Year 5, Day 243: Psalms 113-114

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

Here we clearly have another worship psalm.  Who is like God?  Who can do what God does?  Who else is there from the rising of the sun to its setting?  Who can always look down upon the earth and see it in its entirety?

Our God is majestic.  He is unmatched.  He can do all things without equal.

But what makes God incredibly worthy of our praise is how He uses His majesty.  When we were yet sinners, He rescued us.  He used His immense power to save us.  He used all the power at His disposal not to put us in our place but to lift us up out of it.  Not unlike those Hebrew people in Egypt, He has bought us and borne us out of our turmoil and is walking us into the Promised Land.  He is worthy to be praised!

<><

Year 5, Day 242: Psalms 112

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Capacity

• Capacity asks whether or not the person has the time in their life to obey God.

As we look at this psalm, we continue in a great line of thinking that we’ve developed since starting psalm 109.  The human condition means that we call upon the Lord for protection.  He responds.  He does protect us.  He lifts us up.  He is King.  He enters into our life and changes who we are.  This leads us today’s psalm.  Blessed is the one who fears the Lord.

Blessed is the one who asks the Lord to make him more like Him.  Blessed is the one whose life is changed by God.  Blessed is the one for whom God makes a difference in their life.  Blessed is the one who lives with a perspective that is from God ad not from their humanity.

Such a person has the capacity to be kind.  Such a person has a capacity to be generous.  Such a person has a capacity to be wise.  Such a person has the capacity to be light in a dark world.

<>< 

Year 5, Day 241: Psalms 110-111

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

What a big change from yesterday’s psalm to the two psalms for today.  Yesterday we heard David as he was in the midst of persecution.  We absolutely heard the humanity in his voice.  We heard the pain and we heard the human instinct to lash out.

Today, however, we hear a great response from God’s word.  It is God who will avenge.  It is God whose hands work incredible things.  It is God who feeds the hungry and tends the poor.  It is God who knows how to hand out justice.

God is King of the universe, not David.  God is King of the universe, no me or you.  Who are we to tell God what to do?  God is the one who deserves to be praised.  God is the one whose name should be remembered.  God is the one in charge.  He is king.

<><

Year 5, Day 240: Psalm 109

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

This is a challenging psalm.  I am always challenged by the tone of this psalm.  My challenge comes because this psalm is so human.

Who hasn’t desired to see their enemies encounter difficulty?  Who hasn’t desired to watch those who oppose them get what we think they deserve?  Who among us hasn’t wanted to know the grace of God for themselves but then ask God to judge their enemies?  That’s what this psalm is all about.  The psalmist is asking for judgment upon the enemies of the psalmist.

In the end, though, while the psalmist’s perspective is clearly human his fundamental need is legitimate.  What the psalmist is fundamentally doing is asking for protection.  The psalmist is feeling persecuted and is asking God to do something about it.  This is not a bad thing.  We should call to God for help against those who persecute us.

But I have to end on this.  A godly perspective asks for our enemies to change and come to know God, not ask for their swift judgment.

<><

Year 5, Day 239: Psalm 108

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

Psalm 108 is a really cool psalm in which to view the concept of Up.  Initially, the psalm reads like a psalm of praise.  Therefore, it feels natural to consider this as a place for Up.

However, as we read through the psalm we begin to realize that this is not a psalm of praise but rather a psalm of petition.  David is headed out to battle and he’s feeling a little unsteady and unsure.  He’s feeling a little distant from God.  He needs to refocus and re-center His life upon God.

The reason that this is a cool psalm is because so often we see times of petition as moments of “Oh, God, help me!” moments.  But they aren’t.  Times of petition are times for us to make sure that we are centered where we need to be centered.  Rather than saying, “Oh, God, help me!” we should be saying, “Oh, God, bring me into Your will!”

That’s what David is after here in this psalm.  Yes, he is worried and concerned.  But ultimately his peace doesn’t come until he remembers to center his life on the worship of God.

<><

Year 5, Day 238: Psalm 107

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Clearly this psalm is a worship song.  The goal of this psalm is to get us to reflect on God’s greatness.  The focus of our reflection should be on how God delivers us, protects us, watches over us, and brings us into a better place.

We hear that some people wander all over the world looking for a place to God home, and God protects them and brings them into His security.  We hear about how other people live in the darkness of persecution – prison, afflicted in iron, the victims of our own sinfulness even – yet God protects us and delivers us out of the dark places and away from the shadow of death.  Other people allowed their sinfulness to lure them into places of unhealthiness, but God protects them and heals them and keeps them from their own destruction.  Other people get tossed around this world like ships upon the waves, yet God protects them and brings them into a safe harbor of His love and peace.

God is a God of protection – even from ourselves.  But what I really love about this psalm is where it ends.  Whoever is wise: let him attend to these things.  Consider that God is your protector.  Think about it.  Don’t just take it for granted, make a point to ponder it and remember God’s role in your life.  He is our protector, but how much better is the relationship when we reciprocate the relationship!

<><

Year 5, Day 237: Psalm 106

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

As we read through this psalm, we get another historical psalm that tells us about God and what He has done for the Hebrew people.  We hear about God’s character.  We hear about His grace.  We hear about His love.  He hear about His righteousness.

But there is something that leaps out far more often than anything else.  We hear about God’s reaction to our brokenness.  God forgives.  Time and time again the Hebrew people rebelled.  Time and time again we hear that the Hebrew people deserved to be destroyed.  Time and time again we hear that God was angry with them and in many instances actually did get around to meting out consequences.  But time and time we hear that God forgave.  God embraced His people once more.  God welcomed His repentant people back into His graces.

However, to leave it right there misses one substantial subtheme in this psalm.  Occasionally, we hear about intercessors.  Moses interceded.  Phineas interceded. Sometimes when God forgives, He does it through a person that He calls to stand in the gap.  I love Psalm 106:23 for that very reason.  It tells us that Moses stood up and stood in the breech that was before Him.  That is when God’s forgiveness meets human calling.

<><

Year 5, Day 236: Psalm 105

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance, Power

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.
• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

This is another really neat historical psalm.  I’m sure as you read through the psalm you felt like you were recapping the history of the Hebrew people from Abraham to at least Joshua.  This is a classic psalm of teaching and remembrance.

The really important question, though, is what is the psalm teaching?  The first thing that the psalm teaches us is God’s guidance.  In this particular psalm, we get a perspective of guidance through people.  God used Abraham.  God used Jacob.  God used Joseph.  God used Moses.  God used Aaron.  God often gives us guidance in our life through the very people around us.

However, this psalm is not just about how God works through the people around us.  This psalm speaks about God’s power, too.  We have a great recounting of the plagues, and there are few examples of God’s power in the Bible that are more dynamic than these.  We hear about how God brought His people out of Egypt burdened down with silver and gold.  We hear about How God brought famine upon the land but also brought sustenance through the storehouses of Joseph.  As much as God uses the people around us, He is also quite capable of acting through His own supernatural display.

<><

Year 5, Day 235: Psalm 104

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

Psalm 104 initially reads very similar to Psalm 103.  They both initially begin with a call for the Lord to be blessed.  His power is absolutely amazing.  Yet there is a difference between Psalm 103 and Psalm 104.  Psalm 103 takes God’s greatness and reminds us of His grace.  Psalm 104 takes God’s greatness and reminds us of His provision.

Look at just what the psalm proclaims for us to be true about God’s provision.  First of all, God created this incredible world.  He created the moon and the seasons.  He created the sun and the darkness.  He created water and sustenance for our continued life.  He provided for our needs with respect to life.

However, God does more than this.  He didn’t just create a massive sandbox for us to live in.  He created things that bring joy into our heart.  He created things that make us glad.  He created things to strengthen us.  He created so that we might know His abundance.  He provides more for more than our needs, He provides for our satisfaction as well.

<><

Year 5, Day 234: Psalm 103

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

One of the things that I absolutely love about this psalm is its focus.  It looks towards God and calls us to worship Him.  He is so great and mighty that His presence simply demands our worship.

However, lets follow the psalmist to find out for sure where this leads.  In this psalm, God’s awesomeness leads us to understand God’s grace, love and mercy.  In our transgression, God does not hold us accountable.  In our sin, we are not guilty.  He is willing to look past our iniquity and bring us into His presence.  We deserve judgment and condemnation, and He offers us life instead. 

It is because of His forgiveness that we can know He remembers His covenant.  Yet, it is because of His covenant that we know He forgives.  He has promised to be with us, His creation.  We may turn away from Him, but He does not turn away from us.  We may forsake the covenant, but He abides by it.

<><

Year 5, Day 233: Psalm 102

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.

Okay, so I’ll begin with a little confession.  This psalm isn’t exactly about God as Father.  The psalm is largely about our need of a Father.  The psalm is about how we approach God as a Father.  So this psalm is indirectly about God as Father.

I couldn’t help but read the pleas in this psalm in the same light as a child coming before his or her dad and listing out all of their problems in life.  Dads do so much more than this, but listening to a child’s problems is a part of what dads do.  Being a strong rock in a tumultuous world is part of a father’s job description.  Being able to bear the weight of the life of someone you care about is an inherent part of what it means to be a dad.

That’s what this psalmist who is coming to God expects.  I don’t get the idea that the psalmist is asking the Father to make their life all roses.  I don’t think the psalmist would have any kind of high expectation like that.  But the psalmist does want a place to come and lay his burdens while knowing that they are heard and cared about.  The psalmist does want to come and know that he is not alone in those burdens.  The psalmist does desire to be able to locate himself in the midst of God’s eternal kingdom rather than in his own temporal kingdom.  The psalmist wants to look to the Father and find peace, hope, and love.  That’s what the Father should be to us.

<><

Year 5, Day 232: Psalm 100-101

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

As we look at these two psalms today, we should also think back to the psalms form yesterday.  Yesterday we pondered the character of God as we were encouraged to lift up God and praise His name.  Psalm 100 continues this theme as we focus in once on God’s greatness.

However, there is something very neat about where Psalm 101 takes us as we look at the character of God.  In Psalm 101 we get a glimpse of a great human reaction to the study of God’s character.  God’s character should inspire us.  God’s character should change us.  God’s character should cause us to live differently.  When we come in contact with the divine, it is we who should come away different.

That’s what Psalm 101 is all about.  The psalmist tells us that he is no longer going to welcome the ways of the unrighteous.  The psalmist is going to intentionally live according to God’s ways.  The psalmist will look to encourage righteousness in others while abhorring unrighteousness in others.

You see, it is the psalmist who is changed by God.  The psalmist was born in sin; God and God’s character helps bring him to a new place.  That is how it should be for all of us.  God’s character – His righteousness, grace, love, mercy, justice, wisdom, etc – should bring us to a new place where we become more like Him and live that out in our life.

<><

Year 5, Day 231: Psalm 98-99

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

This is a great pair of psalms to look at this issue of God’s character.  As we’ve seen in the last several psalms, it is easy to see these psalms in a way of praise and joy and celebration.  But there is a deeper depth here than just praise and celebration.  In these psalms, that praise concretely leads us something.  Praise and celebration leads us to the character of God.

Of course, Psalm 98 is pretty straightforward in the character that it presents.  God is savior.  He has brought salvation to us.  He has remembered us.  God is a God who is true to His word.  He goes above and beyond His obligations and His commitments.  He saved us when we were not righteous enough to deserve salvation.  That is the character of God.

In Psalm 99, we get a different highlight on the character of God.  Of course we get the praise and celebration for God as we expect.  But look at where this particular psalm takes us in the end.  We are reminded of the guidance that the faithful before us have received from God.  Moses and Aaron were God’s priests and God walked with them.  Samuel was his priest and God answered him.  God walks with His people.  We do not pass through this life alone, we pass through this life walking with God.  That is His character.  He does not abandon His own.

<><

Year 5, Day 230: Psalm 97

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Psalm 97 is a full-on kingship psalm.  The psalm starts continues the worship theme that we picked up yesterday in Psalm 96.  But rather than a call to join in the exultation, this psalm focuses us on God and His incredible nature.  Let’s look at some of the things that the psalmist says.

Righteousness and justice is the foundation of His throne.  Fire goes out to consume all of His adversaries.  He lights up the world.  The earth and the sea tremble in His presence.  The mountains melt like wax before Him.  In other words, God is so incredible that even creation is subdued in His presence.  We, who cannot manage what little bit of God’s creation we have encountered, are nowhere near comparable to God.  He is King, we are not!

But it is not just creation that is in awe in His presence.  Humanity worships Him as well.  Those who worship other gods are put to shame in His presence.  In fact, the psalmist goes so far as to encourage the other gods to worship Him!  Now that’s what it means to be the King of the universe!

In the end, we know justice and righteousness comes from Him.  We know that only in the presence of the King are we preserved and delivered.  We should rejoice indeed, because His name is holy.

<><

Year 5, Day 229: Psalm 96

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

It is pretty clear that this psalm is a worship psalm.  Every single stanza gives us a reason to worship the Lord.  Every single stanza gives us a concrete example of what the Lord has done for humanity.  We should worship Him.

There is a very simple reason why we find worship psalms in our Bible.  Worship psalms are addictive.  They are easy to read and get caught up in their message.  They are easy to read and feel the desire to continue worshipping even after the psalm ends.  It is easy to continue to sing the praises of God in our own life and the lives of the people that we know.  Worship psalms do a great job of bringing us into a place of worship and encouraging us to stay there for a while.

This leads me to some reflection.  We know what the Lord did for the psalmist.  We know what the Lord has done for the Hebrew people.  We know what God has done for humanity and salvation.  But what has God done for you?  What has God brought into your life in order to make His presence known?  How can you lift up your voice today and sing to the Lord a new song?

<><

Year 5, Day 228: Psalm 95

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Invitation

• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

Psalm 95 is a great psalm of joy.  It is easy to look at God and bask in His sheer and utter awesomeness.  It is easy to see God’s incredible power and lift up praise to Him in worship.  That’s what we are called to do.

The heart of this psalm is the invitation.  God wants relationship with us.  He could judge the hardness of our hearts as He judged that wicked generation in the wilderness.  But He wants so much more from us than that.  He wants us to be in relationship with Him.

This is really an awesome thought, and it drives this psalm.  The creator of the world wants to be in relationship with us.  The one who hands dive into the depths of the earth wants to know you and wants you to know Him.  The one who knows all that happens in the sea wants you to know Him as much as He knows you.  He invites us to be His people.  He invites us to be sheep in His pasture.  We can be His, and that should give us every reason to sing His praise!

<><

Year 5, Day 227: Psalm 94

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.

I really wrestled with the topic upon which I should focus for this psalm.  Clearly the psalm is about the psalmist asking for help against the wicked of the world.  It would have been natural and easy to speak about God’s power or authority in this psalm.  It would have been easy to speak about God’s righteousness as He is king over creation.

However, I think the deeper undertone for me is guidance.  For while there are portions of this psalm that are certainly meant as warning for the unrighteous, the reality is that nobody through their words can impact anyone else unless they desire to be impacted.  The only person I can truly impact all the time is myself.  That’s the message that I hear running in the background of this psalm.  While the unrighteous need to be put on warning, we each need to make sure that we are listening to God ourselves.  We each need to make sure that we are making the most of God’s guidance.

This is why the psalmist says, “Blessed is the one whom God disciplines.”  It is God who teaches wisdom to the nations.  It is God who teaches us obedience.  It is God who guides us to rest when we are in need.  It is God who is our strength when our foot slips.  He does not abandon us in our trouble.

When we are in need, God is there.  When we create trouble for ourselves, God is willing to guide us out in a righteous way.  Yes, God is our judge.  Yes, God will cause us to give an account of our life.  But before any of that ever happens, God seeks to guide us into righteousness so that we can stand before Him in righteousness and not in wrath.

<><

Year 5, Day 226: Psalms 92-93

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

Psalm 92 and Psalm 93 are great authority psalms, but they aren’t authority with respect to the typical discipleship frame of reference.  Often when we talk about authority we are speaking of our authority that we receive from God because He is the king.  Each of these psalms today gives us a perspective on God’s overall authority.  These psalms give us a perspective of God as King and His ultimate power.

In Psalm 92, we get an overview of the greatness of God.  He is the one who is exalted because we cannot ever truly fathom His depth.  Just when we think that we are getting to where we might find an answer, we find that the answer we seek merely opens up questions to further depth!  Yes, we do get answers.  But the answers are never the end of the road.  The answers simply open our eyes to how many more questions that there are to ask!

Furthermore, in Psalm 92 we get another glimpse of the tension between the success of the unrighteous and the concern of the righteous.  The psalmist does a great job in making sure that our perspective is correct.  The unrighteous may prosper here on this earth for a time.  But their time of prosperity is often short-lived.  We often see people rise and then quickly fall.  But even in those instances where we see a person rise and never fall in this world, we know that eternity is completely different.  Just because a person is prosperous here in this life doesn’t mean that they will have it made in the life to come!  Only those who are in God – the righteous – will know eternal prosperity.  God truly has the final and ultimate say.

When we turn to Psalm 93, we find that it is a clear psalm about lifting up God and His greatness.  God’s throne is forever.  God’s throne shall never be moved.  God’s Word is trustworthy.  God’s holiness is befitting only for God and the things that belong to Him.  God has the ultimately authority in this life because He is the only one worthy enough to have such power.  He is the only one who is that righteous and trustworthy.  That is why the authority is His.

<><

Year 5, Day 225: Psalms 91

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

I think it is really easy to read this psalm and hear about the protection of the Lord.  In almost every verse – and definitely in every stanza – we hear about the Lord and His ability to protect us.  We dwell in His shelter.  He is our refuge and fortress.  He covers us with His pinions.  We find shelter under His wings.  I could keep going, but I will assume that you catch my meaning.

But I think in order to understand the true depth of this psalm we need to understand its full context.  Many of the verses of Pslam 91 are used in reference to God’s Messiah.  We can see this especially in Psalm 91:11-12, where we hear about the angels and their protection.  This is a passage that is used in reference to Jesus.

Let’s stop for a second and remember what happened to Jesus.  He was handed over by a friend.  He was arrested.  He was tried.  He was beaten.  He was mocked.  He was flogged.  He carried His own cross.  He was then crucified upon it.

If that doesn’t give us an interesting perspective on protection, then I don’t know what does!

However, we continue to look at God’ Messiah.  God protected Him from death.  Jesus didn’t stay dead, He rose up from the dead.  Jesus conquered death.  Jesus ascended into heaven, where He reigns until He should return to reign here, too.

You see, in Jesus we really see protection.  We like to think in the temporal; God likes to work in the eternal.  We want protection from the people and their evil around us; God wants to save us from an eternity of evil.  God’s protection is far more intricate and developed than we could ever hope.  True protection is trusting in God to protect us from sin and death, knowing that God will bring us through!

<><

Year 5, Day 224: Psalms 89-90

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

These two psalms are a very interesting pair of psalms.  With respect to Psalm 89, we need to remember that the crux of this psalm is on the descendant of David, not the descendants of David.  This is not a psalm about the Hebrew people, this is a psalm about God’s Messiah.  This is a psalm about looking forward to when God will set up His kingdom on earth underneath His Messiah.  This is a psalm about God’s supremacy and our ability to look ahead with anticipation to when God will not just be a spiritual king but a complete and total king in spirit and person.

Psalm 90 is a really neat psalm in its progression.  We begin with a focus upon God and how He is our refuge for every moment in life.  However, this psalm doesn’t stay focused on God.  If God is King – and I assert that He is – the God should affect the dynamics of life around Him.  The psalm shows us this progression. 

When we look at God, we see our humanity.  We can see ourselves as fallen human beings.  We can see ourselves as broken and in need of God.  This causes us to turn to Him and desire to be more like Him.  The fact that God is indeed King can affect us to become more like Him!  His greatness can indeed inspire us to become more than we are on our own.

<><

Year 5, Day 223: Psalms 87-88

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Out

• Out: This is the focus of our mission.  These are the people to whom God has called us to go.  These are the people into whom we are focused on attempting to speak God’s truth.

Today I am going to focus solely on Psalm 87.  Psalm 88 is another psalm about feeling alone and abandoned and we have had many of those come and go as we’ve looked at the psalms.  By now, you should be able to handle those psalms and pull out the appropriate meanings and understandings.

With respect to Psalm 87, I have to hearken back to the theological commentary that I wrote three years ago.  In that blog post, I was mindful of the ethnically diverse focus of this psalm.  Yes, this psalm is about God.  Yes, this psalm is about Jerusalem – God’s Holy City.  But this psalm is especially about the non-Jewish people who come and give honor to God.  This psalm is one of the theological underpinnings that allows Paul to write as he does in Galatians 4!

What this really speaks to, of course, is the idea of Out.  How will the nations know to come and give glory to God unless they are told about Him and invited?  How will they ever desire to accept our invitation if we do not demonstrate God in and through our actions and words?  Psalm 87 is only possible if the people of the nations of the world hear about God from those who know Him and see God in the lives of those who claim to have God within them!  We are called out into the world to bring the world in to worship God.  That is fundamentally who we are.

<><

Year 5, Day 222: Psalms 85-86

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Psalm 85 is clearly a psalm that is about forgiveness.  It is written in a time and a place where the people have fallen away from God and are under His wrath.  They are in desperate need for God to see their repentance in order to display some forgiveness.

In such times, notice what the psalmist does.  He begins the psalm with a reminder of prior times in which God has been forgiving.  This is an incredible pattern to remember and bring into our own life.  Isn’t it easier to believe that something can happen to us in the future when we can look back and remember the list of times that it has happened in our past?  Isn’t it easier to believe in something when we can see it as a part of a predictable pattern and not a significant single event?  This is why so many psalms about forgiveness are also teaching psalms about the history of the Hebrew people.  When we know God’s pattern, we realize that we can indeed hope and know that God will remain true to His nature.  He will forgive us and bring us from wrath and into righteousness through His grace.

Psalm 86 also flirts with the idea of forgiveness.  In this psalm we return to David as the author, and he is quick to remind us that we are to lift up God and give Him praise all day long.  He remind us that we are to be in constant relationship with Him and call upon Him the whole day.  And in this context we hear David remind us that God is good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon Him.  Here we remember what sometimes is easy to forget.  When we are in constant relationship with God, forgiveness is easier.  When we are in constant relationship with God we will be more reflective inside.  We’ll know more about ourselves.  We’ll see our faults more quickly.  We’ll see God’s will brighter.  We’ll be quick to repent when we stray off the path and God will be quicker to forgive because the consequence of our sin will be less grave.  If we want to know God’s forgiveness more, it just makes sense that we should be in communion with Him all day long.

<><

Year 5, Day 221: Psalms 83-84

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling           

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

I’ll confess that Psalm 83 doesn’t have much to do with calling – outside of the fact that the psalmist is being called to remind the people of the power of the Lord while he exhorts the Lord to take action against his enemies and the enemies of the nation.  Psalm 83 is a psalm about God’s omnipotence.  But we’ve had plenty of those lately, so I am going to let Psalm 83 stand on its own and instead focus in on a very narrow idea found in Psalm 84.

I was impressed by the humbleness of the psalmist in Psalm 84:10.  “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”  Now, let’s remember exactly what a doorkeeper did in the days that this psalm was written.  We’re not talking about a bouncer who checks the guest list and welcomes everyone by name.  We’re not talking about a door greeter here.

No!  The door keeper in ancient days was the person who was in charge of greeting guests and washing their feet.  In ancient days, most people did their travelling but foot.  Their feet would get dusty as they walked along the dirt roads.  Their feet would pick up little bits of everything that they stepped in along the way.  The door keeper was in charge of taking the people as they came in and cleaning off their feet so that they would feel refreshed as they came in.  This is a position of incredible humble service.

But it isn’t just a position intended to make people clean.  It isn’t about protecting the cleanliness and integrity of the inside.  What it is really about is a position focused on the guest and making sure they felt refreshed.  It is about making sure that the guest is quite literally meeting their host and putting their best foot forward.  Being a door keeper is not just a position of service but a position of sacrificial service.  It is a position where the door keeper puts aside his own agenda in order to meets the needs of the guest in service to them.

The psalmist is saying that he would rather do that for God than dwell in a place where he can live out his own agenda.  That’s the place to which the psalmist feels called.  The psalmist isn’t feeling called to serve his own glory and build his own reputation.  Instead, the psalmist is called to be in a place of absolute sacrificial service.

<><

Year 5, Day 220: Psalms 81-82

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Each of these two psalms today give us an interesting possibility for conversation.  Psalm 81 could easily be a psalm that talks about appetite or ambition.  After all, isn’t the whole psalm essentially about how God desires to be our God but we instead choose our own way and lust after our own desires?  For that matter, Psalm 81 could be a great psalm in which we can wrap around a conversation about forgiveness.

So why instead did I choose the topic of King?  I think at its core Psalm 81 is a psalm about the omnipotence of God.  He is the one who relieves our burden when we need Him to – whether we deserve it or not.  We call out in our distress – usually when we get ourselves into trouble – and He saves us.  If you read Psalm 81:8, you can hear the words of the king of the universe calling out to us and begging and pleading with us to embrace His words and His ways.  Psalm 81 is a psalm about His kingship.  It is a psalm about our rebellion and how we run away from Him when we truly should be running towards Him.  But that doesn’t change the fact that He is still king.

When we look at Psalm 82, we can see that the concept of King fits this psalm really well, too.  Psalm 82 is a psalm about God’s ability to rescue the weak, needy, oppressed, downtrodden, orphan, and widow.  Who else but the king of the universe could be the true and worthwhile deliverer of those who need deliverance from the world?  Who else can show us that we can indeed put the oppression of the world behind us except the king of the universe?  Who is it that can look upon the world and speak about its lack of wisdom and understanding except the one who has all true wisdom and understanding?

Indeed, God is king of the universe.  He delivers us.  He saves us.  He is better than anything this world has to offer.  We may occasionally walk away from Him and His ways in our rebellion.  But He is still King of the universe even when we should choose sin.

<><

Year 5, Day 219: Colossians 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Evangelist

• Evangelist: One who looks for opportunities to proclaim the truth and is excited by it. The evangelist specializes in interacting with the world and reminding Christians that there are non-Christians in the world.  An evangelist is not timid about the faith and is often found have discussions with other people about the faith.

Yesterday I had a colleague talk to me about Ephesians 4:15.  In that verse, Paul talks about “speaking the truth in love.”  He went on to say that many people interpret that “truth in love” to mean relating to other Christians and exhorting them out of sinful behavior.  And while there is nothing wrong with that, the truth in that passage to which Paul is referring is the truth of Christ and what Christ has done for us regarding salvation.  If we look at the context of that verse and the verses that come before it, that whole passage is about the preeminence of Christ and what He did for us.

It was in that frame of mind that I read Colossians 4.  When I hit Colossians 4:3.  Here is a man who is in prison.  It’s not his first time in prison.  He’s likely been beaten and mishandled along the way.  He’s certain been looked down upon by the community around him.  In that context, for what does he pray?  For what would you pray?

I know for me I’d pray for patience, wisdom, freedom, justice, and a whole host of other things that revolve around me and my circumstance.  It may not be right, but if I’m going to be honest and confess that’s the areas for which I’d pray.

Paul says, “Pray that a door might be opened for the proclamation of the word, so the mystery of Christ would be known.”  Incredible.  Unbelievable, actually!  He’s in prison.  But that’s okay, he might have an opportunity to tell people about Christ!  He’s been beaten.  But that’s okay, he might have an opportunity to tell people about Christ!  The community has looked down upon him.  But that’s okay, he might have an opportunity to tell people about Christ!

I am astounded today by the spirit of evangelism that dwelled within Paul.  Praise be to God for what He has done in Paul’s life and the example that he can be of the godly life.

<><

Year 5, Day 218: Colossians 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Colossians 3 is an incredible chapter on identity.  Nearly every single sentence in this chapter deals with who we are in Christ.  Even the last paragraph in this chapter dealing with husbands and wives and children and slaves has to deal with who we are as a person and what identity we put forth for the world to see.  Paul gives us great advice right off the bat: set your mind on the things of heaven, not the things of this world.

But how do we do that?  What exactly does that mean?

We are to put to death the earthly things within us.  Sexual immorality.  Isn’t it nice to know that the first problem Paul thinks about is also the first problem facing our own culture?  Some things never change.  Impurity.  Evil desires.  Pathos.  Covetousness.  Anger. Wrath.  Malice.  Slander.  Obscene speech.  As I continue to read through this list and further, there is a relatively unsurprising theme that appears.  Those things that focus on me as the center of my life lead me into bad places.  Things that focus me onto my rights above the rights of others, my desires above the desires of others, my feelings above the feelings of others, and my needs above the needs of others.  That’s really the root of all of those things.  If I am thinking of myself first, I am quick to find myself dwelling in this list.

On the other hand, if my identity is in Christ then I should be imitating Him.  Holiness.  Compassion.  Kindness.  Meekness.  Patience.  Bearing with one another.  The list goes on.  Do you see what these all have in common?  The virtues are the denial of self in place of the desire for the other.  These virtues are rooted in willing sacrifice and often even the denial of self.

This shouldn’t surprise us.  What did Christ do when He came to earth?  He denied Himself.  He followed the will of the Father.  He gave Himself up for our sake.  That’s an identity worth buying into in my book.

<><

Year 5, Day 217: Colossians 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

In Colossians 2 we get a really good chapter in a discussion of what should be at the center of our lives.  It should be Christ.  Christ is the crucial element.  Christ’s death on the cross is what brings us our salvation.  He is the key.  He and His sacrificial love as a great display of God’s grace should be the center in our worship of the Father.  There is nothing greater than Christ, is there?

Then I hear Paul’s words to the Colossians.  Don’t let people intimidate you.  Don’t let them pull you away from the truth.  Don’t let them minimize your testimony.  The food we eat isn’t as important as Christ.  The place we worship isn’t as important as Christ.  Our reverence of angels certainly isn’t as important as Christ.  The amount of knowledge we have is nowhere near as important as Christ.  I can continue, but I think you hear Paul’s advice to the Colossians.  People want to say Christ is the center, but as soon as you are different than them it is easy to see barriers go up and somehow Christ just isn’t the center anymore.

This isn’t just an issue in Paul’s day, either.  Don’t we allow things to divide us when Christ should unify us?  Do we ever let education divide us?  Or method of baptism?  Or method for communion?  Or translation of the Bible?  Or even what we wear to church?  We may have come a long ways in our culture, but the truth is that human problems are still human problems.

We need to stop worship those things we can see as differences.  We need to stop empowering that which divides us and disqualifies other people in our estimation.  We need to confess our error, turn to Christ, and worship the Father in Christ with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  That’s what Up should be all about.

<><

Year 5, Day 216: Colossians 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In a strange twist of fate, I am going to talk about the exact same topic as I talked about yesterday as we transition from Psalms to Colossians.  Forgiveness.  We all need it.  It’s how we move from wrath to grace.  It’s how we move from condemnation to righteous.  It’s how we move from damnation to eternal life.  Forgiveness.

But how is forgiveness genuinely obtained?  Yes, it is embraced.  Yes, it requires a repentant life.  But how is it genuinely obtained?

Only through Jesus Christ.  Through no other means does one come to forgiveness except through the death of Jesus Christ as He died upon the cross.  There is no way to the Father but through Christ.  There is no way to righteousness but through Christ.  There is no way to peace but through Christ.  There is no way out of darkness but through Christ.

That’s actually what the vast majority of this first chapter of Colossians is about.  Jesus Christ is the center of God’s work.  He is the one through whom we were all created; why shouldn’t he be the one through whom we are all saved?  He is before all things and He holds all things together; why shouldn’t He be the one through whom we are saved?

He is the head of the church because it is through His sacrificial servant nature that we are forgiven.  He reconciles all things.  He gives us peace on the cross.

<><

Year 5, Day 215: Psalms 79-80

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Both Psalm 79 and Psalm 80 are written from the perspective of a people who are in judgment.  Both psalms indicate that the people are being judged and long for restoration.  However, we know that there is a route between judgment and restoration.  That route is repentance and forgiveness.

In Psalm 79, we hear that the psalmist looks around and sees the godless prospering.  God’s people are losing control of their inheritance – the Promised Land.  The nations are coming in, plundering the land, and taking it over.  The psalmist knows that this is an issue of judgment.  The psalmist pleads with God to let this time of judgment pass so that the world will see the people of God being blessed by their God.  In other words, the psalmist is pleading for God’s wrath to turn away from them and through forgiveness find blessing once more.

As we look at Psalm 80, how many times does the psalmist ask God for restoration?  However, in this particular psalm we can see that the psalmist uses a technique for bringing about repentance.  Much like we learned yesterday, the psalmist remembers what God has done in the past.  Knowing how God has worked in the past helps us understand our own mistakes when we are in the midst of judgment.  Knowing how God has worked in the past helps us desire to be back in moments like those instead of in moments of judgment.

<><

Year 5, Day 214: Psalms 77-78

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Teacher

• Teacher: One who holds forth the truth and is excited by it. The teacher looks for ways to explain, enlighten, and apply truth.  A teacher's authority doesn't come from how smart they are but from the Word of God and the power of a transformed life.

Psalm 77 is a great psalm, but it is much like the psalms we saw yesterday about God and His greatness as king over this incredible world.  What is different than yesterday’s psalms is that psalm 77 contains an honest reflection on how the psalmist relates to God.  He confesses that He feels abandoned by God.  He confesses that he moans when he thinks about God.  But He does not stay there.  He remembers what God has done and his attitude receives the correction hat it needs.

Of course, this is a great introduction to psalm 78.  In Psalm 78 the psalmist recounts God’s interaction with His people from their beginnings in Canaan to their struggles in Egypt to their wanderings in the wilderness.  In Psalm 78 we have a great summary of the history of God’s work and the people’s relationship with Him.  We see the faithfulness of God.  We see the repeated rebellion of the people.  We see how God did not forsake but rather judged, corrected, and loved.

Psalm 78 and psalms like it are important psalms for the community.  When we remember the past we can learn through it.  When we know the pitfalls of those who came before us we can hopefully avoid repeating them!  Having a communal understanding of the past inherently leads us to a better future.

This is one of the reasons why it is important to have teachers in our midst.  Teachers remind us about truth, and one of the primary ways that we are taught truth is by looking into the lives of those who came before us.  Teachers take the lessons of the past and help apply them to the present.  That is exactly what the psalmist is trying to do here.  He wants the people around him to remember the past, to remember the faithfulness of God, and to learn what lessons they can about themselves.

<><