Psalm 122: The Judgments of Jesus

Today’s reading is Psalm 122.

The Thrones of Judgment

We’ve already tied Psalm 122 to Deuteronomy 16:16-17. In that earlier passage, the Lord commanded the men of Israel to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year. Of course, at that time, it wasn’t yet known the place would be Jerusalem. However, this command is certainly background for our psalm.

Perhaps I’m making too strong a connection to that passage. However, I can’t help but notice the very next thing the Lord commanded through Moses in Deuteronomy 16:18-20:

You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you (ESV).

This catches my attention because our pilgrimage song brings up an additional reason for being glad to go to Jerusalem.

There thrones for judgment were set,
the thrones of the house of David.
Psalm 122:5 (ESV)

Unlike places of worship, God did appoint judges in every city and among all the tribes. The tribes did not have to go to Jerusalem to have their cases tried or their disputes settled. Yet, there was something special about the throne of David. There was something special about judgment by the king. Remember, so many people came to receive judgment from David, Absalom was able to garner support for his rebellion throughout the kingdom from among those people (2 Samuel 15:1-6). Recall, Solomon displayed his wisdom as two prostitutes brought their case before him as king (1 Kings 3:16-28). There was something special about the king’s judgment.

Further, the word translated “judgments” grabs our attention after our eleven weeks in Psalm 119. It’s the same word we saw 23 times in that ode to God’s Word (MISHPAT). It was variously translated “judgments,” “rules,” “decrees.” I suggested “rulings” as the English term most fitting to encompass all its uses in Psalm 119. It conveys the same idea in Psalm 122. Just to add to the 119 connection, the word translated “decreed” in Psalm 122:4, is the same word translated “testimonies” 23 times in Psalm 119 (EDUT).

While I doubt folks sang Psalm 122 right after Psalm 119, we can’t help but make the connection between the incredible decrees and rulings of the Lord and those thrones of rulings of David in Jerusalem. When the king was doing his job properly, he meted out the decrees and rulings of God governed by God’s Word.

Finding Jesus in His House

David’s thrones of judgment in Jerusalem is precisely where we find Jesus in Psalm 122. We’ve made it very clear this week we see Christ’s church in Psalm 122. For we Christians, the house of the Lord is not a building on top of a mountain in the middle east. The city of the Lord is not a geographical location in Canaan. The mountain of the Lord is not a geological formation of the earth’s crust near the Dead Sea. All these have their fulfillment in the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven (Hebrews 12:22-24).

As David’s thrones of just rulings were established in Jerusalem, the Son of David’s thrones of just rulings are established on His mountain, in His city, in His house, in His church. This is not to say some monolithic institutionalized organization has been established and whatever it says goes. This is to say, we cannot surrender to the rulings and judgments of Jesus apart from His church. This is to say, when the church is working properly, it will only impart the rulings and judgments of Jesus.

As Christ’s church, we do not get to go off on our own and establish our own rules. We do not get to vote and change the teaching of Jesus or the revelation of the Holy Spirit that came through the apostles and prophets. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd. Jesus is the King. Jesus is the judge. One of the great reasons to journey out of Meshech and Kedar into Christ’s church is because that is where, when worked out properly, we find the rulings of Jesus being lived out and practiced.

Praise the Lord!

Next week’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

What do you want to share with others from Psalm 122?

Psalm 119:161-176: Seven Times a Day I Praise You

Today’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 161-176).

Praise Without Ceasing

Other than the very first line, this stanza is the brightest of the psalm. The psalmist rejoices, praises, hopes, loves, endures. But it is the first line that really sets the stage for the rest of it.

Princes persecute me without cause…
Psalm 119:161a (ESV)

The psalmist has been faithful to the Lord. The psalmist has loved God and loved God’s Word. The psalmist has walked with God. For 160 verses, the psalmist has demonstrated his faith and trust. Yet, the enemies still persecute. And what powerful enemies they are. Princes.

At some point, we might expect the psalmist to give up. But he doesn’t. He says it this way even after all this time:

Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous rules.
Psalm 119:164 (ESV).

Morning, noon, evening, midnight and more, he praises God. His day is full of praising not because his day is easy, pleasurable, convenient, enjoyable. His day is full of praising God because God’s Word is righteous. Not just His Word, his rules. That is, His decrees, His judgments, His rulings. In God’s judgments, the princes have been able to keep on persecuting without repercussion. God has yet to bring justice into the psalmist’s life condemning those who would rather the psalmist be condemned. Yet, the psalmist trusts God’s judgments and keeps on praising.

What a response. It parallels Paul’s instruction in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (ESV).

I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what you wish God would have already handled, dealt with, judged. I don’t know the Lord’s time table. However, I know His judgments and decrees are the right ones. If He hasn’t brought the justice yet, it is only because it has not yet been the best time to do so. Praise the Lord! Praise Him again and again. Rejoice in Him. Be thankful He has the strength, the courage, the love to act at the very best time even while He is sad over our pain and struggle. And remember, our trials actually grow us to perfection (see James 1:2-4).

What’s going on in your world today? What can you find to praise God for? Find something and praise Him. He deserves it. You need it.

Praise the Lord!

Today’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 161-176).

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 119 prompt or improve your praise of God?

Psalm 119:129-144: Escaping Sin’s Dominion

Today’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 129-144).

The Answer to the Psalmist’s Request

In Psalm 119:133, the psalmist requests, “Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me” (ESV).

No doubt, God, to some degree, granted the psalmist’s request in his own lifetime. I’m sure God helped the psalmist have grace and strength to obey. However, I can’t help but think about Paul’s teaching in Romans 6-7.

Notice Romans 6:14. “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (ESV). In other words, our psalmist’s request was not fully granted until Jesus, whose sacrifice purchased the grace which sets us free. The problem with the Law was not with the laws themselves. The laws, the rules, the judgments, the precepts, the statutes, the words, the decrees were great. They were life itself. The problem was what to do when a person broke a law. Adding another law on top of the one that was broken could not provide freedom from being a law-breaker.

Certainly, while the Law was in full force, God administered grace. Our psalmist demonstrates that again and again throughout this psalm and others. But this grace was anchored in something that had not yet occurred when Psalm 119 was written. It was anchored in God’s knowledge of an event yet future to the psalmist.

However, praise God, it is in our past. The grace of Jesus breaks the stranglehold of sin. The sacrifice of Jesus provides the forgiveness that sets us free. The resurrection of Jesus provides the power and reign which strengthens us to truly overcome. The gift of God’s Spirit provides the victory we long for in our fight against temptation and sin.

The psalmist prayed God would remove the dominion of sin. God responded by sending Jesus.

Praise the Lord!

Next week’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 145-160).

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

What do you want to share with others from Psalm 119:129-145?

Psalm 119:129-144: As Righteous as Righteous Can Be

Today’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 129-144).

The LORD is Righteous

I’ve loved this walk through Psalm 119 so much, I’ve thought about putting together some Bible class material going through this single psalm some day. I’ve already decided if I do, I will ask at least one repeat question for every stanza. I’d ask the students to read and reread the stanza and then try to come up with a summarizing name for each one. The easiest stanza to perform this exercise with might just be the TSADHE stanza, vss. 137-144.

“Righteous.”

The Hebrew word for righteous is “tsedek.” Can you see from this transliteration that the first letter is TSADHE? This and most of the words in the family of “righteousness” words begin with that letter. No wonder, “righteous” and “righteousness” makes such an appearance in this stanza.

Certainly, when the psalmist makes a big deal out of the “righteousness” of God and His Word, that includes a judicial holiness. God doesn’t break the Law. God does what is right. God does what is just. However, the concept of God’s righteousness in the old covenant is not emphasizing a law God keeps as if the Law is above God and God is forced to submit to it. Rather, the Law emanates from God. The real issue of God’s righteousness is not that God does what the Law says, but that God does what He says. God keeps His covenants. God fulfills His promises. God remains true to His nature.

This is why the TSADHE stanza doesn’t merely claim the Lord is righteous, but as we read all eight verses, we get the clear notion God is a righteous as righteous can be. His righteousness is righteous forever. We can test His words and find them true and worthy of love. Even when trouble and anguish hit, we can go to the bank with God’s Word. He does what He says. He is righteous. No one is more righteous than the God of righteousness.

Praise the Lord! Let us pursue His righteousness and trust in it.

Today’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 129-144).

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 119:129-144 prompt or improve your trust in God?

Psalm 119:129-144: Streams of Tears

Today’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 129-144).

What Makes Me Cry?

The final line of the PE section forces a question upon me. What makes me cry?

Just the other day, I was in a group chat in which someone asked if a particular book made people cry. I think about videos, stories, songs, shows, movies that make me cry. Honestly, every time I read or hear that kids’ book “I’ll Love You Forever,” the water works turn on. The older I get, the more that prompts me to cry. However, I have to admit, I fall short of our psalmist’s statement.

My eyes shed streams of tears,
because people do not keep your law.
Psalm 119:136 (ESV)

I live in a world full of sin. Sadly, I’ve contributed my own fair share of it myself. I do often shed tears over my own sins. There are some particular people, family, friends, loved ones whose sins prompt tears. However, I rarely cry just over sin around me in general.

I either ignore it. Or it makes me angry. Granted, the psalmist is angered by sin as well (see vs. 113). I don’t have to feel guilt about being angered by sin. At the same time, I am moved to considered the psalmist’s response of sadness.

The psalmist doesn’t explain the exact motivation of his sadness. Yes, he is sad because people do not keep God’s law. However, he doesn’t say if his sadness is directed toward the law or the people. Is he sad because God’s law is worthy of keeping? God is worthy of obedience. It makes the psalmist sad to see God so ill-treated by those who ignore His will. Or is he sad because he knows what disobedience to God’s law means for the people who disobey? He knows disobedience corrupts and enslaves those who disobey. Sin leads people away from being the good kind of people we all want to be. Ultimately, of course, sin leads to judgment and condemnation. The psalmist cries as he considers the outcome of their disobedience.

Perhaps the psalmist doesn’t delineate between the two because both issues motivate his tears. The world is full of disobedience and of the disobedient. Can you think of anything more sad than that?

With that said, let us commit to be no cause for those tears. May we be those who bring joy to the psalmist, to the Spirit who inspired him, and to God who listened to his pleas. May we commit to keep God’s Law.

Today’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 129-144).

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 119:129-144 admonish you?

Psalm 119:113-128: Are We Really to Be Afraid of God’s Judgments?

Today’s reading is Psalm 119.

Be Very Afraid and Have No Fear

Yesterday, we were surprised in SAMEKH to read about hating the double-minded and demanding evildoers depart. Today, we get to the last line of SAMEKH and we are surprised again:

My flesh trembles for fear of you,
and I am afraid of your judgments.
-Psalm 119:120 (ESV)

We don’t even get to hedge, claiming this “fear” is “merely” a reverential, worshipful awe. It’s not. This is the same word used in Isaiah 2:10, 19, to describe how people should act before the judgment of the Lord, hiding under rocks and holes in the ground for terror before the Lord.

Surely, this psalmist loves the Lord. Doesn’t perfect love cast out fear? (see 1 John 4:18). Are we who love God’s Word to be terrified, trembling before the Lord, afraid of His judgment? Or are we to declare love has cast out terror and we have nothing to fear?

Yes.

Take SAMEKH as a whole. Yes, the last line talks about terror, but look at vs. 114:

You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in your word (ESV).

Unlike the terrified folks of Isaiah 2:10, 19 who hide under rocks and in caves, the psalmist actually hides and finds shelter in God. Does that sound like terror before God? Or does that sound like confidence because of God? The psalmist further pleads with God to be the upholding strength to give him safety. Is that terror or is that hope?

Now, which is it? Is God the terrifying deity before whom there is no protection and from which we will try to flee? Or is He the shelter, shield, and safety so we have nothing to fear?

The answer is, frankly, that depends.

If we decide to be the double-minded, evildoers who reject the Lord’s statutes and pursue wickedness, we should be afraid of God. We should be very afraid. Though we think of ourselves as valuable silver, if we spurn God, He will spurn us like dross. Our cunning plans to escape His judgments will be vain. In that state, there is nothing left for us but to be terrified of God’s judgments.

The psalmist, however, because he is terrified of God’s judgments has chosen a different path. He has chosen to submit to God’s judgments, follow God’s Word, love the Lord’s Law, and seek God’s strengthening hand to keep His statutes. Because he is afraid of the Lord, he has no reason to be afraid of the Lord.

I know that sounds odd. Consider an illustration. If I fear getting a speeding ticket, what will I do? I’ll obey the speed laws. Because I obey the speed laws, I have no fear of getting a speeding ticket. Because I’m afraid of getting a speeding ticket, I have no reason to be afraid of getting a speeding ticket.

SAMEKH demonstrates the same point in our relationship with God. When we realize God’s judgments are terrible on those who linger in and pursue evil, holding God at arm’s length, continuing in evil and as enemies, we fear them. We are terrified of them. We can either be like the demons who believe and merely tremble (see James 2:19), or because of our fear we can seek the only safety there is. We can seek forgiveness and strength in the Lord, learning from, loving, and living by His Word. Then our terror has led us to have nothing to fear.

Be afraid of God. Be very afraid. That is the only way to be completely unafraid of God.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 113-128).

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 119:113-128 admonish you?

Psalm 119: Blessed!

Today’s reading is Psalm 119. (vss. 1-16)

The DoorWay to the Psalms

It’s been a few years since we read it together, but do you recall how the entire psalter began?

Blessed is the Man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1:1-2 (ESV)

Now, reread the beginning of the longest psalm:

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!

Psalm 119:1-3

The doorway to the longest psalm is the same doorway to all the psalms: delighting in God’s instructions. This one is Blessed!

The Pink Elephant in the Room

Wait! But what about Galatians 3:10-14? Doesn’t Paul say the Law is a curse? How can the psalmist say the person who delights in God’s law is blessed? And what about Romans 7? Aren’t we trying to escape the Law, not delight in it?

Neither of these passages say either of these things. In fact, both passages still highlight the blessing and delight of God’s law. Galatians 3:10 does not say the person who delights and keeps the Law is cursed. Rather, the person who does not keep all the Law is cursed. And in Romans 7:22, Paul declared he totally delighted in God’s Law. In Romans 7:12, he doubles down declaring “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” Paul wasn’t trying to escape the Law, he was trying to keep it.

There’s the fly in the ointment. The Law is not a curse, violating the Law is the curse. We’ve all violated God’s Law. Other than Jesus, every person who reached the age to choose between evil and good has chosen evil. Every one! That includes you. That includes me. Now we come face to face with the curse. We can’t make up for breaking one legal stipulation by adding another one. No legal stipulation can ever justify us by itself. The legal codes will, by themselves, only ever show where we are guilty.

As Paul explains in Romans 7-8, the weakness of God’s Law is not the Law itself, but me. I’m the problem. I didn’t keep the Law. Once I’ve disobeyed the rules, God can’t add enough new rules to make up for the ones I’ve broken. Law cannot justify. This, of course, is why the person who walks according to the counsel of the ungodly, stands in the way of sinners, and sits in the seat of scoffers is not blessed.

Yet, God’s Law itself is still a blessing. God’s Law expresses His mind, His way, His will. God’s Law shows righteousness and holiness. God’s Law shows the path to human flourishing because God knows how the cosmos He created works. Meditating on, walking in, and following God’s Law is not an attempt to earn an extrinsic reward at the end of time like getting to have a trip to Disney World because we made all As on our report card. Delighting in God’s instruction, word, and promises provides blessing because it makes us more like God. It makes us more like the kind of people who can thrive in God’s presence. It makes us the kind of people death cannot defeat. God tells us in His statutes precisely how the cosmos He created really works and how to get the best results for living in it. That’s a blessing.

Certainly, under Christ’s covenant, we recognize the Law of Moses, used to govern Israel in preparation for the blessing of the Messiah’s kingdom, was fulfilled in the law of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 9:21; Matthew 5:17-20). The fullness of God’s Law is what God was pointing to in Christ and His will for our lives, not the keeping of the 613 legal stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant. But as we understand the fullness of God’s Law, and in an even better way than the author of Psalm 119 ever could, we discover the blessed life. The blessed life is not sinning up a storm but going to heaven when we die. It simply won’t work like that. The blessed life is meditating on, delighting in, loving, and following God’s Word, Instructions, Statutes, Rules, Law, Promises, Way, Judgments, Commandments, Precepts.

If God’s Way Works, and it does, then the one who walks God’s Way is blessed. Psalm 119 is all about that blessing.

Certainly, this isn’t all we need to say about this, but it’s enough for today. Keep coming back as we fill in the gaps on this important point. In fact, don’t miss this week’s Good Friday post.

Today’s reading is Psalm 119 (vss. 1-16)

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 119:1-16 admonish you?