“Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion…” (Ps 48:2). Not now, says Asaph! Where are you taking us now, Asaph? He is going directly to God. “O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple they have defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps. The dead bodies of Your […]
CHRIST the REPRODUCER: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (Jn 12:24). As with Abram, the Lord blesses us that we may be the channel of His blessing to others (Gen 12:1-2). The Lord saves us and then enlists us […]
“Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance. In Your name they rejoice all day long, and in Your righteousness they are exalted” (Ps 89:15-16). W.A. Cornaby writes: One sunny morning, after a spell of dismal weather, a little girl of six came running […]
“God” in various religions might be thought of as benevolent towards creation, but the gospel was Good News when it first burst on the world because men realized “God is Love.” The revelation provided by Christ Himself, the awe-full brunt of suffering which He was prepared to bear in order to redeem mankind, His triumph […]
Of course the Lord doesn’t sleep or wake up—but there are times when He seems to spring into action. Although out of chronology, the next section of Psalm 78—verses 43-53—is exactly in line with Asaph’s lesson for us. The failures of the Wilderness Wanderings (vv 12-42) are all the more serious because of what went […]
CHRIST the LORD from HEAVEN: “the second Man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor 15:47). Adam was from the earth and so, like the earth, he was “earthy.” But Christ is not like heaven; heaven is like Christ. He is Lord there. The Book of Revelation declares: His glorious presence is the light of […]
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Mt 23:37). Six hundred years before, Jeremiah asked, “Who will have pity on you, O […]
J. Budziszewski, a “repentant atheist,” writes: “How then did I become undeceived? Not because anyone called my bluff. When I told the faculty of the University of Texas that there is no rationally knowable difference between good and evil and that we aren’t responsible for our deeds anyway, they gave me a job teaching the […]
“They said, ‘Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?’” (Ps 78:19). Oh yes He can! And He did! What seemed to the people to be “this worthless bread” (Num 21:5), the manna was considered by God to be “the bread of heaven” and “angels’ food” (Ps 78:24-25). Their despising the manna and wanting meat instead was taken as evidence that “they did […]