Savoring the Scripture

  Depending on the Lord for Our Children Psalm 127 Success depends on the Lord, not on our efforts. Tremper Longman  Thousands of years ago, the men of the world gathered together to build a city and a tower. They desired a name for themselves and independence from God. They dreamed of a tower so great that it would reach to heaven. And in one act, the Lord caused them to cease building the city and drove them abroad over the face of the earth (Genesis 11:1-9). Not too long after this event, a man was born who would become known as the friend of God. We know that Abraham and his wife, Sarah, did not conceive a child until they were well past child-bearing age. But God had made a promise and God had a plan, and therefore “from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore” (Hebrews 11:12). What an illustration of the truth from Psalm 127! “Unless the Lord builds the house, tho...

The Father Who Fears the Lord Psalm 128 …your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. Psalm 128:3-4 Father. Dad. Papa. God has ordained that the leader of our families be the man. He is the head of the household and the one God has appointed to shepherd the family. Psalm 128 calls fathers, and husbands, to be men who fear the Lord, because their fear of the Lord blesses not only themselves, but their wives and children as well.  What does it mean to fear the Lord? To fear the Lord “is an acknowledgment of God’s central place and power. Those who fear the Lord will be humble, not proud, and will listen to God’s laws and advice. Those who fear the Lord thus walk in obedience to him” (Longman). The one who fears the Lord “walks in the ways of the Lord by observing love, fidelity, and uprightness. The person who fears the Lord is one of integrity” (VanGemeren).  The psalmist of Psalm 34 teaches us what it is t...

  Hope Beyond the Walls of the World Psalm 126 …where tears are the very wine of blessedness. Tolkien  Psalm 126 continues the Psalms of Ascent as part of book five of the Psalms, which emphasizes living in obedience and by faith to the King, who reigns “when all of the evidence of life appears to contradict the truth” (Futato). Psalm 126 expresses the Isrealites’ gratefulness for the Lord fulfilling His promise to return them to their land after the exile. While living in exile they had experienced great sorrow, and yet they knew of the promises that God had made to return them to their own land (Isaiah 14:1-3). So when the Lord finally brought them back from exile, they “were like those who dream” (126:1), and they were “filled with joy” (126:3 NIV). However, this psalm is also a prayer for His continued blessing while they wait, as things are not yet as they ought to be. Their fortunes were not yet restored (126:4), and they were deeply dependent on God’s blessing for the f...

Immovable as a Mountain Psalm 125 Assurance blossoms into prayer. Derek Kidner  Mountains have long been a beautiful, awe-inspiring picture of stability and strength. We gaze on their immensity and beauty and we are filled with wonder. Mountains are formed when tectonics plates in the Earth’s crust move and collide. Specifically volcanic mountains are formed when pressure and heat build up and force lava out, and the magma then cools and hardens forming more mountain mass. Fold mountains form when there is “a great deal of fiction or pressure that builds up along the plate edges as they shift and move against one another” (world atlas.com). Collision, pressure, heat, friction. These all contribute to the forming of beautiful, majestic, immovable mountains. So it is with us. The Lord uses the pressures, heat, and friction of life to build in us an immovable trust in Him.   The Lord says through the psalmist, “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be move...