The Heavens Declare His Righteousness - initial thoughts

The heavens declare his righteousness,

for God himself is judge! Selah
Psalm 50:6

  I have been wondering about this verse a couple of years now. What does it mean that nature declares God's righteousness? How is it that nature can proclaim not only the greatness of God (Ps 19:1-6) but also the goodness of God? This is not a lone passage which speaks to this effect, but it certainly is not a theme that gets a whole lot of attention in the Scriptures so far as I can see. Other relevant passages may include Ps 97:6; 89:5; Rom 1:18-21; Acts 14:16-17; and Matt 5:43-48. I hope to post more thoughts on this in the coming days. But for now I would include a poem by Isaac Watts found in the Treasury of David which makes a good summary of the first verses of this chapter.

No more shall atheists mock his long delay;
His vengeance sleeps no more; behold the day!
Behold! -- the Judge descends; his guards are nigh,
Tempests and fire attend him down the sky.
When God appears, all nature shall adore him.
While sinners tremble, saints rejoice before him.
Heaven, earth and hell, draw near; let all things come,
To hear my justice, and the sinner's doom;
But gather first my saints (the Judge commands),
Bring them, ye angels, from their distant lands.
When Christ returns, wake every cheerful passion,
And shout, ye saints; he comes for your salvation.
Isaac Watts

The Heavens Declare His Righteousness
The Heavens Declare His Righteousness - Final Thoughts

God's Story or Our Story

I haven't listened to the mp3 yet, but it looks to be a very excellent critique of modern evangelicalism. Is the Gospel God's story or our story? Do we do well to tell what difference the Gospel has made in our lives, or should that be a caveat as we tell of the wonders of what God does in the lives of all who call upon Him? The Gospel is not primarily about us; it is about Him!

The last days...

So, the major news of the day is that I am supposed to start work today. Earlier this week I was hired for security work. So, I've spent good portions of the last several days running around and trying to arrange details for that and also for the tutoring job that Bethany is hoping to get.


Then last night, Bethany took me out to a Braves-Rockies game as a wedding present. That was fun as we got to watch them win 4-1 and also got the whole experience complete with free t-shirts, a rain delay, hot dogs, and some spectacular lightning to substitute for fireworks. (You know that either the game is boring or the lightning is good when some of the biggest crowd noise comes after a flash of lightning.) :)

Yesterday's sermon

At church yesterday, I think I heard the best sermon I have ever heard on being a husband as our new pastor works his way through Colossians (though the message was mostly from Eph 5.) It is available as the most recent sermon from either provcast.org or on iTunes under "Provcast." It is excellent as Jason compares Jesus' Gospel love for the church with the Gospel love which husbands should have for their wives. And he makes his application much broader than just husbands, so I highly recommend downloading and listening to this message.

Also, I started The Pleasures of God again yesterday. It is by John Piper and is a tremendous read as far as I've gotten. It immediately begins expanding one's understanding and awe of God. For me personally, it began stoking again my affections for God which I realized had been lacking in their proper focus.

Thoughts from tonight's service

"Love God; love the brothers; don't love the world."

This is a summary of the Christian life as Pastor Phillips mentioned tonight. It is interesting that most forms of Christianity seem to go astray on one of these three points. We usually remember to love God. But we often forget to love our brothers. And if we remember that, we may well forget that we must not love the world system in which we live. For my particular slice of Christianity, I think, we struggle most with the middle proposition, while we usually remember to love our God and not be so fascinated by the world.

Complete devotion to God, full familial loyalty and service to the believing community, and abhorrence of that which seeks to distract and detract from these first commands... that is a good look at Biblical Christianity.

3 Thoughts for the day

A picture from the Junior/Senior banquet last night... we enjoyed the banquet and then games with friends afterwards.


A link to an excellent article on a blog I don't follow... (this article speaks to much that is awry in Christianity today.)

A link to the back articles from "In the Nick of Time", a weekly publication usually from the pen of Kevin Bauder... follow the link down to the bottom of the page and read the current series on "Understanding Conservative Christianity." This series has been outstandingly beneficial to me personally and has made some things click. It is well worth reading

Meditations from the Second Psalm

This semester I have been taking a class on Revelation; Psalm 2 applies immediately to the time period dealt with in that book. Read in the context of the last days...

Meditations on the Second Psalm

 4/17/09

Why do the nations rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?

The rulers of men take counsel together

to remove the Lord's restraint.

Behold!

The Lord's Anointed cometh!

The Lord in heaven laughs;

and God derides their plans.

The words of the Lord strike dreadful terror,

"The King sits as appointed."

Behold!

The Lord's Messiah cometh!

The Lord's decree unveiled:

A Son He has begotten,

Who owns the world and rules the nations

judging, breaking at will.

Behold!

The Lord's Christ Jesus cometh!

And now, beware! Serve God,

with joyfulness and trembling.

Reverence the Son and quell His wrath

Blessed are those He loves!

Behold!

The Lord's Anointed cometh!

ponderings from the first Psalm

Divine blessing will come upon the man who doesn't take wicked advice about how to live, or join in the lifestyle of sinful men (though he may still join sinful men, he is separate from their sin - as Christ was with us), or settles into the seat of those who scoff at God. Rather this blest man receives his joy from searching in the words of God, and he ponders his Lord's instruction continually.

Thus it is that his life is full and rich; and in his Master's time, he sees harvest and reward and multiplication. Still, it is not always harvest day even for this profitable and blessed man.

Unlike this stable, healthful one, the wicked's life lacks substance and endurance or even real profitableness. They will not measure up or remain when the tests of reality and authenticity are applied because that blest man's God recognizes him and his way, but the wicked will be utterly rejected and removed.

on the Conservative's religious affections

Notice especially the first sentence. If the full article interests you, check it out here.

"Unfortunately, we live in a day when the distinction between affections and appetites has been lost. In the absence of this distinction, religious entrepreneurs have discovered what Madison Avenue salesmen have long known, namely, that people can be manipulated most easily by appealing to those varieties of emotion that used to be classified as passions. Not surprisingly, we now find ourselves awash in a sea of unregulated religious appetite." (From this week's "In the Nick of Time")

Northern Lights' song

Here's a song that is being given away free. It's full of good reminders. Also, some of the Heart Conference sessions were outstanding; I particularly enjoyed some of Dr. Jordan's.