Psalm 119:113-128

 

Psalm 119:113-120 Samek:  Find courage for your path in God’s word.

Walking in the light of God’s word is not just a matter of knowing where to go; it requires great courage.  The “narrow path” is scary, full of intimidating enemies.  At the same time, God’s people are not only looking for protection; they are looking to advance in the face of those fearsome situations.  If you wonder about this, just read The Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament and see how the very men who ran from danger in the garden of Gethsemane later fearlessly preached the gospel in a hostile world.

Perhaps that is the kind of context this stanza has in mind.  The Psalmist fears being ashamed of the One in Whom he hopes (114-115).  He is concerned with safety (117).  He does not want the outcome of those who stray from the truth (118-119).  It is no time for the ambivalence of the double-minded (113).  He needs God to be his “hiding place” and “shield” (114).

Do we not find this to be our situation?  We desire to know God’s will for our lives and in specific situations.  Then God’s word shines it’s light on our path and feet, only to reveal that the next step is fearful.  We may hesitate; we may even take the seemingly easy way around, only to find that we have missed God’s blessing.

Our Lord, in the hour before His greatest trial, was on His knees before His Father in Gethsemane.  The disciples who ran were not, though Jesus had warned them of the need for courage in the face of the coming temptation (Mt. 26:41).

The Psalmist prays for that which he must have in the face of trial.  First, “uphold me” (116) so I have the backbone to face the onslaught of the enemy.  Then, “hold me” (117) so I can be safely protected.  God does both as our hiding place and shield.

What a blessing to know that God not only leads us but He provides for us as we follow the way He lays out for us.  Is your pathway treacherous?  Bow before the Lord and plead His mercy and grace to help that you might boldly walk the path He has laid out for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm 119:121-128 Ayin:  Trust God’s word when the trial is oppressive.

This stanza concerns itself with “oppression” (v121-122).  Oppression is what the strong do to the weak.  Knowing that the weak have no strength in themselves the oppressors enslave them; they hurt them; they take advantage of them.  The oppressors are proud (122).  They regard God’s law as void (126), thinking that dependence on the word of God is just part of the weakness of those they mistreat.

Is this not common in our afflictions?  We seek to live according to Scripture (121).  In fact we love God’s word (127).  But those around us consider that to be a weakness.  With pride they brashly beat the people of the Word with their own words.  We see it in the ridicule of atheists or in the words of a loved one who tells us how foolish we are to spend so much time in the Book.  The constant attacks may cause us to wear out as we seek God’s deliverance from our affliction (123).

So what are we to do?  What are God’s people to do any time they operate out of weakness?  Let us be clear that the answer is not that we are to try to beat the proud at their own game.  We are not to think that we can be more snide or brash in our words. We may engage them in honest debate, but we must not try to win by making fun of them or putting them down.

Instead we will do what the Psalmist does.  In our weakness we will plead God’s mercy (124).  Mercy is for those who know they are weak.  And God is full of mercy (Ex. 34:6-7). 

In our seeming servitude to the mighty of this world we will come to God as His servants. 

o v122: the servant of God asks God to be his surety or security.  Servants have no standing of their own and depend on the kindness of their Master to stand for them.

o v124: the servant of God asks God to be merciful, desiring only to know the will of the Master that he might follow it.  If it leads to a greater cross, so be it. 

o v125: the servant of God affirms that he is not the servant of those earthly masters who oppress him.  “I am Your servant.” 

Is the enemy oppressive?  Do you feel that you are about to cave under the pressure?  Remind yourself that this path is the one laid out for you by your Sovereign Lord.  You serve Him and Him alone.  Love His will, plead His mercy, and continue to follow Him today.

Gal. 2:11-21, Sent for the Lord’s Calling 2

There are two more strategic terms to consider in the “sending” of Barnabas and Saul.  First, the church sent them away, freed them up for ministry (13:3).  But 13:4 says they were “sent out” by the Holy Spirit.  This word is ekpempō, which is properly translated because it means to “send away.”  It combines the preposition ek referring to a point of origin, and pempō meaning “to send or dispatch.” The church needed to release them and the Holy Spirit would tell them where to go for this ministry.  This term is used one other time in Ac. 17:10 when the brethren sent Paul and Silas away from Berea by night.

Then, in Ac. 13:2 we have the Lord’s instruction to “separate” these men to Me.  This term is aphorizō, another compound term with the apo prefix (to separate) with the verb orizō meaning to mark out boundaries, to determine or appoint.  So the elders at Antioch were to make a distinction between these two men and the rest of the leadership or the rest of the church.  There is a strong sense of identifying of these particular men.  Note this appointing or separating in the other uses of aphorizō in the NT.

·       Mt. 13:49: At the end of the age angels will separate the wicked from among the just.  See the definite boundary, marking out some from the whole of humanity.

·       Mt. 25:32: At the judgment of the nations Christ will separate as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

·       Lk. 6:22: The righteous are blessed when men hate them and exclude them.  To be ignored or ostracized for Christ’s sake brings a blessing.

·       Ac. 19:9: At Ephesus, among the Jews, some were hardened and did not believe the gospel, so Paul departed from them and withdrew the disciples, taking his ministry to the school of Tyrannus.

·       Rom. 1:1: Paul, bondservant of Christ, called an apostle, was separated to the gospel of God. 

·       2 Cor. 6:17: “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.”

·       Gal. 1:15: God separated Paul from his mother’s womb and called him through His grace.

·       Gal. 2:12: Peter separated himself wrongfully from the Gentile believers when some came from James, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

There are times for hard lines to be drawn, including in the calling to ministry.  This is, as we see in Ac. 13, one of the Spirit’s duties as He exalts Christ in His Church.  As always, we need to listen to what the Spirit says to the Church!

Acts 13:1-4; 15:30-35, Released for the Lord’s Calling 1

Let’s consider the “sending” words in Acts 13:1-4.  The Holy Spirit instructed the elders at Antioch to “separate to Me” Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.  The elders “sent them away.” So “being sent out by the Holy Spirit they went and sailed.  Their calling was from the Lord but they were sent by the church.  As usual, the specific terms make it clear who did what.

Start in v3: “they sent them away.”  The Greek term is apōluō, a term combining the preposition apō (separation of a part from the whole) and the verb luō (to loose any person or thing).  Thus the Holy Spirit is directing them to free Barnabas and Saul from their responsibilities at the Antioch church.  Whatever obligations they had were to be eliminated and they were to be freed up to do their work.

We need to do a complete listing of the 69x this term is used in the NT so we will do that here.  The idea of “release” has strong ties to the gospel and the work of Christ on the cross.  In all these cases someone is being released from obligations.

First: “divorce” is a releasing of one’s spouse, including Joseph’s plan to “put away” Mary (Mt. 1:19).  Jesus taught on “divorce” (Mt. 5:31,32; 19:3,7,8,9; Mk. 10:2,4,11,12; Lk. 16;18).

Second, it was used of sending away a crowd, including the feeding of multitudes when Jesus did not want to send them away without feeding them (Mt. 14:15,22,23; 15:32,29; Mk. 6:36,45; 8:3,9; Lk. 9:12; Ac. 19:41; 28:25).

Third, it was used of releasing prisoners including whether to release Barabbas or Jesus (Mt. 27:15,17,21,26; Mk. 15:6,9,11,15; Lk. 22:68; 23:16,17,18,20,22,25; Jn. 18:39; 19:10,12; Ac. 3:13) and of the apostles and others accused of gospel preaching (Ac. 4:21,23; 5:40; 16:35,36; 17:9; 23:22; 26:32; 28:18; Hb. 13:23).

It is used of “forgiveness” (releasing one from a debt, Mt. 18:27; Lk. 6:37).  It is used of release from infirmities (Lk. 13:12; 14:4), demon possession (Lk. 8:38), those delivering the decision of the council (Ac. 15:30,33).  The disciples wanted Jesus to sent away the Syrophoenician woman because she was causing trouble but Jesus had compassion on her (Mt. 15:23).  And Simeon, God having promised him he would see the Savior before he died, knew when he saw the Child at the temple that he was released from this life (Lk. 2:29).

This brings us back to Acts 13:3. Saul and Barnabas were among the prophets and teachers at Antioch and those are positions with obligations.  They had been called of Christ to do this.  But now the Lord had a different direction.  Saul knew from the time of his conversion that this day would come (Ac. 9:15-16; 22:14-21).  Jesus, the Head of the Church, works with His gifted men (Eph. 4:11) to do His will.  This is how a church, even now, should work!  Releasing people to do what the Lord has called them to do!

Romans 16

·       16:1-27: Encourage the gospel locally.

Paul was concerned with individual churches as well as the Body of Christ in all the world.  We see it in this chapter, in a way we see it in most of his letters to churches.  He knew people in these churches.  He sought to encourage them. 

You may consider it trivial as you read through 16:1-16, but I assure you, it is not.  First, in this longest list of “greetings” in any of his letters, Paul describes a wonderful church family.  In this church are:

Fellow-workers.  House churches.  Long time converts.  Dear friends of Paul.  Relatives of Paul.  Fellow-prisoners of Paul.  Women who work hard.  Slaves.  Married couples.  Jewish Christians.  Notable households.  Children of notable Christians. Partial families.  Young single men.

In general, there was social diversity, national diversity and religious diversity (various religions from which these people had come when they trusted Christ). 

Paul’s encouragement to this church also involved an admonition to deal with those who cause division.  This was standard for his letters because there was not a church that did not deal with issues that could be divisive if not handled in a wise and godly manner. 

Then he encouraged them with these words: And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.  Amen.  These are words of hope, to be sure.  But there are differences as to exactly what Paul was referring to in mentioning Satan.  Was it the previous people who caused division, who were serving Satan in causing disunity among the brethren?  Is it the final crushing of Satan when Christ returns, an event said to be happening “shortly” in Rev. 22:7,12,20?  Is it a reference to Nero or perhaps Claudius who had banished the Jewish people, including Jewish believers in Christ, from Rome (Ac. 18:2).  He specifically says that Satan will be crushed under “your feet.”  This sounds more like a victory for the gospel than a victory over the political enemies of the day.  Whatever the meaning, again we must agree, it was a word of encouragement for a church that was facing a particular attack attributable to Satan.

The closing verses (16:25-27) are also a great encouragement.  Because of the gospel of the grace of God that was working in these believers, Paul could assure them that they would be established, that God would complete the work that He had started in them.  He is reminding them, and us, that the content of this Epistle to the Romans, being the good news that is God’s power unto salvation (1:16-17), is sufficient to complete His work in them and to thus bring eternal glory to Jesus Christ.  Amen!

Romans 15

Question #10: What work is worthy of the gospel? Rom. 15:13-16:27

In this last part of the Epistle to the Romans the Spirit led Paul to illustrate for us the greatest of all “works” for the Christian.  It is the greatest because it is the work that Christ Himself was doing and continues to do to this day.  He said it in Matt. 16:18: I will build My Church!  It involves us because we believe we are included when He commissioned His disciples to go therefore and make disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:19-20).  Paul was deeply connected to this building project.  We know it from statements such as what he made in 2 Corinthians 11:28, after listing his many afflictions (stoning, shipwreck, constant perils), that he said besides all these was what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 

In answer to this final question, Paul gives two answers: his involvement in building the Church globally (15:14-33), and his involvement in building the Church locally (16:1-27).  Remember that back in Romans 1 (v8-16), Paul described the servant of the gospel, again using himself as an example.  He longed to be able to visit Rome and build up the Church in that locality, but was often hindered because of his building up the Church globally. 

·       15:14-33: Encourage the gospel globally.

In this passage Paul gives a report of the work to which he was called (Acts 13:1-4).  It is believed Paul wrote the Romans letter from Corinth, during a 3-month period near the end of his third missionary journey.  At that time he spoke of his hope to journey to Rome (Ac. 19:21), which he also mentions here (15:22).  Paul does report that he had preached the gospel from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum (15:19).  Illyricum was a province of Rome on the Adratic coast north of Greece (NW of “MACEDONIA” on the map).  Acts does not tell us of Paul being there but it could have been on either his second or third missionary journeys.  (See accompanying map.)  He also tells the Romans of his future plans, to go to Jerusalem, then come to them on his way to Spain.  We do know he went to Jerusalem, and then after two years in prison in Caesarea the Roman empire paid his expenses for a voyage to Rome (Ac. 27-28).  Whether he made it to Spain is also unknown.  But the point it: Paul was committed to global evangelism, and he also encouraged local churches to be part of his global ministry (Phil. 1:5; 4:14-20).