Psalm 46:4-7, ‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; He utters His voice, the earth melts. YHWH of […]
2 Corinthians 5:21, ‘For our sake, [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that IN HIM we might become the righteousness of God.’ The union of Christ and His Bride lies at the heart of the Gospel. We see that here in this text. Why is Christ ‘made sin’? Because He
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Luke 19:41-42, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’ As Jesus draws near Jerusalem, He weeps because the City of Peace is blind to that which truly makes for peace. What, specifically, is it that makes for peace?
Psalm 27 Rather than a specific verse, this image attempts to visually exegete some of the central movements of the 27th Psalm. So, perhaps the best way to explain it is to walk through the elements of the image in the order that they appear in the Psalm. David begins by confessing that YHWH
Luke 7:38, ‘…standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment.’ There is so much to see here, and perhaps I will get into it in this afternoon’s live
Hebrews 7:25, ‘…He is able to save to the uttermost the ones drawing near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede on their behalf.’ The author of Hebrews uses two related words here. The word translated ‘to the uttermost’ is παντελής which combines ‘pan’ (for all) and ‘telos’ (as
Psalm 102: 24-26, [v.24] ‘Oh my God,’ I say, ‘take me not away in the midst of my days—you whose years endure throughout all generations!’ [v.25] Of old you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. [v.26] They will perish, but you will remain… Heb. 1:10 cites
Matthew 21:9, And the crowds going before Him and the ones following cried out saying: Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is the One coming in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest! The words the crowd shouts are taken from Psalm 118:25-26. In verse 27 of that Psalm—following immediately after
Ps 89:9-10, ‘You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab like a carcass…’ Here we find a poetic description of YHWH’s creation of the world, which may also be understood as a poetic recounting of the Exodus. How do we know this? First of all, the
1 Corinthians 12:26-27, ‘…if one member suffers, all the members suffer with [it]; if a member is glorified, all the members rejoice together. Now, you yourselves are the body of Christ, and individually members of it,’ We are members of the body of Christ, and, in His suffering, Christ has suffered the sufferings of His
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Ps 83:16-18, ‘Fill their faces with shame, THAT they may seek your name, O YHWH. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, THAT they may know that you alone, whose name is YHWH, are the Most High over all the earth.’ Two points — First, there is a
Ps 37:23-24, ‘The steps of a man are established by YHWH, when he delights in His way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for YHWH upholds his hand.’ Here we see an interesting dynamic of the Christian life: The saint is one who both will most certainly fall and who will never
Lam. 2:15-16, ‘All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: ‘Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?’ All your enemies rail against you; they hiss, they gnash their teeth…’ Jerusalem
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Lamentations 1:14, ‘My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by His hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck…’ Jerusalem’s punishment from the Lord is nothing other than their own sins against the Lord poured back out upon them. Consider what it means to say that the horrors of the
Gen 50:20, “…you *meant* evil against me, but God *meant* it for good…” Don’t miss the parallelism in this statement. It is not that Joseph’s brothers *meant* evil, and that God *used* their actions for good, it is that—in the very same action—the brothers meant evil and God meant good. There are at
Psalm 61:6-8, “Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations! May he be enthroned forever before God…So will I ever sing praises to your name…” Notice that God’s prolonging of the king’s life and His enthronement of the king in His presence *results in* or *forms the ground of* the
Isaiah 60:1, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of YHWH has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but YHWH will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you.” First and foremost, these words are about Jesus Christ, who—as
Jeremiah 4:30, “O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain do you beautify yourself.” Isaiah 60:9, “…the Holy One of Israel…He has made you beautiful.” Like painting makeup on a corpse, any and
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Proverbs 28:1, “…the righteous are as bold as a lion.” What is true, lion-like boldness? Certainly the culture around us has many answers….boldness is being loud and confident, boldness is not letting anyone take advantage of you, boldness is not bowing down, boldness is standing your ground, etc. etc…But can we just import that
Zephaniah 3:15, 17, “YHWH has taken away the judgments against you; He has cleared away your enemies, The King of Israel, YHWH is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil…YHWH your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet
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