SUNDAY PSALMS PART 48 OF 48 - PSALM 23

 

The Good Shepherd Church sign, Indianapolis.

1   The Lord is my shepherd;
    I shall not want.
2   He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
    He leads me beside the still waters.
3   He restores my soul;
    He leads me in the paths of righteousness
    For His name's sake.
4   Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil;
    For You are with me;
    Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me
5   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
    You anoint my head with oil;
    My cup runs over.
6   Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    All the days of my life;
    And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23:1-6 NKJV

You may remember back in February I may have surprised you by jumping from Psalm 20 to 27, skipping the best known Psalm. To be honest, I debated on skipping it because 1) many of you can say this Psalm from memory and 2) what can I add to what has already been said to this wonderful Psalm?

But then, an idea hit me. Why not close out with this Psalm on New Year's Eve? Here are some thoughts to think on:

• How has God led you to green pastures and made you lie down by still waters this past year?
• What paths of righteousness did God lead you down in '23, for His name's sake?
• Did God walk beside you and comfort you in the valley of the shadow of death these past twelve months?
• Was there a table prepared for you in the presence of your enemies this year?
  

SUNDAY PSALMS PART 5 OF 48 - PSALM 18:22-28

Brown Bear, Louisville Zoo

 22     For all His judgments were before me,
          And I did not put away His statutes from me.
23     I was also blameless before Him,
        And I kept myself from my iniquity.
24   Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
        According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
25   With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
        With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
26   With the pure You will show Yourself pure;
        And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
27   For You will save the humble people,
        But will bring down haughty looks.
28   For You will light my lamp;
       The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.

Psalm 18:22-28, NKJV

How many of you noticed this installment is just a portion of a Psalm, not the full Psalm? While this will be the first time, it won't be the last. This section is about the same length as the full Psalms I've shared thus far, but sometimes I'll just have one verse. 

I will admit - the first three verses of this segment sounds a little boastful. However, what reasons does David have for this confidence? 

1. His focus is on God's Word. God's judgments (often used as a synonym of His Word) were always before him, and he did not put them away from him. Do we set God's Word as that guide for our lives? Or do we turn away from Scripture and get caught up in self-help theology or politics or the like?
   
2. David said he kept himself from his iniquity. A lot of times, we think we've accomplished something by keeping from other people's iniquities, but we excuse the pitfalls we often make. I can pat myself on the back for not gambling, which is something I have no interest in, but am I keeping myself from wasting time or buying a burger to snack on that I don't really need?
3. He is looking at God's standards, not his own. It is God who is the judge, the comparison point. We compare ourselves with others, and often those comparisons tend to make us look good. On the other hand, sometimes our comparisons with others make us feel like we don't measure up. But that makes me think of Romans 14:4, where it says God is able to make us stand.

I love verses 25-28. Several decades ago, I wrote a chorus from verses 25-30. Isn't God wonderful to us, better than we deserve?

SUNDAY PSALMS PART 1 OF 48 - PSALM 1

Cool Creek Park, Westfield, IN.

1   Blessed is the man
    Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
    Nor stands in the path of sinners,
    Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2  But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    And in His law he meditates day and night.
3  He shall be like a tree
    Planted by the rivers of water,
    That brings forth its fruit in its season,
    Whose leaf also shall not wither;
    And whatever he does shall prosper.

4  The ungodly are not so,
    But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
    Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6  For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
    But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 1:1-6, NKJV

Let me start with the obvious. I ended, for now, my Sunday Hymns. I'm starting this year with a 48 part series on Sunday Psalms. Each week I'll look at somewhere between one verse and the whole chapter (as today) from the Psalms. For the most part, they will be in numeric order, except for those that I think will be fitting for Easter, Pentecost, Reformation/All Saints Days, and Christmas and New Year's Eves. And if you're counting and say it's 52 weeks, not 48, you're right. But I will give a short interruption for the four weeks of Advent; I've got something different in mind for that month.

So let's look at the first Psalm. I always found it interesting that the first verse starts with the least intimate and moves to the most. My thought would start with the most and then go the opposite direction. But it may be that the Spirit is pointing out that it starts with something that doesn't seem that bad, but then progresses, which is typical. Relationships develop in that order.

Verse two gives the contrast. The blessed (also translated "Happy") man not only does not associate with the ungodly, but instead he's meditating on the Bible. Keep in mind - Jewish meditation focuses on filling your mind with a thought, contrary to Eastern meditation where the goal is to clear your mind of all thoughts. Memory work is one way to do this. So is praying the Scripture.

The third and fourth verses give pictures of the difference between the righteous and the not righteous. The former is like a tree, right on the river to get plenty of water, and fruitful (kind of like the seed that's on good soil). The latter is like chaff, blown away, no root, no fruit. 

It's interesting contrasting verse one with verse five. This Psalm begins of dealing with the voluntary separation of the godly from the wicked. In verse five, it states that God separates the two in the judgment. This is also clear in the last verse of this Psalm. 

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AS PART OF WHAT SHOULD BE A NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE - A STUDY ON ROMANS 14 PART 11 OF 11

Righteous Living Christian Church Indianapolis (Irvington)

 

Thank you very much to all of you who have followed this series. Hopefully it has given you things to think about. And PLEASE let me know your thoughts in a comment.

Allow me to debrief in this blog in three parts. 

1. A return to context, particularly what follows Romans 14.
2. How does Christian Liberty fit in with Christian life as a whole?
3. What is the point of Romans 14 and Christian Liberty?

You ready? I am.

CONTEXT

Chapter 14 ends with a statement that what isn't of faith is sin. It goes right into Chapter 15 (remember there are no chapter and verse divisions in the original, and that they're added for reference), which states we ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and please others, not ourselves, according to Christ's example and be granted one mind with each other so as one we can praise and glorify God. Romans 15:7 repeats the theme of Romans 14:1, stating, "Receive one another as Christ as received you."

CHRISTIAN LIFE

Is Christian Liberty something that stands by itself? Let me give a list of important aspects of our everyday Christian life, and see if it fits.

Bible reading/study? Actually, it does. Each one reading Scripture comes with presuppositions, biases, opinions, traditions, knowledge (and lack thereof), and life experiences. Will they all be the same? Nope. Should they be? Only if God made us all identical. In other words, Nope. Thus, Christian Liberty is not only a part of group Bible studies but enables us to challenge our thoughts and grow as we listen to each other as equals.

Prayer? This one is tougher because prayer usually is between one and God, as well as agreeing with each other in prayer. If you want to say it doesn't fit here, I'll permit that. On the other hand, when we pray about struggles with other believers or learning to love them more, I believe there is a connection.

Fellowship? Does this question need to be asked? Clearly, Christian Liberty is a part of fellowship with fellow believers, especially when seen as a manifestation of loving one another.

Evangelism? I personally believe that Christian Liberty is designed for evangelism no less than for fellowship. Why? Because we have the freedom to go where God calls us. I know some friends who were in a Christian band. They arrived at the church they thought they were booked at and found an empty parking lot. They called their contact, and found out they were booked at a bar. Would your band play at a bar? Well, this one told the owner they sang Christian songs, shared between songs, and gave an altar call. The bar owner shrugged and said he needed a band. To make a long story short, a half dozen came to the band's church the next morning, got saved, and became active church members. This band exercised Christian Liberty by following Jesus into that bar. 

Righteousness/Holiness? A person acting in Christian liberty properly will be living righteously and holy; he/she won't be using it as a license to sin. However, do we agree what holiness/righteousness looks like? Uh, what about us all looking at things differently? Christian liberty discourages us from judging others when their view of holiness and ours differs.

WHAT IS THE POINT?

One weakness of the church (and human nature) is that we expect others to conform to our standards. Romans 14, as the rest of Scripture, teaches we should instead focus on others, letting them be themselves and be more concerned about us offending them than them offending us.

Okay. Series done. Your comments?

ARE WE PURSUING BUILDING OTHERS UP? - A STUDY ON ROMANS 14 PART 9 OF 11

  

Cross at The River Community Church, Cookeville, TN

If you look at lists of spiritual gifts, you'll find there's one of encouragement (exhortation). However, there is no spiritual gift of discouragement, nor one of criticism. This might be news to some people.

How does Paul describe the Kingdom of God? "For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Romans 14:17, NKJV. Too often we get hung up either on enjoying the foods God created (see 1 Timothy 4:3-5) or on avoiding certain foods. But is either extreme what the Kingdom of God is? 

Consider "righteousness", "peace", and "joy" as equal parts of the Kingdom of God. Sometimes we focus on righteousness, and volunteer to be the one who assigns a definition to that word and usually nobody else has peace and joy. Others see righteousness as contrary forces, that you have to be miserable to be righteous. 

Peace is a quality that shows up again two verses later: "Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another." Romans 14:19, NKJV. Is peace and building others up things that we pursue? 

Those who make their convictions a mandate for others are not following this verse. They might think they are, just as a tyrant may think conquering another nation would bring peace. Unfortunately, one party defines and enforces the requirements for there to be peace, which is that everybody else sees things their way. They may believe that they're building others up by proclaiming what they consider to be "the truth", but actually they are

Likewise, those who don't think you should judge them and misuse Christian liberty for their not-necessarily-godly desires are not paying attention to Romans 14:19. In fact, they're not really different than the above group. They may not demand unconditional surrender, but they aren't willing to give anything up for peace either. Likewise, they are more apt to build themselves up (or more accurately puff themselves up) than to try to strengthen someone else.

What are we doing, individually and corporately, to pursue the things which make for peace or to edify one another?