Servant Leadership - Mark 10:35-45

It’s great to see so many cadets and counsellors here this morning from churches all through Central Alberta. Our Cadet theme this year is “Lead the Way,’ based on 1 Timothy 4:12, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” This morning we’re taking a look at who a leader should be like. Good leaders are important. Connor McDavid is a good leader on his hockey team because he wants the whole team to win and each player to be the best they can be. That’s what leaders do, they lead people into becoming better people.  In Cadets, that means helping us become more Christ-like. 

In our Bible story this morning, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem with his disciples to celebrate the Passover festival when everyone got together and remembered how God saved them from being slaves in Egypt. But the disciples are afraid because Jesus has just told them that he’s going to die because he’s going to be betrayed. Jesus doesn’t want them to be afraid, so he also tells them that after 3 days he’s going to be raised from the dead. Now we know this happened, just like Jesus said it would, but it was really hard for the disciples to understand.

Jesus is leading the way as they walk to Jerusalem when James and John come up and walk beside him. James and John were part of Jesus’ closest disciples, Peter was the other disciple who was really close to Jesus. Now James and John ask Jesus for a really big favour, they ask him, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” This is kind of a strange favour to ask, but Mathew tells us that Jesus had told the disciples in Matthew 19:28, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” James and John want the thrones that are closest to Jesus’ throne so they’ll be seen to have the most power and authority. It fascinates me that they sneak behind Peter’s back here to get the most important places by Jesus; that’s not how you treat friends, and it shows that they want to be more important than everyone else, even if it means hurting Peter and the other disciples. It’s a form of pride, as we see in Jesus’ answer to them. 

Jesus tells them that they have no idea how hard being a leader with authority and power really is. Jesus also tells them that they will find out how hard and dangerous it will be. However, the places of honour are going to go to “those for whom they have been prepared.” When the other disciples hear about what James and John have done, they’re angry, and then we get a good lesson from Jesus on what a leader who follows Jesus should be like, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Question: why do you think a lot of people want to be leaders? 

Jesus can see that James and John want to be the bosses. They want to lead because of pride. This is why Jesus tells all the disciples that even though other people think and act that way, that when they follow him, they need to be different. Instead of acting like kings do, where everyone serves the king and does everything the king tells them to do, Jesus tells the disciples that they need to be like servants, to even be like slaves, serving everyone else instead of being served. Jesus then tells them to look at how he leads, and at what he’s going to do. Jesus came to serve and to give his life as a ransom, as a payment for our sin. Jesus does this on the cross where he washes away our sin by dying for our sin. That’s an amazing act of humble service to all of us! 

Good leaders have a servant heart, that want to make a difference, to make things better. Jesus is our example. He’s the King of kings, he’s been given all authority in heaven and on earth, he’s the one who created the heavens and the earth, and he came to serve instead of demanding that everyone serves him. Rather than wanting to lead out of a sense of pride, Jesus and the Bible call us to be people who are humble. One of the wisest men I know, Al Wolters, a professor at Redeemer University, would ask for copies of some of our papers when he learned something from us. He was the only professor I ever had who would tell us that he often learned from his students. 

Jesus is our example of leadership. Paul talks about Jesus’ humility in his letter to the church in Philippi, Philippians 2:1–11, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Paul calls us to imitate Jesus’ attitude and humility. John the Baptist understood that leading as a follower of Jesus means making Jesus bigger in our lives and ourselves less; saying, “He must become greater; I must become less.” 

Leading like this takes trust in Jesus and what he taught us, it takes patience leading with humility and by example instead of through commanding people to do what you want. Jesus is an example of how to lead with humility, always reminding his disciples that he does the work that God his Father has given him to do. Jesus shows us the importance of keeping our focus on God and what God wants instead of what we want. Jesus goes to the cross to take away our sin, and he does this with humility and in obedience to God, his Father. Jesus gives us cadet counsellors who show us what it looks like to follow Jesus. These are men who love God, who love you, and want you to grow up to be men who love God and trust in Jesus. They sacrifice at a different level to help you grow in your faith and trust in God.

They have learned that to be leaders, we first need to be humble enough to follow Jesus and obey him so that we are slowly becoming more like Jesus. This is why the counsellors keep reminding us of who we are called to be as followers of Jesus, boys becoming men who are willing to serve and love others like Jesus did, with humility. This is why, as cadets we have our Landmarks, to teach us the kind of people and leaders the Holy Spirit is calling us to be. Our Code reminds us that we’re called to be reverent, obedient, compassionate, consecrated, trustworthy, pure, grateful, loyal, industrious, and cheerful. 

How are you following the Cadet Code?

When the Holy Spirit grows these ways of living in us, we’re equipped to be strong healthy leaders in God’s kingdom, no matter how young or old you are. As cadets, you can be leaders in cadets, you can be leaders in your class at school, you can be leaders on the teams and clubs you belong to. But remember that good leaders also are humble enough to keep learning from your parents, teachers, counsellors, and especially Jesus through the Bible. One of the best things you can do is to help lead someone to Jesus, while becoming more like Jesus, and following Jesus together. 

A God of Justice - Psalm 146

            

Psalm 146 is a Hallelujah psalm often sung by pilgrims as they made their pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the temple for the festivals the Lord called Israel to observe. These psalms praise the Lord for who he is and what he’s done for his people. “Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul,” is a command. The people are ordered to praise the Lord, no matter whether they felt like it, or not. Our God is to be praised! Psalm 146 begins and ends with the command to praise the Lord, and in between these commands, the psalmist tells us why. 

As the people climbed the mountain to Jerusalem, they would sing the psalms of ascent or the hallelujah psalms. When they reached the top of the mountain, they would look down over Jerusalem as it sits in a bit of a depression at the top. As they looked down on Jerusalem, their eyes would first seek out the temple, the reason for coming. The temple reminds them of who God is, and who they are as his people, who they belong to. Much of Israel’s praise of God is through music; the psalms are Israel’s songbook, but praise is also expressed to God through how they treat each other. 

As the people look down on Jerusalem, their eyes are also drawn to the palace of the king, the second most impressive building in the city. The palace points to the power and position of the king in Israel. As you read through the story of God’s relationship with his people in Scripture, we learn that when the king follows God, the people do as well; when the king rejects God for the idols of the nations around them, many or even most of the people follow the king. It’s easier in many ways to follow a king than to follow God. 

The psalmist points the people’s eyes, focus, and hearts to the temple and who God is, reminding them, “I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to God as long as I live,” and then tells them, “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.” We easily fall into political idolatry, trusting in politicians over God to create the culture and society we want. We want to trust in princes rather than being God’s representatives here, building the kingdom of heaven from the church out into our world. God always provided leadership for the people through judges, prophets, and priests, but at the time of the prophet Samuel, the people want to have a king just like the nations around them. Samuel warns them that this would cost them, he’s angry because it shows the people don’t really trust God. So, God gives them kings, beginning with King Saul. 

The psalmist reminds us that even the greatest empires eventually crumble and fall; all politicians, princes, kings, and dictators die at some point, only God’s forever. All our human leader’s lives are in God’s hands and God’s plans always work out over their plans in the end. No matter how big a kingdom they build, or how much power they gain, or how much treasure they gather, in the end it all makes no difference because it all ends up in someone else’s hands anyway. Only God’s eternal.

We are first called to live out the values of God’s kingdom in our homes, families, and church families, and then into our communities. The only things that last are those things we build in the kingdom of heaven and our children and community that align with Jesus’ kingdom. This looks like being true disciples of Jesus, trusting his sacrifice for our sins, his resurrection and grace, and allowing the Holy Spirit to shape us according to Jesus’ teaching, life, and death as we build community rooted in who Jesus is and his values and ethics. God calls some of us to live out our faith in the public life in places like politics and community leadership. Even then we need to remember that God’s the one in control, and his timing is often different than ours. 

I’m reminded of William Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote, “God Almighty has set before me two great objects … the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.” On February 24, 1807, the House of Commons voted by 283 votes to 16 to end the trade in human slaves in all British territories because of the perseverance and commitment of Wilberforce. It was a long battle. Wilberforce became a follower of Jesus in 1785, and his new faith led him to campaign against slavery and for moral reform. The abolition of slavery was his greatest achievement; yet even with the guidance of John Newton, it took him almost 20 years to convince the British Parliament of the evils of slavery.

We praise God and trust in him because he’s the maker of heaven and earth. No matter where we look, whether it’s the depths of the sea, the vastness of the firmament, the miniscule intricacies of the molecular makeup of the world, all we can do is marvel at it and say, “God made that, hallelujah!” We confess, “He remains faithful forever!” In his faithfulness, God gives us a moral and ethical framework as part of creation, and justice is part of this framework.

The psalmist praises God for being a God of justice, the protector and champion of the oppressed, hurting, poor, and outsiders. His justice begins with each of us personally; God’s justice against us is made right through Jesus. Belgic Confession, Article 20 teaches us, “We believe that God—who is perfectly merciful and also very just—sent the Son to assume the nature in which the disobedience had been committed, in order to bear in it the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death. So God made known his justice toward his Son, who was charged with our sin, and he poured out his goodness and mercy on us, who are guilty and worthy of damnation, giving to us his Son to die, by a most perfect love, and raising him to life for our justification, in order that by him we might have immortality and eternal life.” We’re made right with God through Jesus, praise the Lord!

God cares about everyday justice. In the Old Testament, the writers use a Hebrew word “anawim,” a word that refers to people like the widows, orphans, and foreigners living in Israel. These were the most vulnerable people at that time, people who were easily taken advantage of and abused. God put all kinds of laws in place in Leviticus and Deuteronomy to protect the poor and disadvantaged so that they didn’t slip through the cracks. It’s not much different today. Even in a place like Lacombe, God has given some a more difficult life to live, and then calls us to hear and see them, and to engage them with his generosity and compassion. I regularly give thanks for the work and hearts of our deacons!

Justice is part of God’s character, it’s also important to many of our youth and young adults. God’s not only the creator, he’s also the protector and champion for the anawim, and he calls us to be a people of justice who step up for the anawim in our own community. The church over the past decade has been challenged to be more serious about justice issues, because God is a God of justice and calls us to be active in working for justice. Jesus even says that when we do justice, we’re serving him. Matthew 25 records Jesus saying, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Who are the anawim in our community; do we hear them, see them, or recognize them? Do we want to, because once we do, we have responsibilities as followers of Jesus to them. Paraphrasing Mother Theresa, she mentioned that not all of us can do great things, but we can all do small things of goodness for others.

God reminds Israel that they’d been abused as slaves in Egypt and so they must not do the same to others. Psalm 146 orders God to be praised because his very character is rooted in being our creator who cares deeply about justice. This is who God is. Serving together as families or ministry groups in places like the Mustard Seed, the soup kitchen, Circle of Friends, among other opportunities, impacts our children and youth’s faith. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Your ‘yes’ to God requires your ‘no’ to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and pure.” Faith grows as we live it, and is part of our praise to the Lord!

Teach Me - Psalm 143

                  

This week we’re remembering the beginning of the Reformation; how on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 theses, or statements on the church, on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. When you wanted to start a community discussion about something, this is what you did, this was the Facebook of its time. As we learned in Tuesday Night Youth, the Reformation had its roots in the work and desire for reformation in the church that went back a few hundred years before this. People like Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, John Wycliffe, and others were calling out corruption in the church leadership and their teaching. There was a longing to return to the teachings of Scripture and the hope found in it. As the Encyclopedia Britannica writes, “Martin Luther claimed that what distinguished him from previous reformers was that while they attacked corruption in the life of the church, he went to the theological root of the problem—the perversion of the church’s doctrine of redemption and grace. Luther, a pastor and professor at the University of Wittenberg, deplored the entanglement of God’s free gift of grace in a complex system of indulgences and good works.”

Martin Luther struggled with feelings of guilt and inadequacy before God, recognizing his sin and that he wasn’t good enough to earn God’s forgiveness. David understands this, “Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring your servant into judgement, for on one living is righteous before you.” Psalm 143 is the last of seven psalms of penitence found in the psalms; a psalm of confession and a plea for forgiveness. David knows the importance of repentance; expressing a desire to be obedient and shaped by God.

David’s going through a time of fear, a time of inner struggle, and pressure from enemies.  Verses 3 and 4 show us David’s spirit is faint, his heart is desolate; a picture of David’s fear that he’s unable to please God because of where he’s at in his sin; his soul is dead. This is an image of depression and hopelessness. Our enemies are not always physical, they can be spiritual, emotional, or mental. We can be our own worst enemy by sinning and disobeying God. The word David uses here for faint means “complete destruction,” he’s in a deep place of darkness of the soul. His sin has separated him from God and created a barrenness in his soul. David comes to God with humility and hands spread out; pleading with God.

To make his way back to the Lord, to experience the sweetness of God again, David meditates on God. He meditates on what God has created and is creating, on what God has done in the past, seeking hope and renewal in remembering God’s faithfulness to his people and the covenants he made to be their God and claim Israel as his people. David would have meditated on how often Israel drifted away from God and how God never gives up on them, always restoring them, giving them his blessings again and again. David seeks the guidance of God’s Spirit. In Hebrew, God’s Spirit carries the image of sweetness. For David, the sweetness of God is gone and only God can give it back. David thirsts for God; he has a deep need and longing, an ache in his soul to be close to God again, to be forgiven and experience the sweetness of God’s presence again.

George S. Hendry writes, “Meditation is an exercise, an exercise of the mind and spirit. And it's one that has to be learned…. the Hebrew word for "meditate" is almost always translated by one of the German words for "speak." For example, the Godly man who's portrayed in the first Psalm as one "whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in whose law doth he meditate day and night." In the Luther Bible he becomes a man who "talks" of his law day and night. But that's wrong. The Psalmist's comparison in the next verse of this man to "a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season," surely this suggests a man whose spirit is nourished at hidden springs below the level of speech.”

David recognizes that without forgiveness he has no life; no nourishment for his soul to grow again in his relationship with God. He’s feeling like parched land, like a traveller in the wilderness searching for water with the sun beating down on him. David’s exhausted and can’t carry on in his own strength, he needs water, he needs living water like what Jesus offers the Samaritan woman at the well; water that restores and renews, water that washes away the dirt and sin. But David’s scared that God will hide his face; David fears losing a sense of God’s blessing and presence. It’s like being in a dark pit, a place of darkness and hopelessness. It reminds me of the story of Joseph and his brothers when they grabbed him on order to sell him as a slave. They threw him in a pit, alone and afraid, unable to see a way out.

David chooses to trust God, to trust who God is calling him to be. David’s trust comes because of God’s faithfulness in the past, because of the covenants God has made with his people to be their God, that they are his people and he will not abandon them. It’s no different today, at a time where we’re told to choose our own way, to determine for ourselves what our values and ethics are. Followers of Jesus are called to trust in the way he taught, in the way he walked, in the call he makes on us to show our love for him through obedience to his commands. We’re called to trust that Jesus knows what’s best for us; that his call on how to live, what to believe, is what will help us flourish and grow as people created in the image of God, into who God calls us to be as his children and heirs in his kingdom, even when it’s hard. We trust because we see Jesus’ commitment and great love for us by taking all our sin on himself and washing it away with his blood on the cross. The Reformation took us back to Scripture and how it reveals to us a God who loves us and gives us a path of life that brings strength and hope.

David puts his life in God’s hands; God is the potter and we are the clay as both Jeremiah and Isaiah remind us. David asks, “Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in you.” He trusts the Lord to be the ultimate place of safety, but also the place where he can be shaped into a masterpiece of God’s. David reminds the Lord that this is about who God is, that the world is watching to see if God is going to remain faithful even when David’s unfaithful. David wants God to show the world the Lord’s power and unwavering commitment to his people. When we’re transformed by the Holy Spirit to be more like Jesus, people around us notice, whether it’s when we learn grace, compassion, or forgiveness; or when we become more generous, more passionate about sharing our faith, more conscious of the importance of building strong healthy relationships with each other and God, or concerned for justice and righteousness, this gives weight to our testimony of who Jesus is.

David asks God, “Show me the way to go,” who to be, how to be faithful, how to please God again. David shows he’s open to being led, to following God’s way, to being shaped by God in his life, his values and ethics, in how he understands himself and who God is, in how he thinks and what he feels; all to be directed by God. He goes on, “Teach me to do your will.” He’s willing to sit at God’s feet to learn, showing humility and trust. We all need constant reminders on how to live, how to be obedient to God’s will over our own. It’s about learning practical wisdom, and justice, and mercy; it’s whole life learning under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. David’s trust and obedience is rooted in God’s “unfailing love” which in Hebrew is “hesed.” Some words in Hebrew give us a deeper glimpse into who God is, and this is one of them. It’s an expression of deep covenantal faithful love, of God’s love for us.

The heart of the Reformation was about turning back to God’s Word to shape us: our character, life, and beliefs. The Reformation calls us back to trusting in God’s way and grace, and to live it. We do this better together rather than alone. The Reformation called us back to humility and gratitude, as we live in the comfort of knowing that we are not our own, but we belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to our faithful saviour Jesus Christ. 

 

 

Praise the Lord - Psalm 66

         

Today we slow down and take a moment to concentrate on God’s faithfulness; a faithfulness that remains constant even in our times of faithlessness. Psalm 66 is a hymn of praise, calling us to “Shout for joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious.” All the earth is called to shout for joy to God, not just his people. We can sometimes fall into thinking that we’re the center of all God’s attention. Pastor Stan Mast reminds us, “it is helpful to be reminded that God’s reign extends far beyond Israel. Yes, God has acted for Israel in marvelous ways, but ultimately he will use them to bless the whole world. In anticipation of that worldwide salvation, Psalm 66 calls the whole world to praise God now.”

Psalm 66 is not simply an invitation to praise God, it commands us to “shout for joy, to sing the glory of his name, to make his praise glorious.” This is the Lord’s expectation of us, to not take him and his gifts for granted, but respond with hearts filled with joy and gratitude at who he is and his commitment to us. The psalmist reminds us that God’s active in the life of his people, “How awesome are your deeds,” so that even God’s enemies can see how powerful he is. Telling the stories of God is important for our faith. The Jewish people often talk about themselves as People of the Story, referring to the long history of God’s presence with them.

He remembers the Exodus and how God saved them out of slavery and led them through the sea on dry ground. The psalmist seems to be a later king and reminds the people to praise God for refining them like silver when other nations defeated them and took them into slavery. He describes these times in terms of purifying them through fire and water, but always God brings them back to a place of abundance. He looks back at those difficult times and thanks God for them because they’ve shaped the people into who they are; a people whose relationship with God is rooted in thankfulness and trust.

The psalms are clear that life is filled with times of abundance, but with also times of struggle. Yet we live in trust that in those times, God acts to restore his people, to lift them up again to experience his presence and blessings. Difficult times bring us to a place when we turn back to God, and remember God’s faithfulness to us. This gives us the courage to come to him and rededicate ourselves to being his people. God hears our cries, our prayers, and he acts.

Pastor Mast calls us to remember that God acts not only for Israel, God cares for the entire world, “God heard the cries of his people and answered their prayers by becoming one of us, a human, a Son of Adam, and an Israelite, the Son of David. The Incarnation, the Atonement, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for us individually, for the people of God as a whole, and for the nations of the world—those are the awesome deeds of God that call the whole world to “make his praise glorious.”

It's good to take time as a church family to remember God’s blessings to us, as we share our stories of how God has been with us, restored us, forgiven us, and provided for us. As we hear the stories of God’s blessings and presence, our memories are stirred and we remember even more times when God was with us, walked with us, and acted for us. For those of us going through harder times right now, hearing how God is working in and through our church family, gives us the courage, strength, and reassurance we need to come to God with our own prayers with hope and confidence, knowing that he’s with us. Faith shared in community grows stronger and builds the community, yet our faith is also personal. The stories of God’s amazing deeds in Israel’s history help us recognize God working in our lives, and our stories help others see God at work in their lives, giving them hope.

In verse 13, the psalmist moves from talking to all the earth and about God’s people, to making this psalm personal, using “I” and “me” language. All this praise and worship of God, all this remembering of what God has done in the past now becomes personal to him.  “I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to you—vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.” We learn the psalmist had been in trouble and turned to the Lord. We don’t know what the trouble was that made the psalmist turn to the Lord, but it was big enough that he made vows to God to show that he’s deeply serious about his need, a deep cry for help.

This isn’t an attempt to manipulate God into answering his prayer. The psalmist knows that God can’t be manipulated to do our will. Vows in Scripture show that the person’s need is serious, a way of saying, “if this is your will to answer this prayer, I’ll respond with gratitude to your will, but if it’s not your will, I’ll still trust in you.” Vows showed that the person making the vow is serious about their request, caring enough to promise God something in return when he answers. But the response comes out of gratitude.

The psalmist understands this as we see in Verse 18, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” The psalmist is reassured that his prayer was honouring God and was according to God’s will. We hear him give thanks, “Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried to out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue…. God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.” When we read through the Old Testament stories of God and Israel, one thing stands out: praise and prayer go hand in hand with each other. They flow out of remembering and telling the stories of how God cares about his people, hears their cries and acts on his people’s behalf. Thanksgiving is a way of life; how we engage with God and the world, rather than a feeling.

Jesus tells us to bring everything to him in prayer, there’s nothing too small to bring to him. I know I’ve probably told this story before, but one Sunday morning in Second CRC of Allendale, a small girl came up to me to ask me to pray for her lost cat. It's a small thing to many of us, but it was big for her, so I prayed for her lost cat in the congregational prayer. The cat never did come back, but she was thankful that we prayed for it, it gave her some peace that day. This girl understands what the psalmist is getting at when he says, “Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!” Just knowing that God listens, that he hears our prayers and doesn’t reject them, gives us the permission to truly bring everything to him in prayer, leading us into a spirit of thanksgiving and trust, even if the answers are not what we desire. We know God cares for us as a Father and will never withhold his love from us. As we gather as families and friends for Thanksgiving, take time to give thanks to God for who he is and for Jesus.

Our Rescuer - Psalm 91

                           

Psalm 91 is a favourite of many people; it’s a psalm of confidence in the Lord and his ability to rescue us from whatever’s going on in our lives. What fascinates me about this psalm is how Satan uses it against Jesus when tempting Jesus in the wilderness to do God’s plan his way instead of God’s more difficult and painful way. However, Satan twists the verses slightly, missing the meaning completely, reminding us to be careful about reading the Bible in context.

This psalm was likely written by a priest or Levite in the temple to provide reassurance to the people of God. The psalm is written in 2 parts of 8 verses each where the second 8 verses echo the first 8 verses, amplifying the themes in the psalm. The psalmist begins with the confident declaration, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most-High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” This is amplified in verses 9 and 10, “If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most-High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.” A few weeks ago, we reflected on Psalm 8, a “Wow!” psalm showing us the magnificence of God, Psalm 91 is another of those “Wow!” psalms, as we get a glimpse of who God is, what kind of God he is.

The psalmist shows us who God is and how he relates to his people. God’s a safe place, a safe person you can go to in order to find protection or rest. In Hebrew the word for shelter holds the sense of hiding place or covering, a place where you can go when you’re seeking somewhere your enemies cannot find you. The psalmist uses the image of a bird, likely a dove, as a place of safety and protection. Doves, both the males and females, take turns sitting on the nest to hatch the eggs and when the eggs hatch, both will take turns finding food and feeding the chicks, with one of the parents always staying behind to watch over the chicks. Since the chicks have no feathers, the parents take turns covering them with their feathers. The doves’ faithfulness in protecting and providing for their young is the image the psalmist gives us here of God’s faithfulness and protection, our shield and rampart.

These are images of belonging which gets picked up in verses 9 and 10 where the Most-High, El Elyon, the sovereign God of power, is our refuge. This is magnified by the Psalmist’s use of the name Shaddai for God in verse 1, the Almighty, a God of authority. In using these two names of God so closely together, the psalmist is reminding us that we don’t need to fear what life holds. God is sovereign, in control of all things, creator of all things, almighty, more powerful than anything life can hold, whether enemies, disease, or brokenness. The call is to trust, yet such a powerful God can seem too powerful to approach, so the psalmist also reminds us of another name of God. In verse 9 we find the name Yahweh, the Lord, the personal name of God, given to Moses at the burning bush; the eternal God. Yahweh is our refuge, reminding us of the personal relationship between the Lord and his people; we’re part of his household, part of the family. A reminder that the Thanksgiving week devotional leads us through several names of God, giving thanks for who God is.

Your tent is an image of safety and belonging; the personal nature of God’s relationship with us as part of his family. The psalmist identifies 4 terrors the Lord will keep us safe from, “the fowler’s snare, deadly pestilence, the terror of the night, and the arrow that flies by day.” The fowler’s snare are those unseen or unnoticed traps in life that can catch us by surprise. Many of our sins often fall into this area. We don’t start off deciding to deliberately sin or disobey God, and yet suddenly the realization strikes us that we’re caught in sin again. A few years back, we had a small men’s group that would get together every couple of weeks to support and encourage each other as husbands, and fathers. At one meeting the topic of smart phones came up. One man shared, “I start off looking for tools or sports scores, and then suddenly I realize I’ve started searching for sexual images and other inappropriate sites. That wasn’t my intention, but I end up there anyway.” These snares are so easy to get trapped in. Our snares may be different, but we all have snares that we tend to fall into.

There’s pestilence like locusts or insects that can devastate crops or livelihood, there are plagues and disease, things we still see today around the world, in spite of all the advances in medicine. There are the arrows that fly by day from enemies; there’s the terror of the night, all the fears and worries that seem to get bigger and heavier as we lay in our beds at night, taking us down paths where the world and life is dark, hope is faint, and fear is strong. These can paralyze some of us in the dark of night. Yet the psalmist begins with, “Surely he will save you…. You will not fear…,” and yet we do often fear.

Scott Hoezee writes, “The main message of Psalm 91 is not “Times are bad” but instead “Times are bad but for that very reason your confidence in God needs to be stronger than ever!”  The threats around us make people nervous, uncertain, afraid, and cynical.  Psalm 91 conveys a counter-message: the poet who composed these words wants to tell us that instead of letting the wider world determine how we feel, we need to let our ultimate confidence in God become the lens through which we view the wider world. God, not current events, is what shapes our viewpoints, informs our hopes, and brings us a confidence that avoids cynicism.” Psalm 91 gives us the confidence that when there are snares, pestilence, terrors, and plagues, even when we’ve gotten snared, we can come to Yahweh, our El Elyon and Shaddai and the safety of his arms. He greets us as our father, with a hug. When we make God our refuge and fortress, he accepts us, never abandons us.

This confidence comes through in verses 11 and 12, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” He goes on, “You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.” Four powerful and frightening beasts you might encounter on the path or in the wilderness, echoing the 4 threats in the first half of the psalm. Confidently, the psalmist declares that we don’t need to fear because God sends angels to protect us. This verse has led many to believe that we have guardian angels watching over us. Our strongest confidence is knowing that Jesus is our rescuer and crunches the head of the serpent under his feet on the cross!

Yet we need to make sure that we don’t misinterpret Scripture. Satan uses these verses to tempt Jesus to throw himself off the top of the temple to prove to the people that he’s the Son of God, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Wesleyan pastor Danny Quanstrom writes, “Satan omits the very important “in all your ways” when he tempts Jesus to throw himself down from the heights, thus turning a confession of trust in God to determine which ways are his ways into an attempt to force God’s hand in meeting our demands at the moment.” It’s important to not twist Scripture for our own agenda, this is why, in the Reformed tradition, we emphasize Scripture interpreting Scripture.

 We trust in God’s protection, “Because he loves me, I will rescue him, I will protect him… I will deliver and honour him.” We might not find healing, but he will give us ways forward, people to walk with us, give us strength, point us to Yahweh, to El Shaddai, to El Elyon who never abandons us, gives up on us.

Yahweh, ends with, “With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” In the ancient Near East old people are held in honour. Old age is seen as a sign of divine favour for fearing the Lord and keeping his commands, helping us see why Jesus is identified with the ‘Ancient of Days’ in Daniel. Older men are expected to lead as elders; expected to have grown in wisdom through their life journey, learning confidence in the Lord in good and difficult times and sharing their faith and wisdom with younger generations.

Psalm 91 reminds us that our God is sovereign, almighty, and desires a personal relationship with us, “Wow!” It doesn’t promise us that there won’t be pain or struggle, but it promises that we can turn to God and he won’t turn us away, he’s there with us, giving us what we need to make it through, reminding us he’s always faithful to us.

Losing Our Foothold - Psalm 73

                                  

Psalm 73 begins the third book in psalms. This book includes prayers for help, tells us of a God who helps his people and brings down the wicked. Psalm 73 contains a question that still get asked today by followers of Jesus, “why do the wicked so often have things so good while God’s people suffer?” Asaph begins by confessing that God is good to his people, but it can be hard to see that goodness when evil’s all around, and to make it worse, the wicked have it good while the psalmist struggles. Shouldn’t God take better care of his people, is the unspoken question here.

Jeremiah has the same compliant, Jeremiah 12:1–2, “You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.” This is a question that comes up regularly in the time I’ve been a pastor, that those who don’t really believe in God and do horrid things do great while those who are faithful to God struggle to get by. It makes it hard for Asaph to trust God.

Asaph’s complains that the arrogant prosper, they don’t struggle at all, they’re happy and healthy, have no problems, no human ills. They’re violent, filled with sin, there’s no limit to the evil their imaginations can come up with, and they even threaten to oppress those who don’t give them what they want. It’s not fair! What frustrates Asaph even more is that the people love them, they turn to these wicked people and drink their water. I hear an echo forward to Jesus’ offer of living water to the woman at the well and how it fills with life, unlike the water from the wicked that leads people to doubt, or even mock God, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?” The name Asaph uses for the Lord here is El Elyon, God Most High, check out the Thanksgiving week devotional to reflect on how this name points to God as being superior in every way, but the people mock God.

Asaph finds himself jealous of the wicked. He wonders, why work so hard to keep his heart pure and himself innocent by living how God calls him to live in the Torah, the books of Moses where God lays out his expectations for his people. Asaph wonders why he should work so hard at living this way when he doesn’t seem to get anything out of it. This kind of faith is a business-like transaction: Asaph gives God his loyalty and worship, but then expects the Lord to bless him with a lovely wife, respectful and gifted children, success, and good health; otherwise, why bother? This is prosperity gospel thinking. Asaph only sees, “All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. If I had spoken out like that, I would surely have betrayed your children.”

Envy, jealousy, and frustration leads Asaph to a place in his heart where he confesses, “my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.” He’s not the only one this happens to; these feelings often fill us too and can lead us away from trusting God. Asaph finally decides to go to God’s place, his sanctuary to try to figure all this heart stuff, to address this envy and bitterness inside him, “When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.” Asaph begins to find some peace and understanding when he enters God’s house. It’s here that he’s reminded of who God is, of God’s long relationship of faithfulness to his people, the stories of how he has delivered his people time after time. But the stories of God’s deliverance of his people from their enemies also reminds Asaph of why God had to save his people so often, because of who they had become, just like the wicked around them, instead of being God’s people. Because Israel keeps choosing to be more like the nations, God allows the nations at certain times to conquer and oppress Israel so Israel can experience exactly what being like the nations is really like. God allows this oppression to happen in order to draw his people back to him again, to remind them of who he is and who they are: his people called to be his image to the nations instead of being like the nations. God reminds them that they are his chosen people and he’ll always be faithful to the covenants he’s made with them, even when they’ve failed to be faithful in return.

Asaph gets to a place where he understands why God holds off and allows the wicked to commit themselves to their ways and choices, “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you despise them as fantasies.” God allows us to collect for ourselves as much as we can, but in the end, it’s nothing more than a fantasy and meaningless. Our worth doesn’t come from how much we have or have accomplished, it comes from who we are as a child of God and how we use what we’ve gathered. You can hoard it for yourself and selfishly only bless yourself, or you can recognize it as a gift from God to be used to bless others and build community. Jesus touches on this in his parable about the wealthy man who keeps building bigger barns to hold his wealth, but then suddenly dies in the night. What he gathered for himself ultimately doesn’t save him, he dies just like the beggar in the ditch or laneway.

Asaph knows the Lord and himself well enough to admit that “when my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” He recognizes that bitterness and envy hurt our relationship with God; it impacts our generosity, compassion, and humility, causing our hearts to wither, creating doubt and anger towards God. We’re not nearly as spiritually strong as we think we are. We’re natural born sinners, we want what we want, no matter what God says. Our hearts are naturally drawn to sin rather than our creator. We’re not strong enough on our own, we need God, we need his Spirit, we need the forgiveness found in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and we need to be honest with ourselves. We often find ourselves surprised by our sin, instead we should realize that this is who we are. When you listen to writers like Paul, we’re regularly reminded that God made us weak so that we can learn humility, and just how much we need him.

We’re also set free from our sin and our envy by God’s grace. We’re also reminded regularly how much he loves us, and how Jesus is with us always to always lean on him. As Barbara Duguid reminds us in her book Extravagant Grace, “In the Bible, the strongest people are those who know their own weakness while the weakest people are those who are most impressed by their own strength.” Asaph comes to the realization, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” He finds the peace that wipes away the envy and questions that had created so much struggle in his heart towards God.

Asaph realizes that his flesh and heart may fail, but God’s his strength. The Jewish writer, Chaim Bentorah gives us some insight into this verse. “The word “flesh” here is the word “she’ar” in the Hebrew which means flesh, but flesh in the sense of a near kinsman, or one you trust as someone of your own flesh, a close advisor… So, when Asaph says that “his flesh failed” he is likely saying that even those closest to him… have failed to explain why the unrighteous should prosper and the righteous do not. When even our closest friends or relatives can not advise us, we then look to our own hearts and let our hearts decide.  But Asaph is saying that even his own heart will fail, he can’t trust his own heart for a correct understanding or discernment.  So, who or what can he trust? Asaph says that God is his “strength.”  The word in Hebrew for “strength” here is “sur” which is the word for “rock.”  This is wisdom, that we turn to God for a solid foundation for our lives rather than the things of this world which come and go as God wills.

The reality is that it can be hard to understand why God allows some people, even those who are arrogant and even wicked succeed so much while we struggle. Sometimes we need to ask God for eyes to see his presence and his blessings he has given us, to ask the Holy Spirit for a spirit of trust, gratitude, and contentment, even as we ask God for our daily bread, as Jesus taught us to pray. This will give us a firm foothold through life as we build our lives on God our rock.

 

Fortress and Refuge - Psalm 46

                       

Psalm 46 is a psalm of lament, a psalm that cries out to God in times of struggle. It begins with a spirit of strength, confidence, and reassurance in who God is. God is a refuge, a place of safety and protection, and place of strength who they can turn to when trouble comes, when anxiety overwhelms and distress fills their hearts and souls. During times like those, when we feel unable to deal with what’s going on in our lives, we seek out places or people of refuge. A refuge is a safe place to get your feet under you again, to recover your strength and find peace and calmness. I’ve learned that no-one can live in chaos all the time.

Because God is our refuge, the psalmist declares, “we will not fear.” Then come images that strike fear in our hearts, “though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Earthquakes, mudslides, volcanos, tsunamis all come to mind as we hear the psalmist describe how fearsome nature can be. As we journey through the psalm, we see the psalmist is using these natural disasters to describe civil or social unrest. There’re references to nations in uproar, wars and kingdoms falling, and earth melting. These are not easy times.

It's easy to read Psalm 46 as a hymn or prayer that’s for someone else, yet it’s applicable to many of us, even if not in this moment. We may not be in a time of war as a nation, we may not be experiencing the political craziness that’s infecting other countries, yet Psalm 46 is for us too. I think of a number of times when I’ve seen people grab hold onto this psalm and hang on for dear life. When 9/11 happened, my family and I were living in Michigan and the day of the terrorist attacks, we kept looking to the skies for possible planes aimed at Chicago and that evening the churches in Allendale all gathered together and we turned to Psalm 46. A young man I know whose wife died, leaving him with 3 young children to raise on his own turned to Psalm 46 because he felt as if the ground was melting under him. A family who lost their home after both the mother and father were laid off turned to this psalm as it felt as if the world was crashing all around them. My parents after my sister Toni, and then a couple of years later, my brother Glen went home to the Lord, also turned to this psalm for strength. The earth is not nearly as secure underneath us as we’d like to believe.

In the middle of all the images of chaos and turmoil, the psalmist reminds us that there’s also places full of life and calm, of safety where God can be found. “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most-High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” The psalmist uses an image found throughout scripture of life and flourishing, the image of a river. Psalm 1 starts the psalms off by speaking of a person who reflects on God’s way being like a tree planted by streams of water, a healthy flourishing tree. The Garden of Eden had three rivers nourishing the garden, Psalm 36 and Jeremiah pick up on this image as well, Psalm 36:8, “They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.” Jeremiah 17:8, “They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jesus offers us living water in John 4 when speaking to the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Rivers are usually symbols of peace and prosperity because they bring life for farming and roads for trade so communities can grow and prosper. Jesus’ return often includes descriptions of rivers flowing with clean water, making the world a better place to live in. Rivers are a powerful image of life, blessing, and God’s presence in the world.

The psalmist points us to the city of God, to Jerusalem where the Most-High dwells, a stronghold where the chaos cannot reach us. Then comes the powerful promise, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress,” a mountain stronghold. He invites us to come and see what the Lord has done. The psalmist then offers an unexpected scene, inviting us to come see “the desolations he has brought on the earth.” This is a God of power, a God you don’t fool around with! Desolation is a word that strikes shock and fear into hearts, it means “an atrocious event,” or “to make uninhabited.” It echoes back to when “the Lord speaks, the earth melts.” The psalmist shows us the power of the Lord, who has the power to destroy all his enemies with a single word.

The Lord’s not only a safe place to turn to in times of turmoil and danger, he’s an active defender of his people. Jesus comes to take our sin on himself to the cross, but also to take the fight to Satan and defeat him and bring peace, his shalom to all the earth. Jesus comes as a warrior, but also as the Prince of Peace “to break the bow and shatter the spear; to burn the shields with fire.” The desolations the Lord brings will bring the end to war, the destruction of the machinery of war. No longer with the people need to defend themselves with weapons of war, instead, as Isaiah 2 tells us their swords will be hammered into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

This will all come about when Jesus returns; until then we will face times of turmoil, of chaos, fear, and uncertainty. In those times, God calls out to us to trust him and “be still know that I am God.” In the times of chaos, when the shaking earth under us is more than we can handle, the Lord calls us to “Be still,” to trust that he’s powerful enough to carry you through, that he’s powerful enough to protect you. In all the smoke and haze, all the shaking and roaring, Jesus invites us to come to him, Matthew 11:28–30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Charles Spurgeon knows that it’s only when God becomes personal to us that we find peace, “Peace comes to me, not only by what God is, but by what God is to me. “God is our refuge and strength.” “This God is our God.” You never enjoy the goodness and greatness of God if you view them in an abstract manner; you must grasp them as your own. It seems a daring act for a man to appropriate God, and yet the Lord invites us to do it; he says, “Let him take hold of my strength.” It’s in stillness that we find greater opportunities to listen to God, to share our thoughts and lives with God, to connect with our God as our Father, our friend. We need a place of refuge to feel safe enough to be still; the psalmist reminds himself that the Lord is a safe place, a fortress where the Lord is with us.

Where do you go when the ground is shaking under you? Who do you turn to, who do you trust, who will never fail you? God places many good caring people in our lives, but when the fear goes deep, when the hurt and pain is deep and understanding escapes you, the only one who can always be counted on to be a place of refuge is Jesus. Unfortunately, even good people will fail us at some point, but Jesus never will, the cross promises us that his commitment to us is unshakeable.

I’ve learned the comfort, hope, and peace of turning to Scripture, especially the psalms and the Gospels, I’m still learning the peace that comes through prayer, especially praying the psalms. I lean on those who have shared their struggles and brokenness in books and stories and how the Lord brought people into their lives to walk with them during those times, giving me eyes to see how the Lord is present, giving me ears to hear his invitation to come to him. I encourage you to take time to “be still and know God” and lean into the promise that Jesus is with us always through the Holy Spirit and holds the whole world in his scarred hands, the most secure place we can find ourselves.