Category: Devotional Grist

Priesthood of all Believers

Priesthood of All Believers

Institution vs. Organism

Abraham Kuyper’s distinction between the church as institution and the church as organism.

Church as Institution — Official structures of the Church, with its offices of Pastors, Elders, and Deacons assigned the role of maintaining the marks of the Church, that is, the Preaching of the Word, Dispensing of the Sacraments, Discipling and caring for the membership as well as the other responsibilities that attach themselves to the formal existence of the Church. In many respects (though not all) it is the work of the Church gathered. The Institution of the Church is tasked with core doctrinal, formal worship, and office-bearing responsibilities that inform and shape the life of the body. The Church as Institution bears the more Hierarchical impulse.

Church as organism — The web of relationships among the Church members that exist outside the Church both with one another and with those to whom they minister Christ. The Church as organism includes also the working out of the undoubted catholic Christian faith, that is taught in the Church as Institution, into every vocation and calling of the membership. In many respects (though not all) it is the work of the Church scattered. The Church as Organism may be said to be more directly missional but it is more directly missional as a consequence of being part of the Church as Institution. The Church as Organism bears the more Democratic impulse.

When Peter writes in I Peter 2 which aspect of the Church is he speaking of?

I think clearly he is speaking more to the Church as Organism here though we must keep in mind that we can never completely sunder the two. Peter will go on later to speak to issues surrounding the Church as Institution a few chapters later (5).

We might say it is one of the geniuses of the Reformed faith that embraces this distinction (Church as Institution vs. Church as Organism) and yet keeps these two aspects together. In some Christian Denominations the emphasis is on the top down hierarchical Structure of the Church. In other Christian Denominations the emphasis is on the Democratic impulse so that everyone is Indian so that all are, at the same time, both chiefs and Indians. In the Reformed Faith you have proper hierarchy but you also have the proper priesthood of all Believers.

This genius was one of the major consequences of the Reformation. We know well of the emphasis of on Sola Scriptura as the formal cause of the Reformation and sola fide as the material cause of the Reformation but we often overlook that the Priesthood of all believers was another extraordinary consequence of the Reformation.

Prior to the Reformation the Priesthood was relegated to the Professionals. Everyone else in the Church sat in the back of the bus so to speak. Being a Priest was a Holy Calling but all other vocations seemed to exist so that those in them could support the Holy Callings. There was a chasm between the Hierarchy and laity. During what is called the Radical Reformation there was the desire to eliminate all distinctions in the Church.

The Priests represented the people before God. They were the mediators between God and man. Their work, as Priests, alone was Holy work. The Reformation overwhelmed that position and insisted that all God’s people were Priests in the sense that all that they did before God was accepted by God as Holy.

When Luther referred to the priesthood of all believers, he was maintaining that the plowboy and the milkmaid could do priestly work. In fact, their plowing and milking was priestly work. So there was no absolute hierarchy in terms of vocation where the priesthood was a “calling” and milking the cow was not. Both were tasks that God called his followers to do, each according to their gifts.

We see Peter getting at this when he says to all the believers that they constitute together “a Holy Priesthood,” and later in vs. 9 “a Royal Priesthood.” Every person in union with Christ is a priest in the sense that they themselves have access to the Father and the privilege of serving Him personally in all He does. The official Priesthood was extinguished in Christ, our great High Priest, but as belonging to Christ we are all Prophets, Priests, and Kings under sovereign God.

The fact that the Priesthood of all believers is contingent on belonging to Christ is hinted at in the language of Peter.

First he refers to Christ as the “living Stone” (vs. 4) and then in vs. 5 he refers to the Christians themselves also as “Living stones.” This language of “living Stone,” and “Living Stones” strongly points to our union with Christ.

Second, Peter notes that all our work is acceptable to the Father only through Jesus Christ, once again emphasizing that our role’s as Priests is dependent upon our great High Priest.

So, we are Priests under sovereign God. Consequently, all of our work is Holy work. It is not that the Pastor or the Elders are the ones who uniquely do “Holy Work.” No, the doctrine of the Priesthood of all believers taught that all work as done unto God was Holy Work. The Pastor does His Holy Work in its proper place and it is the work of the cultus and is monumentally important but all believers also do Holy Work in its proper place. The Housewife in her nurturing of the children and the tending of home is Holy Work — Peter’s “Spiritual Sacrifices.” The Butcher, the Baker, and the Lawn and Grounds Caretaker are offering up Spiritual Sacrifices.

Bunny trail,

When Peter says our sacrifice is spiritual he is NOT saying that our sacrifices are non-Corporeal. Our sacrifices are called spiritual here because he is contrasting them with the sacrifices in the OT of bulls and goats which have been eclipsed since the Lord Christ has fulfilled all that type of sacrifice with His wrath turning death. Our sacrifices are not material in that way. Our sacrifices are spiritual in the sense of a grateful response of a redeemed people as that grateful response is incarnated corporeally in our living. (Rom. 12:1, Phil. 4:18, Heb. 13:5, Rev. 8:3-4).

But I have all, and abound; I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, a sweet fragrance, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. (Phil 4:18)

Our work though is only acceptable because we belong to the Lord Christ. We belong to Christ because of His death for His people and our work is accepted for the same reason our persons are and that is because our work is imputed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Implications of the Priesthood of all Believers

1.) The Church as Institution is no longer considered the center Institution

One of the Changes of the Reformation was to reduce the time laity spent in the Church building. In the Medieval age the Church was open for Matins, Vespers, Masses, canonical hours, confessional, etc. It was thought that the more time one spent in the Church the better Christian one was. The Reformation changed all that with the understanding that all of life could be lived unto the glory of God. The Reformation actually reduced the time one spent in Church.

Certainly Worship should be attended but the idea that members have to be present for every single function of a Church which has functions every night suggests that the Church may be seeking to replace the role of the Family. The idea of the Church as the institution uniquely and alone responsible for the rearing and raising of children in their undoubted catholic Christian faith is forgetful of the doctrine of the Priesthood of all believers.

2.) There is a bond between the believers (5)

The idea of the Priesthood of all Believers is a corporate and covenantal idea. Here in I Peter it is not the priesthood of each single believer, though there is truth in that, but it is the Priesthood of all believers. Together we constitute the “Spiritual House” and the “Holy Priesthood.” Together we are the “Chosen generation.” All this bespeaks the covenantal aspect of the Church as organism. Together we constitute these realities. In both the OT (Exodus 19:5-6) and NT texts it is the community that has a priestly function. The church together is a royal priesthood.

Practically this means that when we come together for worship we are together offering up “spiritual sacrifices.” Practically this means that our pattern of living, when taken together, is part of this body’s “spiritual sacrifices.”

3.) Agents of Reconciliation

The role of the Priest in the OT was to represent the people before God. As Priests under sovereign God we should be those who are praying for people. 1 Timothy 2:1 says that believers should offer prayers, supplications, and intercessions for all men, particularly for rulers.

We should be praying for one another, but we should also be praying for those in our orbit who understand Christ in a strange way and even those who mock and scorn the Christ of the Scripture. As a Holy Priesthood our long public Prayers when gathered here or when spoken at home should have a Priestly missional quality to them as we pray for the West, and as we pray for the World and as we pray for people name by name.

4.) The Leverage of the Church’s influence multiplies (vs. 9)

When each believer remembers their role as part of the Priesthood of all believers then all believers takes up their charge to do all that they do as before the face of God. This has the potential of setting loose a tidal wave of Christians as salt and a blitzkrieg of Christians as light. As believers take seriously their place as Priests under sovereign God then their understandings of their callings … their living our of their vocations becomes so distinct from those not in the Faith that Biblical Christianity is lived out in all the nooks, crannies, and crevices of life.

Obstacles to Priesthood of all Believers

1.) The Institutional Church refuses to teach this and instead offers up a consumer model

2.) The Laity fail to think God’s thought’s after Him and so absorb an alien way of thinking

In many respects your callings as laity is more difficult than mine. You have these holy vocations but you are so accelerated in your life that you are hard-pressed to have the time to examine how it is that you should handle these holy vocations as Priests unto God. Because this is so the idea of the Priesthood of believers has landed on difficult times.

Conclusion

In all of this we see that God is the master craftsman who is doing all the doing. In this we see the Reformation doctrine of Sola Dei Gloria.

In vs. 4 — Chosen by God
In vs. 5 — Being built up (Something is being done to us. We are passive. God is building up)
In vs. 10 — Now have obtained mercy

All of this language lays emphasis on the fact that God is sovereignly doing the doing. We do not make ourselves into a Holy Priesthood or a people of God. He takes upon Himself to build up His Church.

Let us pray ask God that He might continue to build up His Church and that we might continue to do the work of the Priesthood of believers as a grateful response for all that Christ has done for us by making us friends with God.

Psalm 58

Psalm 58 has historically been placed among the Psalms of lament. Such laments often contain within them portions of imprecation that are directed at God’s enemies.

As we approach this Psalm we remember the necessity to see Christ in the Psalms when Christ is there to be seen.

Certainly it is the mortal Psalmist who prays this proximately but ultimately we would insist that it is the Lord Christ who petitions the Father against His enemies here. This Psalm is the prayer of an innocent man and only the Lord Christ is the perfectly innocent man. It is true that David prayed this Psalm but we remember that David was the lesser son of God who pictured the coming Christ. It is Christ here who is bringing accusation against His enemies.

This bringing of accusation and the following of imprecation against enemies should be seen in light of our Lord Christ’s own words, when severely angry with Jewish scholars (especially Pharisees and scribes) by calling them “hypocrites”, “snakes”, “offspring of vipers”, “fools” etc in Matthew 23:13-36, Mark 7:6, etc.

We even see Jesus saying to Jews that their father is the devil (John 8:44).

And the Lord Christ speaks of a day when He will say to His enemies,

… depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!

Principle #1 — We perhaps should be slow and cautious to pray imprecatory prayers because like those of whom we might pray imprecatorily we also are sinners. We are likely not innocent of the very things that we are angry about, even if we have been practitioners only in a lesser degree. However, our Lord Christ was very man of very man and without sin and He is perfectly justified in praying against those who would oppose Him. And so we read David’s imprecatory prayers as ultimately coming in the voice of the greater David … the Lord Christ.

But we must not be over much righteous by not praying these Imprecatory prayers ourselves against those who are guilty of those very things the Psalmist speaks of. It is true that we are sinners but it is also true that we are sinners who have joyfully been made captive to God’s righteousness and so we desire to see the Kingdom of Christ advanced. When we pray for God’s Kingdom to come we are praying in general for what the Psalmist prays for with particularity in Psalm 58. We pray, “Thine Kingdom come.” We recognize that for God’s Kingdom to come then all other opposing Kingdoms must be brought low and utterly destroyed. The Psalmist here merely adds particularity to what is called “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Well, as we turn to the Psalm proper

I.) The Psalmist States The Problem (1-5)

vs. 1 refers to “the silent ones.” The word there translated “silent ones” resembles the Hebrew word for ‘gods.’ The word ‘gods’ was often used to refer to human judges (see Psalm 82:1). The reference here then could be a rhetorical question aimed at these wicked judges.

Alternately, the thrust with “silent ones,” when seen in the context of the later reference to judging, may be a statement that Magistrates charged with judging are remaining silent when they should be letting their voices be heard against oppression.

It is interesting that early Christian tradition associated this section of the Psalms with the high Priests and the Sanhedrin as they brought false judgment against the Lord Christ.

A.) What are the accusations brought against these wicked judges?

1.) The 1st accusation we mentioned already – Magistrates are silent against the pleas of the judicially innocent

“Do you indeed speak righteousness you silent ones.”

We might style this a passive complicity in wickedness.

The principle here is that the Magistrate who refrains from defending the cause of the judicially innocent by being passive and silent is himself an accomplice in the wrong. It will do no good for the wicked to plead innocence before God by asserting that they only tacitly consented to the persecution of the judicially innocent by their silence.

Martin Niemoller captures this in his famous poem about silence in Germany during the Nazi era,

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

The problem that the Psalmist sees is silence in the face of the persecution of the judicially innocent. While it is true that we must remain circumspect about what we speak and the way we speak and when we speak, Christians dare not fall silent when it comes to wickedness being pursued.

2.) The second accusation — Active pursuit of wickedness (Responsible for violence and oppression)

Note that the actions of the wicked Tyrants was conceived in their inner most being before it was implemented in practice (vs. 2). This is but a reflection on the truth that what a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. The Tyrant ponders and plans these things and follows through.

In short the Psalmist understands that the wickedness of Tyrants is premeditated. They plan them carefully and thoughtfully. These are not what are styled “Crimes of passion” but cold calculating evil.

Spurgeon put it this way,

“They were deliberate sinners, cold, calculating villains. As righteous judges ponder the law, balance the evidence, and weigh the case, so the malicious dispense injustice with malice aforethought in cold blood.”

There are many many examples that we could adduce of cold, calculating villains planning and then executing their wickedness.

We will take the destruction of the Creation account in favor of Evolution. This has not happened by coincidence and chance but has been long planned and then executed. We have seen in our Sunday School class who the Scopes Monkey trial was pre-planned and arranged and the outcome known before the trial started. We have seen what the Chrsitless evolutionists have done in order to invent evidence that evolution is true. From the glued on Moths in industrial England to Haeckel’s gill charts to the manipulated pig and ape fossils the wicked have done just what Psalm 58:3 teaches. They worked out wickedness in their hearts and then weighed out the violence of their hands in the earth.

B.) That Which Explains the Wicked’s work

There is a change here from the wicked being addressed to the wicked being described.

1.) The problem is Original Sin

Sin Nature

Of course this reminds us that man is not basically good.

On President Reagan’s tombstone is inscribed just the opposite of what the Psalmist notes,

“ I know in my heart that man is good … ”

To the contrary the Scripture teaches us that man, left to himself is wicked. That I am wicked. David confirms this in Psalm 51:5 when he teaches that,

“Surely I have been a sinner from Birth; sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

What follows bridges a connection between the wicked and the great serpent dragon… the Satan.

They speak lies … the language of Hell

Jesus, speaking of the Devil said,

“When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

In vs. 5 they are even compared to referred to as a serpent who stops their ears against the Charmer.

Here we might remind ourselves that the only reason we are different from those wicked Tyrants described already is God’s grace. We are not smarter, better, then those who have gone astray from the womb. The only thing that differentiates us is God’s Grace in Christ. The fact that we also don’t conspire to do wicked has nothing to do with us and all to do with being brought from the dead and the love of conspiring against God by God providing Christ for us and pouring out the Holy Spirit to be our rescue.

II.) The Psalmist Offers Imprecatory Prayers (6-9)

vs. 6-8 seem startling at first blush. But what is required to rejoice in them is some understanding of wickedness.

If you read Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago or Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany,” or Bacque’s “Other Losses,” or Conquest’s “Harvest of Sorrow,” or any other book that deals honestly with the 20th century then one begins to relish these Imprecatory prayer requests. When one reads how the destruction of the family has been long long planned and then understands how that plan has been executed one begins to relish these imprecatory prayer requests.

When one reads of or sees the trauma of the judicially innocent visited upon them by wicked Tyrants then one longs for the justice of God. When one sees how the judicially innocent have been trampled upon then on longs for God to trample upon those who have visited such cruelty upon the judicially innocent.

The Psalmist longs for the venom of the wicked to be milked.

1.) Break their teeth in their mouth — (So they can do no harm)
2.) Waters that flow away — (No force in their pent up power)
3.) Arrows cut in pieces — (can do no harm)
4.) Snail melts as it goes — (dying in the son)
5.) Stillborn child — (If stillborn then can do no damage)

For simple and common people like myself praying in this way seems like the only recourse we have. The levers of human power are shut off from us by the wicked tyrants. We are mocked for our alleged “fundamentalist” Christianity by those who are practicing fundamentalist wickedness. We are shut up to the God of all the Universe asking for Him to Glorify Himself by defeating His enemies.

And yet as we pray the imprecatory prayers we are reminded that the only difference between ourselves and the wicked is God’s grace. We too are sinners. We too are wicked. And so in praying the imprecatory prayers we are once again filled with gratitude that God differentiated us by uniting us to Christ from eternity.

III.) The Psalmist Rejoices In God’s Vindication (10-11)

Dt. 32:43 “Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and will be merciful unto His land and to His people.”

Jer. 11:20 — But, O Lord of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the reins and the heart, let me see Thy vengeance on them, for unto Thee have I revealed my cause.

21 But God shall wound the head of His enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses. 22 The Lord said, “I will bring again from Bashan; I will bring My people again from the depths of the sea, 23 that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongues of thy dogs in the same.”

Rev. 19:13, speaks of Christ,

“And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called, The Word of God.”

One commentary offers,

“This is the blood of His enemies from His trampling them in the “winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”

Contemporary Theologian Jon Wenham has offered here,

“The enemies of God are implacable. It is necessary for the vindication of God’s authority and God’s goodness that just retribution should not long be delayed. He prays for it, not shutting his eyes to the horror which it involves. There is not sadistic pleasure in seeing his enemy suffer, no sense of getting his own back, but simply a deep desire that world might see that God is just.”

Edwards

There is an older Christianity that does not blush at this notion. For centuries the idea of rejoicing in the defeat of God’s enemies was common fare.

“The view of the misery of the damned will double the ardour of the love and gratitude of the saints of heaven.”

The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever. . .Can the believing father in Heaven be happy with his unbelieving children in Hell. . . I tell you, yea! Such will be his sense of justice that it will increase rather than diminish his bliss.

Jonathan Edwards
[“The Eternity of Hell Torments” (Sermon), April 1739 & Discourses on Various Important Subjects, 1738]

Boston,

“God shall not pity them but laugh at their calamity. The righteous company in heaven shall rejoice in the execution of God’s judgment, and shall sing while the smoke riseth up for ever.”

Thomas Boston, Scottish preacher, 1732

Our forebears in the faith were different people then we tend to be. They understood that God is angular and will never be made smooth.

Christ In The Psalms

Introduction

Christ familiarity with the Psalms

Psalm 31:5 —
Psalm 22:1
Psalm 69:21 , 22:15 — Echo “I am thirsty”
Psalm 22:31 — echoes “It if finished”

Also throughout his life we see familiarity with the Psalms

Psalm 6:8 — cited Mt. 7:23 — “Then I will tell you plainly, ‘I never knew you’ Away from me you evildoers”
Psalm 35:19, 69:4 — cited John 15:25 — “They hated me without reason.”
Psalm 118:26 — cited Mt. 21:13
Psalm 41:9 — cited John 13:18
Psalm 62:12 — cited Matthew 16:27

Christ was saturated with the Psalms. Today we want to look at the Psalms familiarity with Christ.

I.) Christ in the Psalms of Righteous Declaration

Psalm 24

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Psalm 18

20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands
He has recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all His judgments were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.
23 I was also blameless before Him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.

Here we note that while David might have been able to pray these Psalms in a comparative sense, given our understanding of our sin nature, and of our sin by habit which is taught in Scripture there is no way that David could have prayed these in a absolute sense. No man can. And so we hear these Psalms and we are immediately reminded of the Lord Christ. The Lord Christ alone is the one who can stand in God’s Holy place as the one who has clean hands and a pure heart and who had not not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He alone can declare that “I was blameless before God.”

The good news in all this is that we are united to Christ and what is predicated of Christ is predicated of His people because we are in Christ. We have had all this described perfection put to our account. And so, because of the Lord Christ we also are blameless. No … not in and of ourselves but as we are reckoned in Christ.

II.) Christ in the Penitential Psalms

7 Psalms known as “Penitential Psalms”

Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143

But there are other Psalms that have snatches of penitence within them,

Psalm 69:5 O God, You know my foolishness;
And my sins are not hidden from You.

Psalm 6

O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,
Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
2 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly troubled;
But You, O Lord—how long?
4 Return, O Lord, deliver me!
Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake!
5 For in death there is no remembrance of You;
In the grave who will give You thanks?

How shall we handle these penitential Psalms in light of the reality that we see and hear Christ in them? Is it really the case that the Lord Christ would need to pray these prayers? Aren’t we doing the Lord Christ a disservice by suggesting He, through David, prayed in such a penitential manner?

The only answer that can suffice is that in these Penitential Psalms the Lord Christ, in His humanity, is identifying with His people. In point of fact He is so identifying with them that He confesses sin, through David, as if it is His own.

So, closely does Christ identify with us as sinners that He confesses sin in these penitential Psalms. Now, we know that Christ is the spotless lamb of God and we know that He was at all points tempted as us yet without sin but here in the Psalms we find the sinless God-man confessing sin. Thus does he identify so closely with His people. Such is His tenderness towards us. In such a way Christ demonstrates He was and is our substitute.

It was not without reason that the Holy Spirit could write in the NT,

“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II Cor. 5:21). As Peter says, Christ suffered as the “just for the unjust.”

Here then in the penitential Psalms we see the love of God and His Christ for sinners. So closely does the Lord Christ identify with us that He confesses sins.

Jonathan Edwards offers here,

“His elect were, from all eternity, dear to Him, as the apple of His eye. He looked upon them so much as Himself, that He regarded their concerns as His own; and he has even made their guilt as his, by a gracious assumption of it to Himself, that it might be looked upon as His own, through that divine imputation in virtue of which they are treated as innocent, while He suffers for them.”

Horne in his commentary on the Psalms offers,

“… Christ in the day of his passion, standing charged with the sin and guilt of his people, speaks of such their sin and guilt, as if they were His own, appropriating to himself those debts, for which, in the capacity of a surety, had made himself responsible.”

Elsewhere, in yet another commentary E. C. Olsen affirms again this line of thought,

“I am particularly impressed with the 5th verse of the 69th Psalm where the Lord said, ‘O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from thee.’ For 2000 years no man who has had any respect for his intellect dared charge our Lord Jesus with sin. But some might as, What do you mean when you say our Lord is the speaker in this verse? Just this: the fact of Calvary is not a sham or mirage. It is an actual fact. Christ making atonement for sin was a reality. The NT declares that He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. As Christ restored that which He took not away, that is, restored to us a righteousness which we never had, so Christ had to take your sins and mine, your foolishness and mine. These sins became such an integral part of Him that He called them “my sins and my foolishness.” Our Lord was the substitute for the sinner. He had to take the sinners place, and in so doing, He took upon Himself all of the sinner’s sin. In the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, ‘Surely He has borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows; … yet the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’ The iniquity of us all was laid upon Christ. He bore our sins ‘in His own body on the tree.’ Can you fathom that? When you do, you will understand the mystery of the Gospel.”

In light of this great Love for His people, how can we, who are convinced of this love, ever violate such a compassion as was demonstrated by the Lord Christ towards us?

III.) Christ in the Imprecatory Psalms

We spoke some concerning the ability of God’s people to pray the Imprecatory prayers but we also must realize that it is first and foremost the Lord Christ Himself who prays the Imprecatory prayers.

The modern Church has this vision of effeminate Jesus. There he is in the Poster or a art sketch set against a backdrop of azure sky blue with fluffy white clouds around him in a long flowing white tunic with his shoulder length hair poofed perfectly and he is beckoning His people with outstretched hands. Or there he is at the door knocking … ever the gentle guest. A halo surrounds his head and you get the sense that the door knocking Jesus is so calm the door adores being rapped upon by Him.

The Jesus of the modern contemporary church poses no threat to sin or sinners. He constantly forgives in the face of epistemologically self conscious defiance and rebellion against Him and his cause. He forgives even in the face of being told that we have no reason to be forgiven. He is Jesus the effeminate wonder male.

We agree that the Lord Christ is gentle, meek, and forgiving, but He holds not those qualities without also being God who pursues God’s righteousness. He inveighs against the wicked. He holds the rebellious to account. In the Psalms, through the voice of David, the Lord Christ cries out for the blood of those who would oppose His Kingdom and His people. He is not God with whom we are to trifle.

Psalm 69:23-28

23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see;
And make their loins shake continually.
24 Pour out Your indignation upon them,
And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their dwelling place be desolate;
Let no one live in their tents.
26 For they persecute the ones You have struck,
And talk of the grief of those You have wounded.
27 Add iniquity to their iniquity,
And let them not come into Your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,
And not be written with the righteous.

J. H. Webster in his book, “The Psalms in Worship” has this to say

David, for example, was a type and spokesman of Christ, and the imprecatory Psalms are expressions of the infinite justice of the God-man, of His indignation against wrong-doing, of His compassion for the wronged. They reveal the feelings of His heart and the sentiments of His mind regarding sin.”

In Psalm 109

Let his days be few,
And let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless,
And his wife a widow.
10 Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg;
Let them seek their bread[b] also from their desolate places.
11 Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy to him,
Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off,
And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

This Psalm, throughout Church History became known as the Judas Psalm because it is quoted concerning Judas in the NT.

Professor Fred Leahy of Belfast Ireland wrote concerning Psalm 109

“… the view which limits Psalm 109 to David and one of his adversaries is altogether to short-sighted because it ignores the typical nature of David and His Kingdom and overlooks the interpretation of the imprecatory psalms in the NT, where their ultimate fulfilment is seen either in the judgment of Judas or in the apostasy of Israel (cf., Rom. 11:9-10),. In the Christian church Psalm 109 soon became known as the Psalmus Ischarioticus — the Iscariot Psalm.”

The modern contemporary Church in the West today needs to hear again Christ praying with these imprecations against those who have set themselves against the Lord and His anointed. The modern contemporary Church in the West today needs to be reminded that those with designs to cast off their chains and arise to the place of the most high will be thoroughly cast down.

And why would we insist that the Christ praying the imprecatory prayers must come forward again? First because we love the Lord Christ and desire to protect His reputation but also because we love people. We do those in rebellion to Christ no favors … we show them no love, if we do not warn them concerning the wrath of the Lamb of God. In point of fact if we refuse to speak of these realities we show our scorn and hatred of those outside of Christ. The love of Christ and love for those outside of Christ compels God’s servants to take up this hallowed theme, fully aware that we ourselves are only saved from the wrath of God because of the work of the Lord Christ to pay for our sins.

What we find here in the Psalms is what we find in the Revelation. The Christ speaking through David these imprecations is the Christ spoken of in the NT

Rev. 19:11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had[a] a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,[b] followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp[c] sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Conclusion

George Horne, who wrote a commentary on the Psalms in the 19th century wrote,

“The Primitive Fathers … are unexceptional witnesses to us of this matter of fact, that such a method of expounding the Psalms (the Method of reading them Christocentrically) built upon the practice of the Apostles in their writings and preachings, did universally prevail in the church from the beginning. They, who have ever looked to St. Augustine, know, that he pursues this plan invariably, treating of the Psalms as proceeding from the mouth of Christ, or of the Church, or of both, considered as one mystical person. The same is true of Jerome, Ambrose, Cassidore, Hilary, and Prosper … But what is very observable, Tertullian, who flourished at the beginning of the 3rd century, mentions it, as if it were then an allowed point in the church, that almost all the Psalms are spoken in the person of Christ, being addressed by the Son to the Father, that is, by Christ to God.”

Micro approach supporting Infant Baptism

Why we Baptize

1.) Baptism is a subset of covenant theology. In covenant theology God calls a people and says to them “I shall be your God and you shall be my people.” This covenant calling extends to not only the called but to all who come under the household of the called.

9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

2.) So from the beginning it has been as Peter said in Acts, “39 For the Covenant promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” When Peter mentions “for your children and all who are far off,” we hear this as a covenant promise. The children are included and those afar off are understood as the generations yet to come who remain afar off.

Peter’s language is reminiscent of the language of Moses in Dt.

I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of the LORD our God, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.

God has always built His Church as a family of Families. Not a family of Individuals.

So, all of God’s covenants have included families. Even the major prophecies of the new covenant clearly indicate the continuance of the household as the basic unit of the people of God. See Gen. 12:3; Isa. 54:10, 13; 59:21 (the Old Testament backdrop to Acts 2:39); 61:8-9; Jer. 32:38-40; Ezek. 37:25-26; Zech. 8:5; 10:7, 9; 12:10-14; 14:17. In response to the use of the new covenant passages made by our Baptist friends, we must show that in those very passages the household principle remains as an aspect of the new covenant. If noble Christians “searched the Scriptures” (i.e., the Old Testament) to find out whether the things taught by the apostles were so (Acts 17:11), where would they have found warrant to abrogate the household principle?

3.) We see nothing in the NT that changes this covenant family arrangement. When God calls people into the Church of Jesus Christ he calls the children with him. Consider the household Baptisms

Cornelius (Acts 10:47-48; 11:14)
Lydia (Acts 16:15),
Philippian jailer (Acts 16:33-34),
Stephanas (1 Cor. 1:16)

Now it is conceded that in ZERO of these Baptisms are children explicitly mentioned as being Baptized. However, that is irrelevant to our appeal because the whole theology of “Household Baptism” is that on the basis of Household Baptisms babies would have been Baptized had they been present. The whole identifying reality of household baptism is that all who are in the household would be baptized. So, even if no infants were in those NT households baptized the point is that, upon the principle of household baptism, if they have been present they would have been baptized. Household means all considered part of the household.

Where do we find, with the coming of Pentecost, that God now deals with individuals as opposed to families?

Of course we do ourselves what we forbid God to do when we deny His place to call our children His own prior to their concession to God’s claim. When we have children we name them without their permission. When we have children we care, provide, and protect them without their permission. We call them our own without their permission. This is what God does in Baptism. He marks us as His own. He cares, provides, and protects via His Sacrament that conveys Grace and this without their permission. In Baptism He calls them His won without their permission. So, we allow ourselves the claim of ownership upon our children without their permission but we do not allow God in Baptism to have a claim of ownership upon His people.

4.) Continuing on as to why we Baptize our children,

We Baptize our children because we confess that they are partakers of Adam’s sin and have need to become partakers of Christ’s righteousness. Scripture says that “In sin did my mother conceive me.” We are born sinners with the sin nature.

When we baptize our children we trust God’s promises that Christ is the cure for the wound of Adam’s sin that we are all born with. Romans 5 teaches that in Adam’s fall, we sinned all. It teaches that we are born sinners and that Christ is the only cure. We understand that Baptism conveys Christ to those who have been set aside for salvation.

All of this is taught in our Catechism when it asks,

Question 74. Are infants also to be baptized?

Answer: Yes: for since they, as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God; (a) and since redemption from sin (b) by the blood of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them no less than to the adult; (c) they must therefore by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the christian church; and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers (d) as was done in the old covenant or testament by circumcision, (e) instead of which baptism is instituted (f) in the new covenant.

So why is there so much controversy surrounding this idea that the Children of those who God owns are owned by God? One of my theories is that the way we think about the foundations of how society is organized wars against a covenantal understanding where the Children go with the parents.

According to the Lockean social contract myth, upon which our social order is based, had human beings being isolated Egos. Each of us have a will of our own, and each is free to make choices on our own. We are sovereign “I’s” first and foremost, though we may, for various selfish reasons, combine with other I’s into a political society

If this is really what is going on, then the most effective argument for infant baptism may be the creation account which teaches that man in isolation is not fully man. It is not until the creation of Eve, and so the inauguration of the community whole, that man is fully self. In short, man only finds the meaning of the individual self in the context of community. The vast majority of the contemporary Church denies this insisting that man as the individual must give assent to the community whole – The Church with Christ as King – before the community whole can recognize the individual as a member of the whole community.

In short the Christian holds that the primary building block of society is the corporate whereas the non Christian holds that the primary building block of society is the sovereign individual. When the sovereign individual is the primary building block then it is easy to understand why a child must concede to God’s calling before he is Baptized.

The Arc of the Psalms … Book 1

The Psalms, associated primarily with David but are written by authors as diverse as Moses, Solomon, Ethan the Ezraite, the sons of Korah and the sons of Asaph. Typically the Psalms are subdivided into 5 books and the book as a whole was compiled over several centuries.

Book 1 — Psalm 1-41
Book 2 — Psalm 42-72

The first two books of the Psalms deal with episodes from David’s life though not in chronological order.

Book 3 — Psalm 73-89

Much of book three is taken up with events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem. Esp. Psalm 89.

Book 4 — Psalm 90-106
Book 5 — Psalm 107-150

These books seemingly respond to the tragedy of the fall of Jerusalem and the Davidic line with a call to trust in the Lord and not human rulers. Some scholars see especially books 4-5 as Psalms of a future David.

It is interesting that each of these five books are by a doxology. The first doxology marking of the first book of Psalms is at the end of Psalm 41.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen. (Psalms 41:13 RSV)

We will speak more about the breakdown of these 5 books later.

I.) Psalms In Context

For now we should note that as we read the Psalms we must keep before us that often the Psalms are providing commentary on a storyline from the OT. So, we are not to read the Psalms in the abstract but keep before us that they are often helping to give us insight to some divine event or record.

Example — 3 2Sa 15:29 On David’s flight from Absalom
4 2Sa 17:29 During the the flight from Absalom
5 2Sa 17:29 During the the flight from Absalom
9 1Sa 17:4, or 1Ch 16:43 On the victory over Goliath
16 1Ch 17:27, or 1Sa 27 On the delivery of the promise by Nathan to David
17 1Sa 22:19 On the murder of the priests by Doeg
31 1Sa 23:12 On David’s persecution by Saul
32,33 2Sa 12:15 On the pardon of David’s adultery
Psalm 51 needs to be read in the context of David’s repentance over his sin of adultery and murder

So as we read the Psalms it would be quite profitable to read them in the probable historic context to which they apply thus making them even more meaty. This is not to say that they can’t be read abstracted from their historical narrative context without profit. It is merely to contend that we will get even more out of them if we read them as informed by their history.

This teaches us that for the Hebrew children they lived all their lives coram deo — before the face of God. Their worship of God wasn’t restricted to the sabbath but rather all their lives were contextualized by their sense of being in God’s presence. In their trials, in their laments, in their despair, in their joy, in their confusion you see they have a sense of God’s presence. In all times they are turning to God.

II.) Psalms as Theocentric

Further, as we read the Psalms we will discover that they are telling the story of God’s majesty in the context of life events. The Psalms are given to us not to place man as the star in the storyline but in order to reveal the person and work of God.

James Luther Mays, Author of a book on the Psalms reminds us,

“The Psalms themselves …. contain more direct statements about God than any other book in the two Testaments of the Christian canon …. The works of God and the attributes of God are the constant agenda of the Psalms.”

So the Psalms teach us of God’s character. If we want to know the character of the God we would spend time in the Psalms.

Examples

** God is Omnipotent (All-powerful)

Psalm 147:5 – “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”

Psalm 135:6 – “The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.”

** God is Good

Psalm 25:8, “Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.”

Psalm 119:68, “You are good and do good. Teach me Your statutes.”

** God is Forgiving

Psalm 86:5, “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.”

Psalm 67:1, “God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.”

** God is Patient

Psalm 86:15, “But Thou, O Lord, art a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.”

** God is Eternal

Psalm 90:2, “Or Thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.”

** God is Holy

Psalm 99:9, “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for holy is the Lord our God.”

So, a good practice in reading the Psalms would find one writing God’s attributes in the margin as one came across them. This would serve to encourage us in becoming familiar with the Character of God so that we in turn, as they did before, live life turning to God in all our settings, and in all our highs and lows.

III.) The Human Element In The Psalms

The Psalms demonstrate for us real people with real sins and a real gamut of emotions. A fake record might desire to whitewash the saints so that they all were presented to us as those who could arise to every occasion and who could overcome every obstacle without fail.

This is not what we find in the Psalms We find real saints like us. Saints who deal with the gamut of emotions but who continually take their emotions before God knowing that God can handle them.

Sundry dispositions of man’s heart are reflected in the Psalms.

If you are fearful, read Psalm 56 or Psalm 91 or Psalm 23.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

If you are discouraged, join in with the Psalmist in Psalm 42

“3 Mine tears have been my meat day and night, while they daily say unto me, Where is thy God?

5 Why art thou cast down, my soul, and unquiet within me? wait on God: for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his presence.”

If you happen to be feeling lonely, then I would suggest Psalm 71 or Psalm 62.

How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

If you are convicted, and sense your sin, there are two psalms that echo that: Psalm 51, Psalm 32,

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up[b] as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

If you are worried or anxious, I’d recommend Psalm 37 and Psalm 73.

Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.

If you are angry, try Psalm 58 or Psalm 13.

O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

If you are resentful, read Psalm 94 or Psalm 77.

O Lord, God of vengeance,
O God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;
repay to the proud what they deserve!
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words;
all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O Lord,
and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the sojourner,
and murder the fatherless;
7 and they say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

If you are happy and want some words to express your happiness, try Psalm 92 or Psalm 66.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

If you feel forsaken, so did the Psalmist (Psalm 88).

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.

If you are grateful join in with Psalm 40.

16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the Lord!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!

————————
The failure in the Christian life is not in having difficult and even negative emotions. The failure in the Christian life is thinking that God has never seen those emotions before and wouldn’t know how to handle them if you brought them before Him. In the Psalms we see a wide range of human emotions set in the context of prayer and praise.

Thus far we have seen then that while the Psalms are Theocentric / Christocentric they also demonstrate how to not get lost in our emotions. This is important to note. Modern man has become almost an exclusively emotional being. He is completely conditioned and blown about by his emotion. This sense of no anchor for the uninformed and macro-contextual-less emotions makes for a reckless instability in man. The Psalmists reveal where to find an anchor for our emotions. The anchor is found in the Character of God. Whatever the emotion … whatever the turmoil … whatever the joy … the Psalmist takes it all before God in Prayer and / or praise. He allows the character of God to be an anchor to his emotion unlike the Modern who allows his emotion to be his God. The Christian thus allows the Character of God to be the context in which his emotion is conditioned and so finds meaning as opposed to the Modern whose emotion is like a loaded pistol in the hand of a 3 year old.

___________
Well, back to the breakdown of the book of the Psalms. We will look at the breakdown of Book 1 this morning and then continue with looking at the breakdown of books 2-5 next week.

Some have contended that the 5 book breakdown of the Psalms parallels the Pentateuch so that,

Book 1 Psalms 1-41 (corresponds to Genesis)

Psalm 1, like Genesis 1, opens with the Blessed man and in Psalm two, as in the beginning of Genesis, you find the intended revolt of man against God’s rule in Psalm 2.

Why do the nations conspire,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and his anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds asunder.” (Psalms 2:1-3 RSV)

Book II Psalms 42-72 (corresponds to Exodus)
Slavery, bondage and freedom

Book III Psalms 73-89 (corresponds to Leviticus)
Tabernacle worship

Book IV Psalms 90-106 (corresponds to Numbers)
Wanderings

Book V Psalms 107-150 (corresponds to Deuteronomy) Deliverance and victory

Reading book 1 Psalm as corresponding to Genesis is an intriguing lens but I would submit that there may be a another organizational way to read book 1 of the Psalms.

A recent book has been written that suggests that much of what goes on in the Psalm book 1 is an attempt by those who put the Psalms together to move God’s people to recognize the intimate connection between God’s Law and God’s King. The argument goes that the Psalms are written so as to draw attention to the Deuteronomic Kingship law (Dt. 17:14-20) which required the King to have intimate knowledge of God’s law. Further, in connecting God’s law to God’s Kingship through through the Psalms what happens is that the people are shaped in terms of their expectation of what the Messiah King would look like. (He would be one who adhered to God’s law.) Also, in this understanding what happens at the same time is that the people themselves are shaped unto a piety that every believer should emulate—that is … the king as exemplar for the people of God.

In this reading Psalm 1 and 2 introduce first the centrality of the law of God and then the centrality of God’s blessed Messiah King. Combined these first two opening Psalms give us a messianic King who will enforce God’s law. The rest of book 1 of the Psalms thus can be read in such a way as to see how the King takes God’s law to apply it to enemies both external and internal. This motif is highlighted again in book 1 in chapters 18-21 where once again the Messiah King and God’s law are highlighted in these 4 Psalms.

The other Psalms would then, as read in the context of their historic narrative concentrate on how God’s King and God’s Law put down enemies internal and external.

Obviously when we talk about God’s King in the Psalms this introduces us to the idea of the importance of how the Psalms are Messianic. The Hebrew Kings were to be typological for the later great Messiah and as such the Psalms are often pointing to the coming Christ who is the perfect fulfillment of God’s great King who implements God’s great law.