Month: March 2013

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 22 (day two)
“But You are holy…” (Psalm 22:3). It’s a strange place to find comfort. We would have expected a suffering person to cry out to God who is merciful, just, compassionate, loving, near or powerful. But no. He says, “You are holy.” Holy? How can holy be a comfort? Consider for a moment what holy means. Its use in the Bible is to speak of that which is set apart, without defect, sinless, beautiful, clean, and perfectly alive. Rather than being an impossible notion that drives us apart from God, the whole story of the Bible is that the holy God gifts his holiness to his creation. Creation becomes holy because it has been touched by the Holy One. So when the psalmist seeks comfort in the holy God, he points us to an important insight. If we move toward the holy God, we get more than just his comfort. We get his mercy, justice, compassion, love, nearness and power. The holy God is perfect in all of these as well.

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 22 (day one)  “I will declare your name to my brothers. . .You who fear the Lord, praise him!. . .For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one.”  (vs 22-24)  Psalm 22 is a prediction of the cross.  For 21 verses, in amazing detail, David narrates both his own troubles and a clear vision of Christ on the cross 1000 years later.  It is impossible to read these verses and not be impressed with the exactness of his words.  In vs 22, however, the mood suddenly shifts.  From suffering to praise, from defeat to victory.  It is a prophecy of the resurrection!  In Philippians 2, the Bible says, “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the cross. . .therefore God has highly exalted Him”  (vs 8-9)  The Christian faith rests on this confidence.  We are to be faithful to Him in our sufferings.  He will be faithful to us when they are over.  Those who seek Him are promised a Psalm 22:22 life!

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 16 (day seven)
“I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; indeed, my mind instructs me in the night. . .because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken”  (vs 7-8)  In David’s time, to be at someone’s “right hand” meant to be his counselor/advisor/confidant.  (Think of Jesus sitting at the “right hand” of God).  When David (vs 8) uses this term to describe God, he is repeating with different words the truth of vs 7.  “I will bless the Lord who has counseled me”.  I wonder how many times David proved this great promise of God.  “Call and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.”  (Jeremiah 33:3)  “If any man lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all men generously and without reproach and it will be given to him.”  (James 1:5).  What David had,  is what we all need. . . wisdom from the Wonderful Counselor. (Isaiah 9:6)

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 16 (day six)
We do not know when David wrote Psalm 16.  We know that he was old enough to look back  on his past experiences with God, look around at this present standing with God, and look forward to a secure future with God.  In vs 2, he says, “I said to the Lord: I have no good besides You.”  A watershed moment in the past that David still remembers.  Have you had such a similar moment of verbal commitment?   Vs 5 says  “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance.”  This is David’s present confident assurance.  Vs 10-11 says,   “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol. . .you will make known to me the path of life.”  This is David’s perspective on the days that stretch out ahead, his certainty that God will continue to lead.  In a heart of true faith, the past prepares us for the present which teaches us to have confidence for the future.

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 16 (day four)
It was the day of Pentecost…a noise like a great rushing wind…and the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit!  The results were amazing.  People did not know what to think.  It was Peter (anyone surprised?) who stood to preach and give explanation.  In Acts 2:24, Peter said, “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”  He then says in verse 25, “For David says of Him,…” and then he quotes from Psalm 16:8-11.  Peter recognized, through the power of the indwelling Spirit, that when the Psalmist wrote the inspired words of God, it was impossible for them not to come true.  All of God’s promises come true.  He promised that His Holy One would not undergo decay.  For Peter, with his new understanding, there was no doubt as to God’s faithfulness.  What promises has God made that you have yet to accept and believe?  He never fails!

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 16 (day three)
“Apart from you I have no good thing.”  Where there is good, there is God.  The trouble is, the human heart finds it hard to determine what is truly good.  We can marvel at a newborn baby or stand in awe of the photograph of a distant star coming into existence, and we can surmise that a Creator must be at work.  But we can just as easily treat gossip like “choice morsels” (Proverbs 18:8).  Sin has severely stunted our ability to tell the difference.  It is true that where there is good, there is God.  But we would do well to seek God first, and know that where there is God, there is good.

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 16 (day two)
Water filling your bathtub… a good thing. Water filling your house… a destructive thing. Fire consuming wood in the fireplace…a good thing. Fire consuming a forest…a destructive thing. Sexual expression between a man and a woman in marriage…a good thing. Sexual expression whenever and with whomever you might desire…a destructive thing. Ambition for excellence guarded by loving my neighbor as myself… a good thing. Ambition for excellence with no thought for my neighbor…a destructive thing.

God’s gift of desire, even the strongest desires, is a good thing. However, every good thing requires a context, an order for it to function properly. A good desire out of order becomes a great evil and destroys lives. What can order my desires? “I have no good besides you,” (Psalm 16:2). When my desire is aimed at God as my only good, all other desires are given their proper order, their appropriate context. Water, fire, sex, ambition; all are proper joys when I am enjoying God as my only good.

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 16 (day one)
“I said to the Lord; I have no good besides you. . .I have set the Lord continually before me. . .I will not be shaken.”  (vs 2, 8)  By single I do not mean unmarried.  I mean single-minded–a heart that has resolved the question of priority, of value.  David discovered this early in life.  He concluded that God existed and deserved all of his attention.  God became his criterion for “good”.  God was the person he continually “set before” himself as an ambition or goal.  The unexpected result?  A deep sense of safety!  Even in danger.  Remember the encounter with Goliath?  Remember the years David was unfairly treated by Saul?  Would the same thing work for us?  If we focused on God and set our hearts on Him as our only goal, would we experience the same sort of protection?  Would we be able to look at the future with hope and not dread? Yes!  Praise God, yes!

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 8 (day seven)
“What is man that thou art mindful of him?and the son of man that thou visitest him?” (vs 4–KJV)  When David calculates human worth,  he does not reference accomplishments or bank accounts.  He considers the “visits” of God.  It is the King James translation of the Hebrew word paqad.  The New American Version uses the word “care”.  (Caring for a person= visiting him in his need.  See James 1:27.)  When Jesus promised ” I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you” (John 14:18), He was continuing a long pattern of God’s love for the human race.  He comes to us!  He visits us!  Can you think back on a time when the Lord came to you in a time of need?  When you experienced the comfort of His guiding presence?  If so, have you reflected on that experience and come to David’s conclusion?  You are loved.  He comes to you in your need.

Re:Verse reading–Psalm 8 (day six).
“When I consider your heavens” (vs 3)  If God is the creator of the material world (as Christians believe) then it is reasonable to expect all things to echo and reflect His character.  A sweet child doesn’t paint an ugly cruel picture.  His “nature” is revealed in what he creates.  So with God.   To be out in nature can, therefore, be  a spiritual experience.  “The heavens declare your glory”  says Psalm 19:1.  “Consider the lilies of the field” counseled Jesus to His disciples.  As Wendell Berry says,  “The best argument for God is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup”.  In Romans 1:20, the Bible says , “For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal plan and divine nature have been clearly seen through what has been made“.  Part of the weakness of this present generation is our exile from natural things–our blindness to the creator who made them.