Tag Archives: hope

Life: The Path Promised

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Psalm 16:11,

You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

“Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” David begins Psalm 16.

Immediately, we see the language of faith (cf. Psalm 2:11). David trusts in the Lord. He doesn’t merely acknowledge that God exists, but he understands his entire existence in relation to God’s supremacy.

“I have no good apart from you” (verse 2). “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot” (verse 5). “I have set the Lord always before me” (verse 8).

It’s this life of faith that leads up to verse 11. David shows us what it means to trust in the Lord. And the life of trusting the Lord makes David’s heart glad, indeed his whole being rejoices and his flesh also dwells secure (verse 9). Why does his flesh dwell secure? It’s because the Lord will not abandon his soul to Sheol. The Lord won’t let his holy one see corruption. In short, here is resurrection.

Jesus Was Raised

This is the theme of Psalm 16 that continues into Psalm 17 (cf. Psalm 17:15). And it has Messianic overtones. In fact, the apostles tell us that this is about Jesus (Acts 2:19–36). David is speaking here, but as Peter proclaimed, “he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption” (Acts 2:31).

It’s better for us that this is about Jesus. If it’s about Jesus then it’s about us, too. For just as Christ was raised, we’ll be raised (1 Corinthians 15:17–20). More than a promise, we have an actual demonstration. There’s an empty tomb out there to remind us.

The Path of Life

So it’s about resurrection. And when David starts in verse 11, “You make known to me the path of life,” that’s what he’s talking about. The path of life is not mainly about the here and now. Calvin writes, “It is to form a very low estimate, indeed, of the grace of God to speak of him as a guide to his people in the path of life only for a very few years in this world” (Commentaries, 233). There are tons of things in Holy Scripture about life in this world, but this isn’t one. The path of life isn’t about balancing your checkbook (though that’s a good thing), neither about the way of wisdom (not in this psalm, anyway), nor about the how-tos of faith (even when we need them).

The path of life is being united to God such that we’ll never be without him.

The path of life is what God makes known to us — not as a trail to follow, but as a promise to embrace.

That’s the glorious shift in Psalm 16. It begins with our faith in God and ends with God’s faithfulness to us. He will not abandon us. No he won’t! He won’t. He makes known to us the path of life. Life beyond the grave. Life that ushers us into his presence where there is fullness of joy, at this right hand where there are pleasures forevermore.

So We Rejoice

So we dwell secure here. Our being rejoices. We are glad. We can go forth today and tomorrow and next knowing that not even death can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. We know how this thing will turn out.

We will be with him.

Read the original post at Fighterverses.com.

Really Glad About This Article

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I’m pretty excited about this new resource just added to DG’s Resource Library. It’s excellent content that has been inaccessible on the web. The process to get this up included transcribing the original document into electronic format (contracted out), translating it into HTML (including the 72 hyperlinked footnotes), inserting the images for the content that’s irreproducible otherwise.

Here’s the post. Below’s the body copy…

________

If you want to understand the message of 1 Peter,
or how hope in God’s grace affects our command to love,
or if you just want to see a lucid example of careful exegetical method. . .

let me commend to you John Piper’s 1980 article for Cambridge’s New Testament Studies: “Hope as the Motivation of Love: 1 Peter 3:9–12.”

A new web version has just been added to our Resource Library, full of the original British –ours, German lines, Greek inserts, and 72 footnotes (now hyperlinked).

Read the full article.

Here’s a snapshot of the work:

Method

In the long run it is the mutually correcting interaction between detailed analyses of particular texts (at the risk of conceptual myopia) and more general syntheses of an author’s total thought (at the risk of superficiality) which will yield the most balanced and true picture of how he may conceive of ethical motivation (or anything else).

Outline

  1. Introduction: the problem at hand
  2. The motif of hope as it’s grounded in the work of Christ and functions to motivate Christian behavior.
  3. 1 Peter 3:9–12 considered in detail.
  4. The conclusion as a result of points 2 and 3: general synthesis of the author’s thought and detailed analysis of a paritcular text.

Conclusion

Rather, when we hold the two parts together [points 2 and 3 above] a more balanced and true picture emerges of how 1 Peter aims to motivate enemy–love. . . .

Instead (taking the whole message of 1 Peter into account) we will recognize in our own ill will a failure to “hope fully” in the grace of Christ (1:13) who by bearing our own sins in his body (2:24) has brought us home to God (3:18) — our faithful creator (4:19). We will admit that not legalistic moral effort but a change of heart is demanded. To that end we will “be sober unto prayer” (4:7), and girding up our minds (1:13) will direct our attention to the reality of the Lord’s kindness in the living word (2:2, 3; 1:23). Thus by the grace of God we may experience a renewal of hope so that in all sincerity and earnestness (1:22) we can speak and act toward our enemy from a hopeful, humble and loving heart that truly desires his blessedness.

The Gospel Will Not Fail

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Isaiah 40:8,

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

The passage is not about grass.

We need to take a step back to capture the real comparison in these verses. Isaiah tells us in verse 6, “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.”

Flesh is a metonymy for humans. All people, creatures, you and me — we’re like grass. That’s the point. More specifically, we’re like grass in how fragile we are compared to the Lord. The very breath of God against us makes us to wither and fade. Isaiah doesn’t want us to miss this: “surely the people are grass.”

With his point established, Isaiah gives us verse 8:

the grass [that's you and me] withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

So the contrast is not between grass and the word of our God. It’s between us and the word of our God. We wither and fade. We are but little sprigs of turf compared to the word of our God.

The Whole Gospel Here

But this passage is for our comfort, not our rebuke. Isaiah has said a lot about putting down the haughty and prideful. Judgment has been issued. But here, the word is “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1). We should be comforted that we’re like grass but the word of God is forever.

Calvin writes, “This passage comprehends the whole Gospel in a few words.”

These two things: our nature and the Lord‘s word. And there is good news to be heard.

We know we’re like grass. Mankind can only flex in front of the mirror for so long. We live in a world of Grand Canyons and deep oceans. There are high mountains and tsunamis. It’s hard to stay haughty when you look around.

But moreoever, we’re fallen. We’re sinners. This means that for all the grasslikeness we are, we’re too blind to really understand it. We are unreliable. We are a needy race, entirely dependent.

But the word of our God.

This word is a resolve. It is his promise to save, to end our warfare and pardon our iniquity. It is his whole action of revealing his glory, of making himself known in salvation. It is the great antithesis to our grassyness. He will do what he says. He will save.

We are grass but Jesus has come. He suffered in our place, bearing the wrath we deserved. He was buried and then raised on the third day. He ascended to heaven and is now reiging over his coming kingdom. We can trust him. The word of our God will stand forever.

[Read the original post at FighterVerses.com.]

In Jesus, the LORD Is Our Shepherd

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Psalms 23:1-2,

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.”

The beginning of Psalm 23 sounds a lot different from the beginning of Psalm 22.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1)

Both are psalms of David placed beside each other with a purpose. We are struck in Psalm 22 with a cry of desperation. We are soothed in Psalm 23 with a declaration of the Lord‘s sufficiency. As the reader, we are supposed to feel this contrast. We are supposed to read them together, walking with the voice of each verse, being led to a confidence in the Lord that declares “I shall not want.”

Real Affliction

So there is forsakenness in Psalm 22. It’s real. David has written, but the speaker is the Afflicted One — the one who is mocked in his suffering, the one who is surrounded by dogs (or Gentile soliders), the one whose hands and feet are pierced, whose garments are divided and for which lots are cast. This is Jesus on the cross (Matthew 27:35, 39, 46; John 19:23-24).

Psalm 22 gives us the voice of Messiah in his affliction. We read him and hear his prayers, almost like a proto-Gethsemane. And then David himself steps in to command our praise in Psalm 22:23. The Lord has heard the Afflicted One’s cry (v. 24). More than that, David tells us, “The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord!” (v. 26). David is now exulting in verse 27 — “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”

What the Empty Tomb Tells Us

From forsaken (22:1) to heard (22:24) to satisfied (v. 26) to worshiped by all the families of the nations (22:27). This is where Psalm 22 takes us. Now how did this happen? Here is where Psalm 23 comes in (and Psalm 24 soon after).

We know that Jesus was not ultimately forsaken. There’s an empty tomb to prove it. Even though he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, he was not left alone. He was not abandoned. In fact, on the third day he was raised. He was raised and declared to be the Son of God, given a name that is above every name. The Lord was his shepherd. He didn’t lack. That’s what the resurrection is saying.

The Same Shepherding Grace

And this is why we love Psalm 23. This is not a mere poem that’s appropriately recited at graveside services. This is the Messianic hope in God’s utter faithfulness, even through the shadows of death. The Lord is our shepherd and he never forsakes us. Never.

This is a confidence in the resurrection rooted in Jesus’ own victory over death. As the Father raised him, he will raise us, too (1 Corinthians 15:23). Because we are united to Jesus, the same shepherding grace exemplified in his victory is the same shepherding grace that will be exemplified in ours.

Read the original post at FighterVerses.com.

Why 2 Samuel 10:12 Is About Jesus

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2 Samuel 10:12 —

Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.

Part of the Lord‘s covenant with David about Messiah included rest from all his enemies (2 Samuel 7:11). The promise for a Son who would be King forever came with a vision of dominion and peace. We even see a foretaste of the Lord‘s faithfulness to the promise in David’s military victories in 2 Samuel 8. This is a continuation of the promise that links the Davidic kingship back to Numbers 24:17-20.

So when Joab makes this awesome declaration in 2 Samuel 10:12 we should view it to be in this same line of hope. Joab can say what he says because he know what seems good to the Lord. It is good to the Lord to be faithful to his promises — to sustain the house of David and bring the promised Son of David to be born many years later in the City of David. God’s faithfulness to this promise is God’s faithfulness to the radiance of his own glory, for this promise becomes the locus of the revelation of his person (John 1:1-5, 14-18; Colossians 1:15-20; 2:9; Hebrews 1:1-3)

In other words, Joab can say what he says because of Jesus. And because of Jesus, we can say the same thing: let the Lord do what seems good to him!

Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen, But Stand on the Shoulders of the Prophets and Apostles

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Then I saw in my dream that the Interpreter  took Christian by the hand, and led him into a place where was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it always, casting much water upon it to quench it: yet did the fire burn higher and hotter. . .

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, 75ff.

Many people have considered Christian faith an easy thing, and not a few have given it a place among the virtues. They do this because they have not experienced it and have never tasted the great strength there is in faith. . . But he who has had even a faint taste of it can never write, speak, meditate, or hear enough concerning it.

Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian, 277

The question of faith is not whether the faith itself is sincere, but whether the object of faith is worth such sincerity. Promise is not what constitutes my faith. It is promise and testimony. The New Testament is predominantly the ‘pay up’ of promise with a vision for its consummation. That is what the testimony is. The promises that God has made have been fulfilled. Blessed are those who have not yet seen but stand on the shoulders of the prophets and the apostles in hope.

Sure, we set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:13), but only because of the grace already poured out upon us through the prophets who prophesied and through the apostles who preached the good news to us by the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 1:12).

Revived by Hope

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As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. (Psalms 17:15)

This will really happen one day. When the life of gospel faith is spinning its wheels let us come back to this point. The essence of what we believe, though rooted definitively in the historical event of Jesus’ death and resurrection, is looking forward to the consummation of His kingdom. May the LORD grant to us, in the middle of July, dreams of that day when we will see Jesus’ face and love Him with unsinning heart.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! (Psalms 27:13-14)

Beyond Mystery to Miracle: Marriage and the Scope of the Husband’s Output

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“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32)

If Paul calls it a mystery then I think I am safe to call it miraculous… or at least I’ll call the v. 25 part miraculous. Marriage is profound. The apostolic command to the husband is even more staggering.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…

Pull an all-night study cram for that one and let me know how it goes. Husbands have been given a difficult task. Notice two implications: the scope of marital output and the purpose of marriage onset.

The Scope of Marital Output

Ephesians 5:25 love means that your love knows no end, your giving has no cap, and your service never expires. You cannot stay a wuss and stay a husband. How much whining do you think you can get away with? A verse reference — Eph. 5:25 — is an ample touché. The husband is commanded to be an incessant giver of the rarest resource. Love, then love, and then when it is really hard, love. If Paul means what he says then there is no point that the husband comes to when he says “that’s enough.” I am glad Jesus never said that to me.

It is in the moment of marital difficulty, brother, that we soak in our union with Christ and long for his gospel to overcome us. We can only love and love deeper still when the truth of his cross and resurrection has overwhelmed us and is overwhelming deeper still. It is that moment of feeling exhausted, when we’ve reached our mortal limit, that we share in the sufferings of Christ, as it were. The Lamb who was silent, the blasphemed one who was falsely accused and didn’t even open his mouth, be like him because you are in him. We are in that Lamb. We partake of his nature. We were baptized into his death and walk now in the newness of his life.

Breathe deeply at that point. Inhale the blood-bought grace that is your only shot. Receive that miracle. Close your eyes and dive off of that cliff into the ocean of love that would be dry if it were of ink and there was parchment in the sky. Affirm with gladness that your love is limitless. Be a cheerful giver of the rarest resource because you know that the one who produces it never tires of giving from his immeasurable riches…

Expecting Jesus to Return: The Basis For It As A Superior Motivation, Part Two

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The return of Christ is a more definite reality than that each believer will die. Jesus was explicit about his return and he was not about the death of every believer. He told his disciples, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3).

Jesus’ promise to return elevates its reality, for “he who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23). Our inescapable bond to death at work in this present world is not to be denied, however, its expectation should be transcended by the clear words of Jesus, “I will come again.” It is my conviction that attention to this truth will do more than the admission to death’s impartiality.

Death becomes the ‘Plan B,’ as it were, that has been turned by Christ into the usher of his people so that we do not “grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). But what is more inescapable, more definite, than death is the reality that the believer will see Jesus, whether they “depart” to be with him or they “remain” until he comes.

The Constraining Power of Contemplating the Glory of Christ

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The hopelessness of oneself in light of their personal reality logically leads the person to look elsewhere. John Owen criticizes the Roman Catholicism of his day on this very point. He writes, “The whole bundle of the popish religion is made up of designs and contrivances to pacify conscience without Christ.”

Contrary to Owen, it is this “self-strength” by “self-invention” which leads to “self-righteousness.” Although sin is acknowledged, the cracked conscience is fraudulently mended by belittling the seriousness of one’s personal need and therefore outside hope is unnecessary. Such an act is illogical and full of deceit. Where there is no understanding of personal depravity there is no desperation for hope. For Owen, this looking outside of oneself for hope is accomplished by contemplating the work of Christ:


Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ, and virtue will proceed from him to repair all our decays, to renew a right spirit within us, and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience… It will fix the soul unto that object which is suited to give it delight, complacency, and satisfaction… when the mind is filled with thoughts of Christ and his glory, when the soul thereon cleaves unto him with intense affections, they will cast out, or not give admittance unto, those causes of spiritual weakness and indisposition… And nothing will so much excite and encourage our souls hereunto as a constant view of Christ and his glory; everything in him hath a constraining power hereunto, as is known to all who have any acquaintance with these things.


John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold (Edinburgh: Johnson and Hunter, 1850-53; reprint, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965-68), “The Glory of Christ,” I:460-461.