Of curtains, altars, rods and lamps... a study in Exodus 26-27

Introduction

 I’m not very handy. Compared to the members of Patty’s family, men and women alike, I’m just not in their league. I remember when we both graduated from university and one of our presents was a substantial gift of money to help us renovate our kitchen. We had longed for a serious upgrade to the cabinetry, to the wiring, to the whole flooring, well, the entire kitchen needed a makeover. And this was in the days before Renovation television shows, so we had to do it ourselves. Only my expertise is not in such renovations. So my wife’s uncle and father traveled each day for about an hour to our home to help me build and rebuild the kitchen.  This lasted over a week, and we got it done. It was a wonder that I didn’t die, doing rewiring and plugging things into the junction boxes and switching the lines a bit early. I got quite a jolt a time or two, but the men kept their patience and kept our lives. And our kitchen was finally redone.  All that to say-- unless a master carpenter or electrician is in the house, unless a craftsman is nearby-- a dream house begins to look like a sukkah, always leaning, always needing repair.

Bezalel and Oholiab were the two masters of the Tabernacle of Moses. They had the gift like my uncle and father-in-law. They were appointed to build the tent to the specifications God gave Moses on Mt Sinai. And today’s text gives us many more of those details. It is a bit cumbersome, that is, the details, so let us back out our lens a bit, and see the bigger picture of this structure and what God is saying to the Jewish people, and maybe to us in the 21^st Century as well.

God wanted Moses to build a worship center. This building was to be mobile, and it was to be precise. Each ring and pole had to be made just so. Each curtain had to be of certain colors and length. Even the width of the boxes of furniture had to measure exactly. This is not a job for an unhandy guy. I’m so glad God didn’t choose my ancestor to do the work. 

This worship center was a mirror of another, however. Remember in chapter 25 we read, ““And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain.” (.40) In other words, the one blueprint that Moses received a couple chapters ago was really like another which is elsewhere. This heavenly tabernacle is not revealed to humanity until much later, in fact, not until the consummation of everything in the book of the Revelation, chapter 21. 

In Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the East of the US, there is a place where a Christian community has built the Tabernacle to the specs. They can do this because of the meticulous detail that God gives in this 15-chapter section of the book of Exodus.

Now today we see several major details of the overall worship center. We see the curtains, the altar where sacrifices would be offered, and the ner tamid, about which I want to speak later.

The curtains and the altar

Today we read of the 10 curtains to surround the place, including the veil to separate the Holy Place (sanctuary) from the Holy of Holies. Curtains of both fine linen and also curtains of goats’ hair. Fifty loops, fifty rings, the whole thing might appear to us as a giant shower curtain on the poles that are also described. The curtains (11 of them) for the roof were to be made of goats’ hair.

Then sockets, bars and boards to make the whole place manageable as the priests would have been working daily. The veil that would separate the holy ark and Holy of Holies was to be made of 

^“blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skilful workman.”

The plans called for a box to be built. This box is to be covered with bronze and netting. It was made of acacia wood, very common in the Sinai Peninsula and a hard wood, harder than oak. It also resisted insects quite well.  The box is called an altar and as such then would be useful in the sacrificial system, which had been prototyped, or hinted at, but had not yet been as developed as it would in the continuing chapters especially of Leviticus.

Sacrifice is a major part of the story of this worship center. Perhaps in modern days we think of stages and lights at a worship center. We think of offices and telephone lines. But in the old days, when God thought of worship, he thought of elaborate furniture, which was designed to teach the people about Him and about our relationship to Him.

The first piece of furniture to put into the tented and curtained structure was the altar. An altar is a place of sacrifice. It’s a place for blood. It’s not a sanitary place, it’s non-hygienic. It’s messy. It’s unnecessary for the modern worship center. How many of you have seen altars in synagogues or churches these days? No? Why not? It’s probably a matter of law, that you cannot butcher or slaughter an animal without a license or without a location of sanitation. But the Jewish people are given instructions primarily to make an altar to remind us of something.

That something is sin. 

We don’t like to talk about it in modern days. Karl Meninger, the great American psychiatrist, and founder of the Meninger Clinic, wrote a very unpopular book in the 70s titled, “Whatever became of sin?” His thesis was that all the psychobabble that was popular then, and has only increased to this day, dismissed a very real problem in clinical psychiatry. That problem was wrong-doing. In other words, what the Bible called ‘sin.’  People are responsible, Meninger argued, for their wrong-doing, and thus for the associated problems they experienced. He said when people look to the root of their problem and find their own errors, it would behoove them to acknowledge that and fix what they could. I say this theory was not popular among his peers. Evidence today is mounting in his favor, but too little too late for many.

Sin is still a major problem whether the medical community agrees or not. It was God’s idea from the beginning as He initiated a fix-it solution to the problem of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve failed God and did their own thing.  God wanted them to admit their sin and to return to Him. He made an item of clothing for the first couple. Remember what it was? That’s right, a garment of skins. Animal skins that portended the sacrificial system which would come later. Sin is dealt with in sacrificing an animal. And blood is required. And blood is smelly and blood is messy. 

Animal rights people may not like this message. But I can live with folks not liking my message. I cannot live with God not liking my message. He wants us to know of our sin and the first piece of furniture in God’s building was to reflect this. It will cost Israel much to repair our relationship with God. We must admit our sin, we must acknowledge it and we have to see to it by killing animals and performing God’s commands. 

The courtyard and the one way in

Concerning the courtyard, we read the rectangular space design and think it seems reasonable. And it is. But one thing struck me in this reading. Verse 13 says,”Kaidma mizraha”

This expression, “to the east, to the sunrise,” seems redundant. The NASB translators don’t even put in the 2^nd thought. But as the day begins in the morning with the sun, so the Tabernacle is to ‘face’ to the east, with the entrance placed there. No other openings are allowed. This seems very surprising. If it’s for all Israel, if it’s to be a witness in the way of the presence of God, why are there not 2 or 5 or 10 doors? I believe this teaching of the ‘one way’ is to help us understand God’s plans for coming to Him. There are many peoples gathered outside the Tabernacle. There are 12 nations in one nation, but there is only one way to approach God. Each of us can have our own relationship with God, but each of us must come to God in the God-way, in the one way He declares. This doesn’t sound fair in this multicultural world of the 21^st Century, but it is what works in God’s economy. Fight it if you want, but you will lose.

The eternal lamp

Verses 20 and 21 teach us about the ner tamid This eternal light is the second most recognizable item in the Jewish religion after the menorah. Both are light bringers.

Where does the light come from? The Bible uses the phrase, “clear oil of beaten olives”…describe the process of beating. It is in the beaten olives that light emerges. Squeezed. Oppressed. Pounding. Imagine being an olive. Not that olives have emotions, but project with me, ok? You are growing on a tree, and you are happy. Your life seems full and then all of a sudden some madman, with a clippers takes you on. He collects you and then starts beating you in a vat. Along with other formerly happy olives. And in this squeezing and beating comes out some oil. In fact, much oil. 

In fact, the only way that oil comes out is for the olives to be damaged. It’s really their purpose to be damaged/beaten, and then to produce the precious oil. Their purpose is not to be growing, although without their growth they don’t achieve their full purpose. 

In fact, Yeshua had a purpose to come and to live and to die for us. He grew as a tender olive shoot (Isaiah 53), and yet his growth was not the purpose of his coming. He came to die.

Listen, when you have problems in your life, maybe your first thought ought to be ‘what is God doing in making oil to come out of me?” Squeeze me, Lord. Make something good come out of my life, in all my pain and in all my dilemmas. 

The oil was used to be a memory eternally. That is, every day, the priests would attend to the altar and to the lamp stand, trimming the wicks. The Bible will make this role clear in a few chapters, but for now, the oil is more significant.

Lessons learned

I believe we should see applications from our chapter today. 

1)    God’s way to Himself if opened for us in the cross of Yeshua and there is no other way to Him

2)    God will use troubles, real tsuris in our lives, to make oil by which others will see more clearly.

3)      God’s design needs to be followed in our building and in our living 

Light of the world... does it work in the Southern Hemisphere? Punching holes in the darkness

A sermon given in Sydney

Earlwood Indonesian Presbyterian Church

Introduction

Shalom Pastor Gunung and all here at Earlwood church. Salamat Pagi! I’m pleased to be joining you this morning as we fast approach the holiday of Christmas. There is so much festivity in the air, so many visits to the shops, to see Santa and listen to him lie to our children repeatedly. The shops are playing some of our favourite carols if you happen to like sleigh bells ringing, snowballs, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, and other winter wonderland music. Of course, this is Australia, and we don’t have winter here at this time of year. So, the bundle of information and songs to process are all related to something strange.

Now add to that strangeness the stories about a jolly man-in-a-red-suit who gives gifts to children he doesn’t know and travels the world in a supercharged sleigh to supply those in one night. Oh, don’t forget the rushing to the shops by parents and people attending the annual Christmas parties with crackers and fruitcakes and lying about enjoying being with them repeatedly.

Then move the tale to a Bible story that someone feels obliged to share with us, or the Channel 9 Carols in the Domain or Carols in the Carpark or wherever it is from which they broadcast. They tell of something about shepherds in Israel and a star that leads some foreign dignitaries to travel from Mesopotamia through Iran and Iraq and find themselves in ancient Judea, now Israel, looking for a baby. In a farm stall. Amidst farm animals. 

Could anything be more remote? Could anything be stranger?

Today we read the Gospel assigned to me by your pastor from the song of Miriam, the prayer nicknamed “The Magnificat” from Luke chapter 1, verses 46-55. Miriam is the Hebrew name of Mary, the mother of our Saviour Yeshua. She is singing a prayer to God and if you know much about prayers in the Bible, you would say that this prayer/song sounds familiar. A couple of those lines are direct quotes from the Older Testament, and the rest sounds consistent with so many prayers by others.

But maybe this idea sounds strange to you. Christmas is about Jesus and some say that’s a New Testament idea, and now I’m mentioning Old Testament Bible quotations, and you might be thinking—wait a minute, what does Jesus have to do with the Old Testament? That’s about Jewish people, right?

For many people in Sydney, and probably in Indonesia, the ideas of Jesus and being Jewish are far apart. But for Miriam and her betrothed fiancé, Joseph, Bethlehem and Judea, and the anticipation of awaiting the Messiah of Israel—all that is very Jewish and very consistent with who they were as Jews. 

Back in Bible days with the centre of the action in Israel, with the central players in the Bible being Jewish, whether Abraham or King David, Moses or Isaiah, and the millions of Jewish people who left Egypt or who were exiled to Babylon or Assyria… the Bible is a very Jewish book. 

The Magnificat

Back to the song of Miriam. I really like this prayer. It sounds similar to the one Hannah sang when she praised and exalted the Lord (1 Samuel 2.1-10) after the birth of her special son, Samuel. She had been unable to have children and God heard her prayer for a son. He answered her and she followed with her own song of praise. A Magnificat. That is, a proclamation of the Magnificence of God. That word may seem strange to you, not only because it’s not a usual Indonesian word, but it’s also not an ordinary English word. 

The word comes from the Greek word ‘maga’ meaning ‘great.’ To magnify the Lord means to make him great. Like using a magnifying glass to read small print in a book or newspaper. Wait a minute, you might think. How can I make God great, or even greater? Isn’t he already the Great One? Yes, I say, but often in our lives, we sin, and the #1 sin in our lives is taking the place of God, becoming #1 in a situation, imagining ourselves to be primary, the #1, the most important. 

So when Mary magnifies the Lord, like Hannah before her, or the Psalmist King David (Psalm 34.4), we proclaim him as king and sovereign, as #1 again. That helps me see what Christmas is all about.

Summer vs Winter Season

We live here in Australia, and many of you are from Indonesia. Both countries are South of the Equator. So when we have this time of the year, it’s always summer. Up north, however, in England or the US, it’s winter, and at the end of this week, we will observe the winter solstice. It’s very cold and dark, and you will have seen those movies and read those books about Christmas in winter, and that may help you make sense of this. In this season up north, the sun sets about 4:30 pm, so after work and after school, much family time is at home and in the dark. 

The Jewish people have a festival that will begin next week, the Feast of Dedication (John 10.22) which translates to Hanukkah. It’s also nicknamed the Festival of Lights. There will be a large menorah (candelabrum) in Martin Place and in Bondi which is lit nightly for many days. And most Jewish people like those menorahs in our homes surrounded by family and lots of great food. 

You will know that Christmas also features food, and especially lots of lights. In some Christian churches, the leadup to the holiday is called Advent, and there are candles and calendars to assist in the celebrations. They put up a Christmas tree that has its light, and many folks in town decorate their houses or units with strings of ornaments and electric lights. Listen, lights make sense in the darkness of the wintry north, but they seem strange to us here in the warm, summery South.

Think with me about darkness. And we often use the expression, “doom and gloom.” Darkness is used in the Bible as a symbol of many things and into each of those darknesses, I believe God wants to shine his light. Light and dark do not co-exist. Light dominates dark and chases it away. (John 1.5)

In Miriam’s Magnificat, she describes the power of God to chase away the proud, the arrogant, the foreign rulers, and the rich and powerful. Light will always triumph over darkness, and let me give you three more darknesses about which I’m thinking today.

The Darkness of Ignorance

The first problem of darkness I want to address is ignorance. I shake my head at people who refuse to learn. It’s not that someone doesn’t know information. It’s that they don’t want to learn another way of thinking. Sometimes, we watch the news or our social media feed and stand amazed at the level of wilful ignorance. You see it in political contests and you see it in sports and sadly, also in religion. The answer to this is not only education. It’s not only information. It’s the willingness to learn. 

Yeshua, some call him Jesus, said, “You search the Scriptures, thinking that in them you find eternal life, but they speak of me.” (John 5.39) We Jewish people are especially academic and prefer scholarship to physical activity. Generally speaking, we win scientific awards at a higher rate than our limited population should. We are only 15 million people worldwide, which is not even one-tenth of one per cent of the world’s population. Even so, we have garnered 22% of the Nobel Prizes across all scientific categories. 

But can we get along with each other? Can we use our smarts to assist others? We know so much and know so little.  Proverbs chapter one says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (1.7)

Even Yeshua taught “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11.52)

Into the darkness of ignorance comes the Light of the Knowledge of the Lord. When? When we give our lives over to the Lord of life.  Paul wrote saying, “God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor. 4.6)

The Darkness of Sin

I’m a preacher and you probably have expected me to link darkness with sin. I will not disappoint you! Sin is so abundant today, so much the norm, that we have likely grown accustomed to it. To label sin as ‘darkness’ is harsh, according to some. However, the human desire to hide from view is a response to sin and shame and is not a natural state. In the Bible, the first indication to God that something had gone wrong was the human desire to hide in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve broke with God, listened to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and ended up being removed and living outside the Garden. Their activity is labelled as ‘sin’ and may be defined as rationalised self-will. All the while, God is rich in mercy and longs to be in a good relationship with his people, but refusing him and living in opposition to his plan is what we are calling ‘sin.’

We read in 2 Peter, “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.” (2 Peter 2.4) Angels were placed in darkness not only as a result of their sin but also as a symbol of it. 

The darkness of sin shuts us off from the righteousness and holiness of God. You notice that most people want to isolate in sin; you don’t ring your Christian brother and invite them to go get drunk with you. We choose to sin alone. We like John declared of my people, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3.19)

But here’s the good news. The darkness of sin can be overcome. Paul wanted the believers to learn that God wanted to ^“open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’” (Acts 26.18)

Yeshua is that Light that erases our sins and gives us THE answer which is Forgiveness. Hallelujah!

The Darkness of Despair

Literal darkness can be bad for us. If we spend too much time out of daylight, we lose track of time, we are more likely to feel depressed and we are more prone to lose touch with reality. Scientific research shows that prolonged exposure to darkness can quickly disrupt our internal rhythms, our sense of self and our relationship with the world around us. We are creatures of the day, and though we need darkness to sleep, we need light to live. Not all darkness is physical. Most of us can access as much daylight as we need – but what if we are stuck in emotional, psychological or spiritual darkness? The effects are much the same – we lose track, we lose heart, and we lose hope.

We often use the phrase, “He’s in a dark place.” Often December is filled with its own sadnesses.  Here’s a photo by Kat Love on Unsplash. 

 

But many will say, “It’s holiday time. Let’s celebrate the end of year with parties and be ready to welcome a new year.” I get that. But as I said, up north, sunset is at 4:30 pm. And most of the evening is dark. All the bright lights of glitter and Santa and icicles, Advent wreathes, and Christmas displays cannot make up for the loss so many feel in this season. For many this is not the “most wonderful time of the year” and highlights their loneliness. For others, the end comes with a less-than-golden handshake from a boss who tells you that you are no longer needed at your job. Emptiness and darkness; they ride together. No wonder the suicide rate in Australia, and certainly here in NSW climbs most years in the month of December. We should be filled with Christmas hope, but it’s not so. We are in the darkness of despair. (https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/suspected-deaths-by-suicide/data-from-suicide-registers)

Look, when I was a kid, we did plenty of wrong things. I was a hippie in the US in the late 1960s, and we did wrong so that we could make the world a better place. At least, our own world could be better. In contrast, kids today often do the same wrong things, but not with the hope of bettering the world; it is often because there is no hope of improvement. 

Into that darkness of despair comes hope. Honest hope. In Luke chapter 2, we meet an old Jewish man named Simeon. He was at the Temple when Miriam and Joseph brought Yeshua in for dedication. Simeon took the baby in his arms and said his famous Nunc Dimitis, “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. (Luke 2.29-32)

Hope is light. The word used to describe Simeon by Luke is here in verse 25. “this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” The word ‘consolation’ is the word in Greek “paraklesis” which can mean comforter and carries the meaning of a person who brings hope, like a defense attorney, that is, one called to help in a law court. In the Jewish tradition the word was transcribed with Hebrew letters and used for angels, prophets, and the just as advocates before God's court. 

Simeon had hope, and though he was old, God promised him that he would be alive when the Hope of Israel was to show up in the Temple there in Jerusalem. 

Conclusion

I guess if we had to choose, most of us would side with the Hope Team. We want to enjoy these summer days and the part of our life that is meaningful and relevant. We want to live in hope of the Glory of God. If you have time, perform a word study on those two topics in the Bible, and you will be amazed at what God is trying to tell us. (1 Peter 1.21, Titus 2.13, Col. 1.27, Eph. 1.12, .18, Rom. 5.2) 

Friends, in this season of light triumphing over darkness, we have a job to do. You might know the author Robert Louis Stevenson.  Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and other classics, grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 19th century. At the end of each day, as darkness spread over the city, Robert would watch with fascination as the lamplighters came down the street, lighting the gas street lamps. 

One evening, seeing their son with his face pressed against the window, Robert’s parents asked him what he was looking at. Robert replied excitedly, “Look at that man! He’s punching holes in the darkness!”

That is our job together as disciples of Jesus. In the darkness of despair, sin, or ignorance, we are charged to punch holes and bring light to those people. One person at a time. One lamp on one street at a time. You will be thinking of Indonesians to whom you want to bring the Light of the Glory of Jesus. Also be thinking today of some Jewish people whom you know from television or from the news, or maybe whom you know personally. I have given my life the last 45 years in working with Jews for Jesus to bring the Gospel to Jewish people, first in the US, and the last 26 years here in Australia and Asia. Thanks be to God who gives us all opportunities to punch holes in the darkness of those near us, at this season of Light, and throughout our days. 

I invite you to join us as we Jews for Jesus carry the message of the Saviour to Israelis, to Russian Jews, and everywhere from Sydney to Subiaco, from Melbourne to Manly, in 2024 and beyond. The more you give, the more we are able to send Bibles, to travel to meet with individual Jewish people in their homes and offices, to make Jesus known. I have this electronic Square so you can tap a donation to the organization or to buy resources off my table up the back, including my own testimony, how God opened my Orthodox Jewish eyes to my Messiah Jesus back in 1971. 

You can use this QR code on the screen just now to sign onto our website and hear more from us, or use the white card/slip we handed you on arrival to church this morning. 

Amazingly, this QR code will sign you up and automatically code you as being here at the Earlwood Church on this date. Thanks for doing that and agreeing to learn what God is doing among the Jewish people in New York, in Sydney, in Israel and around the globe. Thanks for that. 

Pastor Gunung, thanks so much for this invitation to join you today and for your care for our Jewish people today and down the road. Shalom and Merry Christmas.

A benefits inventory with instruments!

A sermon given at Windwood Presbyterian Church

Houston, Texas

Sunday 4 August 2024

 

Shalom! For 25 years I’ve been privileged to spend time about every three years with the folks here at Windwood Church ever since Kevin Rudolph and I began a relationship first in email and then in person, sometimes at church or at GleannLoch or at the restaurants, even at his and Robyn’s home. It is a privilege and I don’t take that lightly. Now that Tres is the senior pastor and we have begun our relationship in email and this morning over breakfast, we continue that tradition. 

As I pondered the sermon’s assigned Bible reading this morning, Psalm 103, it made sense to make a list of our shared history and then to smile in gratitude. I trust, as I share this morning from this 3000-year-old text, that you will have a gratitude list as well, and that you will be singing from it long after the parking lot empties and long after the Olympics or the Astros finish this season. 

There are varied reactions to hearing Bible readings, aren’t there? For instance, I wonder if familiarity bred contempt for you this morning. The words of the Psalms are often known to some of us who hear them with regularity. As a result, we could be unsettled or listening for a ‘new thing’ instead. Then again, the hearing of the ancient text could be like finding an old sweater that you haven’t worn in a while and you really like wearing. It fits; it’s the right colour. It’s you, after all. Some Bible verses seem to do that for me, and maybe for you as well. Is Psalm 103 one of those?

No matter how you took the actual reading of the psalm, let’s unpack it as I think King David intended, as an inventory and job description and see how this works in our lives in 2024 and beyond. Is that fair enough?

The inventory of benefits are listed right off the bat. Five things are itemized, and each is in itself expandable. For each one, I imagine a flurry of trumpets and drums with crashing cymbals. It’s at least 8 bars if not 32 bars of triumphant exaltation. Did you miss the sound of the orchestra when we read the passage? Let’s try it again.

God pardons all our iniquities. Cue the trumpet. Roll the drums. Forgiveness for every one of my sins. And yours. And King David’s sins. Pardon. Release. Empty the jail. Unchain the prisoner. Trumpets. Violins. French horns. Cymbals. PARDON! ALL! There’s nothing left to pay. 

Pondering that orchestral sound as the philharmonic raises the volume triumphs over every remembrance of my iniquities. My sins. My bad attitudes. My sloth. My entitled whining and declarations of life being unfair. All my bad actions. My murdering tongue, my lies, my lusts, my demands. All my iniquities. Summed up, rolled into a list, delivered by Special Delivery to the Scorekeeper, and in one fell swoop, one heartbeat, there is not a single penalty listed. No errors. No mistakes. No sins. The anticipated judgment against me is gone. Pardon is declared. Are your hands lifted high to the heavens yet? My gratitude list begins like King David’s with the erasure of my sins. 

Remember, David would well have had a significant list of sins about which he was aware. We know of a couple of major ones of his, but he would have known much more. Even as each of you knows your own sin more than your neighbour or the fellow in the pew near you. And yet--which by the way is one of my favourite phrases when I ponder God and how he treats humanity, even my humanity--And yet, in spite of our many sins against him and others, he pardons all our iniquities. What an awesome God we have, amen?

The second benefit in our inventory list this morning is the healing of all our diseases. And your first thought is probably like mine… excuse me, David, you lost a child to disease. You are aware of sicknesses in Jerusalem, among your fighting men, and in your own family. How can you possibly declare healings like that? 

Obviously, the psalmist is echoing his own thoughts in a psalm you didn’t study this summer, as we read

“When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.” (Psalm 32.3-4)

 

The linkage of healing and unforgiveness is clear and certainly later biblical authors pick that up. For instance, when Yeshua encounters a paralytic man, recorded for us in Mark chapter 2, we read

“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — He said to the paralytic,  “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” (2.10-11)

Please hear me well. I’m not saying that all sicknesses are directly caused by or even related to sins. The psalmist could be accused of that for instance in Psalm 107 we read

Fools, because of their rebellious way, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. (Psa. 107.17)

 

But not all sickness is a result of sins individuals made happen. COVID levelled the planet in so many ways, and I’m not sure that every person who contracted it four years ago, or even in this summer’s season, is because of his or her iniquity. If that were so we should have insisted on soul washing instead of hand washing. No, the psalmist in 103 is saying that with the pardon of all our sins, our lives are now characterised by a healing of all apparent misfortune. 

Think of Nick Vujicic who has tetra-amelia syndrome, a disorder characterised by the absence of arms and legs. He has understood his plight his entire life, certainly since becoming a Christian, and has often said he would not trade his spiritual life for arms and legs. 

Think of Joni Eareckson Tada who serves as CEO of Joni and Friends, which provides for thousands of special-needs families around the world. She began Joni and Friends after a 1967 diving accident left her a quadriplegic. 

Both Nick and Joni and countless others who are not yet healed in body would shout along with the psalmist that God has healed all their diseases. If they can do so, and King David can do so, surely we can do the same. 

Third, he redeems your life from the pit. Now we are hearing some biblical parallelism, that is, repetition for amplification. I love this poetic device of the Bible. The pit is a symbol of the lowest point in our lives. Some call it rock-bottom. That’s the empty place, the Solomonic “time to mourn.” That could be by example when your wife left you, or your boss gave you a pink slip, when the government sent you a tax bill beyond your house’s value, and your insurance on that house did not include flood insurance. Your world caved in, and there was apparently no hope. God uses the term here ‘redeem’ which must include rescue and deliverance. It reminds me of the 400-year wait for the Jewish people in Egypt before God finally sent Moses to rescue us from slavery. It’s the 70 years of captivity in Babylon when all hope was lost. Everything could be titled, “the pit.” And yet, there’s that phrase again, and yet, God redeems us from that pit. He takes all the ingredients labelled ‘trouble’ in your pantry, and although the devil would like to keep you permanently fixed in that and those situations, God reaches his hands in and lets you escape. Redemption from the pit is awesome. 

Do you use loyalty points at the gas station or the grocery store, at the hotel chain or airline? Those accrue for a significant time, and then one day you turn them in, at the redemption centre and receive a reward. That redemption, that buy back, that didn’t really cost you much. But biblically the redemption of a slave costs much more. God sent his only son to the world to redeem us from an eternal pit, and I’m so grateful. Are you singing along with David yet?

Inventory of Benefits item four is crowning. Some weeks ago you read Psalm 100 and I hear echoes of it in today’s psalm. Crowns are symbols of God’s royalty and God crowning us is letting him identify us as his children. The Scripture says,

“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (2 Peter 1.4)

God lets us be partakers of his royalty, by crowning us. You may call me Prince Bob. And you may call each other by that appellation as well! We are children of the king and at the end of days we will lay those crowns at his feet. All glory is HIS, amen?

Finally the 5^th benefit we receive, and which David records is satisfaction. We read, “Who satisfies your years with good things.” 

Although I appreciate the addition of the word ‘things’ in our text, the word in the psalm is simply ‘good.’ God satisfies us with good. I like that. Remember the Garden of Eden and the offer Satan as the serpent gave Eve? He told her that if she ate from the tree which was forbidden that she would know good and evil. Listen God is good; she already knew God; she already knew good. All Satan really offered her was evil. Don’t you wish she would have pondered that one a bit longer?

A word about satisfaction. And the difference between it and contentment. There are shades of meanings I want to highlight. Contentment according to the apostle is great gain. (1 Tim. 6.6) Accept your lot with or without much funding. With or without great banquets. But satisfaction, that’s another matter. The psalmist again informs us, “As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied in Your likeness when I awake.” (Psalm 17.15)

When I wake up, when He returns, in that moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall wake up and are in his likeness. John said, “when he appears, we shall be like him.” (1 John 3.3) That day will be glorious. We will be like him. And my satisfaction will be complete. When I wake up, looking like Jesus, what a day of rejoicing that will be, amen?

There is much more to highlight from the text, for instance, verse 7 tells me that God showed his acts to the Jewish people, which is fantastic. He brought justice on the Egyptians. He brought relief to the Jewish people. He created the heavens and the earth. He allowed Elijah to perform miracles. And the Jewish people were aware of those acts. But don’t miss it; the difference here is that God made known his ways to Moses. It’s one thing to watch a performance; it’s quite another to see the purposes and to know the meaning of those actions. Moses saw the plans; he knew the purposes. He knew God’s ways. He had a relationship with the Almighty. That’s God’s plan for each of us. 

Verse 8 is an echo of Exodus, which is repeated so many times in the Older Testament. Jonah said it with disdain for God. Here David repeats the ancient declaration of who God is. Slow to anger. Abundant in rachamim and chesed. Mercies and covenant love. What is God like? Ask the Jewish people and they will repeat what God did. That’s good. But ask Moses or David or me and you will hear rachamim and chesed. Ask Dane Ortlund and you will hear “gentle and lowly.” 

Rachamim is a plural word, and means ‘mercies.’ Remember, they are new every morning. It’s translated in the old KJV as ‘bowels of mercy” because the feeling comes from the guts, not from the mind. 

Chesed is the mercy or the covenant love of God. Mercy is not getting what we deserve; Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. Mercy keeps us from hell; grace gives us heaven. 

The merisms of verses 11 and 12 demonstrate the far-reaching nature of God’s love. High as heaven and earth, as far as east from west…even in verse 17, from eternity to eternity, chesed is far and wide, and there is no limit to his grace and love, amen?

 

Earlier I mentioned this is an inventory as well as a job description. Listen to this from verses 20-22

“Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word!

Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, you who serve Him, doing His will.

Bless the LORD, all you works of His, in all places of His dominion; 

Bless the LORD, O my soul!”

The job description? Calling on heavenly beings…God is telling us that we are to call on heavenly beings to join us in that praise to the Lord. Perhaps you are confused about the word, “Bless.” That is, saying we are to bless God. Aren’t we usually asking God to bless things? That’s certainly true. But in this case, asking angels to bless God, has to do with the word ‘bless’ which carries the meaning of the word ‘knee.’ That is, the bending of the knee is the posture of blessing.  Basically we are calling the angels to be humble and to lift up the name of the Lord. 

Finally, we are to tell our own soul to bless God. We are not schizophrenic; rather our spirit man is commanding our flesh to bow to the living God and to acknowledge his lordship over us. In light of all he has done and all he will do, and in light of his nature and his character, what manner of person ought we to be? What should be our verbiage? 

We have a ministry, to call on angels and all y’all to bless God. Let us live to his praise; let us live calling on our neighbours and friends and relatives… bless the Lord oh my soul, oh my friends, oh Windwood!

Pick up your trumpet and tambourine… the choir is singing; let’s join King David and everyone—amen?