February 2022 – Harbor Lights Ministries

The Word Is The Word

One idle day I realized that I had never looked up the word “word” before. The dictionary defines the word “word” as a sound or combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes. Of course, then I had to look up “morpheme”, only to discover that it is a linguistic unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts. So, in my simplistic thinking, a word is a combination of letters! Learn something new every day!

The Bible is replete with words. God gave us the ability to communicate with each other through various means such as the written word and speech. Having a common understanding is important for a variety of reasons as we communicate to each other our needs, desires, wants, and plans. Yet, since there is a variety of people on this planet, (and after the incident at the tower of Babel; see Genesis 11:1-9) it is only obvious that there are many differing versions of language, where one may not translate simply to another…as from one people group to another. For example; when an English speaking person lands in a different country where English is not spoken, you now have a potential barrier in communication because the sounds and writings of a particular thought might differ from one another. Thankfully, there are people who have the talent and skill to learn many different languages and thus have the ability to interpret from one language to another. Such is the way God has communicated His Word to all people throughout the generations.

Commonly known is that the Bible was written primarily in the Hebrew language (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament). Both languages have survived through the centuries and scholars have excelled in capability to translate from the original languages into other languages. Thus, what was a particular writing in one language can now be enjoyed into the reader’s own language. The only thing that is not (often) captured by written word is the nuances of thought. There is also cultural and contextual considerations to apply that may affect the intended meaning of a phrase or word. What might have been a common understanding in 800BC might not equate clearly to modern-day America. Even from English translations of the Bible in 1560 (Geneva Bible) and later in 1611 (King James Version), words used in those translations might not come across so clearly into our modern vernacular today. Examples might be the usage of “thee” and “thou” meaning “you”. Or adding “st” at the end of some commonly used words such as “would” or “could” may cause someone a confused look. Regardless of Old English or modern English, we who speak English can still enjoy the truth of God’s Word in our native language.

Without getting too linguistically technical or theological in purpose, my main intent of this writing is to examine a few words that are somewhat unique to the Bible…as in, they are not commonly used in the average English conversation or writing…and, yet are very important to have a good grasp of their meaning. For this task, I will use some words found in Psalm 51. This is a well known Psalm containing David’s repentance prayer. I want to only look at the few particular words that are found in verses 1 and 2. As I’ve mentioned, this is not intended to be a deep, theological study, but to highlight some words that I’ve found people, (myself included), tend to skim over and only having a basic understanding of the word, yet possibly could be missing the importance of their meaning and application to our walk with God. I will only compare the words using the four most common English translations that are used by most serious students of the Bible. They are KJV (King James Version), NASB (New American Standard Bible), ESV (English Standard Version), and NIV (New International Version). I will display the KJV version of the verses, and in parentheses have other translations (if different from KJV) of the particular word (in italics).

Have mercy (Be gracious – NASB) upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness(steadfast love – ESV; unfailing love – NIV) according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies (compassion – NIV and NASB) blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

To begin with, we must first acknowledge that mercy and grace are two of the most important words within all of Scripture and should instantly give the believer cause for celebration and relief! Mercy and grace are blessed attributes that are shown by God toward us because of His compassion and love for us. For God to show us any favor when we are truly unworthy is nothing less than a pure and merciful love! The great Puritan, Richard Baxter wrote “Delight yourselves in the particular discoveries of (God’s) common mercies to the world, and His special mercies to His saints, and His personal mercies to yourselves from your birth to this moment—both upon our souls and bodies and friends and name and estates and affairs in all relations.” (Baxteriana, 155)

Through these two special attributes, God’s compassion delivers us from the punishment we deserve, and even so much more as to extend His grace (unmerited favor) through the gift of salvation; His Son Jesus! The great English minister Matthew Mead wrote “It is beyond the power of the greatest gifts to change the heart; a man may preach like an apostle, pray like an angel, and yet may have the heart of a devil. It is grace only that can change the heart. The greatest gifts cannot change it, but the least grace can. Gifts may make a man a scholar, but grace makes a man a believer.” (Almost Christian Discovered, 31-31) It would be beneficial for all Christians to do an in-depth word study of grace and mercy in relation to the Bible because it characterizes two of the glorious attributes of God that define His love toward us, and for us! We ask God for His mercy and grace upon us because without them, we have no hope for a future glory with Him.

The word lovingkindness is not a commonly used word in today’s English vernacular. Both the KJV and NASB use it, whereas the ESV translates the Hebrew as “steadfast love”, and the NIV translating it into “unfailing love”. I personally like the word “steadfast” because it defines beautifully as “resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering.” That is an incredible love! We see often times throughout the Bible that the word lovingkindness is used to indicate a special generous heart or favor toward someone. It is used to represent God’s unwavering affection and kindness toward His people because of His love. The Hebrew word is sometimes translated into “faithfulness” or “unchanging love”. It is a type of passion and commitment that transcends the normal expression of loving someone. It is His manifestation of personal love that is immovable and forever. It is synonymous with the words mercy, kindness, and goodness. We know that His mercy and grace come to us because of His special affection, His lovingkindness that never fails or waivers toward His creation; His people.

The third word in verse one is shown in the KJV again as “mercies”. Other translations use the word “compassion”. The Hebrew word is used throughout the Old Testament and is often interchangeably translated into English between mercy and compassion. What this expresses is that God’s tender compassion toward us sinners is a gift beyond what we realize. God truly does understand all things, and thus, understands our fallen condition. He has a special empathy with His creation and tenderly desires to show us His mercies. This is nothing that we can obtain from Him through our own merits. As it stands, God’s mercy is shown in part by His withholding the wrath that we deserve because of our sinful nature. But, He also loves us with a forgiving compassion…much like the love a mother may have for a wayward child. Without this attribute of God, we stand to lose His peace eternally.

The next words in verse one and two will transition the focus of thought from God’s attributes of mercy, grace, and lovingkindness to our own natural attributes that we possess since the fall in the Garden of Eden. The fact that the words mercy, grace, and lovingkindness precede the words transgression, iniquity, and sin should be of importance to us. David is acknowledging these wonderful characteristics of the LORD first and foremost as being key to our being cleansed of our unrighteousness and sin against a Holy God. Transgression is an act of rebellion against God. We are filled with guilt because of our depravity, our condition of iniquity. Our condition, as such, is because of our propensity to sin. Sin is the nature within us to which we are conceived and born into this life here. “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:3-5 ESV). We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.

David has his confession of sins and the asking for forgiveness in the correct order because he first acknowledges God, who is Holy. God has displayed His righteousness through the law so that we are without excuse in knowing our transgressions against Him. It is our sins that separate us from the peace of God. David later admits (verse 4) that all guilt of iniquity is primarily against God’s holiness. When we become convicted of our sin, we must make peace with God by confessing our sin and repenting (turning away) from this activity. Then God can cleanse (wash) us by His mercy and grace and restore to us the joy of His salvation and renew a right spirit within us. All this is only by the greatness of God’s compassion! Thomas Watson, another great Puritan writer, said “many love their deliverance, but not their deliverer; God is to be loved more than His mercies.” (Godly Man’s Picture, 119) We first acknowledge and glorify God, then we acknowledge our standing before Him!

We see a similar formatting when it comes to the Lord’s prayer found in Matthew and Luke. Before anything is asked for, before anything is confessed, we first acknowledge, praise, and glorify our Father in Heaven. When we have a firm grasp of God’s position because of His holiness and righteousness compared to our position in creation, we develop a better reverence and awe of the magnificence of our Creator! Our perspective of God should bring us to our knees in worship and praise…not just for the things He can do, but the things He has already shown us, given us, and done for us! Without His mercy and grace toward us, without His Spirit to save us and draw us to His salvation through Christ, we are lost forever without hope and peace. And this is a truth we need to remember as we approach His throne of grace. Before we open our mouths flippantly, asking and begging for things, we should first acknowledge His amazing sovereign love and compassion toward us sinners! Before we hand over a laundry list of wants and desires, we should get ourselves right with God by confessing our sins and repenting of our transgressions against His laws. By His will we exist. By His will we are saved. By His will we can be renewed in His presence and restored to right standing! We love because He first loved us! So let us love His Word!

Amen

When Obvious Isn’t Obvious

Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few. — Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

Have you ever watched a small dog when they think they are about to get a treat? The energy build up in them looks like a rocket firing its thrusters, ready to launch into space. Their tail wagging so fast seems to match the speed of a hummingbird’s wings. Then there is the uncontrollable shaking, enough to match the effects of an earthquake on a bowl of jello. Next comes the little whines and moans that sound like a race car engine running at maximum RPM’s. Without a hesitant thought, they explode at the speed of light to whatever it is they desire, knocking caution aside! Impetuous little creatures! Yes, aren’t we all though?

I remember long ago hearing a sermon that mentioned several times how impetuous the Apostle Peter was. He was always the first to jump in with a word or action. He jumped out of a boat in the midst of a storm because he wanted to walk on water like his Master Jesus. He tried to correct the Lord on occasions when he didn’t like what Jesus had just said. He even got excited as that little dog when he saw the glory of the Lord at the transfiguration. He would just react in whatever fashion struck him in an instant!

Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified. Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead. (Mark 9:2-9)

We all can have a tendency to react impulsively from time to time. Peter, James, and John (as well as the other apostles) had been sorrowful when Jesus said He would be turned over to the authorities to be killed. Jesus took the three up to the mountain to experience the transfiguration and show them His glory now, and yet to come. But, even after the crucifixion, even after seeing the future glory of their Master, they still had doubts of uncertainty. It was almost like they hadn’t listened and learned from their mountaintop experience. Later, James would write in his epistle that “everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger” (James 1:19.) He seemed to be sharing a retrospectively learned lesson he gleaned watching Peter back on the mountain.

Do we have knee-jerk reactions to things we encounter daily? Are we quick with a reactive word of retaliation or disagreement when faced with something that goes against our thinking or beliefs? Do we get down or angered when life isn’t going the way we think it should be going? If you answered no to any of those questions, I applaud you for being the most controlled, even-keeled, and level-headed human being on the planet! Because I, for one, have only one answer to those questions…an emphatic YES! Many times we react without having full knowledge of the facts. We jump to conclusions that could be wrong because we didn’t know the whole story or see the big picture. We take a little bit of information and “run with it”, as they say. More times than not, though, this can lead us down the wrong path or worse. We may end up anguishing over things that we don’t really have the proper information regarding. When we know the full story, have all the facts, see the big picture, then when things happen we are better equipped to handle in proper fashion.

From birth to the grave, all our life experiences should be growing our understanding of how to handle things that might come our way. The more of life we experience, the wiser we can become at facing situations. Yet, it is important to also understand that what we come across in this world is not new. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes informed us that everything that happens in this world is not a new thing. He says; “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11) The old saying that if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it! But, all has happened before and will happen again.

So the questions arise: are we learning from these truths? Do we tend to (symbolically) keep putting our hand on the hot stove when we know that it will hurt us when we touch it? The chaos and evil we are seeing in the world today shouldn’t come as a surprise, so why do we continue to react in shock and anger when we see evil flaunting itself? (I personally claim my excuse as being short-term memory problems.) I think that many of us have that very problem more often than we want to acknowledge. But why? Why don’t we remember the learned experiences God gives us from the mountaintops?

When God illuminates us to a Biblical truth, we have a tendency to act impulsively or even shocked as we look around and see rampant sin in the world. Or, when we peer out through the lens of Scripture at this fallen world, which includes those establishments that claim themselves as “churches” that, yet, are readily embracing sin and rejecting God, we get frazzled and upset that there are people who act like…well, fallen people. We need to remember that even ideologies like hedonism, which was once thought of as evil extremism, is not considered by the world as extreme anymore. It has almost become normalized in this fallen world. Again, this shouldn’t surprise us anymore. As the darkness descends faster and faster, people have given up on eternal hope and now embrace temporal pleasures at all cost. This is nothing new under the sun and it has all been clearly pointed out before through the Scriptures. A friend once said to me that “this world is at its ugliest. I don’t even hear the birds sing as I used to.” Sad. But, again, since this is not something new, why are we reacting like we do? We end up getting worked up over things (and people) when we should already know that this is the life around us as shown in the Bible. We would all know this already if we had we paid better attention to God and His Word.

Part of the issue lies with the church and where the attendee’s have been placing their focus. I can say with near certainty that the majority of their attention is not on God and His glory. It is more often than not on themselves. Like the pagan worshippers of yesteryear, “churches” today are filled with consumer Christians. They have the “what can I get from God” and “God plus something” mentality, among other issues that are running rampant within their walls. I think that some of us are aghast by what we are seeing around us these days because God is awakening some who are taking time to listen to His Word. But for others, they focus their time, effort, and energy injecting themselves into everything other than God and His truth. They press hard to have their say in all matters, push their agendas into programs, keep everyone busy with busy things. Many tend to ask “why God” when looking for answers about the fallen world’s conditions, but don’t stop once to listen and learn from the One who sustains all things in existence. Even in prayer, their voice is loudest with requests, and even demands, to God without a praise or worship for all He has done. Essentially, this is called self-exultation.

How so many tend to forget the lessons from the past like Mary and Martha. There can certainly be a balance between being fed and serving. But for many, it is often too much of one thing and not enough of the other. Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” –Luke 10:38-42

Matthew Henry put it best when he wrote that “religious exercises are not vain things, but, if we mismanage them, they become vain to us.” There is nothing wrong with having a zeal to doing things, but we must remember that zeal and passion by itself will go terribly amiss. People are shocked at the condition of the world because they spend their time talking over God and not stopping to listen, reflect, and grow. When we focus our attention on God and His Word first and foremost, we then tend to have a deeper desire to know Him, love Him, and trust Him more in this fallen world. We learn that He does have all things under His providence and will, and as such…we take comfort and strength in facing the daily matters around us. We are not shocked or surprised when evil rears its ugly head, because we know that in the end of all things…God! As such, we need to use our knowledge and experiences along with our zeal and passion to strive for a corrective balance in our day to day life! We can worship and glorify God most by focusing on His Word and truth, placing them in our hearts. But, also still serve His Church by sharing His truth and tending to His flock. It is just a matter of where lies our priorities in the things we say and do!

Our flesh keeps getting in the way of our spiritual understanding and retention. I tend to trip over my own flesh as easy as tripping over shoe laces. We learn, yet so quickly forget. Peter, John, and James were exposed to a truth that should have solidified their faith and trust in their Messiah. From what they experienced, there should have never been a worry about the coming cross, knowing that on the other side was the redemption that all mankind desperately needed to have peace with God. Yet, impetuousness and worldly distractions caused them to miss key elements in their walk with Christ. Peter had zeal, but he lost focus with Jesus while worrying more on humanly matters. Even the vast majority of todays church have their priorities skewed from the proper goal. When we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we know that all things are taken care of by His hand. The storms around us are of no worry. We know they are coming, that they are here, but we rest in our Savior’s hands…He has overcome the world!

I personally need to remember that there will be mountain top experiences from God that should teach, encourage, and comfort me. But when I return back to the sorrows of this world, I need to remember His glory and be able rest in the truths I’ve learned. If I don’t, then I have to ask myself “what did I forget on that mountain?” The three Apostles saw the glory, yet when the sorrow storms hit they quickly forgot. Jesus kept saying that on the 3rd day He will rise, be raised up! We get a proper perspective of the lowlands from a higher point of view. Jesus gave them that. God gives us His Word to help us remember what our perspective can, and should, be. When we reign in our hastiness and our impulsive mannerisms and speech, we tend to hear His Word more clearly, know His will more clearly, and can glorify and worship Him more sincerely. God provides His Light and Truth to us on the mountaintops so we can survive the valleys. We just need to put aside our distractions, laying aside every weight and the sin that entangles us, and listen…to Him.

God tells us in His Word in Isaiah 46:8-10 to “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’”.

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 summarizes our duties proper saying “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”

Amen