Bible Reading Reflection from Psalms 29-35

[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (PTS) as a reading update (reflection) from one chapter of the Bible a day] 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟡:𝟙-𝟛

            "Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of the mighty,

           Ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength."

           Ascribe to Yahweh the glory of His name;

           Worship Yahweh in the splendor of holiness.

           The voice of Yahweh is upon the waters;

           The God of glory thunders, Yahweh is over many waters."

Spurgeon says that if Psalm 8 is most appropriate to be read under moonlight, and Psalm 19 under the rising sun, then Psalm 29 is to be read in the tempest when it's raining, or thunderstorm.

God is the God of moon, sun, and storms. If Thor is the god of thunders, Yahweh is still above him! Indeed, Psalm teaches us to ascribe glory to God at all times!

Who doesn't stand in awe of thunderstorms? Even the busiest street in the busiest city stands still when rain and storm are coming.

James Hamilton wrote: "There is no phenomenon in nature so awful as a thunderstorm, and almost every poet from Homer and Virgil down to Dante and Milton, or rather down to Grahame and Pollok, has described it."

We have Psalm 29. God is over the storm. He rides on it. And is over the most awful thing! God is to be held in awe above all things!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟛𝟘:𝟝

"For His anger is but for a moment,

His favor is for a lifetime;

Weeping may last for the night,

But a shout of joy comes in the morning."

Saints of God may weep, but they cheer too. They are the joyous people. The fruit of the Spirit is... Joy... Christ wants to complete our joy.

Joy is a character of believers. This verse is framed in such a way that weeping is shorter than the joy experienced. Also seen in v11-12. Wow!

It's said that John Newton was one of the happiest Puritans of his days. I admire prophet Jeremiah, but certainly, I don't want his lifestyle, he was only weeping!

Well, I am sure none of us [WhatsApp group members] are called to live like Jeremiah or John the Baptist. But somewhat like David, a life of weeping and joy. But we hardly weep in front of God yet, and so our experience of divine joy is also not much still!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟛𝟙:𝟚𝟡

"How great is Your goodness,

           Which You have stored up for those who fear You,

           Which You have worked for those who take refuge in You,

           Before the sons of men!"

We see David as he prayed, he moved from sorrows to songs of praise; from anguish to assurance. However, we can identify with his prayer. Even our Lord Jesus identified Himself with the David of this Psalm (v5), then why wouldn't we?

 What a comfort in v29! Indeed, a great motivation to fear God and dwell in Him!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟛𝟚:𝟙-𝟚, 𝟙𝟘-𝟙𝟙

"How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,

  Whose sin is covered!

  How blessed is the man whose iniquity Yahweh will not take into account,

  And in whose spirit there is no deceit!"

When it comes to David and his psalms, Psalm 32 is one of the most outstanding psalms I can ever think of!

Every verse of it is beautiful, but the opening and closing are matching and striking!

v10-11. "Many are the sorrows of the wicked,

           But he who trusts in Yahweh, lovingkindness shall surround him.

           Be glad in Yahweh and rejoice, you righteous ones;

           And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart."

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟛𝟛:𝟙, 𝟛

v1.     "Sing for joy in Yahweh, O righteous ones;

           Praise is becoming to the upright."

This Psalm has no title and no attribution. It's neither an acrostic Psalm though it has 22 verses and is beautiful! It's strangely interesting!

Praise is comely for godly ones, and how uncomely it is from the ungodly! Praises from wicked ones are like sticking a flower in a dunghill, someone said!

We who are made upright by the blood of our redeemer must make our delight, business, job, work, and effort to praise God! In the words of Adam Clark, "To be without praise is to miss our comeliest adornment."

One of many ways we praise God is by singing songs unto God.

v3.      "Sing to Him a new song;

           Play skillfully with a loud shout."

Open your Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes! 🎼

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟛𝟜:𝟠, 𝟙𝟠

  v8. "O taste and see that Yahweh is good;

           How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!"

  v18. "Yahweh is near to the brokenhearted

           And saves those who are crushed in spirit."

Another Psalm with 22 verses, and is an acrostic Psalm, each verse beginning with the Hebrew alphabet. And this further proves the beauty of this Psalm.

One of the earliest songs I was taught in a school was "He is my everything" which was taken out from this verse and Psalm 81:16, possibly even from 1 Peter 2:3 and Malachi 3:10. Even, now, I am humming that song after a long, long time again, and I love it!

Taste the Lord. Peter would go on to say that if you have tasted, you would keep desiring like babies for milk. And Malachi would say, Test (try) the Lord.

The British philosopher and literary critic, G.K. Chesterton was right when he said, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."

Try the Lord. Test the Lord! Taste the Lord!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟛𝟝:𝟚𝟟

"Let them shout for joy and be glad, who delight in my righteousness;

           And let them say continually, “Yahweh be magnified,

           Who delights in the peace of His slave.”

Righteous people always have enemies and friends. And yes, many enemies and few friends. As the enemies want the downfall of a righteous man, the friends of the righteous man wait for his vindication.

David knew this. Saul wanted to kill him; Jonathan wanted to see David King of Israel!

Many people wanted to shut down churches in this lockdown. The government imposed this and that mandate upon churches. It's so good to see some of those churches in America winning against the government, not only legally, but are being rewarded millions of dollars. Vindicated!

David's prayer is being answered when I and we shout for such good news! 😇 Grace Community Church is also expected to get over 800,000 dollars very soon! Hmm!

Sermon Tips from the text of 1 Peter 1:1-12

Sermon Tips for Expository Preachers, Listeners, and Students

Bible Reading Reflection from Psalms 22-28

[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (PTS) as a reading update (reflection) from one chapter of the Bible a day]

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟚:𝟡-𝟙𝟙

"Yet You are He who brought me out of the womb;

           You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.

Upon You I was cast from birth;

           You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

Be not far from me, for distress is near;

           For there is none to help."

A confession of God's faithfulness from his birth! We are saved by faith not by our works, and even that faith is given to us by God.

David would not have trusted God if God hadn't made him trust God. David would not have trusted God in his adulthood if he was not made to trust long before he was born.

There's no boasting. There's no boasting even in righteousness and godliness, and holiness. It's God working in one's life! Thus, David prayed for help, because God has been his Helper, his God, always.

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟛:𝟙

"Yahweh is my shepherd,

           I shall not want."

Few days ago, I read a tweet about a young Sunday School girl, who went up to recite Psalm 23 by heart. Apparently, she had forgotten the wording. She recited, "The LORD is my Shepherd. That's all I want."

Well, a misquote from a young girl, but a lesson for all! Indeed, a great practical reflection from this verse. If Indeed God is our Shepherd, who else should we want after? Like that young girl, we must be quick to say, "That's all I want!"

Jesus in John 10 identified Himself not only as a Shepherd, but as the Good Shepherd.

One hymn sing, (especially sung most beautifully by Fernando Ortega), "Give me Jesus, give me Jesus. You may have all this world, give me Jesus."

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟜:𝟛-𝟜

"Who may ascend into the mountain of Yahweh?

           And who may rise in His holy place?

He who has innocent hands and a pure heart,

           Who has not lifted up his soul to worthlessness

           And has not sworn deceitfully."

Mark these words: "Innocent hands" "Pure Hearts"

Our Lord Jesus reiterates, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).

When Abimelech was confronted by God, he made his case before God saying, "In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands have I done this" (Gen 20:5).

Heart, the attitude, which is secret. Hands, the action, which is open.

Both our actions and attitudes matter. Both our public and private life matter.

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟝:𝟞-𝟟

"Remember, O Yahweh, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses,

           For they have been from of old.

           Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;

           According to Your lovingkindness remember me,

           For the sake of Your goodness, O Yahweh."

Whenever I see a Psalm with 22 verses, I look up to Hebrew Bible to confirm whether it is written in an acrostic format. And yes, Ps 22 is an acrostic poem in the order of Hebrew Alphabet.

Psalms are poems. To ignore the literary structure even in our daily reading is to play a guitar with only one string. Acrostic poems are terribly difficult to construct. When the poet wants his people to memorize or when he really wants to impress upon his hearers, acrostic psalms are created. The inspired poet wants you to think of this psalm more deeply and remember it.

V6-7 mentioned "remember" three times. All of them a petition to God. First and third are positive requests. The middle one is a negative request. It expresses the deep desires of the psalmist. His desires are unambiguous, fervent, and direct. He also employs other poetical features, an antithetical parallelism and a chiastic structure. Very beautiful!

It is a God-centred request. God is the basis, object, means, and answer of his request. What he can think of himself is his sins, and he doesn't want to even think about them, and asks God to overlook them as well!

Indeed, we pray not only in Jesus's name, but also, for His name's sake. We pray for God! For His Honor, Glory, and Fame!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟞:𝟜-𝟝

"I do not sit with worthless men,

           And I will not go with pretenders.

           I hate the assembly of evildoers,

           And I will not sit with the wicked."

Ps. 1 reminds us that blessed is such man. Would this be our testimony! Would we practice this! We are to be the light of the world. And Paul in Ephesians says the nature of light is to expose the things of the dark.

We are called to reach out, but not to live like the world! We are to be transformed to the likeness of Christ, not to be conformed to the likeness of the world.

Or "Has thou become like us?" would be true of us (Isaiah 14:10).

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟟:𝟜

"One thing I have asked from Yahweh, that I shall seek:

           That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life,

           To behold the beauty of Yahweh

           And to inquire in His temple."

It parallels with Ps. 84:10. Also with Ps. 23:6. Also with Ps. 63:3

We have many desires, dreams, and wishes. And how often do they get broken one after another! David had only one desire; it is to gaze upon the beauty of God. No wonder David was called "a man after God's own heart."

Indeed, we are made to enjoy God forever. Joy in God is the real deal! He who gazes upon God will be like Him. He who desires after God will be like Him.

A friend of mine likes Ronaldo. He puts up his pictures on the wall of his room. He dresses like Ronaldo, and he even has learned some tricks of Him. He supports every club Ronaldo joins. And he loves all the posts of Ronaldo in social media.

We become like what we desire after. Or tend to be.

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟠:𝟙,𝟞

"To You, O Yahweh, I call;

           My rock, do not be silent to me,

           Lest if You are hesitant toward me,

           I will become like those who go down to the pit."

What's the difference between a man of God and the rest?

David saw he himself was like them and would end up like them. But he called on to God. A man of God calls upon God. And even then, if the Lord doesn't answer, he still will perish like others. Indeed, no man of God thinks he is holier than anybody, but he will strive to be holier than everybody.

And it's God who vindicates. It's God who is the Hero of every story! So, v6

"Blessed be Yahweh,

           Because He has heard the voice of my supplications."

God answered David, and it made him different from the rest.

Why did psalmist(s) always long after God? Why did they cry out like they were the greatest sinners? Why did they have a Big-God theology?

Well, that's why they are different!

Bible Reading Reflection from Psalms 13-21

 [Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (PTS) as a reading update (reflection) from one chapter of the Bible a day]

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟙𝟛:𝟙

"How long, O Yahweh? Will You forget me forever?

  How long will You hide Your face from me?"

Psalm 13 has only 6 verses, in which David's anguish spirit is expressed with a lamentation of "How long?" 4 times (v1-2). Spurgeon suggested it can be called a Howling Psalm because of that!

However, like all lament Psalms even in this short 6-verse Psalm, David managed to pray (3-4) and experienced the peace of mind in God (5-6).

Hmm! Too much howling before God. Short prayer for Deliverance. And instantaneous peace in this short Psalm, interesting!

Prayers can be short and still be genuine and effective! 😇 We don't need to pray for 3 hours early in the morning like Luther 🙂

 

ℙ𝕤𝕒𝕝𝕞 𝟙𝟜:𝟙

"The wicked fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They act corruptly, they commit abominable deeds;

There is no one who does good."

There's a preacher in Shillong who says that April 1 is an Atheist Day because they are fools! 😂

BTW, the Bible has 3 types of fools and the Hebrew Bible uses different words for them, which many English Bibles do not differentiate.

I am quoting from LSB (a new translation that will be released next year). LSB translated uniquely for each of those words, as "Fools" "Ignorant Fools" and "Wicked Fools" bringing out their nuances. My only complaint is that they should have made them a compound word with the hyphen "ignorant-fools" and "wicked-fools" because those who don't refer to their Hebrew Bible will think that the first word is an adjective, a new word. So, whenever we see them, let's remember it's just a one-word.

So, even in this Ps. 14:1, "wicked fool" is "wicked-fool"

And this fool is not an ignorant-fool or a simple-fool, he may have a high IQ, he may be a professor in a university, a doctor, or a CEO. But he is a fool, a wicked-fool, because he deceives himself, living on his own, not honoring God.

Some people are simple-fool, ignorant-fool, and wicked-fool combined! 😬 May we never meet such people!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟙𝟝:𝔸 ℙ𝕤𝕒𝕝𝕞 𝕠𝕗 𝔻𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕕.

1 O Yahweh, who may sojourn in Your tent?

  Who may dwell on Your holy mountain?

2 He who walks blamelessly, and works righteousness,

  And speaks truth in his heart.

3 He does not slander with his tongue,

  Nor does evil to his neighbor,

  Nor takes up a reproach against his friend;

4 In whose eyes a reprobate is despised,

  But who honors those who fear Yahweh;

  He swears to his own hurt and does not change;

5 He does not put out his money at interest,

  Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.

  He who does these things will never be shaken.

Very clear, very nice, very short! One of the must-memorize Psalms!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟙𝟞: 𝕄𝕚𝕜𝕙𝕥𝕒𝕞 𝕠𝕗 𝔻𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕕

1 "Keep me, O God, for I take refuge in You.

2 O my soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord;

  I have no good without You.”

3 As for the saints who are in the earth,

  They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight."

Interpreters across the centuries have wrestled to understand what "Mikhtam" means, and is still uncertain. Well, many have decided to understand it as "gold." If so, then, this is a Golden Psalm, and yes so because of its content.

v3 is remarkable. David would not have a great fellowship with God only, he delighted in God's people also.

He who says he loves God but does not love God’s children [Christians] does not really know what he is saying.

He who says he loves Christ and does not love Christ’s bride [Church] does not know what he is saying!

A godly man loves God and loves His saints! We Christians, all of us, are the saints of God, btw.

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟙𝟟:𝟛

"You have tested my heart;

  You have visited me by night;

  You have tried me and You find nothing;

  I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress."

What a testimony, confession of innocence and piety!

C. H. S wrote that David would not be a man after God's own heart if he hadn't been a man of prayer. MSB mentioned that there are 17 prayer points embedded in this Psalm 17.

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟙𝟠:𝟛𝟛-𝟛𝟜

33       "He makes my feet like hinds’ feet,

           And sets me upon my high places.

34       He trains my hands for battle,

           So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze."

A high school friend of mine said that Bible could not possibly be the word of God because of such verse as 34. He wanted a lovely God.

The word of God continues to offend people. Indeed, it's a stumbling block for some, and a stone that will crush them.

Blessed are the ones who do not stumble upon this stone but come to seek refuge under it. And sing "Rock of Ages, cleft for me; let me hide myself on Thee!"

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟙𝟡:𝟙𝟜

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer."

Another great psalm to commit to our memory! If you are a family man (or when you are) encourage your children to memorize some Psalms by heart.

At least for this Psalm we already have the song! What a wonderful ending to this Psalm. I've used this verse in many of my prayers! And would love to hear more from others as well!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟘:𝟟

"Some boast in chariots and some in horses,

           But we will boast in the name of Yahweh, our God."

David prayed for the Davidic king or Davidic general of the army of the people of God that God will grant him victory. And so resolved to trust in God, to stick with God, and to fight with God!

It is consistent with how he had fought Goliath. He didn't go with armor or chariots; he went in the name of Yahweh!

Many had misunderstood the story of David and Goliath. Ps. 20:7 is a great supplementary declaration to that story! That it is the fear of God in a person and the power of God that brings victory!

 

ℙ𝕊𝔸𝕃𝕄 𝟚𝟙:𝟙𝟛

"Be exalted, O Yahweh, in Your strength;

           We will sing and praise Your might."

Psalms 20 and 21 are closely related. Technically, they are called Royal Psalms. They’re about a Davidic king, a blessed man, faithful, and God will establish his kingdom!

While Psalm 20 is a prayer before the battle, Psalm 21 is a praise for the answered prayer! Btw, it's longer! We often pray and pray, but hardly give enough thanks to God for answered prayers. We give credit to this and that. How long do we pray and how long do we praise? Hmmm!