Sing the Psalms!

150 Questions about the Psalter by Bradley Johnston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This neat little book extols the Psalter.

Clocking in at 65 pages without appendix material, just 150 short questions and answers, it is a quick read-through.

But it's value probably lies mostly in its application to devotions at home or a church class setting.  Read 1-3 questions just before singing a Psalm and you're reminded of the value of such singing just before doing so.  Other questions will guide you to what is most fitting to sing right now, by laying out categories of Psalms and where to find them.

I was a bit thrown off at the encyclopedic nature of the info, at first, but toward the middle he turns to exhortation as well.  A full index would be a welcome addition to a future edition.

This is published by exclusive psalmody folks (who think we should only sing the Psalms in worship).  I don't hold that view, so I applaud them for muting that assertion here and instead pointing the general reader to use the Psalms more for spiritual benefit.

Highly recommended, for family devotion leaders, and church sunday school teachers or prayer meeting leaders.


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Abortion allowed in cases of rape? / Asking and answering the homo-affirming Christian

Doug Wilson makes a solid case against allowing abortion when rape or incest are involved.

Kevin DeYoung asks 40 good questions of Christians now affirming same sex relationships.

Doug also gives good answers to Matthew Vines' 40 leading questions for Christians who won't "affirm" same-sex relationships.

Ecclesiastes 7-9

7

Keep a long term perspective, on death, wisdom and an inheritance for the next generation.  Short term thrills and frivolity will pass - don't seize them, but get wisdom instead, for it preserves life.  Life will hand you joy and sorrow; don't go crazy pursuing one - sorrow gives wisdom, too.  No one is without sin and completely wise.  Women can be a trap, while men scheme all kinds of things.

8

With men in power, the course of human events will be frustrating; "keep the king's command."

9

Death comes to everyone, no matter if we've been good or bad - this is a frustrating evil.  Justice will have to wait, though wisdom is better than strength and fame.  I commend joy, since God has already justified you.


Solomon has an earthly perspective here, with no insight into what it's like in hell or heaven.

Without a belief that justice and joy will come in the morning, there would be no basis to sit back and enjoy your portion under God's sovereignty.

Eccl. 9:7-10a

"Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might"

Proverbs 27

Verse 11 - "Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him who reproaches me."

Every parent wants to see wisdom in their child.  Deepest joy results!

Verse 20 - "Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man."

Our appetites are never satisfied, if we let them run a muck.  This is compared to Hell - gorging yourself on food, sex, drugs, etc.


Verse 21 - "The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise."

Two things especially test people: affliction and success.  What do you do with that little extra money you come across at the end of a month?  It reveals a lot about your character.

God our Father has a wise Son, and everlasting love, joy and peace are theirs.

Practice heart contentment with what you have, instead of seeking more to consume.

1 Kings 8-9

Solomon moves the ark into the temple, with lots of sacrifices made.

The glory of God in a cloud fills the temple so the priests can't even stay in it.

Solomon blesses Yahweh in front of everyone, and recounts David's desire to build this place.  God kept His promise!

Solomon prays in front of everyone:

• no one is like You, keeping covenant promises to us.
• Keep Your promise to keep David's descendants on the throne.
• We know this temple can't contain You, but hear us when we pray from here, for justice, forgiveness, reconciliation, victory, or rain or anything else.
• Hear us, since You chose us to be Your people.

Solomon blesses the people:

• God has kept His promises to you
• May He be with you
• May you obey Him and all the earth know Him

142,000 animals are sacrificed and a 7 day feast is held.  Israel goes home very happy!

God appears to Solomon, and says He will keep His covenant.  Solomon must stay loyal to Yahweh or Israel will go into exile and the temple be destroyed.

Solomon built and fortified strategic cites.  He enslaved the remaining Canaanites that hadn't been killed, but made no slaves of any Israelites.  He joined Tyre on a successful sailing expedition for gold.


How this is about Jesus
Like Solomon, Jesus brings us to the Father in worship.
Jesus is the greater temple, whom the Spirit/glory cloud inhabits and fills so that we know the presence of God.

Application
Our worship should focus on God's promises kept and outstanding, as Solomon focused there.

Ecclesiastes 4-6

4

I've seen unchecked oppression and life's work done from envy and with no helpful end.

Companionship and wisdom help, but even wise kings will pass away and be forgotten.

5

Fools talk a lot; the wise shut their mouths before God.  Don't make lots of promises you can't keep; it angers God.

Bureaucratic oppression and greed abound.  Riches come and go.

18-20 - God gives us the ability to enjoy our work and food.

6

The rich and powerful often can't enjoy it.  Such misery is worse than never being born.

It's better to enjoy what you have than always be craving more, but "do not all go to the one place?" (6:6).

How this is about Jesus

He alone has the ability to satisfy us.  Time does not sweep Him away, His words do not make Him guilty later.  He has overcome the frustrating effects of death.

Application

Accept your limits and restrain your appetites to always pursue more.

Proverbs 26 - the Fool and His Folly

This whole chapter, almost every verse, describes the fool in some way.

He is a sluggard, wise in his own eyes, won't listen to rebuke or even painful punishment, repeats folly, meddles in quarrels not his, speaks nicely but with hatred underneath.

Folly flies away and is of little consequence (vs 2), though it can do plenty damage (vs 21, 10).

Jesus calls those who don't do His words foolish (Matt 7:26).  The Pharisees are fools for their focus on outward cleanliness while their hearts are defiled (Matt. 23:17).  The man who builds bigger barns to take life easy is a fool (Luke 12:20).  He even calls the Emmaus road disciples foolish for being slow to believe Him after the resurrection (Luke 24:25).  But we may not call someone a fool out of anger or insult or hatred (Matt. 5:22).

Legalism, license and liberty in preaching

From Kevin DeYoung's site, quoting John Witherspoon in 1768:

"If you preach the free forgiveness of sin through Christ, without at the same time showing the necessity of regeneration and sanctification by his Spirit, it will either not be embraced at all, or it will be turned into licentiousness. 

"And if you preach the duties of the law, without at the same time displaying the grace of the gospel and the vital influence that flows from the head to the members, you will either build up men in a destructive system of Pharisaical religion and self-righteousness, or bring them under the Egyptian bondage of making brick through they are not furnished with straw. 

"The privileges and duties of the gospel stand in an inseparable connection; if you take away the first you starve and mortify the last. (“Ministerial Fidelity in Declaring the Whole Counsel of God” in Works, 2.518)

Proverbs 25

Verse 15 - "With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone."

Persuasion and force don't usually go together.  When someone gets pushy with you, you tend to raise defenses.  Patience and soft answers work better than repetition and "I told you so's."
Jesus was very patient in His teaching to people who misunderstood and rejected His message.  He kept coming back with repeated warnings and did not lose control in anger.

Verse 28 - "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls."

Self-control is a defense against many losses.  Indulgence of pleasure leaves you open to financial and moral ruin.  How are your city walls doing?

Image of God: Men and Women, Cremation of the Body, Evolution, Genetics and Genesis

John Frame's Systematic Theology
Part 7 - Doctrine of Man
Chapter 34 - Man in God's Image

Genesis 1:26ff is the key passage: "Let Us make man in our image, after Our likeness..."

What is the image of God in man?  Our intellect, soul, social relationships, dominion, or "knowledge, righteousness and holiness" (Eph 4:24)?

It has to do with the tri-perspectival Lordship attributes of God as Prophet (normative authority), King (situational control) and Priest (existential presence).

Control as King
Man is to take dominion, though this is not really granted before the 3rd day of creation (no power to hold back the waters of the 2nd day).  Somehow, our bodies relate to the image of God, though He has no body.  See Psalm 94:9 for an example.

Authority as Prophet
This involves language - God speaks to man first thing.  He in turn is to name animals.  God gave Him creation ordinances: worship and the Sabbath (God-focus), subduing and tending (earth-focus), and procreation, marriage and work (man-focus).

Presence as Priest
Man can fill the earth only by procreation.  He is to bless it wherever he goes, not exploit it.  It should produce fruit, give rest, and be given rest.

The Bible speaks of man as the son of God, meaning he resembles God (Luke 3:38; Deut 1:31; Rom. 8:14).

Male and Female
This isn't the key factor that makes us God's image, but it is important.  Both are God's image equally.  1 Corinthians 11:7 doesn't undo this, when it says woman is the glory of man.  She is to honor man, an additional layer, but this doesn't detract from her imaging God.  Men also must honor other men in authority, and that doesn't make them less of an image-bearer.  Jesus submits to the Father.  This is part of God's image, not a detraction from it!  Our sexuality also pictures God's creativity, begetting, love, Lordship, and servanthood.  Both male and female represent God, also.  "Scripture makes no sexual distinction" in Genesis 1:26-28, or regarding our restored image (John 1:12; Gal. 3:26-29).  This doesn't conflict with authority of man over woman in home and church.

Body, soul and spirit
The traditional understanding that the body and soul make up the person, that the body stays in the ground at death while the soul/spirit goes to God alive, has some Biblical support (Ecc. 12:7; James 2:26).  But the full picture is more complicated.  The list of spirit, soul and body in 1 Thess. 5:23 is just Paul "piling up terms" (799), and he could have used more, like mind, heart, understanding and will.

When the body lies in the grave, it is still the person - see John 5:28.  Words of comfort to children at funeral homes often mislead here: the body is still the person, not just a shell, but the person is also alive with the Lord apart from the body.  So don't cremate bodies!  God can restore bodies burned, of course, but it's still a mistake.

So the trichotomist idea that we have 3 parts of our being, body, soul and spirit, is mistaken.  The idea that the spirit died at the fall while the soul and body remained functional, doesn't fit well with total depravity.  Redemption isn't the spirit part regaining its primacy over soul and body.  This is more Plato than Bible.

So the Traducian view is also mistaken, that the soul is added to the body some time after conception.

The way Adam and Eve are made in Genesis 2:7, 21-22 emphasizes their difference from the animals.

Adam and Eve were historical people.  Luke 3:38; Romans 5:14; 1 Timothy 2:13-14; Matthew 19:4-6 all assume this for those texts to make any sense.  "A literal reading of Genesis 1-2 cannot be reconciled with an evolutionary account of man's origin" (804).

Modern genetics poses that the original gene pool was around 10,000 people, about 150,000 years ago.  This might be made to fit Genesis, with Adam and Eve and leaders of this "tribe," though several passages need to be taken figuratively, then (Gen. 2:7, 21-22; 3:20).  But it's just as likely the science is wrong or undeveloped.

Acts 9

Saul heads for Damascus to round up and jail Christians there.

Jesus knocks him over and blinds him with a bright light, and tells him to enter Damascus and await instructions.  Jesus speaks to a Christian there, Ananias, telling him to go restore Saul's sight.  Ananias is skeptical, having heard of the persecutions Saul has carried on, but Jesus says He has chosen him to bring the gospel to many.  Ananias goes, heals and baptizes Saul.

The next Sabbath he is preaching and persuading that Jesus is the Christ and God's Son.  The Jews oppose and conspire to kill him, so he escapes the city at night.  Back in Jerusalem the church won't accept him until Barnabas advocates for him to the apostles.  The Jews again seek to kill him, and the church sends him home to Tarsus for a while.

Peter heals Aeneas (name of Rome's founder) and raises Dorcas to life in and near Joppa.

How this is about Jesus

Jesus continues to act powerfully, though He is not on earth.

He knocks Saul down and speaks to Ananias.

He uses Saul's debating skill to confound the Jews.

Application

• Luke hints masterfully at the main theme of his book - the Gospel going to Gentiles - in this chapter.  Joppa is where Jonah went to run from God.  Peter's father's name was Jonah.  Jonah is all about a Jewish prophet's refusal to take the gospel to Gentiles.  Aeneas, namesake of Rome, is healed - Rome has been sick a long time and can only recover through Christ.
• It seems the timing between the conversion of Saul and the beginning of his ministry are different.  Though Saul was a believer and powerful debater, he made people mad more than he converted them.  He is in the "cage stage," the time right after conversion when you are so on fire for the Lord you can do more damage in speaking to others about Him than good.  The church wisely sends him home to study, reorient himself for a while.  Then again, when Saul does begin to minister, he still angers the Jews, so his demeanor certainly isn't the only factor.

Ecclesiastes 1-3

1

What do we get for all our work and activity?  The world turns as before - what's the point?

I sought satisfaction in knowledge and wisdom, but it only brought vexation.

2

I sought satisfaction in pleasure and comedy and wealth.  It was fun for a while, but it didn't really get me anywhere.

I thought the wise better off than the fool until I realized they both die the same.

I sought satisfaction in work, but who gets it all when I'm gone?  How do I know it'll stay put?

Satisfaction only comes in work when God gives it.

3

There are different seasons in life that call for different activities, but God has it all planned beautifully, with a sense of the eternal [a God-shaped hole?] in each human heart.

Injustice and wickedness abounds on earth, and the good and evil both die the same.  God will judge it all afterward, though we cannot peer into that realm yet.

How this is about Jesus

Since all things were made through Him and for Him, Colossians 1:16 says, it only makes sense that we aren't satisfied with any created thing without Christ being involved.

One greater than Solomon is here, who is not frustrated with the apparent lack of purpose of life.

Application

This book touches a spot in the mind that almost everyone feels at some point or other: the apparent meaninglessness of life.  You get up, go to work, come home, play a bit, go to sleep, and do it all again.  Life is a bunch of endless cycles and then you die - what's the point?  The book describes this feeling at length, which disconcerts many readers, but there are points of light and answer.  2:24-25 and 3:10-14 are two such spots.

2:24-25:

"There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"

1 Kings 10-11

The queen of Sheba hears of Solomon's wealth and wisdom and comes with gifts and questions.

This must have been quite the worldview discussion!  Other wealth pours in.  He builds a throne.  Gold and arms are everywhere.  He resells heavy weaponry between Egypt and Syria.

But his many wives lead him to worship their gods.  God responds by eroding the kingdom with political rebellions in Syria and Edom.  God promises Jeroboam, a rising star in Solomon's own administration, most of the kingdom of Israel, too.  Solomon's son Rehoboam reigns after he dies.

How this is about Jesus

People came from a long ways to see Jesus, too.  He is ultimate wisdom from God (1 Cor. 1:30).

The richest and wisest King, Jesus has only one bride, to whom He is completely faithful.

Application

Don't let things of this earth draw you away from the Lord.  They are either designed to lead you TO Him, or they are off limits.

Acts 8

The church scatters as the Sanhedrin attack any who agree with Stephen, whom they just stoned.  Saul of Tarsus is the chief instigator.

Phillip evangelizes Samaria with much success.  (Remember Jesus' promise in Acts 1:8).  Simon the Magician also believes (in an amazed sense, for the signs, probably not genuine faith).  When the apostles hear of it, they send Peter and John so they receive the Spirit.  Simon tries to buy the power when he sees it, but asks for preservation when Peter rebukes him.

Phillip then heads for Gaza by the Spirit's leading, and to a chariot heading south.  The passenger is an Ethiopian courtier going home after worshiping in Jerusalem, reading Isaiah 53, and Phillip preaches Jesus to him from it.  He asks for baptism, which Phillip does, and they part.


How this is about Jesus
The Spirit is coming on those the apostles evangelize, now in the second stage of Samaria, as Jesus said.  His church is spreading.


Application
From the beginning of the New Testament church, there has been hostile opposition so extreme the church has run away and scattered.  This is not indicate compromise or failure on her part.

We should be willing to present the Gospel to unlikely converts - Samaritans were known heretics and syncretists of paganism with the Law of God.  The Ethiopian eunuch lives a long ways away in an exotic palace!  But they need Jesus like everyone else.

Proverbs 24 - a Proverb for SCOTUS

Verse 24 - Whoever says to the wicked, “You are in the right,” will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations."

Take heed Supreme Court.


Verse 33-34 - "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man."

While the beginning of this chapter commends wisdom, like honey (vss. 13-14), the end warns against sloth and laziness.  Keep at your work.  Don't quit.  Do the next thing.


Jesus
He refers in John 10:34 to unjust judges (like our SCOTUS) in Psalm 82.  They will die like men, while God judges them and receives their kingdom (82:6-7).

He calls the man who buries his one talent in the ground wicked and lazy.  The lazy are known by their excuses - "I didn't want to risk losing it" - but Jesus sees through excuses.

When you read the Gospels closely you don't find a meek and mild flower child Jesus.  He speaks strongly against sin.