Preparing for Worship - August 27, 2023

The theme of our readings this week could be summarized in this way: God does the good. It is He Whom we trust and praise. He enables the good we do.

The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 51:1-6. God asks His people to “look at the rock from which they hewn.” Their nation began with “Abraham and then Sarah,” but it was God Who “blessed and multiplied them.” He “comforted them “ and gave His people “joy and gladness.” The Lord says, “Listen to Me… Give attention to Me… Give ear to Me.” It is His righteousness and salvation and His mighty “arm” that will bring hope. The things of this “heaven and earth” will “vanish,” but God’s “righteousness and salvation” will be forever.”

The psalm is Psalm 138. David gives “thanks and praise” to the Lord “before the gods.” Some think he is referring to the angels, who are perfect and like God in some ways. More likely, David is saying that he trusts the one True God and His “Name and steadfast love and faithfulness and Word” instead of the false gods all around, who are not real and are worthless to put trust in. (See Psalm 135:15-18.) The Lord is the One “who answers calls and strengthen souls, and preserves life and delivers,” rather than “earthly kings.” David says, “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.” David knows that he cannot do it himself.

In the Epistle lesson, Romans 11:33-12:8, Paul speaks of the greatness of God’s “wisdom and knowledge and ways.” No one is capable of “counseling” Him or doing anything for which God is indebted to him and needs to “repay” him. “For from God and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.” We seek to be “holy and acceptable” to God in our lives as our “spiritual worship,” but it is only “by the mercies of God” that our minds can “transformed and renewed” and we can better “discern the will of God.” We are “one body in Christ,” but God gives us “different gifts according to the grace He has given us,” and “we are called humbly to use those gifts given us.” There is no need to compare ourselves with others, for “we do not all have the same function,” in what God wants to accomplish through us.

In the Gospel lesson, Matthew 16:13-20, Peter makes the great and true confession that Jesus “is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus makes it clear, though, that Peter did not figure this out on his own, by his own ability. He is not the great One, but just is “blessed” because “the Father in heaven” has “revealed” this to him. Peter is not the “Rock” on which the church is to be built. Jesus is the Rock and the confession of Him as Lord and “the Son of the Living God” is key. Peter and the others disciples and the church are given the “Office of the Keys,” though, with the ability to forgive sins, in Christ’s Name, or withhold forgiveness when people are not repentant and believing. (See this passage and Matthew 18:15-18 and John 20:19-23, for example. Jesus is the One Who truly “has the keys of Death and Hades,” though, and has opened the door to heaven and eternal life for us (Revelation 1:17-18). See a fuller discussion of all this in the second half of last week’s Bible study, the podcast on “Revelation 1-3 and Ears to Hear,” Part 4.)