Psalm 104 - 2009.07.25

"He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches." Psalm 104:10-12

Psalm 104 is a creation hymn, and it would be well to read and reflect on the whole before focusing on a part of this splendid work. It is summarized in v.24: "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom thou hast made them all: the earth is full of thy riches."

Among the theological ideas that have surfaced and circulated over the years is the notion that the world was created by some divine being who subsequently abandoned it to lumber along on its own. Such a notion, among many other errors, is denied by this Psalm in general and our "nugget" in particular. The declaration here is that God has ordered and so governs the world that He cares for His creation and its creatures at all levels of life. "He sendeth the springs," which eventuate in the streams and rivers by which even the wild creatures' needs are satisfied and the earth nourished to bring forth plants and trees so that the fowls of the air have an appropriate habitation. He is both the designer and sustainer of the order of nature, doctrine which is, of course, amplified in many other parts of scripture.

However one cannot reflect on this particular text without thinking of the use the Savior made of the same general truth. Seeking to encourage believers in the face of the hostility of unbelievers, He remarked, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows [Mat. 10:29-31]." It is a very small note with a very large significance.

The significance is this: God cares for His creation; He cares for His creatures; and He cares for His own. Among the birds the sparrow is relatively insignificant. Bird watching recently, I was captivated by Cardinals, Bluejays Chickadees, Titmice and even the tiny Nuthatch, but Sparrows drew little attention. Certainly they are among the "common people" of the bird kingdom. Yet it is for that very reason, that the Savior singled them out to make His point that our Heavenly Father is attentive to the needs of the most ordinary of His creatures. It seems to me that it reveals a sense of humor in the Savior when He says, "ye are of more value than many sparrows." His point is, if God is mindful of the sparrow, how much more is He mindful of man, created in His image. You do not have to be someone "important" to be "under His wing;" you need only to be one of His children.

The thought of His loving care for His own is enlarged by the reference to springs in the valleys. The springs are essential to the flourishing of life. Achsah, the daughter of Caleb, was given a field by her father. Subsequently she approached him with a petition: "…and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou? And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs [Josh. 1518-19]." Without the springs to water it, the land would soon be barren and worthless.

And so it is with life. Without the "springs of living water," it will tend only to disaster. The Lord Jesus, referring to the well by which they were standing, said to the woman, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life [John 4:13-14]." God's care for us is most richly evident in His provision of Satisfaction for the thirsty soul. The Psalmist said wisely, "All my springs are in thee [Psalm 87:7]."

The same principle is employed by the Holy Spirit as He gives us a look forward to eternal blessing. Of the redeemed He said through the prophet Isaiah, "They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them [Isa. 49:10}," and the theme is consummated in the last book of the bible, where "He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son [Rev. 21:5-7]."

God wills to be your Sustainer and Satisfier. Do you let Him? Those who do, like "the fowls of the heaven," find reason to "sing among the branches!"

For the praise of our blessed Redeemer,

"Pastor" Frasier

Psalm 103 - 2009.07.11

“He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west,so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” — Psalm 103:10-12

Our reflections last week focused on the brevity of life and the certainty of death. Without God, that is a formula for despair. And without a God of grace, it would be a formula for terror. Death is the by-product of sin; “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men…[and]…by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation [Rom. 5:12, 18].”

Relief and remedy are found in that this God is not first a God of wrath, but of mercy and grace. Had His justice prevailed above His mercy, the human race would have perished in the Garden of Eden and no man would have found his way into the “glory that shall be hereafter.” “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.”

In our fallen condition we are incapable of grasping the implications of holiness or the magnitude of any transgression against it. Only by revelation can we get a glimpse of the dimensions of this conflict. When through the word of God the window of Truth is opened, then may come conviction of sin that will give rise to the cry, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” Then, and only then, will the significance of this nugget begin to break upon us. It is a great and awesome wonder that “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities,” and should give rise to an astonished “Why?!”

The answer lies in the key word of the next verse, “mercy.” And here we are introduced to the dimsensions of God’s mercy. It is higher than heaven is above the earth. On this phrase Spurgeon remarks, “The idea is a very noble one, for who shall tell how great is the height of heaven? Who can reach the first of the fixed stars, and who can measure the utmost bounds of the starry universe? Yet so great is His mercy.” And his observation was made long before rockets had reached the moon. We know now better than he did then that the heavens are immeasureable, and so is God’s mercy. Added to this is the declaration in v.17, “The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting…” God’s mercy is eternal.

It is out of that measureless, timeless mercy that God devised a way to remove our transgressions and our sins from us “as far as the east is from the west.” It is been observed long before that this represents an infinite distance. This gives rise to another question, not answered in the Psalm nor fully in the Old Testament: How? The answer lies in the crosswork of Christ where God “made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him [II Cor. 5:21].”

The infinite Son of our infinite God paid an infinite price for our redemption from sin and its awful consequences, so that God in infinite mercy might separate us from our sins by an infinite distance, qualifying us by grace alone to share in His infinite glory.

However, there is a qualifying phrase in the text and context; His mercy is “toward them that fear Him” (cf. v.11,13,17.) God’s mercy does not afford blanket coverage of the human race. It is universal in its potential, but individual and particular in its application. “The fear of the Lord,” a recognition of and reverence for the God of the Bible, is the prerequisite for enjoying the “wonders of His grace.” “He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him [Heb. 11:6b].”

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments: His praise endureth forever [Ps. 111:10].”

And when we come to revere His name, then it is our assurance that “nothing shall separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” and our hearts will echo the Psalmist, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name [Ps. 103:1].”

GLORY to HIS name,

“Pastor” Frasier

Psalm 102 - 2009.07.04

“My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.” —Psalm 102:11

The other day I heard a song, an “oldie” evidently, but one I’d never heard before. The essence of the song was “someday you are going to die.” It is not often that one hears that insight from our secular culture, but there it was. What an opportunity for sober reflection. Yet I caught a tragic line that went something like this: “Someday you’re going to die, so get on with your sin; you don’t have a lot of time.” That is old fashioned hedonism, long ago expressed in the pagan philosophy, “Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

For a world without a bible and without God, it is as good a philosophy as any. Without God life is as significant as a mirage. There is no meaning, are no defensible values, no significance to virtue or even pleasure beyond the moment. Life essentially is empty, or to employ Solomon’s insight, “All is vanity,” and nothing really matters but the moment.

The Psalmist has the same insight; “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.” But because he believed God, he emerged with a radically different philosophy. His perception and his faith are echoed by the prophet Isaiah long years after: “The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever [Isa. 40:6-8].” Later still the apostle Peter takes up the theme: “For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever [I Pet. 1:24-25a].” Then he adds, “And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” Finally the apostle James employs the same analogy, but as an admonition to those whose god is material prosperity in which they have placed their trust. “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: but the rich in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways [Jas. 19-11].” Thus he urges faith in God as the alternative to the desperation this insight will otherwise generate.

Now all of this is brought into significant focus by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul when he declares, in his great dissertation on the resurrection of Christ, “If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die [I Cor. 15:32],” echoing the secular note above. The key phrase is, “If the dead rise not.” Paul had already affirmed his life transforming faith in the resurrection of Christ as the climactic evidence that the dead will rise, and it is this grand historical fact that marks the folly of those who, seeing death at hand or as inevitable, choose to “eat and drink” on the grounds that death is all we have to look forward to with any certainty. Faith in God, and the bible as His word (cf. Isa. 40:8) changes everything, giving life meaning, significance, hope, a future—and a warning: There is more to come!

Faith determines destiny. However, it is not faith in the abstract, but faith in the finished work of Christ, the gospel of the grace of God that will make the difference. Such a faith will influence not only how we view the future, but how we make the journey. Contrary to the pop philosophy, “Get on with your sinning; you don’t have much time,” the apostle quite logically exhorts believers, “Awake to righteousness and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame [I Cor. 15:34].”

Beyond death lies either everlasting destruction or the everlasting consolation of eternal life (Cf. I Thess. 1:9, 2:16). Careful reflection on the inevitability of physical death will move the wise man to “choose the good and refuse the evil.”

“Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts , and stablish you in every good word and work.” —II Thess. 2:16-17

“Life is short, death is sure; Sin the curse, Christ the cure.”

May you have a great forever,

“Pastor” Frasier

Psalm 101 - 2009.07.18

"I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing." —Psalm 101:1

An appropriate subtitle for this Psalm might well be, "The Administrator's Psalm." It in David purposes how he will manage himself, his household and his kingdom. But all is prefaced with the objective, twice uttered in the terse text we have chosen as our "nugget" for today, "I will sing." It is a pledge made not on the basis of the emotions, but of the intellect and the will.

Certainly a thoughtful perusal of the Psalms would indicate that it is the Lord's will for His people to sing. We have noted a number of such references in our nuggets from the Psalms, and this one but reinforces the others. The knowledge of God is occasion for singing, and professed believers who have no song are somehow out of the will of God. What is of special interest here, however, is the substance of his song. "I will sing of mercy and judgment." These seem at first sight to be at opposite ends of the spiritual spectrum, but reflection suggests why the believer should have a song in all seasons.

As the beneficiaries of God's mercy, it is no wonder that we should sing. Considering that the wages of sin is death, our hearts should sing spontaneously of God's goodness and grace when we recognize that it is "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life [Titus 3:5-7]." With the Psalmist in another place we may declare, "I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations [Ps. 89:1]." Were it by merit, we would have no hope; because it is by His mercy, we need have no doubt as to our eternal destiny. That's something to sing about!

However, that is not all the writer says. He affirms that he will also sing of judgment. You sing on the upbeat; will you also sing, with equal enthusiasm, on the downbeat? David declares, "I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me [Psalm 119:75]." In the New Testament, we are instructed,

"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby [Heb. 12:5-11; cf. Prov. 3:11-12]."

In God's wisdom, His "judgments" upon our lives are as much intended for our good and His glory as are the mercies we experience under His hand. When we understand this, both will inspire a song! The result will be an unbroken melody in the life of the instructed Christian, who will sing not only in the sunshine, but also in the rain.

One more note remains to be drawn from this short text, underscoring emphases we have made before. The object of the believer's song is the Lord. It is "unto Thee, O Lord," that the child of God renders his praise and sings his song. It is not singing for its own sake, or the enjoyment of a pleasant melody, singing in the abstract, but with a real consciousness of the link between the life of the believer and his Lord, Who is working "all things together for good" to those who love Him.

This is a platform of perennial praise upon which all the rest of life is to be built. We can only vow to run the ship of life aright when our hearts are right with the "captain of our salvation." And when our hearts are right, all of life will be bracketed with song!

For His glory and our good,

"Pastor" Frasier