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Scripture Studies:  Vol. IX, No. 7 - September 2002
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In this issue:

Old Testament Study - Malachi 4
Patience in Affliction, pt. 13, by Richard Baxter
New Testament Study - Matthew 13:24-43
A Topical Study - The Frailty of Life, pt. 3
A Study in Psalms - Psalms 54


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Old Testament Study - Malachi 4
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The Last Writings of the Old Testament Prophets
-----------------------------------------------


1"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All
the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that
day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD
Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them.
2But for you who revere My name, the sun of righteousness
will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out
and leap like calves released from the stall. 3Then you
will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the
soles of your feet on the day when I do these things," says
the LORD Almighty. 

4"Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws
I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. 

5"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great
and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6He will turn the
hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of
the children to their fathers; or else I will come and
strike the land with a curse." 



Here we have come to the final chapter written by the final
prophet of the Old Testament times.  It is a chapter full
of promises, both good and bad.  It concludes the Old
Testament writings by looking ahead to the major events of
the future.  It speaks of both comings of the Messiah, the
Lord Jesus Christ. "We should view these final words with
solemnity of heart, for chapter 4 gives us the last message
of the Old Testament prophets.  After this prophetic word,
the heavens were silent for four centuries until the voice
of John the Baptist was heard calling Israel to repentance
in view of the coming of the Messiah" [Feinberg,
266].

First, the Lord, through Malachi, speaks of the Second
Coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ:  "'Surely the day is
coming; it will burn like a furnace.  All the arrogant and
every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming
will set them on fire,' says the LORD Almighty.  'Not a
root or a branch will be left to them'" (vs. 1).  At the
second coming of the Lord, He will come in wrath to bring
His judgment on the world.  The Lord (Himself) begins the
description of His second coming with the word, "Surely",
in order that there may be no doubt about the veracity of
what He is saying.  Certainly, whatever the Lord says is
perfect truth.  Yet, it seems that many people need an
extra amount of convincing when it comes to the fact that
the Lord will come in wrath to judge the world:  "Surely
the day is coming." "Some cannot believe what they read
here; therefore, they teach that all people will, somehow,
be saved.  A God of love, they reason, cannot condemn
anyone to an eternal punishment.   But this reasoning
incorrectly pits God's love against His justice.  Such
universalism cannot be supported by the Scriptures. 
Rather, Scripture tells us, God's prior judgments are but
foretastes of what will come in the final day as the
totality of God's wrath will finally be felt" [Kaiser,
486].  To put it bluntly, "the wicked will all be ignited
like dry stubble after a hot summer" [Ibid.]. 


Why is this judgment necessary?  Because God is righteous
and just.  He has established His law.  He has commanded
His creatures to obey it.  He has even provided a way of
salvation for those who have not obeyed.  So, for those who
disobeyed His commandments, and who have rejected the great
gift of salvation that He has offered through His Son,
there will be judgment.  If there was not judgment, God's
attribute of righteousness would be tainted.  The absence
of judgment would make God out to be a liar, and would make
the many portions of God's Word that speak of judgment
untrue.  Judgment is promised.  Universal salvation is a
lie of the devil. "Because God is unchanging in His
holiness and justice, it follows that the inevitability of
His judgment upon the wicked is unchanging also.  The final
chapter of Malachi virtually shouts for us to see this, for
it begins, 'Surely the day is coming...'  The judgment may
be postponed.  For the most part it has been postponed for
the long years of human history-postponed but not
forgotten.  Delay is not elimination.  Judgment will come"
[Boice, 263].

Now, God is gracious in that He has warned us of this
judgment.  We can choose to ignore His warnings, to pretend
that they are toothless warnings, or we can respond to the
warnings and turn to God for forgiveness of sins. "The
prospect of the day of judgment is a powerful stimulus to
awaken sinners from their fatal slumber, and to stir up
believers to increased diligence in the work of the Lord"
[JFB, 727].  Many preachers of God's Word avoid speaking of
God's wrath.  They think that they are doing God a favor by
depicting Him as a nice old man, who is forgiving of
everything, who would never lift a finger to hurt anyone. 
But such preachers do a great disservice to their hearers,
and greatly misrepresent the character of God.  For God is
not tolerant of any sin.  God hates sin.  There is but one
way to escape the wrath of God, and that is to believe in
and accept the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made by dying
for our sins on the cross.  All those who do not take
advantage of this one way of salvation will see God's
wrath, possibly in this world, certainly in the one to
come.

In this chapter of Malachi, there is not only bad news for
the ungodly, there is good news for God's people:  "But for
you who revere My name, the sun of righteousness will rise
with healing in its wings.  And you will go out and leap
like calves released from the stall" (vs. 2). "Nothing in
Scripture outlines with greater demarcation the vastly
different lots of the believing and unbelieving when the
Lord comes to judge the earth" [Feinberg, 267].  The day of
wrath, which will "burn like a furnace" for the ungodly,
will bring "the sun of righteousness" for the godly. 
Destruction is not the lot for the godly, but rather
"healing".  This is the salvation that God has in store for
His people in the last days, when they will go to Him in a
twinkling of an eye.  Then, they will be freed from the
human bodies that so limit them, and "will go out and leap
like calves released from the stall" (vs. 2). 


The godly will be a part of the Lord's armies in the last
days:  "'Then you will trample down the wicked; they will
be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do
these things,' says the LORD Almighty" (vs. 3).  This is
confirmed also in the book of Revelation.  The Lord
promises:  "To him who overcomes and does My will to the
end, I will give authority over the nations-'He will rule
them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like
pottery'-just as I have received authority from My Father"
(Rev. 2:26-27).  And later, the Lord's army is described: 
"The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white
horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean" (Rev.
19:14).  

In light of His promises concerning the end-times, the Lord
next gives His people an exhortation that will be valuable
to them:  "Remember the law of my servant Moses, the
decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel" (vs.
4).  The best preparation for the coming of the Lord is to
"remember the law."  

This exhortation to "remember the law" is also important to
be given here through the prophet Malachi in light of the
fact that Malachi was the last of the Old Testament
prophets.  There was to be a prophetical silence of 400
years after Malachi.  The people needed to heed this last
exhortation of Malachi because there would be no prophets
to remind them to "remember the law" until John the Baptist
came on the scene.

Next, the Lord speaks of the end of the prophetical drought,
when He would send a prophet to prepare the way for the
coming of the Lord:  "See, I will send you the prophet
Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord
comes.  He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their
children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers;
or else I will come and strike the land with a curse" (vss.
5-6).  This prophecy was to be fulfilled by a precursor to
the coming of the Lord for both of His comings.  Thus, it
was partially fulfilled by John the Baptist, and will be
ultimately completely fulfilled by another precursor,
possibly Elijah himself, before the second coming of
Christ.  Before John the Baptist was born, an angel visited
his father and spoke to him concerning John, citing this
prophecy in Malachi:  "And he will go on before the Lord,
in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of
the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the
wisdom of the righteous-to make ready a people prepared for
the Lord" (Luke 1:17).  However, John the Baptist did not
completely fulfill the prophecy in Malachi.  Jesus said
concerning John:  "And if you are willing to accept it, he
is the Elijah who was to come" (Matt. 11:14).  Jesus came
first to offer the salvation of God to the children of
Israel.  But the children of Israel, by and large, were not
"willing to accept" Jesus as their Messiah.  This rejection
of Jesus rendered necessary a second coming of the Messiah.
 In Malachi, the Lord says that Elijah will come "before
that great and dreadful day of the LORD."  Of course, John
the Baptist did not precede the "great and dreadful day of
the Lord", the outworking of God's wrath, but rather, the
great and wonderful day of the Lord, when He came to earth
to bring salvation to all who believe in Him.  Perhaps (if
I may speculate), the phrase "great and dreadful day of the
Lord" refers to the two comings:  the first coming of the
Lord was a "great" day, in that He brought salvation; the
second coming will be a "dreadful" day, when He will
execute the wrath of God.

Now, John the Baptist was not Elijah; rather, he came with
the "spirit and power of Elijah" (John 1:17).  It could be
that in the final fulfillment of this prophecy that a man
will come in the "spirit and power of Elijah."  However, it
could also be that Elijah himself will come.  Elijah was
one of the very few humans who did not experience the death
of his body (he was taken up to heaven in a chariot of
fire, see II Kings 2:11).  This may suggest that Elijah's
work is not finished.  If indeed Elijah himself comes
before the day of God's wrath, his ministry will be much
the same as it was when he first lived. "The ministry of
Elijah to Israel had been one of calling apostate Israel
back to the Lord whom they had forsaken.  He will come
again in order to avert the curse of God from Israel"
[Feinberg, 269].  As the prophecy says:  "He will turn the
hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of
the children to their fathers; or else I will come and
strike the land with a curse" (vs. 6).  

I find it interesting that the symbol used here representing
obedience to God is when "the hearts of the fathers" are
turned "to their children", and the "hearts of the
children" are turned "to their fathers".  Paul does a
similar thing when he sums up his catalog of the sins of
man:  "They invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their
parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless,
ruthless" (Rom. 1:30-31).  A godly society has loving
families.  Conversely, morally bankrupt societies have
dysfunctional families.  If you can't show love for your
own family members, then you can't love anyone, much less
love God through obedience. 

It is significant that the final word in the book of last
Old Testament prophet is "curse".  For those who don't
accept the New Testament revelation as the Word of God,
this is a harsh ending for the Bible. "The book of Genesis
shows how the curse entered the human race, and Malachi
indicates the curse still threatens" [Feinberg, 269]. "From
early times attempts have been made to avoid the harsh
ending of the book.  Greek manuscripts placed verse 4 after
verse 6, while Hebrew liturgical use led to the repetition
of verse 5 after verse 6.  Hebrew Bibles continue to print
verse 5 a second time at the end of the chapter" [Baldwin,
251].  It would indeed be sad news for mankind if the last
word in the Bible was "curse".  A better solution than
rearranging verses to avoiding this harsh ending is to read
on!  Open up the book of Matthew and read the good news of
the coming of Jesus.  See how God has provided a way for us
to escape the curse of death!  In fact, to counteract the
last word from the Lord ("curse") to the last Old Testament
prophet, Jesus begins His ministry with the word, "Blessed"
(see Matt. 5:3).










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Patience in Affliction, pt. 13, by Richard Baxter
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A Classic Study by Richard Baxter (1615-1691)



[Here, we continue a reprint of excerpts from Richard
Baxter's work entitled Obedient Patience.  In each article,
Mr. Baxter gives advice on how to be patient through a
specific type of affliction.]-Ed.



Vexations, Strong Temptations of Satan,

Especially to Melancholy Persons
--------------------------------


Another case that needeth patience is:  molesting, strong
temptations of Satan, especially to afflicted, sad,
discontented, and melancholy persons.  As to alluring
temptations to sinful love and pleasure, it is abhorrence,
watchfulness, and fear that are more necessary than
patience.  But vexing temptations, which would draw men to
murmuring, anger, malice, fear, hurtful grief, and such
other sins, must be overcome by patience and watchfulness
conjunct.  Consider:

1.  God did not think meet to keep innocent Adam and Eve, no
nor Christ Himself, from being tempted.  This life is
appointed for trial and conflict, in order to a better. 
Not to be tempted, were not to be men on earth.  There is
no crown of glory, but to them that overcome; and no
victory where there is no fight or strife.  It is not
force, but temptations, by which Satan conquereth the
world, and which all must conquer that will be saved.  Yea,
Christ was tempted to the most odious crime, to worship the
devil.  But to be tempted is no sin of ours:  resist and
conquer, and it increaseth our acceptance with God, and
(which some call our merit) our fitness for the reward.  It
may be an advantage to our own confirmed, rooted faith and
holiness, and contribute to our greater glory in
heaven.

2.  Satan is a conquered enemy:  Christ our Head was tempted
that He might overcome him for us.  And as He said, "Be of
good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33, AV); so
we may believe and rejoice, that He  hath overcome the
devil, that we might overcome him.  "He was tempted, that
He might succour them that are tempted" (Heb.
2:18).

3.  All that are in heaven (that had the use of reason) came
thither by overcoming of temptations on earth.  And would
you go a way different from them all?

4.  The tempter cannot do what he will, but what God
permitteth him, who hath promised to restrain, that he may
not overpower us:  "There hath no temptation taken you, but
such as is common to man:  but God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it" (I Cor. 10:13, AV).  

5.  But alas!  We commonly are guilty of giving the tempter
his advantage against us.  We provoke God by sin to turn
him loose upon us, and we give him entertainment by long
parleys with him, and by thinking over all that he hath
against us, and leaving our imaginations open to his
access, and oft also our eyes and ears to feed them.  In
these cases true repentance is needful to our deliverance
from temptations.  Yea, and our own mistakes, corruptions,
discontents, impatience, and sinful passions are the very
strength of the tempter, and he findeth within us the fire
which he bloweth up.  In this case, the cure must be mostly
wrought upon ourselves.  

6.  Strong love and resolution rejoice to conquer strong
temptations; as strong men love not to be tied to the work
of children and women, but would have such as exerciseth
their strength.  It is the joy of friendship, to undergo
much for a friend:  "Love is strong as death; many waters
cannot quench it, nor the floods drown it" (Song. 8:7, AV).
 If you would give all the substance of your house for
love, it would be utterly contemned.  Jacob will serve long
and patiently for love.  And when Satan showeth his malice
against Christ and us, strong love would do as Samson and
David by the Philistines, go out against them in God's
strength, and overcome them.  And though we are weak, God's
grace is sufficient for us, and His strength is manifested
in our weakness. 

7.  Remember who the tempter is, that you may meet his
temptations with hatred and abhorrence.  God in mercy put
an enmity against devils into our natures, as soon as the
devil's enmity had conquered man, that so we might abhor
whatever we know to be from them.  What if the devil
appeared to you in some shape, and persuaded you to
despair, or to blaspheme God, or to doubt of the life to
come, or to any other sin or mischief?  Would it not be a
sufficient preservative to know that it is the devil that
makes the motion?  I do not think that the present forward
servants of the devil would obey him as they do, if they
saw him to be the tempter.  If he brought the cup to the
drunkard in a known apparition and shape, sure it would go
down with terror, if at all:  if he brought a harlot to the
whoremonger's bed, it would cool his lust: if he appeared
and persuaded the malignant to hate, deride, and persecute
men for obeying God, it would sure abate their rage.  And
why should it not work alike in troubling temptations, when
you know they come from him (which nature and fruit of them
may make you know)?  

8.  Let temptations move you to study their confutation. 
Know every snare, and the remedy:  God hath furnished you
in Scripture with armor against all, if you will use
it.

9.  Long for the blessed day when the tempter and troubler
shall be cast out, and never more molest the faithful soul
with any motion against God or comfort.














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New Testament Study - Matthew 13:24-43
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More Parables
-------------


24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is
like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while
everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among
the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and
formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 

27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't
you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds
come from?' 

28"'An enemy did this,' he replied. 

"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them
up?' 

29"'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the
weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow
together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the
harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles
to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my
barn.'" 

31He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is
like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his
field. 32Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet
when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and
becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch
in its branches." 

33He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven
is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large
amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."


34Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; He
did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35So
was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:


"I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things
hidden since the creation of the world." 

36Then He left the crowd and went into the house. His
disciples came to Him and said, "Explain to us the parable
of the weeds in the field." 

37He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son
of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands
for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the
evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The
harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are
angels. 

40"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it
will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send
out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom
everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will
throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will
shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who
has ears, let him hear. 



Here we continue where we left off last month with the study
of these parables.  As I said in the last issue, I believe
that the meanings of the three parables in this section are
similar, and that a hint of this is given by the structure
of this section.  First, Jesus tells the parable of the
wheat and the tares (or weeds, as the NIV translates). 
Then, two more parables are told:  the parable of the
mustard seed, and the parable of the leaven (or yeast, as
the NIV translates).  Next, the interpretation of the
parable of the wheat and the tares is given.  So, the
telling of the second and third parables in this section is
bracketed by the telling of the first parable and its
interpretation.  This implies, I believe, that the
interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares
guides us in the interpretation of the other two
parables.

The interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares
is given by Jesus, and so the meaning of that parable is
not in doubt.  That parable depicts that the children of
God coexist in this world with the wicked until the end of
the age, when the Lord will separate them.  Likewise, the
other two parables depict the coexistence of God's people
and the wicked, even within the church.

"He told them another parable:  'The kingdom of heaven is
like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his
field.  Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet
when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and
becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch
in its branches'" (vss. 31-32).  Concerning this parable,
most commentators agree that the mustard seed plant depicts
the church and its phenomenal growth from very small
beginnings.  Some commentators stop there, and see the
parable as having strictly a positive message.  However,
others (myself included) see the birds as a corrupting
influence that invades (as it were) the church from the
outside.  In the first parable of chapter 13, the parable
of the sower, recall that when the sower scattered seed on
the path, birds came and ate it up.  According to Jesus'
own interpretation of the parable, the birds depicted the
evil one, who came and snatched away what was sown in the
heart (see 13:4,19).  So, in the parable of the mustard
seed, once again, in my opinion, the birds have a negative
interpretation:  a corrupting influence that invades the
church.  We have then, according to this interpretation, a
depiction of the coexistence of the righteous and the
wicked, just like in the parable of the wheat and the
tares.  This time though, this coexistence takes place
within the church.  Throughout the history of the church,
sadly, we have seen much evidence of such a corrupting
influence.  In the name of the Christian church, many evil
deeds have been done, and are being done.  Any student of
history is well aware of this, as are those who have read
the newspaper recently, and so I will not enumerate the
evil deeds here.

The next parable is similar:  "The kingdom of heaven is like
yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of
flour until it worked all through the dough" (vs. 33). 
This parable describes yeast permeating through a large
amount of dough.  Some commentators interpret the yeast as
being the church's influence in the world.  I would
interpret it in the opposite way:  the yeast depicts the
world's influence in the church.  Yeast (or leaven) is used
as a symbol many times in the Bible; nearly always it
symbolizes some sort of evil. "Leaven appears in Scripture
about thirty-five times, and in virtually every passage,
its meaning seems to be unmistakably corruption in some
form; thus, there seems no valid reason why we should take
the symbol as found in this one verse and make it stand for
something exactly contrary" [Thomas, 199].  Jesus Himself,
elsewhere in the Book of Matthew, uses yeast as a negative
symbol:  "'Be careful,' Jesus said, 'Be on your guard
against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees'" (Matt.
16:6).  

An equally compelling reason for interpreting yeast as being
a corrupting influence in this parable is that such an
interpretation fits the context.  Again we have a depiction
of the wicked living among the righteous.  Here, I believe,
the dough represents the church, and the yeast represents
the ungodly, internally within the church, corrupting it.
"The outward, visible development of Christendom, would be
permeated by a form of impurity, gradually spreading until
all of it was affected" [Thomas, 201].  This parable is a
variation on the previous parable. The birds (the
corrupting influence) entered the tree (the church) from
the outside and corrupted it.  Here, the yeast corrupts
from within.  Again, I do not think I need to validate this
interpretation by reciting the evils that have been
perpetrated in the name of Christendom.  Sadly, they are
far too prevalent and well known.






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A Topical Study - The Frailty of Life, pt. 3
============================================

The Frailty of Life, pt. 3
--------------------------


Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.  He
springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting
shadow, he does not endure. (Job 14:1-2).  



My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire
burned; then I spoke with my tongue:  "Show me, O LORD, my
life's end and the number of my days; let me know how
fleeting is my life.  You have made my days a mere
handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.
 Each man's life is but a breath."  (Ps. 39:3-5)



What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little
while and then vanishes.  (James 4:14)



This is the third and final article in a series concerning
the frailty of life.  This article deals with the context
of the last verse cited above, James 4:14.



The Frailty of Man and the Sovereignty of God



13Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to
this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business
and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will
happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then vanishes.  15Instead,
you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live
and do this or that."  16As it is, you boast and brag.  All
such boasting is evil.  17Anyone, then, who knows the good
he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.  (James
4:13-17)

In this section of verses, James speaks on the control that
we have over the events of our lives.  We all feel at times
that we ourselves are in control.  We think that our
destiny is in our own hands.  We proclaim (as has been
cited in these pages before):  "I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul."["Invictus", William Ernest
Henley].  We think that our life is our own.  It isn't. 
James wants to make this very clear, so he begins
emphatically:  "Now listen".   

The target audience for James' exhortation is those who have
their whole future planned out and decided.  They say: 
"Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a
year there, carry on business and make money" (vs. 13).  Of
note is the fact that there is no room for God in any of
their plans.  They will travel; they will work; they will
"make money", but apparently accomplishing the work of God
is not any part of their ambition.

James tries to bring them back to reality by informing them:
 "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow" (vs.
14).  This passage in James is reminiscent of the parable
that Jesus told concerning a rich landowner whose ground
produced a good crop.  The rich man, seeing his prosperity,
planned to build bigger and better barns to store all of
his goods and grain.  He fantasized about the time when his
big barn would be built:  "And I'll say to myself, 'You
have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take
life easy; eat, drink and be merry'" (Luke 12:19).  His
fantasy was short-lived, however, for God said to him: 
"You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from
you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for
yourself?" (Luke 12:20).  Then Jesus remarked, concerning
this parable:  "This is how it will be with anyone who
stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God"
(Luke 12:21).  Those who live for themselves, with no
thought toward God's purpose in their lives, can never be
certain about their future; however, if you live for God,
if your desire is to fulfill His purpose in your life, you
can be assured that you will attain your goal.

We must be aware of the frailty of our lives, and how little
control that we have over them, as James says:  "What is
your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while
and then vanishes" (vs. 14).  Man's life is fleeting.  With
all the distractions in this world, one could easily live
his whole life and not achieve any worthwhile goal.  So
many people chase after the things of this world, as the
one in James' example, whose goal is to "go to this or that
city,...carry on business and make money".  To what end? 
So that they can "eat, drink and be merry"?  What if the
Lord came to you this evening and said, "This very night
your life will be demanded of you"?  Is that a terrifying
thought?

It shouldn't be.  If you are living for Him, you can say
what James advises us to say concerning the future:  "If it
is the Lord's will, we will live" (vs. 15).  Whether we
acknowledge it or not, our lives are in His hands.  He
controls our destiny.  We only continue to live because it
is His will that we continue to live.  Yes, in His will, He
has given us the choice of how to live our lives, as long
as we live that is.  We can choose to seek to fulfill His
purpose for our lives, or we can seek to fulfill our own
pleasures.  However, if we seek to fulfill our own
pleasures, we must ever be looking over our shoulders,
anxious that God too will visit us in the night demanding
our lives.  On the other hand, if we live for Him, we
already realize that our lives are in His hands, and,
indeed, we even look forward to the day when we will join
Him in His kingdom.

When we presumptuously plan out our future with no
consideration for God's will, as James says, "we boast and
brag".  We are, in effect, rejecting the fact that God
controls our lives.  We are boasting that we are sovereign
over the events in our future.  As James states:  "All such
boasting is evil" (vs. 16).  Now, it is not the planning
itself that is evil, it is the lack of consideration for
God's will that is evil.  Yes, we can plan to buy a new
car, we can plan to take a vacation, we can plan to move to
another area and start a new career, but as we are
planning, we must seek the Lord's will in these matters. 
Again, we should say,  "If it is the Lord's will, we will
live and do this or that" (vs. 15).  

And if we seek His will, His will be revealed to us.  Now,
it may turn out that His will does not agree with what we
planned.  At this point, again we can choose to obey His
will, or to continue on with our plans.  If we continue on
with our plans, we are rejecting God's will for us, and
thus, rejecting the good that we ought to do.  So, James
concludes, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do
and doesn't do it, sins" (vs. 17).  Since our lives are a
"mist", we do not have time to ignore God's will.  We
always say, "Oh, next year I will do this or that for the
Lord."  However, the reason that we don't have time to do
God's work is usually because we are too busy fulfilling
our own goals for our lives.  In doing so, we often do not
realize that we are sinning, but James states, in no
uncertain terms:  "Anyone, then, who knows the good he
ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

Our lives are a "mist" (James 4:14); they are like a
"fleeting shadow" (Job 14:2); our days are a "mere
handbreadth" (Psalm 39:5).  It is time that we seek to do
the "good we ought to do"; it is time that we give our
lives entirely to the Lord and seek to fulfill His purpose
for them.  Christ is our example in this.  In His short
earthly life, He accomplished much, always doing "the good
he ought to do", the will of His Father.

So Father, put the desire in our hearts to seek to fulfill
Your purpose for our lives and to always seek to do Your
will.  Lessen our desires for worldly pursuits and increase
our desire to do that which will have eternal significance.
 Give us an acute awareness that You are in control of our
lives, that we are alive only because it is Your Sovereign
will that we remain so.  May we live as Jesus did, in whose
name we pray these things, Amen.








===========================================================

A Study in Psalms - Psalms 54
=============================

Psalm 54  -

The Weapon of Prayer
--------------------




For the director of music.  With stringed instruments.

A maskil of David.  When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and
said,

"Is not David hiding among us?"



1Save me, O God, by Your name; 

	vindicate me by Your might. 

2Hear my prayer, O God; 

	listen to the words of my mouth. 


3Strangers are attacking me; 

	ruthless men seek my life- 

	men without regard for God. 		Selah 


4Surely God is my help; 

	the Lord is the one who sustains me. 


5Let evil recoil on those who slander me; 

	in Your faithfulness destroy them. 


6I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You; 

	I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good.


7For He has delivered me from all my troubles,


	and my eyes have looked 

		in triumph on my foes.  

--------------------------


As the inscription states, the occasion of this psalm is: 
"When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, 'Is not David
hiding among us?'"  The "Ziphites" were the people who
lived in the Desert of Ziph.  Twice David hid from Saul
there, and twice the Ziphites informed on him (see I Sam.
23:19; I Sam. 26:1).  They informed on him in order to
curry favor with King Saul. "Mighty men will find readily
more friends in an evil cause, than the godly find in a
good one" [Dickson, 322].  

So David not only had to contend with Saul and his great
army, but he had to contend with traitorous countrymen.  He
turned for help to his best and truest ally; he turned to
God:  "Save me, O God, by Your name; vindicate me by Your
might" (vs. 1).  We can go to God for salvation of body, as
well as soul.  David, in this case, is seeking bodily
salvation, salvation from an enemy (Saul) who is hunting
him down.  David is clearly in the right in his conflict
with Saul, and so, he can confidently pray for
"vindication." "In asking for divine protection it is
indispensably prerequisite we should be convinced of the
goodness of our cause, as it would argue the greatest
profanity in any to expect that God should patronize
iniquity" [Calvin, in Plumer, 576]. "Albeit no man should
rashly call God to give judgment, yet in a good cause,
against a strong party, an upright man may call for and
expect assistance from God" [Dickson, 323].

As his primary weapon in his conflict with Saul, David uses
prayer:  "Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my
mouth" (vs. 2).  The weapon of prayer is a weapon that is
never unavailable. "This has ever been the defence of
saints.  As long as God hath an open ear we cannot be shut
up in trouble.  All other weapons may be useless, but
all-prayer is evermore available" [Spurgeon, 440].  David
"did not lift up his hand even against the enemies of God
till he had first lifted them up in humble supplication to
the Lord his strength" [J. Dolben, cited in Spurgeon, 443].
 In fact, if there was a good side to the affliction that
David was experiencing, it was that it drove him closer to
God in prayer. "Whatever makes us feel our entire
dependence on God is good for us.  David could not have had
the blessed experience of this Psalm if Saul and his
myrmidons had not sought his life" [Plumer, 576].

David describes his situation:  "Strangers are attacking me;
ruthless men seek my life-men without regard for God" (vs.
3).  The Ziphites were probably "strangers" to David
(though, of course, they knew who David was).  But David
knew personally Saul's men who were "attacking" him.  Yet,
they were "strangers" to David in that they were acting in
a way that made no sense to David, not fitting for people
of God. "No strangers are more strange than they who cast
off the bands of civility and nature, whereby they were
bound:  false countrymen, false brethren, false, friends,
false alliance, are those of whom men may expect least in
their need, for David findeth such men to be his greatest
enemies" [Dickson, 323].

Those seeking David were "ruthless."  They cared nothing for
right and wrong in the situation.  They only cared about
their standing before a king who had turned evil.  They
were "men without regard for God."  Sadly, they were
concerned about what King Saul thought of them, but they
had no regard for what the Lord of the Universe thought of
them.  They acted as if God did not see nor hear their
actions.  

The "Selah" after verse 3 denotes a pause, or a musical
interlude in the psalm.  After this brief pause, David's
confidence has been restored, and he has faith that his
prayer will be answered:  "Surely God is my help; the Lord
is the one who sustains me" (vs. 4).  "David was pressed
down to the very mouth of the grave; and how could he
recognize the gracious presence of God?  He was trembling
in the momentary expectation of being destroyed; and how is
it possible that he can triumph in the certain hope that
divine help will presently be extended to him?" [Calvin, in
Plumer, 577].  "Behold the power of faith.  It hopes
against hope" [Plumer, 577]. "He already, with the eye of
faith, sees God advancing as his 'helper,' though to the
eye of sense nothing presented itself but destruction on
every side" [JFB, 217]. "Fervent prayer hath readily a
swift answer, and sometimes wonderfully swift, even before
a man have ended speech, as here David findeth in
experience" [Dickson, 324].

David was assured in his spirit that God would answer his
prayer, because he knew that his cause was a just one.  The
Lord was his "sustainer", because he was on the Lord's
side. "It is a great comfort to us to see God sustaining
our sustainers, befriending our friends, giving skill to
our advocates, and strength to our defenders.  God will
ever take part with those who take part with His meek and
sorrowful ones" [Plumer, 577].  Confident of this, David
then prayed specifically that justice would be executed
upon his enemies:  "Let evil recoil on those who slander
me; in Your faithfulness destroy them" (vs. 5). "As God is
a friend to the friends of his distressed children, so he
is a foe to their foes; and their foes shall smart for
their enmity in due time" [Dickson, 324].

David is so certain of deliverance that he vows to worship
God for it:  "I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You;
I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good.  For He
has delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have
looked in triumph on my foes" (vss. 6-7). "In faith, he
sees the deliverance already accomplished, and 'praises'
God by anticipation for it" [JFB, 217].  This is faith:  To
praise the Lord under such circumstances. "Let us trust
that if we are as friendless as this man of God, we may
resort to prayer as he did, exercise the like faith, and
find ourselves ere long singing the same joyous hymn of
praise" [Spurgeon, 442].