Learning How to Worship: Psalm 103

Psalm 103 is the epitome of a Praise Psalm.

And that right there was the most obvious statement I probably ever made.

Well, of course, it is! The Psalm begins and ends with PRAISE THE LORD, or as some English translations say, "Bless the Lord".

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

It is filled with makarism. The same style of speaking and writing that Jesus used to begin the Sermon on the Mount. We are to bless the LORD because of who He is and what He has done.

The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
    he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;
    he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
    and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
    and his righteousness to children's children,
to those who keep his covenant
    and remember to do his commandments.
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
    and his kingdom rules over all.

I love this psalm because of the story it tells. It is filled with redemption, grace, and love. It is a psalm that I believe every Christian can sing joyfully and without any kind of hesitation or need to explain away specific phrases.

We are called to praise the LORD in every circumstance because of what He has done in our world. He has forgiven us of all our sins, and redeemed our lives from the pit.
He works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

There are appeals to Moses, phrases from Isaiah, from Genesis pulling from the Creation account, from Abraham, and Jacob. There is a reference to the throne which conjures up the image of a King. Knowing that this is written from David, it reminds the reader that though David was the great King, there is still an even greater king.

Furthermore, this psalm is a Jesus song. It tells the story of how God has redeemed his people through Jesus. The Old Testament was but a shadow of the grace and redemption available to all through Jesus. The only way to respond to such a story, such a song, is to worship.

Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
    you mighty ones who do his word,
    obeying the voice of his word!
Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
    his ministers, who do his will!
Bless the Lord, all his works,
    in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!

-----

 

Nathan Bryant

is a pastor at River Run Church in East Orlando, FL. As a student at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri he majored in Biblical Leadership, New Testament Studies, and Missiology.  In 2014 he attended the Leadership Institute in Phoenix, AZ where he continued his education from other pastors and educators at one of the fastest growing churches in the United States. He loves the outdoors, whether it is camping in the mountains or jumping through the waves at the beach, nothing is better than enjoying God’s creation. Nathan longs for unity and commitment to Jesus to be a defining element in the global church of his generation.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our causes.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our boundaries.

Follow him on Twitter: Follow @nathanpbryant

Nathan's Website

 

The Secret to More Passion in Your Life

The Gospel of Mark begins like a horse sprinting out of the gate at the Kentucky Derby! Unlike the other Gospel writers, who take their time setting up the story, maybe being poetic and beautiful, Mark hits the ground running. He is not playing around!

I get exhausted just reading chapter 1! Within the span of 45 verses, Mark records 11 different instances of the ministry of Jesus! And this includes preaching throughout ALL of Galilee!

But there's an interesting little verse tucked in the middle of all Jesus' craziness. Mark notes in verse 35:

  "In the morning, long before dawn, Jesus got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there."  

When Henri Nouwen reflected on this chapter, he had this to say about the verse:

"The more I read this nearly silent sentence locked in between the loud words of action, the more I have the sense that the secret of Jesus' ministry is hidden in the lonely place where he went to pray, early in the morning, long before dawn. 

In the lonely place, Jesus finds the courage to follow God's will and not his own; to speak God's words and not his own; to do God's work and not his own....It is in the lonely place, where Jesus enters into intimacy with the Father, that his ministry is born."

You're probably thinking, "What's your point?"

Here it is: Ministry is really, really important. When we serve those in need, we're joining Jesus in establishing the Kingdom here on earth! 

But we can only truly extend the kingdom when we're seeking the King. 

And let me say this: We all have our own ways that we connect with God, those are mecessary. But there's something important about...stillness. In the midst of the craziness, of all the amazing ministry, we need to learn to just be still before God.

One of my Professors in school put it this way:

"Before we presume to speak about God, or for God, we must first learn to be silent before Him." 

As I speak mostly to millennials who dream of doing great deeds for the kingdom, let me rephrase this statement: Before we presume to do great things on God's behalf, we must first learn to be humble and still before Him.

So if you're still reading this...

Why don't you simply take 5 minutes to be still before God? 

Let all the noise, all the voices be stilled, and listen for the one voice that really matters.

-----

Evan Smith

wants to be a man who is marked by a hunger for God. Born and raised in Texas, he grew up the third-born of 7 kids and loved (almost) every minute of it! He majored in New Testament studies at Ozark Christian College, and also studied Ministry at Christ's Church of the Valley in Phoenix. He now makes his home in Dallas, is happily married to his high school sweetheart, Breanna, and has two wonderful kids, Hannah Joy and Peter. 

“The God who came, still comes. The God who spoke, still speaks.”

Learning How to Worship: Psalm 73

“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.”

-Corrie Ten Boom

Have you ever wondered why good things happen to bad people?

You aren't alone.

How can a Christian maintain our worldview of God's goodness to those who love Him (Rom 8:28), when so many terrible things happen in the lives of God's people.

In Psalm 73 Asaph resonates with every Christian (and every Jew) who has ever lived by exploring the issue of the prosperity of the wicked, and his answer is one that sometimes is unsatisfying, but one that is the most true. We find our answer to the question only when we take our eyes off of the prosperity of the wicked and enter into God's presence.

I think a maxim from one of my college professor's that, "What we need most is a clear vision of Jesus," is one that satisfies this longing expressed in the Psalm the best way we can attempt to.

Everyone can look around and desire the prosperity they see of people who live in evil. We do from time to time question whether the truth we know is worth the suffering or sense of unrest that we tend to experience. The way of the Godly is rough at times. The road is narrow. The covenant in Asaph's eyes was at times hard to desire. And so he writes down in a beautiful declaration what we all feel from time to time.

We want to know why Godless people like Donald Trump seem to prosper (yes, I just went there). We want to know why people idolize Hugh Hefner.

Is our way, is God's way REALLY worth it?

Asaph struggles for a bit, but eventually comes to the conclusion that yes, it is. 

The text says that he sought to understand this, but it seemed to be a very wearisome task, UNTIL Asaph went into the presence of God. He discerned the end of wicked people there.


The presence of God changes us.

Because the good that happens to bad people on earth will come to an end. To borrow a line from Jonathan Edward's famous sermon on this particular Psalm, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God":

"...he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall; he can't foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once, without warning." 

Let us remember that just because God allows evil to seem to flourish, and prosper those who do injustice; he has promised to repay. 

In Romans 12:19-21 Paul writes,

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,

“I will take revenge;
 I will pay them back,”
 says the Lord.

Instead,

“If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
 If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.
 In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.”Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. (NLT)

And again, Paul says in Galatians 6:7,

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap."

While in the presence of God, Asaph realizes his own weariness, frailty, and sin. He says that the bitterness he felt in his heart toward the wicked actually stirred his affections away from God. 

We will go through life always having one more question that never seems to be answered to our satisfaction, but like we see in this Psalm, our answer we get is rarely the answer we desire, but rather God gives us Himself.

Asaph realizes that the wicked are actually at a loss, because they don't get to be near God. He ends the Psalm by saying,

"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works."

Asaph's heart is changed, and instead of bitterness toward the wicked he decides to evangelize. He wants to "tell of all God's works".

In the middle of this Psalm are some of my absolute favorite verses in the Bible. It is part of Asaph's prayer before he comes to his grand conclusion. It is a confession and a plea. The language he uses has always just been striking to me, and this is a prayer that I pray a lot throughout my day to remind myself of God's faithfulness to me, His presence with me, and that He is my lot, my portion, and my strength.

I would encourage everyone to memorize these verses and think about the words, hold them tight, and may they encourage you in the same way that they encouraged Asaph, encouraged Israel, encouraged Jesus (as I am sure He prayed these exact words while on earth, maybe even from the cross), and have encouraged me:

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (vs.23-26)

-----

 

Nathan Bryant

is a pastor at River Run Church in East Orlando, FL. As a student at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri he majored in Biblical Leadership, New Testament Studies, and Missiology.  In 2014 he attended the Leadership Institute in Phoenix, AZ where he continued his education from other pastors and educators at one of the fastest growing churches in the United States. He loves the outdoors, whether it is camping in the mountains or jumping through the waves at the beach, nothing is better than enjoying God’s creation. Nathan longs for unity and commitment to Jesus to be a defining element in the global church of his generation.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our causes.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our boundaries.

Follow him on Twitter: Follow @nathanpbryant

Nathan's Website

 

A Prayer from St. Ignatius of Loyola

"I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You.'"

Psalm 16:2 (ESV)

Born in 1491, Ignatius grew up in a family with 13 children, his father a noble in northern Spain. As just one child among many, Ignatius dreamed only of romance and of making a name for himself by joining the military.

He thought his wish had been granted as he rapidly rose through the ranks in the army. But as he fought in a battle against the French, he was struck by a cannonball, shattering both his leg and his hopes of great deeds and military fame.

It was during his time of recovery that Ignatius began reading the Gospels and the stories of saints who had devoted their lives to Christ. Most people only have one moment, two if they're lucky, when they face a crossroads that will change the entire direction of their lives. Ignatius found himself at this moment, and he would not turn away.

Ignatius was captivated with the life of Jesus and inspired by the devotion of past men and women of faith. He devoted the rest of his life to two great aims: Knowing God and serving with all his might. His boyhood dreams of "great deeds and military fame" became dreams of great deeds for the glory of God. His lifelong motto was ad majoram Dei gloriam –– "for the greater glory of God."

He compiled his prayers and insights in a book entitled "Spiritual Exercises," which would become one of the most influential books on Spiritual Formation ever written. In 1534, at the age of 43, Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus, which you may know as the Jesuits. He described the Society as "contemplatives in action."

Contemplatives...men devoted to prayer. Contemplatives...men of prayer who refused to stay cloistered in an abbey. The influence of these men of prayer and action is still present today in the life of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope in the history of the Catholic church, and all those who follow his example.

So, who was this Ignatius of Loyola?

A man whose life was consumed with the pursuit of personal glory found his dreams –– and his very body –– completely shattered. Yet it was in his despair that Ignatius discovered the hope that would drive him for the rest of his life. 

Where are you? Where do you find yourself right now, in this present moment? What consumes your dreams? I pray that you will find hope in the same Gospel that changed his life.

And may this prayer penned by Ignatius become your own.

Let Him Love You

"Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us––He calls us children of God! It's true; we are His beloved children."

1 John 3:1 (The Voice)

Over the last few years, I have become convinced that one of the most important issues––perhaps the issue of supreme importance––in the Christian Life is knowing and understanding that we are children of God. And almost all of our problems stem from the fact that we have misunderstood this vital truth.

Two men who have influenced my personal journey in knowing God as my Father are Henri Nouwen and Dennis Jernigan. I've already written here about Nouwen, but I wanted to share one of Dennis' most powerful songs about the love of God, written from Father God's perspective.

So please...shut the door, isolate yourself, and listen to these words from your Father. 

Let Him love you.

A prolific songwriter and author, Dennis Jernigan has been one of the most influential worship leaders for the last 30 years. If you would like to discover more about Dennis and his ministry, you can visit his website, www.dennisjernigan.com.

-----

Evan Smith

wants to be a man who is marked by a hunger for God. Born and raised in Texas, he grew up the third-born of 7 kids and loved (almost) every minute of it! He majored in New Testament studies at Ozark Christian College, and also studied Ministry at Christ's Church of the Valley in Phoenix. He now makes his home in Dallas, is happily married to his high school sweetheart, Breanna, and has two wonderful kids, Hannah Joy and Peter. 

“The God who came, still comes. The God who spoke, still speaks.”

Evan's Website

Learning How to Worship: Psalm 55

Throughout this series we have been posting our reflections on specific psalms and taking from them something we can apply to our lives as we attempt to live a life of worship to our God and King. Looking back on the last few posts I was struck, well of course it is easy to worship God when we read Psalm 8, Psalm 19, Psalm 23, 42, or the penitential desire of Psalm 51… God is listening, God is near, God is active.

But what about those times when He feels distant?

What about when we have been so beaten and battered by life, by un-hopeful circumstances that surround us?

When we are in anguish?

What about when we truly feel like we have been unjustly accused?

Wronged.

Hurt.

Where the bleeding just won’t stop from a deep emotional wound.

How do we worship in those moments?

Breathing Room: Psalm 42

For the next four weeks my church is going through a series called, "Breathing Room". Because of the Psalm series we have been walking through this Fall and Pastor Mitch's main text he used in this message (Psalm 42), I thought I would share this. Learn why margin is important for a full life in Christ!

- Nate

 
September 13, 2015 from River Run Church on Vimeo.

A Prayer for when You're on the Edge

John Piper has said 

"I feel like I have to get saved every morning. I wake up and the devil is sitting on my face."

For any of you objectors to this statement, let me cut you off at the pass here: Let's all be adults and recognize the use of hyperbole. Piper isn't saying that he is standing outside of Christ's salvation at the dawn of each day. He is recognizing his weakness, his vulnerability, his propensity to turn away from faith and focus on fear and temptation and pride.

Don't you feel that sometimes?

If truly I'm honest with myself, when I actually unplug from the constant distraction of technology and am alone with myself, I am forced to acknowledge the darkness within my own heart. I find myself....vulnerable.

It is precisely in this moment, when I find myself on the edge, that my Heavenly Father is beckoning me.

So don't stay there, alone with the darkness. But don't run away to the distractions either. Cry out. Cry out for help, for rescue, for more of God.

Because you are never truly alone with your darkness.

 "The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
       a stronghold in times of trouble.
Those who know Your name will trust in You, 
       for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You."

-Psalm 9:9-10 (NIV)

Learning How to Worship: Psalm 51

Throughout this Fall we are writing reflections on the Psalms; I (Nathan) am required to do this for class, but invited the whole team to chime in on this series. Here we have a psalm many of us are probably VERY familiar with, we have heard it sung in church, we have heard sermons on the background story of this psalm, we have read it as our very own prayer of sorrow and plea for forgiveness before. And yet, every time I come to it, I personally get wrecked. Grace, something David could see but not fully grasp the implications of. Yes, that same grace that is fully offered and freely given to me... Should that not lead us to worship?

My hope is that though this penitential psalm of David, this heart breaking plea for forgiveness and for God to have mercy is hard to read and pray and feel... that we will see it as just another way to worship. I have stolen this line from one of my professors who I am truly indebted to for so much of my education and spiritual journey, but in the end, what we need most is a clear vision of Jesus.

Today, we continue "Learning How to Worship" with Psalm 51 written by our friend, Thomas Montgomery.

------

I can’t help but see the risen Christ all throughout this Psalm. I can’t help but see his mercy and grace weaving in and out of the words of the Psalmist. 

Learning How to Worship: Psalm 42

(ATTENTION READER: There is music embedded into this post, I encourage you to read with your speakers on low volume.)

If the book of Psalms is, as some have spoke of it, a mirror of holy and passionate affections spilled from the heart into words upon scrolls, then this psalm in particular deserves, as much as any one psalm, to have the same description attached to it. Psalm 42 begins book 2 of the Psalter, compiled directly after a wisdom psalm that echoes the desire for holiness and loyalty to YHWH as Lord.
Here, the introduction to the 2nd Book of the Psalter, Psalm 42 is focused upon the longing of one to be in the presence of God.

Psalm 42 is known in Christian circles mostly for its opening line. Martin Nystrom famously wrote the chorus, "As the Deer" in 1981, and it immediately became a favorite praise song to be sung in churches across the United States. I saw it fitting to add to this post as an extra effect, the song playing is an instrumental version of Mr. Nystrom's song.

The Psalm itself however was written by the Sons of Korah. The first of many of these psalms.
The Korahites became doorkeepers and custodians for the tabernacle (1 Chronicles 9:19–21; 1 Chronicles 2.) However, the most remarkable thing to note about the sons of Korah is that during the time of King David, they became the great leaders in choral and orchestral music in the tabernacle. Heman the Korahite had a place of great importance as a singer, along with Asaph (a Gershonite) and Ethan or Jeduthan (a Merarite). These individuals played an important role in the thanksgiving services and pageantry when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem. David formed an elaborate organization for song, instrumental music, and prophesying through these men.

A Prayer from A.W. Tozer

I have found that so long as I live at a frenetic pace of life, and can fill every moment with distractions, I am oblivious to the state of my soul. But as soon as I slow down...I am confronted with true reality.

"Who am I? Who is God? How do I relate to God?"

These questions, and more, begin to arise when we enter stillness.

And more often than not, my soul has a profound lack of desire for God.

The instant I slow down, I just want more distractions, more fleeting pleasure. There is something inside of us that runs away from being satisfied by knowing God.

But God has done an incredible thing:

The moment we cry out for hunger is the moment He begins to answer our cry.

A Call to Worship

Sunday night, my church hosted a Night of Worship and Prayer to again, call us back to what we are. A family of believers united under and with God. We worshiped freely, made specific communal prayer requests, and had our elders pray over people who came forward for healing (in accordance with James 5). It was a wonderful time. I had the privilege to start he night by issuing a Call to Worship for our church. Since I have been studying the Psalms for the last few weeks and been writing and speaking on specific psalms I decided to use the Psalter as my inspiration for my prayer and call for the attenders to worship. I thought I would share it with you today.