Colossians 2:16-19 - False teachings

People introduce fancy ideas, as did the Gnostics. They then introduce rules to bind people up. Just as the ideas will have a superficial attractiveness, seeming to offer something spiritual, so the rules will seems to offer something spiritual. In Paul's day they focused on observance of special days, or rules about eating and drinking. Now the Law, and all religions, have some special days and customs, but all these things are a mere shadow of what was to come. Note the tense here "things that were to come" (verse 17). The reality, which is Christ, is now here. Reality is found only in Christ.

Now this does not mean we should go to the other extreme and become paranoid in case anything we do turns into a custom. You will find it impossible to avoid habits and customs. No matter how free you might think your church is, it will have its own habits and ways of doing things. This is not a problem. It only becomes a problem when (i) we insist that our way is the only way of doing things; (ii) our customs become a barrier to the work that God wants to do.

Some delight in what they claim to know or have seen about angels. This is still something some do today. If a "charismatic" false teacher (by which I do not mean charismatics (being one myself) or false teachers! Rather, I am talking about false teachers within the charismatic parts of the church) wants to deceive people or lead them astray, then a good tip is to start talking about angels. Such a scheme will guarantee that you will be heard, and some will be taken in. So if you hear a preacher forever going on about angels, then be on your guard. Rather than being spiritual they are unspiritual. Now this does not mean we should never mention angels, just that a little balance is needed.

Colossians 2:9-15 - Set Free

Christ is all we need, "for in Him dwells the whole fullness of deity". That means that everything there is to know about God is in Christ. He is God, and He demonstrates and reveals everything of God.

Moreover we have been filled with the Spirit of Christ. So what more do we need? He has all power and authority, He has all wisdom. So we need fear nothing. The so-called clever teachings of men are actually influenced by "elemental spirits". Their root lies in the devil, not in God.

Alongside the Gnostics, the Judaisers sought to get people to be circumcised. Again we have no need of this. We have been "circumcised" by the Spirit in our hearts. What need do we have of any physical circumcision? What is it going to add to us? IF we live by the Spirit we do not live by the flesh.

We were buried with Christ in baptism, and raised with Him through faith. We start to experience new life now, and we will be raised from the dead when Christ returns. 

Once sin ruled over us, but now the we are free from sin. This does not mean that we are perfect yet, or never sin, but we are starting to gain the victory. We have been made alive.

Christ did this by cancelling the charge that stood against us, nailing it to the cross. The Law declared us sinners deserving of death. This is what gave the enemy power over us. Look at all man's attempts to be free. They are all rooted in trying to overcome this judgement in one way or another. The religious types seek to do so by strict observance of some code or other, and it always results in failure. Atheists seek to try and prove that there is no God. Hedonists seek to drown out the noise with pleasure. In all sorts of ways the rulers ans authorities have power over man. But on the cross they were disarmed, openly. No longer is there any charge against us. So we are free to live for Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Colossians 2:8 - Watch out for false ideas

Ideas are very powerful and men are easily taken captive by them, sometimes with disastrous consequences. In the last century the most terrible examples are Nazism and communism. One nation was completely captivated by Nazism, many nations were taken captive by communism, both with a terrible cost in terms of millions of lives and economic cost as well.

Evolution has taken many captive as well. Now let me make it clear that I have no objection whatsoever to proper scientific research into evolution. Many scientific questions can be used to challenge evolution as the complete explanation it purports to be, but proper research is perfectly valid. However, there are those who use evolution as a vehicle for "disproving" God. 

Religious people can be taken in by deceptive ideas as well. Indeed the most world religions are false! Charismatics can be taken in by ideas, particularly ones that make big play on angels, or some form of special or secret knowledge. All humanity is the same, we are all susceptible to the same attacks and weaknesses.

We need to make sure that we are not taken in by wrong ideas, and the defence to this is to be Christ focused. The word of God is clear and open.

Colossians 2:6,7 - Rooted and Built Up

As we received Christ, so we are to walk in Him. The way we started is the way we are to carry on. There is often a tendency to start well, then think that we need to start doing things differently or add something. The Galatian church had this problem, thinking they needed to adopt Judaism including circumcision. In Colossae they thought they needed to add "secret knowledge" and other Gnostic type teachings. The churches that John wrote to faced similar challenges. 

We started with faith, we started with gratitude for God's grace, we started with love for Christ and commitment to Him. This is the way we are meant to continue.

However, this most definitely does not mean that we do not develop. We are rooted in Christ, and built up in Him. So we need to appreciate His grace more, we need more faith, we need a deeper love for Christ. Added to all this is thanksgiving to Christ. With all this we are built up, we become increasingly effective in the world.

So the one constant things is Christ, the one sure foundation is Christ, and we build our lives more and more on Him.

Colossians 2:1-5 - Christ is all

Some of the false teachers denigrated those who suffered, Paul does the exact opposite. He was proud (in a positive sense) of his sufferings, seeing them as an essential part of his work for the church. This was not suffering for its own sake, but his work for the church and for Christ entailed suffering. So he wanted his readers to bee encouraged by this. We can perhaps see a parallel in some forms of so-called prosperity teaching (let me add that I absolutely believe in Biblical prosperity, it is just that there is a lot of nonsense taught on this subject, some of it dangerous nonsense). What are you encouraged most by: someone teaching about how God will give you lots of money if only you have enough faith; or someone who has been through difficult circumstances but has seen the grace of God at work and have come through this situation with greater awareness of God's love and a more Christlike character. And which would you rather have?

The false teachers' message was shallow. In contrast, Paul's desire is for them to have all the riches of full assurance of understanding. This again is a direct counter to Gnosticism with its hidden knowledge. All truth is in Christ, all wisdom is in Christ, all knowledge is in Christ. We should make it our goal to know Christ better. So we should beware of any teaching that takes us away from this. 

Paul commends them, and assures them of his support.

Colossians 1:24-29 - Suffering for Christ

These verses provide an object lesson in interpreting the Bible. In verse 24 Paul says "I make up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions". Taken in an unthinking manner this presents an immediate problem, for it implies that Christ's death on the cross was in some way incomplete, whereas the foundation of the gospel is that Christ is the once for all complete sacrifice.

So what is the answer? First remember that Paul was not writing in a university library, he is not writing a theological academic paper.He is writing to people in a church, probably from prison, and to a real situation, namely facing false teachings of various sorts. One element of that false teaching denigrated suffering (as do some variants of "prosperity teaching"). We need to imagine the emotion behind Paul's writing. He knows that the gospel is built on suffering, namely Christ's suffering, and that we are called to share in His sufferings. So he is writing more in a polemical manner. What he is saying is that rather than denigrate suffering, he rejoices in it, and suffering is a fundamental part of the Christian life, and the spread of the gospel. 

The Gnostic type teachings are also why he uses terms like "mystery". God has revealed the mystery, we do not need any hidden knowledge (the root meaning of Gnostic). 

Christ is in us, He is the hope of glory. The gospel all centered on Christ, and it is for Him that we must direct all our energies. If we are focused on anything else we are going in the wrong direction.

Colossians 1:18-23 - Head of the church

Christ is the head of the body, the church. Jesus is the living leader of the church. We do not just follow the teachings of a man who lived two thousand years ago, we do not just remember Him. Jesus actively leads the church, through the Holy Spirit. If we make anything else head, then we are heading in the wrong direction.

Jesus is also the firstborn of the new creation. He is the firstborn from among the dead. What that means is that we will be raised to new life just as He was raised from the dead.

"Fullness" was a term used in Gnostic teachings, referring to the sum of supernatural forces controlling the fate of people and the world. Paul declares that all the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus. Ie Jesus contained all the character and power of God in Him. There is a warning herein how we interpret words in the Bible. If we just took "fullness" in isolation, forgetting or not knowing that Paul was using it as counter term to Gnostic type teaching, then we might end up reading too much in to the meaning of the word here.

Through the blood of Jesus God is reconciling all things to Himself. This does not mean universalism in the sense that all are saved regardless of whether or not they believe, it does mean that the salvation in Christ is open to all to lay hold of through faith. It also means that the reconciliation extends to all of creation. All of creation was and is affected by man's sin, likewise all of creation will be affected by Christ's salvation (see Romans 8:19-22).

Colossians 1:17 - All things hold together in Christ.

Christ is before all things. Everything is utterly dependent upon Him for its very existence, and everything holds together in Him. Christ did not just create all things, He is actively involved in keeping everything going. Ie God did not just wind up the clock and then let it get on with it. However, this does not mean that God is "tinkering" with creation all the time. We need to be careful how we interpret what this means and what conclusions we draw. I believe that getting this wrong is the cause of much of the disagreement and misunderstanding between "science" and "religion". On the on hand many who believe in creation (and rightly so) either actually believe or give the impression that to explain creation we have to envisage God repeatedly intervening directly (this includes some intelligent designers as well as six-day creationists). On the other hand, many atheist scientists seem to think that because we find a process that explains how something happens or came about then wrongly imagine that this proves that God does not exist. Evolution is the most prominent example of this. 

Both of these views are badly mistaken and this makes for bad science and bad theology. Even if evolution was 100% right (which I don't believe it is, largely on scientific grounds) it would not prove that God did not use evolution as His design process. On the other side, the "interventionists" have a shallow view of what God can do and how He interacts with the world. If you want a philosophical question to ponder that relates to this: How does eternity map on to the temporal world?. There, you don't know do you, and neither do I, nor does anyone else. So lets acknowledge the limits of our understanding.

We need to be careful in distinguishing between what God does and how He does it. We can be certain about lots of things that God does because the Bible states them clearly, we need to exercise much more caution when talking about how He does them.

It is absolutely certain that all things were created by Christ, and that all things are utterly dependent upon Him for every moment of their existence. Exactly how this works out in scientific terms is for us to explore.

Colossians 1:15,16 - Image

We now get to one of the great Christological passages, ie proclaiming the greatness of Christ. 

Christ is the image of the invisible God. There is so much in this single phrase. First, God is invisible. God is different from everything else, because He is God. However, that does not mean that we cannot know anything about Him because He has chosen to reveal Himself, and He has done this supremely through His Son Jesus Christ. 

We need to remember here that when we talk about Christ we are talking about the Son of God (see verse 12). Sometimes people have an idle notion that Jesus was just a good man, or was just someone who God chose to reveal Himself through. Jesus is the supreme revelation of God because He is the Son of God. 

It is worth remembering that all of us were created in the image of God, but sin corrupted that image. In Christ there was no sin, so the image is perfect.

He is the firstborn of all creation. We need to realise that firstborn here signifies supremacy. It does not in any way mean that Jesus is a created being. Rather it means He is supreme over all creation.

Just in case there is any doubt about this, verse 16 immediately tells us that "by Him all things were created". This includes absolutely everything, seen and unseen. So it includes all spiritual beings as well, the whole lot. And everything was created for Him. So we have absolutely no need to fear anything, for whatever it is was created by Christ, and will ultimately have to acknowledge Christ as Lord.

Colossians 1:9-14 - Strengthened with all power

They had heard that the church was bearing much fruit, so they prayed that the church would be filled with "knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding". See that Paul had high expectations for them. We were not created so that God is a mystery, but so that we can know God. And we need spiritual wisdom and understanding. Spiritual wisdom is something that comes from the Holy Spirit, and we increase in spiritual wisdom when we put Him first and seek His righteousness. 

The fruit of all this is not that we get puffed up with knowledge or become proud of our own wisdom, but so that we live a life worthy of our calling, live a life pleasing to God, bearing fruit in good works. These are measures that we can apply to assess our own development and growth, and which we can also use to assess the value of any movement within the church.

Then Paul prays for us to be strengthened  with all power according to His glorious might. We need strength. Sometimes people say in despair "God give me strength". This should be a genuine prayer of ours. 

Now see what the power and glorious might is for. We might expect it to be for doing signs and wonders, or for confronting the spiritual forces of evil, but no. It is so that we might have "all endurance and patience with joy". We need endurance and patience. Many false teachings will play on our lack of patience, offering a quick fix. Moreover, "patience and endurance" are vital weapons of spiritual warfare. They help us overcome all things.

And all this is with joy and thanksgiving. A life of patience and endurance is not a miserable one!

We have been qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints. We need nothing more. We have been rescued from dominion of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His Son. We do not need to be set free from anyone else, we have all the freedom we need, though we certainly do need to learn to live in that freedom.

Colossians 1:3-8 - Prayers of thanksgiving

As in most of his letters Paul begins by giving more reasons why he thanks God for the people he is writing to. Today we tend to separate theologians and pastors and evangelists, but Paul was all three, and they fed each other. His evangelistic and pastoral work were motivated and under-girded by his understanding of the gospel. His work with people helped him to understand the gospel better. His love for God and knowing Christ was central to everything he did.

His prayers of thanksgiving were motivated by the faith and love that the Colossians had. This faith and love were motivated by the hope stored up in heaven. Now this does not mean "pie in the sky when we die". For sure, there will be marvellous things after we die (or Christ's return), but what Paul means is that there are things stored up for us in God's kingdom. We will receive the fullness of this only after Christ's return, but we begin to receive it now. The gospel declares the good things that God has for us.

The gospel is bearing fruit all over the world. Human ideologies have spread throughout the earth for a time, eg communism, but they bring oppression and violence. The gospel brings peace and righteousness.

Epaphras was probably the one who founded the church in Colossae, and brought news to Paul of the recent controversies in the church.

Colossians 1:1,2 - Christ centered

The custom in letters of the day was to introduce yourself at the outset. Paul describes himself as an apostle of Christ. This fits in with the major theme of the letter, which is the supremacy of Christ. We all need to dwell on this. Christ is the focus of all of God's plans, He is God Himself. All things were created by Him and for Him. Our lives need to be Christ centered. Jesus is the cornerstone on which all of God's plans depend. If we want to understand life we need to understand Jesus.

Timothy had been taken under Paul's wing and Paul was like a father to him. Timothy worked along side Paul. Later he would be given his own churches to look after, and 1 and 2 Timothy contain instructions to Timothy on this.

The letter is addressed to the church in Colossae, though it may also have been circulated more widely. The recipients are described as holy and faithful, and "in Christ". 

As in many of his letters, Paul proclaims a blessing over them of grace and peace from God our Father. Grace and peace are ours from God, and God is our father,

Colossians - Introduction

Colossians is a fantastic letter. The Pauline authorship was not doubted until the 19th Century when some started to argue that the Gnosticism that Paul counters in chapter 2 was second-century Gnosticism. However, later work has shown that the Gnosticism in chapter 2 is less developed than 2nd century Gnosticism and basically the argument is a load of nonsense.

Colossians was probably written during Paul's imprisonment in Rome about AD60, along with the other prison letters (Philippians, Ephesians and Philemon).

Colossae had been a major city in Asia Minor, but by the time of the first century was now a second-rate city. Epaphras (Acts 19:10) had been converted by Paul and had taken the gospel to Colossae. Later heretical teachings had developed, and Epaphras had gone to Rome to seek help from Paul.

The heresies that arose in Colossae had the following elements (NIV Study Bible):

• Ceremonialism - adherence to strict rules on eating, drinking and festivals.
• Asceticism - "do not handle, do not touch", essentially being miserable!
• Angel worship
• Diminishing the role and person of Christ
• Secret knowledge
• Reliance on human wisdom and tradition

Paul refutes these, and his primary line of attack is the supremacy of Christ.

Some of these strands are still relevant today. Human wisdom and tradition dominates parts of the church. In others unhealthy obsession with angels can be a problem.

Jonah 4 - Vines and Worms

Jonah was displeased about this. He then even speaks to God as if God has got it all wrong and should have known better than to send Jonah to Nineveh. Why didn't He just zap them in the first place and have done with it? Jonah then starts to try and justify his earlier actions in running to Tarshish. 

Note that Jonah realises what God is like,  he just wishes God was different. He knows God is "gracious and compassionate", it is as if Jonah was trying to save God from Himself!

So why do we get this story in the Bible? Maybe it is a parable of what Israel was like. They knew what God was like, but did not in their hearts agree with God. The root of the problem was in their own heart. Likewise the root of our problems lies in our own hearts.

Jonah is so disgruntled that he asks God to take away his life. Instead God seeks to reveal something of His heart to Jonah. Thank goodness God does not always answer our prayers!

Jonah went out to watch over the city. Maybe he was hoping God would now see sense and rain down fire and brimstone on the place. He hoped in vain. It was very hot and God provided a vine for Jonah to protect him. Then He sent a worm to eat the vine. The vine withered and Jonah again wants to die. 

God was using the vine as an illustration. Jonah cared about the vine. God cared about Nineveh. God's concern is wider and greater than ours. There are many peoples, individuals and groups, who, if we are honest, we would be too bothered if they disappeared from the earth, we may even welcome it. God's heart is different.

Just as an aside note that Jonah's declaration that he wishes he was dead is not put into effect. There is a lot of teaching on the power of the tongue. Now what we say does matter, for it reflects what is in our hearts. And what we say does matter, but we also need to have a degree of balance on the matter.

Jonah 3 - How to be a successful evangelist

God gave Jonah a second chance, the same command comes to him. Note that he is to give the message that "I tell you", ie that God gives him. This time Jonah obeys the Lord, having realised that resistance is futile. 

It is often said that "if you won't do it, God will find someone else to do it". Well sometimes this is true, but at other times it isn't, and Jonah is one of these instances. For some reason God specifically wanted Jonah to do the job.

Jonah's message was brief and to the point. Presumably he said a little more than this, but maybe not. There isn't even any call to repentance, though from what we read later Jonah didn't want them to repent! 

Despite this, and the distinct lack of cultural relevance and accessibility of the message, the people believed God and they all repented. This again is a warning about nice pat ideas about what is necessary for evangelism to succeed. Moreover, Jonah did not "have a heart" or "a burden" for the people of Nineveh, yet is the most successful evangelist ever!

The term "revival" is sometimes bandied around rather too freely. Here we see the true sign of revival, a people responding to the word of God with repentance and obedience.

They called on God to have mercy on them, and God did indeed have mercy.

Jonah 2:1-10 - Pray from the depths

So in the belly of the fish Jonah made good use of the time, he prayed. He could do nothing else. Sometimes God puts us in situations where there is nothing we can do, except pray, and this is the whole point. We do not need to be in total control, but we do need to have faith in God.

Jonah, like many of the psalms, prayed out of his distress. Jonah knew that God was responsible for his predicament, or rather it was God's judgement upon his disobedience. Yet Jonah believed that he would once again see God's holy temple.

God's answer came "from His holy temple". Often when we pray we look for a natural answer, and of course God often does provide by natural means. But at others the answer comes direct from His holy temple, direct from heaven. 

Jonah knew where his salvation came from. And so the fish spewed Jonah out on to dry land.

Jonah 1:7-17 - Recognise the anointing

The sailors cast lots to find out who was to blame, and the blame fell on Jonah. This is far from being the only incident of casting lots in the Bible, the remaining apostles cast lots to make the final decision on a replacement for Judas. The Bible sees God as being in control of all things. 

Anyway, the lot having fallen on Jonah, the sailors confront him. He tells them he is a Hebrew, and the sailors are full of fear. Clearly the reputation of the Lord had spread beyond the borders of Israel. They knew that Jonah must have done something against God to bring this disaster on them. Often the unbelievers can be more spiritually aware than the "believers". 

Jonah then suggested that they throw him overboard. So even though Jonah is acting in disobedience to God, he still has some good character left. We need to cultivate our character. There will still be times when we get things wrong, and even times when we deliberately do things wrong, but even in these times our good character will help to get us back on the right track.

The sailors were reluctant to do this, and did so only after they had tried everything else, and sought God's mercy. Jonah was thrown over the side. The storm stopped and the men feared the Lord. The anointing of God was upon Jonah, so even in this situation he brought faith to people (despite himself!). We need to recognise the anointing that is on our own lives.
Then as we know, after Jonah was thrown overboard a great fish swallowed him up. God's plans go beyond our understanding. He has things in mind of which we know nothing. God never tells us everything.

Jonah 1:1-6 - On the run

As we saw in the Introduction, Jonah was a prophet and the only other prophecy that is recorded is that predicting the extension of Israel's borders. So perhaps he was used to giving "nice" words! Assyria, whose capital city was Nineveh, was the major threat to Israel. Moreover, Israel's sin meant that she was heading for a fall.

Against this background Jonah is told to go to Nineveh and warn them that their evil has come before the Lord. Now this would presumably be a rather dangerous venture for Jonah to embark upon, for it is unlikely that the Ninevites would take too kindly to an Israeli prophet telling them how to live their lives. If we knew nothing more of the story, then fear would be the most obvious explanation of why Jonah decided to flee, but as we will see later this does not appear to be reason.

Jonah decided to flee from the presence of the Lord. This is a very human reaction, when God is telling us to do things we don't want to do we seek to flee from His presence. However, as Psalm 139 shows, this is a futile exercise, for we cannot escape from God, and Jonah was about to discover this.

Jonah ran away to sea, but God sent a great storm and the ship he was on was threatened with being sunk. Jonah, however, was fast asleep. Now why was this? Maybe he was just so relived to be away from God, as he thought, or maybe he had faith that the storm would not result in death, or perhaps he was just so exhausted after running away.

The crew and the captain apparently knew about Jonah's faith. Either that had worked out what it was, or he had told them. The captain tells him to put his faith into action. Sometimes the world is more interested in us activating our faith than we are. When faced with circumstances they cannot control they turn to the church to call on God. 

Jonah - Introduction

In contra-distinction to Obadiah, this is one of the best known books in the Bible, Jonah, largely because of the big fish (often referred to as a whale).

Jonah son of Amittai is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25. He operated during the reign of Jeroboam II in Israel, the northern kingdom. Jeroboam had succeeded in extending the borders of Israel, but had continued to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. Indeed, Jonah  had prophesied that Israel's borders would expand. Now he is given a message of repentance for Assyria, Israel's enemy.

Jonah was probably contemporary with Amos and Hosea.

Some see the book as being post-exilic, ie written after Israel's return from exile in Babylon, but there are some who never believe any book was written when it was supposed to be! The literary style is similar to that of the Elija-Elisha narrative. Moreover, there seems to be little point in the book if it was written after the Babylonian exile. Why write about Nineveh long after Assyria was no longer a major power and threat to Israel?

Then of course because of the big fish element of the story some doubt the authenticity of the account. I think we have to take the story as it is related, otherwise it makes little point. It is just about possible that he whole thing is a parable, but Jesus referred to Jonah, and it seems much more likely that it is a genuine account.

The book illustrates the wider purposes of God, that went way beyond Israel, and certainly beyond Israel's own plans (she had no desire to see Assyria saved!). This is a further illustration of the fact that the Bible is God's book explaining and proclaiming God's purposes. If Israel wrote it as a means of furthering her own ends, then she did not do a vary good job!

Obadiah - Salvation of Israel

This is the shortest of the minor prophets, and, it has to be said, not one that is quoted much! However, we are going through the whole Bible, so we are going to see what we can learn from him.

Obadiah means "servant of the Lord", or "worshipper of the Lord". His name is actually quite common, with several references to Obadiah's in the Old Testament.

There is uncertainty as to exactly who Obadiah was. The two main alternatives are:

1. He was a contemporary of Elisha, and the book was written at the time of  the rebellion of Edom against Judah (2 Kings 8:20-22; 2 Chronicles 21:8-15).
2. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah, and the book was written at the time of the Babylonian attacks on Jerusalem. My study Bible prefers this option, probably because there are some parallels between this book and parts of Jeremiah. However, I am not sure why the book refers to Edom then, unless Edom was seeking to ride on Babylon's coattails.

Whatever the case, Edom is the target of Obadiah's prophecy. Edom thought she was secure, she thought she had carefully engineered things, so that whatever other nations did, she would be safe. Perhaps she was a little like modern Switzerland.

Edom would be torn apart. Her careful plans and making of alliances would come to nothing, she would be betrayed by her allies.

Edom was the nation that came out if Esau, and she would pay for her treachery against Jacob. Ie against Israel as a whole, not just Jacob himself.

Edom had gloated over Israel when Israel was defeated, joining in the taking of spoils. Proverbs warns us against gloating over others who suffer misfortune. This is also a warning to all nations in their attitude towards Israel. This is not to say that we should agree with all the Israel does (Israel does some stupid things, and some wrong things), but we should treat Israel honourably.

Edom, along with all nations, would reap the fruit of her deeds, and Israel would be saved. We need to understand what the outcome of history will be, and it will be the salvation of Israel.

Psalm 118 - Give thanks to the Lord for His salvation

This is a hymn of thanksgiving, though no one knows what the precise occasion was. Various suggestions have included (i) a victory of a Davidic king; (ii) deliverance from Egypt and victory over the Canaanites; (iii) post-exilic deliverance. Anyway, since we haven't been told it cannot be that important to know the precise occasion.

All Israel, the priests and those who fear the Lord (which should encompass the previous two groups) are called upon to declare that the love of the Lord endures forever.

The psalmist was hard pressed, but God brought him into a spacious place. Our God is a God who delivers His people from various circumstances.

When faced with danger it is tempting to trust in all sorts of things, but it is always best to take refuge in the Lord. God is unseen, but He is very real.

The psalmist was surrounded by all the nations. Obviously not literally, but there were many foes against him, yet God rescued him.

If we call upon the name of the Lord we will see His victory. Then we can declare His praise. Notice that the Lord's salvation included chastening of David. We need to realise that when God saves us there are things that need to be put right in our own lives as well.

Verse 22 is quoted several times in the New Testament as describing the rejection of Jesus.

The Psalm closes with praise and thanksgiving.

Psalm 117 - The Lord is faithful

Well this is the shortest psalm in the Bible, and in a couple of psalms time we will have the longest.

All nations are to praise the Lord. The world speaks as if all religions are the same, as if each person can choose for themselves what to believe or not believe. Well it is true that each person can and does choose, but some make better choices than others! 

The truth is that there is only one God who created the whole universe, seen and unseen. It does not actually make any sense to worship anything else.

So all peoples are called upon to worship and extol the Lord. Now today's society gets all hot under the collar about this, but it really shouldn't. One of the recurrent themes in the New Testament is that there is no distinction, and that God does not show favouritism. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are saved by faith in Christ (Rom 3:23). The gospel is not saying Christians are right and Muslims or Hindus or Atheists are wrong. It is saying that all of us need to come to Christ. It is not Christians who are right, it is Christ who is right.

See what verse 2 says, "For great is His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever". The call is for all people to come to Christ to be adopted as children into His family. Muslims are not the enemy, atheists are not the enemy. Jesus died and rose again for all people, He desires that all people come to Him in faith and so are saved.

Psalm 116 - The Lord is Good

Many of the psalms begin with the psalmist calling to the Lord out of his distress. In this one he is calling after being rescued by the Lord out of his distress. 

He loves the Lord because God heard his cry for mercy. There is nothing at all wrong with loving the Lord for what He has done for us. Indeed it is perfectly right and proper to do so. The psalmist learnt from the incident, so he dedicated his whole life to the Lord. 

He had been overwhelmed by circumstances, his very life in danger. Then he called upon the name of the Lord.

The Lord is gracious and righteous, He protects the unwary. We can become obsessed with what might go wrong in life. Indeed society encourages us to be like this. We are told to take out insurance for this that and the other, then there are programmes on various health scares, then another one on how people can steal your identity, and how various companies can defraud you, next how you are going to lose your job next year. And so it goes on. Now we absolutely should be prudent and careful, and there is nothing wrong with insurance. But we cannot cater for every eventuality, we cannot foresee all the things that might or will happen (in fact you will end up fearing lots of things that will never happen). Our source of security is the Lord. He protects us.

Our soul will only find rest in the Lord, not in insurance policies or whatever.

And the Lord rescues us so that we can walk in the land of the living, so that we can live as God's people in this world.

So how do we respond to the Lord? We lift up a cup of thanksgiving to Him, we fulfill our vows to the Lord. We live a life of obedience and service to the Lord.

Psalm 115 - Not an idol

This Psalm contrasts the nations and the nation that belongs to God. The Psalm starts off with the call that it is God's name that should be glorified. Nations, churches and individuals go wrong when we seek glory for ourselves. The psalmist appeals to the steadfast love and faithfulness of the Lord. These two aspects of His character should be bedrocks of our lives. Whatever our circumstances, we can rely on God's love and His faithfulness.

The nations mocked Israel, saying where is her God. They had idols of silver and gold and boasted that their idols would give them victory. But these idols were just hunks of metal, unable to speak, see or hear. Those who make them become like them. Today people still mock God. Atheists delight in the supposed purposelessness and meaninglessness of the universe. Just as in David's day, those who worship the idols of atheism will become like them, having no purpose or meaning.

Then the psalmist calls upon Israel to trust in the Lord. He is our help and shield. It can be tempting to turn to other things, to think that God will not help. We need to resist this temptation.

The Lord will bless those who fear Him, those who turn to Him and trust Him.

The whole universe belongs to God, and He will make us prosper, and we will praise His name.

Psalm 114 - The Lord and His People

This is a great psalm. It talks about what happened when Israel came out of Egypt. I would like to draw some parallels between this and what happens when we get saved. Israel was set free from slavery. It talks about "a people of strange language". Egypt was a place they did not belong. Likewise we were never meant to live as people separated from God. When we came to Jesus we came home.

Then Israel became God's dwelling place, the holy place where He lives. Paul talks of us being temples of the Holy Spirit. Israel also became His dominion. We become the place where God's rule exists and then extends from us to the world around us. This was the way things were meant to be with Israel. She was meant to be an example to the nations around her.

Then see what happened. The Jordan fled and turned back. This is a reference to Israel entering the promised land through the Jordan. The presence of the Lord opens up a way for us. Nature itself obeys the Lord. This was demonstrated most vividly when Jesus commanded the waves to be still.

Psalm113 - Praise the Lord

We are now into a season of psalms where praise is the dominant theme, rather than calling for help.

We are to praise the Name of the Lord, that means praising His character, His nature. And this is to happen at all times. It is never a mistake to praise the Lord.

The Lord is exalted above all natural power (above the heavens) and above all human power ( the nations).

God is far above all things and sees them exactly as they are. We have a blinkered and restricted view of what is going on. When we are in circumstances that frighten or intimidate us we need to remind ourselves that we do not see everything, but our God sees all things, including how He is going to rescue us.

Our God is a God who transforms peoples lives, He lift us up to places which could not reach, and gives joy we could never know. Praise the Lord.

Psalm 112 - True Prosperity

This psalm describes the character and the benefits of the man or woman of God.

The man who fears the Lord is a blessed man,  and this blessedness shows itself in all sorts of practical ways.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I am critical of some aspects of so-called prosperity teaching. However, I do believe in Biblical prosperity. This psalm makes it clear that God is interested in our material well being, and there is nothing wrong with being financially blessed. We must never make money our goal , 1 Timothy 6:9 contains a serious warning on this. The condition of our heart is what counts

"Even in darkness ...". We are not ruled by the circumstances, we can triumph at all times. So what do we do when times are tough? We react with grace, compassion and righteousness. We act generously  and justly. Then we will be truly secure. Note that it does not say how our victory will come. We live by faith. Part of living by faith is doing God's will not knowing how things will work out, only that they will work out.

A generous heart is the key and the sign of true prosperity.

Psalm 111 - Praise the Lord

The psalmist gives thanks to the Lord with his whole heart. We are to love the Lord with all that we have.

Why are we to do this? It is because His works are great, so we should study them. Science should be a noble enterprise, but it only remains so if fear of the lord is our foundation.

When we look at the world we see  a world full of splendour and majesty, every scientist would admit that.

There are also the works of the Lord in our lives, we need to remember these, and ponder on them as well. We will see His graciousness and mercy. He is a God who provides for us as well. He has made a covenant with His people and He is faithful to that covenant.

His works are faithful. He does not lead us down a path only to abandon us. His commands and ways are trustworthy, we can follow them with confidence. We too are to reflect His nature by being faithful and upright too.

He has sent redemption to His people.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Proverbs says the same thing.It gives us good understanding.

Psalm 110 - Messiah

This does not pose the moral problems of the previous psalm. Nonetheless it is a very complex psalm.

It was always recognised as a messianic psalm by the Jews and was quoted by Jesus himself (Matt 22:41-46). Jesus pointed out that it showed that the concept of the messiah as just a human descendant of David was limited. The messiah would be equal with God, hence the use of the term "the Lord said to my Lord".

This is a psalm of victory. His enemies will be made a footstool and He will reign in the midst of his enemies. More than that, His people will be willing on the day of battle.

There is more messianic stuff with the reference to the enigmatic priest Melchizedek. The messiah would be a priest and a warrior.

We then do get a reference to load of corpses, so maybe it does have similar problems to the previous psalm! There will be complete victory over the enemy.

Psalm 109 - Evil

This a difficult Psalm as it offends our Christian sensibilities.

David is surrounded by enemies who have repaid good with evil. So far so good, but then David calls down all sorts of judgement upon them and their families. In fact there seems to be a particular individual in mind.

So what are we to make of it? Well first, part of the psalm is quoted in Acts in relation to replacing Judas, so we cannot just ignore it as an aberration. Judas gives us one clue, part of the purpose is to describe the evil that can exist in the heart of a man.

Then there is the reality and awfulness of evil. Terrible evil exists in the world, but in the face of evil we can call upon the name of the Lord.