Solomon’s Prayer

Posted on by korgrocker

“Give your love of justice to the king, O God, 
and righteousness to the king’s son. 
Help him judge your people in the right way; 
     let the poor always be treated fairly. 
May the mountains yield prosperity for all, 
     and may the hills be fruitful. 
Help him to defend the poor, 
     to rescue the children of the needy, 
     and to crush their oppressors.”
Psalms‬ ‭72:1-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Psalm 72 was written by Solomon, David’s second son from his marriage with Bathsheba. This Psalm is a prayer with three interwoven themes, instructions to the king, prosperity for all, and justice and provision for the poor. But do these themes have any relevance for Western societies today? 

Regarding instructions for the king we can overlay them onto our democratic system and its political leaders. The Psalmist lists love of justice, righteousness, treating people fairly and judging in the right way as being qualities that leaders should adhere to. So when the opportunity comes to vote for our leaders, we should look for these qualities in the candidates, praying for God to help us in the selection process. And it reminds us that we should pray for our political leaders, that they will faithfully follow God’s ways.

One word that repeatedly crops up in the Psalm is “May”. It’s a word that is full of a prayerful aspiration for something good to happen. An expression of hope. A yearning for better times. Verse 3 sets out a prayer for prosperity, with a picture of the mountains and hills providing a fruitful source. Prosperity for everyone, not just the favoured few. This is a prayer for today as well. Many parts of our world today are experiencing poverty. Famines and diseases are rife. Wars destroy what little some people have. And we have a terrible imbalance between the rich and the poor nations. So we must pray for all people, and provide from our resources what we can. But there is a wider, more prevalent, poverty. Poverty of spirit is a universal problem, affecting all nations, whether rich or poor. Jesus highlighted the “poor in spirit” in the first of the Beatitudes. Such people realise their need for God, and can approach Him with open hands to receive His riches, the prosperity found in His Kingdom. 

But in this Psalm, Solomon writes about how the leader should protect the poor in his nation. It is interesting that Solomon didn’t pray for the poor to become rich and prosperous. He accepted that in spite of the prosperity of the nation, there were still poor, needy and oppressed people, and he prayed for the leader to do what was necessary to look after them. Though Western societies are generally rich and prosperous, we still have poor people who are needy and oppressed. Jesus said in John 12:8, “You will always have the poor among you…”. And that is certainly today’s experience. The solution has evaded every generation since Solomon. But as God’s people, we must pray and help those in need in our communities and families.

There is perhaps a prophetic hint of the Messiah’s reign to come in this Psalm, with its reference to the “ends of the earth” in verse 8. That is when we will see the reality of the prayers of this Psalm fulfilled.

Quakes

Posted on by korgrocker

“God says, “At the time I have planned, 
I will bring justice against the wicked. 
When the earth quakes and its people live in turmoil, 
I am the one who keeps its foundations firm.”
Psalms‬ ‭75:2-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God speaks. And the Psalmist records what He says. And it’s good news. God says that regardless of what is going on in the world He is keeping “its foundations firm”. 

In Glasgow we are about to hold the UN Climate Change Conference, “COP26”. And Scotland will be full of people who sincerely believe that mankind is destroying the world through carbon emissions. Trashing the planet with the excessive use of fossil fuels, that release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. And they claim that otherwise avoidable climate change will result. But we have a situation where nations are reluctant to reverse the juggernauts of their economies today, thereby reducing the standard of living for their people, all for the sake of the world in a few decades time. So there will be much talk, press releases, claim and counter claim, and, if previous such conferences are anything to go by, little or insufficient progress made towards the goal of significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions. And adding to the mix we have the climate change deniers who dispute the science being quoted in the first place.

But in this Psalm God is setting different priorities. First of all He has a plan. Regardless of all the planning mankind gets up to, God’s plan will prevail. It has to. After all He created the world in the first place. Secondly, He is more concerned about the morals of mankind than the nations are. At the appointed time, He is going to “bring justice against the wicked”. If I was a godless person on the planet today reading this Psalm, I think I would be getting worried and instead be wondering about my priorities in life. And thirdly, in a world experiencing earthquakes and social turmoil, instead of fretting around the edges, I should perhaps be getting close to the One who is holding all things together, keeping the “foundations firm”.

Imagine a world where everyone counted themselves among God’s People. I think the impact would have been such that the aims and goals of COP26 would have been realised a long time ago, in a world going God’s way rather than the way of the wicked. 

Being an Example

Posted on by korgrocker

My life is an example to many,
because you have been my strength and protection.
That is why I can never stop praising you;
I declare your glory all day long.
Psalm 71:7-8

Who can say, as David did in this Psalm, “My life is an example to many”. But how can he have the utter cheek to make such a claim after his very public and disgraceful affair with Bathsheba? Is he saying that anyone can behave in that way and it’s no big deal? Before we answer that question, it might be worth considering another similar occasion. When Peter was caught out by Jesus after denying Him, in His time of need, not just once, but three times. We can read the passage in Matthew 26. This wasn’t just a private occurrence – Peter made his denials publicly in front of a group of people. And we can read in John 21 how the risen Jesus took Peter through repentance to becoming a rock, on which Jesus said He would build His church.

So back to David. He also repented of his terrible sins and received God’s forgiveness. There are no sins that God will not cleanse us from. We have not done anything so bad that Jesus will refuse to pardon us. And like David, we too can be an example to many. In our communities we can be an example to our friends and neighbours, and by our lives we may the only glimpse of Jesus that many people will ever see. 

Those of us who have repented of our sins can stand before God wearing the righteousness of Jesus. How do I know? The Bible says so in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God“. So if God declares me righteous, as He did with David and Peter and countless others, I too can be an example to many. I have blogged before about the Pastor of a church in Glasgow, who was a drug dealer, imprisoned for his crime, saved through the ministry of Teen Challenge, and who returned to the very community in which he dealt drugs as their Minister and Pastor. I’m sure, at least initially, the community scoffed at him, as they did with Jesus when He preached in His home town of Nazareth. But the reformed drug dealer is now an amazing testimony to the grace of God. Like David, he too can say his life is an example to many. 

And so the challenge to us is this – as reformed sinners can we too be examples to those around us, telling about God’s strength and protection, and declaring His glory all day long? A thought for today?

A Life with God

Posted on by korgrocker

“For you are my hope, Lord GOD,
my confidence from my youth. 
I have leaned on you from birth;
you took me from my mother’s womb. 
My praise is always about you. 
Don’t discard me in my old age. 
As my strength fails, do not abandon me.
Psalm 71:5-6,9 CSB

Who can say that God has been their hope all the way from their youth until their old age? That was the case with David, as we can see from reading this Psalm today. He even goes as far as to say that God was with him even from the moment he was born. When he wrote these verses, David was obviously approaching his twilight years, but reading the Psalm you can see he was still being pursued by undesirable people, a common theme throughout his life. In verse 4 he wrote, ”Deliver me, my God, from the power of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and oppressive”. 

In verses 17 and 18, the Psalmist wrote this: “God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still proclaim your wondrous works. Even while I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me, while I proclaim your power to another generation, your strength to all who are to come.” David wasn’t going to retire quietly. He wasn’t going to fade into oblivion, disappearing into the grave without completing his mission in life. And the one thing he mentioned was that he was going to ensure that the next generation knew about God’s power and strength. Not for David was an epitaph on a tombstone, nice words but largely unread and of little impact on those around him.

I’ve blogged before about the legacy we will leave when we cross the great divide. Although I was brought up in a Christian home and went to church with my parents, I was in my late twenties before I made a personal commitment for Christ. But there is one thing that I am confident of – I will be a follower of Christ for the rest of my life. Furthermore, being a closet Christian, someone who hides his light instead of being a beacon of hope and light in his community, is not for me. I recently heard a Sunday message about sharing our faith, and how important it is that we have our stories ready for the times when God wants us to share them. And also to be ready with the “Sinner’s Prayer”, for when we get the opportunity to lead someone to Christ. David was focused on sharing what he knew about God with the next generation, and asked God to be with him while he did it. We too must be focused on the mission God has given us. And He will be with us while we do His will. Note that sharing our story is not something we do at the end of our lives. Jesus didn’t say in Matthew 28, “Therefore [when you are a pensioner] go and make disciples of all nations…“. No – making disciples was an instruction Jesus left for all His followers, young and old. Sharing our stories will often be the start of the disciple-making process. 

In verse 9 of this Psalm, David asks that God doesn’t abandon him in his old age, as his strength fails. He doesn’t necessarily mean physical strength, but mental strength as well. So many dear saints come to the end of their lives, blighted by illnesses such as dementia. The last few words of Matthew 28 read, “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age“. God will never abandon us, even when we are failing in our last days. And a new body is waiting for us in our future home. What a wonderful God He is.

Book of Life

Posted on by korgrocker

Charge them with crime upon crime;
do not let them share in your salvation.
May they be blotted out of the book of life
and not be listed with the righteous.
Psalm 69:27-28

David is bothered by his enemies again. And he spends time and ink in thinking and writing about what he would like God to do about them. “Let their eyes go blind”; “Pour our Your fury”; “Let their homes go desolate”; “Pile their sins up high”. Such sentiments appear in David’s thoughts. And he finishes this section appealing to God, that He would erase their names from the Book of Life. 

The Book of Life. A book where God writes down the names of His righteous ones. His sons and daughters. All those who, through Jesus, have an inheritance in Heaven. References to the “Book of Life” appear in both the Old and New Testaments. There are preconditions to having our names recorded in this Heavenly Book. Those who have overcome evil, those who don’t practise idolatry and dishonesty; those who are not sinners or unrighteous – these are all qualities that will ensure our names will be recorded. But why is it the Book of Life? I suppose another name would perhaps be the Register of God’s People. Or perhaps “Afterlife” would also be an appropriate reference. But whatever we call it, it is of paramount importance that our names are written in it. Imagine how we would feel, standing at the pearly gates, hoping to gain entry into Heaven, perhaps seeing people we have known waiting for us, but being turned away because our names are not written in the Book of Life.

There is only one way to ensure that our names are recorded. And that is through Jesus. It is through our acceptance that we have sinned, have repented of those sins, and that we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. In Romans 10:9-10, the Apostle Paul wrote, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” So there you have it. If your name is not written in the Book of Life, don’t waste any time. My name is there. How about yours?

Paranoia?

Posted on by korgrocker

Those who hate me without reason
outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal.

But I pray to you, Lord,
in the time of your favour.
in your great love, O God,
answer me with your sure salvation.
Rescue me from the mire,
do not let me sink;
deliver me from those who hate me,
from the deep waters.

Psalm 69:4,13-14 NIVUK

Is David being paranoid here? Apparently, the average number of hairs on a person’s head is about 100,000. So did this many people really hate David? Were his thoughts being driven by his feelings of persecution and a lack of justice, or was he really in a very difficult place? Whatever the answer would be to this question, David always ending up being reminded of God and His love, salvation and deliverance. And he prayed. David was doing what we all do from time to time. Who has never wondered what other people are thinking about us? Who has never had thoughts that the whispering and quick glances in our direction are gossip about us? David was setting out his feelings, graphically describing what was going on inside of him. And the expression of the negatives were followed through by his arrival on God’s door step. Where he prayed and received the assurance that he was seeking. And in the process he was setting us an example to follow when we too feel a bit paranoid. 

Burdens

Posted on by korgrocker

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, 
who daily bears our burdens.”
Psalms‬ ‭68:19 ‭NIVUK‬‬

How can it be that every day, God will bear our burden? That’s what David wrote in this verse in Psalm 68. But what is a burden? The dictionary refers to a heavy load – imagine a rucksack filled with all that is needed for a camping trip and food for a week. And we have to carry it for miles across the Scottish moors. Another definition is perhaps something repetitively unpleasant, that needs to be dealt with every day.

But what is the Psalmist referring to? I think his mind is dwelling on the difficulties of living in an environment where things are hard. An environment where every day issues and problems weigh us down but have to be faced and they never seem to go away. The burden of caring for a loved one, who is suffering from an illness that never seems to get better. The burden carried by a parent trying to look after a child with acute learning difficulties. The burden of dealing with an illness such as arthritis, so severe that just getting up in the morning is almost too much to achieve. Even the burdens associated with our senior years, where, physically, we now cannot do the things we used to find so easy. The burdens that the Lord will carry are those that we are struggling to carry ourselves. And we cry out to Him for relief, in faith receiving the help we need. We cry out to Him daily, perhaps many times each day, because He is always there for us. And many testify to God’s burden-carrying help.

God uses His people to become “burden bearers”. It says in Galatians 6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.” So today, daily, we must look around us to see who is having difficulty carrying their burdens. Paul in his letter to the Galatians wasn’t supplying an invitation. It was a command to do something in accordance with God’s law. It may be something as simple as putting out somebody’s refuse bins. Or running an errand. Or helping with transport to a hospital appointment. Something practical and simple that costs us little but helps the person in need through a crisis that otherwise would have been almost too much for them to bear. It could also be to invite someone in for a cup of coffee and a chat, because loneliness can be a terrible burden. Yes, it may cost us something in terms of our time and money, but who knows, one day we too might have an intolerable burden we struggle to carry. We must pray for God to reveal to us what burdens He wants us to carry on behalf of others – we will probably be very surprised at what He says!

So we can look up to our wonderful Saviour God, praising Him for His intimate interest in our everyday lives. I’m looking out of my office window as I type. All quiet at the moment. No obvious burdens or people in need. But wait a minute – the lady next door might need a lift to the shops. Perhaps I need to knock her door and ask her. And what did God say to me in my prayer walk this morning?

Processions

Posted on by korgrocker

Your procession, God, has come into view,
the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
In front are the singers, after them the musicians;
with them are the young women playing the tambourines.
Praise God in the great congregation;
praise the Lord in the assembly of Israel.
Psalm 68:24-26

Processions. The British people love their processions. At royal weddings. On days of great occasions. Cavalry, beautifully dressed on especially chosen horses. Lines of soldiers marching in perfect unison. A band playing rousing music. The cheering crowds waving flags. A great time of national fervour. In Scotland, we have the occasional town gala, with floats depicting local and other themed displays, accompanied by pipe and accordion bands, threading their way through a town centre and ending in a park for a picnic or some other event. But there are, of course, sad processions as well. The funeral cavalcade. People dressed in black, walking slowly and sadly behind a black hearse and a limousine or two.

But when did we last observe a procession in honour of God? A procession made up of God’s people, playing instruments, musical and percussion, and choirs singing His praises? It must have been a wonderful sight in David, the Psalmist’s, day. A wonderful time to join in the experience and get lost in an abandonment of praise to our wonderful and amazing God. Occasionally we have a procession of religious or academic dignitaries pompously walking through a university city. Or sometimes a church will have an Easter parade for a short distance, ending in the local church. But what about the praising excitement of a procession in honour of our God? The King above all kings. Our wonderful Saviour. Not an embarrassed walk of a few people in a line, largely ignored by the community through which they pass. A procession worthy of God’s honour, noisy with shouts of praise, attended by many people, with cheering and a wonderful sense of God at the head of the procession. In several places in Scripture there are references to wonderful processions – we have a Biblical model to follow.

O Lord. Please forgive us for not giving You the honour and the public praise that is Yours by right.

God’s Provision

Posted on by korgrocker

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, 
is God in his holy dwelling. 
God sets the lonely in families, 
He leads out the prisoners with singing; 
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”
Psalms‬ ‭68:5-6‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

In this Psalm, the author, David, puts his finger on two people groups who were social outcasts in his day. Orphans and widows. In a society without a social security safety net, these people were vulnerable to abuse and injustice. In His time spent with God up the mountain, Moses particularly highlighted and wrote about those people in his society who were in need (Deuteronomy 10:18), and David repeats the principle in these verses. The verses we are reading today declare that God would provide for the orphans and widows. In those days, begging was a common way of receiving provision, as well as the expectation that friends, neighbours and the wealthy, would show favour to those in need. But as we read from Jesus’ words in the Gospels, caring for the disadvantaged was an aspiration rather than a realisation.

Today there are still orphans and widows. But the responsibility for looking after them has shifted from members of society to the state, with the provision of benefits for those in need, or foster homes for the orphaned. Progress? Perhaps. But we still have a responsibility, as Christians, to look out for those people in our society who are disadvantaged. Being a friend to the lonely. Keeping an eye on that elderly widow lady next door, doing her shopping or cutting her grass. And through us, God will look after those in social need. But is this an aspiration rather than a realisation? It’s up to us to turn it into a reality.

But what about the prisoners? From what were they being set free? We are all prisoners of something, to a greater or lesser extent. Many things can imprison us. Lack of finance. Mental and physical illness. Disabilities. Loneliness. Abusive neighbours. Lack of education. Substance abuse. The list is endless. But David says that through God we can be set free from the incarceration we experience. We can rise above our cells of misery and want. We can look up through the bars and see our loving Heavenly Father, and be filled with a new song of joy and freedom. One of my favourite Scriptures is Isaiah 40, and the last verse reads, “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Through God we can soar into Heavenly places, elevated from our bi-dimensional existence. 

Finally, there is a sad side to these verses. The last part of verse 6 mourns the fact that those who have rebelled against God, by rejecting or ignoring Him, will have to live in a dry and hot place. Is this a prophetic muse about the time to come, when those who have rejected God will spend eternity in the place of their default choice?

But back to the message in these verses. As God’s servants on this planet we have a responsibility to look after those less fortunate than ourselves. And when we do so we too will have song in our hearts. 

Connections

Posted on by korgrocker

“May the nations praise you, O God. 
Yes, may all the nations praise you. 
Then the earth will yield its harvests, 
and God, our God, will richly bless us. 
Yes, God will bless us, 
and people all over the world will fear him.”
Psalms‬ ‭67:5-7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We continue in Psalm 67. Just a short Psalm but it’s positivity uplifts and encourages our lives. And at the end of this Psalm, the Psalmist makes the connection between the national praise of God and universal provision for mankind. But how can that be? How can that connection work in our so called sophisticated societies, consumed by our love of gadgets and secular philosophies? The answer is that it won’t, and doesn’t. There is a special relationship available to all, between us and our loving Creator God. That personal connection started at Calvary’s cross and will never end because we will live with God Himself forever. 

But back to praise and provision. When we start praising God we are transformed into a new dimension where He Himself overtakes the world in relevance and importance. Where the Divine supersedes the mundane. Where we are elevated into Heavenly places far from the drudgery most experience. The Psalmist paints a picture of a perfect world where every person in every nation knows God intimately and all praise Him together. What an amazing place that would be. And to be an inhabitant of such a world would be too wonderful to get our minds around. But that’s never going to happen, I hear the sceptical and cynical unbeliever say. Well, I’ve got some good news and bad news. One day such a world will exist, because God said so. Read Revelation 21. And we who are God’s people will populate that new Heaven and new Earth. The bad news is for those people who have chosen not to be inhabitants of the new world to come. But don’t worry. Another place has been reserved for them.

The last line of this Psalm brings in the word “fear”. Do I fear God? As a child of God, I don’t “fear” Him with feelings of terror and panic, imagining being in perilous and life-threatening situations. The “fear” I have of God is a sense of respect and awe. I am not afraid that He is about to zap me because I’ve done something wrong. We have a wonderful Heavenly Father. A God who loves us, cares for us, forgives us, is gracious to us. Is patient with us. The wonderful qualities of God fill His Book, the Bible. When we read it we are changed. Transformed. And all we can do in response is praise Him.