With the massive hurricane that devastated the Caribbean and the Virgin Islands before sweeping through the State of Florida and into Georgia over the weekend, people are asking, ‘Why?’ While it is important to ask questions about climate change and human responsibility, we must not lose sight of Jesus’ words about things we should expect before his final return.
In Luke 21:25f we read: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken”.
Earlier Jesus had responded to questions about unexpected events with: “…Those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did” (Luke 13:4f).
The Bible urges us to be alert to the realities of the world and our need to heed God’s wisdom found in his Word. CS Lewis once spoke of suffering as ‘God’s megaphone’ – awakening us to God and our need to turn to him.
It is not insignificant that Psalm 95, which begins with a call to worship with thanksgiving and joy, gives way to a warning. In verses 6 & 7 we read: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
God wants us to enjoy a personal, intimate relationship with him. Yet how easy it is to forget this. When life is comfortable we can drift away from God – we put aside Bible reading; prayer is spasmodic; church attendance irregular and we lose the joy of a daily walk with the Lord. When life gets tough, how often we blame God.
No wonder Psalm 95 concludes with a postscript: Listen Up! In verses 7,8 & 11 we read: O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness…
At the very point when we might want to dance and shout, the psalm takes a solemn turn. Why?
The psalm-writer wants us to reflect on the nature of true worship. Outwardly we might seem worshipful, but our real self remains unchanged towards God and towards God’s people.
Massah and Meribah were places that marked the bookends of Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness (Numbers 20:2-13; Exodus 17:1-7). Both at the beginning and the end of this time Israel forgot God’s astonishing goodness and mercy as he brought his people out of slavery in Egypt.
Tragically Israel doubted God’s promise and power. When the going got tough in the desert, they faltered and complained bitterly: ‘We were better off as slaves in Egypt’.
In the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95. Hebrews reveals that God through a master-stroke has opened up a new and perfect way for forgiveness and eternal life through the once-and-for-all perfect sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ. Yet even we forget, who have been bought and bound to God by the perfect Savior, Jesus Christ.
It is in this context that Hebrews quotes Psalm 95. At the time of Moses, God’s people hardened their hearts. Even though they tasted the blessing of release from captivity in Egypt, they turned away from him. But, the writer of Hebrews urges, don’t give up. Don’t have a hard heart.
Yet how often we let other things become more important to us than Christ: family, work, possessions; the enjoyments of life. We need to urge one another on to keep following him.
It’s one of the reasons we need church. We need to remind one another of God’s promises. We need to stir one another up to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We need to pray for one another, support one another, encourage one another.
Sometimes we don’t feel the need for church. Church may be disappointing at times. Still, go! IfGod’s rest is so important, then go, even for the sake of your neighbor. The Psalmist understood how important it is. The writer of Hebrews understood it even more.
How much more should we, who now have God’s promises more fully developed, heed the warnings of the storms of life and stop to refresh our relationship with God.
‘Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart, lest you, your son or daughter, or your neighbors, miss out’. To know God through a true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is to have life.
One of the marks of human selfishness is our failure to say, ‘Thank you.’ King Lear,one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, illustrates this theme. The play tells the story of a man who voluntarily set aside his titles and property in favor of his three daughters, only to find himself reduced to poverty and homelessness. His daughters turned him out. “Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend,” King Lear says. “How sharper than the serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.”
Some parents might identify with these sentiments, but how often do we as God’s children express our gratitude to him?
The opening lines of Psalm 95 read: O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods… (Psalm 95:1-3).
While there may be times when we express our thanks in silence or even with tears, singing is a great way to show our love for God. We sing when we are happy and glad when there is joy in our hearts. Have you heard the singing of the Welsh Rugby Union supporters? They can’t stop, and their singing is enthusiastic and full-bodied.
The opening lines of Psalm 95 are the words of people who know God as their refuge and strength – to quote Psalm 46 that I touched on last week.
Consider the repetition of the verbs: sing, make a joyful noise,… How different this is when so many of us drift into church pre-occupied, late and apathetic.
Indeed Psalm 95 suggests that singing is not just a matter of responding to God. Through singing, we also exhort and encourage one another. That suggests that our songs need to be strong on Bible and not insipid, ‘woosy’ stuff. For songs are not intended merely to arouse some spiritual ecstasy: they are instruments of special instruction. Singing is an important way we can express our thanks to God and our relationship with one another.
Further, as the psalm unfolds, we see reasons why we should sing: For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also…(Psalm 95:3-4).
One of the distinct features of Christianity is the insistence that there is a living, personal God at the heart of the universe. God created all that there is, and continues to sustain every part of it.
Furthermore, the more scientists discover, the more extraordinary the universe seems. There are chemists and physicists who tell us what the Scriptures reveal: the universe has not come by chance, but rather is the work of God’s design and purpose.
So, consider the personal pronouns and the imagery of verses 4 and 5: In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it; for his hands formed the dry land. These are personal images.
The word hands speaks of a God who is not some robotic brain behind the universe. When we plumb the depths of the cosmos we find not so much a scientific formula or a mathematical equation, but a divine personality.
All this tells us something else about God and us – he sustains all things, he directs all things. It’s important to know this and remind one another of it, for this helps us make sense of our lives. We see that we’re not just part of a meaningless journey going nowhere.
Here is another great reason for singing to the Lord. Our lives have a purpose, a goal. And that purpose and that goal are bound up with knowing this God who is our refuge.
No wonder Psalm 95 insists that we come and sing to the Lord: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, a great king above all gods.
It is often said that people who go to church leave their brains at the door. But worship of God is not a mindless activity. Songs of praise are not simply a strategy to create the right psychological atmosphere. Vital Christianity always gives rise to joyful singing because there are sound reasons for thanksgiving and joy.
How often do you think about the good things you enjoy with a spirit of thanksgiving in your heart and a song of praise on your lips – when you go to church and when you rise in the morning?
The build up of arms in North Korea and the associated threats are troubling – as we see for example, in the fluctuations of the equity markets. In a world where there is so much division and uncertainty, we need wise and cool heads – wisdom for leaders and cool, clear minds amongst the people of God.
Wisdom for Leaders. In his First Letter to Timothy, Paul the Apostle writes: I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
Paul expects that God’s people will pray for all people, including those in positions of authority. He has in mind leaders at every level of government.
Something we overlook these days is the fact that the followers of Jesus Christ, for the first three hundred years or so, were often persecuted under Roman rule. The Roman historian Tacitus, for example, tells us that Emperor Nero used the followers of Chrestus as scapegoats for the fire in Rome. Nero put them through all kinds of barbarous cruelty including the lion’s den in the arena in Rome. In Paul’s day, God’s people had every reason to hate the state, yet the New Testament calls upon us to respect the civil authorities for what they are: in the providence of God they are there for the good order and protection of society.
In every generation, God’s people are called upon to pray for leaders. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer reflected this in the liturgies he developed for the Church of England in the 16th century. For example, in a recent update of his 1552 Service of The Lord’s Supper we pray: Almighty and ever-living God, we are taught by your holy Word to offer prayers and supplications and to give thanks for all people… We pray that you will lead the nations of the world into the way of righteousness; and so guide and direct their leaders, especially N, our (Queen/President/Prime Minister), that your people may enjoy the blessings of freedom and peace. Grant that our leaders may impartially administer justice, uphold integrity and truth, restrain wickedness and vice, and maintain true religion.
Cool Heads. The Book of Psalms reminds us that in the midst of extreme events, as well as the day-to-day realities of life, our only hope is to turn to the Lord God for his help and to his Word for his wisdom and strength. For example, Psalm 46:1-2 says: 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.
These words show us that the Bible knows about suffering and evil, especially human evil and its devastating effects on this world. We see here that God ‘s presence is not dislocated from such evils, nor is it abstracted from them. Rather, the Psalm reveals God as being in the midst of them: he is not the cause of evils, but neither is he removed from them.
Further, because the Bible speaks about evil, it anticipates human wickedness. We should never be surprised at what evil men and women might perpetrate, for we live in a world that is in rebellion against God. We should not be surprised at the consequences.
Psalm 46 encourages us: There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God…. God is in the midst of her; she will not be moved; God will help her at the break of day. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts (Psalm 46:4-6). God has not left us to our own devices: he has committed himself to be involved. While we see the instability of humanity – the nations rage, the kingdoms totter – we are also assured of God’s final say – he utters his voice – in judgment on the nations.
The Psalm concludes with the command: Be still, and know that I am God(verse 10). This is not so much a word to God’s people, but rather God’s word to the turbulent seas and a rebellious world. It is a command that foreshadows Jesus’ words to the stormy seas: ‘Peace! Be still (Mark 4:39). It is the same powerful voice of authority that commanded the deceased Lazarus: ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ (John 11:43)
God will be exalted among the nations; he will be exalted in the earth (Psalm 46:10).
If such a God is with us, the Psalm concludes (verse 11), we can have every confidence that when we turn to him, he will hear us and sustain us. Despite the awfulness of our experiences at times God is our strength and refuge.
One of the things I love about the Bible is its earthy realism. It understands the world we live in – the good and the bad, the joys and the sadness. It understands how we feel about life’s injustices especially when we see people who mock the notion of God, enjoying success. Nothing ever seems to go wrong for them.
The Bible also understands our questions in the face of terrorism and the realities of fire and flood, drought and famine. Why doesn’t God just step in? It seems so out of character.
True faith will always have questions. In fact, the faith that refuses to ask questions is one which closes its mind to reality and leaves itself open to the contempt of the skeptic. True faith will want to address tough questions and be willing to experience the doubts that arise.
Doubt. Many people think that to have doubts is to lack faith. But doubt is not the opposite of faith. Doubt and unbelief are two very different things. Doubt is something that only a believer can experience, for we can only doubt what we believe.
Indeed, when we believe in God we often find our relationship with him grows stronger and more intimate as we are willing to face our doubts by asking tough questions.
Psalm 73 is a good example. The writer tells us that he came close to abandoning his faith in God: But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. Yet at the end of the psalm, he says: But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge,… (73:28). In Romans 8:18, Paul wrote: For the sufferings of this present world cannot be compared to the glory that is to come.
Through the psalm, the writer tells of his spiritual pilgrimage – how he progressed from doubt to complete trust in God. He touches on his reasons for doubt and then speaks of the solution.
One of his key questions is framed by his understanding that God is good to the upright (73:1). ‘Why is it,’ he asks, ‘that many who are godless find life easy while I suffer? Where is God?’
Solution. As he reflects on this, he perceives their end… God will bring about their downfall – and it will be eternal. The idea of a final day of accounting is often mocked today. But if there is no final judgment, morality, however we define it, becomes meaningless. Indeed, unless we see that there is a future accounting, goodness itself has no value. True believers understand that the future is real even though it cannot yet be seen.
Strategy. In Psalm 73:15ff we learn how the poet worked through his doubts. He went to ‘church’: When… I went into the sanctuary of God… I perceived their end. Good churches not only read God’s Word but believe and teach it. Confronted with God’s Word the psalm-writer began to see what happens to those who choose not to believe: They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms(73:20).
We today have all the more assurance about this because we now have the evidence of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without him, life in its fullness will not last.
C.S. Lewis onceput it this way: “All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever”.
Optional. You may want to read and reflect on Psalm 73.
Moral equivalence – saying that something is ‘as bad’ or ‘as good as’, or ‘not as bad as’ by comparison with something else – increasingly dominates many conversations. Commenting on those who say that democracy is just ‘as bad as’ totalitarianism, George Orwell noted that all such arguments ‘boil down to saying that half a loaf is the same as no bread’.
In the Woody Allen movie, Bullets over Broadway, when one of the characters is questioned about the issue of conscience, the response is, “You just have to ignore the bourgeois nonsense of morality.” Gone is an awareness of logic and moral clarity needed for a healthy society.
Today men and women have lost confidence in truth: you can’t talk about right and wrong anymore. In issue after issue people are casually overturning long-held moral values – for example on matters such as abortion, euthanasia, and marriage.
How do we respond? How should we live in this climate of changing attitudes?
Psalm 8 is one of the great psalms of the Bible moving from considering the greatness of God and the vastness of his creation, to the greatness God intends to give men and women. In verses 5-8 we read: …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, …
God has placed men and women just under the position of the heavenly beings. From the first, God’s intention was to invest in us a royal sovereignty, crowning us with glory and honor.
The theme is introduced in Genesis 1:26f: 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.”
Intended to be the glory of creation, tragically, humanity succumbed to temptation and became creation’s shame (Genesis 3). Failing to honor God and give Him thanks (Romans 1:21) we have lost the glory God intended for us (Romans 3:23). Our minds are distorted, and our affections are darkened (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 1:21b).
But that is not the end of the story. Psalm 8 is not just a statement of wonder: it is also prophetic.
For as we look back at it through the lens of the New Testament we see that God in his mercy has provided the means for our rescue through his own personal involvement. The Second Person of the One eternal God drew into himself human form. As both truly God and truly man he lived amongst us as one of us, and through his death and resurrection paid in full the death penalty we deserve, opening the way for us to return to share in the glory of his dominion.
How important it is that we learn from our Forerunner, Jesus Christ, for we are not there yet. We need to attend to his values and his example. Through his teaching in the Sermon on Mount (in which he doesn’t abrogate the Ten Commandments) we see that there is a law superior to the laws of human legislation. We also see that God is not simply concerned with our actions, but with the attitudes of our minds and hearts.
Psalm 8 not only speaks of ‘the smallness’ of men and women (as we touched on last week), but also speaks of the dominion that God bestows on his people. Indeed the day will come when all his people will participate in the glory to be revealed (Romans 8:18).
C. S. 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’ (The Weight of Glory).
The bookends of the Psalm in calling on us to worship God truly, show us that the starting and the ending of the answer to our questions about who we are and how we should live, is God: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (8:1a and 9).
How necessary it is for us to reflect on this – who God is, his utter power, perfection, and glory. He is the God who has not only made us, but in his love has rescued us and now calls us to be his loyal followers. He calls us to see the fallacy of moral equivalence so we can live in the light of his moral clarity – promoting truth and justice for the good of all.
Optional. You may want to reflect on Psalm 8, Colossians 1:15-20 and Romans 8:18-30.
