by John Mason | Oct 17, 2018 | Word on Wednesday
Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher wrote: ‘Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is just to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show them that it is’.
It is worth our while considering Psalm 19 which CS Lewis regarded as ‘the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world’ (Reflections on the Psalms, p.56).
The Psalm begins: The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world (19:1-6).
The Psalm speaks of God’s witness to himself in the ever-repeating pageantry of the sky, day after day and night after night. And, as day follows night, they pour forth speech. Although there are no spoken words, these elements of the universe of themselves speak of a God of order who has taken the initiative to put the universe into existence. The very nature of these elements reveal not just the existence of God, but his eternal power and glory.
The opening lines of Psalm 19 tell us that no one can say, ‘I never knew about God.’ ‘Look around you,’ the writer says. In St Paul’s Cathedral in London, an inscription to its architect, Sir Christopher Wren reads: ‘If you are looking for a monument (or testimony), look around you.’
God’s Law. Suddenly, without warning, Psalm 19 speaks about God’s Word (Law): The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; … (19:7).
C.S. Lewis points out a thematic connection. Just as the heat of the sun reaches everywhere and pierces everyone with its power, so God’s Law is like the all-piercing, all-detecting sunshine. The words of verse 7 are key to understanding the Psalm.
The Psalm-writer uses images showing his delight in God’s Law; it reveals God’s good and pure will, is sure and morally right. ‘True’ in Hebrew has the idea of holding water. God’s Word (Law) is dependable and trustworthy. It revives and leads to wisdom.
Sweetness. So the writer can say – or perhaps, sing: More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb (19:8). We might say this of God’s grace and love, but Psalm 19 speaks thus of God’s Word (Law).
The Psalm is telling us that in God’s revelation we find truly stable, well-rounded directions for living. God’s Law, God’s truth, answers big questions for us about life and lifestyle.
The nations surrounding ancient Israel were pagan. Yet too often God’s people succumbed to the temptations of their neighbors’ religion with its sacred prostitution and child sacrifice. It was only when God provided a wake-up call that their hard hearts were softened and they saw again how appalling these practices were.
Reflection. The Psalm-writer considers his own life before God: Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults (19:11).
‘Nothing is hidden from God’, the writer says. He notes that our sins can be hidden to us because they are often part of us (19:12-13). However, in the same way that nothing is hid from the sun, so God’s truth searches all the hiding places of our blinded hearts.
C.S. Lewis’s comment on Psalm 19 speaks into our lives and our world: ‘In so far that this idea of the Law’s beauty, sweetness or preciousness, arose from the contrast of the surrounding Paganisms, we may soon find occasion to recover it. Christians are increasingly living on a spiritual island; new and rival ways of life surround it in all directions… None of these new ways is yet so filthy or cruel as some Semitic paganism. But many of them ignore all individual rights and are already cruel enough. Some give morality a wholly new meaning which we cannot accept; some deny its possibility. Perhaps we shall all learn, sharply enough, to value the clean air and “sweet reasonableness” of the Christian ethics which in a more Christian age we might have taken for granted’ (Reflections, p.57).
In recapturing the ‘exultant sweetness’ of God’s truth, we can show an unbelieving world around us more effectively what Blaise Pascal suggested – namely, we can make our faith ‘attractive’ and so make others ‘wish it were true, and then show them that it is’.
The starting point is with you and me. So, to conclude with the Psalm: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
© John G. Mason – www.anglicanconnection.com
by John Mason | Oct 10, 2018 | Word on Wednesday
In our social media driven world that gives voice to ‘my’ feelings one question surfaces: ‘Who or what are we?’
Shakespeare’s Hamlet put it this way: What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! (Hamlet, II.ii)
Interestingly Psalm 8 paints a picture of the insignificance yet the greatness of humanity framed by the words: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Between these bookends, the Psalm explores the meaning of God’s majesty together with the meaning of humanity.
Despite the late Stephen Hawking’s pronouncement that ‘science makes God unnecessary’, from the outset the Bible is clear: In the beginning God created heaven and earth… And Psalm 8 speaks of God’s majestic glory throughout creation: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; (8:3)
Insignificant? Awakened to the greatness and majesty of God, perhaps as the writer looked up at the night sky and saw the myriad of stars etched against the darkness, he voices his response, speaking of the work of the fingers of God. And as he reflects, we can feel the question exploding in his mind, ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?’ (Ps.8:4)
When we honestly reflect on this weighty evidence, we will be even more amazed that the God who put it all together is interested in us, let alone cares for us. For the question of verse 4 is not a question about human greatness but about how something so small and insignificant in the universe could be raised to greatness.
Indeed, Stephen Hawking raised this question in his A Brief History of Time where he wrote: ‘We are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star in the outer suburb of one of a hundred billion galaxies. So it is difficult to believe in a God that could care about us or even notice our existence’.
To which Dr. H. Fritz Schaefer III replies: ‘My response to that statement by Hawking, and to others that have said this over the years, is that that’s a silly thing to say. There isn’t any evidence to date that life exists anywhere else in the universe. Human beings, thus far, appear to be the most advanced species in the universe. Maybe God does care about us! Where Hawking surveys the cosmos and concludes that man’s defining characteristic is obscurity, I consider the same data and conclude that humankind is very special’ (Stephen Hawking, The Big Bang and God).
Dr. Schaefer’s words reflect the words of Psalm 8:5-8 where we read: Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Greatness. In creating us God has placed us only just under the position of the heavenly beings. His intention from the first was to invest in us a royal sovereignty, crowning us with glory and honor.
Psalm 8 takes us back to Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
These words were God’s words to Adam. But as Genesis 3 tells us, we who are the glory of God’s handiwork became the shame of his creation. Because we have failed to honor him in our lives, we lost the perfect dominion he had given us. But, in God’s mercy that is not the end of the story. Psalm 8 is not just a statement of wonder: it is also prophetic.
As we look back with our New Testament glasses on we see that God has potentially restored our rule or dominion through Jesus Christ – the second Adam. Jesus who was and is, man as man is meant to be, set aside his power and glory, and taking on human form gave up his life, thereby conquering the power of sin and death. Now crowned with glory and honor, Jesus will crown all his followers with the same honor and glory.
CS Lewis commented: ‘There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization–these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendors’.
© John G. Mason – www.anglicanconnection.com
by John Mason | Oct 3, 2018 | Word on Wednesday
In his Everlasting Man, GK Chesterton comments: ‘three or four times at least in the history of Christendom the whole soul seemed to have gone out of Christianity, and almost every man in his heart expected its end’.
He remarks on a pattern, ‘the creed (of Christianity) had become a respectable thing, had become a ritual thing, had then been modified into a rational thing; and the rationalists were ready to dissipate the last remains of it, just as they do today…’ Chesterton was writing in 1925.
I draw attention to Chesterton’s observations because they touch on the apprehension of many Christians today – namely, that such is the hostility towards Christianity that its voice will be inevitably be shut down in the public forum. Certainly, progressive secularism reckons it will have the final word. But will it?
Psalm 3 is the first Psalm that has the title, ‘A Psalm of David’. It is one of fourteen psalms specifically linked to events in David’s life – here the occasion of Absalom’s rebellion that we find in 2 Samuel 15:13ff. O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God”, Psalm 3 begins.
The opposition against David was personal and determined. Many are rising against me, he says. Significantly, he comments, many are saying… “There is no salvation for him in God”. It’s how we are sometimes tempted to feel today: ‘God won’t step in to help us’.
Response. But consider how David responds: But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. (Ps. 3:3). With imagery that progressively expresses his sure trust in God, David speaks of God’s protection, the honor (glory) God bestows on him, and God’s assurance that enables him to carry his head high. God heard David’s call and answered: I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill (Ps. 3:4).
David’s reference to God’s holy hill is striking. Absalom was intent on setting himself up in the city of Jerusalem and there make his own decrees. But David knew of a higher authority whose word, symbolically (and literally) spoken from Jerusalem, is supreme. A New Testament example of this confident faith is found in Acts 4:23-31 where God’s people, in response to the release of Peter and John in Jerusalem, prayed for boldness in testifying to Jesus as the Christ.
Such was David’s peace of mind in the face of Absalom’s rebellion that he lay down and slept. He awoke again sustained by the Lord. No longer was he afraid of the thousands who opposed him.
But as Derek Kidner comments (Psalms 1-72, p.55)), ‘Refuge is not enough… To settle for anything less than victory would be a virtual abdication’. David prayed: Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! Under God, David had the responsibility to carry out his calling as God’s king.
Let me suggest that we too have a calling, amongst other things to partner with the Lord in the work of announcing the kingship of Jesus Christ to people around us. Yet too often our apprehensions silence us. Let’s pray with the first believers in Jerusalem who prayed: Grant to your servants… to speak your word with all boldness (Acts 4:29).
Psalm 3 concludes with the assurance: Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Notice that David’s focus is no longer on himself; rather, it is on the Lord and his salvation and blessing.
Psalms 3-72 (Books I and II) tell us in poetic form something of David’s experiences – his suffering, failures, and weaknesses. But we also read of David’s trust in the Lord and of God’s supernatural intervention bringing new life and hope in times of apprehension and despair. In fact, the pattern of David’s experiences foreshadow the experiences of his great successor, Jesus Christ, especially in the hostility that nailed Jesus to a cross, but also in God’s intervention that raised him to new life.
To return to Chesterton’s theme about the dying and rising pattern of Christianity through the ages, he comments, ‘When Christianity rose again suddenly and threw them (‘the rationalists’), it was almost as unexpected as Christ rising from the dead.
Will you join me in praying that the Lord will give us all a new love for him; a love that creates in us a longing to bring others to a sure knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Who knows, in the mercy of God we may see a fresh rising again of interest in his good news. We may see again many turning with joy to find their true home in him.
© John G. Mason – www.anglicanconnection.com
by John Mason | Sep 19, 2018 | Word on Wednesday
Happiness is something we look for in life. But how can we find it? For happiness is elusive. One moment we can feel happy, blessed by God, but the next moment the feeling has gone. Like moonlight it has slipped through our fingers.
Some consider that having a good marriage and family, being successful and having all they want will make them happy. But the best of families can experience pain or hurt; others will be more successful; and no one is ever fully satisfied.
Psalm 1 helps us. Blessed, or happy is the one… it begins. And as it develops it lays the foundation for The Book of Psalms by setting out in poetic form, first where true happiness is to be found and secondly, what a truly happy person is like.
The opening lines read: Happy is the one who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
We learn where happiness or blessing is not to be found – by following the counsel of the wicked. Consider how the poetry of the psalm expresses this. Three words – walk, stand, and sit – capture three facets of our life. Another three words draw our attention to those whose ways will not help us – the wicked, sinners, and the scoffers.
With these opening lines we feel the emotional impact of the poetry. We will not find true happiness if we march in step with the crowds who behave as though there are no absolutes, no rules and no God. It’s the same story if we join the cynics, or even sit on the sidelines as part of the silent majority – sitting in the seat of scoffers.
What then is the way to real happiness? Verse 2 tells us: Whose delight is in the law of the Lord; and who meditates on his law day and night. The actions of verse 1 move to stillness in verse 2 where the law of the Lord stands as the key to true happiness and humanity.
The law of the Lord is not limited to the Law of Moses but rather includes all God’s teaching and instruction for living. Significantly the heart and mind’s delight rises to a new note of joy through the daily meditation of God’s life-giving Word.
Meditation is not something carried out by people who zone out of life. The words here echo God’s command to Joshua who, though he was a man of action, needed to think hard about his choice in life (Joshua 24:14,15).
Real happiness is found in the deliberate resolution to be instructed by God himself. This doesn’t just happen. It will mean being prepared to look inside ourselves and let the weight of God’s Word press upon our thoughts, our speech, and our life-style.
So, what is a truly happy person like? The poetry of verse 3 tells us in imagery that carries with it the vitality of life: That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields it fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do they prosper.
Out of the riches of knowing God and trusting in his ways our lives grow and bear fruit – with branches stretching out and leaves that do not wither, even in tough times.
The contrast with those who do not know God but mock him and his ways could not be clearer. In one sentence in verse 4 we read: The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff that the wind drives away. In contrast with the vitality of those whose life is like a tree, the wicked are blown away like chaff. Their excitement, their planning and their plotting are only temporary – for the day will come when, like dust, they will vanish.
And the psalm-writer pulls no punches as he sums up their final destination: Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous (1:6).
Two paths. Psalm 1 introduces a theme that permeates the Book of Psalms: namely the way, or the path. We have a choice in life – to walk in the way of the wicked or to tread the path of life with God. Psalm 1 concludes: For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
For life to make any sense at all there must be a final accounting. Psalm 1 tells us there will be such a day and that everyone who has ignored God or mocked him and his ways, will fall. They may be powerful and successful now, but the path they have chosen will end in nothing.
© John G. Mason – www.anglicanconnection.com
by John Mason | Sep 12, 2018 | Word on Wednesday
Seventeen years ago yesterday (September 11, 2001), Judith and I were living in Downtown Manhattan in close proximity to the Twin Towers. The second of the terrorist planes flew above us at a high-pitched scream before a mighty explosion as it crashed into the South Tower.
In spring and early summer that year I had started a mid-week interactive Bible program on Wall Street, Downtown and in Midtown – what we called ‘More to Life: Wall Street Ministry’. On 9/11 I was to speak on the subject, ‘God, why don’t you clean up the mess?’ Needless to say, I did not give that talk that day.
In the course of teaching and pastoral ministry that followed that day, I observed that our culture has made a habit of setting aside the wisdom of the past and especially the wisdom of the Bible. I noted how interesting it is that in the midst of catastrophe, in times when we are confronted with the harsh realities of life, the words and wisdom of the Bible reveal a unique power. The Psalms, for example, provide comfort for the broken-hearted and hope for the bereaved. Indeed, the President on the night of 9/11 quoted from Psalm 23.
Psalm 46. In my ministry I drew attention to Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, 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…
The God of the Bible knows about the devastating events and suffering. Encouragingly, Psalm 46 tells us that God’s presence is neither interrupted by nor dislocated from such events. Rather, the Psalm reveals God as being in the midst of them. He is not the cause of wickedness, but neither is he removed from it.
The good news is, as the Psalm goes on to assure us, God has not left us to our own devices. He has committed himself to be involved. He will hear us and sustain us, despite the awfulness of our experiences. We read: There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God…. God is with her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
Justice. Bubbling through Psalm 46 is the implication that God will comfort by bringing about his justice. Indeed, all of us have within us a sense of right and wrong that cries out for justice, especially when great wickedness has been perpetrated.
It’s important to think about this. If we lived in a world that had come into existence simply by the process of spontaneous change, we would be nothing but particles, bumping around in some sort of meaningful connection. Our conscious state would be nothing more than electrical discharges in the human brain.
If this is how we view life, we can hardly be morally indignant about behavior that results from quarks smashing together. The issues of wickedness and suffering, and our cry for justice, lose their relevance.
Rather, the sense of justice we have within us is in line with the Bible’s teaching that condemns violence and the taking of innocent life.
Psalm 46 is one of a number of Psalms that point us to the New Testament and its teaching that wickedness will not triumph, that God will vindicate the innocent and glorify his own name. His judgment may be slow as we count time, but it is very sure.
We can be sure of this because of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus comes between the good creation of God, ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends – where God will wipe away every tear … there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Rev 21:4).
It is on the cross where a godless world put to death the sinless Son of God, that Jesus took the consequences of the wickedness of the world into himself. From that day, God has promised to forgive all who truly turn to him – something we all need to do, for none of us is righteous in God’s eyes. It is the cross of Christ that gives us confidence that God has our good in mind no matter what wickedness is perpetrated.
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:38f – For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the kind of faith that answers fear and assures us that God truly is our refuge and strength.
© John G. Mason – www.anglicanconnection.com
