Psalms of the Salter: Some Thoughts on Really Living for the Lord (Psalm 104)

Psalm 104

¹ Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;
    you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

² The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
    he stretches out the heavens like a tent
³     and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
    and rides on the wings of the wind.
⁴ He makes winds his messengers,
    flames of fire his servants.

⁵ He set the earth on its foundations;
    it can never be moved.
⁶ You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷ But at your rebuke the waters fled,
    at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
⁸ they flowed over the mountains,
    they went down into the valleys,
    to the place you assigned for them.
⁹ You set a boundary they cannot cross;
    never again will they cover the earth.

¹⁰ He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
    it flows between the mountains.
¹¹ They give water to all the beasts of the field;
    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
    they sing among the branches.
¹³ He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
    the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
¹⁴ He makes grass grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to cultivate—
    bringing forth food from the earth:
¹⁵ wine that gladdens human hearts,
    oil to make their faces shine,
    and bread that sustains their hearts.
¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are well watered,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷ There the birds make their nests;
    the stork has its home in the junipers.
¹⁸ The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
    the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

¹⁹ He made the moon to mark the seasons,
    and the sun knows when to go down.
²⁰ You bring darkness, it becomes night,
    and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
²¹ The lions roar for their prey
    and seek their food from God.
²² The sun rises, and they steal away;
    they return and lie down in their dens.
²³ Then people go out to their work,
    to their labor until evening.

²⁴ How many are your works, Lord!
    In wisdom you made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ There is the sea, vast and spacious,
    teeming with creatures beyond number—
    living things both large and small.
²⁶ There the ships go to and fro,
    and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

²⁷ All creatures look to you
    to give them their food at the proper time.
²⁸ When you give it to them,
    they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
    they are satisfied with good things.
²⁹ When you hide your face,
    they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
    they die and return to the dust.
³⁰ When you send your Spirit,
    they are created,
    and you renew the face of the ground.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works—
³² he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

³³ I will sing to the Lord all my life;
    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    as I rejoice in the Lord.
³⁵ But may sinners vanish from the earth
    and the wicked be no more.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Praise the Lord.

 

Loving the Lord with Our Minds — The Apostle Paul in Acts 17 (Part 8)

We continue with our study of Acts 17, Paul on Mars Hill.  I’m looking forward to Emmaus Bible College’s “Christian MInistry Seminars” on February 6-7. My theme, “Anti-Intellectualism Isn’t Spirituality,”  will pursue several topics.  We will look at Acts 17:19-34 to see how the Apostle Paul used his mind to reach five different groups.

Beginning with a compliment, Paul proclaims the “unknown god” to the Athenians.  Let’s notice verses 24-28.  As Paul moves into PROCLAMATION, he speaks clearly of Christian doctrine!  Notice that he credits this “unknown god” with creation (He “made the world and everything in it” – v. 24) and providence (caring for His creation) (“he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else” – v. 25).  Paul makes it clear that this true God is independent of His creation (He “is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands . . . and . . . is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything” – vv. 24-25).

Wow!  That’s a lot of Christian doctrine!  Paul goes on to talk about man’s creation (“all the nations” – v. 26) being intended by this God to “inhabit the whole earth” (v. 26).  Both man’s relationship to time (“marked out their appointed times”) and their geography (“the boundaries of their lands”) are covered in verse 26.

And this Creator-God is not content with simply making stuff.  He wants a personal relationship with human beings (“God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for him and find him” – v. 27).

Question:  Are we presenting the true God of the Bible as One who wishes for a personal relationship with each of His creatures made in His image?

 

Great Quote from J. Vernon McGee: “You Don’t Have a Universe!”

“This is God’s universe, and God does things His way.You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe!”

 

Psalms of the Salter: Some Thoughts on Really Living for the Lord (Psalm 65)

Psalm 65

For the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.

¹ Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion;
    to you our vows will be fulfilled.
² You who answer prayer,
    to you all people will come.
³ When we were overwhelmed by sins,
    you forgave our transgressions.
⁴ Blessed are those you choose
    and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
    of your holy temple.

⁵ You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
    God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
    and of the farthest seas,
⁶ who formed the mountains by your power,
    having armed yourself with strength,
⁷ who stilled the roaring of the seas,
    the roaring of their waves,
    and the turmoil of the nations.
⁸ The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
    where morning dawns, where evening fades,
    you call forth songs of joy.

⁹ You care for the land and water it;
    you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
    to provide the people with grain,
    for so you have ordained it.
¹⁰ You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
    you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
¹¹ You crown the year with your bounty,
    and your carts overflow with abundance.
¹² The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
    the hills are clothed with gladness.
¹³ The meadows are covered with flocks
    and the valleys are mantled with grain;
    they shout for joy and sing.

 

Psalms of the Salter: Some Thoughts on Really Living for the Lord (Psalm 8)

Psalm 8

For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David.

¹ Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

Time for a Great Cartoon: Man’s Significance

Why does man consider himself such a “big screaming deal”? Is there no basis for our thinking we are unique in the universe, that there is something about man that shouts “You have value! You have worth!”

Evolutionary theory essentially argues that man makes up his own significance. The Bible teaches that we are made in the image and likeness of GOD — and we, therefore, have meaning.

How sad to miss that fundamental truth of our creation, and to simply sit back in despair and entertain ourselves to death with our machines!

Your thoughts?

 

Time for a Great Quote: John Piper on Creation

 

Psalms of My Life (Psalm 114)

Psalm 114

¹ When Israel came out of Egypt,
    Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
² Judah became God’s sanctuary,
    Israel his dominion.

³ The sea looked and fled,
    the Jordan turned back;
⁴ the mountains leaped like rams,
    the hills like lambs.

⁵ Why was it, sea, that you fled?
    Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
⁶ Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
    you hills, like lambs?

⁷ Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
    at the presence of the God of Jacob,
⁸ who turned the rock into a pool,
    the hard rock into springs of water.

 

Psalms of My Life (Psalm 104)

Psalm 104

¹ Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;
    you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

² The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
    he stretches out the heavens like a tent
³     and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
    and rides on the wings of the wind.
⁴ He makes winds his messengers,^[a]
    flames of fire his servants.

⁵ He set the earth on its foundations;
    it can never be moved.
⁶ You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷ But at your rebuke the waters fled,
    at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
⁸ they flowed over the mountains,
    they went down into the valleys,
    to the place you assigned for them.
⁹ You set a boundary they cannot cross;
    never again will they cover the earth.

¹⁰ He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
    it flows between the mountains.
¹¹ They give water to all the beasts of the field;
    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
    they sing among the branches.
¹³ He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
    the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
¹⁴ He makes grass grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to cultivate—
    bringing forth food from the earth:
¹⁵ wine that gladdens human hearts,
    oil to make their faces shine,
    and bread that sustains their hearts.
¹⁶ The trees of the Lord are well watered,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷ There the birds make their nests;
    the stork has its home in the junipers.
¹⁸ The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
    the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

¹⁹ He made the moon to mark the seasons,
    and the sun knows when to go down.
²⁰ You bring darkness, it becomes night,
    and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
²¹ The lions roar for their prey
    and seek their food from God.
²² The sun rises, and they steal away;
    they return and lie down in their dens.
²³ Then people go out to their work,
    to their labor until evening.

²⁴ How many are your works, Lord!
    In wisdom you made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ There is the sea, vast and spacious,
    teeming with creatures beyond number—
    living things both large and small.
²⁶ There the ships go to and fro,
    and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

²⁷ All creatures look to you
    to give them their food at the proper time.
²⁸ When you give it to them,
    they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
    they are satisfied with good things.
²⁹ When you hide your face,
    they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
    they die and return to the dust.
³⁰ When you send your Spirit,
    they are created,
    and you renew the face of the ground.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works—
³² he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

³³ I will sing to the Lord all my life;
    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    as I rejoice in the Lord.
³⁵ But may sinners vanish from the earth
    and the wicked be no more.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Praise the Lord.^[b]

 

Loving or Hating This World?

Some of you know of my friendship with John, my octogenarian friend in Canada. If you read the comments he occasionally posts on my blog — and my responses to them — you will see that we come at life from very different perspectives.

I’m going to post a few of his comments and my responses Screen Shot 2015-07-02 at 6.57.08 AMfrom time to time and invite your comments to my comments about his comments! What?

Recently, John wrote: “Larry, You have an incredible inconsistent worldview. On one side you deplore the world we life in, but you engage in sentiments of weeping and wooing when one loved one is taken away.
Feb 8,2015 you used John Piper’s words to describe heaven: :No sickness, all your friends you had on earth are with you, you would have all the food you like, all the leisure activities you’re enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tested, no human conflict, no natural disasters.
Some years ago you you thanked all the people who prayed for you to recover from your heart surgery. With all the wonders of heaven that you believe so strongly, why would you hang on to this current world so strongly? I suspect that your “Certainty” is not as certain as you would like it to be.”

I responded as follows: “Good morning, John. Thanks for your comments of July 1st. Let me make sure I understand what you’ve said.</

You say that I have an incredibly inconsistent worldview. You say that I “deplore” the world we live in. I’m not sure how you came to that conclusion about my view. You then used my quote of Piper to argue, I think, that heaven is wonderful. Your question, “Why would you hang on to this current world so strongly?” is a great question.

Here’s what I believe about this world and the next. I believe this world is God’s good creation to be enjoyed and carefully used, but not worshiped (I Tim. 6). It will be renewed and all its brokenness healed when Jesus returns. But there is another world, another realm of existence beyond this one, and this world should get us ready for that world. Creation ought to be cared for (not exploited). The physical pleasures on this planet ought to be enjoyed to the glory of God, but this is not the only world there is.

We can and should grieve the loss of loved ones who pass away, especially if we have little evidence that they have come to terms with the God we have all offended. To die without Jesus as one’s personal Savior is the worst thing that could ever happen to someone.

Screen Shot 2015-07-02 at 7.00.22 AMI am not to love this worldly system that opposes God and the things of God (= “worldliness”), but to serve God in this world as best I can.

To summarize, I agree with C.S. Lewis who said, “To love and admire anything outside yourself is to take one step away from utter spiritual ruin; though we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything more than we love and admire God.” Even more, to love God allows us to love people more than those who don’t know God. Lewis adds, “Because we love something else more than this world we love even this world better than those who know no other.”

Your comments?