The Author

Psalms 104:6 KJV

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

The best guess is that this Psalm was written by King David who, though possessing obvious wisdom, had no experience outside of his own small part of the world. He had no doubt seen the Mediterranean Ocean, but would have no idea there were any others. It is possible he had heard of the Indian Ocean from travelers but he could not have known of the great Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It was impossible for him to have known what a huge percentage of the earth is covered in water.

But he did know. Here is testimony of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit upon Him and of the supernatural nature of this book. It is good that we do not know for certain the writer of this Psalm because the writer is not the author.

The author is God. 

Witnesses

Acts 1:8 KJV

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Ye shall be witnesses

There is no distinction as to whom these Christians are. Every Christian is to be a witness. This is born out by the record of the rest of the book.

• The apostles,
• The deacons,
• The pastors, and
• Every Christian

went everywhere witnessing.

Ye shall be witnesses

They would receive power to be witnesses. It was not

• Power to protect their lives or
• Power to be good at politics or
• Power to be successful in business

it was power to witness.

Ye shall be witnesses

Unto Jesus. They were to talk about the Lord, not Paul or Cephas or Apollos. They were to speak about Jesus Christ.

Ye shall be witnesses

Unto the uttermost part of the earth.

• At home
•  To their neighbors
• Across the street and
• Around the world

So shall we be witnesses

Old Atheism

Psalms 100:3 KJV

Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

There is nothing new under the sun. Not even the argument of atheism. We know much more about the polytheism and the idolatry of the Psalmist's era, but there were surely those who, as today, deny the existence of any gods and explained the existence of man (or attempted to do so) apart from a Creator.

The writer of this Psalm makes the bold and blunt statement, "Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves…" and moves from there to claim then that we:

• Belong to Him,
• Are cared for by Him and
• Answerable to Him

Joy in God's Judgment

Psalms 98:8-9 KJV

Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

The Psalmist enlists his readers, but not them alone, indeed all of creation:

• The seas
• The floods and
• The hills

to sing and rejoice in this truth; that the Lord comes to judge the earth.

We (I mean mankind in general) tend to view that message in a more negative light; that's because we tend to want to protect the sin nature of man. We see ourselves in an adversarial role against the coming of the Lord. We want to prevent it or at least change the circumstances so that, when and if He comes, there is no judgment necessary. Thus:

• The evolutionist denies there is a God
• The liberal denies He will come literally and
• The religionist wants to make the world good before He gets here

A more Biblical approach would be to:

• Accept the literal return of Christ
• Acknowledge the righteousness of His judgment when He comes
• Trust the outcome to be wholly good

Faith in God's goodness leads to joy in God's judgment.

Giving to Worship

Psalms 96:7-8 KJV

Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.

In acts of worship we are urged to give to the Lord. The passage speaks of:

• Singing to the Lord
• Blessing the name of the Lord
• Declaring the salvation of the Lord

Each of those could be considered a type of gift to the Lord. But the passage is more specific than that. We are to give to the Lord glory and strength. Further we are to give Him an offering. Whenever we come to the house of the Lord, and especially when we come on the first day of the week, part of our act of worship is with an offering.

God needs no gifts from us. He has all and needs nothing. The work of His ministry would be supported supernaturally if God's people failed to give as they have been taught. Giving to God is for our benefit. It is an act of dedication and a declaration of dependence upon the Lord.

• Give unto the Lord all believers
• Give unto the Lord because He is worthy
• Give unto the Lord faithfully and purposefully

The Full Forty

Psalms 95:10 KJV

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

God doesn't hold grudges as we think of them. But God is not our equal as we think of fellow men.

Here is Israel as an Old Testament object lesson; one that is reiterated in the New Testament, demonstrating that time does not erase from the memory of God, the grievousness of sin nor does it somehow assuage His judgment against that sin. When Israel rebelled against God and refused to enter the Promised Land, God pronounced that the whole generation would die in the wilderness before Israel would be offered another opportunity to enter.

Forty years is a life time of experience for mankind.

• There were further sins
• There were also some shows of faith

But God never changed His position nor softened His judgment regarding Israel and the Promised Land.

• They did indeed wander those forty years
• The generation did indeed die in the wilderness

Only two members of the original generation entered the Promised Land: Joshua and Caleb. Even Moses and Aaron eventually died in the wilderness.

God is gracious and full of mercy. He is quick to save any who call upon Christ as Saviour. But He is unchanging and immutable when it comes to His pronounced judgment. His judgment of the lost in hell and the Lake of Fire

• Will happen
• Exactly as it is described
• For as long as God's Word says

Prudence says to come quickly for mercy and grace to help.

A Different Sort of Christian

Psalms 92:15 KJV

To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

There are two beams of light sent from this Psalm, the first directed from the believer toward God, vs 2  

To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

The second, in the final verse, is directed from God to the unbelieving world. The point of the second is to demonstrate that God is upright. This is accomplished by the demonstration of His blessing in the lives of those who are planted in the house of God. Mind you, the blessings here spoken of do not belong to:

• Those who visit the house of God or even
• Those who frequent it; not even
• Those who are faithful to it, but
• Those who are planted in it

These would be the few who draw their life and strength and very being from the soil of God's own house. Those whose relationship with the Lord runs that deep have always had a testimony that attracts the attention of the lost. These are a different sort of Christian. They have not often been treated well in this world but they have always been attractive to those searching for eternal life. They have not always lived long on the earth but they have born testimony of living forever in heaven. 

The Blessings of Loving God

Psalms 91:14 KJV

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

The construction of this Psalm is interesting, having several different voices. The last voice to speak is God, making a promise to the one who sets his love upon God.

It would not be impossible to view the first verse of the Psalm as a declarative statement as to the tenor of the Psalm, and the last verses, beginning with verse 14, as God's confirmation of the Psalm. To set one's love upon God is to dwell in the secret place of the most high and to abide under the shadow of the almighty.

To set our love upon God is the great object of life. To shed ourselves of

• The love of this world
• Its lures and
• Its prince

that is both our objective and our great obstacle. It is no small feat to lose the love of these because having done so they lure us back again. It is a lifelong weaning process that ebbs and flows.

• Some reject the object and choose the world
• Of those who choose God, the process is varied and more or less successful

But the blessings of loving God with all our heart and soul and might make this much worth the process. 

Christ Sanctified

John 17:19 KJV

And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

We generally think of sanctification as the process whereby the Christian becomes

• Less like this world and more like the Saviour,
• Less attached to this life and more consecrated to the next,
• Less subject to the sin nature and more subject to the leading of the Holy Spirit's prompting

In none of these could Jesus have needed sanctification. This leaves us wondering in what ways Christ may have sanctified Himself.

The first proposition is that He sanctified Himself in the sense of a minister and servant; having left heaven to shepherd His sheep. In this manner Christ serves as the prime example to those in ministry. We consecrate (sanctify) ourselves to the work of the ministry after the manner that Christ consecrated (sanctified) Himself for that same work. We learn the ministry by following His lead.

The second and more likely, given the context, is that Christ sanctified (consecrated or gave) Himself to die on the Cross, without which none of His disciples could have been consecrated (set apart) as God's own. Jesus sanctified Himself to become sin for us son that we might be sanctified as the righteousness of God in Him. 

God Loves You

John 16:27 KJV

For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

The Father Himself loveth you…

Not vicariously through some other source:

• Not through Jesus Christ
• Not through the Holy Spirit
• Not through your family and loved ones
• Not through your pastor

It is God the Father Himself that loves His own.

Jesus loves us, the Holy Spirit, I am confident, loves us. Our family loves us and our pastor loves us. God sheds His love abroad through others; but that is not to say that is the only way He loves us. If there were no other human being who loved us we would still be assured that God the Father Himself loves us.

We are too prone to turn everything into religious idolatry. We are too quick to make our faith about others. "If God loved me…" we reason, "He would surely send someone to love me." We expect, demand the time and attention of others believing that it is their duty, as vessels of God, to give us that attention. At some point our faith stops being in God and rests in the time, attention and ministry of others.

True faith in God finds joy in God alone.

True faith is blessed by knowing that the Father Himself loves us.

Non Christian Religions

John 15:23 KJV

He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

The relationship between Jesus and God the Father is such that, to hate, and I would suggest to in any way belittle, make light or alter the person of Christ, drastically dramatically and irreconcilably changes one's own relationship with God the Father. This is the problem with religions such as:

• Mormonism
• Jehovah's Witness and
• Islam 

In each case the religion insists they have a strong relationship with God the Father, and do not deny some relationship with Jesus Christ, but only claim that He is of less importance to them than the Father.

• Mormons claim Jesus is a created being and the brother of Lucifer
• Jehovah's Witnesses claim Jesus is a god but not the God
• Islam claims Jesus was a great prophet but behind their prophet Mohammed 

In every case, this denigration of Christ damages one's relationship not only with Christ but with His Heavenly Father. One may not choose one over the other. The heresy of the modalist, who would elevate Christ and deny (or make little of) the other Persons of the godhead, is no greater than the heresy of the other, who would elevate the Father and deny (or make light of) Jesus Christ.

What To Do in the Valley of Tears

Psalms 84:6 KJV

Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

Years ago I read a sermon, based out of this passage, which urged that, when going through a time of sorrow, do something so that the next person in the same circumstances might find comfort.

The word Baca means tears.  Some have suggested that there may have been a valley named Baca, so named for the lack of water there. Whether such a suggestion has merit or not, it is certainly true that most people endure some valley of:

• Tears
• Sorrow and
• Lamentation

in their lifetime. When those valleys happen, and for however long they might last, the most profitable thing we can do is to turn the focus off of our own troubles and attempt to do something to help others.

It is akin to the words of 1 Corinthians 1:4 "Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." We can bemoan our sorry condition or we can try to use it for the good of others.

In some respects we could look at all of life as a valley of Baca.

• The earth is cursed
• We are born dead in trespasses and sins and
• Once saved, are aliens and pilgrims on the earth

Every day, through ministry, prayers, our conversations with others, in taking leadership, in serving country, or in writing materials that may be read generations later, we have opportunity to make things better for those who will walk in this valley of tears called life later on.

I noticed something in reading this time around that I am not sure I have meditated upon previously. The passage teaches us to dig a well but it is later rains that fill it up. The man passing through the valley has no power to and is not responsible to put the water in the well. He only makes a place for the water to reside.

• My job is not to bring actual comfort to another. I can only rarely and temporarily do that anyway. My job is to prepare a means for the comfort to be delivered.
• My job is not to save a soul from hell. My job is to tell them the gospel and it will be a God who saves them.
• My job is not to illuminate a listening congregation to the truths of the Bible. My job is to open the Bible and preach what I am learning, all the while believing God will illuminate the hearers as He pleases.
• My job is not to tell jokes and make the hurting one laugh.; My job is to be there and let the love of God spread from my heart to theirs.

Judas had a Father

John 13:26 KJV

Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

I am aware of at least two other verses that identify the father of Judas Iscariot:

John 12:4 KJV

Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,

John 13:2 KJV

And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;

I realize that the practice of giving the father's name was for the purpose of clearly identifying a person. In this case it has the second effect of personalizing Judas and bringing attention to others who were hurt by his betrayal and suicide.   

Judas Iscariot had a father.

Imagine the pain that the family of Iscariot must have endured at the news of all that had happened resulting finally in Judas' death at his own hands. Whether they were a believing family or not we will never know.

• If they were they would live the rest of their lives knowing that his suicide prevented him from ever reconciling with his sin
• If they were unbelievers they would have seen his final three years as a tragic waste

Parents never quit loving their children the way they did when they were little babies in the home. Whether the child is 15 or 50, Mom and Dad still sweat over them and desire the best for them. The adult child is no longer under parental protection which just compounds the anxiety for them. They love them as if they were still babies only now they have no real means to help them.

True is Proverbs 10:1 KJV

The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

Better to Suffer

John 12:4-6 KJV

Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,

Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

Judas was a devil and a thief. He was the one to betray Jesus and Jesus knew it was so. Yet Jesus suffered Judas to stay in the twelve and called him friend to the end.

We don't have to fix every problem person we have among us, nor must we cast them aside. God knows about them and knows how to deal with them. Who knows how many stands of wheat have been destroyed because, in our humanity, we thought they were tares? Better it would be to suffer wrong than to ruin one whom God was molding. 

Work While We Have Life

John 11:9-10 KJV

Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

The raising of Lazarus approaches the end of Jesus' life. His period of popularity has come and gone. At this point, any trip to Jerusalem seemed dangerous, as the Jews were seeking opportunity and means to take Him. No doubt the Apostles had heard rumors concerning the Pharisees wanting to have him killed. Lazarus' illness didn't seem like a sufficient reason to risk life and limb with a trip so near Jerusalem. Jesus' parable then is intended to teach that we work so long as we have life. It was, as it were, His eleventh hour. But He was still alive and, so long as He was alive, He had work to do.

We tend to justify a man slowing down toward the end. We account that he deserves a rest. Not so Jesus and not so the servant of Christ. While we have life and while we have breath we have means to serve. Let us therefore serve. 

The Shepherd and the Door

John 10:1 KJV

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

The meaning of the verse is not speaking of those who try to be saved some other way than Christ, but of those who try to shepherd the people of a God some other way than Christ. It it speaking of those who:

• First, are not sheep of this fold
• Second, are not sent of God
• Third, are not sensitive to the care of the sheep but whose purpose is their own advancement 

Jesus is both the true shepherd and the door by which others enter into the cadre of Shepherd's. Since the beginning of the faith people have entered into the ministry of the shepherd through some other way than the door of Christ:

• They have entered through the door of influence
• They have entered through the door of parentage
• They have entered in through the door of education
• They have entered through the door of charisma

Truly none of these were doors but breeches in the walls of faith, places where the will of men wore weak the walls of genuine faith. Christianity, in many quarters, has very little to do with Jesus Christ and much more to do with the machination of religion.

This Story Isn't Over

Psalms 83:11 KJV

Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:

Because of grace, because none of us deserve the mercy of a God, because "God commendeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"; because of these I have no good excuse to pray for the judgment of a God against anyone. But I do have precedent and promises to support the fact that no wickedness goes without judgment.

Precedent in what has happened in times before

Both in Old Testament times and New Testament times we have illustrations of God's judgment of those who stood against the people of God. During the 400 year break between the Testaments, and in our current church age, there are illustrations of the righteous judgment of God against those enemies of the gospel. Righteous men and women and children have been mistreated but those who have done the mistreating have, in many instances, experienced the awful hand of a God.

Promises for vengeance in the future

Many more believers have been abused than have a users been judged. At least it seems that way. But the answer to this is that God isn't finished yet.

• There is still a hell to come
• There is still a Tribulation of those on earth
• There is a great battle of Armageddon
• There is the judgment of the sheep and the goats before the Millennial Reign
• There is the Great White Throne Judgment

The story isn't over. The work if God isn't finished. His promises are not through

We don't ever need to pray for the judgment of the wicked for we know that judgment to be coming. But we can pray for their salvation because we too are debtors to grace; and we can rest in God's promises. In His time things will be made right.

God's Own Plea

Psalms 81:13 KJV

Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

Though this verse could not be considered a prayer from God, it is certainly a plea. It expresses the heart of God toward mankind, His earnest request to us. Directed to Israel, I believe it is intended toward all mankind, as Israel serves as a representative nation for God's intended purpose for all mankind; that is to redeem and save.

There are two elements wrapped into this request:

That they would hearken to God's Word

The word hearken means to hear intelligently or carefully. There are plenty of people who regularly hear some part of God's Word.

• It is displayed on signs, reader boards and plaques all across our country
• There are churches of one denomination or another broadcasting their message on radio, television and the internet
• Social media sites are filled with religious broadcasting
• It is available both in written and audio versions on smart phone apps

The trouble today is not with lack of opportunity to hear but with the manner in which most Americans hear the Word of God.

• It is generally heard casually, sometimes
• It is heard as almost a form of entertainment, not infrequently
• It is heard but unintelligently in that, while it is present, we are not paying attention to it

That they would walk in God's ways

Once hearing the Word of God with enough intelligence to understand the message, the next thing God pleads for us to do is that we would obey the message. The most earnest students of God's Word are as failingly human as most common of criminals and, thus, fail to heed what he or she knows the Word to teach.

God's plea has purpose behind it because He longs to bless those who will answer this plea. Had Israel hearkened and walked as God instructed, they would have experienced the fullest of God's blessing. As it was they refused, for the most part, to obey. They received, as a consequence, only a portion of that blessing God intended.

We cannot deny that we have been a blessed people. But our blessings have been limited in so many respects because we, at best, only hear casually what God has said and only walk half heartedly in His ways.

Can He Do More?

Psalms 78:17-21 KJV

And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

Notice that Israel had not questioned what God had done:

• He had given them water from the rock
• He had given them bread from heaven

Their sin was not in attributing these to some other factor. Their sin was in questioning whether God could do more.

This is the sin of America. We attribute our founding to pilgrims and others of faith. We are quick to thank God for His hand of goodness to us in the past. We boldly ask God for His blessing and stamp His name on our buildings and pieces of money. On a personal level we will attribute to God those events of good that have happened in our lives.

But we also betray our lack of faith in doubting what God can do in our future. As we look ahead into what appears to be a wilderness, we see difficult times:

• Fewer people who express faith
• Economic trials and hardships
• A growing lack of popularity in the world
• The rise of and acceptance of none Christian religions

And we seem prone, even among professing Christians, to chose a course of pragmatism and practicality rather than one of faith and dependence upon the a Word of God. We may not question what God has done but we certainly wonder what God will do.

The sin of Israel was challenging whether God would continue to answer prayer. Let's not let that be our sin too.

It Is God's Way

Psalms 77:13 KJV

Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?

David could not be more depressed than he is when this Psalm opens:

• He is in tears
• He weeps through the night
• His soul cannot be comforted
• He hurts so badly he can barely speak

But David took steps to recover from this great depression:

• He considered the work of God in the past
• He remembered his song in the night
• He communed with his own heart
• He meditated on God's work and
• He spoke of God's doings

As David worked out his depression, a realization, a truth became apparent to him; God's way is in the sanctuary. His point is that the house of a God, whether it be

• The Tabernacle in the wilderness
• The Temple in the Promised a Land or
• The local church in the New Testament

is where believers find relief.

• It is through that sanctuary that God will minister to His people
• It is at that sanctuary that we shall find our answers
• It is in that sanctuary, therefore that we must be faithful