Psalm 18

Psalm 18 is a great psalm to read slowly, meditate. Accept the promises and the challenges. Read it over.

18:6 seems to imply that God has a heavenly throne. Revelation expands on that. God is in the violent forces of nature. Is the earthquake a response to God's anger. Then we have a word picture of God riding on a cherub. I think flying chariot.

A book I have recently read is called "He Shall Thunder from the Sky". Perhaps that is an allusion to 18:13. The God who get the rocks to moving is a God who is very close indeed. He is very involved in his world. He starts in his temple (on earth or in heaven). Then he gets busy. I wonder if the author experienced an awful earthquake. It reminded him of God's awesome power. The earthquake is a response to a small ripple of God's anger. The breath from his nose can cause a great earthquake (18:15).

Then God shows his involvement with his people. God is described as a redeemer, a deliverer. I am reminded of how much God wants to be involved in our lives. When we are in trouble he wants us to cry out to him. "He rescued me because he delighted in me." (18:19)

Verse 20 is a promise. Is it for me? Am I qualified? Am I righteous or clean enough? Thank God I do have a redeemer in Jesus Christ who has made me righteous. Verses 20 and 24 are bookends enclosing a promise and a challenge. Can I walk blameless before him? Can I live righteously? I have been made clean by God's mercy. And God expects us to strive to live a life worthy of our calling.

Keep reading Psalm 18. It bears reading slowly and rereading. There is good stuff here.

Acts 5

This is the story of Ananias and Sapphira. We probably all know it and shudder because we secretly identify with their actions (and motivations). We suspect we have tried to claim ourselves to be "all in", to be 100% committed to Jesus while we know in out hearts we are holding back some. We may not actually lie like this married couple did. Yet we feel we are not being totally honest. And we wonder what God is thinking about us.

So this story scares us. A man I used to know would like to argue religion and would take the position in arguments that the Bible is not inerrant but is the creation of wily men. About this story he once stated that what really happened was that Peter killed them both, executed them if you will, and then had them buried. This seems very far fetched but it answers the question of why they died so suddenly. His version certainly does not make one feel better.

But it is very amazing "coincidence" that they just happen to have massive heart attacks after being confronted with their lie. Panic must have ensued in their hearts. In some strange way they feared God, hence their willingness to give some money and join the group but somehow they thought they could hide their deceitfulness from God. I hope we do not do that. As Peter told Sapphira, it is better to be open with God. You cannot fool him. But you can trust him.

When I am not totally committed I admit my weakness to God. Why try to fool God? One should trust God to be just and merciful. I also admit my weakness to men who need to know. I pray for God to make up for what I lack.

We sing a new song in our church called "Furious". In the song God's love is described with several adjectives and one of them is furious. Of course there are the more usual adjectives too. The Spanish translation perhaps more literally means "fierce". I like that.

What does it mean that God's love is furious? I think the point is to create dissonance in our minds, to point out that God's love is different than our love. We do not think of our love for our wife or family as furious, do we? God is a passionate God, extremely passionate. His love is holy too. We do well to remember God's love is amazing and vigorous. It is real. When we think of love we think of hearts, flowers, peace, the color red. God's love is that but it's much more too. Can we handle God's love being called furious?

Two other examples of God's furious love are seen in Aachan's sin (Joshua 7) and Uzzah's presumption to touch the ark (2 Samuel 6:6-7). Aachan, like Ananias, thought he could hide his deceitfulness from God. God is loving but he is also holy. He is God. We are made in his image but God is more. We should never take God for granted. When we do take him for granted he will surprise us.

Acts 4

About 5,000 men came to faith from Peter's speech (Acts 4:4). I would maintain that not just the healing caused them to believe. That brought the crowd to listen. No, it was the fact of Jesus' resurrection being confirmed and explained by one of his followers. That was the sign, the big sign, Jesus predicted when he said, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days." Jesus was referring to his body.

All of those in the crowd had heard of the resurrection. All of them knew someone who knew someone who saw Jesus alive. Roman executions were very public and fairly frequent. They all knew people did not survive Roman executions. The Romans were very efficient. Jesus resurrection was the sign everyone knew about. Peter explained what it meant. And he explained what they could do about it (3:19). Peter was eloquent but that is not why they responded.

Peter was equally bold in front of the temple leaders (4:8). Peter proclaims Jesus is the only name in which salvation comes (4:12). Wow. That is the gospel in a nutshell. Peter did not need a lot of theologians to explain it to him. He was truly filled with the perfect wisdom of the Holy Spirit (4:8).

The Jesus leaders felt it was not expedient to anything to Peter and John right then. Perhaps there was even division among them. Some of them may have been secret believers. But there must never have been sufficient numbers to carry the day. Later the Sanhedrin would be successful in stamping out the new movement in Jerusalem. They would kick all believers in Jesus as Messiah out of the temple.

Acts 3

Peter and John are going to the temple to pray at prayer time. It sounds like they are becoming observant religious Jews. I wonder if they are wearing traditional religious attire much like today's observant Jews do. The beggar speaks to them. They feel compassion for the beggar who asked for money.

They are living communally with other believers by faith. So they had no spending money. All the money in the community was used to buy essentials for the group. We read earlier that the group was growing. They had no spare money. But what they did have was faith in Jesus Christ their ascended Lord. They had seen him heal lame men before. So they called on Jesus, used his name, to heal the lame man. Peter, impetuous as always, grabs the man by the arm and yanks him up. He uses a maneuver he had used many times while fishing, to pull him to his feet. I imagine a strong pull, almost rough.

But as the man is pulled up his legs are strengthened and he is able to stand and walk without help. Just minutes before he had been carried by friends or family to this place. He was not able to move without help. It is possible that the very act of pulling him up did the trick. Perhaps he had not actually tried out his legs in a long long time. Perhaps he could have stood on his own but not known it. Perhaps. However Acts 3 tells us his feet and ankles we strengthened (7) and late in Peter's sermon (16). He is not wobbling around either. When he realizes he can stand on his own he gives a big leap. He is enthusiastic, eager to be free to move on his own. He walks, jumps around, and praises God.

The former beggar now follows Peter and John through the temple. Now when Peter sees they have attracted a crowd he decides to witness. Something so wonder as God's mercy on this man should not be hidden. It is appropriate to give credit to the one who is able to heal. That is certainly not Peter. God gets the glory

Peter then takes the time to glorify Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead. He blames them for his death but then excuses them because they did not know what they were doing. He explains that they can still be his followers even now. They do not scoff. The rumors about a man being raised from the dead surely have passed around. People may wonder but there are many who claim to have seen Jesus alive. As Paul said, this did not happen in a dark corner somewhere. Just as they were offered the gift of salvation so are we, even after we have rejected Jesus, we can still repent and accept him as savior and Lord.