Psalm 126: Remember

Today’s reading is Psalm 126.

Strength From Looking Back

Years ago, Keith Green wrote a prayer/song which illustrates precisely the spiritual struggle of our pilgrim in Psalm 126.

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to you and dead to me

Frankly, it’s a hard song to sing in congregational worship precisely because I do know how I ought to be. I know I ought not be dry-eyed, old-faithed, hard-hearted, with cold praying. I don’t even want to admit I ever feel like that. But I do. Sadly, I do have times when I feel like the fountain of faith and blessing has dried up. I’m not sure I want to stick with it anymore.

Our pilgrim is in that time in Psalm 126. However, instead of giving up, he writes this psalm. The first half of the psalm gives our first step in hanging on to our Lord and staying on the pilgrimage.

In this prayer for God to “restore our fortunes,” the pilgrim looks back to earlier times of restoration. He recalls the times when his mouth was full of laughter. He remembers the shouts of joy. He reminds himself of the times when even the Gentiles said YHWH had done great things for him.

I love how the first half of this psalm ends. It’s almost like the psalmist builds himself up. He recalls others saying, “The LORD has done great things for them.” It is then as if the psalmist is saying, “You know what? That’s right. The LORD really has done great things for us.” Therefore, he ends with, “We are glad.”

In the dry times, look back. Recall the blessings. Remember the restoration. Meditate on the salvation God has given you. Think on the past victories. The same God who did that for you then is still, like the mountains which were around Jerusalem in Psalm 125, surrounding you. He will bring fresh restoration.

Praise the Lord!

What blessings and victories can you remember today?

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 126.

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 126 admonish you?

Psalm 126: The Dry Times

Today’s reading is Psalm 126.

It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like This

Psalm 126 seems backwards. We expect the poem to begin with the request for God to restore their fortunes and end with the joy of God’s restoration response. Instead, this psalm says God had already restored Zion’s fortunes, but then begs God to restore their fortunes. Wait! Which is it? Has God already restored their fortunes or do they still need Him to?

The psalm is not at all backwards. Rather, the pilgrim is acquainted with real life. He came to Zion. It was so amazing he felt like he was dreaming. He and those with him rejoiced and shouted for joy. But life has its ups and downs. Life in Jerusalem is no different.

If we see this as a post-exilic psalm, it makes perfect sense. When God allowed the return, the people rejoiced. They couldn’t believe their fortune. What enslaved people get to return to their homeland? But they did. As they came back into their homeland, took residence, and started to rebuild, it was as if they were dreaming. They couldn’t contain their joy. But one day led to another. Some got distracted. Enemies still discouraged. There was so much more work to be done. They struggled. They could either give up or cry out to God for strength and further restoration.

If we see this as another step in the pilgrim’s story we’ve been telling through these Songs of Ascents, it makes perfect sense. Our pilgrim left warmongering Meshech and Kedar. When he arrived in Jerusalem, it was like a dream come true. He had made it to the city of peace. He knew he made it only because of God’s help. He praised God and shouted for joy. But he still faced scoffers. The scepter of wickedness still held influence on those around him. The joy diminished. Not every day was golden. He could either give up or cry out to God for more strength and further restoration.

If we see this as another step in our own pilgrimage, it makes perfect sense. We heard the gospel of Jesus and surrendered in baptism for the remission of our sins. Coming up out of that watery grave was incredible. Knowing we were given new life was fantastic. We experienced an overflowing fountain of blessing. We sang for joy and celebrated with our new family. Even others around us could tell God had done some incredible working in our lives. But we still lived in our homes, attended our schools, worked our jobs. Our bills still have to be paid. We still get sick every year. Friends and family still get sick and even die. The car still breaks down. And even more surprising, some of our trouble even comes from people we go to church with. Not to mention, our spiritual progress isn’t always in one direction. Sometimes it feels like we take one step forward and two steps back. We look back at the joy of our initial restoration by God and wonder why the fountain of blessing has dried up. We have a choice. We can give up or we can call out to God for grace, strength, and further restoration.

Our pilgrim psalmist is on a journey. He wants to convince us to make the journey. But he refuses to blow smoke. He tells the journey honestly. The journey is worth it. Shouts of joy have happened, do happen, and will happen. Don’t give up just because today doesn’t feel like one of those days. Remember God’s restoration in your life. Remember God will continue that work. God has blessed you. He is blessing you. He will bless you. Hang on to Him no matter what.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 126.

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 126 prompt or improve your praise of God?

Psalm 122: I Was Glad When Others Encouraged Me to Worship

Today’s reading is Psalm 122.

“Going to Church”

I appreciate as much as the next Christian that we’re supposed to be the church. But please allow me to point out we are also supposed to go to church. “Church” is an English word we use to translate the Greek word ekklesia. We can get into all kinds of arguments about how people use the term incorrectly at times (and they often do). But like it or not, in Hebrews 12:22-23, the writer says we have “come to” translating a word that can also be translated “gone to” a series of things. One of those is ekklesia–assembly or church. Church is something we can go to or come to.

It may help you to read the etymonline.com entry for “church” here. You may have heard the English “church” comes from the German “kirche.” Have you also heard where the Germans got their word? It apparently came from the Greek word kyriakon meaning “of the Lord.” Specifically as used in a phrase meaning “house of the Lord.”

Which takes us right back to our psalm of the week.

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the LORD!”
Psalm 122:1 (ESV)

No doubt, in his original context, the psalmist was glad he had been encouraged to go to the temple in Jerusalem. He was glad someone prodded him to travel to present himself before the Lord during one of the three feasts (recall Deuteronomy 16:16-17). In other words, he was glad when someone said, “Let’s go worship the Lord at His house!”

For the Jews, especially for those farther and farther from Jerusalem (especially those traveling from “Meshech” and “Kedar”), going to the house of the Lord was a trek. Indeed, as we’ve styled it in these posts about the Songs of Ascents, it was a pilgrimage. They not only had to prepare to travel, but they had all the worries about leaving their home behind. They weren’t working their fields. They weren’t protecting their property. The trip could be days, perhaps weeks. But our psalmist doesn’t begrudge those encouraging him, he is glad about it.

This is how we Christians feel about worshiping the Lord as well. When someone says it is time for us to go to the house of the Lord and worship Him, we don’t begrudge it. We aren’t annoyed by it. We aren’t put out by it. We are glad. Of course, the house of the Lord, the church, is the assembly of people, not the building in which they assemble. But we are glad when folks say, “It’s time to gather and worship together; it’s time to go to church.”

In a day when folks seem to be trying to figure out how to gather and worship as little as we can be convinced God absolutely requires, we should probably spend some time in Psalm 122. I was glad when they said to me, “Let’s go to church. Let’s go to the house of the Lord. Let’s get together and worship.”

Praise the Lord!

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 122 admonish you?

Psalm 120: The Journey Begins

Today’s reading is Psalm 120.

Ascending the Mountain of God

In Book V of the Psalms, we’ve studied some exciting things. We studied the Hallel psalms (113-118). We spent eleven weeks with a deep dive into delight for God’s Word walking through Psalm 119. Now we begin another fantastic series: the Songs of Ascents. Psalms 120-134 are all labeled “A Song of Ascents.”

We don’t quite know why they were called that. Some suggest these were songs compiled for the return journey of Ezra or Nehemiah. Many suggest these were songs sung by Israelites as they traveled their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the feast days. Apparently at some point, there is evidence the temple choirs would sing these psalms as they ascended the 15 steps of the temple one at a time during the feasts.

No matter what the origination was, the series presents a story of pilgrimage. We begin this week in Psalm 120 dwelling in enemy territory, we travel to Jerusalem over the next few psalms and by Psalm 134 we are ascending to the peak of God’s mountain to lift our hands in His holy place and worship the Lord.

As Psalm 48 declares, Zion is the envy of the world. It’s elevation is beautiful. It’s city is daunting. The kings of the earth panic at the sight of her. These psalms ascend that mountain. Psalm 24:3 asks who shall ascend the Lord’s holy hill. While that particular psalm had its own answer in context, we come back to that theme in these songs of ascents and we make the journey.

Whatever the original time of compilation, we can clearly see layers of application. We can see the original ascent from Egypt in the time of Moses to the Promised Land under Joshua to Jerusalem in the time of David. We can see the second Exodus from Babylon and the restoration of God’s people. We can see the annual ascent of pilgrims longing to be in the Lord’s city to worship. But perhaps most of all, we can see our own ascent. We can see our pilgrimage from this world up the heavenly mountain to find ourselves in eternity around the throne of God on His high mountain. Picture the scene of worship in Revelation 5.

Each step of this journey from Psalm 120-134 will give us insight to our path, holding on to Jesus’s hand, to the throne room of God in eternity.

I’m so excited as our journey begins this week. Don’t miss a single day. I believe we will all be blessed by this study of pilgrimage.

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 praise of God?

Faithful and Wise with the Master’s Property

Today’s reading is Matthew 25.

Jesus continues His deep dive into His question: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant?” (Matthew 24:45). Each of the teaching vignettes in Matthew 25 is exposing a facet of loyalty to an absent Master. The Parable of the Ten Virgins explained we practice loyalty by keeping up our preparations even when the Bridegroom is delayed. Now Jesus tells a story about another master going on a journey. The kingdom “will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.” Who is the faithful and wise servant? The one who is faithful and wise with the Master’s property. But what does that look like?

Jesus describes three servants: two are good and faithful, one is wicked and slothful. The important difference is not ability. Neither is it the amount of property the master invested. The difference is in action. The faithful and good servants are loyal to the absent master because they use the master’s property for the master’s benefit. The wicked and slothful servant was thinking only of protecting his own hide. He didn’t even do the most basic thing to provide his master some benefit, putting the talent in a bank.

Amazingly, the wicked and slothful servant seems to think he is somehow praising the master. That business about reaping where he didn’t sow and gathering where he didn’t scatter seed is, first of all, an interesting metaphor coming from a man who buried the master’s seed money in the ground. Further, it actually seems to be a statement of the master’s ability, strength, and power. He gathers fruit even when he didn’t plant any seeds. That’s pretty impressive. That being said, the one-talent man was afraid because he also believed the master was harsh, stubborn, merciless. In other words, this statement seems to be saying, “I was scared to lose what was yours, but I know you are powerful enough to get fruit even when you don’t sow seed. So, I buried your money. You have it back. Now you can make out of that whatever you want.” The sense we can get from this guy was as if he decided he of all the servants had figured out the real way to be loyal. It was like he thought they had been given a trick assignment, and he knew the right answer. However, he was wrong. Loyalty to the absent master means working with the property he gave to the servants in order to grow the master’s property.

Considering our service to our Master who has yet to return, this story reminds me of 1 Corinthians 4:7: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” Everything we have and are actually belongs to Jesus. Our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our houses, our cars, our clothes, our jobs, our abilities, our money, our family, our friends, our congregation, our on and on and on all belong to Jesus. Why do we act like there are some things that are God’s and some things that are ours to do what we want with? Everything we have and are should be used for God’s glory and benefit. Consider also 1 Corinthians 3:5-15. We are workers planting and watering in the Lord’s field. We are workers on the Lord’s building. Our work may be gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, but we must work. We must not sit on what God has given us as if we are just going to give back to Him what He gave us in the end.

Recognize the main point here. Loyal servants word hard to increase their Master’s property, even when He isn’t around. Loyal servants don’t claim any of the return is their own. It is His. Even though the Master’s property increases because of their work, the loyal servants give it all to him. That is loyalty to the absent Master. Loyal servants grow the Master’s accounts, the Lord’s property, not their own. Wicked, slothful servants are more concerned about saving their own hide than benefiting their Master. But our Master doesn’t invest His property with us to hide and protect. He gives us His property so we will work, trade, grow, and provide a return on investment. And, please, don’t think this is about having a large stock portfolio when we die. Jesus won’t actually be looking for money when He returns. This is about growing His kingdom and spreading its borders here on earth.

Who then is the faithful and wise servant? The one who is faithful and wise with the Master’s property.

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. What property has the Master given you?
3. Why is it so easy to neglect using the property the Master has given us for His benefit and instead just think about ourselves?
4. What do you think providing a return for our Master looks like?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Walk

Today’s reading is Ephesians 4.

Making and being disciples is about so much more than simply getting people baptized. Discipling is not just about the initiation into Christ, but about becoming more like Him. Putting off the old self and putting on the new is a process. It is a journey. It is a walk. So let us walk, not as we once did before we entered Christ, but more and more as He walked. And let’s help each other walk this way. That is truly making disciples.

Tomorrow’s reading is Ephesians 5.