Our parents can give us material wealth, but a wise and understanding spouse is a gift from God. I thank God every day for giving me a wife who understands both my strengths and my weaknesses.
This is another passage which reminds me that what is going on in the world today is not something brand new. The psalmist speaks here of a society where the godly are disappearing, where it seems like everyone has turned to evil. He refers to a society where there seem to be no negative consequences to lying and doing wrong. However, the psalmist reminds us that God will judge the wicked and deliver the oppressed. The people around us may look with favor on those who do evil, but God will still hold them to account.
Paul tells us here that everyone has sinned. We have all failed to live according to the standard which God has set for us. None of us has a basis to claim to be better than any other. No matter who we are, we do not have the right to boast about being righteous. Every single one of us has done something which stands between us and being right with God. However, God willingly offered Jesus as a sacrifice to fix the rift between us. He has made us right with Him by that sacrifice. Any righteousness which any of us has is a result of that gift given to us by God. I cannot boast about doing what is right because it is only when God’s Spirit moves within me that I do so. It is a testament to God’s wondrous love that I do what is right with any significant frequency and I pray to Him that He causes me to do so ever more often.
David desired to build a Temple in order to honour God. However, God told him that he had been too much a man of war to undertake that task. The Temple honouring God was to be built by a man of peace. This is something for us as followers of Christ to bear in mind. Today the Temple which is being built to honour God is in the bodies of those who follow and obey Jesus. If we are to build ourselves into a Temple to honour God we must be people of peace, not of war. God is honoured by us demonstrating His peace to those around us.
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
David decided that the place where the threshing floor of Araunah had been would be the place that the Temple of God would be built. He then gathered materials to be used in the construction of the Temple. Because he thought that Solomon would be young and inexperienced when he became king and David wanted the Temple to be grand and magnificent, David began making plans for the Temple. He instructed Solomon on building the Temple. David said to Solomon that God has told him, David, not to build the Temple because he had shed the blood of too many people. Rather David was to leave the building of the Temple to Solomon, who would reign in peace. David then gave orders to all of the leaders of Israel to assist Solomon in building the Temple.
David took a census of the Levites and assigned them to one of three divisions based on the clans descended from the three sons of Levi. He assigned the majority of the Levites to the task of supervising the work at the Temple. A second smaller division was to serve as officials and judges. The third division was divided between those who were to be gatekeepers and those who were to be musicians praising the Lord. David did this shortly before he arranged for Solomon to be crowned to take the throne in his place.
Having stated that there are benefits to being a Jew and to being circumcised, Paul asks if this means that Jews are better than other people. He answers his own question by saying resoundingly no. Paul tells us that all, both Jew and Gentile, are equally under the power of sin. He quotes several psalms in order to support this claim, pointing out that the psalmist tells us that:
No one is righteous—
not even one.
…
All have turned away;
Paul continues by telling us that the purpose of the law is to make us aware of our sin, no one can be made righteous by the works of the law because no one can keep it in its entirety.
From there, Paul explains that God has now revealed the way to be made right with Him, without keeping every last requirement of the Law. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. The Law and the prophets told us that this was coming. It applies to all who are willing to believe. Everyone has sinned and we all fall short of God’s standard. God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin and thus freed us from the power of sin. God will declare any sinner righteous who is willing to believe in and rely on Jesus for their righteousness. This means that our righteousness gives us no basis to boast, or to claim to be superior to someone else, because it is not based on anything we have done. It is something we receive solely on the basis of our faith in Jesus. However, this does not mean that we ignore God’s law. It is only as an expression of our faith that we are truly able to fulfill the law.
***
There are two lessons that Paul is attempting to teach in this passage. The first is that we do not have any basis for considering ourselves better than someone else. There is no way that we have lived i\up to God’s standard well enough to be able to say to someone else, “Well, at least I didn’t do that!” Every one of us has something in our life that other people, no matter how steeped in evil they may seem, can point to and say the very same thing about us. no matter how hard we have tried, we have failed to meet the standard which God has set for us. Nevertheless, God has given each one of us the option of accepting His free gift of His righteousness. Which brings us to the second lesson Paul is teaching in this passage. Once we have accepted God’s gift of righteousness, we will be inspired to do God’s will by living a life faithful to God’s commands.
Reading Phillies conference on the mound
This psalm is a psalm of hope in a day when its opening line once more seems to be coming true.
Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!
The faithful have vanished from the earth!
The psalmist tells us that the Lord has seen the violence done to the helpless and He will rise up and rescue them. The wicked may strut around displaying pride in their wickedness and evil may be praised throughout the land, but God will keep the needy safe and protect them from the wicked.
Reading Phillies vegetable race
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
David selected the location for the Temple to be built. He, also, began collecting materials to use in the construction of the Temple. He set aside large amounts of gold, silver, bronze, iron and cedar. David told Solomon that he had wanted to build a Temple for God, but God had told him it would not be appropriate for him to do so because of all of the men he had killed in his wars. David went on to tell Solomon that God had told him that his son, Solomon, would be a man of peace and would build God’s Temple. David instructs the leaders of Israel to assist Solomon in building the Temple for God. David then assigns duties relating to the Temple that will be built to the Levites according to their family lines.
In yesterday’s passage, Paul said that it is not OK to sin. In today’s passage, he wrote that even though the Jews have received God’s Law, they are no better than anyone else. The purpose of the Law is show us how guilty we are before God. We cannot be made right with God by obeying the Law. All have sinned and fall short of God’s standard. We can only be made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. Paul wrote that we are made right with God by believing that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His own blood.
No one has any basis for boasting of their righteousness, because we have all failed equally before God. We can only be made right with God through faith, not by anything we have done. Does this mean we can ignore the Law and go on sinning? Paul wrote that it certainly does not mean that. He wrote that through our faith, God gives us the power to fulfill and keep the Law. Through the Holy Spirit we are given the power to overcome sin and do what is right before God. We will sin from time to time, but we should strive to allow the Holy Spirit to change us so that we do not. When we discover an area where sin is able to control us, we should not say, “There is nothing I can do. I just have to accept that I am going to commit this sin.” Instead, we should ask God for the power and guidance to avoid that sin in the future. If we acknowledge our powerlessness to overcome that sin and request God’s help in freeing us from that sin, He will grant our prayer and remove the power of that sin over us.
The psalmist tells us that even when it appears that society is abandoning all pretense of righteousness and descending into glorifying sin and evil, God will rise up and cast judgement on those who do violence to the helpless. When I read this passage from the psalmist:
They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content.
Our lips are our own—who can stop us?”
I cannot help but think of all those in our society today who say that there is no God. It reminds me of the pro-abortionists argument that a woman should have control over her own body. But the psalmist tells us that God replies:
“I have seen violence done to the helpless,
…
Now I will rise up to rescue them,…”
The psalmist tells us that God’s promises are pure as silver that has been repeatedly melted and had the impurities removed. God will protect the oppressed, even in a country where the evil brag of their evil and others praise them for it.
These two proverbs are obviously related, but at first glance they seem to contain two unrelated ideas. The first is that a foolish child is a calamity for a parent. The second is that choosing a spouse correctly is important for future happiness. However, they are related, because the foolishness being discussed in the first part is that of choosing a spouse poorly. It is important that we turn to God and seek His guidance in selecting a spouse. I have known many men who have sought women as potential mates based on superficial characteristics, who have ended up with women who made them unhappy. I love having a beautiful wife, but am so glad that I allowed God to guide my selection.
