Help! Psalm 121:1-3
“I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. 2. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3. He will not suffer my foot to be moved: He that keeps thee will not slumber.” Psalm 121 is referred to as a “song of degrees,” or as some translate it, “a psalm of ascent.” It was a song that Jewish people sang as they made their journey to Jerusalem and to Mount Zion, where the temple stood and where Yahweh (the Lord) came among His people. The principle is still the same; we know that it is to the Lord to which we can go for help. We are never so strong that we do not need intervention of the Lord in our lives. The One who “created heaven and earth,” and who can keep us from stumbling, and who never sleeps is our steady source of help. In what ways does He help us? The Lord helps us in our personal lives. He is the greatest guide that we have in making decisions that will affect our lives. Through Jesus Christ, He invites us to a relationship with Himself, and promises that we can “come boldly to the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16) There are people who assert that they do not need God in their lives. I am not one of them. I hope that you are not one of them. Today, we have the Holy Spirit present in our lives to be a constant source of help. We need the Lord’s help in our family relations. We need the Lord’s help and strength to face life’s difficulties. You need His help! He created us to be dependent on Him. The Lord helps us in our social lives – for lack of a better term. We certainly need the Lord in our relationships with other people. To put it mildly, we can get on each other’s nerves, and we need the Lord to give us the patience to relate to each other. We need the Lord in our Christian fellowship. We forget sometimes that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and that the world will know that we are His “disciples by the love that we have for each other.” (John 13:35) We need the Lord’s help in dealing with people in the places where we work. All of our social relationships are better when we depend on God’s help. The Lord helps us in our commitment to Him. He is the “rock” on which we stand. Verse 3 confidently asserts: “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved, He that keepeth thee will not slumber.” That promise is as good now as it was in the psalmist’s day. This is why we need to be constantly in prayer. It is through our communication with Him that we find the spiritual strength that we need to live the Christian life. There is really no aspect in our lives in which we do not need the help of the Lord. Let’s take seriously what the psalmist has given us and go to the Lord for help. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
“And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 41. It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generation.”
I want to share with you what I saw about God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. There are some real lessons that we can learn about our own deliverance. First, Israel was delivered in a time set by God. The length of time might seem strange to us, but not to God. Israel came out of Egypt when it was God’s time. They went into Egypt about 72 strong, and came out “about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.” (12:37) Israel came of Egypt as a nation. The Lord knew the exact time that they were to come out of Egypt. We might wonder why God does not immediately solve our problems. The reason is that He knows when we need deliverance. It is better to come out of whatever is troubling to us on God’s eternal timetable, than it is to try to work it out on our own. This calls for a lot of prayer and faith, but it is the best way. Second, Israel came out of Egypt stronger than they went into Egypt. I have already alluded to the fact that Israel came out of Egypt as a nation. This was the reason that they were enslaved. The Pharaoh who “did not know Joseph,” was afraid that they would become strong and join their enemies and fight against them. (Exodus 1:10) God promised Abraham that his descendants would increase and become “a great nation.” (Genesis 12:2) Like Israel, we might have to suffer for a time, but that means that God is preparing us for something better. Third, Israel was to remember this deliverance and celebrate it: ”It is a time to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt.” The celebration of this deliverance became the “Passover,” that was to be celebrated annually. It is still a Jewish celebration to this day. It is by design that Jesus was crucified during the Passover, and gave His disciples, and us, something to remember. When they ate the Passover meal, Jesus told them to partake of the bread and wine in memory of His body and blood. Jesus is our Passover. He is the One who died and set us free from sin, Satan and self. We remember this deliverance when we partake of the Lord's Supper, and when we praise Him in prayer in our daily lives. This Old Testament text helps us call to mind all that Christ has done, is doing, and will continue to do in our lives. Let’s remember and celebrate… …. Bro. Joe “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Psalm 46:1 reminds us of our dependence on God, for it reminds us that He is our “refuge and strength.” We looked at God as our refuge in the last article. Today we will consider that He is our "strength". This is fundamental biblical truth, that is, we do not have the strength to live the Christian life by our own resources. I want to show you how God can be your strength. God strengthens our faith. We are saved by faith, but we also need to live by faith, and to grow in faith. Faith in God, in Christ, is not merely a proposition, it is necessary, for we are reminded in Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Here is another fundamental biblical truth: Christ has given us the Holy Spirit to work within us and to grow our faith. We have the resource (if that is the right word) of the Holy Spirit’s work within us, the truth of scripture, the practice of daily prayer, and fellowship with fellow Christians. We have all of these at our disposal to strengthen our faith. God strengthens our resolve. He strengthens our resolve as He strengthens our faith. It appears to me that there are a lot of people who claim the Christian faith who are on the fence. They are probably not on the fence about attending church. This is a good thing, but a better thing is to actually be the church. What I mean by this is that we should live the Christian life. None of us will do that perfectly, but we sure do need to give it a good shot. We should be resolved to live for Jesus, and depend on Him. Those of you who know me, know that I do not mean that we should be mean-spirited and self-righteous. All that does is turn people away. Ask God to strengthen your resolve to be a witness for Christ. This leads me to: God will strengthen our care and concern for people. When we read the four gospels, we get the idea that people were drawn to Jesus, in part, because of His care and concern. We need to ask God to strengthen our love for people. Believe me, I know that this is a tall order, but we must seek to do it. When you live your faith on a daily basis, you might make enemies of some people, but Jesus told us to love our enemies and do good for them. (Matthew 5:44) We need to believe biblical truth, stand by it, and let it affect the way we live our lives. We do not deny biblical truth when we love people and when we are concerned about their salvation. Let God strengthen your faith, your resolve and your care and concern for people. Bro. Joe “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor in not in vain in the Lord.”
This verse is Paul’s conclusion of his great chapter on the resurrection of Jesus. That is why he used “therefore” to start the verse. Basically, the verse is the description of the kind of servants that we should be in the light of Christ’s resurrection. We need to look at this description and see where we are in our service. Paul tells us to be “steadfast.” The meaning of this word is to be firm, established and unwavering in our devotion to Jesus Christ. We are to be like the person described in Psalm 1:3a “He is like a tree planted by the streams of water…” The idea being that such a tree is always close to life-giving water. If we would be steadfast in our service, we would stay close to the Lord in prayer and Bible study, and be fed constantly by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This closeness would establish us in our relationship to the Lord, and in our service to Him. It also means that we are firm in our convictions on biblical truth. We should be careful to be unwavering in our devotion to our Lord and in our service for Him. The day in which we are living calls for such men and women. Are you one of those “steadfast” Christians? Paul tells us to be “always abounding in the work of the Lord.” “Abounding” carries the idea of having plenty. By “abounding in the work of the Lord” we should be plentiful in our service for the Lord, and fruitful, in our service for Him. Psalm 1:3b describes this person: “He is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” This is described in what Paul wrote to Timothy, “be instant in season and out of season.” (2 Timothy 4:2) If we are steadfast in the work of the Lord, He will prosper us in that work. We can’t always see the “fruit” of our steadfast service. We sow the word and leave the reaping to the Lord. That doesn’t mean that we will not always see the fruits of our labors. What it means is that we keep on abounding in the work even if we don’t see great rewards. I have come to the conclusion in my preaching that when I preach the word, the Spirit is doing something in the lives of the people. This is also true in your Sunday School class, or whatever service you render for the Lord. In this sense, being an “abounding servant” of God is to keep on keeping on, without letting discouragement, and a sense of failure, cause us to give up. Enjoy and thank God for the fruit that you see, and thank Him for what He is doing through you that you can see and in what you cannot see. Finally, Paul left a word of encouragement to close the verse: “forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” This is what I meant in the paragraph above. When we steadfastly serve the Lord, the reward is in the service itself. There are men of God who see great movement in their service for God. Thank God for those great men of God. But to the majority of us, we do not see great movement that these men see. Nothing, however, that we steadfastly do for the Lord is ever in vain. Believe it! Do you see yourself somewhere in this verse? Bro. Joe “The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Who would want to read something with a title like that? If you are one who would, you have gotten this far. Stick with me and the title will make sense and will leave you in a better mood than the title promises. This is not a condition that we would normally want, but there are times that we need this condition to move on to joyfulness. We learn here that God draws close to those who are broken-hearted and contrite. (At least we draw near to Him and find Him already there.) The point is that the Lord responds to our repentance. He does not want us to go merrily on our way in our sins, ignoring our sinful condition. Sin is a big deal to God. We need to frankly feel sorrow for sin in our hearts. These are the moments that we feel close to God because we realize our need for Him – especially at these times. Sin should break our hearts. For example, when we feel such hatred for a person that we rejoice when they fall on hard times, or when we get back at them in some way. There is really no joyful satisfaction in any sin. Our sin should cause us to… well… feel guilty until we surrender our hearts in repentance to God. David, who wrote this psalm, fully understood this sorrow. Our sins should cause contrition in our hearts. It is in this contrition that we feel closer to Christ, and when we experience His love on the deepest level. Sin does not draw us closer to Him. I like the interpretation of this verse in the Amplified Bible: “God is close to those who are….crushed with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent.” I know that there are many causes for depression, but I think that sin that has not been repented of is a root cause of a lot of depression. Maybe it is time in your life to be “crushed with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent.” Sin pulls us down and causes self-loathing. This is not how the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to live, because He gave His life on the cross to relieve us of this sin burden. We need to feel sorrow for sin that will lead us to repent and seek the forgiveness that Jesus so readily gives. David gave us guidance for this in Psalm 51:16-17: “For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise.” God is not looking for outward religious devotion on our part; rather, He wants us to really experience sorrow for sin and come to Him for the only place that forgiveness is found. Do it! Bro. Joe “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. 4. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness does not comprehend it.”
One of John‘s main purposes was to reveal the deity of Jesus. (Of course another great purpose was to show that Jesus came in the flesh – God incarnate, all of God and all of man.) John states his purpose immediately in the first five verses of his gospel. He refers to Jesus as “the word.” Jesus is God’s ultimate revelation, or word, about himself. (See Hebrews 1:1-3.) John reveals Jesus as Son of God and Son of man. Verses 1-2 reveal Jesus as eternal: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” The Word was there in the beginning, in other words He has always existed. That’s why Jesus could say in John 8:58: “Before Abraham was I am.” Jesus meant exactly what He said, as incredible as it sounded then, and now. In verse 2, we have one of the most startling and controversial declarations: “And the Word was God…” Jesus was not only with God; He was/is God. How could John have made it clearer? Jesus is eternal because He is God. We do not have to understand it, or even explain it, but we need to believe it and live it. Observe in verse 3, that Jesus was in on the creation: “All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made…” Paul wrote basically the same thing in Colossians 1:18: “For by Him (Jesus) were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth…” Again, what could be clearer? Our eternal, wonderful, Savior is also our creator. In verse 4a, we discover that Jesus is life: “In Him was life and the life was the light of men.” In John 14:6, Jesus declared: “I am the way and the truth and the life…” He did not say “I know all about life.” He said “I am the life.” What does this mean? One thing that it means is that Jesus is the giver of life. As creator, Jesus made life possible in the first place. Another thing that it means is that Jesus gives us real, abundant life – eternal life that begins here and ends in eternity with Him. It means that Jesus gives meaning and purpose to life. Jesus did not just create life and step away. He became involved in our lives and sustains us in all of life. In Colossians 1:17, Paul wrote: “And (Jesus) is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” This means that Jesus holds all things together, and that includes our lives. In verse 4b-5, we discover that Jesus is light: “….and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it.” In John 8:12, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” Jesus came to shed God’s light on all the world, to shed light on who God is and on the loving nature of God. People who prefer darkness do not understand light; therefore, they reject it. This is a shame, for the light is available to all who will put their faith and trust in Him. Matthew 5:14a and 16 shows us what our responsibility is in sharing this light: “You are the light of the world…Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Jesus gives His light to us and we are to reflect it to the world by how we live, speak, serve and witness. Bro. Joe “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Sin is a fact of human life! We do not have to live with it, or live with the guilt of it, for we have a forgiving God who longs to forgive us. However big, or little, you think your sin is, through Jesus,you can be forgiven. Our text is the answer to the forgiveness of sin in your life. We’ll take a look at the sin problem first. Verses 8 and 10 tell us that we do have a sin problem. Verse 8 tells us that if we think that we never sin we are “deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” In other words, those who think that they never sin are living a lie. Verse 10 tells us that, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make (God) a liar, and (God’s) word is not in us." Those who say that they are perfect and never sin really overestimate their holiness and underestimate the power of the devil. Plus, they have a shallow view of sin. We can commit sins by doing wrong, and we can commit sins by not doing what is right. A perfect person would always do what is right, and never do wrong. Those who say that they have no sin are deceiving themselves. I’m not calling you a “bad” person, but I am telling you that you have sinned and need to be forgiven. When can we do about sin? First, John tells us to confess our sins. You know what confession is: when you have done something wrong and tell someone about it that is confession. Jesus knows that we have sinned, for He knows everything about us, but He wants us to confess our sins to Him. Sometimes we can pray, “Lord, forgive me for my sins,” which covers all of our sins. At other times we must ask Jesus to forgive us for some particular sin. Sometimes confession also includes seeking the forgiveness of people against whom we have sinned. But the most important forgiveness is that which comes from Jesus. Second, John tells us that Jesus will be “faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” You might ask, “What in the world does that mean?” It means that when we come to Jesus in honest confession, He will always forgive us. We can depend on His forgiveness for our sins because He died on the cross to forgive us and exists at the right hand of the Father in order to forgive us. What does it mean that Jesus is “just to forgive our sins”? It simply means that Jesus can forgive our sins. No one else is qualified to forgive us, for no one else died on the cross for us, and no one else has God’s authority to forgive us for our sins. If you are dealing with a sin problem now that is interfering with your joy, Jesus can faithfully forgive you right now. There is no need for us to live in the guilt of sin, because we have recourse through Jesus. There is no need for a non-Christian to live on in sin,because Jesus will forgive and save them now. Third, John tells us that He will “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Sin makes us feel dirty. There are people, maybe someone reading this article, who feel dirty and guilty and think that there is no hope for them. There is always hope for you. If you are not a Christian, you can be now by asking Jesus to forgive you and enter into your life and change you. If you are a miserable Christian living in guilt, you can receive His forgiveness and cleansing right now. The Bible promises that if you will seek the forgiveness of Jesus, He will be “faithful and just to forgive (your) sins." Claim His forgiveness now. Bro. Joe “Look upon my afflictions and my pain, and forgive all my sins.”
If you read the psalms closely, you will find that they take us through the spectrum of human emotions. In the Psalm 25, David showed how this is true. Throughout the psalm, David calls upon God to “show me your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.” We can identify with David, because we struggle in our own walk with God. (Some more than others, but we all do.) In the verse under consideration, David is thinking of all of his afflictions, and of his need for forgiveness from sin. He asked the Lord to forgive all of his sins. If you know anything about David’s life, you know that, though he was referred to “a man after God’s heart,” he still had a struggle with sin. The question is will God forgive all of our sins? It is possible that you think that you have committed a sin, or many sins, that God will not forgive. There are many people who are living in misery because they feel that God will not forgive them for their sins. So they live in misery in a sense of failure and spiritual defeat. With all that David had done, he still had the belief that God would forgive all of his sins. It is possible that you are not a Christian and feel that you cannot become a Christian because God will not forgive you for all of your past sins. I want you to know that God will forgive all of the sins of your past. In my years as the Director of Missions of the Tucker Baptist Association, one of my missions, was to the prisons in our county. (There was a county work camp and a state prison.) I ministered for over twenty years to inmates who had done almost everything imaginable. I ministered to men who had murdered people and yet received the forgiveness that Christ offered from His cross. They had stolen, lied, cheated, you name it, they had done it, but when confronted by the cross of Jesus, they received Christ’s forgiveness. Bring all of your sins to Christ and He will forgive you and give you peace. Just surrender to His love and concern for you. You might be a Christian who is living in misery because you feel that God will not forgive your sins. You go to Him time and time again and ask Him to forgive you for, maybe, one sin that you committed. This sin just weighs on your conscience and you cannot feel at peace with God. Sin is a terrible taskmaster and it can bind the fruitfulness of your life. God is ready and waiting for you to come to him in true repentance, asking for His forgiveness. His arms are wide open to welcome you to peace with Him. He will help you to overcome impulses, and He will help you to receive His forgiveness. Christian, believe me when I tell you that God will forgive all of your sins, just as He forgave David. I am certainly not telling you that God is pleased with the sins of your life or mine. The point of this article is to invite you to receive the love that God has for you, and to receive the forgiveness that He has offered freely from the cross. Do not let Satan allow you to live in misery because of unforgiven sin. He is the barrier that Christ overcame in His death burial and resurrection. His arms are wide open to receive you. There is so much more that should be written on God’s forgiveness. You just need to believe that our God is the forgiving God, and He will forgive all of your sins. Be sure to read tomorrow’s article on “The Forgiveness of Sin.” Bro. Joe “And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 24. And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him, and hereby we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us.”
I lifted my title from the text to emphasize the importance of God’s command. Look at the wording: “this-is-His-commandment.” This is the Lord’s commandment concerning being saved and living the Christian life. God’s commandment is that “we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ.” We didn’t pick the idea of Jesus being the only means of salvation out of thin air. It’s right here in our text. We are saved by believing on the name of Jesus Christ. It can also be stated as inviting Jesus Christ into our lives. The Greek word "pisteuo" carries the force of believing to the extent that Jesus takes over our lives. Another way of saying this is that “we are saved by grace through faith.” The command is clear: It does not say that we should just believe any religion or any other religious personage. Some people roll their eyes when we make this statement. We can believe them or what the New Testament tells us is God’s commandment. God’s commandment further states that we “love one another.” The root Greek word for love here is "Ahgapay." This is the word that is translated love in John 3:16. This means that we must love one another as God loves us. The love we should have for each other is not just "philos," which is brotherly/sisterly love. It is a giving and sacrificial love. This is a stiff command. When I think of some of the things that I have seen in churches, I know that it is difficult to love in this manner. In fact, it has often been problematic for me. Let’s just be honest, there are some people that we just have to “love anyway.” They don’t make it easy, so to speak. I’m confident that I have been this person for some people. One of the main themes of 1 John is God’s kind of love. Give some thought to your personal love quotient. How are you doing? Pray, brothers and sisters, pray!!! Verse 24 brings our theme together. If we believe in Jesus we “dwell in Him.” Jesus becomes an integral part of our lives. He is always with us. What draws this together is that we “know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us.” It is through the conviction of the Holy Spirit that we see our need for a Savior from our sins. This is when we take, what has been called, "the leap of faith.” We have the Holy Spirit driving our faith. We grow in our faith as we surrender to the Spirit. It is the Spirit who makes it possible to love as God does. We grow in faith and love as we grow in the Spirit. Bro. Joe “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. 32. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that any of their possessions was his own possession; but they had all things common.”
The context of this text is the aftermath of believers being told that they could no longer preach in the name of Jesus. These verses are their response and they paint a portrait of what I will call “a good church.” When we think of a good church, we usually think of the church in Acts. These verses give credence to that opinion. Following is what comprises the “Portrait of a Good Church.” The first part of the portrait is the Holy Spirit. No church is a good church that is not filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. We get into trouble sometimes because we want to do what we can do instead of what God can do. It is the Holy Spirit Who enables us to do what God can do, which is what the church is supposed to do. Think of your church: Does the Holy Spirit lead in your church’s decisions? This leads us to the second part of our portrait – prayer. Notice that they went immediately to prayer. A church decides to do “God things” when it seeks God in prayer. A Spirit-led church is necessarily a praying church. This church did not figure out what to do on their own and then pray. Prayer is not the last resort of a good church; rather, it is the first act of a good church. Again, think of your church, is your church a praying church? Do you pray about the decisions to be made about the work of your church, or do you just “figure out the best move?” Dwight L. Moody wrote that “every great movement of God begins with a kneeling figure.” It is also true that every great movement of a good church begins with kneeling, praying, figures. When we seek the power of the Holy Spirit in sincere prayer, He will empower and use us. The third part of this portrait is boldness: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” Notice the order: They sought God’s Spirit in prayer. They were “filled with the Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness." Our churches will not make a bold statement without prayer and without the filling of the Holy Spirit. We need to pray that our churches will have a bold witness in our communities. We need to pray boldly, love boldly and serve boldly, trusting God to give us the results that He wants for our churches. Notice that when this church prayed and sought the Spirit’s leadership they were of “one heart and one soul.” No church can give a bold witness if it is not unified in its purpose. The fourth part of his portrait is generosity: “Neither said any of them that his possessions were his own; but they had all things common.” A good church has an open heart and an open door. Every good church will be generous with its financial and physical blessings. This would stand to reason that a good church has open hands and an open heart. This demands the kind of radical love that Jesus had for all human beings. This portrait can serve as a witness to you, for if your church is to paint this portrait, you must paint it as well by praying, being filled with the Spirit, boldly living and proclaiming Christ, and by having an open spirit and an open heart. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|