The Paternity Debate
John 8:31-47
The Paternity Debate
John 8:31-47
Main Idea: The children of God abide in the word of God because the Son of God has set them free.
I. Depart or Abide (8:31-32)
"It is probably significant that Jesus does not say "you will be," but "you are" disciples. He is not laying down a condition of discipleship, but telling them in what discipleship consists. When a man abides in Christ's word, then he is a true disciple."
~ Leon Morris, NICNT Commentary (John)
II. Slave or Free (8:33-36)
"At times a man's slave, worn out by the commands of an unfeeling master, finds rest in flight. Whither can the servant of sin flee? Himself he carries with him wherever he flees. An evil conscience flees not from itself; it has no place to go to; it follows itself. Yea, he cannot withdraw from himself, for the sin he commits is within. He has committed sin to obtain some bodily pleasure. The pleasure passes away; the sin remains. What delighted is gone; the sting has remained behind. Evil bondage!”
~ Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John
III. The Lovely Lord (8:29-30
“They voluntarily choose to do His will. "To do" is continuous and points to an attitude. Their difficulty was not primarily intellectual, but spiritual."
~ Leon Morris,“NICNT Commentary (John)”
1 Corinthians 2:11-14: For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
“One’s heart goes out to the children of such fathers, and those of us who are fathers ourselves know that we too are far from perfect. But God the Father is not called Father because he copies earthly fathers. He is not some pumped-up version of your dad. To transfer the failings of earthly fathers to him is, quite simply, a misstep. Instead, things are the other way around: it is that all human fathers are supposed to reflect him — only where some do that well, others do a better job of reflecting the devil.”
~ Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity
The Testimony of Jesus
John 8:12-30
The Testimony of Jesus
John 8:12-30
Main Idea: Jesus declares His identity and intends for us to believe in and follow Him.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Who does Jesus Christ declare Himself to be, and what are the implications He intends for me?
I. Liar or Light? (8:12-20)
“At the close of the first Festival-day of the Feast they went down to the Court of the Women where they had made a great amendment. There were golden candlesticks there with four golden bowls on the top of them and four ladders to each candlestick, and four youths of the priestly stock and in their hands jars of oil holding a hundred and twenty logs which they poured into all the bowls. They made wicks from the worn out drawers and girdles of the priests and with them they set the candlesticks alight, and there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that did not reflect the light of the Beth ha-She’ubah.”
~ Colin Kruse, TNTC John Commentary
“Light, it seems to me, is like time: I know what it is until someone asks me, at which point I have absolutely no idea.”
~ Andrew Wilson, God of All Things
“Darkness, by contrast, has no existence of its own. It is not a thing; it is the absence of a thing, which instantly vanishes on the arrival of light. Consider the darkest place you can imagine: in a cave several hundred feet underground, inside a chest of drawers, at the far end of a black slipper. Now imagine introducing the faintest possible light source: a glowworm, an ember, the screen of an old mobile phone. Which wins, the darkness or the light? To ask the question is to answer it. The deepest darkness is powerless against even the faintest light.”
~ Andrew Wilson, God of All Things
Who does Jesus Christ declare Himself to be, and what are the implications He intends for me? (Repeated before each point)
II. Lunatic or Lifted? (8:21-28)
“When Jesus refers to himself as “I am” without a predicate, he connects his personal identity with the covenantal identity of Yahweh. In Exodus 3, God identifies himself to Moses as the “I am,” which becomes the unique and personal name for God in his covenant with Israel and with David. And in Isaiah 40-48, the prophet uses God’s Covenantal name to make the point that, as the one true and living God, Yahweh is unique and incomparable by nature. The “I am” is in a category by himself as the eternally self-existent being who alone is sovereign, omniscient, and omnipotent in contrast to the idols and false gods. The Old Testament reserves “I am” for Yahweh; by definition, this name cannot apply to any mere man.”
~ Stephen Wellum, God The Son Incarnate
Who does Jesus Christ declare Himself to be, and what are the implications He intends for me?
III. The Lovely Lord (8:29-30)
The identity of the Son in relation to the Father:
Light of the World: Isa 49:6
Judge: John 8:16
Testimony: John 8:18
Mission: John 8:18
Identity: John 8:19
Home: John 8:23
Message: John 8:26
Son of Man: Daniel 7:13-14
Proximity: John 8:29
John 20:21: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
John 20:30-31: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Who does Jesus Christ declare Himself to be, and what are the implications He intends for me?
Streams of Living Water
John 7:25-52
Streams of Living Water
John 7:25-52
Main Idea: As the one sent from and returning to heaven, Jesus offers us the Spirit of life.
I. Where He Comes From (7:25-31; 40-52)
The crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths begin to speculate: “Do the authorities know that Jesus is the Christ?” (7:26). However, they doubt Jesus’ qualifications on two levels:
The messianic tradition and literature of the day expected a “sudden” and unexpected appearance of the Christ (7:27; cf. Mal 3:1)
Jesus was known to be from Nazareth and Galilee, rather than Bethlehem and the house of David (7:41-42; cf. Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:1)After the seeming disappointment of the crowds leaving Jesus just a few months earlier (cf. 6:66), Jesus’ brothers (cf. 2:12; Matt. 13:55) see an opportunity for him to showcase his miracles and works out in the “open” and to the “world” as the crowds make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, this suggestion was from a place of “unbelief,” desiring worldly glory through worldly means (cf. 6:14-15, 26).
While the crowds argue about his earthly birthplace, Jesus challenges their understanding by asserting his true origins go back much further than his hometown. John 1:18:“No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Those who do not know and recognize Jesus do not truly know God the Father who has sent him (cf. 8:19; Matt. 11:27).
Despite the mounting opposition and an arrest warrant out for Jesus (7:32), “no one laid hands on him” (7:30a). John tells us a few reasons why:
The guards are struck by the wisdom and authority of Christ: “No one ever spoke like this man!” (7:46)
The Pharisees arrogance and pride (7:47-52) that blinded them to reality or an honest investigation (cf. 1 Cor. 2:6-10)
In God’s sovereignty, Jesus’ “hour had not yet come” (7:30b)
“We find here a striking example of the restraining hand of God upon His enemies. Their purpose was to apprehend Christ. They sought to take Him, yet not a hand was laid upon Him! They thirsted for His blood and were determined to kill Him; yet by an invisible restraint from above, they were powerless to do so. How blessed, then, to know that everything is under the immediate control of God. They could no more arrest Christ than they could stop the sun from shining… Until God’s foreordained hour struck, and the incarnate Son bowed to the Father’s good pleasure, he was immortal.”
~ A.W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John
II. Where He Is Going (7:32-36)
While the ‘muttering’ continues around Jesus, he intrigues the crowds further by speaking not only of his divine origins, but also his heavenly destination in his “ascension.” Like so many others in John’s gospel, the crowds interpret Jesus’ words in strictly “earthly” ways (cf. 2:19-20; 3:3-4; 4:10-11; 5:6-7; 6:51-52).
There is a deep irony in their misunderstanding; while Jesus was not speaking of going to the Dispersion and preaching to the Greeks, this is precisely what happens after his ascension into heaven, as the gospel goes forth “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) through the power of the Holy Spirit.
John 16:7: I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
III. What He Offers (7:37-39)
As part of the Feast of Booths, the Jews observed a special “water-pouring ritual” that remembered God’s faithfulness to them in the wilderness, petitioned the God of the Harvest for abundant rains, and created expectation for the coming Messianic age (cf. Isa. 12:3), including the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (cf. Joel 2:28-29).
At the climactic moment of the feast (the “last” and “great day”), Jesus cries out: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (7:37b-38). Jesus presents himself as the fulfillment of what the water festival depicted, that we might believe and be saved and satisfied (20:30-31; cf. 4:13-14).
This ‘living water’ is the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is poured out on all of God’s people after the crucifixion (“glorification”) and ascension of Jesus (cf. Acts 2). The Holy Spirit and water are often connected throughout the OT (Isa. 44:3; Jer. 2:13; Zech. 13:1).
1 Corinthians 10:1–4: For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
“Moses struck the rock and water flowed to quench the people’s thirst. At the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus offers living water to those who come to him. Jesus is the Rock. Jesus will be struck. Water will flow from Jesus, and Jesus will give the Holy Spirit to sustain his people on their journey to the Promised Land.”
~ Jim Hamilton, ESV Expository Commentary
Just as the Lord provided water from the rock that was struck (cf. Ex. 17) in the wilderness for a grumbling, unworthy people, so too will Jesus be struck and then provide “rivers of living water” for unworthy people. If we want to satisfy our spiritual thirst with this living water, we must “drink” and "believe" in Christ. He will cause the life-giving Holy Spirit to well up inside of us and overflow to the world around us.
Revelation 22:17: The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
Craving for Glory
John 7:1-24
Craving for Glory
John 7:1-24
Main Idea: We must seek God’s glory rather than worldly glory if we are to believe in Jesus and trust his word.
I. Worldly Glory (7:1-13)
As the popular “Feast of Booths” (or “Tabernacles” - Deut. 16:13-15) begins in Jerusalem, the controversies and opposition surrounding Jesus have only continued to intensify. Public opinion was divided about Christ, with ‘muttering’ or ‘grumbling’ (7:12) among the crowds, and the “Jews” (religious leaders) were seeking to kill him (7:1; cf. 5:18).
After the seeming disappointment of the crowds leaving Jesus just a few months earlier (cf. 6:66), Jesus’ brothers (cf. 2:12; Matt. 13:55) see an opportunity for him to showcase his miracles and works out in the “open” and to the “world” as the crowds make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, this suggestion was from a place of “unbelief,” desiring worldly glory through worldly means (cf. 6:14-15, 26).
John 2:23–25: Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
Jesus rejects their suggestion for two reasons:
1. They are operating consistent with the “world” (cf. 1:10-11; 3:19).
1 John 2:15–16: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the word.
2. Jesus’ “time” has not yet come; his brothers want Christ to showcase his glory, but this will only come as Jesus is “lifted up” on the cross (cf. Jn. 12:23; 17:1).
Hebrews 2:9-10: But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
“God will make a way to renew his commendation over us, restore his image in us, and reclaim lost greatness for us. But our reaching for glory will not bring about this transformation. No, God will come to us, and it will be his work, not ours. It is reaching that robbed us of this glory in the first place. Grasping for glory is the one sure way to miss it.”
~ JR Vassar, Glory Hunger
II. God’s Glory (7:14-24)
After Jesus eventually travels privately to the feast (in his Father’s timing), he begins teaching at the temple. Those listening “marveled” at his undeniable authority and understanding, despite his lack of formal rabbinical training (cf. Matt. 7:28-29).
Jesus responds to their question by asserting:
His teaching is directly from his Heavenly Father (7:16)
Only those who sincerely will to do God’s will are able to understand (7:17)
Those concerned with their own glory will inevitably be led to falsehood (7:18)
John 5:44: How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
“Our natural love for human glory makes it impossible to know and follow a person whose whole life is bent on emptying himself in order to glorify his Father and save sinners. To know him for who he is, we must be changed, not just in our ideas, but in our wills. This is why the Gospel of John puts such a clear emphasis on the need to be born again. We need to will God-exaltation more than we will self-exaltation. We need to love making much of God more than we love people making much of us. Being opposed to this is the greatest obstacle to knowing Jesus.”
~ John Piper, “Willing God’s Will as a Way of Knowing Christ’s Word.”
Jesus returns to a debate surrounding Moses and the Torah (cf. 5:39ff) to establish God’s will, to expose the religious leaders’ disobedience of the “weightier matters” (cf. Mt. 23:23) of the Law, and prove they have superficial “judgment” (7:24). Jesus rightly challenges that if it is right to circumcise on the Sabbath, then it is even more fitting to heal a man’s whole body (5:16); rather than transgressing against the Law, Jesus is fulfilling what the Sabbath ultimately points to.
“Jesus shows us the way to life. His invitation is to lose our life- to renounce our obsessive concern with ourselves & make the glory of God our consuming desire… When we, like Jesus, love what is most lovely, and value supremely what is supremely valuable, and glorify most what is most glorious, we will begin to experience freedom from the crippling concern of glorifying ourselves… This is what Jesus came to do for us and in us. Jesus came to win glory for us, securing a verdict and a status over us with the Father that can satisfy our every pang of glory hunger. Having glory that comes from the ultimate person, we are set free from needing glory from anyone else. And once we know the glorious Father, Jesus works in us to want glory for the Father.”
~ JR Vassar, Glory Hunger
A Call to Worship
Psalm 89:1-14
A Call to Worship
Psalm 89:1-18
Main Idea: The Lord is worthy of our worship because of his steadfast love and covenant faithfulness.
I. Remembering God’s Faithfulness (89:1-4)
The Psalmist opens this song by praising the Lord for his “steadfast love” (hesed) and “faithfulness,” a pairing that shows up 7x throughout Psalm 89 (cf. Ex. 34:6). The Psalmist gives thanks that this love and faithfulness will last “forever” and to “all generations.”
All of Psalm 89 is a reflection on the Lord’s covenant promises to David, recorded in 2 Samuel 7. The promises of this covenant have an emphasis on:
God’s incarnational presence (2 Sam. 7:6): the Lord has always dwelt among his chosen people
God’s unrelenting grace (2 Sam. 7:11): God will build David a “house,” not the other way around
God’s enduring faithfulness (2 Sam. 7:13, 16): the throne of David will be established forever
In Christ, the throne of David has become the throne of Jesus (cf. Isa. 9:6-7); Luke 1:31-33: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
“Whatever we may experience, we ought still to praise God for his mercies, since they most certainly remain the same, whether we can perceive them or not. Sense sings but now and then, but faith is an eternal songster. Whether others sing or not, believers must never give over; in them should be constancy of praise, since God’s love to them cannot by any possibility have changed, however providence may seem to frown. We are not only to believe the Lord’s goodness, but to rejoice in it evermore; it is the source of all our joy; and as it cannot be dried up, so the stream ought never to fail to flow. It is [the Lord] who is the all-sufficient and immutable God; therefore, our rejoicing in him must never suffer lessening… Even time itself must not bound our praises—they must leap into eternity; he blesses us with eternal mercies—let us sing unto him forever.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
II. Beholding God’s Glory (89:5-14)
The Psalmist shifts his attention to the glory and majesty of the Lord in two broad realms:
1. His Heavenly Transcendence (89:5-8; cf. Ps. 29:1-2; 86:4)
The heavenly beings and council are summoned to give praise to the Lord, who is incomparable in majesty and unapproachable in glory, worthy of fearful, awe-filled worship.
“We must not think of God as highest in an ascending order of beings, starting with the single cell and going on up from the fish to the bird to the animal to man to angel to cherub to God. God is as high above an archangel as above a caterpillar, for the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite.”
~ A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
Revelation 4:8–10: And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.
2. His Sovereign Rule over the Earth (89:9-12)
The Psalmist praises God for his reign over the:
Raging seas (89:9; cf. Mk. 4:41)
Earthly powers (89:10; cf. Ps. 2)
The created order itself (89:11-12; cf. Isa. 55:12; Ps. 98:8; Lk. 19:40)
III. Praising God’s Name (89:13-18)
The Mighty One who rules and reigns over the heavens and the earth is also the God who has shown his “mighty arm” of salvation toward his people, as an expression of his "righteousness and justice… steadfast love and faithfulness,” which are the foundation and overflow of his throne.
For those who have received this salvation and favor from the Lord, they are the “blessed” ones who can’t help but respond with worship. This worship is marked by:
Shouting forth God’s praise (89:15a)
Walking in the light (89:15b); 1 John 1:7: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Exulting and rejoicing in God’s name “all the day” (89:16)
Finding strength in God’s glory and protection (89:17-18)
“The basis of worship is the covenant relationship whereby God has bound himself to those whom he has saved and claimed… The Spirit of covenant worship is a blend of awe and joy at the privilege of drawing near to the mighty Creator with radical self-humbling and honest confession of sin. Since God is holy and we humans are faulty, it must ever be so in this world. As worship will be central in the life of heaven, so it must be central in the life of the church on earth, and it should already be the main activity, both private and corporate, in each believer’s life.”
~ J.I. Packer, Concise Theology
Mercy in Our Day of Trouble
Psalm 86
Mercy in Our Day of Trouble
Psalm 86
“Notice how abundantly and masterly [David in Psalm 86] praises God and refers to his goodness, loyalty, and power in order to warm up his faith and heat up his prayer. We should do the same.”
~ Martin Luther
Main Idea: We can have confidence and comfort in our day of trouble because of God’s mercy toward us in Christ.
I. Pleading for Mercy (86:1-7)
David cries out with 15 “pleas” in this Psalm. Rather than presuming that the Lord owes him anything, David cries out as a “poor and needy” man in need of mercy and help. He humbly takes up the low place, allowing the Lord to reveal if his own sins or transgressions have contributed to his day of trouble.
Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
As he grounds his pleas in the Lord’s revealed character and nature, David is confident that the Lord will “answer him” in his day of trouble, and in his plea for grace. In our days of trouble, we are invited to:
Pray with persistence; Luke 18:1: “[we] ought always to pray and not lose heart.”
Pray with honest humility; Luke 18:13: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
II. Praising the Lord (86:8-13)
David makes no “pleas” in this section, but instead turns to praise and adoration of the Lord. His reminders of God’s character and nature broaden his horizon and perspective beyond himself and to the:
God’s glory in the heavens (86:8)
God’s sovereignty over the nations of the earth (86:9; cf. Rev. 15:3-4)
God’s deliverance from the depths of Sheol and the grave (86:13)
David asks for a “united heart” in the midst of his day of trouble, that he might walk faithfully in the fear of the Lord without a double heart (cf. Ps. 1; Matt. 5:8; Jas. 4:8). Psalm 86 invites us to consider how the Lord might be sovereignly using our troubles to reveal our divided hearts and desires, and to lift our eyes to God’s sovereign purposes in our life.
As we give thanks - even in trouble - we are reminded of God’s covenantal “steadfast love” toward us - even beyond “Sheol” and the grave itself.
Romans 8:38–39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
III. Strengthening our Faith (86:14-17)
As David returns to the circumstances of his trouble, he remembers God’s character as revealed in his word to his people.
Exodus 34:6: The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…
John 1:14, 16: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
“God does not dispense his mercy from a slender store which perchance may be so impoverished as to give out altogether, but out of a cornucopia he pours forth the infinite riches of his mercy: his goodness flows forth in abounding streams towards those who pray and in adoring worship make mention of his name.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
As David asks for a “sign of God’s favor” - he returns to the place where God preeminently revealed himself in the Exodus and in Mt. Sinai. As God’s people this side of the finished work of Christ, we have the signs of a bloody cross and an empty tomb to know God’s favor and love toward us. One day all who stand against the Lord will be “put to shame” (Col. 2:15); until that day comes, we can have confidence and we can receive comfort in Christ Jesus.
Long for the Lord
Psalm 84
Long for the Lord
Psalm 84
Main Idea: We must long for the Lord and come to Him through faith in Jesus.
1 Chronicles 9:19: Shallum the son of Kore, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah, and his kinsmen of his fathers’ house, the Korahites, were in charge of the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent, as their fathers had been in charge of the camp of the Lord, keepers of the entrance.
I. How Lovely is the Lord? (84:1-4)
Psalm 84:1-4: How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah
1 Kings 8:27: But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
Matthew 6:26: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 10:29: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
Longing for the Lord is aimed in two parallel directions:
Longing that leads to joy
Longing that leads to worship
“The author of Psalm 84 has arrived at the answer to life’s great dilemma: the question of where contentment, satisfaction, peace, joy, life, and all things good may be found. His answer is simple: the good life is where God is.”
~ James Hamilton, Psalms Volume II (Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary)
II. How Strong is the Lord? (84:5-8)
Psalm 84:5-8: Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
Philippians 3:12-14: Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 4:16: So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
“The blessedness of sacred worship belongs not to half-hearted, listless worshippers, but to those who throw all their energies into it. Neither prayer, nor praise, nor the hearing of the word will be pleasant or profitable to persons who have left their hearts behind them. A company of pilgrims who had left their hearts at home would be no better than a caravan of carcasses, quite unfit to blend with living saints in adoring the living God. [...] When we have God’s ways in our hearts, and our heart in his ways, we are what and where we should be, and hence we shall enjoy the divine approval.”
~ C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
III. How Much Better is the Lord? (84:9-12)
Psalm 84:9-12: Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!
“Let them make light of thousands of days and desire one day, the day that has no sunrise, no sunset, the one day that is an eternal day, the day that does not displace yesterday or find itself hard pressed by tomorrow. That one day is what we should desire. What use are thousands of days to us? We are traveling from thousands of days towards one day, just as we are proceeding from many virtues to one alone.” ~ St. Augustine, Psalms
Matthew 12:6: I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
1 Peter 2:5: You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
“And we Christians know that God does indeed look with favour on [his] anointed one. Under the kingship of Christ our access to God’s presence is guaranteed. Why then is it so good to enjoy such access? Because (v. 11) God is a sun and shield (so ‘guide and guard my erring heart’); and because he showers favor and honour upon those who seek him. Again the Old Testament language acquires new depths with the coming of Christ: in the fullest sense, grace, glory, and every good thing are given to those whose walk is blameless (v. 11) because it is a walk of faith (v. 12).”
~ Michael Wilcock, The Message of Psalms: Songs for the People of God
The God in Charge
Psalm 82
The God in Charge
Psalm 82
Main Idea: God is the judge with all authority, and in Jesus, he redeems our authority by taking on all our judgment.
I. God’s Judgment (82:1)
In 1 Samuel 2:3, the barren woman Hannah says “For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him all actions are weighed.” By his very nature as the standard he judges all the actions that he sees completely. He is the God of all knowledge and Asaph believes this.
Job 1:6: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
Genesis 6:1-2: When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
The spirit of the Satan breathed in the Sabeans and Chaldeans when they afflicted Job (Job 1:13–19)
It is explicit in Daniel that Michael is clearly an angelic being over a nation (Daniel 12)
When David used his power to call a sinful census, Satan lay behind him (1 Chron. 21:1)
An evil spirit tormented King Saul and drove him to wickedness (1 Sam. 16:14)
Those who used their power to oppose Christ were children of the devil (John 8:44)
There are “cosmic powers over this present darkness” (Eph. 6:12)
The Satan who entered into Judas Iscariot (Luke 22:3) claims to be God (2 Thess. 2:4)
“Whenever a human being exercises power other than by the Spirit of God, a darker spirit is at work. In their pretense to be a god, they represent spiritual and demonic powers. So ‘the gods’ may, at the same time, be spiritual beings in the heavenly places and powerful human beings on earth in whom their spirits breathe.”
- Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary.
II. God’s Verdict (82:2-7)
Exodus 3:7-8: I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
"Their title and dignity will not save them. They are creatures, and therefore accountable."
-Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150
They must account for what they have done by the God who judges over all the earth. Privileges and delegated authority aside, if any creature tries to sidestep God’s will, they will certainly experience God’s wrath.
III. God’s Inheritance (82:8)
At every level, the heavenly, the civil, and the personal, we have failed to steward the authority that God has given us. We were meant to rule and reign like God on this earth, but we turned a garden into a trash heap. So how will God inherit the nations when the nations also deserve the wrath of God?
Colossians 1:13-14: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 2:14-15(MSG): Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
Expand your view of God’s rule and watch his rule in your life expand with it. Because this is the good news from Psalm 82, God is the judge with all authority, and in Jesus, he redeems our authority by taking on all our judgment.
Listen
Psalm 81
LISTEN
Psalm 81
Main Idea: When we listen and respond to Jesus we receive life and life to the full.
I. Rejoice (81:1-5a)
This is a call to rejoice in the Lord from the Lord. The context suggests this is a call to begin the Feast of Booths as prescribed in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29. This feast is the culmination of a series of events during the 7th month of the year. It is a time to remember the mighty saving works of the Lord, rescuing the nation from the burden of slavery in Egypt.
II. Remember (81:5b-7)
Asaph here turns from songwriter to Prophet. In this section The Psalmist speaks in the voice of the Lord. He reminds His people of the events of the Exodus. He also recalls where they began to quarrel as they questioned God’s providence. The Lord uses these Festivals to remind His people of His deliverance, which is a cause to celebrate His goodness. In the same way, Jesus calls us to remember our salvation story, which we are prone to forget.
III. Respond (81:8-12)
In the midst of the celebration the Lord takes a moment to highlight our need for Him. He calls us to listen to Him. He cries out to caution and correct us.
This also points directly to Jesus. In Matthew 17, Jesus takes Peter, James and John a high mountain where His glory was revealed before them. His appearance changed and Moses and Elijah appeared before them. Ironically in this case, Peter immediately wants to build booths for them! The same voice that lamented in Psalm 81 that his people should listen to him speaks directly. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” (Matt. 17:5)
When we refuse to listen to Jesus we separate ourselves from God’s blessings and look for direction from creation rather than from the creator. Creation only offers empty promises; our Lord Jesus, gives us life and life to the full. We only need to receive it.
IV. Receive (81:13-16)
For the Glory of Your Name
Psalm 79
For the Glory of Your Name
Psalm 79
Main Idea: When suffering brings us low, seeking God’s glory is the way through.
I. A Sorrowful Lament (79:1–4)
Jeremiah 7:33: And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.
Jeremiah 34:18–20: And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts— the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. And I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
“God’s people were supposed to be an advertisement to the Gentiles of how great and good a God is Yahweh, but instead (through their unfaithfulness) they have become an object lesson for those nations.”
~ John Collins, ESV Expository Commentary: Psalms
II. A Plea for Justice (79:5–7)
Revelation 6:10: They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
“Although this is indeed an age of grace, an age in which to proclaim the gospel of God's free salvation from sin through the work of Jesus Christ, we should remember that it is not endless. Judgment will be done. Therefore, we should both warn people of this judgment and be diligent in taking the gospel to those who are without it.”
~ James Montgomery Boice, Psalms: An Expositional Commentary
III. A Prayer for Forgiveness (79:8–13)
“The Savior who leads us in singing this song today is the one on whom the fire of God’s jealous, righteous anger burned with infinite ferocity as he took on himself the sins of his people in order that this wrath might be drained to the dregs in his substitutionary sufferings. Then–and only then–the sins of his people would be atoned for, and the name of God be vindicated as his church is rescued.”
~ Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary