Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: The following is a legacy recording from the archives of the C.S. lewis Institute. While the audio quality of these recordings may vary, the content remains vital to the mission of the Institute to develop disciples who can articulate, defend and live faith in Christ through personal and public life.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Now, our assignment today I've taken upon myself just to do Psalm 1, 2, 3, and I'm going to do, by God's grace, Psalm 4 this morning.
And just for a bit of review, how did we suggest, at any rate, Psalm 1 functions in the Psalter?
It's the gate.
And more particularly, what does that metaphor stand for? In what sense is it the gate? How does it protect the salt there?
Yes, it's the wicket gate, but exactly, you have to go through it. But what is the point of the parable of going through that gate? Pardon?
Yes. It demands salvation. It assumes salvation. The heart that does delight in the things of God. Is there regeneration?
Anything else that we suggested?
Pardon.
All right, that certainly would be there, that there's only two ways.
But you go through this gate to gain access to the Psalter.
And what did we say? Does that teach about priorities?
Yes. Righteousness.
Anything else? Can we put it in other terms?
Meditate on the law?
Yes. Ethics, justice, keeping God's word, obeying God's word comes prior to any prayer and praise that we must be delighting and meditating in it, which entails doing it.
It's not a matter that there's the law and I do it.
It's the matter that, as you've been suggesting as you meditate in it, it's assumed that one therefore produces the fruits of righteousness, that one does it.
That as you delight in it viscerally and as you meditate on it cerebrally, mentally, that you thereupon become like a tree producing the fruits of righteousness along the way.
So that actually life or living the Jesus said, not those that say, lord, Lord are members of my kingdom, it's those that do it.
And the only way we do it is. Is through the Spirit.
So that the law or ethics comes before anything else. It safeguards the salt from sinners who are not in God's word. And as a result of his Spirit doing God's word, I think it's lost. I think we have so much emphasis on.
And I agree with David and I know, we all know it's true that God ministers to me very deeply through music, but without life, it's an abomination to God. He wants none of it.
I cited. I tried to demonstrate this from the very law itself, that after the Ten Commandments are given to us in Exodus 20 and after the judicial legislation, the practical working out of the ten Commandments in daily life is given to us in the book of the covenant, Exodus 21:23.
All of that is first of all ratified on the mountain in Exodus 24.
And only then is worship given to the people of God.
And in the midst of the instructions of worship, as soon as the people violate the command 10 commandments of making the golden calf in preference to God, God says to Moses in Exodus 32:7, get down off the mountain.
We have no right to worship if our lives are not in obedience by God's spirit to the word of God that runs. And then I recited 1st Samuel chapter 15 and verse 22, where Samuel says to Saul, does God have much delight in burnt offerings, sacrifice and worship as in obedience?
And in fact, he says, disobedience is equal to the sin of witchcraft and idolatry.
To give another passage to reinforce that very important point, which I think is lost in a lot of evangelical teaching today, take a look at Isaiah chapter 10 and just hear what the word of the Lord says to the people in Isaiah's day, who were very beautiful in their religion.
They went and had beautiful services, but their hearts were far from God, and they lived in injustice.
Verse 10.
Very strong words. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.
Listen to the law of our God. You people of Gomorrah, the multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me, says the Lord.
I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals.
I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
When you come to meet with me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my court, Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New moons, sabbaths, convocations. I cannot bear your evil assemblies, your new moon festivals, and your appointed feast. My soul hates.
They have become a burden to me. I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my face from you. Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.
Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right. Seek justice. Encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless. Plead. Plead the case of the widow.
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be as will. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land. But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
And there again, you see, right at the gateway of Isaiah comes do justice.
Isaiah 1:10 21.
And that runs all the way through the prophetic material.
And then when we are by God's Spirit, living according to God's word, then he delights in our prayers and he delights in our praise. But without that, he has no pleasure in it whatsoever.
He doesn't want it. In fact, I see that throughout Scripture, and these were just a few passages that teach that fundamental point. If you took Psalm 15, who shall ascend into the mountain of the house of the Lord to worship? One of the qualifications is he that keeps his vows to his own hurt is one of the qualifications.
It's that we keep our vows to God and that we make before God.
That's what God wants, is obedience to God's Word.
Well, that's how Psalm 1 functions, and it's important.
Psalm 2. How did that function in the Psalter?
Did we say to whom does it introduce us?
Yes, it introduces us to the king.
And can we be more specific? What has the king mandated? What is the command to the king in Psalm 2?
Establish his kingdom through prayer. Yes, establish it through prayer. Ask of me, my son, and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance, the ends of the earth for your possession.
So exactly right on, sir. It's to establish the kingdom of which he is the head through prayer. It introduces us to the human author of most of the Psalms, the king.
And so it is theocratic people, it is people who are part of his kingdom that are with their king in prayer.
Of course, the Old Testament king had warts, he had blemishes, and he is presented ideally, but also realistically. And so in those warts and blemishes, he's less than the Christ.
But ultimately it is pointing us to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
To establish that point, let me just read a bit of the Psalms with you. So you can see that the human subject is the king. And here I'm just picking out where it's quite apparent and just selective.
For example, we saw it Yesterday in Psalm 3 where he's surrounded by 10,000 troops all around him. He's a very embattled monarch. We'll see it again in Psalm 4, though it's a bit more subtle. But take for example Psalm 18:46 50 and you'll see that it's the King who's in prayer.
The Lord lives.
Praise be to my rock.
Exalted be God my Savior.
He is the God who avenges me who who subdues nations unto me, who saves me from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes from violent men you rescued me. Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O Lord. I will sing praises to your name. He gives his king great victories. He shows unfailing kindness to his anointed to David and his descendants forever.
Clearly it is the King who is subduing nations unto him and ends by explicitly saying and in the refrain that he gives his kings great victories or I don't have time. There's a very nice article in Psalm 19 in this direction, but take a look at Psalm 20 and see how it's all about the King.
I just heard a sermon on Psalm 20 and not understanding that when it starts off in verse one, May the Lord answer you.
The commentator was totally really did not enter into the meaning of the psalm. May the Lord answer you. The you is the king.
And all of a sudden the psalm will make sense. It's the people praying for their king and his success.
May the Lord answer you when you are in distress. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.
May he give you the desire of your heart, make all your plans succeed.
Note how the people join. Now we will shout for joy when you are victorious we and lift our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests.
So the people have prayed for the King. Now the King speaks.
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed, which is always the King. In the Psalms he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in horses, chariots, some in horses. But we trust in the name of our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. O Lord, save the King.
Answer us when we call clearly the you there is the King. The speaker is the King. And the prayer is for the King and his confidence. And you can see how it's the community praying in the king. Watch Psalm 21.
O Lord, the King rejoices in your great strength.
How great is his joy in the victories you give?
Obviously this book smells of war, a battle.
And of course this is all a metaphor for the spiritual battles in which we find ourselves in the church today and our King, as he makes great victories spiritually in the world over against unjustness and unrighteousness.
We looked at Psalm 22, where it's beyond even the King, it must be the Christ, because all nations and all strata of society for all time are remembering what God did for this Psalmist. That is not Mr. Everyman.
We're on a very magnificent broad canvas of theocracy with our King.
Or again, chapter 42 and verse 4.
You can see that this one is the one who leads the procession.
This is 42 and 43 are 1 Psalm. By the way, why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. The original speaker is really of a king. Verse 4. These things I remember as I pour out my soul how I used to go with the multitude leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
And that would be the King who was the leader of the people in the worship.
Well, I think you get some feeling. I won't take more. But if you just read through the Psalter with this new lens, you will read it altogether differently and you'll see the Christ of whom it speaks. That's why even when Jesus says my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, that's Psalm 6.
Into your hands I commend you my spirit. Psalm 31, he just breathed the Psalter and they exalt the Christ.
So Psalm 2 introduces us to the human subject and the people are in the King as we are in the King. And we're in prayer for theocratic concerns, the kingdom of God and the prevailing of his righteousness.
Psalm 3 we looked at. And here we learn something about.
We find the King immediately in crisis.
And I suggested there were certain motifs one looks for when you're in crisis. Do you remember the five motifs I gave you for reading psalms as you're going through them? When you're in a Lament Psalm, how do you know you're in a Lament Psalm?
By the address? Yes. Immediately you're going to get something like oh my God or oh Lord, at the address.
And that's one element. What else do you look for?
A lament where Dr. Houston talks about omnivolence, where he just pours out his lament before God, ventilates his true feelings.
What else do we look for?
Confidence is a third motif because there he creates the spiritual climate of victory.
And they're very Careful in the psalms to create the right spiritual milieu before the fourth element, which is petition, is ever given.
Normally they can reverse the order.
What's the fifth element?
Praise.
Let's read a psalm and let's see if you can identify the motifs. And I'm hoping one of my objectives is that as you leave here you can feed for yourself better out of the Psalms.
Psalm 54 would be a short psalm, one of the shortest laments we have, and I think you can see it a little different order, but the motifs are there.
Save me, O God, by your name.
Vindicate me by your might.
Hear my prayer, O my God. O God, listen to the words of my mouth.
Strangers are attacking me. Ruthless men seek my life, men without regard for God. Surely God is my help. The Lord is the one who sustains me. Let evil recoil on those who slander me, and your faithfulness destroy them.
I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you. I will praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from all my troubles and my eyes have looked and in triumph on my foes.
What elements do you see in this psalm as you read it?
Where do you see these elements of which we have been speaking?
Anyone? Yes, Priscilla, yes. Verse 4 surely is. Surely God is my help. The Lord is the one who sustains me. That is confidence. I. I think we could be a little bit more precise with verse five, perhaps, than confidence.
Yes. You start straight out with petition. Save me, vindicate me, hear my prayer.
Listen to the words of my mouth. Okay, and what about verse five?
Let evil recoil.
Yes, I see all.
Yes, that's petition. And this is the case. Not only save me, but punish the enemy, work justice. This is an imprecatory psalm where he moves to punishing the wicked.
Those are for me. They're morally right. But we cannot pray them straight out today because we know the day of justice is when Jesus returns for justice.
But we can be assured in our hearts that God will vindicate and work righteousness out. But we're free to love the sinner today, which is important. Change.
What other elements do you note here? What do you have in verse? We had verse one and two as petition. We had verse four is confidence. Verse five is petition. What is verse three then? Strangers are attacking me.
Yes, there's your complaint or lament. And verses six and seven, what do you have there?
Praise. I will praise your name. And he gives the reason. He's confident God has delivered him in the distress. And if you're aware of these Things I think you'll be able to read the Psalms much better and more intelligently, more literally, more as literature. Now I come to psalm, and here again I need to make a few comments about translation.
It's the Psalm of David.
Now, let me just say a word about translation, lest I discourage you rather than encourage you, which is always a danger.
All translations, with the exception of sectarian translations, like the Jehovah's Witness and the Mormon Bibles, all translations are trustworthy.
No translation will lead you into theological error.
The difference in translations is a matter of precision.
That the translations, every translation will lead you to faith in Christ and develop your spiritual life. All translations are trustworthy, but we can become more precise in our understanding.
And as Dr. Houston says, with the emotions, you suddenly turn from black and white into color.
I often use that for languages as well, that the more you understand the languages, suddenly you see it in more living color.
It's not that they're wrong, it's just that we can become more rich. And as a this is my discipline, perhaps I can be helpful to you at this point.
There's a few changes then that we might note in translation, and I'm not sure what version you're using. So that, for example, I will translate verse one with niv, give me relief from my distress. Others don't have it quite that fashion.
In verse four, I will translate, how long will you love delusions and seek false gods? Some have translations have lies here, but I will translate false gods, verse 4. I will change to go back more to the King James translation. I think it's closer to the original. I want to translate verse four instead of in your anger, do not sin.
I will translate, tremble and do not sin.
Tremble. Does anybody have a King James?
I think I have.
King James says, stand in awe, stand in awe. And I say, you see, it's an imperative, but stand in awe and do not sin. And that's the sort of a paraphrase. It literally says Pachal basically means to tremble, to be in agitation, tremble and do not sin.
Verse 6. I will make a change here. Too many are asking or saying, omri, I will translate this possible to say, who can show us any good? I want to translate it by its alternative. O, that one would show us good.
And take off the quotes. No quote, close quote. Oh, oh, that one would show us good.
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. End of quote.
Because it's the people in prayer and their yearning for good. Oh, that one would show us good.
Let the Light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. End of quote.
I want to translate verse 7.
Fill my heart with great joy when their grain and new wine abound.
Is, I think, a more precise translation.
Fill my heart with great joy when the grain and new wine abound.
With those changes, I'd like to read the psalm, a psalm of David. Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God, give me relief from my distress.
Be merciful to me and hear my prayer.
How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?
Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call to him.
Tremble and do not sin when you are on your beds. Search your hearts and be silent.
Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.
Many are saying, o that one would show us good. Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.
Fill my heart with great joy when their grain and new wine abound.
I will lie down and sleep at peace for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4 is also a lament psalm, as you can see, with the direct address, with the lament and petitions.
But the situation again is again the situation of unanswered prayer.
And Whereas in Psalm 22 he found comfort by looking at the the distant beyond the grave and hope, in Psalm 4 we're given truths to live by in the midst of this tension point, when we're looking to God and depending upon him. And there isn't the immediate answer to prayer for which we hope, similar to what C.S. lewis had experienced as he watched his wife lie dying of cancer, similar to the crisis in which you may find yourself, in which you're waiting upon God.
But the psalm gives you spiritual truth to feed upon as you're waiting upon God to answer your prayer.
The biggest problem in interpreting our psalm is to know the distress.
He says in verse one, give me relief from my distress.
But as you read the psalm, it's not clear what the distress is.
What is the crisis?
I suggest with some conviction that the distress is a drought.
There is no rain.
He feels the land is parched, the kingdom of God is parched.
There's a drought.
I come to that conclusion for several reasons in the psalm itself that lead me to this conviction. First of all, this is one of the three psalms where an enemy is not mentioned.
It isn't that there are foes that are seeking to kill him, as in Psalm 22, there's no reference to an enemy, so that's not the reason for the crisis.
I can also be of help to you here, perhaps, if you realize the psalms were sung when Israel went to the temple three times a year.
This is the hymnbook of Israel as they make pilgrimage to the temple, and they seek God's face, if you please, at the temple, and they appear before him.
The three times of the year would be at Passover at the end of March, beginning of April at Pentecost with the first wheat harvest, and in the fall, late September, early October, when they had the grapes and the olives and the pressing for the juice of the wine and the olive oil.
Those three festivals we normally think of as particularly having historical remembrance. Passover for coming up out of Egypt, Tabernacles for being out in the wilderness, and so forth.
But those three festivals are also agricultural festivals in Israel.
Passover is the time of the latter rains.
It's when Israel receives the last rain that will fructify the land for the first fruits. At Pentecost.
It is also the time of the early rains, which came at the end of September and the beginning of October.
And as you read the Psalter, there are many allusions to rain and harvest. It runs all the way through it, to take an example, so that you could see this, how they're celebrating their festivals and heavy loads, as in Psalm 144. Remember the agricultural motif there.
Look at Psalm 65, 9 through the end, and you can see the concern for rain and harvest and crops.
You care for the land and water it.
You enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God. There you see something of the river of God. The streams of God is like the river flowing through the heavens that waters the earth.
The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain. And so you have ordained it. You drench the furrows and level its ridges.
You soften it with showers and bless its crops.
You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow. The hills are clothed with gladness, the meadows are covered with flocks, and the valleys are mantled with grain. They shout for joy and sing.
And that motif of rain and harvest just permeates the Psalter.
And it's for the physical blessings on the kingdom which are tied in with the spiritual blessing. And for us, the therefore the rain speaks up.
We're talking about revival, refreshment, spiritual renewal, producing a crop. When it talks about righteousness in the heavens and the earth, bringing forth faithfulness, it means God in his Righteousness brings the rain and the earth faithfully produces its increase.
And I expect the rain motif in the Psalter, it's all the way through. So it's not something that you suddenly read in to the psalm.
There are more explicit evidences that suggest the crisis is a drought in the land, which would be a metaphor where you feel in your life, or I feel in my life a crisis of drought.
We're parched and we're dry, we're thirsty for God's richness and fatness in our lives and in our ministry.
You'll see it again in verse two when he says, how long, old men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?
There's some kind of crisis here where the king's leadership is apostasizing from him.
The leadership has lost confidence in their king and they're going elsewhere for salvation.
When he says, and here again I could be of some help. And because most translations won't be this subtle, when he says, O men, it's a very distinct expression in Hebrew.
It really is literally O high born men.
It's not common men he's talking about, it's the leadership of the nation of which he is speaking here.
So you could see that, for example, the expression here is b'. Naish.
Elsewhere in the niv, it's always translated highborn. Except here.
If you look at Psalm 49:2 to validate my point, you'll see that that's how it's translated. Psalm 49:2.
Hear this, all you peoples, listen. All you who live in this world, both low and high, rich and poor alike. The word translated high is the same word translated men. In Psalm 42 he's talking about his cabinet, he's talking about his advisors. He's talking about the affluent in the land, the influential key people in the land.
And they're turning the king's glory into shame because they've taken away from his luster, his power. I'll come back to that a little bit more. And they're looking elsewhere for salvation. They're going to other gods than the God he represents.
So he says, how long will you love delusions? And the word love is a covenantal word. It means, how long will you go and make covenant with, instead of loving God? Deuteronomy 6, which is a covenantal term. Instead of making covenant with God and loving him and commitment to him and trusting him in your crisis, you're fleeing elsewhere to find salvation, and you're taking away from the king's glory.
Sometimes we utterly apostatize.
Sometimes, as I said in connection with Psalm 3, we take away his glory when we look elsewhere a good thing. And we make it, as Dr. Packer likes to say, an invidious enemy of the best.
And we begin looking elsewhere as secular man for our salvation in our technology, instead of to God and to Christ. And we enter into covenant with that. And they seek false gods, and the false gods like baal.
BAAL is the God of rain.
BAAL is symbolized in the steles. We find he will have a very forked spear in one hand and a big club in the other. And the forked spear is his lightning, and the club in the other hand is his thunder.
And that's why when Elijah contested with baal, it was all rain motifs, because it was to show who does give the rain in Israel.
And the great danger I think we have in the church is we're trying to bring spiritual revival through our technology rather than turning to the Christ and the Holy Spirit and their seeking false gods of fertility and of blessing.
Another reason that I come to this conclusion is the use of the word of what the people are praying for is good. Verse 6.
Many are saying, oh, that one would show us good.
And the word good is often used for rain and crops in Scripture.
For example, Jeremiah chapter 5, verses 24 and 25, if you want to turn with me, there you'll see that good is used of rain, and this is not exceptional.
Jeremiah 5, 24, 25.
And the context clarifies what the good is. In that case, They do not say to themselves, let us fear the Lord our God, who gives fall and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.
Your wrongdoings have kept these away. Your sins have deprived you of good.
There in the parallel, it's clear that the good is the fall and spring rains and the regular weeks of harvest.
Or again Psalm 85, you'll see good is used there of harvest, egg, crops, and so forth. Psalm 85, where he talks about love and faithfulness as art was sharing with us. And then verse 11, faithfulness springs forth from the earth. That's the crops. Righteousness looks down from heaven, that's the rain.
The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
There you see, the good is the harvest.
So also when we turn to Psalm 4, note how the people are praying for good. And the King explicitly is praying for grain and harvest in verse 7, which claims clarifies the prayer going back to Psalm 4 and verse 6.
Many are saying, oh, that one would show us. Good is the covenantal community. Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. And the king prays, fill my heart with great joy when their grain and new wine abound.
And that gives integrity to my psalm. Until I got this, I didn't know what was going on in this psalm. I couldn't make sense of the psalm. But now I think I begin to enter into it.
The crisis is one of drought.
Now, the second thing we should understand is to appreciate this is that in the ancient near east, the king is responsible for reign.
For example, it is said of Ashurbanipal, who was king of assyria at about 675.
He says of himself, I'm just giving some illustrations how in this world the king is responsible for rain. This is the king of Assyria speaking.
Since the time that I sat on the throne of my father, my progenitor Adad, that is Adad in the Mesopotamian, is the storm God.
My progenitor Adad has loosed his downpours.
And Aa is the God of the underwater.
Aa has opened his fountains. The forests have grown abundantly, says the king of Assyria, the rival of of Israel.
Again, Adad is the storm God.
The waters from above Aar is the fountains from beneath. Since the time that I sat on the throne of my father, my progenitor Adad has loosed his downpour. Aar has opened his fountains and the forests have grown abundantly. Or one more quote. This is from the pharaoh who attributes the bountiful harvest reaped during his reign to his good and magical relations to the the grain God Amon.
It is I, says the pharaoh, who produced the grain, because I was beloved by the grain God.
No one was hungry in my years, says the false king.
So there's a crisis because it's calling the king into question that there's a drought even though he's a king.
And this is the true king. And the other kings are boasting, we give our people rain. And God of Israel doesn't give his people rain and salvation.
It's another kind of a crisis, because another quality of the king in the ancient near east is not only that he gives the people grain, but he's supposed to be very powerful in prayer. So that when he prays, prayer is answered immediately.
Was associated with the king, for example of the pharaoh. It is said everything proceeding from the lips of his majesty, that is the pharaoh, his father, the God Ammon causes to be realized there and then that was associated with the Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Everything proceeding from the lips of his majesty, his father, the God Ammon, causes to be realized that there and then immediate answer to prayer or again of the Assyrian king. His prayer will be well received by the God.
And here is the true king in prayer and is apparently a drought in the land calling his glory into question and tarnishing his luster. Is the situation as we saw yesterday.
God does not allow us. I didn't make this point.
If God answered prayer immediately, we would confound pleasure with morality.
We would be using God for our pleasure.
We would learn none of the graces of patience and faith. If God answered all of our prayers, everyone would be using God.
And there would be no morality and no virtue and no grace.
But precisely because he puts us in a dependency, there is salvation. And we cannot confound morality and spiritual growth with pleasure.
As he refines us in delayed answers to prayer.
That gives us then the lament.
The lament is a drought in the land.
The glory of the king is tarnished in the eyes of those who are his followers.
And they turning elsewhere to find salvation than to their king.
And I think in our own way we can identify with it.
Let us look. Secondly, having spoken of the lament, which is difficult to get at, really just a few words about the address, I want us to note two attributes of God on which he lays hold.
The first attribute of God on which he lays hold is O my righteous God.
I'd like to comment to help you in reading the psalm. This is a very common word. What does righteousness mean?
I think for most of us, when we start out, righteousness means God has the high mythical standard. And he demands of us to meet those standards of righteousness that we keep Torah.
Now, God desires that we saw that in Psalm 1, through His Spirit and delighting in the law, spiritual graces.
But that is not the meaning of righteousness. In the Psalms, the word righteousness entails or assumes a covenantal relationship. It assumes people are in covenant, people are related to one another.
That's just assumed.
And secondly, that in that relationship they do what is right by the relationship.
So that in a relationship of husband and wife, both do what is right by one another.
In a relationship of our relationship, right now, distinctive relationship. My responsibility to do right by you is to come prepared to to have done my homework, to have researched this song and to share it with you.
Your responsibility to be right in this relationship is to pay attention and to Listen, so we're growing together.
We do what's right by one another. So we're growing together in God's relationship on behalf of the kingdom and then walk away from him, abandon him out there. That would be diabolical.
So also for God, through His Spirit, to lead us into a trusty relationship with God, to throw everything away in dependence upon him, for him to play with our sacred emotions and then just walk away from us, abandon us, would be wrong. It would be diabolical. It would be hideous.
God did not call us through the Holy Spirit to abandon us.
He did not call us into all of our relationships to abandon us in it and to bruise us and to hurt us.
That would be wrong.
So he lays hold of this, lead me in the paths where you do what's right.
You lead me in the paths of righteousness, where you do what's right for your name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod, your staff, they comfort me. You lead me in paths where you do what's right. And even it's the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear. Because the right thing is you will be with me in that relationship.
So that as we minister, whatever we may do at work, our job, our relationships, we can count on God doing what's right by us. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.
So that's the attribute on which he lays hold, God's righteousness. And it's meant so much to me personally.
The other attribute on which he lays hold is the word God's merciful.
The Hebrew word here is chanan. It's often translated gracious. Be gracious to me.
That means, if you want to understand the word grace, it's a picture of yourself in an Oriental bazaar.
And picture yourself as the beggar.
And you are stripped of health, your eyes are failing. You have no money. You're absolutely a beggar. And here comes by a rich American in his bright shorts, loaded with cameras, his wallet sticking out of his back pocket, flushed to the Hilton. There you are, poor, bankrupt. Here he comes along, the poor beggar. All he wants is for the rich American to look at him and hopefully to be filled with goodwill and maybe drop some money in his plate.
God's graciousness is when you realize you're an absolute beggar and you're seeking him just to look at you, which the psalmist will often say, look at me, O Lord, look at Me, see me here in this pitiful condition.
And then it's assumed he's filled with good will and he meets us in our need.
So wherever we may be, if you feel bankrupt, poor beggar, rely upon God's grace that he looks at.
And he's filled with good will of love to all who seek him. And that's the second attribute on which he lays hold, is God's grace, God's mercy.
I move now. And then we had the lament. We had this early petition. Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress. Be merciful to me and hear my prayer. Prayer.
I've already talked about the lament in verse two. It's gone on for a long period of time. How long, O high born men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long? We love delusions and seek false gods.
Now we come in verses three through five to the confidence section.
And what happens here? He gives his leadership seven imperatives to hold them in this crisis.
Notice the seven, and that's not accidental. The first one is in verse three. You are to know something.
Verse four, tremble. The second one.
Third, do not sin.
Fourth, at the end of verse four, search your hearts.
Fifth, be silent.
Six, offer right sacrifices.
Seven, trust in the Lord. There are your seven imperatives.
Now what happens here is that the last six are paired into couplets and we have to consider them together. So we have verse three is given priority, priority, pride of place.
And then in verses four and five we have three pairs. It literally reads, tremble and do not sin.
Search your hearts and be silent. Offer right, sacrifice and trust in the Lord. So the last six fall into three pairs, three couplets.
Notice the first imperative for their confidence, namely, know your king.
Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself.
The word here set apart means that he distinguishes him in a remarkable way from other men, that men may recognize the dignity of his election. He sets them apart in a remarkable way.
Know that God has set. Set apart the godly, the Hasid for Himself.
The Lord will hear when I call to him.
Know the election of your king, and therefore count on your king. And when he prays, God hears it.
You can see the overtones of that of our Lord, whoever makes intercession for us and he prays for us.
Know that in your crisis and my struggles and your struggles, you're not alone. But Christ is in heaven interceding for you. He desires your good and my good more than we desire it for ourselves.
And he's in Prayer for us.
Now we said yesterday or the day before. I was talking about David. How did they know David was set apart? Do you remember some of the suggestions I made there? How did they know David was set apart?
The anointing there was. The holy word of the prophet was another indication whereby they would know his dignity and affliction.
Pardon, Tom.
Yes, he did the works of God as he tell Goliath. He did works and. And another one.
Yes, the Spirit of God changed him into another person.
You find these then? I alluded to this. I didn't read the passage. I said the same qualities are said of Christ and I'm speaking about his humanity. Turn with me, if you will, to John, chapter six, where Jesus sets forth to his adversaries the evidences that he is the elect.
He starts out with the witness of John the Baptist in verses 1 through 35.
John 5, 31.
If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid.
There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.
He you have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.
Not that I accept human testimony, but I mention it that you may be saved.
John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to rejoice his light.
There was the witness of John the Baptist.
Not Only that, verse 36, the witness of his works.
I have a testimony weightier than that of John.
For the very work that the Father has given me to finish and which I am doing testifies that the Father has sent me.
And when he says on the cross, it is finished.
That is the same word used when it was just before that he said, I thirst in order to finish all the Scriptures.
And he finished the work God sent him to do.
So there's the witness of the Holy prophet. There's the witness of of his works greater than David ever knew, almost incomparable. There's the witness of the Father and the Spirit, verse 37. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice, nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you. For you do not believe the one he sent. And now the Scriptures testify to him. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.
Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept the praise from men. But I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name. And you do not accept me. But if someone else comes in his own names, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from God.
But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say? There you see the evidences of your king.
Know your king David is such a pale shadow by comparison. Reflect that upon the Christ and his glories and his perfections, and celebrate him. So one truth that holds us while we're going through crisis, periods of drought.
Know your king. God has set him apart, and God hears his prayers on our behalf.
Secondly, tremble and do not sin.
Recognize the pain, the anguish you will experience if you go to false gods, is what he's saying.
Know the penalty of it. Tremble, fear God, as we've been saying, and do not sin is the answer for me.
I find I'm moved not by the black and fanciful lines of a Baxter or a Milton or a Dante.
I'm moved by history.
Just look at history, what sin has produced. Look at Israel, the tragic history of Israel.
Or look at the Western world as it turns its back. Look at the tragedies of these world wars that we've been in. 10 million people killed in World War I, 50 million people killed in World War II.
Russia alone was killed, the equivalent of the entire population of Canada in World War II. Since World War II, 20 million people have been killed.
It's a tragic, tragic history.
And look at the tragedy and hurt in our land.
Tremble and do not sin.
Third, let your conscience speak to you.
When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.
That is to say, when you're in the rush and hurriedness of life and you're playing your roles in life, God really has little opportunity to sustain you or to speak to you.
Be quiet and alone with God, and let him confirm your faith in your conscience as you get off the stage of life, putting on your varying mask and personae. But allow God to confirm your faith as you are quietly with Him.
Search your hearts when you are on your beds, in your most private moments, search your hearts and be quiet before him and let him sustain you and comfort you and affirm you in your faith.
Finally, he says, indeed, offer right sacrifices. Now it's your turn to do what's right in this relationship by reaffirming your faith and dependence upon God in the crisis. Offer the sacrifices that belong to the righteous who are in covenant and trust in the Lord and lean heavily upon him.
I think my tongue is more than gone. Yes, it is indeed.
I apologize.
So the petition. I'll just read it through. You can see it. Many are saying, oh, that one would show us good. Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord, fill my heart with great joy when their grain and new wine abound, which is Christ's prayer for us and to know that that he wants us to be rich and fat and victorious.
I will lie down and here's his comfort. I will lie down again to sleep in peace.
For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
[00:57:52] Speaker A: The proceeding was a presentation of the C.S. lewis Institute. In the legacy of C.S. lewis, the institute endeavors to develop disciples who can articulate, defend and live faith in Christ through personal and public life. For more information please visit our website at www.cslewisinstitute institute.org thank you.
