Psalm 39:10

Verse of the Week – Psalm 39:10

“Remove Your plague from me; Because of the opposition of your hand, I am perishing.” – Psalm 39:10.

David starts out with what appears to be a paradoxical statement in his prayer to God in the first verse. “I will keep watch over my ways so that I do not sin with my tongue; I will keep watch over my mouth as with a muzzle while the wicked are in my presence.” This can be paraphrased, “I said, ‘I will keep silent.’” This seems inconsistent, until we look deeper into the idea of David declaring his intention to keep silent. The Hebrew word for ‘said’ is, אָמַר, pronounced  amar, a verb meaning ‘speaking’, but it also refers to one’s internal thoughts; technically speaking to oneself in your mind. And this is important because David is in a difficult situation. Theologian Adam Clarke puts it this way, speaking for David. “I must be cautious because of my enemies; I must be patient because of my afflictions; I must be watchful over my tongue, lest I offend my God, or give my adversaries any cause to speak evil of me.”

He continues in his prayer. “I was mute and silent, I refused to say even something good, and my pain was stirred up. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned; Then I spoke with my tongue:” Psalm 39:2-3. He would not say anything to his enemies that would anger them. His mind became more and more excited, his feelings more and more intense. And even though he attempts to suppress his emotions, they are only more and more enkindled. We see then in verse four he calls out to God.

After this, David prays to God, speaking wisdom from his heart. “LORD, let me know my end, And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. Behold, you have made my days like hand widths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Certainly, all mankind standing is a mere breath. Selah Certainly every person walks around as a fleeting shadow; They certainly make an uproar for nothing; He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.” Psalm 39:4-7. David’s broke his silence in the best way possible, by his humble prayer to God. He would not speak of his fears and doubts before his enemies, but he would pour them out before His God. Here David asked God for wisdom, specifically, the wisdom to know the shortness and the frailty of his life, that he may know how frail he actually was. He understands since life is so short, the only real meaning of a man or woman’s existence must be in his relationship to God.

Next in the next verse he continues. “Save me from all my wrongdoings; Do not make me an object of reproach for the foolish. “He accepts the fact that his sins are the reason for his troubles and sorrows. If his transgressions were forgiven, he felt assured that his trouble would be removed. His first petition, therefore, was that his sins would be forgiven, believing that it would be consistent and proper for God to remove his troubles and deliver him from the evils he was going through. He recognized his sins were the source of all his troubles. If his transgressions were forgiven, he felt assured that his suffering would end.

Then we come to our -Verse of the Week. “Remove Your plague from me; because of the opposition of your hand, I am perishing.” Psalm 39:10. There is one word in this verse that will help see what David is saying to God, and that word is ‘plague’. This word is not referring to a disease, but an act of discipline, strokes as in a spanking. In the Hebrew language, this seems to be a figure taken from combating gladiators. One is wounded so that he cannot continue fighting. David is unable to maintain the fight, so he gives in and prays for God to spare his life. I am conquered; I can hold the contest no longer. In the next verse, David says, “With rebukes You punish a person for wrongdoing; You consume like a moth what is precious to him; Certainly, all mankind is mere breath! Selah” Psalm 39:11. Because of his sin David was punished.

David has now come to understand the nature of man and his own powerlessness too well not to know that he is incapable of achieving that goal without God’s help. Thus, he prays that God may relieve him from the force of his hand which punished him and presses heavily upon him. We read from chapter 90 the following. “For we have been consumed by Your anger, And we have been terrified by Your wrath.” Psalm 90:7. It is only when the knowledge of the transient nature of man is considered under the aspect of God’s punishment of human guilt that it leads to the realization of that contrast between God and man which imparts to the fact of death the character of an inescapable fate, of God’s judgment on sin.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Matthew 22:42

Verse of the Day Devotion Matthew 22:42

“What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He? They said to Him, The son of David.” –  Matthew 22:42

Now, after the Pharisees had asked questions of Jesus, He then turned the tables on them, and He asked a question of them.  “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,” Matthew 22:41. They had been asking Him questions, so He chooses to ask them one as well. He had evaded all their traps, which were based fundamentally on their refusal to recognize him as Messiah. Their problems were the fact that they were looking for a purely human, nationalistic liberator, and as far as they were concerned, He did not fit this idea. Now, we see this question in our focus verse. “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” Matthew 22:42a.

Jesus directs his question to explore the scriptural nature of messiahship. From whose ancestry is the Messiah to come. The answer, at least for Jesus’ immediate audience, would have indisputably been from the lineage of David. Their answer no doubt came from verses like one found in 2 Samuel.

“When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.” 2 Samuel 7:12-15.

Now, Jesus responds to their answer with another question. “He said to them, Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”  Matthew 22:43-45. Their answer sets up the opportunity for Jesus to denounce their beliefs regarding the Messiah with the above questions. If the Messiah is merely the human offspring of David, why does David himself speak of him as “Lord”, a master or sovereign above the one who is king of Israel and the highest human authority in the land? Jesus here employs the rabbinic method of setting up antinomy, a contradiction between the two beliefs that are themselves reasonable.

He bases this on a verse in a Psalm of David.  “The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand, Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.” Psalm 110:1. Now, in order to completely understand this, we need to look at a couple of Jewish words that are translated as one word in English. The first ‘Lord’ (The Lord says) is YAHWEH, which is the Hebrew covenant name for God, the eternal God of the universe, the Great I AM who revealed Himself to Moses.  The second ‘Lord’ (says to my Lord) is Adonai, someone or something having power, authority, or influence, a master or ruler, but not almighty God.  Only Yahweh would be the word translated ‘God’, Therefore, what David said here was essentially, “God said to the Messiah, sit at my right hand, until your enemies are a footstool for you.”

Jesus’ reasoning is this: ‘Son of David’ is your title for the Messiah, yet David himself calls Him ‘Lord.’ The Messiah, then, must be much more than just a son, a physical descendant of David. According to Psalm 110:1, this ‘Son of David’ was alive during David’s time and was greater than David. All of this information is contained in the statement that “the LORD says to my Lord.” Jesus is David’s Lord; He is the Christ, the Jewish Messiah, and Psalm 110 is a promise of Jesus’ victory at His second coming.

Jesus made it clear when He said, “If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” Matthew 22:45. The Messiah could not be a physical son of David because David died long before the Messiah was born. And this left the Pharisees speechless.  “And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.” Matthew  22:46.

They refused to accept this, for it went against everything they had been taught by Jewish Leaders and Scholars.  We need to be careful that we do not accept something as truth simply because it has always been taught that way.  We must be open to the truth we may not fully understand, and then honestly study to understand it.  And when we do this, asking the Lord to guide us, we can learn what is actually truth, and not merely tradition.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Revelation 3:7

Verse of the Day Devotion:  Revelation 3:7 

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens, and no one will shut, and who shuts, and no one opens, says this:” – Revelation 3:7

Over seven days, I will be looking at what John wrote, by the inspiration of God, to the seven major churches in Asia Minor.  In these seven letters, God gives a message that is specific to each and speaks of issues that could fit the Churches throughout history.  It is important to look at these and examine our church and ultimately ourselves to see where we stand regarding these. 

Next, Jesus writes to the sixth Church in this list, the Church of Philadelphia.  This was located southeast of Sardis. It was founded by Attalos II, the king of Pergamum in the second century B.C. Philadelphia’s population was mixed and included people from Lydia and Mysia, along with Macedonians and Roman businesspeople. During this time, the city was the administrative center for many of the nearby towns, although the judicial center was in nearby Sardis.  The soil was very fertile and wine production flourished.  Some of the industries were textile and leather goods.  The city had a good relationship with Rome, and as Sardis when their city was devastated by the earthquake of 17 C.E., Emperor Tiberius granted tax exemptions along with workers for the following five years while the city was being rebuilt.

The principal deity of Philadelphia was Anaitis, a goddess of  Persian origin.  Her identity blended with that of the Anatolian mother goddess Meter as well as the Greek god Artemis.  Philadelphia had its own local cult of Augustus and Rome by 27–26 B.C.  There was also a Jewish community in Philadelphia as in many other Asian cities. 

This starts with our focus verse, “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens, and no one will shut, and who shuts, and no one opens, says this:” Revelation 3:7.  It declares two attributes which Jesus is known by; He who is holy and He who is true.  These attributes are essential attributes of God in the Old Testament.  “Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him.” Isaiah 1:4. And, “Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;” Exodus 34:6.  Also, to have the ‘key of David refers to having control and authority:  therefore, having the Key of David would give one control of David’s domain, i.e., Jerusalem, the City of David, and the kingdom of Israel. 

Next, we read, “I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” Revelation 3:8.  The open door means access to God. Readers already have access to God through prayer, and in the future, they have the hope of resurrection to life in God’s presence. The idea is that the Church in Philadelphia need access to God’s presence because Christians are being heavily pressured to deny their faith. If Christians at Philadelphia had been questioned by a Roman magistrate, they might have been pressured to deny Jesus’ name to escape punishment.  However, they have stayed true to Christ and were unwilling to deny their Lord and Savior. 

Then He follows this with, “Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them to come and bow down at your feet, and to know that I have loved you.” Revelation 3:9. The idea here is like what we see in Isaiah.  “And the sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, and all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; And they will call you the city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 60:14. This verse speaks of the adversaries of Christians eventually to bow at their feet. Note, this is not their idea.  ‘I will make them to come and bow down at your feet.” They will be forced to bow in subjection before them, in humility before those they despised, those who were followers of the God they hated, and declare them the people of God.  And because of this, they will know that the Lord loves them.

Next in verse ten, “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour, which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.” Revelation 3:10.  This is like a verse found in John’s gospel, and I feel they communicate the same basic idea. “I have given them your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15-16. The related expression can also mean protection from evil for those living in the middle of evil.  And this is promised because they fervently kept His word that was the cause of their suffering and persecution.

He then finishes this letter with words of encouragement. “I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, in order that no one take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” Revelation 3:11-12. The word ‘crown’ comes from the Greek word for ‘laurel wreath’. A laurel wreath was given to those who won a victory in an athletic contest or military battle, as well as those honored for public service. Here, it is given to those who win victory through faithfulness to God and Christ in the face of opposition. It signifies resurrection to life in the New Jerusalem. As for the pillar, this metaphor is based on the image of a temple with pillars in it. Revelation uses pillar imagery to show that the faithful constitute God’s temple and have a permanent place in God’s presence, which was a great blessing in the first century. And as for the writing of His name and the New Jerusalem, this was something done often in this time. Readers would have been familiar with the practice of inscribing pillars and monuments with the names of donors, gods, and cities. For example, a first-century inscription on a column at Ephesus commemorated the building of the imperial temple during Domitian’s reign. It named both the city of Teos and the emperor. Columns in the temples of Artemis at Ephesus and Sardis were inscribed with the names of donors, and similar practices are attested in other cities. This was done in honor of the one who’s name was written.

This Church had no negativity written about them.  They stood strong for Christ and did not turn from God.  So, those who struggled with weakness Jesus makes everlasting pillars in the house of God. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Jesus’ words of comfort certainly would have been a blessing to the Philadelphians who had faithfully stood for Christ in their pagan culture. His words continue to serve as an encouragement to faithful believers today.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries. 

Psalm 32:1

Verse of the Day Devotion: Psalm 32:1  

“A Psalm of David. A Maskil. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!” – Psalm 32:1 

This is a psalm of David speaking of how blessed are the people whose sins are forgiven.  This word blessed has the idea of happy.  Therefore, when we replace the word, we see “happy is he whose transgressions are forgiven.”  Happy is the man.  Happy is his state of mind.  This is the condition of a man when his sins are forgiven.  

Now this verse is quoted by Paul in his letter to the Romans.  Here we read “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”  Romans 4:7-8.  The apostle is using this verse in a way that is different than how the Jews understood it in David’s day.  If a man sinned back then, the law required them to present a sin offering to God.  This was a deeply symbolic type of offering where the sacrificial animal was killed and the blood was drained as an offering for sin.  However, David makes no mention of a sin offering.  “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.” Psalm 32:5. 

Now, Paul says these works, as he calls the sacrifice here, is not a matter of grace, but of the payment of a debt.  However, Paul adds the following, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.” Romans 4:5-6.  David understood this.  His relationship with God made it clear that confessing his sins to God was the means by which God forgave sin.  Acknowledging our sins to God in humility and a contrite heart, not trying to hide it knowing we can never hide anything from Him, is the sacrifice we are to give.   

Unfortunately, we all have sinned.  “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, “ Romans 3:23.  And we understand that there will be times of temptation we must endure.  “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13.  And we also understand there may be times where temptation my overcome us.  “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2.

Therefore, always remember that we live in a fallen world, and unfortunately we may fall into sin.  David did with Bathsheba which is what David is dealing with in Psalm 32.  And so did Paul which he admitted in his letter to the Romans: “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” Romans 7:19.  However, as David said, instead of trying to hide it, we need to confess it to God, repenting of it and then resting in God’s peace and goodness.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.  And because of this as our focus verse says, “How blessed (happy) is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!” Psalm 32:1.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.