There are people who take pleasure in doing what is wrong, in doing things which hurt or anger others. The proverb writer tells us, accurately, that such people are fools. Those with real understanding realize that there is greater pleasure to be had in doing what is wise and right. The pleasure to be had from helping and comforting others outstrips that to be gained by bringing them harm.
Every time I hear the song “Thank You” bu Led Zeppelin I think of this psalm. While that song is a love song and this psalm is a psalm of praise to God, they both have a similar feel. The gist of the Led Zeppelin song is that the singer and his lover will be together even when the world comes tumbling down around them. That is a nice sentiment, but I much prefer the sentiment in the psalm.
The psalmist tells us that when our world comes crumbling down around us, we do not need to fear because God will be there to rescue us. A much better sentiment because it is true to a much greater degree than that of the song. God will be there for us to the end of the world and beyond. Our lover may wish to be as well, but they may be taken from us by circumstances beyond their ability to control.
So, when our world is crumbling around us, let us be still and know that God is there for us. He will be our refuge and our strength. He is always ready to help in times of trouble.
The day after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus was in a sour mood. As He entered the city, he cursed a fig tree. Then when He got into the Temple, He drove the merchants and those buying from them out of the Temple. I have rarely heard anyone mention that when Jesus drove people out of the Temple it was not just the merchants. He also drove out those buying from them. When He referred to them turning the Temple into a den of thieves, He was not directing His ire at merchants. He was angry at all of the parties involved. To what degree are we taking part in what He condemned here when we go shopping on Sunday?
What Jesus is condemning here is our failure to set aside time to focus on God. We get too caught up in our material pursuits, buying and selling, that we do not turn our attention to God. This is another one of those times when I know what this passage means to me, but I cannot quite put the words together to say it.
I really don’t have much on this passage. However, it does show us the importance of giving back to God from what we have. A tithe is just the start of what we owe to God. What we owe to God is everything which we have.
God told Moses and Aaron to count the men of fighting age among the people of Israel. It is important to catalog the resources you have available before you begin a campaign to carry out the will of God.
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. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day, or more. in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Only fools take pleasure in doing wrong. The wise realize that the fleeting pleasure one might gain from such actions is not worth the greater pain which it causes (whether that pain is to others or oneself).
What a wonderful psalm! God is my refuge, I need fear nothing.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.
Let the oceans roar and foam.
Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!
People may bluster and threaten, yet I know that God is sovereign and His will cannot be thwarted. I will trust in Him and He will protect me. The psalmist then gives us a command from God:
Be still, and know that I am God!
It is when we are still in both our minds and in our bodies that we hear God speaking to us.
I have a perspective today on the story of the donkey which Jesus rode in the Triumphal Entry that I have never heard mentioned before. The attitude of the owner of said donkey. When the disciples went to untie the colt they told those standing nearby (who I am assuming were the owners), “The Lord needs it and will return it soon.” At which point they were sent on their way with the colt. Do we have a similar attitude with our possessions when someone tells us that God has need of them? Are we willing to put our possessions at the disposal of those doing God’s work? How do we know when God is calling for us to offer our possessions for use in a particular ministry?
This passage makes this the perfect place to discuss something that has been concerning me lately. Often times at our congregation someone will hold a sale as a fundraiser for some event in the lobby of our building after our worship service. Jesus condemned the religious leaders of His day for commercializing the Temple. I am quite sure that the presence of merchants in the Temple courtyards began from good motives, just as these fundraisers are held from entirely good motives. However, the question is, how do we know when we have crossed the line? I want to be clear that I do not think any of the fundraisers that have been held at my congregation have crossed the line. They have just become a frequent enough occurrence that I believe some attention should be given to the impression they may give outsiders who attend our services. I, also, want to say that I do not have the answer here.
This passage is among the reasons I started doing this blog. I believe it is important to read all of the Bible regularly, but before I started this blog I found myself skipping over passages like this one. Today I realized that this passage tells us the importance of determining what resources we have available to accomplish the mission which God has given us. Moses could not effectively plan how to invade the land of Canaan until he knew not just how many men he had, but how many were in each unit (tribe). In the same way we need to muster our resources and figure out who God has sent to aid us when we start a new mission for Him.
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. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Today’s passage spells out how to go about how someone would redeem for other use possessions which they had dedicated to the Lord. It spells out how to determine what kind of compensation they would need to give in the place of various things. This is a continuation from yesterday. Nowhere does it spell out what would happen to a dedicated possession which is not redeemed (although it seems to say that animals which could be offered as sacrifices would be sacrificed at some point if they are not redeemed). This appears to be the passage that was the basis for the “loophole” that Jesus condemned the Pharisees for, where they allowed someone to “dedicate” their property to God and thus avoid using it to care for their parents.
The book of Numbers begins with a census which Moses took of the men who were able to go to war among the people of Israel. The count was slightly over 600,000 men and did not include the men of the tribe of Levi.
Jesus begins the final week before His crucifixion by staging a triumphal ride into Jerusalem. Yes, Jesus staged the Triumphal Entry. However, it is probable that His entry into Jerusalem was going to be a major scene no matter how He did it. Jesus had attracted quite a following over the years of His ministry. People wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Jesus made His entry into Jerusalem in a manner that sent a message. He rode in on the colt of a donkey. By doing this He declared that He was coming in peace, not as a warrior king who was about to go to war to deliver His people. He led this procession all the way to the Temple, where He looked around and then left for the evening.
The following morning on the way back to the Temple, Jesus passed a fig tree which He approached to see if it had any figs. When He found that it had no figs, He cursed the tree. The only time in the Bible where Jesus demonstrated any anger on His own behalf (although perhaps His temper was a little short because He was thinking about what He had seen at the Temple the day before). When Jesus arrived at the Temple He drove those who had turned the Temple courtyard into a marketplace out of it. The merchants were set up in the place that intended for non-Jews to come to worship the Lord. When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what He had done, they wanted to kill Him. Why? Because they were making a profit off of these merchants (that’s me reading between the lines again). There was nothing wrong with the priests and religious leaders making a profit off of the merchants in and of itself. The problem was that they taught that people needed to purchase their sacrifices from these merchants, who they made a profit off of (reading between the lines again). They were using their positions as arbiters of religious law to exploit the people. They wanted to kill Jesus because He had exposed them and their little scam relied on the majority of people not realizing that they were being exploited. In the evening, Jesus and His disciples left the city once more.
When they returned the following morning, the disciples noticed that the fig tree which Jesus had cursed the day before had already withered. When Peter pointed this out to Jesus, He replied by telling them to have faith in God. If they truly have faith, whatever they ask of God will come to pass. He gives the example of a mountain being cast into the sea at their command. I believe that part of having faith that God will do what we ask of Him is that we start the process. I like using the example of the mountain because it sums up how I see this. Why would we ask God to move a mountain into the sea? We would do so because we believe that it is necessary to accomplish some good in this world that God approves of and is thus God’s will. If we truly believe that it is God’s will that a particular mountain be moved into the sea, we will begin attempting to move it, even if that means moving it a shovelful at a time, even if we can see no way that we would ever complete the task.
Mark mentions and additional instruction from Jesus for when we ask for something in prayer. Jesus tells us that when we are praying, if there is anyone who has done something that offends us we are to forgive them so that God may forgive us of our sins. If we are unable to forgive those we believe to have done us wrong, we will be unable to accept God’s forgiveness of our sins.
This psalm is a beautiful reminder of God’s love and providence. There is no way that I can express this better than the psalmist.
God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.
Let the oceans roar and foam.
Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!
I will hold onto God as my refuge and strength and then, no matter what comes to pass, I will not fear.
Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.
How hard it is to be still! Our world constantly offers distractions and attempts to get us to stop listening before we hear what God has to say to us. Sometimes we just need to be still and know that He is God. He will be honored throughout the world and in every nation.
Snow on branches out the window
What a true proverb. I remember enjoying planning to do something that I knew was wrong. I know people who get a thrill out of doing that which is “forbidden”. It reminds of something a parent I know recently told me (this parent is also a teacher). They said that children are always going to go over the line that you draw. This means that you need to draw the line somewhere so that when they go over the line, they won’t be doing something that causes them harm they can never recover from. He did not say the other part of that. That the line has to be drawn so that when they go over the line, they can see the danger of doing so, so they can see that the line is not arbitrary but is actually there to protect them from danger.
The proverb then gives the counter to those who get pleasure from doing what they know is wrong. Those who have wisdom get pleasure from recognizing the dangers of doing wrong. I have found that I find great pleasure in choosing to do that which I realize is the wise course of action (although I do not always do so).
