Birthdays are usually very happy times. For that reason we generally try to remember the birthdays of close friends. We who have children cannot forget birthdays; the children will remind us. When we get older we are supposed to be too sophisticated to remind people that our birthday is coming, but
Verse 5 deals with provision. We will not lack provision because “you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” David had real enemies. They wanted to kill him. So if God was able to provide for David in a situation like that, He is able to provide for you. And He does! He provides f
Verse 4 deals with safety. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” What is this valley of the shadow of death? The popular way of looking at this is to regard it as a promise of God’s presence in the moments of dying, that is, the sha
I said earlier that the Christian life also has activity, and that is what comes next. The next portion of the psalm stresses guidance: “He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Guidance is the proper way to approach this matt
Let us consider some of these aspects. First of all, this matter of rest: “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” It is very significant that the psalm starts with resting in God, because that is how the Christian life begins. We are so restless. Isaiah says in the fifty-seventh chapter, “The wick
Psalm 23 is probably the best known and most popular chapter of the Word of God. It is no surprise that this is so, since everyone enjoys the theme of the shepherd who cares for his sheep. In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ describes Himself as the shepherd. Jesus declares in John 10, “I am
That is the point to which we come in the last verses, for these speak of the Messiah’s glorious victory. His death was not without effect. Jesus accomplished everything He came to accomplish. Notice verse 10b: “He will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in
The third section deals with the Messiah’s exemplary life. “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.” I take this as pointing to the character of His life, because that is precisely the way Peter takes it in his first letter, chapter 2, beginning in verse 19. Peter speaks of th
Beginning with verse 4, we have the Messiah’s vicarious suffering. Vicarious means “in place of another.” It goes back to the Latin word vicis, which means “a substitute.” We have it in the English Word “vicar,” which is what the Church of England calls its ministers. Thomas Hardy wrote a novel abou
Many of the phrases in verses 1–3 speak of the Messiah’s humble origins, but the one that strikes me particularly is in verse 2: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.” That is an unusual expression, is it not? A root out of dry ground! Growing up like a tende
I do not know of any chapter of the Word of God that gives greater proof of the blindness of the human heart to God’s truth than Isaiah 53. This is very evident in regard to Jewish people. In the first twelve centuries of the Christian era Jewish people through their rabbis and other Old Testament s
4. The family (vv. 23-28). The final abuse was an old one, going back to the people’s early days in the land: intermarriage with the nations roundabout, the very thing they had promised to avoid in chapter 10. Half of the children of these marriages did not even know how to speak the Jews’ language,
After dealing with the erring Eliashib and Tobiah, Nehemiah moved with the same determination to right the other wrongs he discovered. These wrongs correspond to the items promised by the people in chapter 10. Nehemiah’s actions in dealing with them constitute his final reforms. 1. The tithe (vv. 10
These problems were dramatically illustrated by what Nehemiah found to be going on at the temple. Eliashib, the high priest (v. 28) with whom he had worked closely during his earlier governorship and whom he had placed in charge of the temple storerooms, had affiliated himself with Tobiah the Ammoni
But it is not just that Nehemiah had to continue his struggles into old age that is significant. It is also that he had to deal with exactly the same problems he had dealt with earlier. In the last chapter we looked at the climactic celebration in which Nehemiah, together with Ezra the priest, dedic
I begin this final study of Nehemiah with the history of a well-known politician. I wonder if you can identify him. He was born in 1809 and suffered his first major defeat in 1832, a year in which he lost his job and was defeated in his first political race, a bid for the state legislature. The next
2. Rejoicing. The second thing I notice about the celebration services at the dedication of Jerusalem’s wall is the rejoicing. This is related to what I have been saying about singing, since the best singing flows from a rejoicing heart. But singing can also be sad. Some hymns have a sad or melancho
In Nehemiah 12 the priests and Levites were the first to dedicate (or, as it says, “purify”) themselves, which was fitting since they were the ones who were to conduct the dedication service. We are not told of what this work of purification consisted, but it was probably ceremonial washings of them
3. Nehemiah inspired a defeated and dispirited people. Not only was the objective itself overwhelming, but Nehemiah also had to cope with a people who had tried to build the walls before, had failed and were now dispirited. There had been nearly a century of defeat. The people had settled down into
The climax and unity of the book is seen in this way. Remember that the book has two parts. The first and longer part concerns the building of the walls, a task in which Nehemiah played the leading role. This part fills chapters 1-7. The second, shorter part concerns the revival in Jerusalem and the
The Christian life is hard work. There is no doubt about that. Even the Bible recognizes that it is hard work by describing it as a battle (“Fight the good fight of the faith,” 1 Tim. 6:12), a race (“I have finished the race,” 2 Tim. 4:7) and a sacrifice (“I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s merc
3. We must be a biblical community. This leads to the third necessary ingredient for an effective Christian presence in the city. Not only must we be in the city and be a community, we must also be Bible-directed. In other words, we must be the kind of community God wants us to be. What kind of a co
E. V. Hill tells of what happened in Los Angeles on one occasion. One man had been so put off by the captain of the block in which he lived—she was always inviting him to church and other religious meetings—that he decided to move. He decided to move the whole way across Los Angeles. The truck came.
The fourth characteristic of Nehemiah's effort to revitalize Jerusalem was that he had a religious base. The chapter begins with an account of how one in ten Jewish lay persons was chosen to relocate, but little is said about them. The bulk of the chapter (and the next chapter) detail the families o
