Following the Ark - Psalm 132

            Following the Ark - Psalm 132 


I'm back at Psalm 132. Thinking about those pilgrims, joyfully climbing that winding, upward trail to Jerusalem. Calling back and forth to each other with praises and thanksgiving to God. Focusing on how God answered their prayers abundantly, by promising them even more than they requested.

They would have been following the journey of the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought up to Jerusalem at the time of King David.

Verses 6-9 talk about that journey. It is of great historical significance. Remember when David originally tried to bring up the Ark?

He took 30,000 men to retrieve it. (It had been captured by the Philistines during the time of Eli and apparently no one searched for it, or maybe even thought about it, until David became King. Israel had lost 30,000 men in the battle with the Philistines when the Ark was taken [1 Samuel 4 gives us the story].The Ark didn't turn out to be valuable booty for the Philistines. In fact, it caused all kinds of trouble. So they brought it to a village in Israel and asked the Jews to come take it back! And then for 20 years it remained in one of their fields.)

When David arranged to have the Ark transported he gathered a corp of 30,000 soldiers to make the trip. They placed the Ark on a "new cart" (2 Sam. 6). We can't help but wonder why it was placed on a cart. Were the poles missing? God's instructions were clear -- place the poles through the rings on the Ark and carry it that way.

The Israelites were celebrating -- singing and playing harps and lyres and tambourines and cymbals. They began their journey. Then the predictable thing happened: the oxen stumbled, and the Ark tottered on the cart. Uzzah reached out to steady it. The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah and God struck him down.

Why did God do that? Well, why did the Iaraelites trivialize the transportation of the Ark? God had told them how He wanted it carried. They ignored His commands.


It was not dirt that would contaminate the Ark. It could have fallen in a great trash heap and not be defiled. It was human touch that contaminated the Ark.

David became angry at God and left it in the field of Obed-Edom. "How can the Ark of God ever come to me?" he asked. It stayed there for 3 months with Obed-Edom and "the LORD blessed him and his entire household."

Then in I Chronicles 15 we read how David figured it all out. He prepared a place for God's Ark in Jerusalem and arranged for the Levites to carry it up from Obed-Edom's land, "with poles on their shoulders as Moses had commanded with the word of the LORD." And "David told the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals."

Kenaniah, the head of the Levites, was in charge of the singing, "because he was skillful at it." And there were trumpets and ram's horns blowing and everyone shouting and cheering!

Wow...what a festival! What a parade!

And David, dressed in fine linen, as were the Levites and the choirs, danced and shouted with joy as he, too, joined in the procession.

C. S. Lewis talks about this wonderful scene:

David danced before the Ark. He danced with such abandon that one of his wives thought he was making a fool of himself. He didn't care whether he as making a fool of himself or not. He was rejoicing in the Lord! The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.

In the Psalms I find an experience fully God-centered, asking of God no gift more urgently than His presence, the gift of Himself, joyous to the highest degree.

The exuberant pilgrims in Psalm 132 remind us that we have even more reason to rejoice than they did! They anticipated what Christ would accomplish. But we are the recipients!

What brings God delight?

                                       What Brings God Delight?

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our iniquities into the depths of the sea.  

Micah 7:18-19

These words linger on and in my heart these days. Almost like a sticky note attached to my mind - and I am so grateful for these
"sticky notes from God our Father"!

What He is reminding me is that He doesn't extend mercy grudgingly, as a stingy miser might, out of his own meager supply. God "delights" to give us His mercy! It gives Him pleasure! And it comes from His unlimited abundance!

No wonder non-believers find it difficult to believe in and accept this God! He LOVES us, and so He LOVES to pardon and forgive.

It does seem like a crazy story - who would make up a religion like this? After years of studying evolution and anthropology, (with its teaching that all religions are man-made) this is why I came back to believing in the God of our Bible - it's such a crazy story - no one would make it up - and so it must be true!

C. S. Lewis said sort of the same thing - As an adult, he turned from atheism to theism and then to Christianity - not because of some vague belief in an "intelligent designer" but because of the God proclaimed in the Bible - "I believe, not just in any god, but in this God!" he said.

Then I notice what He does with our sins - He hurls them into the depths of the sea - He doesn't just drop them overboard in a lake or shallow pond --  He hurls them - away from His presence forever!
Someone has said: And then He puts up a 'no fishing' sign - telling us we can't go back and retrieve them - they are gone FOREVER - and we must understand that and not bring them up again! He doesn't, so why should we?

Short Thought from 2 Peter

Peter was always "bigger than life" and that's how most of us remember him. He was the one to jump into the water to reach Jesus first.  He was the first disciple to ask, "Lord, save me!"
He was the first to understand Who Jesus was.

In John 13 when Jesus was washing His disciples' feet, we read:

     He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, "Lord are You going to wash my feet?"

     Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I doing, but later you will understand."

     "No," said Peter, "You shall never wash my feet."

Jesus' answer?

     "Unless I wash you, you have no part of Me."

Peter's reply?

     "Then Lord, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"

Peter always wanted more.....

And we all remember how Peter exclaimed, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will..." No one else made that bold claim.

But we know it came from a heart of courage and love.


These stories about Peter recorded in the gospels tell us a lot about Peter, and so tells us a lot about ourselves.

Peter's personality changed after the resurrection. He became a great preacher and his overwhelming character became more godly -- but when I look at 2 Peter, I can see some of the old Peter, especially in the opening verses:

     Simon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

     Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God of Jesus Christ...


Paul also begins his letters with "Grace and Peace" -- (grace always precedes peace) -- but Peter writes that they "be multiplied."  He is the only way to word it that way. And he did it that way in both of his letters.

And in 2 Peter 1:8, when referring to the desired traits of a Christian -- virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love -- he says that they should be in "increasing measure," or "abundance" -- just having these traits is not enough, he says --  they should be gaining power in our lives.

     For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. (2 Peter 1:8-9)

Good verses to memorize. If I am developing the traits of a godly life, in increasing measure, my life and ministry will be more effective. And it is linked to my knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing Him.

If I am not growing in these qualities, that means I have forgotten where I came from! (How could any of us ever forget? But I do!)

Every morning when we awake, every evening when we lie down, and throughout the day -- we need to remember where we came from and what He did about it!

If we get one lesson from Peter, I supposed it would be that we should always ask for more. As Paul said in Ephesians 3:20:  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think.....that's our God!

Tradition tells us that Peter died an agonizing death, crucified upside down, in front of jeering crowds. He did not fall away.

Today martyrs around the world are suffering. This would be a good time to stop and pray, fast and pray, for the struggling (no, not struggling, the strong) Christians in Syria, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Korea -- Christians being tortured and killed right now for their faith. It's too much to comprehend. But Peter knew about it first-hand, as did most of our early Church leaders.

Pray for the persecuted church around the world --

How He Went Back Home

 Jesus' resurrection and appearances to His followers removed any doubt that He was, in truth, their long-awaited Messiah! Their Immanuel!

He apparently only appeared to His believers and followers -- not to Herod, or Pilate, or His outspoken belligerent critics in the religious circle.

He only stayed around 40 days before He left them and ascended to His place of honor and glory --He went back home! Certainly His best day!

Here's how Luke describes it in Acts 1:9-11 -- As the disciples watched in wonder -- 

"He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 'Men of Galilee,' they said, 'Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.'"

As I write this I am looking at the sky -- some lovely morning pinkish clouds and billowing white displays of morning beauty -- I am looking for Jesus! You probably are, too. This would be a perfect day for Him to come back and call us up to be with Him!

Yes, Maranatha!  Our Lord Jesus!

(I guess we'd better get busy - there's lots to do yet!)

What we learned from the Jews - Joseph Loconte

                                        What We Learned from the Jews


Every culture, in one way or anther, reaches out for God.
  
This has been true throughout human history.

The Jews in Jesus' day were very much like, but also very different from, the other cultures around them.

Virtually every other society viewed nature as divine.  The list of gods and goddesses, representing every aspect of the physical world, was endless.

No matter where we look -- among the Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks or Romans -- we find people worshiping nature as the living and breathing embodiment of divinity.

Not the Jews.  The opening pages of Genesis assert the non-divinity of the cosmos: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth..."  (Genesis 1:1).

The heavens and the earth are not eternal. They came into existence, we are told, from the hand of a Being outside of them, a Creator utterly distinct from His creation.

While other religions assumed the presence of deities all about them, the religion of the Jews began in a radically different place.

Jewish philosopher Leon Kass says the opening lines of Scripture set Judaism at odds with the rest of the known world: "This perfectly natural human tendency [nature worship] the Bible seeks to oppose, and right from the first verse, by denying that the heavens -- or any other beings -- are worthy of human reverence."

In another sense, though, the Jews are like people in other societies. They, too, are God-seekers.

More importantly, they believed firmly that they had discovered the one true God and that they were known and favored by Him among all the peoples of the earth.

They championed the idea that God is not only personal, but purposeful, a Supreme Being with a supremely moral agenda for mankind.

Scholar Paul Johnson calls the introduction of this idea "one of the great turning points in history, perhaps the greatest of all."

   -- From The Searchers, by Joseph Loconte


Most ancient religions viewed history in a circular pattern - cycles of planting and harvest, birth and death, in never-ending circles like a spinning stationery bicycle wheel.

History was not "going" anywhere.

The Jews, however, viewed history as a straight line, a journey along a road, with a definite destination -- starting someplace and ending someplace.

History was going somewhere......

This road was revealed to them in the Old Testament Scriptures.