110928 - Psalm 117-118 - Gates of Righteousness

S: 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. (Psalm 118:19-23)

O: This Psalm is Messianic and is what is quoted on Palm Sunday by the crowds recognizing Jesus as fulfilling Zecharaiah 9:9. In each account, Jesus continues into the city, weeping over their unwillingness in Luke 19:41, seeing the fruitless fig tree in Mark 11:13, and purifying the Temple (all 3 synoptics). The cornerstone passage is quoted many times in the New Testament. (Matthew 21:42/Mark12:10-11/Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:7 - also alluded to in Eph. 2:20 and Isa. 8:14,15, which the Peter passage connects to Ps. 118:25) It's interesting to see it this way: the Lord had every right to expect gates of righteousness and bring followers through them with Him. But in this case, He had to cleanse the Temple itself first, because the servants of Mammon were there.

A: It's important to consider the perspective of Christ here as well, but I'm emboldened by the perspective of David. This is the assurance of the New Testament believer. Even after sore chastening (v. 18), the believer confidently expects the gates of righteousness to open before him. Not because of my own doing, but because the LORD has become my salvation when I pleaded, "Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD."

P: Lord Jesus, though you are often grieved at my unwillingness, unfruitfulness and uncleanness, nevertheless your chastening is not for me to be given over to death, but to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Thank you that I can confidently expect the gates to open to me because of the valiant work of the right hand of the LORD.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have all contracted the virus....

Last week and this weekend, I spent precious development time trying to rid myself of unwanted software on my coumputer called " Virtumonde ." Believe it or not, I'm pretty new to viruses and that kind of thing, coming from a background of developing on the Macintosh platform and using the Windows platforms to deliver product on. Well, this was a nasty wake up call to what Windows users have to deal with all the time. Virtumonde is called "Adware" and it's something that has sneaked on to your computer either by being installed along with some kind of trial software, or getting past your computer's defenses on the network. Its job is to watch what you do at all times with your computer, then occasionally pop up advertisements. In my case, most of the time, these advertisements were for anti-virus software. But they kept popping up an installation window for the software and beginning the installation even when I clicked, "no" for "do you w...
Read more

2023—Week21: Ezra01-Nehemiah11; John19-Acts04

Ezra-Nehemiah 11 : In the Jewish Canon, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, and, although the division in ours makes sense, it’s clear that they cover the same basic period. They form one answer to the question at the end of 2 Chronicles’ hanging question, “Therefore, who among the LORD's people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 36:23, ISV) Yet despite their trust, the people are greatly weakened until the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Haggai and Zechariah, Ezra 5:1) encourage them. Ezra’s trust is clearly represented in 8:22, where he is ashamed to request a protective guard for the fortune in treasures he carries, instead trusting in the hand of God for protection. Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9, Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11, and the people’s covenant prayer in 9:5-37 are the outcome. Faith precedes confession, because we don’t fully understand how badly we fall short until it’s revealed to us. Even then, we ne...
Read more

120613 - Luke 12 - The Devoted Servant

Image
Wednesday SOAP: A faithful servant isn't just (as Dr. J. Vernon McGee used to say) someone who would "vote for" Jesus, but someone who knows His master's will and is attentive - and entirely devoted - to His interests. A well-trained servant knows His master so well that he may be guided without a word - only a simple look, (Psalm 32:8), in contrast to willful animals who must be controlled by leashes, bits and bridles. (Ps. 32:9) S: Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. (Luke 12:37) O: Here's a promise that really sounds like too much. Jesus sounds like He is describing John 13:3-5 - but He is describing a future celebration for those followers who have been "awake." Christ was free to make any promise He wanted - or make no promise at all - so rather than adopting Peter's false humility that wo...
Read more