Category: Messages (Page 2 of 40)

Rapture

November 15, 2023 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

I lost three of my grandparents in about a year and a half. That narrow window of time for a loss is a lot to handle. And if you’ve lost anyone special to you, no matter if it’s three people nearly all at once or something significantly different, it kind of makes you wonder. Where are they? What are they up to? And will we ever see them again?

Those questions, and likely others like them, were swirling around a young church in the latter portion of the Bible. The book of 1 Thessalonians was written to a young church that didn’t have a lot of history. They knew the basics of who Jesus was and what he did. They knew the promise that he was coming back again.

But they didn’t know what that meant for their family members who died before Jesus came back. That seems to be the main issue here in the 4th chapter of this little letter. What will happen to my family who have already died?

I often wonder the same thing. I mean I kind of know, as much as a human can know the details of the afterlife. But I know they’re with Jesus and I know that one day we’ll all be with Jesus together. The challenge was that it seems Paul drew such a beautiful picture of the day when Jesus comes back to gather the living to be with him, that they started to get worried about the dead. You know the whole they’re going to miss out on this wonderful day when Jesus gathers his people to be with him.

This chapter drives us to understand this is just not the case. This is where the term rapture actually shows up in the Bible. No you won’t see it in many English translations because while it’s there it isn’t there the way we might think. It’s translated in most English versions as caught up in the clouds. That’s it. Caught up. The word that some translate as rapture and have written books about and formed whole theological traditions about is really a word that means to be caught up.

It’s a hard thing to consider especially with all the Hollywood-izing that’s happened with the term. Planes flying with no pilots. Cars with passengers zapped away. Football games with star players turned to vapor. These are the ways we try to explain it but I think this really misses the thrust of the word Caught up.

Think about the sunrise. You know that array of bright orange, red, purple and pink that somehow paint across the entire eastern sky. Add a little frost on the ground and crisp weather that makes you see your own breath and you’re caught up in something pretty spectacular. Yep you’ve been enraptured by this whole reality. It’s the same idea!

Paul here is telling the people in this little church that they will be caught up with their loved ones and with Jesus on the final day. No hocus-pocus. No slide of hand. No vapored bodies. No planes with no pilots. None of that is found here. Just being totally caught up in the presence of the risen and now returning Jesus.

Could those things happen? I mean I guess they can. God can do that if he wants but that’s not what this passage is about. It’s about you and me and even my grandparents all being fully enveloped or enraptured by the wonderful presence of the glory of Jesus when he finally returns. And that is something that should change the way we see life and death!

A Pastor’s Prayer

November 8, 2023 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered what was on your pastor’s heart? Like what got him excited in the morning? What keeps him up at night? What breaks his heart or brings a smile to his face?

There are three short verses in a small letter in the Bible that really drive at what’s on a pastor’s heart. Here’s the set of verses – Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. There are a few things here that really stand out.

May God our Father and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you.

The first part of this prayer has two really important pieces almost hidden in plain site. You may have noticed that I re-ordered the wording of this line. Most bibles will read “our God and Father and our Lord Jesus” but I think this misses a really cool thing that’s happening here.

Paul wrote this in a specific way to highlight that God is Father and Son simultaneously and yet there aren’t two of them but one God. He shows how God is Father and Sovereign Lord all at the same time. There are two subject (Father and Lord) but the verbs in Greek are singular. So many but one, one but many all at the same time.

Now the prayer is that we would come together. This is a theme everywhere in the Bible – the coming together of the people of God for the worship of God. The prayer of this pastor’s heart is that they would be enabled to continue to meet together.

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love

All too often we get tunnel visioned on what we don’t like and the things with which we don’t agree. We get vocal about our opposition to the newest bill that was passed or the lifestyle choices of those who live differently than we live. Here the prayer turns to enhancing and nurturing what we’re for instead of what we’re against.

The two words used here – increase and abound – are kind of two sides of the same coin. It’s like he’s praying that love would abound abundantly in us. A bit repetitive I know! But the point is that this concept is vital to who we are as Christians. Yet it’s so easy to leave this one by the wayside when we’re upset or don’t get our way.

Establish your hearts blameless in holiness…at the coming of Jesus.

There is a ton packed in this little section but we’ll focus on just one part of it. This is all about God’s acting for us. Have you noticed that every single verb here has the same subject. The same actor. The same person making it happen. In each of these God is the actor. Jesus is the one who’s bringing these things to be.

He’s the one who will make us holy and blameless. This is such a great part of the prayer. We don’t make ourselves good enough or holy or blameless. No matter how hard we try, it just doesn’t work. But God in His Son Jesus, has already made us blameless. Now the prayer is that we are kept in that blameless and holy way of life until Jesus returns.

The prayer of the pastor’s heart is one of togetherness, love for one another and submission to who Jesus is. We pray other things too but this is the heart and soul of all we pray for the people God entrusted to us. And this is my prayer for you even if I don’t know you personally just yet.

The Gospel

November 1, 2023 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

This week in the church I serve we talked about something called the reformation. Now the reformation is celebrated by some as an event in time, a day that happened over 500 years ago. Some consider it a work of a team of men who sought to reform the church to a more biblical time frame.

I’m not one of those guys. I don’t necessarily see the reformation as a day or period in history. Well not exactly. Sure it was a time in history and several guys were part of this movement that we now call the reformation. Yes it was about bringing the church back from the cliff of bad theology. But it was so much more. To relegate it to a historical period I think does it injustice.

In my mind, the reformation had a pretty singular focus. The Gospel. It was about re-understanding the wholeness of the gospel. It was about finding the heart of the gospel and what it meant for our lives here, now, today. The reformation wasn’t just a period in history. It was about a new way of living as followers of Jesus. It was intended to be a believe that would redefine how we live and who we are.

As I said above, at its core the reformation was about the Gospel. But what is the Gospel? Some narrow the message of the Gospel to some future hope to which we look. One day we’ll die and go be with Jesus forever in heaven. That’s a pretty nice idea. But the Gospel isn’t just about some nicety that one day will be true. At least that’s not how I see it!

The Gospel is about here, now, today. It’s about my life in 2023. It’s about how we see parenting, marriage, work, finance, health, fitness, the war in the Middle East. It’s about all of it – not just a future destination.

The people known as the reformers (aka guys who led the charge in making the reformation happen) were so sold out on this reality that they were willing to stake their reputations and even their lives on this new way of living. They wanted to get back to the basics of what the Bible was all about. The Gospel!

Sure the Gospel is about Jesus. It’s about dying and rising. It’s about grace and forgiveness and salvation and all those cool churchy words. But at its core, the gospel is really deeper than that. It’s about a transformed life. It’s about a fire in our soul that can’t be quenched with anything other than more of Jesus.

Yeah, yeah I know – the gospel in a nutshell (John 3:16) is all about Jesus dying and rising. What do we do with that? Well that’s part of it but not all of it. He died and rose. Yep. Not denying that one at all. But He didn’t die and rise only so I would have some future hope. If so then what’s the point now? He died and rose so that I can have a future hope and a totally different way of living today!

The Gospel at its core is about the difference that Jesus makes in every aspect of my life. The Gospel is just as relevant to my parenting and budgeting and healthcare as it is to my someday after I die future hope.

In short celebrate the reformation but don’t make it about a guy, a day, a time period, or even just about heaven. It’s way bigger than that! Happy Reformation friends!

Signs Of A Real Church

October 23, 2023 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

I spend a lot of time with many people talking about church stuff. From pastors discussing how they do worship and lead programs to church members about getting involved in serving or studying the Bible to people who want nothing to do with church, I see them all. And each of them come with their own set of benefits and challenges.

Recently I talked about a book of the Bible, 1 Thessalonians. Ok I know weird name but we have some doozies in states around the country as well!

Thessalonians is a letter that was written to a very young church in parts of Europe around the year 50 AD. The church was just getting started after a man named Paul came and started sharing what he believed about Jesus and the whole death and resurrection bit. He talked about how lives should look different if we actually believed this all to be true.

Well his stay in this bustling town didn’t last very long because some people were threatened by a message that wasn’t theirs. So they ran him off. Fleeing to a neighboring city he wrote a letter to those that remained as part of this fledgling church. His letter is packed with encouragement and thankfulness. But woven into the first few verses are three things Paul highlights that I believe are marks of a true, real, authentic and spirit filled church.

Work of Faith

The first thing Paul mentions is this idea of a work of faith. Now we have to make sure to get this right. This is not a work that leads to faith or earns some favor with God. This is a work done because of faith. You believe something so deeply that it changes who you are and how you live.

There’s another verse in the bible that says faith without works is dead. This means a person can’t say they believe and then have nothing in their lives change! If you really believe it then it has to shape who you are and how you live. This little church start known as Thessalonians had just that – a powerful faith in Jesus that led them to live a totally different kind of life. Turns out that these new Christians didn’t just say they believed in Jesus, but they actually let it change how they lived as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. Just about every aspect of their lives was lived out in faithful obedience to God’s word. Pretty cool huh!

Labor of Love

The idea of something being a labor means it’s work, often hard work that’s not all that pleasant at the time. When you have to labor through something it often means pain, or at least discomfort. It means some bit of self sacrifice to make this happen.

Paul tells this little church that their love for people (people like them and not like them) was something to take note of! They loved their neighbors, even their enemies and it was obvious to just about everyone. The Bible tells us that the world will know that we are followers of Jesus, not by how we lead our worship services or what hymns we sing. Nope they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

This group of new followers of Jesus got the love part down cold. Not some roses and candy kind of love either. This was a love that was able to welcome the person no one wanted to be around. It was going out of their way to help widows and orphans. It was serving the poor at their own expense. This love was strong, powerful and super evident to the world around them.

Steadfastness of Hope

The idea of being steadfast is to endure or stand the test. The third mark of the true church that Paul here highlights is about hope that can withstand some pretty crappy stuff. This church was started under duress. Paul was there only for a few weeks preaching and teaching. Then he was run out of own by people who didn’t want anything to do with him.

It was under these conditions that this church came into existence. It was under these conditions that this little group of followers was forged in character of hope. If you can have hope in the power of Christ through these types of scenarios, then hope has become part of your DNA.

So there are probably more things that we could say about marks of the church. The whole preaching of the gospel and rightly administering the sacraments are hugely important. But here in 1 Thessalonians, Paul doesn’t use those as examples. He does however say he knows they are real followers of God because of their working faith, laboring love, and enduring hope.

This is what we should all attain to as Christians. Just imagine how different life would be if we had these three markers in all we do.

Unity vs Uniformity

September 19, 2023 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

Do you know the difference between these two ideas? Unity vs uniformity? In some cases uniformity is desirable. But in most cases unity is preferred. Unfortunately however we tend to get them mixed up when things don’t go exactly how we want them to go.

Unity is having the same purpose or end goal. Unity is about going in the same overall direction and attempting to accomplish the same thing in the end. Unity however doesn’t mean that we all drive the same car or dress the same way or use the same route to get where we’re going. That’s uniformity.

Uniformity is when everything and everyone follows the exact set of standards. Think of the military as an example. They not only have the same objective but they look the same. Short hair, uniforms match, weaponry is the same and they walk the same and talk the same. Uniformity makes me think of the clones in Star Wars. You create one and then replicate it out so that all of them look, think, and behave the exact same.

Here’s the challenge though. As kind of ridiculous as it sounds to have a bunch of clones running around, it’s kind of how we act toward people who differ from us. If someone thinks differently or acts differently than we act or think, then our minds automatically go to asking why they aren’t more like us. It’s like we want a bunch of clones running around that behave just like us.

This week in the church I serve, we talked about this very idea. Unity is far more biblical than uniformity, yet in many church structures and denominations it seems that uniformity is what we’re after. Look I’m all for having systems and guidelines and organization and order, but I’m not at all interested in a world full of people just like me! That would not be a fun place at all (unless it was with drivers – then we could use a world of people that drive like me so I wouldn’t get frustrated when I’m trying to go somewhere!)

Seriously though, Paul talks in Romans about differences of opinion and practice. He’s talking about some of the structures of his day. He isn’t saying that the systems are bad. As a matter of fact they served a purpose in times in history. The problem is when we force those systems on people and make everyone function the same way.

Think of it in terms by a quote from a historical figure St. Augustine. He said In essentials – unity. In non-essentials – liberty. In all things – charity. If we would take this approach to how we manage life with one another, even in the church, we’d be living in a much better place.

The essential for the church is Jesus as the only way to heaven. There are others but we’ll stand on this one right now. To say that our expression of the faith is the only acceptable way to truly get to Jesus is a tad arrogant. Love and value one another for the differences they bring to your life. Stand firm on the nonnegotiable parts of life. As for the rest of life, give people the freedom to approach life from a little different perspective. It’s ok to challenge someone a little but to force uniformity is just flat wrong.

Unity is better than uniformity any day of the week.

Come Back

February 23, 2023 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

This week we celebrate a different kind of holiday in the church. We call it Ash Wednesday. Yeah it’s the day when you see people with those funny little dirt smudges on their foreheads. Some of us pastors are not good at art it seems! But the idea behind ashes on foreheads might seem weird to some people. So what’s it all about?

There’s a section in the bible written by a man named Joel. He’s one of the oldest recorded prophets in the Bible. He wrote super early in the life of the Israelite people. But his writing followed a pretty typical model for the prophets. Illustration and Warning were the two typical themes of the prophets. They’d write to show how a certain thing happening was an illustration of how they’ve wandered from who they were supposed to be. Then it would also serve as a warning that without correction, things were going to get drastically worse.

A quick glimpse into the book of Joel would be helpful. So he’s writing when things aren’t going well for the Israelites. Actually life is pretty crappy. The economy is tanking. Leaders are lying. They can’t trust their politicians. Recession is looming. Division is everywhere. People are hated simply because they look, act or think differently. I know this is a hard situation to even imagine. Sure glad we don’t know anything about this kind of trouble. (Immense sarcasm intended)

So the book starts with a recap of what’s going on. You see while the regular worldly trouble is lurking around there’s another issue sweeping across the land. Locusts. Lots and lots of locusts. ICK! If you know anything about locusts you know that they can be pretty destructive. And you rarely see just one of them. They come in swarms. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands at once. They lay eggs in the ground. The babies emerge and chomp on anything living. When they get strong enough to jump, they reach for food higher up. Then come the wings and soon there’s nothing out of their reach. It’s awful. Nothing is left the way it was.

If the troubles they were facing weren’t bad enough, the locusts would pretty much make the land unlivable. Ok to really understand the importance of the locusts we need to see how God functions in two different, yet similar, ways. I call them his passive and active judgment or anger.

The trouble they were facing with political upheaval and economic mess and division was all part of what is called the passive anger of God. This can be seen as the natural result of the choices we make. Kind of like speeding and getting a ticket, it’s the natural result and you really can’t be mad about it because you knew it could happen.

Now back to the Israelites for a minute. All the mess they were facing was a result of their lack of focus on God. They pulled away from God and then things started to unravel. Instead of drawing near to God again, they blamed him for their trouble and tried to fix it themselves. This only made things worse than before. Enter locusts.

When the passive anger of God is allowed to run its course, the next step is the active anger of God. This is the scary one. You see since the people kept pulling further and further away from God and tried to fix things themselves, God helped them go even further away. He sent the locusts to make their problems that much worse. But the intent wasn’t to kill them or destroy them. It was to wake them up. You see there was mercy in the locusts. The point was that the locusts would make life so hard that they would turn and finally ask God for help.

So what about the ashes you ask? It’s kind of like locusts. The ashes are a reminder that the good and healthy and vibrant parts of life struggle and die. Ashes were a symbol of mourning and death and devastation. Ashes were a reminder that all things living will be pulverized and die. The ashes we use on Ash Wednesday to put the little smudge on your foreheads are actually burned up, pulverized palm branches from last year’s Palm Sunday service.

That means that the ashes are a reminder of God’s mercy. There’s mercy in the ashes. It’s God’s way of saying come back! I want you back with me where life is best for you and where you can thrive like never before.

I have to be honest I would much rather have God put a few ashes on my forehead than send a swarm of locusts to eat my garden! Maybe you missed the service on Ash Wednesday. There’s always next year! But in reality it’s not the ashes or the service it’s what happens in our hearts. You can turn back to God without the ashes and without the locusts and without the calamity. So how about it? Are you ready to come back?

That’s What Friends Are For

February 8, 2023 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

You know friendship is probably one of the more underrated relationships in the modern world. Friends are critical to the wellbeing of every person in the world. In our culture of self first, what’s in it for me, protect myself at all costs, happiness seeking kind of mentality friends are often a byproduct if they don’t give us what we want or tell us what we want to hear.

I’ve been on the wrong end of this kind of friendship on more than one occasion. I’m sure most of us have to be honest. Friends, real friends, are those kind of people who we love to have fun with, laugh with, joke around with, get in trouble with, but also these real friends can and must tell us the real truth. Hearing hard things isn’t easy but when these kind of truths come from a friend they are intended for our good.

The Bible actually speaks to this in the book of proverbs. The words of a friend are faithful, yeah even those harsh words. There are other places in the Bible that contain several key learnings about friendship.

Real Friends Overlook Differences

Friends get along so well because they’re not the same. We all have differences. It’s actually kind of cool when we see the people with whom we hang out. I love how the people that I consider some of my closest friends have several things in common with me but also have some very unique differences. Those differences are what make us get along so well.

As much as I would like it if everyone in the world was exactly like me, I really don’t think that would be a great world to live in after all. Overlooking differences is what makes life great! But overlooking differences isn’t the same as overlooking gaps in someone’s character.

The story of David in the Bible shows a wonderful friendship that was formed between David and Jonathan. The were very different people. Yet those differences didn’t cause them trouble. They were able to look past those differences to care for one another, but they made sure to keep one another clear on their character.

Real Friends Protect One Another

That same story of David and Jonathan took an unexpected turn when Jonathan had to stand up to his own dad. His dad wanted to kill David because he felt threatened by him. Protection was key to keeping this friendship alive. But protecting a friend isn’t only about saving them from your angry dad, it can look like a hard conversation or loving intervention. Protecting our friends can look like providing for them in a time of need or being there when they’re going through a hard time.

Protecting one another isn’t just about life and death but about relationally, emotionally and socially being present for the people about whom we care.

Real Friends Carry Blessings Forward

The ending of the story of David and Jonathan isn’t one of those happily ever after kind of endings. Jonathan and his father both died. Jonathan orphaned a son who was crippled due to an injury and left in the care of his nurse. But the friendship forged between Jonathan and David was one that stood the test of time. David made sure to protect and provide for the needs of Jonathan’s son in the years to come.

We need to be willing to do the same. Maybe this isn’t about looking out for the orphan of our best friend but when we’re close to someone in this kind of soul connecting way we care about them and their family.

If you’ve been blessed with this type of real, good, and godly kind of friendship, then you’re truly blessed. Cherish this kind of friendship. Let them know how much they mean to you. Don’t take these amazing kind of friendships for granted.

Chosen

January 4, 2023 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

There’s an old saying that says you can choose your friends not your family, but that’s not totally correct. There’s one way you can choose people to be in your family. It’s called adoption. Now before you close this article give me a second. I’m not marketing for an adoption clinic. I’m just using it as an illustration for you. Adoption is about being chosen!

Ok so have you ever had one of those friends in your life that made you wonder what you were thinking? Ha yeah so have I! But they were there for a reason. Now family is a different story. For most of us, we didn’t have a say in the family that surrounds us. But it doesn’t change the fact that they are family.

I have great respect for those who adopt! I think it’s a pretty cool thing. Actually I’ve told my wife that it’s something I would not be totally opposed to (most days).

Now adopting a child from the foster system isn’t the only kind of choosing that we need to focus on. There’s another way of being chosen that is immensely important!

There’s a passage in the Bible that talks about God choosing us. Think about that. Out of everyone in the world throughout all of history, God knows you enough to choose you. That’s a pretty massive thing if you think about it.

Just like out of all the kids in the system that one you took home is super special, so are you! Now before we realized that we were chosen we kind of just went through the motions. We didn’t know what it meant to be part of this new family. Sure we had the name but we really didn’t like the rules and all the boundaries set up for us. We thought we’d be better off living free from all of these ridiculous rules!

But what if the rules and the boundaries and the name actually were there for a better purpose than just managing our bad behavior? What if that person who chose us, set up those boundaries because they knew something we didn’t know? What if all of those things we thought were overbearing rules were actually setting up a system for us to thrive in life?

Just like an adoptive parent sets boundaries and rules for the children they welcome into their home, so also God sets up boundaries for us as his children. But one day the goal is that we’ll see that all these rules were actually there to create the best environment for us to be able to succeed and thrive in life.

Instead of bucking the system and running from the rules, maybe…just maybe…we can take a minute and try to see what good these rules are meant to bring us.

Three Words To Help You Be Thankful

November 28, 2022 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

This year for Thanksgiving we did something a little different. Instead of looking at the normal bible verses, we dove into a psalm. You know one of those passages that looks like a poem and acts like a poem but sometimes doesn’t feel very much like a poem?

We all know that we have things in our life for which we can and should be thankful. From the family that surrounds us and the friends who challenge us to the house in which we live and the car we are able to drive – there are things all around us for which we can be thankful! And if we’re being truly honest, we are probably not as thankful as we should be nor as often as we should be.

Enter the three words of Thanksgiving. And no we’re not doing one of those cheesy thanks-living kind of deals either. These are three words that actually help us see the world around us with a more thankful heart. If you’d rather listen to this one, you’re welcome to scroll to the bottom to grab the link to hear this message instead of reading it.

Joy is where we start. If you begin your thanksgiving with joy, you won’t regret it! Psalm 100 starts by telling us to make a joyful noise. This isn’t about happiness. It’s not about our circumstances but it’s despite our circumstance. Our happenings can not determine our level of joy! Joy is more a way of looking at life. It’s about character. It’s about watching for God to show up, not focusing on the days when I felt alone. Regardless of my circumstances, I know God is still present. That’s what joy is all about.

The second word for Thanksgiving is gladness. Since gladness isn’t something we talk about all that often in our daily lives, another way to look at it is to burst out in laughter. Could you imagine a life where you just found so much enjoyment that you simply crack up in random spouts of laughter. When we have great gladness in our hearts and we live with joy and exuberant laughter, we can’t help but find something for which to be thankful.

Finally, our thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without leaning on God. It’s all about dependence. When we truly find ourselves dependent on God and not taking matters into our own hands, worrying continuously about the struggles in our lives, wonder if anyone will love us, fret over whether or not we will make it through this terrible situation – then we’ll be able to see life through a different lens. When we lean on God and rely on him to provide for us, thanksgiving comes naturally.

The three words that should guide us in how to be thankful: joy, laughter and leaning. When we have these three things working together in our lives then thanksgiving will be all around us. It will change our perspective and help us see the wonders of how great we already are blessed in spite of the troubles we face.

Be thankful! Find joy! Laugh out loud. Lean on Jesus.

A Lutheran Psalm?

November 22, 2022 / Derrick Hurst / 0 Comments

Now there really isn’t such a thing and that’s something of which I am fully aware. But if a Lutheran were around in the Old Testament, I’m pretty sure this is something they would have written.

Psalm 46 is pretty well known for many reasons. It has some very familiar parts to it. From the refuge and strength section to the ever famous be still and know that I am God line, this psalm is packed with some pretty powerful hidden gems!

As we start looking at this psalm, we need to start with the stage notes for this psalm. That’s what I call the details given in the heading of a psalm. It starts with some details that help us understand what this psalm is all about. Here are the details: For the choirmaster to the sons of Korah according to the alamoth, a song. So the first and last parts are simple to understand. I mean a song for the choirmaster is pretty self explanatory. But what about this whole sons of Korah and alamoth bit?

If you do a little bible exercise, you’ll see that the sons of Korah were responsible for the music in the temple. It’s like they were the temple musicians or what we today call the praise team. Don’t shoot the messenger here just read the books of Chronicles and you’ll see for yourself. Then there’s this whole alamoth thing.

Here’s where we learn a little bit about how to understand the Bible. It’s something called principles of interpretation. In this case the best rule of thumb is to let the verses we do understand help us with the ones we can’t. So again back in the books of Chronicles there is a reference to the alamoth as being an instrument. Some scholars have said it was probably something stringed. The image I tend to get is of a very early version of a crude guitar of sorts. So there you have it. This psalm is a song that was used in worship by a group of people called the sons of Korah and played on a special instrument, just like our modern praise teams.

Now for the meat of the psalm. There are a couple key thoughts that we should look at. First there’s the idea of refuge and strength. This is super cool because the psalmist tells us of some pretty nasty circumstances. It seems as if he’s pretty much describing what we call tornados, earthquakes and hurricanes. In the face of these horrific catastrophic events, the psalmist says the he knows something that changes how we react to them. He won’t be afraid because he knows that God is always around. He’s right there in the middle of the tornado. He’s riding the waves of the hurricane. He’s holding the ground firm in the shakiness of the earthquake.

As the psalmist continues, we move from devastation to provision. The very things that should have brought fear and peril are now turned to strength and sustenance. Instead of things falling apart and the world crashing to bits, here we see God bringing rest and peace upon the earth. The powers of the world are warring with one another but all God does is open his mouth and the world melts into a situation of pure calm.

As the psalm, aka song for worship, comes to a close we’re reminded of this amazing phrase to be still. But I think we might have heard this phrase with less power than probably should be there. If we look at this verse within the context of the whole psalm, it’s less calming a baby with a quiet lullaby. Rather, this is a direct command to stop. Rest. Calm. Let God be God. It’s a powerful statement. It’s God taking the lead and telling us to sit down and back off. You can hear his voice raise and get stronger.

You see the psalm here is a reminder that God is always with us which means we don’t have to fear. But we still do. We let the world around us dictate how we live and what we think and how we act. So God has to stop us in our tracks. He raises his voice and tells us to knock it off and be still.

There you have it. A praise song from the Old Testament reminding us of God’s power and might and provision. And a strong reminder that God will put us in our place whenever needed to let him do his role as God.

Category: Messages (Page 2 of 40)

Rapture

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A Pastor’s Prayer

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The Gospel

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