Psalms: a Book About the Heart. Psalm 149:4.

Do you ever think about how easy life is in the United States? We find ourselves on the wrong side of a political decision and say we are being persecuted. Yet we know nothing of real persecution. Or we wallow in a bad mood (I’m in a funk today!), never realizing how mild an American mood swing is, compared to growing up under an oppressive fear of evil spirits.

Today I read two stories in The Voice of the Martyrs magazine[1]. The first story detailed the struggles of a woman in Ethiopia named Damitu. After Damitu became a Christian, she and her husband shared the gospel in their village and began pastoring a small church. Some of their fellow villagers threatened them with violence and eventually broke into the home, killed Damitu’s husband in front of Damitu and her children, and set the house on fire. Damitu has faced violence and persecution few Americans can even imagine. But she knows God is with her.

“Times have changed. I am free. God has made free.”

Then I read about Khoi, a 95-year-old woman from a village in Vietnam. Khoi and her husband grew up practicing a blend of animism and ancestor worship. People in their village made costly sacrifices to keep the spirits happy and lived in three-room houses built on stilts with animal horns mounted around the house to keep evil spirits away. Khoi lived her young life in “bondage to capricious spirits.”

This fear of angry spirits motivates attacks on believers around the world every day. When locals begin to believe a Christian’s “betrayal” of traditional religion is making the spirits angry, then they blame the Christians for everything that follows: failed crops, illnesses, unexpected accidents, natural disasters, deaths.

Much of the third world is terrified of hostile spirits; if anyone they know stops making sacrifices and begins preaching salvation through Jesus, persecution will often follow.

On top of that, tyrannical governments continue to actively persecute Christians around the world. Khoi’s husband went to town one day in 1975 and never returned. Fifty years later, the government has still given her no information about his disappearance. Not only that, after her husband disappeared, the Vietnamese government took Khoi’s home and property, leaving her destitute with eight people depending on her. The years that followed were miserable, but she never lost faith.

“God is my shepherd. He takes care of me and he protects me.”

The Bible covers many genres: books about history, law and ethics, creation, the life of Christ, letters about church doctrine and practice, and more. But Psalms, the poetry book and hymnal of the Bible, is unique:

Psalms is a book about the heart.

Psalms shows us how to worship, how to pray, and how to praise God. But Psalms is also a book filled with encouragement. It is filled with reasons to feel courage, reasons to feel confidence, reasons to feel peace. When your mind has questions about the life of Adam or Abraham, you go to Genesis. But when your heart needs the courage to face fears, you go to Psalms.

Imagine the lives of believers like Damitu and Khoi, women robbed of their husbands and homes. Read these verses through their eyes and you will see that Psalms is a book that encourages the fearful heart:

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth … behold, the keeper of Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” Psalm 121:1-2,4. “Unto thee I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwells in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of their mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us” Psalm 123:1-2.

If you had grown up in “bondage to capricious spirits,” imagine how encouraged you would be to now serve a forgiving God:

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

If you turned to Christ, but your neighbors wanted you to return to idol worship, you would be encouraged by Psalm 135:

“The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not, they have eyes, but see not. They have ears, but they hear not, neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them shall be like them. So is everyone who trusts in them” Psalm 135:15-18.

Do you ever feel alone in your faith, as if the whole village were against you? Read Psalm 148 and remember the “great cloud of witnesses surrounding us”[2]:

“Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and ice, stormy winds fulfilling his word. Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars. Beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl. Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth. Both young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name is excellent and his glory is above the earth and heaven” Psalm 148:7-13.

Finally, serving Jesus means serving a God who loves you. He does not simply forgive you, then remain aloof, like a child struggling to get over it. He adores you! He enjoys being with you. You bring God joy, do you realize that?

“For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation” Psalm 149:4.

God loves you. His word is filled with proof. Christianity is not a faith for rule-followers. It is not a legal system or a system of governance. This faith–this relationship with Jesus–is a life-changing deliverance from rules, sacrifices to earn forgiveness, and the life-long terror of never being good enough. Faith in Christ redeems your broken life and delivers a life of joy and hope and purpose. God gave us sixty-six books to teach these lessons. The Book of Psalms—a book about the heart—is filled with God’s treasure.

“I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great treasure” Psalm 119:162.

AΩ

[1] See The Voice of the Martyrs, April, 2025 (Vol.59, No.4).

[2] Hebrews 12:1.

The Ringing Voices of Ten Thousand Maniacs on Social Media. Psalm 118:5-6.

Image generated with A. I.

Scrolling through social media is something like walking through a carnival:

There are crowds everywhere, people of all ages, all types. Some beautiful, some that make you cringe, some violent and dangerous. There are artists and writers and thinkers and experts and there are clowns and buffoons and scumbags and scalawags.

And the booths! Everywhere someone is hawking their wares, selling something: three tries for a dollar, win your lady a giant teddy bear! And they sell so much more than carnival games: in fact, they sell everything you want, with smart ads that seem to cover everything you have ever talked about.

Lately my internet feed has been bad-tasting but impossible not to consume, an ill-prepared stew of ingredients ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous:

Encouraging words from Bible teachers followed by people fist-fighting on subway platforms; multi-fatality accidents recorded on dashcams followed by feel-good clips of pop-music talent shows; children and dogs doing amazing things then a comedian making jokes about something he shouldn’t; ads for yoga, holistic medicines, and yet one more children’s book from a celebrity trying to build his brand. There are posts about local politics, national politics, riots at home and wars abroad. And conspiracy theories from both sides of the aisle—so many conspiracy theories! It is too much. Sometimes it is all just too much. But then that next short clip is the most perfect golf shot ever and now I’m scrolling again. And Oh look, another captivating story from Mr. Ballen. And so it goes.

When you finally turn it off, do you hear your ears ring? No. I’m serious. If you listen closely, I swear you can hear the noise ringing in your ears. You have put the phone down. The screen is dark and all is silent. But, like trying to sleep after a rock concert, you can still hear the ringing voices of ten thousand maniacs on social media. If you listen closely, you will hear them. They are still there in your head.

And after scrolling for an hour or two, you can’t possibly sort the voices out. Oh, you might remember a face here and there or an especially violent car crash, or an outrageous prank, or something funny that you had not already seen a hundred times before. But most of the noise is just noise, just a ringing, pounding noise of voices, drowning out your peace of mind.[1]

The cacophony of voices will also drown out the voice of God.

Is God bigger, stronger, and infinitely louder than the internet? Of course. But he will not compete with our culture’s non-stop entertainment. If you fill your head with the world’s whirlwind of noise, you will not be able to hear the still, small voice of God, 1 Kings 19:11-13. And because that noise draws your eyes, your ears, and your attention away from him, it will leave you feeling alone and small and vulnerable. How do most people deal with those feelings? They pick the phone back up as soon as possible. Social media entertains us while it hollows out our minds like beaters whipping cake batter in a mixing bowl. Social media entertains us, we fill up on it, and it leaves us feeling empty. So we consume more, and it leaves us emptier still.

One answer is to put down social media. Really put it down. Take a few hours off. Take a day off. Take more than a day. My friend Scott regularly takes an internet fast. It does wonders for his peace of mind.

Nevertheless, few of us are going to give up social media entirely. We must learn to use it in moderation.

Turn it off, read books, talk to people, and do active things (fishing, hiking, surfing) that make it impossible to surf the web at the same time.

And when you do use social media, put it down with finality. (I leave the phone in the house while doing yard work, for example.)[2] Then as you walk away, listen to the quiet. Do you hear the voices in your head? Do you see the violence, the commotion, the all-out battle for your attention? There is no peace in that moment.

You can settle your mind and re-gain your peace by spending some time praising God for his greatness. You can use your own words, simply by talking to God about his great attributes, and you can also use words from the Bible. Here are examples of both.

Read these words aloud to God. Afterwards, notice the way it settles your mind:

(Praise in My Own Words.)

Dear God, I praise you for your power. You are the Omnipotent Creator of Man’s first breath*. You made us. You love us. You save us. You are in control of all things. You are seated on your throne. Nothing that happens to me today is beyond your control.

You are the sovereign lord of the universe. Before you, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” I praise you because you are all knowing. You are the God of truth. You possess all power. And you deserve all praise.

(Praise Using Scripture.)

“But God is in the heavens. He has done whatever he pleased” Psalm 115:3. “Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man that fears the Lord, that greatly delights in his commands … he shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid” Psalm 112:1,7-8.

“Tremble, Oh earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. Who turned the rock into standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters” Psalm 114:7-8. “I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications … for Thou hast delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling” Psalm 116:1,8.

“Praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever” Psalm 117:1-2. “I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Psalm 118:5-6.

AΩ

[1] Not only does social media chip away at your peace of mind. There is also a junk food quality to social media (in fact, to all of the internet—even the things that seem “good for you.”). Even at its best, the internet is generally restricted to the surface of things. Some articles are deeper than others. But to truly reach the depths, you need a different medium. You need a book. Because it takes several hundred pages to journey to the bottom of the sea. You can’t get there in five minutes. Thus, the internet itself is a limited medium. It is easily accessible, it has its lauded “democratizing” effect on culture. But it cannot deliver true depths of thought and analysis. Only books can do that. There are millions of deep books in thousands of fields. The Bible is the best of them.

[2] When you walk away from surfing the web, think about what you consumed. Was it valuable? Worthy? Was it made with quality and was the message true? For example, videos of road rage that lead to fighting never encourage anyone to be a peacemaker. Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” Matthew 5:9. But social media is more like the Roman coliseum. It is a blood sport and no one wants to make peace. The ones trying to break up the fight are getting in the way of the fun. Read the comments: the audience signals a collective thumbs down. Kill him! We are only watching violence on our phones in the hope of seeing more and more violence. The videos are empty of meaning or value or purpose. They are, by definition, vanity. Pray the words of Psalm 119: “turn away my eyes from looking at vanity” Psalm 119:37.

* The phrase “omnipotent creator of man’s first breath” comes from the song “The Champion,” by Carman.

Jesus said the end times would be characterized not only by “wars and rumors of wars,” by earthquakes and famines and the beginning of the birth pangs, but by DECEPTION. “Take heed that no one misleads you” Matthew 24:4. I have never seen such a chorus of misleading voices. Between anti-intellectualism, social media, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Fakes, incompetent Influencers, the predatory wellness movement, biased reporting masquerading as journalism, the ignorance of expertise, plagiarism and other factors decimating scholarship and the peer-review process, the rise of false religions, cults, and new age spirituality, I am more inclined to call ours the end times than ever before.

Love Him … in the in-Between Time When You Feel the Pressure Coming. Job 19:25-27.

The title is a line from an excellent song from 1974: “All Day Song (Love Him in the Morning)”
from the album Still Life, by John Fischer (a credited founder of “Jesus Music”). The image is Mr. Fischer in more recent years. https://johnfischer.bandcamp.com/track/all-day-song-love-him-in-the-morning

Have you ever prayed or spent time praising God or worshipping Him, yet doubted your own motives?

Do you ever hear the voice of the skeptic in your head saying something like what the devil said about Job: It’s easy to worship God right now—everything in your life is going so well! (see Job 1:9-11).

I have had such thoughts. I ignore them easily enough—but when I suffer, I remember them, and I know that praising God while suffering is the best praise of all—because I do not have mixed motives. I am not praising God because my life is great, or because I think God will instantly fix things if only I praise him. Instead, I am praising God even though I am deeply upset by one situation or another. Worshipping while suffering has been some of the sweetest, most special times of worship I have had.

Job worshipped while suffering also. After losing his health, wealth, and his ten children, Job praised God. Oh, he complained too, bitterly and deeply. But then he stopped and forced himself to praise God, in what is surely one of the greatest statements of praise (not to mention mature faith) in the Bible:

“I know that my redeemer lives! And that in the end, he will stand upon the earth. And, after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes—I and not another. How my heart yearns within me” Job 19:25-27.

Give us the faith of Job, to see your truth and talk about it and praise you for it, no matter how difficult our circumstances. Teach us to praise you in all things and to rejoice always, 1 Thessalonians 5:16.

Praise: Talk to God About His Greatness, Part 2 of 2. Job 19:25-27.

Suffering is a universal truth of life.

Everyone suffers, whether rich or poor, powerful or weak. As Jesus said, “He … causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust” Matthew 5:45. Suffering does not become easier as you get older. When it hurts, it hurts! But handling suffering becomes easier—because with experience, you gain coping skills. And I have good news! You don’t have to learn all your skills through the school of hard knocks. That is, you don’t have to learn everything by experience.

The best strategy for handling suffering is to prepare for suffering in advance.

And the best way to prepare for suffering is to memorize Bible verses about suffering.

Find a half dozen or a dozen scriptures[1] about overcoming adversity, write them down, and memorize them. Go over them, rehearsing and practicing them every day until they transform your thinking about suffering.

A second way to prepare for suffering is to develop a habit of talking to God about his greatness every day.

Make praise a habit—and then when tragedy strikes, you will be able to praise God in spite of your circumstances.

Consider Psalm 102. The writer complains about how badly he is suffering, but then he forces himself to stop complaining and praise God anyway.

“Hear my prayer, Lord … My days vanish like smoke, my bones burn like glowing embers. My heart is blighted and withered like grass. I forget to eat my food. In my distress I groan aloud and am reduced to skin and bones … I lie awake. I have become like a bird alone on a roof … For I eat ashes for my food and mingle my drink with tears. I wither away like grass. But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever. Your renown endures through all generations. You will arise and have compassion” Psalm 102:1-13.

The psalmist is clearly suffering, yet he takes control of his own thoughts and forces himself to praise God in spite of his suffering. You can do the same thing: arrest your thoughts and make them obey: “Take your thoughts captive so they obey Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5.

When everything around you seems to be falling apart, you will find an oasis of peace during the few minutes when you train your attention on God’s greatness, his success, his victory, his power, and his love for you. Read the following verses to God, speaking them to him as a prayer:

“The Lord reigns. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength … Your throne is established of old, thou art from everlasting … The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waters of the sea” Psalm 93:1-2,4.

“For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is his also” Psalm 95:3-4.

“The Lord is great, and [deserves] greatly to be praised [by me!] … He is to be feared above all gods … the Lord made the heavens … Give unto the Lord the glory due his name” Psalm 96:4-5,8.[2]

Dear God, teach us to praise you. Teach us to praise you when things are good, and to praise you when they are not. Help us memorize scripture about hope and praise during adversity.

AΩ

[1] Six verses on suffering worth committing to memory: Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Proverbs 3:5-6, Philippians 4:12-13, 1 Peter 5:10, James 1:2-4.

[2] I have always enjoyed the ten psalms between 90-99. They include many great lines of praise spoken directly to God.

Praise: Talk to God About His Greatness, Part 1 of 2. Psalm 22:3.

Praise is an essential part of your prayer life. Praise has so many benefits!

  1. Praise leads to blessings. “Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even God, shall bless us” Psalm 67:5-6.
  2. Praise improves your countenance (it makes you more attractive!). “Praise is comely for the upright” Psalm 33:1. (There are actually a number of verses about this.)  
  3. Praise can ease mental health struggles. If you worry, praise will help. If you are angry, praise will help. If you feel betrayed, praise will help. If you are paranoid, praise will help. If you are lonely, praise will help. How? Speaking strictly on a human level, praise takes your focus off of yourself and your problems and puts it on God.
  4. Praise draws us closer to God. Speaking on a supernatural level, God “inhabits the praise of his people” Psalm 22:3. When you praise God, he draws near to you. Have you ever felt your prayers were not going past the ceiling? Spend some time praising God. Give several minutes of your mental energy and your thoughts to God’s greatness. It will make a difference.

The Bible is FILLED with words praising God. Use them. Praise God right now by reading the following words to the Lord:

Dear God, we praise you for your grace and forgiveness: “You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. You have taken away your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger” Psalm 85:2-3.

We praise you because you are so great and so compassionate: “Glorious things of thee are spoken” Psalm 87:3. “Thou art the helper of the fatherless … the Lord is KING forever and ever” Psalm 10:14,16.

God, we praise you for your wisdom: “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” Psalm 33:11.

God, we praise you because you watch over us every day: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy” Psalm 33:18.

God, we praise you because in a world of evil and corruption, we know you judge righteously. “Thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations of the earth” Psalm 67:4.

God, we praise you because you take care of us throughout our entire lives. “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth … Now, when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have shown your strength to this generation and your power to everyone who is to come … my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness all the day long” Psalm 71:17-18,24.

Dear God, we praise you. Teach us to praise you daily. To talk to you all the time about your amazing attributes. To remind you—and remind ourselves—that you are sovereign, you are the Almighty, you are holy and loving and good, and you are taking care of us every day, at all times. We praise you for your infinite love and grace and mercy. May we lead lives worthy of your salvation.

AΩ

Praise and Thanksgiving: Two Keys to Mental Health. Psalm 46:9-10.

We understand the value of gratitude because it is talked about so often. Many non-believers in our culture talk about the “healing power of gratitude” and are dedicated to regularly giving thanks. Americans know that a posture of thankfulness helps us feel happier and more at peace. But there is another practice that may have an even more powerful impact on our emotions, anxiety, and overall mental health: PRAISE. Do we understand the value of praise? Do we practice it?

“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you depressed within me? Hope in God! For I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God!” Psalm 42:5.

The psalmist repeats this verse twice more on the same page, in Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43:5. The Bible says the cure for depression and despair is praise. Put your hope in God and spend some time praising him.[1]

That’s what praise is, after all. It is not a feeling. It is not some Christian-candle aromatherapy situation.

Praise is something you do.

Praise is not sitting by a warm fire with a cup of coffee and a good book. It is not some kind of a bubble-bath feeling with smooth jazz playing in the background. Praise is hard work! But it is work that makes a difference. Just as giving thanks means actively thinking and talking to God about specific things for which we are thankful, so also praise means actively thinking and talking to God about himself and his amazing traits.

Praise is telling God how great he is.

And doing that serves to remind you of his greatness. If you are worried, for example, and you spend three minutes talking to God about his power over the entire universe, when those three minutes end, you will be noticeably less anxious. Praise requires you to talk to God about his amazing qualities. But the one who benefits most is not God but you! Praise can turn your entire mental outlook around.

Consider the war in Ukraine. We have friends who have been missionaries there for thirty years—and unlike many missionaries and foreign aid workers, they did not leave Ukraine when Russia invaded. I cannot imagine what they face each day. But God is the God of peace. There are words in the book of Psalms that we can use to praise God during war—and those words provide hope.

“For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all day long, and praise thy name forever” Psalm 44:6-8.

Can you see the way praising God can give courage to one who fears? But you don’t just read the words—you say them to God.

Praise is me telling God how great he is.

I use these words to have a conversation with God about his attributes. I give God praise and God gives me peace.

Consider war again:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea … He makes wars to cease unto the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations and I will be exalted in the earth” Psalm 46:1-2,9-10.

Imagine reading these lines to God, or better yet, memorizing them and praying them to the Lord. That is the essence of praise, and it can bring peace during a storm. And what if you are not in a storm? Even when all’s well, we should praise God.

When I was a child, I was taught to pray using five-points drawn on a hand. We would trace our hand, cut the drawing out with scissors, and write one word on each finger: 1)Praise, 2)Thanksgiving, 3)Confession, 4)Intercession (for Others), and 5)Petitions (for Me).*

When your prayer begins with praise and you are not in the midst of war, you might begin this way:

“O clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible [awesome]. He is a great King over all the earth” Psalm 47:1-2. 

Do you see the way praise can bring a person joy, hope, and mental well-being? Talking to God about these truths give us peace, reminding us that God is on his throne and he is taking care of everything!

A cliché is a phrase heard so often, it has lost its original impact. One churchy phrase that has lost its original impact is “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised” Psalm 48:1. What does the second clause mean: “greatly to be praised”? This is inverted grammar in which the you is understood. A modern translator might phrase it: The Lord is great and is to be praised greatly by you. The next time you hear the verse, make a mental note to thumbtack the missing words to the end of the verse:

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised [by you!]” Psalm 48:1.

God tells us to praise him. Psalm 150 begins “Praise God in his sanctuary,” and goes on to command praise twelve times in only six verses.

Even Jesus begins his model prayer by praising his Father in heaven: hallowed be thy name. Begin today using praise in your prayers. Talk to God about his attributes. Make praise part of your daily life. It will bless you greatly.

AΩ

[1] Some cases of depression require a physician’s care and are best treated with medication. There is no shame in having a problem with your brain chemistry any more than there is shame over illness in another part of the body. Follow your doctor’s orders: take the pills and get better! But add thanksgiving and praise to your regimen.

  • A good acrostic for prayer is ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.

Have You Lost Your First Love? Don’t Give Up! 2 Chronicles 31:4-8.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus dictates letters to seven young churches in modern-day Turkey. Jesus says that the church in Ephesus has done many things well, but “you have lost your first love” Revelation 2:4. What can you do if you have lost your first love? What is the solution?

The loss of first love feels like an emotional problem.

In romance, it often means the end of the relationship. When exciting feelings fade—or when the initial pursuit is over—people become discouraged. Because they are new to romance, young people particularly can feel lost and have no idea why feelings have changed or what to do about it.

It’s the same in other areas: the love for your new job wears off, so you want to jump ship. Your new workout plan is not producing results, so you want out. You feel unappreciated in your volunteer efforts and wonder whether you should look for something else. Quitting is not the answer. But neither is trying to change your feelings.

When Hezekiah became king of Judah, he inherited a nation of idol worshippers. His own father had locked the doors of Solomon’s Temple 16 years before. There were few signs of any “first love” left. The spiritual life of Judah had not merely grown cold—that candle had been blown out.

But King Hezekiah got to work. He brought in the priests and Levites and had them consecrate themselves. Then he made the men clean and refurbish the temple. Next, the nation gathered to rededicate the temple. Then the nation celebrated the Passover for the first time since the reign of King Solomon, some 200 years before, 2 Chronicles 30:26. Finally, King Hezekiah commanded the people to step up:

“He commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. And … the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field and the tithe of all things brought they abundantly. And concerning the [citizens of other cities], they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated unto the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps … And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord, and his people Israel” 2 Chronicles 31:4-8.

What do you do when you lose your first love? You put your head down and get to work. That is, you remember your purpose and focus on the tasks that matter most. If you do that, the feelings will take care of themselves.

“You have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first” Revelation 2:4-5.

If you have lost your first love, go back to the basics! Do the deeds you did at first, and soon the feelings you felt at first will probably return. On top of that, always practice gratitude. Recognize what you have been given and thank God for it!

AΩ

That Time Solomon’s Temple Was Looted and Boarded Up. 2 Chronicles 29:15-16.

My Uncle Bob’s farm had the most perfect house set on a hill. The house was always filled with happy voices and laughter and the smells of a wood fire in the fireplace and something delicious in the kitchen. The view from the front porch was the most peaceful thing I have ever seen.

But hidden in some trees down by the barn was an abandoned old house that my cousins and I would explore. The boards on the porch were loose; you just knew you were about to fall through. Inside the house there was junk everywhere: old torn childrens’ books, broken toys, trash, empty hangers, rusty odds and ends. The kitchen cabinets were empty. I remember a toilet with a dead rat in it—the biggest rat I’d ever seen. The roof was leaking, wallpaper peeling, mold creeping. Windows broken. Doors stood open. Vermin and varmints came and went: termites, roaches, rats, worse. The last time I saw that house it had sunk into its own collapse like a cardboard box in the rain. The forest was growing up through it, swallowing it.

King Ahaz may have been the worst of all the kings in Israel and Judah. Though many of the Hebrew kings tolerated or even encouraged idol worship, only King Ahaz looted Solomon’s temple, then closed and locked its doors.

“And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem” 2 Chronicles 28:24.

Throughout Ahaz’s 16-year reign the temple remained closed, and the temple courts became a junkyard.

Even a gold-plated temple will fall into disrepair when abandoned. But worse than that, imagine the spiritual life of Jerusalem! God had given his people the priesthood, the sacrifices, the law of Moses—everything they needed to worship him, but the idol-worshipping King Ahaz took it away. Then King Ahaz died and his son, Hezekiah became king in his place.

With a king as bad as Ahaz, it would seem that giving his son the crown would only perpetuate the problem. But in fact, Hezekiah was a good king, choosing to follow the examples of his grandfather and great-grandfather rather than his father.

King Hezekiah gathered the priests and the Levites and instructed them to clean and restore the temple and its courts.

“It is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us” 2 Chronicles 29:10.

The passage then names 14 men chosen to lead teams of men doing the cleaning. Somewhere between 50 and 150 men must have helped clean the temple and its courts.Yet, the job still took them more than two weeks.

“And they gathered their brethren and they sanctified themselves, and they came … to cleanse the house of the Lord. And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord” 2 Chronicles 29:15-16.

After sixteen days the Levites had cleansed and sanctified the temple and the temple courts. Soon Hezekiah rededicated the temple by sacrificing thousands of sheep and cattle, then he led the nation to celebrate Passover for the first time since the reign of King Solomon, some 200 years before, 2 Chronicles 30:26.

Hezekiah observed under his father’s leadership the crumbling state not only of the temple, but of the spiritual life of the nation, and he became a great reformer. In spite of the failures of the man who raised him, King Hezekiah brought repentance and revival to the nation and was one of the greatest kings in Judah’s history.

Dear God, may we rise above the limitations of our parents! Challenge us to do better and go further than our parents may have. Call us to a deeper relationship with you, to a deeper faith and a deeper devotion. Use us to bring hope, grace, and truth to those around us. May we abide in the vine and bear much fruit! John 15:5.

AΩ

Humiliation Stories. Isaiah 2:11-17.

The tales are legendary. Ford rejected the minivan, arrogantly believing Americans would buy what Ford told them to buy—more station wagons. Struggling Chrysler, led by former Ford executive Lee Iacocca, said yes to minivans and saved its business (sinking the station wagon forever). Hitler paid his architect, Albert Speer, to design a new Berlin—a capitol that was to last a thousand years, but the warmongering nation was destroyed before a single building was built. Shipbuilders designed the greatest ship ever made and claimed it was “unsinkable.” But the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. Even Casey, the make-believe baseball player in the popular poem Casey at the Bat, goes from hero to zero when he arrogantly ignores two good pitches, then loses the game for his team when he swings at and misses the third.

Pride is a tricky thing. We need enough confidence to believe we can compete with others, yet not so much that we think we are better than others.

But what if you actually are better than others? The student who is the valedictorian does not simply think he is the best; he knows he has achieved better grades than everyone else. What should a valedictorian think? Or the football star or the musical prodigy? When we achieve a worthy goal, how are we to think of ourselves? What should a high achiever think?

Consider the advice of the Apostle Paul—a leader of the early church who was not only tough-as-nails, but possibly the most intelligent and well-educated of all Biblical writers. The prolific church planter wrote more books of the Bible than anyone else. Yet, this successful man of God repeatedly emphasized the importance of humility. This is how a high achiever should think:

“Let no one among you think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but think so as to have sound judgment” Romans 12:3.

Pride puts a target on your back: a target sighted-in by a sharpshooter no less talented than God himself.

“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” James 4:6.

Don’t be proud. You do not want God opposed to you.

God humbles people: “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down” Isaiah 2:11.

As if to make the point even more clear, God humbles the earth itself!

The Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty … and he shall be brought low.

And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, and upon all the oaks of Bashan.

And upon all the high mountains and upon all the hills that are lifted up.

And upon every high tower and every fenced wall.

And upon the ships of Tarshish.

And upon all pleasant pictures [great works of art] Isaiah 2:12-16.

Imagine that. God humbles arrogant people. He humbles impressive cedars and oaks. He humbles the Rocky Mountains, the Himalayas, and the Alps. He humbles the hills in the Texas Hill country. He humbles towers, skyscrapers, tall bridges, and monuments. He humbles every impressive building and edifice. He humbles ships, yachts, trains. He humbles museums, palaces, and all the greatest art collections.

“And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down” Isaiah 2:17.

Dear God, make us humble. Give us wisdom. Show us how to “think so as to have sound judgment.” Remind us to be grateful, to remember the question “what do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) and that “every good and perfect gift comes from above” (James 1:17). Make us grateful. We know everything we have—every gift, talent, and achievement—comes from you. We humble ourselves before you.

AΩ

Is it Better to Arrest a Villain or Gun Him Down? Isaiah 28:21.

I once polled my friends on Facebook about their favorite films that end with the death of the villain. There were so many good answers: The wicked witch falls off a cliff in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Emperor Palpatine falls to his death in Return of the Jedi. While fighting Frodo for the ring, Smeagol falls into lava in Return of the King. The Joker falls from a gargoyle in Batman. Air Force One ends with the president throwing the bad guy out of an airplane. Die Hard ends with Hans Gruber falling from Nakatomi Tower. Beauty and the Beast ends with Gaston falling from the roof of the castle. The Lion King ends with Scar falling from Pride Rock and being attacked by hyenas. Even Les Miserables includes Javert’s satisfying leap from the bridge[1].

We love to see the bad guy get it in the end, don’t we? We want him to suffer enough that the punishment fits the crime.

Do we want our villains to be arrested and put on trial? No! Audiences want heroes to take the law into their own hands—and putting a fictional villain in handcuffs is almost never an option, not even for fictional police officers. Most writers of police dramas are experts at creating situations in which the hero neatly kills off the villain in a gun battle rather than arresting him and leaving the plot to creep along on the slow wheels of justice.

The courtroom may be the bedrock on which civilization is built, but no one finds the process entirely satisfying, not even King Solomon, Ecclesiastes 8:11.

Thus, we root for heroes who take the law into their own hands. We want vengeance. We want blood. We want the villain to die a horrible death, preferably one in which he sees the end coming and discovers too late that it is all his fault.

God sees things differently. People love to talk about the wrath of God, as though it were his defining characteristic. It is not. God defines himself when he says “God is love” 1 John 4:8. Does God understand anger? Yes. Does God feel anger? Yes. But God does not root for anger.

Some writers speak of God’s wrath as having two parts: God’s Passive Wrath and God’s Active Wrath. God’s passive wrath is built into our world. Yes, you reap what you sow. Your sin leads to its own natural consequences, like a poisonous weed in the middle of a nutritious farm:

“Judgment springeth up like a hemlock in the furrows” Hosea 10:4.

But when it comes to his active wrath, God does not indulge his wrath lightly. Though humans love to see the bad guy suffer, God is different. He restrains himself. Why? First, because he is not one of us, a mere man. Second, because he is holy.

“I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee” Hosea 11:9.

I imagine myself asking God about this: I whine, “Why don’t you smite that bad guy?”

And God looks down his nose at me, his face a mixture of pity and scorn, like a slightly irritated older brother. “What? You think I am like YOU? I am most certainly NOT like you. I am not a man! Ha. I am holy. I control my anger.”

Those who read the Old Testament (or a few parts of it, let’s be honest) and describe the so-called “Old Testament God” as vengeful, understand neither the Old Testament nor God. God describes himself as merciful and “his lovingkindness is everlasting” Psalm 136.

More importantly, God describes his wrath as unusual, even strange:

“For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act” Isaiah 28:21.

God will execute wrath. But God considers wrath to be a strange work, an unusual thing. Wrath is not the norm for God. What is the norm? Love, mercy, and lovingkindness. Just look at the cross.

What does God do for villains and sinners? He dies on the cross to make atonement for their sins.

Something tells me God might respond differently to the endings of our favorite movies. Even knowing most of them are fictional tales about characters that do not exist and have no soul, I’m not sure God’s first response would be to root for the death of the villain. After all, he is God and not a man, the Holy One in the midst of thee.

God, make us more like you. Help us understand a bit more about your holiness, your mercy, and your lovingkindness that is everlasting. May we root for truth and justice, but may we root for the gospel even more. Remind us to pray for our enemies, Matthew 5:44. Remind us to pray for their salvation.

AΩ

[1] While making this list, I was surprised by this common trope: so many falls! Apparently, as much as we enjoy the supposed “justice” of a dead villain, we don’t like our hero to get his hands dirty. Oh, we like it sometimes—for especially sinister villains in darker situations. But for family films like Beauty and the Beast, we may cheer while the Beast fights Gaston, but we don’t want the Beast to hurl the man off the roof. Instead, we want Gaston to slip in the rain so our hero has no blood on his hands. Contrast this kinder, gentler sensibility with the blood sports so common in the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome. You know what I think? I think Christianity has taught our civilization mercy. Countless people with no interest in the faith have nevertheless adopted the compassion it teaches. Men are not the brute beasts we once were.