Psalm 92: it will all be set right
April 11, 2009 § Leave a Comment
The byline for this psalm is “a psalm, a song for the Sabbath day”. It’s yet another mention (among countless in the Bible) of the Sabbath’s importance, and I’m not referring to the false Sabbath of Sunday, which many obstinate and misguided churches are lobbying for, but the true Sabbath, Saturday, which was sanctified by God from the creation of the Earth.
As a photographer, I couldn’t agree more with verse 5: “How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts!” The more time I spend in nature, seeking natural beauty, and the more I examine that beauty, the more I realize how great God’s work truly is, and how beautiful He made this Earth before we spoiled it. As for the second part of this verse, I don’t know if we’ll ever know how profound God’s thoughts can be. We are too limited to realize how He thinks, how much He loves us, and how He cares for us.
The rest of the psalm is eschatological, and includes clear references to the destruction of the wicked, and to everlasting life with God, in heaven and here on the renewed Earth:
“Though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.” (verse 7)
“For surely Your enemies, O LORD, surely Your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered.” (verse 9)
“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” (verses 12-14)
Verse 15 echoes the promises made in Daniel and the Revelation, that all will realize God’s perfect nature and goodness, and will proclaim it aloud, saying: “The LORD is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
Not all of the promises made in this psalm are prophetic. Some are for the present. Verses 10 and 11 say:
“You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me. My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.”
My Bible’s footnotes indicate the term “horn” refers here to one’s strength. The original Hebrew version is likely even clearer on that meaning. It’s encouraging and inspiring to see that God sometimes blesses His faithful ones during their lifetimes, not just in heaven. He chooses the time and method, but when He pours out His blessings over them, there is no mistaking His hand. I can attest to this myself, and I’m sure many others can. When we’re in the direst of circumstances and things cannot possibly be solved by human means, He works something out miraculously and we are delivered in a way we could not have imagined if we hadn’t seen it.
Praise be to God!
Psalm 83: revenge or prophecy?
November 2, 2007 § Leave a Comment
The more I read the psalms, the more I realize that many of them whistle a familiar tune — one I’d rather not hear. They keep talking about revenge. This psalm continues down that same path, and things get pretty nasty.
Clearly, the author of the psalm is full of anger toward the nations he mentions in the psalm, and it’s understandable. After all, when they’re out to annihilate your own nation, you can’t exactly have warm, fuzzy feelings about them. But it’s important to realize that not every single person of another nation partakes in the general behavior of that nation. You can’t indiscriminately hate all [fill in the blank here] just because some people from that nation have wronged your own nation.
The author of this psalm doesn’t see it that way. He wants these other people “wiped out”. He wants them to “manure the ground” — in other words, to act as fertilizer, to rot in the fields. This isn’t exactly pleasant imagery. Yet, if each of us were to think back on those times when we were angry at others, we’d see our own feelings at those times weren’t far from the general vein of this psalm.
I’m not saying we should continue that sort of behavior. But the Bible was written for our benefit. We are to read it and discern the knowledge inside it. I believe this psalm was left in for certain reasons. For one thing, it serves as a historical document, and for another thing, as thinking, prayerful Christians, we can see that the behavior of the author isn’t entirely Biblical, and I believe God is using his anger to teach us a lesson about our own tempers.
The psalm goes on, citing all sorts of destruction for these other nations through verse 15. In verse 16, the tone changes: “Shame written all over their faces, let them seek your name, Yahweh!” So after wanting them to be wiped out, rotted out, stepped on, blown about by the wind, burned, and driven away, the author regains some of his sense and only wants them to be ashamed and seek God. It’s a bit hard for a corpse to seek God, you know… Religion by violence never did anyone any good. We have history to confirm that.
We can also look at this psalm in another way, in a prophetic sense. Metaphorically speaking, the nations that wanted to destroy Israel are the people that reject God and His true followers. They’ve always existed, and they’ll continue to exist until God’s final judgment. Prophetically speaking, their day will come when they will be utterly destroyed and they’ll receive the sort of treatment described here. At that fateful time, they will indeed seek God’s name, to no avail. They will receive the proper punishment for their sins, and nothing will save them from that fate.
I’m fairly sure that the author didn’t have this meaning in mind when he wrote the psalm. But God used His anger in a prophetic sense, so He could speak to us and to His followers through the ages. Perhaps that’s why this psalm exists in the Bible after all. We won’t know for sure unless we get to make it to heaven, where this, and many others of our questions will be answered. :-)
Psalm 75: of the coming judgment
November 29, 2006 § Leave a Comment
There are certain clear prophetic elements in this psalm that make me believe the author was inspired by God when he wrote it. However, there are also certain phrases that make me think he corrupted the message with his own weak thoughts instead of relying solely on God for inspiration. Let’s have a look at it.
The beginning is formulaic, and the author then writes in God’s voice from verses 2-5. I have no quarrel with verses 2 and 3: “At the appointed time I myself shall dispense justice. The earth quakes and all its inhabitants; it is I who hold its pillars firm.” The language sounds right, and refers directly to prophecies made in Daniel and the Revelation. God promises that He will hold the final judgment. We know not the hour. Only He knows when that will be. Furthermore, at that time, the earth will quake in a very specific way, as described in Revelation 6:12-17:
“In my vision, when He broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon turned red as blood all over, and the stars of the sky fell onto the earth like figs dropping from a fig tre when a high wind shakes it; the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places. Then all the kings of the earth, the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, hid in caverns and among the rocks of the mountains. They said to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the retribution of the Lamb. For the Great Day of His retribution has come, and who can face it?’”
Unfortunately, I think the psalm’s author improvises in verses 4 and 5. Here he supposedly continues to speak in God’s voice: “‘I said to the boastful, “Do not boast!” to the wicked, “Do not flaunt your strength! Do not flaunt your strength so proudly, do not talk with that arrogant stance.”‘” Given the strength and calamity of those end-time events, do you really think that’s all that God will say to the wicked? Do you think He’ll bother to open His mouth to say such things? Sure, clearly this is symbolic language, but it’s so weak in its strength, so lacking in authority when compared with what will happen, that I have to believe the psalm’s author made it up by himself.
Verses 6 and 7 establish that God’s judgment will extend to the entire earth, and won’t just stop at the heathen nations surrounding Israel, which is once again inspired, and furthermore, verse 8 is clearly prophetic, because it refers to the cup of indignation that God will pour out over the entire earth (metaphorically speaking) during the time of the end. Here’s what Revelation says about this. Keep in mind that while God is described as holding the cup here, the “great prostitute” is shown as holding that cup in Revelation. This is because God knows the exact moment when that will happen, and will allow it to happen, in order for prophecy to be fulfilled. But He is not causing it to happen. The people, fallen into apostasy, are doing it on their own. Here is the passage:
“One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to speak to me, and said, ‘Come here and I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who is enthroned beside abundant waters, with whom all the kings of the earth have prostituted themselves, and who has made all the population of the world drunk with the wine of her adultery.’ He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I saw a woman riding a scarlet beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had blasphemous titles written all over it. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls, and she was holding a gold winecup filled with the disgusting filth of her prostitution; on her forehead was written a name, a cryptic name: ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of all the prostitutes and all the filthy practices on earth.’ I saw that she was drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I was completely mystified. The angel said to me, ‘Do you not understand? I will tell you the meaning of this woman, and of the beast she is riding, with the seven heads and the ten horns…” (Revelation 17:1-7)
The author of the psalm then goes on to proclaim his faithfulness in verse 9, then messes up again in verse 10: “I shall break down all the strength of the wicked, and the strength of the upright will rise high.” There is no indication that he is writing in God’s voice again, since there are no quotes around that verse. So I have to assume that he means to do that himself, although we all know that a single human being has no such powers. Either the quotes were lost as this psalm was transcribed through the centuries, or the author of this psalm is pulling words out of his pocket again, and managing to sound awful, just like he did in verses 4 and 5.
Psalm 72: a prayer with Messianic overtones
November 14, 2006 § Leave a Comment
Apparently addressed to Solomon, this psalm sounds more like it’s written about the Messiah. Since its official interpretation isn’t sure, I’ll address both possible meanings.
If this is indeed meant for Solomon, as the byline indicates, it’s blasphemous. It endows an earthly ruler with Godly qualities. A mere man cannot “endure, age after age” (verse 5). Nor can “in him [...] be blessed every race in the world…” (verse 17). No one should have the right to be called by those attributes but God. If I am to choose this interpretation, I am reminded of Psalm 45, another misguided attempt to flatter an earthly ruler. Then again, it wouldn’t be surprising to see people do that. That was the reason God refused to provide a king for the nation of Israel, but relented after they kept complaining. He provided them with a dire warning that something like this might happen, that they would end up deifying the king and looking to him instead of looking up to the rightful King, to God Himself. Suffice it to say that I prefer to focus on the second interpretation, and that’s just what I’m going to do below.
If this psalm is meant to foretell the coming of the Messiah, it does a fine job! Besides pointing out certain Messiah-like qualities, there are certain prophetic elements as well. Here’s what I found:
- Justice/Judgement (verses 1-4): clearly only God can provide a final judgment, so this is prophetic, in view of the end times.
- Peace (verse 3): we’ve all been looking forward to everlasting peace, through all ages, haven’t we? Prophetic once more.
- Everlasting (verse 5): clearly prophetic, this refers to God’s rule after the final judgment. The new earth, re-made, will stand forever.
- Blessings and abundance (verses 6-7, 17-18): only God can bless like this, and in other psalms, like Psalm 65 and Psalm 67, we see how people entreat Him to bless the earth in this manner.
- All-encompassing kingdom (verse 8): clearly only God can do this. People have tried to do it since the world began, but no one has ever managed to rule over every nation and peoples on earth. Once again, prophetic, in view of God’s reign in the earth made new.
- Rescuer/Redeemer (verses 12-15): who else but the Messiah, Jesus Christ, can possibly do these things, unless this is untrue flattery meant for a human? Who else but God can save the needy from death? Who else but God can rescue anyone needy who calls to Him, and the poor who has no one to help? Can any one single human do this? The answer is no. God only can “reedem [...] lives”, and is the only one worthy of our blessings, for all good things come from Him. At the time of this psalm, this was prophetic, since it referred to a Messiah that was still to come. We as Christians now know this particular prophecy was fulfilled with the coming of Jesus.
While mixing certain human elements together with the Godly, this psalm can be safely interpreted to refer to the Messiah. Besides, at the time, the Israelites were confused about the nature of the Son of God, and expected that He would come in the form of an earthly king, who would literally rule over Israel, and help subjugate all other kingdoms under His rule. That helps explain the language of this psalm. This confusion was still prevalent when Jesus came. Most Jews scorned Him because of his lowly origins, since they fully expected Him to be a king. But what they overlooked is His direct descendence from David, both on His earthly mother’s and His earthly father’s side. That’s where Bible prophecy was fulfilled to a tee. The Bible never said He would be born as king, only that He would descend from Jesse and David’s line, and be a king. As the Son of God, He is the King of the Universe, and He does and will rule for ever. His rule will be made much more evident at the final judgment, when all doubt about His origin and nature will be removed, as the heavens part and He descends in full heavenly glory to receive all true believers unto Him.
Psalm 68: a mixed bag
October 28, 2006 § Leave a Comment
This psalm showcases the amazing variety you’ll find in the Book of Psalms. Like no other book in the Bible, the Psalms are written by many different authors, and when we examine them, we get to hear these different voices, and see the way they prayed to God. Sure, we may not agree with their prayers all the time, but those psalms make for interesting reads at least.
This particular one is so full of arcane references, that anyone would have a hard time understanding it without footnotes. Thankfully my NJB provides ample footnotes, so I was able to make a little sense of it.
To begin with, this is clearly a prayer or a song of thanksgiving. It’s praising God for delivering Israel from its enemies for empowering their nation to defeat them as well. The starting verses declare God’s power in astonishing words, one would even say eschatological: “You disperse them like smoke; as wax melts in the presence of a fire, so the wicked melt at the presence of God.” Verses 3 and 4 continue this end times picture.
Verses 5 through 10 recount the coming of Israel to the promised land, and the scattering of the pagan nations to make way for them. Verses 11 through 18 are not comprehensible to me. Perhaps their context was lost, but I don’t think that they’re that important. They probably recount specific events, that might come to life for me if I’d be privy to more historic details about Israel. Verse 19 begins a third section of the psalm, which continues to the end, and is full of praises for God, dropping hints of specific events or people here and there.
Verses 21 through 23 are particularly violent, and perhaps they’re a reflection of the times, or just of the author’s tastes: “God smashes the head of His enemies, the long-haired skull of the prowling criminal… so that you may bathe your feet in blood, and the tongues of your dogs feast on your enemies.” This is disgusting, there’s no other way to put it. This verse, like some in the Psalms, is out of step with the rest of the Bible. God does not engage in despicable acts like these. People do. Anywhere where we see God acting directly on people to punish them, He acts swiftly and decisively. There are no violent beatings, no blood baths. Think of Sodoma and Gomorra. God rained fire on them from heaven. Think of the end times, and the final battle between God and the devil plus his minions and wicked people. God will rain fire from heaven and consume all of them utterly. God doesn’t revel in violence. It pains Him to destroy the very beings He created and loved, but there are times when He deems it necessary. So these verses, again, are simply not representative of God’s character and behavior.
Verse 34 is food for thought: “Over Israel His splendour, in the clouds His power. Awesome is God in the sanctuary.” It must have been truly amazing to have God’s presence so close to them during those times. Can you imagine, being that near to God? Having His cloud, shrouding His glory and Holy Spirit, traveling before you and guiding you through the desert? Or knowing that His presence, the One Living God, filled the temple? That you could truly converse with Him, the Creator, in close physical proximity? Wow, how amazing that must have been!
Verse 35 is a fitting ending for a psalm: “He, the God of Israel, gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God.” Amen!
Psalm 53: none that doeth good
May 31, 2006 § Leave a Comment
Those of you who read Dignoscentia on a regular basis know that I use the NJB (New Jerusalem Bible) most of the time, and I also refer to the KJV (King James Version). This psalm proves the usefulness of having at least two good translations of the Bible in your home. In my case, the NJB (which usually clarifies things) confused me here, while the KJV helped set things straight.
Verse 2 troubled me. In the NJB, it says, “God looks down from heaven at the children of Adam…” Then the psalmist goes on to describe these children of Adam as those who are “faithless”, “turned sour”, “evil-doers”, “devouring my people”, etc. This is confusing at first sight! I couldn’t help exclaiming, “What about Enoch?” when I read this. Noah, Moses, Abraham, Jacob, and others who did some wrongs but constantly sought God, sprung to mind as well. They were children of Adam, and yet were being lumped together with the evil-doers here. How could this be?
I turned to my trusty KJV, and in there, verse 2 reads, “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men…” Now, things made sense. You see, in the Bible, there is a distinction among the children of God, and children of men. We are born children of men, and we become children of God when we accept Jesus Christ into our lives and choose to obey God’s Law. The children of men, on the other hand, reject God, and stay away from the saving light of God’s Word, which is the Truth. Also, contrary to what some Christians may believe today, I also believe that when the children of God stray from God, they become children of men once more, and unless they right their relationship with God, they cannot enter heaven. “Once saved, always saved” may sound catchy, but it’s not Biblically correct.
The phrase “children of men” is explained a little better by a passage from Genesis 6:2: “… the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” This sets up a clear distinction between those who belonged to God, and those who were worldly. It’s not that the men belonged to God, and the women to the world. No, what this passage refers to is quite simple. Godly men, who should have stayed close to God and married women who also believed in God, strayed away, attracted by worldly women who did not believe in God, and married them instead, corrupting their own relationship with God, and angering Him, as detailed in verse 3 of that same chapter. As a matter of fact, I encourage you to read the entire 6th and 7th chapters of Genesis, and for some extra information, refer to this article as well.
When we return to this psalm after this background reading, we see the clear (and historical) distinction the psalmist makes between those who belong to God, and those who do not, and, what’s worse, who wrong God’s own. Their fate is laid out in verses 5 and 6. I might add that verse 6 is both historical and prophetic, referring to Jesus Christ’s Second Coming as well as to the Jewish return to Israel – repeated several times throughout history. We, as Christians, are part of the extended family of Israel, grafted in, as Paul states in one of his epistles, and therefore also partake of the wonderful “joy” and “happiness” that is to be experienced at that glorious time.
Psalm 48: the new Jerusalem
May 12, 2006 § Leave a Comment
At first sight, this psalm sings the praises of Mount Zion and the old, powerful Jerusalem, in particular of God’s protection and blessing upon the city. And I don’t think it’s a mistake to interpret it that way.
Yet there is another way in which one could look at this psalm. Like in Psalm 46, there are certain clues which point to it as a prophetic description of the new Jerusalem described in Revelation, God’s city, which will descend from heaven to crown the newly re-made earth. Let’s look at them:
- “… in the city of our God, the holy mountain, towering in beauty, the joy of the whole world… the settlement of the great king; God Himself among its palaces…” (verses 1-2)
- “What we had heard we saw for ourselves in the city of our God, in the city of Yahweh Sabaoth, which God has established for ever.” (verse 8)
- “Both your name and your praise, God, are over the whole wide world…” (verse 9)
- “Go round Zion, walk right through her, count her bastions, admire her walls, examine her palaces, to tell future generations that such is God; our God for ever and ever, He is our guide!” (verses 12-14)
Now let’s look at Revelation and compare, verse by verse:
- “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride dressed for her husband… In the spirit he carried me to the top of a very high mountain, and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God.” (Revelation 21:2, 10)
- This is a promise yet to be fulfilled, but this prophecy mentioned in verse 8 of Psalm 48 is detailed clearly in chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation, where the new Jerusalem is described. I encourage you to read both. When we, those who hope to be saved, will see it, we’ll be able to say that “what we have heard we saw for ourselves in the city of our God…”
- “Look, here God lives among human beings. He will make His home among them; they will be His people, and He will be their God, God-with-them… The world of the past has gone… ‘Look, I am making the whole of creation new… I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 21:4-6)
- “It had all the glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond. Its wall was of a great height and had twelve gates; at each of the welve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel… The curse of destruction will be abolished. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city; His servants will worship Him, the will see Him face to face, and His name will be written on their foreheads… They will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 21:11-13, 22:3-5) Again, I recommend you read these entire chapters to see the full descriptions.
As you can see, it’s not a stretch to think of Psalm 48 as a prophetic psalm, describing the New Jerusalem. The parallels are quite strong, and I’m sure if I looked, I’d find them in the book of Daniel as well.
Psalm 47: let's not get ahead of ourselves
May 10, 2006 § Leave a Comment
My NJB calls this an eschatological hymn. While I agree that it is referring to God, I don’t see it as an end-times psalm. I think this is an Israel-centric psalm, and some things mentioned in it aren’t quite accurate.
Here’s one example: “He brings peoples under our yoke and nations under our feet.” While it’s true that God subjugated the nations of Canaan for the Israelites, it’s also quite true that was done because they deserved punishment for their wicked ways, not because Israel deserved to place its yoke on other nations. I doubt that it’s God’s purpose to place nations under the feet of other nations. It encourages the notion that one is superior to others, as evidenced by this psalm, and that’s not Biblical. In the eyes of God, we are all equal, sinner and sinner alike. We’d do well to remember that.
We’d also do well to realize we can’t rest on the laurels and merits of Abraham, and say we’re God’s people simply because we can trace our lineage back to him. I don’t see God making this distinction in the Bible. As a matter of fact, He chose Abraham not because of the future merits of Israelites, but because Abraham was singularly worthy of that honor, his descendants excluded. Abraham also wasn’t Jewish, much like Adam and Eve were not. I think many people get that confused. The point is, God turned his blessings away from Israel many times throughout history because they simply didn’t deserve His favor any longer. They were doing too many bad things. It was only when they turned to Him, repented and asked for forgiveness, as a nation, that He blessed them once more. So we see that God’s blessings had nothing to do with lineage, but with merit.
I also had to smile at the following verse: “The leaders of the nations rally to the people of the God of Abraham.” The imagery present here isn’t quite corroborated by history. It seems that throughout history, the leaders of the nations were against the people of the God of Abraham, and by this I mean everyone who believes in God, not just the Israelites. While it’s true that God is in charge of everything that goes on, it’s also true that as believers in God, we should expect our time in this world to be less smooth than we think, and God Himself has warned us of that. I don’t think we should expect the leaders of the world to rally to our side. History itself is proof of this. Yes, there were times when it did happen, like the time king Darius freed all of the Jews in his kingdom and allowed them to go back home to Israel, but there were also plenty of times (many more, as a matter of fact,) when the opposite happened, and Christians and Jews alike suffered for their faith.
So how do we make sense of this psalm? I think it’s important to be realistic, and not get ahead of ourselves like the author of the psalm. God has a plan for this world, and that plan is to let the devil run his course until the final judgment. God intervenes to keep things on track in the big way, and He also intervenes in each of our lives in ways that we may or may not notice, sometimes in truly miraculous fashion. The decision is His, and He knows best why and when he intervenes. We would do well to remember His words, recorded in Revelation 12. That entire chapter is very relevant to the eschatological nature of this Psalm, but in particular verses 12 and 17 speak to our quandary: “… but for you, earth and sea, disaster is coming – because the devil has gone down to you in a rage, knowing he has little time left… Then the dragon was enraged with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, who obey God’s commandments and have in themselves the witness of Jesus.”
Psalm 46: a prophetic description of the New Jerusalem
May 9, 2006 § 1 Comment
I suppose this psalm could be considered as a simple historical piece, a prayer and praise to God which talks about Jerusalem and God’s saving presence there, but I think it’s much more than that. As one reads through it, one can’t escape the prophetic references to the New Jerusalem described in Revelation.
Let me just compare a few verses from this Psalm with Revelation, and let you make up your mind for yourselves.
“… so we shall not be afraid though the earth be in turmoil, and its waters roar and seethe, and the mountains totter as it heaves.” (Psalm 46:2-3)
“… there was a violent earthquake… and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places.” (Revelation 6:12,14)
“There is a river whose streams bring joy to God’s city, it sanctifies the dwelling of the Most High. God is in the city, it cannot fall.” (Psalm 46:4-5)
“Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing crystal-clear… The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city.” (Revelation 22:1,3)
“Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are tumbling, when He raises His voice the earth crumbles away.” (Psalm 46:6)
“In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not pass into the hands of another race: it will shatter and absorb all the previous kingdoms and itself laft for ever…” (Daniel 2:44)
“He puts an end to wars over the whole wide world, He breaks the bow, He snaps the spear, shields He burns in the fire.” (Psalm 46:9)
“… They came swarming over the entire country and besieged the camp of the saints, which is the beloved City. But fire rained down from heaven and consumed them… The curse of destruction will be abolished…” (Revelation 20:9, 22:3)
These verses can be understood better in their context, so I encourage you to read Daniel 2 and Revelation 19-22, the entire chapters.
After being presented with all this information, what do you think? Do you still think Psalm 46 is a historical psalm, or do you agree that it is a prophetic psalm? Yes, it could also be considered to be both, but I think it’s clearly much more prophetic than historic.
Vreti sa mergeti in rai?
April 29, 2006 § Leave a Comment
V-ati gandit vreodata ce va fi cu noi in viitorul foarte, foarte indepartat? Vom avea parte oare de rai sau “iad”?
Multi crestini din ziua de azi cred ca pot ajunge direct in rai daca n-au facut in viata lucruri foarte rele, daca n-au ucis pe nimeni, daca merg la biserica din cand in cand si in special daca s-au spovedit la timp. Este bine sa faci aceste lucruri si sa te pazesti de ce-i rau, insa nu-i de ajuns. Cum stim ca facem de ajuns pentru a ajunge in rai?
Oare chiar mai credem noi in Dumnezeu cu toate problemele care ne inconjoara? Fiecare din noi avem un gram de credinta chiar daca vrem s-o credem sau nu. S-a demostrat ca toti oamenii striga la Dumnezeu cand vine vorba de o catastrofa sau vreun cataclism infiorator. Atunci se gasesc toti sa strige fiindca simt ca nu sunt pregatiti sa moara, ca nu au facut destul si mai implora timp de pregatire. Vedeti cum e omul, apeleaza la Dumnezeu doar cand se simte total descoperit!
Ce ar fi daca cu totii ne-am pregati din timp, daca ne-am pune viata in ordine si am incerca sa fim ca El inca de pe acum? Nu trebuie sa facem eforturi nelimitate, nu trebuie sa ne chinuim sa facem doar binele pentru a ne plati “biletul” spre rai. Trebuie doar sa ne apropiem de Iisus, sa ne dorim sa fim ca El si toate vor veni de la sine. Inainte de fiecare actiune vom sta sa ne gandim prima data: oare cum ar actiona Iisus daca ar fi in locul meu?
In felul asta va avea de castigat atat caracterul nostru, cat si relationarea cu cei de langa noi. Vom ajunge sa punem in aplicatie exact cuvintele Lui: “Va dau o porunca noua: Sa va iubiti unii pe altii; cum v-am iubit Eu, asa sa va iubiti si voi unii pe altii. Prin aceasta vor cunoaste toti ca sunteti ucenicii Mei, daca veti avea dragoste unii pentru altii.” Sfanta Epistola a lui Ioan 13: 34.35
Va indemn sa va apropiati de Testamentul lasat de Iisus, de cartea Lui cea sfanta – Biblia. Nu va fie teama s-o cititi chiar daca multa lume spune ca e greoaie. Incepeti cu Sfintele Epistole Matei, Marcu, Luca si Ioan care sunt pline de istorisiri din viata lui Iisus. Ele va vor ajuta sa descoperiti cum a fost Iisus in viata reala. Apoi continuati cu Proverbele lui Solomon si Psalmii. Usor, usor veti simti “gustul” si va veti convinge ca este o Carte pretioasa. Chiar daca la inceput vi se va parea ca nu intelegi tot, rugati-va la Cel care a inspirat aceasta Biblie si El va va face sa intelegi cu timpul. Nu cautati interpretare proprie ci lasati-L pe EL sa va ajute sa intelegeti. In Sfanta Epistola a lui Ioan, capitolul 5,39, Iisus spune: “Cercetati Scripturile, pentru ca socotiti ca in ele aveti viata vecinica, dar tocmai ele marturisesc despre Mine.”
Trebuie sa realizam importanta Bibliei in viata noastra si sa constientizam ca dupa cuvintele care sunt scrise acolo, dupa Legea lui Dumnezeu vom fi judecati. “Pe cine Ma nesocoteste si nu primeste cuvintele Mele, are cine-l osandi: CUVANTUL, pe care l-am vestit Eu, acela il va osandi in ziua de apoi.” Sfanta Epistola a lui Ioan 12:48
Sa dea Dumnezeu sa vrem din tot sufletul sa fim ca El si in felul acesta El ne va face viata mai linistita, si plina de pace si speranta. Atunci vom reusi sa mergem in rai!
