Dear Parents and Friends of CCS,
I pray this issue of Parent News finds you experiencing the grace and goodness of God!
This morning in my Bible reading I came to Psalm 118, a song rich with amazing theological truth about God's personal glory, wrapped in a heart-felt joy and satisfaction that provides a great model for how we are to interact with God.
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 118:1
This glorious chapter begins with a rehearsal of the “steadfast love of God, a concept that I believe forms the atmosphere for our encounters with the LORD on a daily basis.
It’s not so much that we fail to see God as loving - it’s just that we leave out the adjective. In a transitive world where impermanence is built into the very fabric of our goods and relationships, “steadfast” reads as an ancient term that, just maybe, has lost its fiery relevance to our hyper-yet superficially engaged world.
Steadfast implies a firmness of purpose and effort, even a loyalty (speaking of words that have lost their zest!) that is not time-dependent. There is a fixed-ness revealed here that echoes the unchangeableness of God (see Maslachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8).
Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
the LORD answered me and set me free. Psalm 118:5
In verse 5 we see that the poet-writer of this work is not operating out of a place where all is well, such that we can write off his perspective as annoyingly pollyanna - no, he is “in distress”, or, using an older term “in straits''. This word gives the sense of being locked in between two unmoving obstacles, creating a pressure that is deeply felt and is likely causing an unquiet in our soul if not our outward circumstance.
I think we all can relate to that.
Verse 13 offers a way out of this dilemma, as the Psalmist cries out that he was “pushed hard”, so much so that he was going down for the count, going under for the third time - “falling” as the ESV renders it.
I was pushed hard,[ so that I was falling,
but the LORD helped me. Psalm 118:13
Let’s pause at this critical point in the song to reflect on our own situation. Is this where you find yourself today?
What has you “in straits”, or to use another phrase from ancient seafarers, “in irons”, a dreaded situation where a sailing vessel could not move because there was not even a whisper of a breeze.
Virtually all of us have experienced seasons where there is absolutely no wind in our sails, and we descend into the bondage of discouragement and even despair.
In verse 14 we can sense the song modulating to a higher key and growing in intensity and fervor:
“The LORD is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation”.
The goodness of the LORD so celebrated in v. 1 has returned with a burst of joy. This leads us to a foreshadowing of the gospel, of Jesus’ work on our behalf in His life, death and resurrection in vv. 19-23:
Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
The climax of this song rings out in the next verse (v. 24):
This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
I can’t think of a better note on which to end than this glorious truth, this viscerally encouraging concept, that this day, whatever it brings, has been purposefully and carefully constructed by a compassionate and sovereign God, so that we have a reason to rejoice and be outright thrilled as a result.
This is yet another facet of the Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom, to which we as Jesus followers have pledged our lives.
In closing let me invite you to check out our new podcast, Gospel Centered Education. New episodes air each week - please share it with a friend!
May God cover us with His glory, even as the “waters cover the sea”, and may He be seen as the Perfectly Marvelous One by all who cross our path this week.
For CCS and the Kingdom,
Tom