Song of the Drunkards

JESUS FACED A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF OPPOSITION FOR HIS HARD WORDS AND UNFLINCHING DEVOTION TO YAHWEH. NO SURPRISE THEN IF WE FIND OUR NAME FESTOONED IN BARROOM BALLADS (CF. PS 69:12).

Anxiety and Fear

June 22, 2009 in Bible - OT - Psalms, Meditations, Sanctification

“How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Lest my enemy say,
“I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
Psalm 13:1-4

David lived a difficult life and seldom enjoyed long periods of peace and prosperity. It was left to his son Solomon to enjoy such things while he himself was a man of war.

Because he was a man of war, he routinely found himself in tight spots: mocked by his brothers, harrassed by Saul, scorned by his wife, pursued by his son Absalom. David often found himself facing enemies – some outside his house and some, tragically, inside.

The psalm today was composed in just such a circumstance. David was in trouble, his enemies were surrounding him, his defeat at their hands was nigh at hand.

Imagine, if you will, the turmoil that struck David in each of these circumstances. The pain and fear that must have confronted him. Well – we need not imagine. For we find his fears, pains, and anxieties expressed in the psalm before us today.

How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Now consider your own circumstances. What troubles are you facing? Which enemies are surrounding you? What fears, pains, and anxieties are troubling you?

One last question: what are you doing with those fears? Notice David’s response – he brings his anxious longings to the presence of God. He does not suppress them; he does not fester over them; he does not wallow in them. He gathers them together and puts them in the best hands possible – the Lord’s.

Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Our Lord Jesus counseled us:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Today is Father’s Day and the Father to whom all our eyes should first and foremost be turned is our Heavenly Father. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven,” and the Spirit causes us to cry out, “Abba, Father.” As we come into the presence of our Heavenly Father this morning, we are reminded of our failure to entrust our worries into His hands. So let us kneel and confess our sins in Christ’s name, seeking the forgiveness of our Heavenly Father.

The Public Reading of Scripture

June 16, 2009 in Liturgy, Meditations, Tradition, Word of God

1 Timothy 4:13 (NASB95)
13 Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.

As we mentioned a couple weeks ago in a call to worship, traditions are unavoidable. Every church has traditions. The important element in traditions is recalling the distinction between our traditions and the Word of God and constantly subjecting our traditions to the Word of God.

Among the traditions which we have as a congregation, one of them is reading various passages from the Word of God each Lord’s Day. Apart from the sermon text, we read Old and New Testament passages. Why do this?

The passage today answers this question. For while many of our traditions are simply applications of biblical principles, the public reading of the Word of God is the implementation of a biblical tradition. Paul exhorts Timothy to “give attention to the public reading of Scripture.” Likewise, John in the book of Revelation pronounces his blessing on the one who was to read in worship the book he was composing. Reading portions of the Word of God each Lord’s Day is not simply a church tradition – it is one that has apostolic precedent.

Given that Paul places such a premium on reading the Word of God in our public assembly, how ought we to approach this activity? First, how ought the Word of God to be read? The Scriptures give us a number of principles. It ought to be read with reverence and awe for it is the Word of the Living God, the God who is a consuming fire. It ought to be read in a language that God’s people can understand – for when Ezra read the Word to the people of God in the Old Testament he translated to give the sense so that the people could understand the reading (Neh 8:8). It ought to be read with joy – for the Word is life itself, giving us wisdom and direction for our lives. Finally, it ought to be read with discretion – giving due attention to the tone of the passage – whether it is pronouncing doom upon the unrepentant or comfort to the afflicted; tone matters.

Second, what ought we to do who are listening to the Word of God? What should characterize the listeners? We are told in Nehemiah 8:3 that “all the people were attentive to the book of the law.” And this is our first and primary obligation. We should be straining our ears to hear the Words of the living God. Our ears should be attentive to His message; all our being should be focused on God’s revelation of Himself. Taking every thought captive, let us hear what the reading is announcing to us today.

And, having heard, let us not be like the man who looks at his face in a mirror and immediately forgets what sort of person he is. No, rather let us not only give ear to the Word but as God uses it to poke and prod us, let us give heed to in in the alteration of our attitudes and actions.

This reminds us that we often fail to give heed God’s Word as we ought. Our attention is often distracted when it is read. Our own opinions often intrude. Our heart often refuses to obey when we have heard. Let us then draw near to God and ask Him to cleanse us of our faults.