This Is the Day...Wait; What?

"This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  - Ps. 118:24

Of course, fully 95% of you now have that haunting Rick Shelton chorus in your heads, and for that, I do apologize.  Try to push that aside and hope for better things.  No; the reason I bring up this verse is that we all like it, and I hope to convince you to like it still more.  First, though, we have to deconstruct a myth. 

This sort of verse is charmingly self-contained, and we quote it so often, and hang it from so many keychains, that it becomes sort of an exegetical monolith:  it seemingly stands apart from any sort of context, and we can move it about to fit within a situation.  Having an unusually good day?  Perhaps your best friend forever going through a hard time?  Go ahead and say it.  Why would you not say it?  It is certainly true enough - every day is crafted by the Lord and brought to perfect fruition, is it not?  Of course you can say it, just so long as you understand that this sort of free and easy pronouncement is not quite what the psalmist intended.

There is always a context for Scripture, and it is always profitable to explore context; it helps to fend off erroneous suppositions, and it lends us greater confidence in the conclusions of our studies.  It gives greater substance, weight, and reason.  In our present case, three verses in Psalm 118 will give us plenty to think about:  "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.  This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.  This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." 

We see, then, that the day in question is not at all a random day of felicity, but instead a notable day in which someone was unexpectedly exalted by God Himself.  The broader context of the psalm shows this person to be some national hero, evidently some leader of Israel, who was beset by enemies on all sides (v. 10) - therefore Israel herself was surrounded by danger.  David himself would not be a bad guess - the circumstances fit - although he is not named as the author.  Whatever the case, this impending disaster was brought about as an act of discipline by the Lord (v. 18); however, that same Lord delivered the nation and established the psalmist in one deft move - an abrupt torrent of grace!

The Lord Jesus lays another context upon this original one by naming Himself as the corner stone in question (Matt. 21:42-44), thus injecting this passage with messianic significance.  Read those three verses from Psalm 118 once more in this glorious light.  The specific "day" in Psalm 118:24 becomes, in this case, the day that Christ, rejected by His own people, became the corner stone - the day He was resurrected into that life which all believers share with Him (cf. Acts 4:10-12).

This is the day, brothers and sisters - rejoice and be glad!  This indeed is why we gather as believers particularly on Sundays - the joyful remembrance of that day of unspeakable triumph!  In fact, we see this example throughout the New Testament, in the writings of Luke, Paul, and John - the saints gathered on Sunday, the Lord's day, to celebrate their Savior.  Let these pleasing recollections soak into your mind and heart when next you go to church.

One further note, though.  The psalmist endured the just discipline of the Lord and was graciously delivered from the jaws of death by God; how brightly does grace shine when the recipient knows that he might have rightly received death!  Contrast this, though, with Jesus Christ, who by no means deserved divine discipline, yet suffered at the hands of evil men, and indeed at the hand of His own Father, nonetheless!  Even more than this, though the psalmist did not taste death in that moment of trial, Christ felt the full weight, not only of a brutal and exhausting physical demise, but of the infinite wrath of the Father, for odious sins carried out by lesser hands and sinful hearts.  Amazing.

"This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  There is much in the context here, hidden in plain sight, specific rather than general, to command our attention and our worship, is there not?  When these words come off of our lips, may they be steeped in genuine understanding and in heartfelt joy!

Nobody Wants a Boring God

As Christians, we serve a very interesting God.  He is interesting for many reasons (not least of which is His unique reality in this universe), but we see this best perhaps when life itself becomes interesting.  In the unforgiving jaws of a boring, predictable, run-of-the-mill life, God is still incredibly interesting - it is simply more difficult to perceive this.  If we desire to glory in our God in His fullness, we must prepare ourselves for the possibility of unsettling, discouraging, painful, even hazardous circumstances.  When we encounter the living God in these conditions, though, we do not walk away disappointed.

We remember how God sent Moses back to his enslaved people in order to begin His certain task of dislodging them from Egypt.  Exodus 4:30-31 recounts how the divine power displayed through Moses's miraculous signs causes the downtrodden Israelites to believe.  This could never be counted boring, but it is expected:  God is powerful.  We believe, with a genuine belief, because we have seen that power.

Something wonderful happens at the end of verse 31, though.  The display of God's power is momentous enough - it kindles belief in the midst of an oppressed people!  However, Moses and Aaron then deliver incredible news:  the One who holds this power is concerned for you, dear brothers and sisters.  Your omnipotent God has seen your travails, and He is not pleased with your present station.  At this, the people prostrate themselves and worship their God.

It is one thing to perceive the excellencies of the Lord; they are worthy of notice, of worship, of appreciation, of pure wonder, all by themselves.  However, we must confess that it is another thing altogether when those very same qualities are directed, incredibly, at us!  We, these sinful, transient, weak, myopic, squabbling trifles, pass under the specific notice of the Divine, of the Perfect!  His mighty hands, which fashioned the cosmos, now extend to give us grace!  When we have not deserved the slimmest iota of life here on earth, He gives a lifetime, and He fulfills His powerful and heartening covenants for His children.  Believe, by all means, dear friend, but do not forget to worship as well.

One further point on the Exodus narrative - Moses applies to Pharaoh for the release of his people, and is summarily turned down.  Furthermore, the workload of the Israelites is augmented to an impossibly grueling pace.  In this moment, as despondency readies itself, the Lord says simply, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land.” (Ex. 6:1b) 

In other words, the stage is now set for the Lord to begin His work.  Indeed, He might have worked such that Pharaoh was induced to free the Israelites before this point, but this would not been nearly so interesting, so telling of God's character, as what He actually does.  The increase in difficulty for the Israelites, as God reckoned in His perfect wisdom, was not wasted, because it allowed Him to reveal Himself far more strongly to His people.

This pattern can be harrowing, and it is certainly familiar to us in its essentials, but it is far from boring; amen?  Life is rarely easy.  How easy it is for me to imagine that the remedy to my present dilemma, whatever that dilemma is, can come only in one form.  I quietly, and often unwittingly, conclude that there is only one recourse that will extricate me.  Any other course of events tends to whisper that God has answered my prayers in the negative, but this ignores the manifold complexities of the world, of God Himself, and of His perfect plans.  We all know that God delivered the Israelites, and He delivers us as well, even when it is death itself that brushes our difficulties away, like a shroud from our faces.

Life is certainly interesting when we follow an interesting God - it becomes something not to be feared, but anticipated, as our indestructible God reveals His perfect plans and perfect character. 

Prison Perspectives on Progress

"Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear."
- Philippians 1:12-14

Paul sat in a prison in Rome for charges fantastically conceived and untenably forwarded.  In subsequent verses, he would describe how some of his fellow workers for the Lord, blinded by their thirst for power and seeking to take advantage of Paul's lamentable absence, had taken to haunting the church, effectively seeking to fill the vacuum Paul had left.  They proclaimed gospel truth, but did so in a bid to rob Paul of his influence - incredible!  This is the situation with which we, the eager readers, are met in this passage. 

If we know Paul at all, then it is no surprise that he did not draft a tally of his sorrows for the Philippians to feast upon - there were far, far more important considerations at hand.  How went the work of the Lord?  Was the gospel progressing in the world?  It was far better for Paul to focus on this at the expense of his own sorrows, and it was far better for the Philippians to receive this lasting example of the Savior's pre-eminence in all things. 

Paul turns to his present circumstance, then, and describes how the gospel is prospering.  In so doing, he delivers to the church three points which demonstrate some of the means by which the gospel progresses, and which indeed may serve to refine our definition of  "gospel progress."

1.  It progresses in proclamation.  Paul equates spreading the knowledge of his "imprisonment for the cause of Christ" with the progress of the gospel.  For the present, he says nothing of conversions or responses, but merely that he has been able to acquaint everyone around him with the circumstances of his imprisonment, and, in the process, to proclaim the salvation of his excellent and unique Savior.  Certainly, salvation is a clear indicator of the gospel's movement; however, we see here that the Spirit-filled proclamation of salvation is, in itself, gospel progress.

This is a healthy attitude to adopt, for we do not always see the results of evangelism.  While we cannot discern how a person will respond to gospel truth, it being the province of the Lord to grant growth unto salvation where he sees fit (cf. 1 Cor. 3:6), we know that faith never comes apart from knowledge of the gospel (Rom. 10:9-17).  The gospel is the seed of salvation; it must be planted before precious life can erupt from dead soil.  So indeed may we reckon the proclamation of the gospel to be progress for the gospel, even if salvation is not immediately evident.  In disclosing saving truth to partakers of unbelief and death, we are working to advance the gospel, regardless of the visible results.  This is encouragement to those who preach good news to their fellows with often very little sign of spiritual life or concern.

2.  It progresses in preparation.  Paul's travails, he writes, have served to encourage his brethren to fearlessly proclaim Christ.  This too, says Paul, is gospel progress.  If we are fitted with stronger courage, or with fuller understanding of truth, or with a greater heart for sinners not so unlike ourselves, then we are better fitted for kingdom work.  This sort of growth constitutes an advancement of the gospel which should by all means endure upon this earth, and even continue to grow, for as long as the will of the Lord binds us to our earthly stations.  It becomes but another avenue by which we may continually work for the gospel, even in solitude - by striving to grow in Christlikeness.

Time spent on our knees, or with scripture in our hands, grants us a greater gospel strength and serves to further the gospel.  Does this spark a flame of conviction in our hearts?  There is always more we can do to gird ourselves as soldiers for our Lord.  There is certainly more that I can do, I know, whether I am with unbelievers, other believers, or by myself.

3.  It progresses in persecution.  Paul labored under, but was not conquered by, persecution here.  The world had struck at him with a substantial brutality, and in the midst of this, opportunistic believers came in like vultures seeking to feast on him, so that hatred piled atop hatred.  And yet in both of these cases, in both of these hardships, somehow the gospel not only prevailed, but shone through all the brighter.  Persecution birthed unique opportunity and movement for the gospel!

On one hand, Paul was thrust into the thick of Roman society, even into the very highest levels (Phil. 4:22), with fresh ears all around him to receive gospel truth.  He was propelled into this arena due to the hatred of his countrymen.  On the other hand, his fellow believers were strengthened by his testimony in difficulties to proclaim the name of the Lord more strongly!  Some loved Paul, and others certainly did not, but whatever the case, believers were opening their mouths and bringing forth the truth of the Savior!  We do well if, in the midst of calamity, we can look about us to see either how we might use our circumstances for God's kingdom, or else how God has already begun to work for His kingdom through our plight.  Do not squander your trials, Christian!  Who can fathom what riches of grace the Lord has made ready to unleash in the grimmest crucibles of your hardships?

The gospel has a divinely-imparted buoyancy, dear friends. and it progresses easily in the hands of our Lord.  What more fitting work is there than to devote ourselves to its spreading?  It is grace to sinners, joy to saints, and glory to our God!

Powerful Answers to Prayer in Judah - A Monumental Request

See 2 Kings 17-19, 2 Chronicles 32, & Isaiah 36-37.


The northern kingdom has fallen.  The Assyria armies have taken Samaria. 

Something like these words no doubt reached the ears of King Hezekiah of Judah, and their reception would excite a definite measure of concern for his tiny kingdom.  Hoshea, king of Israel, had defied Assyria years before, and quickly found himself imprisoned and his kingdom besieged.  Three gaunt and bleak years passed before Israel succumbed and was carried into distant exile - such was the strong and settled resolve of the Assyrian host.

Hezekiah, a king rare and conspicuous in his humble servitude of the one true God, a man blessed with manifold successes by the Lord, had also defied Assyrian rule and refused to pay tribute.  For three tenuous years, Israel had absorbed Assyria's martial energies - for three fleeting years, Hezekiah's defiance was suffered by the Assyrians as Israel's resistance wore away.  Now this buffer was dashed to pieces and swept away.  What would come now?  We gather from Isaiah 28 that, against the wishes of the Lord, the rulers of Judah treated with Egypt in a bid for greater military strength, but the next eight years were met with an ominous silence from Assyria.

We have received reports, my lord, that Sennacherib has fielded a vast army and they are moving along southward along the coast.¹  It is impossible to discern their objective at this point.
 
The Assyrian host has shifted its advance eastward.  Even now they are crossing into Judah.

It is as we feared.  Our fortified cities are being overrun.

Lachish has been sacked.

Mareshah cannot hold.

Adullum is under attack.

We have lost Hebron.

There are no free strongholds left in Judah, except Jerusalem.

The southwestern region of Judah was by no means the soft underbelly of the country, militarily speaking.  It had been strengthened extensively by Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:5-12) and others, but it may as well have been shored up with straw as King Sennacherib gobbled up city after city.  If there was an alliance with Egypt during this time, Egypt did not stir.  Hezekiah stood alone in a shrinking territory.  He could not fight Sennacherib on equal terms, and Judah's weakness was showing day by day - she was dying.  The noose was tightening.  The Assyrians could push to Jerusalem in mere days, and there was nowhere to retreat.  The councillors stood silent; the generals were grim.  What can we do?  What remains to be done?  Send to Sennacherib; tell him we have erred in defying him.  Offer him anything, anything, and beg that he might desist in his bloody campaign. 

Sennacherib demanded 30 talents of gold, and 300 of silver.  Alas that Hezekiah's forebears had trodden this same dolorous path several times before (2 Kings 12:18, 16:8), and Judah's treasuries lay emaciated.  This total could not be extracted from them.  Hezekiah conceded to empty the house of his Lord of its silver articles, but even then, he wanted for gold.  There is gold on the doors and doorposts of the temple.  Let it be stripped off.  How his heart must have grieved to make this pronouncement, as he himself had clad the temple in such splendor!  The gold that he had dedicated to his holy, precious God, he now freely took back in order to fearfully deliver it to a pagan king who lived in utter defiance of God.

Twice Hezekiah had conceived plans to save his land apart from faith in the intervening hand of the Lord, and the first, his alliance with Egypt, had come to nothing.  His hope in the second would also prove disastrous as an envoy of Sennacherib came to Jerusalem, demanding Hezekiah's surrender, in spite of the painful tribute that had been proffered.  There is nothing to save you.  Other nations have beseeched their gods, and their gods have all utterly failed them.  So it will be with Judah. 

No earthly recourse lay at hand - no alliance, no armies, no wealth, no negotiations could intervene.  Hezekiah's hands were finally emptied.  Such times are often used by the Lord, are they not?  In the face of our faithless acts, He will at times systematically remove all options until we are obliged in helplessness to remember Him and to look to Him.  For Hezekiah, the temple of the Lord (which now stood stripped bare - not by Judah's enemies, but sadly by his own decree) became his place of refuge, and he prayed earnestly and humbly to his Lord.  O Lord, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.  Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.  Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God. (2 Kings 19:15-19)

This is a very comely prayer indeed, and we must note several features in passing.  First, it does not reproach the Lord with any note of sourness, as in "Why have You not labored with me in the plans I have made?"  Where it could be accusatory, it is instead worshipful:  it acknowledges wholeheartedly God's unique and independent sovereignty over all things.  Neither is it presumptuous; its requests are not demands.  Finally, it transcends the immediate circumstances and looks ultimately not at the plight of God's people, but at the glory of God's name.  Hezekiah words righteously importune, "Vindicate Your holy name, O Lord," and not "Vindicate Your obviously deserving people, O Lord."

This is not a formula by which we unlock the power of God to work on our behalf, of course.  Our omniscient God cannot be coerced by any means.  Rather, this is a mindset whereby we submit ourselves to the perfect will of the living God.  If His mighty hand moves on our behalf, we are glad; if, for reasons all His own, it does not stir, we are not offended.  We wait confidently on His good pleasure. 

The Lord did not hesitate to send His answer through Isaiah:  God had purposed from before time to give Assyria its strength for toppling cities and kings; however, their rebellion against Him had made them worthy of defeat, and the time had come.  The Lord declared that He would lead Sennacherib back to his own land, and furthermore, that he would neither set foot in Jerusalem, nor lay siege to it, nor fire arrows into it, nor assault it.

To put it more bluntly, after Hezekiah had exhausted his own paltry options, to absolutely no avail, he humbled himself before the Lord, and the Lord responded that He would surely deal with Assyria, and in such a way that Judah would not by any stretch be able to claim any part in that victory.  Assyria would be turned aside even before it could move upon Jerusalem.  Assyria's strength and Judah's helplessness would both contribute to God's amazing glory in this matter.

Hezekiah's prayer to God prompted Him to unveil yet another brilliant gem of glory as well.  God raised up the Assyrians and allowed them to perpetrate their massive conquests.  In so doing, he used them to show the falseness of local idols throughout the region as city after city was overthrown, despite the prayers offered to gods of man's handiwork.  How incredible, then, that God should bring these overwhelming conquerors, these idol-killers, against Himself, and use their efforts to demonstrate beyond doubt that He is very real, and insurmountably powerful, and always sovereign!  Hezekiah's prayer brought an incredibly glorious answer from the Lord of glory Himself!

Most are familiar with the particular form that this glorious response took - in the span of a single night, the Lord Himself, the pre-incarnate Christ, came and simply killed 185,000 from Sennacherib's army - specifically all the valiant men and all the leaders.  This constitutes more soldiers than the entire Allied force that invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944.  It is more soldiers than those who fought at Gettysburg - on both sides.  Our search, and indeed, Sennacherib's search, for an explanation apart from divine intervention, is definitively confounded.  This was an act of God - pure, divine, and simple.  Judah was saved by the Almighty on that day, and Sennacherib quickly withdrew, never to return.

How wondrous it is that such a response should come after a prayer given by an imperfect man who had acted faithlessly not so long before!  I need hardly mention the incredible trove of grace, patience, power, and authority that this event reveals within our God, but I would urge you to consider this wonder, to rejoice at it, and to marvel at how strongly our God responds to prayers from people not unlike ourselves.  We will, I think, find both glad adoration and steadfast prayer close at hand as we do so.



¹ So says the Beitzel's New Moody Atlas of the Bible in its various maps of this campaign.

Faith in the Divine Filter

"Why is this happening to me?"

This is not so bad a question for Christians to ask, so long as we are prepared for the answer - so long as we seek the truth, rather than conclude that there is none to be had.  There is always a true answer to this question, truth that is long-standing and settled in the mind of the Lord. 

This truth is situated in the heart of Romans 8:28:  "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."  This is doubtlessly one of the most beloved verses in Christendom, but let us take care that our regard springs from good and true reasons.  This verse appoints us not, as some suppose, to a life of ease (i.e. everything will go well), but to one of purpose.  A cursory run through the biblical narratives suffices to reveal teh prodigious hardships that have been endured by God's chosen, even the most formidable and earnest of His saints, even when none of their actions would merit such trial. 

Beyond this, James urges his readers to "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials" (James 1:2), certain that it is not a question of "if," but "when."  Joseph delivers this wisdom to his traitorous brothers:  "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good..." (Gen. 50:20a)  Evil is directed toward us, but God means it for good. 

Returning to Romans 8:28, we see the absoluteness of this divine work:  "God causes all things."  This means that every one of the events and circumstances which find their way into our lives are intentional, and that intention is laid down by none other than our loving, omnipotent God Himself.  There is, in effect, a divine filter that assures that those trials which actually reach us are designed for our good.  Consider how this same filter was seen in full force in Job 1 - God turned aside barb after satanic barb before allowing a very specific trial to visit its devastating impact upon His servant Job. 

With this in mind, the astonishing thing is not that we believers labor under difficulty, but that we labor under such small difficulty.  Indeed, the care that our Lord demonstrates through Romans 8:28 means that we should meet trials with something approaching curiosity:  why, indeed, has this particular trial made its way to me?  How will God use this for good?  This neither blunts the force of the trial nor softens its difficulty, but it frames it in the appropriate context of God's selective, sovereign purposes.  It invites a righteous response from the heart of faith that is assured both of the Father's changeless, loving motivation, and of the Father's faithfulness to lavish the needed grace to endure upon our humble frames. 

Does the tragedy of the present hardship crush my very heart?  My God has good and loving purposes behind this circumstance that will far oustrip and outweigh the immediate anguish.  Is this trial immense in its power upon me?  The power which God communicates to my soul is stronger yet, is stronger beyond my feeble reckoning. 

Any number of difficult things might have come about today, but this is the one that did, by God's will, for His glory, and yes, for my good.  Praise Him in all things!