God Restores Nature

"I do not believe that regeneration s a mystery spark, hidden down deep in our hearts. Rather, it is the result of God's supernatural work, by which He restores nature" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 36).

I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy . . .

"[T]he first lesson of every disciple is joy" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 32).

Teaching the Baptized

"After baptism has taken place, everything else is part of Christian discipleship -- teaching the baptized to obey all that Christ commanded" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 30).

CCRC: Psalm of the Month for October, 2014

At CCRC we are endeavouring to learn/focus on a Psalm or song each month. Psalm 46 - "God is Our Refuge and Our Strength" from the Cantus Christi hymnal was our song of the month. Below is a mediation.  

 

Psalm 46 

Verses 1-7

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he utter his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Verses 8-11

Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

There are two distinct sections to Psalm 46.

1.   Verses 1-6 are a corporate meditation upon the conflicts and flux of life. However, the meditation is from the perspective of knowing that God is near and that God is our help. Thus, this meditation leads to doxology -- a corporate declaration -- the “refrain” in verse 7: "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge!"

2.   Verses 8-10 takes the prior doxology and applies it to a future vision of peace, a meditation on how God will sovereignly bring an end to war. The prior confession in divine help, in verses 1-6, is the foundation for the subsequent meditation upon the optimistic view of the future. Thus, this additional meditation leads to additional doxology -- another corporate declaration -- the repeated "refrain" in verse 11: "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge!"

The corporate nature of this Psalm is obvious; the plurals “our” and “we” and “us” are used throughout, and are reinforced by the militaristic refrain "the Lord of hosts”, i.e., “the Lord of armies”, “is with us.” Both sections, verses 1-6 and 8-10, conclude with the same “refrain" which emphasizes God's divine presence and divine help. 

Israel is proclaiming that God is near. Israel is proclaiming that God is her divine help, see verse 5 -- “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.” Israel is also proclaiming assurance in the fact that God is her divine help, see verse 10 – “Be still, and know that I am God.”

In this Psalm Israel meditates upon conflicts and flux, but Israel meditates in light of the fact that God is present. Israel’s confession of faith in divine help and her corresponding assurance organically flow from her knowledge of and placing her trust in the presence of God. This should also be the case today for Christians: we know that God is near to us in Jesus Christ and that God through Jesus Christ is our divine help. God has “delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14). Indeed, because of Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts is with the Church. Indeed, because of Jesus Christ, God is refuge and strength of the Church.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Consider how Psalm 46 is . . .

•  Profitable for doctrine because we are reminded of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, which ought to be a constant source of comfort. God is sovereign and he is sovereign all the time! Even if the world were to "fall apart" and chaotic waters cover the mountains, God would still be our refuge and strength! This means that no matter what happens to us in life we have assurance that God is near and that God is our help.

•  Profitable for correction because this Psalm will most forcefully confront us when we are walking through the "hard providences" of life -- those times which are more-often-than-not a road or a type of journey that we never would have chosen of our own volition. It is especially easy (tempting) during those times to doubt that God is near and that God is in control. And yet this Psalm mentions conflicts (meditates upon them!), but only in order to declare that such uncertainties are overshadowed by God’s presence and sovereign care. This Psalm looks affliction in the eye from the vantage point of dwelling in the presence of God. And from that vantage point Psalm 46 provides correction: even when we emotionally feel like God is distant and not in control we learn to trust God and place our assurance in God. When we are plagued by doubts God speaks to us in Psalm 46 and reminds us that he is near and that we need to place our trust in Him. We learn to do this by obeying God, who commands us to “be still” and know that He is God.

•  Profitable for instruction because it teaches us that God will not only be our strength and refuge today but also in the optimistic future (verses 8-10). God’s sovereignty applies to the future, and God has revealed that He will be victorious in the future, and thus, that it will be peaceful – “He maketh wars to cease” (verse 9) . . . I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (verse 10). Christians are wise to be instructed by verse 10: the God who is near is the “Lord of hosts” of a peaceful future, and because of the work of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, it is a peaceful Christian future. Through the work of the Cross and the preaching of the Gospel, God is making wars to cease, breaking bows, cutting spears in half, and burning chariots with fire.

As Scottish minister John McCheyne said, writing in a pastoral letter in 1839, “It is no small joy to be able to sing Psalm 46 in the dark and cloudy day.”  The realization that God through Jesus Christ is near and our divine help is “no small joy,” particularly when conflict, affliction, and the flux of life are all too near. In such turbulent times we need to meditate -- “Be still, and know that I am God.” And our meditation will lead to doxology, we will join the congregation and corporately declare "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge!"

Personal God

"To desire the sacrifices (and the sacraments) to be automatically a good thing is to forget the covenantal realities. It is to forget that the world is governed by a personal God" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 25).

Weightless Money

"What does the dollar have to do with the metric system? Or any system of weights and measures? Today, pretty much nothing. But up until recently -- and we're talking walking-on-the-moon recently -- money was all based on weight. In the late eighteenth century, coinage was not only a part of weights and measures, it was the most vital part, and had been for thousands of years" (John Bemelmans Marciano, Whatever Happened To The Metric System? 13).

Applying the Doctrine of God

"What distinguishes the Reformed doctrine of God is its relentless application to all other doctrines" (R.C. Sproul in Foreword to Back to Basics: Rediscovering the Richness of the Reformed Faith, ix).

Christian Manners

"It is never rude to speak biblically" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 21).

Anti-Metric = Pro-Pizza Division

"The metric system is all about decimals, which are easy on the modern brain but not so much when it comes to physically dividing things. Pizzas don't get cut into five or ten slices for a reason. Far from natural or classical, the metric system is a product of the heightened rationalism that marked the Enlightenment" (John Bemelmans Marciano, Whatever Happened To The Metric System? 8).

New Heart

"We can only be blessed in our religious activities if the Holy Spirit has given us a new heart" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 19).

Sixteenths > Metrics

"One of my jobs as a kid was handing wrenches to my father and older brothers. On any given bolt or nut, the half-inch wrench was a good bet, and if that was too small, the next to try was the five-eighths. If that in turn was too big, maybe we needed a nine-sixteenths. If nothing fit -- a frustrating occurrence that happened often enough -- we'd curse and say it had to be metric" (John Bemelmans Marciano, Whatever Happened to the Metric System? 4).

Just Wet

"True baptism is of the internal man, by the Holy Spirit, and if that is missing you do not have a Christian inwardly. You do not have a true Christian, but rather a wet member of the visible covenant" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 18).

Music Machines and Music

Commenting on the relationship between iPhones/iPads and the iTunes Store--"As more machines get sold, more music gets bought" ((Gareth Murphy, Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Music Industry, 347).

Music Cycles

"As the bigger picture illustrates beyond any doubt, the record business is inherently cyclical. Fallow periods tend to follow bumper harvests. Today's predicament, in which an ever-dwindling generation of rock 'n' roll impresarios finds itself tiptoeing into the terrifying crosscurrents of the digital age, can only make sense when viewed within a complete time frame. Difficult as market conditions are today, our struggling record business has not become extinct; a tribe of indie diehards is currently trudging through the desert--surviving on weeds, puddles, and their undying belief in music. In fact, today's open field is probably the place of immense opportunity. When the rivers flow again, the elected will build viaducts, hanging gardens, new temples, and new marketplaces" (Gareth Murphy, Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Music Industry, xi).

What the KJV Would Call "Divers Measures"

"We tend to measure how the culture is doing by how we are doing at the moment, which simply means we are sentinels who can be bribed and bought off" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 7).

If Only The Seminarians Knew This

"God did not give us the Bible to have something for seminarians to study. The Scriptures are the covenant document for all God's people" (Douglas Wilson, Westminster Systematics: Comments and Notes on the Westminster Confession, 9).

Holy From Beginning to End

"The Scriptures are holy from the beginning of them unto the end; they do not savour at all of anything that is earthly and impure; especially the laws of the word are holy, commanding everything that is holy, and forbidding everything that is impure and unholy; whence it is evident that the Scriptures are the word of the holy God, and that the holy men which wrote them were acted herein by the Holy Ghost" (Thomas Vincent, The Shorter Catechism Explained from Scripture, 18).

Against Idols Both Abstract and Tangible

"But we have to be careful not to overestimate ourselves. The fact that we have mastered the art of identifying idols that we have forged in our minds and hearts does not mean at all that we have repented of forging them out of metals we dug from the ground" (Douglas Wilson, Against the Church, 2).

Born Again Reading

"Although the Bible objectively teaches truth, it does not follow that dead men can read it. A man must be born again if he is to see the kingdom. He must be born again in order to really see the passages of Scripture that point to the kingdom" (Douglas Wilson, Westminster Systematics: Comments and Notes on the Westminster Confession, 8).

Word & Spirit

"The Word of God is objectively what it is. But it cannot be seen for what it is unless the Holy Spirit illuminates the text" (Douglas Wilson, Westminster Systematics: Comments and Notes on the Westminster Confession, 7).

Bible Study: Seeing the Glory of God in Jesus Christ

"Our aim in studying the Scriptures is not merely to know more ancient history or to learn useful life principles, but rather to be brought to see in a new way the glory of God in Jesus Christ and to bow our hearts before him in adoration and praise" (Iain M. Duguid, Is Jesus in the Old Testament, 14).

OT Witness

"[T]he central message of the Old Testament is Jesus: specifically the sufferings of Christ and the glories that follow--both the glorious resurrection of Christ and the glorious inheritance that he has won for all of his people. Certainly, understanding this gospel should lead to a new morality in the lives of believers. It should motivate and empower us to seek to meet the needs of the lost and broken world around us and should engage our passion for the new heavens and the new earth that will be realized when Christ returns. But the heart of the message of the Old Testament is a witness to Christ, which centers on his suffering and glory, his death and resurrection" (Iain H. Duguid, Is Jesus in the Old Testament, 11).

NT Teaches "Go Look for Jesus in the OT"

"Why should we expect to see Jesus in the Old Testament? The simple answer is that this is how the New Testament teaches us to read it [see Luke 24:25-27, 44-48]" (Iain M. Duguid, Is Jesus in the Old Testament, 8).

Reading Notes: How to Read the Bible Book by Book

Fee, Gordon D. & Stuart, Douglas. How to Read the Bible Book by Book. Zondervan, 2002.

A profitable book; an excellent OT & NT survey/Bible grammar.

 
The authors state their aim in the preface: "to help people become better readers of Scripture" (9). After having read this book, I can safely vouch that if somebody sat down and read their Bible front to back with this book, then they would certainly become better readers of Scripture. No doubt about it.

The authors (most of the time) strike the right kind of balance between understanding each book of the Bible on its own and demonstrating how each individual book relates to the whole of Scripture. I parenthetically say "most of the time" because there were a few books where slant one way or the other was obvious, e.g. their concluding thoughts for Song of Songs, "Song of Songs fits into God's story as a reminder that the sexual love he created is good and should be embraced with godly fidelity and delight" (165). That conclusion is a bit of an understatement. What the authors say is true, however, I believe the Song of Songs fits into God's story in a bit more meaningful (allegorical!) sense than that.

I really appreciated "The Biblical Story: An Overview" (pp. 14-25), i.e., "It is no accident that the Bible comes to us primarily by way of narrative . . . this is God's story, the account of his search for us, a story essentially told in four chapters: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation (14). . . . Here is the heart of the story: A loving, redeeming God in his incarnation restored our lost vision of God (took off the wraps, as it were, so that we could plainly see what God is truly like), by his crucifixion and resurrection made possible our being restored to the image of God (see Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18), and through the gift of the Spirit became present with us in constant fellowship" (18).

This sort of high-overview (what one of my NT professors at IWU called "looking at the Bible from 20,000 feet") is helpful for wrapping your mind around 66 books, which, especially when read woodenly front to back without a thematic road map, can sort of sound like a cacophony. I thought the authors structured their book well to reinforce their aim for the book and their overview of the Bible. How to Read the Bible Book by Book is broken into five parts/panels:

• "The Narrative of Israel in the Biblical Story" - i.e., the acts of God (Genesis-Esther)
• "The Writings of Israel in the Biblical Story" - i.e., the teachings of God (Job-Song of Songs & Lamentations)
• "The Prophets of Israel in the Biblical Story" - i.e., points to the Future (Messiah, Messianic age, etc.) (Isaiah-Malachi)
• "The Gospels and Acts in the Biblical Story" - i.e., the acts of God, again (Gospels & Acts)
• "The Epistles and Revelation in the Biblical Story" - i.e., the teachings of God, again (Epistles & Revelation)

So, the acts and teachings of God under the old covenant point to (prepare) God's chosen people (Israel) for the acts and teachings of Jesus for the new covenant (New Israel).

Also, prior to the authors working through their five paneled overview of the Bible, they provided an excellent aid on page 23: they highlighted various "threads" that held the larger narrative of God's story together, e.g., covenants, God's faithfulness, God's choice of lesser/un-favored ones, God's redeeming actions, God's dwelling/presence, God's provision of a sacrificial system/blood, God's choice of a king from Judah, etc. This was helpful because the authors didn't just mention the threads but then throughout the book they explicitly pointed them out. Fee and Stuart spoon feed their readers.

 
Specifically, I thought that the chapters on Genesis, Exodus, 1-2 Samuel, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, the Gospels, Acts, and Philippians were really good. I highly recommend reading this book in stereo with whatever (correlating) books of the Bible you are reading for daily devotionals/Bible study.

What God Says You Is

Know thy Bible. And know thyself. But just a heads up: you have to know thy Bible, first, in order to begin to know thyself. 

The Bible is a great book. Grand, indeed. We learn about God (theology). We learn about ourselves (anthropology). We learn about the rest of creation (cosmology).

But we don't only learn about all these things, we also learn what God thinks about them, which in some corners of this world, where they (typically) use archaic, big words and obscure phrases, is referred to as the "doctrine of the knowledge of God." And if you want to know thyself, then you have to begin with what God says you is.

Know Thy Bible and Know Thyself

Knowledge of God’s commands involves two things: knowing what the command is, i.e., "do this" or "do not do that," and also knowing something about the situation in which you apply the command, e.g., if you know the Ten Commandments, that is good, but you don’t know (keep) the commandments unless you know that coveting your friend's new car is a sin.

Application is a type of benchmark of whether or not you know God's commandments. The "application" dimension of knowing God's commandments is typically ignored by the self-righteous and the legalistic; they crave the binary, raw commands ("do this" or "do not do that"). That is how the Pharisees thought—in tight, little, rigid-and-wooden, monad-like, static ethical categories. Jesus had a beef with the Pharisees because they were levering the overly-wooden commands for personal benefit (Matt. 23:23).

So, step number one in Bible Study is to know what the Bible says, and then step number two is to find out how to apply "this" (God's Word) to "that" (your life).