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Psalm 87

When I hear the word Zion, I shudder. Internally, I translate it to Zionists and Zionism. Those words, in the context of modern world affairs, stir images of rage, hate, bigotry, and nationalism. That’s part of what’s broken in our culture. We take good and pure things and turn them rotten. I think that’s exactly how Satan works. He trades truth for lies (Romans 1:25) and light for darkness (Isaiah 5:20).

This becomes clear to me when I read Psalm 87.

On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. — Psalm 87:1–3 (ESV)

I don’t get past verse 2 without feeling it. That word Zion catches in my throat. Is this how it all started?

The answer is both no and yes. No, because the Zion I hear about on the news is not the Zion of Scripture. But yes, because the original Zion, the place where God chose to dwell, is where the story begins. To understand it, we need a full picture of what Zion truly is.

Zion is a hill in Jerusalem, not just any hill, but the one where God established His dwelling. There, His people gathered to worship. Yet Psalm 87 reveals something remarkable. The city’s register includes names from far beyond Israel: Rahab (Egypt), Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Cush (v. 4). Nations once known for slavery, pride, and sin are written as if they were born there. Even Babylon, later described in Revelation 17:5 as “the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth,” is named among those who belong.

How can that be? Because Zion isn’t about who controls the ground; it’s about who is welcomed home. It isn’t about who has sinned and who has not. We all have. Zion points higher to God’s presence among His people and His desire to gather the nations to Himself.

Zion is a picture of Jesus. Through Him, we are purified and made worthy to live in God’s presence. He writes our names in His book, making us citizens of His eternal city, permanent residents in His household, together on that holy hill where God dwells with His people.

Psalm 85

As you read through Psalm 85, it shows two sides of God.  First, God’s anger against sin then secondly, God’s salvation that restores sinners and fills them with righteousness.  This psalm follows up after God’s people had been disciplined from what I can tell in earlier psalms, the people of Israel.  God’s anger had been directed to his people but now things seemed to be cooling off, and everyone was repenting and asking God for forgiveness.

The psalmist voices how things are getting hard again.  They are praying for God to not turn his back on them and instead show them mercy and help them once more.  Basically saying, the people that love and honor you are here for you to rescue them again.

Verses 10 thru 13 paraphrased: “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.  The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.  Righteousness will go before Him and make His footsteps a way.”

I have heard a prime example of when righteousness and peace kiss each other is when Jesus died on the cross for our sins.  When Jesus died for our sins, we are able to be declared righteous and that brings us into a relationship of peace with God.  Here, we see the reunion with righteousness and peace.  The righteousness bestowed on us and the peace that comes with that need never be separated or estranged again if our trust remains in Jesus.

Psalm 85 is a perfect prayer for anyone hoping for renewal, whether in their family, community, business, or nation.  It is about remembering God’s past faithfulness, owning our need for change, and asking Him to revive hope and blessing in our lives again.

“Do not be silent, O God!” (Psalm 83:1)

In Psalm 83, Asaph cries out in desperation as Israel is beset by enemies who conspire for its annihilation. He prays not for self-glory, but for God’s name to be vindicated—and for deliverance from an overwhelming threat. Toward the end he says: “that they may seek Your name, O Lord … that they may know that You alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.” (vv. 16,18) 

Today, as many await the freeing of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, this psalm takes on fresh emotional and spiritual resonance. The hostages represent innocent lives caught in the crossfire of forces far greater than themselves. Their families have prayed, pleaded, and waited, sometimes in utter silence. The expectation of their release brings hope that God may yet act dramatically in the realm of nations and suffering.

From Psalm 83 we learn:

• Cry boldly to God: Don’t hesitate to bring anguish, injustice, and longing before Him. “Do not be silent” is a sacred permission to pour out our hearts.
• Trust in God’s justice: The psalmist calls on God to thwart conspiracies and to scatter foes as chaff. When political and military power seem overwhelming, divine intervention remains possible.
• Aim for transformation, not just rescue: The ultimate end in Psalm 83 is that the nations would come to know God. So in praying for the hostages, we pray not only for their safe return, but for hearts to turn, for darkness to give way.

Let us pray:

Sovereign Lord, hear our cry and break the chains that bind these precious lives. Do not hide Your face. Grant deliverance that glorifies You. May those released know afresh Your mercy. Let this moment draw many to seek Your name and to acknowledge You as Most High. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 4

Today we are reading and studying the fourth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church at Thessalonica. This is where the theme of this letter shifts to the topic of eschatology, or the study of end times. I would be remiss to not talk about the first 8 verses because I think it sets a context that we all can learn from.

In the first eight verses Paul is calling the Thessalonians to purity. Jesus has made us pure by washing, cleansing, justifying, and sanctifying us. We ought to walk in that truth to honor and glorify our father in heaven. We live sexually pure lives not by striving, trying, and attempting, but by dying to ourselves and putting on Christ. God is not keeping you from something by demanding your sexual purity, rather He is giving you more freedom by calling you to live in the parameters He has created for you. God is more concerned about your sanctification than your satisfaction. He did not call you to passions of lust and uncleanness, but to holiness. You are to be set apart. This is important to remember as we move to the next topic in this chapter: the rapture of the Church.

The rapture is the removal of the Church from this earth, before the 7-year tribulation, which will occur in the end-times. Jesus’ return comes in two phases: the first phase is to collect His Church in the air (1 Thess. 4:15-17, 1 Cor. 15:51-54, 2 Thess. 2:6-7) and the second is to wage war at the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 19:17-21). There are three different approaches to when the rapture will occur. The three stances are pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation. God does not appoint us to wrath (1^st Thess. 5:9), therefore I see it hard to imagine any other time for the rapture instead of a pretribulation stance. Additionally, we have OT examples of God sparing the righteous out of the unrighteous like in the story of Lot in Sodom & Gomorrah and Noah with his family on the ark. Additionally, the church is not spoken of from Revelation 4 until chapter 19 when Jesus comes back with the saints (the NT Church). Lastly, God uses other means to spread the Gospel during the tribulation (the two witnesses; 144,000 Jewish people; and an angel in the air). If the church were still around, why would God need these other people/beings to spread His word when He has used the church for over 2,000 years? End times prophecy is all about God waking up Israel along with the rest of the world. The time is near. Get right with God so you are ready for His return. Be wise.

It is His grace that He is still waiting for the fullness of the gentiles to come. There will be a final person who gets saved and then God will rapture His church. Come to Jesus. Be soberminded. Be alert. Be ready for the return.

I love the encouragement found in 1 Thessalonians 3.  It’s something we can all search for, no matter where you are in your walk.  Timothy was sent with encouragement to the Thessalonians to strengthen and encourage.  Our days vary with circumstances that can put your attitude, hope, and trust in His eternal plan to the test.  When expectations for our plans don’t go as expected, we can start to lose hope.

Our Father knows when we are being tempted.  He sees and hears these struggles.  Perhaps it’s in a song played at the right moment, a sermon that resonates perfectly with life at this particular moment, or a friend like Timothy who comes along to encourage us through life’s trials.

The enemy doesn’t want those connections.  He will employ Jedi mind tricks to convince you that it’s hopeless or that you can do it yourself.  It’s a lie.  The older I get, the less in control I’m reminded. Are things in life going perfectly…. no… but if I keep my eternal perspective, it helps build my trust in Him and nothing in this world.

¹¹ Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. ¹² May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. ¹³ May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Lord,

We ask that you clear a way for us to always draw closer to You.  Every day presents more distractions that draw us away.  Strengthen our hearts so we can draw close to You. Amen

Today’s Reading:  I Thessalonians 2 

When reading Paul’s letters, I love to reference the first visit or introduction to the  now established church. When you understand the first introduction of the church, you can understand better, Paul’s  writings and teachings to the church later on . We are first introduced to Thessalonica in Acts, Chapter 17.

“They took the road south through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica, where there was a community of Jews. Paul went to their meeting place, as he usually did when he came to a town, and for three Sabbaths running he preached to them from the Scriptures. He opened up the texts so they understood what they’d been reading all their lives: that the Messiah absolutely had to be put to death and raised from the dead—there were no other options—and that “this Jesus I’m introducing you to is that Messiah.” Some of them were won over and joined ranks with Paul and Silas, among them a great many God-fearing Greeks and a considerable number of women from the aristocracy. But the hard-line Jews became furious over the conversions. Mad with jealousy, they rounded up a bunch of brawlers off the streets and soon had an ugly mob terrorizing the city as they hunted down Paul and Silas. They broke into Jason’s house, thinking that Paul and Silas were there. When they couldn’t find them, they collared Jason and his friends instead and dragged them before the city fathers, yelling hysterically, “These people are out to destroy the world, and now they’ve shown up on our doorstep, attacking everything we hold dear! And Jason is hiding them, these traitors and turncoats who say Jesus is king and Caesar is nothing!” That night, under cover of darkness, their friends got Paul and Silas out of town as fast as they could. They sent them to Berea, where they again met with the Jewish community. They were treated a lot better there than in Thessalonica. The Jews received Paul’s message with enthusiasm and met with him daily, examining the Scriptures to see if they supported what he said. A lot of them became believers, including many Greeks who were prominent in the community, women and men of influence.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭17‬:‭1‬-‭5‬, ‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Some of the citizens of Thessalonica were frustrated and upset at Paul and his friends for their proclamation of the gospel. The individuals were so upset that they created a mob and were willing to kill Paul and Silas for their teachings. 

In today’s reading, we are in the first book to the Thessalonians in chapter 2.  Throughout this chapter, Paul is not remembering the harshness and the hurt and the trauma from their experience. In this passage, Paul remembers their friendship. He uses the word friend several times in this small passage. 

“So, friends, it’s obvious that our visit to you was no waste of time. We had just been given rough treatment in Philippi, as you know, but that didn’t slow us down. We were sure of ourselves in God, and went right ahead and said our piece, presenting God’s Message to you, defiant of the opposition. 

You remember us in those days, friends, working our fingers to the bone, up half the night, moonlighting so you wouldn’t have the burden of supporting us while we proclaimed God’s Message to you. You saw with your own eyes how discreet and courteous we were among you, with keen sensitivity to you as fellow believers. And God knows we weren’t freeloaders! You experienced it all firsthand. With each of you we were like a father with his child, holding your hand, whispering encouragement, showing you step-by-step how to live well before God, who called us into his own kingdom, into this delightful life. 

Friends, do you realize that you followed in the exact footsteps of the churches of God in Judea, those who were the first to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ? You got the same bad treatment from your countrymen as they did from theirs, the Jews who killed the Master Jesus (to say nothing of the prophets) and followed it up by running us out of town. They make themselves offensive to God and everyone else by trying to keep us from telling people who’ve never heard of our God how to be saved. They’ve made a career of opposing God, and have gotten mighty good at it. But God is fed up, ready to put an end to it. * * *”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭2‬, ‭9‬-‭12‬, ‭14‬-‭16‬ ‭MSG‬‬

This friendship was made in the churches in Thessalonica and the response that they received. Paul’s maturity to see the good and encourage people in spite of his trauma is witnessed in this letter. Paul has found how to allow God to use him through these difficult circumstances that he’s going through to be an encouragement to others.

This past week at my job, I learned a new set of skills. One of the set of skills was to be able to comfort people in their trauma and in their places of hurt. So many people are going through so much trauma which can be hidden or it could be obvious, but they are attempting to manage this trauma. They will reach out to you and one thing that you have to do is just to listen. 

As we listen to our people and comfort them in their trauma, sometimes we get over burdened by all of their trauma. We have to find a place to Refresh ourselves. Jesus has given us the ability to connect with him to refresh ourselves from comforting others who are going through trauma.

Throughout trauma, we hurt. 

Throughout trauma, we cry. 

Throughout trauma, we may become paralyzed.

 But through Christ, he has given us the ability to comfort and encourage others from our past traumas and our current traumas and our future traumas. We have to begin to allow Christ to take these traumas from us and the ones we have absorbed and then allow Christ to heal us as well. 

As we walk through our journeys, may God allow us to allow Christ to comfort us and allow the Holy Spirit to be present to comfort others as we comfort them.

 

Be Blessed

1 Thessalonians 1

“When you think of me, what comes to mind?”

Maybe you’ve seen that question floating around social media. Believe it or not, it’s often used in sales training. It serves two purposes: discovery—realizing the impact you’ve had—and encouragement—being reminded that your life matters and inspires others. Most people are surprised by the responses, discovering they’ve made a bigger difference than they realized.

Now imagine asking that as a Christian. What would people say?

The believers in Thessalonica didn’t ask that question, but Paul offered his answer freely in 1 Thessalonians 1:3: “We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Despite persecution, their faith had become an example throughout Macedonia and Achaia (v.7).

So what about you?
– Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you faithfully?
– Is He empowering you with loving deeds and enduring hope?

The evidence lives in your fruit. And one more thing: Who do you know that is faithfully living this way and might appreciate your encouragement today?