You Can’t Tell Them

“Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen,

to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.”

Psalm 106:47

This is the unwitting prayer of every soul in Christianity who truly loves God.  In crying out for truth and unity, they are crying out to be delivered from Christian ministers, Christian traditions, and Christian doctrines, for those are the things that are confusing and dividing them.  But if you tell them that, they will turn against you.

God has to show them that the thing they love, Christianity, is the very thing that is confusing and dividing them.  It is the thing God most hates.  Sincere believers everywhere are praying for God’s cure for the deadly disease of division, while clinging with all their might to the thing that divides them: Christianity.  They are like a man pleading to be rescued from drowning while holding on to a boulder.  You can’t have it both ways.  The prayer of sincere children of God to be united with others who believe will never be answered until they let go of the stone that is pulling them down.

But you can’t tell that to God’s children.  To come out of Christianity is such a frightening thought to them that only God knows how to enter that tender part of their hearts with His Son’s piercing, liberating light.

Israel’s Example

“The wrath of the LORD was kindled against His people,

insomuch that He abhorred His own inheritance.

And He gave them into the hand of the heathen;

they that hated them ruled over them.

Their enemies also oppressed them,

and they were brought into subjection under their hand.”

Psalm 106:40–42

God determined before the world began that the experiences of ancient Israel would be a warning to the body of Christ.  Israel’s history provided believers with a solemn warning, (1Cor. 10:6, 11–12), but God’s warning went unheeded.

Even before all the apostles died, God turned the recalcitrant body of Christ over to men who were strangers to the grace of God, and the experience of Israel was repeated:  “They that hated them ruled over them . . . and oppressed them and brought them into subjection.”  So it is, to this day.

May we live to see a restoration of God’s gentle favor toward His people.  May we live to see them trust their souls to men who have heard from God and have been sent by Him to guide them.  May we live to see God deliver His people from Christian overlords and put them once more in the nurturing hands of those who love them as He does!

Praise and Obedience

“Then they believed His words; they sang His praise.

They soon forgot His works; they waited not for His counsel. . . .

He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.”

Psalm 106:12–13, 15

Praising God does not exempt us from the requirement to wait for His voice and yield to His guidance.  Worship without obedience is nothing but self-willed flattery, and God has never been brought under its spell.  On the contrary, His greatest displeasure against those who make shows of devotion without possessing the substance of it is displayed by His granting to those worshippers the perverse, self-destructive desires of their hearts.

Go ahead and praise God; He is worthy of it.  But He is also worthy of obedience, and His righteousness is accomplished and His wrath appeased only by the wise souls who do both.

God Used the Egyptians, Too

“He turned [the Egyptians’] heart to hate His people,

to deal subtly with His servants.”

Psalm 105:25

“And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them,

and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

He saved them for His name’s sake,

that He might make His mighty power to be known.”

Psalm 106:10, 8

God turned the hearts of the Egyptians against Israel for the same reason He rescued Israel from the Egyptians: to make His name known on earth.  He loved people everywhere and wanted them to know Him.  And in that love for a world drowning in superstitious fear of many gods, God worked mighty miracles and made His name known so that people would know there is a true and living God.

How very blessed is this world that God loved us enough to make His name known, and that He chose to reveal His Son to us!  Where would we be if He had not done so?

Holy Sap

“The trees of the LORD are full of sap.”

Psalm 104:16a

The “sap” of the kingdom of God is the Spirit, and every tree that God plants in His kingdom is full of it.  This is why Paul said, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him” (Rom. 8:9).  And it is also why I warn everyone that no one is born again until he receives the holy Ghost (with the evidence of speaking in other tongues).  Do not believe the man who tells you otherwise!  Jesus said, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.  Leave them!  They are blind guides of blind people.  And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Mt. 15:13–14).  Do you want to fall into the pit with a blind man?  Just repent and let God plant you in His kingdom!

If God has not given you His sap, you do not have any and you do not belong to Him.  But those He plants in His kingdom are filled with His sap, and no one can ever take it from them.

A Safe Place To Obey God

“He gave them the lands of the heathen,

and they inherited the labor of the people,

so that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws.

Praise ye the LORD!”

Psalm 105:44–45

God gave Israel their own land, the land of Canaan, so that they would have a place where they could safely keep His commandments.  Moses told Pharaoh that Israel had to leave Egypt to serve God.  If the Israelites stayed in Egypt and served God the way He wanted them to, Moses said, the Egyptians would become so angry, they would stone the Israelites (Ex. 8:25–26).

It is no wonder the psalmist said, “Praise ye the LORD!”  He and his fellow Israelites had been given a place where they could live and worship the way God wanted them to, without having to worry about provoking the heathen!  What a wonderful, safe place the Promised Land was for God’s people!  There was no other place like it on earth, where the standard was God’s law, and those who kept the law were not laughed at or attacked for doing so!

God has such a place waiting for those who love His Son.  It is an entirely new earth, where we may walk in the Spirit without being criticized or ridiculed for doing so.  This present world is filled with wickedness, and we all feel the daily pressure of it.  But on that new earth, our Promised Land, God’s righteousness will be the only standard, and the peace will never be disturbed.

Praise ye the LORD!

Living Perfect before God

“I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.  O when will you come to me?

I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.”

Psalm 101:2

This is doable.  If David and others, such as Abraham (Gen. 17:1), walked perfect before God in the Old Testament, then certainly, we can walk perfect before God in the New.

More importantly, however, humbling ourselves to walk before the LORD with a perfect heart opens the way for Jesus to come to us.  And to have the Lord Jesus personally come to us is the greatest blessing possible on this side of the grave.  Let us firmly set our course and conduct ourselves in a perfect way in this life.  Then, if God will, we may experience the sweetness and glory of Jesus’ presence while we live in this world.

A Proud Look

“He who has a high look and a proud heart, I will not tolerate.”

Psalm 101:5

It is a good thing to care about our physical appearance.  We should love others enough to make the effort to be clean and presentable.  But it is not good when concern for one’s appearance consumes one’s attention.  The Bible says “a proud look” is one of the very worst of sins.  In fact, it is listed first among the seven sins God hates most:  “These six things does the LORD hate; yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look . . .” (Prov. 6:16–17).

So, go ahead and dress nice and comb your hair.  But remember that while people are judging you by your appearance, God is judging your heart.

No Choice

“Choose this day whom you will serve.”

Joshua 24:15

It is a blessing, a precious gift from God, to have choices, and Solomon encouraged young people to enjoy it: “Rejoice, O young man . . . and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes” (Eccl. 11:9a).  In other words, go ahead and make the choices you want to make.  And then, Solomon added this caution: “But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment” (Eccl. 11:9).

The judgment for the choices we make in this life is certain, and it belongs to God, not to us.  After we have made our choices here in this life, no choice remains for us at all.  The result of our choices, God’s eternal Judgment, is not ours at all.  May God help us make good choices now, so that God will choose to save us later.

God’s Salvation and Righteousness

“The LORD has made known His salvation.

His righteousness has He openly showed in the sight of the heathen.”

Psalm 98:2

The Spirit sent the old prophet named Simeon to the temple to see the baby Jesus, and as soon as he saw the child, he exclaimed, “Lord, my eyes have seen your salvation!” (Lk. 2:29–30).

Jesus is God’s salvation and God’s righteousness, in person.  The verse above, written when the Son was still hidden and unknown, promised that one day, God would make His beloved Son known to all the earth.  How blessed we are to have been born after He did it!

Think about it.  We can now know God’s salvation and righteousness because God has revealed him!  What a precious gift!  Only a fool would refuse the precious invitation to come and know God’s Son, the righteousness and salvation of God, for he, the man Jesus, is the best friend anyone could ever have.

Even the Smallest Things of Zion

“You shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion. . . .

Your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor her dust.”

Psalm 102:13–14

Our Jerusalem is in heaven, and it is unlikely that dust and rocks are in her as they are in this earth’s Jerusalem.  But God’s point was not that we should love dust and rocks.  His point was that His true servants prefer even the smallest things about Zion over the best things that other cities have to offer.

The Zion of God is the body of Christ, and His true servants take pleasure in everything about it.  Even the smallest things of the Zion of Christ mean much to them because they have God’s kind of heart.  A servant of God may at times grow tired, and it is appointed to every man once to die, but as long as a true servant of God is here and has his strength, he is eager to do good to Zion, the family of God on earth.

The next verse in Psalm 102 tells us that when God’s servants value the body of Christ above all else, sinners are compelled to fear God.  “For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor her dust.  So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth, your glory” (Ps. 102:14–15).

And the next verse in Psalm 102 tells us that when God’s servants love Zion enough for God to use them to build Zion up, the LORD reveals Himself in His glory!  “When the LORD shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory” (Ps. 102:16).

May God fill us with love for the body of Christ!  If He does, sinners will fear God, and God’s children will see His glory.

Sheep

“We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise!”

Psalm 100:3–4

David loved God so much that he believed the animal was honored if it was chosen to be slain and offered in sacrifice on God’s altar.  He once wrote, “The sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God” (Ps. 84:3).

In our beginning verse, David said we are God’s sheep, and he then invites us to joyfully enter God’s courts . . . where sheep were slaughtered and offered on the brass altar that stood in there.  David would have been thrilled at Paul’s exhortation to the saints in Rome: “I entreat you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1).

The gates are open; the fire is burning on the altar for sacrifice that stands in the LORD’s courtyard.  Who among His sheep today will receive David’s exhortation?  Who will follow Jesus’ example and pass through the gate with thanksgiving toward the altar, and enter as a joyful lamb into God’s court?

Coming to Judge

“The LORD . . . is coming to judge the earth.  With righteousness

shall He judge the world, and the people with equity.”

Psalm 98:9

With all our Bible study, indeed with all our living, let us never forget the fundamental truth proclaimed in hundreds of verses like the one above: namely, the Lord is coming to judge every one of us.  “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” wrote Paul, “that each may receive recompense for the things done in the body, according to what he did, whether good or bad” (2Cor. 5:10).

There will be no appeal of God’s judgment, no plea bargaining, no excuses accepted.  That judgment will be eternal, final in every respect.  It is no wonder that Paul begins the very next verse (2Cor. 5:11) with “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. . . .”

To Love God Is To Hate Evil

“You who love the LORD, hate evil!”

Psalm 97:10a

Hatred of evil is sure proof that our hearts love God.  Everyone who truly loves God abhors wickedness.  Listen to what the Son of God said through David, and feel his great love for his Father: “Do not I hate them, O LORD who hate you?  And am not I grieved with those that rise up against you?  I hate them with perfect hatred.  I count them my enemies!” (Ps. 139:21–22).

May we all love God that deeply and that truly.

All The Gods Must Worship Him

“Worship Him, all you gods. . . .  

For you, LORD, are high above all the earth;

you are exalted far above all gods.”

Psalm 97:7, 9

The word “gods” is often used in reference to men who are in authority, and to heavenly beings as well.  For example, God told Moses that He would make Moses a god over Pharaoh and Egypt (Ex. 7:1).  However, these verses from Psalm 97 remind us that no matter how much authority men or heavenly beings possess, all those “gods” are to bow at the feet of “the most high God” (Gen. 14:18–19), the One who gave them whatever power they have.

Zacharius: Not Just Dumb

“And it came to pass on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child,

and they were calling it by the name of his father Zacharias.

But his mother answered and said, ‘No!  He will be called John.’

And they said to her, ‘There is no one among your relatives

who is called by this name.’ And they motioned to his father,

to see what he wanted him to be called.”

Luke 1:59–62

We are told that John the Baptist’s father, Zacharius, was made dumb by God’s angel when the old priest did not believe the angel’s message (Lk. 1:19–20).  But apparently, the angel made Zacharius both deaf and dumb, for there would have been no need for Zacharius’ friends and relatives to make signs to him if he could still hear.

Where God’s Judgment Leads

“But judgment shall return unto righteousness,

and all the upright in heart shall follow it.”

Psalm 94:15

God’s judgments show the way to God’s righteousness, as the Psalmist said in another place, “The LORD is known by the judgments He executes” (Ps. 9:16).  And because those who are upright love God’s judgments, they follow them into His righteousness.

Take time to consider the judgments of God; they will make you wise and lead you into God’s kind of righteousness.

God’s Plants

“Those who are planted in the house of the LORD

shall flourish in the courts of our God.

In old age, they shall still bring forth fruit;

they shall be fat and flourishing,

to show that the LORD is upright.

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”

Psalm 92:13–15

The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek . . . to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD  that He might be glorified – Isaiah 61:1a, 3.

Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted – Matthew 15:13.

Dealing with Injustice

“When the wicked sprout up like the grass,

and when all the workers of iniquity flourish,

it is only that they shall be destroyed forever.”

Psalm 92:7

If we remember the truth stated in this verse – the wicked shall be destroyed forever – we will not become bitter when those who turn to wickedness prosper.  In the end, nobody ever “gets by”.  Keeping that in mind gives us the strength to obey God when others do not.

In this world, the wicked sometimes prosper, and the righteous sometimes have little.  Prepare yourself to deal with both of those realities while you live in this world.  If you do, you will find the strength to overcome the oppression of the ungodly.  Your heart will rest in perfect confidence that after this vain life is over, no wicked soul will ever again be blessed and no righteous soul will ever again suffer.

Wicked Rulers

“Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with you,

which frames mischief by a law?

They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous,

and condemn the innocent blood.”

Psalm 94:20–21

Those who govern in this world are sometimes very wicked, and they sometimes pass laws to promote their wickedness, laws which oppress the upright and condemn innocent people.  The Bible provides stories of such bad government, such as the story of Nebuchadnezzar making a law that required everyone in his kingdom to bow to his huge golden image.

God can be extraordinarily patient with such evil rulers, and when He is, His children can grow weary as they wait for His judgments to relieve them of the oppression of the wicked.  But be faithful.  Our heavenly Father’s righteous judgment will come.  It always comes.

The author of this wonderful Psalm 94 encouraged himself, and us, in the two verses immediately following the two quoted above.  He concluded his psalm by saying, “But the LORD is my defense, and my God is the rock of my refuge.  And He shall bring upon [wicked rulers] their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.”