Stepping in the Light

“From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD’S name is to be praised.” Psalm 113:3

When was the last time you said, “Praise the Lord,” in a casual conversation? How many times each day do you stop to praise God for His goodness in your life? Most of us have a great number of things that occupy our thoughts in a day’s time. Life is filled with many different responsibilities, and the busier our lives become, the less time we have to stop and think about the things that are really important to us. David wrote in Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” In Psalm 70:4, he wrote, “Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.” It would be practically impossible to say, “Let God be magnified,” constantly throughout the day. In the first place, it would be necessary to stop once in a while to eat, to drink, and to rest. In the second place, constantly repeating this sentence would interfere with many other needful activities. While we may not be able to spend every second of the day speaking words of praise to God, we can certainly find times throughout the day to praise Him. We can begin our day with praising Him in private for Who He is and what He has done for us. We can look for opportunities to give Him praise in the company of our families, friends, and coworkers periodically throughout the day. Perhaps most importantly, we can endeavor to always be in an attitude of praise to God all day long.

“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” Psalm 110:1-2

At the close of Matthew 22, Jesus asked the Pharisees a question that they could not answer. In His question, Jesus was referring to Psalm 110, a psalm written by King David. In the portion of this psalm that appears above, David paints a picture of God the Father saying to God the Son, “Sit at my right had until I conquer your enemies for you.” Jesus asked the Pharisees whose son Christ (the promised Messiah) would be. They answered that Christ would be the son of David. Then Jesus asked them if that were true, why David would call Him Lord. It would make sense for the people who would live at the same time as the Messiah to call Him Lord, but why would His ancestor David refer to him that way? The Pharisees had no answer because of their incomplete understanding of Who the Messiah was to be. They saw the Messiah only as a political leader. However, as we understand from the New Testament, the Messiah was much more than a political leader. He came as a spiritual leader. David spoke of Him in that sense in verse 4, “Thou art a priest forever….” In Acts 7:55-56, as Stephen was dying, he saw Jesus at the right hand of the Father. Romans 8:34 tells us that Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand, making intercession for us. In this Psalm, David prophesied about something that Jesus would be doing for us today.

“O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.” Psalm 107:1-3

Redemption was a familiar concept to the Israelites. They had grown from an itinerant family into a whole nation within the confines of the land of Egypt. After hundreds of years of bondage in Egypt, God told Moses to speak to the Israelites and tell them that He was going to redeem them. He was going to buy them back out of slavery. Through the ten plagues that He sent upon the Egyptians and the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, God did pay the price to free His people. The Lord commanded Moses to institute the Passover so that His people would be reminded how He had brought them out of slavery. This psalm begins with two reasons to give thanks to God; He is good, and His mercy endures forever. The writer then invites all those who had experienced redemption, those who had been brought back to the land of Israel from the four corners of the globe, to join in testifying of the goodness and mercy of God. In this New Testament age, we have experienced a far greater redemption. God the Father has purchased us by the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, on Calvary. Through faith in Jesus, we have received the gift of eternal life. How much more should we be willing to join in praising God for His goodness and mercy? Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 3:9-11

Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and he compares the church to a building. We could imagine the people in the church as representing the stones in the outside wall of a building. Paul says that he laid a foundation, and other people have built upon the foundation that he laid. It seems that Paul is referring to the time when he first came to Corinth and began to preach the gospel there. He explains that the foundation he laid with them was Jesus Christ. In other words, the truth of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ was what they had to believe in order to become a part of the church. Paul makes it clear that there is no other foundation that can be laid. Jesus Christ is the one true foundation. Everything else that we believe rests upon what Christ did for us on the cross. Paul warns them that they need to be careful how they build upon the foundation. There is always a danger of getting sidetracked. It is easy for us to get wrapped up in side issues or focus our time and energy on frivolous things that do not really matter. The Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church, and everything that we do as Christians should be built upon Him.

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” I Corinthians 2:14

When you hear a sound, you use your sense of hearing to determine exactly what it is that you are hearing. In your mind, you are comparing the sound with millions of stored examples of sounds, sorting through categories and subcategories until an example seems to be a reasonable match. All of this takes place in a very short amount of time, but it is happening nonetheless. If the source of the sound is beyond your field of vision, you must rely solely on your sense of hearing to make a final determination. If you were to lose your hearing, you would no longer be able to engage in this process. A person who cannot hear cannot differentiate between sounds because the sense of hearing is required in order to participate in the process. Before we are saved, we are without spiritual discernment. A lost person cannot understand the things of God because he does not have the Spirit of God living inside him to help him. To an unsaved person, much of what Christians choose to do seems silly. Why would you say words out loud to someone that you cannot see? If your prayers aren’t answered immediately every time, how do you know that what you claim are answered prayers aren’t just coincidences? It may be frustrating to talk with someone who asks these kinds of questions, but be patient. What they need is Jesus Christ.

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” Psalm 100:1-5

The one hundredth psalm is a shining example of a psalm of praise. This is a song in a Jewish songbook, but the people from every land are instructed to make a joyful noise before God. We are commanded to come before Him with singing. This includes everyone, regardless of our ability to sing well. The charge is to make a joyful noise. We can all do that (as long as we are joyful). We are reminded that God is our creator and we are his people. We are commanded to enter into His gates. This is a reference to the temple in Jerusalem. It is true that you can praise God anywhere on earth, but this psalm instructs us to gather in His house and sing His praises. This psalm gives us three specific things to praise God about. 1) He is good. 2) His mercy is everlasting. 3) His truth endures to all generations. God is good because of His character. He is a merciful God and He never changes, so His mercy is everlasting. The third item of praise involves us. God’s truth will always endure, but He has given us the responsibility to share it with the next generation. God uses our praise to Him to perpetuate His truth.

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.” Romans 16:25-27

The closing paragraph of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome could be summarized in one simple, but powerful exclamation: to God be the Glory! Paul’s desire was for them to be established in the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he declares as he begins his final statement that God has the power to do just that. Paul refers to the preaching of Jesus Christ as the revealing of a mystery contained in the Old Testament. Many of the prophecies concerning the Messiah were obscure before Jesus came and were not understood clearly until after Jesus rose from the dead. Paul asserts that the mystery of Christ has now been made manifest (made clear) by the commandment of God and that it is now being made known to all nations, so that they might believe the gospel and be saved. Paul was saying that he wanted people to be saved and become established in their faith to the point where they could share it with others. He was saying that this was taking place through the power of God and that all of the glory should go to God. Are you giving God the glory in your life today?

“The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.” Psalm 94:11-15

The word chastenest (to chastise) means to correct, instruct, punish, reform, reprove, or teach. It can be used to refer both to physical punishment and to oral instruction. We often think of this kind of correction in a negative sense, but the psalmist is telling us that it is a blessing to experience the chastening hand of God. He says that it will give us rest from adversity. The Lord corrects us in order to make us better. He doesn’t do it in anger; He does it because He loves us. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Verse 15 in the passage above says that “judgment shall return unto righteousness; and all the upright in heart shall follow it.” In other words, the result of God’s chastening (or judgment) is that it will return or restore us to righteousness. God chastens every one of His children; but the ones who are upright in heart are the ones who will benefit the most because they will follow His instruction. How do you respond to God’s correction? Does it make you better, or bitter? God wants it to return us to righteousness.

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.” Psalm 92:1-5

The Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God. We not only have physical bodies, but we also have minds with which we are able to think, plan, and understand. When we talk with another person or read something that someone has written, we quickly get a sense of the way they think and interact with others, and we make subconscious judgments about their intelligence. Some of us naturally think more deeply than others. When we see an impressive building, our minds are drawn to the architect who created the design and the builders who brought it to life. We think of the mental effort that was required to create, plan, raise funds, acquire materials, organize, supervise, and execute until the building was completed. When we think this way, we are measuring the depth of thought that was required of the people involved. When the psalmist considered God’s works, he was overwhelmed with the depth of God’s thoughts. Try to imagine how much God knows that we do not know. This exercise can increase our desire to know and follow God’s plan for our lives.

“For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Psalm 90:9-12

The title above Psalm 90 says, “A Prayer of Moses the man of God.” Moses prayed that God would teach us to number our days. The word number here gives the sense of weighing out an article of trade. When you put gasoline in your car, there is a meter that measures the number of gallons pumped and the total amount of the sale. We rely on the meter to tell us the amount of gas that we bought and the amount of money that we owe. In contrast, when you pass a water fountain, you may drink until you are no longer thirsty. The water is provided as a courtesy with hopes that it will cause you to be more comfortable. The water fountain cost far more than the amount of water you drink. There is no meter and there is no charge. But gasoline is much more costly. We measure it. We are careful how we spend it. Most of us don’t just get in the car and drive around when we don’t need to go anywhere because gasoline is expensive. Time is the most precious commodity that we have. How sad when we waste it on frivolous things! Your days are precious, so learn to spend them wisely.