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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Our Bible study this week is Psalm 131. It is very short and yet has much to us that is very important, from what David learned from the Lord. Some suggest that it is a good follow-up to Psalm 130, where we are called to “wait for” and “hope” in the Lord. Sometimes, David “cried out” to the Lord in times of great “trouble” and brought his “complaint” loudly to the Lord with “uplifted hands,” “pleading for mercy” (Psalms 141 and 142).
In Psalm 131, though, David knew that he also needed to approach the Lord, not in a haughty and prideful way, thinking that he deserved God’s favor, but with humility. Some translate v.1 as saying, “O Lord, my heart is not haughty.” Many Scriptures warn about the danger of too much pride in oneself. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Isaiah 2:11-12 says, “The haughty looks of man shall be brought low; and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. The Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up - and it shall be brought low.”
David is, in verse 1, bowing in humility before the Lord, his heart not lifted up and his eyes not raised too high before the Lord. As he said in Psalm 138:6, “Though the Lord is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar.” See many other New Testament passages that tell us the same thing. Romans 12:16 says, “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.” James reminds us, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God…
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you" (James 4:6,7,10). Peter puts it this way, ”Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:5-6).
Paul points us to Christ Jesus and says, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and ever circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
Back in Psalm 131, still in v.1, David also says, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” This does not mean that David was unwilling to grow and learn and ask God honest questions. He was a simple shepherd boy and yet grew into a mighty king, with God’s blessings. As one commentator says, David was not in any way a “sluggard,” someone that the Bible calls lazy and lacking personal motivation. At the same time, David knew that he was only a weak, sinful human being (see Psalm 51 and he words in v.17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart You will not despise”).
In contrast, God was God, and there was so much about God and His ways that David could not and would not understand, but he was still called to trust the Lord. David says in Psalm 139:1,2,4,6, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar… Even before a word is on my tongue, You know it altogether… Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”
In a sense, you could say that David had learned (though he was far from perfect) what Job struggled to learn in his book of Scripture. Job’s friend had said, early on, “As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.” Job spent much, much time arguing with his friends and with God, feeling that God had been unfair and unjust with him. (Do we do the same, at times, simply not understanding God’s ways and why He does and allows things that don’t seem right to us? It is a struggle for us all, at times, when our prayers don’t seem to be answered, at least in the way we would expect and desire.)
God finally has to confront Job very strongly, saying in Job 41:34 that “He sees everything that is high; He is King over all the sons of pride.” Job then finally has to admit, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted… Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know… I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You. Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:2,3,5-6).
As Job 42 ends, Job prays for his “friends,” too, that they would be forgiven their “folly” in trying to straighten him out with human ideas and thoughts that were often not correct, either. The Lord forgives them, too, as He does us, as we sometimes struggle to find the right things to say to others, in a time of sorrow and grief, and other times.
Go back now to Psalm 131, v.2. David uses here a surprising picture image for himself - being like a “weaned child.” He says, “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” This might be a hard picture image to understand unless you have been a nursing mother or a husband or close family who has seen this process. (In earlier times, there were no baby formulas or good ways effectively to preserve milk and keep it from spoiling very quickly. Women had to nurse their babies; and babies will cry and fuss whenever they are hungry and won’t stop until they are satisfied. And before long, they will be crying and fussing again and again and again.) In fact, Peter uses this very image in describing how all believers in Christ should be continually eager for God’s Word - and the Word connected with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).
A mom who has nursed can better describe the special bond with a child during this time - but also how challenging and tiring this time can be, until the child is finally weaned - done with nursing and happy with other foods and content just quietly to be with Mom. (That time of weaning was even celebrated in the Old Testament. See Genesis 21:8 and 1 Samuel 1:21-28, for example.)
That is what David is describing in Psalm 131:2. His soul is “calmed down.” (The Hebrew suggests the image of a stormy sea that has finally smoothed down and become “a glassy sea,” as mentioned in Revelation 4:6. It is a picture of being at peace.) David also says his soul is “quieted.” He does not have to cry and fuss at the Lord all the time, trying to get answers and figure things out himself. He can rather just trust the Lord and His ways and plans, knowing they are “too great” for him to comprehend.
This idea of being quiet and silent before the Lord is often mentioned in other Scriptures, too. David wrote in Psalm 37:5,7: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act… Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!” See also Psalm 46:10-11: “Be still and know that I am God”… The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” David also writes in Psalm 62:1-2, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He alone is my Rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.” See also Lamentations 3:24-26, Habakkuk 2:20, and passages like Exodus 14:9-14, where the Egyptians are chasing after God’s people and have them trapped, it seemed, and the people are in a panic. Moses simply says, “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (How hard that is for all of us to grasp. How often don’t we panic, too, instead of quietly and calmly trusting our Lord?)
Twice in Psalm 131:2, David also calls himself a “child.” Compared with God that is what he always would be, and what we are, too - just children. Think of how Jesus taught us the same thing, in passages like Matthew 18:1-3, where we are called to “turn and become like children,” in “humble” trust in Him. Jesus also taught in v.6 that “little ones” could believe in Him, too, by the gift of God’s grace, through Baptism (John 3:5) and the Word (1 Peter 1:23). See also Matthew 11:25-30 and Mark 10:13-16 and other such passages, where children are welcomed and the Good News is revealed to them. Of course, children, even little children, are also sinners, with a sinful nature, and continually need God’s mercy and forgiveness and love, as we all do. See these words of our Lord in Zephaniah 3:16-17: “Fear not, O Zion; let not you hearts grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a Mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” That is the voice of a Heavenly Father who truly cares for His dear children.
Finally, in Psalm 131:3, David says that he wishes all Israel to have the humble calmness and quietness and trust in the Lord that he describes. “O Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.” In two different places (2 Samuel 22:28-29 and Psalm 18:27-28), the following words of David about the Lord are recorded: “You save a humble people, but the haughty eyes You bring down. For it is You who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.” David is affirming what was said in Psalm 130:7-8: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all His iniquities.” This is Good News enough for David and for all people who will humbly trust in the Lord, ultimately through the coming work of Jesus our Savior. It will also carry all us children of God by faith through this life and to eternal life forever with our Heavenly Father.
Did David really live out what he describes in Psalm 131? David was far from perfect and had to live by God’s grace and forgiveness. But there was also a long period of time where he really did have to wait patiently and humbly on the Lord’s plans for him, as the commentator, F. Delitzsch, described.
Saul was already the first King of Israel when David courageously defeated Goliath. Saul became rebellious and drifted away from the Lord, though, and the Lord had Samuel anoint David to be the future King. David then went through nearly 10 years of persecution by King Saul. He had chances to kill Saul and might have tried to overthrow Saul by force. Instead, he patiently waited for God to take care of the problem with Saul. When Saul was killed, David was chosen to be King by his own tribe of Judah, but Saul’s son Ishbosheth became King of all the other tribes. Again, David had to wait a few years until Ishbosheth was killed and then about give more years before he could truly become King of all Israel in Jerusalem.
That was over 17 years of waiting until God’s promise to him was finally fulfilled. God’s promises were fulfilled, but in His own time and way for David. That could be our situation in life, too, at times. This psalm of David is for our own learning, in waiting for the Lord and trusting that He knows what is best for us.
Think above all of our Lord Jesus, who came from the family line of David as a real human baby boy and yet was also true God, the second person of the Trinity. He had to wait patiently for 30 years, growing up and doing His Father’s will perfectly and being tempted and tested and troubled all that time. Then there were the three years of public ministry, with disciples who did not fully understand Him and many religious leaders who opposed Him and Satan constantly tempting Him.
And finally, when the time for His final suffering and death was near, Jesus said, “What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your Name.” Then a voice came from heaven, ’I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again’” (John 12:27-28).
Jesus then fully glorified His Father and His Father’s will by suffering and then dying on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of all humanity. Before His accusers, Jesus was largely calm and quiet and silent. From the cross He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.” That is the worst part of hell - to be forsaken by God and separated entirely from Him and all His goodness.
Yet that is what Jesus suffered for us, in our place. We don’t understand how that could happen. It is “too great” and “too marvelous” for us all. Yet that is what Jesus did; and we hope and trust in this that He did for us. He never lost trust in His Heavenly Father, no matter what. His first words from the cross were, “Father, forgive them;” and His last words were, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” even as He died. Only in His resurrection from the dead were His kingdom, power, and glory more fully seen again. And all of this was for us, that that we can confidently hope and trust in Him, now and forever, just as David said.
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 10, 2011
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
The Scriptures this week talk about the reality of sin and death and yet also the hope we have in the redeeming work of Jesus for us and the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit.
The psalm is Psalm 130. The psalmist pleads for God’s mercy and asks if any of us could stand before God if God kept a record of all our sins. The good news is that in the Lord there is “forgiveness” and “steadfast love” and “plenteous redemption” for all our iniquities, our sins. Again it is said that the Lord will “redeem,” which means that He will make a payment to ransom us, to buy us back from the consequences of our sins and set us free.
The Old Testament lesson is from Ezekiel 37:1-14. The Lord gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley full of very dry bones. Could these bones live again? The Lord has Ezekiel say to them, “O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.” Then the bones came together and had flesh and skin, but no breath in them. Then the Lord asked Ezekiel to call for breath to come into them and they all lived and stood like a great army. The Lord then explains that these are the people of Israel, in a hopeless condition and cut off from the Lord by their sins, and in exile. God then promises that He will put His Spirit within His people and give them new spiritual life through His Word, that they may know the Lord and return to the promised land. (From that renewed group of God’s people, the Savior, our Lord Jesus, would come. This vision also predicts that the Savior would be able to bring new spiritual life for people, through faith in Him by the Holy Spirit, and be able to raise people from the dead on the last day, just as He would also predict.)
In the Epistle lesson, Romans 8:1-11, Paul explains how Jesus did His saving work. None of us could keep the Law of God, because of “the weakness of our sinful flesh.“ Jesus therefore “fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law” for us, in our place, by His perfect life, (and by His payment of the penalty for all our sins by His death on the cross, again in our place). “Christ now lives in us” personally, as we have been brought to faith in Him through the Holy Spirit, who also lives and works in us (through our baptism and the Word of God.)
“There is therefore now no condemnation for us,” as long as we are in Christ Jesus. We are “set free from the law of sin and death,” and through the Spirit there is “life and peace” and His power to produce “spiritual fruit” the Lord wishes to see in us. As Jesus “was raised from the dead by the power of the Spirit,” our “mortal bodies will also be given new life through Jesus and the Spirit,” on the last day.
The Gospel lesson is John 11:1-45 (46-53) or selected verses from John 11. Mary and Martha send a message that their brother, Lazarus, was very ill and they want Jesus to come to help them. Jesus delays for some days, though, so that He can show His power even over death, and Lazarus has died and has been in the grave for four days before Jesus arrives. Martha talks with Jesus first and makes a strong confession of faith in Him as “the Christ, the Son of God, the One Whom God had promised would come into the world.” Jesus assures her that He is “the Resurrection and the Life.” “Whoever lives and believes in Him shall never die.” (Though believers die physically, their spirits live on with Jesus in heaven and on the last day, their bodies will also be raised and glorified.) When Jesus meets Mary, she and many others are weeping in sorrow and sad that Jesus did not come sooner. “Jesus wept.” (This is the shortest verse in the Bible and shows Jesus' genuine love for people and His grief at all the troubles of sin and death in this broken world.) Jesus then raised Lazarus from the dead, in a great miracle that drew more people to believe in Him. Lazarus came out, still wrapped in his grave cloths. The religious leaders hear of this and determine that Jesus must die before He creates more trouble for them and their religion and nation.
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
The introduction to Psalm 90 indicates that it was written by Moses, making it most likely the earliest of the psalms we have in the Bible. This is a “prayer” of Moses, speaking very seriously of the reality of sin and its consequence, death, and yet giving hope to people through the mercy and love of God.
Moses often had to pray to God for this mercy because the people of Israel were so often rebellious against him as their leader and against God Himself. Read just one example of this in Numbers 14:1-4, 10, when “all the congregation” wanted to stone Moses and choose a new leader to take them back to Egypt. They even blamed the Lord for bringing them into the promised land “to die by the sword.” The Lord threatened to disinherit them, but Moses “the man of God” (Deuteronomy 33:1 and Joshua 14:6) pleaded for mercy for them. God pardoned them, but warned of His wrath if people continued “to put Him to the test and not obey His voice.” They would not enter the promised land at all (Numbers 14:11-23).
Psalm 90 is a similar psalm, in which Moses gives a strong warning to us all, but also prays for the Lord to pity us and give us His steadfast love and a heart of wisdom, as He works in our lives.
Moses begins by reminding us, in Psalm 90:1-2, that God our Lord is “from everlasting to everlasting.” He has always existed and always will exist for us. He is the Creator of all things, including majestic mountains, symbols of His great power, though He can do away with them, too, if he chooses. (See Deuteronomy 33:15 and yet also Habakkuk 3:6.) God created us human beings, male and female, also, and wishes us to find in Him “our dwelling place.”
See, for example, Psalm 91:1-2 and 9-16. You might remember that the devil quoted a part of this passage, trying to tempt Jesus and get Him to worship him. The devil left out, of course, the part about having the Lord, alone, as our dwelling place, our refuge (Psalm 91:9-10). Jesus knew His Heavenly Father, though, and His Name (v.14) and obeyed Him and resisted the devil, and in that way was “trampling that serpent underfoot” (v.13), doing perfectly what we have failed to do, and showing us His salvation for us” (v.16).
In contrast, we human beings, starting with Adam and Eve, have all sinned and rebelled against God and are under His wrath and judgment if left on our own. Sin and its consequences and results are described in dramatic ways, as we go back to Psalm 90, v.3-11. God had warned Adam and Eve that they would die and return to dust if they did what He asked them not to do. (Genesis 2:17 and 3:16-19 and Psalm 90:3). We have all inherited that sinful nature and choose to sin, too, with the same results. See Job’s words in Job 4:17-21 and the words of Psalm 104:29, about God’s judgment for sin.
All this is to say that for the everlasting God, a thousand years are like one day (Psalm 90:4 and other Scriptures, like 2 Peter 3:8). In contrast, we sinful human beings struggle through life because of our sins, and don’t live long compared with God. Look at some of the picture images given in Psalm 90:5ff. We are sometimes swept away, “as with a flood.” Think of the floods going on right now in California, and tsunamis and hurricanes and on and on. Sometimes we are “like a dream.” Dreams come and go quickly and can be good or bad. Dreams can be shattered, and so can we, in this sinful world.
We are also “like grass, which can grow up quickly, but then “fades and withers.” Think of how often this imagery is used in the Bible, in Isaiah 40:6-8, 1 Peter 1:24, Psalm 103:15-16, and other places. All these images are used in Psalm 90:5. Another is used in Psalm 90:9: “We bring our years to an end like a sigh,” like one last breath, and we are gone. And of the years we have, even if they are 70 or 80 years, their “span” (literally in the Hebrew, their “pride”) is “but toil and trouble; they are soon gone and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Even Shakespeare quoted from this passage because it reflects reality, too often.
Why is all this happening? This is the part that many people try to avoid talking about, but is exactly what Moses needed to remind his people (and us) about. The problem is sin, the sin of others and our own sin. “Sin is lawlessness,” says 1 John 3:4. It is going against the words and will of our Holy God, who knows what is best for us all. Sin hurts us and others. That brings “anger” and “wrath” and judgment from God, as Psalm 90:7-11 says repeatedly. Three times the wrath of God is mentioned, and twice, God’s anger about sin. Psalm 90:8 also reminds us that God knows about every sin, even our “secret sins” that we try to hide from Him and others. See Psalm 19:12 and 40:12, for example. These sins are all directly “before God… in the light of His Presence” (Psalm 90:8).
Even the New Testament says the same thing. What do we earn for our own sins? “The wages of sin is death,” says Romans 6:23. Romans 5:12 reminds us, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” The fact that everyone dies and will die, until Jesus returns, tells us that we are all sinners. “Through the law of God comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20), and “the law brings wrath” (Romans 4:15) because we do not obey that law as we should. All this is the Law spoken in its strongest form, and that is what Moses needed to warn people, including us, about, so that we would recognize our own sins and be honest with God about them and know how much we need our Savior.
But that is not all that Moses wanted talk about in his prayer. He also had words of hope and new life for us in our Lord. He prayed in Psalm 90:12 that the Lord would teach us to “number our days” and get “hearts of wisdom” from Him. See passages like Proverbs 1:7, which tells us that “the beginning of wisdom starts with fear of the Lord,” recognizing as true what Moses already has said. Then see passages like Psalm 39:4–8 and Hosea 14:9, where growing wisdom about God takes us to the Lord for His mercy. In spite of our sins, the Lord does “have pity on us, His servants” and wants to forgive and satisfy us with His steadfast love” (Psalm 90:13-14).
Our hope and confidence come not from looking at ourselves and our troubled world, but from looking to the Lord and the help He can and does give us. Jesus put it very simply in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” It is not our righteousness, but God’s righteous and merciful work for us that gives us help and forgiveness and strength. Notice how Moses keeps praying for God’s intervention on our behalf. “Have pity.” Psalm 90, v. 13. “Satisfy us… with Your steadfast love.” (v. 14) “Make us glad…” (v.15) “Let Your work be shown… Your glorious power…” (v.16) “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us… Establish the work of our hands…” (v. 17)
The great Good News of the New Testament is that the pity and steadfast love of God did come to us most clearly in the gift of God’s Son, Jesus. “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already” (unless of course, he or she does eventually come to trust in Jesus) (John 3:17-18).
Paul tells us in Romans 4:6-8 “of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from his works: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sins.” That full and free forgiveness comes through Jesus’ perfect life in our place, His death on the cross in payment for all of our sins, and His glorious resurrection from the dead. See a description of all that in Romans 5:1-10.
All this gives us great confidence for our future, as we trust, by God’s grace and mercy, in Jesus and what He has already done for us. Even the sorrows of this life and the death of loved ones and our own impending death become more bearable (even though they are still very hard to deal with), because of God’s promises in Jesus and His presence and help for us. Paul writes, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” in heaven” (Romans 8:18).
See also 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (as Moses describes very well), but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Think about Moses himself, the author of Psalm 90. Sin has consequences, and Moses sinned, too. Eventually he died and was not able to set foot in the promised land he had been leading people to for 40 years (Deuteronomy 34:4-5). Yet Scripture interprets Scripture, and we know that Moses did also receive eternal life in heaven, by God’s grace and forgiveness, and he even had the great privilege of appearing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. See Matthew 17:1-9. His appearance, and above all, the glory of Jesus, helped the disciples later on, after the resurrection of Jesus.
Through Jesus our Savior, then, we can “rejoice and be glad all our days” and have strength and hope, even in times of affliction, as the Lord grows our “heart of wisdom”(Psalm 90:12,14). The Lord can also “establish the work of our hands,” even in this difficult, sinful world we live in, as the Lord helps and blesses us. We can do things that honor our Lord Jesus and help others who struggle, even as we do. That is part of “numbering our days” and using them as “wisely” as we can (Psalm 90:12).
See passages like Ephesians 2:8-10, 2 Thessalonians 3:11-13, and 1 Timothy 6:17-21. Through our hopeful living in Christ, we might even have a chance to witness to some hopeless people all around us and help some of them also to find hope in Jesus, through God’s grace. See 1 Peter 3:13-15. In these ways, God can truly “establish the work of our (weak) hands” and our (imperfect) “hearts” and bring blessings through us (Psalm 90:12,17).
The Lord’s continued blessings in Christ our Savior to you all!
Monday Mar 20, 2023
Monday Mar 20, 2023
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 3, 2011
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
The Scriptures this week use the imagery of people being blind and deaf, and yet how the Lord can help and give hope, especially through the gift of Christ our Savior and His Word and work in and for us.
The Psalm is Psalm 142. David wrote this psalm, likely when he was hiding in a cave, alone, like a “prisoner,” when he was being pursued by King Saul, who wanted to kill him. He was in great danger and had been “brought very low” by his persecutors, who are “too strong” for him. He felt “his spirit fainting away within him,” and no one seemed to notice or care. (You could read more about this on your own in 1 Samuel 18:6ff. and in chapter 20ff., when David said, “There is but a step between me and death” (1 Samuel 20:3).) It is as if David felt hopeless, blinded by all his “troubles and complaints,” until he finally remembered to turn to the Lord, his “refuge,” and cry out to Him. Then he regains hope that he will be able to “give thanks” to the Lord, who “will deal bountifully with him,” in His own way and time.
The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 42:14-21. The Lord has “kept still for a long time,” waiting for His people to follow Him as they should. Too many, though, of His own “servant messengers,” the people of Israel, have become blind and deaf and have even fallen into idolatry and worship of false gods. Like an expectant mother, whose time for labor has come, the Lord must gasp and pant and cry out, in judgment for His people’s rebellion, but then, in time, with joy and guidance for the blind, turning “their darkness into light” and showing that they are “not forsaken.” Jesus quotes from the beginning of Isaiah 42 as referring to Himself, in Matthew 12:18-23 and then literally heals a blind and mute man. Jesus is the true light of the world, who is blind and deaf to the temptations of this sinful world and only follows His heavenly Father’s will, “pleasing” Him in perfect “righteousness,” in our place, as our Savior.
The Gospel lesson is from John 9:1-41. Jesus shows that He is the Promised Savior, as He heals a man “blind from birth.” He does this even on the sabbath day, showing God’s New Covenant and not limiting His mercy only to certain days and people. The religious leaders show that they are spiritually blind and “guilty,” as they reject Jesus and cast away the blind man now healed, even though he is only speaking the truth. The man is not only healed physically, but spiritually, for he is brought to believe that Jesus is the “Son of Man,” another Old Testament name for the Promised Savior, and he worships Jesus as “Lord.”
In the Epistle lesson, Ephesians 5:8-14, Paul proclaims that through the light of Christ, people who were spiritually asleep and, even worse, spiritually dead (spiritually “blind at birth,” as we all are), became living “children of light” and they themselves “light of the Lord.” They are now producing “fruit” in their lives that is “good and right and true… and pleasing to the Lord,” instead of “shameful, unfruitful works of darkness.” It is all because “Christ now shines on them,” as their Savior. That is the promise of the Lord for all, including us, in Christ.
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
Psalms 140-144 have a number of similarities. All are written by David, and all talk about dangers he is facing and the need for the Lord’s help. David sees his enemies as setting “traps” and “snares” and “nets” by which to capture him. (See, for example, Psalm 140:4-5.)
Today we will focus on Psalm 141, though. Many think that David wrote this psalm when his son Absalom had overthrown him and seized the kingdom in his place and now wanted to capture and do away with him. David had escaped from Jerusalem, but was in great danger. In Psalm 141:1, David calls upon the Lord to “hasten,” to hurry to help him.
He has a problem, though. Normally, he would go to the tabernacle, to the tent of meeting in Jerusalem where animal sacrifices would be offered every morning and evening, and he would pray and offer his own sacrifice to God, as well. (See Exodus 29:38-42.) Incense was also burned as part of this, representing the prayers rising to the Lord in heaven. (See Exodus 30:7-8. Look also to the vision that John saw in Revelation 8:1-4 of heaven and smoke of the incense being combined with “the prayers of the saints,” so that the prayers would come before God.)
David’s problem was that he could not go to Jerusalem to make the proper sacrifices and have the incense burned as needed. Would his prayers reach God? He asks, in Psalm 141:2, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before You, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Standing and lifting up one’s hands toward the Lord in heaven was a common way of praying in the Old Testament and sometimes also in the New Testament. See 1 Timothy 2:8, where Paul says, “I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.” Certainly David’s prayers were answered, though he could not do his praying in the prescribed Old Testament way.
The exact posture for prayer does not matter, though, either. In other places in Scripture, people kneel or bow their heads or fall down with their faces to the ground or just stand and pray, etc. In another vision that John sees in Revelation 5:8, “the prayers of the saints” are the incense that rises to God. Literal incense is no longer needed, or any of the Old Testament ritual, now that Jesus has come to be the Savior of the world and made the “once for all” sacrifice on the cross as the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world.
In fact, all such sacrificial rituals can no longer properly be done, in Old Testament terms, because the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD and has never been rebuilt. Even Jews can now only pray in the way David does in Psalm 141:2. Tragically, they are missing what is needed most, because most all do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah and the Savior and the Son of God, in and through whom alone they can reach the Father in heaven. They are rejecting the Promised Messiah they have been waiting for all these years. (See John 14:6 and Romans 5:1-2 and Hebrews 8:8-13, quoting the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah, which tells us that now that Jesus the promised Messiah has come, there are no longer two covenants, but only the New Covenant, centered in Jesus. Also, see passages like John 4:25-26 and John 9:35-38 and John 10:24-30, where Jesus clearly identifies Himself as the Promised Savior.)
Go back now to Psalm 141:3-4. We sometimes say that people can sin against God in their thoughts, words, and deeds. David prays that the Lord would help him resist temptation to evil in all those ways. Today we often speak of what our minds are thinking. The Scriptures more often speak of what comes out of our hearts, as well as minds, meaning much the same thing. (See how Jesus says, in Mark 7:18-23, “…From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery”… (and on and on)… All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”) So, David prays, in Psalm 141:4, “Do not let my heart incline to any evil,” to be thinking about and dwelling on such evil, for that, he knows, can lead him to act and “busy himself with wicked deeds.” David also knows that his words can be evil, and so he also prays, in v.3, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” (How often don’t our own words get us into even more trouble and conflict, too?)
David also knows that the people he associates with can be a negative influence on him, especially if he is “keeping company” with “men who work iniquity” (sins) and “wicked deeds.” He might also be tempted to participate in their sumptuous living and “delicacies” they might enjoy, because of their evil gains that came at the expense of others (Psalm 141:4).
Many proverbs and other Scriptures warn all of us of these dangers. Proverbs 1:4 says, “If sinners entice you, do not consent” and Proverbs 4:14-15 warns, “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.” Paul warns, in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’” We also know the ultimate fate of the rich man “who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day” and would not honor God or help others (Luke 16:19-31). In short, David’s prayer in Psalm 141:3-4 is a good one for all of us to pray, as the temptation to “be conformed to the ways of this evil world” are great (Romans 12:1-2).
David knows, as well, that he needs faithful people of God to discipline and correct him when he is drifting from the Lord’s path. He says in a dramatic way, “Let a righteous man strike me… let him rebuke me.” Such correction would “a kindness” to him and like an “anointing with oil” that would restore and strengthen him. (David may have been thinking of his own earlier sin with Bathsheba, and how good it ultimately was that God sent the prophet Nathan to him to confront him with his wrong and bring him to repentance and renewal with His Lord (2 Samuel 11 and 12 and Psalm 51).
David prays, “Let my head not refuse such discipline” (Psalm 141:5). We all need such correction at times, by which others show that they care about us. Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend,” and Proverbs 15:5 says, “A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.”
David has now dealt with his own need for the Lord’s help and correction and direction for his life. Now he returns in his prayer to his concern about his enemies and the continual need for help “against their evil deeds” (end of Psalm 141:5). If David wrote this psalm after his own son overthrew him, he was in very real danger. The next two verses of Psalm 141 are difficult to understand, and scholars don’t always agree about what it all means. Here is what seems to make the best sense, from what I can read.
David knew what God had promised him (even with promises of the coming Savior through his family line in the future) and he trusted that God would help him through this very difficult time, as He had helped him when King Saul had been out after him in earlier times. That meant, in v.6, that the “judges” and others who had wrongly supported Absalom (or whoever David’s current enemies were) would be defeated, would be “thrown over the cliff.” (This was a way that enemies were sometimes gotten rid of. See 2 Chronicles 25:12 or see how people from his own hometown became so angry with Jesus that they took him to a hill on which their town was built so that they could thrown him down the cliff” (Luke 4:28-30).) Jesus was spared, and David eventually would be rescued and restored as King, and people would be able to hear his “pleasant words” again (Psalm 141:6).
David also knew that he would eventually die and his bones and the bones of others would be scattered around and above Sheol (which here seems simply to mean the place of the dead) (Psalm 141:7). However, this burial would be like it is when one is “plowing and breaking up the soil” with the intention of there being new crops (Psalm 141:7). Eventually, there would be new life coming, even though one’s body dies. Remember the vision of the dry bones that Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 37 and all those bones coming back to life; or the words of Paul in the great resurrection chapter of 1 Corinthians 15. Read v.42-44: “So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable… It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”
David closes Psalm 141 by thinking again of his enemies and praying that he would be protected and that the evildoers would be caught in their own nets and traps (Psalm 141:9-10). In a sense, that is what happened with David’s son, Absalom. He was a very handsome man with long, flowing hair. His hair was caught in an oak tree, and he was snared there and was killed (2 Samuel 18:9-15) - to the great sorrow of David, because he still loved his rebellious son.
I have one more comment on the mention of traps and snares and nets, in these closing verses and in other places in Psalms 140-144, etc. Here they mainly refer to the enemies of God’s people and their attacks upon David and others of God’s people. Sometimes, though, there are warnings that God’s own people would be caught in such traps and snares, if they rebelled against God themselves and refused to trust in and follow Him.
God had a plan for His people, beginning with Abraham - a plan to bring the Savior from the Jewish nation. They needed to survive and be God’s people, so that eventually from them the Savior, Jesus, would come and be a blessing available to them and all nations and peoples. To protect and preserve His people, God asked them to remove others peoples and stay separate from them. He knew they could be corrupted by wicked, unbelieving people and lose their identity as God’s own chosen people if they kept company with them in their wicked deeds and iniquities, as David described and warned about in Psalm 141:4.
Unfortunately, many of God’s people did not listen to and follow the Lord. Listen to the warning from God in Exodus 23:31-33, for example: “I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare for you.” See similar things said in Deuteronomy 7:16, Joshua 23:13, Judges 2:3, and many other places.
Fortunately, some of God’s people, like David, did remain faithful to the Lord. David says, in Psalm 141:8, “But my eyes are toward You, O God, my Lord; in You I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless.” God did care for David and the remnant of God’s people who believed in the Lord; and from the family line of David, Jesus, their Savior and our Savior did finally come. There are plenty of enemies against Christ and the Christian faith today, setting snares and traps and nets, in order to harm us. May we too keep saying, with David, “My eyes are toward You, O God, my Lord; in You I seek refuge; (in You I trust); leave me not defenseless.” And may we keep seeking to serve our Lord in thought, word, and deed.
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Most of our readings this week have mention of water and how important it is for us -in a physical and spiritual way. God knows, and He provides for us.
In the Old Testament lesson, Exodus 17:1-7, God’s people, on their way from captivity in Egypt to the Promised Land, came to a place where there seemed to be no water. God had just provided manna, bread from heaven, in a miraculous way, but they forgot about that and feared that Moses had brought them out in the wilderness to die. They were really questioning and “testing” God Himself, and Moses cried out to the Lord for help. God had Moses strike a rock with his staff, and water enough came out to provide what was needed for everyone.
The psalm is Psalm 95:1-9. The psalmist calls upon all of us to praise the Lord for His creation and preservation of all things. We are His sheep, and He cares for us as our great God and King above all. The psalmist mentions the story in our Old Testament lesson and calls upon us not to be hard-hearted and doubt God and try to test Him, as the people did then. The Lord is “the Rock of our salvation,” and we thank and praise Him with joy.
The Gospel lesson is another of several long readings we have this Lent from the Gospel of John. Last week we heard of being “born again” to a whole new life of faith in Jesus, through “water and the Spirit” in the gift of our baptism and the Word of God (John 3:1-21). Today we see in John 4:5-26 (27-30,39-42) Jesus helping a thirsty Samaritan woman at a well, who has many spiritual problems and needs. He shows her that He is the promised Messiah, the Christ, who has come into the world for her and for her fellow Samaritans and for Jews and for all people. He provides the “water” that brings eternal life, as people are brought to belief in Him. The woman becomes a witness for Jesus and tells the people of her town to come and see Him. Many Samaritans came and heard Him and came to believe in Him “because of His Word.” They said, “This is indeed the Savior of the world.”
In the Epistle lesson, Romans 5:1-8, Paul assures us that we, too, have been justified, counted right with God, through faith in Jesus. While we were “weak, ungodly sinners,” Christ died for us. Through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and His saving work for us, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, given to us” through our own baptism and the Word of God. We too “have peace with God” and “access to the grace in which we stand” and “hope of the glory of God,” and even our “sufferings” in this life can help us grow in “endurance” and Christian “character, as well as that “hope” in Christ.
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
As I mentioned last week, I had never paid much attention to Psalm 120. It is a very short psalm. The author is not identified, and it is not possible to tell just when it was written or an exact situation being spoken about. Many think it might have been written when many of God’s people were carried into captivity or exile and faced enemy people and ideas, or soon after that when some of them were starting to return to Israel, when they were finally able to do so, but also faced opposition in Israel.
This psalm caught my attention, when I was studying Psalm 121, in the last few weeks. Psalm 120 begins with the psalmist clearly “in distress” and very troubled, so that he needed to “call to the Lord” (Psalm 120:1). What was especially troubling him? “Lying lips” and “deceitful tongues,” some of which were attacking him so much that he cried out, “Deliver me, O Lord” (Psalm 120:2).
We have an old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is not the way the Scriptures speak. Lying and deceiving can be very harmful. especially when aimed at others. Read Proverbs 25:18: “A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.” Listen to the words of David in Psalm 57:4: “My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts - the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.”
Are we living in a time similar to that of the psalmist? People are very divided from one another. What used to be called “civil discourse” has often become very uncivil. How many children are hurt by bullying and mean things said by others? How many teenagers are confused and led astray by lies and deceitful ideas they hear about on social media? Are our politicians known for being truthful or more for trying to attack and cancel others? What comes out of our own mouths? We know we are to try to speak the truth, but do we too often back down because we know we will be attacked by others for what we might say? Can we also speak the truth in love, as the Scriptures say?
The psalmist wants God to deliver him, but he does know how that will happen. He asks in Psalm 120. v.3: “What shall be done to “deceitful tongues?” Verse 4 might be literally translated: By “Arrows of a Mighty One, sharpened, with burning coals of broom“ (from a broom tree, whose wood burns longest and hottest). There are many people who try to be high and mighty, but the only one who is truly mighty is God Himself.
Psalm 89:8 says, “O Lord of hosts, who is mighty as You are, O Lord, with Your faithfulness all around you?” Isaiah 42:13 says, “The Lord goes out like a mighty man… He shows himself mighty against His foes.” In other words, The Lord God is the ultimate Judge, and He will will bring judgment in His own way and time, as he knows best, in a just and fair and faithful way.
The Lord may bring judgments with “arrows” and “fire” and will do so on the last day. See Deuteronomy 32:22-23, where both fire and arrows are mentioned. See also Psalm 64:3-4, 7-8, where even now the wicked may “whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless… But God shoots His arrows at them; they are wounded suddenly. They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them.”
(If you paid any attention to the Alex Murdaugh murder trial in South Carolina in the US in recent weeks, you heard of his lying and deceiving to so many people for so long. But finally, it seems that his own tongue turned against him when he testified, and he was then quickly found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.) he ultimate judgment for him or anyone is up to God, of course, not up to us.
What then are we to do when we face lies and deceits? The psalmist says in v.5: “Woe to me that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!” Meshech was a name for a people and area far to the North of Israel, maybe as far away as the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Kedar was an area far to the South and East of Israel, in the Arabian desert, where nomadic people lived and moved about. Both of these groups of people were considered to be uncivilized and barbarian, rough and quarrelsome people, as the commentator Franz Delitzsch said. These two groups were so far away from each other in location that the psalmist could not be living among both, but he was among people acting just like them. This was having a negative impact upon him and his own life and way of thinking.
“Woe is me,” he says, and then adds, “Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.” Isaiah 48:22 and 57:18 both say, “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” In Verse 7 of Psalm 120, the psalmist concludes, “I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” He seems to be realizing that he has been spending too much time in the wrong situations with the wrong kind of people. He was being drawn away into very negative and critical speaking that only wanted to tear others down as they were doing to him and others. He still needed to speak the truth, but to try to do it in love and in ways that showed care for people.
Listen to what David wrote in Psalm 109:1-5: “Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me , but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.” David had no illusions about always being loved and respected for trying to do the right things. (He also knew his own sins and failings and the need to keep confessing his sins and receiving God’s forgiveness.)
And he knew he needed to take the time to pray and call upon his Lord and then try to show some love and good, even for those attacking him. As Jesus Himself taught us, in Matthew 5:43-45, “I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father Who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” (Thank the Lord that He does that for us all - for how right and just are our own words and mouths, at times?)
Let me mention one more thing suggested by words from Psalm 120 - the words about “burning coals” in verse 4. Proverbs 25:21-22 says, ”If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head…” People can be shamed and awakened by our doing good to them, in response to evil they have done to us. Paul quotes this passage in Romans 12:20. Read Romans 12:14-21 for all he says, that fits with what the psalmist was learning in Psalm 120, about overcoming evil with good.
None of this is easy for any of us. I have read a newspaper for most of my life, to keep informed. But recently, I decided to cancel the paper I had been reading because it had much in it that was misleading and untruthful and even challenging to the Christian faith. I did not need those lies and deceit. However, I soon found myself reading my I-phone and I-pad, doing what my wife calls “doomscrolling,” reading too much bad news that also was not helpful, day after day. I need to remember to read God’s Word more and more and keep asking the Lord to help me keep speaking the truth, both Law and Gospel, but in a loving and caring way, that truly helps people.
Above all, I need to and we all need to keep our eyes on Jesus our Savior and what He first did for us sinners to rescue us. Micah 5:2-5 is a prophecy of the coming of Jesus. “And He shall be our peace”and “shepherd us in the strength of our Lord.” The Lord’s continued blessings on your week.
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Tuesday Mar 07, 2023
Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent, based on:
Sermon originally delivered March 20, 2011