Psalm 84

Jacob, when he moved to Egypt in the time of Joseph, told Pharaoh the days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life (Gen. 47:9).  The Bible says of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that they waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10).  They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Heb. 11:13).  They desired a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them (Heb. 11:16).


Failure to have this perspective in life is the cause of disappointment, sorrow, bitterness, immoral behavior, frustration, pride and selfishness.  Those who can never come to the place of setting their heart on pilgrimage (Ps. 84:5) can never be truly happy in this life, properly called the Valley of Baca (“tears” in 84:6).  True satisfaction of the soul will always elude the person who determines to find it in this life, whose soul does not long for, yes, even faint for the courts of the Lord, whose heart and flesh do not cry out for the living God (84:2).


The pilgrim songs in the Bible’s great Hymnbook are among my personal favorites.  There is a whole collection, from 120-134, in which the pilgrim makes his way from his home to Jerusalem, leaving behind the evil that engulfs him in order to find a deeper relationship with God.  In Old Testament times that meant going to the tabernacle/temple, the place of God’s dwelling.  In addition to the collection there are many others that refer to the temple or sanctuary, each of them in some sense being the song of the pilgrim.  I consider Psalm 84 to be the chief of those songs as it most clearly calls us all to make this journey to God.


To make pilgrimage today is not to go to Jerusalem or any other holy location.  It is to commune with God through His word and prayer.  May I emphasize the essential of His word in our communion?  It is the only sure way we have of hearing from God.  And it is God’s way of reaching into the deepest recesses of our soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12-13).  


To be on pilgrimage is to walk the walk of faith.  The Psalm concludes with this bottom line: O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You! (84:12).  But it is trusting God as we realize that we are only temporary on this earth, that this is not where we truly are at home.  To use a very Biblical term, we are strangers here.  It means we don’t cling tightly to the things of this earth nor do we ever expect to be truly satisfied with what this world can offer.  Rather when we hear God and trust God and thus obey God we find that in this life there is the deepest of satisfactions.  For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly (84:11).  The tears of the valley become a spring of the freshest water so that we go from strength to strength (84:7).  


No, I am not kidding.  This is for real.  Nor am I trying to tell you that I have achieved a place on this road constantly.  But I can tell you without hesitation: a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere (84:10).  Let us walk this road together.

1 Thess. 4:6-8; Psalm 51, Vengeance

Several posts ago we put the outline for this passage that deals with sexual immorality.  We have come to a matter that many people might find difficult: vengeance.  Difficult or not it is the word of God.  If you struggle with a God of vengeance pay attention to this passage.  It reveals the love of God for the weak and oppressed.

·        The God of vengeance, v6b.  This should be general knowledge for believers.  But it is possible that even Christians will forget this truth as we talk so much about God’s forgiveness in the realm of sin.  Sin forgiven does not mean punishment is withdrawn.  “I’m sorry” does not mean no consequences.  David is a sufficient illustration of one who was forgiven and who then reaped grievous consequences.  Consider David’s consequences from 2 Samuel:

o   Guilt, real and felt (12:1-9; Ps. 38,51).

o   Sword in his house (12:10; Amnon killed by Absalom; Absalom by Joab; Adonijah by Solomon).

o   Retribution (the law of the harvest, vengeance; 12:11-12).

o   Shame brought upon God (12:14).

o   Death of the child (12:14-23).

o   Curse (God’s blessing withdrawn, 12:16-19).

o   Leadership paralysis (13:21: did not deal with Amnon; 14: did not make right decisions concerning Absalom).

·        The causes of vengeance, v7-8.

o   Note first that it says the Lord is the avenger of all such.  The “such” Paul speaks of are those who are defrauded by sexual immorality.  In these days of #metoo when many people are up in the air about abuse of women we should remember God has always had this concern and not just for political advantages.  This reflects His compassion.  

o   Sexual sin denies God’s purpose for us.  We are not called to uncleanness (filth) but to holiness (Eph. 1:4).  Remember that the broad context of Paul’s teaching in 1 Thess. 4 is sanctification, which is the will of God (4:3).  In other words, this is more than illicit sex; it is a denial of God’s work in our lives.

o   Sexual sin denies God’s presence in us.  You may remember in Psalm 51, David’s confession, that David understood what v8 says: he did not merely sin against man but against God (Ps. 51:4)!  This is the primary issue with sexual sin: we are the temple of God and sin against the body shames the Lord in the most profound way.

We believe that paying close attention to these thoughts will help us understand that the judgment of God makes sense.  Whether or not it makes sense it is still a fact: the Lord is the avenger of all such!

1 Thess. 4:3-6; Eph. 5:22-33, Conflict Resolution

MAN		WOMAN
Image of God	RESPECT	Image of God
HEAD	CREATION	HELPER
HARSH RULE	SIN	COVETS HEADSHIP
LOVE	REDEMPTION	SUBMISSION

Let us review. The man and the woman, created equally in the image of God, given specific responsibility by the Lord, through sin have lost the joy of their relationship.  How can this be resolved?  As Albert Barnes put it, this can only happen through a spiritual resurrection.  There must be a fundamental change that overcomes the curse.

IV.            Enjoyment regained (the resolution of marital conflict), Eph. 5.

At the center of enjoyment regained is the new birth, our becoming one with Christ in His death and resurrection and being made new creatures.  In terms of marriage the centrality of Christ is nowhere more apparent than in 1 Cor. 11:3: But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.  Christ sets the pattern for both the husband and wife.  As a man is the head of his wife so Christ is the head of the man.  As a woman is submissive to a man so Christ is submissive to His Father.  Whether man or woman our new life in Christ is essential to living out a satisfying and God-honoring relationship.  This must be clear.  We are not simply saying we can regain what was lost by love and submission; we are saying that only through the power of God’s Spirit which we have in Christ can we live in love and submission.


Love and submission are the key terms for the marital relationship in the NT (Eph. 5:22,25; Col. 3:18-19; 1 Pet. 3:1-7).  The roles are still headship and helper (e.g. 1 Tim. 3:4,12; 5:10,14; Titus 2:4-5) but the contentious relationship is corrected by love and submission.

·        LOVE.  The definition of love is wrapped up in Christ: God is love!  There is no greater love than the love of Christ in His sacrificial death (1 Jn. 4:7-11).  The one who loves gives his life for his beloved.  The emphasis is on giving and sacrifice.

·        SUBMISSION.  The definition of submission is wrapped up in Christ as well: He is the Servant.  Jesus exemplified submission in John 13 when He taught all His disciples to wash each other’s feet.  It is clearly seen in Mark 10 when twice He asks the open-ended question of the servant: what do you want Me to do for you (10:36,51).  The one who submits seeks the good of the other.  They live their life for the other.

The subject of today’s post is huge.  We only mean to speak of it in terms of the marriage relationship and hope to show that the reconciliation we have through Christ reaches to this most critical relationship.  Let us pursue Christ and in so doing let us enjoy each other.

1 Thess. 4:3-6; Gen. 3:1-13,16, Marital Conflict

Very often the husband fails to lead, following the leading of his wife when she was not following God.  Here are four illustrations: Adam and Eve (Gen. 3); Abraham and Sara (Gen. 16); Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kings 21); and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).  Think on this as we consider the loss of joy in marriage in Gen. 3.

III.            Enjoyment lost (the source of marital conflict), Genesis 3. 

Many major issues were at work when sin entered the world.  It begins with questioning God’s word (v1).  The woman dealt directly with Satan when the husband should have had a concern for her spiritual welfare (v2-3).  We see “the lie” that has forever been man’s plague (v4-5; 2 Th. 2:11).  Eve experienced full temptation: lust of the flesh (good for food), lust of the eyes (pleasing to the eye), and pride of life (you will be like God).  Sadly Adam was there but did not lead (v6b).  The consequences are still with us: shame (v7), separation from God (v8), fear (v9-10), blaming others  (v11-13).  Also with us today is the curse (v14-19).

The last two lines of Gen. 3:16 are pertinent to marriage and the loss of joy: your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.  You may read this and think it is simply saying the woman will submit to her husband and he will be the leader.  But that cannot be the correct interpretation.  That was true before they sinned and that is true when we are in Christ; that is not a curse.  Instead we should understand that the woman’s desire is a sinful desire and the man’s ruling a sinful ruling.  Her desire is akin to the desire sin had in Cain in Gen. 4:7; it is the same word.  The woman seeks her husband’s position of leadership.  In response the husband rules her harshly.  We will support this from various commentaries:

Thomas Conant, commentary, 1868, “The stronger party in this relation, instead of being the natural guardian & protector of the weaker, would use his superior power to oppress and debase her. 

Henry Morris, The Genesis Record, p123. Such harsh ‘rule,’ of course, went far beyond ‘God’s intention. Though the husband was to be the head of the house, he was to love and cherish his wife, considering her to be ‘one flesh’ with himself, ‘clinging to his wife’ (Gen 2:23,24).”

Albert Barnes, p126f.  Under fallen man, woman has been more or less a slave. In fact, under the rule of selfishness, the weaker must serve the stronger. A spiritual resurrection only will restore her to her true place, as the helpmeet for man.


In the end what was introduced was an intense competition in the marriage.  The woman no longer was a help to her husband but, in essence, sought to replace him.  The man responded by abdicating his headship role (both the cruelty of beating her or the cruelty of walking off and letting her have the role that was not hers).  The prevalence of wife battering, sexual assault, pornography (cheapening of women), divorce (inability to remain together) and cohabitation are signs that this competition is still prevalent in our world.  Before we find resolution let us recognize the cause of this loss of joy in marriage; let us recognize it in our own situation.

1 Thess. 4:3-6; Gen. 2;18-25, Marriage Responsibility

It would be helpful to remind ourselves of God’s purposes in marriage.  Why did God bring us together in this amazing union of a man and a woman?

·        Gen. 1:28: children.  Children born into a home with a husband and wife (father and mother) is God’s plan for having godly offspring (Mal. 2:14-15).

·        Gen. 2:18: companionship.  (See also Prov. 2:17; Mal. 2:14; 1 Peter 3:7.)

·        Gen. 2:18: completeness.  The woman was suitable, exactly what the man needed.

·        Eph. 5:22-32: co-witnessing.  Through marriage all can see and understand the relationship of Christ and the Church, of God and Man.

These purposes are not attained by God creating two people exactly the same.  Rather these two, equal people reach their fulfillment as two very different people.

II.            Enjoying marital responsibility, Genesis 2.  The differences between husband and wife are captured in the terms head (1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:23) and helper (Gen. 2:18).

a.     The essence of helping.  (Gen. 2:18-25).  The idea is not difficult.  It is simply helping.  A wife is a companion whose daily life has a lot to do with what God has given her husband to do.  As the well-known description of a noble wife in Prov. 31 indicates, she might be involved in all manner of ways.  A perfect illustration of being a helper is God Himself (Psa. 33:20; Rom. 8:26).

b.     The essence of headship. 

                   i.      The man’s priority relationship with Christ (1 Cor. 11:3).  The man recognizes that, like his wife who looks to him, so he is subject to Christ.  He cannot properly be the head in his home without this.

                ii.      The man’s support of his family by work (1 Tim. 5:6).  God put the man in the garden to care for it.  When sin came along it was the man’s work responsibility that became more difficult through the curse (Gen. 3:17-19).  The point is that work is the husband’s means of caring for his family.

             iii.      The man’s protection of his wife (1 Pet. 3:7).  Many see in the woman being taken from the man’s rib (Gen. 2:21-22) is indicating the protection idea that is called for by Peter when he speaks of the wife as the weaker vessel.

              iv.      The man’s devotion to his wife’s spiritual growth (Eph. 5:26-27).  The man encourages his wife to grow spiritually in her relationship with God.

                 v.      The man’s responsibility for his children (Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:21).  

We mistakenly think that headship is bound up in having the final say in everything.  What we see here is that both helping and being the family head brings with it responsibility.  Marital joy must recognize these different roles and seek, with God’s help, to live them out in love and respect.

1 Thess. 4:3-6; Gen. 1:26-30; Gal. 3:26-29, Equality

Here is an all-too-typical scenario:

§  He (she) was married...

§  Marriage lost it’s excitement...

§  He (she) poured self into job/kids...

§  Someone caught his/her eye...

§  Someone built him/her up (met a need) ...

§  Felt no one would know...

At every step it needed to be stopped! The failures in this scenario are addressed in 1 Th. 4:3-6, being an overall failure to acquire one’s vessel in sanctification and honor.


The issue in life is soul satisfaction.  The fact is that having God alone is always enough (Ps. 73:21-26; 84:1-12; Phil. 4:10-13; Heb. 13:5).  But it is also a fact that God provides for our satisfaction, giving us everything for our enjoyment (1 Tim. 6:17) including food and clothing (Mt. 6:25-34) and marriage (1 Tim. 4:3).  Thus, since marriage is God’s gift we must ask Him about how we can be satisfied deep in our souls.  Satisfying bodily urges by sex falls far short of satisfying the soul through a relationship with one’s wife (Prov. 5:15-20), the delight of your eyes (Ezek. 24:15-18).


There are no cutsie messages on secrets to marriage.  We believe the 1st and best thing is ALWAYS to return to the basics.  Our dissatisfaction is the result of getting away from God’s plan. Thus let us return to the opening chapters of the Bible (Gen 1-3) where God instituted marriage as it was intended.

I.            Enjoying marital equality, Genesis 1.

a.     The fact of marital equality.  (Gal. 3:26-29; Gen. 1:27).  The Bible teaches a basic equality of men and women.

b.     The nature of marital equality.  (Gen. 1:26-30).  It is an equality as fundamental as being created in the image of God.  The thing that separates humanity from the rest of creation is the thing that unites male and female.  The image is not a physical likeness to God who, by nature, has no physical likeness (John 4:35).  Being in God’s image means men and women are like God as being …

                   i.      Moral creatures (Eph. 4:24).

                ii.      Immortal creatures (Lk. 16:22-23).

             iii.      Personal creatures (Gen. 2:7,16; 3:8; we can commune with God).

              iv.      Rational creatures (Deut. 29:29; we can think, understand God’).

                 v.      Ruling creatures (Gen. 1:26,28f).

              vi.      Choosing creatures (Gen. 2:15-17; like God we can choose our actions).

           vii.      Relational creatures (Gen. 2:18; we need each other).

c.     The significance of marital equality.  This is fundamental to respect and honor for each other.  The husband treats his wife as he treats himself (Eph. 5:33; 1 Pt. 3:7).  The wife respects her husband (1 Peter 3:2).  Marital joy begins with recognizing we are both made in the image of God!  Do you see your spouse in this way?

1 Thess. 4:3-6; Gen. 24:1-9, Acquiring Your Vessel

There is much to learn from this paragraph (v3-6).  Here is a simple outline that shows the three related commands:

1)    Know how to possess your own vessel. a)    In sanctification and honor. b)    Not in lustful passion. i)      Like the Gentiles. ii)   Who do not know God.

2)    Don’t transgress. 3)    Don’t defraud your brother.

The word “possess” means to procure something for oneself or to acquire it (Arndt/ Gingrich).  That’s easy to understand.  The more difficult term is “vessel:” what is Paul talking about?  There are basically two possibilities.

·        A man should possess his “body”.  This was the earliest predominant idea among Christian scholars.  Thus Paul is telling men to understand and control his sexual “member”.  That certainly is a point well-taken as in Paul’s day, as in ours, society subscribed to the idea that satisfying sexual urges was essentially un-controlled.  “If it feels good, do it” was the philosophy then as now.  Thus Paul is saying every part of the body must be used in holiness and honor.

·        A man should possess or acquire his “wife”.  This was the rabbinical interpretation. 

o   The New Testament uses this Greek word both ways.  2 Cor. 4:7 speaks of our bodies as earthen vessels.  Peter spoke of a wife as the weaker vessel (1 Pt. 3:7).

o   The immediate context seems to go better with the idea of one’s ‘wife’.  1 Cor. 7:36-39 says the virgin daughter belongs to her father and that violating her defrauds her father.  David’s sin with Bathsheba was a violation against her husband, Uriah the Hittite (1 Ki. 15:5).

o   In the end either way is important in the issue of sexual immorality.

§  We learned from Joseph about the importance of possessing your own body properly.  He remembered the Lord was with him (Gen. 39:2); he was open about his relationship with God (39:3); and he just said no to the temptation through Potiphar’s wife (39:8-10; Titus 2:11-13).

§  On the other hand, the story of Isaac acquiring Rebekah (Gen. 24) and the emphasis in Scripture on enjoying your wife (Prov. 5:15ff) stress the value of possessing one’s wife properly.  For today note some lessons from Gen. 24.

Involve your parents in the search, v1-2.

Recognize the seriousness of courtship, v2.

Make spiritual unity the highest priority, v3-4.

Make prayer the first activity, v12f.

Look for present godliness (not just the promise of future godliness), v14.

Commit to sexual purity, v16.

Court to love, v67.

Psalm 83 (2 Chron. 20:1-30)

The amazing prayer in Psalm 83 is based in the equally amazing story of 2 Chron. 20 when Jehoshaphat prayed “nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You” (20:12).  The situation is very similar, being a threat from Judah’s neighbors: Moab, Ammon and others, 20:1 … Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir, 20:10.  Ps. 83:5-8 mentions this confederacy in even more detail as involving not only the three primary nations but also the Hagrites (Arabs, possibly taking their name from Hagar whose name meant fugitive, people from whom the Trans-Jordan tribes had taken their land, 1Chron. 5:10,18-22), Gebal (a people from the north around Mount Hermon, Josh. 13:5) and Amalek (descendants of one of Esau’s grandsons that lived in southern Canaan (Gen. 36:12).  The motivation of Israel’s neighbors is the same, to remove God’s people from the land promised them in the Abrahamic Covenant, cf. 20:11 and 83:4,12.  In the sense both of the confederacy of nations and the desire to remove Israel from the land it is a situation similar to the situation of modern-day Israel.


The Psalm itself is of great value to the saints of God in every age as it encourages us with the power with God available to His people.  The opening stanza (v1-4) lays this whole matter before God based on His relationship with His people.  Judah’s enemies are, in fact, Your enemies … those who hate You have lifted up their head (v2).  The reason is because we are Your people … Your sheltered ones (v3).  To shelter something/someone is to hide them in a secret place so that their beauty or uniqueness is not marred by the elements (cf. Psalm 29:5; 31:20).  These enemies have come speaking boastful words (v4); so the prayer is that God Himself would not keep silent or hold His peace (v1).  Oh what power we have with God when we remember what He has said of us.  For the believer who is in Christ it is even greater as we come to our Father in the name of Jesus, His Son (John 14:13).


The third stanza (v9-12) contains another illustration of the power of God’s people in prayer, when they seek from God what He has provided in the past.  The Psalmist recalls the days of Deborah and Barak (83:9-10; cf. Judges 4-5) and of Gideon (83:11-12; cf. Judges 6-8; esp. 7:24-25; 8:18-21) when God brought deliverance from Israel’s neighbors that threatened their place in the land.  You may wonder why all these additional Scripture passages are mentioned, thinking you have no time for all this.  May we tell you clearly that to immerse yourself in the word of God is a key to your power with God, if you will.  To remind Him, who knows all things, of what He has done in the past is one of the greatest encouragements to your own faith!  You know you are praying God’s will when You ask Him for what He has done previously.


The prayer concludes (83:13-18) with what is the greatest authority we have in prayer, and that is to ask God to do what will make His name known (v16,18).  To pray this prayer means the one who prays has not come into God’s presence with sin in his heart; he is humble in the presence of the Holy One.  Modern-day Israel must and will learn this.  After the regathering is complete God will cleanse His people.  The greatest glory for holy God is to be worshiped by holy people.


  It also means he realizes that the issue is not Israel's comfort of Israel but the honor of the God who made Israel His treasured possession (Deut. 7:6).  This prayer reminds us of the many times we have heard the cry of little children abba, abba, abba.  We don’t know what they are asking for, but we know they have come to one they know who will answer their question and meet their need.  So with us!  Let us come to our Father, knowing that as His children we are His sheltered ones.  Our cry to Abba allows Him to display His glory by giving us His best (Matt. 7:7-11; Rom. 8:14-17).

1 Thess. 4:3; Genesis 39, Abstinence Illustrated

Today let us consider some illustrations related to abstinence (or lack of the same).

·        Samson.  Judges 14:1-4.

Samson was tricked by Delilah.  What led up to it?  To begin with Samson went to Timnath, in the direction of the Philistine area.  In other words he failed to avoid tempting situations (Prin. #2).  On other occasions he went in that same direction to see His wife during wheat harvest (15:1), to Gaza where he found a prostitute (16:1), and then when he “fell in love” with Delilah.  Note that while Judges 16:4 says the situation was “of the Lord,” in other words that God would use it, it was nevertheless wrong to set his heart on a Philistine woman.  Samson was a Nazarite.

Matthew Henry: That it was weakly and foolishly done of him to set his affections upon a daughter of the Philistines; the thing appeared very improper. Shall one that is not only an Israelite, but a Nazarite, devoted to the Lord, covet to become one with a worshipper of Dagon? Shall one marked for a patriot of his country march among those that are its sworn enemies?

Further he “saw” her.  He set his heart on her, not because she was virtuous or wise or a good helper, but because he saw something in her face or form that was agreeable.  

Note that in 16:4 it says he “fell in love” with her.  He apparently used those words with her as she acknowledges in 16:15.  It is clear that this is the common confusion between lust and love.  The world sees love as beginning with physical attraction and later finding oneness of the soul and spirit.  Amnon, David’s son, was like this (2 Sam. 13:1) he “loved” Tamar.  His love led him to take her by force and then, after raping her, to hate her (13:15).  With both Samson and Amnon, what they thought was good for themselves would cost them their lives.  You can add David (with Bathsheba), Solomon, Shechem, Judah and many others as illustrations of sexual immorality.

·        Joseph.  Genesis 39.  Joseph was apparently well-built and handsome.  But of greater value: he accepted God’s plan and timing for his life (39:9).  And we see that he lived by the three principles of abstinence.  He guarded his heart in that he committed his life to “the dream.”  Joseph’s earlier dreams revealed God’s will for him as well as for his family.  It was the word of God for Joseph.  This sustained him through hardships and kept him from craving what the world offered.  While it is true he could not avoid occasional contact with Potiphar’s wife we see that he avoided her as much as he could (v10).  The Lord was with Joseph (v2-3) and he recognized that sexual immorality was not God’s will.  And we see that when the situation arose he ran from the house.  He fled fornication.  His running got him in trouble with Potiphar but not with God.  It led to his rise to greatness and usefulness to God just as much as the filthy lusts of Samson led to his downfall.

Abstinence form sexual immorality pleases God.  And it blesses the person who practices it!  What else are you looking for?