The Forgotten Feasts: Yom Kippur Part 1

This is actually a harder one to write than I expected. I’m writing this opening at a time that I’m trying to think of exactly what to write elsewhere in this post. This is just one day on the calendar but there is SO much to talk about, and it’s really more than just one day when all is said and done. Ok, I’m going to go back to trying to get this written. Whatever comes of it is what you’re about to read. I hope it does justice to what is the most amazing of days!

Recommended Scripture Reading: Leviticus 16; Leviticus 23:26-32; Leviticus 25:1-55; Numbers 29:7-11; Isaiah 58:1-11; Isaiah 61; Ezekiel 46:17; Jonah (this book is all about repentance, on both sides); Luke 4:17-19;Hebrews (when read in context the whole book is really about Yom Kippur but let’s try to stick to chapters 7-10)

Yom Kippur – First and foremost we should probably go over just what “Yom Kippur” means. Yom Kippur is the “Day of Atonement”, or the “Day of Covering”. To go even more in-depth, it’s actually plural so it’s the Day of Atonements, but we’ll just focus on the less in-depth today, since I’m pretty sure this is going to be a fairly huge topic, and I’m only barely going to go into each part of the topic. Suffice it to say, there’s going to be a lot of stuff for you to search out yourself! Before we get started, let’s just read over the primary Scripture for Yom Kippur.

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. For any person who is not afflicted in should on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who des any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.

Is there any doubt that a day which is meant to be for the atonement of the people is going to be important? It’s been said before that Passover is meant to be about personal sin but Yom Kippur is about the sin of the nation. And, while it is most definitely about sin, it’s about something much more than that.  Not only is Yom Kippur about sin, it’s about the deliverance from that sin. It’s about God setting you free from the bondage you’ve unknowingly attached yourself to.

Passover, again similarly, is the celebration of the deliverance from the bondage of the oppression that you can see. The Israelites knew the Egyptians were their taskmasters. God supernaturally freed them from their bondage on Passover and, so long as they obeyed the Torah they would be able to live in the land in freedom.

But what about the sin that you don’t know you commit? What about when you disobey the Instructions unknowingly, or you cause someone else to do so? This is one of the things Yom Kippur is for. That is an extreme oversimplification of Yom Kippur but it gets across the general idea that we are dirty. We were born into sin. You’ll sometimes hear people say that it’s impossible to “keep the Law” and while this, too, is an oversimplification of some cherry picked verses, the truth is that not everyone will keep all of the Law. And if there was someone who was within the camp that had sinned, even unknowingly, it dirtied the entire camp of Israel. It’s because of this that Yom Kippur was put into place. But let’s look deeper. Beginning with the start of the sixth month of the Hebrew calendar (Elul) until Yom Kippur (40 days) it is customary to seek God’s face and repent (perform teshuvah) of any sin which is brought to your mind. Two things to keep in mind:

      

      1.       Repentance is not, nor will it every be, just saying that you’re sorry. Repentance is looking at what you’ve done and seeing how you’ve gone against what God wants from you and turning from it to not do that thing again. The turning away is more important than the words. Today we sometimes think that we can apologize for things done wrong and then everything is fine but if your words aren’t followed up by actions then did you really mean it. If you’re married and your partner does something which they know that you can’t stand. They then apologize but they go on to do the same thing that very same day, do you think that they really meant their apology, or were they just saying it because they didn’t like they way you were looking at them?

      2.       This whole thing starts 40 days earlier, at the beginning of Elul, but once Rosh HaShanah hits it really kicks into high gear. The last ten days are traditionally called the 10 Days of Awe. Every day we try to dig deeper. Every day we ask God to bring to our attention anything we need to turn away from.  By the time you get all the way up to that last day (and you’re fasting on that last day, too) you should be in a place of total obedience. No matter how passionate I’ve ever started out each year, over time I’ve always let that passion slip away without even knowing it. It’s good to have this time each year to reflect and to resubmit to the will of the Father.

As I mentioned in that second point on Yom Kippur we make it a practice to not eat, and to afflict our souls. Fasting is a long-held spiritual tradition. One of the cool things that I’ve learned in recent years is that there’s now science behind why fasting leads to spiritual insight. Growing up I was always just led to believe that fasting is done so that, by withholding physical sustenance from yourself, you were forced to rely on the sustenance from God. While this is certainly a good idea, and even true, there’s actually a chemical reaction which takes place in your body when you’re denying yourself sustenance. There’s a chemical that our bodies create naturally called DMT (although, recently there are those in the more new-agey parts of society who are taking this stuff artificially to get the spiritual high that comes along with it.) When taken artificially this chemical has been known to open your senses up to ‘other dimensions’. The way that this relates to fasting is that our bodies don’t normally store up that much DMT because there’s another chemical our bodies produce during the digestive process which nullifies DMT. So, if you’re not eating, and therefore not digesting, the DMT that your bodies naturally produce is free to build up and give you more intense spiritual insights. There’s a lot more to this whole thing and I would advise people to not enter into physical research of DMT unless through prayer and fasting, but that’s the science of it all.

So now you have an idea why fasting does what it does, but the bigger point is that we’re supposed to be trying to fast and get to that place of spiritual discernment because we want to better understand what God has for us. But the big question is why is this day so important, right?

Well, as was mentioned in the last post in this series (Rosh HaShanah) Yom Kippur is the day that judgements are released. Technically both Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are considered to be a Day of Judgement (Yom HaDin). The rabbis believed that on Rosh HaShanah God opened up His books and those who were really good were inscribed on the Book of Life and those who were really bad were given over to the Book of Death. And then there was those in the middle; the people who weren’t super good or super bad. You know, most everyone. These people had the next ten days to repent and turn away from their sin so that they might be inscribed in the Book of Life. This belief may seem antiquated to our modern minds, and none of that is actually more than tradition so it shouldn’t be viewed as a reason to focus on repentance over the Ten Days of Awe, but I think that it’s reason enough to just want to get right with God. You can go as deep with the symbolism as you want but the true follower of Jesus really just wants to be following the way which our Messiah walked out for us.

Let’s look a little deeper at what was actually done on Yom Kippur when there was still a Temple around. This is, to my knowledge, the only time in the Bible that an entire chapter is given over to the specifics of how the priests should perform the Temple service for just one specific day. Like I said before, this is an important day! Leviticus 16 spells it all out.

We’ll just do a quick overview to highlight the importance and holiness of this day. I want to add, before we start into this, that this is by no means a thorough list of everything that needed to be done and there will probably be some who are offended by my attempt to “dumb down” the things that happen on this day. I’m by no means trying to belittle the events of the day; I’m just trying to express the significance of the day in a way which is easy to take in. I apologize to you if you’re offended by the quick overview of the description of the events of the day. First the High Priest would procure a young bull and a ram as a sin offering and a burnt offering. This is to cover the sins of the High Priest so he’s even able to enter into the Holy Place in the Temple. Then, even though he had to bathe thoroughly in the corridors below the temple to make himself clean earlier that morning he has to bathe again and put on different clothes which are only used this one time each year so that he has on the right vestments. Now he sacrifices the bull which was mentioned earlier to make himself ready to go into the presence of the Most High. He then brings two young goats to the entrance of the Temple so YHWH can see them and he casts lots for them. One of them would get the lot to be sacrificed to the LORD and the other would get the lot of the “scapegoat”. There’s a whole BIG teaching which could be looked at here concerning what the scapegoat is and what the word used for the scapegoat is, but I want to be able to have this posted before we actually get to the Day of Atonement, so I’m going to leave that to the reader to search out. The part of the goat sacrifice that we need to go over is this: The goat who’s lot fell to YHWH would be sacrificed for the sins of all of the people of Israel and the goat who’s lot it was to be the scapegoat would be presented alive to YHWH to make atonement for it by setting it free to go out into the wilderness. One would die so that the other might live. At this point there’s more to be done with the blood of the goat, and the blood of the bull that was sacrificed. This is also the point which the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies. This only happened this one day each year. It was in the Holy of Holies that God’s presence resided, and this was the only time throughout the year that anyone was allowed to enter it. The High Priest would perform specific functions laid out in Leviticus 16 – and those functions only! – and then he would come out and finish the rest of the priestly duties for the day, and then he had to change out of the Yom Kippur clothing, bathe, and then change back into the priestly clothing he started the day with. Then there’s going to be a burnt offering for the people so that the sins of the people will go up in smoke on the alter. Then the ‘scapegoat’ is given to a priest who will actually lead the goat out to the wild (there are later traditions attached to this but this is what was first prescribed).

As I said earlier, this is just a brief overview and there’s more to this all, but I wanted to give a quick rundown of the pomp that is attached to this day.

We’re next going to go into another function of Yom Kippur which may run a bit long so we’ll stop here for now. I’m really not sure how much I’m going to go into about Jubilee years so I want to get this Yom Kippur post out a couple days ahead of the day so you guys can look into it before it happens. I’ll probably have the Jubilee post up on the actual day. I think you’ll find that looking into the Jubilee is one of the most important studies you can enter into. But let’s leave that for the weekend…

I hope that everyone has been at least a little blessed by some of the information presented here.

Shalom, everyone!

The Forgotten Feasts: Rosh HaShanah

Relevant Scripture: Leviticus 23:23-25; Numbers 29:1-6; Psalms 47; Psalms 69:28; Psalms 81; Isaiah 4:3; Daniel 12:1; Matthew 25:31-46; Philippians 2:12; 1 Thes 4:17; 2 Thes 2:6-7; Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15, 21:27, 22:19

Let’s get right into this one since this Feast actually happened a couple days ago!

Rosh HaShanah – First of all I guess we should say that this Feast isn’t really called Rosh HaShanah in the Bible. The first time we’re told about this Feast (Leviticus 23:23-25) it is referred to as a “memorial of blowing of trumpets”. For this reason it was traditionally referred to as Yom Teruah, or Feast of Trumpets. That word Teruah (H8643 – תּרוּעה) means “alarm, signal, sound of tempest, shout, shout or blast of war or alarm or joy” (from the BDB). It’s usually applied to a trumpet but, as you can see from the definition, it could just be a sound coming from your mouth. Think Jericho.  The reason it’s commonly called Rosh HaShanah (Head of the Year) is because the Israelite civil year starts on this day.

I guess now would be a good time to briefly explain that there are multiple ‘years’ in a Biblical mindset. At first this may seem a little confusing but if we allow ourselves to take a step back when we think it over it’s really not all that out of the ordinary. We have the year that we normally think of (January through December) but many of us work places which have a ‘fiscal year’ which differs from the normal year. We also have a ‘school year’. For most this begins in late August or early September and it doesn’t start again until the next August or September. The Hebrew calendar acts very similarly. The religious year starts in the spring. In the month called Nisan (this is the month that Passover takes place during). The civil year starts on Rosh HaShanah, and this is where they would reason the length of the reigns of kings, and this is also the beginning of the year for agriculture. It is during the fall that the “early rains” fall, and it is during the spring that the “latter rains” fall. You may have read in the Bible about the early rains and the latter rains. When I first read about them, and looked into them, it was weird to me that the latter rains were earlier in the year than the early rains. Understanding that there were different calendars really helped out with my overall understanding of that whole rain thing. I don’t want to take up too much space going over how the year works so I hope that this was helpful in understanding the basics of it.

I should mention that there are some out there who say that the Jews started keeping Rosh HaShanah as the beginning of the new year when they were in captivity in Babylon because that is when the Babylonians held their new year’s festival (Akitu) and they wanted to continue celebrating Akitu when they returned to Jerusalem. While I understand the want to be critical of traditions which aren’t specifically mentioned in the Bible, the Akitu claim doesn’t really hold much water. It turns out that in Babylon Akitu was actually celebrated in the spring. I’m certainly willing to listen to arguments on this one but, at this point, most historical documents would point to a spring Akitu celebration. I'll post a teaching at the bottom which does a good job of going into this (and is just an amazing overall teaching on Rosh Hashanah/Yom Teruah).

Ok, let’s look at the some of the prophetic implications of this Feast. This Feast is historically known as the Feast that no man knows the day or the hour when it will occur. That probably deserves some explaining. Yom Teruah is the one Feast which is on the first day of a month. The Hebrew calendar was a lunar calendar which begin when the first sliver of the moon was sighted. Admittedly, there are those who would argue when the month begins (whether it’s the siting of the first sliver of the moon, or when the moon is in full conjunction and you can’t see it), but Yom Teruah begins when the first sliver of the moon is spotted. When a person would spot that first sliver they would run to the Temple and tell a priest. But this wasn’t good enough. There needed to be Two Witnesses in order for the moon to be officially sighted. So when the second person reported the sighting of the moon, the High Priest would officially declare the Feast was at hand. One of the problems here is that it could be a cloudy night, or the moon could come out from behind the shadow of the earth after it had already set. Because of this, there was no way that anyone could accurately predict which day the moon would be sighted. For this reason it is traditionally known as the Feast that “no man knows the day or the hour”. So when Jesus says of His return in Matthew 24:36, “of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only,” those who he was speaking to would’ve known exactly what He was talking about. Since most of us don’t really pay much attention to the Feasts of the LORD we miss the context of this verse and we build up ‘doctrines’ saying that Jesus could return at any moment. Jesus fulfilled the Spring Feasts, in order during His first coming; what are the chances He’s not going follow this pattern during His second coming for the Fall Feasts? And then, if we have a little bit of understanding about the Feasts, He called out that Feast as the specific time that He would return.

Talk about prophetic implications! Want more evidence? Read 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord Himself will descend with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and wit the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” This is one of the most key “rapture passages”. The Hebrew word for ‘shout’ is “teruah” (you know, like ‘Yom Teruah’) and we’re told that shout will be the trumpet of God.

I guess I should make a qualification that I don’t think that we need to start date setting. I just think that, when it does happen, it’s going to be on a Feast of Trumpets. Date setting is ridiculous and dangerous. It not only confuses what prophecy is supposed to be for (a sign for us to be able to look back and see that God is in control) but it also humiliates the Body of Christ at large by making Him look foolish.

Now that I have that out of the way, let’s get back to talking about Yom Teruah!

This Feast is probably given the least amount guidance on what you’re supposed to do to celebrate it. The only things really said is that you’re supposed to hear the blast of the shofar (or trumpet), you’re not supposed to work, and there are some sacrifices listed in the book of Numbers (interesting sidenote: these sacrifices are not for sin and it should be reasoned that not every animal sacrifice was meant to atone for sins). Traditionally in Jewish synagogue services the shofar is sounded 100 times as congregants dress all in white waiting for the last trumpet blast. In the Jewish prayer book (Machzor) for Rosh Hashanah you will sometimes find the following sentence, “May it be Your will that the sounding of the shofar, which we have done, will be embroidered in the veil by the appointed angel, as You accepted it by Elijah, of blessed memory and by Yeshua, the Prince of the Face (Face of Hashem) (Prince of God’s Presence) and the one who sits on God’s throne.” For those of you who don’t know, the name ‘Yeshua’ is the Hebrew name that Jesus would’ve actually been called when He walked the earth. Now, the more recent Machzor’s which are being printed no longer have this sentence in the prayers to the Father, but the older the version that you’re looking at is, the more likely it is to have this reference. Yeshua is considered to be the High Priest in the heavenly temple. I assure you, the Jewish leaders didn’t put that in there just to make the Christians happy.

Another thing that Rosh HaShanah is is a call to repentance. We’ll go into this more in depth for the next Holy Day, but Rosh HaShanah is the first day of what is traditionally considered the Ten Days of Awe. The Days of Awe lead up to our next Feast (Yom Kippur) and the whole time is spent reflecting on our sin and discovering any sin which we may have hidden away. This is the culmination of a bigger time of repentance which starts an entire month earlier. During the month of Elul (the month which comes directly before this seventh month (Tishri)) the tradition is to start the repenting of unconfessed sin. As stated previously, this all culminates in the final ten days leading up to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In the next post we’ll go more into this but, as Rosh HaShanah is a part of this overall time of repentance, I wanted to at least mention it here. It’s really difficult to separate these two Festivals but to try to not confuse too much I’m doing my best to give the basics here.

So why is Rosh HaShanah (and the 39 days surrounding it) considered a time of repentance? Because the tradition is that this is the time of Judgement. As this is the beginning of the civil year, this is the time that God looks upon His people and judges whether, or not, they should be put into the Book of Life. The Book of Life isn’t a concept which began with Christianity. The book of Revelation has many elusions to the Book of Life but there are quite a few references in the Old Testament as well. Let’s look at just a few.

-          Exodus 32:31-33: Moses acknowledges the grave sin the people have made against God but Moses asks God to forgive their sin or to blot out Moses from His book as well. The LORD responded by saying, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blog him out of My book.” So God definitely has a book that has in it the names of those who are not sinning against Him.

-          Another way that this concept is referenced in the Bible is to mention those who are found among the living. In Isaiah 4:3 we read, “And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy – everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.” If we read the verse before (Isaiah 4:2) we see that “the Branch of the LORD” is in view. This is reference to when the Messiah comes and rules on this earth. If you read Is 4:3 with your eyes toward the New Testament you might notice the similarity in a phrase here to what is considered one of the most clear ‘rapture’ passages (also referenced earlier in conjunction with this Holy Day). We have to remember that Paul was schooled in the Old Testament. In order to learn from the teacher he was learning under he would’ve had to memorize the entire Old Testament. So, when he says in 1 Thes 4:17, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together…” we should be able to see that he was referencing what is written in Isaiah when it says, “he who is left in Zion and remains…”.

-          In Psalm 69:28 we read, “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living.” It should be noted not only that this is a reference to the Book of Life, but that this is something that you can be blotted out of. I’ll leave it to you to decide what this means but I will call back to something Paul wrote in Philippians 2:12 when he encouraged the Philippians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

-          In Daniel 12:1 we read about the angel Michael, who is the restraining force keeping at bay the evil forces which would come against, standing up and ceasing his restraining (2 Thes 2:6-7). We read that though there will be trouble like there has never been, “Every one who is found written in the book” will be delivered.

There are more references but I think we’ve shown that this isn’t really a New Testament concept, but a concept which the New Testament is calling back to. Rosh HaShanah is the day we celebrate the coronation of our King and Judge and we know that He will judge us righteously based on what we’ve done to the least of those on this earth. In fact, one of the other names Rosh HaShanah is known by is Yom HaDin (the Day of Judgement) because it is on that day that it will be judged whether you should be inscribed on the Book of Life. As Christians we know that the Judge of the Earth is Jesus our Messiah (Matt 25:31-46).

Rosh HaShanah is a very ‘Christian’ festival and I would argue that it should be celebrated by every follow of Jesus. I did my best to keep it holy this year and hopefully, if you didn’t, you’ll consider it next year. It really is all about our Messiah and King!

Next time we’ll be looking at what is considered the most holy day of the year, Yom Kippur. Hopefully I’ll have that one out before the actual day so you’ll have some information before we enter into that day. Remember, over the coming week to reflect each day on what sin might be in your life, and look for ways to turn away from that sin. These are part of the Days of Awe (we’ll go over that next time…) 😉

Shalom! And, blessings to all!

Posted below is a great teaching on all of this that I had referenced earlier:

The Forgotten Feasts: The Introduction

Many times Christianity has no real sense of itself. We’re so scared to be like the Sadducees and Pharisees our Lord and Savior clashed with that we’ve disowned our very heritage. We’ve thrown the proverbial baby out with the bath water. The only problem is that we are the baby in this scenario. We’re throwing ourselves out because we don’t understand what we are.

There’s an entire heritage which we’re only vaguely aware of. There’s a history of traditions which glorify our Creator and His Son. Today we’re going to go over one of these pieces of our history: The Feasts of the LORD.

We’ve just entered into the season of the Fall Feasts so now’s a good time to start looking at them. Actually, it probably would’ve been better to start looking at them a month ago so we could’ve drummed up more interest among ourselves but… I didn’t think of it then…

The truth is that most Christians have a vague idea about the Feasts, and they would tell you that they were important at the time of Jesus, but they have next to no concept of what these Feasts really are. Most Christians know that Jesus died on Passover, and they could tell you that Jesus’s death on Passover was a fulfillment of prophecy. And they could tell you that Passover was originally instituted because when Israel was in Egypt the LORD saved the Israelites by passing them over when the firstborn in Egypt were killed. Some Christians may even point out to you that while the firstborn of Egypt were killed it was the firstborn of God who was sacrificed in order to save the rest of us. But that’s really where the understanding of most would end.

And then there’s the other Feast that most Christians would’ve at least heard of, even if they’re not entirely certain what it is: Pentecost.

The average Christian would probably be able to tell you that Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit was given to the Church. Some would even say that Pentecost is the day that the Church was born, and that before that day it was a mystery never before revealed. When you look into what Pentecost is (and was from the time it was first instituted by the LORD) that description shows a poor understanding of who God is and what the Church is. But, for right now, that’s beside the point. Pentecost is one of the Feasts of the LORD, even if it’s called something different (Shavuot).

Then there are those Christians who would be able to tell you that the life and ministry of our Messiah was a fulfillment of the Spring Feasts. Some of them may even be able to tell you that these Spring Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost) each were fulfilled by Jesus. Jesus died as our Passover; He was placed into the grave on Unleavened Bread; He was resurrected on First Fruits as the first fruit of the coming harvest; And He gave us His Holy Spirit which would bring to remembrance the Torah of the LORD on the celebration of the day that God gave His Torah all those years ago on Mount Sinai.

And these things said about the Spring Feasts are all true, even if there’s SOOO much more to them than that. If you have that understanding of the Spring Feasts, you’re in a good place to move forward. But how many of us know that much about the Fall Feasts? If the Spring Feasts were all significant in the first coming of our Messiah, should we not also assume that the Fall Feasts might be important as well? And, since these are the ones that we’re actually supposed to be looking forward to the fulfillment of, shouldn’t we want to know as much as possible about them? Shouldn’t we have a passion in our bellies to know what they are? If every little thing about the Spring Feasts is symbolic about something that Jesus did for us, what is it that the Fall Feasts are going to tell us about Him?

Quick, name the three Fall Feasts…

I want to give most Christians the benefit of the doubt on this one so I’m going to say that you probably got two out of three. I’m sure that there are some of you that got all three and if I had the ability to give you a cookie, I would definitely do that. Actually, since you’re reading this on the internet, you’ve already gotten a cookie from visiting this website. Well done! Until I started looking more into all of this stuff, I could’ve told you that Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur were two of the feasts (not because I really knew it but because I remember seeing them on the calendar…) and I probably would’ve said that the third was Hanukah. If you actually look into the origins of Hanukah then you realize that this guess isn’t too far off, but it’s still not an actual Feast of the LORD. The funny thing about the missing Feast is that it’s the only one which the common name (Passover instead of Pesach, Pentecost instead of Shavuot…) for actually has the word ‘feast’ in it. Sukkot is this final Feast but it’s better known as the Feast of Tabernacles.

Over the next few days we’re going to take a look at these Fall Feasts and see what we can glean about what are Messiah will be doing next. We’ll check out some of the fun traditions that we could all try to add into our lives to get a better understanding of our Father in Heaven.

The Psalms 6: O LORD, Deliver My Life

We started out with gusto but we’ve kind of settled into at least one post per week. In keeping with that tradition, let’s get into the sixth of the psalms.

O Yahweh, do not rebuke me in your anger, and do not discipline me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, because I am feeble. Heal me, O Yahweh, for my bones are terrified. My soul is also very terrified. But you, O Yahweh, how long? Turn, O Yahweh; deliver my life. Save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For there is no remembrance of you in death. In Sheol, who will give thanks to you? I am weary with my groaning; I flood my bed every night. With my tears I drench my couch. My eye wastes away because of vexation; it grows old because of all my oppressors. Depart from me, all workers of evil, for Yahweh has heard the sound of my weeping. Yahweh has heard my plea; Yahweh has accepted my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and shall be very terrified. They shall turn back; they shall suddenly be ashamed. (LEB)

Now let’s take a closer look…

To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. On an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
1 O Yahweh, do not rebuke me in your anger, and do not discipline me in your wrath.

I’m not perfect. Not even close. I don’t revel in my sin, but I know that it’s there, waiting to break free if/when I slip out of walking in the Spirit. I’m not proud of my sin but to deny its existence would be to accept it. And the last thing we want to do is accept sin in our lives. When we accept the gracious gift our Father has given us, through His Son’s sacrifice, the natural response should be one of love and obedience. This verse shows the mind of a man that who loves the righteousness of his Father in heaven and seeks to please Him with all of his actions. We all know that David messed up from time to time, and some of the time it was some real doozies. But his heart was bent on getting back to the righteousness of the Father.

David is calling out for mercy. Mercy that he knows that he doesn’t deserve, but his God is a loving God who doesn’t need to discipline if He knows that the lesson is already learned.

2 Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, because I am feeble. Heal me, O Yahweh, for my bones are terrified.

In modern Christianity we have this belief that God didn’t really show grace until Jesus died on the cross. David, here, is asking for God to show that grace. God has been a God of grace since the beginning. In fact, as early as Genesis 6:8 we’re told that Noah found grace with God. Many of the more recent translations have chosen to translate the word here translated as ‘grace’ as ‘favor’, but its meaning remains the same. We’re often told that God didn’t reveal His grace until Jesus, but grace is all through the Old Testament. The word which the KJV translated as ‘grace’ is the Hebrew word ‘chen’ (H2580) and that word shows up 69 times in the OT, and 14 of those times are in Genesis, the book which deals with the earliest subject matter! This topic is a lot bigger than the scope of this writing and if people want to go into this topic then maybe we’ll do something more later, but for now, the point is that God has been gracious from the beginning as part of His nature and David was calling on this part of His nature.

3 My soul is also very terrified. But you, O Yahweh, how long?
4 Turn, O Yahweh; deliver my life. Save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

We all have times that we feel like the world is closing in on us. Where it feels like there’s no hope in going on. In those times it can sometimes feel like God is taking forever to turn the tide. Sometimes the tide will turn, and sometimes we will turn, but Yahweh will eventually bring us through and deliver us. But don’t be ashamed of asking “how long?”. You’re not the first and you won’t be the last. David, here, is questioning how long. Just know that there’s a reason for the restraint. Be thankful for that restraint because sometimes there’s someone else crying out “how long?” and you’re on the other end of that one, even if you don’t see it.

5 For there is no remembrance of you in death. In Sheol, who will give thanks to you?

Many have said that hell is the absence of God, but maybe death in general is the absence of God. We were made at creation to exist with God. His presence, and don’t ask me the specifics of it all, feeds our existence. In death, before the resurrection, there is no ability to give thanks to God because there is no remembrance of Him. This topic stretches my head when I sit down and really try to think about it. What is death? What happens when we die? It’s not really as simple as I was brought up thinking. Do we go to heaven when we die? Do we go to Sheol and wait for the resurrection? What does the Bible say about it all? There’s a fun study for you!

6 I am weary with my groaning; I flood my bed every night. With my tears I drench my couch.
7 My eye wastes away because of vexation; it grows old because of all my oppressors.

Most of us have been here. Most of us have cried ourselves to sleep. Have you ever been so worn out by all that’s going on around you that you have felt like this? You’re not alone.

8 Depart from me, all workers of evil, for Yahweh has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 Yahweh has heard my plea; Yahweh has accepted my prayer.

But here’s the turn; the place that many of us (at least myself) don’t usually get to. Oftentimes when I get so depressed that I cry myself to sleep I don’t get to the place that where I find assurance that everyone who’s struggling against me better flee because my Heavenly Father has my back. I mean, He does, but it’s sometimes hard to break out of the spiraling depression. This is where David has me beat. He can call upon his depression and still take his next step into the hands of the Father.

10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and shall be very terrified. They shall turn back; they shall suddenly be ashamed.

And just like that, the depression is gone! We’ve now done a complete 180. How many of us have faith like this? How many of us are willing to not focus on the negative? It seems ridiculous, if you look at it from afar, to focus on the negative and not want to think about the positive, but how many of us don’t allow ourselves the opportunity to focus on the positive? I know that I can have trouble with this. We say that we give it all to God, but do we really? Do I really? This is something that I know that I need to work on. I talk a big game sometimes, but do I back it up? I like to think that I do most of the time but I’m not always there. It’s hard to give up control. It’s hard to – dare I say it – place your faith in someone that’s not yourself.

There it is. This is all about the actual faith we have in the LORD. We talk about “our faith” but how much faith do we actually have? How much do we let our faith grow? I’ll leave you with that thought. As you go about your day, let yourself question how your faith is really working in your life.

Shalom!

The Psalms 5b: Lead Me In Your Righteousness

We’ve already done the first half of this psalm but I think it’s important for us to read through the whole thing again and get the flavor of the whole thing again.

O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield. (ESV)

This is a psalm of urgent prayer; a psalm reaching out for help; but also a psalm grasping at the holiness of God as a means of finding vindication and victory.

7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.

The last part of the first half of this psalm was spent considering the holiness of God, and the sanctity which the people gave the Temple. But how much do we know about the Temple? Try to place yourself back in the time when the House of God stood like skyscraper, rising above everything else in Jerusalem. It rose 150 feet into the air. The complex was so huge that it could’ve fit almost 6 football fields inside of it. And this is good, because during festival times there would’ve been millions of Jews in Jerusalem, with 300,000 to 400,000 on the Temple complex at the same time. This thing was huge. It was one of the most impressive things man has ever built. And that wasn’t even the most impressive part of it!

Deep in the heart of the Temple was the Kadesh HaKadashim. The Holy of Holies. This truly is the heart of the entire Temple. This was the entire reason the Temple was even built. While the Temple is considered the house of the Most High, this is where He actually dwells. The Temple was built so that God could have a place on the earth to put His feet up. The Temple is the actual dwelling place of God! So all of the beauty and splendor of the Temple complex (and it was beautiful) was like filthy rags (Is 64:6) compared the intense beauty of our God and our King.

8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

When we think about how holy our God is, how could we not want to be led into His righteousness? It could be so tempting to just skirt by and glory in the grace which we are freely given. To be sure, there’s nothing we can do to earn the salvation which we have been given. We are a chosen people. He chose us. Out of all the people in the world, you were a chosen by the King of the Universe. Elected.

Sometimes we as Christians view this as a wholly Christian concept but, historically, the Israelites always viewed God and their election the same way. They had their salvation because God chose them among all peoples. Though it’s easy to think that they followed the Torah in order to attain salvation this concept wasn’t introduced until around the time of Martin Luther. The Israelites followed the Torah because they loved their God – even if they sometimes forgot this – and it was what He asked them to do. Obedience is the sincerest form of love. So when Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments, (John 14:15)” this wasn’t an unheard of concept. John echoes these sentiments when he writes, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (1 John 5:3)”. For those who are married or in a functioning relationship, would it be showing love to know what your significant other likes and then to just do whatever you want without caring about their likes because you know that they already love you and that they’re already yours? The obvious answer is ‘no’. If you truly love them, you go out of your way to do the things they like. Should we expect it to be any different when we talk about our love for our God who brought us in to His family?

So David, in this verse, is asking the Father to lead him into His righteousness because he knows that God has only his best interest in mind. But it’s important to note that when he bows down before the Temple, before he does anything else, he seeks after the righteousness of God. Hmm… where else have I heard something like that? Oh yeah, Jesus told us the first thing we should always do when He said, “…seek first thing kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt 6:33).” So before we go to God, asking for Him to help us out, we should first seek righteousness. This isn’t a magic formula but it is being obedient.

If the last part of this verse sounds familiar it’s probably because it too is speaking of the repentance which brings righteousness. David crying out “make your way straight before me” is same thing John the Baptist was doing when he was making straight in the wilderness the paths of the LORD (John 1:23, Matt 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, Is 40:3). John was calling for the repentance of the people. Calling for them to turn from what they were doing and seek after the righteousness of the LORD. Then, when they were truly ready to seek the kingdom, they would be ready for the words of Messiah, which are living and breathing. In Colossians 3:16 we are urged to let the Word of Messiah dwell in us so that we can build one another up in His wisdom.

So let this be a reminder that the first thing we should do when we’re presented with a new situation is to seek the righteousness of God. Search out how this new thing is guided by the Kingdom of God and how God’s righteousness would react to it. That would be the advice of not only David, but also our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

This is a good reminder of what we find when we step outside of the righteousness of God. It’s wise to remember that we have a description elsewhere in the Bible which gives us a description of what satan is here to do in the world (steal, kill and destroy – John 10:10) so why would we think that those who serve his ends would be any different?

10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

How many of you can feel this one? A cry for justice in the midst of injustice. We’ve all had times where we felt that we were unfairly facing slander. When we look at this verse, though, we need to recognize that David is first seeking righteousness and he’s not asking for justice because his enemies have done anything to him, specifically. He’s crying out for justice because his enemies have rebelled against God.

11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield.

Still, at the end, we come back to the positive. We come back to the recollection of strength and protection. Notice that protection comes to those who celebrate the Name of the LORD. I’m not saying that God doesn’t protect those who don’t enjoy singing praise and worship songs, but it would appear that, if you truly enter into praise with the right heart, the LORD will extend His wings over you.

The key here is our pursuit of righteousness. We don’t attain any kind of eternal salvation by our pursuit of righteousness. If that’s why you’re pursuing righteousness you’re going about it for the wrong reasons. We pursue righteousness because we love our Father and it’s what He wants of us. We pursue righteousness because He gave His son for those who believe in Him. We pursue righteousness because love doesn’t care about puffing itself up; on the contrary, love shows obedience because an action may be sacrificing (1 Cor 13).

So seek the righteousness of the LORD because He has done so much for us, and His protection will follow. Even if that protection comes in a form you may not have expected.

This was a fun one. There’s a lot to look at here and to dig in deeper. I barely grazed the surface and it took two posts to get through 12 verses. The true fun is in finding out what else might be there. Seek it out yourself and see what treasures you can uncover!

Shalom!

The Psalms 5a: Lead Me In Your Righteousness

Oh man, we’re back to doing another psalm that has more than 8 verses. I know what you’re thinking…

How long is it gonna take to get through these 12 verses…  We’re going to try to not get too bogged down, but we’ll go where it looks like we should go. In any case, let’s get started and just read through the whole psalm once, and then we’ll dig in!

O LORD, Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me. There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You. But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield. (NASB)

The overall feel of the psalm is speaking of God’s detest of unrighteousness and the enemies of David speaking lies and all other sorts of unrighteousness. This is going to be a psalm to come back to, again and again, when people are coming against you. When people are disparaging you, or lying about you. This psalm will help you feel better about sticking to the truth, and about remaining strong in your convictions. But it should also keep you on the straight and narrow by showing you that, if you’re the one on the other side of the psalm, then you have the Creator of the universe lining up against you.

Let’s look a little bit closer…

To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.
1 Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning.

We start out, right off the bat, with grave words. This is going to be a bit of a lament. Is it just me that finds it a bit weird that this psalm was supposed to be sung with the instrumentation being flutes? When I think of flutes I think of happy music. Is it possible that David wanted to let us know that this was supposed to be accompanied by flutes so that, while we’re reading it, we’re not getting all depressed but are hearing a happy tune in our heads, even though the subject matter may be a bit of a lament?

2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

I think that it’s important to point out here that the dude who wrote this psalm was King David. It’s no small thing that he refers to God as his King. As is implied by the instructions before the psalm, this psalm was written for use in Temple ceremony and so this wasn’t just some private thing that David wrote in a notebook and then hid away so none of his friends in his high school class would see. He was king over all of Israel and he was stating publicly that he wasn’t the top rung of the ladder. In calling God his King he was doing the same thing that Jesus did.

Though in our heads we have the tendency to solely view Jesus as a part of the Godhead, His time on this earth where He became our Messiah was spent pointing toward the Father. In John 5:19 we see Jesus say, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” In John 6:38 we read Jesus’s words where He said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” There are numerous other occasions where Jesus tells us that all of His words are meant to point directly to the words of the Father. I say this not to diminish the deity of the Son (He did, afterall, claim in Matthew 26:64 to be the cloud riding Son of Man referred to in Daniel 7:13) but to show that while Jesus was on the earth, showing us how to walk according to the word of God, he was always in submission to the rightful King of the Universe. This is a lesson that all of us (me as much as anyone else) could stand to learn. Always live in submission to the Creator of the universe.

3 O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

Living in todays society we may not really get the full context of this line. People used to interact with God in a totally different way. We have to remember that at this time there was central hub for those worshipping God. Many today would still say that Jerusalem is the seat of the Judeo-Christian religions, but this meant a totally different thing at the time. There was not only a Temple (or, a tabernacle, throughout the life of David), sanctioned by God Himself, but God also physically resided inside the Temple/Tabernacle at the time this psalm was written. Can you even imagine what that would be like?

The closest we could come to understanding this is our understanding that we’re the Temple and the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. But that, to most people, doesn’t mean all that much. At the time of David (and for a thousand years after) there were specific rites and rituals which were in place solely to express the holiness of God and the place which He resides. And if we’re talking about the actual Temple Mount, there were purification actions each person needed to take in order to even come within 500 feet. God is so holy that if you got too close to him while you were in a state of ritual uncleanness (note: this does not necessarily mean ‘sin’, just that you may have had a nocturnal emission the night before, even) you were not allowed within so many feet of Him. Today, we treat grace like it’s a something to be tossed around and we don’t even realize how unclean we really are. All the while we claim to be Temple. It should bring us to tears, the way we think of the house of the Living God. If we truly think of ourselves as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, why do we treat it like a dump?

OK, that was a bit of a rabbit trail…

The point I wanted to make was that there were different things that worshipers did at different times of the day. It was customary to pray at different times, among many other things. This isn’t the only time in the Bible that we read about prayers at different times, either. In fact, I believe that Daniel got in a little bit of trouble because of this whole thing… (Daniel 6). Most of our prayer lives leave a bit to be desired. I’m speaking of myself more than anyone else. But most of us would also say that we pray when the Spirit leads us to pray. I feel like if this were a true statement, though, we’d be praying a lot more than we do…

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

Are you starting to get just how holy God is? Evil may not dwell with Him. The boastful can’t stand before Him. He destroys those who speak lies. 

I want to go into something here which may be a bit controversial. We are often told that God hates the sin but not the sinner. In verse five we read that God hates the evildoers. Yes, He hates the evil but He also hates the evildoers. If that comes as a shock to you, it happens a couple other times throughout the Bible (Psalms 11:5, Proverbs 6:16-19 are just a couple times that the Bible says that God hates actual people, and not just the sin).

Alright, we’re now half way through this fifth psalm and I think we’re at a good stopping point. When we pick up next time we’ll have the opportunity look a little bit more closely at the holiness of Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple of our God. Until then I pray that everyone has a blessed day and that you all stay safe from whatever awaits you outside your doors!

Shalom!

Not Just a Cup of Coffee

I was drinking my coffee this morning and something struck me. I have this coffee cup that I went out of my way to purchase. I bought it because I like the graphic that was on it. But there’s one thing that always bothered me about this coffee cup; as a right-handed person, the graphic is always facing away from when I pick up the coffee to take a sip.

I mean, I bought the cup because I liked the graphic on it so why in the world would it be facing away from me? It seemed counterintuitive. The only reasonable explanation would be that it was made for left-handed people. I suppose I could pick the coffee mug up with my left hand. But that just feels awkward. Why would somebody make a coffee mug only left handed people. No offense to you lefties but you’re only 10% of the population. That just seems like a poor business model.

But then the realization hit. Maybe I was looking at it all wrong. Maybe it was supposed to be on the outside. Maybe that graphic should be viewed as an advertisement to those around me. Maybe it doesn’t matter what I see on it and I should be more concerned with what others see me holding.

At least for me, this is often how I walk through life. I can’t speak to what it was like hundreds of years ago but the culture around us is so focused on building up yourself that it’s sometimes difficult to not automatically think about how this effects ME. When you dig a little deeper there is some effort to get away from this in the business world. Healthy businesses are usually focused on how things effect the brand, and not the individual, but we still need to constantly remind ourselves that we’re not doing even that because we work for the brand and if the brand looks bad then we look bad and if the brand suffers then we suffer.

This whole situation reminds me of the struggle that I often have in my spiritual development. I want to learn more and more about the things of God, and I want to devour every piece of truth I come across. I want to discipline myself to act in a way that is pleasing to the Father. I want to perfect my words and my deeds so that I’m living in a way that best models Jesus.

But…

If I do all of that because I want to make myself better, and not because there are hurting people around me who I could be helping, then all of that knowledge, all of that existential stuff, is completely pointless.

In Matthew 5:14 Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world and that nobody lights a lamp just to hide it and not let it shine out into the darkness. What good is being the light, if we hide it from those who need it most? If you fill yourself with all the head knowledge, but you don’t put it into practice, what does it matter. 1 Corinthians 13 speaks to this when it talks about having all kinds of different things – even spiritual gifts – but not have love. And it’s like you have nothing.

So often we do things, even things that we try to convince ourselves and others are for good, for the wrong reasons. This isn’t to say that there aren’t people out there doing things for the right reasons, I just know that I, myself, have to constantly check myself and look at my true motivations for doing things.

If we read a couple verses further in Matthew 5 (verse 16) we see the true reason we’re doing our good works. It has nothing to do with us as individuals. It has nothing to do with learning all the head knowledge we can learn. We are to let our lights shine out to those around us so that our works will show the love and true nature of the Father. Just as Jesus was acting as God would act so that we could have an example of how to act, we are to act as Jesus would act as He is our perfect example. Jesus said to Philip in John 14:9 that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father. While we are not God (or gods, even) and we may struggle from time to time, our goal should be to mirror the acts of our Messiah. How often can you say to someone, “if you’ve been paying attention to what I’ve been doing, you’ve seen the Father acting through me.”

After having said that I feel that I need to reiterate that I’m not saying that we are supposed to become God, or gods. But we are supposed to act after the example of Jesus, who is the light of the world (John 8:12). And we also are supposed to be a light to the world, if not the light, as the verse says. So we are supposed to be Jesus to the world, just as Jesus was showing the Father through His actions.

It’s a big ask, and I fail at it way more than I should, but my goal is to keep trying. My goal is to never injure God’s ‘brand’. And when I do injure God’s brand, I’m happy that He doesn’t fire me. But I shouldn’t be ok with injuring God’s brand just because I know that He won’t fire me. If anything, I should want to represent His brand even better because I know that sometimes I deserved to be fired, and He showed me mercy and grace.

So what about that coffee cup? Maybe I should be fine with letting those around me see that graphic I was so happy about. Maybe from now on I’ll think more about what I’m showing than what I’m seeing. And, in doing so, maybe I can be a good advertisement for what the Father represents.

The Psalms 4: Answer Me When I Call

This is two psalms in a row that David can come off as a bit bipolar. But that’s one of the reasons we love him so much. We’re looking at him from the outside and we’re seeing a real person. A person who has doubts and fears and hopes and dreams. It's always reassuring to see that we're not alone. Let's get started with this fourth psalm!

¹ Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have relieved me in my distress;
Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

Right from the first line we see something that is SOOO important. David refers to God as “God of my righteousness”. Whatever righteousness David has, he ascribes it all to God. There is nothing of his own making which is righteous. All of his righteousness, every little bit of it, comes from his relationship with the King of the universe.

² How long, O you sons of men,
Will you turn my glory to shame?
How long will you love worthlessness
And seek falsehood?       Selah

One thing that you might look over at first is how David identifies himself. He’s setting himself up in opposition to those who love worthlessness and seek falsehood, and what does he call them? Sons of men. So while he’s never called a son of God, the juxtaposition seems to indicate that he at least thinks of himself that way. Not in the Genesis 6 “sons of God” kind of way, but at least in that he has chosen who he will be identified with and he is a child of the living God.

³ But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly;
The Lord will hear when I call to Him.

It’s our duty to seek godliness. I know that there’s that old saying that cleanliness is next to godliness, but that’s nowhere in the Bible. Godliness is doing whatever you can to follow the instructions of God. It sure doesn’t seem that David is setting up the LORD’s Torah as something which can’t be done. He defies those who would work against the instructions of the Father, and because of this the Lord will hear him when he calls out to Him.

⁴ Be angry, and do not sin.
Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah
⁵ Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And put your trust in the Lord.

This may be a good time to define sin. What exactly is sin? Growing up the answer I was always given was, “missing the mark”. This is actually a pretty good definition. If you look it up on Strong’s (or any other Hebrew lexicon) you’re going to find the primary definition of the Hebrew word in question (H2398 – חטא) to be “to miss”. But that begs the question, if sin is missing the mark, what is hitting the mark? Is it just some subjective goal which every person gets to come to terms with on their own? What is ‘the mark’. People who focus on prophecy have spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what “the mark of the beast” is going to be but how many of them have spent time trying to figure out the mark which we’re actually supposed to have? There’s got to be a better definition for sin somewhere, right?

I’m glad you asked, because there’s an incredibly simple, straightforward definition for what sin is and it's given in the New Testament. It’s been hidden there all along. In 1 John 3:4 the apostle who Jesus loved spells it out in language which no one could confuse, “sin is the transgression of the law.” Here’s an exercise for you: when you see the word “sin” anywhere in the Bible, replace it with “transgress the law”. Things come into focus and the subjective confusion over what sin is fades away when you do this.

Let’s move on to more from this Psalm before I run down this trail too far and turn this whole post into something that has nothing to do with Psalm 4. We’ll dig more into this whole “law” thing later as everywhere I turn in this psalm seems to be running down this path. Looks like it’s time to do some exploration…

⁶ There are many who say,
“Who will show us any good?”
Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.

Let’s dig in to the word “countenance” a little bit. The word used here actually means “face”. So what we’re really reading here is “Lord, lift up the light of Your face upon us.” This should bring to mind the Aaronic Blessing from Numbers 6:24-26: “Yahweh will bless you, and keep you. Yahweh make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up His face toward you, and give you peace.” Then in Exodus 34 we have the account of Moses’ face shining so brightly that the Israelites wouldn’t look at him, because he had been in the presence of the LORD. One last example would be on the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus face “shone like the sun” (Matt 17). In these examples, the faces which were shining were so close to the Father that His 'countenance' shined on them and part of His glory was transferred to them. This is what David was asking for in this verse.

⁷ You have put gladness in my heart,
More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.

Always remember where your joy comes from. Remember that the joy of the LORD is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). It’s when we forget this that we start thinking that we can do it on our own. Maybe some people can but I’ve tried and I’m not pulling anything off all on my own.

And, moreover, David’s gladness, even in times of trouble, is more than that of his enemies when they are in times of plenty. This reminds me of Psalm 84 where we read that one day in the court of the LORD is better than a thousand days anywhere else. Think about that for a minute. I’ve written of this before but I think it bears repeating. How highly do you have to think of God to say this. Many times we say things like this, but do we really think it? Do we really mean it?

⁸ I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

This is how you get rest. This is how you find peace. This is how you see safety. When you follow after the LORD you can find these things even when the world would be restless and hectic. In fact, as verse 7 indicates, the one who follows after the ways of the LORD will be more at peace than those in the world who are seeking after their own ends, even when the ones seeking after their own ends are receiving worldly accolades.


Until next time, shalom!

The Psalms 3: Save me, O My God

Sometimes, even when you are doing your best to live your life resting in the joy of the LORD, it feels like every step you take is aimed right at a landmine. Every time you make a move Murphy’s Law takes over and you’ve undone all the good you’ve done in the past three weeks. And it feels like you have so many people who are out to get you that even when someone is trying to help you, it feels like they’re trying to bring you down.

If you’ve ever felt like that (and I know you have), you’re not alone. David wasn’t perfect but for someone who was publicly chosen by God, that dude sure had to deal with more time running and hiding than anyone else, ever. But, through all that, David never doubted God, and he never let himself lose his love for the Word of the LORD.

Let’s look at this third psalm in a little different way than we did the first two; Let’s look at it and watch as David allows himself to go to the Father with his griefs, concerns and praises. Let’s put ourselves in David’s shoes and let’s see if there’s something we can learn from this man after God’s own heart. We’ll use the New Living Translation because of fluidity of language.

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
1 O Lord, I have so many enemies;

so many are against me.

There are times that it feels like everyone is out to get you. When you have no one to trust, and when you find someone you think you can trust they turn on you in ways you never could’ve seen coming.

2 So many are saying,

“God will never rescue him!”

Selah

Has it ever gotten so bad that those around you don’t even believe that God can help you? Or, that it at least looks like He’s not going to help you because you must’ve brought it on yourself for it to have gotten as bad as it has?

We’ve all been there, but no one likes to remember those times. Not because we don’t want to be of help to those who are struggling and could use our experienced advice, but because we just don’t want to remember those times.

3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;

you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.

This is the first time we get to look at David and see something bigger than what we would usually see from those around us or ourselves. When the bullets start flying, sometimes we stay the course, but a lot of the times we get all in-the-flesh. A lot of times we shake our fist in the general direction of whoever we view as coming against us. And sometimes we shake our fists at God. But not David.

4 I cried out to the Lord,

and he answered me from his holy mountain.

Selah

This is something most of us can associate with. Well, at least the first part is. I can’t begin to tell you just how many times, when things have gotten really bad, I literally cried out to the LORD. I won’t say that He never answered me. I definitely feel that I’ve gotten some answers/solace from the Father. But… I wish I could say that this is how I react every time, or even more often than not.

5 I lay down and slept,

yet I woke up in safety,

for the Lord was watching over me.

Ahhh… that feeling of peace! That gift we are given at the most unexpected time. At the last time you think it’s coming, Abba Father answers your cries. You get that rest you were sure you would never see again. And you wake up and you know that a tide has turned.

6 I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies

who surround me on every side.

These are the words of a man who has more than blind faith. This man KNOWS! Just at the beginning of this psalm (for real, it was only like 5 or 6 verses ago…) David was lamenting his lot. Don’t ever let anyone make fun of you for flip-flopping, just make sure you turn it around as quick as David. This is a huge message for me. Don’t dwell on the obstacles put in your way; keep your eyes on the finish line and the one who has your back.

7 Arise, O Lord!

Rescue me, my God!

Slap all my enemies in the face!

Shatter the teeth of the wicked!

OK, so now you get a more clear picture of what’s going on. David isn’t denying the reality of what’s going on around him. And he isn’t saying that he’s out of the woods. He just knows that his Father in heaven is the one who made the woods he’s in so what can his enemies really do to him. After all, God always has homefield advantage!

8 Victory comes from you, O Lord.

May you bless your people.

Selah

Don’t ever forget where your victory comes from. Don’t ever forget where your wealth comes from. We can try to out think and out work those around us, but I can tell you this much, if I have all the time in the world to make my plans and I don’t let God in on it, I’m gonna fail every time.

Like I said at the beginning, this one was a little different than the first few. Sometimes you gotta switch it up and be a little less predictable. That’ what I hear, at least…

In any case, I hope that you enjoyed this one. I hope that you found this reassuring, or maybe troubling. Really, I just hope that it strummed the heart string that the Lord wanted strummed.

Shalom!