Psalm 120: Dwelling in Meshech and Kedar

Today’s reading is Psalm 120.

Dwelling in Enemy Territory

The lament of vs. 5 is admittedly odd. The Israelites never dwelt in Meshech or Kedar. Meshech was a descendant of Japheth (Genesis 10:2; 1 Chronicles 1:5), whose people dwelt far north of Israel by the Black Sea. Kedar was a descendant of Ishmael (Genesis 25:13; 1 Chronicles 1:29) who dwelt in the Arabian desert southeast of Israel. To my knowledge, there is no connection with these locations and either the exodus from Egypt or the exiles in Assyria and Babylon. The point seems to be metaphorical. As the statement “from Dan to Beersheba” was often used to try to metaphorically encompass all Israel, it seems Meshech and Kedar are used to refer to opposite extremes of being stuck outside the Promised Land.

When the psalmist cries, “Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!” we discover the first step of pilgrimage. We have to realize we don’t dwell where we truly want to dwell. We have to look at our surroundings and believe they are lamentable. “Woe to me, I am not on God’s holy hill.” This may be one of the most difficult steps. If we have grown up in Meshech or Kedar, we likely won’t recognize the curse of dwelling there. What a shift to look at the place we were raised and decide some place else is better.

Again, I appreciate the insight of Eugene Peterson in his comments on Psalm 120 as the start of our pilgrimage. When we move out of the metaphor of Meshech and Kedar and move into the practical reality of our lives, this recognition that where we live is not where we should live, that actually we need to take a long journey to a different dwelling place is what we call Repentance.

I really hate to quote the same book two days in a row, but I simply can’t say it better than this:

Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself and your neighbors and your world. And it is deciding that God in Jesus Christ is telling you the truth. Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.

Eugene Peterson, “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction,” IVP, Downers Grove, 2021, p 24

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Meshech and Kedar are awful. They hold nothing for you worth any value. This world is not our home. We are just sojourners here. Let us throw off the lies of the world and its ruler, grab hold of Jesus’s garments, and start the pilgrimage to God’s holy hill. Yes, this first step is hard. It is even painful. The liars around us will mock us and belittle us. It will seem unnatural and abnormal. We will experience pain. But the journey will be worth it. I promise you.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 120.

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 120 prompt or improve your hope in God?

The Fruit of the Spirit

Today’s reading is Galatians 5.

How many sermons and classes have we been through on the fruit of the Spirit? How often have we jumped to Galatians 5:16ff, to discuss the spiritual walk, and forgotten Paul has been leading to this for an entire letter? When we argue and discuss what it means to walk by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, let us not forget he has already given us an illustrating contrast.

In Galatians 4:21-31, he reminded us of Hagar and Sarah, Ishmael and Isaac. Remember Ishmael was born according to the flesh, but Isaac was born according to the Spirit (Galatians 4:29). Yet, also recall being born according to the Spirit meant being born according to the promise (Galatians 4:23). When Abraham and Sarah came up with the plan to impregnate Hagar on Sarah’s behalf, they were pursuing the flesh. They were attempting to accomplish God’s plan through their own strength. When Abraham and Sarah merely believed God’s promise of a son and conducted themselves properly in their marriage, they were following the lead and guide of the Spirit.

Take a look at that list of works of the flesh. How many of them came out in the story of Hagar and Ishmael? Immorality, impurity, and sensuality. Perhaps, through some technicality, making Hagar a concubine was lawful under that old system, but we know that was not God’s full intention for marriage. Without doubt, we find enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry, dissension, division, envy. All of those works of the flesh increased by Abraham and Sarah’s plan with Hagar.

This is what we discover from that story. When we try to accomplish God’s plan by our own strength; that is, when we are try to justify ourselves by the strength of our own flesh, we are going to find the works produced by our flesh won’t be righteousness, godliness, holiness. Even when that is our goal. When relying on our own strength and our own plans, we will inevitably fall into immorality, impurity, sensuality, etc. That is what relying on our strength produces.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the fruit of the Spirit. They are not the fruit of the flesh. They are not the fruit of our extreme effort and work. They are not what we will ultimately produce when we try to white-knuckle our way to justification. We will only have these fruit in our lives when we hear the promise God has revealed through His Spirit and respond in faith to His promises.

We really have a bit of a litmus test here. To the degree those works of the flesh are still present (and no doubt they are still present in all of us), we are relying on our own strength. To the degree the fruit of the Spirit are growing in us, we are relying on the Spirit.

Let us dig in to God’s promises. Let us believe God’s promises. Let us respond to God’s promises. In so doing, we will be led by God’s Spirit and God’s Spirit will grow His fruit in us.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 5.

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 chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why are the works of the flesh so appealing?
3. What advice would you give to others to avoid the works of the flesh?
4. Do you want the Spirit’s fruit in your life? If so, how will you follow the lead of the Spirit?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Children of the Free Woman

Today’s reading is Galatians 4.

I admit it. The allegory in Galatians 4:21-31 can be confusing for us. We’re not quite sure why Paul teaches this way or why he can even make the points he does from this story. However, getting bogged down in questions about allegories misses the point. Paul wasn’t trying to give us an example of how to study the Old Testament in general or how to apply Scripture in general. He was simply driving home his point.

He asks if those who are making so much of the Law are even paying attention to the Law they are pursuing. In that law there was a branch of the Abraham family that was enslaved. There was a branch that was free. Hagar was a slave. Sarah was free. Though Hagar was fertile while Sarah was barren, it was better to be Sarah than Hagar. Further, it was better to be Sarah’s son than Hagar’s.

Think about how awful the whole situation really was with Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham starts trying to make God’s plan work by Abraham’s own strength. And in the attempt he really perpetrates an evil against Hagar. This relationship with Hagar was certainly not a loving, caring marriage. It was taking advantage of a slave. When they were done, rather than actually producing a son for Sarah and Abraham who would be free and inherit as Sarah initially suggested would be the case, Ishmael was simply a slave. This was not a shining moment in Abraham’s life. It is a further indication that the power in the story is God and His grace, not Abraham and his personal righteousness.

As shocking as it might seem, Paul says those who want to pursue the Law, are opting to be Ishmael instead of Isaac. Isaac was a child of the promise. This is the promise Paul talked about in Galatians 3. In Christ, we are children of the promise. However, if we decide to pursue the Law or try to be justified by Law, we become nothing more than children of the flesh and of slavery.

Take into account what Paul had said just before this allegory. He spoke of the Judaizing teachers. “They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.” This is exactly what Abraham and Sarah did with Hagar. Sarah made much of Hagar. On the surface, it was as if Sarah was lifting up Hagar in honor. She could be a wife of the master. However, this was not good for Hagar or any children that would come through her. Sarah made much of Hagar, but only for Sarah’s own personal benefit. That is the case when we follow teachers who would lead us back under the Law. They make much of us. They act as if they are helping us. They aren’t. They are only trying to help themselves. They are enslaving us. Don’t follow them.

We are children of the free woman. And know this: though the free woman was barren, by God’s work and power, she will have more children. Further, be aware. The children of the flesh will persecute us as Ishmael did Isaac. But Ishmael will not inherit with Isaac. Don’t pursue the flesh. Don’t try to find justification through your own effort by keeping the Law. Pursue the promise of God through Jesus Christ. That is freedom. That is salvation.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 5.

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 chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why is freedom better than slavery?
3. Why do you think the Galatians and some people even today want to go back to the slavery of the Law or add the slavery of the Law into the gospel?
4. Consider the implication of Galatians 4:30. What was Paul encouraging the Galatian Christians to do with those who were going to distort the Gospel with the Law?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Flesh and Spirit

Today’s reading is Galatians 3.

Notice the contrasts Paul makes in his argument intended to break the spell of those who bewitched the Galatians. He contrasts works and hearing, law and faith, Spirit and flesh. If we are not careful, we may miss the forest for the trees, getting so caught up in parsing the phrases and defining the words we miss the big point. Fortunately for us. In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul makes an allegory out of Ishmael and Isaac. When he does, he makes a similar parallel with different wording that helps us see the forest.

In Galatians 4:29, Paul says Ishmael was born “according to the flesh,” but Isaac was born “according to the Spirit.” However, a few verses earlier (4:23), he said Ishmael was born “according to the flesh,” but Isaac was born “according to the promise.” We see that “according to the Spirit” is parallel to “according to God’s promise,” that is according to what God had revealed. This helps us understand “according to the flesh.” Paul wasn’t saying Ishmael had a biological birth. After all, Isaac did too. He wasn’t saying Ishmael was Abraham’s son genetically. After all, Isaac was too. Paul’s point was Ishmael was born when Abraham and Sarah tried to work out God’s plan by their own fleshly strength and understanding. Isaac was born when Abraham and Sarah simply heard God’s promise, believed it, and acted accordingly.

Coming back to Galatians 3:1-6, we see the person striving to be justified by the works of law paralleled with the one who is living by the flesh. The one who is justified by the hearing of faith is paralleled with the one who is living by the Spirit. All this helps us see the forest: the ones who bring the legal requirements of the Law into the gospel are trying to be saved by their own human, fleshly effort and strength. They are trying to work things out according to their own plan. Those who are justified by the hearing of faith are those who hear God’s promises, believe them, and act accordingly.

The contrast then is not between people who take action and those who don’t. The contrast is not between people who do something and people who do nothing. The contrast is between people who try to measure up to a list of legal stipulations, proving how strong they are, and people who act in faith according to God’s promises demonstrating how much they trust Jesus. Too often, Bible students get caught distracted by arguments surrounding the definition of the word “works,” believing if people do anything, they are trying to be saved by works. Not at all. When people seek justification by trying to measure up to a list of rules, they are trying to save themselves by their own planning, strength, and effort. When people seek justification by believing the promises of God and acting accordingly, they are saved by God’s promises.

We are saved by God’s promises, the promises that began with Adam and Eve, came through Abraham, were repeated to Israel, expounded to David, explained by the prophets, and realized in Jesus Christ on the cross. If we believe those promises, we will act accordingly. We will not try to save ourselves by keeping a list of legal requirements. But knowing that the promise of salvation is only in Jesus, we will surrender our will to His, giving our allegiance to Him.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 3.

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 chapter and the written devo above?
2. In your own thinking, what is the difference between demonstrating to God how strong you are and demonstrating to God how much you trust Jesus?
3. Why are so many people enamored with proving how strong they are?
4. How would you encourage someone to demonstrate trust in Jesus?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?