accept of certain sacrifices on their behalf. Then turn to the New Testament, and there you will see it revealed more clearly still that God has accepted a sacrifice, the sacrifice which he himself gave, for “he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” [Romans 8:32].

In this Book you read how he can be “just, and the Justifier of him that believeth” [Romans 3:26] … This, in fact, is the revelation of the gospel; this is what this Book was written to teach, to tell you that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” [2 Corinthians 5:19] …

“There is forgiveness” for you, though you think there is none. Your thoughts are not as God’s thoughts; neither are your ways as his ways [Isaiah 55:8]. … There is, there surely is, at this moment, forgiveness…

“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,” [Psalm 51:4] but, “there is forgiveness with thee;” with the very God whom you have offended. It is with God in such a way that it is part of his nature. “He delighteth in mercy” [Micah 7:18]. “God is love” [1 John 4:8]. He glorifies himself by passing by transgression, iniquity, and sin. There is forgiveness with God; it is in God’s very nature that it lies. Fly not away, then, from the very place where forgiveness awaits thee…

“I feel somehow certain that I am going to have some souls [saved] to-night to be my reward. I love to ring those charming bells, “free grace and dying love.”[2] A great part of the pleasure of preaching is derived from the fact that I know that God’s Word will not return unto him void [Isaiah 55:11], but that some who hear the gospel message will receive it, and be saved. Listen to this word, thou doubting, trembling, despairing sinner, “there is forgiveness,” and that forgiveness is with God.

If I told you that it was with myself, and that I was the priest, perhaps you would be foolish enough to believe me; but I will tell you no such lie. It is not with any priest on earth, it is with the Lord. “There is forgiveness with thee;” and thou mayest go to God just as thou art, with nothing in thy hand, and cast thyself at his feet, quoting the name of his dear Son. Rest there, and the work is done; for, as God liveth, it is true, that there is forgiveness with him that he may be feared…

“There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared…”

“… Somebody said, “I should have thought that it would have read, “that thou mayest be loved.” Yes, so I should have thought; but then, you see, fear, especially in the Old Testament, includes love. It includes every holy feeling of reverence, and worship, and obedience towards God. That is the Old Testament name for true religion— “the fear of God.”

“So I might say that the text declares, “There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be loved, and worshipped, and served.” Still, even in the sense of fear, it is a most blessed fact that they who fear the Lord are delightful to him. “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” [Psalm 147:11] …

“If you want to revive your fear of God, and have it deepened, believe in your pardon … There is forgiveness first, and then the fear comes afterwards. All the fear in the world that is worth having is the result of pardoned sin.”

Dear God, thank you for great men who serve You faithfully for decades like Charles Spurgeon. And thank you for this Old Testament message so relevant today: “There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” Thank you for forgiving us! Fill us with gratitude over pardoned sin. Fill us with the holy fear of God. May we fear You, worship You, serve You, pray to You, and share You with others. Use us, Lord. Fill us with the joy of the Lord, the joy of serving You.

AΩ.

[1] https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/there-is-forgiveness/#flipbook/

[2] Free Grace and Dying Love was the title of a book of devotional readings by Susannah Spurgeon, wife of the famous preacher. https://www.amazon.com/Sussannah-Spurgeon-Morning-Devotions-Susannah/dp/0851519180

When it Rains, it Pours. Psalm 129.

When three or four bad things happen in a row, Americans trot out the old cliché, “When it rains, it pours.” This rich line was not created in any of the usual organic ways—as a famous line in a novel, song, play, or film, or perhaps spoken by a politician or celebrity. This pithy proverb was created by advertisers. To sell salt!

Table salt clumps in damp weather. But in 1912, Morton Salt added an anti-caking agent to its product and with an eye-catching painting of a junior baker and a great slogan, the company quickly conquered every kitchen in the country. The company has used the slogan for over 100 years! When it rains, it (the salt) still pours. Clever![1]

When was the last time you spoke these words? I think I spoke them today, recognizing that for me, next week promises to be quite a challenge. The cliché is an easy way to acknowledge that sometimes things are hard and seem to hit all at once. But the other side of the coin is also true: we know the rain will stop.

Although clichés have their place, I pray I take the time to offer Godly wisdom to those in need. God has given us so many incredible passages in His word. Today, as my wife faced a crisis of her own, I sent her several, which I will place in a footnote.[2]

Throughout history, the rain has fallen hard on God’s people. The children of Abraham have been a special object of the devil’s wrath for millennia. And 2000 years later, the Body of Christ continues to endure some of the same abuse that Jesus, the Head of that Body endured on earth.

Psalm 129 addresses the endless persecution of the people of Israel:

“‘Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth,’ let Israel now say. ‘Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. Yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. But the Lord is righteous, He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked’” Psalm 129:1-4.

The Apostle Paul describes persecution he and other Christians endured:

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you” 2 Corinthians 4:7-12.[3]

Did you know Christians continue to suffer what the U.S. government and human rights groups describe as “extreme persecution”?

Although we hear little of it in the United States, our Christian brothers and sisters are regularly tortured and killed for their faith in such places as North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, among others.

Sadly, the global persecution of followers of Christ is often met with a cliché that amounts to a collective shrug of the Body of Christ’s shoulders: “Well, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

While it is true that God will build His church and pour out His grace even during times of persecution, there is no Biblical evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship! Our duty is to do all that we can to stop the persecution of fellow Christians.

How? Read Voice of the Martyrs magazine to stay informed. Donate to VOM or similar ministries. Call or write your congressmen and senators, because US law requires our executive branch to raise these issues in discussions with persecuting nations—but that law is only followed under public pressure. Volunteer or donate money to help the cause of asylum for those who can demonstrate legitimate claims of persecution. (I was honored to discover a paper I wrote on this topic was cited to the US Supreme Court in just such a case.)

And in the meantime, yes, “when it rains, it pours.” Life is hard. But God is merciful. The Psalmist is right: “‘Many a time have they afflicted me … Yet they have not prevailed against me … The Lord is righteous. He has cut the cords of the wicked” Psalm 129:2-4.

Dear God, thank you for your mercy! We need the Balm of Gilead. Thank you for healing, counseling, comforting. May we run to you in the hardest times and the times that are not so hard. Help those of us living in the fat, easy American life to have compassion for our hurting brothers and sisters around the world. Show us how to help and where to donate. Use our abundance to bless the persecuted as they endure struggles most of us cannot comprehend. We love you.

AΩ.

[1] Other great slogans: DeBeers: a diamond is forever. Timex: it takes a licking and keeps on ticking. U.S. Army: be all that you can be. KFC: finger licking good. AT&T: reach out and touch someone. The slogans are endless. But I found only one that has shed its advertising roots as completely as Morton Salt, the 2003 public relations campaign to enhance the image of Las Vegas: What happens here, stays here. The campaign was an instant success and received a raft of awards and positive reviews.

[2] My wife asked me to send her something practical to help with worry. The worry concerned her search for her next position as a secondary school Bible teacher. Now, I am well aware that sometimes it might be insensitive to simply send a person a list of Bible verses. But because she asked, I had the green light to offer the four that came to mind:

“It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” Philippians 2:3.

“He knows the way I take and when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold” Job 23:10.

“He will accomplish what concerns me” Psalm 138:8.

“Faithful is He who calls you and He will also bring it to pass” 1 Thessalonians 5:24.

[3] Paul, the persecutor who became the persecuted, records a staggering list of his personal sufferings: “I have been in prison … been flogged … been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked” 2 Corinthians 11:23-27. I love this passage so much; I post it every chance I get.

Shadows, Figures, Analogies. The Earthly Temple is a Frontier Outpost. Hebrews 9:24.

The week of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ included some of the most mysterious events in all of Biblical history.[1] One that must have been shocking was that the veil of the temple was split from top to bottom. This was not just some gauzy curtain of sheer linen, the tearing of which you might blame on the wind or an earthquake.

The huge veil was an estimated sixty-feet high and four inches thick. Four inches thick? That is more wall than curtain. This thing could stop arrows. What kind of force would be required to tear such a fabric? Whatever those forces might measure, they would be much more likely to tear the curtain down from where it hung, dropping it to the floor in an immovable, thousand-pound heap, than to tear the curtain neatly from top to bottom.

The tearing of the temple curtain was the delicate work of the finger of God.

And why? To illustrate that the dividing wall between God and man had been torn down by the death of Christ. The Holy of Holies was no longer beyond reach. Jesus put His blood on the altar for us and we can now enter God’s presence for all time.

The Old Testament speaks in great detail about both the tabernacle and the temple. There is chapter after chapter about curtains and tent pegs and gold-plated cedar panels and manatee skins and purple fabrics and bronze basins and golden candlesticks and altars and angels. Speaking of the “colors, textures, furnishings, embroidery, and lighting,” Beth Moore jokes “Who knew God had such a flair for architecture and interior design?”[2]

And yet for all the temple’s magnificence, the crucifixion and resurrection rendered the earthly temple obsolete. The gold, the carefully crafted furnishings, all of it instantly became useless because Jesus went to the real altar—the real Holy of Holies—and made one sacrifice that would last for all time. When Jesus died, the veil was torn, and God moved out of that place never again to dwell in a temple made with human hands, Acts 17:24. In fact, the temple itself would be destroyed a short forty years later.

The author of Hebrews puts it plainly: the temple was never more than a symbol. It is an analogy for a greater temple in Heaven. The writer calls the temple a “figure of the true” Hebrews 9:24. He calls the things on earth “the patterns of the things in heaven” and not the “heavenly things themselves” Hebrews 9:23.

That is the world we live in—a world of patterns. Of shadows, figures, analogies. Things on earth illustrate things in heaven. Things on earth help us understand the things of heaven. The temple on earth is an analogue, a model, a replica of a temple in heaven.

Just as an earthly marriage is an illustration of our future relationship with God in heaven, so was the Old Testament temple an illustration of our relationship with God before Christ came. It is not the same, but it is an illustration. If you try to apply a symbolic meaning to every aspect of an earthly marriage, you will end up with the analogical fallacy, or a false analogy. The same goes for the temple. Any metaphor can be pushed too far. We must exercise restraint when deriving meaning from Biblical symbolism.

The temple in Jerusalem is symbolic, but every item in the temple may not have its heavenly analogue. Not everything in Solomon’s temple symbolizes some other thing in heaven.

The earthly temple is a frontier outpost, far removed from the presence of God. That fact alone dictates that Solomon’s temple will include some things that heaven may not and vice versa.

After all, heaven itself is God’s dwelling place.

“For Christ entered not into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the things true, but into HEAVEN ITSELF now to appear in the presence of God for us” Hebrews 9:24.

Moreover, heaven does not seem to include a literal temple, but God Himself is its temple.

“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” Revelation 21:22.

My point is, though the Old Testament temple and its veil are symbolic, they do not necessarily represent literal counterparts in heaven, as though there is a golden building in heaven with a veil hanging from the rafters. The earthly temple with its courts, outer rooms, and inner rooms, symbolized the state of our relationship with God under the Old Covenant. That is, we could approach Him, but we could only come so far.

I noted above that the veil in the temple symbolized the dividing wall between a Holy God and His unholy people. The rending of the veil symbolized that the dividing wall had been torn down. However, the veil carries a second layer of symbolism.

“We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” Hebrews 10:19-20.

The curtain—the veil—symbolizes the body of Christ. That body was torn and through His sacrifice, we can now enter the Holy of Holies. Think of that: God abides in the Holy of Holies and God’s children can never be holy enough to enter that Most Holy Place. But Jesus, standing between the two in the place of the veil, is able to bring the two sides together.

This is, by definition, exactly the role of a priest—to mediate between two sides. Jesus connects man with God and in so doing, He tears His body as a sacrifice for us and He tears the veil marking our separation from God. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, God and His children are brought together.

“God is on the one side and all the people are on the other side, and Christ Jesus, Himself man, is between them, to bring them together by giving His life for all mankind” 1 Timothy 2:5-6.

How’s this for a mystery?

Jesus is both the offering and the priest, both the sacrifice and the sacrificer.

“Christ the high priest of good things to come, entered by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered once into the holy place, having obtained redemption for us” Hebrews 9:11-12.

AΩ.

[1] In addition to the torn veil, consider the mysteries of the darkness that covered the land from noon to 3:00 (Matthew 27:45), graves opened up and once-dead saints came into the city and appeared to many (Matthew 27:52-53), and the unrecorded conversation between the resurrected Jesus and two unnamed followers in which He explained everything that had happened (Luke 24:13-35).

[2] ALL MY KNOTTED UP LIFE, Beth Moore.