The Massive Entailments of a Clear Theology of Creation

C. S. Lewis, speaking on a clear theology of creation, as it comes to us in the Psalter, over against the alternatives of the ancient world:

Now we all understand of course the importance of this peculiarity in Judaic thought from a strictly and obviously religious point of view. But its total consequences, the ways in which it changes a man's whole mind and imagination, might escape us (Reflections on the Psalms, 93). 

This is astute. And all the more so sixty-some years after Lewis wrote this. The worldview implications of God's making all things of nothing cannot be overstated. Along with working out a biblical view of man that is desperately needed today (anthropology is the battle ground in our day, not soteriology, not anything else), there needs to be a renewed emphasis on the Creator and his spoken world. The entailments are far more numerous and pervasive than many today, it seems, seem to be able to consider. We live in a dream world. A delusion.

Being drilled for so long now in a materialistic view of things from the secular standpoint, we are hardly able to think rightly about reality at all. I say this advisedly; I don't think this is overstating the matter. It is no accident of history, for example, that we are more muddled about man (what he is, and what is his place and purpose in the world) than ever before. Lewis serves here as a salutary reminder that we need to give renewed attention to attending to the world and the Word who made it.

Singing Whole Psalms

"We should do our best to find ways to use the whole Psalter [in corporate worship]. We should say or sing the puzzling and disturbing bits along with the easy and 'nice' ones" (N. T. Wright, The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential, HarperOne, 2013).

The Blessing of YHWH in Jesus' Blood

The Songs of Ascents (120–134) are among my favorite portions of Scripture. And Psalm 128 is one of my favorites among these songs. These songs were likely sung while the Israelites were in Babylonian exile when they made their pilgrimage several times a year to Jerusalem for the great old covenant feasts.

Psalm 128 sings about what it means to be blessed. Psalm 128 promises blessing. It promises blessing to "the man who fears YHWH, the one who walks in his ways" (v. 1). Then that blessing is spelt out (v. 2): satisfaction in work ("you shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands") and peace everywhere ("it shall be well with you"). This sort of blessedness speaks directly to the curse—and is something of a reversal of it! Held out hundreds of years before the Christ came and bore the curse in his own body (Gal. 3:13).

The blessing flowing to the one who fears YHWH is further described in v. 3: a fruitful family, with fruitful wife and children ("your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table"). This blessing comes from Zion (v. 4), where God dwells, the city of the great King. And the psalmist prays and the people sing for this man who fears YHWH to have long life and see Jerusalem's prosperity and his grandchildren, and for peace to be upon all Israel (vv. 5–6).

This is the blessing of YHWH for those who fear his great and good name. And that fear to which these great promises come was purchased in the new covenant bought with Jesus' blood (Jer. 32:36–41; Lk. 22:20). So all praise to King Jesus, the true Israelite, the true Jew, the man who feared YHWH fully and faithfully!

God's Judgment Now in View of God's Possessing All the Earth Later

How does “for you shall inherit all the nations!” function as a ground for God to arise and judge the earth in Ps. 82:8? The reasoning seems strange. At least if you really think hard about what it is really saying. And, make no mistake, the psalmist is providing a reason for God to act as a judge. 

Well, at first glance (and perhaps second, and third, and so on), it might appear that Asaph is calling for the judgement of God at the end of time when he ushers in the eschaton and the final state in a new heavens and new earth. But that really doesn’t work. 

Likely written in the exilic situation in the ancient near east, under foreign domination and oppression, the psalmist is certainly calling for God to judge his present adversaries, at the time the psalm was composed, way back then, thousands of years ago—way before what we call the final reckoning, the great day of judgment. 

So how, then, does the second part of verse 8 function? Well, it must mean something like this. Since God is going to possess all nations, let’s get going on that work now, Lord, and bring about some of the advance—in the here and now of Asaph’s day (well before the final judgement). Judging Israel’s enemies thousands of years ago would've been fitting since God would eventually inherit all the earth for all his people in due course. 

Now that’s just not how we think. (And if it throws off our eschatological system, oh well, so much for our system.) And for evidence that we don’t think this way, try praying for God to judge justly on behalf of the Church now, or your local church, surrounded by her adversaries, thinking of and praying for God to act now on some specific injustice, and doing so on the basis of God’s taking possession eventually of all the nations. We just don’t pray that way. Because we just don't think that way. But we sure should. Asaph did. And so should we. 

Your kingdom come now, O Lord, because we know your kingdom will come in fullness and cover the nations. Jesus bought the nations with his blood, and will surely possess and subdue them visibly. So, we pray, act now in our nation, against the gross injustices right in front of our eyeballs, in view of your reign coming to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Amen. 

The Israel of God

There has always been an Israel within Israel. That is to say, a true Israel within an Israel in name only. So argues the apostle Paul, for example, in Rom. 9:6, and elsewhere (e.g., Gal. 6:16; Phil. 3:3; see esp. the Greek of these texts, and note the various versions, esp. Gal. 6:16, NIV).

But this is clear from the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Paul himself points this out in Rom. 9:6ff. Another text that makes this clear, it seems to me, is Ps. 73:1, though I don't believe this is often pointed out.

There we read:

          "Truly God is good to Israel,
          to those who are pure in heart."

I put the text like this so you can see the parallelism of the two lines in this verse. "Israel" is parallel to "those who are pure in heart." And so "those who are pure in heart" defines who Israel is, who the true Israelites are. Those Israelites with impure hearts are not Israel. At least in one vital sense.

So unless you're going to try to argue that all of ethnic Israel was pure in heart at the time the psalmist composed this poem (which seems to strain credulity, given Israel's checkered history), we have a plain statement in Psalm 73 that "they are not all Israel who are from Israel" (Rom. 9:6, NASB).

A Love Affair with the Lord and His Law

Van Gemeren:

Psalm 119 is well known for its teaching on God’s law. Yet the beauty of this psalm lies not only in the recitation of devotion to the law but also in the psalmist’s absolute devotion to the Lord. . . . This is a psalm not only of law but also of love . . . not only of devotion to precept but also of loyalty to the way of the Lord. The beauty of this psalm resounds from the relationship of the psalmist and his God.

—William A. Van Gemeren, "Psalms," EBC 5 (rev. ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 858.

Why Do the Nations Rage?

"My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."—G. K. Chesterton

And now for a catchy little ditty based on Psalm 2.

For God's Sake

Kidner, commenting on Ps. 119:2: “Note here what is implicit throughout the psalm, that Scripture is revered for being his ( or ‘thy’) sayings, and God’s servants thereby seek him, not the book for its own sake” (Psalms 73-150, 424). 

The Breadth and Depth of the Fear of YHWH

The parallel descriptions in Ps. 33:18—“those who fear him,” and “those who hope in his steadfast love”—show something of the breadth and depth and width of the meaning of the fear of YHWH. It is not just trembling before YHWH, or trembling at his Word. It is that. There’s really no doubt about it. But the fear of YHWH is a more expansive concept as well, as many have noted.

In Ps. 33:18, hope is at the heart of the fear of YHWH, as the parallel expressions make clear. Other texts could be adduced to support other aspects of the fear of YHWH, such as trust and delight. Yet, while noting that the texture of this term is indeed important for rightly understanding the fear of YHWH, noting this richness ought never to come at the expense of the trembling element—which undoubtedly belongs to the essence of the fear of YHWH. As many passages amply attest.

Standing in Awe of God's Word to Face the Foe

In Ps. 119:161, princes sit plotting against the psalmist. His strategy to combat this was unusual (at least it is likely to seem so to us). It was not military (at least not mainly). Instead, he stood in awe of God’s Word. He revered God’s Word. God's wonderful Word still held him and dominated his thinking and outlook—despite immense external pressure.  

And so, likewise, it ought to be, whatever we might find ourselves facing, as we face an array of foes. Whether these foes be civil, or legal, or religious, or local, or even familial, standing in awe of God’s Word and revering God’s Word ought to be the primary posture of the godly who would not be overwhelmed by the foe faced, but more than conquerors through him who loved us.

The Canonical Context of the Psalms

In a paper titled "Towards a Canonical Reading of the Psalms," Gordon Wenham asks and answers the question, "what is the canonical context in which we read each psalm?"

His answer, at least as a starting place, seems to me to be a very good answer. Here's what he says:

I tend to think three canonical contexts are more important than others. 

First, there is the canonical context of the whole Psalter. . . . [It] is imperative to read one psalm in the context of the whole collection and in particular in relation to its near neighbors.  

Second, there is reading the psalms in the context of the Jewish canon, the Hebrew Bible.  The psalms themselves invite this by their frequent reference to historical figures and episodes from the past. . . .  

Third, of course, the psalms need to be read in the context of the Christian canon of Old and New Testaments. The Psalms are the book of the Old Testament most quoted in the New Testament: it appears that the early Christians inhabited the thought world of the psalms, so that any biblical theology that would be Christian must read the psalms in this context. 

—Gordon Wenham, "Towards a Canonical Reading of the Psalms," in Canon and Biblical Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 347–348.

The Torah of YHWH in Psalm 1

So often so many, in my view, interpret wrongly the phrase “the torah of YHWH” (תוֹרַ֥ת יְהוָ֗ה) in Psalm 1. It is often taken simply to mean “the instruction of YHWH.” No one, to my knowledge, really doubts that the word “torah” (תּוֹרָה) does in fact often simply mean "instruction." That much is clear.

However, in Psalm 1, which sets the agenda for the whole Psalter, should we understand “the torah of YHWH” simply to mean “the instruction of YHWH”? I doubt it. I’ll not reproduce the argumentation of Mark D. Futato in his excellent handbook Interpreting the Psalms, but I will provide his conclusion, with which I joyfully concur in my inner being. He says:

So the תוֹרַ֥ת יְהוָ֗ה in Psalm 1 naturally refers to the Five Books of Moses. When we combine the sense of תּוֹרָה as ‘instruction’ with תוֹרַ֥ת יְהוָ֗ה as the Five Books of Moses, we conclude that the book of Psalms invites believers to meditate on the Five Books of Moses[1] as a source of instruction for experiencing the joy/blessings (v. 1) and prosperity/success (v. 3) held out in Psalm 1.

— Mark D. Futato, Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 61–62.

---

[1] Italics mine.

Psalm 119 as Touchstone of Biblical Spirituality

In his Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded, John Owen labors in chapter 4 to answer the question, how may we "know when we abound in spiritual thoughts, so as that they may be an evidence of our being spiritually minded"?

His answer, in part, focuses on Psalm 119:

I answer, in general, among other Scriptures, read over Psalm 119 with understanding. Consider therein what David expresseth of himself, as unto his constant delight in and continual thoughts of the law of God; which was the only means of divine revelation at that season. Try yourselves by that pattern; examine yourselves whether you can truly speak the same words with him, at least if not in the same degree of zeal, yet with the same sincerity of grace.

Then he answers an objection. But, "You will say, 'That was David.'" Owen replies:

But as far as I know, we must be like him, if ever we intend to come to the place where he is. It will ruin our souls, if when we read in the Scriptures how the saints of God express their experiences in faith, love, delight in God, and constant meditation on him, we grant that it was so with them, that they were good and holy men, but it is not necessary that it should be so with us. These things are not written in the Scripture to show what they were, but what we ought to be.

 —John Owen, The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded (vol. 7 in The Works of John Owen; ed. William H. Gould; Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 1994), 301.

The Real Value of the Psalms

Lloyd-Jones:

The simplest description of the five books of Psalms is that they were the inspired prayer-and-praise book of Israel. They are revelations of truth, not abstractly, but in terms of human experience. The truth revealed is wrought into the emotions, desires, and sufferings of the people of God by the circumstances through which they pass. 

It is because that is such a true description of them that the Psalms have always proved to be a great source of solace and encouragement to God's people throughout the centuries—both the children of Israel and the members of the Christian Church. 

Here we are able to watch noble souls struggling with their problems and with themselves. They talk to themselves and to their souls, baring their hearts, analysing their problems, chiding and encouraging themselves. Sometimes they are elated, at other times depressed, but they are always honest with themselves. That is why they are of such real value to us if we also are honest with ourselves. 

—D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression (Hannibal: Granted Ministries), 9.

The Sweet Fear of the Lord Born of Love

The fear of God is rare nowadays. Teaching on it is scarce. And the living of it out is even more scarce. And, even where it is taught and where some try to live it out, perhaps it's often misunderstood.

The fear of God, whatever many might say of it, really does include the fear of God, and not just some sort of reverance or respect. There's a knee-knocking component to a true fear of the Lord. And given that it is the beginning of wisdom, and given that apart from it we cannot suppose ourselves to be participating in the faith once for all delivered to the saints, it behooves us to cultivate the fear of the Lord in our lives.

In order to cultivate the fear of God, one could do much worse than Buynan's Treatise on the Fear of God, from which I recently posted some instruction about where the fear of the Lord comes from. Today I want to focus on an important aspect of the fear of the Lord, with the help of Bunyan again, which I think some who focus on the fear of the Lord miss, but which is utterly essential for the fear to be healthy and biblical. And it is how the goodness, kindness, and love of God produce and shape that fear. Consider two points Bunyan makes in his treatise.

First, Bunyan says that this fear is a "son-like fear of God" that " flows from the distinguishing love of God to his elect" (56). That is, it is a filial fear born as each person is born into the world—that is to say, by the will of another. We didn't choose to be born into the world, nor do we choose to be born again unto a fear of the Lord. It is born of everlasting love (Jer. 31:3). Flowing from God's distinguishing, selective love for his own, the fear of God is placed within his children as a provision of the new covenant (Jer. 32:38-40). And so the covenant context of this fear, then, is divine love. It flows from God's fatherly particular love for his children. That love, therefore, must flavor the fear of the Lord as we seek to cultivate it. It is a sweet and pleasant fear.

Second, though there are many inducements for generating the fear of the Lord, there is one most potent. Buynan says it well, and I heartily agree with him, both because of the Bible's witness and because of experience. Referencing Ps. 130:3-4, he says:

This godly fear flows from a sense of the love and kindness of God to the soul. . . . Indeed nothing can lay a stronger obligation upon the heart to fear God, than sense of, or hope in mercy (Jer. 33:8-9). This begetteth true tenderness of heart, true godly softness of spirit; this truly endeareth the affections to God; and in this true tenderness, softness, and endearedness of affection to God, lieth the very essence of this fear of the Lord . . . (58).

Amen, Bunyan. This fear is my portion. It is a sweet and lovely and pleasant fear. And to it I want to submit sweetly all my days.

The Word Working on the Wencels in 2014

Every year Emily and I begin the new year with Psalm 1. This year is no exception. And this year, reflecting on the previous year and its shortcomings with respect to devotion to God's Word, Psalm 1 seems all the sweeter, all the more illuminating, and all the more urgent to heed.

Every year Emily and I also come up with some Bible reading scheme that gets us through the whole Bible at least once in the year. Given the presence of a toddler in our home now, and given other shiftings, we're shifting this year how we're going about reading the Word systematically. That we will read it systematically, both individually and as a family, that will not change. But how we go about this commitment is changing.

Whatever we might be doing as individuals in communion with God, as a family we're starting a three-year cycle of getting through the whole of Scripture together. Our individual reading plans will get us through the Bible the equivalent of every year, and our family reading plan will get us through the Bible every three years together. Because of their importance, we'll be reading Psalms and Proverbs every year together. And we'll also be doing more focused study on a given book or two together.

Here, then, is our three-year plan for reading all of Scripture together:

Old Testament

Year 1–Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve), Psalms, and Proverbs.
Year 2–Pentatuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), select Writings (Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel), Psalms, and Proverbs.
Year 3–Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings), select Writings (Ruth, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esthter), Psalms, and Proverbs.

New Testament

Year 1–Matthew, Mark, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude.
Year 2–Luke-Acts, and Pauline epistles.
Year 3–John, 1–3 John, Revelation, and Hebrews.

So this year we're reading together the Latter Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, Matthew, Mark, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude. And this year our focused study together will be in Isaiah and Mark, Isaiah for the first half of the year, Mark for the second half. We'll probably read these books several times each, listen to scores of sermons on these books, and study certain passages more closely together using helps and guides along the way (e.g., J. C. Ryle on the Gospels). Additionally, we're planning on memorizing some Psalms together (Pss. 32, 67, 103, 127, 128, 130, 131) and the book of Titus. 

God's Handing Over

The OT equivalent of the NT "handing over" in Rom. 1:24, 26, 28 appears in texts such as Ps. 81:11-12: "But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels."

God hands people over—even his own people!—"to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels," when they refuse to listen to him, that is, when they choose to worship and serve "the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen" (Rom. 1:25).

O YHWH, How Majestic Is Your Name in All the Earth!

Here's the congregational prayer at NCC from this past Ascension Sunday and Mother's Day, shaped by Psalm 8:

O YHWH, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, the name above every name, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord, you have exalted your holy majesty above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of children and infants you have established strength—the praise of your people. Because of your adversaries, O Lord, you produce this praise. You establish, through powerless children no less, this strength, this praise, and you do so to silence the enemy and the avenger.

So we praise you, O great God, for mothers who love your praise, for mothers zealous to pass on “the heritage of those who fear your name.” We praise you, exalted Lord, for mothers who labored in the trenches faithfully for years without concern for the world’s smiles and honors. We praise you, Father of the fatherless, for putting into mothers’ hearts the gospel longing to adopt the powerless and helpless for your praise. We praise you, our kind Maker, for our earthly mothers, who gave us bodily life and tenderly cared for us; for our heavenly mother the church, who gave us new life, and sustains that new life, all for your high honor.

As we think of your gift of life, O Giver of life, we think of the loss of life in this broken and fallen world. We think of those who’ve lost a little one, and the barren womb. Send the comfort of your presence, O God of all comfort, God of all grace. We praise you for the desire in the hearts of these women to want children to raise for your praise. And we pray that you would “fulfill every desire for good.” With the fingers that fashioned the stars, touch the womb with new life, O Lord—we ask this for the sake of your name!

                        O YHWH, our Lord, how majestic 

                        is your name in all the earth.

When we consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you put in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.

In subjecting all things to man, male and female, made in your image, you left nothing, O Creator, you left nothing not subject to man. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we see Jesus, born of a woman, made a little lower than angels; we see him crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, by the grace of God tasting death for everyone. We see Jesus, raised from the dead, exalted to the right Hand, above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named. We see Jesus, all things under his feet, head over all things for us, the church, his body, reigning til we reign with him in a new heavens and new earth.

                        O YHWH, our Lord Jesus, how majestic 

                        is your name in all the earth.

So establish strength, almighty God, in the new humanity risen with Christ. In our weakness and the weakness of our children, establish strength, prepare praise. Help our mothers to press on in this greatest, highest calling of nurturing children for your praise. We pray, God Most High, for Christ-like mothers who humble themselves, stooping daily to take concern for the weak, lowly, despised things, offering up their bodies as sacrifices for your praise across the generations. Supply them with grace for this high and holy calling!

We, your children and your church—made for your praise!—we praise you, O Lord. We adore you! We adore your wisdom, we adore your power. What wisdom, what power, designed all this! Taking the weak, lowly, despised things of this world, to shame the strong, the high, the praised things of this world. Even taking children and their mothers and the cross to establish strength, the praise of your people—the praise of your great name! 

Blessed be that name above all names, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, generation after generation, forever and ever.

O YHWH, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Amen, and amen. 

YHWH's Majestic Royal Voice

Here's trying my hand at translating Psalm 29. I've attempted to bring out something of the structure, flow, force, and poetics of the Hebrew, while maintaing an essentially literal translation.

A Psalm of David.

Give to YHWH, O sons of God,
     Give to YHWH glory and strength.
     Give to YHWH the glory of his name;
Worship YHWH in holy array.

YHWH's voice is over the waters,
     The God of glory thunders,
          YHWH, over vast waters;
YHWH's voice in power,
YHWH's voice in majesty;
YHWH's voice breaking cedars,
     YHWH shattering the cedars of Lebanon,
          making them skip like a calf,
               Lebanon and Sirion, like a young wild ox.
YHWH's voice hews flames of fire.
YHWH's voice cunvulses the wilderness,
     YHWH convulses the wilderness of Kadesh.
YHWH's voice brings birth pangs on does
          as it strips the forests bare,
               And all in his temple cry, "Glory!"

YHWH sat enthroned at the flood;
      YHWH sits enthroned, King forever.
YHWH grants strength to his people;
     YHWH blesses his people with peace.

The Crux of the Psalms

Dane Ortlund cites Calvin concerning the chief concern of the Psalms, namely, the cross. A choice quotation. Check it out.