Our Sin For His Righteousness - Psalm 51-53

Psalms 51:14 (ESV)

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

Before we understand the above verse, we have to recall both the writer of it and the purpose of the psalm it comes from.   King David wrote this song.  It is a confession of a very known moment of his life.   He had committed adultery with Bathsheba.   That is the reason in Psalm 51 he is confessing his sins.  The adultery was about to be known because she became pregnant by it and her husband (Uriah) was out to war (where David should have been).   In the cover up of the adultery he attempted and succeeded in killing Uriah.   He brought Uriah, a soldier, back from the battle front, hoping Uriah would be intimate with his wife, thus making her pregnancy seem as though it was from Uriah, not David.  But, Uriah knowing his men were fighting could not think of sleeping with his wife (note the extra burden this puts on David because instead of being with the warriors he was sleeping with Bathsheba.)   This is where the above passage comes in.   David sent Uriah back to the front of the war, having him carry the sealed orders to have himself put in the front to be killed.   David didn’t kill him, but David made sure the enemy could.   This must have haunted David. The guilt of Uriah’s blood was crying out to God for vengeance.    David’s guilt was consuming him.   This is where God steps in.  David not only prays to have the guilt removed, he asks God to replace it with a song of righteousness.  What better song of righteousness than to know that God covered his sin, the sin of plotting another’s death.  God covered that!!   God covers our sins and gives us righteousness:

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He (Jesus) who knew NO sin, and became OUR sin.  We, who were full of sin, received HIS righteousness.    That is what David prays.  God grants him and us that gift:  Righteousness in place of a guilt of sin.  

Be Prepared For The Fight - 2 Samuel 5-9

2 Samuel 5:17-21 (ESV)

When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the LORD said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.” And David came to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, “The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood.” Therefore the name of that place is called Baal-perazim. And the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away.

In the above passage, David shows us how to fight for the Lord:

1. He is aware of those who wish him harm.  We have way too many Christians in this life who oblivious to the fact that we are under attack.   We would be wise to learn from David (above) and listen to Peter (below)
• 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV) Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
2. He took care to find a stronghold.    This is so important in our walk with Christ. We need to know where our strongholds are to be protected from the enemy.   Try these to passages to strengthen and find the strongholds you need:
• Ephesians 6:10-14 (ESV) - Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
• 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (ESV)-For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
3. He sought council from God as to what to do.  He used discernment that the Spirit gives to know the entire council of what God would have him do:
• Romans 12:2 (ESV)-Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• Philippians 1:9-11 (ESV) - And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

If we want to have victory over the world we have to prepare ourselves for the fight and ask God to give us guidance and power in that fight.  

Don’t Copy The World’s Worship - Exodus 17-20

Exodus 20:22-26 (ESV)

And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’

Israel has now been at the foot of Mt. Sinai and heard the voice of God give them the Ten Commandments.  The Ten have not officially been written out, but they have verbally been delivered.  Moses will eventually return to the mountain and receive all the commandments and write them out.  Moses will receive all God’s commands, found in chapters 21-31.  (In chapter 32 we have the story of Aaron and the golden calf.)  The transition between all those chapters and the verbal instructions is found in the above passage.   God gives them a warning about how to worship.  Least they go out immediately and start to copy the world’s approach, God tells them two very important aspects about how to worship Him:

1.  Don’t make any gods or alter out of anything other than the natural components of the earth.  At the time, the world would cut out stones and make high alters for all to see.  They called their cut out stones gods and made worship on the high places.  

2. This worship on the high places would call for the priest of these gods to wear less clothing and expose themselves to their god and to the people.  As they walked up the steps they would expose more and more.  It was meant to be a show of the priests or priestess.    

God is forbidding all this.  He will, in the next ten chapters, outline all the laws.  But before that He warns them against copying the world’s approach and systems.  God is distinct and is not to be worshipped like false gods.    It is a great warning for our churches today in regard to our worship.  Perhaps the turning worshiping into media production is not always the best way to honor the God of the universe.   It might attract the world, but the church is not the attraction.  Christ is.   

God Has Designed Our Salvation Story - 2 Corinthians 1-3

2 Corinthians 3:1-3 (ESV)

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

To understand this passage we have to return to the context of Paul writing to the church at Corinth, a church he established by preaching the glory of God through the risen savior, Jesus Christ.    The fact that he has to continue to write about his apostleship is enough for us to know they are not getting his message.   They continue to question his authenticity.   In the above passage he turns the table on them.  He is, in essence saying, if you deny that I am a real apostle, you are denying that my message was true.  If my message was not true your salvation is not true, since you are my authenticity; our letter of recommendation.  This is a very powerful argument.    The beauty of the passage is also found in the fact that you have Paul’s work, their faith, Christ’s death, the Spirit’s work, through the power of God all listed in one short paragraph.  The entire salvation action is found in this passage.    God used the Son to perform the work needed for their salvation and brought about the obedience of faith using Paul’s work as it was produced by the Spirit.   That is how salvation has happened to them.  Therefore they must accept Paul’s authority becuase it is based upon God’s design.  Our entire salvation is the same way.  Someone shared the gospel with us and through the power of the Spirit, through the person, we came to Christ.   

Focus On The Inward, Not the Outward - Mark 13-14

Mark 13:2-4 (ESV)

And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”

The disciples had been admiring the physical structure of the Temple.   Jesus wanted them to know that the physical appeal of the Temple might draw their eyes, but it should not captivate their hearts.   To refocus their attention away from the physical, the men are drawn to the time-line of what Jesus is talking about and, once again, not the person of the event.  Jesus wants to focus them on Him and the kingdom and they are continually diverted away.   They ask when these events will be what sign they should look for.   There is nothing carnal about wanting to know the time and sequence and signature of an event of God’s orchestrating.  But these men are still not understanding that the God of the universe is in front of them.  Instead of focusing on Him, they are focused on this planet and the impact of this destruction on the planet will have on them.  God is going to usher in His kingdom and men are often focused on this kingdom.   Jesus will answer their questions.   His final point of reference for them, however, is not to focus on the earthly, but to focus their entire attention on the spiritual and to be prepared for that:

Mark 13:32-37 (ESV)

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

Focus on the inward, not the outward.   

God Speaks Against False Speakers - Jeremiah 22-26

Jeremiah 23:11-15 (ESV)

“Both prophet and priest are ungodly;

even in my house I have found their evil,

declares the LORD.

Therefore their way shall be to them

like slippery paths in the darkness,

into which they shall be driven and fall,

for I will bring disaster upon them

in the year of their punishment,

declares the LORD.

In the prophets of Samaria

I saw an unsavory thing:

they prophesied by Baal

and led my people Israel astray.

But in the prophets of Jerusalem

I have seen a horrible thing:

they commit adultery and walk in lies;

they strengthen the hands of evildoers,

so that no one turns from his evil;

all of them have become like Sodom to me,

and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets:

“Behold, I will feed them with bitter food

and give them poisoned water to drink,

for from the prophets of Jerusalem

ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

One of Jeremiah’s message themes throughout this long book he wrote, was that the false prophets speaking to the people would be dealt with by God.   This is a major theme of this section of Jeremiah.   In chapter 26 we read of a true prophet (Uriah) who is put to death for the same message as Jeremiah.  Jeremiah, in chapter 26, is spared, however.   But the above shows how God will treat the false teachers.  God does not want to do this. Note what Jeremiah will say in just a few verses:

Jeremiah 23:21-22 (ESV)

“I did not send the prophets,

yet they ran;

I did not speak to them,

yet they prophesied.

But if they had stood in my council,

then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,

and they would have turned them from their evil way,

and from the evil of their deeds.

God wants His spokesman to speak His council, not false doctrine.   God will always, however, deal with false teachers, in any age:

2 Peter 2:1-4 (ESV)

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear - Job 32-34

Job 34:1-4 (ESV)

Then Elihu answered and said:

“Hear my words, you wise men,

and give ear to me, you who know;

for the ear tests words

as the palate tastes food.

Let us choose what is right;

let us know among ourselves what is good.

Elihu is Job’s fourth friend.   He is speaking to both Job and Job’s first three friends.   The three friends came to comfort Job but only condemned him.  They did not point Job back to God.  Although Elihu does not refrain from judging Job, he does attempt to turn him and these so-called friends, back toward God.  In the above lines he starts a discourse on the fact that God is just.   He will say in a moment:

Job 34:10 (ESV)

“Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding:

far be it from God that he should do wickedness,

and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.

In that verse he calls these three friends, men of understanding.   In the above verses he calls them, wise men.   He is honoring them with title but about to destroy them with truth.  He reminds them (and us) that we are to be discerning in our listening to the words of others.   Note what he says, again:

for the ear tests words

as the palate tastes food.

Let us choose what is right;

let us know among ourselves what is good.

We are not to simply listen to the words of mankind and accept them.  They are to be discerned.   The Apostle Paul says it this way in his writings:

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Philippians 1:9-10 (ESV)

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

We are to be discerning in our listening because mankind is not always right in his speaking.  Elihu is pointing this out to Job’s friends and us.  

What Makes You Significant? Psalms 48-50

Psalms 48:1-3 (ESV)

A SONG. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH.

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised

in the city of our God!

His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,

is the joy of all the earth,

Mount Zion, in the far north,

the city of the great King.

Within her citadels God

has made himself known as a fortress.

If you travel around the country long enough and far enough you will come by signs and markers about important people who lived in a particular city or town.   The town really has nothing noticeable about it.  It is typically not very significant.  The only thing that makes the city have any notoriety is the fact that some important person was born there, lived there, etc.   The above passage is that type of marker for Jerusalem.  Yes, the mountain Jerusalem is built upon as one is  looking up from the Kidron Valley can have an impressive appearance.   No, there was nothing that special about Jerusalem until God claimed it as His home.  That is what is so significant about our lives and places like Jerusalem.   We have no significance until God takes up residence within us.   Jerusalem was just another city and it had many residents.  Some even of some importance (King David and Solomon).  But what put Jerusalem on the significant map was because God called it home.  We are in the same state.  We are significant and important not because we have any moral redeeming value.  We are important because the God of the universe has chosen to live within us and call us His own.    My significance is not based upon position, production or privilege.  It is based upon on being His chosen possession.   

1 Peter 2:9-10 (ESV)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

How Do You Respond To Death? 2 Samuel 1-4

2 Samuel 1:17-18 (ESV)

David’s Lament for Saul and Jonathan

And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son, and he said it should be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar. He said:

What is your response to death?   Do you yell?  Do you weep?  Do you sleep? Do you fight?  Do you become sullen?   Everyone responds differently to hearing of a death.   No doubt that grief is the main emotion most feel when hearing news of a death.   David is no different.   The above passage says he lamented.   The root of the word is to strike a note.   It is not to sing a song.   It is to strike a single note and strike it again and again and again.  It is to wail that note.  This is how David felt.   But David did more.  He wrote a song, as well.    In God’s word we have several people who wrote songs in these moments:  David, Moses; Solomon; Aspah; Jeremiah; and the sons of Korah.   Writing a song or lament or words after death is very cathartic for the writer and gives honor to the one who died.   That was David’s mission.  At the end of his lament here is what he wrote about his best friend, Jonathon:

2 Samuel 1:25-26 (ESV)

“How the mighty have fallen

in the midst of the battle!

“Jonathan lies slain on your high places.

I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;

very pleasant have you been to me;

your love to me was extraordinary,

surpassing the love of women.

David loved Jonathon and to honor him he wrote this lament.   There is no perfect response to death but one way some deal with death is they write.   

Disobedience Brings Boring Meals - Exodus 13-16

Exodus 16:31-35 (ESV)

Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations.” As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

Imagine eating the same food for 40 years.  Each day you went out and gathered the same food.  Each day you prepared the same food.  Each day you ate the same food.   It is doubtful many of us would like that.  Remember, however, when this food method was provided by God it was not intended to be for 40 years.   They 40 years came about because of their disobedience after spying out the land.   The mana was supposed be temporary until they entered the promise land.  God was using the mana simply to get them to the promised land.  But their failing to wanting to take the promise land would cast this burden upon them.  Our disobedience always makes things harder for us.   Obedient living puts you into the promised land.   Remember, God wants to bless us with more.   We hinder that blessing because of disobedience.   

There Is A Resurrection - 1 Corinthians 15-16

1 Corinthians 15:17-19 (ESV)

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

There were some in the church at Corinth who were being taught there was no resurrection of the dead.  They were worried, therefore, about those of their friends and family who had already died.  If they were believers in Christ, what did that mean, if there was no resurrection of the dead?  Paul explains to them that they are uninformed and these teachers were teaching false doctrine.  There was and is a resurrection of the dead.   But in the above argument, Paul is telling them how bad it would be if there is not a resurrection of the dead for those who believe in Christ.   It is saying our life would be most pitiful if believing in Christ was only advantageous for our walk in this world.   That is such a powerful and wondering statement at the same time.   Notice what he will eventually tell young pastor Timothy:

1 Timothy 4:8 (ESV)

for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

If we balance the two thoughts, we can conclude that Paul is not telling the Corinthians that there is no value in this life with Christ, but rather compared to the resurrection of the dead, there is nothing in this life worth living.  Our union with Christ, in this world, is substantial.  Our being able to fellowship with God, in this life, is an amazing thing.   But Paul’s point is that, if after we die nothing happens beyond this, we are most miserable people.   He wants them to know the power of the resurrection and our being with Christ in eternity.   He will eventually end this argument this way:

1 Corinthians 15:32 (ESV)

What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

If we have conquered great things in this life but after we die, and there is no resurrection, it matters not.  But there is a resurrection and there is life after death and there is an eternity with the Father, Son and Spirit.   For this we rejoice and live with great hope.