When you read through the Old Testament, it’s easy to see where the Israelites got confused and anticipated a military Messiah. They had a system in place for the cleansing of their sins, whenever they actually came around and decided that was necessary, so that wasn’t what they were hoping for. Both Israel and Judah had been taken into captivity and had had military struggles, though, and were hoping for a reestablished kingdom. In fact, one of the clearest prophecies about Jesus, Zechariah 9:9, comes in the middle of a multitude of prophecies about the destruction of the enemies of the God’s people. And yet, despite Jesus being described as “righteous and victorious”, in the same breath He is described as humble, and in Zechariah 9:10 it is said the He will “bring peace to the nations”. Later in Zechariah 9:16 it says that in the day Jesus comes (a couple millennia ago for us), the Lord will rescue his people, “just as a shepherd rescues his sheep.”
A few years ago I heard an interesting message about the significance of Jesus being the great Shepherd. The speaker talked about how the shepherd cared for each sheep individually, and if he found by counting that there was a sheep missing, he would search until he found the lost sheep, and would lay beside the sheep to comfort it and to ward off wild animals, and then when the sheep was ready would carry it back to the fold where the other sheep were. So, this individual pursuit is the analogy we have to see how God loves us, that we are not just redeemed as a humanity, but saved individually by a shepherd that seeks us out, comforts us (Psalm 23:1-4), and carries us back to where we belong.
The rest of today’s post will be composed of various thoughts from my daily Psalm reading, which today is in Psalm 145. The Psalm starts off with these first two verses: “I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever.” In the past couple of months, the Psalms have gotten me thinking about how often I praise God, especially when David uses very broad terms like forever, seven times a day, and daily that I feel I’m not living up to. This is a good challenge then for all of us, to get into the daily habit of praising God for who he is and what he is doing, has done, and will do.
Psalm 145:10-12 reads, “All of your works will thank you, Lord, and your faithful followers will praise you. They will speak of the glory of your kingdom; they will give examples of your power. They will tell about your mighty deeds and about the majesty and glory of your reign.” As the faithful followers, are we talking about the glory of God’s kingdom? Are we giving examples of his power to show Him to those around us? Are we telling of his mighty deeds? Maybe you are and maybe you aren’t, but for the most part I would guess that the Church is dropping the ball on this simple style of evangelism, just talking about what God has done and what his kingdom is like. Why is that? We can easily have conversations about the weather, news, and sports, but the things that are all around us, the examples of God’s glory, love, and power, are getting missed in conversation. I don’t know if there is a question or an answer here, just a deep thought to keep having about the purposes of the Church.
“The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does. The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads” -Psalm 145:13b-14. I’ve mentioned it maybe once or twice in this blog, but my One Year Bible has a verse or two for each day that is boldfaced, and this just happens to be today’s boldfaced passage. It’s definitely great to reflect on the promises of God and how he always keeps them, especially in the season of the greatest promise coming to earth, but verse 14 took prominence for me when I read this passage. The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads. You can just see the picture here of Jesus helping people with really heavy loads on their backs or Jesus reaching down for someone who needs to be picked back up. While we don’t necessarily face this kind of lifting up in a physical sense as much, I would say that the metaphor is a great testament to how much God does lift the burdened and help the fallen, especially in their spirits.
Christmastime for most Americans (and I am one of those Americans) is a time where food consumption goes up a bit. Christmas parties with families have big main courses, a variety of hors d’oeuvres, and likely some choices in desserts. Thinking about hunger was not exactly at the forefront of my mind after feeling kind of stuffed for a while. But, Psalm 145:15-16 had some interesting things to say about hunger. The passage reads, “The eyes of all look to you in hope; you give them their food as they need it. When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.” A Vacation Bible School director I knew years back once told me “All means all, and that’s all all means.” The eyes of all look to God in hope, and he give them food as they need it. People who don’t need are usually pretty terrible at understanding what need really is. I know I’m still having my eyes opened to the needs of humanity by some of the efforts of local churches. Everyone looks to God for needs, and he provides them. All He has to do is open his hand, and he can provide for the hunger and thirst of every living thing. (That’s a lot of living things. Humans alone are some seven billion living things to worry about.) These two verses are a huge tribute to the providence of God, and the wisdom to provide what is needed. As James 2:15-16 says, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” But God provides, as it is needed.
I hope you’ve had some great thoughts today about the character of God, the Great Provider and Shepherd, and that you’ve pondered this idea I scratched the surface of today that is conversational Christianity: just talking about God like you would with any other small talk topic.
-Zachariah