Category: devotional

Psalm 138 (ESV)

 

I bow down toward your holy temple

and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,

for you have exalted above all things

your name and your word.

 

Whenever I find myself reading a book or watching a movie with my kids, I always catch myself pointing out to them moments of significance. I want them not to miss the clues in the mystery or the signs that a good guy is about to turn bad. I want them to see the moments that are supposed to be important.

 

From time to time, we come across a thought, a moment, or a verse in Scripture that we simply do not want to let pass without noticing it. And, if we are not careful, those moments will slide past us in our daily readings without us stopping to consider them.

 

Psalm 138:2 is one of those verses that, if we are not careful, will fly by. In the verse above, we see the statement, “for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.” Right there, we see what God has exalted, what he has raised up as most important. What is above all to the Lord? What does God value most?

 

In the verse, it is plain that God has set above all other things his name and his word. The name of the Lord is his reputation, his actual character. God has declared who he is to be more important than anything else. God’s glory, his person, his personal attributes, his nature is more important than any other thing that you or I can think of.

 

In tandem with God’s name, the Lord has exalted his word. His commands and the holy Scriptures are of highest importance. Other things in this life are less important. God’s communication of himself to mankind is of inestimable value.

 

It is likely that most of us know that God’s name and his word are valuable above all else. But, what is the significance of this truth. If God really meant what he inspired in Psalm 138:2, what does it change. How does it impact how you and I view the world? How does it shape our churches, our worship services, our priorities? How does it impact how we interact with the culture around us? How does it help us to grasp our responsibility in conflicts?

 

What would it look like in your life if the name and word of God were your top priorities? How would it impact your worship attendance? How would it impact what you value in the worship services? How would it impact how you use your time? How would it impact your career choices?

 

To those who are outside of the faith, this concept of God exalting his name and word above all is a completely foreign concept. This truth alone is why a truly secular state will never balance with Christianity. The state will not understand how genuine Christians will be required to turn away from what others consider to be the flow of history and cling to the Scriptures for our values.

 

Honestly, even among Christians, there will be issues. Many churches exalt other things above the name and word of God. Evangelism, social good, community service, programs, performances, activities, all are good and important things. However, if we are not careful, we can allow those activities to outshine the way that the church honors the Lord and holds fast to his word.

 

Consider how the exaltation of God’s name and word must impact a church’s response to sin in the lives of her members. Of course, we will be gracious and loving to our people, just as God has commanded in his word. However, the church cannot counsel a person to do what Scripture has forbidden. Nor can a church ignore it when her members refuse to follow the word. Thus, loving, restorative confrontation is part of the life of a church for the sake of the name and word of God.

 

On and on we could go, but the point is clear: God’s name and God’s word are number one. Thus, we exist for his glory. We obey his word. Our churches exist for that worship and word of God. We must not let this slide past us in our reading. We must genuinely consider what it will look like to live under God’s priority structure.

Job 38:1-5 (ESV)

 

1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

3 Dress for action like a man;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

 

This morning, I found myself pondering the questions that God put before Job. For context, Job had questioned the actions and ways of God, and God has come to respond. Rather than answering Job’s queries, the Lord has chosen to ask Job a few questions. When Job knows enough to understand the intricate workings of the universe, then the Lord will consider explaining himself to Job.

 

The next few chapters of Job will contain multiple questions from the Lord like the ones at the start of this section above. God asks Job where was he when God created the world and laid its foundations. He asks if Job can explain how the planet holds together, where the rain comes from, and how the light gets where it is going. Later, God will ask Job if he has the power to move the constellations through the night sky or capture the scariest of sea monsters.

 

What hit me as I pondered this passage is the fact that such questions should work. Such questions should humble us. Such questions should make us realize that, compared to the Lord over all creation, we know nothing. But, in our present culture, they don’t.

 

Take the beginning question from God. The Lord asks Job, ““Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth,” and “Who determined its measurements?” The Lord follows up with the sarcastic, “Surely you know!” God is pointing out to Job that this weak little man has no way of understanding the way that the universe is put together and held together and came into being in the first place.

 

Here is the problem, we think we know. We actually have become a people who believe that the questions that God put before Job are now easy. As a people, we believe that we can explain creation, the earth, and the stars. We think we know how it came together, and we assume God is not involved. The discoveries of science have made us so arrogant as not to learn from the wild mysteries that God put before Job.

 

Now, don’t take me as unscientific. I think we have learned much and can explain much. But no scientist has a plausible answer for the question of first cause. No scientist can explain why there is something rather than nothing. And even if a scientist has an explanation for how the planets flew into space, there is no explanation for what caused the cause.

 

May we, dear friends, become a people who can still marvel at the majesty of creation. God has done something that is far beyond us. You and I do not have the wisdom to know exactly how he created. Science is inadequate to explain it. That does not mean science is not a wonder in itself; it is just not ultimate. May we not lose the wonder in our arrogance.

 

God has created. He has put together a universe that is wonderfully ordered. He has made numbers work in ways in mathematics that boggle the mind. He has made planets turn in just the right way to shape the solar system as he wants it. He has created people for his glory. He has made atoms work. God has revealed his glory in creation, and we should marvel at this and not assume we can figure it all out. May we be humbled by the questions God used to humble Job.

2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV)

 

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

 

At the end of an extended correspondence with the church at Corinth, Paul plans for a visit. He wants to see to it that the church has returned to order and that the people have repented of immorality. And, as he prepares for his visit, Paul calls on the people to examine their own lives with the goal in mind of checking their salvation.

 

I would argue that this command is one of the least obeyed in the Scriptures in many circles. I grew up in churches where we were told, quite directly, never to question our salvation. We were to write down the date of our praying “the prayer” in our Bibles or on the pages of a gospel tract, and we were to never allow ourselves to question the veracity of that moment. I grew up in a world where claims of childhood conversion outweighed lifetimes of fruitlessness.

 

Interestingly, I do not believe that the doctrine of eternal security or perseverance of the saints has anything to do with the failings of those churches to obey 2 Corinthians 13:5. The blame for that lies elsewhere. In fact, I would argue that the blame for the failure to allow believers to question whether or not they are in the faith is based on a faulty understanding of the relationship of salvation and sanctification. If one believes that going to heaven is all about an individual’s decision or an individual’s prayer, then they will not allow a person to ever revisit the topic of salvation. However, if we understand that salvation is about the saving work of God, regeneration that leads to faith, then we will encourage people to examine themselves to see if their lives contain marks of conversion.

 

Regardless of one’s view of the sovereignty of God in salvation, all Christians should recognize that 2 Corinthians 13:5 is a command. Paul is asking people to examine their lives. He is not asking them to do a history check and see if they prayed a simple prayer at some point in their lives. In context, it is clear that he is asking them to look at the fruit of their lives, their present state of repentance and faith, to see if their lives look like the lives of people who have entrusted their souls to Christ and his saving work.

 

Let us, then, examine ourselves. Is your only hope for your eternity completely wrapped up in the person and finished work of Jesus? Are you believing that he died for your sins and rose from the grave? Have you asked him to forgive you and to rule your life? And, is there evidence that you are different, that you are moving into obedience of his word? Are you yielded to his lordship? Are you turning from sin and following the commands of God? Do you sorrow when you sin? Are you regularly repenting? Such things are marks of salvation.

2 Corinthians 8:1-2 (ESV)

 

1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

 

2 Corinthians 8 would be a chapter sufficient to destroy all thoughts of prosperity preaching. Paul is writing to ask the Corinthians to give for the relief of saints in need. Later, in the same chapter, he declares that the same could come back to them, and it may happen that those same saints can give to the Corinthians when they are in need. It does not look like a faith-based, get-rich-quick scheme.

 

What is really cool here is the things that combined to bring about the giving from the Macedonian Christians. Verse 2 shows us three things that are combined: severe affliction, abundant joy, and extreme poverty. What would you expect to come out of that recipe? If you were given severe affliction and extreme poverty poured on top of your joy, what would you do? Well, the Christian’s joy makes all that turn into a wealth of generosity. In our poverty and our pain, we give to others for their relief, to the glory of God.

 

Christians, we are not to be about hording wealth in this life. We are to spend ourselves, out of joy, for the good of others and to the glory of God. May we become such people. May we never use the faith as a means of earthly financial gain. Instead, may we spend ourselves in this life for the joy of honoring God and for the hope of the life to come.

1 Kings 13:14-22 (ESV)

 

14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” 15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 16 And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, 17 for it was said to me by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’ ” 18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he lied to him. 19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ”

 

In this strange passage of 1 Kings, we meet a prophet of God. The man, in the verses before this section, called out the judgment of God on the northern kingdom and on Jeraboam, the wicked king who was setting up an idolatrous altar.

 

God sent the prophet to the north on a mission and with some specific instructions. The instructions included that the prophet was not allowed to eat food or drink even water while within the borders of the northern kingdom. This would be an uncomfortable but not impossible task.

 

Suddenly the prophet from the south meets a man from the north. The northern man tells the prophet from the south that he too has heard from God. He tells the man from the south that God has told him that the southerner was to join him for a meal within the borders of the northern kingdom. And the southern prophet sits down to dinner.

 

The problem is, the man from the north was lying. He had no word from God. He wanted to mislead the southern prophet. And he succeeded. The southern prophet’s refusal to follow the clearly-given command of God results in his death.

 

How often is it that the command of God and its clarity is not at all our issue? How often is it that we look for ways not to follow Scripture simply because we do not want to? How often do we, when life gets uncomfortable, look for someone who will tell us what we want to hear, that our desires are OK and we have obviously not understood Scripture rightly?

 

I once remarked that the process of tuning a guitar string for me was like what I see many believers, including myself, do. I pluck the string and check the tuner’s answer. I then ask again and again and again until I get an answer I like. Then I stop asking. And I’ve certainly seen the same thing among church members.

 

A simple example is often in matters of the heart. A Christian woman desires to date a man whose life shows no genuine evidence of conversion. The Scripture obviously forbids Christians from marrying non-believers. The woman asks people if they think it is OK for her to date the man. She wants to. She feels deep down that it is God’s will for her to date this guy. Regardless of the direct command of Scripture against the pairing, she asks person after person after person until she runs across one person who will tell her that what she wants to do is OK. Then, armed with confirmation, she begins a relationship that leads to her hurt and which goes against the commands of the Lord.

 

There is no doubt that you can come across somebody who will tell you that the Bible supports just about anything you want. Those who do not care about honest biblical interpretation, contextual analysis, and faithful hermeneutics are easy to find. People who will compromise the teachings of the word for the sake of their strongly felt desires are all over the place. If we are honest, all of us will be tempted to read what we want in the word.

 

But, if we want to honor God, we have to let the word of God speak for itself. We have to interpret the text as its authors and its Author intended. We have to be faithful and find the true, genuine, honest commands of God. Then we are called to obey.

 

And do not let yourself pretend that the Bible is too hard to understand simply because there are people out there that will twist it. So very much of the Bible is crystal clear. Yes, there are hard topics. But, for the most part, the Bible is blatantly obvious if we will just let it say what God intends for it to say.

 

The southern prophet in our passage above knew exactly what God commanded. For the most part, you and I know exactly what God has commanded. May we not compromise and listen for the person who will offer us what we want more than what the word says. May we, instead, hear and obey the word. The truth is, following God’s word leads to life and joy that is far greater than any compromise we could ever make.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (ESV)

 

14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

 

How interesting that Paul uses the concept of smells and the triumph to depict the work of believers in the world. Part of the Roman triumph was the parading of prisoners and victorious generals through the streets. One element of this victory parade was the perfuming of the air.

 

Paul says that he, and other believers, are used by God in a way that reminds us of the triumph. We travel through the world. And everywhere we go, as we preach the gospel, we change the smell around us. To some people, the preaching of the gospel is the fragrance of life. To some, the message of Jesus smells like death.

 

Paul asks, “Who is sufficient for these things?” The implied answer is that we are not. God is so much greater than us that we could never be sufficient. We cannot change the world on our own. We lack the ability. I would argue that we cannot change anything for the good without that change being empowered by the Spirit of God for the glory of God. But, such change is the mission of our lives in many ways.

 

So, Christian, how do you change the smell of the world around you? Do you love your spouse and children if you have such in your life? That changes the world. Do you worship Christ with other believers? That changes the world. Do you show genuine love and kindness to your neighbors? That changes the world. Do you take food to people in need? That changes the world. Do you share the message of Jesus with those who do not know him? That changes the world.

 

Do note, please, that sharing the message of Jesus smells different to people. To some, it is life. To others, it is hateful and death itself. Our job is not to figure out who will like it and who will hate it. Our job is not to persuade people to change their mind. But, our job is to tell the truth in the world that God put us in. When we see someone receive the message with joy, we know it was the fragrance of life. When we see someone hate the message, we pray for them and trust that God is able to save them by his sovereign power if such is his will.

 

Lord, I, like many, am not sufficient for the task. However, I pray that you, by your Spirit, will empower me to spread the fragrance of the gospel. Help me love you, love my family, love my church, and love the lost. Help me to speak the truth and spread the gospel. I also ask that you allow me to see more who will receive the message as the fragrance of life.

1 Kings 8:56 (ESV)

 

“Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant.”

 

When the building of the temple was complete, Solomon held a great celebration and consecration. The people prayed significant prayers and made massive animal sacrifices before the Lord.

 

What caught my attention here are the words that Solomon proclaimed as he praised the Lord before the people as the celebration wrapped up. Solomon proclaimed that the Lord had faithfully fulfilled his promises to Moses. Israel was at rest. Israel was in her land. Israel had been divvied up and divided into tribal lands. God had been faithful, and the king, as it were, signs the receipt.

 

I will not proclaim that this means that there are no further promises for Israel, either national or spiritual. Such an argument is beyond my purpose this morning. But I will say that the words of the king are significant. Who would have ever believed that what God promised Moses could have ever come to pass? Who would have believed that what God promised Abram could have come to pass? The truth is, for this day to have come in Scripture is an evidence of the miraculous power of the almighty God.

 

God had moved a family of 70 to a foreign land. He grew that family to become a nation of millions. He rescued that nation from slavery in Egypt. He protected the nation from self-destruction as they focused on idols and not on the Lord. He gave them victory over enemies. He gave them land on which to live. God did it all, everything he had promised.

 

The reason we need to think about this is not so much about an eschatological position regarding Israel. What I think is most significant is what it tells us about the faithfulness of God. When God makes a promise, he keeps that promise. If God promised Israel a land, he gave it. If God promises us eternal life in Christ, he gives it. When God lets us know that, no matter how bad things get in the world, he has the victory, well, he has it.

1 Corinthians 15:19

 

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

In 1 Corinthians, Paul is often combating false teaching and faulty thinking. From this passage, we find that there must have been some people in Corinth who denied the possibility of a person rising from the dead. Who knows, perhaps they were too sophisticated in Corinth to believe in such seemingly fantastic things.

 

Interestingly, I can think of people in my own past who have said similar things. I’ve heard people say, “It really does not matter if you live after death. It is worth it to be a Christian, because you will live a better life.” Of course, there is a sense to what such a person was saying. It is better to follow good standards like being a good husband, good father, and giving person. It is better to avoid drunkenness, adultery, and violence. So, maybe life is better following the rules that God has given.

 

But God disagrees with the sentiment that is put forth by the person who says that resurrection does not matter. The Lord inspired Paul to tell the Corinthians that, if Christ is not raised, we are most of all to be pitied. Earlier in the same chapter, Paul said that if there is no resurrection, our faith, Christianity itself, is vain—meaning empty and useless.

 

The resurrection matters. The fact that Jesus rose from the grave matters. The fact that we will live beyond death matters.

 

It matters that Jesus rose from the grave, as this is our hope. Somehow, the resurrection is the completion of the cross-work of Christ. We are not saved from sin if Jesus did not physically rise from the grave. The resurrection proves to be true all that Jesus claimed about himself and about how it is that we are to be saved by grace through faith. And, the resurrection of Jesus is the forerunner of our own resurrection to eternal life, a real and bodily resurrection.

 

Our resurrection matters too. Our resurrection reminds us that there is something beyond this life. There is a genuine judgment. God will ultimately and perfectly do justice. For those who are in Christ, God will perfectly and justly show mercy. There is a reason to let go of some seeming goods in the here and now for the same of infinitely greater rewards in the future. There is a way for us to say goodbye to believers who die knowing that this is a temporary parting. There is a way for us to face hardships and persecution in this life knowing that there is an eternal reward that far outshines the pain and sorrow we have faced in the here and now. Truly, our resurrection matters. If we are not to rise from the dead, our faith is useless, just as the Bible says.

1 Corinthians 12:4-7

 

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

 

One of the weaknesses in the Corinthian church was a love of the dramatic. Early on in the letter, Paul defended his apostleship as it was compared to other impressive teachers. It seems that the Corinthians were fascinated and deeply impressed when big things happened. The factionalism that Paul wrote against showed that this church loved to get behind the man who most showed them something great.

 

Here, we enter a section in which Paul will talk about the gifts of God’s Spirit in the church. It should not be a surprise that a church with a fascination with the extraordinary would mishandle the gifts. These folks were looking for a show, for power, for flashes of glory.

 

But notice what Paul says to the church right here at the beginning of the discussion. There are varieties of gifts, service, and activities in the church, but there is only one God. In each case, the power of God is given to individuals, not for personal empire-building, but for the common good. God gives some people one kind of gift and another gift to others. We are not to be overly fascinated by the more showy gifts. We are not to be ashamed of the ordinary gifts. Instead, God calls us all to use the gifts that we have been given for the good of the entire church body.

 

I’ve recently been reading Michael Horton’s book, Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World. In this book, Horton points out that we should not think that God only works through the fantastic. Sometimes the greatest work that God does is through ordinary people serving him in ordinary ways. We need to stop thinking that ordinary is somehow beneath us. We are ordinary people. God is great, of course. But part of the way that God does his work in a way that surely glorifies him is when he uses ordinary people in ordinary ways to change the world. It would glorify God less to make us all super heroes. It glorifies God more when truck-drivers, home-makers, doctors, plumbers, teachers, police officers, firefighters, pilots, cooks, waitresses, engineers, politicians, and every other type of ordinary person in the world serves him. God is not just wishing that the church was filled with more movie stars, oil tycoons, and professional athletes so that the work could be done. Of course, he will save such folks and be glorified by how they serve him too. But, the point is, God is glorified when those of us whose names will never be known outside of our little circles of friends are faithful to him and help the good of the local body of Christ.

 

This chapter reminds us that God gives a variety of gifts to his people. All people of God are gifted by God. You, if you are a believer, have been gifted by God to play a role in the building up of others in the church. There is something about what God’s Holy Spirit is doing in and through you that is supposed to make the church stronger. Maybe it is a gift to teach. Maybe it is a gift to care for others in a special way. Maybe it is a gift to help encourage people toward maturity. Maybe it is a gift of a heart that loves giving to others or showing hospitality. Maybe it is the gift of a nature to serve behind the scenes. Who knows? But God has gifted us all, and he wants us to use those gifts for the sake of his glory in the local church, the ordinary, standard, lovely, local church.

 

This encourages me. I need not look for the spectacular gifts in order to matter. I do not need to be given an extra-biblical revelation of future events to matter. I do not need to experience a miracle of speaking in a language I do not know. God may gift me however he wants, and it will all be for the sake of his church. However, if God wants to do the miracle of growing Christians through the ordinary work he does in my life, through the gifts that he has given me that will not make me a person anybody remembers in a century, that is to his glory and for my joy.

Psalm 74:16 (ESV)

 

Yours is the day, yours also the night;

you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.

 

Like many of the Psalms, Psalm 74 is a prayer of deep need. The psalmist has experienced hardships, and he is asking God to intervene for the glory of God’s own name.

 

Verse 16 caught my attention this morning because of its contrast. God owns the day. God owns the night. The surrounding verses show God’s sovereignty over land and sea, over beasts and men.

 

The reason that this verse grabs me is related to how men have often imagined deities. Read ancient myths or even modern fantasy fiction. False gods often have very clearly circumscribed powers. There are gods of the hills and gods of the valleys. There are gods of the seas and gods of the mountains. There are gods who are strong in the day and gods who are strong in the night. Only the true God of the Bible, however, is God over all.

 

Consider how great it is to know that God is unlimited by any boundaries. He is God over the day. He is God over the night. He is God over the sea. He is God over the land. He is God in the mountains. He is God in the valleys. He is God in the first and third worlds. He is God when we are sick and God when we are healthy. He is God when we are rich and God when we are poor. He is God over summer and winter, over heat and cold, over light and ark. There is nothing that stands as a limiting factor before our God.

 

The God of the Bible would not have been imagined by men of old, because men could not handle imagining a God sovereign over all. God is bigger than human imagination. God is greater than our greatest dreams. As Anselm’s Ontological Argument tells us in a simple paraphrase, a being that is the greatest possible being, one upon whom no improvement can be made, must exist, because existence is part of the perfection of the being. Anselm aside, the fact that we see here a description of a God beyond any human imagining, a God over day and night, heat and cold, is a picture of the true God over all, the real God who made us.

 

   How encouraging this all is. God is over all. My life does not limit him. My will, my weakness, my failures do not limit him. Neither does my strength, my power, my rightness improve upon him. He is perfect. He is over all. How great it is that he would allow me to be called his servant and that he would call himself my God. How much greater still that he would call himself my Father and call me his child. Truly, to know him is an honor and a joy. And even when life is hard, God is still over all, perfect and right.