First Trout of the Year - April 4th, 2014

Fishing with the kids. First trout of the year!

CCRC: Psalm/Song of the Month for April, 2014

At CCRC we are endeavoring to learn/focus on a Psalm or song each month. Psalm 22:11-20 - "Be Not Far Off, for Grief is Near" from the Cantus Christi hymnal is April's song of the month. Below is a meditation for this month's Psalm. 

Psalm/Song of the Month for April, 2014

“Be Not Far Off, for Grief Is Near”

Cantus Christi – 31

Psalm 22:11 – 20

Psalm 22 has become a standard (classic) passage for Christian liturgical use during the Lenten Season; Jesus on the cross, identifying with the Psalmist, recited its opening line (v. 1), "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"(Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34)

This psalm begins with the honest question, "Why, God, have you abandoned me?" It ends, however, with the triumphant conclusion (vv. 30-31), "A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." Considering the arc of this psalm, one commentator has said, "From the initial cry of cosmic isolation, the poet now engages himself to live ‘for’ or ‘in’ the Lord. The generation to be born shall then proclaim the fidelity of Yahweh to his beloved servant” (Samuel Terrien, The Psalms, 234-235). In this psalm, the poet has aptly described both the emotional and temporal transformation from sorrow/defeat to joy/victory.

Christians see this transformation, firstly, in the Father’s resurrection of Jesus, and, secondly, in the growth of the Church—it is the total Christ, both Jesus Christ and his Body (the Church), who proclaims the fidelity of God the Father to his only begotten Son, the beloved and suffering servant who went to the cross to save the lost.

There are three structurally identifiable divisions in this psalm which build to the concluding remarks in vv. 30-31:

• vv. 1-11. With intimacy, cf. vv. 1-2, poet introduces theme of lament, however, v. 11 concludes with a cry of hope.
• vv. 12-23. He describes the "animality" of tormentors, yet, in v. 16, he acknowledges that God is sovereign/cause of his torment. Finally, he instructs those who fear the Lord, i.e., the seed of Jacob, the seed of Israel, to praise the Lord.
• vv. 24-29. Without an elaborate transition, the psalmist introduces a hymn of praise/thankfulness—the psalmist is “certain of his deliverance or his healing to come” (Terrien, 233).
• vv. 30-31. Intimacy of vv. 1-2 “transmutes into a future of glory” (Terrien, 230); the future generation will “proclaim the fidelity of Yahweh to his beloved servant.”

The majority of the verses rendered/paraphrased for singing in Be Not Far Off, for Grief is Near are from the second division—the verses move from the (1) cry of hope, (2) to the description of tormentors, and (3) concludes with petition for deliverance.

Meditating on the 22nd Psalm reminds us that in Redemptive History there is no triumph without sorrow, there is no resurrection without crucifixion, and there is no Easter without Good Friday. “The ultimate lament begins with the terror of the void, but it ends with the fervor of the saved” (Terrien, 236). As Habakkuk said, “O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: . . . in wrath remember mercy.”

Aids for teaching and meditation:

• Because we have been adopted by God (cf. Romans 8:15), we have an intimate relationship with the Father. Not in spite of but because Jesus is our mediator, we are able to call out to God with honest intimacy, e.g., "My God, my God . . ."
• God is Holy (v. 3). God is sovereign over our affliction (v. 15). In our affliction, we appeal to God, but we do so with trust, godly fear, and praise (vv. 20-23).

Below is an interlinear presentation of Psalm 22:11-20 – bold is KJV/English translation and italic is Cantus Christi’s verse rendering/paraphrasing for singing (taken from The Book of Psalms for Singing, 1973).

v. 11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

v. 11 Be not far off, for grief is near, And none to help is found;

v. 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

v. 12 For bulls of Bashan in their strength Now circle me around.

v. 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

v. 13 Their lion jaws they open wide, And roar to tear their prey.

v. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

v. 14 My heart is wax, my bones unknit, My life is poured away.

v. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

v. 15 My strength is only broken clay; My mouth and tongue are dry, / For in the very dust of death You there make me to lie.

v. 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

v. 16 For see how dogs encircle me! On every side there stands / A brotherhood of cruelty; They pierce my feet and hands.

v. 17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

v. 17 My bones are plain for me to count; men see me and they stare.

v. 18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

v. 18 My clothes among them they divide, And gamble for their share.

v. 19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

v. 19 Now hurry, O my Strength to help! Do not be far, O LORD!

v. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

v. 20 But snatch my soul from raging dogs, And spare me from the sword.

Reading Notes: Disciplines of a Godly Man, Chapters 10-13, by R. Kent Hughes

Reading Notes for Introduction and Chapters 1-5.

Reading Notes for Chapters 6-9.

Opening Remarks -- There is an intentional framework for this section on "Character". The author starts by discussing integrity and character in Chapter 10, then in Chapter 11 and 12 he discusses how integrity/character manifests itself by (1) what we say (the tongue) and (2) what we do (our work/deeds). The author concludes by discussing the Discipline of Perseverance in Chapter 13 -- this logically follows because "perseverance" ought to be an attribute if integrity is applied to speech/words and action/deeds.

Chapter 10 - Discipline of Integrity

• Any realistic survey would reveal that American culture is in big trouble. But the crisis isn't merely a culture problem, it is a people problem.

• "But the main reason for the integrity crisis is that we humans are fundamentally dishonest. We are congenital liars" (p. 126). The author points to Paul's words in Romans 3:13, "their tongues practice deceit."

• But "God desires truth in the inward parts." - Psalm 51:6. Take-Away-Point: Don't be deceptive, and don't be self-deceived.

• Solution: "Integrity is one of the greatest needs of the Church today" (p. 127). So, never (1) cheat/steal/defraud; (2) keep your word; and (3) be a man of principle.

• Truth-telling is a discipline. We must discipline ourselves to always tell the truth.

• From the book's "Think About It!" section: "Read through Psalm 15, making a list of every mentioned character trait or personal action that relates to integrity and its companions, truth and honesty. Then go back through the list and indicate how you are doing on each point (poor, fair, varies, consistently obedient, etc.) Now pray for God's help in living out all of this" (p. 133).

Chapter 11 - Discipline of the Tongue

• Discipline of the tongue is a related fruit of the discipline of integrity.

• Author cites the "Boxer Rebellion" of 1899 in China as an example of the destructive power of the tongue.

• So: Do not doubt or underestimate the power of the tongue (cf. p. 137f). The tongue has intrinsic power (James 3:1-4), e.g., the way a rudder controls a ship, and the tongue has destructive and corruptive power (James 3:5-6), e.g., gossip, innuendo, flattery, criticism, and diminishment.

• "A true text of a man's spirituality is not his ability to speak, as we are apt to think, but rather his ability to bridle his tongue" (p. 142).

• Therefore: the author recommends that we (1) ask God to discipline your tongue, (2) ask God to cauterize our lips (cf. Isaiah 6:5), (3) ask God to impress this need as an ongoing prayer, (4) strive to memorize Scripture "which teach the proper use of the tongue" (see all the excerpts on the tongue from the Book of Proverbs on pp. 275-278).

Chapter 12 - Discipline of Work

• Both sloth and overwork are a contemporary epidemic (p. 147).

• Work matters to God. Christians are called to "Get Dominion" for Jesus. "Men everything about your work must be directed toward Him -- your attitudes, your integrity, your intensity, and your skill" (p. 152). We "Get Dominion" for Jesus by apply excellence to our trade/sill/vocation/calling: "Work that is truly Christian is work well done" (p. 154).

• Assessment test provided by the author: (1) Do I do my work for the glory of God? (2) Do I honestly work hard? (3) Do I work with enthusiasm? (4) Do I work wholeheartedly? (5) Do I do excellent work?

Chapter 13 - Discipline of Perseverance

• We must persevere in integrity, persevere in with fruit of integrity in our speech and deeds--in order to do this we must focus on Jesus Christ and overcome obstacles, tribulations, etc.

• Christians need to cultivate the virtues of hope and joy.

• "If we focus on the joy that Christ has set before us, we will endure the sufferings of this world and will dismiss any shame incurred in His name as nothing. And we will run the race to His glory" (p. 163).

• "The discipline of perseverance confronts us to" (p. 164f): (1) Divest. Throw off besetting sin . . . (2) Run. Run our own race, the race God has marked for us . . . (3) Focus. We must focus on Jesus . . . (4) Consider. We must consider Him (Jesus). Our life is to be spent considering how He lived (cf. Hebrews 12:1-3).

Reconciled

"The reconciled world is the church." -- St. Augustine (Sermon 46).

"But the sum is this, that Christ doth repair with his grace the world, being destroyed; which cometh to pass when he reconcileth us to the Father." -- John Calvin (Commentary on Acts 8:5).

Elbow Drop (Puritan Style)

"There are two rotten pillars which the fabric of late Arminianism (an egg of the old Pelagianism, which we had well hoped had long since chilled, but is sat upon and brooded by wanton wits of our degenerate and apostate spirits) doth principally stand.

"The one is, That God loveth all alike, Cain as well as Abel, Judas as the rest of the Apostles.

"The other is, That God giveth (nay is bound, "ex debito," so to do) both Christ, the great gift of his eternal love, for all alike to work out their redemption, and "vires credenda," power to believe in Christ to all alike to whom he gives the gospel; whereby that redemption may effectually be applied for their salvation, if they please to make right use of that which is so put into their power.

"The former destroys the free and special grace of God, by making it universal; the latter gives cause to man of glorying in himself rather than in God,--God concurring no farther to the salvation of a believer than a reprobate. Christ died for both alike;--God giving power of accepting Christ to both alike, men themselves determining the whole matter by their free-will; Christ making both savable, themselves make them to be saved.

"This cursed doctrine of theirs crosseth the main drift of the holy Scripture; which is to abase and pull down the pride of man, to make him even to despair of himself, and to advance and set up the glory of God's free grace from the beginning to the end of man's salvation. His hand hath laid the foundation of his spiritual house; his hand shall also finish it" (Prefatory remarks by Stanley Gower, who was a member of the Westminster Assembly, for John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ: A Treatise of the Redemption and Reconciliation that is in the Blood of Christ, with the Merit Thereof, and Satisfaction Wrought Thereby).

"The glory of God's free grace from the beginning to the end of man's salvation." Indeed.

Church History

"If we take seriously the Pauline conceptions of the Christian Church as the Body of Christ, then Church History may be regarded as the continuation of the story of Jesus. That is to say, Jesus, who began to act and teach on earth in the years immediately preceding A.D. 30, has continued to act and teach since that year by His Spirit in his servants; and the history of Christianity ought to be the history of what He has been doing and teaching in this way down to our own times--a continuous Acts of the Apostles. But this is not how Church history is usually viewed or presented. There is much truth in the words of the late Dean Inge:

The real history of Christianity is the history of a great spiritual tradition. The only true apostolic succession is the lives of the saints. Clement of Alexandria compared the Church to a great river, receiving affluents from all sides. The great river sometimes flows impetuously through a narrow channel; sometimes it spreads like a flood; sometimes it divides into several streams; sometimes, for a time, it seems to have been driven underground. But the Holy Spirit has never left himself without witness; and if we will put aside a great deal of what passes for Church history, and is really a rather unedifying branch of secular history, and follow the course of the religion of the Spirit and the Church of the Spirit, we shall judge very differently of the relative importance of events from those who merely follow the fortunes of institutionalism (W. R. Inge, Things New and Old, pp. 57f).

"But the difficulty for the would-be historian is this: it is relatively easy to trace the fortunes of a visible institution, whereas the course of a great spiritual tradition is much more elusive. And yet, the two are so closely interwoven that it is impossible to treat of the one without constant reference to the other" (F.F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame, 161).

Reading Notes: As I Lay Dying, Moby Dick, The Iliad, and the Noetic Effects of Sin and Anger-and-Revenge's Power to Degrade

Several months ago I read Gene Fant's article at First Things titled "William Faulkner's Peculiar Calvinism: As I Lay Dying." The author reflects on elements from a handful of different works by Faulkner, highlighting his "Peculiar [Read Redemption-Less] Calvinism", and vouches for the truthfulness of Faulkner's Southern characterizations (Fant is a native-born Mississippian). The author's reflections are tied up with the recent film adaptation of As I Lay Dying, written/directed/starring James Franco.

This has made me think of when, several years ago, I first read As I Lay Dying: I thought it was an emotionally-weighty but good read, especially since the noetic effects of sin are soberly portrayed. (The characters in As I Lay Dying do genuinely bizarre and irrational things again and again.) Also, recently I finished reading Moby Dick (I already read half of the book 3 or 4 times, but finally plowed through to the end. Yay!), and, again, I was impressed by the noetic effects of sin: Melville captures that untoward power in his characterization of Captain Ahab, a man who, like Achilles from The Iliad, becomes drunk with anger and revenge to the point of his own demise. Yikes. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.

On The Same Path

"The whole argument about tradition in this book has been predicated on the sober recognition that it is actually quite easy to go wrong in theology, and that we need the insights of precisely those within the Church with whom we disagree if we are to learn and progress. . . . The creeds essentially codify the patristic synthesis concerning the doctrine of God. The occasion for the promulgation of creeds were generally Christological and Trinitarian heresies, which made claims about who God is that were judged unacceptable. Now, in seeking to discern who, however wrong we may think them, still should be regarded as a Christian brother or sister, and who has left the faith some way behind, it seems to me that the doctrine of God is crucial. Two people who both alike confess one God in three Persons, and the hypostatic union of divine and human in Jesus Christ, are seeking to serve the same God as each other; someone who denies one of these crucial points is, from a Christian point of view, running after idols of their own construction. Given this, however wrong I may think someone who confesses these points is on other matters of faith and morals, they are on the same path as I am on, also imperfectly; the difference between us can only ever be in degree. Someone who confesses a different God, by contrast, is doing something different to what I am seeking to do" (Stephen R. Holmes, Listening to the Past: The Place of Tradition in Theology, 162-163).

Preaching

I preached as never sure to preach again. And as a dying man to dying men.
                                                                                 --Richard Baxter

LOL

"What would our forefathers have thought had they known that the blessings of their blessings would one day schedule the arrival of blessings as if they were bottles of milk left on the stoop? A soon-to-be-married couple tells themselves, "We figure that we'll spend a few years after the wedding getting to know each other, just the two of us, and working so we can save money for a house. Then we'll have our first child, and when he turns four, then we'll start working on the next. If at that point we have one of each then we'll probably just quit, and then fiver years after that I can go back to work. If they're the same, we'll wait three years and try again.' God will not be mocked; He who opens and closes the womb will not take orders from yuppie brides" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 81).

Children

"There is probably no greater life-changing event than the arrival of a child. Jobs change often. That big mortgage we signed is financing a house that will one day be rubble. But children last forever" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 80).

Athens and Jerusalem - Academy and Church

"Above all things, preserve the Kirk [Church] from the bondage of the Universities. Persuade them to rule themselves peaceably, and order thair [sic] schools in Christ; but subject never the pulpit to their Judgment, neither yet exempt them from your Jurisdiction" (John Knox, Works of John Knox, Vol. 6, 619).

Technological Discernment

"We live in an age of technological wonders, and have lost the capacity to wonder whether all this technology is actually healthy" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 76).

Patience

"One nearby church chided passers-by with its sign that read, 'Be patient. It takes time for grass to become butter.' I needed the patience called for by the sign to figure out what that meant" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 74).

Creed has "genuine authority as a privileged interpretation of Scripture."

"That the [Nicene] Creed says x is sufficient reason to assert that x is true, theologically" (Stephen R. Holmes, Listening to the Past: The Place of Tradition in Theology, 161).

Western Church: Salt has Lost Its Savor

"It is fuel for the fire to point out that western culture is in radical decline. I do not deny it. I recognize that things are getting ugly in the world--precisely because they are already ugly in the church. When another teenage gunman treating his school like a video game is greeted with a yawn, when sodomites become a protected class, when a million and a half babies are killed every year, we can safely conclude that the salt has lost its savor" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 59).

Friendship

"You think a friend is an easy thing to be? If you are truly his friend, you will discover otherwise" (Chaim Potok, The Chosen, 142).

Creation Being Itself

"The work of the Spirit, as well as being fundamentally eschatological, is also essentially immanent: the Spirit works within creation, establishing the creation's ability to be itself to the praise of its Creator" (Stephen R. Holmes, Listening to the Past: The Place of Tradition in Theology, 158).

To a Thousand Generations

"The biblical vision, however, can inspire us to obedience. When we know the kingdom will grow, when we know that God is faithful in His covenants, when we know that He has promised to be God to us, to our children, and to as many as are afar off, when we know that Christ not only came to conquer the world but that He has already overcome it--then we move forward in the faith. We move forward believing the good news of the Kingdom of Christ. We don't send our little children out to drag their heathen classmates onto the boat; we prepare them for the larger task of raising their own children to be a light to a world that is not triumphing but perishing. Eschatology then becomes more than a theological parlor game. It is the very spring in our step, the very hope that is within us, the very vision that we are to pass onto His blessings--that He is in the midst of blessing to a thousand generations" (R. C. Sproul, Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 58).

Importance of Ordinary Things

"[Reuven Malter's father speaking to his son] Reuven, as you grow older you will discover that the most important things that will happen to you will often come as a result of silly things, as you call them--'ordinary things' is a better expression. That is the way the world is" (Chaim Potok, The Chosen, 110).