Grace Community Church of Ramona Podcast

Moses wrote Psalm 90 to encourage the people of Israel to live each day for God. He composed Psalm 90 near the end of the 40 years of Wandering. The Wandering had been a forty year funeral march through the Sinai Desert. It was punishment for the Exodus Generation who, at Kadesh Barnea, doubted God’s power to conquer Canaan (Numbers 13-14). Cemeteries marked Israel’s path through the Sinai; an average of 87 funerals a day for forty years; 1.2 million graves. Rather than enjoying the bounty of the Promised Land, forty futile years were spent waiting for the Exodus Generation to die.

The writer of Psalm 73 is a man named Asaph and he struggled with this same issue. Why do the  wicked succeed while often God's people are oppressed? Psalm 73 is Asaph's struggle with this question that was as relevant then as it is today. Picture with me for a moment Asaph standing before a congregation of people outside of the Tabernacle. The crowd quiets as he stands to share a testimony of God’s goodness in his life during a time when he wrestled with this very question and he nearly slipped into a trap.

David praises God for His spiritual provisions of answered prayer, forgiveness and fellowship. Coming to Jerusalem and to the Temple was a time for the Israelites to experience these spiritual blessings anew. It was the time when they honored and thanked God for answered prayer by bringing their thank offerings. Some people would include with their prayer request a vow to bring God a thank offering. A portion of the thank offering was offered on the Altar and a portion given to the worshipper to eat with his family and friends. It was during this communal meal in the Temple courts that the one who had taken the vow would glorify God by sharing with those present how God had answered his prayer.

Israel's king David. A man the bible refers to as "a man after God's Own Heart" (Acts 13:22) is one of the great figures in all of scripture. But, he didn't always look like such a great and Godly figure. To read the full story of David's great sin, see 2 Samuel 11-12. The plot line goes something like this: David slept with the wife (Bathsheba) of one of his most committed soldiers (Uriah), and when he was unable to cover it up, he had Uraih killed, and took Bathsheba as his wife. This is one of the most awful betrayals and evils in scripture, yet even after this takes place David is held up as a great man. How can this be? How could someone who had done such evil, be restored to prominence? Simply put, David's heart was transformed through a confession which relied completely on the steadfast love and abundant mercy of God. David was and is an example of Godliness, because he was a man who deeply desired that God would change his heart. And God did just that.

Mother's Day 2017

As he was running from Absalom, David composed Psalm 3. Psalm 3 reveals David’s deep confidence in God’s protection and deliverance. Underlying David’s confidence in God’s protection and deliverance was his confidence that God had really forgiven him and restored him. In the opening verses David describes his situation, but without complaint. He accepts the fact he is suffering the consequences of his sin. The natural mind reasons that if you are suffering the consequences of your sin, God is still angry with you; He hasn’t forgiven you. But David knows he’s been forgiven and reconciled to God. He has incredible peace in the midst.

The setting for Psalm 2 was Solomon's coronation. The day was full of pageantry. Government officials, dignitaries and representatives from surrounding countries dressed in their finest. Jerusalem spruced up and decorated with banners. Their was music, a processional, prayers, singing, speeches and more singing before Solomon was crowned and sat on his father, David’s, throne. But their was one song sung that day for the first time for a select group of attenders. Present in the crowd that day were representatives of the nations King David had conquered, Philistia, Amalek, Edom, Moab, Ammon and Syria. Even as they cordially participated in the festivities of the day, King David knew the plotting in their hearts for it was during just such transitions in leadership that nations rebelled against their overlords.

We have a lot of books in our Bibles that record God’s work in history. The Gospels reveal the life and teachings of Jesus. The Apostle Paul’s letters teach us about Jesus, salvation, the Church and many great things of our faith.  But there is one book that takes us inside people’s hearts and minds as they struggled to understand, trust, obey and worship God in everyday life. This book is the book of Psalms; the hymnbook of Israel.

Easter 2017

In the Garden, God began to paint a picture of a man who would one day deliver humanity from the consequences of the Fall. This man came to be known as Messiah, the anointed one. The picture drawn by the Old Testament Jewish prophets clearly depicted Messiah as a king and not just a king over Israel, but over the whole world. Yet there were other pictures depicting the Messiah suffering and dying. Jewish scholars couldn’t put it together. Was the promised Messiah a victorious king or a suffering servant? For the Jews it was "either/or". When they looked at the prophetic picture of Messiah all they saw was a great king. This is a major reason why the Jews rejected Jesus at His first coming - He didn’t fit their picture of the Messiah.