SUNDAY PSALMS PART 2 OF 48 - PSALM 4

 

Dogwood Park, Cookeville, TN

1   Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
    You have relieved me in my distress;
    Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
2  How long, O you sons of men, Will you turn my glory to shame?
    How long will you love worthlessness And seek falsehood?

Selah

3  But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly;
    The Lord will hear when I call to Him.
4  Be angry, and do not sin.
    Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.

Selah

5  Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
    And put your trust in the Lord.
6  There are many who say, "Who will show us any good?"
    Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.
7  You have put gladness in my heart,
    More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
8  I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
    For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4:1-8, NKJV

Allow me to start with verse 2. Doesn't that sound like today? Don't people today love worthlessness and seek falsehood? I'll be honest - I'd rather listen to the news that's biased for my point of view than the news that's biased against it, admitting I may not always like hearing the truth. 

Verse 3 is an encouragement... that is, if I'm endeavoring to live a godly life. It brings joy to me to know that God has a purpose for me. It humbles me that God would choose me. (Especially for a person who, when they're choosing players for their sports team, can figure out which team I'm going to be on by figuring who gets the last pick. And the reality, God has no reason to be more impressed with me than my peers were with my athletic abilities (or lack thereof).

You're probably familiar with verse 4, "Be angry and do not sin," which is quoted by Paul in Ephesians 4:26. You note it doesn't say anger is a sin? There are times we will be angry - we're wired that way. But what do we do about that anger? We do need to remember James 1:20 - that the wrath of man will not accomplish the purposes of God.  

There are times I relate to verse 6: "There are many who say, 'Who will show us any good?'" There are times I get discouraged, and at points it's where I am not sure things will ever get better. But I need to realize that God is in control of all things.

BOOK REVIEW - CAPTURED AT CHRISTMAS BY JODIE BAILEY

 What's wrong with Captain Marshall Slater inviting his unit to his home for Christmas dinner? Besides the fact that Captain Rachel Blake suspects one of his soldiers is stealing national secrets and is threatening him and his five year old daughter?

Jodie Bailey's Captured at Christmas is a thrilling romantic suspense with three dimensional characters you care about and a story full of plot twists and other surprises. 

I highly recommend reading this book at approximately Christmas time - "approximately" meaning from six months prior to Christmas to six months following.

 

BOOK REVIEW - LIVE YOUR TRUTH AND OTHER LIES: EXPOSING POPULAR DECEPTIONS THAT MAKE US ANXIOUS, EXHAUSTED, AND SELF-OBSESSED BY ALISA CHILDERS

 

Have you tried "living your truth", putting yourself first, believing you're enough, rejecting any form of judgment and still find yourself empty, unfulfilled, and directionless? Is it because you aren't trying enough? Or is it that those concepts guarantee that emptiness and scatteredness?

Alisa Childers - former Zoe Girl, daughter of Jesus Music pioneer Chuck Girard, and author of the excellent book Another Gospel? looks at several cliches like the ones I've mentioned in her book Live Your Truth And Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed.

In reading this, there is a common thread between the cliches she deals with: they all focus on ourselves. But what we're designed to be more fulfilled when we focus on God and those around us rather than ourselves?

I enjoyed Childers accounting of the movie "Armageddon", and asked how the movie - and our reaction to it - would differ if instead of sacrificing himself to save the world, the character put himself first? It's interesting that we naturally respect those who put others first, but we want to hear that we should look out for number 1.

Two blessings in this book: One was where she mentioned her Zoe Girl bandmates confronted her on self-destructive behavior, and she states that she is thankful for their "judging her" and getting her on the right track. The other was when she mentioned a couple of dreams she gave up. I can relate, because I had dreams of becoming a musician (probably not a singer with my voice, but definitely as a song-writer), a novelist, and a Pastor. Thus far (I'm now 63), those dreams are all unfulfilled. But that doesn't mean I have any reason to be unfulfilled as a result.

As in Another Gospel?, Childers uses humor effectively to make reading a book on serious matters enjoyable. I highly recommend this book.

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. 

BOOK REVIEW - LETTER TO THE AMERICAN CHURCH BY ERIC METAXAS

 

 If we were in Germany in the early 1930's, would we have stood up to Hitler better than the churches of that time? Are we showing the same determination as men like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce? Or are we focusing on parts of our Biblical call and having good excuses for ignoring the riskier parts?

Letter to the American Church is a call for pastors, churches, and Christians in the USA to stand up for truth and against evil. Most of the book looks back at the German Church and how they failed to stop Hitler's rise to power by either trying to appease the evil system or just keeping silent, as well as examining the American Church of today on how the same arguments for the German church's inaction against that evil are alive and well in dealing with the evils we face. 

Metaxas lists four ways our misunderstandings have put us in the present predicament:
1. A Misunderstanding on what faith is (leading to what Bonhoeffer calls "cheap grace."
2. What Metaxas refers to as the "idol of evangelism."
3. The "commandment" we're supposed to keep even though God and the Bible never gave it: "Be Ye Not Political".
4. Basing "being a good Christian" by the evils we personally avoid, not by the goods we could and should but often don't do. 

Being in a church where the pastor reminds us of the need to evangelize, the phrase "Idol of Evangelism" caught my interest. Reading it, I realize my church is not in that error. On one hand the "Idol of Evangelism" has us focusing so much on winning the lost that when they're won we don't get them where they can grow in Christ. But the greater danger is avoiding offending the sinner, so we don't call sin sin and allow those opposed to our faith changing definitions of words without challenging their deception. 

There are books that I'm so excited about, I'm encouraging everybody to read it. There are other books I want to get my friends to read so we can discuss it, noting the strong and not-so-strong arguments presented by the author, and evaluate how the book should impact our lives. Do you want to guess which one this book is? 

I glanced at some of the negative reviews. One is that we shouldn't be trying to force non-Christians to live like Christians. Maybe they missed the part in the book where Metaxas  mentions that some of this evil is opposed not just by Christians but other religions and sometimes even the non-religious. In addition, there is pressure from anti-religious activists for Christians to accept and even be celebrating of evil behavior. Plus, would these people want us Christians to be as silent on things like racism and human trafficking as they desire us to be on abortion and sexuality? 

The other negative comment is what makes the American Church so important? Good point. I think often the American Church makes an idol of patriotism and sees us (consciously or, more likely, unconsciously) as better than Christians in the rest of the world, who lack the resources we have (including literacy) and who are enduring persecution from religious and anti-religious governments/individuals. But whose responsibility is it to stand up for the truth in the USA, to preserve our freedoms that allow us to strengthen Christians not just here but overseas? How many think it's the American Church's job to be God's representatives in America? 

Yes, this book can stir up some controversy. Is that the reason I highly recommend this book? Or is it because it is a book that's trying to wake us up before it's too late? (Actually, if it is the latter, it will also be controversial.)

I would love to get a book club together, and read this, Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option, John MacArthur's Christ's Call To Reform the Church, and Anthony Forsythe's Caesar and the Church, and form a battle plan for Christians through that. Of course, my first choice is for it to be a local church book club as opposed to a Zoom meeting of friends all over the country/world. But the latter would be great as well.

I do find it interesting comparing this with Dreher's Live Not By Lies. Metaxas compares our current situation with the rise of Hitler, and Dreher likens it to the Communist takeover of various European countries. Either way, we're in trouble.

I really recommend this book, and I'd love to hear comments on this blog. Thanks.

One last comment. You notice that most non-fiction books have the title, a colon, and a subtitle? Did you notice there was no subtitle to this one?

 

BOOK REVIEW - CHRIST'S CALL TO REFORM THE CHURCH: TIMELESS DEMANDS FROM THE LORD TO HIS PEOPLE BY JOHN MACARTHUR

 Does the church need a Reformation? If Jesus was speaking to the church, what would He say? Would it be similar to what He had the Apostle John write to the seven churches of Asia Minor (Revelation 2-3)?

John MacArthur has been a solid voice encouraging believers to return to the sound teaching of Scripture and speaking out against modern trends that do not have Biblical grounding. This book is written to encourage today's church to do what Jesus commanded of the seven churches of Asia Minor: Repent!

This book starts off with how unpopular reforming the church is for the status quo. Chapters 2-9 are basically a commentary on Revelation 1-3, reading like a print version of a sermon series. 

The final chapter is titled "The Need for a New Reformation," and looks at the five solas of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), Sola Fide (Faith Alone), Sola Gratia (Grace Alone), Sola Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone), and Sola Christus (Christ Alone). MacArthur points out most lists end with Sola Deo Gloria, but he chose to end his book with what he focused on: Christ and the Church.

To be honest, I was hoping MacArthur to talk about how today's church mirrors the issues of the seven churches and specific steps the church can take to reform. Maybe I should write a book about that. But this book is Biblically sound and challenges us to be the Chruch God called us to be. I recommend this book. This is a much needed reminder (and for some a rebuke) to a church that needs to regain their first love and to repent.

I will admit that I was hoping for something different.

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 22 OF 22 - I AM RESOLVED

Cattle Call, a mix between a bison and a Scottish Highland Cattle, Chattanooga Zoo.

 

I am resolved no longer to linger, 

Charmed by the world's delights;

Things that are higher, things that are nobler,

These have allured my sight.

I am resolved to go to the Savior, 

Leaving my sin and strife;

He is the True One, He is the Just One, 

He hath the words of life.

I am resolved to follow the Savior, 

Faithful and true each day;

Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth, 

He is the living way.

I am resolved to enter the Kingdom,   

Leaving the paths of sin;

Friends may oppose me, foes may beset me, 

Still will I enter in.

I am resolved and who will go with me? 

Come, friend, without delay:

Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit, 

We'll walk the heavenly way.

I will hasten to Him, Hasten so glad and free;

Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.

 

NOTES ON HYMN:

• As usual with hymns with a chorus, the last paragraph is the chorus.
• I thought this would be an excellent hymn for New Year's Day, and this song probably gives better ideas for New Year's resolutions that we would on our own.
• This is my favorite hymn. No, I didn't save it for last for this reason - it's that, as I said above, this is the most fitting for New Year's Day.
• I know I won't have a voice about it, but if anyone asked me, I'd like this song sung at my funeral.
• The meter of this song is 10, 6, 10, 6. Yes, the chorus doesn't keep the meter.
• In the hymnal I'm used to, it only included the first four verses. I later saw one with the fifth. A lot of times, the missing verse is the weakest verse, but to me, this completes the thought. I love the move of emphasis from personal to corporate walk.
  
• Hope this series has been a blessing for you. Starting next week, I'll be doing a new series.