Psalm 123: Looking to Our Master

Today’s reading is Psalm 123.

Vulnerable

I get it. I understand why some, after reading yesterday’s post, decided to abandon Jesus. We love the idea of Jesus saving us, but enslaving us? That’s a tough pill to swallow. Frankly, it digs right down to the reason why it takes faith to be saved. We have to believe with such conviction and confidence that Jesus is saving us, we decide to do what unbelievers find repugnant. We decide to put our lives and eternities in someone else’s hands.

Our pilgrim psalmist does not use the metaphor of slave and master because in his day slavery was pleasant. Let us not soften this psalm by acting like slavery was not just as hard, difficult, even horrific in our psalmist’s day as it was in 19th century America. Yes, people accepted slavery more readily in the time of the ancient psalmist, but no one wanted to be a slave more readily. Certainly, the Law contained legal codes offering some protections to Hebrew slaves. What a blessing. I mean, it would be if those ancients followed the legal codes better than supposed Christians in America followed the legal codes of the new covenant about slavery (see Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1)–which, of course, few of them did. But do not for a moment think people in the psalmist’s day thought slavery was a pleasant or even desirable occupation. Think about it: redemption from slavery was such a great metaphor for salvation because nobody wanted to be a slave.

The pilgrim psalmist’s metaphor did not express comfort. It expressed vulnerability. Slaves looked to their masters’ and mistresses’ hands because slaves had no choice and no control. They had no control over whether their lives would be pleasant or miserable. Their masters’ and mistresses’ hands determined that. Therefore, slaves looked to their masters’ and mistresses’ hands.

When slaves looked to their masters’ hands, they would as likely see a fist or a whip as anything else. Slaves might not see actively abusive hands, but selfish, grasping, neglectful hands–hands which used the slaves as human tools to serve the master but did not care for the slaves at all. The slave’s entire life was held in the hand of that master. Again, not an expression of pleasing comfort, but of desperate vulnerability.

Here now is the difference. Our psalmist willingly made this pilgrimage. Our psalmist willingly placed himself under the hand of YHWH. Our Psalmist willingly looked to the LORD as Master. In the face of scoffers, mockers, warmongers, attackers, our psalmist didn’t look to the opponents, attempting to side with them in hopes they would back off. He didn’t look to himself, deciding he was strong enough to win the battle. He didn’t look to idols and false gods, especially the ones the Meshechians and Kedarians claimed to follow.

Like Jehoshaphat of 2 Chronicles 20:12, our psalmist essentially says, “We do no know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (ESV). Which, of course, actually means they both knew precisely what to do. Trust the Lord. Yes, the volunteer slaves make themselves vulnerable. But Jehoshaphat, the pilgrim, and hopefully we ourselves realize the risk is worth it. It is.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss why.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 123.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 123 prompt or improve your trust in God?

When Nations Rage

Today’s reading is Psalm 46.

Of course, the mountains were not actually falling into the sea. The earth was not actually melting. Perhaps we get a clearer picture of what is going on when Korah’s son says, “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter.” There is geo-political turmoil. Wars and rumors of wars. Kings rise and fall. One nation topples another and another and another. And those nations threaten God’s nation, God’s city.

However, in contrast to the roaring and foaming, earth engulfing seas, there is a river whose streams make glad God’s city. The psalmist calls to mind the rivers of Eden that fed the tree of life. The river seems to represent God Himself (see Isaiah 8:6; Jeremiah 2:13). Doesn’t this call to mind a contrast with Psalm 42 and 43? There the psalmist was faced with dehydration or drowning. Here the psalmist is in a city with a calming, peaceful, life-giving river. Even while the rest of the world floods.

Let me ask you. Do you look around you and hear the nations raging? Have you witnessed the protests? Have you seen the riots? Do you hear the fighting and bickering over everything?

One of the struggles we face that Israel didn’t is we have dual citizenship. An Israelite was an Israelite. By definition, their earthly kingdom was God’s kingdom. Even if they were taken captive by another nation, while they may have had to figure out how to live there, they knew they were still Israelites, and they were actually living in an enemy nation. However, we who are part of God’s kingdom today are also part of other earthly kingdoms. We don’t view our life in earthly nations as time in enemy territory. If we are not careful, we can allow our earthly citizenship to get mixed up with our heavenly one. We lose sight of the fact that if our earthly nation falls, God’s kingdom is not destroyed. Therefore, when the nations rage, especially our own nation, we start to get anxious, fearful, panicky.

Add to that, if the nation raging then starts to add an attack on Christ’s kingdom, we get doubly scared. Hand wringing, fretting, worrying, anxiety, stress. The “what ifs” start up. “What if they take away our tax exempt status?” “What if they label our preaching hate speech?” “What if they take our buildings away from us?” “What if they imprison our preachers and elders?” “AAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!” Then we start plotting. We start developing political plans. Historically, some have even developed military plans. But this is not God’s way.

The sons of Korah, help us see where we truly stand. We stand with the God of Jacob, the Lord of hosts. When God decides to speak, the earth will melt. That is, when God finally lets His voice be heard, the raging nations and tottering kingdoms will do nothing to His people. God stops wars. God stops armies. God stops political machinations. God shatters spears and breaks bows and disarms nukes.

When enemies rise and nations rage, it may seem like the foundations are falling out from under us. But our God reigns. And our God is with us. That doesn’t mean none of us will face discomfort, pain, persecution, even death. It does mean none of that can take away our salvation or our relationship with God. It does mean our eternity is secure. It does mean we have nothing to fear. Even if we die in this battle, we still win. After all, that is exactly what happened to our God, isn’t it?

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 46.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the psalm and the written devo above?
2. Why do you think it is easy to get fixated on our earthly countries, nations, and citizenship?
3. How do we live faithfully as God’s kingdom citizens even while living as citizens of an earthly country also?
4. Which should we choose when the earthly nation goes against God’s kingdom?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this psalm and our discussion today?

A Dual Citizenship

Today’s reading is Acts 16.

Paul is a citizen of heaven. Philippians 3:20 says so: “But our citizenship is in heaven…” Yet, in Acts 16:37 he declares he and Silas are citizens of Rome. Christians have a dual citizenship. I am a citizen of heaven. I am also a citizen of the United States of America. As such, Paul was able to enjoy the rights and privileges of Roman citizenship. When his Roman rights were violated, he was able to seek legal recourse. That is exactly what he does here in Philippi. In an interesting twist, after having been falsely accused of urging Philippians to act in ways “unlawful for us as Romans to accept or practice,” the magistrates acted in a way that was unlawful for Romans to accept or practice. They beat uncondemned Roman citizens and threw them in jail. Paul seeks recourse. When we face persecution or treatment, especially from governing authorities, that violates our rights and privileges as citizens of our country, we are allowed to seek redress and recourse through legal means. We will have to put up with persecution and trouble. Often, there will be little we can do about it. However, we are allowed to use the rights and privileges of our earthly citizenship to our advantage and to the advantage of Christ’s kingdom as well.

Tomorrow’s reading is Acts 16.