Year 8, Day 246: Psalms 118

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There is a verse buried in this psalm that I simply adore.  “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humankind.  There is both breadth and depth in this verse alone, which the rest of the psalm bears.

First of all, there is the truth in the moment of life.  The one thing that we can count on is that we will eventually be surrounded.  Life will oppose us.  People in life will oppose us.  We will be threatened; we will be attacked.  Who will come and save us?  Is there much reason to believe that when we are kicked, orphaned, and left for dead that we will be rescued by humankind?  Do human beings really have a great track record of caring for those who are in the lowest of social positions?  Why trust in humankind at all?  I’d rather trust in God.

Then there are the high points of life.  When I am elated, it isn’t because I have done something with finite success.  The true highs in life are when I’ve been able to reach into the eternal and make a difference.  The moment when God uses me to shows unexpected love to another person is a high.  The moment when God uses me to speak a profound truth that I’d have no hope of coming up with myself is a high.  The moment when God uses me to befriend the oppressed is a genuine high.  If I genuinely consider the grand high points of my life, they all have more to do with times I am walking with the Lord than accomplishing worldly goals.

Naturally, there is the truly spiritual perspective.  In the end, no human medicine or science will be able to save me.  These bones will wear out.  My muscles will become weak.  The cosmic rays coming from the sun will damage my genetics beyond repair and I will suffer mutation, cancer, and the like.  It is better to take eternal refuge in the world where I have a hope of eternal life than to live in a world where my only hoe is to simply stop existing.

Indeed, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put my trust in humankind.

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Year 8, Day 245: Psalms 116-117

Theological Commentary: Click Here

It is easy to determine the theme of these two psalms today.  We should praise the Lord.  We should return to the Lord what is His.  We should lift up the cup of His salvation and remember His glory.  We should honor and fulfill our vows to Him.

Why should we do this?  The psalmist gives us a plethora of reasons.  Perhaps the greatest of these reasons is that He remembers us.  When we are in our darkest pit, He is there to rescue us.  When we stumble and fall, He is there to pick us up.  He does not abandon us when we are down, He picks us up and carries us on when we are unable to do so ourselves.

He also brings our soul to His rest.  This expression can be taken on multiple levels.  Naturally, this means that we can know His peace.  In a turbulent world, He shows us rest.  He calms the world around us through His incredible omnipotence.  This also can be seen in the light of the eternal.  At the end of this age, he will bring us to Him and give us rest from this life.  We will know true peace at the end of the age.

There is another reason to bestow honor unto His name.  He still knows us when we are simple and humble.  God is not just the God of the wealthy, popular, strong, or important.  He is the God of the orphan, the widow, and the simple.  He loves us all regardless of our actual station in life.

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Year 8, Day 244: Psalms 115

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Psalm 115 poses an interesting debate.  It begins by attesting to the glory and praise of the Lord.  This is as it should be.  Then, the psalm asks God why the nations should wonder where the hand of the Lord is.  In other words, the psalmist is feeling that God could show Himself a little bit more than He is.

In this context, the psalmist begins to talk about the gods of the other nations.  They are wooden, made from clay, or other natural materials.  The psalmist wonders how anyone could think that they are gods.  After all, how on earth can flawed human beings make things that have any power over creation?  Their manmade gods may have eyes, ears, hands, and feet but they cannot see, hear, act, or move.  It doesn’t make sense.

That being said, it doesn’t really resolve the issue at hand.  All it does is bring the point even more to the forefront.  The nations of the world have fake gods whose actions cannot be seen in spite of the gods’ ability to be seen, held, and worshipped.  The God of the Hebrew people cannot be seen.  The psalmist therefore is asserting that because God cannot be seen, He should be seen through His actions.  If we cannot see God, then we should be able to see Him through His actions.

He is our help.  He is our shield.  He is the one who blesses us.  He is the one in which we put our faith.  There is the crux of the issue.  Faith is hope in that which we cannot prove.  We cannot see God, yet we continue to put our faith in Him.

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Year 8, Day 243: Psalms 113-114

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Psalm 113 asks a brilliant question.  Who is like the Lord?  Naturally, we hear this question and see it as a pretty obvious one.  After all, He is the creator.  He is eternal.  He knows all.  From that perspective, who is like Him indeed.

However, I think there is a more profound angle to this question.  We can see this angle by reading the psalm rather than bringing our own thoughts to the psalm.  What is the evidence that the psalmist gives for the Lord’s uniqueness?  The Lord raises up the poor from the dust.  The Lord lifts up the needy out of the ashes.  The Lord makes the barren into the mother of children.  What makes the Lord unique is that he finds value in the people in the world who seem valueless.  Who is like the Lord, indeed!

Psalm 114 brings us back to being in awe of the Lord because of His awesome power.  This psalm reminds us of the true impressive power of the Lord through the story of the exodus.  The Lord brought His people out of bondage in Egypt.  In doing so, the Lord did many powerful things.  He planted the people in a land that was not theirs.  He forced the sea apart.  He brought water out of a rock.  He did other things that the psalm doesn’t talk about.

This is an important point to remember.  Psalm 113 reminds us that God is impressive because of His perspective: He cares about those the world does not.  Psalm 114 reminds us that God is impressive because of His power: He can do things the rest of us can’t.  Who can bring water out of a rock except a God who knows the secrets of the universe?

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Year 8, Day 242: Psalms 112

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Psalm 112 speaks about the righteous and the benefits of being righteous.  There is something that is important to get right above all else.  It is the man who fears the Lord who will be blessed.  It is possible to extrapolate, then, that the one who fears the Lord is the righteous one.  In other words, when we live through fear of the Lord – respecting His ways -we are righteous.

So, what are the benefits of living a life in the fear of the Lord?  The generations of the upright will be blessed.  In other words, the people will have a bright future.  That’s pretty clear.  Righteousness breeds hope.  Righteous breeds a community that has a future together.

There are other deep benefits.  Living a life of being upright means living in the light.  This means learning to be gracious and merciful.  Living through a fear of the Lord makes us people who are good community members – even mentors.  We are filled with grace and mercy towards one another.

The righteous also lives in companionship with the Lord.  They are not afraid of bad news.  They are firm and steady, as unshakable as the Lord in whom they are in awe.  They live in confidence, knowing that the Lord is with them.

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Year 8, Day 241: Psalms 110-111

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Psalm 110 is a psalm that speaks of the order of Melchizedek.  This is an odd term, reaching the whole way back to Genesis 14:18.  In that passage, we meet the king of Salem, the town that under David would become Jerusalem.  In Genesis, we see that the king of Salem is actually a priest of God.  This is a cool connection.  It tells us that the king of Jerusalem can also be a high priest outside of the genealogy of Aaron.

Naturally, this history points us to Christ.  He is of the genealogy of David, not Aaron.  But, as king in the line of David, he is a high priest.  Jesus is both our king and our high priest.  We don’t need a human representative; He does it all for us.

We also know that this psalm is pointing us to Jesus because of the future tone of the words.  In the day of wrath, He will rule.  He will execute judgment on the nations.  He will fill the nations with corpses and overthrow their chiefs.  Jesus will rule in the end, and His rule will be complete.

Turning to Psalm 111, we see a psalm that seems in line with Psalm 110 but pointing in an opposite direction.  Certainly, the focus is still on the greatness of God and His ability to rule.  In this psalm, though, we see a focus on God’s splendor, glory, and salvation.

The psalmist reminds us that the Lord is merciful.  He is gracious.  He is marvelous.  He does provide for us.  He is faithful.  He is trustworthy.  He is just.  He redeems us.  He upholds His own covenant.

All of this being said, I love where this psalm ends.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  Look at all that God can do.  Look at what He does for all of us.  What about Him does not cause us to be in awe of Him?

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Year 8, Day 240: Psalm 109

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Upon reading this psalm, I felt a great wrestle within me.  I don’t really care for it.  I know it is a part of God’s Word and therefore it should be respected as such.  Yet at the same time I am not sure how I feel about an author of God’s Word actively calling upon God’s wrath against His opponents.

Don’t get me wrong.  I understand the human emotion.  There is a lesson to be learned here.  David gets it.  God gets it.  Sometimes humans find themselves persecuted and we want those who persecute us to get what they deserve.  That’s human.  It’s part of who we are.

I also believe that God calls us above it.  God is a God of forgiveness.  God is a God of repentance.  He is a God of turning the other cheek.  He is a God of giving a second tunic the person who takes our first one.  God is grace, love, and mercy.  That’s God; that’s what makes Him different than us.

If there is any saving grace here, it is that the psalmist does call upon God to act and doesn’t take it upon himself.  While the psalmist does expose his darker inner being, at least he doesn’t act upon it.  He does call upon God to act, but He lets the action be up to God. It’s not, much, but it may also be the most important part.  We can’t help the humanity that we feel inside, but we can help how that humanity comes out.  Maybe the psalmist has it figured out after all.

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Year 8, Day 239: Psalm 108

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I believe that this psalm is two-fold. 

The vast majority of this psalm speaks about giving glory to God.  How many times in the opening verses do we hear about giving thanks to God, praising His name, exalting Him, and giving Him glory?  God is great; He deserves to have that remembered.

What truly strikes me about the bulk of this psalm is where God dwells.  Naturally, we think of God as dwelling in Shechem, Succoth, Ephraim, Gilead, Manasseh, and Judah.  Those are places where Hebrew people dwell, why shouldn’t they be where God dwells?  However, we also hear about Moab and Edom.  Those aren’t Hebrew lands, but they are lands that are settled by some of Abraham’s offspring through the likes of people such as Esau.  Even they make a bit of sense.  But then we hear about Philistia.  That is the place of the Philistines.  Those are people that God told the Hebrews to drive out.  They were opposed to God and rebelling against His ways.

What this reminds us is that God dwells everywhere.  This is His creation, He has a right to all of it.  Even the darkest places filled with the greatest of evil are places where the Lord has the right to tread.  God may not inspire the people who live there, He might not be pleased with the life of the people living there, and He might not even be welcome there.  Even so, the whole creation is still His.  That’s powerful to remember.

Finally, we end up at the last stanza of verses.  Here the psalmist turns the tone on its head.  We see the psalmist appear to ask where God is?  The psalmist wonders why the Lord can be everywhere yet not go out with the Hebrew people.

This is an important question to ask.  What does it mean when we don’t feel the blessing of His hand?  There are a couple of possible answers, but one thing that we can say is that when the blessing of the Lord is not felt something is wrong.  It could be that God’s people are doing something that the Lord hasn’t blessed.  It could be that the action is blessed but the people are doing something that is interfering with God’s blessing.  The important thing to understand is that the absence of feeling the blessing of God is an opportunity for us to examine the world around us.

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Year 8, Day 238: Psalm 107

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Psalm 107 is a marvelous psalm for study.  Naturally, it is another psalm of praise, lifting up the deliverance that we feel from the hand of God.  This psalm speaks to His greatness.  But as it speaks to the greatness of God, it weaves together multiple perspectives.

First, we can see the wanderers.  Whether these are people who chose to abandon their locale or forced into the wilderness we cannot know.  What we do know is that God is the God of the wanderer.  He hears their cry and brings them home.

Second, we see those who sit in darkness.  These are prisoners.  These are people who are near death.  These are also people who have spent time in the past rejecting God’s words.  God is God of these people as well.  He may bend them to humble them, He still gives them an opportunity to be humbled!  He allows them to see the error of their ways and the circumstance of their affliction.  He allows them to rise above it if they will listen to Him.  He is their God as much as anyone else’s God.

We then hear about the fools.  These are people who thought they knew better than God.  They made choices that may have made human sense, but weren’t really all that great in the end.  God heals them.  He brings them out of the destruction that their foolishness brought upon them.

There are others who went out in the world to focus on business and entrepreneurial efforts.  As they focused on their pursuits, they also found themselves in trouble.  Those who see the hand of the Lord at work turn and find salvation.  He calms the turbulent world of worry and risk around us.

God works miracles.  He will come to us in our time of trouble.  He will even save us from our own trouble if we are willing to be humbled and turn to Him and His wisdom.  God does not demand perfection from us.  God merely desires that we follow Him and humbly repent when we find ourselves walking away from Him.

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Year 8, Day 237: Psalm 106

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Psalm 106 is a remembrance psalm.  The psalm primarily recounts the Exodus story, although it does look further into history to Abraham and a little more recently into the rebellion of the people.  In this light, the psalm certainly seems to be about causing the reader to remember what the Lord has done and what the Lord is capable of doing.

How many times did the people rebel?  How many times did the Lord save them?  He saved them from the famine by bringing them to Egypt.  He saved them from Pharaoh by bringing them out.  He saved them from famine in the wilderness.  He saved them from thirst.  He brought them into the Promised Land.  They continuously rebelled, but the Lord continuously saved them.  That’s what the Lord does.

What is significant is why the Lord saves them.  The psalm tells us, if ever so briefly.  The saves for His name’s sake.  He saves them so His power might be made known.  He saves them not because they are worthy, not because they are better, and certainly not because they ask.  He save them because of who He is and because the world deserves to know it and see it.  He saves them as a witness to Himself.

Through His salvation, He shows His love.  He reveals His blessing to us.  He remembers His covenant to us.  In response we give Him our praise.

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Year 8, Day 236: Psalm 105

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Psalm 106 is a psalm of remembrance.  Its purpose is to remind God’s people of their past.  God provided for His people.  He gave them a home in a time of famine.  He brought them out of Egypt when the time was right.  He gave them a land as inheritance.  God is a God of provision.  He cares for us.  If Go can care for an entire nation in bondage and then in the wilderness, He can care for a nation in any time.

This psalm is also a psalm of praise.  There is a clear declaration in this psalm.  God deserves the glory.  God deserves the praise.  He is the one who works.  He is the one with foresight.  He is the mover and shaker in the world. He is the one who is capable of providing for us.  God should be the focus of our praise.

This psalm is also a teaching psalm.  In each phase of God’s work, do you see the leadership that God raises up?  God starts with Abraham and Jacob.  Then We hear about Joseph.  Then we hear about Moses and Aaron.  We don’t hear about Joshua, but we certainly hear about the Lord’s work through Him.  God teaches us that He will raise up leaders in the times of His working.  He won’t abandon us, He will lead us and give us people to point to His leadership!

Why shouldn’t we praise the Lord?  He does everything for us.  He provides.  He leads.  He knows our needs.  He supports us.  He gives us something to follow.

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Year 8, Day 235: Psalm 104

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Psalm 104 is a fascinating psalm f praise.  The reason that I find it fascinating is because it points to one of the underlying reasons to trust God.  This psalm is about His ability to provide.  It is one thin to create.  It is another to sustain what one has created.  God can do both.

Let’s start with creation.  How many times does the psalm speak about the rain coming to sustain the plants?  How many times does the psalm speak about the plants satisfying the animals for food and shelter?  The psalm speaks about the rain nourishing the animals within creation, too.  God can provide for our most basic needs.

God does more than that, though.  This psalm speaks about God nourishing the crops so that human beings can cultivate it.  God cares about more than our most basic needs.  He cares about our mental health, too.  He allows us to have work.  He allows us to fill our days with purpose.  He cares about our physical and mental needs.

The psalm goes a bit deeper than this, actually.  God also put the moon above to mark the seasons.  In fact, He even gave the planet seasons so that we could learn to cycle life.  He wants us to understand seasons for resting, for planting, for tending, and for harvesting.  He knows that we have the psychological need to seasons and cycles in life.

Indeed!  How manifold are God’s works.  Look at the depth of His plans.  Look at the many levels that God comes to us and provides.  He is the answer to every need we have.

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Year 8, Day 234: Psalm 103

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I love psalms like this one.  It is far more easy for me to talk about psalms focusing on the character and nature of God than it is on a human psalmist and their need for God’s intervention.  Both psalm types are valid, one is easier for me to approach.

The psalm repeats the phrase, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul.”  I  find a few things interesting about this.  The human soul is the part of humanity that comes from God.  The soul is that which separates us from the animals.  All creation has biology.  All creation even has life.  But only human beings have a soul.  The psalmist is reminding us that we should take the part of us that is directly connected to God and use that as the basis for our giving Him praise.

Why are we to look to the Lord with blessing?  First, He is gracious to us.  He bestows us with favor.  He looks upon us and treats us differently than we deserve.  He heals our past.  He forgives our transgressions.  He is gracious; He deserves our blessing.

Why else should we bless Him?  We bless Him because He is eternal.   He goes from age to age.  He always was, is, and will be.  He transcends time.  In that respect He is so utterly unlike us that we should bless Him.

There is a third reason.  He is in charge.  He rules over creation.  Naturally, creation is His to make so it is also His to rule.  But He also rules over the heavens.  He rules over the angels.  His dominion is both creation and heaven.  He is the omnipotent one.  Both worlds submit to His will.

We bless Him because He is so utterly unlike us that He is deserving of that blessing.  We bless Him because of who He is.  We bless Him because of what He does.

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Year 8, Day 233: Psalm 102

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There’s a neat thought that comes out of this psalm.  The Lord created this world – the earth and all that is in it – and He will outlast it.  The earth’s foundations will crumble, and the Lord will remain.  The earth will wear out like a garment, but the Lord is eternal.

In fact, the Lord is consistent!  He never changes.  He loves truth; He always will!  He loves justice; that won’t change.  He desires to be in relationship in us.  He wants to be in relationship with all of us.

It is this relationship that is a foundation for the first part of the psalm.  The psalmist is under persecution.  His life feels as though it is slipping away before its time.  The psalmist’s enemies taunt him.  He feels rejected and cast off by God.

However, the psalmist does not give up hope.  If the psalmist truly gave up hope, why write a psalm?  The psalm’s existence is proof that the psalmist continues to believe that God can save him.  The psalm’s existence is proof of the relationship that exists and continues to exist.

This is a great moment for understanding.  The psalmist feels rejection and abandonment.  Yet, the psalmist is not willing to give up.  The psalmist knows that the salvation of the Lord is bigger than any rejection He might feel.  He knows that God will be roused.

In fact, the psalmist wants this psalm to be a record.  He wants the generations that follow Him to know what He is feeling and to know that there is still hope.  It doesn’t matter what persecution we may feel, God can still be there for us.  He can be trusted.  He can be relied upon.  This is why we’ve come through so many psalms that praise His name!

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Year 8, Day 232: Psalm 100-101

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It’s been a string of praise psalms for the last few days.  It’s been an incredible journey to remember that our hearts should be lifted up.  Why should our hearts be lifted up?  We are His people.  We are the sheep of His pasture.  We belong to God, and God is Lord over all.  That’s reason to give praise right there.

That being said, Psalm 101 brings us back to reality.  Do you hear the words of warning in this psalm?  The slanderer will be destroyed.  The haughty and the arrogant will not be tolerated.  No deceitful person will dwell with the Lord.  The liar will be a curse before God.

We have every reason to celebrate, but we also have every reason to stay alert.  Remember the lessons about cheap and costly grace from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Cheap grace tells us about God’s love but never encourages us to change.  It is costly grace – the kind of grace that God spent in coming to earth to die for us – that calls us to change and become more like Him.

Yes, God is love.  Yes, God calls to us and embraces us in relationship.  But in doing so, He asks us to pursue righteousness.  He wants us to live in the light of His truth.  He wants us to cast aside lies and deceit and slander.  He wants us to live like Him. 

We are to be joyful and give praise to God.  But it can’t stop there.  God’s love transforms us.  God’s love brings about change.  God’s love transforms us into beings that we cannot be without Him.

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Year 8, Day 231: Psalm 98-99

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Psalm 98 is another psalm of praise.  I love the imagery presented here.  We are supposed to shout.  That’s not quiet.  We are supposed to sing with the lyre (a type of guitar).  That’s not quiet, either.  We are to use trumpets and horns.  Those aren’t known for being quiet instruments, either.  What’s the point?  Praising God is part of our testimony!  Praising God is something that should help other people come into a closer relationship with God.  Our praise is something that should help people come to know God more deeply.

Psalm 99 brings us to the character or God.  He is righteous.  He loves justice.  He executes mercy as well as well as avenges wrong.  These are all typical statements when it comes to the nature of God.

When we probe into Psalm 99 a little more deeply, we note an unusual comment within.  Aaron and Moses and Samuel are mentioned.  The point of mentioning them?  They are God’s priests.  They talked to God and God answered them.  They were in relationship with this being who loves righteousness, justice, and mercy.

In a sense, we now come full circle with these two psalms.  We, like Moses and Aaron and Samuel, are priests of the most high God.  We, too, can know relationship.  We can call upon Him and He will know our voice and answer us.  We can count on His pursuit of grace, mercy, and justice.  This is why we have reason to praise Him.  This is why we have reason to give testimony to His name.

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Year 8, Day 230: Psalm 97

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This is a very stereotypical psalm.  The point of this psalm is to give praise and glory to God.  He is an amazing God.  He sits above the people.  He sits above the creation.  He is above it all.

His splendor is amazing!  He lights up the world.  Fire goes before Him, causing His enemies to be consumed.  The mountains melt before Him.  Nothing can stand in His presence; His splendor is that incredible!

There is more to this psalm that simply glorifying God.  Yes, that is of the utmost importance.  However, His splendor should go beyond this.  His splendor should evoke joy in us!  His majesty can enliven us and lift our hearts!  Why wouldn’t it?  The most splendid being in the entire universe – the creator of the whole universe – desires to be in relationship with us.  Why should that not bring joy to our hearts?

Our reaction should go beyond joy, though.  Our reaction should bring about a change in us.  The joy in our hearts should bring us to a place where we hate evil.  We should shun that which causes us to sin.

After all, light is sown for the righteous.  Joy is sown for the upright.  We should live with glad hearts.  We should live in joy.  We should rejoice, for He is a glorious God indeed!

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Year 8, Day 229: Psalm 96

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Psalm 96 picks up where Psalm 95 leaves off.  It is a psalm of exuberance.  It is a psalm of joy.  It is a celebration.  It is a psalm of recognizing the Lord’s greatness!

The Lord is a God of salvation!  He saves us.  He brings us out of our sin.  He redeems us.  He offers us a joy that we cannot earn on our own.  He is deserving of our praise.  He is the focus of our worship.

When we recognize this, we should go forth in testimony.  Our lives should proclaim this truth daily!  When people look into our being, they should see a reflection of the joy of the Lord.  They should see a celebration of the redemption that He offers us.  They should see the God that we know and with whom we are in relationship.

We cannot make other people believe, certainly.  We cannot force other people to know God’s salvation for themselves.  But we can reflect it into their life.  We can give witness to it.  We can spread the splendor and love and majesty of our God to those who are around us.  We can be a living testimony, a constant and ever-present banner of God’s love.

We can be, of course.  There is nothing stopping us.  If God is for us, who can prevent us from being that incredible testimony of the greatness of God and what He has done for us?

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Year 8, Day 228: Psalm 95

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Ever sit back and wonder about the glory of the Lord?  How magnificent is He?  Can our words even begin to describe His majesty?  Can our thoughts even begin to fathom His greatness?

Don’t get me wrong.  Just because we cannot fathom God doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try.  Just because we cannot completely speak to God’s majesty doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.  It does mean that we should do it humbly.  As we see in this psalm, we can give glory to God and sing of His incredibly majesty to the best of our ability.  He is a great God and evidence of His hands are everywhere.  Such a realization should bring great joy to us!

In this greater context, the psalmist reminds us of the evil generation.  These are the Hebrews who wandered the desert for 40 years.  These are the Hebrew people who saw the sea part, who saw the plagues in Egypt, who saw evidence of the presence of the Lord at Mt. Sinai.  These are the people who saw all of this and who failed to be moved.  The psalmist encourages us to not be like them.

Instead, rejoice!  Live in the majesty of our God!  Sing and dance as one who intimately knows the Lord!  Go forth and live as a testimony to God and to the world about His splendor and glory and grace and mercy and love and blessing!  He is our God.  He is our joy.

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Year 8, Day 227: Psalm 94

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At first, this psalm seems to be about vengeance.  To read the opening lines of this psalm is to strap oneself in for yet another psalm that seeks to bring God out of His complacency and into action against the enemies of the psalmist.  It feels like another, “I’m right, so avenge me, God” kind of psalm.

However, that isn’t really what’s going on.  That may be the context, but that isn’t the point of the psalm.  Yes, God rules over the world.  Yes, God can vindicate His people.  Yes, God can deliver the oppressed.

Look at the heart of the psalm, though.  Blessed is the one whom the Lord disciplines.  Blessed is the one to whom God points out their errors and encourages to go through the tough process of change.

When put that way, it doesn’t sound very blessed, does it?  Who likes reprimand?  Who likes correction?  Who likes to be told they’re wrong?  Who likes to have growth areas illustrated?  Growth, change, and reprimand is never fun.

On the other hand, who ever wants to be the same?  Does any of us really wish we had the same wisdom as when we were fourteen?  Would any of us like to go back to the maturity of a sixteen-year-old?  Would any of us like to go back to the lack of genuine confidence felt in one’s early twenties?  I’m sure ten or twenty years from now I’ll look back on myself and say that I’m glad I’m not the same person that I am now.  Life is about growth.  Life is about change.  Life is about bettering oneself and becoming a new person.

That’s why the discipline of the Lord is a blessing.  God causes us to growth and mature.  He causes us to change.  In Him we find our true rock and stronghold.  Yes, relationship with God is tough.  It’s difficult to look in the mirror and see flaws and faults.  But I’d rather look in the mirror and see the flaws and faults than to pretend they aren’t really there.

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Year 8, Day 226: Psalms 92-93

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The two psalms for today give three perspectives for reflection.  Take them in order of importance.  First, we have the perspective of God.  He reigns.  The world testifies to His splendor.  He is mightier than the forces of nature which He has created.  His reign is eternal.  His thoughts are unfathomable.  He deserves our praise because of His character.

That brings us to His people.  He exalts us.  He pours fresh oil over us to cause us to shine give off an aura of health.  He brings down our enemies.  He causes us to flourish and grow strong.  We are empowered to bear fruit for the length of our life.  In other words, He looks upon us with favor and lavishes His blessing upon us.

This brings us to a third perspective: His enemies.  The stupid cannot fathom Him.  The fool does not understand Him.  He dooms the wicked to destruction. He scatters the evil before Him.  Those who are not in Him live under a shadow of curse and opposition.

What, then, are we to do with all of this?  In all of this, it is good to give Him thanks.  It is good to sing His praise.  It is good to be a testimony unto Him.  It is good to be glad in Him and declare His wonder and splendor to the world around us.  We should delight in being His hands and His feet, calling out His favor to anyone around us who will listen!

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Year 8, Day 225: Psalm 91

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The opening verse to this psalm sets a great tone.  What is the result of dwelling with God?  We get to live in His shadow.  This is an interesting tone to set.  Typically, human beings work hard to get out of someone else’s shadow.  We are trying to get noticed.  We are trying to get attention.  We want to be unique and different.  Yet, being with God means inherently trying to dwell in His shadow.  This is why true Christianity feels so counter-cultural.

There are some perks to dwelling in the shadow of the Lord.  He protects us when we are in His shadow.  He will ease our fears.  He will turn aside destruction.  Evil will run from His sight.  He will send His servants to raise us up.  He will walk with us through turmoil.  Living in His shadow brings great benefit.

This really brings us back to being humility.  Christ Himself gave up being God to come and dwell with us and die for us.  He was willing to think lower of Himself than was truly deserved.  To follow Christ implies being humble.

Our relationship with God is better when we are humble and dwell in His shadow.  For the record, our communities are better, too.  When we are humble and think of others and place ourselves in the shadow instead of in the spotlight, our communities are better off for it.

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Year 8, Day 224: Psalms 89-90

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The theme for Psalm 89 should be the steadfastness of the Lord.  This psalm is about praising God for His promise.  God will uphold His people.  God will love them.  God will cause them to prosper.  He will strengthen us.  He will embolden us and not cause our enemies to triumph over us.

There’s something more in this psalm about God’s promise that I find even more amazing.  The truth is that even when God’s people rebel against Him, God does not remove His love.  His love is always present.  Even in the midst of our rebellion, God is always standing at the door, waiting for us to repent, so that we can share in God’s love once again. 

He does not remove His love from us; we turn our back on His love.  He does not break His promise; we reject His promise!  He does not lead us in turmoil; we suffer the consequences of our own rebellion against Him.

This is truly why God deserves to be praised.  Human beings are prone to walking away from relationships that go sour.  We hold grudges.  Not so with God.  God loves His creation.  Even when we ignore Him and intentionally go against His ways, His operating position is a position of love as He waits for us to return to Him.

Psalm 90 opens the fourth subset of psalms.  This psalm picks up where the last psalm left off.  The goal of Psalm 90 is to remind us to see the glory and splendor of God.  After all, He is our true dwelling place.  It is in Him that we find our home.

We are reminded to number our days, because this will give us wisdom in perspective.  We are reminded to be satisfied with Him in the morning, as that will set the tone for the day.  We are reminded to look for His work so that we can truly be His servants.

Relationship with God is a two-way street.  We’ve already spoken about How God comes to us and doesn’t leave our side even when we rebel.  God’s position towards us in not the problematic one, though!  We must remember to turn to Him.  We must look in His direction.  We have to do our part; God is always doing His.

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Year 8, Day 223: Psalms 87-88

Theological Commentary: Click Here

These psalms focus on the relationship between God and His people.  Start with the more obvious psalm, Psalm 88.  Here we have another psalm about a man who feels persecution and is struggling to find a way out.  Here we have a man calling out to God not just for salvation but for relent.  The psalmist feels as though God has joined the attack against him.

There is a powerful thought to make are it remains in us.  God is for is people, not against us.  If we are truly walking with the Lord, we shouldn’t think that He is against us!  God does not walk away from us.  God will allow us to feel the consequences of our own actions, but He will not walk away from us.  He is always there for us.  We simply need to turn to Him.

Now look to Psalm 87.  At first, this psalm appears to be about a profound love for Jerusalem.  Naturally, it is that.  But there is a subplot in this short psalm that is important to catch.  While the psalm is focused on Jerusalem, we get to see who it is that knows Jerusalem.  Who are the ones considered to be born there?

Notice how much time the psalmist spends speaking about non-Hebrews.  Rahab is mentioned.  Babylon is mentioned!  Phylistia, Tyre, and Cush are mentioned.  These nations draw a pretty large circle around the Hebrew nations.

There is a very simple lesson here.  The people who know God are defined by their heart, not their biology.  God’s people are claimed by Him because their heart is inclined to Him, not because they live in a geographic boundary.  As Christians, this is our position, too.  Is the status of a person’s heart, not the status of their citizenship, that matters most.

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Year 8, Day 222: Psalms 85-86

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The psalms for today are pleas for salvation.  The first of which is spoken in a great time of need for the psalmist’s nation.  That starts us with an interesting thought.  So often we hear the plea psalms as psalms for a personal salvation.  So often we meet a psalmist who is in great personal need or under great personal persecution.  This first psalm is a national psalm.  It is a psalm where the psalmist sees much more than themselves in peril.  They see their culture in peril around them.

When we examine this idea, we can look at what basis the psalmist has for hope.  Can God save a nation from persecution?  Of course He can!  God has already done it in the Hebrew past.  God brought the people out of Egypt.  In fact, it is in this same story that we find God’s forgiveness to a wicked generation.  God brings a faithful generation out from within the midst of an unfaithful one.  The psalmist has good reason to hope.  It God can bring faith out of unfaith, He can certainly do it again.

The psalmist has every reason to be hopeful.  The psalmist has every reason to anticipate the salvation of the Lord.  He has every reason to think about the steadfast love of the Lord.  He knows that righteousness will go before the Lord.  He knows that the blessing of the Lord can fall upon a nation.  The Lord has done it before.  He can and will do it again.

Why will the Lord do this?  Psalm 86 can shed a little light.  The Lord does this because He is great and wonderful.  The Lord does this because He longs to teach us.  The Lord does this because His nature, His character, is just.  When we walk with the Lord, we have every reason to believe and to hope.

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