Building Sandcastles

Malachi 1:4
(4) If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins," the LORD of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called 'the wicked country,' and 'the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.'"

When I read this I think of my daughter building a sandcastle a little too close to the ocean. She can get all kinds of sand piled up. Yet nothing will stand against the waves when they come in. No matter how hard she tries the ocean always wins.

It's the same way when we fight against God. He is always going to win in the end. We may build up what He wants to be torn down and in the end He will tear it down. The verses before this passage talk about how God loved Jacob, but He hated Esau. This does not refer to emotions in the sense we would usually take for "love" and "hate," but refers to preference.

This is a reminder to me of what an incredible privilege it is to be a chosen child of God. If you are His, rejoice in that fact. As we come off the time for national Thanksgiving, this is something for which we all should be particularly thankful.

Be Careful in Application

Psalms 119:153-160
(153) Resh. Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law.
(154) Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to your promise!
(155) Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes.
(156) Great is your mercy, O LORD; give me life according to your rules.
(157) Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
(158) I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands.
(159) Consider how I love your precepts! Give me life according to your steadfast love.
(160) The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

I'm going to be spending Thanksgiving with some people who are not believers. I'm not sure that I should apply verse 158 too literally today. However, what this stanza does tell me is that I need to be zealous for evangelism. Salvation is indeed far from those who do not know the Lord (remember -- we're all wicked apart from Christ); therefore, it is up to those of us who know Him to talk about Him.

If we go around talking about what we're thankful for I may just read Psalm 111:1-10.

As I read through this glorious Psalm I am also reminded of the need to guard against spiritual pride. The temptation is to see how the wicked live and then to ask God to give me my share because I love the Word. This has two main problems as I see it:

• I don't think God works on a quid pro quo basis.
• I don't love the Word as much as I think I do

Giving Thanks

Psalms 100:1-5 ESV
(1) A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
(2) Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
(3) Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
(4) Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
(5) For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

What a great reminder, isn't it? I notice that verse 1 doesn't say, "Make a joyful noise to the LORD, those of you who lives are going well!" In other words, it seems like this Psalm tells us that the LORD is worthy of our praise no matter what.

Verse 2 is a good reminder for anyone doing any ministry work. There are times when emotion just doesn't get us through. Yet we are to serve Him with gladness.

Verse 3 reminds us of the folly of saying that we came from goo. God made us. It wasn't, as one of my coworkers likes to say, "dirt + water + time = everything." Instead, it was God who spoke everything into existence. I suppose that this verse does leave room for theistic evolution, but that seems to run counter to the majesty that is to be ascribed to Him.

Let's rejoice that we can serve the LORD!

The Cure for Bitterness

Psalms 95:1-11 ESV
(1) Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
(2) Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
(3) For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
(4) In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
(5) The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
(6) Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
(7) For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,
(8) do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
(9) when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
(10) For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways."
(11) Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest."

When I read this I was thinking that the first two verses would make a great invocation for a worship service. I suspect that they will be used in a few places today. As I finished this Psalm I was reminded of Paul's admonition:

Ephesians 5:18-21 ESV
(18) And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
(19) addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,
(20) giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(21) submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Note verse 20. We are not just to give thanks when things are going well. We are not just to give thanks for the pleasant things. We are to give thanks always and for everything. In case you're wondering, in the Greek this would be literally "in a continual state of giving thanks at every time on account of every thing".

Contrast the first half of the Psalm with the second. God is telling us to give thanks and then He gives an example of a time when the people didn't give thanks. It didn't work out too well for that generation, did it?

I want to enter His rest. Knowing that I am going to do that is a great source of thanksgiving, amen?