Practically Sanctified

Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

 Psalm 10 is a continuation of Palm 9. Psalm 9 was a Song of Testimony and Psalm 10 is a Song of Steadfastness. Some describe the Palm as a lament – David is going on again about how the wicked prosper and the good guys are afflicted. To understand the steadfast part, we have to ask a couple questions first. Read more…

Psalm 9 and 10 form a partially alphabetic acrostic in the Hebrew text; every alternate verse beginning with the next successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. To end our summer Psalm series it seems appropriate to look at these two Psalms over this week and next, before we start into our fall programming. Today we will spend time in psalm 9. Read more…

The LORD’S Glory and Man’s Dignity. For the choir director; on the Gittith.

A Psalm of David.

As we look at Psalm 8 I want to make mention of how it was quoted in the New Testament. In Matthew 21 Jesus responds to criticisms from the Pharisees about children singing “Hosanna to the Son of David” because of His miracles by quoting verse 2: ”and the Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Do You hear what these children are saying?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?’” (Matthew 21:16). Read more…

 Last week we looked at Psalm 4, which was described as an evening prayer. It was a song of trust, and after a full day you can see David laying down and thanking God for the day, meditating on what God had done in and through him. Today we look at Psalm 5, which is a morning prayer, and falls in the classification of lament. It has a simple structure: Verses 1-3 David asks God to answer his prayer, verses 4-6 David describes God’s hatred of sin, verses 7-8 David asks God to guide him in righteousness, verse 9-10 David uselessness of the wicked, and verses 11-12 David rejoices in God’s protection and blessing. Read more…

For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.

David seeks God’s help – the boy is in trouble again. God asks us to call upon Him, to trust Him. At the heart of that call is a relationship of love. It is like that little boy that skins his knee or gets hurt somehow and goes running to his mother – she can’t always take the pain away or even fix or solve the problem; but he knows that in his mother’s embrace he has a place where he belongs, a place where he is not alone, a place where he is safe. It is wonderful to know that you belong, are not alone, and safe; and that is what David reminds us of in Psalm 4. Read more…

The Setting – The invasion of Israel by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13-19:37) Hezekiah became king in Judah. Some 5 years later Assyria comes in and takes the northern half of Israel and after a few years after that comes to Hezekiah in Jerusalem and says he will take Jerusalem and the southern kingdom as well. The general says to not believe that Hezekiah and his God will deliver them. He speaks in the common language of the people so they hear his challenges and promises of destruction if they don’t surrender. Imagine you are in a walled city and some 250,000 enemy soldiers are surrounding you. They mock what you have confidence in, and say the easiest route out is to not fight but give up. All this happens after they had given some 11 tons of silver and a ton of gold to Assyria as tribute. Read more…

Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” Psalm 2:1-6

Psalm 2 is a royal Psalm (one of 11), so called because of its theme of the Divine King. It has four movements. Verses 1-3 talks about how the world is against God and his anointed. They are in open rebellion against the Lord of Heaven. The silver lining of that cloud is you know where people are at. They make it plain, rather than hiding half commitments in shadows and half-truths. There is more likelihood of those who are true to their beliefs and oppose God, to find God, than those who won’t directly oppose God, but work hard on appearances to like God without the heart surrender. They want the stuff the world has to offer while trying to do what God asks. These people are just fooling themselves, like the smoker who thinks he can hide his habit with a mint or stick of gum not realizing the stink that clings to their clothes their hair, everything. They can’t smell it because their nose is used to the smell while a non-smoker can pick it up easily. Don’t be part of the crowd that plays those religious games. Be authentic and real with your faith, and let God worry about your stature and place in life. Read more…

What is a good example of something high and mighty being humble and brought low? As we read this Psalm, we are given several aspects of why and how we should praise the Lord. We often focus so much on music as the best form of worship, but there is so much more. Here are somethings we find in this Psalm:

Lifestyle – Can you remember when you were in love? Maybe it never worked out, maybe is more one sided and a bit obsessive. Maybe it led to marriage and all the rest, but can you remember what it was like? I met Bonnie on January 7, 1999. She was far away, but there was something right at the very beginning that clicked for me. It seemed that every waking hour was taken up with Bonnie, what she was doing, what she was thinking, and so on. There was an all-encompassing focus that came to my life. All the other stuff in my life went dull compared to what was going on with Bonnie. From the rising of the sun, to the setting of the same, my thoughts, my words, my life was focussed on Bonnie. I was in love and it consumed me.

That is why the Psalmist talks about that here in this Psalm. He was in love with God, and was consumed by His focus on the Creator. His life revolved around not just conversing with God, but living out the character of God in His life. You read of people like that throughout the Scriptures. You read the stories of people down through the ages who had surrendered their lives because nothing else made sense but to follow Jesus with all they had. Are you in love with Jesus? Has it changed your life, or have you slipped back into that place where He is just a common piece of a busy life. After 30 years of marriage the love can turn into the “same old, same old”. The emotion can get squashed under the cares and responsibilities and concerns of the broader relationship and the family. God is calling us back to that first love, that exciting sunrise to sunset love.

Humility – We talk about our need to surrender and to love God with all our heart and soul and mind. Sometimes we don’t get it, though, because we don’t really “get” the Gospel. There are many people, even people who have been Christians for a long time, who don’t get grace. They “feel” or “insist” that they have to “do” something to help them be worthy of such love. They have somehow negated grace by their life, their experiences, when it really isn’t about them at all. What is it about? It is about humility. Not my or your humility, but God’s. The very heart of the Gospel is that God humbled Himself. He is high above all nations, enthroned above; but draws near to you and I.

There is a new trend in wedding photography that happens after the wedding and honeymoon. The bride puts on her multi-thousand dollar dress and jumps in a pool, plays in the mud, allows the once white and pristine dress to be muddied and ripped and trashed. There’s that sense of moving from the uptight and prim and proper wedding day to the relaxation and freedom of real life. The dress is humbled as much as a symbol of the unreality of the wedding day being humbled to the reality of day to day life. It’s not a bad thing, though a woman may not want to spend so much on her wedding dress to begin with. God humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant, temporarily giving up some of His divine rights voluntarily. This was done just so He could draw near to you and I.

Relationships – Politics is on every persons mind when every day is a struggle. You look at what is happening around the world and you see the truth of the power struggle. In Pakistan where some 20 million people (1/9 of the population) have been displaced by the recent flooding you see insurgents threatening aid agencies so they can control the population. The civilian government has been weakened greatly while the military has been looked at much more favourably. In war torn countries like Afghanistan and Iraq it is the innocent bystanders, the civilian population that gets stuck in between the warring factions and bear the brunt of the conflicts’ results. Children especially are vulnerable, and life seems to become so cheap. Out of power struggles and class struggles in the early 1000’s arose the communist ideal, of a classless society where the playing field was level for all. 100 years later we see how utterly a failure it turned out, in large part to the corruption of the heart. Man cannot be altruistic on his own. He can’t do it. This guy takes a photograph of him and his family on vacation, and in the background of the picture you can see a thief picking up the man’s camera bag and running off. Go almost anywhere and you can see people being taken advantaged of. Yes, there are many, many instances of people being the proverbial “good Samaritan” but there are struggles everywhere.

But when you take all that mess and lay it up against the grace of God, the love of God, you see the priorities that God has much more clearly. Jesus is about relationships. You have this great big indescribable God who in humility steps out of that awesomeness to come near to you and I. His presence isn’t about just watching, or gloating, or judgement. He comes close for relationship. “He raises the poor from the dust, the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes…” At the very beginning of creation you see that emphasis of relationship between God and man. Man, made in the image of God Himself; man who walked in the cool of the evening talking to God. And God long before this had the path of redemption laid out for man’s inevitable Fall – so that the relationship could be fully restored even though it was fully broken.

While God does care about your life and your very basic needs, He is firstly and vitally concerned about your relationship with Him, your spiritual health. If you follow Ken Rutherford’s journal you know that even though God can and does heal He is much more about what we are doing with Him today. It is appointed man once to die, and after that the judgement. The judgement is not just about sin – it is about what we did with Jesus Christ today, about our relationship with Him.

Barrenness was a huge deal in ancient times as it was the children that look after the old, not the government. Community was important then, because it became your social net. If you were kicked out of the synagogue, it could be devastating. While my closest family is in Ontario, and my older brother Paul recently took a trip out to Banff and stopped by our place last Monday on his way back. It struck me that it had been some 5 years ago that we had the last recent visit from my family, when my dad flew in to Alberta to pick up a car in Lethbridge. While I have had the privilege of visiting my family several times out east, I was reminded of the family that is so important. When we moved here we left Bonnie’s parents in the town we moved from, and so our kids are growing up with very little experience of their grandparents. But when you read this Psalm you see God’s priority is about family, about community. The Psalmist writes that God “makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children.” You and I are in the same family. That is what our church is meant to be. Regardless of my physical family, you are the grandparents and aunts and uncles and even brothers and sisters of Ben and Heather. I suppose if one of you really wanted to you could be the “mother-in-law”, but the point is we are a family united by the Spirit of God. Does that change how you relate to one another? Does that change what you feel is your responsibility to those sitting in the chairs beside you?

If God is so big on relationships, how about you? Are you doing whatever it takes to not just know God, but to build relationships with those around you? If relationships that build people up are such a high priority with God, shouldn’t they be for us? If we are called to walk like Jesus walked, if we say we are His follower, we have to make relationships our priority. This may mean you need to let go of the small stuff. It may mean you need to let go of the big stuff. I was talking with another pastor this week about the challenges of following Jesus, of discipleship. He made the observation that many people follow Jesus as long as they don’t have to change how they live. He reminded me that we are not living for ourselves, for the typical Canadian materialistic lifestyle. We are called to be sold out to Jesus, and don’t you think that will be life changing?

What are some of the best things people have given you?

Many of us have been through the whole job searching process. Rick has just finished that, and it starts by looking for that opening. You look through the paper, you scan online sites, you can even go through a third party that does the looking for you. You craft the most up to date resume with all the relevant information. Then you find it – the job that would be a great fit. It has great hours and even better fringe benefits. You feel a bit under qualified, but you never know. You go through the application and do the waiting, then you get the call for the interview. You enter the office somewhat nervous, because it really is a “killer” job. You shake hands and sit and the interviewer starts up and easy conversation with you. “The process is really rather simple,” she says. “We have this check list, so I will simply go through and see if you match up.” You have applied for job 3×9-777, that’s the one for Supreme Sovereign.” She does that thing where she glances at you over her glasses and gives you a dubious look. She turns to Psalm 103 and begins to go through the list:

1. Ability to pardon sins
2. Ability to heal diseases
3. Redeems life, giving an individual true worth
4. Loves all: in all, through all, in spite of all
5. Ability to refresh and revitalize a person’s life experience
6. Delivers the oppressed
7. Comes close to people: imminence with eminence

She looks at you again, then picks up your resume. You suddenly realize that not only does your bakery supervisor position not have much relevance, but the strained relationship with your neighbour and the looseness of your tongue is a big issue. You are not surprised when she  gives a brief sigh and says, “You know, Mr Smith. While you have some good stuff here, I don’t really think you have what it takes for this position. It wouldn’t be out of line for me to say, ”I don’t think you are cut out for deity!” I’d set your sights a little lower.

So you go home and check out the Psalm itself. Indeed, as you look through the first 7 verses you see all of those job requirements. Your heart begins to echo the Psalmist when he says, “Bless the Lord, O My soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name.” It really is a good thing you or I are not deity. He really is above all and beyond all. When you look at what He does you can’t help but echo the song that says, “For He has done great things.” So, you continue reading the Psalm and discover that aside from the checklist of the things God does, you see a few other major themes.

In verses 8-10 you see God’s grace. What was the price of grace, that unmerited favour that God shows towards us? While the Psalmist did not know it then, he was pointing ahead a thousand years to the point where the incarnate God died for you and I on the cross. We had this huge, massive debt. The root of that debt was sin. We were born with it – it is that thing that resides within us that causes us to be selfish, to be angry and nasty. Picture that debt as if it was the South Saskatchewan. You are given a child’s pail and told to empty it. When you empty it the debt is done. So you go down to the end of Taylor Street into Buena Vista and down to that park on the river and start dipping. Your task is impossible. Even if you were able to scoop fast enough to keep ahead of the flow of the water, where are you putting it? You throw it on the beach and then the “emptied” water just flows back into the River. Grace is that thing given to you that you could never get on your own. The cross of Jesus stopped that River of Debt far better than the Diefenbaker ever could, for our earthly dams aren’t meant to stop rivers, just harness their power. So even though you and I were drowning in the debt of sin, God did not pass the judgement due those sins. That grace is ever present today. As you go through your day to day stuff and you realize it with a careless word or a thoughtless deed you have blown it again, you have fallen short of the ideal, God reaches down and offers His love and instruction and correction and righteousness. It is all yours, because of the grace of a great and awesome God.

As you read verses 11-12 in this Psalm you continue to be amazed at not just the grace of God, but His forgiveness. So you have this impossible river debt, and in grace God has stepped in and stopped the flow. There has been too much water under the bridge so to speak. You are unworthy, God could never love you for what you have done, for what you are. The Psalmist say, “You don’t get it. Let me give you a picture.” And so he takes this globe. No, understand that even though David’s view of the world wasn’t this big, this complete, he was inspired to write a significant truth about just how big God is and how much He loves you and I. David said our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west. Notice he didn’t say as far as the north is from the south. If you stand on the North Pole and go South, you can only go 20,004 km before you hit the South Pole and start going north. You can’t ever go any further than 20,004 km south. There’s a cap, a limit. But if you start going east, how far can you go before you have reached the end of “eastnest” and start going west? You don’t. You can keep going east until the cows come home. You can go east around the world 1,000 times and still be no closer to going west. There is no end to going east because we live on a sphere. So how much forgiveness does God have? It is limitless.

In verses 13-17 you read of God’s compassion. The picture is of a loving father to his children, and we can all relate to that even if it wasn’t our personal experience. We know how a father should act and behave. We know the ideal of a father giving up all to protect his wife and children. The Psalmist goes beyond this and asks how long do you think compassion would last? How long is a long time? How long do you think the Supreme Sovereign would consider a long time? The Hebrews made it easy to understand for us. If they wanted something emphasized or intensified, they would just repeat the word. Something could be red, or if it was really really red they would say it was the red of reds, the red of all reds. Take all the reds you could find, then the reddest of those would be what I am talking about. It is like the Chuck Norris jokes, which refer to him as the ultimate guy. When He does push-ups, it is the earth that moves, not him. Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas. Chuck Norris doesn’t breathe, he holds air hostage. When the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris. So when the Psalm speaks of everlasting to everlasting, you know it is beyond forever and a day.

Do you understand why the Psalmist opens and ends the Psalm with six “Bless the Lords.” Do you get disappointed and think God isn’t watching out for you? Be patient and rest assured that God is working on your behalf, and has been since long before you acknowledged Him as your Lord and Savior. Trust Him, rest in Him, listen to Him, seek Him. Just stop and wait on Him – you will not be disappointed.