Psalm 46, Matthew 28:20

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Today, I’m going to share some of the comforting things that God has in store for us in Psalm 46. The Psalm says he is our refuge and our strength. A fortress is how Luther translated it. He’s never absent. Jesus promised, surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age or the end of the world. [Matthew 28:20]

Well, anyway, I love this psalm because I grew up out in Washington state. I was 12 years old on May 18th, 1980, and I know that probably that day, date, probably doesn’t mean a lot to many of you, but for kids from Washington back then, it was an unforgettable day. On Sunday, May 18th, 1980, at 8:32 a.m., Mount Saint Helens erupted. 1300ft, more than that, were blown off of the top and off of the side of the mountain. When the ash finally finished falling and all the dust settled, there’s this gaping crater that this hole in her north side. But still, in spite of that, she’s still there. Saint Helens, she’s over 8000ft to tall.

So with Psalm 46 in mind, think for yourself. What would it take? What kind of eruption? What kind of earthquake? Tsunami? Or God forbid, what kind of horror of nuclear war would it take for all the mountains to be leveled, to be thrown into the midst of the sea? And speaking of disasters, think of the chaos that would ensue in an eruption, in an earthquake. We see when Florida is trying to evacuate in front of a hurricane. The roads are clogged. Hospitals are overrun. Stores are empty. Their shelves are empty. Well, Psalm 46 assures us that if a mountain is gone the next day, if the entire Cascade Range or the Rockies or the Alps, we would wake up and find them gone, that we won’t wake up and find the Lord gone.

God is our refuge and our strength. He is ever present. There’s never a time when he will not be with us. Because didn’t God the Son come here, become incarnate for us? And wasn’t he rejected by those he loved by his own people? Wasn’t he hated by them? Didn’t he breathe his last and give himself into death?

Take your thumb and tuck the last two fingers of your hand behind the thumb. Three right. Three digits. Sort of tucked away, sort of hidden. And then what are you left with? You’re left with two. Two standing there together. Two fingers.

When Christian pastors, priests, ministers proclaim God’s blessing on God’s people, they often put their hand in this configuration, the three the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity are tucked away, somewhat veiled, but those two that stand so prominent for everybody to see. Those two represent the two natures of Christ, true God and true man together, one Christ. And that is how God’s people are often blessed.

So the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge because God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God sent the Son of God here to this world to give himself into death, to rise again for our salvation.

So whether it’s the latest disaster that you’re seeing on the news and all the chaos that ensues, whether it’s rumors of war or real wars, whether it’s false friends or whether it’s your health that’s failing. I pray that the promises God has for you in Psalm 46 and along with Christ himself, will be your strength and your comfort. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Amen.

Job 42:7

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Are you forcing answers that are too small for the big questions that you have? That happened to me. I’ve had a few seasons of my life, a pretty heavy doubt when it comes to God, and it actually started because I was really good at answering questions about God. But then when I got to where there were questions that I didn’t have the answers to, then I started to struggle. What was happening? I was depending too much on my own ability to answer these questions. But then God worked in my mind, in my heart, and I started to get some pretty good answers to the questions I had. And I started to feel better. But then my later kind of seasons of doubt started to arise. Partly because I started to get this sense that my answers I had come up with were a bit too small. They didn’t fully answer the question. So then I was back to, okay, what do I do now?

But I’ve come to really realize that God doesn’t want us to force answers. There’s something else he would have us do. Where I can see this, now, there’s this interesting part of the story with Job that doesn’t get talked about as much, but it’s really significant. Quick review: Job is a righteous, faithful man. He’s devoted to God. Loves God and he’s blessing these wonderful ways. Then Satan comes before God and God’s like, have you noticed my servant Job? And Satan’s just like, well, it’s because his life is good. And you take these things away, he’s going to curse you and he’s going to turn against you. And so then God allows Satan to inflict him into these different things. Well, actually, it starts with him losing a lot, including his kids, and then allows him to inflict his body and all these terrible things happen, and Job just loses basically everything.

And he has these friends that come and talk to him. And at first they just sit and grieve with him, which is great. But then they start coming up with potential reasons why this happened. And basically the conclusion of most of them is God is just so God wouldn’t allow this to happen if you hadn’t done something wrong, Job. So they basically accused Job of doing bad stuff, and Job maintains his innocence. He’s like, no, I didn’t do anything to deserve this. And there’s this back and forth and back and forth. And some of the time, Job really honors God. But there are other times where he seems to really be questioning God’s justice, too. He’s on this kind of roller coaster of emotions. But then towards the end, we get this really wild picture where God comes to Job and takes Job basically on a virtual tour of the universe and shows Job all these things that are beyond Job’s understanding. Job, do you know how all of this stuff works? No. You don’t. But I do. Job, I a, I’m good at being God. Is basically what God shows Job.

There are all these things in this world you don’t understand how they work, but they work. And you can trust it. I’m working in this too. So that’s kind of the big picture of the story of Job. But here’s the interesting thing is, is in Job 42, after he had spoken to Job, he speaks against Job’s friend Eliphaz, and he says,

“My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7)

Now Job had said some pretty strong things towards God. And here God says, hey other friends, you didn’t speak right about me like Job did.

So what’s going on there? Well, remember, Job’s friends had reached a conclusion of what they thought must have been happening. They forced answers that were too small. And what Job did instead was Job was brutally honest with God about how he’s feeling, what’s going on? He came to God and he wrestled with God, said some things that are pretty strong, but he didn’t reach the same kind of small conclusions that they did. And it makes me realize that, yes, we have a tendency to try to reach answers that are forced, and it’s probably because we think we should be able to understand God and wrap our heads around these things. Which is really ridiculous when you think about it.

Whenever we realize that we’ve had that tendency to try to wrap our heads around God, we need to lay those sins at the cross, know that we are forgiven. Jesus died for you and rose again. Your guilt is removed. You’re right before God and now you are free to not force too small answers. But to be honest with God about your big questions. He may give you answers, or he may be like he did with Job and say, you know what? This is too big for you. And that’s okay. There may be some things that are beyond you. There may be some answers that he gives you, but don’t force the small stuff. Come and be honest and embrace the forgiveness and new life and the bigness of your big, beautiful, amazing God.

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So in the last several videos, I’ve been explaining these other alternative theories that dismiss the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And now I want us to focus on the evidence for the truthfulness of the resurrection, and I want to do it this way. The lives of many people were changed, and they were changed drastically because of this testimony, and this proclamation that Jesus rose from the dead.

Take for example Peter. Peter who denied Jesus three times because, why, he was pressured by a 14 year old girl and several others. But what happened to Peter? He goes on to become the leader of the apostles. He’s willing to be arrested, willing to suffer. In about 68 A.D. he is crucified upside down for his belief in a crucified but risen Lord Jesus Christ. What explains this?

You have the half brother of Jesus by the name of James. James and his other brothers thought Jesus was not the Messiah. In fact, they said he was out of his mind. But what happens? James goes on to become the leader of the church in Jerusalem. James also suffers and is martyred.

And then you have Paul. Paul the great persecutor of the Christian faith. He not only has people arrested and put in jail, but he also votes to have them put to death. Paul goes on to become the greatest of the apostles in a sense, the greatest missionary, the greatest defender of the Christian faith.

He suffers greatly during his missionary trips, and finally he too is martyred in about the year 66-67 A.D.. So what explains this? What explains this? Does a swoon theory explain this? Does a wrong tomb theory explain this? Does a hallucination explain this? Does stealing the body explain this? No. Whether it be these three men or so many others who suffered for what they saw with their eyes and touched with their hands, and ate with their mouths as they joined him for a meal. The only thing that explains their willingness to suffer and even die is a man who was truly resurrected from the dead.

If he was resurrected from the dead and he was, it means that he is the Son of God.

But what does that mean? Well, it means before he rose, he was dead. And what does that mean? Well, it means that sin is very real.

It means that my sin is very, very serious. Your sin is very, very serious.

And it means, ultimately that my sin and your sin is really forgiven. Why else would the Son of God leave his place in heaven, come to earth, take on human flesh, and suffer and die in the way he did?

For those of us who are baptized and who believe in Christ, we have that forgiveness right now.

But if we are not there, we need to listen to the words of Peter in the book of Acts, where the Jews there, when they heard this message of the crucified and risen Christ, it says, they were cut to the heart. And they said, what should we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

My name is David Thompson. I’m the director for The Center for Apologetics and Worldviews. Thank you for watching.

Psalm 98

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Today’s Psalm, Psalm 98. Let’s take a deeper look at these verses. It says that we are to sing a new song. It’s a fresh song. It’s something that’s never been heard before. This means all the way back to Adam and Eve. No one has ever seen or let alone done this new thing. And again, that Hebrew word has got the sense of being fresh. In other words, it’s not old. It’s not moldy or mildew y. It’s alive, it’s fresh. And it’s a miraculous thing because God has revealed the sense of that word is unhidden or unveiled his salvation.

Now here’s something really cool that Hebrew word for salvation is also the Hebrew name Jesus. Or they would have pronounced it Yeshua. God has uncovered, unveiled, unhidden Yeshua. Salvation. Jesus. And he’s shown this dropping down to verse two, to all people.

In verse two we find a great word goyim. And that’s me. I’m from, my ancestors or from northern Europe, and that’s probably you. Goyim is everyone who’s not Jewish whose bloodline can’t be traced back to Abraham. We’re the filthy masses, the unwashed, we’re the Gentiles conceived and born in sin. But the Psalm says that there’s this new song of salvation, this new song, a fresh song of Yeshua for all people.

Because verse three says, God’s remembered. He didn’t forget his mercy, his love. All the ends of the earth are going to hear about this and see it for themselves. Verse nine, it says that he’s coming. The Lord is coming and he’s coming to judge the world. He’s going to decide about the world and its fate, but he’s going to do it in righteousness. Right before God. So how can the world, how can the people, the Gentiles, be judged to be righteous? Well, there’s a new thing. It’s Christ, the crucified and risen Christ. So that new song, that thing that’s now unhidden for all the world, that salvation is the risen Christ. So that new song, that unhidden salvation fresh and never before seen. It’s God the Son giving himself for you, dying and rising.

We usually hear, see, Psalm 98 on Easter morning. What better day of the year to sing about this new, this brand new, never before seen thing than on the day our Savior conquered sin and death for us? Read Psalm 98 for yourself and the Lord bless and keep you.

Jeremiah 31:34

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Recently I went to Rochester, Minnesota for some fairly minor surgery. In fact, I was awake during the surgery that I had over there. My eyes were covered, but I could listen to the surgeon and to the resident who was helping the surgeon. And I have to say, it was interesting to listen to them talk about what they were doing. I couldn’t understand a word of it, but it was comforting for me to know that they were very sure of what to do next. And it all turned out well. As I think about it, it would have been quite distressing if I would have heard them lament about how confused and lost they were as they were operating on me. It was wonderful to know that those who were taking care of me know an awful lot, much more about this than I’ll ever know.

As Christians, you and I know a lot. We know especially a lot about what’s in the Bible. We know not that we want to dazzle and overwhelm others with our knowledge, but rather we want to share the good news that the Bible contains. The prophet Jeremiah in the 31st chapter, at verse 34, we read these words.

No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)

It is through the Word of God that we know two very important things we know by his law the trouble that we’re in. The threat of his law makes us aware of our sin. When we see our lives reflected in that message of his will for us and our failure at obeying his will. There, though, we see not only our sin and the threat of God’s law, but in His Word, God shows us the gospel of our Savior, his own Son, who came and lived the holy life in our stead, and who accepted the blame for our sins and who suffered its penalty dying on the cross. That through him we have, as the prophet says, the forgiveness of our guilt and the assurance that God will remember our sins no more. There we see Jesus, who by his death on the cross, then gave us this wonderful knowledge of our salvation.

As I speak to you, we’re just about in the month of May. So we’re coming up on the summer season. And we know summertime as a time of traveling and vacation, a time of busyness. And it’s good for us to have a break from the routine of our work and our study the rest of the year. But please don’t take a vacation from church and from God’s Word. Don’t leave behind this wonderful knowledge that God wants us to have, that we know him and we know him through the preaching and the teaching of His Word and our own private reading of it, he wants us to hold on to His Word, for then we hold on to his love and his salvation by faith all year round. May God grant that to us all. Amen.

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In this video, we’re going to look at another theory regarding the resurrection of Christ, a theory that explains away the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And this one we call the hallucination theory. And this one assumes that there was so much trauma for the disciples that they eventually had hallucinations of a risen Jesus. The problem with this theory, however, is that this hallucination occurred not just to one, but to many disciples. Another problem is that this hallucination occurred not just to individuals, but whole groups at the same time. And hallucination occurred not just once, but many times, at least 12 times over a period of 40 days. And finally, the problem with this hallucination theory is that the disciples not only saw Jesus, but they touched Jesus and they ate food with Jesus.

So all of these things combined together make it impossible for there to be such a hallucination. Again, according to the experts who have studied this, they say this is not how hallucinations occur.

So let’s go to another theory right away too. It’s called the stolen body theory. Now, the first three I mentioned the swoon theory, the wrong tomb theory, and the hallucination theory. There’s no historical evidence for them. They’re just ideas or theories made up in the minds of people, despite there being no historical evidence. The last one, the Stolen Body Theory, does have a little bit of historical evidence to it. Matthew chapter 27. And so this theory simply says that the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus at night. Well, even though there is some historical evidence for this one, it’s, you might say, kind of a really oh, I would say dumb theory. And let me tell you why.

So in order for this one to be true, the disciples who were gathered into a house, scared to death, they would have had to come up with the idea. Let’s suppose Peter said, men, this is a bad situation, but let’s make the most of a really bad situation. Let’s go steal the body of Jesus. So that means we have to sneak up there in the middle of the night without waking up the guards. Move the stone without waking up the guards. Go in there and unwrap the linen burial cloths from Jesus. It’s going to take a while and then we’re going to leave without waking up the guards. We have to get rid of the body. But then what we also have to do is we have to come up with a number of appearances of Jesus to us. So, Mary, we’re going to say that it appeared to you first. Then he appeared to me, Peter. Then he appeared to some of you other women. Then he appeared to you two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Then he appeared to all of us. Minus you, Thomas.

But then we’re going to say he appeared to all of us. And, Thomas, you’re there at that time, and you make this great confession of faith, my Lord and my God. And then we’re going to come up with a number of other appearances, and we have to make sure they’re fairly consistent with one another. And not only that, but then after we say that he appeared, we’re going to go tell everybody that we can that he rose from the dead. And we’re going to do so even under great duress and difficult, even if it means we’re going to have to suffer. Even if it means that if some of us might have to die, we know it’s a lie, but we have to be willing to suffer and maybe even die for what we know is a lie. There’s nothing in it for us, but let’s do it anyway for some reason.

So you can see how ludicrous this theory really is. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. So again, this is one of those theories that doesn’t hold any water. Has a little historical evidence to it, but not much. But it is rather ludicrous. And again, Christians believe that the historical evidence is overwhelming. And it’s in those historical documents we call Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that clearly testify that Jesus was dead. But he rose again, and that is for us and our salvation.

My name is David Thompson. I’m the director for The Center for Apologetics and Worldviews. Thank you for joining us.

Psalm 16, Psalm 23, Acts 2

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The first two verses of Psalm 16, a Psalm of David preserve me, David prays. In other words, keep me safe. I take refuge in thee. I hope in you. I trust in you. Jump down to verse three, it mentioned saints. It mentions holy ones. It uses the word excellent ones as another translation, royal ones, and in other words, God’s people.

But wait a minute. Aren’t God’s people sinful? We are. So how can we be called saints? Well, we’re called saints because we’re made holy. We’re made saints because our sins are paid for. We know that. We believe that. That’s what Jesus has done for us, which means that we are the excellent ones. We are royalty, children of the Heavenly Father, princes and princesses of Heaven itself.

Drop down to verses five and six. Did you ever eat in a school cafeteria or in a military chow line? Maybe you learned to be extra nice to make friends with the lunch ladies, might not have been ladies serving, because they give you a little bit extra food. Well, verses five and six talk about the portion that the Lord has given us. The portion that God serves up is God Himself, the Lord himself. In Psalm 23, David speaks about that, saying that his cup is overflowing. And verse six says that the lines, thats boundary lines, property lines, the place, the home that God has prepared for you is fallen in pleasant places. It even talks about an inheritance. You’re in God’s will so that when God died, you inherit what he has: his righteousness, his holiness, the forgiveness of your sins.

Verse eight says that I have set the Lord, always set the Lord before me. He’s my foundation. What that means is my life is now built on this. It’s built on him. There is no other foundation that anyone can lay, a permanent foundation, than that which has been laid, laid down: Jesus Christ. And this is a foundation so firm that the Psalm tells us it can’t be shaken. It doesn’t budge. It doesn’t sag or slip with age. Soul, my heart, my being, my frail mortal flesh, which grows older and weaker every day, it rests secure. Because even though I do grow weaker every day, even though my grave is somewhere out there in the future, God promises not to desert us. He won’t leave us in death and in hell, in Sheol.

And in verse ten, Psalm 16:10, we’re told how all this is possible. It says, you will not let your Holy One see corruption or see decay. What is that? Who is that? The Holy one. It’s singular. Well, if we jump into the New Testament Acts chapter two, we’ll find Peter preaching on Pentecost Sunday, and Peter quotes from Psalm 16, verses eight, nine, 10, 11. Peter says, first and foremost, this is about Jesus. God didn’t abandon him when he gave his life for us. God didn’t even let his flesh see decay or corruption. And like Peter, we’ve all sinned. In our thoughts, words, deeds. We’ve all denied being his, his saints, his royal ones. But because of Christ, God didn’t abandon us to the grave or doesn’t abandon us to Sheol, to hell. Now all who trust in him will be with him.

Verse 11 captures that. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there’s fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So because of Christ and all that he has done, every single word of Psalm 16 also applies to you as much as it does to him. I hope you’ll open your Bible, maybe even today, and read Psalm 16 for yourself, and be assured that in Christ, because of him your sins, like Peter’s, they’re all forgiven. They will not be your undoing. You will rest secure, established on the rock that is Jesus Christ. So. May he bless and keep you. And I look forward to seeing you again.

Genesis 1:2

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God has built a training into how life works into every moment of your day. This occurred to me recently, and it occurred while I was studying the Holy Spirit, and that the word that is translated spirit in the Old Testament in the original language is this word ruach. Hebrew is a really fun language. You get to clear your throat all the time. Ruach. You say it with me, Ruach. And it’s a word that literally means spirit or means breath or wind. And so you have this beautiful picture in Genesis one of the Spirit, the ruach of God, the breath of God, hovering, and actually that word too describes like a bird hovers. So here we get this beautiful already an image of the Holy Spirit right there, over the waters. And the breath of God as it’s breathed out is what’s there kind of stirring things up and getting creation started.

So as I was thinking about the breath of God, I realized, what do we have to do each moment of our lives? We have to breathe in.

We won’t live if we don’t breathe in this breath that comes from outside of us. If you hold your breath and try to do it yourself, you don’t get very far. We can’t manufacture breath in and of ourselves. Our very existence is dependent on breathing in something from outside of us. God’s training us every moment that we have to receive life from him. Isn’t it foolish, then, that we have this idea, this tendency to try to do it on our own? But that’s what sin is. Sin is trying to do life to live your own way instead of God’s way, acting like we’re God, not him. That’s what happened with Adam and Eve in the garden. That’s what we do again and again today. I’m going to live life my way. But really, that’s just holding our breath. And while it might work for a bit, it only gets us so far. Doing life for our own way, living like we’re God, it’s a path towards not just sin, but also death and eternity separated from God.

But we have a loving God who has made a way for us to breathe in life again. Jesus came, lived, and died and rose again. He has taken away your sin, your guilt, your shame, everything that separated you from God. He defeated death itself to give you life again. And now the Holy Spirit, the Ruach of God, has breathed new life into you. Spiritual life, the ability to believe in God again, to have life from him again. And he’s even built into our daily life as Christians a new way for us to really practice and exercise this. When you take the Lord’s Supper, the bread and the wine with it, you get the body and blood of Christ. What do you have? The life of God. You are taking it into yourself again.

So today, breathe in. Breathe out.

Think about your breathing. Not too hard, that’s when breathing gets weird. Is when we think too hard about our breathing. But just think about the fact that every moment you have to take in something from outside of yourself. And that’s something, is the life that God has given you. And God today has given you new life through the death and resurrection of His Son, and by the work of the Spirit. So breathe in this life that comes from God, today.

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We’re continuing now, our talk and discussion about these other theories regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. People saying, no, he wasn’t resurrected. Here are better theories to consider. So this time we’re looking at what we can call the wrong tomb theory. And this theory basically says that the women on Sunday morning, they went to the wrong tomb. And of course, if you go to the wrong tomb, there’s not going to be a body there.

So does this sound like a reasonable explanation for what took place? Well, just like the previous one, there’s no historical evidence for this, but let’s look at this in a little more detail. First of all, we know that at least five women followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb where the body of Jesus was placed. It’s probably more like six, maybe seven. And they not only saw the tomb, but they were close enough so they could see how the body was laid in the tomb. That was on Good Friday, and then on Sunday they come back again. A minimum of five women. They start out when it’s dark by the time they get there, the sun had risen to some degree. And so they, it’s not like they couldn’t see what was going on or where they were. They knew exactly where they were. And if you have 5 or 6 or more women there and they were at the wrong tomb, you would think one of them would have said, hey, are we at the right tomb? You have the bodies gone, but maybe we’re not at the right tomb. So it’s really hard to explain that the the women got confused because there were so many and because it was light by that time.

Another thing to keep in mind about the tomb it was a well known tomb. It was the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. If the women had gone to the wrong tomb, the other members of the Sanhedrin would have questioned Joseph and said he was buried in your tomb, right? And then they would have gone to the tomb themselves, the right tomb, and they would have discovered the body. And so they could have said, you women, you’re a bunch of idiots. You went to the wrong tomb and they could have simply disproved the wrong tomb theory themselves.

If the women went to the wrong tomb, that also means that Peter and John went to the wrong tomb. It also means that the guards who were guarding the wrong tomb as well. So we can see that there’s a lot wrong with this wrong tomb theory. And again, there’s no historical evidence for it. So again, the wrong tomb theory just falls short. It doesn’t hold water. And again, we as Christians we say the historical evidence is there, but that historical evidence is included in those eyewitness testimonies that we find in John, we find in Matthew, and we find also indirectly in the Gospels of Mark and Luke as well.

Next time we’ll look at another theory. My name is David Thompson, the director for The Center for Apologetics and Worldviews. Thank you for joining us.

Psalm 1

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Psalm one begins with three postures or positions of the believer. He doesn’t walk alongside the wicked. He’s not going in their direction. And the believer doesn’t stand in the way of sinners. They’ve stopped walking, now. They’re standing there. They’re discussing things. Maybe they’re planning, planning to sin, but the believer is not with them. And third, the believer doesn’t sit alongside, sit with scoffers. He doesn’t break bread with those who mock God, God’s way, God’s word. This doesn’t mean we don’t have friends, family members, coworkers who are unbelievers. It means we’re not participating in their sin.

Instead, the psalm goes on. It tells us what the believer delights in. God’s law. God’s word. More than just the commandments, all of God’s word. That’s his comfort. That’s her companion. Let’s look at an example from nature. A tree or any other plant, it needs water to survive. Back home in Washington, where I live, I can walk outside and I can see trees that are over 100ft tall. And I don’t have to be a great botanist, a great scientist, in order to know at least one thing about any tree that’s lived that long and that has reached that kind of height. It’s a tree that’s well watered well. Psalm one verse three says that the believer is like that. You don’t have to be a great theologian to look at someone, maybe someone that you admire, that you sort of look up to, maybe at church, a kind elderly person. You don’t have to be a great theologian in order to realize that person is well watered, watered with God’s own word, the water of life. Psalm one begins by telling us this is essential to spiritual life. God’s word is. Its essential to producing fruit, to growth.

And it contrasts that with the life of unbelievers, despite any seeming profit or success, that their sin may give them. Their unbelief and their sin have already determined their end. And so verse six, the last verse, it makes one last comparison, the comfort that the Lord knows the way of his people, and that means he knows where we are. He knows what we face. He knows what we struggle with and wrestle with in this life. In fact, the Lord is intimately aware of it all. In fact, we could even say he is personally aware of it. How? How can God, who is spirit, God who is perfect, be personally aware with all that that we wrestle and struggle with and as we try to produce fruit and at times we don’t produce the fruit, we should?

Psalm one is a perfect description of Jesus who did delight in God’s Word and who submitted himself to God’s law. But because of Jesus, because of him, his relative Elizabeth once called him the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb, because of him and that fruit all of God’s people are blessed. We’re blessed in him, and we are like trees that are living beside streams of water, trees that are well watered.

So Psalm one, have a read of it yourself, and in it, first and foremost see Jesus, your Savior, the Blessed One of the Book of Psalms, the Righteous One in whom we’re nurtured and in whom we grow. So it’s about him. And because it’s about him who took on our nature, it’s about us, our brother, our Savior. God bless you and we’ll see you again.