I hope you are ready for some heavy readings from the Bible today! The first one is an imprecatory, or curse, psalm. The reading from Genesis certainly has some content for a mature audience. Yet in these we will see God's mercy at work. May God bless our study!
Read Psalm 35
In this psalm we are begging God to be a warrior who will fight for us. We ask him at the beginning to grab a shield, a spear, a javelin, and go to war against our enemies. In this "curse" psalm we ask God to pursue our enemies, to make their way treacherous, to overtake them, and destroy them.
We can understand the strong emotions if we keep in mind that these enemies of David were people close to him who betrayed him. We all certainly have times when the anger rises up in us. Anger is not necessarily a sin, but we must remember that we are encouraged in Scripture to "be angry and do not sin" (Psalm 4:4). So when we are hurt, grieved, upset, angry, what do we do?
We pray the imprecatory psalms. The Lutheran Study Bible has a helpful explanation: "Praying the imprecatory psalms can help God's people express their anguish before God rather than act out their feelings in an unjust way. Imprecatory psalms prayed with psalms of repentance and hope can guide troubled hearts through the feelings they cannot escape. God called Israel to be a blessing to all nations (Gn 12:3). He has likewise called us to bear witness to His grace. Along with this high calling, our knowledge of God's approaching judgment on the wicked and our painful experiences in life drive us to anticipate the day of wrath, which will end injustices. For these reasons, the imprecatory psalms still have an important role to play in the prayers of God's people" (TLSB, p. 879).
Keep that in mind when we read psalms that ask God to destroy enemies. As Christians, we can indeed look forward to the final judgment where God's justice frees us from all wickedness and evil. We look forward to the judgment (though humbly because we are aware of our sins) knowing that what awaits us by the grace of Christ is peace, paradise, and bliss. Thanks be to God.
Read Genesis 38
Oh, what can we say? According to the practice of the day, Judah's second son should have given Tamar offspring. Judah should have then given Tamar his third son after his second son died. According to the Hittite practice, if a brother could not give offspring, then the father in law should have. So Tamar took matters into her own hands. There is not one person in this story who comes out ok in the end. No one did what was good, decent, and right.
Really it is a most awful chapter to have to read.
But you know what? Again, God is gracious. Tamar gets mention in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus. She is just one of many surprising characters in that genealogy. Yes, from Judah and Tamar would come Perez, the one who would carry the line of the Messiah. God carries out his plan in spite of sin.
Well, we hear little about the direct line of the Messiah for a time being. We now focus on Joseph, and that finishes out Genesis. But that the line was traced carefully to this point shows God's great care in providing for us a Messiah, Son of Man and Son of God, who would redeem this dysfunctional, sinful, diseased race. A Messiah to save me.
Ask Yourself:
Do I consider my own sinful nature one of my enemies?
Do I wage war against my own sin?
Do I need to fear the judgment? Do I seek to live for God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength?
Pray:
Pray from your heart today. Pray for all the injustices in your life and in the lives of God's people. Pray against persecution, against the wicked minions of the devil, against Satan's deceptions. Pray that God would come and end evil activity. Pray that God would use you battle the forces of the devil.
Study with me tomorrow,
Pastor Jon
Soli Deo Gloria!
No comments:
Post a Comment