Psalm 119 129-136

Your statutes are wonderful;

therefore I obey them.

God’s words are intended to provoke us to wonder: I say, what is this living voice, this guide, this life?  I cannot comprehend it with my mind, yet I love it – I love him!  I obey out of devoted wonder.  All of your laws are for my good – the prompting of the spirit will always bring good fruit, so do not fear it.

The unfolding of your words gives light,

it gives understanding to the simple.

The light of a clear day and joyful hope – all from an unfolded word.  But it is in unfolding – in the process – that at last I understand – not just knowing about God’s words, but knowing them, ‘gnawing’ them like Petersen, living them – and seeing them in Jesus in the Gospel.

I open my mouth and pant,

longing for your commands.

Yes Lord – the prompting of your spirit and the leading of other believers, I long for them.  Teach me to love your scriptures even more as well.

Turn to me and have mercy on me,

as you always do to those who call on your name.

Satisfy me, O Lord!  Give yourself to me!  I am hungry and I seek real bread.  I want to feast on you in my heart, Lord Jesus – to eat with rejoicing.

Direct my footsteps according to your word;

let no sin rule over me.

In every stepping place – every single footfall – I long to have your spirit close to me, empowering me, checking me, so that I am continually walking in your way.  Then let sin depart from my life, Lord, sanctified in you.

Redeem me from the oppression of men,

that I may obey your precepts.

Yes, God, you take nothing that is not already yours.  You made me, invented me, possessed me, so you can redeem me back.  I wouldn’t live in the worldliness of human culture, I’d rather be bought out placed somewhere I can obey.

Make your face shine upon your servant

and teach me your decrees.

This is the only way for me to learn, Lord – if I see you and experience you.  That is your teaching – the only real teaching – to expose yourself to us and to show us yourself.  Your servant is ready to look up during his labours when he hears his master’s voice.

Streams of tears fall from my eyes,

for your law is not obeyed.

Touch me, then Father, with sorrow for sin and ungodliness.  Let me have this full life that grieves deeply, hopes heartily and acts upon its intentions boldly and clearly.  Only you are God and in you is all life.  Amen.

Verses 121-128

I have done what is righteous and just;

do not leave me to my oppressors.

How can someone claim to be righteous?  Only by God’s indwelling: God cannot leave the new me because he is the new me – I am founded on him and his character.  My once-upon-a-time oppressors, I should pray to be delivered from returning to them.

Ensure your servant’s well-being;

let not the arrogant oppress me.

Well-being relates to our identity as servants of a good master.  We are free of the oppression of the arrogant particularly because the arrogant admit no authority other than themselves- they cannot assume authority over us because we are in a more direct, essential chain of command.

My eyes fail, looking for your salvation,

looking for your righteous promise.

It’s a full-time job, seeking God.  I seek your kingdom on Earth, Lord, your salvation for the people, until day fails and night falls.  If I spent the entirety of every day looking for the application of God’s promise to the day, I wouldn’t be wasting my time.

Deal with your servant according to your love

and teach me your decrees.

To do all this we must embrace the Father’s – the master’s – love for us and let him change us.  What a relief to be taught his will – that we do not have to invent a new way of living, but have a teacher ready and willing to explain to us how we must behave and to help us do it.

I am your servant; give me discernment

that I may understand your statues.

Like a servant entrusted with keys that can unlock his master’s wealth, discernment allows us to understand God’s statutes and then follow them, apply them around us, anticipating his justice, anticipating the natural consequences of people’s actions.  However, ‘no longer do I call you servants’ – John 15:15.  Jesus invited us into a place of understanding we inherit the keys ourselves.

It is time for you to act, O Lord;

your law is being broken.

A bold plea to God – but always relevant – like the inscription on the Clock at St Nick’s church in Nottingham – it is time to seek the Lord.  Always relevant.  Somewhere, in some heart, God’s law is always being broken, but he does desire for us to gain as much a hunger for justice as he has, and does desire for us to ask him to intervene wherever his law is being broken – including in my own self.

Because I love your commands more than gold,

more than pure gold,

This is the security against sin and unrighteousness that the Holy Spirit can give us: a desire for God’s word – a deep love and passion –  that jealously consumes all of our attention, so that there is no spare desire for sinfulness!  What a wonderful prospect – to grow in our desire for God and to become used to his justice until we, eventually, are freed from our pleasure in sin.  Like the hymn: ‘Take away our love of sinning, Alpha and Omega be, End of faith, as its beginning, Set our hearts at liberty.’

and because I consider all your precepts right,

I hate every wrong path.

This is exactly where the scriptures should lead us: a preference for one path, however difficult, is based on considering God’s instruction preferable to every other choice.

 

Isaiah 32 1-4

We have a role and responsibility in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Isaiah prophesied this in Ch 32: See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.

When Jesus comes, and come he has, he invites rulers to rule for him. Not to follow their own desires but to administer justice – fairness, obedience to God and concern for the needy.

Each one, says Isaiah, will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

We each cast a shadow, and Jesus gave us a promise about this in John 7: Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink! Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

Your faith in Jesus, friends, and your obedience to th Holy Spirit as you discover him within you, is God’s Plan for the Kingdom of heaven.  You might not feel influential, but let me tell you, this doesn’t depend on your skills or strength of character. The rock casts a shadow because of the brightness of the sun – the waters spring from the aquifers beneath the earth. He will make his power work in you and you will create safe places and shelters for people around you.

Pay attention today. Who prefers your company? Those in need? Then offer them the rest they seek by sharing your story.

All this was prophesied 2500 years ago. God gave Isaiah a picture for you. Jesus gave you the power to live in it through his name.

Psalm 2 – A Meditation on Authority

This Psalm is a powerful revelation of the true nature of Jesus’ authority, contrasted with the authority of rulers and kings in the world.  It reveals God’s plan to judge wicked and unjust rulers and establish a greater Kingdom, installing his Son who willingly suffers, identifies himself with his Father and receives all power and authority in Heaven and Earth at the cross – his true victory and the real place of our rejoicing!  The Lord also speaks instructions to rulers and people of authority.

God the Father’s voice speaks to the Son directly in this Psalm.  Surely it was revelation of his Father’s plan for him in this that gave Jesus the power to stand in the face of worldly authorities and continue his pre-eminent claims.

And we should know whom it is we serve, whether as rulers or individuals.  We too can know God’s purpose is for us to have a place in a greater Kingdom – but not through our own righteousness, but through Jesus.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

This first question is an expression of exasperation.  The nations and peoples certainly plot, but what is their purpose in doing so, and how do they reason it?  Whole countries seem to get together and make plans to prosper themselves outside of God’s plan – and without any chance of success.  Races and ethnic groups can make plans to raise themselves up, but only God calls nations together.

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.

The Kings – Herod Antipas, Tiberius and others – have a position as if ready for a battle, and with their advisors they directly challenge both their Father God and his Messiah – who has come.  This should be the time for them to acknowledge him, not make a challenge!

“Let us break their chains,” they say, “And throw off their fetters.”

They want to be free from what they see as chains and restrictions – his moral law, written in their hearts – their consciences – which they correctly identify as coming from ‘them’ collectively – God and his Anointed.  But what a misunderstanding!  The chains they are experiencing are the convictions of their conscience because they do not follow the way of the righteous, neither meditating on his law (see Ps 91) or proceeding justly.  It seems glamorous, to revolt and ‘throw off their fetters’, but this is an undignified thing for a ruler to say!  These rulers should be applying God’s law and ensuring that their realms are places of peace and stability, and yet they are the ones planning a revolution!  Furthermore, it is they who have created chains for the undeserving – imprisoning Jesus on no charge and taxing the weak.

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

God’s reaction to this nonsensical attitude is ridicule.  He is careless of their plans, which make no threat to him at all.  In fact, he mocks them – for the mighty shall be laid low and the humble exalted.  Jesus can scoff at them too, as the rulers unknowingly effect their own humbling through the unchanged attitude of their hearts.  He can be sure that their plans will fail.

The he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

After this laughter, he turns to anger – a righteous anger – that is intended to rebuke them, knock them back from their plans.  His anger fell at the crucifixion with the darkness that covered the earth, and the earthquake.  Rightly they would have been terrified, but the earth shakes as he confounds their plans.  Their intention was to punish an innocent man and rid themselves of the voice that rebuked them, but this itself effected God’s will of installing Jesus as King over Life and Death, all punishment and reward, when he suffered death on the cross, on that holy place where God had always accepted true sacrifice.  The centurion on the hill, who was himself a ruler, had no doubt that Jesus was the Son of the King when the earth shook beneath his feet.

I will proclaim the decree of the Lord:

Jesus can proclaim the new law – the new decree – the true statement of justice and the prophetic word of power at the cross.  He will be the new decree – he himself will be the new law – the entire sacrifice and the access to the righteousness it wins for us – and he will speak it abroad by suffering on the cross and then rising to life again!

He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.

God said this to Jesus at his baptism, but also in the secret times of prayer, and when Jesus suffered for his brothers and sisters he really and completely reflected God’s nature, and so the bond was strengthened and the relationship taken to another level.  God’s revelation to Jesus is the foundation for his ability to rule and replace the other Kingdoms of the earth.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

So by suffering on the cross, Jesus asked his Father for the new authority and received it, because God was planning to give it to him.  Then, when appearing to his disciples (Matthew 28.18) he explained that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  He had inherited the nations from the bad rulers, and all the ends of the earth were his, which is why he commissions the disciples with the words “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations… and surely I am with you always, to the very end of time”.  This would not have happened if Jesus had not asked – and not only did he ask in words, but in actions too.

You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.

So at this enthronement, Jesus also fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel, to shatter the Kingdoms of the world with the inauguration of a Kingdom without end.  He is given a rod of authority that serves to break any other – a rod for punishment, surely.  The Roman Empire does indeed break up into pieces after this, and what other empire can last without being broken up?  The kingdoms of the world do not last like his kingdom.

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.

God does want his appointed rulers to be wise and to carry out their responsibilities properly – even if it takes his mockery, anger and punishment to bring that about.  They need to make the decision to be wise – as does anyone who gains authority and rule – and it certainly is part of his plan for us to pay heed to prophetic warning in Scripture.  His warnings are the best guide to good rule.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

And these warnings are: to remain a servant personally before God, however much authority you gain – and to keep a holy awe and wariness – a fear – of God and his plan to raise and lower Kingdoms.  Do not expect that because he has exalted you in the earth one day he means for you to stay that way for ever.  So rejoice in what you have received, but always, always keep it in the perspective of gratitude.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment.

More instructions to rulers: find and then love the Son of God, who as ruler of all things in Heaven and Earth has a right to expect you to behave in line with his plan, or destroy you simply as you are about your business.  He will be patient and give you warning, but when he speaks take care to respond!  Rulers have less leeway than individual people.  His judgement is sudden, always sudden.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

This ruler will be good to all his servants, rich or poor, who come and hide themselves in him in trouble.  Even on the cross, he offers his body as a shelter in which to take cover from the onslaughts of the world, and a most effective shelter, because no attack can succeed against the true ruler.