Web Theologian

>115:1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
2 Why should the nations say,“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens;he does all that he pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak;eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear;noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel;feet, but do not walk;and they do not make a sound in their throat.
8 Those who make them become like them;so do all who trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord!He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!He is their help and their shield.

Glory hounds, our world is full of them. In the Gospel of Mark you find that Mark presents Jesus as doing serious business in healing away from the crowds. One of the reason is He didn’t want to have all the attention on the fact that he can heal, there was more to his ministry, and he wanted people to give him glory for the entire package, not just that he was a interesting faith healer.

The glory of God is interesting. Like you see it all around you in creation, to me I see point to all this stuff, it is hard for me to imagine there not being one other than my own imagination. Yet it is incomplete. God is the Grandparent hiding behind the curtains and we only see the feet. Perhaps this plays into the OT theme of God’s glory being beyond our comprehension and killing us if we saw it face to face. Even in Jesus that glory is present, yet people cried on his feat and carried his dead body. Strange.

This passage on idolatry is a great one! They are empty. These things that we give attention to, the type of attention that only God deserves in our life. Our liturgy this week at church had a great part of Luther’s Catechism, I think it was question #1, unfortunately the bulletin is now in the recycling and I cannot find it. It explain really beautifully how God is to be our first love.

Now whenever I hear the word shield I think of faith because I taught the passage from Ephesians to the Communicans class. Feeling unprotected? Take up the shield of faith, you won’t regret it.

>114:1 When Israel went out from Egypt,the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

Israel for being God’s chosen people sure has issues related to racism and prejudice. You find it throughout all the scripture, and I talked about it a little in my sermon yesterday. What is pretty funning is that they are calling Egypt strange. Egypt was one of those times where they may not have wanted to end up there, but their butts were saved because they went there and they flourished. Calling them people of a strange language is funny to me.

The imagery here seems to be both that of the parting of the Red Sea and the nation’s time in the desert where God gave them water from a rock. Not even the physical challenges of the land will keep God’s people from fulfilling his promises. He allows us to overcome.

>113:1 Praise the Lord!Praise, O servants of the Lord,praise the name of the Lord!
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,the name of the Lord is to be praised!
4 The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!
5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

Let God know how good he is! If you know it let him know. He has been bringing it for a very long time. Forth and forevermore, it doesn’t matter what time it is. There is no one as high as he is, not even Ricky Waters, hehe. He is above all else. And his crew is not who you would expect. the poor, the needy, they get seats of honor. Those ladies which are broken hearted because they can’t have kids, everything changes. Isn’t it good.

>112:1 Praise the Lord!Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,who greatly delights in his commandments!
2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in his house,and his righteousness endures forever.
4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;who conducts his affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will never be moved;he will be remembered forever.
7 He is not afraid of bad news;his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
9 He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;his righteousness endures forever;his horn is exalted in honor.
10 The wicked man sees it and is angry;he gnashes his teeth and melts away;the desire of the wicked will perish!

Here is that theme of fear again. I have heard it preached that this is not fear as we know it, shaking in your boots fear, they are wrong it is that kind of fear but not only that kind of fear. It is the kind of fear that you don’t want to disappoint your parents, or when you are little you know how much power and authority they have over your life and you don’t want to live in any other way then under their good grace. We are so rights center, what I am entitled to, it would do all of us some good to live with more fear these days, especially toward God.

There is blessing promised to those who fear the Lord. Pretty nice. And it effects how we treat one another. Blessed is the one who lends generously and deals with others in a just way. Fear God shapes your heart it molds you into his image so that you are able to treat people, all people, not just people you like in the way that they were created to be treated.

All of this stands in sharp contrast to the wicked and greedy.