Joy Invites Others In
Chasing Fish
Maybe it's just because I'm a very simple man, but I find it astounding how much there is to be learned just from watching children. Just today I overheard my four year old rejoicing with her mother that she had completed her writing assignment for her 'reading lesson.' Stacey was excited with her, but that wasn't enough. I heard the overjoyed little voice: 'Can I go show Daddy?' She received approval from her mother and came bounding up the stairs to my office.
That made me think. Why did she want to come show me? What did she stand to gain by showing me her lines of k's, f's, h's, and m's repeated over and over? She came to me because she was full of joy and wanted me share in it and to rejoice with her. There is something intuitive about joy that even a four year old understands: joy is never more wonderful than when shared. There's something overflowing about true joy that compels us to invite others to join with us in our joy.
Which again made me think. Why am I so slow to evangelize? Why does it seem so forced? Why does corporate worship sometimes seem like a chore? Biblically speaking, I think it's because I am not consistently finding my fullest joy in my God. If I was, my natural impulse would be to speak of it and to invite others to join in my joy.
Isn't this what we see in Psalm 34?
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!
Do you see it? He calls on others to join in his joy! Then he testifies to how he found his joy:
I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
There it is! I sought the Lord, I cried to him, and he has heard me, answered me, protected me, kept me! He is good! And then again is a call to participate:
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!
And then the pattern repeats through the Psalm. What David is getting at there is the principle my four year old daughter showed me this morning. When we find true delight for our souls in something, we impulsively call on others to join in our joy.
So if I'm finding that evangelism seems a burden and worship seems a chore, perhaps I don't need to think first about technique. Perhaps my first question should be, 'Am I delighting in God? Is my joy really in him?' Then I need to read the word, preach the gospel to my own heart, remind myself of how he has heard this poor man when I have cried to him.
If I am faithful to find my joy in him, I will speak to others, because joy invites others in. And do you know what? That kind of authentic overflow might just be the most effective technique out there for stirring the hearts of others.
Singing a Hymn with Jesus
The Last Supper
Mark 14.26 has always struck me as a bit of a funny verse. I've always wondered just why Mark felt it was necessary to insert this little detail into the narrative of Jesus's last night. After they finish eating the Passover meal, where Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, we hear this: "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."
Why do we need to know that, I wondered.
As it turns out, this was part of the Passover meal as celebrated according to the Mishnah. The Hallel Psalms (Psalms 115-118) were sung at various points in the evening, especially toward the end, with the drinking of the fourth cup (there are four total). And it all wraps up around midnight.
So this detail is important for a number of reasons, not the least of which that it specifies the chronology of events as passing from evening (14.17) to midnight (here), to cock-crow (14.72), to morning (15.1), just exactly as Jesus had predicted the previous day in the Olivet Discourse (Mark 13.35). This is unfolding exactly as Jesus has predicted the 'coming' of the Son of Man would.
But beyond that, my (hopefully sanctified) imagination got working. The disciples got to sing a hymn with Jesus. What would that be like? How cool would it be to sing with my Lord? And then I got to thinking about what they would have actually been singing; so I went back and read those Hallel Psalms.
Psalm 118 is significant, of course, because it's the Psalm that the people are reciting when Jesus approaches Jerusalem in Mark 11. Psalm 117 is glorious, but short, so probably not what they would have been singing (or at least not all that they would have sung). Psalm 115 would probably have been sung earlier, leading to them likely (this is definitely speculation) singing Psalm 116 as Jesus prepares to go out to Gethsemane.
Can I challenge you with something? At some point today, read Psalm 116 as Jesus would have sung it that night. Imagine what was going on in our Lord's heart as he prepared for Gethsemane and Golgotha. Imagine how these words took on meaning like never before:
I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.I believed, even when I spoke, “I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.”What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 116, ESV)
And now, think about us. How amazing is it that we can sing about God hearing our pleas for mercy because Christ went to Golgotha? How precious is it that he inclines his ear to us because he did not incline his ear to his Son in Gethsemane? How wonderful that the snares of death which encompassed Christ have been defeated so that I will never feel the pangs of Sheol! I can call on the name of the Lord and ask him to deliver me, and know for certain that he will because he first delivered Jesus, the firstborn from the dead.
Now I actually can sing Psalm 116 with my Lord in an even truer sense than the disciples did on that fateful night. What they sung, unaware, I sing with retrospective faith, believing that Jesus has forever filled up the meaning of this Psalm, and will always sing it with me.
A Cottage Meditation on Psalm 19
The heavens declare the glory of God
Being at the cottage is good for me. I have found that usually I’m able to meet with God pretty quickly when I feel close to his creation.
This week has been special for me. It is the first time that I’ve been at the cottage and studying for a sermon at the same time. I’ve been able to enjoy God in creation and delight in him in his word. The comparison is worth thinking about.
I think sometimes we treat nature like the place we need to go to be near God. For example, when was the last time you saw a Christian retreat centre in an urban setting? And it’s not hard to see why. God is very present in the beauty and serenity of the water, the clouds, the open skies, the sunsets, the hills, and the beautiful vegetation. God is here.
Psalm 19 reminds us that ‘the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies above proclaim his handiwork.’ That’s true. In nature we see God. But we often stop reading (or at least remembering) the psalm there, even though it definitely doesn’t end there.
The second half of Psalm 19 goes on to recount just how amazing the revelation of God is in his Bible, over and above the revelation of God in creation. And David, who knew what it was to be ‘out in nature’, was writing that before most of your Bible was written.
From verses 7-11 the specific wonders of the Bible are made known:
- It revives the soul
- It makes wise the simple
- It rejoices the heart
- It enlightens the eyes
- It endures forever
- It is righteous altogether
- It is more to be desired than sweet things or expensive things
- It warns
- It rewards
No glimpse of nature can cause me to discern my errors. No beautiful sunset can declare me innocent or keep me back from sin. No mountaintop experience could ever make my words and thoughts acceptable in the sight of God. Only God will do those things, as I meet with him in the Bible.
I’ve experienced that this week. God is good. I’ve met with him and enjoyed him in creation, but his word is better. It alone gives the pure joy of the knowledge of God. The place I need to go to meet with him is not some remote vacation spot, it is the book he has given me.
Am I thankful for sunsets? You bet! Am I more thankful for the word than ever before? Absolutely.
A Thought on Imprecatory Psalms
Imprecatory Psalms are those Psalms we have in the Bible where the psalmist calls out for God's judgement and curses on those who have done evil. The perpetual problem for Christians is, 'How do we take these Psalms? Do we still use them? Can we really say these things about people? Are we supposed to desire God's judgement on others?'
These are tough questions, indeed, and this is a topic that deserves far more thought than I'll give it today. But in my own meditation this afternoon I've realized this:
Because God is righteous judge, who is altogether just, it is never wrong for us to long for justice.
Our problem, however, is that we don't know what justice is.
Sure, we think we do. But the reality is that what we think of when we think of justice generally has more to do with what assuages our sense of 'wrongness' than it does with what establishes God's 'rightness'.
The downfall of simply thinking in imprecatory categories for those who work evil is that we're all workers of evil. All of us have sinned and deserve God's judgement. Any good in us is only because of the image of God impressed on us and the grace of God worked in our hearts. Any sense of justice we have is only present because God has given it to us. How then can we boast about our righteousness and another's evil and long for them to be judged when we too deserve to be judged?
Ultimately, we must all beg mercy from God--yes, for the evil we've committed, but also because we don't know what his justice established would really look like. Who could have guessed that he would use a cross to show his righteousness (Rom 3.21-26)? Who could have guessed that the innocent being slaughtered for the guilty would accomplish perfect justice (2 Cor 5.21; 1 John 2.2)?
Can I pray that someone would be damned?
It seems that the better question would be, 'How can I pray for God's justice to be shown?' If David prayed for God's justice, if Jesus came to accomplish God's justice, and if God was so determined to show his justice that he crushed his Son, then I should be concerned with seeing it accomplished too. But I need to pray with humility. The cross, like nothing before, shows me that I understand very little of the vastness and comprehensiveness and complexity of God's judgement--and his passion for showing mercy even in the midst of judgement. That's a vastness, comprehensiveness, and complexity that I don't get.
So we must be cautious. Pray for justice, yes, we must! But presuming to know what that justice looks like is a far bigger step. For now I'll pray that God would cause his name to be revered as holy (Matt 6.9) however he sees fit, whether in the damnation or salvation of a particular sinner, I cannot know.
Why Do You Hide Yourself, God?
50 MILLION REMEMBERED — The Memorial to the Missing at the Baptist Building stands in mute testimony to the 50 million lives that have been lost to legalized abortion since 1973. Each penny in the Memorial represents one of the 50 million babies that has been killed since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state abortion laws and opened the door to abortion nationwide during the entire nine months of pregnancy. (Photo by William H. Perkins Jr.)
The heading for Psalm 10 in the ESV reads, 'Why Do You Hide Yourself?' As I read through this Psalm the other morning, I couldn't help but lament the millions of babies lost over the years before ever taking their first breath.
If there was ever a time for Christians to sing imprecatory psalms, it is when considering horrific photos like this one; when we come face to face with the reality of the consequences of the lawmakers, politicians, policy-makers, doctors, and propagandists who lead our people into such abominable sin.
Psalm 10
Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might.
He says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.
Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.
O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
Father, forgive me for not caring that you call yourself the 'helper of the fatherless.' Forgive me for not making a difference. Is my sin of silence--when I know better--not also an abomination in your sight?
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