Text: “You led your people like a flock/by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (Psalm 77:20).
Context, Context, Context: Psalm 77 is a psalm of lamentation. It begins with a cry out to God: “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me” (Ps 77:1).
That repetition in Hebrew poetry is important to note. He repeats the word “aloud” for emphasis. The cry is audible. It’s a cry of anguish. But the great encouragement that follows is that God hears and responds to the cries of his people.
As Francis Schaeffer wrote, God is there is he is not silent. God is personal. He relates to his creation and to his people in covenant faithfulness.
And how does God do that? By way of a shepherd. By way of a mediator.
The writer ends the 20 verses of the psalm this way: “You led your people like a flock/by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (Ps 77:20).
That is so important. Why? Because it reminds the writer and the covenant people of God that God cares. And God provides shepherds. True shepherds will smell like the sheep. They’ll work themselves on behalf of the sheep. They’ll lay down their lives for the sheep. They’ll equip the sheep. They’ll guard the sheep from invaders. They’ll lead the sheep to the water of life.
Jesus, of course, is THE great shepherd, the ultimate shepherd. But God also calls fallen men who love and know the Lord to shepherd God’s people in the here and now.
The question is, do you have godly shepherds? Do you have a shepherd who is not there to be served but who serves? Sadly, we hear regularly of men who are in ministry not for the people but for self. They isolate themselves. They are not available to God’s people. They want benefits but evade hard work. Run from such people. Find the shepherds who pour themselves out for you–who serve you, equip you, visit you, pray with you, teach you, but most of all, who model the Good Shepherd himself.
The U.S. Army Chaplain Corps officially has as one of its core values the following:
Spirituality
Accountability
Compassion
Religious Leadership
Excellence
Diversity
It is an acknowledgement that all soldiers and worldviews include some understanding of the sacred. Literally, sacred means “something set apart as holy, dedicated to a deity, or worthy of profound respect and reverence.”
We acknowledge that man is a spiritual being. He is not just material. He has a body, but he is not just a body. Were that so, “values” would be a nonsense category. Man is not just material. He is a body but simultaneously more than a body. He is also mind/soul/spirit.
When I reflect on my two-and-a-half decades of military service, I often discover that certain faces come to my mind’s eye. Oftentimes the faces are of men who embodied a quiet strength I respect and long to emulate. I think of a chaplain and friend of mine who is now retired and serving humbly in his local church. He seeks no fanfare. He longs only to finish his course well and meet the Lord face to face.
I think of a MSgt. Smith, an Air Force NCO with whom I served in Iraq. He helped me immeasurably in chapel services on a deployment in the desert for a year. He mentored men in Bible studies and became a brother in Christ to me those years ago.
I think of civilian pastors from different Christian denominations who came alongside me in Afghanistan and played music, preached, taught, and loved the people while we were there. They sang in completely different styles from my own tradition and yet I witnessed God grip people through gospel spirituals in a way I’ll never forget.
I think of my Christian brothers from Uganda and Kenya who’d come to my chapel very early on Sunday mornings and say, “Chaplain, Let us clean the chapel. We want to worship the Lord.”
“No, brothers; I’ve got it,” I’d protest.
They’d smile those big beautiful bright smiles and insist: “Chaplain, we are here to worship the Lord. Please let us clean. And we will worship the Lord together.”
For the next hour, we’d take plastic water bottles, poke holes in the top with our knives, squirt water on the plywood floor inside the chapel tent, then get on our hands and knees and wipe the floors with brown trifold paper towels, and wipe down the wooden benches.
I’d make coffee, and the brothers would bring more water and coffee that the soldiers had purchased for the chapel. And the brothers would sing songs to Christ in their beautiful Ugandan and Kenyan rhythms.
I’d preach, the congregation would sing, and we would pray.
And S.A.C.R.E.D. was manifested by the people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. It was beautiful. It was something you can’t forget once you’ve seen what Christ’s church is to be. One might go so far as to say it’s a foretaste of what’s to come, something set apart, something sacred.
Do you ever peruse the news and grow so confused by the contradictory messaging that you may think it’s all rubbish? One day we are told that America’s military has sunk Iran’s military capabilities to the bottom of the seas in the Middle East. The next day, American naval forces are fired upon by Iran’s forces. One day one side is taking credit for peace. The next day, more of our military members are killed. One day we’re told that the other side is ready to make a deal. The next day, U.S. forces in Kuwait are killed. And we’re to believe the news? Really? Which part? Last week’s? Yesterday’s? But you want us to believe the talking points of tomorrow, because they’ll be true?
This is not about politics. This is about the death of truth. We just don’t seem to want it. One day a congressman is a hero for backing your professed worldview. The next day that same representative is run out of D.C. on a rail and called a traitor. One day we’re told coffee is healthy for us. The next day we’re told that we’re poisoning ourselves daily as we sip our favorite cup of the morning.
Pardon us if we’ve grown a bit skeptical of the incoherence and contradictory narratives.
When I had to drive through metro Atlanta the other day, I looked down at my dashboard and realized I needed to fill up my car. I was a long way from where I’d normally fuel up, so I had to patronize a gas station on the corner. 87-octane unleaded fuel was nearly $5 a gallon. For our neck of the woods, that’s pretty unsavory. I don’t live in CA or NY, but in the South. My point in giving such a mundane example of fuel costs is not to speak of myself, but to illustrate that the talking points that pass as ‘news’ are clearly prevarications. It’s just one mendacity followed by another. Wash, rinse, repeat. The cycle continues. Another day’s headlines = another day’s lies.
There’s a loss of trust on a massive scale. Legacy media is just that. It’s dead. Folks over 55 may still tune in to their echo chamber anchorman at 6 p.m. Some of those folks are left. But most others have checked out from such traditions. If they care at all, they get their info online or from reading or from individual podcasters who have divorced themselves from the legacy media.
How does a culture restore trust? Should a culture expect trust to come from government bureaucrats? Should we expect it to come from Hollywood? Plastic actors who don fabricated roles to entertain us into further imbecility, is that the fountain from which we should drink? Or perhaps it’s media. Maybe that’s where we’re to receive oracles from on high about what’s true. Does any thoughtul person believe that? The questions answer themselves.
This morning, I completed my reading of Carl Trueman’s The Desecration of Man. Like his other works, this one was excellent. His theme is straightforward: Outside of the God of Christianity, man is desecrated, a ghost in the machine. He cannot justify his existence via self-referentialism. Without connection to the objective transcendent reality that is God in Christianity, man is like the beasts of field that perish. No amount of entertainment, doomscrolling, bots, plastic surgery, pills, or Botox will eliminate the reality that we are finite, dependent, mortal creatures. You can deny or suppress those realities for a while but they remain nonetheless true. I’m preaching yet another funeral tomorrow afternoon. Week in and week out, I preside over funerals–both civilian and military. We are finite creatures, dear ones.
In some of my reading this morning, I again returned to Ecclesiastes, possibly Solomon’s last words in Scripture:
The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Eccl 12:11-14)
Final thoughts:
The alternatives to desecration, loss of trust, loss of identity, and loss of hope are either continued descent into chaos a la Nietzsche’s Madman, where we’re to become gods because we’ve ‘killed God’ or the return to the Christian alternative: consecration. To state the obvious, the wise answer is to acknowledge the folly of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness and return to the God who made us male or female, in his image (imago Dei).
Steward. In the verb form, it means “to manage.” Essentially it means to oversee, govern, and regulate.
Question: I appreciate the image above of a man tenderly placing a young plant into the hands of a younger generation. The young hands, like the plant, are young ones. An investment is being entrusted into the next generation with the lesson of stewardship front and center.
With stewardship comes the reality of wisdom. There is a proper way of doing things. The new plant needs shepherding, tender and loving care, the right environment, nutrition, light, light, and more light. It needs water. It needs to be guarded from invasive species. It needs to be pruned and fertilized. It needs to be equipped to do what it is intended to do–reproduce and replicate.
Connection: In 1 Peter 4:10, the apostle of hope writes, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” Peter’s initial audience circa A.D. 62-63 was 1st-century Christians who were enduring suffering because of their faith in and allegiance to Christ amidst pagan authorities in what is much of present-day Turkey. They were trying to be salt and light in their generation. But they needed encouragement. That’s where Peter’s epistle comes in.
Peter reminds them that each Christian “has received a gift.” Some of those God-given gifts include prophecy, teaching, exhortation/encouragement, service, leadership, giving, and mercy. There are other spiritual gifts but those are just some of them according to Scripture.
Since each believer has received at least one God-given spiritual gift, how is he to steward well? In verse 11, Peter tells us: “whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies–in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
In short, don’t forget verse 10: use our gifts to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Our gifts are for the body. We’re to be like the man pictured above. We are to equip the body in wise stewardship by teaching, modeling, serving, showing hospitality without grumbling (v. 9), etc. Wise stewardship takes many forms. That’s what Peter means by “God’s varied grace” (v. 10).
I have one or more spiritual gifts as a believer, and my brother or sister in the faith has a different one (or several). I am not a math guy, but I’m blessed to have a fellow elder in my congregation who very much is. That’s by God’s design. I’m equipped to teach and to shepherd, whereas others in the body are gifted in hospitality and prayer. But the goal, according to Peter in verse 11, is that “God may be glorified.”
This is why the church, when it is healthy, is unlike any other body in the cosmos. It’s unstoppable. Why? Because it’s comprised of those who’ve been ransomed from futile ways to serve the living God. They put their spiritual gifts into practice. The body is nourished, it grows, it reproduces, it matures, and it entrusts wise stewardship to the next generations via its visible theology. Doctrines are not just intellectual concepts to be mastered but they have practical implications for the ways we live and are to steward.
We are to “entrust [our] souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1 Peter 4:19). Stewarding well is to be one of the Christian’s aims. The quality of our work, the quality of our service, the manner in which we treat believers and unbelievers, the ways we use our tongue/speech, etc. all reveal our theology.
When I get home in the evenings, very often my bride is at her keyboard–practicing songs that she and others will sing at our church each Lord’s Day. She sings, plays, prays, and serves the body. In other words, she’s stewarding well. Her theology is made visible via her behavior.
We should learn much about what it means to steward well from Peter, the apostle of hope. Peter definitely had some moments where he failed to live up to the high calling of biblical stewardship, but he persevered. He revealed himself to be the apostle of hope. He equipped the saints. He suffered on their behalf in ways they were unaware. He wrote to them. He preached to them (but first to himself). He served the body for whom Christ died because he had been served by the King of kings. He stewarded well.
Illustration: Have you ever been blessed by having a godly person in your life? My father-in-law was such a man to me. He died a few years ago but I still sense his presence each day. His mannerisms, his laugh, his kindness, and ways of encouraging each person with whom he came into contact—they all still surround me. He gave off what Scripture calls a fragrant aroma of kindness (2 Cor 2:14-16, e.g.). When you parted from him, you mysteriously felt uplifted, encouraged, restored to a spirit of hopefulness.
Segue: This coming Lord’s Day at our church, I’ll be teaching 1 Peter 4:1-6. Those verses concern the matter of gospel distinction. That is, Christians, Peter teaches, are to be known for their witness. They’re not to be obnoxious or prideful or worldly. They’re to live lives like Randy lived—lives transformed by the grace of God. Peter says we’re not to live lives characterized by “sensuality, passion, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry” (1 Pt 4:3). Let it never be said that Scripture doesn’t get specific regarding human sin. Peter says that the pagan world is “surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you” (1 Pt 4:4). See, by not participating, you make your theology visible. By not going along, you bear witness to your conversion.
Encouragement: Gospel distinction is the kind demonstration and public display of the sovereign work of God in our lives. It’s living out externally what God has wrought internally. That’s what Papa did. He lived it out. I remember when I preached his funeral, one of the things I said was that Papa lived the best sermon I ever saw preached. I can only hope to emulate such a man.
Illustration: I’ve listened to Billy Joel’s music most of my life. When I was a boy, I was fortunate to see him live in concert at least once. One of his tunes from the 1980s is titled “A Matter of Trust.” Below are some of the lyrics:
Some love is just a lie of the soul A constant battle for the ultimate state of control After you’ve heard lie upon lie There can hardly be a question of why
Some love is just a lie of the heart The cold remains of what began with a passionate start But that can’t happen to us ‘Cause it’s always been a matter of trust
It’s a matter of trust It’s always been a matter of trust It’s a matter of trust ‘Cause it’s always been a matter of trust
Connection:
Like many of Joel’s songs, this one is about relationships–their joys, mysteries, sorrows, and dramas. The theme of this particular tune is trust. Scripture, too, speaks to this issue of trust. The locus of the wise person’s trust is crucial. Upon whom should the wise person rely? Self? A spouse? A friend? A politician? A fellow soldier? A grandparent? God?
Per Scripture, the wise person will trust the Lord. Why? Because God is the one person who cannot lie. That is one of the most comforting truths in the world–that God cannot lie. Why? Because to lie would mean being less than holy, less than perfectly righteous. And that would violate God’s nature.
Encouragement: In Psalm 20, David writes the following:
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright (Ps 20:7-8).
I long to rise and stand upright. But that hinges upon the locus of our faith. The wise person’s trust should be in the one who is ultimately and wholly trustworthy, the Lord himself.
Intro: Regardless of when I read Psalm 2, it’s as if it is ripped from that day’s headlines.
Verse 1 portrays the nations as raging and people plotting in vain.
Verse 2 describes how the earth’s leaders set themselves against God and his Anointed/messiah.
Verse 3 personifies the world’s powers as wanting to cast off all restraint and oppose God.
You don’t have to be paying too much attention to world events to possibly think to yourself, “Hmmm? Why does this sound so familiar?”
Regardless of our worldview or our political leanings, surely we can all admit that we’re living through a civilizational shift:
Artificial Intelligence seems to pop up in almost every article or story.
The Middle East is a powder keg.
Religious iconography is being profaned and/or completely perverted.
Some politicians continue to be revealed as being bought and paid for by wealthy lobbies.
The list goes on and on.
Questions: What does the Lord, according to Scripture, think of all this? Is he taken aback? Is he befuddled? Just let Scripture speak for itself:
4He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Ps 2:4-9)
It’s almost as if God knows his creatures’ proclivities and natures through and through–almost as if he is sovereign, almost as if he’s letting people learn lessons. Meanwhile, the drama continues. It all plays out.
Introduction: Ever known a gossip? Ever known someone who has to share his/her opinion about seemingly everything and everyone? Ever known someone who seemed incapable of just being quiet? Ever known someone who assumes his/her view is so important that we’d all do well to just pull up a seat and imbibe his/her take on things?
I would wager we all know that guy and that gal. Some folks just don’t seem to have a mute button. They’re babblers. They just talk and talk and talk. They seem incapable of just doing something quietly. Sometimes when such people are around I’ll afterwards tell my wife, “She needs to get a hobby–something besides gossip.”
Scripture: “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler” (Pr 20:19). The Bible has a great deal to say about the tongue. God warns his people what not to be like.
“Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered” (Pr 11:13).
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” (Pr 18:21).
James 3:5-8 is crystal-clear: So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (Jas 3:5-8)
Scripture instructs God’s people to not be babblers and idle talkers. We’re not to be gossips or busybodies. When Paul wrote to Timothy, for example, he told him that women in the church were not to be “gossips and busybodies” (1 Tim 5:13).
Why was that so important that God inspired it in the canon? Because restless talk, gossip, nosiness, and busybodies destroy unity. They undermine the team. They sabotage the mission.
Encouragement: Does this mean we’re to always be reticent and uncommunicative? No, of course not. But we’re to use our speech wisely. The Bible instructs us in what not to be like but also what to inculcate as a habit of godliness. In the imperative section of the Book of Ephesians, Paul wrote, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Yes and amen.
When the second chapter of Job opens, we are met with a couple of profound realities. First, there is the phrase “sons of God.” “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD” (Job 2:1). This is a divine council. There are spiritual realities taking place in the heavenlies that precede events in the lives of men. That’s crucial for us to understand.
Spiritual warfare is a reality. There are forces at war in the divine and angelic realm. If and when we minimize that, it’s to our detriment. God included these phrases in Scripture for our instruction (Romans 15:4).
Second, God pays Job a huge compliment: And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me agains him to destroy him without reason” (Job 2:3).
Encouragement: God holds forth Job as a model of a trusting disciple and believer. Is Job going to put in the crucible of suffering? Absolutely. Will Job ask the most existential and agonizing questions of God and his (Job’s) three friends? Absolutely. But will Job emerge victorious and blessed by God? Absolutely.
But that’s getting ahead. For now, just remember this: God uses suffering to draw us to himself and to reveal the genuine. He purifies. He puts his people in the crucible of suffering in order to refine us, to purge us of impurities, to sanctify us–but with one overarching goal: to show us that he is God, that we are not, and that he is good and a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Text: 20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:20-21)
Questions: Have you ever experienced immense suffering? Have you ever been mad at God? Have you ever blamed God? Have you ever shaken your fist at the heavens, even if only internally, and cursed God? Have you ever implied that it was God’s fault that you suffered? If we are honest, I think we’ve all been there. We may have articulated our anger in different ways. But if we’re honest, I would wager that most folks have “been there and done that.”
Context, Context, Context: The verses preceding the ones I quoted above recount how God allowed Satan to take Job’s property and children. Just let that sink in. Job’s sons and daughters were killed by the Sabeans (Job 1:15). Job’s servants and sheep were destroyed (Job 1:16). Also, the Chaldeans murdered Job’s servants (Job 1:17). You think we have it bad some days? Just read Job’s life.
Encouragement: But here’s what you must remember as you study the 42 chapters of Job: Job trusted God and in the ultimate goodness of God. Goodness cannot be separated from God himself. It is one of his immutable attributes. And God doesn’t change. Does God allow suffering? Yes, that should be obvious. But God is still good and God is still present through the valley of the shadow of death, in order that he might bring his people through that valley. Satan’s only good at destruction and division, not at construction or unity in truth. Please don’t miss that.
MIND & MATTERS 