The Purpose of Biblical Exposition

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In his recent volume, Philippians, Colossians, in the Reformation Commentary on Scripture series, Graham Tomlin opens by noting the “remarkable difference in tone and approach,” indeed a different “set of interests” between commentaries of the Reformation era and those of our day. To illustrate this difference he cites from the preface to a commentary on Philippians by Lancelot Ridley, a 16th century commentator who wrote that his aim is that his readers:

Should not perish but live here a life acceptable to God, always in the love and fear of God, by true knowledge of him, which knowledge comes by hearing, reading, studying of God’s word, or by preaching of it, or by reading of some exposition or commentary … wherein God’s word is purely and sincerely opened and declared to God’s glory and to the profit of others. (spelling modernized)

In contrast, Tomlin notes, too often today commentaries are caught up with academic exactitude but miss the heart of the issue.

We would do well to learn from our forebears.

The Psalms as Christian Lament: A Historical Commentary

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psalms as christian lamentBruce Waltke, James Houston, and Erika Moore The Psalms as Christian Lament: A Historical Commentary (Eerdmans)

 

One of the way we demonstrate our lack of immersion in the Psalms is our lack of familiarity with lament, our lack of practice in doing it well and in being comfortable with others lamenting. This book is a wonderful help in reclaiming this biblical practice and thus reconnecting with the church through the ages.

The introduction alone is worth reading as Waltke and Houston treat the reality of suffering, our need for lament and the way the Psalms help us in this area. Then the authors selected 10 psalms, provided exegetical study of them and then paired that study with an investigation of how key voices in the history of the church have dealt with each psalm. Church leaders whose treatment of the Psalms are considered here include Jerome, Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, Augustine, Erasmus, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and others. This is a beautiful example of reading the Bible along with the church through the ages.

I am enjoying this book already and am looking forward to spending more time in it.

 

“I’m trusting Daddy”

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Timmy and Abigail hike, 1

Today I’ve run some errands with my younger two children (Abigail, 8 yrs old & Timothy, 6 yrs old). Everybody else is gone for the day so it’s just the three of us (which means frozen yogurt for lunch, tree climbing, playing tag and who knows what else). As we left one stop which is tucked in some nice woods, I decided to play up the drive and tie in the Redwall story I’m currently reading to them. I was going to take a different way out so I played up the idea of us going into the unknown and deeper into the forest looking for Badrang the tyrant and Captain Clogg. Abigail suggested a path we saw might lead to Noonvale, the tucked away kingdom of the good guys. This is always fun.

As the story died away and the kids looked out at an area that’s unfamiliar to them, there was some kidding about not knowing where we were. Then, Timothy piped up, “I don’t know where we are, but I’m trusting Daddy. He knows how to get us where we’re going.” That confidence is sweet, but it struck me that there is a deeper truth here. Often in life I don’t know where we’re going; I’m not sure how to answer all the decisions coming my way. I like to be very deliberate about things and often don’t do as well with not knowing the answers. I need to respond like my son, confessing my own ignorance but resting confidently in the knowledge and care of my Father. He knows how to get me where we’re going, and his love and knowledge are unbounded. And he even cares more about me arriving safely than I do.

I enjoy having fun with my children, and, when I listen, I often learn a lot as well.

 

A Prayer from Pascal on Contentment

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I have been rebuked and helped recently by this prayer from Pascal.

 

Forgive us Oh Lord, for we do not rest satisfied with the present. 

We anticipate the future as too slow in coming, as if in order to hasten its course; or we recall the past, to stop its too rapid flight.  So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are not ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us… We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to make light from it to arrange the future… the past and present are our means; the future alone is our end.  So we never live, but we hope to live; and as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.

-Pascal

The Battle of Life

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My poem of the week this week is “The Battle of Life,” by Elizabeth Prentiss. It is a good reminder to me of the call to press on beyond my comforts in obedience to the work the Lord calls me to. It is so easy to shift to pursuing my comfort rather than seeking first His kingdom. I thought it an appropriate word in the final week of the semester.

The wintry storm was raging loud without,
And to and fro,
The angry winds flung carelessly about,
The falling snow.

Luxuriously before the ruddy fire
I sat at ease,
The only object of my heart’s desire
Myself to please.

A voice aroused me from my idle dreams,
“Rise, rise, my child!
Shake thyself loose from these unfruitful schemes,
These fancies wild.

Come forth with me, and buffet wind and storm
And icy cold;
Come as thou art, nor stay thy shrinking form
Thus to enfold!”

It was the Master’s voice. I could but yield
To its behest,
While dread repugnance lay but ill concealed
Within my breast.

Behind me closed my sheltering door; I faced
The tempest rude;
Wild, savage winds my shrinking form embraced
While thus I stood

Upon the threshold, casting longing eyes
Back to my home,
Reluctant from my childhood’s Paradise
Enforced to roam.

Then plunging onward towards th’ appointed way,
I madly went,
And night and day, yea, many a night and day,
My figure bent

Beneath the blast. Assailed with shuddering dire,
My fears oppressed,
Despairing, hopeless, stript of all desire,
I onward pressed.

Until I heard above the thunder’s roll
The Master’s voice
Arise once more. It cried, “Oh, faithless soul,
Behold thy choice!

A life-long childhood, basking idly on
The lap of ease,
Or manhood’s strength by long endurance won
In toils like these.

Whether to gird thyself to walk with Me
Mid conflict dread,
Or back effeminate to ease to flee-
Living-yet dead.”

Already by my labors stronger grown,
I stood and cried:
“Master and Lord! With Thee, with Thee alone,
let me abide.

Let me but know I buffet wind and storm,
With Thee, with Thee!
Upon my path Thine own divinest form
But let me see!”

Thus in the hour of battle choice was made!
Choice of unrest!
Thus Christian manhood seeking, undismayed
The storm I breast.

No leisure now, no dreams, no idle time;
I wrestle on;
Beat, icy winds, oppose, oh adverse clime,
Till victory’s won.

For I shall win! I shall come forth at last
Not lost, but found!
A Christian warrior whom each stormy blast
Hath victor crowned!

Narnia & Living in Forgiveness

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I am now reading back through the Chronicles of Narnia with my younger children. No matter how many times I re-read these stories it is a gospel-rich joy. It is fun to share the wonder with my children to whom it is new and to be caught up in the stories again.

Recently we read the section where the White Witch lays her claim on Edmund’s life because he is a traitor. It becomes clear to everyone that she has a real claim, and this eventually leads to much fear and worry. However, C. S. Lewis’s description of Edmund at this moment is a powerful portrayal of gospel security. While the Witch is talking about her claim on a traitor and everyone is thinking of Edmund, Lewis writes:

“But Edmund had got past thinking about himself after all he’d been through and after the talk he’d had that morning. He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn’t seem to matter what the Witch said.”

The accuser is there making it clear she has a right to execute him, but Edmund is unperturbed because he keeps his eyes fixed on Aslan. Of course, ‘the talk he’d had that morning’ was with Aslan, where he had repented and Aslan had restored him. With the knowledge that Aslan had restored and accepted him, the Witches words, no matter how frightening, mattered not all.

If you’ve read the stories you know Alsan is a picture of Jesus and the Witch represents Satan, our accuser. We need to learn the lesson Edmund learned. So often, when the enemy brings his accusations against us we are flustered and try to defend ourselves. We know that ultimately we are guilty. Our hope lies not in our righteousness but in the work of our Advocate. We must quiet ourselves and let Him speak. If we will set our eyes on Him, then it will not seem to matter what the Accuser says. As we sing:

“When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.”

And the song writer is simply expressing the truths of the book of Hebrews from passages like this one:

since we have a great high priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water (Heb 10:21-22).

Our evil conscience cooperates with the Devil accusing us, saying, “Who are you to draw near to God? I know your sin! I’ve seen your rebellion. You are a worm!” We dare not point to ourselves in defense. Instead, we acknowledge, “I am a worm. But behold the worm’s God!” We must fix our eyes on Jesus trusting in his work and giving no heed to the Accuser.

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Rom 8:33-34)

Yes, I need to remember the lesson of Edmund and keep my eyes fixed on Jesus (Heb 12:1).

Trueman, “Tragic Worship”

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Carl Trueman’s First Things article, “Tragic Worship,” is wonderful reminder of our need for addressing the tragic realities of life and death in our worship. Drawing from our understanding of tragedy in drama, Trueman critiques our preference for distraction.

This is what much of modern worship amounts to: distraction and diversion. Praise bands and songs of triumph seem designed in form and content to distract worshipers from life’s more difficult realities.

In contrast, historically Christian worship has faced squarely and regularly the reality of death and suffering. The result is not morose worship, but true edification as we see our deepest issues are addressed by the gospel.

Of all places, the Church should surely be the most realistic. The Church knows how far humanity has fallen, understands the cost of that fall in both the incarnate death of Christ and the inevitable death of every single believer. In the psalms of lament, the Church has a poetic language for giving expression to the deepest longings of a humanity looking to find rest not in this world but the next. In the great liturgies of the Church, death casts a long, creative, cathartic shadow. Our worship should reflect the realities of a life that must face death before experiencing resurrection.

…

The psalms as the staple of Christian worship, with their elements of lament, confusion, and the intrusion of death into life, have been too often replaced not by songs that capture the same sensibilities as the many great hymns of the past did so well but by those that assert triumph over death while never really giving death its due. The tomb is certainly empty; but we are not sure why it would ever have been occupied in the first place.

Only the dead can be resurrected. As the second thief on the cross saw so clearly, Christ’s kingdom is entered through death, not by escape from it.

This is a very helpful essay we ought to consider as we think about how to lead the people of God in worship.

The Pastoral Heart of the Reformation

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Last week my article, “The Care of Souls: The Heart of the Reformation,” was published in the latest issue of Themelios. The article is my attempt to highlight the pastoral impulse behind this pivotal moment in history.  Amidst the important theological and political issues which were involved in this historic movement and which continue to be discussed today, my aim was to remind us that it all sprang from the earnest desire to help real people know God. Here is a paragraph from the opening of the article.

The Reformation was a diverse movement. But at its center was a pulsing, yearning concern for the well-being of souls. Its leaders were pastors at pains to lead their flock—and others from around the world—to forgiveness before God and the resultant living hope, the knowledge of God’s care and presence in the real hardships of this world and the certain hope of resurrection.

In spite of some stereotypes, the Reformation leaders labored to see souls saved and disciple in the grace of God. I have tried to illustrate these concerns with extracts from the writings of several of the leading Reformers.

May our ministries also be marked by such “a pulsing, yearning concern for the well-being of souls.”

 

Pastor of a Church vs. Just a Preacher

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earnest ministry“He who can only generalize in the pulpit, but has not ability to individualize out of it; who cannot in some measure meet the varieties of religious perplexity, and deal with the various modifications of awakened solicitude; who finds himself disinclined or disabled to guide the troubled conscience through the labyrinths which sometimes meet the sinner in the first stage of his pilgrimage to the skies, may be a popular preacher, but he is little fitted to be the pastor of a Christian church.” (John Angell James, An Earnest Ministry, 151)

President-elect Oliver’s First Sermon in Jackson

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duboliver275I was privileged to be in attendance last Sunday when Dr. Dub Oliver, President-elect of Union University, preached at First Baptist Church in Jackson TN. Dr. Oliver noted that this was his first time to preach in Jackson, and he preached a moving message on Matthew 14:13-21, the feeding of the 5,000.

I encourage you to listen to the message. Dr. Oliver focused on v. 17 and on how God uses the little we have to accomplish great things for His kingdom. In what one friend called a “Haddon Robinson-esque” way, Dr. Oliver illustrated this central point with an amazing story about the time President George W. Bush visited the little church he was pastoring in Texas. What a story!

I was personally edified by the message and by what it revealed about Dr. Oliver. His reverence for scripture, evangelistic concern, love for people and genuine devotion to Christ were evident. If you are wanting to get to know our new President-elect, this sermon is a great place to start.