Doomed to Repeat the Past

Berean Baptist on February 20, 2017

Psalm 78

In the 78th Psalm, we come to one of the many instances in which the history of Israel, the ups and downs of their relationship with God, is recounted. The purpose of these places is to teach that we must remember the failures of the past and to warn those who have not yet learned the lessons we have learned how to avoid the holes we have fallen into.

In dealing with the Corinthian church, Paul encouraged them to pay attention to Old Testament scriptures. They are not passé and of no benefit. Rather, he says in the 10th chapter that the experiences of Old Testament Israel were for our example. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen used the historical record to point out how the Jews of his time were no different from their forefathers. They claimed to be the righteous children of Abraham, but Stephen skillfully discovered to them they were certainly more like the children of Abraham than they cared to admit. At every turn, their forefathers continually rejected the grace of God and these more modern Jews were no different. They proved it when they crucified God’s own Son (Acts 7:51-52).

Psalm 78 can be rightly called a reminder of Deuteronomy 6:6-7:  “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” The power and might of God in taking Israel to the Promised Land were to be an incentive to follow faithfully. Whenever Israel failed, it was a direct result of disobedience, of stubbornness, and refusal to remember what happened each time they disobeyed.

I believe we find the same incentive in the New Testament in words that are written to Christians. Hebrews 12 speaks of chastisement which we strictly want to avoid, but who among us has not gone back to the same sins time and time again? Who learns the lesson well that the same sins always yield the same results? It seems we have great difficulty learning our lessons as if the holes we fall into are not hard enough at the bottom to make us want to keep from stepping into them again.

While there is no excuse for this, we do have to chalk it up to human nature. We surrender to the flesh rather than continually crucifying it with its affections and lusts (Gal. 5:24). If you wonder how Israel kept doing what they did after seeing the power of God to deliver them, just remember we fare no better. Many times the authors of scripture tell this story about Israel and many times we are challenged to be strong in the faith. Shouldn’t one chapter in one book of the New Testament be enough to keep us straight? Apparently not because encouragement to forsake the flesh and follow Christ is an often repeated theme.

God wants us to keep up the fight. We are not to surrender because the way is hard. Every temptation has a means of escape just as Paul described in 1 Corinthians 10. God knows we will fail—He understands us better than we do ourselves. For this reason, He offers forgiveness rather than condemnation. As the Psalmist wrote in verses 38 and 39, God knows us: “But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.”

Thank God His compassion is deeper than our holes. When we repeat the past, His forgiveness is there. When we come in confession and repentance, He never fails to forgive. In our flesh, we may be doomed to repeat the past, but the blessing of our salvation is in Christ. He took the blame for us for which we will be eternally grateful.

 

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Conditions for Answers

Berean Baptist on February 13, 2017

Psalm 77

Several times in preaching on the need for total dependence upon Christ, I have told the story of a dark period I went through about thirty years ago. This was during an economic downturn in our city when business was failing, and it seemed everything I worked for was ready to collapse. I won’t go into the details now, but that period spawned a real test of faith in which I seriously questioned if God had forgotten His promises.

When I was just a child, my dad taught me to be faithful to the Lord’s work and to always keep up with my tithes and offerings. My first job was working for him, and out of the $10 I received each week I always deducted the proper tithe along with a little extra for missions. I was faithful to do this and I believed if I did there would never be a time I was without.

Up until this difficult time in my life, I never had any serious troubles. Married life was good, finances were good, church was as usual, and faith was never severely tested. The brewing financial storm and prospects of failure changed all of that. Those were the most serious days of prayer in all my life. During this time, I sought solace in the pages of scripture trying to find any passage that would ease my anxiety. One day I was reading 1 John 3:22 for the nth time when the verse popped out on the page: “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” I took this as intended—an absolute promise.

As Christians, we are never in a bargaining position with God over our salvation. Salvation is an irrevocable gift purchased by the blood of Christ and given to us freely. The ability to keep the gift is neither ours as salvation is unconditional no matter how unfaithful at times we may be. However, the realization of peace, assurance, and loving companionship are conditioned upon how we respond in obedience to God’s commands. Please note I said realization of these not the reality of these. For a Christian, an unspiritual mind causes the perception to become perceived reality. John said that whatever we ask we receive with this condition—we must keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.

My determination was to stop the pity party and obey the verse. In fact, I had been obeying the verse, at least in part. I was doing but not asking, or should I say not doing and asking with faith believing. To make a long story short, God turned everything around. My fears were unfounded, and the next year was one of the most financially outstanding of my life.

I wrote this little essay in conjunction with Psalm 77. Note how the psalmist was overwhelmed at the beginning with his personal problem. He was at the point of giving up on God and believed God had given up on him. We don’t know what put him in such despair, but it hardly matters because there are numerous issues that park us beside the psalmist. The situation looked bleak, but as Charles Spurgeon said there would be a good outcome because the first verse starts with a prayer—“I cried unto God with my voice…”

It took ten verses for the psalmist to work through the emotions of his problem. Finally, he took the focus off self and put it on the Lord. He remembered in the worst of times God was always there. In verse 10, he said: “This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.”

Whatever you fear may make the way bleak and nigh impossible. The best course is not to focus on you and the problem, but to focus on God who solves problems. Always remember to keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight. These are the conditions to receive what you ask.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

The Power of Prayer

Berean Baptist on February 6, 2017

 

Psalm 76

As I was reading the 76th Psalm, this verse captured my attention: “At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep” (v.6). This statement may seem a little odd at first, but it actually has strong support from other places of scripture. Before we examine the other places, what does this verse mean? It is confirmation from God that no person should trust the most powerful forces of men when those forces are against God. No enemy is to be feared when God is on our side.

In ancient times, the weapons of mass destruction feared by Israel were those countries that developed weaponry made of iron. When Israel first approached the Promised Land, one of their greatest fears was the many horses and chariots of the Canaanites (Joshua 17:16). When standing on the plains of Moab before entering the land, Moses gave instructions concerning these same weapons of war. Moses repeated God’s words, “When you go to battle against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army much larger than yours, don’t be afraid. I am the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Deut. 20:1). The obvious reference is to the defeat of Pharaoh with his many chariots and a vast army which God drowned in the Red Sea.

This type of implicit trust was very difficult for Israel. Even the great king David had trouble with it as he foolishly numbered Israel in order to gauge the strength of his armies and thus evaluate his ability to dominate his enemies. David paid dearly for his mistrust as God in one day reduced his troops by 70,000 men (2 Sam. 24:14). God’s people are to live in faith and never trust their own strength. David later wrote: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God” (Psalms 20:7).  This lesson did not stick with Israel as later they put trust in heathen armies rather than calling on God. “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!” (Isaiah 31:1)

What is the occasion of Psalm 76? It is helpful to read the psalm in connection with Isaiah 37. The occasion is the siege of the Assyrians against Jerusalem when Hezekiah was king of Judah. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, made a siege against the Holy City in which he boasted that no king or god had ever successfully resisted him. While Sennacherib’s agents made the claim, there was an army of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers ready to attack the city upon the issuance of the command. Hezekiah was woefully distraught. Judah’s army was no match for Assyria. The northern kingdom of Israel had fallen some years before, and it was true the might of Assyria was so great they had become a world empire. There was no recourse for Hezekiah. His options were three—fight and be slaughtered, surrender and be captured, or pray. He chose option three.

On the night before the assault, the angel of the Lord visited the camp of the Assyrians and devastated the entire camp. Every Assyrian soldier lay dead in fulfillment of God’s promise that not one arrow would be shot in the direction of Jerusalem. Not a bow, arrow, horse, chariot or the vast army of Assyria was a match for the power of God. The psalmist reflects this by saying, “both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.”

We do well to remember this when faced with the impossible. When it seems there is no way out, there always will be for God’s people. Prayer is an amazing tool that unleashes the power of God in our lives. James said, “Ye have not because ye ask not.” Perhaps the weakness of our families, our church, and each of us individually is because we rely too much on what we can do by ourselves. When will we learn not to trust in horses and chariots? Only when we are tired of constant defeat.

Pastor V. Mark Smith