Psalm 108 is a psalm of King David. It starts as a strong Psalm of praise, with David recalling the God’s worthiness to be praised, and His victories over Israel’s enemies. Then at the end it takes a sharp turn and David asks God why He has rejected Israel’s armies. He closes with another affirmation of the LORD’s presence, stating that no human help is of any value, but the LORD’s power will bring victory.
Psalm 109 is also a psalm of King David. In it he calls on the LORD to protect him from his accusers. He offers a lengthy statement of what the accuser, who might be Satan, offers as testimony against him. Again, he calls on the LORD to deliver him, and to overcome his foes.
Psalm 110, which is a psalm of King David is a “Messianic psalm.” In it David describes what the Messiah will be like. He will be LORD over the king, and He will be a priest in the order of Melchizedek. He will judge the kings and crush His foes. This psalm describes Jesus in His second coming rather than His first. We often think of Jesus only as a suffering servant, as a humble leader, and He was when He came to earth 2,000 years ago. When Jesus returns He will come as the eternal King and leader of us all.
Today, we return again to the Gospel of Luke. As we have done so far, we will return for a second time to a gospel which we have introduced once. I will focus on a particular aspect of each chapter, rather than summarizing the entire chapter. If you are joining us “mid-stream,” feel free to return to the past twenty-four days to read the summary for each of the chapters as a whole.
As we turn again to chapter 1, our focus is 30And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Luke 1:30 (ESV) Nearly every time an angel appears to a human being in the Bible, its first words are , “Do not be afraid.” That greeting leads us to wonder what is it about angels that is so fearsome? Do they have wings, and if so is that what’s scary about an angel? Are they tall, or loud, or so radically different from us that their “alien” form produces fear? Whatever it is, the angel, in this case Gabriel, offered Mary the “standard greeting,” and then said, “for you have found favor with God.” The reason Mary didn’t need to fear, was God had found favor in her, and offered His favor to her. As we know, Gabriel was about to tell Mary she would become the mother of the Messiah, and the “father” would be the Holy Spirit. That must have been fearsome in and of itself. We don’t know for sure, but Mary might only have been fourteen or fifteen years old at the time. Her life would be radically different, and at first, at least, not in a good way. In Mary’s day, a woman who was pregnant and was not married was scandalous. By the Law of Moses, she could be put to death by stoning. As we have read in our first time through Luke, Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph. Joseph was a righteous man, so when he found out Mary was pregnant, he determined to “put her away privately.” In other words, he wasn’t going to push for her death. He just didn’t want to be married to her. It would take an angel visiting Joseph in a dream that would keep her from this action. Mary’s courage must have matched the extent of the favor with which God viewed her. As we go about our lives, we won’t have something as dramatic happen to us, but one thing we learn from Mary is: God always blesses obediences. When He calls on us, whatever the task, the way to be blessed, the way to move His Kingdom forward it to obey, which means to do what He asks.
It’s a silly story really but I have been carrying a bitterness for several years. Most likely the other person wasn’t even aware of it. During the Daniel series I had heard a message that influenced my heart and I was urged to begin to pray for this person. However, God clearly told me that praying was not enough. I felt like I needed to humble myself in front of this person to let them know my heart. Not that God would bless this person because he knew i was praying for him, but God wanted my obedience in my actions and breaking down my bitterness and forgiveness. I deleted the email 6 times. I was stubborn. I finally sent it after my car was sideswiped on Saturday and the sensor would not shut off. It beeped none stop. So I hit the send button. Fifteen minutes later, we got the beeping to stop. Maybe a coincidence. Maybe God getting my attention. Obedience? 🙂
Sometime I will tell you my story of a 9 year span of non-forgiveness over a petty incident. It ended with me learning an important lesson about keeping short accounts, and obeying the Lord quickly. Thanks for sharing.