This logic here in
28 is the natural expression of a saint. In other words his desire to
save his own skin from the curse because he is not blinded to the
terrible effects of sin, he points the finger and glories in the power
of the curse as his defense against the stigma of the consequences of
sin. He rises in ability to distance himself through the pronouncement- 5
Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD and what his hands
have done,he will tear them down and never build them up again". as a
declaration of victory through war - 6 Praise be to the LORD ,for he
has heard my cry for mercy.7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;my
heart trusts in him, and I am helped.My heart leaps for joy and I will
give thanks to him in song". as if the Psalmist is reverting back to his
military victories of some other wonders that God preformed on behalf
of Israel. Because Gods word is the cause of all things that transpire
and the Psalmist has pronounced the laws, decrees, covenants,curses and
promises in the past then the wonders are former experiences that result
from Gods inward work through the word that revisit the Psalmist in the
present. And these high experiences transcend all time.
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Let me give you another Psalm about the stigma of spiritual death.
The Psalmist in 28 is describing his struggle to push away the stigma of
judgment that the wicked are under 3 Do not drag me away with the
wicked,with those who do evil,who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.4 Repay them for their deeds and for
their evil work;repay them for what their hands have done and bring back
upon them what they deserve." He is reasoning that the power
of the curse is expressed in a universal struggle to avoid the stigma
of death. In this sense to be free from death is to be free from the
stigma of the curse. Because death is mystical. Man has no power over
death; The Psalmist reasons that if he is concerned for his sin then he
has the ability to use the law as a weapon in order to push the stigma
away.
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Rom 6 1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?..... 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin."
When we were saved God separated us from our sin. If we were not separated from our sin then we would be under the obligation to meet the demands of the law or be cursed.In Psalms 14 the Psalmist teaches the universal consequences of sin. All men are unable to be acceptable to God because of their sin. But the Psalmist is teaching the universal problem of sin to reinforce the divide between Gods covenant people and the nations. The Psalmist uses this logic through out the Psalms in order to strengthen our conviction by teaching sin as a stigma of the curse. He says in vs 5 of Ps 14 "There they are, overwhelmed with dread,for God is present in the company of the righteous."
He goes from teaching a general fact of sin to describing it as it spreads like a disease that leads to death. He doesnt approach the problem of sin from the grace to sanctification motif and from sanctification to grace but rather, he aims to destroy the stigma of sin as the fuel that motivates sin. You see in 14 that he is pronouncing a curse so that he refuses to entertain any other remedy than freedom through death; In other words God had to curse the response of the wish of death in the hate for Gods law that creates all violence in this world. In Ps 14 the teaching of universal consequences of sin is to enforce the stigma of the curse or death.
The context of death in the scriptures is not really personal death from personal sin. Rather it is taught in the context of two kingdoms that are opposed to one another. The apostle is making a distinction in Rom. 716And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me". He is saying that the struggle with inward sin is not really his personal struggle but its belonging to Gods kingdom in the mist of a cursed world. The focus should be on Gods war with Satan.6" You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,but the LORD is their refuge." So this distinction that describes the state of man, who under the curse receives the full consequences of his sin as a stigma while the elect who still sin are encouraged by the terrible effect in pronouncing the curse. In other words evil is piled on in magnifying the terrible judgement so that God is exalted. And as we push the stigma away in the pronouncement we exalt God to His absolute rule over all things. This is the context of the word "death."
Peter is trying to encourage the saints who had been scattered through Asia minor – Roman providence’s. He is warning the Christians to avoid false prophets. In chapt 2 he is saying that the judgement or time of the elects vindication will come about in Gods time when everyone is brought to the last judgement. Sometimes God gives us vindication in our circumstances in this life.Ps 141 6 their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs, and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.7 [They will say,] “As one plows and breaks up the earth, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave. ” This is speaking about Gods deliverance of Israel in decreeing victories through David. You know as Peter says that we put our hope in Gods vindication of us through the justification of Christ on our behalf. Look what Peter says about these false prophets in chapt 2 13 “They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight.” In other words its not really a general promise that God is gonna bring judgment but its directed to the elect who have not received their vindication in this time period.
You see this same kind of attitude about waiting to the end for vindication. 10 The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. Ps 58 11 Then men will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.” This verse here is probably what Peter was alluding to when he gave these saints a promise from God for their suffering that they could count on. 2 Pet 3 15 “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.” You know this whole context is that God is gonna save you in the end as he saved the Apostle. We are gonna be vindicated. So I believe that Peter is giving the elect a promise that every person who is elect that has suffered because of the evils of false prophets who are propped up by the evil Roman empire…as you see in the same Psalms 58 teaching about earthly governments…Ps 1 Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge uprightly among men?2 No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth. So the promise is for vindication…or our ongoing result of repentance..which is a grace.
Ps 143 3 The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.
4 So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed.
The Psalmist has suffered some king of physical trauma or trouble from the schemes of his enemy's. This trouble has put him on his back. He is unable to get up and begin his daily routine. He is comparing his terrible pain with Gods promise to descend lower than the lowest experience in life. Gods hand is always under the worse experiences of His elect. Ps 37 23 If the LORD delights in a man's way,he makes his steps firm;24 though he stumble, he will not fall,for the LORD upholds him with his hand." The elect live in a world where there is a fierce spiritual battle. When Christ descended from His throne in His incarnation the scripture compares this to descending into hell. The world is run by Satan. The bible calls this the course of the world. The power is not from evil men who are in darkness but its from the evil forces in the heaven-lies that use the system of man to turn Gods government upside down.
This is why we face opposition that is too strong for us.Ps 18 16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me;he drew me out of deep waters.17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,from my foes, who were too strong for me." The system of this world is on the level that is beyond our control. This is why there are times when our security is reduced by the size of the opposition. Our trust in God is shaken. We must understand that the real world is Gods heavenly armies fighting against the forces of evil in the heaven-lies. We are caught in a universal struggle of mystical forces. Here the Psalmist feels overwhelmed by the opposition and he is comforted in the promise that if Gods judgement depended upon man then the Psalmist would have no hope. But God lowers Himself below our lowest experiences because He has provided us with a promise that He will never leave us or forsake us in His covenant. Ps 94 14 For the LORD will not reject his people;he will never forsake his inheritance.15 Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart will follow it."
The Psalmist is teaching that when we face opposition or injury that makes us feel powerless that we are experiencing a world that is disjointed. Our hopelessness is brought about by a world where everyone is unable to walk uprightly. The world has gone astray from Gods law. When men sin they create violence in society. Every sin against God is an attack on mans neighbor. When men sin they violate the rights of their neighbor. The Psalmist is saying that God is not taken by surprise or thwarted in His judgements. God has decreed all things and has judged the world so that He has recreated complete unity in His pronouncements. He blesses some men and He curses others. We are in need of complete deliverance. He is saying that God always promises to deliver us completely. He will reorder our lives so that we will experience His judgement coming together with His protection of us.
This is why God has gifted us with the Holy Spirit. He is the advocate who is the perfect spokesman for us that brings us complete deliverance. He says 143 10b " may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." Here the Psalmist is praying that the Spirit is the person who acts to bring about Gods blessing and cursing. The Spirit speaks for us as if Christ was walking in our path. This is why the Psalmist commands the Lord to send the Spirit to create his full deliverance. 11 For your name's sake, O LORD , preserve my life;in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;destroy all my foes,for I am your servant." When we are opposed we must not faint or lose heart. But we must resist in the confidence that God will come and remove all our opposition. He will make it so that we can walk firmly in this life.
2 Sam. 7 14" I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me ; your throne will be established forever.' "
The prophet Nathan is receiving a prophecy from God for King David after he had destroyed His enemies and established his throne in Jerusalem. The Prophet is using the king as the metaphor for the nation of Israel. God will punish Israel if they do wrong. (The king and the Nation are interchangeable. But Davids seal is eternal. )This is showing the responsibility of the Prophet of God. He is the mouth piece of Gods blessing and cursing. The cursing is in the warning of disobedience. The propagation of false gods by national apostasy. The blessing is in the prophecy to establish the throne of David as a metaphor for Christ eternal throne. David himself was a king -prophet.
David is addressing the Sovereign Lord. This name is speaking of the highest governing authority over the universe who has the responsibility to declare war...or to enact the laws curses. This Sovereign Lord is also the one who established he king by upholding His own Name. He decreed from eternity past to redeem the Nation through David the king. Salvation in the context of Israel is always taught in Gods success through Davids military dominance. This is a prophecy given to Nathan that established David seal to deliver Israel from all their enemies. This prophecy gave David the authority to attack and destroy in succession.
We must see that God was prophesying the success of David in order to establish His house by Solomon. The prophet was the creator of success and judgement through the blessings and curses that gave him the authority to be Gods prophet for the king.
Let me show how my interpretation is more consistent with the gospel than holding two contradictory positions. A lot of people will label the free grace gospel with a term of anti -nomianism. But really there is no such thing as without law. Because the bible teaches that there is the law of God and a law that redefines Gods law. An anti nomian is a person who sets up his own law as a result of denying that the law of God curses lawbreakers. Ive heard teachers who believe that we are totally depraved teach that the law gives us a standard that we can meet. But if the law is vehicle to for God to respond to us with rewards then there are two gospels. There is a gospel that is controlled by men in order to approve of the validity of the real gospel. This comes from miss understanding some passage of scripture.
In Psalms 18 it seems to say that the Lord is rewarding the Psalmist for his works. 20 The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD ;
I have not done evil by turning from my God.22 All his laws are before me;I have not turned away from his decrees.23 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight." But we must put this in context of the Psalmist boldness in expressing the covenant faithfulness of God and not His own righteousness. So he says , 27 You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty". Here the Psalmist is putting vs 20- 27 into the context of Gods covenant faithfulness. If the Psalmist was proclaiming his own success then vs 27 would be out of place. But this is a normal way that the Psalmist reasons.
You must understand that the Psalmist does not use the law of God in the context of steps to be accepted by God. He uses the law as a weapon in the curse. And he appeals to God for his own success because of his inability to meet the requirements of the law in himself. When we accept two contradictory truths as both true we always choose the one that is harder to accomplish. That is human nature. This rewards our natural way of approaching life. It feeds the flesh. This is why the gospel is anti intuitive. Because all those things that we naturally trust in must die. The natural way that we think must be replaced by truths that contradict what feeds our confidence in ourselves. This is why the Psalmist applies these truths is a specific way so that we cannot use them to contradict other truths. Its not our definition of the truth but its how we apply the truth that shows what we believe about that truth. This is why there are only two ways that the Psalmist applies the law.
He uses the law as an instrument of destruction. The law pronounces death on all law breakers. The second use is to appeal to God on the basis of the Psalmist powerlessness to meet the standards of the law. These two applications are the only acceptable approach to God. The reason that we cannot accept the two line view is because salvation is a covenant promise to Gods people. Without it depending upon Gods covenant promises it becomes a matter of private interpretation. You cannot talk about salvation in a universal sense and not water it down. If you make it about a personal choice you change the whole purpose of the law and gospel.
Ps 25 10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
11 For the sake of your name, O LORD ,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Our salvation is not secured in regeneration that is proved by action. The regeneration is perfect in us but the action is never equal to the new birth. This is why we are taught that our works are perfected only in the works of Christ. In other words we never work perfectly. So if we cannot be confident that our works prove that we are regenerated. The bible teaches that our works prove that we are regenerated but we cannot trust in our efforts. John 15 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Even in 25 10 the Psalmist says that we have an obligation to keep the demands of the covenant but in verse 21 he describes our works as a protection of our way as he is looking back. 21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,because my hope is in you." The Psalmist is teaching our hope is centered in the gospel. This is the same evidence of having integrity in our lives. But at the same time he responds to the standard of the law and its requirements that he cannot meet these standards. 11 For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great".
Now let me explain this clear teaching that the gospel is self attesting. You see if we respond to the law as a standard that we can keep then we find that the weight of the law is increased so that it increases the destructive power over us. Its sort of like when you fight against an opponent that is equal to your abilities and you are able to subdue that opponent. But when you wrestle with the law as an opponent it appears that you can subdue your opponent but upon entering the ring to take the law on , it becomes a ravaging wolf. This is what the Psalmist teaches about the self attesting power of the gospel. We must understand that the law is good in the sense that it shows us the standard. Because without the standard of the law we would suffer abuse in this world. If someone acted without meeting the full requirements of the law then we would suffer the violence of that person according to the level of his disobedience. This is why the apostle reacted to the Pharisee with a curse. Rom 3 8Why not say--as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say--"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved". Paul was teaching that God decreed all things that exist including sin. His opponents were saying that Paul was teaching that good came out of evil. But Paul was teaching that the curse of the law ended our ability to question the reasons that God decreed sin. In other words we are all guilty of sin and we have no right to decide whether Gods pronouncements of death to law breakers are under our authority to condemn a specific person. God has the right of life and death in His hands.
Paul used the curse to increase the destruction on anyone who tried to meet the requirements of the law as the standard by which the apostle confessed that the gospel was self attesting. Gal 5 12As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" He used the curse to separate a persons actions from the success of the gospel. The more a person trusted in his obedience the more dreadful would be the response of the law. The Psalmist is teaching that the curse of the law enforces the confidence of our integrity that is created by the obedience of Christ. Ps 25 21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,because my hope is in you. " In other words may my pronouncements of death be the hope that has been the result of my continuous experience of deliverance. May it prove that I have no hope in my own obedience as my integrity.
Ive memorized almost the whole nt, Psalms, Proverbs. Ive meditated on these books for 25 years... the Psalmist for 30 yrs. Ive read Edwards, and all the Reformers...listened to hours of the ot. I have never studied a work of a Reformer without spending twice the number of hours in meditation. Ive never approached the Bible with just the language or the commentaries. But has sworn to seek the scripture without pre conceived ideas. I do not believe that anyone can as open minded in their approach to scripture without praying the Psalms. I mean Ive had a lot of people disagree with me about the curses but they have not put in enough time to challenge themselves to be open to all the scripture.
This is why after memorizing so much scripture I am convinced that the Psalms are the instrument by which God makes a minister. Any time I have a disagreement , I spend hours meditating and asking questions about the subject. I do not believe that the confessions, or the reformers dictate my beliefs. But whatever the Bible says it the only standard by which we can trust. And we must go to the scripture without prejudice. I do not believe that anyone has come to the time where they can say they understand the scripture fully. But the mark of a person who is genuine is the one who puts the time in to seek further illumination and understanding. The acceptance is in the search of scripture and not in the degrees one has. Every situation that we find ourselves in has a different kind of opposition. And if we do not have any opposition then we are not really applying our craft. The Psalms are the vehicle that moves us on a pace that is faster than any other way of getting understanding. I believe that the the amount of time that I am not meditating is my own loss to the amount of the potential of my understanding.
Ps 12 5 "Because of the oppression of the weak
and the groaning of the needy,
I will now arise," says the LORD .
"I will protect them from those who malign them."
6 And the words of the LORD are flawless,
like silver refined in a furnace of clay,
purified seven times. "
This Psalm is teaching that God implants His word in our hearts when we are regenerated. Now listen to me...this implanted word is all the communication of God that reorders the entire creation and history of the world. We have the fullness of God dwelling in us. We go from being defined by the law in an inferior way to being protected by the law from any destructive powers that rule the wicked. 7 O LORD , you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever.8 The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men".
We are taught that we enter Gods perfect description of the world that He is renewing. We have become part of Gods redemptive plan. Our whole reality including any opposition of the curse is being redeemed. Now listen..God has saved us into the full power and sovereign rule of His kingdom. Now Gods law enforces His absolute ability to act legally to pronounce us innocent of our sin and corruption. We go from being condemned by the law to using the law for our success in the reality of us already receiving our full salvation but not yet given the whole effects. So we do not war in this world with our own power. Rather the implementation of the word destroys our old identity with the law. We experience the power over this destructive stigma by speaking the curse of the law. There is no longer the voice of slavery that brings despair.( I am not talking about the clinical depression or physical brain disease.)
If we teach that the law brings us to despair then we are embracing the curse. We are letting humanism into our bosom. Because nothing that the elect experience post salvation is worthless. All of our reality is being redeemed by God. This Psalm is teaching that every event in our lives and how we view ourselves is a communication that is tried by fire and purified seven times. This is the only activity of Gods law that enforces our security as Gods covenant people. The consuming effect of the word is no longer our opposition but our defense. 7 O LORD , you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever. " The laws heat defines who we are by distancing us from the destruction of the wicked. The heat is like the allegory of Christ coming from heaven on a chariot with His angels to save us in the time of battle. We are prevented from going back to that old relationship to the law as slaves by the curse equaling the total annihilation of our opposition.
The unity of the church is enforced by the wish of death to anyone who seeks to be justified by the law. The curse enforces the legal justification of sinners. Every man carries around the wish to redeem himself. When we are freed from the communication of legalism we embrace the curse of the law as the only way that we can free ourselves from the pragmatic solutions of immaturity. When people fail to apply the gifts of God in pronouncing Gods kingdom in word and Spirit they encourage the leaven of pragmatism. This is why we must be people of the word because we can bring God down by this neglect. There is no other option.
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