Showing posts with label Pilgrim Covenant Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pilgrim Covenant Church. Show all posts

The Glory of the Church of Christ (Psalm 48)

Labels: , , |

(a brief study of Psalm 48, adapted from my church's Prayer Meeting Exhortation on 11 March 2008, reproduced here with permission)

Like Psalm 47, Psalm 48 is very joyous Psalm. It is also a Psalm of celebration. On the surface, it is a Psalm of praise in celebration of Mt Zion, or Jerusalem. So this Psalm speaks of the palaces, towers and bulwarks of Jerusalem as well as the victories over her enemies that ventured to conquer her.

But let us not forget that Jerusalem and Mount Zion is but a type of the Church. So this Psalm is not really about Jerusalem per se. So when we sing this Psalm, we do not think of Jerusalem in Palestine, and certainly not of the Dome of the Rock Mosque that stands on the temple site today.

No, no, when we sing or meditate on this Psalm, our eyes must be lifted up to our great God and King, the Lord Jesus Christ to praise Him for Jerusalem that is from above, the Church.

In the Church of England liturgy, this Psalm is appointed for use on Whit Sunday, which is to commemorate Pentecost or the day of the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ upon the Church after the ascension of Christ. Why? Well, to paraphrase the Rev. George Horne, this Psalm contains a snapshot of the glory, beauty and strength of the Church, immediately after she was rescued from her enemies.

We may divide this Psalm into 4 parts:

1. Mt Zion is Glorious because of the LORD (v. 1-3).

2. Mt Zion is Victorious because of the LORD (v. 4-8)

3. Mt Zion Rejoices because of the LORD (v. 9-11).

4. Mt Zion is to be spoken about because of the LORD (v. 12-14)

1. Mt Zion is Glorious
because of the LORD

1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. 2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. 3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

Mount Zion is the Church of Christ, the city set upon a hill to show forth the praises of God. She is beautiful and glorious not in herself; by herself, she is wretched, full of spots and wrinkles and blemishes of all sorts (Eph 5:27). But when she stands in the arms of her husband and head, Christ the great King, she is altogether lovely.

This is why even as this Psalm of celebration of the Church begins, it is not the Church but the Head of the Church that receives the first accolade: “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God…”

The Church, the city and bride of our great God and King is glorious and beautiful because of our LORD. The words ‘beautiful for situation’ speak of her loftiness. Just as Jerusalem of old was on an elevated plane geographically, the church must be on an elevated plane morally and spiritually.

Indeed, she is beautiful and a joy of the world by shining forth for Christ as a city on a hill. How does she shine forth for Christ?

She shines forth for Christ, in the first place, through the preaching of the Gospel, for it is by the preached Word that our King conquers and blesses.

But in the second place, the Church shines forth for Christ through the example of mutual love within the communion, for “by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples,” says our King (Jn 13:35a). For this reason, though trials are painful, we thank God for them, both so that we may be moved to go to Him to be our refuge and strength as well as to pour forth the love of Christ to one another.

And yes, there will be trials, only that our Lord has designed trials not for our destruction, but for our sanctification.

This is what the second part of this Psalm is about.

2. Mt Zion is Victorious
because of the LORD

The biggest trial that the people of God in earthly Zion experience would be war. We remember how Sennacherib laid siege on Jerusalem and kept Hezekiah, in his own words, like a bird in a cage.

But God’s people need never fear, for when the Lord is with them, their enemies will return in fear and shame:

4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. 5 They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. 6 Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. 7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. 8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever.

Today, this truth remains. Many things, in the hand of Satan, threaten to shake us loose and separate us from the love of God. But our Lord will not allow it to happen. He has established the Church in His love forever.

Nothing shall separate us from His love—neither wars, nor sword, nor famine, nor persecution, nor tribulation,—shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us (cf. Rom 8:35-39).

So Satan and his cohorts and agents are frustrated. They return from their attempts defeated and troubled. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church (cf. Mt 16:18), for the King of kings has established it forever.

So the Church rejoices. This is what the 3rd part of this Psalm is about…

3. Mt Zion Rejoices
because of the LORD

9 We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. 10 According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. 11 Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

The world sees the work of the Lord, but does not apprehend the purpose behind it. In fact, even believers sometimes get discouraged when we see the wicked prospering, while the righteous doing not so well. This thought is found in Psalm 73, which begins on a gloomy note that the wicked often prosper more than the righteous. But the Psalm begins to brighten towards the end when the Psalmist says:

“Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end” (Ps 73:17)

Going into the sanctuary of the LORD is a symbolic way of speaking about spiritual meditation and reasoning. Only when the Psalmist thinks carefully about what God is doing from the spiritual and eternal perspective then he begins to see things clearer.

This is the case in our text, verse 9. Some of the things that happen in this world are hard to understand. Some have asked: “If there is God, why is there evil?” Others ask: “How can a righteous God allow the righteous to suffer while letting the wicked go free?”

But the children of God, in whom dwells the Spirit of Christ, know that God is righteous in all that He does. Indeed, the children of God desire that God be praised throughout the world—by an understanding that His right hand is full of righteousness. All that He does arises out of His heart of compassion and love and is always righteous.

The children of God must be the first to acknowledge this truth. But not only are we to acknowledge, we must rather rejoice in His righteousness as we see His great hand in all the things that are happening in the world and especially in His Church.

Indeed, let us not only rejoice to see what the Lord is doing in the Church, but let us study it and talk about it. This is what the final section of this Psalm is about.

4. Mt Zion is to be Spoken About
because of the LORD

12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. 13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. 14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

Taken literally, these words instruct us to go to Jerusalem, to walk about the city, to observe the towers, the bulwarks or fortifications and her palaces. We are to note down what we see so that we may talk about them to our children and grandchildren.

But certainly, this cannot be the meaning, for otherwise, we will never be able to do as we are commanded to do today. For most of the towers, bulwarks and palaces of Jerusalem are long gone.

What then does the Holy Spirit want us to do? I have no doubt He wants to see what He has done in building up the Church in history and in our own times.

He wants us to tell the story of the Church to our children. We must read the Bible for the inspired history of the Church. But we should also read church history books. We should talk about the great work of God in the history of the Church. Talk about His great work of redemption and deliverance. Talk about the servants of the Lord and their exploits—of Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Jonathan Edwards, David Brainnerd, Hudson Taylor, about the 2 Margarets, about the dairyman’s daughter, about the little kitchen girl.

And we should also talk about what the Lord is doing in our own time. Talk about how the Lord saved and delivered. Talk about how He saw us through various trials. Speak of the Dorcas and the Lazaruses. Tell of lives transformed.

Tell it to our children. Tell them of things that will evoke praise. Don’t tell them of our grievances and disagreements unless there has been reconciliation and mutual forgiveness. Do not make them despise the Church because of her spots and wrinkles. But lead them to love the Church because Christ loves her. Tell them, therefore, of the great work of God. Tell them that they may know that:

…God is our God forever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death [and beyond].

It is because of our LORD God, that we are what we are. It is because of the LORD that it is meaningful to talk about the Church.

And our LORD is well pleased when we talk about what He is doing in the lives of His people. Malachi puts it this way:

“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name” (Mal 3:16).

Conclusion

What a blessing it is to be in this glorious and victorious Church of Christ, to rejoice and to talk about what Christ is doing in our midst.

May the Lord help us, that we may truly find it a blessing to be in the Church of Christ, and truly be able to see with spiritual eyes that she is beautiful and glorious in Christ who is altogether lovely. Amen.
—JJ Lim, Pilgrim Covenant Church, Singapore

Free Christian Calendars 2010 and Free Christian Planners 2010:
Free Calendars 2010 and Planners 2010:

Other Free Christian Bookmarks Templates:

Free Christian Cards Templates:
Free Homemade Bookmarks, Calendars 2010 and other Crafts Websites:

Words that will help you find this page/website:
Free Christian Bookmarks, Download Christian Homemade Bookmarks Templates, Christian Bookmarks with Bible verses, Free religious bookmarks, bookmark templates christian, free christian bookmark templates, Christian homemade crafts, printable 2010 christian calendar, christian planner 2010

The Glorious Sun behind the Storm Clouds (Psalm 47)

Labels: , , , |

(a brief study of Psalm 47, adapted from my church's Prayer Meeting Exhortation on 7 March 2008)

Psalm 47 and Psalm 46 are distinct psalms. But the Holy Spirit has so put these 2 psalms together that it is, I believe, very profitable to look at Psalm 47 in the context of Psalm 46.

Psalm 46, is set in an ambience of great anxiety. The people of God are experiencing great turmoil of heart and mind and things are expected to get worse. Our Lord gives us this Psalm that we may sing at such times. He exhorts us to be still and know that He is God. He would have us fear not because God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble even if the worst calamity were to happen.

But now we come to Psalm 47, and it is a very joyful Psalm. “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph” we are enjoined.

So it appears that the troubles are over and we should sing Psalm 47 as a celebratory song only when the troubles are all over.

But does this Psalm teach us to do that? Well, I would put it to you that this is not the case; for if you look at verses 3 and 4, you will see that this song is to be sung in anticipation,—and not merely in celebration,—of victory and rest. Notice the future tense. The enemies are not yet subdued. The war is still raging. Our inheritance is not yet enjoyed.

Psalm 47, in other words, is not an inappropriate song to sing even when the church is going through severe trials. Indeed, it is a Psalm, I believe, that God’s children throughout the ages can sing to praise the Lord and encourage ourselves through all the pains and struggles that we face in this present life.

Let us look at this Psalm.

This Psalm has a very unique structure. It has two parts that are separated by a key verse, namely verse 5. In each of these parts, there is a call to praise the Lord followed by the reasons to do so.

Let’s look at the key verse first, for this is central to this Psalm.

1. The Key
5 God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
What is this verse referring to? Some think that this is referring to the ark of God being brought into a battlefield like in the days of Eli. But most commentators agree that it is a reference to the ark being brought up into Jerusalem by David.

But why is this event important to us? Well, this event is important to us because the New Testament teaches us it was a very symbolic event. It pointed to the ascension of Christ into heaven after His crucifixion and resurrection.

This is what the apostle Paul alludes to in Ephesians 4:8, where he quotes Psalm 68:18.
What about the reference to a shout and the sound of a trumpet? Well, these seem to apply more to the coming of Christ, for Paul says:
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God…” (1Th 4:16).
What then has the shout and the trumpet to do with the ascension of Christ? Well, it has everything to do with the ascension because as the angel told the disciples:
“This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
I am not sure if there were trumpets and the shout of the archangel at the ascension of Christ, but one thing is certain. The ascension of Christ and His return are intricately tied events. Christ will return because He ascended. Christ’s ascension signalled the beginning of the God-Man’s triumphal rule as God and King.

To put it in another way: The ascension of Christ is one of the most important bases of the Christian hope. The cross is important. But except that Christ rose and ascended to heaven, we have no basis to hope that there will ever be perfect peace and perfect joy in this sin-scarred world.

With this in mind, I believe we can begin to get an idea of what the Spirit is seeking to do in our heart and mind through this Psalm.

The Spirit wants us to look unto Jesus in His ascension and to think of all the things that He has done for us, so that everything in the world begins to pale into insignificance and become strangely dim. The Spirit wants us to bask in the glory of our ascended Lord that our hearts may be filled with praise and thanksgiving in the knowledge of peace and victory through Him our Lord and King.

With this in mind, consider the first half of this Psalm, which is …

2. The First Call to Praise
1 O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
This is not a call for us to clap our hands in worship. No one in his right mind throughout the history of the people of God from Moses, to David, to Pentecost, to the Reformation would clap their hands in formal worship. Certainly no one would clap their hands while singing this Psalm! And never would the temple be filled with the voice of shouting except during war.
No, no; this is a call to lift up our hearts and rejoice in the Lord. Christians must not be defeatist whatever troubles and difficulties may attend us.

Why? For us who look back, it is because Christ our King has conquered and ascended up on high. He is seated at the right hand of the Father upholding all things by the word of His power.
For the Old Testament saints, who were looking forward, it would be because Messiah their great King would conquer and would ascend up on high.
2 For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. 3 He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. 4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved.
This seems to look back to the conquest of Canaan, but notice the future tense. The conquest of Canaan is but a type of the great spiritual war that our Lord fought and is fighting for us.
There is a war of ages in progress. Everything in this world including all its pains and suffering, great or small are battles in this war. The enemies are sin and Satan and everything that seeks to rob us of peace and joy in the Lord.

So all family quarrels and church quarrels, all relationship break-ups, all deaths and illnesses, all job-losses and indeed all things that bring a sigh and a tear to our eyes, are all part of the war of ages.

But we thank God that Christ has conquered. He is risen. He is ascended. He will return. The Old Testament saints saw it with eyes of faith and hope. We see it partly in history and partly with eyes of hope.

Our Lord will see to it that however powerful the enemies of our souls are, they will be trampled under our feet. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom 16:20) says the apostle Paul. Christ has conquered. He conquered on the cross and His victory is sealed with His resurrection and ascension. The victory is secure. The serpent’s head is crushed and will be crushed. He is in his dying throes seeking to sweep as many into damnation with him as possible, which is the reason why there is still no perfect peace as yet, and why Christians must put on the spiritual armour and fight. We must fight till the serpent is stilled, and we have, as it were, “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ” (Col 1:24). For our crushing of Satan’s head, is one with the Lord’s crushing of his head, for we are one with Him.

So fear not, beloved brethren and children, whatever trials may come your way. They are part of the war of ages which Christ has conquered.

They are there that we may learn little by little, more and more to trust in Him who is our King.

But consider now…

3. The Second Call to Praise
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
The word translated ‘sing praise’ may also be translated ‘sing psalms’ as in Psalm 105:2.
“Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms” says James (Jas 5:13).

Singing psalms is one of the best ways of expressing joy. Singing psalms is also one of the best ways of boosting our confidence in the Lord.

Four times we are exhorted to sing psalms in praise unto our God and king.

When are we to sing psalms? We are to do so when we are filled with joy. But not only so, for the reason that is given for us to sing is an unchanging reason:
7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. 8 God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. 9 The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.
Why should we sing? How can we sing with understanding unless we know why we should sing?
We should sing, v. 8, because “God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.” We should sing because our God is the sovereign King of all the earth. He is in absolute control over everything in the universe including the heathen.

But to what purpose does He rule the earth? He rules the earth for the sake of His people,—even the people of the God of Abraham. He rules that they might be gathered together as the trophies of His redeeming grace.

He rules that one day it may be declared:
“The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rv 11:15).
Conclusion
Beloved brethren and children, every Christian ought to be joyful through all the trials and turmoil of this life.

The reason we are not is because we have a tendency to look at the wind and the waves surrounding us. If only we would think more and meditate more on the great things in this Psalm, we shall be shall be able to stay our minds upon Jehovah and remain joyful in whatever situation that the Lord brings us through.

Let us, therefore, sing this Psalm to remind ourselves. Let us sing it with understanding. Let us sing it to exhort one another. Amen.

— Pastor JJ Lim, Pilgrim Covenant Church, Singapore

Free Christian Calendars 2010 and Free Christian Planners 2010:
Free Calendars 2010 and Planners 2010:

Other Free Christian Bookmarks Templates:

Free Christian Cards Templates:
Free Homemade Bookmarks, Calendars 2010 and other Crafts Websites:

Words that will help you find this page/website:
Free Christian Bookmarks, Download Christian Homemade Bookmarks Templates, Christian Bookmarks with Bible verses, Free religious bookmarks, bookmark templates christian, free christian bookmark templates, Christian homemade crafts, printable 2010 christian calendar, christian planner 2010

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Books available at Amazon.com

Books available at Amazon.com

Words that will help you to find this website : Encouragements for Christian / Christian encouragements / Encouragements Quotes / Poem encouraging believers / Christian encouragement quotes / simple Christian sermons on encouragement / christian encouragements / biblical sermon on encouragement / Christian bookmark templates / Christian cards / Christian poems /2010 2011 Christian calendar template / Free printable Bible quotes / Free encouraging sermons / Biblical verse of encouragement for the believers and sermons / Free Christian encouraging images / Free christian encouraging pictures / Christian encouragements phrases

 

©2009 Believers Encouragements | Template Blue by TNB