# videos

christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_afUcYOXqs
commentary:
10:4 See on 9:33. Job through his sufferings came to so wish that God could fully appreciate things from a human perspective. Unknown to him at the time, Job was coming to long for the real, Biblical Christ- a man of our nature yet God’s Son, our representative who could empathize with us and reveal the human face of God.
10:8 See on 9:24.
10:9 Will You bring me into dust again- Job had no belief in an ‘immortal soul’; he believed the Biblical position, that we are made from dust and will return to dust again, with no inherent immortality. This is alluding to Gen.3:19- the curse upon sinful Adam that he would return to the dust. Job seems to be admitting that he is like Adam in that it appeared God was going to end his life as a result of his sin- return him to the dust. But he reasons that this is unfair, seeing he has not sinned (10:7,14,15). Thus he oscillates between saying he has sinned and is like Adam, and then claiming that although he is being treated like Adam this is unfair. Similarly Job complains "He bruises me...without cause" (9:17); the same word translated "bruise" in Gen.3:15, thus implying that he is receiving the result of the punishment in Eden for no reason. 27:2-4 also alludes to the record of God's creation of Adam in Gen.2:7. In 31:33 Job denies that he is like Adam in that unlike him, he has no sin to hide: "If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity...". And yet like Adam he was humiliated by God's questioning at the end of the book. See on 13:20-22; 14:20. We too oscillate between accepting our sinfulness and yet considering our judgment for it as unfair. We are all brought like Job to the crushing and total acceptance of it in the end.
10:16 Again You show Yourself wonderful to me-  Job felt as we sometimes do that one moment God is tender and gracious, but the next almost violent and rough with us. But this is only because we fail to perceive the full picture of God.
10:21 I go where I shall not return from- Job’s faith in resurrection and ultimate salvation oscillated; for in 19:25-27 he is very clear about it. It could be, however, that Job was forced to a belief in resurrection, judgment and reward at the last day by his sustained reflection on the fact that he as a basically good man was so suffering, the wicked were prospering, and yet God is a God who [for all Job’s doubts of the moment] must ultimately reward the righteous and the wicked.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYVgirNDi1A
commentary:
11:10 If He... convenes a court... who can oppose Him?- Job disagreed. He felt as did Moses and others that we can enter dialogue with God, disagree with Him, ask Him to change His mind. Zophar is reasoning from the perspective that all we can do is to submit to God, in an almost Islamic sense. Yet God thirsts for relationship with us; and therefore we can reason with God, even in the court of Heaven.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4OByTmkdIk
commentary:
12:3 I am not inferior to you- Job repeats this in 13:2. Job refused to take false guilt, nor to feel himself inferior to those who accused him of sinning and who insisted he take their advice and adopt their perspectives. He realized that those who were trying to push him down beneath them were mere men like him. We too at times have to consciously refuse to be psychologically pushed down beneath others.
12:19 See on 13:26-28.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cS_D15DJkg
commentary:
13:15 Even if He slays me, still I will trust in Him- The language of 'slaying' takes us back to the Mosaic commands about how a 'slayer' of a man might be killed by the 'avenger of blood' (Dt. 19:6). Job saw God as slaying him; yet he also sees God as the 'witness' in the case (16:19), and the avenger of Job's blood (19:25). Job even asks God to not let the earth cover his blood, so that God as the avenger of Job's blood may avenge Job's death (16:18). Job does not see 'Satan' as his slayer, and God as the avenger of his blood. Instead Job- in a quite breathtaking set of associations- sees God in all these things: the slayer, the legal witness to the slayer, the avenger of blood, and the One who will enforce the doing of justice in this case, the One who will not let the earth cover Job's blood. If Job really believed in a superhuman Satan, in Satan as the bad guy and God as the avenger of the injustice, he surely would've expressed himself differently. As Job imagines God as it were taking vengeance on Himself, so he came to portray for all time the way that evil and good are indeed both ultimately from God.
13:20-22 This alludes to the fall of Adam in Eden. Job was recognizing that he had sinned, that he knew that the sense of spiritual limbo he was in paralleled Adam's hiding from God in Eden, but that he would only respond to God's call and come out of hiding to confess his sin as he knew God wanted him to, if God withdrew His hand- i.e. relieved him of the immediate trials he was then experiencing. Thus Job was trying to barter with God- wanting Him to withdraw the trials in return for Job making the confession which he knew God wanted. See on 10:9; 14:20. In various but differing ways, we all madly struggle against the call to totally repent; whether by pure stubbornness, misinterpreting Scripture, or whatever twisted logic and sophistry. One lesson of the book of Job is the way God seeks to bring us to total and utter repentance.
13:27 The mark on him that was a witness wherever he went echoes that which God put on Cain. God's preservation of Cain from death also finds a parallel in Job's feeling that God is preserving him unnaturally (3:21-23; 10:9-15). As with the similarities with Adam (see on 10:9), Job complains that although he is associated with Cain, this is not really fair. "You set a mark on the soles of my feet" because, Job complains, God observes him with unnecessary detail. Zophar possibly recognized that Job was like Cain in that his face had fallen and he was so angry, although also fearful of God (Gen. 4:5); he said that if Job repented he would “lift up his face and not fear" (11:15). See on 16:17,18. As noted on 13:20-22, all feelings we have that our suffering is unfair are all part of our stubborn refusal to face the enormity and just consequences of our sin.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZTei0vFNKA
commentary:
14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?- Job seems to be justifying his sins by arguing that sin is inevitable because of our nature. This is just a theological form of the stubborn refusal to face up to our sinfulness as noted on 13:20-22. The Lord Jesus had our nature and yet didn’t sin; all that we say about human nature we say about Him. We aren’t inevitable sinners, victims of a human nature which wasn’t our fault as it were. See on 15:14,15.
14:12 So man lies down and doesn’t rise- Job’s faith in and desire for a future resurrection develops throughout the book; in 19:25-27 he is very clear about it and his earnest longing for it.
14:20 The reference to change and sending away refers to Adam being sent out of Eden, or also to Cain's countenance falling and then being sent away from God. Yet in :15 Job is alluding to God’s calling to Adam in the garden; and Job is full of reasons which he will give God of his own rightness and innocence. So at this stage, Job is torn between recognizing his sinfulness and yet justifying it, perhaps only seeing it in terms of being a victim of the consequences of Adam’s sin in Eden. As the book progresses, he is brought to the total acceptance of personal sinfulness and the justness of Divine punishment which God seeks to bring us all to.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbS9RTk55mc
commentary:
15:6  These words are alluded to by Jesus when He taught that our words will be the basis of our condemnation or acceptance (Mt. 12:37). He also picks up this verse in His words to the one-talent man in the parable: "Out of your own mouth will I judge you" (Lk. 19:22). The only ones to be rejected at the last day are those whose words in this life have asked for it. Our words will as it were be quoted back to us in that day. This is how important they are.
15:14,15 Eliphaz’s view of both human beings and Angels was wrong. We aren’t inevitable sinners just because of our nature; it’s no sin to be human, to be alive, and the wrath of God isn’t kindled upon every baby who is conceived and born just because they are humans. See on 14:4. God perhaps answers the wrong idea that Angels sin by commenting that all of them rejoiced in His creation (38:7).
15:21 Eliphaz says that Job's sudden problems amid his prosperity were what would happen to all the wicked. This seems to be alluded to in 1 Thess.5:3 concerning the sudden destruction of rich, spiritually self confident ‘believers’ at Christ’s return.
15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit- Sin is often described as being conceived within the human heart (Acts 5:4; James 1:13-15). Sin is totally our fault; it proceeds out of the human heart (Mk. 7:15-23), not because of any cosmic ‘Satan’ being making us sin.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAL844ZvQWQ
commentary:
16:5-7 See on 9:28.
16:9 My adversary sharpens His eyes on me- The Hebrew word satan means ‘adversary’. Although a different Hebrew word is used here, Job clearly saw God as his adversary and not any wicked cosmic being.
16:9-14 It was so hard for Job to accept that God and not any orthodox ‘Satan’ figure was his adversary. It’s one thing to deduce from the Bible that both good and disaster comes from the Lord, as taught in Is. 45:5-7. It’s of course quite another to accept it in real life, and Job is an inspiring example. The poetry here speaks of Job’s awesome and even angry realization that God is in fact [in a sense] his enemy / adversary. See on 19:26.
16:17,18 Here Job associates himself with unfairly persecuted Abel; he likens his cry for justice to the crying of Abel's blood from the ground in Gen.4:10. He is trying to justify his refusal to recognize that he, a relatively righteous man, was in fact a serious sinner. It’s perhaps easier for those the world considers sinners to come to repentance than it is for those whom the world considers ‘normal’ and even righteous. This includes many of us; hence the biting relevance of Job to us. See on 13:20-22.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dlQEKVw0sU
commentary:
17:9 Shall grow stronger and stronger- There is an upward spiral in spiritual life, and also a downward spiral, in which, e.g., God hides correct understanding from people (:4) in response to their not really wanting it. Thus He can even delude people to believe lies (2 Thess. 2:11).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS_LXCiAFWw
commentary:
18:14 The king of terrors- Bildad blamed Job’s calamity upon pagan versions of the ‘Satan’ myth such as this supposed king, and the “firstborn of death” (:13). One intention of the book of Job is to deconstruct these ideas and to present God as the ultimate source of both good and disaster.
18:19 Bildad throughout this chapter is alluding to Job’s loss of his home and family, and is certain that the next step is for Job himself to die without descendants- because, he assumes, Job has sinned. The restoration of Job’s health and the gift of a new family at the end of the book proves Bildad so wrong. We need to learn the lesson not to assume things about others’ relationship with God nor about the meaning of events in their lives.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7MseJvfU9M
commentary:
20:19 Job denies doing these things; if he had, it’s unlikely that God would describe his earlier life in such positive terms (1:2). Zophar was once Job’s friend, but he now speaks with a seething anger against him and claims all kind of false things against Job- which as his “friend” he surely knew weren’t true. This radical change was related to Zophar’s false understanding that suffering always comes as a result of sin. He became convinced Job was a sinner, and when he couldn’t prove that, he simply fabricated things in his mind and then became persuaded they were true. If Zophar had to admit that Job was righteous, then he would have to revise his view of suffering; admit he had been wrong; and be prepared to accept that suffering may strike him too, despite his own apparent righteousness. And it would seem that his jealousy at Job’s wealth was then vented out. He felt that if Job was a sinner, then he could treat him in a less than human way. Fear of revising ones’ own understandings, admission of being wrong forced upon people by others’ experiences, dashed expectations and false assumptions... can lead to this kind of seething hatred and false accusation, and is the root of much relationship breakdown today.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCP8xnbZqFQ
commentary:
21:4 Why shouldn’t I be impatient?- Job falls into the trap of justifying poor behaviour because of the extremity of the circumstances. Eventually he is led to the final climax of chapter 42, where he stops making excuses, blaming his nature, his situation and the machinations of others- and accepts his sinfulness in toto. It was so hard for him to do this because relatively speaking he was righteous. But spiritually middle class believers who keep their noses clean publically and avoid major personal scandals have got to all the same radically repent; and this is the pointed relevance of Job to so many believers today.
21:7 In 9:21 and by implication in other places, Job effectively says that there is no point in serving God or striving for obedience to God. This is what the priests of Israel later said at the time of the restoration from exile (Mal. 3:14). Malachi is alluding to Job’s words here and in 9:21. Note that Elihu also claimed that Job had said that serving God was of no profit (34:9). Job has much relevance to the returning exiles- see on 3:23. Job was ignoring the very fine sensitivity of God to human behaviour; the fact He is so high and we are so morally low doesn’t mean that our behaviour is irrelevant. Job’s problem was a refusal to repent, and he is here making the excuse that God’s insensitivity to sin meant he didn’t have to repent. We must learn the lesson- God’s sensitivity to sin is the very reason we should repent of it.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GIeXnRAbLs
commentary:
22:3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous?- See on 21:7.
22:6 You have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked- This was absolutely not the case. But Eliphaz was so convinced that suffering comes as a result of sin that he concluded Job must have sinned and therefore imagined these things until he became convinced Job had done them. People who start imagining false things about others because of gut feelings about them end up genuinely believing those things are true. It all arises from an inability to accept we may be wrong in our worldview and therefore in our judgment of others.
22:13 You say, ‘What does God know?’- The fact God sees and knows all things leads us to right behaviour. Eliphaz here is reasoning that because Job refused to accept that sin and suffering were related in his case, therefore this implied something about Job’s view of God. We must be careful of extrapolating like this- if you believe X then you believe Y about God which means you think God is Z. Such false logic leads to a perilous path of reasoning which results in the breakdown of relationships, slander, misrepresentation and judgmentalism which in itself is so wrong before God. If Eliphaz had left judgment to God and focused instead upon practically helping Job, he wouldn’t have slid into this path of false logic.
22:22 Please receive instruction from His mouth- Eliphaz is playing God here. What he means is, ‘Please receive instruction from me’; he assumes too quickly that his views are God’s. If we accept the Bible as God’s word, then our own intuitions and life wisdom must be seen by us as just that- and not God’s word. The very specific existence of God’s word means quite simply that our word isn’t His.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M809xeeQIUc
commentary:
23:10 When He has tried me, I shall come forth like gold- The allusion may be to a refiner of gold who heats the gold until the dross is purged and becomes so pure that he sees his own face reflected in the molten gold. This is what the heat of trial is intended to achieve in our lives. Job perceived God and not any evil ‘satan’ being as responsible for his trials, and he realized even in his depression that they had a purpose- to bring forth God’s likeness in him.
23:12 The words of His mouth more than my necessary food- As eating is a regular necessity which we automatically find time for, so our feeding upon God’s word each day should likewise be regular and natural. In our generation, it ought to be that we can’t easily lay our head down each night unless we have read or heard His word some time during the day.
23:15 I am terrified at His presence- Job’s speeches are full of contradictions. He feels he is in God’s presence, right before His judgment seat; but at other times he feels he’s desperately searching for God and trying to get an audience, but God is being elusive (:8,9). These oscillations in perception of God are part of depression and the bi-polar problems Job was obviously experiencing; hence he one moment eagerly looks ahead to the resurrection, at others he denies a resurrection can happen, or says he doesn’t want to participate in it. Through it all, God loved and accepted him, so that at the end of the book He commends Job (42:7). In spiritual terms, we’re all bi-polar. If we rejoice in God’s gracious acceptance of us and His focus upon our better side, we urgently need to have this attitude to our brethren, whose weaker side is often right in our face.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPEwRMB08Po
commentary:
24:1 Whilst God may work according to time periods, those periods aren’t known by man. We don’t know how long we nor anyone else shall live, nor the exact date of Christ’s return. Any study of prophetic ‘time periods’ should bear this in mind; that God wishes us to live as it were in an eternal now, not pacing ourselves according to our expectations of time, but fully devoted to Him each moment.
24:2 Job in this chapter labours the point that the wicked prosper in this life, and yet because sin is significant to God, Job concluded that death is the punishment for their sin. This is stated explicitly in the New Testament (Rom. 6:23). We shouldn’t miss the significance of death; it is in the end the answer as to why the wicked appear to prosper in this life. Again, by implication and inference, Job is driven towards hope in a resurrection from the dead and a recompense in this earth as the result of living righteously before God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEamkObc6HA
commentary:
25:4 The argument here presented is that because God is so great, man can never be right with Him. Job who had lived a good life and been declared as righteous by God must therefore have been driven to wonder how he could be right with God when he was a sinner, whilst also accepting God’s supreme moral height and the depth of human failure to be like Him. The answer he was surely driven to is that God would have to impute His very own righteousness to man. And this is what He does to those reckoned as “in” Christ. Again we see how the sufferings of Job’s life and his struggle to understand them led him by inference to the essence of the Christian Gospel, even if it wasn’t specifically revealed to him in so many words. For the Gospel of imputed righteousness in Christ had in essence been preached to Abraham (Rom. 4:9; Gal. 3:8).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md6kA1-3haI
commentary:
26:6 Job is alluding to the myths about the supposed ‘satan’ figure Mot having the underworld open before him and pushing into it whoever he wishes. When he speaks of how "Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering" he is saying that God and not Mot has this power; and in that context speaks as if God is the real attacker, not, therefore, Mot or any other such being. Num. 16:31-35 likewise describes God as swallowing up Korah, Dathan and Abiram into death in the earth- as if to deconstruct the idea that Mot did things like this.
26:10 Job understands that it is God who sends the good and evil, the light and the darkness, into his life (30:26). Significantly, he states his faith that God even marks out the boundary between light and darkness- a similar idea in essence to the reassurance of Is. 45:5 that God creates both light and darkness. The 'darkness', however we experience and understand it, is framed and limited by God; it is not a power or being with independent existence outside the realm of God's power. God confirms Job's understanding later, when He says that it is He who can swaddle the sea [another figure for uncontrollable evil in pagan thought] in bands of darkness (38:9)- as if to say that it is God who gives things like darkness and the sea their sinister appearance and perception by men; but He is in control of them, using them in His hand. Job's idea that God fixes limits for the darkness is repeated by God saying that He sets limits for the raging sea (38:10). God controls evil, or human perception of it (e.g. of the sea as being evil), and He sets limits for it- which was exactly what He did to the power of 'Satan' in the prologue to Job. All these statements by God about His use of and power over things like darkness and sea, which were perceived as being independent forces of evil, are quite different to Canaanite and Babylonian worldviews. In them, gods like Baal had to fight Yam, the evil sea god, with clubs provided by other deities; in the Babylonian version, Marduk has to arm himself with various weapons in order to try to get supremacy over Tiamat. But Yahweh as revealed in the book of Job has utter and absolute power over the sea [monster] and the [supposed god of] darkness- for He created the sea and the darkness and uses them creatively for His purpose. That's the whole purpose of the many 'nature passages' in the book of Job.
26:11-14 Job understood God to be in control in Heaven; he rejects the idea of a cosmic conflict going on ‘up there’ which the friends seem to allude to. More specifically, Job speaks here of how God’s hand forms and can pierce the “crooked serpent” and smite any monster. It’s as if Job is mocking the idea that God has let him go into the hands of the cosmic monsters which the friends believed in. For Job so often stresses that it is the "hand of God" which has brought His affliction (19:21; 23:2). That Divine hand was far greater than any mythical 'Satan' figure. The theme of his speech in Job 28 is that Yahweh alone is to be feared throughout the entire cosmos. Nobody else- such as the ‘Satan’ figures alluded to by the friends- needed to be feared.
26:13 His Spirit... His hand- The Spirit of God isn’t a person nor any part of a supposed ‘Trinity’- a word which never occurs in the Bible. His Spirit is His ‘hand’, His power in practical operation.
26:14 How small a whisper do we hear of Him!- We must ever bear this in mind when speaking of ‘the truth’ and the need for correct Biblical interpretation. When in difference with other believers about Biblical interpretation, we must remember that we ourselves only know a fraction of God’s truth. We mustn’t assume that because we know the Gospel and have responded to it, therefore we know all the truth there is to know. We know just a whisper about the final fullness of God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDYZwN_U6jI
commentary:
27:2-4 See on 10:9.
27:14 Job comments that if the children of the wicked "are multiplied, it is for the sword". Seeing his own children had been destroyed, Job presumably was accepting that he was among the "wicked", as he does elsewhere (e.g. 9:2). Hos. 9:13,16 repeats such language regarding the punishment of sinful Israel: "Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer". Dt. 28:41 has the same idea. Job was a symbol of the suffering servant, Israel, struggling in Babylon to come to terms with their sinfulness and the rightness of God’s judgments against them (see on 3:23). On a personal level, Job is here moving closer to the final total acceptance of sinfulness and personal guilt which brings his sufferings to a close in chapter 42.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu4sJTR_bG0
commentary:
28:28 This verse is the crunch line of this chapter’s lengthy description of how wisdom cannot be found in any specific location or hidden part of the planet. The very length of the preamble is only to build up to the colossal significance of this verse: that wisdom isn’t located anywhere, it is experienced in the life of the person who fears God and departs from evil. Especially in the age of over information in which we live, the idea is strongly felt in us all that wisdom is a set of facts, theological propositions, pithy sayings, located with somebody, in the care of some group of people, in some book. But the point is that wisdom isn’t theoretical nor abstract, but intensely practical. We would all far rather make an academic study of something ‘spiritual’ than in practice root out evil from our lives; in this lies the attraction of intellectualizing spirituality. But wisdom as defined here is in experience; hence Job realizes that before his sufferings, he had only heard of God in the ear, but through practical experience he had as it were seen Him (42:5).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4h16a7oMY0
commentary:
29:12 I delivered the poor who cried- False allegation leads us to self defence, and Job seems to fall into the trap of being so self-defensive, listing his good works in such detail, that he forgets his own sinfulness. False accusation, refusal to accept false guilt, not being understood and being rejected by others mustn’t lead us to forget our real and actual sins. In the bigger picture, God used the false accusations to try to make Job take a serious inward look at his life in order to try to bring him to total repentance for what he actually had done wrong. But it seems Job didn’t respond, he got caught up on the level of answering the false accusations and didn’t allow the process of self-examination to go any further as God intended.
29:13 Job's words of 30:1 certainly smack of arrogance: "Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs". This would mean that his merciful acts to the poor were done in a 'charitable' spirit, thinking that such public acts declared him outwardly righteous; he thought that his charity towards the widow were thereby his righteousness, a clothing and diadem of glory and beauty. This has clear reference to the clothing of the Mosaic High Priest with his outward show of righteousness. God was trying to lead Job beyond this to a trust in the righteousness which God imputes and which isn’t our own- see on 25:4. There are times when he realizes this, but the need he felt to clear himself before the friends led him to overlook it; it took God’s final intervention to bring him to throw himself totally upon God’s righteousness and not his own.
29:16 The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out- Our goodness to others shouldn’t be merely a positive response to their requests; rather should we like God think and plan how we can show grace to others, and therefore ‘search out’ their situations and how we could be kind and gracious to them.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leLftEPija8
commentary:
30:19 I have become like dust and ashes- But we are by nature “dust and ashes”. Job came to realize his own humanity through his sufferings; God often teaches us those basic truths again and again because we like to see ourselves as more than we really are.
30:21 Job recognized that his trials came from the hand of God, but knew that His hand would not kill him (:24). This was exactly the brief given to ‘satan’ in the prologue- God put Job into Satan’s ‘hand’ in order to try Job, but commanded ‘satan’: "preserve his life". Again we see that God was effectively the satan or adversary to Job. In similar vein God (in the Angel of the presence) "was turned to be (Israel's) enemy" because of their sin (Is. 63:10). Job complains that God through the satan-Angel has "turned to be cruel to me".
30:26 When I looked for good, then evil came; when I waited for light, there came darkness- Job is learning, slowly. He had previously thought that only good would come because of his righteousness. He even expected blessing from God; he believed as do many today who have swallowed the prosperity Gospel. But he learnt otherwise; and he learnt the truth which God tried to teach Judah in captivity, that good and evil, light and darkness, all come from God (Is. 45:5-7); see on 3:23.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfHg38oHXaw
commentary:
31:4 Doesn’t He see my ways, and number all my steps?- Job dismissed as monstrous the idea that he had committed adultery or even looked lustfully upon a woman- simply because God sees and knows all things. We cannot passively accept that fact; it will mean that sexual sin, which for the most part is committed in ‘secret’, cannot be a serious option for us because nothing in our lives is secret before God.
31:33 See on 10:9.
31:34 Because I feared the great multitude- It’s so often the fear of losing face and image, the fear of the multitude, which stops us from confessing sin. But seeing that all will be open to all our brethren eternally, we should have no need to be hypocritical in this life. God glories to forgive us, so we should have the same openness and zeal in repentance.
31:38 If my land cries out against me- Job was sensitive to the natural creation, even to his land, in the way he farmed it.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-V8O4EozgA
commentary:
32:18 It’s unclear whether Elihu refers to his own spirit, or the fact that he was inspired to speak by God’s Spirit, and therefore like Jeremiah (Jer. 6:11) was weary at trying not to speak forth the words he was inspired to speak. If we accept Elihu as speaking on God’s behalf, as the mediator which Job so begged for, then we have to take a somewhat negative view of Job- in that Elihu is critical of Job and accuses him of arrogant self-righteousness. Note that in God’s final summing up, the friends and Job are criticized, but He says nothing against Elihu. In this case, God’s final commendation of Job in 42:7 would be strictly within the context of Job’s repentance. However, whilst Elihu often speaks in harmony with God’s direct words later in the book, he remains somewhat enigmatic; for his fierce criticism of Job, mixed with what appears to be youthful arrogance and dogmatism, is hard to fully square with God’s opening and closing statement that Job was spotless in His sight. Perhaps God didn’t want to have to personally intervene in revealing Job’s sinfulness to him; He always seeks to work through people rather than by direct intervention. And so perhaps God sent this arrogant young man to Job as a final attempt to appeal to him.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN85neBb0pw
commentary:
33:13 All refusal to repent is a striving against God in that He is constantly working in our lives to bring us to repentance.
33:27 Job's decision to say "I have sinned... and it didn’t profit me" connects with the prodigal son (Lk. 15:21), thus again associating Job with the Jews in their suffering, repentance and final return to God from exile in the Gentile world; see on 3:23.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr2JtBj75O4
commentary:
34:8 Goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men- This wasn’t true of Job. Elihu may however be sarcastically referring to the three friends of Job as “wicked men”.
34:9 See on 21:7.
34:14 If He set His heart on Himself- If God were selfish, He wouldn’t have created nor maintain the world. We therefore see God’s unselfishness and outgiving grace every microsecond of our existence.
If He gathered to Himself His spirit and His breath- The Spirit of God is His breath, His power by which He sustains all creation. It isn’t a person, as the false doctrine of the Trinity supposes; although at times His Spirit, His power, can be personified as many abstract things are.
34:23 The day of judgment is therefore not in order for God to acquire knowledge or facts about us; He knows that already. The process of judgment day will be for our benefit. For if Christ came and we immediately entered the Kingdom without that necessary process, we would have so little appreciation of His grace nor of each other nor of ourselves. The purpose of judgment, even when it is received in part in this life as in Job’s case, is to teach us, rather than provide God with information.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiATqTH4REM
commentary:
36:15 He opens their ear in oppression- Our sensitivity to and understanding of God’s word is heightened during times of trial. Sadly we are such empirical learners that we have to suffer many things to make us open our ear to His word; and we needn’t suffer them if we accepted with full meaning the simple foundation truth that the Bible is indeed God’s word speaking to us. The wonder of the very existence of God’s inspired word ought to of itself make us open our ears in sensitivity to it. But because we fail to believe it as we ought to in practice, we are sent tribulation to make us sensitive to it.
36:30,31 He covers the bottom of the sea. For by these He judges the people- The sea was seen by ancient peoples as the abode of ‘satan’ type gods of evil. God is showing that He is in full control of the sea, and any beings there which people might imagine would be in any case under His total control and not hidden from Him.
36:33 The storm that comes up- A thunderstorm was brewing as Elihu spoke. Lightning and thunderstorms were seen as the wrath of supposed gods of evil, who were similar to the ‘satan’ being many believe in today. The point of the thunderstorm was to demonstrate that it was God in control, it was from Him, and not from the ‘satan’ entities people generally believed in at that time. See on 37:2,15.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3iLxs6zfSQ
commentary:
37:2 Hear the noise of His voice- See on 36:33. The crash of the thunder in the storm which came down upon them wasn’t the voice of any radically independent god of evil, but God’s voice.
37:7 He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom He has made may know it- Our hand or power is often limited by God through weakness, illness, dysfunction of ourselves or others, so that we may know the strength of His hand and power.
37:15 Do you know how God controls them, and causes the lightning- See on 36:33; the natural creation isn’t just ticking on clockwork, God is actively in control of it all. We are therefore never far from evidence of God’s active, passionate awareness and power.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfX4fxVnzXo
commentary:
38:7 See on 9:32.
All the sons of God shouted for joy- Note that all the Angels are obedient to God and on His side as it were. Angels don’t sin (Lk. 20:35,36 cp. Rom. 6:23).
38:8-11 Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth from the womb- The supposed sea gods of evil (see on 36:30,31) were under God’s control and limitation even if they existed, just as He specified and limited the power of ‘satan’ in the prologue. There are several allusions in Job to Babylonian legends concerning Marduk- indicating that the book may have been re-written in Babylon with allusion to these legends in order to deconstruct them. The Enuma Elish 4.139,140 speaks of how Marduk limited the waters of Tiamat, and set up a bar and watchmen so that the waters wouldn't go further than he permitted. But this very language is applied to God here and in 7:12. One of the purposes of Job was to urge Judah that Yahweh was greater than Marduk, He and not Marduk was to be Israel's God. The sea was understood to be the abode of evil monsters. Yet Job stresses how God is in control of the raging sea. Just look out for all the references to the sea in Job. God artlessly claims to have created the sea. In the Canaanite pantheon, Baal was seen as well matched in conflict by Yam, the sea god. But it’s emphasized by God that He created the sea, shuts it up within bounds, brought it out from the womb. In Canaanite myth, Aquhat [another ‘Satan’ figure in their theology] could alone “count the months”- but the same phrase is used in 39:2 about how God alone has this power. As God ‘shut up’ Job (1:10 Heb.), so He could ‘shut up’ the sea, with all the evil associated with it in peoples’ minds at the time (38:8). For at creation, He had commanded the waters where to go and they obeyed just one word from Him. God is using poetry to reframe these pagan myths in the context of His omnipotence, to show that His awesome power means that there’s no room left for these supposed beings to exist. Often the Bible speaks of the power of God over raging seas- for the sea was so deeply associated with evil in the minds of Semitic peoples (e.g. Ps. 77:19; 93:4 and the fact that three of the Gospels emphasize how Jesus walked over raging sea- Mt. 8:23-27; Mk. 4:36-41; Lk. 8:22-25).
38:10 See on 26:10.
38:29 Out of whose womb- One of many places where God likens Himself to a woman.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbirydW_GkA
commentary:
40:8 Will you condemn Me, that you may be justified?- God is as it were placed in the dock by our allegation that we have not sinned as He claims, and that our sufferings are unjustified. Paul plays on this idea throughout the legal language of Romans 1-8.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0EmNJontrQ
commentary:
41:1 God almost jokes with Job, that he had been trying to draw out Leviathan with a fish hook; this is a commentary upon so many human attempts to get a handle on the way God is the adversary / satan figure in our lives. Shrugging it off as chance and bad luck, believing in a personal Satan in the sea or in Heaven, thinking God is punishing us... all this is trying to capture Leviathan with a mere fishing rod. The book of Job isn't an explanation for specific human suffering- and many who turn to the book looking for that come away disappointed. Rather is it an account of God's sovereign power, putting meaning into the word "All-mighty" when applied to God. On a 'doctrinal' level it is indeed a deconstruction of the ideas of supernatural 'Satan' figures. But on a more personal level, it challenges us to follow in Job's faithful footsteps, as it challenged Judah in captivity. The monster figures of Leviathan and Behemoth appear at the end of the book of Job, forming a kind of inclusio with the opening reference to Satan; and they are clearly part of God’s final answer to Job’s “case”. Behe-mot can be understood as a reference to Mot, the Canaanite god of death; and Leviathan appears to be the Canaanite version of the orthodox ‘Satan’ figure, perhaps a reference to the ‘Lotan’ of the Ugaritic myths. In great detail, these figures are deconstructed. They are shown to be created beings- created by the one almighty God of the Old Testament, to be completely under His control to the point that He can even tease them, so enormously greater is His power than theirs. These Canaanite ‘Satan’ figures are thereby shown to have no significant existence; and they certainly don’t exist as opposed to God. They are totally under His control. ‘Evil’ in a form independent of Him, in radical opposition to Him, simply isn’t there. It is He who not only created Behemoth, but can effortlessly control him in accord with His purpose (40:15). That’s the comfort of the message. Indeed the descriptions of the natural world which lead up to the Leviathan / Behemoth passages are there to underline this point; and it’s interesting that those passages zoom in upon the cruelties and even brutalities within nature. Yet these are all of God’s ultimate design and creation, and under His providential control. Job had earlier perceived this; for he responds to the friends’ allusions to an evil ‘Satan’ figure as the source of his suffering by observing: “Ask the animals... the birds of the air... [they show that] the hand of the Lord [and not any supernatural ‘Satan’] has done this” (12:7-9). The same Hebrew words are used about God’s binding and loosing of the stars [which were thought to control evil on earth] and His binding, loosing and opening of Leviathan’s mouth (38:31 cp. 40:29). Whether or not Leviathan / a ‘Satan’ figure, or the bad stars, are for real... God is in utter control of them, and there is thus no conflict, no war in Heaven, no ultimate dualism at all in the cosmos. Which is just the message we would expect from a monotheistic Old Testament book. Israel’s God is truly the Almighty. Just as Job is described as God’s “servant” (1:8), so is Leviathan (40:28; 41:4). No evil power uncontrolled by God is at work in Job’s life. We also need to give due weight to the fact that God speaks the Leviathan / Behemoth passages “out of the storm”, which had been gathering since 37:2. This is significant because storms were seen as manifestations of evil powers. Yet here (and elsewhere in Scripture), the one true God speaks out of such storms, to demonstrate how far greater He is than any storm god; and showing by implication that such storm gods don’t exist, and the ‘evil’ which supposedly came from them was in fact under His control. Much of the language used about Leviathan and Behemoth is also used about God's manifestation of Himself: Smoke from nostrils, flame from mouth (41:11,12) is said about God in Ps. 18:8; Strength before and dismay behind (Job 41:14) = Hab. 3:5; Strong ones and leaders cringe in fear (41:17 Heb.) = Ps. 18:7; Hab. 3:6; Deep sea stirred up (41:23,24 Heb.) = Ps. 18:5; terrible teeth = 16:9 about God; breath that carries men away = 15:30 about God; none his equal (41:33) = true about God. Leviathan is called the 'cruel one' (41:10)- and the very same word is used by Job about God in His afflicting of Job (30:21). Leviathan, the seemingly overbearing power of evil in the world, is in fact a manifestation of God to such an intense degree that effectively it 'is' God; God, ultimately, is the adversary / satan to Job. The epilogue and prologue to Job are evidently related. Job begins sitting in dust and ashes and ends repenting in dust and ashes (2:8; 42:4). The silence of the friends at the opening of the book is matched by the silence after God has finally spoken (40:4). Job intercedes for his children (1:5) and ends up interceding for his friends. Job begins with the description of being the Lord's servant; and the book concludes on the same note (42:7,8). The question of course is: 'So what's the equivalent of the 'Satan' figure in the epilogue?'. The omission is intended and obvious. Ultimately the answer is the essence of the whole book: the 'satan', the adversary, is none other than God Himself, in His love.
41:3 Will he speak soft words to you- The emphasis is on you. The animals speak softly to God; He is in dialogue with them. All around us, God is in active communication.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVLzJLSD39E
commentary:
42:2 Job came to realize the massive practical extent of what he had previously known in theory, what he had heard "by the hearing of the ear". Now his eye saw / perceived that truly no plan of God can be thwarted, by any of the various 'Satan' monsters imagined by men. We too may say that we believe in the omnipotence of God; but such a belief requires us to throw out all beliefs in supernatural satan figures. And that's not a merely intellectual exercise; to see the tragedies and cruelties of our lives as being ultimately from God and under His control is something which shakes us to the core.
42:5 My eye sees You- All the theory we may know about God must be transformed into personal relationship with God- and that is the purpose of the sufferings of our lives.
42:7 Although Job did not speak wrongly about God (see too 2:10) and kept patiently speaking the word of God despite the mockery it brought from the friends (James 5:10,11), this does not mean that Job or all that he said was blameless. The friends are not reprimanded for speaking wrongly about Job, but about God. Thus there was probably a fair degree of truth in their accusations concerning Job’s self righteousness. Elihu also severely rebukes him for this, and unlike the three friends he is not rebuked for anything in the final analysis by God in Job 42; not to mention the accusation of 'darkening counsel without knowledge' (38:2) by God Himself, backed up by four chapters of heavy reprimand of Job's reliance on human strength and wisdom. This led to Job retracting much of what he had said (40:4,5; 42:3-6). This clearly establishes that much of Job's reasoning was faulty, although what he spoke before God was correct. Therefore the final comment that God had spoken of God “the thing that is right” could refer to his final repentance. To repent is to admit that God is right; to refuse to repent is to effectively declare Him wrong. And all his wrong understanding and hard words about God were overlooked because of that.
42:15 Gave them an inheritance among their brothers- Job’s understanding of the value and meaning of the human person meant that he valued his daughters as much as his sons, and gave them equal inheritances- unusual, surely, for those days.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wv7j89-UEs
sermon: https://youtu.be/prum23BX2YI
commentary:
1:5 The wicked shall not stand in the judgment- This may have a literal fulfilment at the day of judgment. We will all naturally fall before Jesus then (Rom. 14:11), but the righteous will be stood up (Lk. 21:36), perhaps by an Angel, in the same way as Daniel had a foretaste of the day of judgment and was stood on his feet and reassured of God’s acceptance by an Angel (Dan. 10). Those who come to the judgment will be those who are responsible to God, who have known His ways; yet the wicked amongst them will be swept away like the chaff (:4), which is the judgment which will come upon the kingdoms of men, the Gentile world at large (Dan. 2:35,44). They will share the judgment of this world with which they chose to identify in this life of opportunity to serve God (1 Cor. 11:32).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT0HrpaeSmw
sermon: https://youtu.be/h0-wYuydagQ
commentary:
2:2 His Anointed- The Greek word “Christ” means ‘anointed’. This Psalm is quoted in the New Testament in various contexts- e.g. to the Roman and Jewish rulers trying to destroy Christ at His death (Acts 4:26); to the resurrection of Christ (2:7 = Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5); to the opposition to Christ’s people as they preached the Gospel (Acts 4:25) and to the situation soon after His return, when the rebellious nations will seek to overthrow Christ’s rule (2:9 = Rev. 2:27). What this shows is that Old Testament scripture can have multiple interpretations, in the same way as different people at different times can find the same Scripture speaking personally to them; and as we can find a single Bible passage amazingly relevant to us in different contexts and various times of our lives.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCFtkCbOql0
sermon: https://youtu.be/EKeFyt6w7Ew
commentary:
3:2 Selah- The Psalms were originally sung, and this appears to be a musical instruction requiring a pause. For readers, it effectively means ‘Pause and meditate on this’.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQHU0eokdx4
sermon: https://youtu.be/yHTnD4clPN4
commentary:
4:4 Be angry, and don’t sin- This verse [from the Septuagint] is applied to us by Paul in Eph. 4:26. He interprets it as meaning that anger is not in itself wrong, but because it can so easily lead us to sin, it is better to not go to sleep whilst angry. This kind of daily self-discipline is vital in the spiritual life; the Psalms often comment upon the importance of how we start and end each day.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4woYB3mI6uY
sermon: https://youtu.be/wtRttjKQpbA
commentary:
5:4 Evil can’t live with You- There are therefore no sinful beings in Heaven, contrary to the popular belief of many.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFZLZwSZ5Zc
sermon: https://youtu.be/UxZSPDo20LU
commentary:
6:5 Even a righteous man like David didn’t look forward to conscious survival of death. He wanted to keep on living in this life because he wanted to praise God; and this should be our motivation for asking God for health and victory against illness. If the righteous immediately praise God in Heaven after death, then David’s words and reasoning here make no sense. Instead he looked forward to the Biblical hope of resurrection at Christ’s return and the establishment of His Kingdom on earth. Note too that sheol, the Hebrew word translated “hell” in some Bibles, is clearly understood as referring to death or the grave. As righteous David expected to go there after death, it isn’t the place where sinners go after death.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEeB1MH3BUo
sermon: https://youtu.be/NEu3bUQGeDU
commentary:
7 Concerning the words of Cush- David’s response to hurtful words and false accusation (:3) was to share his situation with God, rather than brood on the words.
7:4 Him who without cause was my adversary- A reference to Saul’s senseless persecution of David.
7:8 Judge me, Yahweh- David didn’t fear the day of judgment, but rather he eagerly looked forward to it, as we should. He was secure in his relationship with God, and so that day wasn’t a day of terrible uncertainty ever before him- and neither need it be for us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icrUZrnVWv8
sermon: https://youtu.be/qef8yUJeNPs
commentary:
8:4 This verse is applied to Jesus as the “son of man” in Heb. 2:6-9 in order to prove that He was of human nature and was not an Angel, as some thought and still think.
8:5 The Angels- This translates the Hebrew word elohim, which is usually translated “God”. This word can therefore be applied to those who manifest God, although they aren’t God Himself. This is why Angels, men and God’s Son, Jesus, can be called “God” without them being God Himself in person.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7v0U84dDNo
sermon: https://youtu.be/Wr1t_k7IZXk
commentary:
9:4 God’s judgment is ongoing; it’s not that God is somehow passive and not paying attention now and will only open the books and consider everything when Christ returns. He is passionately involved in our issues and judges them as they happen.
9:8 He will judge the world in righteousness- Quoted in Acts 17:31 about how God will judge the world through Jesus when He returns to earth.
9:16 Yahweh has made Himself known; He has executed judgment- In observing how God has judged people and nations, we come to know Him better (see too :20). This is why the final judgment of individuals will be in a sense public; the whole purpose of the judgment seat will be for our collective as well as individual benefit, to teach us of the essence of God and prepare us to enter eternity. If we simply entered eternity at Christ’s return without this educational process of participating in and observing the judgment process, we would simply not appreciate His grace as we should.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=374rXScGBt0
sermon: https://youtu.be/eVOfPJqa2wM
commentary:
10:3 Condemns Yahweh- Not consciously, in so many words. But when we face God’s principles and decide whether or not we will live by them or believe them, we effectively place God in the dock, and by doing so the wicked condemn Him. But when He is condemned by human judgment, God overcomes at the last (Rom. 3:4).
10:4 Pride is a sin because it pushes God out of our consciousness, replacing Him with self.
10:7,8 These verses are clearly about the “wicked” who rebel against God; and yet before we shake our heads too disapprovingly, remember that they are quoted about us all  in Rom. 3:14. For at some times and in some ways, we are all this wicked- if we examine ourselves properly.
10:18 Man who is of the dust- One basic outcome of believing in man’s mortality and origin from “dust” is that we won’t fear people.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcoh_b_6ABY
sermon: https://youtu.be/ASnTT6YGhOk
commentary:
11:4 We are invited to see God enthroned in a Heavenly court which is sitting 24/7, judging multiple cases at once as they occur worldwide.
11:7 Shall see His face- This in a literal sense was the ultimate hope of David (17:5), Job (Job 19:27) and all the faithful (Rev. 22:4); for God exists in a personal, corporeal form, in whose image we are made.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqYSs4oQv28
sermon: https://youtu.be/DbogZVT6Now
commentary:
12:3 This verse is alluded to us in James 3:5, which speaks of the tongue being such a small part of the body and yet boasting great things, having spiritual effect far out of proportion to its size; James 1:8 and 4:8 also use the idea of double mindedness being reflected in our words. Note how the tongue is here put for the person- for God will cut off wicked speaking persons, rather than excise tongues from mouths. Our words really are to be identified with us; we needn’t think that we can get away with being one person within and yet projecting a quite different image through carefully calculated words.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwmC43H89_o
sermon: https://youtu.be/0bgn2rJXg3Y
commentary:
13:2,6 David could have sorrow in his heart and yet rejoice in his heart because he knew that God was listening to his prayers and would one day answer. This is the almost schizophrenic experience of all believers.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QK0N2phzeA
sermon: https://youtu.be/7PPGkNiR5Kk
commentary:
16:3 They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight- David often speaks of how he loves others who also love God, and he speaks of them in terms of great respect (15:4). We likewise should find ourselves naturally attracted to other believers, and should always be respectful towards them because of the fact they are loved by God. We cannot believe and keep ourselves in isolation from them, physically or mentally.
16:8-11 These verses are quoted about the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, of whom David was a type (Acts 2:27). Jesus is now at God’s right hand offering our prayers to God (Rom. 8:34); and yet this is described here as His eternal pleasure (:11). Jesus takes great joy in offering our prayers to God, and this alone should inspire our prayer life.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DSxd4sS3mc
sermon: https://youtu.be/ngT8slDSuJE
commentary:
17:2 We are invited to see our coming before God’s throne in prayer as a foretaste of the judgment day, when we shall in reality come before His throne. The positive answer to our prayers now- the sentence going forth from the court of Heaven in response to God having as it were judged them- is therefore an encouragement of our final acceptance in that day.
17:4 The word of Your lips I have kept myself- Constant reflection upon God’s word is the way to victory against temptation, as Jesus showed by continually quoting from Scripture during His wilderness temptations (Ps. 119:11).
17:8 The apple of Your eye- God is simply so sensitive to us.
Hide me under the shadow of Your wings- Alluding to the wings of the cherubim covering the ark, where the blood of atonement (representing Christ’s blood) was sprinkled. David saw himself as living in the most holy presence of God wherever he was.
17:15 Seeing Your form- Another indication God exists in a literal tangible form, and we shall see Him.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5NTDcCOonI
commentary:
18:5 ‘Sheol’ is the Hebrew word translated “hell” in some Bibles; it is paralleled here with “death” (:4, “the cords of death” are “the cords of Sheol”) and is elsewhere translated “the grave”. It’s not a place where the wicked go for eternal torment; David was a righteous man, and he too went to the grave, or sheol.
18:16 He drew me out of many waters- This is an allusion to the name ‘Moses’ which means just this (Ex. 2:10); :19 alludes to how Israel were brought out of Egypt to the large place of Canaan, and there are many other Moses / Exodus allusions in this Psalm. We like David are to see similarities between our lives and those of Bible characters, taking them as our warnings, inspiration and friends, as David evidently understood Moses. And of course we will one day eternally be united with our heroes and encouragers in faith.
18:22-24 David speaks like this of his own righteousness, although this Psalm was written in later life, after his sin with Bathsheba (:1 = 2 Sam. 22:1). He can only speak like this because he had learnt the lesson that God’s righteousness really is imputed to us who are sinners; and he rejoices in this reality, believing it to the point that he really felt it and his self-perception reflected it.
18:30 The word of Yahweh is tried in the furnace- The experiences of our lives are like the intense fire of a furnace, and God’s word like gold comes through those tests; it is proved not only true but wonderful and beautiful, time and again.
18:43 You have made me the head of the nations- But David speaks in :44 as if this had not yet happened. He imagined the things he prayed for as having already happened, just as Jesus taught we should too (Mt. 21:22 Gk.). God speaks of those things which don’t exist as if they do, so certain are they of coming to pass (Rom. 4:17), and we are asked to have this same perspective when it comes to prayer.
18:49 I will give thanks to You, Yahweh, among the nations- God’s intention was that Israel should be a missionary nation, the light of the Gentile world. But generally they failed to perceive this; David was one of the few who did, because his Psalms often speak of telling the Gentile nations how great God is. He came to this simply from the colossal desire he had to praise God as widely and far as possible because of what God had done for him personally by grace. We should be likewise motivated to take the Gospel to the world around us, on the basis of simply having to tell others the wonderful things which we personally have experienced from God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2r05VnF6ag
sermon: https://youtu.be/zBdjecRI2Bo
commentary:
19:4 This is quoted in Rom. 10:18 about the preaching of the Gospel into all the world. Thus in the same way as the sun and stars witness to God’s existence worldwide, so the Gospel is to be taken world-wide. The Psalm therefore moves on to talk about the power of God’s word (:7,8) which is being preached.
19:12 If we hope for forgiveness for sins of ignorance, we are accepting that we will be forgiven without specific repentance. As we forgive, according to the principles we apply to forgiving others, so we will be forgiven. If we hope ourselves for forgiveness for sins we’ve not specifically repented of, because we are unaware of them, we likewise must forgive others the sins they do against us without repentance. To insist that we will only forgive others if they repent would mean that we would be unable to pray this prayer.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk98NzsPkFQ
sermon: https://youtu.be/48CWVpzH9Vg
commentary:
20:7 Solomon speaks of “my father David” so often that it appears he was dominated by the need he felt to live out David’s parental expectations of him. But Solomon’s obsession with chariots and horses shows that he didn’t follow David in real spiritual terms, just externally. Those whose parents were believers and were raised to believe must ask themselves whether they too are merely living out parental expectation externally.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BEXqkEVYvo
sermon: https://youtu.be/4Q68l7JaEIk
commentary:
21:4 David felt that he had been given eternal life in the sense that the covenant blessings had an eternal quality to them (:6). And yet he often speaks about death as the end of conscious existence. We have here an Old Testament equivalent to Christ’s teaching that we can now have eternal life (Jn. 6:54); we will die, in hope of resurrection to eternal life, but we can live now the kind of life which we will eternally live. Hence the parables of the Kingdom of God teach about how life can be lived right now.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oagxaiED6r0
sermon: https://youtu.be/s-AZbKpF2Rg
commentary:
22:1 Quoted by Christ on the cross (Mt. 27:46). The way Christ calls God “my God” (see :10 also) and prays to Him is not only disproof of the Trinitarian view of Christ; it enables us to find in Christ true inspiration and comfort knowing that He was our representative, of our nature. We are also comforted that to have doubts, even a crisis of faith and understanding as to why God isn’t acting, isn’t a sin; for Christ had these feelings and yet never sinned. Christ said these words “about the ninth hour” (Mt. 27:46), and yet He died at the ninth hour (Mk. 15:34). That He had some sense of crisis at the very end adds the ultimate in drama to the crucifixion account, and makes His final victory yet more glorious.
22:8 Quoted against Christ on the cross (Mt. 27:43). We are encouraged by the New Testament application of this Psalm to Christ to see the whole Psalm as giving a unique window into the thoughts of God’s Son in His time of dying.
22:14 My bones are out of joint- The Messianic Psalms often stress the pain Christ felt in His bones; crucifixion was designed to make the bones of the crucified suffer. We who are baptized into the body of Christ are described as His bones (Eph. 5:30); and yet not one of Christ’s bones was broken (Jn. 19:36). In all this we have profound encouragement. We are to suffer with Christ, sharing His cross; and yet ultimately we will not be broken, but rise again to eternity, just as His body and bones did. From the awkward and unnatural position of the crucified, Christ could look down upon His literal bones and feel they were as persons looking at Him (:17); thus it seems He had an awareness of us as He hung there.
22:18 Fulfilled in Mt. 27:35; Jn. 19:24.
22:22 This is quoted in Heb. 2:12 to demonstrate Christ’s identity with us, having had human nature. He was especially close to us in His death, and we likewise can look to Him there and feel close to Him and His closeness to us. The tone of the Psalm now becomes more positive, as Christ comes to think of us, the “congregation” [LXX ekklesia, the church] who would be brought into being on account of His suffering. It could be that He quoted the entire Psalm out loud; “He has finished it” (:31) in the LXX is “It is finished”, which were the very last words of Christ (Jn. 19:30).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVkGd9Hd4r4
sermon: https://youtu.be/NX88QbLvw-E
commentary:
23:5 A table before me in the presence of my enemies- Sometimes in the depths of despair God will provide an amazing grace to us; and He did this when David fled from his own son through the wilderness, and Barzillai unexpectedly laid out a feast table for David in the semi-desert (2 Sam. 17:27-29). This act of kindness transformed the dry terrain into “green meadows” for David (:2). Our thoughtful grace to others can do the same for them.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M_0mfyn6i8
sermon: https://youtu.be/8H9j6y2IGEY
commentary:
24:5 God’s blessing is defined here as His righteousness; the blessing of God promised to Abraham and his seed involves the blessing of forgiveness of sins (Acts 3:25,26). This is achieved by God counting His righteousness to us, looking at us another way- and this becomes possible for us who are baptized into Christ, whereby His righteous character is counted to us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe1mPUCOFu0
sermon: https://youtu.be/t5322rdfa5s
commentary:
25:8,9 He will instruct sinners in the way... He will teach the humble His way- The humble here therefore refer to repentant sinners. This is the frame of mind which makes us most teachable by God, and in this way God works through sin, in that repentance for it makes people more open to His teaching.
25:10 The more we live daily life in harmony with God’s will, the more we will perceive that all His ways, His workings, both over history and in our lives, reflect His grace. We will not see Him as hard and unreasonable.
25:22 Redeem Israel, God- Many of the Psalms are David’s personal pleas for mercy, but they merge towards the end of them into a request for God to show mercy to all His people. He looked out of his own sufferings to those of others, and took comfort in the fact that God’s ultimate plan is to have a redeemed people living eternally on earth.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvgB0zfdYNw
sermon: https://youtu.be/OzZww_JOxI8
commentary:
26:1 Without wavering- This Psalm appears very self-righteous, with David considering himself separate from sinners (:9); it contrasts with the Psalms written after the sin with Bathsheba, which often talk of David’s desire to reach out to sinners rather than about separating from them.
26:3 God’s truth refers to a way of life and being, rather than to a set of pure theological propositions. “Truth” is paralleled here with “grace”, which is the ultimate truth.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiYQkNyerQ8
sermon: https://youtu.be/LBMXgvNibUc
commentary:
27:9 Don’t abandon me- Contrast this with the utter confidence expressed elsewhere in this Psalm. We can have the emotions of fear, even of panic, and yet at the same time feel deep faith in God. In this time of need, David reflected how God had earlier delivered him (:2), and this should feature in our response to crises.
27:10 The classic middle aged crisis of loneliness as parents die, the links with the past being cut, is here resolved in the feeling of God’s personal parenthood toward us.
27:14 Wait- So often the Psalms speak of the need to “wait” for God. We assume His response must be immediate, but the ‘gap’ between our prayer and His response is necessary, for the sake of the development of our faith. It maintains that appropriate distance which has to be between God and man at this stage.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56IsAopEy_w
sermon: https://youtu.be/sLO5dXhLGGc
commentary:
28:2 Hear the voice of my petitions- Yet within the same prayer, David can rejoice that God “has heard the voice of my petitions” (:6). We are to pray for things believing and feeling that we have received them (Mk. 11:24); we are to have the perspective of God Himself, who speaks of things which currently aren’t as if they are (Rom. 4:17). Therefore David can conclude this prayer with praise that God has actually answered it already (:7).
28:8,9 Again David looks out of himself in his immediate need to others, rejoicing as he often does at the end of his Psalms that his positive experience of God will be that of all God’s people. We can at least take the lesson that we are to look out of ourselves to others rather than be swamped by the immediacy of our own issues.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYXbUW-jDyA
sermon: https://youtu.be/5-2PHCfSy7E
commentary:
29:5 Here and in :8 we have “the voice of Yahweh” paralleled with Yahweh in person. God is His word- hence we read that “the word was God” (Jn. 1:1). Our attitude to God’s word is our attitude to God; it’s therefore not possible to claim to be in relationship with God if we ignore His word as we now have it in the Bible. There’s much talk about “God” but unless this is based upon His word, we are believing in a ‘God’ of our own creation rather than the true God who is revealed in the Bible.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4QpE8CtYvw
sermon: https://youtu.be/HLfm1zU5KWc
commentary:
31:2,3 Be to me a strong rock... for You are my rock- David is asking God to be to him in practice what he accepted God to be theoretically. Time and again we seek to make this same conversion from theory to practical reality as we face life’s situations.
31:5 Into Your hand I commend my spirit- Chosen by Jesus as His last words from the cross as He died (Lk. 23:46). Perhaps the next half of the sentence were His first thoughts on awaking in resurrection: “You have redeemed me, Yahweh, God of truth”.
31:7 You have known my soul in adversities- God as it were gets to know us when He sees us in crises. Although He knows all things, we reveal ourselves to Him by how we feel and respond in those times.
31:15 Redeem me- But David has stated that God had already redeemed him (:5). So often in the Psalms we encounter this struggle to believe and feel as if our prayer has been heard before it actually is; and it is the same struggle we daily have in our prayer life.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b734x0GtK0
sermon: https://youtu.be/6IPEhirtdss
commentary:
33:6 By Yahweh’s word the heavens were made- This alludes to how the Genesis record of creation states that “God said” and things came into existence (:9). It explains how “all things” were made by God’s word (Jn. 1:3). That same word which created all around us is likewise powerful to create a new creation within the formless darkness of our own lives and minds (2 Cor. 5:17). By reading and responding to God’s word we expose ourselves to colossal and awesome creative power.
33:22 God’s grace is realized and effective in our lives according to our belief in its extent. It is we and not God who are limiting what is possible. If Abraham had prayed for Sodom to be saved for the sake of just the one righteous man there (Lot), perhaps he would’ve been heard; the man who thought the Lord’s ability to heal was limited by His power was taught that the opposite is true, in that all things are possible but are limited by human faith (Mk. 9:22,23).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHURWVAli9Q
sermon: https://youtu.be/BNLaiMiEaDg
commentary:
34:7 This suggests that we have a guardian Angel permanently settled down (Heb.) around us; the early church believed this (Acts 12:15). The Angels minister to us in order to bring us towards salvation (Heb. 1:14). The reference to Yahweh’s “eyes” (:15) may also refer to our guardian Angels.
34:17 The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears- This parallels David’s statement that he had cried and Yahweh had heard him (:6). Again he looks out of his own issues and sees them in the wider context of God’s people; He has delivered them historically, so He will deliver us; if He delivers us, He will deliver His people in the future, and so we can reason from our personal testimony to persuade them to trust Him as we have. The Psalms are songs, and David was using them to share his faith with others.
34:20 This was supremely fulfilled in the fact that no bone of Jesus was broken by the crucifixion process (Jn. 19:36). See on 22:14.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IduZJ5Cw2TU
sermon: https://youtu.be/LHapGoMnoB4
commentary:
35:3 Tell my soul, “I am Your salvation”- David so often tells himself and us that God is indeed his salvation. But here he is asking God to speak directly to his heart and persuade him deeper of this truth. We too can ask God to directly increase our faith.
35:5,6 Threshing and winnowing the wheat from the chaff is a common Biblical metaphor for the final day of judgment. The rejected will be chased away from Christ by the Angels into darkness (:6). The Bible teaches that Jesus will return from Heaven to judge us with the Angels with Him; they will play a part in the judgment process, which will be appropriate as they have been our guardians and stood with us through every moment of our lives (see on 34:7). There are frequent Biblical descriptions of the punishment of the wicked, wallowing at least for some period in darkness, rejected from the Lord they so wish to now be with [hence they are chased away from Him, as Adam was out of Eden, again by Angels]. These aren’t to scare us into obedience, but to bring constantly before us the sober importance of the eternal issues which we face (see 2 Cor. 5:11).
35:14 I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother- David speaks in the context of his love for Saul despite the endless persecution he received from him, and here alludes to his famous lament over Saul at his death (2 Sam. 1). A man mourning for his mother, rather than a woman for her mother or a father for his son, is a carefully chosen similitude. For a man’s mourning for his mother features the bitter regret that ‘I didn’t appreciate her as I should’ve done’. And this was how David felt for Saul at his end. In this we see a most unusual level of love and sensitivity. And yet even that is but a dim reflection of the colossal love of God and Jesus for us, and their sensitivity to us and appreciation of our feeble spirituality.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73pEF7UOK2Y
sermon: https://youtu.be/eGJMvv3MmrE
commentary:
36:9 In Your light shall we see light- Our worldview is to be that of God; His perspective is to be ours.
36:12 There the workers of iniquity are fallen- The obvious question of the Bible student to the statement “there” is “Where?”. And the context seems to provide no answer. But David was imagining in his own mind the final destruction of the wicked at judgment day, as he often does in the Psalms. “There”, in his mind’s eye, he sees them fallen and without resurrection to eternal life. And this gives him perspective on his sufferings at their hands. We too can usefully play ‘Bible television’ and try to imagine the scene at judgment day. Whether we get all the details correct or not isn’t so important; the exercise provides huge perspective for us in our present life experiences.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tvAZTrWfTY
sermon: https://youtu.be/jAJuxDs471k
commentary:
38:4 As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me- This is applied to all of us by Jesus when He invites we the heavy burdened to come to Him and find relief for that heavy load (Mt. 11:28). David is talking of his sins related to Bathsheba and Uriah; and again we find them being understood as typical of all our sins (see on 32:1,2).
38:9 All my desire is before You- All David’s desire was for forgiveness; see on 37:4.
38:11 The consequence of sin is that it separates and isolates the sinner, as David found after his sin with Bathsheba, which resulted in the breakup of his family and his son conspiring to kill him and take over the kingdom. Some may sin and apparently not experience this isolation; but they feel it internally. That sin isolates the sinner, literally or psychologically, is designed by God; for it is in that isolation and self-analysis that the sinner has the opportunity to reconnect with God on a deeply personal level.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkzteqFbXng
sermon: https://youtu.be/JaQJDWwTSBM
commentary:
39:1 Keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me- We need to think ahead as to our likely weaknesses, recognizing that being in the presence of some people is going to provoke us to speak badly. In all our spiritual battles we should talk to ourselves like David did, and be aware of how upcoming situations are likely to lead us into temptation.
39:4-6 David reminded himself of man’s mortality in order to steel himself against the temptation to talk wrongly; he realized that sinning with the tongue can lead to losing our hope of eternity, and so he reminded himself of this in the face of the upcoming meeting he was going to have with people who would tempt him to misuse his tongue. We can do the same.
39:13 David didn’t go to Heaven at death (Acts 2:34); he understood death as total unconsciousness.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw-ZoY44YaQ
sermon: https://youtu.be/iM_yr4f1T5A
commentary:
40:3 Many shall see it- David perceived the influence his spiritual victory or failure would have upon others. Without encouraging posturing and posing, we should also be aware of this dimension to life and be motivated by it in our spiritual battles.
40:6 You have digged my ears- An allusion to the Law’s provision for a servant to decide to permanently remain in his master’s household and be adopted into the family- see Ex. 21:5,6.
40:6-8 Quoted in Heb. 10:5-8 about the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Notice how Jesus addressed God as “my God”- another difficulty for Trinitarian theology. Yet the initial context was David reflecting that his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah couldn’t be atoned for by any sacrifice; for there was none prescribed for what he had done. He simply vowed to give himself completely to God and declare God’s grace to all men (:9,10). Yet this was fulfilled by Jesus in the death of the cross, which ended the need for animal sacrifices. Indeed many of the Bathsheba Psalms are applied to Jesus in His time of dying on the cross. He there knew fully the feelings of David and every desperate sinner; not that He sinned, but so identified was He with us there that He entered into the feelings of every sinner.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QezZr23xiSU
sermon: https://youtu.be/gmuflNq6clc
commentary:
41:1 “The day of evil” ultimately refers to the day of judgment. In that day we will be as the poor who beg us for grace in this life; we should therefore be generous to them, even if their poverty, like our spiritual poverty, is ultimately the result of their own poor decision making and sin.
41:9 My own familiar friend- Quoted as Christ’s feelings about Judas in Jn. 13:18. Jesus called Judas his “friend” at the moment of betrayal (Mt. 26:50). The question is how could Jesus ‘trust’ Judas and feel hurt at the betrayal when He knew from the beginning who should betray Him (Jn. 6:70,71). One window on this is to remember that Jesus shared our human nature, and we have the possibility within that nature to know something very well about a person, and yet our love for them means that we still trust them. Samson’s love and trust in Delilah, when it was obvious she was going to betray him, is a parade example. The love of Christ was and is surpassing in its depth. Love isn’t cynical, but hopes all things; and He hoped for Judas, that somehow the humanly inevitable wouldn’t happen; just as God told prophets like Ezekiel from the start that Israel wouldn’t hear them, and yet He appeals for Israel to hear the words of those prophets. That same hopeful love is focused on us who are in Christ; that is the practical encouragement and comfort we can take from this insight into the Lord’s thinking about Judas.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOPYKcQGY-0
sermon: https://youtu.be/mFDTYaZ5r8g
commentary:
42 Korah died in the wilderness and is often highlighted as the ringleader of the rebellion against Moses. But his sons were faithful, and they or their descendants wrote Psalms which are preserved within the book of Psalms. The lesson is that we can rise above our backgrounds and the influence of unbelieving parents, even when it seems that humanly speaking we are victims of our backgrounds. But in Christ we can be a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
42:9 Even in times of doubt and misunderstanding at God’s apparent silence, we are to still feel that God is our rock.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZHrDPnSP-U
sermon: https://youtu.be/uu32PmeZo-k
commentary:
43:5 Why are you in despair, my soul?- We all talk to ourselves. It’s important that our self talk is positive, urging ourselves spiritually onwards, rather than reflecting on the empty things of life which lead nowhere. Note how these prayers recorded in the Psalms merge between addressing God and addressing ourselves; prayer is a time of reflection and openness before God, not simply a list of requests baldly presented to Him.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsLrFh_kDiA
sermon: https://youtu.be/gxVCjEvbZ-E
commentary:
45:6,7 Quoted in Heb. 1:8,9 to demonstrate the greatness and humanity of Christ. He is clearly not God Himself because God the Father is referred to as Christ’s God (“your God”). Yet the term “God” is applied to Him in :6, in the sense that the Hebrew word here translated “God” means simply a “mighty one”, a term which has just been used about Christ in :3. We are the “fellows” of Jesus (:7), and He was only exalted above us by God, not because He Himself was in nature above us. This exaltation was not at His birth but at the end of His mortal life, in which He had demonstrated His love for righteousness. He was “anointed” in that He was “made... Christ”, which means ‘anointed’, by God, after His resurrection (Acts 2:36).
45:11 A spiritual man will perceive beauty in a woman in relation to how far she has separated from the things of the world (:10) and is separated unto God’s things.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMP-tKI9qT8
sermon: https://youtu.be/_5mNQnEZue4
commentary:
46:5 God will help her at dawn- The return of Christ to earth is likened to the rising of the sun at daybreak (Mal. 4:2). The final visible intervention of God in response to our prayers will be at this time. The earthquakes and tidal waves spoken of in :2,3 may refer to the time of trouble which will come on earth just prior to Christ’s return.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a55bHxIEYZM
sermon: https://youtu.be/8GP3Ofhz-a4
commentary:
47:4 Jacob whom He loved. Selah- We are to meditate (“Selah”) upon the fact that God so loved Jacob, and was and is the God who was Jacob’s God. There are so many references to Jacob in the Psalms. Jacob was spiritually weak for much of his life, and was led by God to a final spiritual maturity, although Jacob responded very slowly and weakly to this leading over the decades of his life. The Psalms encourage us that our God is the God who stuck with and dearly loved Jacob. Abraham showed more faith and spirituality than Jacob, but God is more frequently referred to as Jacob’s God rather than Abraham’s.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml84rjDQ5Ss
sermon: https://youtu.be/dRlDHzGG-zc
commentary:
48:8 God will establish it forever. Selah- The point of meditation here (“Selah”) is that Jerusalem will last forever- because God promised David that his great son, the Lord Jesus, would reign on his throne, i.e. in Jerusalem, forever (2 Sam. 7:12-16). For all the metaphor and symbology of the Bible, there are some basic literal realities we are to ever keep in mind; and one of these is that Christ shall literally reign for ever from Jerusalem over God’s Kingdom on earth.
48:10 The content of our praise is to be the Name of God, which is His characteristics (Ex. 34:4-6).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKJf3Xz7Zg0
sermon: https://youtu.be/iaIDS2YZwt8
commentary:
49:8 It may seem obvious that money can’t buy a place in God’s Kingdom, but whilst everybody would agree to that statement, effectively those who trust in wealth to the exclusion of faith in God are saying just this. The price of redemption is far more than money- it was ultimately in the blood of God’s dear Son.
49:11 We live under the illusion that we are somehow rational, logical and sensible in our decision making and attitudes. But in fact we are not. Human beings can be incredibly stupid and live in denial of the obvious. We shall die and in that sense lose whatever wealth or property we have acquired on the earth. But the inward thought of people is that somehow, that wealth remains personally attached to them after their death. This is a penetrating psychological insight. It mocks at any desire to attain personal wealth which will endure after our death; now is the time to use whatever we have in the Lord’s service.
49:12 He is like the animals that perish- A proof of man’s mortal nature, disproving the myths of reincarnation and life in Heaven after death.
49:19,20 Those who don’t understand God’s ways and aren’t therefore responsible to His judgment will remain dead for ever like the animals.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD1BL-kdQbI
sermon: https://youtu.be/OmSPWmwDl98
commentary:
50:1 Speaks, and calls the earth- God created the world through the medium of His word, He spoke and it was done. But He hasn’t as it were turned away from His creation; the cycles within the natural creation may appear to be clockwork, but in a sense God consciously brings them forth again by the medium of His word. That word as manifest to us through the Bible is equally active and powerful in an ongoing and always creative way. The idea of our living in an active universe, in which all things are consciously within God’s awareness and a result of the ongoing activity of His word, means that truly God is never far from us; we simply need to look out at the natural creation to feel again His active involvement in our world. See on 65:6.
50:5 When Christ returns, the faithful will be gathered to judgment (Mt. 24:31); and it is the gathering of the faithful which this Psalm has in view. But this is only part of the wider Biblical picture, which speaks of all those responsible to God being also gathered to judgment.
50:15 Call on Me in the day of trouble- This is the sacrifice which God wants. Rather than us giving things to God, He wants us to trust in Him, to turn to Him before turning to anything else.
50:21 The apparent silence of God can deceive the wicked into thinking they will not give account to Him. But there will be in some sense a going through with the wicked of all their deeds (Mt. 25:43). This will be such an awful experience for them that it will of itself be their punishment; for ultimately, they will return to the dust never to exist again, seeing that the wages for sin is ultimately death (Rom. 6:23).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z88a3HLyHlo
sermon: https://youtu.be/49JgIQ6ZCSA
commentary:
51:6 Truth in the inward parts- The innermost truth we can come to know is that we really have sinned and been forgiven; this is the ultimate “wisdom” rather than any intellectual knowledge or theological purity.
51:10 God can act directly on our hearts and create mindsets and attitudes, in response to our desire for them.
51:13 David vowed to respond to God’s gracious forgiveness of him by preaching to others. Our motivation for witness should be our own very personal awareness of having received forgiveness and grace which we never possibly deserved.
51:16 There was no sacrifice under the Mosaic law which could cleanse David from the sins he had committed.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS6fBJ5LIJ8
sermon: https://youtu.be/gKQuCgvmPzM
commentary:
52:4 You deceitful tongue- David is addressing Doeg (see the Psalm title), but he speaks of Doeg as if Doeg is his tongue. We are identified with our words, they are us, just as God’s word is Him (Jn. 1:3). We can’t therefore excuse ourselves from bad speaking by reasoning that in our hearts we are not like that. Our words reflect us, and therefore by them we will be condemned or justified in the last judgment (Mt. 12:37).
52:8 I am like a green olive tree in God’s house- But David at this time was on the run from Saul in the wilderness, and was not calmly sitting in the tabernacle; nor was he physically “in the presence of Your saints” (:9). And yet within his own heart, David felt identified with God’s people and in His presence. This is a comfort for those who may be isolated from church life and from other believers; we can really be there in spirit, as David was in his wilderness years.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVGdh9GMzic
sermon: https://youtu.be/PvbTgGFH1oc
commentary:
53:2 Who understood, who seek after God- To seek for God, thereby recognizing that we don’t understand Him to perfection, is considered by Him to be understanding Him.
53:3 These verses speak of a category of people who in their heart are at times pure atheists (:1), and who are described as “filthy” and do no good. We are therefore shocked to find Paul quoting these words about every one of us (Rom. 3:12). There in Romans Paul is seeking to challenge the attitude that ‘I may be a sinner, but I’m not like them’. He does so in order to convict us of our sin, and the just sentence of death which is upon us; in order to help us gasp with more wonder and gratitude at God’s amazing grace in having counted us as righteous because we are baptized into Christ.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOMSAIHRUAo
sermon: https://youtu.be/UWowNy2LFOU
commentary:
55:3 Because of the words- The mental suffering David describes in these verses was largely because of the words of his enemies; words really can make people feel like dying and lead them to suicidal thoughts. Words can never be treated as ‘only words’; they have a real power, and therefore we have a deep responsibility for our words. We must remember this, living as we do in a society which judges behaviour far harder than it does ‘mere’ words. No threat in this sense is ever an ‘empty threat’, because words are of themselves so destructive.
55:9 Confound their language- Exactly what God did to those who built the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:7). We like David need to see our abusers in Biblical terms, seeing how in essence our abusers are so similar to those in Biblical incidents.
55:13,14 This refers to David’s betrayal by Ahithophel, Bathsheba’s grandfather, and his own one time confidante (2 Sam. 15:31; 1 Chron. 27:33). It is clearly typical of Christ’s betrayal by Judas, whom he also calls his “friend” (Mt. 26:50); as to why Christ in this sense trusted Judas so as to be so hurt by his betrayal, see on 41:9. The historical record simply states Ahithophel’s betrayal of David, but here we see how David didn’t just take it stoically, but was deeply hurt by it and poured out his soul to God in hurt and pain. We need to imagine the feelings of the Biblical characters as they went through the events which are historically recorded.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMaK5xA3_40
sermon: https://youtu.be/HIG6zl12PMk
commentary:
56:8 Tear bottles were kept by mourners at funerals; they put their tears in a bottle which they then kept in memory of the deceased. But David says that his tears are in God’s bottle. The idea was that your tears went into your bottle. But David was so intimate with God that he perceived that his tears were in fact God’s. The intimacy David achieved with God is absolutely possible for us too.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRVIh2NKsyc
sermon: https://youtu.be/9CTBVOS14XM
commentary:
57:1 David didn’t see the physical cave he was hiding in (see Psalm title) as his refuge, but rather perceived God as his refuge. We may use medicines, doctors and all kinds of human things in our times of need, but we must perceive God as our true helper and final saviour rather than any of those things.
57:4 The vagabonds who supported David during his wilderness years were unspiritual men, and David so desperately longed for spiritual company. But David in his heart was ecstatic at God’s presence, and must’ve composed these words whilst laying with those men in the cave. This is a parade example to us of spiritual mindedness in unspiritual company.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRKeDD0oIbA
sermon: https://youtu.be/zzyT_tKbpfY
commentary:
58:1 Silent ones- There is a time to keep silence, but if we don’t speak out for the abused at times we are paralleled with those who are proactively abusive. So much evil happens because ‘good’ people do nothing.
58:10 Our natural unease at reading these kinds of things is a reflection of our underestimate of the seriousness of sin, and the desperate need which there is for justice to be done. If we have such a perspective, then we will rejoice to see it done at the last day.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ktAYYFfBto
sermon: https://youtu.be/fLCSiMBkwd0
commentary:
59:14,15 This seems to speak of the rejected at the last day. Just as the rejected virgins knock at the door earnestly wanting Jesus to open to them (Mt. 25:11), as Cain dwelt at the east of Eden in the hope of being readmitted to Paradise (Gen. 4:16), so the wicked of David’s time [who were Israelites, members of God’s covenant people] will walk around the holy city wishing to be let in, howling like desperate dogs. Rev. 22:15 using the same figure for the rejected- dogs outside God’s city. In that final day of eternal truth, nobody will be indifferent; all present there will desperately wish to be in God’s Kingdom. If our final destiny is to stand before God desperately desiring to be in His Kingdom, we must live our lives today with the same passion; for we make the answer now. All too late the rejected will come to really believe in God’s eternal Kingdom on earth (:13); but it will be too late to change anything, for the judgment is ongoing now.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXeOtIJjzqs
sermon: https://youtu.be/m14azdiysfc
commentary:
60:3 You have made us drink the wine- Being given a cup of wine to drink is a double symbol; it speaks of either our eternal blessing (1 Cor. 10:16) or condemnation. The communion service is therefore designed to bring us up against the two possible futures which there are for us; blessing or condemnation. We therefore drink either to our blessing or to our condemnation (1 Cor. 11:29). It is therefore a powerful aid towards self-examination.
60:9 Who has led me to Edom?- The Psalm title shows that this was a song written in response to Israel’s victory over Edom, but in it David continually emphasizes how their earlier attempt had failed because of their sin. Even when God does great things for us, we must be ever aware of our sins and unworthiness of any victory He gives us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaucobRpKf8
sermon: https://youtu.be/uTbo7wuWpy4
commentary:
61:6,7 Although David clearly expected to die, as other Psalms indicate, he understood that he had been promised eternal life in that the promises to him were that he would see his great descendant, the Lord Jesus, reigning eternally in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 7:16). This necessitated a resurrection to eternal life. The idea of eternal life is found in the Old Testament because it is required by the promises to Abraham and David which were the basis of God’s covenant; it didn’t just arise in the New Testament. The future life, death and resurrection of Christ was the basis upon which those earlier promises of eternity had been made, but the basic promise of eternal salvation had begun to be offered in Genesis.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIaInWEKdQE
sermon: https://youtu.be/8ADpccITv9w
commentary:
62:1 God alone- The Hebrew word translated “alone” also means “one”. The fact that God is one isn’t merely a numerical statement. Because there is only one God, we are to trust Him alone. In life’s crises we are to turn to God alone, quite simply because there is only one God. Our belief in the unity of God isn’t merely a theological position, it has huge practical meaning- especially in a world where there are so many attempts to replace trust in God, be it through insurance policies, clever lawyers, smart doctors or roadside rescue services.
62:12 You reward every man according to his work- Quoted in Rev. 22:12 about what will happen at the judgment seat of Christ at His return. Because God has this principle, of judging according to behaviour, we thereby see His grace- for despite this, He will still save us. And that, therefore, must be by His grace alone.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8td_WynAMA
sermon: https://youtu.be/EVJSr2dcU-Q
commentary:
63:11 The mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped- This is quoted about all of us in Rom. 3:19, where Paul reasons that because we’re all sinners, we’re all liars- for untruth is the essence of sin. By doing so we’re not being true to ourselves, to God, to His word, to our brethren… we profess covenant relationship with God, to be His people, and yet we fail to keep the terms of that covenant. In the context, Paul is teaching that the Law of Moses convicted all God’s people of this, and in this way led them to the need for Christ. Yet Is. 52:15 prophesied that the crucified Jesus would result in men shutting their mouths. The righteousness and perfection displayed there in one Man, the very human Lord Jesus, has the same effect upon us as the Law of Moses- we shut our mouths, convicted of sin.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFo8qE8MVg0
sermon: https://youtu.be/3WGGQ9fzh2c
commentary:
64:9 All mankind shall be in awe- We wonder how “all mankind” will be in awe at the judgment of some Israelites in David’s time who abused him. The fact is that they will be resurrected and judged, and the judgment will in some sense be public, before all (Rev. 16:15). It will be an amazing teaching mechanism, seeing the lives of billions of people played back and analyzed, and observing the condemnation of the wicked. It will prepare us for entry to God’s eternal Kingdom, understanding His principles and grace in a way which we have perhaps not risen to in this life- even though His judgments are in His word and are even now made manifest.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2JlsendvBQ
sermon: https://youtu.be/6v-qjiVCsJA
commentary:
65:3 You atoned for our transgressions- The atonement for sin was achieved through the death of Christ, who hadn’t died at David’s time. But God forgave sin in Old Testament times on the basis that He foresaw the death of Christ, who as it were was slain from the beginning (Rev. 13:8). God speaks of things which don’t exist as though they do (Rom. 4:17), because He views from outside the limitations of human time. This is why He can speak of things and persons (not least His Son) as existing before they did. This doesn’t mean they pre-existed in any literal sense, but they existed in His plan and purpose.
65:6 By His power forms the mountains- God didn’t just form the mountains at the time of Genesis 1 and leave them, He is actively forming mountains to this day. A theme of this Psalm is that God is actively at work in the natural creation; the water cycle doesn’t as it were run on clockwork but rather as a result of God’s active, conscious and passionate involvement (:9-11)- see on 50:1.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejkldi3TO8w
sermon: https://youtu.be/1lumEkrpGak
commentary:
66:1,2 Often the Psalms invite the Gentile world to join with Israel in their praise of God as their saviour (also :5). Israel were intended to be a light to the Gentiles around them, and to bring them to faith and covenant relationship with God. They failed in this, for the most part, despite these faithful Psalmists who sought to do so through the medium of producing songs which they hoped would penetrate into the surrounding nations. The great commission bids each of us to take the same message into the Gentile darkness around us.
66:6 We rejoiced in Him- Often in the Psalms we are invited to consider ourselves as Israel in Egypt, subsequently rejoicing at the Red Sea deliverance; hence the Psalmist speaks of “us” as having gone through Israel’s experience of suffering and salvation (:11,12). The New Testament likewise invites us to see our baptism as a passing through the Red Sea, and our lives today as like their wilderness journey towards the Kingdom (1 Cor. 10:1-4). We are to as it were play ‘Bible television’, imagining the events as if we were there historically; for spiritually, it is all equally true for us in our salvation from this world of sin.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf08AJ7XlIw
sermon: https://youtu.be/4fY7rWs0TNE
commentary:
67:2 Your salvation among all nations-  See on 66:1,2.
67:4 Applied in Acts 17:31 to the judgment of the world at Christ’s return.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ3qHxx79cE
sermon: https://youtu.be/ALowyDyUoKc
commentary:
68:6 God sets the lonely in families- He did this when He brought His prisoner people out from Egyptian bondage. The numbering of the tribes after they had crossed the Red Sea implies that every Israelite had a family group. Those who were alone were therefore placed within families. The community of God’s people today, who have likewise passed through the water of baptism as Israel crossed the Red Sea, should likewise be characterized by inclusiveness and a binding of individuals together in a new spiritual family in Christ. Cliques based around existing families or friendship groups mustn’t be allowed to stop this unique unity occurring- for it is this mysterious Christian unity which is powerful enough to convert the world if it is lived out as it should be (Jn. 17:21).
68:11 There is here and in :12,25 a strong emphasis on the participation of women in the spreading of the good news of God’s redemption of His people. The idea was quite radical in that conservative, male dominated world. The broad picture we are to take away is that absolutely all of us, men and women, whether or not others consider us appropriate witnesses, are to share the good news of God’s salvation with the entire world.
68:18 This is applied in Eph. 4:8 to the ascension of Christ in order to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit which He then gave to the first century church, in order to prepare it to be a place where God might dwell. Whilst the miraculous gifts were withdrawn once the church was established, Christ’s parables teach that we have each been given some gift by Him which we are to use to prepare for God’s Kingdom and to enable His dwelling amongst men on earth (Mt. 25:15). We have each been given something as a result of Christ’s sacrifice and victorious ascension to Heaven, and we are therefore to ensure that we use it.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNzQ3B28r24
sermon: https://youtu.be/LbwoQkKgg1w
commentary:
69:9 For the zeal of Your house consumes me- Applied to Jesus in Jn. 2:17; so many verses in this Psalm are relevant to Him. Verse 8 refers to His estrangement from His half brothers and natural family (Jn. 7:5). “The reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me” is referred to Christ in Rom. 15:3, and is therefore applied to us who are in Him- in that we are to be so concerned with others’ salvation and welfare that we can rise above the experience of personal reproach and insult rather than being obsessed by it and paralyzed from being of service.
69:14-16 The urgent desire for immediate deliverance is here in the context of a Psalm definitely speaking of Christ’s sufferings on the cross. There was certainly a sense of urgency, crisis and desire for immediate deliverance which wasn’t answered immediately (see too 22:1). He knew there the crisis of unanswered prayer; He there shared the quintessence of all our crises.
69:20 This looking for comforters and finding none must mean that these verses describe Christ at the very end of the hours of crucifixion, when John and Mary had walked away. The reproaches shouted by mindless, small minded people in the crowd broke His heart, such was His amazing sensitivity to words, so eager was He to be accepted by Israel as their Messiah.
69:21 Clearly relevant to the offer of vinegar to Christ in response to His plea “I thirst” (Jn. 19:28,29).
69:22 Applied to the Jews who crucified Christ in Rom. 11:9.
69:25 The LXX of this verse is quoted in Acts 1:20 and applied to Judas for his betrayal of Christ.
69:27 God counts those who believe in Him as righteous because He imputes righteousness to them; but He also counts sinners as increasingly sinful. Thus there is both an upward and downward spiral in life; we are always moving one way or the other, and never static.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_TR0oe-Xmk
sermon: https://youtu.be/tmdjRGmXEcg
commentary:
71:15 I don’t know its full measure- Like us, David preached of things which he believed and yet openly admitted he didn’t fully understand. This humility and recognition of our own limited understanding will make our witness the more compelling, rather than if we arrogantly give the impression of total knowledge.
71:11 God has forsaken him– David did indeed feel that God had forsaken him (22:1). David, like all of us, was very sensitive to what others said about him- for his many complaints at his being slandered reflect how significant it was for him. We must be secure in our relationship with God, so that others’ discounting of our relationship with Him doesn’t influence us.
71:18 David wanted to remain alive so that he could continue his work of teaching and preaching God’s grace and salvation to others. This too should be our purpose of living.
71:20 Bring us up again from the depths of the earth- David’s hope was clearly in the resurrection of the body, which he may have deduced as necessary on reflection that he would see with his own eyes his Messiah son reigning for ever on his throne (2 Sam. 7:16).
71:22 I will praise you... I sing praise to You- David imagines how after the resurrection at his future glorification, he will, at that future time, praise God; and yet he says he praises God now. We have here an example of living the Kingdom life now. In New Testament terms, this is how we can “have eternal life” now, even though we shall die; for we can live now the kind of life which we will eternally live, the Kingdom life.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BAHBYY9x64
sermon: https://youtu.be/3SqSwkZLimg
commentary:
72 A Psalm for Solomon- These are David’s prophetic desires for his son, and yet clearly they have reference to the Kingdom of Christ rather than Solomon, even though the Psalm has a limited fulfilment in Solomon. The promises to David in 2 Sam. 7:12-16 stated that the son of David would also be son of God, and David would eternally live in the presence of his great descendant, who would reign eternally from David’s throne. It seems that David came to see these promises as having hope of fulfilment in his son Solomon, although the New Testament is clear that their main fulfilment is in Christ (Lk. 1:31-35). Thus David lost his focus upon the future Messiah because of his obsession with his son Solomon; and Solomon was damaged by this in that his spirituality and works for God were a living out of parental expectation, but at the end of his life he turned away to other gods and according to Ecclesiastes, lost all hope of a future Kingdom of God on earth. This Psalm however remains a wonderful prophecy of Christ’s future Kingdom, based around the land of Israel and His rulership in Jerusalem.
72:8 In Solomon’s time, the territory of Israel was larger than at any other time.
72:10 Fulfilled by the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon (1 Kings 10).
72:13,14 Solomon perhaps consciously tried to fulfil this in his gracious judgment between the two prostitutes (1 Kings 3:16-28); but later in his reign, his bitterness and selfishness led him to abuse his people (1 Kings 12:4). Thus Solomon by his own behaviour disallowed himself from fulfilling this Kingdom prophecy.
72:17 Men shall be blessed in him- Fulfilled in how those baptized “in Christ” become Abraham’s seed and receive the blessing of God’s grace and forgiveness (Acts 3:25,26; Gal. 3:27-29).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrSfbS3qB0k
sermon: https://youtu.be/bnhiQ_ZK_WA
commentary:
73:17 Asaph as a temple servant would have had access to the altar, which was plated with the censers of those sinners who had rebelled against God in the desert (Num. 16:38). There the earth suddenly opened and swallowed them up- alluded to in :18,19. Looking at those plates, he saw that finally judgment does come to the wicked, and even those who appear to die in peace will ultimately be judged. The apparent prosperity of the wicked and the way that they don’t always receive judgment in this life simply deepens our faith in the reality of a judgment to come, at which the wicked will be resurrected and judged for their actions in this life. Seeing that God judges sin, and yet sinners don’t always get judged in this life, forces us to this understanding- which is in any case presented specifically in the Bible. Asaph admits throughout the Psalm that his jealousy of the wealthy and prosperous sinners had eaten him up to the point of obsession and spiritual destruction; but he came to his senses by realizing the reality of future judgment. That basic doctrine should mean the same for us too.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GemixiQUkvc
sermon: https://youtu.be/sEnwDUS8pOQ
commentary:
74:9 This statement is strange seeing that there were prophets at the time when the temple was burnt by the Babylonians (:7)- not least Jeremiah, who had prophesied that Judah would be in captivity for 70 years (Jer. 25:11,12; 29:10). Daniel too appears not to have been immediately aware of Jeremiah’s prophecies (Dan. 9:2). There are times when God’s people seem not to have been in much contact with each other even though they lived near each other- Melchizedek and Abraham are an example. The dysfunction and division we see within the church is lamentable and wrong, but these things happen, and the divided parties still remain God’s people- just as Asaph and Jeremiah were.
74:12 This Psalm is a record of how Asaph reasoned with himself. The destruction of the temple by the Babylonians meant that he felt God had totally and permanently rejected His people; and yet he takes comfort in the wonders God has done for His people in the past (:13-15). As a member of God’s people he felt that those historical wonders had in a sense been done to him too- hence he reflects that “Yet God is my King of old”. In times when the apparent distance and silence of God is so unbearable, we have to remember what He has done for us and for His people in the past. We can also reflect that the ongoing wonders of creation, the sun’s rising and setting, is a sign that God is in fact constantly active (:16,17), even if He’s not active for us in the ways we desperately want.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH7atD7AMKs
commentary:
75:7 God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another- We shouldn’t think that God isn’t watching this world, and will only open the books and consider everything when Christ returns. The judgment is ongoing, right now we are standing before Him and He is judging; the future judgment day will be the revelation of the judgments He has already reached as He watched our faith and behaviour in this life.
75:8 A cup- See on 60:3.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzSeuSmOtK8
commentary:
76:1 Judah and Israel are often paralleled. Judah refers to the two tribe kingdom based around the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and the half tribe of Manasseh; while Israel refers to the ten tribe kingdom. This division of God’s people was a tragedy; and yet from God’s perspective they were one, hence His frequent parallel of them. All divisions within the body of Christ are likewise only real from an earthly perspective; God sees His people as one, as we should.
76:3 This reference to a dramatic military victory by God in the Jerusalem area and the subsequent plundering of the invaders, resulting in the neighbouring kings bringing presents to Jerusalem (:11) is all relevant to the situation when the Assyrians were destroyed by God at the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:35; 2 Chron. 32:23).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZulMELp6cXE
commentary:
77:10 I will appeal to this- The faithful have always known God as a God open to dialogue. Asaph feels that God has as it were forgotten His graciousness (:9), and so He appeals to God to remember how in the past He saved His people at the Red Sea, even though they were spiritually weak at the time. He thus appeals to God’s consistent love for His people as a basis for requesting God to act again in gracious salvation. If God has acted with His right hand over history, why not now? There was no unquestioning submission to the Almighty God as required by Islam and some legalistic forms of Christianity; rather do God’s people respectfully engage Him in dialogue and struggle with Him in prayer.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-cD4Pr7kAM
commentary:
78:9,10 Israel turned back in the day of battle, they lost their confidence and nerve, because “they didn’t keep God’s covenant”. Keeping the covenant had an effect upon the crises of life. And keeping it was not a matter of mere outward obedience, it was rather a state of the heart. Thus “their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in His covenant” (:37). The covenants / promises made to Abraham and David above all take a grip upon the heart- and we have to keep remembering that those same covenants are made with all who are in Christ as they are the basis of the Gospel (Gal. 3:8).
78:18,19 Their attitudes to God in their hearts became verbalized in words. How we think about God is so important; we could say that spiritual mindedness is the essence of what Christianity is about.
78:22 They didn’t believe in God- Israel weren’t atheists; but by not trusting that He will ultimately save us, we are effectively atheistic.
78:28 Around their dwelling places- We see here the sensitivity of God, not only giving them food but bringing it right to their door. That they and so many others should have become bitter with a God of such gentle grace and kindness is indeed tragic.
78:30 Like a parent giving in to the unwise requests of a child just because they love the child, so God gave Israel the food they craved. Yet giving in to lust or wrong desire doesn’t make it go away; Israel were given their desire (:29) but their craving remained. In our battles with temptation, let us never reason that if we give in, the lust will go away. It’s simply not true. The very experience of sin makes the next sin even easier and the voice of conscience yet weaker.
78:31 Killed some of their fattest- It was the fat ones who were complaining they were perishing from hunger and that God was somehow unreasonable to His children. God had obviously provided very well for them with the manna; but this wasn’t enough to satisfy their endless craving to tickle their taste buds and ever be titillating their fancy with something new.
78:49 Angels of evil- God’s Angels don’t sin (Lk. 20:35,36 cp. Rom. 6:23). They are all doing His work (103:19-21; Heb. 1:14); there is no sin before God’s presence in Heaven (Hab. 1:13). The text here doesn’t speak of ‘sinful Angels’, but rather Angels responsible for bringing “evil” in the sense of calamity or disaster. We are often reminded that God brings the good and also creates “evil” in this sense (Is. 45:5-7). And He does it through His Angels. The reference in the context here is to the plagues God brought on Egypt; the work of the “Angels of evil” refers to the killing of the firstborn sons of Egypt by the Lord’s Angel.
78:54 Had purchased- It had as it were cost God something to give Israel the Kingdom or “mountain”. The same Hebrew word occurs in 74:2 and Gen. 14:22. The cost of our redemption, our place in the Kingdom, was the precious blood of Christ with which we were “bought” (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; 1 Pet. 1:18,19). God who knows the future is outside our kind of time, and so in a sense, Christ was as it were the lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). God’s pain and sacrifice started right from the beginning, and when He offered Israel the forgiveness and Kingdom which He did, this offer was not without pain and immense cost to Him. Their rejection of it was therefore even more tragic and painful for Him.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPEWkRjYNWY
commentary:
79:8 Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us- Ez. 18 criticizes the Jews at the time of the destruction of the temple (:1) for complaining that their sufferings were because of their fathers’ sins, and God rejoins that this wasn’t the case, He was punishing that generation for their actual personal sins.  But Asaph was under the impression that his generation were relatively innocent; likewise his complaint that he doesn’t know “how long” the sufferings would last appears to reveal an ignorance of Jer. 25:11,12; 29:10. See on 74:9. We can get some things wrong, be wilfully ignorant of others in our self-justification; and yet still be counted by God as faithful, just as Asaph was. And we must remember this in managing our irritations with others’ spiritual immaturity.
79:9 Because of how God is, as revealed in His Name of Yahweh, because mercy and forgiveness are paramount within the texture of His very personality which His Name reveals (Ex. 34:4-6)… therefore, we should repent. Reflection on the Name inspired Asaph’s faith in forgiveness and thus helped his repentance. It did the same for David (25:11) and for Jeremiah (Jer. 14:7,21), and it can do so for us too. Because God’s Name proclaims God as above all merciful and forgiving, therefore we should repent and ask for forgiveness.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgndHt6yP5I
commentary:
80:9 You cleared the land for it- Potentially, God drove out all the nations in the land of Canaan so that the vine of Israel could grow there without contamination and be spiritually fruitful. But in fact Israel failed to drive out many of the tribes and they remained to be a spiritual thorn to Israel’s spirituality. In potential, so much was made possible, just as it is for God’s people today; but it requires us to go and realize that potential in faith.
80:12 Why have You broken down its walls- Surely Asaph knew that the nations around the borders of Israel had been allowed by God to invade because of Judah’s sinfulness. Asaph in several Psalms appears to underestimate the seriousness of Judah’s sin and the rightness and necessity of God’s judgment, despite the prophets of his time making these things crystal clear. Yet for all his misunderstanding and wilful ignorance, he still displays faith and God worked with him and inspired the recording of his Psalms. For all our ignorance and misunderstandings [and those of others amongst God’s people], God still hears our prayers.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m_ZNHPhn-Q
commentary:
81:5 I heard a language that I didn’t know- God of course understands every language and thought of man, including Egyptian. Yet He so identifies with His people that He speaks from their limited perspective. He has the ability to see and feel life from our viewpoint here on earth. He isn’t therefore distant from us.
81:11 God (“me”) is paralleled with His voice; if we disregard His word, this is our attitude to Him. We can’t divorce our relationship with Him from our relationship with His word. True believers can therefore be nothing but Bible lovers and searchers.
81:14 I would quickly have- We have in these verses the amazing fact that God knows all possible futures; He knew all the things that would have happened if they had been obedient- and He often mentions this in the prophets. In this we have another window into the pain and tragedy of God. We mourn more for those who die young than for those who die in fulfilled old age, because we think of all that might have been. And so it is for God, to an infinitely greater extent. He planned even to give Israel fine wheat as well as manna, and honey as well as water out of the smitten rock (:16); but Israel would not. And yet God continues to plan all kinds of intricate and wonderful possible futures for each of us; and individually and collectively we as His beloved people so often don’t enable them to happen because of our short term, faithless attitudes.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1th51rzw9KE
commentary:
82:6 You are gods- The Hebrew word elohim means ‘mighty ones’; sometimes it is translated “God”, other times it refers to men, in this case the sinful judges of Israel (:1,7). When the Jews falsely accused Jesus of making Himself God, He denied it by quoting this verse. His point was, ‘In the Old Testament, men are called God; I’m only saying I’m the Son of God, so what’s your problem?’ (Jn. 10:34,35). He not only denied being God Himself in any Trinitarian sense; He thus demonstrated that the term “God” can be applied to men, and even if it is used about Him, it doesn’t make Him God Himself in person.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH0QVOWWr8Y
commentary:
83:13 Like chaff before the wind- The language of Dan. 2:35,44 about the destruction of the ten toes of the image, representing Israel’s latter day enemies, at Christ’s return. Psalm 83 likewise features ten nations who will be bound together against Israel and then be dramatically destroyed by direct Divine intervention. It is tempting to equate these ten nations with the ten toes of the image of Dan. 2, and the ten horns of the latter day beast which we meet in Daniel and Revelation. These ten nations are geographically located in the peoples which currently surround the state of Israel, and the rhetoric they are prophesied as using is exactly the same as that used by the Palestinians and Israel’s Arab enemies. The situation around Israel is therefore a sure sign that Christ will soon return.
83:16 That they may seek Your name- The latter day judgments against Israel’s enemies, like all God’s judgments, are so that those nations may repent and come to relationship with God; they aren’t a mere outbreak of anger from an exasperated God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1ZbptUQlwE
commentary:
84:10 Just one day in God’s presence would be better than thousands of days lived in this present world; and yet the wonder of it all is that we shall live eternally with God in His Kingdom. 2 Pet. 3:8 alludes here.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfVq0YhwdAw
commentary:
85:10 Mercy and truth- Somehow it seems that both individually and collectively we cannot achieve this fusion. We are either too soft and compromise and lose the Faith, or we are too hard and lose the spirit of Christ, without which we are "none of His" (Rom. 8:9). The result of this is that whenever God’s Truth is revived, that community is in a sense born to roll downhill; after two or three generations the Truth is lost. Either they destroy themselves through bitter subdivision, or they compromise with error and lose the Faith. Perhaps it is God's plan that no one community should hold the Faith through many generations. But the challenge is of showing "grace and truth" in our thinking and judging, even though we cannot fully achieve it; and in the process we are led to appreciate more the beauty and wonder of the way in which these two concepts are linked together in the Father and His Son, and to yearn more to perceive and enter into the glory of God's Name, which totally incorporates these two humanly opposed aspects (Ex. 34:6,7; Rom. 11:22).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gvej5HXwmw
commentary:
86:3 There are verses which speak of many daily prayers as being just one prayer (86:3,6; 88:1,2); prayer is a way / spirit of life, not just something specific which occurs for a matter of minutes each day. The commands to "pray without ceasing" simply can't be literally obeyed (1 Thess. 5:17). "Watch and pray always" (Lk. 21:36) in the last days likewise connects prayer with watchfulness, which is an attitude of mind rather than something done on specific occasions. This is not to say that prayer in no sense refers to formal, specific prayer. Evidently it does, but it is only a verbal crystallization of our general spirit of life.
86:14 God of course knew all this, but part of the healing therapy of prayer is that we verbalize our situations and tell God about them.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAf-mOuccDo
commentary:
87:5 This verse and the whole Psalm may refer to the way that the judgment throne of Christ will be established in Jerusalem, and therefore all those who will live eternally will have in that sense been born again there, in that they began the physical experience of immortal life in that city.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHgsGTp261o
commentary:
88:2 It’s an amazing thought that the words of our prayers enter into God’s personal presence. This was symbolized by the way the incense (representing prayer, Rev. 8:3,4) burnt in the holy place  permeated into the Most Holy Place.
88:9 I have spread out my hands to You- This is a good physical posture to adopt in our prayers, signifying as it does our openness to God’s answer, whatever it may be; and the openness of our heart to Him.
88:10 The faithful Psalmist knew that death was unconsciousness; he wanted to remain alive so as to keep on praising God. And this should also be our very reason for being alive.
88:13 In the morning- Starting each day in prayer is a vital habit of the spiritually successful person. How we start the day affects how that day proceeds spiritually.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PacEPAjjGvI
sermon: https://youtu.be/8aUgKmacfTg
commentary:
89:2 We often doubt God’s love and whether He will really keep His covenant with us. Yet the very existence of creation, that it’s not been destroyed despite human sin, should be a constant reminder to us of God’s faithfulness- if we let ourselves perceive it.
89:12 This shows how God reckons the points of the compass with reference to Jerusalem; He is believer-centric, so central are we to His thinking. We are never forgotten by Him.
89:20 I have found David My servant- God is in search of man; this is a repeated theme of the prophets (Hos. 9:10; Dt. 32:1; Is. 50:2; 65:1,2; 66:4). So it’s not us as it were reaching out to God; He is fervently reaching out to us, and we have to come to realize that. We don’t so much as find God, as realize that He already is earnestly with us. And yet we of course feel that we are or have been searching for God, for the ultimate Truth. Yet God is searching for us; in conversion to Christ, God and man meet in a profound way; for there, in Christ, God finds us and we find Him.
89:26-32 This is clearly a commentary on the promises to David concerning his great descendant, who was also to be God’s Son (2 Sam. 7:12-16). They were fulfilled in Christ (Lk. 1:31-35). The fact Christ called God “my God” and God was His salvation, His saviour from death through resurrection, is all more evidence that the Trinitarian understanding of Jesus is wrong. Jesus wasn’t God Himself in person.
89:35 The promises God makes involve a solemn commitment by Him to us- the serious, binding nature of His oath to us is easy to forget. God swore to David “by My holiness”. The Hebrew for “holiness” is the same word translated “dedication”. David’s response to God’s dedication to him was to dedicate [s.w.] all the silver and gold which he had won from this world, to the service of God’s house (1 Kings 7:51; 1 Chron. 26:26; 2 Chron. 5:1). Our response to God’s dedication to us should be a like dedication of what we have to Him. Covenant relationship with God requires much of both Him and us.
89:52 Blessed be Yahweh forever- Despite all the doubts about God expressed in this Psalm, the faithful writer is still committed to thanking and praising God. His apparent silence in specific areas of our lives shouldn’t ever stop us from praising Him for who He is.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G9vR8CnwJQ
sermon: https://youtu.be/aA68kg4MgTo
commentary:
90:1 There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with God is essentially mutual. We dwell in God, and He dwells in us (1 Cor. 3:16). Thus "he that lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 Jn. 4:15,16).
90:10 This is one of many Biblical reasons for understanding the urgency of our need to devote our time to the Lord and not fritter it away. We must number our days, realize their number is only 70 years, and therefore apply our hearts unto wisdom (:10 cp. :12). "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom" (Prov. 4:7).
90:13 Relent- Moses several times persuaded God to change His stated purpose concerning Israel, and here once again he is trying to persuade God not to allow the rebellious generation of Israel to perish in the wilderness. The prayer wasn’t answered, but it’s a fine example of someone very intimate with God pleading with Him to change His mind.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81T8exmNJCw
sermon: https://youtu.be/aA68kg4MgTo
commentary:
91:1 This Psalm is connected with Ps. 90, and appears to also be part of that prayer of Moses. It’s especially addressed to Joshua, who during the wilderness journey lived in the tabernacle (Ex. 33:11), and was one of the few who survived the judgment of the unfaithful generation dying in the wilderness. The situation in :3-7 describes how one by one, that generation died in the wilderness, but Joshua was preserved because he had believed that Israel could inherit the promised land.
91:11,12 Jesus was tempted to misinterpret these words as meaning that whatever He did from whatever motives, God would somehow preserve Him (Mt. 4:6). Temptation is very subtle; for the believer, misusing God’s words in order to justify whatever we feel like doing in the heat of a moment is a common form of temptation. This Psalm was encouragement to Joshua (see on :1), the Hebrew form of ‘Jesus’; so it’s understandable that Jesus would’ve been especially aware of these words.
91:14 Joshua (see on :1) was preserved because he believed that God would really give His people the promised Kingdom; but this faith is here described as loving God and knowing His Name. Joshua wanted Israel to inherit the Kingdom because he loved God, not because he wanted any personal benefit for himself. We see here how the New Testament triad of faith, hope and love were all interwoven within the character of Joshua.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2ZHAeDBqtE
commentary:
92:2 A regular regime of morning and evening ‘quiet time’ with God is so important; spiritual life is really all about having the right habits.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuyOwh2bNxc
commentary:
93:1 A proof that God will not destroy the earth but will be faithful to His covenant purpose to establish His eternal Kingdom here. Just as the earth stands firm for ever, so does God’s word of promise (:5).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk6IAs83f3c
commentary:
94:1 David sees Yahweh as the God of revenge, the one alone to whom vengeance belongs. Our response to this is to believe that truly vengeance is God’s and therefore we will not avenge ourselves (Rom. 12:19). This applies to all the micro-level ‘takings of vengeance’ which we so easily do in our words, body language, attitudes etc., in response to the hurt received from others.
94:9 One implication of believing that we were created by God as a special, purposefully designed creation is that we will believe that God sees and knows all things; the designer of the eyes and ears which we have 24/7 can surely see and hear everything going on in our lives.
94:12 True hearkening to the word is a chastening experience. It isn't easy; not as easy as reading a book called the Bible and going through the process of interpretation. Our sufferings make sense and are worked through by God insofar as we are open to and aware of His word; for they are designed to assist us in our being conformed to His word.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_leOW6xDQ8
commentary:
95:7 The urgency of hearing “today” applied to Israel in the wilderness, to the community at the time of Ps. 95, and to the first century believers to whom it is applied specifically in Heb. 3:7,15; 4:7. The urgency of the call continues to our “today”. God’s word has a unique way of speaking to us in a kind of eternal present; as if we were there in the wilderness, in the time of Ps. 95, and in the first century church.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBObeI2WNsE
commentary:
97:7 Worship Him, all you gods- Here as often in the Psalms, the language presupposes that the gods / idols of the nations are real and living, but Yahweh’s greatness is such that effectively they have no power or significance. Yet the Bible clearly teaches that these gods / idols had no real existence. The same principle is used in the way the New Testament speaks about demons, who were also associated with idols (1 Cor. 10:20,21). They are spoken of as if they have some real existence, but the evident power of God in Christ’s miracles was such that they were effectively declared as having no real existence or at best being powerless and insignificant.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHcyTtp2CCQ
commentary:
98:3 The “salvation” spoken of in :1-3 isn’t God’s saving of Himself, but His salvation of His people through Jesus [the Hebrew form of ‘Jesus’ means ‘Yah’s salvation’]. It is our personal experience of that salvation which should be the witness which persuades the Gentile world to praise Him. It was God’s intention that His salvation of His people from Egypt would have this effect; but Israel despised that salvation, in their hearts reversed it by constantly wanting to return to Egypt, and so they didn’t declare His salvation and so the Gentiles didn’t hear. We can’t keep our experience of salvation to ourselves; we will declare it to the whole world if we really grasp the wonder of it all.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbrLd5ezpDM
commentary:
101:3 I will set no vile thing before my eyes- The context is David speaking of how he strove to be spiritually minded, and he realized that our thoughts are influenced by what we see or watch. These ancient words are so relevant to us who live in the internet generation, where we can privately view many ‘vile things’ with our eyes. If we want to be spiritually minded, then what we allow ourselves to view must be consciously controlled.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlxlBNmj0IE
commentary:
100:3 The fact that God Himself created us, as His sheep, “and not we ourselves” (a comment applicable, in essence, to theories of atheistic evolution) should lead us to ecstatic singing of praise before Him. Likewise 96:2,5, and so many other examples, invite us to enthusiastically praise God, simply because “the Lord made the heavens”. God as creator results in joy and praise amongst those of His creation who recognize Him as creator.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akfj5WRwhN4
commentary:
99:4 You execute justice and righteousness- This is the language of judgment, whereby a judge ‘establishes’ principles. The fact God is enthroned means that He is our constant judge and we are always living our lives before His ongoing judgment. His throne is a throne of judgment, so whenever man is before God- which is always- He is our insistent judge, right now.
99:7 They kept His testimonies- This is in the context of the time when Israel were in the wilderness and God spoke to them in the cloud. They didn’t keep His law then, as the prophets and historical record make clear. The Psalmist is reflecting how God imputed righteousness to His people at this time (Num. 23:21), just as He does for us who cross the Red Sea of baptism (1 Cor. 10:1,2).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEyMcRDzhuo
commentary:
102:13 The set time has come- The Psalmist is writing maybe in captivity in Babylon as the predicted 70 years of Judah’s captivity there came to a close, and he looks forward to the promised restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem.
102:16 Yahweh has built up Zion- He had not then done so (:13); the earlier part of the Psalm laments this. But the Psalmist believed in God’s prophecies of doing so, and considered them as good as already fulfilled. Faith is all about adopting God’s perspective, seeing future promises as if they have already been fulfilled, thereby enabling us to live the Kingdom life now in its essence.
102:25 The language of laying foundations is nearly always used about the laying of the foundations of the new, rebuilt temple at the time of return from exile (Ezra 3:10-12; 5:16; Is. 44:28; Hag. 2:18; Zech. 4:9; 8:9); and this is the context of this Psalm (see on :13 and :16). The ‘heavens and earth’ refer to Israel (Is. 1:2) and the temple. Although they had ‘perished’ in the Babylonian invasion and destruction of the first temple, God remained and would, the Psalmist believed, install a new temple system (as outlined in Ez. 40-48). However, this never quite happened as God intended due to Judah’s weakness, and so these prophecies were reapplied to how the entire Jewish system based around the temple and Law of Moses would ‘perish’ and God’s new temple system based around the exalted Lord Jesus would come into existence (Heb. 1:10 and context).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwOUeZ9Nkg8
sermon: https://youtu.be/Rgsr5thj5Rw
commentary:
103:2 The Hebrew translated “benefits” is also translated “praise”. The things God gives us are therefore imperatives in themselves to praise Him. Giving thanks before meals is a wonderful habit to get into. As we receive His gifts, or more to the point, perceive the receipt of them, the heart breaks forth into a deep thankfulness. This is the true praise.
103:20,21 The emphasis is that all the Angels are obedient to God and do His will (Heb. 1:14). There aren’t two groups of Angels, some good and some sinful. God tolerates no sin in His presence in Heaven (Hab. 1:13). Sin brings death and yet the Angels cannot die, therefore they cannot sin; our hope is to be made like them in this sense after the resurrection at Christ’s return (Lk. 20:35,36). See 148:2.
103:22 Praise Yahweh, my soul- David sees himself as in league with the Angels, who likewise are all praising God (:20,21).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPHEN85VuQY
commentary:
104:4 His Angels winds- The Hebrew word translated “wind” is that translated “spirit”. God’s Spirit works in many ways, but one of those ways is through His Angels. If we were to ask how, mechanically as it were, God’s Spirit operates, how He is everywhere present, how He does things- the answer to some extent is that He achieves all these things through His armies of Angels.
104:20 You make darkness- The rising and setting of the sun is a conscious expenditure of energy by God, rather than happening by some clockwork mechanism which God set up and then withdrew from. He consciously makes the grass grow (:14), and consciously feeds the animals (:28). Likewise the water cycle is not mere clockwork, unstoppable natural law; the rivers are sent forth consciously by God as they bubble over the rocks (:10). This view of creation means that it’s easier to believe that the God who consciously does these things every moment can intervene in them at any time in any way; we aren’t the helpless victims of a nature which has a life and will of her own.
104:29 You take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust- The Hebrew words for “breath” and “spirit” are the same. God made man from the dust and put into him the breath or spirit of life (Gen. 2:7). When we die, that spirit, that life force, returns to God and our bodies to the dust. There is no conscious survival of death, no inherent immortality within man. Life and immortality have only been revealed to some men through the Gospel of Christ and the hope of resurrection to immortality which there is in Him (Rom. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:10). All theories or hopes of reincarnation are disallowed by Bible teaching about the nature of man.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_owepthJQLo
sermon: https://youtu.be/g2YR5gztHR4
commentary:
105:17-23 In the context of the Psalm, God is comforting Israel that all their sufferings had been experienced by Joseph. Israel as a nation are often spoken of as being in prison in a Gentile world (Ps. 79:11; 102:20; Is. 42:7,22; 49:9); just as Joseph was. Prison and death are often associated because a spell in prison was effectively a death sentence, so bad were the conditions. Israel being in prison is therefore a symbol of a living death. Just as God had delivered Joseph, so God’s people are to take comfort that when the right time comes, we too will be delivered from our present oppression.
105:18 This highlights the mental aspects of Joseph's suffering. The Hebrew for “hurt” means 'to browbeat or depress'; thus his soul was in iron, trapped, oppressively boxed in as he lay in the darkness. Joseph was in this situation until the determined time came for God to suddenly deliver him thanks to the unexpected word from a king; and so Judah, depressed in Babylon, were being comforted that when the predicted 70 years captivity were ended, they too would be likewise delivered- which came true in the decree of king Cyrus for them to return to their land with his every blessing.
105:19 God has arranged our lives according to a pattern; we have specific times in our lives for various situations. Looking back at the Biblical record of Joseph and Moses, whose life was divided clearly into three periods of 40 years, we see this clearly; but it’s of course harder to discern in our own lives as we are still living through it. But God is in control and has a plan for us, desiring only our eternal good in our latter end.
105:37 There was not one feeble person among His tribes- Amazingly, there was nobody sick amongst the three million or so who left Egypt that night. At our exodus from this world through our Red Sea baptism into Christ, we are made spiritually strong- and must abide in that strength.
105:45 That they might keep His statutes- The whole purpose of being in the Kingdom is so that we might be perpetually obedient to God’s word; this is the core reason for our wanting to be there.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZKRpEWrWy4
commentary:
106:3 At all times- Consistency is most important in spiritual life rather than occasional flashes of devotion and obedience.
106:5 That I may see the prosperity of Your chosen- The Psalmist’s desire for salvation wasn’t merely because he or she wanted to live eternally. There was a desire to see all God’s people glorying in salvation. Salvation is made possible in that God’s people as a whole have been redeemed; there is such a thing as spiritual selfishness, desiring the Kingdom merely for what it means to us. But if we have the perspective of God’s glory, we will desire the coming of salvation because all of us will be glorified. Hence Paul could say that the joy he would have in the Kingdom would be related to his joy that his brethren were also there (1 Thess. 2:19).
106:6 Continuing the thought of :5, the Psalmist felt that he personally was somehow involved in the sin of God’s people (“we have sinned”). We aren’t called to smug self righteousness, but rather we are to feel a personal involvement in the failures and successes of God’s people as a whole.
106:7 Even at the Red Sea- Even at the very moment of their salvation they were rebellious. God didn’t save them because they had reached a certain level of righteousness, but because of His grace. The Red Sea crossing represents our baptism (1 Cor. 10:1,2); God has saved us by His grace, not because of our righteousness.
106:15 But sent leanness into their soul- If we fulfil our fleshly craving, we will become internally and spiritually hungry. Giving in to our cravings isn’t the way to happiness.
106:37 Demons refer to idols (:36). Demons or idols have no real existence (1 Cor. 8:4; 10:20). Therefore when we read of demons being cast out in the Gospel records, this is the language of the day used for healing various illnesses rather than any evidence that demons actually exist.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ-ZjRdB3gI
commentary:
107:4 They found no city to live in- The LXX of this phrase is quoted about us in Heb. 13:14. We too are on a wilderness journey after our Red Sea baptism, and find no place we can call home in that journey. Our place of rest and settling down isn’t in this life, but in the Kingdom which is to come at Christ’s return. The implication could be that Israel wanted to settle in the wilderness. They didn’t want to return to Egypt (although they did at times), they didn’t really desire the unknown promised land… so, they wanted to just settle down there in the wilderness. And so it can be with us. We can be happy with the way to the Kingdom, it can be that the social aspect of the Christian life suites us… we are content with it, and yet it can be that for all that, we lack a real sense of direction towards the Kingdom. The Christian life is but a path leading towards an end, and the end destination is the Kingdom. If we believe surely that we will be there, we will live lives which reflect this sense of concrete direction and aim.
107:9 Mary quoted this verse about how she had been filled with good things (Lk. 1:53); but Zacharias quoted the next verse, :10, shortly afterwards (Lk. 1:79). Surely Mary had gotten him thinking in the same paths as she did. Our spirituality can influence others positively, consciously and unconsciously. This is why it’s important to mix in spiritual company.
107:11 Condemned the counsel of the Most High- This is one of a number of Biblical verses which suggest that we as it were stand in judgment upon God when we encounter His word. He overcomes every claim that His word is untrue and that therefore He is to be condemned (Rom. 3:4). That we mere humans should judge God the judge of all is an arresting concept; but this is what we are in effect doing when we consider His claims, His promises of saving us which are throughout His word.
107:30 The idea of God stilling a storm and getting terrified sailors immediately to their port clearly had fulfilment in how Christ stilled the storm on the lake of Galilee (Jn. 6:18-21). This doesn’t mean that He is God Himself, but rather that Old Testament statements about God were fulfilled in His Son, who manifested the Father to perfection.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wRxnA-aR50
sermon: https://youtu.be/P8ZKXqdyinQ
commentary:
108:13 The structure of the Psalm is significant in that it begins with praise and then goes on to desperately plead for God’s action. There is an intentional double meaning in the Hebrew word translated “hear”; it is also translated “answer”. There should be real comfort for us in knowing that prayer really is ‘heard’; the hearing is, in a sense, the answer / response, with which a man should be content. Therefore David desired to praise God even before the answer was received; the knowledge God was really hearing him gave such confidence (see too 109:30). We aren’t to hide behind the excuse that unanswered prayer just means that God has heard but not answered.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C7NmjASt3o
commentary:
109:6 An adversary- The Hebrew word translated “adversary” here is satan. ‘Satan’ is simply a Hebrew word meaning an adversary, totally neutral in meaning; it doesn’t of itself refer to any sinful being.
109:8 This is quoted about Judas in Acts 1:20. The disciples saw the similarities with Judas and then decided to concretely take action according to those similarities- they proactively decided to find someone to take his place as this verse requires. We need to use the Bible in this same way- see the similarities between our situations and Biblical precedents, and then act on them accordingly.
109:30 See on 108:13.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiD37wxZN90
sermon: https://youtu.be/8bzffnXZoyY
commentary:
110:1 This verse is quoted in Mt. 22:44 and Acts 2:34,35 with the understanding that David’s “lord” or master was Jesus, who was bidden sit in Heaven at His right hand after His resurrection, declared a priest for us in the order of Melchizedek, until He returns to earth to be King in Jerusalem (“Zion”) and destroy all God’s enemies.
110:2 Rule in the midst of your enemies- This supports the impression we get from Psalm 2, that when Christ returns He will establish His Kingdom but there will initially be opposition to Him, and the nations will gather together against Him, surrounding Jerusalem (cp. Rev. 20:9). It’s amazing how much humanity wants to carry on as it is, with all their religions, and not be disturbed by the intervention of God in their lives. And this feature of our world will be revealed in their attitudes to Christ at His return.
110:3 The exhortation of Ps. 110 is powerful: because Jesus is now seated at the Father's right hand, His people offer themselves as freewill offerings in this, the day of His power. They are arrayed in "holy attire" because He has been made the Priest after the order of Melchizedek- they share in the work which His exaltation has enabled.
110:4 This is repeatedly applied to Christ (Heb. 5:6,10; 6:20; 7:11,17,21). The priests were from the tribe of Levi, whereas Christ was from Judah. Melchizedek was king of Jerusalem and yet also a priest; but he wasn’t a Levite. He is therefore chosen as an appropriate type of Christ, the ultimate king-priest. This argument is deployed in Hebrews to answer the Jewish objection that Christ can’t be a priest because He wasn’t a Levite.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SSgyQuQ4dA
commentary:
111:5 God is thinking about the covenant made with us all the time! And yet how often in daily life do we reflect upon the fact that we really are in covenant relationship with God... how often do we recollect the part we share in the promises to Abraham, how frequently do we feel that we really are in a personal covenant with God Almighty?
111:10 Those who do His work have a good understanding- There is an upward spiral in spirituality. The more we do God’s work, the more we will come to understand Him. The very process of working with Him reveals more of Him to us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep6hu1I4wpQ
commentary:
112:5 The man who deals graciously and lends-  Our generosity must reflect that of God, because “He has dispersed, He has given to the poor” (:9). His generosity to us is largely over matters in which we are responsible for the problem we end up in, and the deeper we realize this the less we will be tempted to be mean to others because we consider their poverty to be ‘their fault’.
112:9 He has given to the poor- Quoted in 2 Cor. 9:9 about how God has given His grace of forgiveness and salvation to us the spiritually poor. The Greek word for “grace” also means “gift”. In the context, Paul is urging the early Christians to be materially generous to their poorer brethren because of the grace they have received from God. His spiritual generosity to us is to be reflected in our material generosity to others (see on :5).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKQbGuCJukQ
commentary:
114:2 Israel His kingdom- Israel were declared God’s Kingdom on earth with Him as their King, exercising total sovereignty over them (Ex. 19:5,6). But they wanted a human king and worshipped other gods, so that God overturned that Kingdom with the intention to re-establish it on earth at Christ’s return to eternally reign on David’s throne in Jerusalem (Ez. 21:25-27; Acts 1:6). The future Kingdom of God on earth will be a re-establishment of the Kingdom that once was, again inviting us to understand it as an entity to be literally established on earth. The Bible doesn’t teach that the righteous go to Heaven at death to enjoy their salvation there.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XKR8nbvfdU
commentary:
115:8 Those who make them will be like them- We become like what we worship. The Gentile idols are often described in the Bible as “vanities”; we may not worship literal idols but we can easily give our hearts over to obsession with the many vain things which crowd this world and the internet. If we do so, we will become as lost and lacking in direction as they are.
115:11 Who fear Yahweh, trust in Yahweh- The implication is that some believed in and feared Yahweh, but had yet to trust Him. We need likewise to convert our acceptance of God’s existence into practical faith in Him.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aZj66hdezg
sermon: https://youtu.be/fB3DkYg1J7w
commentary:
116:2 Because He has turned His ear to me, therefore- The experience of answered prayer is an upward spiral; because prayer is answered, we are inspired to pray the more.
116:11 I said in my haste, “All men are liars”-  This verse likely strikes a chord with most of us; we have all likewise at times felt that relationships in this world are useless, nobody is to be trusted.
116:13 I will take the cup of salvation- This cup was an allusion to one of the cups used at the Passover. In response to all God has done for us, we likewise respond by taking the cup at the communion service. Although our feelings and situations vary each time we take that cup, one strand of motivation within us for doing it should be our desire to do so in gratitude for all the Lord has done for us spiritually and physically.
116:14 In the presence of all His people- As in :18, our devotion to God is to be expressed within the context of other believers. Out of church Christianity is a contradiction in terms; we cannot retreat into our own homes and consider we are Christians in the privacy of our hearts. Difficult as it often is, and notwithstanding all the dysfunctions of the church, the community of believers is to be the arena in which we make our response to God’s grace. Of course there may be multiple reasons why physical attendance at a literal gathering isn’t possible, all of which are appreciated by God, but so far as we can, we should in whatever way seek to be “in the presence of all His people”.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uPPGpjAJJs
commentary:
118:22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner- Quoted by Jesus about Himself in Mt. 21:42. The Jews were the “builders” (Acts 4:11) who rejected Christ by crucifying Him, but He resurrected to become the corner stone of the new spiritual temple which is being built (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6,7). Non-Christian religions cannot be the way to God because the foundation and critical point of our spiritual building can only be the resurrected Christ.
118:25 Save us now- ‘Hosanna’ is the Greek word for ‘Save now!’. This and :26 “Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh!” were quoted by the crowds in Mt. 21:9. They perceived Jesus as Messiah in the terms of this Psalm, but that same crowd were screaming “Crucify Him!” just days later. This is how fickle our nature is.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WAL9BWQNfs
sermon: https://youtu.be/1fZgMrpzhFw
commentary:
119:1 Yahweh’s law- Every verse in this Psalm contains some reference to God’s law. It is arranged according to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, perhaps to indicate how our words, our alphabet, our whole formulation of thought and verbalization, should be dominated by God’s word. It was also done in this way to aid memorization; for in illiterate societies, the Psalms would’ve been memorized. It’s a good thing for us to personally memorize parts of God’s word.
119:5 Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey Your statutes- This is one of many places in this Psalm (:136) where David laments his own failure to obey God’s word completely at all times. And yet the Psalm also speaks of the faithful as being totally obedient to God’s word, e.g. “they do nothing wrong” (:3). One resolution of this is that David believed in imputed righteousness, whereby God counts His people as totally obedient to His word even though they are not; Ps. 32:2 cp. Rom. 4:8 indicates David understood this principle well.
119:6 Then I wouldn’t be ashamed when I obey all of Your commandments- The result of moments or periods of obedience to God is that we become ashamed of all the times we are not obedient. Spiritual maturity thus involves an ever increasing awareness of our past sins; it doesn’t lead to self-righteousness but the very opposite.
119:11 That I might not sin- The presence of God’s word within our hearts gives strength against temptation, as demonstrated by Christ’s overcoming of the wilderness temptations by quoting from God’s word.
119:14 As much as in all riches- The Psalm often contrasts material wealth with the love of God’s law (:36, 72, 127). So many sell their souls to employers, taking demanding jobs or second jobs so as to get more money than they need. And inevitably they have little time or mental energy for the things of God’s word. Others lament their lack of wealth; but the simple truth is that the true riches are those of God’s word.
119:18 Open my eyes- In his search for spiritual mindedness, so often David in this Psalm asks God to directly work on his heart so that he might correctly understand God’s word and be obedient to it (:29 “Keep me”, :36 “Turn my heart”, :133 “establish my footsteps”). God hasn’t merely given us the Bible and left us to get on with the job of understanding and obeying it; He is eager to help us in those things.
119:27 David often makes this link between appreciation of God’s ways and the inevitable witness this will result in. The community of believers is not to simply amass intellectual, theological purity by Bible reading- it must be told forth to others.
119:33 Teach me, Yahweh, the way of Your statutes; I will keep them- The better we understand God’s word, the more empowered we are to obey it. Understanding and correct interpretation aren’t therefore merely of academic interest, or just for those interested in that kind of thing. By the same token, true understanding isn’t simply academic, it issues in practical obedience.
119:37 Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things- A prayer for our internet, entertainment mad, screen transfixed generation.
119:46 Before kings- This is one of several indications that parts of this Psalm reflects David’s feelings whilst at the court of Saul as a young man (:100, :161), whereby speaking up for God’s word could result in a javelin being thrown at him to kill him if he just happened to touch the conscience of the manic king Saul (1 Sam. 18:11).
119:48 David didn’t groan at the number of God’s commandments, struggling with a steel will to obey some of them; he so loved God that he asked God to show him more and more of those commandments. Often the verses of this Psalm imply that David sought to know more of God's requirements because they are designed to help us be more obedient to all of them in toto.
119:63 Even within the people of God, we must choose our friends well.
119:64 David didn’t see grace and law as opposed; rather he understood those commandments as ultimately reflective of God’s grace.
119:73 David realized that because he had been made in God's physical image he had a duty to be spiritually reformed in His moral image; and thus he sought strength to be obedient to God's will.
119:88 The whole purpose of our lives, and of our eternal living in God’s Kingdom, is to be obedient to God’s word. We should have that spirit in our lives now, therefore.
119:96 God’s law isn’t therefore a limitation which we resentfully have to accept, but rather the way to ultimate freedom. In New Testament terms, we changed masters at baptism; from sin to Christ, and through our bondage to Him we paradoxically find ultimate freedom.
119:105 My feet... my path- God’s word directs both our short term immediate decisions (“my feet”) and also our general direction in life (“my path”).
119:120 God is again paralleled with His word; our attitude to His word is our attitude to Him.
119:128 Accepting the truths of God’s word leads us to perceive and proactively reject that which is false, rather than simply accepting truth and being ambivalent to error.
119:130 There is no ‘light within’ us, our exposure to ultimate truth comes from God’s word.
119:140 Because the word is so pure, therefore we love it. Our acceptance of the Bible as Divinely inspired rather than a human document therefore encourages our obedience to it; if we continually doubt and question its truth, we will hardly be motivated to obedience.
119:143 So often David says that he refuses life’s crises to take him away from his meditation on God’s word.
119:160 In God’s word we see His judgments- how He judges and will judge. And in the wealth of Bible history we see examples of how these judgments have been articulated with men in practice. The final day of judgement shouldn’t therefore be a worrying mystery to us; we know how God will judge, for we have in the Bible His word, His judgments.
119:169 Come near before You- Prayer is described here as coming near to God; and yet God “is” near already (75:1). Prayer, therefore, is a way of making us realize the presence of the God who is always present.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCdH0uI1W6s
commentary:
120 Song of Ascents- These Psalms (120-134) were recited as the Israelite worshippers went ‘up’ to the temple to keep the feasts (122:2,3). However the word translated “Ascents” also means “Degrees”, and may well have been written by Hezekiah when the shadow on the sundial went ten degrees backward as a sign that God had healed him (2 Kings 20:11). In response to this, Hezekiah composed or rearranged songs for the temple worship (Is. 38:20). His sickness was at the same time as the Assyrian invasion, and therefore many of these songs allude to the situation at that time.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U-vmzRBpsU
sermon: https://youtu.be/YjOb5JcsA6A
commentary:
121:2 Belief in God as creator (rather than in atheistic evolution) inspires our faith in His ability to likewise creatively deliver us from the crises of our lives.
121:5 Yahweh is your shade- Alluding to how on the wilderness journey, God provided the pillar of cloud as a shade to Israel (105:39). Our lives are repeatedly described in the Bible as being like the wilderness journey towards the promised land. The allusion is also to how God was a shade or shadow to Hezekiah when the shadow on the sundial went backward (Is. 38:8); what He did for Hezekiah He can in essence do for all His people.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5f9IAPHIHw
commentary:
122:6 Jerusalem’s peace will only be when Christ reigns there on David’s throne over God’s Kingdom on earth; this is the day the faithful should daily plead for.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXSc-SHTyGE
commentary:
123:4 This scoffing likely referred to that of Rabshakeh outside the walls of Jerusalem at the time of Hezekiah’s illness and Judah’s invasion (2 Kings 18:19-25).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvVyoW8o9Gk
commentary:
125:3 This is amazing encouragement, echoed in 1 Cor. 10:13, that we will never be tested so hard that our sinning is inevitable. In the heat of temptation we persuade ourselves that our situations are too hard for us to endure and that we have no option given our humanity but to sin. But God here promises that He will never allow circumstances to be too great for our spiritual strength; we are left with no option but to accept full, total responsibility for our sins, with nobody and nothing to blame them on apart from ourselves.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7sG4JlDLA8
commentary:
130:3 God doesn’t keep a record or legal list of sins in the sense that He doesn’t hold them against us; it’s not that He as it were erases those parts of His ‘memory’, for His word is full of the memory of human sin which He has forgiven. The LXX is applied to each of us in 1 Cor. 13:5- we too are not to keep a record of others’ wrongs against us. God’s forgiveness of us is to be the template for our forgiveness of others. It’s not possible to forget them, in the sense that we have no power over our brain’s mechanism of forgetting; but we can forgive them in the sense that we do not count them any longer against the person.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPUhGTNvvwo
commentary:
132 The mutuality possible between God and man is brought out by the structure of several of the Psalms, in which God and David are shown to be involved in a dynamic, two way relationship. Consider this Psalm: A (:1,2) David swears to God; B (:3-5) What David swore; C (:6,7) Search for a dwelling place; D (:8) Prayer to enter into rest; E (:9) Prayer for priests; F (:9) Prayer for saints / holy ones; G (:10) Prayer for Messiah. This was responded to by God: A1 (:11) God swears to David; B1 (:11,12) What God swore; C1 (:13) Designation of the dwelling place; D1 (:14,15) Answer to prayer in D; 1 (:16) Answer to prayer in E; F1 (:16) Answer to prayer in F; G1 (:17,18) Answer to prayer in G.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Ovx-oU-kI
commentary:
135:13 God’s Name refers to His essential character, which is distinguished firstly by His grace and forgiveness (Ex. 34:4-6). This is unchanging; God isn’t going to turn around and show us another face as it were. His Name is paralleled here with His renown, the reputation He has developed throughout Biblical history by acting consistently with His essential character. The Name of God isn’t therefore simply the word Yahweh or Jehovah. That is far too simplistic; the pronunciation and transliteration of Hebrew letters one way or another is irrelevant compared to the essence of the Name itself.
135:14 This parallels the Lord judging His people with His feeling sorry for them. In this sense judgment to come is a comfort not a threat.
135:19,20 This parallels all Israel with the priestly family. As it was God’s intention that Israel were to develop into an entire nation of priests to the rest of the world, so the new Israel likewise are to all discharge the priestly functions of teaching their brethren (Ex. 19:6 cp. 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 1:6; 5:9,10). Under the new covenant, we should all teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16), rather than just leave it to specialists.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zux2iS7sLOk
sermon: https://youtu.be/78yVpfJuKWQ
commentary:
137:8,9 This extreme language may seem hard to square with the spirit of grace in the New Testament. However, vengeance upon God’s enemies is also taught in the New Testament, especially in Revelation. These words are applied in Rev. 18:8,21 to what will finally happen to Babylon. Her spiritual children will be dashed against the rock of Christ, the stone of Dan. 2:44, at His return. Another perspective to explore is that it may also be that the Psalmist’s attitude was simply wrong, even though the recording of these words was inspired. David likewise spoke words of great grace and also of bitter vengeance against his enemies; the experience of trauma and real evil in life usually makes the sufferer give vent to such extreme feelings.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzTbKwWgXfo
commentary:
138:8 That which concerns me- God has a specific plan for each of us, in the same way as He has given each of us specific talents (Mt. 25:15) and has specified “good works” for us to achieve in our lives (Eph. 2:10). On His part, God will likewise fulfil what He has planned uniquely and individually for each of us- in accordance with our response to the possibilities He has potentially enabled.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewiEHPt7QEY
sermon: https://youtu.be/m0GNujvh1OE
commentary:
139:2 We are now in God's presence, and can't escape from it; and the presence of God is judgment language (Acts 3:19; 2 Thess. 1:9; 2:19; Jude 24; Rev. 14:10). He not only sees and knows everything in our lives but is judging it too.
139:7-9 Jonah knew the Psalms; his prayer from inside the fish is packed with allusion to them. And yet he thought he could flee from God’s presence (Jonah 1:3)- even though these verses almost prophesy of Jonah, that nobody can flee from God’s presence;  neither the sea itself nor geographical distance can hide from God. Jonah knew this. But he simply acted in a way diametrically opposed to that knowledge.  We read the same words he did, and are faced with the same choice as to whether we truly believe them or merely know them.
139:15,16 If this is the level of intention and planning which God put into us, we at least can draw the certain conclusion: life is not aimless. God has a purpose for us and we therefore ought to be living a purposeful life, not just drifting from experience to experience as in a half-conscious dream. God is focused upon us and we should be upon Him.
139:24 Wicked way- The Hebrew translated “wicked” also means ‘sorrow’ or ‘pain’. The way of sin, the path to quick pleasure, is in fact the way of pain and sorrow.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TERVreioX1o
commentary:
140:11 An evil tongue- The reference is not to the small piece of flesh within our mouths, but to an evil speaking person, paralleled with “the violent man”. But the tongue is put for the person because our words really are a reflection of who we are, in that our words ultimately reflect our hearts (Lk. 6:45) despite our best efforts to insist there’s a distance between our real self and our words. Ultimately there isn’t, for all our occasional posturing and hypocrisy. How we really think comes out in our words in the end, and thus we ‘are’ our tongue.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE14Ctp1xvk
commentary:
141:2 Prayer is likened to carefully prepared sacrifice, to painstakingly composed incense, beaten small, mixed in just the right proportions. The penalty for not making the incense properly was death. The lesson is that forethought will precede real prayer; it is an offering to God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Un45cO7vE
commentary:
142:4 No one cares for my soul- This was indeed how David felt and perhaps it was really so; and yet he recognized that there were a group of people in existence called “the righteous” (:7). Even if we feel none of God’s people are helping us as they should, it doesn’t mean they aren’t God’s people or that nobody at all is righteous apart from us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rn_qug9ndg
commentary:
143:10 Your Spirit is good; lead me- David felt very strongly that he was being led, and he was confident that although he didn’t understand exactly where he was going in the short term, God is fundamentally good and wishes us only good in our latter end. The “spirit” here may refer to an Angel (Ps. 104:4; Heb. 1:7), whom David felt was leading him in his wilderness life under persecution from Saul (:3) just as an Angel led Israel in the wilderness.
143:12 The death of David’s enemies was seen by him as God’s “kindness”. See on 136:10.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INgdoUFUtw4
commentary:
144:1,2 My rock... my fortress, my high tower- There are references in the historical record to how David took refuge from Saul (:3) and other enemies in these things (1 Sam. 23:29; 2 Sam. 5:7,9). But David saw that the essence of his safety was not in them but in God. We may use medicines, doctors, insurance, emergency phone numbers... but the essence is that God is our saviour, even if He works through those things.
144:12 David must have shocked many by singing of how our sons shall be as plants and our daughters as corner stones. For the corner stones of a family were perceived to be the male head of the family. The Biblical view of women always sharply contrasted with that of the surrounding world at the time; such is God’s valuing of each of His children regardless of their gender or perception within society.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve0w5Ra1h2g
commentary:
145:1 You my God as the King- David was king of Israel, but that meant little to him compared to the greatness of God’s sovereign Kingship. It may be that we are exalted a little bit in life, in career, social standing or even respect amongst God’s people. An awareness of God’s greatness will keep this in perspective for us; we will see it as nothing compared to God’s exaltation and our subsequent smallness.
145:5 Of Your wondrous works, I will meditate- The rest of this Psalm speaks of David enthusiastically telling others about these things. But the motivation for preaching, the impetus for overcoming the inertia we often face in raising spiritual subjects in conversation, is our personal meditation upon these things, of telling ourselves within our own self-talk of God’s greatness and the things of His Kingdom. The more public expression of these things to others will then come naturally without needing to be forced.
145:19 This isn’t a blank cheque promise to give us whatever we pray for; the “desire” of God’s people is paralleled here with salvation. “I want to live forever in God’s Kingdom more than anything else in the world” should be our credo; and if this is really the case in our hearts, we shall receive it (2 Tim. 4:8).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsz1syV0j88
commentary:
146:4 This clearly teaches that death is unconsciousness; we have no ‘immortal soul’ which consciously exists after death. The allusion is to how God made man from the dust and put into him the breath or spirit of life (Gen. 2:7). When we die, this spirit or life force returns to God, and we return to dust. The practical implication of correctly understanding human mortality is that we won’t trust in people, but rather in God; for we will realize their weakness and ultimate inability to save.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_3zeU8BIOI
commentary:
147:2 The Jews returned from Babylon to the land of their own volition; but it was Yahweh who gathered them back, as if He called them almost of His volition rather than theirs. They rebuilt Jerusalem; but actually, Yahweh did, through His confirmation of all the freewill effort of men like Ezra and Nehemiah. In our exodus from this world and journey to the Kingdom, God is willing and able to confirm every freewill effort we make in every aspect of our lives. The returning exiles had to strengthen the bars of Jerusalem’s gates as is emphasized throughout Neh. 3; but God worked through them (:13).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev-N5aOkAUg
commentary:
148:2 All the Angels are obedient to God; there are no sinful Angels in Heaven; see on 103:20,21.
148:6 God will never destroy the earth and heavens; it is His declared purpose to establish His eternal Kingdom on earth at Christ’s return (Dan. 2:44). Any references to the destruction of ‘heavens and earth’ are using this term in a symbolic sense to describe a system of things on earth (Is. 1:2).
148:14 Saints refers to all God’s people, not just a few very righteous people.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_33chHNcKeI
commentary:
149:2 Be joyful in their King- This Psalm would’ve been written and used when Israel had a human king. But the Psalmist, perhaps king David, wanted them to understand that whatever system of human leadership there is amongst God’s people, He is their ultimate King and His Kingship was to be personally felt by every one of His people, so that they might eternally be His Kingdom, the entity of persons over which He extends rulership and sovereign authority.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pgKT2F53hU
commentary:
150:3-5 The idea is that everything using all methods should praise God. We should never therefore limit the way others praise God, nor be critical of it because it’s not our method.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsEuvCCb3n4
commentary:
1:5 That the wise man may be obedient- There is an upward spiral in spiritual life, whereby God’s commandments are designed to lead the wise to yet more obedience if they are obeyed; wisdom leads to more wisdom.
1:12 Sheol is the Hebrew word translated “hell” in some Bibles; it is also translated “the grave”, and is here parallel with “the pit”. It refers simply to the grave and not to any place of eternal torment.
1:23 My spirit... my words- The Bible is written by inspiration of God. God’s words are a vehicle by which His Spirit works in the lives of His children (Jn. 6:63).
1:26 Mock... laugh- God will mock and laugh at the Gentile nations who come against Him in the last day (Ps. 2:4), and yet He will do just the same to those of His people who refuse wisdom’s voice. If we are not separate from this world now, we will not be separated from them when the judgments fall. We will be “Condemned with the world...” (1 Cor. 11:32). If we don’t come out from Babylon, we will share her judgments (Rev. 18:4).
1:28 Then will they call on me, but I will not answer- In the day of judgment, everybody will desperately want to be in God’s Kingdom, to live eternally in the way of wisdom. The rejected will urgently seek acceptance, but it will be too late (Mt. 25:11; Lk. 13:25).
1:29 Hated knowledge- They ‘despise’ wisdom (:30); but they likely never said so in those words. In their lives they lived in “careless ease” (:32), but this is tantamount to proactively hating spiritual knowledge.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzYRbfNXoks
commentary:
2:3 Wisdom cries out loud to be heard (8:1), and yet the righteous man cries after wisdom, and lifts up his voice for understanding; there is thus a sense of mutuality here between God's wisdom and the sincere seeker. Every genuine believer will have felt this; we urgently cry for wisdom, and yet God's word is crying out to teach us. If this is our attitude, the things of God’s word will be our life (4:13). As Israel were to talk about the word as they went out and came in and as they walked along the way, so should the new Israel (7:2,3).
2:16,17 Solomon was inspired to write the Proverbs in his youth, and yet he did the very things he warns others against. Here he teaches that wisdom would save a man from the Gentile woman who made a covenant with the God of Israel in her youth (in order to marry an Israelite, by implication), but soon forgot it. This was exactly the case of Solomon, who married Gentile women in his youth; yet he just couldn't see the personal relevance of his own wisdom to himself. The more spiritual knowledge we have, the more prone we are to make this same mistake.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeslYLKN4yM
commentary:
3:4 This is alluded to in Lk. 2:52, where we read that Jesus grew in wisdom and in favour with God and man. The “my Son” spoken of in Proverbs can therefore be understood as the Son, the Lord Jesus. It could be that the various warnings to the son about not getting involved with Gentile women, not getting in with bad company in his youth etc. were all speaking directly to temptations the Lord Jesus encountered in His youth. In this case we could build up some picture of the experiences of the Lord’s early life on the basis of the “my son” exhortations of Proverbs.
3:11 All Scripture is recorded for our learning and comfort (Rom. 15:4). The exhortation here in Prov. 3:11 “speaks unto you as unto children...” (Heb. 12:5). We are to constantly personalize Scripture and hear God speaking to us directly.
3:20 And the skies drop down the dew - The historical creation of all things by God’s word of command is ongoing, in that His word in an ongoing way commands the dew to fall just as His word re-arranged the waters as recorded in Genesis 1. The idea of :19,20 is that the same word which God used as the agency of physical creation- He said, and it was done- is ongoing in our lives if we respond to the word of wisdom, thereby becoming a new creation through that same word, centred as it is in the Lord Jesus as that word made flesh (2 Cor. 5:17; Jn. 1:14).
3:34 He gives grace to the humble- Quoted in James 4:5,6 in an appeal to us not to be envious but rather to be humble. The truly humble aren’t envious; God’s gift of grace to them in Christ is so wonderful that we have quite enough to personally glory in, and there will be no envy of others.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUiNFsKE5Vk
commentary:
4:4-9 This is Solomon quoting to his children what his father David had taught him about wisdom. He was raising his children as he had been raised, which is what all parents inevitably tend to do by default. But Solomon himself lived without personally applying the wisdom to himself; all he says is true, but the lesson is that we can accept theoretical truth, pass it on to others with great conviction, and yet be unmoved by it ourselves.
4:16 Doing evil is defined as making another fall. The sinfulness of sin is especially in the negative effect we have upon others.
4:23 The heart is used in the Bible as a metaphor for the mind. To be spiritually minded is the essence of Christianity. How we think now will affect our eternal future.
4:26 Make the path of your feet level- Quoted in Heb. 12:13 about the need to do this so that others don’t stumble in the way of life. Our personal life path must be straight not only for ourselves to reach the Kingdom, but so that others can follow us there. Again we see that spirituality is never limited to ourselves; it always affects others.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLYxmxv96IY
commentary:
5:5 Sheol is translated in some Bibles as “hell”, but the word refers simply to the grave, which is how it is often translated. Here it is parallel with “death”, as in 7:27. It doesn’t refer to any place of eternal conscious torment.
5:15 Springing water out of your own spring- The metaphor likens the man’s wife to a spring of ever fresh water which is personally for himself. A husband should find in his wife something ever fresh, and thus marriages blessed by God don’t default into the same old scene scenario, there’s always something fresh and new for us in each other if we perceive our partners as we should.
5:21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh- Sexual unfaithfulness is precluded by the fact that God sees and knows all things; Job likewise answered a false accusation of marital infidelity by saying that this wasn’t possible for him, because he lived in the constant presence of the God who sees all things (Job 31:1-4).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGNAoZq_Gak
commentary:
6:7 Having no chief, overseer or ruler- We can learn from meditating upon the natural creation. Human beings tend to work best when overseen by a human leader; but in spiritual life, we are to work for God from self motivation, regardless of whether or not we have good leadership within the family of God.
6:13 God is sensitive to the body language of people, and so should we be.
6:14 Who always sows discord- In terms of the sentence structure, this is the crowning characteristic of the wicked man introduced in :12. Division and fracture of human relationships is perceived by God as the end result of sinfulness- thus indicating the huge value He places upon unity amongst His children. Divisiveness is the very essence of sinfulness. Likewise the seven things which God hates culminate in the sin of sowing discord amongst brothers (:16-18). Indeed, :16 could imply that this seventh sin is the ultimate abomination to Him.
6:25 Neither let her captivate you with her eyelids- The blindness of Solomon is driven home time and again. He warned the young man about being captivated by the eyelids of the Gentile woman; yet it was the eyes of his Egyptian lover that he openly admitted stole his heart (Song 4:9; 6:5).  The Gentile woman has words like a honeycomb ( 5:3); and yet this is exactly how Solomon found his woman's words (Song  4:11).
6:27 These verses powerfully pierce deeply into the psychology of sin, especially sexual sin. We reason that we can go so far into it, but not too far. But once we launch into sin, we will be damaged by it. The call of wisdom is to total abstinence from it, rather than spiritual brinkmanship.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6SxWZjleeU
commentary:
7:2 The idea of keeping commandments in order to live is a reference back to the many Deuteronomy passages where Moses pleads with Israel to keep God’s commands and live. But Solomon came to perceive his father David’s commands as those of God, and in his generation he watered this down in his own mind until he assumed that his commands to his children were to be treated by them as the law of God- no matter how far he had strayed himself from God’s law. It’s a gripping, frightening psychology. “O my son, receive my sayings; and the years of your life shall be many” (4:10) is alluding to the promise of long life for the obedient to God’s laws; but never does Solomon make the admission that his laws are only a repetition of God’s laws. He was playing God by implying that his words carried the weight of God’s words. He taught his son obedience to him as a father, but not to God Himself.
7:14 Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me- It is the mixing of spirituality and sensuality which is such a powerful temptation; in the same way as Israel never totally rejected Yahweh, but mixed His worship with that of idols. Likewise many false doctrines contain a mixture of truth and error.
7:16 With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt- Solomon perceived the association of Egypt with failure with women; and yet made the very same mistake which he so well perceived and eloquently preached against to others.
7:18 Let’s solace ourselves with loving- The justification of any sin, but especially sexual sin, is that we have had hard lives and deserve some break, some solace, some human comfort.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFVMWDzZ-Bs
commentary:
8:11 Often Solomon’s Proverbs bring out the tension between wealth and wisdom, and the need to choose wisdom (see too 16:16). But whilst he was inspired to write this, and true as it all was, it is inevitable that Solomon said all this with his mind on the way that he had rejected wealth for wisdom when in his youth he was asked by God for his wish (1 Kings 3:11,12). He thought that his right choice in early life [cp. Christian baptism] justified him in later loving wealth rather than wisdom. He taught that wisdom filled the treasuries of the wise (:21)- just as his treasuries were filled with wealth. Yet in his old age in Ecclesiastes he says that he amassed wealth for himself to see if he could find fulfilment in it- and he seems to have done that because now in his younger days he thought that amassing wealth was justified because he loved the possession of wisdom. Many a middle aged businessman, baptized in his youth and knowing God’s truths very well in theory, has made just the same tragic mistake.
8:32 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me- These are words attributed to wisdom, but they are the words Solomon uses about his own instruction of his sons in 5:7. Solomon came to assume that he personally was wisdom personified. He had been given wisdom, but the very possession of it led him to assume that he was somehow infallible and spiritually invincible. This was his downfall.  The fact we may possess God’s Truth doesn’t mean that we personally are thereby infallible in every aspect of life. We hold those truths in clay, fallible vessels (2 Cor. 4:7).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0_R-bLMAHE
commentary:
9:1 In this chapter we have a classic example of where something abstract- like wisdom- is personified. Personification is widely used in the New Testament, where abstract things like sin and God’s power, the Holy Spirit, are spoken of as persons even though they aren’t.
9:5 An invitation to bread and wine represents fellowship together. The bread and wine of the communion service likewise speak of our fellowship with God and His Son, and our willingness to learn of them.
9:7-9 These verses appear to be the advice of wisdom to her young women who preach her message (:3). We begin the whole enterprise of sharing wisdom with the recognition that we are likely to be rejected and abused by some who hear our message. Wisdom is calling to everyone, it’s not that she advises her preachers to ignore people they consider wicked. But she warns her representatives ahead of time that they can expect rejection and hurt as a result of their work.
9:8 An ability to take criticism is required if we are to become wise. But as people increasingly withdraw within themselves in modern society, this is a characteristic increasingly rarely seen.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQE5I9Cms_c
commentary:
10:1 Solomon has himself in view here, for he was known internationally for his wisdom. Yet much of his apparent spirituality and zeal for God seems to have been a result of living out David’s parental expectation. The emphasis he places in Proverbs upon pleasing fathers reflects Solomon’s personal living out of parental hopes. Hence his collapse of faith later in life.
10:11 Our words really can be the water of life to others; this is why how we speak is so important.
10:12 Love covers all wrongs- The first and second halves of the verses in Proverbs are often related to each other. The way of love is not to turn a blind eye; but it covers wrongs in the sense that it doesn’t ‘stir up strife’ in the sense of continually exposing the fault lines which there are in every relationship, but rather covers them.
10:15,16 These verses speak of attitudes to wealth; the rich trust in their wealth and become isolated by it, like a man within a fortified city. The poor are soul destroyed because they are poor, and because they think that not having wealth means they are nothing. However, the righteous labour for God with eternal life as their end in view (:16), thus making their economic status simply not an item in their self-perception.
10:20 Note the frequent parallel in Proverbs between the tongue and the heart. Our words reflect how we think; we can’t think badly and never reflect it in our speech. Jesus understood, maybe from studying Proverbs, that our mouth speaks in reflection of our heart (Lk. 6:45).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJOiH08ygZA
commentary:
11:4 The day of wrath- A reference to the final day of judgment at Christ’s return. As we bow there naked before God’s Son, it’s bizarre to think that bank accounts, home ownership or wealth of any kind will be in the slightest bit relevant.
11:5 Will direct his way – If we live according to God’s principles, we will not have the rudderless spirit which there is in this world. Somehow our life path becomes naturally clear to us.
11:7 Hope perishes- The Bible doesn’t teach universal salvation nor some automatic reincarnation of the person after death. The wicked will ultimately remain dead without hope.
11:9 The tongue is more powerful than we think; people can be destroyed by others’ words; even whole communities can be (:11). But the righteous will not be destroyed by such words, because their focus instead is on their knowledge or relationship with God.
11:26 A reference to Joseph’s wisdom in selling grain to the starving.
11:30,31 We can be to others as the tree of life was in Eden. We can win people for eternal life; their eternity is delegated by God to us. Such is the power and importance of preaching. It is our fruit which becomes the fruit which gives eternal life. The fruit of the Spirit as seen in our characters is what will attract people to the eternal life, because we are living now how we will eternally live.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8lxVGvVXqo
commentary:
12:10 A gracious and sensitive spirit will be reflected in how we treat the natural creation.
12:14 The way we talk is here paralleled with our works, what we do with our hands. How we speak is really so important; good actions don’t displace bad speaking.
12:15 Right in his own eyes- What seems right to us isn’t necessarily so. We aren’t born with any natural wisdom; unless we have a teachable spirit, open to God’s teaching, then we will have only our very dysfunctional natural senses to guide us.
12:17 He who is truthful testifies honestly- This may seem to be obvious; but the idea is that the person who is truthful as a way of life, within their own heart, is going to also be truthful when it comes to having to testify in court.
12:25 A kind word makes it glad- Here and in :18 we see how powerful good words can be (Job 6:25). There’s a positive power in words, even just one word, which we are prone to ignore, thinking that actions are so much more important than words.
12:28 In its path there is no death- We have here an Old Testament equivalent of the times when Jesus says we can have eternal life right now. It doesn’t mean that the righteous don’t die. They do, and will be resurrected to eternal life at Christ’s return. But we can start living right now the kind of Kingdom life which we will eternally live. In this sense we “have eternal life”, and there is “no death” in the way of life of the righteous.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcLeBECeMig
commentary:
13:3 He who guards his mouth guards his soul- In this sense as Jesus put it, we will be eternally justified or eternally condemned by our words (Mt. 12:37).
13:7 This last phrase is quoted about the Lord Jesus, who made Himself poor on the cross (2 Cor. 8:9). And yet Solomon, who made himself rich, was the very anti-Christ.  These words are also part quoted in Phil. 2:7, about how on the cross, the Lord Jesus made himself poor, of no reputation, and now has been so highly exalted. Our living out of the Lord’s cross is shown in our making of ourselves poor, in whatever sense. That is surely the unmistakable teaching of this allusion.
13:14 We have it within our power to disentangle people from the snare of eternal death. And we do this by teaching them. See on 14:27.
13:16 A fool exposes folly- The fact something is wrong or foolish doesn’t mean that we should therefore always expose it. The way of wisdom is to decide when to speak and when to be silent.
13:19 Longing fulfilled- The opposite of this is to “detest turning from evil”. The “longing” is therefore for spiritual growth, for victory against sin. And this is what is the sweetest thing in spiritual experience.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhPBhkZa31c
commentary:
14:7 Stay away from a foolish man- This is typical of many such commands in Proverbs. But we should remember that Solomon was writing to Israelites living within the people of God. Just because someone is part of God’s people doesn’t make them wise; we still have to decide wisely as to with whom we will closely walk in life.
14:8 Folly is here parallel with a lack of serious self-examination. In our day, the breaking of bread service is designed to provoke self-examination (1 Cor. 11:28).
14:10 The way of wisdom isn’t to wear our heart on our sleeve, sharing our innermost thoughts with everyone and anyone.
14:11 Note the contrast between “the house” and “the tent”; the upright have the attitude that they are just passing through this life, with no permanent abode in this world in this present age (Heb. 13:14).
14:17 Quiet craftiness is as bad as hotheaded behaviour which is visible to everyone.
14:27 Turning people from the snares of death- But 13:14 says people are saved from the snares of death by our teaching them. The content of that teaching must therefore be the fear of God. His salvation is there in His word, but it becomes real for people by our teaching of it to them.
14:31 Therefore our attitude to the poor is our attitude to God. Hence Jesus teaches that He will judge us according to how we treated our poor brethren, because they represent Him (Mt. 25:40).
14:33 The fool perceives wisdom in his innermost conscience, but only in passing; it doesn’t remain within his consciousness as it does within the heart of the righteous. Passing interest in spirituality is very common in our world; but God’s truth must abide within our heart if we are to be truly wise.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdQc-QG7LoY
commentary:
15:3 Yahweh’s eyes are everywhere- A reference to God’s presence everywhere through His Angels. This reminder is given in the context of warning us about our words; if we believe that God is really aware of absolutely everything, this will influence our words.
15:4 People are psychologically crushed when they realize that words spoken to them lacked integrity. The importance of our words is therefore because of their influence upon others. Appropriate gentleness in speech can also lead people to eternal life.
15:7 Again we see how the heart and the tongue (“lips”) are paralleled; what we think really issues in our words (Lk. 6:45).
15:8 Here and elsewhere in Scripture, prayer is seen as a sacrifice. It requires the same effort and careful preparation beforehand (Heb. 13:15). The altar of incense represented the offering of prayer as a sacrifice (Rev. 8:3,4).
15:12 The implication is that people don’t mix with the wise because they subconsciously fear being criticized, directly or indirectly. Those who can bear criticism relax with the wise (:31).
15:14 Fools feed on folly- A relevant warning to us who live in an age of constant comedy and entertainment, where folly is presented as joy (:21).
15:26 God watches every thought of every person. Such knowledge is amazing. And we can please God Almighty in distant Heaven, just by how we are thinking. Such is the colossal significance of spiritual mindedness.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0VPkRUEB9w
commentary:
16:1 The implication is that there is an element to which God controls our thoughts and the words we come out with. This element which is beyond human effort is from God’s grace through the operation of His Spirit. This same ‘element’ is alluded to in :4- God somehow overrules and uses even the failures of the sinful; and in :9 we have the same theme, that there is an element of Divine direction over and above what we ourselves will in our own minds. Otherwise, salvation would be by steel-willed human effort alone rather than God’s grace. This same theme, of God playing a role over and above our own efforts, concludes this chapter in :33. See on 20:24.
16:2 Yahweh weighs the motives- Our justification isn’t on the basis that we happen to feel good about ourselves (:25); God’s judgment rather than our own gut feelings is all important. Although He is Almighty, God “weighs” our motives, expending some effort in analyzing our deepest heart processes.
16:10 Solomon writes inspired truth in Proverbs, but it seems that much of what he writes was written with an eye to his own self-justification, especially about the need to respect the man who has wisdom and the wise man’s superiority over all others (:16). He even writes as if the king must be accepted as automatically infallible: “Inspired judgments are on the lips of the king” (see too 20:2).   We too can teach God’s truths whilst also motivated in doing so by a desire for our own self-justification rather than His glory.
16:20 We see here the connection between God’s word and faith; faith comes by hearing God’s word (Rom. 10:17).
16:30 Negative body language may appear so insignificant, but it is judged by God as being “bent on evil”.
16:32 One who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city- A reference to Samson.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XAOww50bDI
commentary:
17:5 The poor are God manifest to us; how we treat our poor brethren is how we treat God, and is the basis of our final judgment (M 25:40). This is a common theme in Proverbs; and we need to remember it constantly, especially as we are often tempted to consider others’ poverty as the result of their own poor decision making and to think this excuses us from helping them.
17:9 He who covers an offence- This is paralleled in the second half of the verse with not gossiping about others’ failures. It doesn’t mean that we are to turn a blind eye to others’ sins, rather that we shouldn’t gossip about them to others.
17:14 Relationship breakdown needs to be bridged as soon as possible, as a matter of urgency; otherwise irreparable damage will be done and like water bursting from a dam, many others will be affected by it.
17:19 One who builds a high gate seeks destruction- Isolationism is actually a proactive seeking of destruction for others. In our age of retreat into ourselves, this needs to be considered carefully. 18:1 likewise exhorts against isolationism- it’s a form of selfishness.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2OqOzXOBsw
commentary:
18:4 Words are important; yet they are so common, as we hear and speak millions of them each week, that we can easily forget their profound significance in our lives and those of others.
18:6 His speech asks for beatings- According to our words we will be judged at the last day (Mt. 12:37; Lk. 12:47,48); our words now may actually be as it were requesting our punishment then. We must so speak as those who will be judged, knowing that he who showed no mercy in his words will receive none (James 2:12,13); our words of mercy or condemnation, and perhaps the way we say them, will be the basis upon which we will be accepted or rejected. In this sense death or life are in the power of our tongue (:21).
18:8 It’s attractive to us to hear gossip; the one who hears it will often not just ignore it but will take it deep within themselves.
18:9 Again we see passive behaviour- in this case, laziness- paralleled with proactive destructive behaviour.
18:10 This has relevance to us in that we can be baptized into the Lord’s Name.
18:11 One implication of this could be that those who trust in wealth isolate themselves from others.
18:18 The use of lots is seen positively here; they were used by the early church in Acts 1:26.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL0BceU2TSA
commentary:
19:2 Zeal without knowledge- Applied by Paul to the Jews and all people who seek justification by works rather than faith in God’s grace which is in Christ (Rom. 10:2), which is for us the ultimate “knowledge”. This is like someone who walks earnestly but in the wrong direction, who has missed “the way”, which is Christ (Jn. 14:6).
19:8 This verse is in the context of the preceding reflections that in human life, people who have wealth have friends but the poor have few friends. Whether or not we have popularity with others and human friendships, the wonder of finding the ultimate “understanding” of God, relationship with Him, makes that irrelevant.
19:11 We are not to take up every offence against us with others. There are times when our silence under provocation is in God’s eyes our “glory”. This verse alludes to the fact that God is slow to anger and overlooks offences without always demanding our specific repentance (Ps. 103:8; 145:8). We are to reflect our experience of this to others.
19:14 A prudent wife is from Yahweh- Marriage is in a human sense a gamble, as we never really know our partner until we have been married some time to them.  A good partnership is therefore a “grace” from God (18:22); whilst we can do our human best to have a good marriage, it is ultimately God who does the humanly impossible, of joining two different people together (Mt. 19:6); and marriage is therefore a grace from Him.
19:17 Our attitude to the poor is our attitude to God and will be the basis of our judgment (Mt. 25:40).
19:22 The implication is that the poor can still be kind; in our money-obsessed world, there’s the wrong impression that generosity and kindness must involve financial giving.
19:25 The simple will learn- We are to learn by observing how sinners are punished even in this life.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQSTqwtncrU
commentary:
20:1 Beer is a brawler- It is people and not liquid who brawl. The alcoholic drink is therefore put by metonymy for the alcoholic; they become identified with the substance of their addiction. Anything in human life with which we become totally identified, be it football teams or alcohol, is an addiction which takes us away from being the persons God intends us to be.
20:5 There is good wisdom within many faithful people which never becomes apparent until another person draws it out. This should be the result of good company and true spiritual fellowship- bringing out the best in each other which is often latent and would be otherwise unavailable for others’ benefit.
20:6 There’s much talk in the world about “love”, but no word is more misunderstood. Love must be connected to faith and hope if it is to be love as God intends (1 Cor. 13:13); and faith and hope produce love in their ultimate term (Col. 3:14).
20:7 Integrity is what will most influence our children in practice.
20:16 Hold him in pledge for a wayward woman- An allusion to Judah’s sin with Tamar (Gen. 38:25).
20:22 If we are wronged, the ultimate justice will be done when we are eternally saved at the time of Christ’s return- and not in this life.
20:24 There is an element of Divine guidance in our lives over and above our own efforts; see on 16:1.
20:27 Our self-examination is what reveals us to the Lord. What we think about at the memorial meeting, as we are faced with the memory of the crucified Saviour, is therefore an epitome of what we really are. If all we are thinking of is the taste of the wine, the cover over the bread, the music, what we didn’t agree with in the meeting, all the external things of our Christianity; or if we are sitting there taking bread and wine as a conscience salver, doing our little religious ritual to make us feel psychologically safe- then we simply don’t know Him. We are surface level believers only. And this is the message we give Him. Our spirit / attitude is the candle of the Lord, with which He searches us. Our thoughts when confronted by the cross reveal us to Him who died on it. Likewise Joseph (one of the most detailed types of the Lord Jesus) knew / discerned his brethren by his cup (Gen. 44:5). 1 Cor. 11:31,32 suggests that our self-judgment at the breaking of bread is in fact the Lord’s judgment of us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTWGvpLU_ak
commentary:
21:2 He turns it wherever He desires- See on 16:1.
21:4 The wicked see life within the light of their own pride; everything becomes subjected to their need to present themselves well.
21:13 We will all cry out for mercy and grace at the day of judgment. The mean may appear prosperous in this life, but we should live ever aware that we are spiritually poor because of our own bad decisions, just as the poor are often poor because of their own weaknesses and poor decision making; and we will cry out to God for His mercy at the last day. We therefore ought to be responsive to the cries of the poor today.
21:16 Remain in the assembly of the dead- The punishment for the wicked, including those who once walked with God, is eternal death, and not eternal conscious torment.
21:19 Solomon often interjects some comment about the misery of living with an unspiritual woman, apparently out of context with what he is writing about (:9 also). Although he was inspired in his writing, this may reflect how always weighing on his mind was the fact that his 1000 wives and concubines never brought him happiness but only a desire for isolationism from everybody (1 Kings 11:3); and he therefore keeps on making this kind of comment. Intimacy between persons can only be achieved God’s way, which is through lifelong stable relationships bound together by Him (Mt. 19:6).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ziRF6BECf4
commentary:
22:2 One implication of believing that God is our personal creator is that we will not be envious of the rich; we will not see them as so fundamentally different from ourselves.
22:4 Wealth, honour, and life- The gift of “life” surely refers to eternal life; this will be given at Christ’s return along with wealth and honour.
22:5 Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked- The Proverbs often allude to the Law of Moses or earlier Israelite history. Here the reference is to the only other time that “thorns and snares” occur together in the Bible, in Josh. 23:13, where Israel are warned that association and intermarriage with the pagan world around them will be as thorns and snares to them. The wicked therefore put these things in their own path; and again, Solomon makes this warning whilst failing spectacularly himself in this very thing.
22:6 God works with individuals and we are each independently judged regardless of whether we had believing or unbelieving parents, and so it cannot be that someone comes to the Kingdom simply because of faithful parents. And yet none of us will reach salvation purely by our own effort; there are other elements over and above that, and faithful parenting is one such element in the final algorithm which determines who is saved and who isn’t. It’s an endless motivation for parents, therefore, to raise their children in God’s way.
22:16 Come to poverty- Considering that the wicked often prosper materially in this life, “poverty” must refer to poverty of spirit.
22:21 To the ones who sent you- People came to hear Solomon’s wisdom from many nations (1 Kings 4:34), so the book of Proverbs was maybe first compiled as an answer to be sent back to them. 
22:25 Bad company, even amongst the people of God, rubs off on us; we are more vulnerable to negative spiritual influences than we think.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eErz6O9Q3Dg
commentary:
23:5 He had all the right theory. Solomon was an active, industrious person by nature; and whilst all his many proverbs criticizing the lazy and glorifying the diligent are true as they stand, is there not in all this some element of self-justification, interpreting his own natural personality type as inherently righteous?
23:11 He will plead their case- God is here likened to the counsel for the defence in the final court of Divine justice. And yet He is also the judge of all. Each of the situations we find ourselves in is played out before the court of Heaven, and the judgment of the last day will be a statement of those judgments which are happening in our lives today. God hasn’t as it were turned off from this world, to open the books at the end of history and see how we behaved; He is watching and passionately judging today.
23:17 Envy of others just isn’t on our agenda if we are rejoicing in our relationship with God, and focused on the future hope we have of eternity in God’s Kingdom at Christ’s return (:18). These things eclipse any tendency to wish we were like the rich and powerful in this brief, fleeting life. See on 24:20.
23:26,27 Even when married to Gentile women, Solomon could charge his son to "observe my ways. For... a Gentile woman is a narrow well". The fact he himself had fallen into the pit of marriage to unbelievers just didn't seem to occur to him; he was sure that he was in fact an upright example. This passage reflects more than many the extent to which Solomon's conscience was so deeply damaged. For he wasn't saying 'Do as I say but not as I do'. He was beyond that- doing the very wrong that he warned others not to do, and confidently presenting himself to them as a good example. The death of conscience is something we have to watch against all our days.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlQMK8nbYRQ
commentary:
24:12 As God keeps us from spiritual destruction, so we should try to keep others. We aren’t to say within ourselves that we didn’t realize that they were going wrong. This is a piercing analysis of our psychology; we hold back from the awkwardness of engagement with others about their life path because we kid ourselves that they are OK really.
24:16 The righteous fall, spiritually and materially- but rise up. This rising up again is one of the characteristics of the righteous, not being swamped by failure.
24:18 God is more angry with gloating over others’ fall than over the fall itself.
24:20 Our hope of future, eternal reward at Christ’s return means we will not be jealous of others (:19). See on 23:17.
24:25 The Proverbs give so much advice about judgment. At first sight it may appear directed to the tiny minority within Israel who were called to be judges; but whilst we cannot condemn others, we are to judge righteously, to have righteous opinions and draw spiritual conclusions about life situations. This is why we have so much advice about how to ‘judge’.
24:29 I will render to the man according to his work- We are not to say this, because Christ is coming to judge and render to each person according to their work (Rev. 22:12). We can know great peace from resigning the need to render others their judgment.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD0IuxOqgRs
commentary:
25:3 When Solomon laments that a sinful land has many rulers, but stability comes from a wise ruler (28:2), he is stating an inspired truth; but it is inevitable that he framed it in such terms as justified his own dictatorial rule, as if his wisdom justified him in crushing any opposition leaders. It was really Solomon's self-justification. Solomon taught that the heart of kings is unsearchable, i.e., it cannot be examined, being as far above the earth as heaven is. Solomon thought that his possession of theoretical wisdom placed him in a God-like position above his people, and therefore they dare not even begin to question him or examine him; and none should therefore dare to ‘exalt himself’ in the King’s presence (:6). Truly, “knowledge puffs up”. And our very possession of ‘the truth’ of Christ and the word of God carries with it the same potential temptations, leading us to consider the world so far beneath us, that we can do what we wish with no accountability to anyone.
25:5 This was justifying the way Solomon killed Shimei at the establishment of his kingdom. His teaching of wisdom is constantly mixed with self-justification; our preaching must never be like this. See on 29:7.
25:7 Jesus says that this is exactly what will happen at the day of judgment (Lk. 14:10).
25:16 Solomon warns about only eating a limited amount of the honey you may find. Yet Ecclesiastes 1 and 2 show how Solomon found honey as it were, he had the opportunity to do and experience what he wanted- and he ate so much he became spiritually sick.
25:22 This is applied to each of us in Rom. 12:20.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwcg43pSqTI
commentary:
26:4,5 These verses don’t contradict, rather the intention is to teach us that we must treat people in different ways at different times; sometimes we should say something, others we should remain silent. It is wisdom which teaches us. It’s too simplistic to respond to people the same way every time.
26:11 This verse is applied in 2 Pet. 2:22 to baptized Christian believers who return to their old way of life. The implication is that at our conversion we as it were vomited up our old way of life; to return to it is as vile as a dog returning to its own vomit.
26:13 Laziness is often justified as caution.
26:16 Just assuming that we are right and refusing to be self-critical, allowing discretion or wisdom to teach us, is a form of laziness.
26:22 We all naturally like to hear gossip, we find it tasty; let’s not deceive ourselves that actually, we aren’t like that; we are, and must make conscious effort not to listen to it.
26:26 Exposed in the assembly- Yet the wicked prosper in this life, and often go to their graves without their deceitful words having been revealed. Yet they shall be exposed “in the assembly”. There is a theme in Bible teaching about the day of judgment, that our individual judgment will somehow be visible to all (Lk. 12:1-3; Rev. 16:15). All our secret words, thoughts and real intentions will then be made public to all; there’s therefore no point to be hypocritical in this life, thinking we have cleverly hidden our real positions and feelings, because ultimately all will be public knowledge to everyone for eternity.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjUYPDCYg9s
commentary:
27:1 James 4:14,15 alludes to this verse, teaching that our speech should be characterized by frequent statements that our plans are “God willing” or “If the Lord will”.
27:5 The implication is that if we love someone, we must show it- and that may require us to rebuke them at times, as a reflection of that love we have for them (:6).
27:7 To a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet- The context of the surrounding verses speak of loving friends rebuking their friends in love. So the idea may be that we are all spiritually hungry, and the bitterness of receiving rebuke from our friends will therefore be sweet to us. It’s the spiritually proud, who consider themselves full, who have no liking for rebuke.
27:10 This whole section teaches the importance of having faithful, spiritually minded friends. True fellowship within the family of God’s people means that we can relate to each other as if we really are natural family. The idea of ‘out of church Christians’ is a contradiction in terms; we are designed to develop spiritually as a result of true fellowship with other believers. Poor church experiences shouldn’t lead us to retreat within ourselves, because there is no path to growth within the body of God’s people if we cut ourselves off from them (Jn. 15:5).
27:21 How we respond to praise is an indicator of who we really are spiritually, because our response will indicate whether we are proud or humble.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z43Im54fXyI
commentary:
28:2 See on 25:3.
28:5 Those who seek Yahweh understand it fully – Note the paradox between ‘seeking’ and ‘fully 'understanding’. The seeker recognizes he hasn’t yet arrived at full understanding; but that process of humble seeking God is in fact reckoned as ‘fully understanding’.
28:9 Our attitude to God’s word is related to the effectiveness of our prayers; insofar as God’s word abides in us, we will ask for things which God will grant (Jn. 15:7), and we will ask in faith, because faith comes from hearing God’s word (Rom. 10:17). The various aspects of the believing life, e.g. prayer and Bible reading, mesh together to produce an upward spiritual of spiritual development.
28:11 The problem with wealth is the illusion it brings that everything can be bought for a price, including wisdom and spirituality. It’s not surprising therefore that the majority of God’s people have been kept poor by Him.
28:14 Blessed is the man who always fears- This is in designed contrast to the way :1 speaks of the righteous as bold as a lion, and the wicked as fearful. The ‘fear’ spoken of here must refer to a fear of God, of sinning against Him- and this, paradoxically, makes us not nervous, but bold and positive in our life path.
28:21 People will betray others and do and say awful things to them just in the hope of a tiny material advantage to them. Judas’ betrayal of Christ can be read as largely motivated by a love of money, and a relatively small sum too.
28:25 Seeking after wealth is contrasted with trusting in Yahweh- i.e. in His promise to provide our daily bread and clothing.
28:27 One who closes his eyes- This is the opposite of ‘giving to the poor’. We often fail to be generous spirited (and we can give to the poor in many ways apart from financially) because we pretend we didn’t notice human need, we close the eyes of our perception to the situations we encounter. Notice how deeply our psychology is penetrated by the Proverbs!


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB5dr6RZDcs
commentary:
29:7 This sounds like a reference to the way Solomon judged the two prostitutes. See on 25:5.
29:14 Solomon is clearly referring to the promises to David, which he assumed were about him. He thought that because he had judged the poor harlots wisely, therefore he would be the promised Messiah. And this was just what David his father had hoped and expected of him. David had even asked Solomon to “do wisely” i.e. to show wisdom, in order that the promises to him about Messiah would be fulfilled (1 Kings 2:3). So this was surely one of Solomon’s motives in giving them justice and being ‘wise’; he sought to live out his father’s expectations and to fulfil the requirements of the Messiah figure. Solomon uses language elsewhere used about Messiah’s final judgment and applies it to himself in 20:26. He felt that his judgment must be that of God, therefore he had to be right, because he ‘had wisdom’, he ‘had the truth’; he assumed that because he was the king, therefore his heart would inevitably be guided by the Lord (21:1). Those raised in wisdom’s way often find it very hard to take criticism in later life. They find tolerance of others’ views hard; they perceive themselves to be right to an intolerant extent. Is this not a little bit of the Solomon syndrome?


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObAUMki1y_I
commentary:
30:6 Although we may accept that the Bible is indeed inspired by God, we have a tendency to add to God’s word in that we are tempted to look elsewhere for truth. Because God’s word is true (“flawless”, :5) any other word is relatively speaking untrue, a lie. Having stated that he himself is ignorant, Agur is directing his pupils to God’s word; he recognized that wisdom cannot come from within a teacher, but only from God’s word which is taught by the teacher.
30:8 Feed me with the food that is needful for me- Maybe Jesus was influenced by this in commanding us to ask God each day to give us the food necessary for the day (Mt. 6:11).
30:10 Along with his master- Household servants were considered as one with their master. But Agur is teaching that we shouldn’t operate guilt by association, but instead recognize that even the humblest member of a community is still an individual and independent person both before God and ourselves.
30:10,11 Curses... doesn’t bless- Note how sins of omission [to not bless, in this case] are parallel with sins of commission [to curse].
30:12 The fact we may feel no conscience for sin isn’t any cleansing from it; the only effective washing from sin is through baptism into Christ, not playing mind games with ourselves whereby we don’t feel bad about our sins.
30:20 There’s a connection between the things of :18,19 and the adulterous woman who thinks she has done no wrong. Those things of :18,19 leave no visible trace. Because there is at times no trace of sins like adultery, they fade away as the path of a ship through the sea does, we aren’t to think that God doesn’t notice and that they will not be brought to judgment.
30:32,33 Just as the things of :30,31 are inexorable in their march and will not be deflected by anything, so just as surely judgment will come for sin, and we must repent rather than continuing to churn up Divine judgment against us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eJSaPJttY4
commentary:
31:1 Lemuel- An equivalent name for Solomon, having a similar meaning to Solomon’s other name, Jedediah (2 Sam. 12:25). This chapter would therefore be the inspired words of his mother Bathsheba.
31:3 Bathsheba was warning Solomon not to make the mistake his father David had, who destroyed his family for the sake of his adultery with Bathsheba. The warning against sinning with women under the influence of alcohol, which would lead the king to forget God’s law, could suggest that David sinned with Bathsheba whilst under the influence of alcohol.
31:8 There are those who whilst not physically mute are relatively voiceless; and we are to be a voice for them, to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves.
31:15 Portions for her servant girls- The wise woman is great because she serves those who are her servants; we see here the New Testament principle of servant leadership.
31:23 The implication is that the respect given her husband is thanks to her, for the surrounding verses are speaking of what she achieves for her family.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K1G5Gc3WfM
commentary:
1:2 ‘Heaven and earth’ are used here to describe a whole system of things; maybe the ‘heavens’ refer to the leaders of Judah, and the ‘earth’ the ordinary people. Verse 10 addresses the rulers and ordinary people separately in keeping with this. When we read in other Scriptures of the ‘heavens and earth’ being destroyed, we have to understand this figuratively, as referring to an entire system of things, human society- rather than the literal Heaven, which is God’s dwelling place, and the earth, upon which He intends to establish His eternal Kingdom at Christ’s return.
1:7 Is desolate... are burned- But this hadn’t yet happened at the time Isaiah was prophesying. But so certain was God’s word of fulfilment that he could speak in the present tense. We likewise should try to envisage prophesied future things as if they effectively are now- and live accordingly.
1:9 We would have been as Sodom- But :10 speaks to them as if they are Sodom. They were as Sodom to God, but for the sake of the faithful remnant, He wasn’t judging them as Sodom. This shows how faithful third parties can have a huge effect upon the destiny of an unspiritual mass of God’s people- so sensitive is God to the righteousness of even one man, as exemplified supremely in the achievement of Christ’s work for us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w3zKD2209A
commentary:
2:2 ‘Mountains’ are used figuratively in the Bible to refer to kingdoms. Here we have a prophecy of the future establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth, centred on Jerusalem. The Bible teaches the literal return of Christ to earth to establish God’s Kingdom here, rather than the righteous going to Heaven at death.
2:5 In view of the great future hope of God’s Kingdom, God’s people should in this life live in the spirit of it, and walk in God’s light now as they will eternally.
2:7 The reference to silver, gold, horses and chariots recalls God’s forbidding of Israel to trade with other nations in order to get these things, lest they become proud and fear Yahweh alone (Dt. 17:16-20). They did exactly that- and became proud, which is the very reason God wanted to destroy them as this chapter explains in such a repeated manner. Wealth and human strength lead to pride and idolatry- that principle is just as true today. Yet we can so easily seek those things, and the worldly associations through which they can apparently be acquired... Yet humility is of the essence, and this comes from being forced to trust in God alone.
2:20 In the day of Christ’s return, bank accounts, property, investments etc. will be totally irrelevant, indeed people will seek to dissociate themselves from such things. Yet we live in the presence of God’s glory and majesty every day of this life, if only we would perceive it.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbM_Ot9LrWo
commentary:
3:9 The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin- God’s intense awareness of and sensitivity to human behaviour extends even to His noticing of their body language (see too :16). Out of all the many things for which He could have condemned His people, He focuses on pride. Pride is simply so extremely abhorrent to God. “Testify against them” is legal language- their own body language as it were stands up in court in the witness box and condemns them, and in this sense they “brought judgment upon themselves”. It is they rather than God who ask for the sentence of condemnation. He as the final judge arises to proclaim the verdict (:13), but it is Judah who have asked for it. Judgment is in this sense ongoing; it’s not that God will only open the books and consider our case at Christ’s return. Our own behaviour right now is the statement of the witness in the box, with God now making the judgment and assessing that witness (:13).
3:16 Again, God notices and condemns the body language of people, so closely does He analyze human behaviour and so hypersensitive is He to any human pride; see on :9.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCIjXpsypY4
commentary:
4:5 The allusion is to the pillar of cloud and fire which led Israel through the wilderness. Israel’s history, like our personal lives, is a wilderness journey, led by the Angel in the cloud and fire; but finally the pillar comes to rest, over Jerusalem.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWL0CvTsRSM
commentary:
5:3 Please judge between Me and My vineyard- At times, God invites us to judge Him (see Rom. 3:4). We may find this idea of putting God in the dock to be inappropriate and something we shy away from; but every time we doubt that in fact God has created an ideal environment for our bearing of spiritual fruit, this is in fact what we are doing.
5:4 God has done absolutely everything possible so that we His vineyard bring forth fruit. We need to remember this when we complain that if only this or that situation would be different in my life, then I could bring forth far more fruit to God. Jesus based His parable of the vineyard on this song (Mt. 21:33-41). But He concludes it rather differently. Instead of the vineyard being destroyed, the workers (the Jews) are destroyed in judgment and the vineyard is given to other workers (the body of Christ). But the same fruit is required of us as it was from them- justice and righteousness towards others (:7). In these very two things, we exalt God if we exalt the lowly by giving them justice (:16).
5:5,6 This describes how Judah was trampled by invaders and left waste for 70 years whilst Judah were in captivity in Babylon. God’s hope was that the vineyard would again be fruitful at their return, but it wasn’t.
5:9 In my ears- Isaiah spoke publically what God had spoken in his ears. The spirit of the prophets should be our spirit in our testimony for Jesus (Rev. 19:10). Jesus confirms this by telling us that what we (like Isaiah) hear in the ear, we are to openly proclaim (Mt. 10:27). It must’ve been hard and counter-instinctive for Isaiah to proclaim his message to a people who generally didn’t want to hear nor have their comfort zones invaded- just as it is for us.
5:13 For lack of knowledge- This “lack” was a moral issue, not an intellectual one. To ‘know’ God doesn’t mean to amass theory, but to not follow the selfish materialism criticized in the previous verses.
5:15,16 Humility exalts God; this paradox is found throughout the Bible, supremely in the exaltation of the supremely humble Jesus to the greatest height.
5:26 The Gentile nations situated at the end or borders of Judah came and attacked her from their own motives, but ultimately God was using them and had called them to come and do His work of judgment. Total unbelievers are in God’s hand and are moved around the board of life by God in relation to His intentions for His people.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FYg0pSFJ2Y
commentary:
66:2 The Jews did tremble at the word at the beginning of the rebuilding (Ezra 10:9). But it was a momentary thing; they came to see the building of the walls as more important than keeping a trembling spirit. Works eclipsed spirituality. Yet Isaiah had taught that the trembling at the word was more essentially important than building temples. But Judah paid no attention in the long term. Perhaps God was saying that His plan for the glorious rebuilding of the temple at the time of the return from exile in Babylon wasn’t going to work out, and instead He was going to focus on dwelling with humble, broken individuals who loved His word.
66:3,4 God does not just disregard those who turn away from Him. He deceives them, and leads them into a downward spiral of moral and doctrinal declension. The idea of "the God of Truth" deceiving people may seem strange at first. But consider how He chose Israel's delusions by making their idols answer them; see too 1 Kings 22:20-22; Ez. 3:20; 14:9; 2 Thess. 2:9-11.
66:16 Plead judgement- The Hebrew word translated “judgment” here is also translated “plead”. God’s judgments aren’t the anger of an irritated deity, rather are they constructive, designed to plead with those who observe them to repent.
66:19 Paul’s desire to go to Spain (Rom. 15:24) indicates a commitment to taking the Gospel to the very ends of the world he then knew. He may well have been motivated in this by wishing to fulfill in spirit this Kingdom prophecy of :18,19, which describes how Tarshish (which he would have understood as Spain) and other places which “have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory” will be witnessed to by those who have seen His glory and have “escaped” from God’s just condemnation by grace. Paul sees this as referring to himself. For he speaks in Rom. 15:19 of his ambition to take the Gospel to Spain; and in that same context, of how he will bring the Gentile brethren’s offering up to Jerusalem. This is precisely the context of Is. 66- the offerings of the Gentiles are to be brought up to Jerusalem, as a result of how the Lord’s glory will be spoken of to all nations. So Paul read Isaiah 66 and did something about his Old Testament Bible study; he dedicated his life to taking the Gospel to the Gentiles, and he encouraged them to send their offerings to Jerusalem. He was no mere theologian. His study and exposition of Old Testament Scripture led to a life lived out in practice, to hardship, risk of life, persecution, loneliness, even rejection by his brethren. It is also significant that :19 speaks of nations which occur in the list of nations we have in Genesis 10, in the context of the effect of Babel. It is as if Paul sees the spreading of the Gospel as an undoing of the curse of Babel and the establishment of the Kingdom conditions described in Is. 66. By his preaching of God’s Kingdom and the reign of Christ, he brought about a foretaste of the future Kingdom in the lives of his converts. And we can do likewise.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE5_EEoUbg8
commentary:
7:12 False humility is as obnoxious to God as human pride.
7:14 This prophecy is applied to the Lord Jesus, the final “Emmanuel” [‘God with us’] in Mt. 1:23. But clearly the prophecy had a primary fulfilment in the time of Isaiah (perhaps in 8:3,4). God’s prophecies could be validated by those who first heard them, because they would have a fulfilment in their times (Dt. 18:22), but they also often had their major fulfilment in far distant times.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNxZ96eY6ZQ
commentary:
8:6 This people have refused the waters of Shiloah- Referring to how Isaiah had stood by the gentle waters in 7:3 and urged them not to fear the Syria-Ephraim confederacy but trust in God, who for all their sins was prepared to deliver them from that threat. Yet instead they tried to find salvation from it by human means. Because of this, God was going to go ahead and bring the Assyrians upon them as He had initially planned. Notice that although He had threatened to do this from the start of Isaiah’s prophecy, He gave them a potential way out by asking them to trust in Him and not fear Ephraim’s threatened invasion. But they failed that test.
8:18 I and the children whom Yahweh has given me- This applies not only to Isaiah’s natural children but to his “disciples” who formed a school of prophets who also preached God’s word to Judah (:16). Yet this is quoted in Heb. 2:13 as a proof that Christ was of the same nature as us. We are therefore invited to see Isaiah here as a type of Christ, and us as that small group of supporters who assisted him in teaching God’s word to a generally unresponsive people. We too are to be people of sign to those around us.
8:20 This is to be our attitude too- we are to assess the claims of others by how far they are in harmony with God’s word. By turning to His word in this way, we are ‘consulting with our God’ rather than men (:19).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KFDlZnjS7k
commentary:
9:2 Quoted in Mt. 4:13-16 about how Jesus began His ministry in the areas of northern Israel which were most despised by devout Jews for being associated with Gentiles. God loves working in this way- firstly revealing Himself to those despised by others.
9:6 For to us a child is born- This must have had some primary fulfilment in the promised son of sign who had been promised in Isaiah’s time in previous chapters (7:14; 8:3). This son was to be known as ‘God with us’, ‘Immanuel’, but this didn’t make him God Himself in person. The major fulfilment of the prophecy in Jesus likewise doesn’t make Him to be God Himself. His name was to be called “Wonderful, Counsellor, Divine Warrior”; Jesus as God’s Son carried God’s Name (Jn. 5:43), and therefore all the titles of God can be applied to Him. The list of titles here seems borrowed from the traditional titles of the rulers of the surrounding nations. The point was that Messiah was to be Israel’s true king, reigning on God’s behalf and carrying His Name and authority.
9:7 Christ will rule “on the throne of David” in the sense that His Kingdom on earth will have a literal centre in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 7:12-16; Lk. 1:31-35).
9:12 With open mouth- The nations surrounding Judah are here likened to a beast; when we later read of a dramatic beast in conflict with God’s people in the last days, this may also refer to a confederacy comprised of the nations which surround Israel.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJmlFM222o
commentary:
10:7 He doesn’t mean so- Unbelieving people and entire nations can be controlled by God to do His purpose, but their hearts are far from consciously realizing the role they are playing. Assyria was used by God to punish various Gentile nations and also Judah to some extent, but when he went too far and thought he would destroy the Jerusalem temple because Yahweh was merely another idol who couldn’t withstand his strength (:11-13)- then God punished him. Truly all things are for our sakes as God’s people (2 Cor. 4:15), and God even watches and disciplines those unbelievers who play a role in our lives if they intend to go further than what God has intended. His level of involvement in human life is awesome. We need to remember this in those times when we may feel God to be distant and uninvolved.
10:20 Will no more again lean on him who struck them- God’s people had a bizarre habit of worshipping the very idols which their enemies worshipped. Any worship of this world’s idols is just as bizarre, but in the heat of our human situation, we don’t see the absurdity of it as we should.
10:22 This is quoted in Rom. 9:27 and the remnant is interpreted as the minority of Israel who would believe in Christ. Always God works with relatively small numbers. Israel were one of the smallest of the nations in their world, and yet God chose them; and yet out of them, He finally worked only with a remnant. In the context of Romans 9, Paul also appears to understand God’s definition of a remnant here as meaning that they were a remnant only by grace; as if even our correct belief and living before God is to some degree a result of His gracious calling.
10:25 My anger will be directed to his destruction- God’s anger isn’t emotion out of control. His anger was against Judah, and He was using Assyria to punish them; but He can assure His people that soon that anger will be redirected against the Assyrian, and He will save Jerusalem itself, although the rest of the land of Judah would be conquered- :28-30 describe the Assyrian advance through the other cities of Judah. Even whilst angry with Judah, God felt sorry for them- hence “You poor Anathoth!” (:30). In wrath He remembers mercy (Hab. 3:2).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Z7ptIFQHo
commentary:
11:1 Jesus was the branch whose root was in David, son of Jesse; He was a literal descendant of David through Mary (Acts 2:30). He therefore couldn’t have personally pre-existed before His birth of her.
11:2 These words were clearly true of Christ (Lk. 4:18).
11:4 The descriptions of how Christ in His life and future Kingdom would bring justice to the poor is set within the context of Isaiah’s repeated condemnation of Judah for not doing justice to the poor (3:14; 10:2). He would be an embodiment of all that God’s people ought to have been; had they followed God’s commandments, they could have been His Kingdom on earth. But they failed, as we do. Therefore Christ is presented as the essence of God’s Kingdom, it’s even one of His titles (Lk. 17:21). If we want to understand what the Kingdom of God will essentially be like, we must look at the character of Christ. If that’s not what we wish to be in ourselves 24/7, there will be no point in our being in His Kingdom. But if we long to be like that, and for the whole world to be as Him, then the coming Kingdom of God is truly good news for us.
11:9 A clear prophecy of God’s future Kingdom to be established on earth under Christ’s rulership- and not in Heaven.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayU3EM2CHCM
commentary:
12:6 The Holy One of Israel is great in the midst of you- God Himself personally, perhaps manifested through His Son but perhaps in person, will ultimately dwell literally in Jerusalem.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGD4IXfOmVs
commentary:
13:1 Prophesying like this against a city like Babylon would’ve been as bizarre as declaring that the world’s great cities such as London, Moscow or New York will soon become deserted wasteland because God is angry with their pride (:19). Isaiah’s faith, and that of his hearers, would’ve been sorely tested in preaching and believing this message; just as our proclamation of Christ’s return is a challenge to our faith when we consider its’ real implications for our current world.
13:12 I will make people more valuable than fine gold- The value and meaning of persons will be the principle which is to be enforced upon this earth by the destruction of all those systems which mean otherwise.
13:13 Heavens and earth are used figuratively here to describe a system of things- see on 1:2. There is nothing imperfect in Heaven which needs judgment or destruction.
13:20-22 Much has been made of the fact that the historical site of Babylon has been deserted for long periods. But there have been attempts to rebuild it at times and some dwelling there. This prophecy must therefore have its final fulfilment when Christ returns, which suggests there will be a literal Babylon in existence, persecuting God’s people as did the historical Babylon. Perhaps the fall of Babylon at Christ’s return which is described in Revelation has a literal element to it. Bible students therefore watch the situation in Iran and Iraq, the areas of historical Babylon and Assyria, with great interest.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pYtwv2nsZw
commentary:
14:12 It is assumed by some that Lucifer was once a powerful angel who sinned at Adam’s time and was therefore cast down to earth. This isn’t Biblical. The words “Devil”, “Satan” and “angel” never occur in this chapter. This is the only place in Scripture where the word “Lucifer” occurs in some translations. There is no evidence that Isaiah 14 is describing anything that happened in the garden of Eden; if it is, then why are we left 3,000 years from the time of Genesis before being told what really happened there? Lucifer is described as being covered in maggots (:11) and mocked by men (:16) because he no longer has any power; so there is no justification for thinking that Lucifer is now on earth leading believers astray. Why is Lucifer punished for saying, “I will ascend into heaven” (:13), if he was already there? Lucifer is to rot in sheol [the grave] (:11). Seeing angels cannot die (Lk. 20:35,36), Lucifer therefore cannot be an angel; the language is more suited to a man. It wasn’t until Milton’s Paradise Lost that the term ‘Lucifer’ took on any connotation of ‘Satan’ or a force of evil in secular thinking. Isaiah 13–23 is a series of “burdens” on various nations, e.g. Babylon, Tyre, Egypt. 14:4 sets the context as being a parable against the king of Babylon. The prophecy is therefore about the human king of Babylon, who is described as the morning star. He is clearly defined as a man in :16, a king like any other king (:9,10). In the parable, this star proudly decides to “ascend (higher) into heaven... exalt my throne above the (other) stars of God” (:13). “The stars of God” can refer to the leaders of Israel (Gen. 37:9; Joel 3:15; Dan. 8:10). Because of this, the star is cast down to the earth. The star represents the king of Babylon. Daniel 4 explains how Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had a pride which reached unto heaven (Dan. 4:.22). Because of this he was made as an animal (Dan. 4:33). This sudden humbling of one of the world’s most powerful men to a deranged lunatic was such a dramatic event as to call for the parable about the falling of the morning star from heaven to earth. Stars are symbolic of powerful people (Gen. 37:9; Is. 13:10; Ez. 32:7). Ascending to heaven and falling from heaven are Biblical idioms often used for increasing in pride and being humbled (Job 20:6; Jer. 51:53; Lam. 2:1; Mt. 11:23). 14:8 records the relief that now the “Lucifer” figure would no longer cut down cedars in Lebanon and hew mountains. This is exactly the language used by Nebuchadnezzar: “What no former king had done, I achieved: I cut through steep mountains, I split rocks, I opened passages and constructed a straight road for the transport of cedars... To Marduk, my king, mighty cedars... The abundant yield of the Lebanon”. Clearly the figure spoken of in Is. 14 was Nebuchadnezzar. 14:12 says that Lucifer was to be “cut down to the ground” – implying he was a tree. This provides a further link with Daniel 4:8–16, where Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon are likened to a tree being cut down.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_IDEoKvQ
commentary:
15:5 My heart cries out for Moab!- Isaiah was emotionally caught up in his message. Having prophesied how Moab, the enemy of his people, would weep and cry out, Isaiah starts crying for them. Like God, he had no joy in the death or judgment of his enemies. He grieved at any person who turns against God, even if they were his personal enemy. The message of Christ’s return is also a message of judgment on this earth, and we must ask ourselves whether we have ever cried tears for the lost? See on 16:7.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U9EK2ntLjs
commentary:
16:7 Moab will wail for Moab- And yet Isaiah the Jew wailed for Moab too, such was his identity with and grief for the lost; see on 15:5.

16:9 Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer- Jazer was part of Moab, so Isaiah is saying that he wept as the Moabites did, so much did he identify with the tragedy of his enemies’ position. See on 15:5; 16:7; 21:3; 24:16.

16:10 I have made the shouting stop- Isaiah here recognizes the awesome power of the inspired words he was declaring, and felt identified with God to a very deep extent.

16:12 He will not prevail- Prayer is here likened to a struggle, as in Hos. 12:4. It’s not a mindless uttering of familiar words and phrases, but real, focused engagement with the mind and heart of God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9BW_vldoM
commentary:
18:7 The intention of all God’s judgments is that some will repent, drop their pride and come to identify with Him and His people. His judgments aren’t therefore the outpouring of the uncontrolled anger of an irritated deity, but they are spiritually constructive in their ultimate intent. We see this too in the smaller experience we have of Divine judgment for our sins in this life.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc7yxcsjR04
commentary:
19:2 God can give a community the spirit of division as a sign of His judgment (also in :14), and so a divided community is one which is displeasing to God. If we seek, create and glorify division, we are effectively making ourselves worthy of God’s condemnation.

19:3-13 This passage speaks of how Egyptian wisdom is in fact foolish, and will be declared as such in Egypt’s final judgment; and how God will thereby destroy the wisdom of this world, for Egypt is a symbol of the world. Paul alludes here in 1 Cor. 1:19,20, where he speaks of just the same principles; that God will bring down the wisdom of this world, and that worldly wisdom is foolishness with Him (as in Rom. 1:22). What the world will learn only when it’s too late, we are to learn now. This is not an appeal to any spirit of anti-intellectualism in itself, but rather the simple teaching that what is worldly wise and smart is foolishness with God; and acts and attitudes of faith which may appear foolish in the eyes of the world, are in fact the true wisdom.

19:21 This prediction that the Egyptians will finally turn to Israel’s God hasn’t yet been fulfilled; it therefore awaits its’ fulfilment around the time of Christ’s return.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO7ETDPSXUA
commentary:
20:6 The inhabitants of this coast land- The people of Judah. God speaks in a very positive way of how He believes that His people will cease trusting in Egypt after seeing Isaiah’s graphic portrayal of how the Egyptians were to be led captive. Yet as later Isaiah makes clear, His people didn’t ‘get it’; they continued trusting in Egypt rather than in God for salvation from their enemies. Yet God speaks as if they will positively respond. This reflects His hopefulness (as in Mt. 21:37), and this should be our spirit in our witness to others, preaching with a sure hope in response, as the shepherd who goes looking for the lost sheep in the spirit of searching until it is found (Lk. 15:4).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My3QbGYChw4
commentary:
21:3,4 Isaiah’s emotional grief for those outside of God’s people as he spoke of their judgment is really impressive- see on 16:9.
21:4 What would have been pleasure for Isaiah- that the great enemy of His people was to be judged- became awful for him as he realized the tragic human destruction it involved. Strangely, he achieved identity with Belshazzar king of Babylon, who likewise had his evening of pleasure broken up by fear- see on :5. Unconsciously, we too can achieve identity with the objects of our witness if we have a true heart for people as Isaiah did.
21:5 This is exactly the situation of Daniel 5, where Belshazzar has a feast, sees the writing on the wall, and then suddenly there was a cry that the Medes had attacked and taken the city.
21:12 What hour of the night will it come?... Turn back again- The exact timing of the fulfilment of God’s prophecies is dependent to some extent upon human response. The ending of the night of judgment for these people would be when they turned back, i.e. repented. The morning might come, or the night might continue- it depended upon their response. The same idea is found in Acts 1:7,8; Mk. 13:28-33, where the answer to the question ‘When will Jesus return?’ is basically: ‘Preach to Israel; lead them to repentance. That’s when the Lord Jesus will return’.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO0MERQFQIE
commentary:
22:8 He took away the covering of Judah- God’s judgment makes a person naked (Hos. 2:3; 7:1; Rev. 16:15). Now is the time to see ourselves as we really are before God, rather than have to be stripped of all appearances at the final day of truth.
22:10,11 This appears to refer to the preparations made by Hezekiah against the Assyrian invasion (2 Kings 20:20). Yet God perceived that the hearts of the people who did the work did it thinking that this piece of human ingenuity would save them rather than their faith in God. Hezekiah, whose initiative it was, appears to have acted with faith in God. We see therefore how within a group of people apparently doing the Lord’s work, God perceives some may do it in faith in God, seeing the work as merely a means to an end, of His deliverance; whereas others trust in the work itself with no faithful heart.
22:13 Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die- Quoted by Paul in 1 Cor. 15:32 as the attitude we may as well have if we have no hope of resurrection to eternal life. Exactly because we will not die eternally, we are to not live merely for today, like the Jews in Isaiah’s time, shrugging at the prospect of future judgment. Paul is saying that he for one would live like that if he had no hope of eternity. Our belief in future salvation has profound effect upon our lives today.
22:22 Applied by Jesus to Himself in Rev. 3:7. Eliakim could perhaps have been the Messiah figure of his time, but it seems he failed to live up to the potential, and so the prophecy was rescheduled and reapplied to Jesus. God sets up so many potentials for individuals and for His people as a whole; it’s so tragic for Him and for us all that so much potential is unfulfilled.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmeG8JtZ3F8
commentary:
23:9 To stain the pride of all glory- All the various prophecies of judgment could have chosen many sinful aspects of the peoples’ behaviour as being the reason for the judgments. But repeatedly, pride is the sin which God focuses upon. God is so sensitive to human pride that He even notices it amongst those not in relationship with Him, and takes the trouble to punish it and bring it down. It is so important to be humble. God gave Judah all this information about the impending fall of the surrounding nations so that His people would perceive the principles He works according to, and therefore humble themselves lest the same inevitable judgment for pride come upon them. We are intended to reflect upon the people who form the environment God has surrounded us with, and to learn from their rises and falls.
23:15 God’s prophesied 70 year silencing of Tyre was perhaps to encourage Judah to believe that the prophecies of their 70 year captivity in Babylon and subsequent revival would likewise be fulfilled (Jer. 25:12; 29:10). God may make situations occur in the unbelieving world around us which parallel our own, in order that we may be encouraged that His word will come true in our lives and that His principles will be upheld in the end.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlsnqJAngH0
commentary:
24:1 The earth, moon and sun (:23) are clearly spoken of figuratively, to describe the system of things in Judah- see on 1:2. However, often in this chapter we must remember that the Hebrew eretz translated “earth” can mean both the earth as in the whole planet, and also “the land”, as specifically the land of Israel or the land promised to Abraham.
Empty… waste is an allusion to how the earth was originally empty and waste in Gen. 1:2 (the same Hebrew words are used). The implication is that God was going to make a new creation with Judah out of the emptiness which His judgments would create. Again we see that God even has a creative purpose in the destruction of the wicked and judgment of our sins- hence to make something empty and waste is in fact to create something. Yet even this intended new creation of Judah after the 70 years captivity didn’t work out; the concept has been reapplied to how by baptism in Christ, we become a new creation once we have allowed God to make empty and waste our old personality (2 Cor. 5:17).
24:4 The world languishes... the proud people of the earth languish- We could probably understand “the world” here and often in the prophets as referring to people, i.e. society, rather than any reference to the physical planet.
24:16 Isaiah’s sorrow to the extent of wanting to pine away is purposefully juxtaposed alongside the reference to the fact that there would be a righteous remnant out of all the destruction. This is to show how pained he was at the fact that so many would be lost. We noted his extreme compassion for those who left or never knew God’s ways in the note on 16:9.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKzWQUxJAtg
commentary:
25:6 A reference to the marriage supper of the Lord Jesus being held in Jerusalem, on the temple mount, at His return (Rev. 19:9).
25:8 He has swallowed up death forever- Quoted in 1 Cor. 15:54 about how death will be no more after Christ has returned, we have been resurrected and immortalized.
The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces- Quoted in Rev. 7:17; 21:4 as being done by God at Christ’s return when the righteous are given eternal life.
25:9 These will be our feelings after Christ has returned, and we stand immortalized before His judgment seat. Our faith in God’s final, visible intervention on this earth and in our own lives will have finally come to realization.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3GISohykwc
commentary:
26:1 In that day- See notes on 25:6,8,9. This day is the day of Christ’s return and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth.
26:10 This seems to be saying that it would be pointless to allow wicked people into God’s Kingdom because even there they would not wish to be righteous. If we wish above all things to be eternally righteous, then the Kingdom of God will be for us.
26:14 The Gentile nations not in saving covenant relationship with God will not be resurrected. Human beings have no inherent ‘immortal soul’; immortality is revealed only to God’s people (2 Tim. 1:10). Those who don’t know the Gospel will not be resurrected to judgment, nor will they be punished after death; they return to dust as the animals (Ps. 49:20). Knowledge is the basis of responsibility to God (Lk. 12:47,48).
26:20,21 These verses are speaking of the situation around the time of the resurrection at Christ’s return (:19). It seems God’s people will be somehow hidden from the effects of the final judgments which will come upon the earth, in the same way as the Israelites in Egypt were untouched by the plagues which came on the rest of their surrounding world.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuojHs2bocU
commentary:
27:3 The vineyard owner in this simile is almost obsessive- he waters it continually, and day and night watches its borders. This unusual level of care by God for the vineyard of His people (5:7) is so that the vineyard has no excuse for not bringing forth fruit. God has done all that He can so that we should bring forth fruit (5:4). We cannot therefore excuse our lack of fruitfulness by saying that if we had a better or different situation, we would then be fruitful. God has given us exactly the required environment in order to be fruitful, and the level of His care should never be doubted.
27:9 This is all the fruit of taking away his sin- God isn’t saying that if Israel destroyed their altars, then He would forgive them. Instead His way of grace is to take away sin and then hope that we will make response to that, in this case, by destroying the altars.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXQpuO4dIlk
commentary:
28:1 Here we see again God’s persistent hatred of pride; He condemned drunkenness because it made people proud (see too :3).
28:13 Therefore the word of Yahweh will be to them precept after precept... line on line- This is declared as a judgment upon Judah, with the result that it would make them fall. Israel throughout their Biblical history always claimed to be believers in Yahweh and to be obedient to His word; their sin was in that they additionally did other things and worshipped other gods which were quite contrary to God’s word. The problem was in their attitude to the word of God, which they claimed to study and be aware of. They saw it as merely a series of disjointed, unrelated commands; they didn’t perceive the overall spirit behind it. Our Bible reading can be the same, indeed it is often like this for unbelievers who start reading the Bible for the first time. This is why we must pray for God to guide and assist our Bible reading so that we make the connections and join the dots, until we hear the voice of God Himself speaking to us through those lines and precepts.
28:15 Because you have said- It’s unlikely these people actually openly said these words. But this was how they thought in their hearts, and God reads our quiet thoughts as if we have spoken them out loud. To be spiritually minded is the essence of Christian living.
28:16 Quoted in 1 Pet. 2:6-8 about Jesus, who is either a stone to be stumbled over (8:14), or to be built upon as the foundation of our lives. Those who encounter Christ cannot be passive to Him or unaffected by that encounter; knowledge brings responsibility.
28:24-28 Although the trials and judgments God brings into our lives may appear pointlessly repetitious, they aren’t. They last for a limited time and to a specific end.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD8_6CI5fBo
commentary:
29:3 I will encamp against you... and will lay siege against you- It was understood that each city had its god, who was supposed to protect it from invaders. But here the God of Israel says that He Himself will camp with Jerusalem’s enemies, and enable and support their campaign against His own people. This was more radical a concept of God at that time than we can likely realize. Yet it’s all very hard for us to understand that the God of all grace can allow and bring about the most awful suffering in the lives of His children- with the aim of developing us even through our weaknesses so that we shall enter His Kingdom.
29:10 Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep- Quoted in Rom. 11:8 about what God has done to all Israel, in closing their eyes to perceiving Jesus as their Messiah- in response to the fact that they had already closed their eyes to Him. There were many similarities between the Jews of Isaiah’s time and those of Christ’s (see on :13).
29:13 These words are quoted in Mt. 15:7,8 and interpreted by Jesus as a specific prophecy of the hypocrites who confronted Him in the first century. But the context of Isaiah 29 clearly requires that they had relevance to the Jews of Isaiah’s day. In this we see the uniquely living, constantly relevant nature of God’s word. It can speak to different generations in different contexts with perfect and Divinely designed relevance. This is the result of the Bible being written by the inspiration process of God’s Spirit; it isn’t, therefore, like the black print and white paper of any human book.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUE7sIJ67js
commentary:
30:1 This must have been very hard for Isaiah to tell Judah, because for three years he had walked barefoot amongst his people to try to persuade them how Egypt would go into captivity, and Judah should hope only in God (20:1-4). Our tendency too is to treat God as a kind of extra insurance policy; to turn firstly to human strength, and only to Him if all else fails. His desire is that we should trust totally in Him, and however we might use ‘Egypt’, it should never be our strength and trust.
30:6 They carry their rich gifts- This is a picture of the people of Judah braving wild animals in the desert (Dt. 8:15) as they carried their wealth down into Egypt, reversing their exodus, in order to buy Egyptian support against Assyria. People will go to huge efforts and expense to obtain human strength; when the answer is ultimately in God and not man.
30:9 Lying children- Yet when He brought them out of Egypt, God had been certain that “Surely they are My people, children that will not lie: so He was their saviour” (63:8). The God who can know the end from the beginning was so in love with His people, as He is with us, that He felt the very best about them. Hence the bitter disappointment when those positive hopes were dashed by their fickleness. God has great hopes for each of us.
30:18 Yahweh will wait, that He may be gracious to you- There’s similar reasoning in 2 Pet. 3:14,15; the reason why the return of Christ is delayed is so that God may be gracious to even more people than He had otherwise planned. God’s delay is often because He is seeking a way to be yet more gracious. Hence “Blessed are all those who wait for Him”.
30:26 This could be a poetic way of saying that the meaning of time [as defined by sun and moon] will be changed around the time of Christ’s return. This would enable the various predicted events to happen with no problem of chronology.
30:33 This language of fire and sulphur [“brimstone”] is clearly figurative and not literal- it speaks of the anger of God in destroying His enemies. This verse clearly describes the death of the Assyrian invaders, as fulfilled in 37:36. There was no literal place of sulphur with an angry God stirring it up with His breath. Likewise the Lord Jesus used the language of Gehenna in a figurative manner- constant fire, brimstone etc. are symbols of total destruction, and shouldn’t be forced into a literal reading.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMl3KidWKjg
commentary:
32:6 Attitudes to the poor amongst Israel were interpreted by God as blasphemy against Him. In our age, all those baptized into the Name manifest God, and our attitude to them is our attitude to God, and will be the basis of our judgment at the last day (Mt. 25:40).
32:10 It seems Isaiah was making this prophecy a year before it would be fulfilled. His request for the women to wear sackcloth (:12) was a call for them to repent- so that the promised judgments might be averted. We note God’s granting of full significance and spiritual meaning to women, making an appeal specifically to them- at a time when religion in the surrounding world considered women largely irrelevant in religious decisions, and would never have considered that the repentance of a group of women could have changed the destiny of an entire nation, far beyond whatever their male leaders might decide.
32:14 The threatened judgments against “the city” (also in :19) presumably refers to Jerusalem. It seems that on one hand, it was God’s intention to allow the Assyrians to destroy Jerusalem as well as Judah, and yet He saved it for the sake of the faithful minority who were there, based around Isaiah and Hezekiah. God is so sensitive to His people that He is willing to change His stated purpose if He hears powerful prayer and sees genuine spirituality amongst even a minority.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bewTm8Pr-u8
commentary:
34:8 In human terms, this seems rather unjust. God had called the nations to attack and destroy Judah because of her sins, and yet now He takes vengeance for Zion (as in 35:4) as if she has been unfairly treated, and those nations require punishment for what they did. The final algorithm of God’s justice is far beyond our total comprehension, but perhaps we are to perceive in this the passionate love God has for His sinful people- in that He so loved them that even when they were justly punished, He punished those by whom they were punished with great fury. This was in a sense just because they were also sinners. But whoever touches God’s people, even when they are in rebellion against Him, has touched Him at a highly sensitive spot. In these things we see the depth of God’s love for us, and how He counts us as His very own, and feels to us that way, even when we are in rebellion against Him.
34:10 Smoke will go up forever; from generation to generation, it will lie waste- Eternal fire and smoke is again used figuratively, as a symbol of total, permanent destruction. It can’t be literal, for the ‘eternal’ smoke is paralleled with laying calm and desolate for ever. We need to remember this in considering Christ’s use of the image of ‘eternal fire’ as a symbol for complete destruction, rather than forcing his words into any literal interpretation.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-yzQrP8BFc
commentary:
35:4 Vengeance... retribution- see on 34:8.
35:10 Whatever possible application this may have had to Hezekiah’s time (e.g. the return of those who had fled Zion in fear) and what might have been after the destruction of the Assyrian invaders, or at the return of the exiles from Babylon, it is clearly a prophecy of God’s future Kingdom on earth when Christ returns. Our joy will be “everlasting”, whereas all joy in this life is tinged by the sense that it shall come to an end, the emotion has to subside, with the prospect of death ever before us. The joy we will then have shall have no fading away from a crescendo back into normality, but will have this ‘eternal’ aspect to it.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utNYMyljv1s
sermon: https://youtu.be/0ZNf-zn11Bc
commentary:
41:8 The servant of Isaiah’s prophecies is “the seed of Abraham”, but Gal. 3:16 interprets this seed as a singular person, Jesus. The “servant” is therefore both Israel and Jesus. He is their (our) representative, the One to whom every one of God’s people should aspire. Wherein Israel failed to fulfil these servant prophecies, Jesus did. We can now become God’s “servant” people, Israel of the Spirit, by baptism into Christ- so that all that is true of Him becomes true of us.
41:22 Declare the former things- Not only is God’s prediction of future events a sign of His supremacy as God, but we must consider too that He is the only ultimate historian; He alone can attach meaning to the events of history, interpreting in a way so unique that we are persuaded that surely, He alone is God. This is why so much of the Bible is in one sense history, and God’s interpretation of it. This of itself ought to persuade us of Him and His word, quite apart from His predictions of future things.
41:25 He shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay- This connects with the prophecy of Dan. 2:44, that Christ’s second coming will be like a stone hitting the feet of clay of human kingdoms.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvUPjYwV5Fo
sermon: https://youtu.be/eWgQsRjw2mY
commentary:
42:3 Quoted about the preaching of Jesus in Mt. 12:18-20. He didn’t turn away from human weakness, but rather tried to fan what spiritual fire there was into a greater flame; we should have the same attitude to people. Isaiah prophesied in the context of the Assyrian invasion, at which time Judah were tempted to trust in the “broken reed” of Egypt (2 Kings 18:21). This is the only other time the phrase is used. God was even unwilling to break Egypt, but rather sought even their salvation (19:24).
42:4 He will not fail nor be discouraged- This is a prophecy of Jesus. He had so much to discourage Him, and yet it seems He never felt totally discouraged even once- because He looked at the short term ups and downs of His ministry from a Kingdom perspective, knowing that ultimately all would work out. We need to look at the down cycles of our own experience the same way.
42:14 God likens Himself here to a woman; characteristics of both male and female are found in Him, in whose image both male and female were created (Gen. 1:27; 5:1,2).
42:16- see on 40:3.
42:22 No one says, ‘Restore them!’- Nobody at that time was saying that, but God had prophesied so many times that His people would be restored at the end of 70 years, and Cyrus did indeed make the amazing call to restore Judah then (see Ezra 1). The challenge at Isaiah’s time was to view the discouragement of the moment in the context of God’s prophetic word- to suffer the apparent silence of God “bearing in mind the time to come” (:23) when one would say “Restore them!”.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghHzez8Hx30
sermon: https://youtu.be/8UoMTB4APsI
commentary:
43:4 That God should ‘honour’ His weak people is amazing. But this is what it means to be loved by God; for the object of love is thereby respected and honoured in the eyes of the lover. And this is how God also sees us today.
43:7 Each one- Every single Jew in captivity was created potentially for God’s glory. At the end of the 70 years captivity He did indeed command the Persian empire to allow the Jews to return; but the majority chose to stay where they were rather than return to the ruined, hard land of Judah- to glorify God. The frequent emphasis on how “each one” would be gathered shows the colossal significance of the individual human person to God, and how He sees us as individuals rather than merely His people en masse.
43:15 The Creator of Israel- your King- Because Yahweh God was Israel’s creator, therefore He ought to have been their King. If we really believe His creative authority over us, then He will rule in every aspect of our lives; this is an implication of our belief that God created us and we didn’t create ourselves by fluke chance.
43:17 They shall not rise- Another proof that those who don’t know God will die and remain dead. Hence the urgent importance of spreading the knowledge of God to those who have not yet heard.
43:24 You have wearied Me with your iniquities- God speaks here of being burdened by Israel's sins- and yet this is a prelude to the passages which speak of the Lord Jesus bearing our sins on the cross (53:4,11,12). He was wearied by Israel's sins even though God does not "grow weary" (40:28) by nature; in His full entering into His people's situation, in His extreme sensitivity to our behavior, He does allow Himself to grow weary with the sins of those with whom He is in covenant relationship. It was this kind of capacity which God has which was supremely revealed in His 'sharing in' the crucifixion of His Son.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlExJIUsIYg
sermon: https://youtu.be/s364HDWu-uk
commentary:
44:14-18 The folly of sin is only fully evident to God. We may go along with the text here, poking fun at the idiocy of idolatry- and yet we all have a tendency to this kind of thing, because every sin is in essence a form of idolatry.
44:22 God appeals for Israel to respond by pointing out that in prospect, He has already forgiven them. This not only inspires our personal repentance, but can be the basis upon which we appeal to others to repent- that for the sake of Christ, God has forgiven them, but they need to claim that and identify with it. Isaiah urged the Jews to return to the land by saying that God had forgiven them, and on this basis He appealed for them to both ‘repent’ and ‘return’ to the land. The two terms are related. Thus He showed His grace; forgiveness preceded, not followed, repentance. As Paul put it, the goodness of God leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4). And we are asked to show that same “goodness” of God to others, being “kind [s.w. ‘goodness’] one to another… forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). We too are to show this grace of forgiveness-before-repentance; but perhaps in no other area has formalized, institutionalized Christianity failed worse. The Greek word translated “goodness” is rendered “gracious” in 1 Pet. 2:3- newly converted babes in Christ taste of this gracious goodness, and it leads to repentance.
44:26 Who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers- The singular servant is equated with His “messengers”, whose “counsel” to others is the word which is Jesus, the true servant. If we are “in Christ” then we are His witnesses, and He is especially with us in our witness for Him.
44:28 The command of Cyrus to allow the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild their temple at his expense as recorded in Ezra 1 was clearly a result of God working on the hearts of unbelievers to make them do things which otherwise have little sense or human wisdom. The tragedy is that most of the Jews preferred the soft life in Babylon and didn’t return.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKEiJ1axnUU
sermon: https://youtu.be/2SyYQwKF-MM
commentary:
45:5-7 Of especially significant influence upon Judaism were the Persian views of Zoroastrianism. This was a philosophy which began in Persia about 600 B.C., and was growing in popularity when Judah went to Babylon / Persia in captivity. This philosophy taught that there was a good god of light (Mazda) and an evil god of darkness (Ahriman). :5–7 is a clear warning to the Jews in captivity not to buy into this– Israel’s God alone made the light and the darkness, the good and the calamity or “evil”. The Jews were influenced by the Zoroastrian idea that somehow God Himself would never cause evil in our lives– and therefore, God is to be seen as somehow distanced from all good or evil actions, as these are under the control of the good and evil gods. The fact is, God personally is passionately involved with this world and with our lives; and so it is He who brings about the dark and the light, good and evil. “In pre-exilic Hebrew religion, Yahweh made all that was in heaven and earth, both of good and of evil. The Devil did not exist”. During their captivity in Babylon, the Jews shifted towards understanding that there was actually a separate entity responsible for disaster. Hence :5–8 warns them not to adopt the views of Babylon in this area, but to remain firm in their faith that God, their God, the God of Israel, the one and only Yahweh, was the ultimate source of all things, both positive and negative, having no equal or competitor in Heaven. This becomes a frequent theme of Isaiah and other prophets who wrote in the context of Israel in captivity. The Jews of course were monotheists, and these ideas were developed in order to allow them to believe in both one God, and yet also the dualistic, god of evil / god of good idea of the Persians. It was in this period that the Jews adopted the idea of sinful Angels, even though the Old Testament knows nothing of them. They didn’t want to compromise their monotheism by saying there was more than one God; and so they set up the ‘evil god’ as in fact a very powerful, sinful Angel. And this wrong notion was picked up by early Christians equally eager to accommodate the surrounding pagan ideas about evil.
45:18 This verse is proof enough that God won’t allow the world to be destroyed- He has a glorious purpose with it.
45:20-24 These words are quoted in Phil. 2:9-11 in description of the believer’s response to the suffering Saviour. And yet they are quoted again in Rom. 14:10-12 regarding our confession of sin before Christ at judgment day. The connections mean simply this: before the Lord’s cross, we bow our knee and confess our failures, knowing the imputation of His righteousness, in anticipation of how we will bow before Him and give our miserable account at the judgment. And both processes are wonderfully natural. We must allow the power of a true faith in His cross to work out its own way in us. At the judgment, no flesh will glory in himself, but only in the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 1:29). And even now, we glory in His cross (Gal. 6:14).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h6YGcXvNVk
sermon: https://youtu.be/5WO8mvSfKDI
commentary:
46:3,4 God is likening Himself to a woman who carries a child in her womb, then bears it, and then carries it as a baby, but still carries it when the child is an old man. The God of all knowledge is aware of a fundamental psychological phenomena in all men; the fear, however passive and buried, of being without their mother; the fear of loneliness, the fear of eternal separation from the woman who bore and carried them. From the president to the happy village grandfather, this sense is there. Perhaps David appreciated this when he referred to a man weeping at his mother's funeral (not his father's) as the ultimate cameo of grieving and desolation of soul (Ps. 35:14). And yet God says that He is in some ways the eternal mother, the one who bore and carried us in babyhood, but the One who will yet carry us when we are gray headed and once again unable to walk. Yet He is also the everlasting Father to us, through His Son (9:6). It's a picture of exquisite beauty. Our relationship with God as the One who will never leave us is the only answer to what philosophers call 'the existential problem'; the awareness that has come to every thoughtful soul, the terror of being so alone as we get older, the dread of being without our human roots, of becoming the one to whom others (e.g. our children) look to as their background and root, whilst we ourselves have no tangible link with our past. This horror of existential loneliness can only be met by our sure knowledge that we have a very personal relationship in the Kingdom of God with our Heavenly Father, who will never leave us, and will preserve us unto His eternal Kingdom.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuGrs6Qc_nA
sermon: https://youtu.be/zCiTfYcATvQ
commentary:
47:8 I am and there is none else- We bear the Name of Yahweh / Jehovah, by reason of our baptism into it. His Name is declared as His character- merciful, truthful, judging sin, patient etc (Ex. 34:5-7). He who will be who He will be, manifesting His characteristics as He does so, must have His way in us too. Babylon and Nineveh were condemned for having the attitude that “I am, and there is none beside me” (Zeph. 2:15). Their self-perception was a parody on the Name and being of Yahweh: He alone can say “I am, and there is none else” (43:11; 44:6; 45:6,21) and seek to be who He is. He alone can seek to articulate the characteristics that make up His Name onto the lives of others, and onto the things that comprise His Kingdom. We are not to be who we are in a fleshly sense; to ‘just be yourself’; to ‘just do it’, as foolish slogans and adverts encourage us. We are here to show forth His mercy, truth, judgment of sin, patient saving of the weak etc., not our own human agenda. We are to be Yahweh manifested to this world, through our participation in His Name in Christ.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nVFGBULLU8
sermon: https://youtu.be/Qow1I56Cxso
commentary:
48:18 The fact God knows all possible futures must make His experience with us His people so tragic. For sorrow is largely related to our awareness of what could have been; and God knows that so much could have been. The promises to Abraham and the coming of the Messianic seed of Abraham could have been fulfilled; but because Israel chose to be wicked, there was no such peace to them (:22). For all their wealth in Babylon, they had no peace with God.
48:20 Flee from the Chaldeans- Judah were comfortable and prosperous in Babylon, as the conclusion to the book of Esther shows. Jews were senior in commerce and politics (as witness the book of Daniel). Yet they were to “flee” from this situation because of its huge spiritual danger. Generally they didn’t perceive the spiritual danger of the world in which they lived, and most Jews remained in Babylon, to their spiritual destruction.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGwrQHaSL3k
sermon: https://youtu.be/OsPX3NzgV04
commentary:
49:2 The Lord Jesus is described as having a sharp sword going out of His mouth (Rev. 1:16; 2:16; 19:15); this is a prophecy of Him personally.
49:8 2 Cor. 6:2 interprets this time of salvation and acceptance as “now”. The window of opportunity which there was for Judah to return from exile and inherit the restored Kingdom of God is “now”  in that we should likewise be appealing to men and women to quit this world of “Babylon” and journey towards God’s Kingdom. The spiritual opportunities which there are “now” are amazing; but there is an urgency to our appeal in that the time of acceptance is “now” and the amazing opportunity must be grasped “now”.
49:10 Quoted about how we shall be led by Jesus in the future Kingdom of God on earth (Rev. 7:16,17).
49:16 Judah in captivity must’ve thought that God had forgotten them and His land as it lay there desolated. We too at times feel the apparent silence of God means that He is somehow there but too far away. But He assures them and us that His silence is only apparent. They were engraven upon His palms, perhaps alluding to the fact that it seems that to this day the Lord Jesus has on His hands the marks from the nails with which He was crucified (Zech. 13:6; Jn. 20:25-27; Rev. 1:7).
49:24 Despite having enabled their exit from Babylon, they complained: “Vindication remains far removed from us and deliverance does not reach us” (59:9). This was an awful spurning of the great salvation enabled for them. They remonstrated against God’s message of deliverance from captivity: “Can prey be taken from a warrior? Or can prisoners of a tyrant be rescued?” (:24). They thought their salvation was too hard even for God. They made the same mistake as all who reason that their situation or personality is too far gone for God to redeem. For the ‘salvation’ of the exiles in Babylon is alluded to in the New Testament as a prototype of our salvation in Christ. The good news of potential deliverance from Babylon is quoted as the good news of salvation from sin (Is. 52:7-10 = Mk. 1:15; Mt. 10:7,8; Rom. 10:15; Eph. 6:15; Is. 61:1,2 = Lk. 4:16-21).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZ73qG3_PE
sermon: https://youtu.be/_F6Lqjf9ea0
commentary:
50:1 God was angry with their sins, but kept no record of them- hence He could comfort Judah that there was actually no documentary evidence for their divorce and therefore she could return to Him.
50:6,7 I gave… I didn’t hide my face… set my face like a flint- The body language of Jesus as He endured His sufferings is worth trying to imagine. His spirit of self-sacrifice and willing suffering with and for us would’ve shone through it. Lk. 9:51,53 notes how He set His face to go to Jerusalem and die there, His determination and conscious self-dedication were visible in how His face was set. We are asked to carry His cross with the same devotion


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkTT7Wh-KyY
sermon: https://youtu.be/MMWcggnDlzs
commentary:
51:8 God’s salvation is paralleled with His righteousness; He saves people by counting them as if they are righteous on account of their relationship with Him. In our times our baptism into Christ means that His righteousness is counted to us, and on this basis we shall be saved.
51:14 This sounds as if they were all willing and eager to leave that spiritually dreadful place. But the reality was that Judah didn’t hasten to be loosed, they preferred the Babylon life, and didn’t perceive it for the spiritual pit that was killing them which it was. Most of them chose to remain there. So this passage is therefore a prophecy, a command, about how God wanted Judah to respond.
51:17 God 'stirred up' the spirit of Cyrus and also of the Jews who returned (Ezra 1:1,5). Isaiah uses the same Hebrew term to describe how Israel's saviour would be "raised up"- 41:2,25; 45:13. Isaiah pleads with Zion, i.e. the faithful, to indeed be stirred up- 51:17; 52:1 appeal to Zion to "Awake!"- the same word translated "stirred up". But Isaiah tragically concluded that there were so few who would 'stir up themselves' (64:7). God had given them the potential to be 'stirred up' in their hearts and minds to leave Babylon and return- but they wouldn't respond. And today, the same happens. God is willing to change hearts, to stir up materialistic and complacent spirits- but because we're not robots, we have to respond.
51:22 To be given a cup of wine to drink from the Lord is a double symbol; of condemnation, as it is here; or of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16). When we take the cup of the Lord at the breaking of bread service, we are drinking either to our eternal blessing or condemnation- hence the need for self-examination, so that we drink to our blessing and not our condemnation (1 Cor. 11:29).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aJj-vJwyHc
sermon: https://youtu.be/c2n6z8BeEcI
commentary:
52:2 The Jews didn’t perceive the soft life of Babylon as chains around their necks, and so they didn’t loose themselves and leave.
52:7 The feet of him- A prophecy of Christ’s preaching of the Gospel. But it is quoted in Rom. 10:15 with a significant change of pronoun- “the feet of them”. We who are baptized into Christ are His witnesses; His preaching is ours and vice versa. We will experience His especial identity with us in our efforts to preach the Gospel.
52:7-10 See on 49:24.
52:13 From here to the end of chapter 53 we have the ‘Servant song’ which speaks most clearly of the death and work of Christ for us. Many phrases in it are applied to Jesus in the New Testament (Mt. 8:17; 20:28; Mk. 15:28; Jn. 1:29; 12:38; Rom. 4:25; 10:16; 1 Cor. 15:3; Phil. 2:4-8; Col. 1:20; 1 Pet. 2:22,24).
52:14 There was something especially awful about the physical appearance of Christ on the cross, a reflection of the huge mental struggle there was within His holy mind as He finally overcame sin in all its forms.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi9KZ6R2WSk
sermon: https://youtu.be/6L3zFMvBZuw
commentary:
54:4 Your widowhood- The implication is that God as their husband (:5) had died- and somehow returned to life to remarry them. This doesn’t mean that Jesus is God, for God by nature cannot die; rather does it speak of the intensity to which God was manifest in Christ and went through the pain of death as it were because of what Israel’s unfaithfulness and rejection felt like to Him.
54:6 In this language God as it were takes false guilt over His divorce with Israel; such is His gushing love for His unfaithful people who now return to Him.
54:7 God clearly has emotions of a kind which are not unrelated to the emotions we experience, as beings made in His image. But those emotions involve a time factor in order to be emotions. We read of the anger of God "for a moment" (:7,8; Ps. 30:5), and of His wrath coming and going, leaving Him "calm" and no longer angry (Ez. 16:42). When we sin, we provoke God to anger- i.e. at a point in time, God sees our sin, and becomes angry. This is attested many times in Scripture. But it's meaningless if God is totally outside of our time and emotions.
54:17 Their righteousness which is of Me- Again we meet the New Testament idea of imputed righteousness, for Isaiah makes clear enough elsewhere that Israel had no righteousness of their own. We too have God’s righteousness imputed to us by being in Christ.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sJM3_FUCvM
sermon: https://youtu.be/IPHcNj2BgHc
commentary:
55:1 Whilst we don’t have to actually pay money for God’s blessings, we are expected to go through the feelings of having paid, given something, in response to what He has already given us so as to take them to ourselves.
55:3 The sure mercies of David result in the wicked man forsaking his way (:3,7). The description of the promises to David as “sure mercies” (1 Chron. 17:13) may perhaps be with a reference to his sin with Bathsheba; his forgiveness in that incident is typical of that which we all receive (Rom. 4:6-8). The very existence of the “mercies of / to David” therefore inspire us in forsaking sinful thoughts and wicked ways (:7).
55:11 The parallel between the seed and the convert is such as to suggest that the word of God will produce converts in some sense; it will not return void (:11). The apparent dearth of response to some preaching therefore poses a challenging question. Are we preaching the word of God alone, or our own ideas? Does God withhold blessing for some reason unknown to us? Or is this only part of a wider picture, in which somehow the word does return void due to man’s rejection? Thus the word of God was ‘made void’ by the Pharisees (Mk. 7:13 RV- a conscious allusion to 55:11). One possible explanation is that “the word” which is sent forth and prospers, achieving all God’s intention, is in fact Messiah. The same word is used about the ‘prospering’ of the Servant in His work: 48:15; 53:10 cp. Ps. 45:4. Another is to accept the LXX reading of this passage: “…until whatsoever I have willed shall have been accomplished”. Here at least is the implication that something happens and is achieved when we preach God’s word. The same idiom occurs in Ez. 9:11 Heb., where we read that “the man clothed with linen”- representing Ezekiel or his representative Angel- “returned the word, saying, I have done as You have commanded me”. The word ‘returned’ in the sense that someone, somewhere, was obedient to it even if others weren’t.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHXgMM5i1tI
sermon: https://youtu.be/zptEMWfhC6Q
commentary:
56:7 My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples- Quoted by Jesus in Mt 21:13 as a demand for God’s house now to not be a forum for personal financial gain. If we are living the Kingdom life now, then whatever is said of the future Kingdom must in essence be the rule of our lives today.
56:11 Each turned to their own way- This phrase connects with 53:6, which says that although we have each done this, Christ’s death was for us, to save us from that situation. The group in view in 56:11 were obsessed with money and personal pleasure, whilst claiming faith in God. Those types may seem the hardest to convert; but we are each in essence the same, and the connection with 53:6 shows that the cross is powerful enough to shake even them, even us, from such complacency.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0fP4VdzsEE
sermon: https://youtu.be/0fEO7sErOGA
commentary:
57:11 One thing that works against truthfulness is the neuroses that come from fear, the fearful tensions that arise between our real self and the false self. Fear and truth are opposed. This isn’t merely psychobabble. Consider God’s words about this here: “Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered Me?”. The life of brave faith, the life that is lived in the overcoming of fears, the fearless breaking out of our comfort zones… this is the true life, the life in which we have no need to lie nor believe in lies. But of course it’s hard, because we think that the truth, the reality, is what we see around us; whereas faith is believing in what is not seen. Yet actually what is not seen is the reality, and what is seen is very often a lie. And the true life is a life of faith in those things which are not yet visibly seen.
57:14 Stumbling block- The ultimate rock of stumbling for the Jewish people is accepting Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ (Rom. 9:32,33; 1 Pet. 2:8). The preparation of the highway for Christ’s return involves Israel accepting Jesus as Christ. This is why we should preach to Israel in the last days, for the sooner they accept Christ, the quicker He will return.
57:15 I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a broken and humble spirit- This purposeful juxtaposition brings out the great paradox- that the God who is so high above humanity dwells together with the very lowest and most broken of humanity. Humility and broken spiritedness are of the highest value to God. The “high and holy place” of God’s dwelling contrasts with the “high and lofty mountain” where the humanly wise of Israel offered sacrifice to idols (:7). The ultimately humble man was the Lord Jesus. God doesn’t live in physical houses built by people, but in the humble heart of a man; and supremely, within the person of Christ. If we are in Him, God dwells in us.
57:19 Peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near - Eph. 2:13,14  alludes here, interpreting the “peace” as peace with God, offered to both Jews (“him who is near”) and the Gentiles “far off”. Acts 2:39 also has this passage in mind, when Peter offers the Spirit gift of salvation to those who are “far off”.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk-KHMRbS78
sermon: https://youtu.be/bkY9T2Q4sgo
commentary:
59:1,2 If we feel that God is somehow limited, we must ask whether it is in fact our sins which are limiting His action; because He Himself is totally unlimited in His possibilities.
59:7,8 These verses are quoted in Rom. 3:17 about all of us. We aren’t to look at Judah at this time and shake our heads in disgust at them; the essence of their failures is to be found in each one of us.
59:9 See on 49:24.
59:13 Conceiving and uttering from the heart- Sin is conceived within the human heart, not placed there by some cosmic Satan being (Mk. 7:15-23; James 1:13-15). Our own heart is the arena of our spiritual battles; we are responsible for our sins, because they begin within our own minds.
59:20 The Redeemer is interpreted as Christ in Rom. 11:26. We could understand this verse as meaning that Christ shall come to Zion when there are in her those who have turned away from their transgression- which in the context of Israel is their rejection of Jesus as Christ. This would suggest a repentance of some Jews is required before Christ’s return; and this should motivate our preaching to them.
59:21 My Spirit... My words- There is a parallel of God’s words and His Spirit (notably in Jn. 6:63). The Bible is written by inspiration of God, and is therefore the work and vehicle of His Spirit. One way in which the Spirit works in our lives today is therefore through God’s word the Bible.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXVcWwOWAc8
sermon: https://youtu.be/BZj1TW2daxg
commentary:
60:5 The sea is used as a symbol for the nations- this is common in the Bible.
60:6 They shall bring gold and frankincense- What was potentially possible for Judah at the time of the restoration, or perhaps at the time of Hezekiah, didn’t come true because of their disobedience. But this doesn’t mean the prophecy was falsified- it was reapplied to Jesus, the true “servant of the Lord”, and this was fulfilled when the wise men brought Him these presents at His birth. God will not be defeated by human failure, but somehow His word comes true.
60:11 The reality was that the walls were built from a motive not of glorifying Zion in fulfillment of prophecy, but for defence against the Gentiles.  But the gates had to be shut to keep the Gentiles out (Neh. 13:19), lest they yet further corrupted the Jews who were eager to trade with them on the Sabbath rather than convert them to the God of Israel. Instead of bringing their goods through the gates to lay before Yahweh, they brought in their goods to sell to His people in trade. But returned Judah didn’t act as a nation of priests, the food the Gentiles brought in to Zion was to be sold for profit to the Jews. They failed to be a missionary nation, and rather were mere trading / economic partners on an equal footing [cp. the church today?].
60:13 But Haggai lamented that instead, Judah dwelt in their own “beautifully ceilinged houses”, they used the exotic trees of the land for their own homes, whilst the house of Yahweh lay desolate. The prophecy of :14 started to come true after Haman’s demise; but Judah didn’t do their part in fulfilling the rest of that prophecy, which speaks of a rebuilt Zion. Note that the language of wood from Lebanon being used to build the temple is alluding to what happened when the first temple was planned and built under David and Solomon. The future Kingdom of God on earth will be a restoration of the Kingdom of God as it historically was on earth previously (Acts 1:6; see on Ez. 21:25-27).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZeaZyjrjf8
commentary:
61:1,2 See on 49:24; 58:6. This prophecy was fulfilled in the preaching of Jesus (Lk. 4:17-21). It could have come true at the return of the exiles from Babylon, when they could have rebuilt Jerusalem to Kingdom specifications (:4). But they became obsessed with building their own houses and trying to build up their own kingdom rather than God’s, and so the prophecy was rescheduled and given a more spiritual fulfilment in the preaching of Jesus to people like us who are held captive by sin and human weakness.
61:6 Again we see God’s intention that all Israel should have graduated to become priests (Ex. 19:5,6); this became true in the new Israel, the ecclesia, where we are all to have the spirit of priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9).
61:8 Entry into covenant relationship with God requires first of all that we recognize our sinfulness, as was the case with Israel.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PCFK5voUJE
commentary:
63:3 Here and in :5 we have a window into the loneliness of Jesus on the cross, where His clothing was made red with His own blood.
63:8 Israel did deal falsely with God, but His hope- an almost blind hope which was born of the extent of His love for them- was that they would not deal falsely with Him. This positive hopefulness of God for His people should be seen in us too.
63:10 His holy Spirit- God makes His Angels spirits (Ps. 104:4; Heb. 1:7), and the reference here and in :11 is to the Angel who went with Israel on their wilderness journey as the special manifestation of Yahweh, the “Angel of His presence” (:9). The New Testament promises of “the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit” are full of allusion to this part of Isaiah 63. The Comforter would teach (Jn. 14:26), guide, be a judge and prophesy (Jn. 16:8,13); the Angel guided Israel through the wilderness, taught them God's ways, judged Egypt and the Canaanites, gave prophecies, and represented God to Israel as the Comforter represented Jesus to His people.  As the church  began a new Exodus and was constituted God's Kingdom in prospect as Israel were at Sinai, it was fitting that it should also have an Angel leading them, representing God to them. As Israel were led by a special Angel through the wilderness, whom Isaiah 63 associates with God's Holy Spirit, so the new Israel were led by a Holy Spirit Angel, the Comforter, who was sent to the church by Jesus after His assuming of all power over the Angels on His ascension. The Jewish fathers resisted the Angel of the presence which went with them; and so the Jews of the first century did just the same (Acts 7:51). The Holy Spirit is the power of God, not a person, but it is sometimes personified; one reason for that may be that it worked in the first century through this Comforter Angel of the Lord’s presence.
63:16 Israel does not acknowledge us- We have here the heart cry of the righteous remnant, rejected by the majority of God’s people and feeling God too is somehow distant from them. This has been a common experience amongst the righteous over history.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYhxS0MOfM8
commentary:
64:4 This is quoted in 1 Cor. 2:9; the things prepared for those who wait for God are the things of redemption and forgiveness in Christ. But Paul interprets “him who waits for Him” as “them that love Him”. To love God is in one sense to wait in patient faith for Him to act and send His Son to establish His Kingdom. But the waiting game is harder than it seems, because we expect immediate response from God, whereas the intention of His apparent inaction is to focus us instead upon the return of Christ and the coming of His Kingdom as the ultimate resolution of all things. 64:4 says that only God alone knows these things He has prepared for us in Christ. But Paul says in 1 Cor. 2:10 that they are also known by us, through God's Spirit. So through our association with the one Spirit, the one Name of Yahweh, what is true of God Himself on a personal level becomes true of us. Such is the wonder of the way in which His fullness dwells in us.
64:7 See on 51:17. The destruction of the wicked is “by means of [their] iniquities”; sin is its own judgment.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFGm_J97k6c
commentary:
65:1 God's experience with the Jews in exile was tragic. He set them up with the possibility to return to Judah, to establish there a Messianic-style Kingdom, giving them the commands in Ez. 40-48 for a glorious temple; but most of them preferred the soft life in Babylon, and those who did return proved small minded, selfish and disinterested in the vision of God's glory. In this context, Isaiah ends his restoration prophecies on a tragic note from God: "I was ready to be sought... I was ready to be found" by the unspiritual exiles in Babylon. But Israel would not. He pictures Himself standing there crying "Here am I, here am I!"- to be rejected by a people more interested in climbing the endless economic and social ladder in Babylon and Persia, and caught up in finding petty religious fault with their brethren (:5).
65:17 New heavens and a new earth- The close of Isaiah’s prophecy is related to how it opens in 1:2; and there, the heavens and earth are figurative for the system of things which was in Judah (see note there). This verse is quoted in 2 Pet. 3:13 as having had a fulfilment in the destruction of the Jewish system in AD70; yet then the literal Heaven and earth weren’t destroyed.
65:24 Before they call, I will answer- This is found in the context of a prophecy about the future Kingdom of God on earth. But Jesus applies this phrase to our experience in prayer now, when He says that God knows our needs before we ask Him in prayer (Mt. 6:8). Answered prayer is a foretaste of the Kingdom life. The essence of how we will eternally live in the Kingdom can be experienced in our spiritual life today. In this sense Jesus said that we “have eternal life”, in the sense that we can begin to live now the type of life we will eternally live.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySpNO-Yir5Y
commentary:
1:5 Jeremiah is spoken of as having existed before birth. This wasn’t literally the case, but because God is outside time as we know it, He can speak of things which don’t exist as if they do, so total is His knowledge of the future (Rom. 4:17). All the believers and also Jesus are spoken of with this language (Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:20), but it doesn’t mean that He nor we personally pre-existed.
1:6 So many called to preach God’s word feel unworthy or unqualified to do so; but God delights to work through those who feel this way.
1:10 This reflects the power which there is in God’s word, which we also can speak forth to this world.
1:17 Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you- This appears to be the basis of Christ’s warning to His preachers, that if we are ashamed of His words in this generation, He will be ashamed of us in the last day and we will walk before all men with the shame of the rejected (Lk. 9:26; Rev. 16:15). We are to therefore see Jeremiah as in some sense representative of us in our witness to the world.
1:18 The prophets required this psychological strengthening to do their work; because seeing the world from God’s perspective, perceiving the tragedy of a humanity who refuse to accept His salvation, realizing the depth of His pain- is all too much. And God will strengthen us too, to be His witnesses in a similar world.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeQN1FCBi4Y
commentary:
3:1 God’s own law had forbidden a man to do this, calling it an abomination (Dt. 24:4). And yet God was willing to do so. Thus He demonstrates that His grace and love for His people goes even beyond the limits of His own word, and may even in a way contradict it; such is the greatness of His grace. He isn’t indifferently waiting for us to return to Him; He is willing to debase Himself and commit what He considers abomination in order to be back together with us. In similar vein, God speaks as if His expectation that Israel would return to Him had been as it were proved wrong (:7). Again, He speaks as if His foreknowledge was as it were limited compared to the power of the hopefulness of His love and grace; for we are made after God’s image, and true love has the quality of desperate hopefulness against our better knowledge. Such is God’s passion for us His people.
3:14 I am a husband to you- Although divorced from Israel (:8), God still considered Himself her husband. These contradictory feelings within God are expressed in His word, in that some passages protest His eternal love and relationship with Israel whatever, whilst others declare them no longer His people.
3:19,20 Although God presents Himself to us as having a memory which functions not unlike our memories, who are made in His image, there is with God the capacity for total recall of history; and hence His pain is far greater than ours, not least because He knows, with all the power of infinite analysis of possibilities, 'what might have been'. And it is the 'what might have been' syndrome which is one of the greatest sources of our emotional pain. His pain and hurt is therefore and thereby so much greater than ours. Hence the pain, the pain which comes from understanding and the potential of total recall, behind these words which reflect how Israel could have been sons which made Him proud. Because of His capacity to imagine, to see possible futures, God feels rejected both by His children and by His wife at the same time. It's as if He could see the potentially happy future which they could've had stretching out before Him. Yet now He has chosen us as His wife and children; and we are to do our uttermost to be His faithful woman, loyal children.
3:22-25 This was God’s fantasy about Israel, how one day they would say such words of repentance and return to Him. True love includes fantasy, imagining the object of our love speaking or acting in the way we dream of. And God’s passionate love for His people is no different. True repentance is such a thrill to God; it fulfils what He has dreamt of for us. Hence all the Angels rejoice when one sinner repents.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlW16_ECyNQ
commentary:
4:3 Break up your fallow ground- Like us, they were to realize their spiritual potential in order to bring forth fruit to God.
4:4 The wrath of God can be turned away or ‘quenched’ by the actions of those He is angry with (see too Num. 25:4; Dt. 13:15-17; Ezra 10:14; Jonah 3:7,10; 2 Chron. 12:7; Jer. 21:12). And yet that wrath can also be turned away by the prayers of a third party (see  18:20; Ps. 106:23; Job 42:7). This means that in some cases, our prayers for others can be counted as if they have repented. We can gain our brother for God’s Kingdom (Mt. 18:15), as Noah saved his own house by his faithful preparation (Heb. 11:7).
4:13 Clouds, chariots and whirlwind are associated with Yahweh’s appearances in theophanies and as the cherubim. Yet here this language is applied to the Babylonian invaders- for they were manifesting God. Their chariots were as it were the wheels on earth of the Angel cherubim above who were directing them. At times unbelievers can be used by God as His form of manifestation, as we will experience in our lives too.
4:19 Jeremiah interjects here. He didn’t just output the words God had given him like a printer or piece of computer hardware. He saw the reality of it all, that it would really all come to pass. We too must be moved by the reality of the message we teach about the future; it is all very well telling others of a time of trouble coming upon this earth, but we should feel deeply for the human tragedy of it, to the point of being almost broken down because of it. The message we give cannot pass through our hands or lips without eliciting response from us.
4:20 Jeremiah felt that the future things he was prophesying had already come to pass; he shared God’s perspective (Rom. 4:17), as we should, that the Biblically predicted future is effectively now- so certain is God’s word of fulfilment.
4:31 The anguish- Jeremiah felt “anguish” right then (:19) because he identified with the future “anguish” of the people about whom he prophesied. We also should identify with the audience we preach to; the tragedy of their situation should touch us deeply and be the basis of our passionate, persuasive appeal to them.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XKWvHHmEnw
commentary:
6:8 Here and in Ez. 23:18, God's soul "departed" from His people- but the same word is translated to hang / crucify (Num. 25:4; 2 Sam. 21:6,9,13). It's as if God was crucified in His pain for Israel. And in the death of His Son He went through that pain. And so never, ever, ever... can we nor Israel complain that our pain is greater than God's. Never. The pain of God at Israel's sin leads Him to exclaim (almost in the language of piercing and crucifixion): "Before Me continually is grief and woundedness" (Jer. 6:7). We can wound God by our sin, so sensitive is He to us. In the end, we read that God's "soul" departed from them, because He “rejected” them (:30). This is the same language used about Saul- God rejected him, and so His spirit departed from him (1 Sam. 15:23; 16:14). The implication was that God's very soul / spirit is "with" us, and therefore He can be so terribly wounded by us in His heart by the rebellions of those in covenant relationship with Him. For His heart / soul / spirit is so close to us His beloved people.
6:11 We may assume that it is the leaders of a corrupt society, the opinion formers, who should be punished. But God seems to emphasize here that it’s the apparently innocent members of society also who shall be punished- the children and the wives of the men who were the decision makers. The modern liberal mindset struggles with this kind of thing. But the picture is all the same of God holding an entire society culpable to judgment, as He did in punishing Egypt. It’s not that the individual doesn’t matter to God, nor that the righteous must perish with the wicked; but rather than the apparently insignificant individuals have more significance than we may imagine. Passive support of a corrupt regime is sinful and culpable for judgment; for holocausts happen when good people do nothing. There is in this sense no such person as the innocent bystander.
6:20 Israel weren’t atheists, and they still sacrificed to Yahweh; but Jeremiah makes it clear that external religion and mere intellectual assent isn’t enough. Effectively they had rejected Him for other gods.
6:21 I will lay stumbling blocks- There is a downward as well as an upward spiral in spiritual life; God at times deceives people so that they believe a lie, because they don’t love truth (2 Thess. 2:11). Note that it is a serious sin for us to be stumbling blocks to others; but God can morally do what we can’t. What He does at times, e.g. slaying the wicked, doesn’t always mean that we can do the same.
6:23 Against you, daughter of Zion- Yahweh was Israel’s God, and Zion, the temple built on Mount Zion, was His dwelling place. The pagan gods were intended to keep their temples and people safe from invaders; but the true God was quite different. He sent enemies against His own house to destroy it. The people of Judah would’ve had the same struggle to understand Him as those today who expect only good from their God.
6:26,27 Jeremiah was so merged with God that it’s hard to work out to whom the pronouns [“He”, “My”] refer- to God or Jeremiah. “Come upon us” may reflect how even in punishing His people for their sin, God was united with them.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rbWXsyrNwY
commentary:
7:10 The false ‘once saved always saved’ mentality leads to this kind of moral slackness. Only by enduring to the end will we be saved (Mt. 10:22).
7:13 Rising up early- Before the days of alarm clocks, rising before dawn required a great conscious mental effort. The words of the prophets weren’t effortlessly given by God and mindlessly relayed by them. They involved real conscious expenditure of effort by both God and the prophets.
7:16 Don’t pray for this people - Only once Israel had passed a certain level of sinfulness was Jeremiah told to cease prayer for them. Until that point, God seems to have been willing to read Jeremiah’s prayer for them as their prayer (his “cry” was seen as theirs). And Ez. 14:14,18 imply the same- Noah, Daniel and Job could have delivered Israel up to a certain point, but they were so hardened in sin at Ezekiel’s time that even those men wouldn’t have saved a nation which, for a lower level of sin as it were, they could otherwise have saved. Jeremiah did however pray for his people even after this command; He knew God well enough to know that He is open to reason. At times, God reveals His intentions regarding Israel, but then the prophets make a case against this and are heard. This seems to be almost a pattern with God- to devise His purpose, and then in the 'gap' until its fulfilment, be open to the persuasion of His people to change or amend those plans (Am. 3:7). It's as if He reveals His plans to the prophets so that they can then comment upon them in prayer. But in this case, God tells Jeremiah not to pray to Him to change His stated plans against Israel (cp. 11:14; 14:11; 15:1), as He had asked Moses to 'leave Me alone' and not try to persuade Him to change His mind (Ex. 32:10). He didn't want, in these cases, His stated plans to be interrupted by the appeals of His people to change them. Interestingly, in both these examples, Moses and Jeremiah know God well enough, the relationship was intimate enough, for them to still speak with Him- and change His mind. Those who've prayed to God in cases of terminal illness [and countless other situations] will have sensed this 'battle', this 'struggle' almost, between God and His friends, His covenant people, and the element of 'persuasion' which there is going on both ways in the dialogue between God and ourselves. The simple fact that God really can change- there are over 40 references to His 'relenting' in Scripture- is vital to understand; for this is the basis of the prayer that changes things, that as it were wrestles with God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LdAp-FPYB0
commentary:
8:4 Shall one turn the wrong way, and not return?- We all know how when we miss the way in finding an unfamiliar address, there's a tendency to keep on going along the wrong road- because turning back is so psychologically difficult. Pride often stops us turning back; we were so convinced we were right, and what will people think as they see us retracing our steps... And this is the image that God uses here- to appeal to Israel, and ourselves, not to foolishly 'backslide', keep on turning away from Him- just because that's the course we're set upon and we lack humility. Pride is the greatest barrier to repentance; pride is indeed the essence of sin.
8:4-7 See on 5:7.
8:5 The Hebrew word for “sliding back” is that translated “return”. The image is of a man on a muddy slope; he slides back either into sin, or into the way of the Lord. We must ‘slide’ one way or the other; every micro decision which makes up the stream of daily life is confirmed by God one way or the other. We are never passive in our spiritual path; we are either sliding back, or returning nearer to the Lord.
8:7 But My people don’t know Yahweh’s law- In the context, God is amazed that Israel won’t return- because usually there is a pattern of repentance in people, and even the birds return from where they migrated to. We expect to read ‘But My people don’t return to Me’; instead we read that they don’t know Yahweh’s law. The impact of God’s word, our sensitive Bible reading, should be that we return / repent.
8:11 Peace often refers to peace with God. One of the worst sins we can commit is to tell others that their sin is not sin and that they can have peace with God about it.
8:21,22 These could be Jeremiah’s words, or Yahweh’s; Jeremiah’s worldview merged very intensely with God’s, just as ours should. They felt for Judah even when Judah were suffering “hurt” for their sins, just as parents share the hurt of the punishment they may give their child.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUfouVf0leM
commentary:
9:1,2 Jeremiah’s feelings here are contradictory. On the one hand, he so loved the wayward children of God that he wished he could find more tears to weep for them; on the other, he wished to go right away from them and live in total isolation, like a lonely shepherd who has a booth in which he sleeps in the desert. All God’s true servants will have had these contradictory feelings; Jeremiah sets the example of ultimately sticking with God’s people, indeed at the end of the book we find him going down to Egypt with them, despite God warning them not to- when he could have had a respectable retirement in the wealth of Babylon. But we can too easily assume that these are the thoughts of Jeremiah. The references to "my people" in the passage point us toward God as the person expressing these feelings. And then in :3 we have the speaker defined as God. So these were also God's thoughts. He wished He had human tear ducts to weep with... this was how He felt for them.
9:7 Jeremiah was told to "know and try" Israel's way, just as God said that He did (Jer. 6:27 cp. 9:7; 17:10). Our 'judging' of others, as well as ourselves, must be according to God's judgments of them.
9:9 Such a nation as this- Our world’s devaluing and misunderstanding of sin has likely affected all of us. We see the rich abusing the poor, manipulation of all sorts going on, petty injustices, hypocrisy in the ecclesia, falsehood, cheating in business, white lies, unkindness to ones’ brethren… and we shrug and think that it’s just normal, part of life as it is. And yet for the prophets, these things were a catastrophe. Saying one thing to someone whilst feeling differently about them in the heart was the reason for God passionately wishing to take vengeance “on a nation such as this”- note that the whole nation are counted as guilty, in that society just shrugged at hypocritical words. What to us are the daily minor sins and injustices of life are to God issues of cosmic proportion. Nobody in our current society would consider what you think to be a criminal act; and nobody did in early Israel, either. But time and again, Jeremiah passionately calls down judgment for “evil thoughts” and “evil hearts” (3:17; 4:14; 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 13:10; 14:14; 16:12; 18:12; 23:17).
9:18 A wailing for us- As God had lamented that the destroyer would come “upon us” (6:22,26). The “us” is God and Israel. The tragedy is awful, beyond words. All commentary is bathos. His love is wondrous.  God delicately speaks as if He is married to Israel, and that even in their sufferings, He would suffer with them, as a husband suffers with his wife. “The destroyer will come upon us” even sounds as if God let Himself in a way be ‘destroyed’ in Israel’s destruction; for each of us dies a little in the death of those we love. The idea of God being destroyed in the destruction of His people may be the basis of the descriptions of Zion as being left widowed (Lam. 1:1; Is. 54:1-8). We ask the question- if she was a widow, who died? Her husband, God, was as it were dead. The very idea of the death of God  is awful and obnoxious. But this was and is the depth of God’s feelings at His peoples’ destruction. This is the almost unbelievable extent of God’s pain and hurt for His people. Truly did it hurt God more than His children knew to punish them.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=romVfWBoHH4
commentary:
10:2 The signs of the sky- A reference to astrology. Our lives are totally in God’s hands.
10:19,20 This interjection by Jeremiah could equally be from God; both of them identified with the hurt and pain of those who were to be punished. We can understand why God says He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked- He finds it simply so painful (Ez. 18:32; 33:11). This alone is reason to reject the unBiblical myth of God allowing eternal punishment of the wicked in ‘hell’.
10:23 Wisdom must come from outside a person, from God’s word. There is no natural spiritual wisdom within human beings.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxaGiNC3Pv4
commentary:
11:2 At times of Israel's apostasy, God reconfirmed Israel's covenant relationship with Him. Note how God calls them “My beloved” even whilst listing their sins and His future rejection of them (:15). His grace is so counter-instinctive. The height of the demand, the extent of the implication of being in covenant with God ought to preclude the possibility of worshipping anything else. The covenant we have entered has constant and binding claims upon our loyalty (Dt. 29:14-18). By reminding them of the nature of their covenant relationship at a time of their moral weakness, they were being led to realize that the life of sin was not for them. And so there should be a like awareness in us when at least weekly we are reminded of our covenant bond in the communion service, celebrating the blood of the covenant made with us.
11:13 Each street of Jerusalem was named after an idol, just as was the case in Babylon- and thus Jerusalem shared Babylon’s judgment. Zion lost her children and also her husband whilst still a young woman (Is. 49:21; 54:6), just as Babylon would (Is. 47:9). If we act like Babylon, we will share her judgments (Rev. 18:4).
11:17 In provoking Me to anger- This is Yahweh speaking, but earlier in the verse it’s Jeremiah speaking. So often in the prophets, the pronouns change quickly. One moment we have God speaking, the next, the prophet is responding in agreement, appealing to his people, or echoing the message in his own words. So in Is. 1:2,3 we have the direct words of God, ending with “They have rebelled against me… my people does not understand”. And then in Is. 1:4 we have Isaiah echoing back those thoughts of God: “They have forsaken the Lord”. Prophecies begin with God speaking in the third person, and end with Him speaking in the first person; and vice versa. In all these examples, we see God merging with His prophet, and vice versa (Am. 3:1; Is. 1:2-4; 3:1,4; Is. 5:1,2 cp. 3-6; 7; 10:12; 11:3,9; 22:17,19,20; 53:10,12; Is. 61:6,8; Jer. 4:1,2,21,22; 8:13,14; 11:17; 9:1,2; 23:9,11; Nah. 1:12,13). However, there was more than an echo going on between God and the prophet. There was a kind of dialectic in the Divine-human encounter. God is influenced by man, as well as man by God. This same mutuality between God and man is possible for us too (Rev. 19:10).
11:18 You showed me their evil deeds- Ezekiel was likewise shown “what the house of Israel is doing in the dark” (Ez. 8:12). To pass through human life with this level of sensitivity to the amount of sin around them must’ve been so hard, as it is for us. Psychologically and nervously, the stress would’ve been awful. Hence the prophets had to be psychologically strengthened by God to endure living that sensitively in this crass and unfeeling world- hence God made Ezekiel and Jeremiah as a wall and “iron pillar” to Israel, hardened their faces, so that they wouldn’t be “dismayed at [the] looks” of those who watched them with anger and consternation (1:18; 15:20; Ez. 2:4-6; 3:8,9,27). This psychological strengthening was not aimed at making them insensitive, but rather in strengthening them to live sensitively to sin in a sinful world without cracking up. And He will do the same for us, too; for the spirit of the prophets is what our testimony to Jesus is all about (Rev. 19:10).


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmEtjGD-uFI
commentary:
12:1 Any doubts we have about the justice and ethics of God’s ways must begin with the acceptance that God is right; therefore the difficulties we have with these things are a result of our limitations rather than any ultimate fault with Him.
12:7 I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies- This is how difficult it was for God to punish His beloved people. He doesn’t do it from spite nor from the pleasure of retribution. The way God calls Judah His “beloved” (also 11:15; Is. 5:1) at the time of punishing her is reflected by the way in which Jesus calls Judas “friend” in the very moment of betrayal (Mt. 26:50). In wrath He remembers mercy (Hab. 3:2).
12:14-17 Here we have another potential prophecy- Judah could have completely returned from captivity in Babylon, and their captors could have accepted Israel’s God and returned with them to a blessed life in a restored kingdom. But neither the Jews nor Babylonians / Persians really wanted it.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlWDPu-z8So
commentary:
13:7 The whole point of Judah's exile in Babylon was to make them "ruined, unfit for use" like the cloth which Jeremiah buried by Euphrates (Jer. 13:7). And yet the second half of Isaiah is full of expressions of God's desire to use Israel after their experience in Babylon as His witness to the nations. Israel's preparation for their mission was through being made "unfit for use". And so God prepares His missionaries and ambassadors today likewise.
13:15-17 For all the issues over which the prophets could have condemned people, pride was high on their list. “I hate the pride of Jacob”, Amos cried out in dismay (Am. 6:8). Jeremiah wept in secret, his eyes running with tears, “for your pride”. Do we weep privately, just to ourselves, because people don’t respond to our message? Only those who have a heart that bleeds will do so. We can’t have an indifferent, take-it-or-leave-it attitude.
13:22,26 The metaphors used to describe the anger of God with Israel as His wife are pretty awful. Her children to be slain with thirst, she was to be stripped naked by her husband (Hosea 2), gang raped by her lovers, having her nose cut off and left a battered, bleeding mess in the scrubland (Ez. 16,23), and here, she is to have her skirt pulled up over her head and her nakedness revealed. Did it all have to end in such brutality and vulgarity? Today, sex and violence are what attract attention. From lyrics of songs to advertising and movies, that’s clear enough. And the prophets are using the same tactics to arrest Israel’s attention, all the more so because nudity and sex were things simply not up for public discussion. There’s an anxiety which any talk about sex seems to arouse in us, and it was the prophets’ intention to make us likewise get on the edge of our seats, anxious, rapt, sensitive for the next word… realizing that really and truly, this is what human sin does to God. The outrageous sex talk was to bring out how outrageous and obscene are our sins and unfaithfulness to the covenant we cut with God in baptism. God paints Himself as acting with the anger of a very angry husband, whose anger is rooted in the profoundness of His love for His wife. There is a dark side to intimacy. It’s why families, lovers, both spiritual and natural, experience the heights of both love and frustration / anger with each other. With a love like God’s, it’s inevitable that there is a strong element of jealousy and potential hurt over us. It has to be so. And yet the story of the prophets never ends with the angry judgment- amazingly, given this level of anger and judgment / retribution, there is always the passionate appeal for Israel to return, to recover love, romance and intimacy in the relationship. But the shocking sexual language and imagery of the prophets was in order to help Israel see that this was how far they had outraged God. It was and is a rhetoric that cannot be forgotten, shrugged off, re-interpreted. The rhetoric pushes relentlessly for a response in our consciences. Just as for a woman to have her skirt ripped above her head and her nakedness displayed was ultimately humiliating for her, so Israel had humiliated God by their sin (13:25-27); their actions were just as shocking and obscene. And yet we so minimize sin. Just a bit of injustice, a little touch of selfishness, a moment of hypocrisy… but all this is obscene treatment of our God. We all know the downward spiral into sin… how once we start, we can’t stop. But when Israel were like this, they are likened to a female camel in insatiable heat (2:23-25; 5:7-9). We’d just rather not read that, or retranslate the words to make it seem somehow different. But we’re dealing with serious matters here. Sin is serious to God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H42KcGjvRwY
commentary:
14:8,9 God is presented as a tragic figure here, desolated by the loss of His people, left as a mighty man that cannot save, as a wayfaring man wandering through His own deserted land; as Israel wandered amongst the nations (:10), so God as it were wanders too, so identified with them is He. This is how difficult it is for God to punish His people; for He so suffers in their suffering. It is in a sense therefore ‘easier’ for Him to forgive and save us.
14:17 The virgin daughter of my people- Yet Israel are elsewhere in Jeremiah described as a sexually addicted prostitute, and the rape hinted at here is understood in 13:22,26 as the deserved punishment she received from the Babylonians. We have here a reflection of God’s own divided mind about His sinful people; on one hand loving them and seeing them as innocent, on the other, recognizing their sin and who they really were.
14:20 We have sinned- Again we see Jeremiah’s identity with His people, not considering himself somehow uninvolved with their failures.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OTf-0z-9iM
commentary:
15:1 The implication is that when an individual or group of God’s people have a modicum of spirituality, then one individual like Moses is able to make Him feel positively toward them. The power of third party intercession for others means that we should constantly be in prayer for our brethren. But ‘the power of one’ works the other way, too; for :4 speaks as if all Judah suffered because of the sins of one man.
15:15 Jeremiah asks for vengeance on his persecutors, and in :18 accuses God of deceiving him. God’s response is to ask him to repent of this, so that he can resume his prophetic work: “If you [Jeremiah] return, then I will restore you, and you shall stand before Me [prophetic language]. If you utter what is precious, and not what is base, you shall be as My mouth” (:19). Perhaps Jeremiah had this incident in mind when he commented: “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against His word” (Lam. 1:18). This indicates that at least in Jeremiah’s case, he was not irresistibly carried along by the Spirit in some kind of ecstasy, having no option but to speak God’s word. His speaking of God’s word required that he shared the essentially loving and gracious spirit / disposition of his God. This incident is also another example of how God’s preachers so often don’t want to do the work; God tends to use those who are weak and feel inadequate to share His word with others, not the fluent and self-assured.
15:16 Jeremiah had found God’s word and eaten it, and as a result, “I am called by Your name”- the language of a woman marrying and taking her husband’s name (Is. 4:1). The word of God was his “joy [and] delight”- two words used four times elsewhere in Jeremiah, and always in the context of the joy of a wedding (7:34; 16:9; 25:10; 33:11). Jeremiah saw his prophetic task as actually a marriage to God, an inbreathing of His word and being, to the point that he could say that he personally was “full of the wrath / passion of God” (6:11). No wonder these prophets felt alone amongst men. They had a relationship with God which others couldn’t enter into, which totally affected their lives and beings. The preacher / testifier of Jesus knows something of this spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10).
15:17 Jeremiah “sat alone”. Not only was the prophets’ perspective on human sinfulness so very different to that of their audience. They preached a message which was counter-cultural and attacked the very bases of the assumptions which lay at the core of individual and social life in Israel. They appeared to back Israel’s enemies. They and their message were therefore rejected.
15:19 Jeremiah often makes a play upon the Hebrew word shub- it can mean to turn away (from God), and also to 'turn back' or repent (e.g. 3:1,7,10,12,14,19,22; 4:1). If Jeremiah and Judah turned in repentance, then God would return / restore them to their land; if they turned away from Him, He would turn them out into the Gentile world. Our lives are a twisting and turning, either to or away from God; and God is waiting to confirm us in those twists and turns.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3Z7X6i7sPI
commentary:
16:7 The communion meal is in one sense designed to be for our comfort as we mourn the death of Jesus.
16:13 The passion and love of God leads Him time and again to apparently contradict Himself. He says that He will cast Judah out of their land, they would go to Babylon and serve other gods there, “where I will not show you favour”. But actually Esther and her people were shown favour there (s.w. Esther 4:8; 8:5). God was gracious [s.w. ‘to show favour’] to those in exile (Is. 30:18,9; Am. 5:15; Mal. 1:9). But Jeremiah goes on to state that God would not ever hide His eyes / face from the iniquity they had committed, i.e. the reason why they were in captivity (:17). But actually He did do just that- He hid His eyes from the sin of Judah and the sin of the exiles (Is. 65:16); the hiding of His face from them was in fact not permanent but for a brief moment (Is. 54:8). God then outlines a plan- He will recompense their sin double, and this would lead them back to Him (:18). But this was to be an unrepeatable, once-for-all program that would “cause them to know My hand… and they shall now that My name is Yahweh” (:21).
16:18 I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double- But God punished Israel less than their sins deserved (Ezra 9:13). He surely said this :18 in anger, and later relented. He is revealed as an emotional, passionate God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWrACDYF5Dg
commentary:
17:1 The simple interpretation of this would be that sin has permanent consequences upon our heart or mind.
17:9 In the context, this is a description of the state of Judah’s heart at Jeremiah’s time (18:12). Our hearts are indeed deceitful, but God judges us according to what is in our heart (:10). It’s not the case that we are born with a sinful heart and so we will inevitably be condemned for having one. The Lord Jesus was of our human nature and yet He never sinned; whatever we say about human nature we say about Him.
17:10 God searches our heart in order to judge our works; because how we think is how we act- in the end.
17:13 The first half of the verse is Jeremiah praying to God; God responds in the second half of the verse; and the prayer resumes in :14. Prayer isn’t simply requests, it involves meditation, reflections and thinking of God’s response.
17:25 If Judah had been obedient, it’s possible that God’s Kingdom as it was in the form of Israel could have developed into His full Kingdom on earth. He has set up all kinds of potential situations throughout history, which tragically have been unfulfilled because of human weakness.
17:27 This eternal fire is paralleled with God’s eternal wrath (:4). The punishment for the wicked is eternal death (Rom. 6:23); not conscious existence in fire. Fire consumes back to dust. The eternity of God’s anger will be in the sense that sinners will be punished by eternal death; but death is unconsciousness.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMxNNFVnKS0
commentary:
18:4-8 The clay clearly represents people, made as we are from dust. God’s purpose is in some sense open-ended, in that He has intentions for us which can be ruined by how we poorly respond to the potter’s hand. This doesn’t mean that God’s words of judgment or promise are unreliable; but rather that His sensitivity to human behaviour is such that He will change His intention in accordance with their response to His statement of those intentions. God’s statement that He would destroy Nineveh in 40 days is maybe the clearest example; He added no conditions, just stated this would happen. And yet they repented; and He changed and didn’t fulfil His specific word of judgment.
18:8 Due to Moses’ prayer, “the Lord repented of the evil which He had said He would do unto His people” (Ex. 32:14 RV). Yet these are the very words of 18:8- if a nation repents, then God will repent. But in this case, God accepted the singular prayer of Moses as if it were the prayer of the whole community. We can influence God positively for others’ blessing.
18:20 Jeremiah said that God’s wrath was his wrath, “I am full of the wrath of God” (6:11), and yet he stood before God “to turn away Your wrath from them”. Jeremiah like us was as it were a bridge between God and man; as a prophet he saw the world through the eyes of God, and yet he was himself a man.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKyAc81652I
commentary:
19:9 This verse in the LXX seems to be alluded to by Paul when he says that we today can bite and devour one another in gossip and slander (Gal. 5:15). By doing so, we will be living out our condemnation, acting as if we are Judah under Divine judgment at the hands of the Babylonians.
19:11 The world will be broken to shivers, "as the vessels of a potter" (Rev. 2:26). But this is in fact quoting Jeremiah's words concerning the breaking of the individual believer who is rejected at the last day (cp. 18:4-6). The point of the quotation is surely that those Christ rejects will share the world's condemnation.
19:15 I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced- This may appear to be stating the obvious, until we appreciate that God pronounced the evil whilst being fully open to changing His mind about it- see on 18:4-8. God is therefore saying here that the time of His openness to persuasion against His intention to destroy them is now closing. Every moment we live, we live within the frames of amazing possibilities in terms of dialogue with our gracious, open-ended God.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCHdiILYZyI
commentary:
20:6 Publically, Jeremiah appears bold and undeflected by opposition and persecution. But :7-10 show how internally, he was so sensitive to it all. When we feel the same, we can remember Jeremiah.
20:7 Despite the unity of spirit between God and Jeremiah, the prophets weren’t always forced to say the words. Jeremiah didn’t want to say them at times, the weariness of it all got on top of him; and yet he felt unable to walk away, just as God felt with Israel. But there were times when he outright rebelled. Here Jeremiah complains: “Yahweh, You have seduced me [s.w. Ex. 22:16 of a man seducing a woman], and I was seduced; You are stronger than me [s.w. Dt. 22:15] and I am overcome” (Abraham Heschel’s translation understands “stronger than” to imply rape; most translations are too embarrassed to render the words as they really are). The extreme language isn’t surprising given that Jeremiah was suicidal (:14-18) and likely bi-polar- consider how he oscillates between praise in :13 and a death wish in :14. So here in :7 Jeremiah is saying that he was attracted by God, he was seduced by Him, but then the whole thing became too much- he felt his soul had been inappropriately taken over. And yet in 15:16 he says that he had found God’s word and eaten it of his own freewill, and as a result, “I am called by Your name”- the language of a woman marrying and taking her husband’s name (Is. 4:1). But here, Jeremiah felt he had been forcibly used and not married. He resented the complete takeover of his heart. But he reasons himself through it, until in :13 he can come to again praise Yahweh in ecstasy, and recognize that he had simply revealed to God how he felt in that moment, which God knew anyway because He sees and knows all things (:12).
20:14 Here Jeremiah quotes Job’s words; even in his depression, he perceived the similarities between himself and other depressed Biblical heroes.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLk5YKMc_bA
commentary:
21:6 They shall die of a great plague- There seems no record of this happening, indeed the Babylonian capture of Jerusalem wasn’t as awful as it could have been; because God in His love and grace for a faithless people reduced the judgment threatened? Likewise the threat that none would be spared (:7) must be compared against the fact that many Jews were saved alive and taken into captivity in Babylon.
21:9 By surrendering to the Babylonians they would be expressing their recognition that they had indeed sinned, and should rightfully be placed in the hands of their enemies.
21:12 Even at this very late stage, with Jerusalem surrounded (:2,4), God was prepared to relent and not fulfil all the prophetic words of destruction; His wrath was still capable of being quenched. Unquenchable or eternal fire therefore refers to the wrath of God which has reached such a point that it can no longer extinguished; but once the objects of that wrath are ‘burnt’, as the metaphor requires, they will not exist eternally in that burning process. Notice that the one thing He so wished to see was “justice”- because this is the epitome of so much spirituality and right behaviour. This is how very sensitive He is to how we treat each other.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMApZjCXhms
commentary:
22:2 Jeremiah must’ve been so nervous when he learnt to whom he must preach. He’d have had to take a deep breath to say these things, just as we have to when trying to swing a conversation around to witnessing to Christ to those we feel awed by or would far rather not witness to.
22:3 In giving Israel the reasons for their destruction, God parallels their breaking covenant with Him, with their injustice (21:12; 22:3,9,13). Mal. 2:8,10,14 speaks of how a broken covenant with God is related to a broken covenant with our brethren and our partner. The nature of our covenant relationship with God is reflected in our relationships with each other. If we sense the grace of God shown to us in covenant relationship, we will respond by having justice and integrity toward others in all our ways, awed as we will be by the certainty and reliability of His grace to us through His covenant with us.
22:6 Note the dramatic contrast within this verse. God so loved Judah, He saw them as beautiful, and yet with those feelings in mind He was going to destroy them. They were so wicked and rebellious against them, but truly He loved them with a father’s love. His punishment of them wasn’t the offended wrath of a capricious deity. If God has such love for the condemned and rebellious just because they are His children; how much more confident can we be of His grace toward us who are in Christ.
22:13-19 This is a passionate condemnation of Jehoiakim for building an extension to his house, using his neighbours as workmen and not giving them the agreed wages. We see this sort of thing all the time. And shrug and think it good fortune it didn’t happen to us. But that’s not the spirit of prophecy; God and the prophets were so sensitive to that kind of abuse of power. No matter how poor we may be, we each have power in some form over others in the context of our relationships with them, and we are not to misuse it.
22:16 To know God means to have an active relationship with Him, which will involve showing care and justice towards the poor.
22:22 Surely then you will be ashamed - God was so [apparently] sure that the exile would bring about Judah’s repentance and return to Him. But actually the very opposite happened. It’s rather like “They will reverence My son” (Mt. 21:37)- when actually they crucified Him. It’s an indication of His passion and how deeply He wishes His plans of redemption for us to work out. He’s not ashamed to as it were humiliate Himself, lay Himself open to petty critics, in His passion for us.
22:24 God's knowledge of possible futures is brought out several times in Jeremiah. He considered how even if Coniah were the signet upon His right hand, yet He would still have to uproot Israel. He fantasized about how if the prophets had been faithful and if Israel had heard them, then Israel would have repented (23:22). This reveals the extent of His passion for us; and it’s this knowledge which must make His experience of us so tragic and sad, more than we can ever know. He knows all the infinite numbers of possible futures there could have been if we were more faithful. This thought alone should inspire us to try to live up more to our potentials, to trade our talents, and thus to experience His working with us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr-wKNrBAyU
commentary:
23:2 Both God and the pastors of Israel are described as having ‘driven out’ Israel from their land (:2,3,8); the pastors’ sin resulted in all the people sinning and deserving judgment, and God worked with this system, confirming His people in the evil way they had taken. There is no doubt that we can be counted responsible for making another brother sin, even though he too bears responsibility for that sin.
23:5 Jesus was the final fulfilment of this “branch”; He was a branch of David in the sense that He had David as His ancestor (Lk. 1:31-35). He therefore didn’t pre-exist as a person before the time of David.
23:6 Yahweh our righteousness- Jesus never sinned, He was as righteous as God in His character. By baptism into Him, that righteousness is counted to us; and thereby He is for us the means to God’s righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).
23:10 Human “might is not right”; human power is fiercely criticized by the prophets. One of the most striking features of the prophets is their denunciation of human power. Judah were doing what was humanly sensible and smart. To trust in politics, in what seems the usual human response to an issue rather than trust in God, is in fact something which breaks God’s heart. The life of faith in God is simply the very opposite of what seems humanly sensible. To give money we’d surely be better saving; risk our lives and health for another; neglect our business or career for the sake of the Lord’s work. These ought to be the normal decisions we make, if we are walking in step with the spirit; and yet it would appear that they are the exceptions to the rule of far too many of our lives. And the point is, God’s heart broke because His people were and are like this (:9).
23:12 They shall be driven on, and fall- God confirms people in the downward spiral they choose.
23:18 It is indeed hard to see the world from God’s perspective; but this is what the spirit of prophecy was and is all about. The prophets stood in the presence of God, and partook in His “council” (:22), i.e. His inner circle of trusted friends (see too 15:19). The way God speaks of the prophets as being His “council” suggests He is open to dialogue and even ‘advice’ from men; such is His humility and desire to work with us rather than merely demand our submission.
23:36 The false prophets were judged according to their words; each man’s word was to be his burden at the day of Babylonian judgment . Gal. 6:5 alludes here in saying that at the judgment, every man shall bear his own burden- i.e., that of his own words. Wrong speech will be condemned at the day of judgment (Tit. 2:8), out of our own mouths we will be judged (Lk. 19:22). The implication seems to be that our words will be quoted back to us during the judgment process. By our words we really will be justified or condemned (Mt. 12:37). How we speak, especially if we claim to bear God’s Name as baptized believers, will be the basis of our judgment.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlgEnkU5byM
commentary:
24:3 It was obvious what Jeremiah had seen; but God asked him to verbalize it. By putting things into words out loud, we become the more conscious of them. It’s no bad idea to pray our private prayers out loud, to recount out loud to God our situations so that we perceive them more accurately rather than just assuming that we have internally assessed the situation correctly.
24:8 The spiritually weakest were those who remained in the land and went down into Egypt. Yet when given the choice of going to Babylon or remaining with these people, Jeremiah chose to remain with them, knowing they were the weakest. If we truly seek God’s glory in people, it may be that we in some ways make the choice to be with the weak so that by all means we may save some; when the nicer thing to do is to associate only with the spiritually stronger.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjFFEBVfdu0
commentary:
26:2 Perhaps they will listen- This leads in to the implications that God doesn't actually know for sure how His people will respond to His word. So great is the freewill we have been given as we in our generation read and hear the words of the Bible. God of course could know our response, but at times He limits His knowledge in the same way as He limits His power- in that He could do all things but He doesn’t do all He’d like to do because of our limitation of Him. The limitation of God is shown by how He speaks about prayer: "The Lord's... ear [is not] dull, that it cannot hear... your sins have hid His face from you so that He will not hear" (Is. 59:1,2). In this sense God limits His possibilities. He can see all things, and yet in the time of Israel's apostasy He hides His face from them (Mic. 3:4 cp. Dt. 32:19,20). The Hebrew word ulay, 'perhaps', is significant in this connection. "Perhaps they will listen", God says, in reflection upon Ezekiel's preaching ministry to God's people (Ez. 12:1-3). Of Jeremiah's prophetic work, God likewise comments: "Perhaps [Heb. ulay] they will listen" (:2,3; 36:3,7; 51:8; also Is. 47:12). This uncertainty of God as to how His people will respond to His word reflects the degree to which He has accommodated Himself to our kind of time. It has huge implications for us, too. With what eagerness must God Almighty look upon us as we sit down to read His word daily! 'Are they going to listen? How are they going to respond?'.
26:8 You shall surely die- People get very angry when we say things which criticize their relationship with God and their behaviour before Him, and suggest that their established way of worship is wrong.
26:19 In Hezekiah’s time, all Judah had to repent to avert total destruction- but even though they didn’t, the prayer of Hezekiah saved the nation. This is the power of just one righteous person, God is so sensitive to righteousness. In the Old Testament there are several examples of just one righteous man saving the sinful or spiritually weak people of God from destruction; and those cases were to prepare Israel for the concept of the supreme righteousness and intercession of Christ being able to save we who are likewise sinners.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-11qrIajCu8
commentary:
27:3 The messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah- Instead of trusting solely in God, Zedekiah was trying to make alliances with other nations to stave off the Babylonian invasion. But the message was again that all such human might would fail, and total repentance was the only way for Judah to be saved.
27:5 If God takes away from us what we have been accustomed to having- in Judah’s case, their independence as a nation- then we should recognize that God as creator of all has the right to do this, and that nothing we have, be it material or immaterial, is personally ours. This is one outcome of believing in God as creator rather than in atheistic evolution.
27:6 And the animals of the field also- This is emphasized several times. We see thereby God’s huge sensitivity to the natural creation. It also opens up the possibility that there is a latent spirituality within all of creation; God is in some sense in contact with them. Rom. 8:19-23 seems to hint that the natural creation will in some sense be delivered into a new spiritual dimension at Christ’s return and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth.
27:14 Speaking God’s truth made Jeremiah everybody’s enemy. His own people, from the masses to the leadership, the religious leaders and their false prophets, the surrounding Gentile nations- all were insulted by what he had to say. There are times in our own ministries when we will be left alone because of our loyalty to God’s word- or so it will seem.
27:21 It would appear that the expensive vessels of God’s house had been taken into the house of the king. We must learn the lesson, not to use the things of God’s spiritual house for our own personal benefit.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xhn4DtaU2w
commentary:
28:3,4 Hananiah had taken Jeremiah’s prophecies of restoration but said it would happen within two years rather than the 70 years which Jeremiah had spoken of in chapter 25. And he inserted a false prediction that Jeconiah would return from Babylon. False teaching follows this pattern; slightly changing God’s true word and slipping in a few other things. This is what makes false religion attractive, and why it will be accepted by those who aren’t familiar with God’s word. We live in a world where there are many voices, many claims, clamouring for our belief; only a familiarity with the Bible text and an acceptance of it as the final authority will enable us to discern truth from error.
28:11 The prophet Jeremiah went his way- There are times in such conflict situations when we too just have to walk away. God’s says one thing, and the popular religious leaders say another. We can make our point and then walk away from endless argument and controversy.
28:13 Go, and tell Hananiah- Jeremiah may well have thought ‘Oh no, I never want to see that man again’. But the motive and purpose of correcting false teaching is for the sake of helping those who are deceived.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofhDeK-6bhs
commentary:
29:5,6 By doing so, the exiles would be expressing their faith that God’s word about a 70 year captivity was going to be true. The Jewish false prophets in Babylon were telling them that the captivity would soon be over and they would be back in the land of Judah (:8). False teaching tries to tell us that we can have the restored Kingdom now, with no need to wait long, no need to accept our sinfulness nor truly repent.
29:7 Pray to Yahweh for it; for in its peace you shall have peace- Alluded to in 1 Tim. 2:1,2 about how we should pray for the nations in which we live, that we might be able to live in peace.
29:15 The sin of the Jewish captives in exile would bring about suffering on the Jews who then remained in the land (:16,17). Again we see that sin is about the damage we do to others.
29:23 And have committed adultery- Repeatedly, the false prophets of both Old and New Testaments are associated with immoral behaviour. Wrong beliefs about God often lead to wrong behaviour; false teaching is often wrong teaching about way of life, rather than being simply honestly mistaken in theological interpretation of the Bible.
I am He who knows, and am witness- It’s not painless to simply say that we believe God’s Name is Yahweh and that this means “I am”. He therefore sees and knows all things because He “is” in all ways, and our lives must be appropriate to Him being as He is. Note that God is presented as both witness and judge. Our lives are as it were played out before the Divine courtroom.
29:26 The whole tremendous experience of having God’s mind in them, sharing His perspective, seeing the world through His eyes, made the prophets appear crazy to others. There’s a marked emphasis upon the fact that they were perceived as madmen (:24,26; Hos. 9:7; 2 Kings 9:11). For us to walk down a street for even ten minutes, feeling and perceiving and knowing the sin of every person in those rooms and houses and yards, feeling the weeping of God over each of them… would send us crazy. And yet God strengthened the prophets, and there’s no reason to think that He will not as it were strengthen us in our sensitivity too.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx4e21DH2Rw
commentary:
30:7 That day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble- Dan. 12:1 says the same thing in the same language, but says that the ultimate salvation of Israel will be in the appearance of Christ and the resurrection from the dead (Dan. 12:2,3). The Babylonian invasion was known as the time of Israel’s trouble (2:28; 8:15; 11:12; Neh. 9:32). There was the possibility that the Babylonian invasion and capture of Jerusalem was the time of trouble which would lead to Israel’s final salvation in the coming of their Messiah; but instead they chose to believe their false prophets and refused to repent. So the whole possible scenario didn’t come true then, and was reapplied to a latter day invasion of Israel, the taking of Jerusalem, Israel’s repentance, hearing the words of the true prophets, the return of Christ, the resurrection and the establishment of God’s Kingdom. That scenario could now come true at any moment.
30:17 I will restore health to you- Although their wound was humanly incurable (:12,15). God really can do the impossible, and the impossible thing we struggle with is that sinners condemned to suffering and death can really be saved from that and given eternal life.
Zion, whom no man seeks after- The attitude of others to us God’s people is so painful for Him. He desperately seeks His people, and for others to consider we are down and out, not wanted by anyone, provokes Him to action. Even though His people were so sinful, the fact others mocked them was significant to God. This colossal sensitivity of God is an encouragement to us who can feel at times that we are insignificant and ultimately, existentially alone.
30:18 We see here the theme of God’s Kingdom actually being a re-establishment of the entity which once was on earth (Ez. 21:25-57; Acts 1:6). See too :20 “as before”.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUKonu9m5C4
sermon: https://youtu.be/BGQBTihyKDY
commentary:
31:13 This is what shall happen after Rachel weeps for her slain children (:15) and she enters the new covenant (:31). She will be as a virgin who takes her tambourine in hand and dances, entering a new covenant with her ba'al, her Lord, her husband, who has obliterated the memory of all her sins in a way that only a Divine being could do (:13). Women in love are stereotypically associated with emotions of giddiness, hysteria, excitement, joy... and this is the language applied to the once weeping Rachel, who wept over the children God had taken from her. And yet... according to the New Testament quotations and expositions of :31, this is the very same 'new covenant' into which we enter in baptism (Heb. 8:8,13; 12:24). This is God's joy over us, and it should be ours over Him. The damage of sin can at times seem so permanent that we can feel that nothing whatever can change things for us now, as Rachel weeping for her children. But the dramatic transformation really can happen when we enter into the new covenant. It’s hard to put together how God will slay Rachel’s children with thirst, forget them and show them no pity (Hos. 2:3,4; 4:6; 9:12), leave her weeping for them, and then dry her eyes and speak of a new covenant and new relationship with her. But the point of it all is that this is indeed how radical the cycle of sin, judgment and repentance really is in the lives of each of us. If a movie were to be made of all this, none of us would be able to resist it. The story of how through love gone sour, estrangement, anger and battery, a couple triumph in love and true, eternal intimacy. But this is the wonder and power of true repentance. And it is also a powerful window into the consequence and nature of human sin. The whole story, the images and ideas… surely leave us knowing once and for all that our religion and relationship with God simply can never be merely abstract contemplation of Biblical ideas, devoid of commitment and passion in response to God’s love. All these wonderful ideas come down to us through reading and reflection upon Scripture. But Bible reading, understood and felt as it should be, can never be a passive, neutral, private experience. If we truly are in covenant relationship with this wondrous God, it demands our all. Our failures, forgiven as they are, will haunt us for their awfulness; and the wonder of His love will never cease to move us to real tears in the midst of this passionless, too busy, postmodern world.
31:22 A woman shall follow after a man- It was unheard of for a woman to take the initiative in starting a romance leading towards marriage; the man always chose his woman. Hence Ruth and Naomi’s outstanding initiative regarding Boaz. Our repentance is presented here as a woman taking the initiative to as it were woo God Almighty; who as it happens has a heart that yearns for her anyway (:20). This is the strange romance of repentance, a mutual attraction that lasts for eternity. And the grace of it all is that this initiative of Judah for God, this new thing in the earth, was created by Him.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fq_b9G5rVw
commentary:
33:7 As at the first- One proof that the future Kingdom of God will be on earth rather than in Heaven is because that Kingdom is to be a restoration of the Kingdom of God as it had been in the form of Israel (Ez. 21:25-27; Acts 1:6). The language of restoration “as at the first” is a major theme in Jeremiah- note “yet again” (:10).
33:10 That are desolate- They were not at that moment desolate (:1), but God’s prophetic word is so certain, that what He predicts will happen is spoken of as if it already exists. Likewise :12 “which is waste”.
33:15 Israel’s return from the nations where they had been scattered would be associated with the coming of Messiah to lead them once they had returned. It seems from Haggai 2 and Zech. 4 that Zerubbabel [meaning ‘branch brought from Babylon’] could have fulfilled these prophecies. But due to the prosperity in captivity which the Jews attained (see Esther 10), most chose not to return to the land, and those who did weren’t willing to obey God’s law. Indeed, extra-Biblical history records that Zerubbabel returned to Babylon. So the “branch” prophecies were reapplied to Christ; by baptism into Him, God’s righteousness is counted to us. We live at a time when the Jews are literally scattered worldwide; around the time when they return to the land, Christ will come as “the branch” to restore God’s Kingdom on earth. We may yet have to see a far greater return to the land than happened since the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLP9GK0DWTw
commentary:
34:11 The prophets not only reflected God’s dismay and passionate feelings, they expressed their own dismay too. Lack of justice was a major concern of the prophets. But to us, injustice may be so commonplace we don’t really worry about it too much. Given all the idolatry going on at the time of Jeremiah, we'd have expected the condition for being spared judgment at the hands of their invaders to be: 'Throw your idols away!'. But :11,22 offers them a reprieve if they stopped abusing their brethren. When, temporarily, the Jews ceased doing that and proclaimed liberty to their brethren- the pending judgment was put on hold. When they again abused their brethren, not giving them the "liberty" which must be afforded to all those made in God's image, then the Babylonians returned. And we need to ask whether we proclaim liberty to our brethren- or abuse them by not allowing them the basic freedom which is the dignity God allows to each of His children.
34:17 Among all the kingdoms of the earth- The Hebrew eretz means both “earth” in the sense of the whole planet, and also “the land” promised to Abraham. This ambiguity helps us understand how the restoration prophecies could have had their fulfilment in the regathering of the Jews scattered throughout the 127 provinces of the Babylonian and then Persian empires, which straddled the land promised to Abraham; and yet they will now have their major fulfilment in our last days, in the restoration of Israel from their dwelling places in literally the entire planet.
34:18 This speaks of how the Jews must die, because they passed between the pieces of the dead animal sacrifices in making a covenant. The idea of the dead animals in the ceremony was to teach that 'So may I be dismembered and die if I fail to keep my promise'. God too has cut such a covenant commitment to us. In Genesis 15, He made a one-sided commitment to Abraham and to us Abraham’s seed by baptism into Christ (Gal. 3:27-29); and He passed between the pieces of the sacrificed animals to confirm it. But it was none less than the God who cannot die who is offering to do this, subjecting Himself to this potential curse! And He showed Himself for real in the death of His Son. That was His way of confirming the utter certainty of the promises to Abraham which are the basis of the new covenant which He has cut with us (Rom. 15:8; Gal. 3:17). Usually both parties passed between the dead animals- but in Gen. 15, only Yahweh did. It was a one-sided covenant from God to man, exemplifying His one-way grace. The Lord died, in the way that He did, to get through to us how true this all is- that God Almighty cut a sober, unilateral covenant with us personally, to give us the Kingdom. We simply can't be passive to such grace, we have no option but to reach out with grace to others in care and concern- and we have a unique motivation in doing this, which this unbelieving world can never equal. From one viewpoint, the only way we can not be saved is to wilfully refuse to participate in this covenant.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZKCOGXBH5I
commentary:
35:14 Jonadab’s requirements of his descendants were unreasonable. There was nothing wrong in drinking wine nor in owning vineyards or living in a house. Indeed, all these three things are listed amongst the blessings which God would give Israel in Canaan (Dt. 6:11; 8:12; Ps. 104:15). But the point is that if other people can show such careful obedience to human commands, even if they are unnecessary and increasingly irrelevant- how much more should we be obedient to God’s word. All around us are great examples of single minded dedication of life- to wrong principles. Self-sacrificial humanitarian atheists are ever before us with their good deeds. Men give their lives to and for what they believe and for political leaders- even though those beliefs are faulty and the leaders have feet of clay. How much more committed should we be... faced as we are with the ultimate truths of God and His Son. If they can do it- why can’t we, and why can’t we do even more than them? We can also reflect that Jonadab asked his descendants to not indulge in the legitimate blessings which God had given (houses, wine and vineyards). There are different levels in spiritual life; we can grab what blessings God gives us and run with them; or we can forego them, give them to others, use them for Him, refuse them simply to exercise the spiritual muscles of our self-control.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh7WSdjNQFQ
commentary:
36:2 Jeremiah was asked to write down his words so that perhaps Judah would repent (:3). God recognized that by regularly reading those words there was a far higher chance the message might sink in and they would be motivated to action. Hearing God’s word read to us is one thing, but reading it ourselves is another process. We who are literate and have Bibles are greatly blessed with the potential for really getting to grips with God’s word in a manner which others haven’t been blessed with. To waste and fritter away that responsibility in favour of trashy novels is something we shall have to give account for.
36:3 God says that perhaps Judah would hear His word and repent; in :7 Jeremiah repeats this by saying that perhaps Judah would pray and repent. True prayer is therefore a reflection of our hearing of God’s word. His word influences ours. If the Lord’s word abides in us, then prayer becomes powerful, as our will merges with that of God in our requests (Jn. 15:7).
36:9 The paradox is that the leadership fasted, but didn’t ultimately want to hear God’s word. Even such self-deprivation is of no meaning unless we are going to be guided by God’s word.
36:19 It’s a common feature of human response that we tend to ‘shoot the messenger’, and this is supremely true when it comes to response to someone preaching repentance and God’s demands upon human life. This is the main psychological reason behind religious persecution. The source of discomfort must be removed from our presence or even destroyed.
36:23 As noted on :19, the natural human response to God’s word prodding at their conscience is to remove it, to shoot the messenger. In our day one way of getting rid of the inconvenient demands of God’s word is to declare parts of it uninspired by Him; not really His word, just the local views of the time; or to embark upon complex academic attempts to obscure the obvious message beneath a cloud of uncertainty, radical re-translation and polemics.
36:24 They were not afraid- But when they first heard those words, they were afraid (:16). Our response to and even interpretation of God’s word is so often influenced by those around us. In the presence of unbelievers we can be tempted to see it the way they do... Bible reading and response has to be a totally personal enterprise, and at times it calls us to be prepared to stand alone, with our backs to the world if necessary.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nec21HvUoEY
commentary:
37:12 Later in Jeremiah, we read of how Jeremiah was given the choice of honourable retirement in Babylon, or to remain with God’s spiritually weak people in the land. He chose to stay with them, and even went down into Egypt with the weakest of them. Perhaps he learnt to do that from his experience at this time. We too are taught by failures in one situation to be stronger the next time we are faced with the choice. It seems he had had enough and just wanted to get away from the aggressive, rejective audience he had in Jerusalem. It is hinted in 32:25 that Jeremiah may have somewhat resented having to buy the field, so that perhaps his family relatives would inherit it at the time of the restored Kingdom in 70 years time, after his death. So he wanted to enjoy it now. And for these things he suffered. We can’t have the hope of eternity and enjoy it now, even if we may have some foretastes of it.
37:17 Those who know God's word will find encouragement there in their experiences of life- but that encouragement is dependent upon their appreciation of the word, and their ability to see the similarities between their situation and that of others who have gone before. Thus when Zedekiah called Jeremiah out of the prison house to meet him and show him the word of God, he ought to have perceived that he was going through the very experience of Pharaoh with Joseph (see too :20). Jeremiah’s desperate plea not to be sent back to prison to die there surely echoes that of Joseph to his brethren; for Jeremiah was let down like Joseph had been into a pit with no water in, so reminiscent of Joseph (Gen. 37:24). But Zedekiah didn’t want to see all this; he should’ve listened to Jeremiah, as Pharaoh had listened to Joseph and saved himself. It was all potentially set up for him; but he refused to take note. One of the many reasons for daily Bible reading is that we become familiar with the text of Scripture, and can more easily perceive the similarities between our life situations and those of Bible characters who have gone before us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0aoqCabvwE
commentary:
38:7 Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, a eunuch- As a dark skinned foreigner who was well known to be a eunuch, he would likely have been despised within Jerusalem society. But it was exactly the despised who God loves to use as tools to save His people. And it’s exactly these types who have the empathy to be able to reach out to save those like Jeremiah. We too can be such people, if we meditate enough upon who we really are and the significance of our sins.
38:16 Who made us this soul- The fact we had our lives created by God means we should never take another’s life apart from at His specific command.
38:23 You shall cause this city to be burned with fire- God somehow arranged things within His purpose so that Zedekiah’s repentance would have enabled the salvation of all Israel. But his failure to repent, his fear of his image amongst men who were themselves condemned and on borrowed time, meant that judgment came on all His people. What this shows is that there are times and places where God is willing to save people for the sake of the spirituality of a third party, but if he or she fails in this, deliverance doesn’t necessarily arise from another place, as it would have done in Esther’s time.
38:22 Your feet are now sunk in the mire- The emphasis would’ve been on “your feet”. Jeremiah witnessed to Zedekiah on the basis of bridge building. Jeremiah warned him that politically and spiritually, his feet were sunk in the mud - just after Jeremiah himself had sunk in the mud and been miraculously delivered from it (:6). We must build bridges into the real world in which the people who are our audience live and love, work and play, laugh and weep, struggle and suffer, grow old and die. We do this by revealing to them that we too are human, we’re not knights in shining armour; and we seek to relate our experiences to theirs, so that there is that point of ‘flash’ where we as it were catch each others’ eye, and are united by experience. It is from that point that we have won their trust and can proceed to credibly share the doctrinal content of the Gospel with them. The more real, the more credible.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wQyCEW3yrA
commentary:
39:5 The parable of the good Samaritan features a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and being attacked, to be saved by grace when no human help could assist him (Lk. 10:30). The wounded man represents us all, and yet he is modelled upon Zedekiah. This weak king who loved hearing God’s word and wanted to do the right thing, but was simply weak and gave in to the pressure of circumstance and thereby seriously sinned- is representative of each of us.
39:10 These very poor people didn’t show themselves spiritually strong, whereas at least some of the more prosperous who were taken to Babylon did repent and some returned to the land after 70 years. Poverty doesn’t always mean spirituality; for the problem with poverty is that it can become obsessive and distracts people from God.
39:18 Because you have put your trust in me- Ebedmelech is commended for his faith, and yet at the same time God points out his fear (:17). Ideally, faith should preclude fear. Ebedmelech feared, and yet he still believed. Perhaps faith is rarely total in human beings, but God accepts that all the same, in His grace. Note that Ebedmelech is promised deliverance because of his faith- when we would have expected him to be given deliverance because he had delivered God’s prophet Jeremiah. Thus we see that good works are not on their own of significance to God; it is faith in Him which is of the essence.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3AN187g-9w
commentary:
40:4 All the land is before you- Jeremiah would have recalled how Lot was in a similar position, given the opportunity of living where he wanted; and he wrongly chose the Sodom area, and spiritually suffered for it. Jeremiah would’ve immediately been on his guard, in case this offer of living where he liked could lead him to wrong choices. The more familiar we are with Scripture and the more we reflect upon and personalize it, the easier it will be for us to see our situations as being in essence what others were in, and the clearer the decisions will become.
40:6 Jeremiah was popular with the Babylonians because he had repeatedly urged Judah to surrender to them and predicted the Babylonian victory. So he was offered a nice retirement package in the opulence of Babylon, amongst his fellow Jews, whom God had predicted would be the ones who would repent, rather than those very poor few who remained in the land. Jeremiah’s chose to remain in unstable Judah, which would’ve suffered all the practical and economic problems associated with anarchy, marauding gangs and a land destroyed by a lengthy military campaign; and he also chose to remain among the materially poor and spiritually weakest. They wouldn’t have been very nice company. The first wave of Jews taken captive to Babylon included faithful Daniel and his friends, Ezekiel and other prophets. But Jeremiah chose the hardest way, to stay with the weakest and poorest; he must’ve been so spiritually lonely. In various contexts we also have these choices, and if we are truly motivated by the love of Christ, we will seek the higher level choices as Jeremiah did.
40:9 Don’t be afraid to serve the Chaldeans- Gedaliah is alluding to Jeremiah’s words of 27:8,11,12, where he had urged Judah to recognize their sins and the need for punishment of them, and therefore serve the Chaldeans. Because they didn’t do this, destruction came. But even afterwards, it seems Gedaliah was still urging the people to accept this principle.
40:10-15 The positive situation described here, both materially and spiritually, was perhaps an outcome of the people being willing to obey Jeremiah’s earlier appeal to serve the Babylonians (see on :9). It would seem from 41:5 that the destroyed temple was at least partially operating; and as many as 80 men had cut themselves in repentance and a fervent desire for God to hear their prayers, and were bringing sacrifice to Him. The king’s daughters were allowed to remain in Mizpah, and some of the “greatest” amongst the Jews also remained in the land (42:1). This situation is never predicted by Jeremiah; all the prophecies suggest a total destruction of the people and the severing of God’s relationship with the land. But in wrath God remembered mercy; what we see here is grace indeed. And yet, once again, the situation didn’t last because of human failure- in this case, Ishmael’s evil explained in chapter 41, and Gedaliah’s unwisdom in :16.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=055Wp6GTXmk
commentary:
41:1 To eat bread together was a sign of fellowship and mutual acceptance. The breaking of bread service is therefore designed as a comfort to us of the Lord’s acceptance of us. He is willing to do this any time with us.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjW2kuvBMTI
commentary:
42:6 We will obey- Whilst their attitude is great on paper, chapter 43 explains that they simply rejected the answer they received. At this point, they were approaching God and seeking guidance from His word with their minds already made up as to what they wanted the answer to be. This is the attitude which robs so much prayer and Bible reading of its value- people can do these things in the hope they will be confirmed in their own views and wishes, and if they aren’t confirmed in them, they just continue in them anyway. Prayer and Bible study must be done with a true openness of mind and willingness to be directed by them, even into paths and choices we strongly don’t wish to make.
God to whom we send you- Prayer was envisaged by them as a going to God, a journey into His presence. Although we are in His presence all the time, this doesn’t take away the special entry into God’s personal presence which is what prayer is all about.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDoWqg8dRPY
commentary:
2:5 Walked after vanity, and are become vain- We become like what we worship (Ps. 115:8; 135:18). The prophets emphasize that the idols are empty and vain. Whilst we may not be tempted to worship pieces of stone or wood, we are surrounded by the vain things of the modern world which can become our gods; sport, endless surfing the internet, frivolous obsession with tickling our taste buds, these and so much else are mere vanity. And as we worship them, we become vain and empty too, with no real substance to our personality. Whilst the richness and depth of Yahweh is thereby ignored by us. See on 2:11.
2:6 The wilderness is described as an awful place, just as Moses likewise spoke of it when reflecting on the journeys of Israel in Deuteronomy. Israel crossing the Red Sea represents our baptism into Christ (1 Cor. 10:1,2), and their wilderness journey afterwards equates with our lives now as we walk toward the promised land of God’s Kingdom. The world is a terrifying place spiritually; in spiritual terms it isn’t the nice safe place it can appear.
2:8 Those who handle the law didn’t come to know Me- We can be faithful Bible readers, familiar with the text, and yet not know God in the sense of having a personal relationship with Him; rather like the rejected of the last day who will call Jesus “Lord” and have been associated with Him in their lives, but who never knew Him (Mt. 7:22,23; 25:12; Lk. 13:25).
2:11 Israel never officially changed their gods; they never rejected Yahweh nor were they atheists. But worshipping any other god in addition to the one true God as they did is effectively doing this. See on 2:5.
2:19 God has a wonderful way of not turning away in disgust from sinful people, but rather working through their sin to try to bring them to repentance. The traditional understanding of Satan is unable to explain this; for if a personal, sinful entity called ‘satan’ makes people sin, then how come that sin actually results in some becoming righteous? Sin comes from within (James 1:13-15), it is solely our fault that we sin; but God in His grace often works through human failure in order to bring sinners to Himself. Our real ‘satan’ or adversary is ourselves, and not any external, cosmic being.
2:26 Worshipping other gods is likened here to stealing. Not giving God our entire worship is in fact robbing Him; even though the analogy seems extreme at first sight, if we really accept that we are created by Him and are His, then to not give Him all of ourselves is to rob Him (Mal. 3:8). Significantly, the people are mentioned as punishing innocent people for the crime of stealing when they hadn’t committed it (:34). Those who robbed God knew subconsciously what they were doing; and so unconsciously, they transferred their guilt onto others, falsely accusing them of the very kind of sin they had committed, and then strictly condemning and punishing those innocent people for it, exercising the judgment against themselves which was their due upon others, onto whom they had transferred their guilt. This is why people gossip, malign, falsely accuse and judge harshly. If we face up to our sins in the first place and accept God’s forgiveness, then we will show grace to others rather than act in this way.
2:30 It’s tragic that people can suffer so much, as Israel have throughout their history, and yet not respond to it as God intended.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i60SUGpHSVg
commentary:
43:2 See on 42:6. The way out of finding that God’s word is telling us something we don’t want to hear is to claim that actually, that part isn’t inspired. The problem with rejecting parts of God’s word- the inconvenient bits- is that we then have no mechanism with which to decide which parts to accept and which not to; the process becomes subjective to the point that God’s word is no longer His but effectively our own. And it’s pride which is at the root of refusing to accept God’s word as inspired- for “all the proud men” refused to accept Jeremiah’s word as inspired.
43:5 The remnant of Judah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been driven- It seems that during the short period of peace immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem (see on 40:10-15), some of the Jews who had fled over Judah’s border into neighbouring countries started to return. This was becoming a foretaste of the prophesied restoration and return which was to happen after 70 years; but their trust in Egypt and lack of faith in Jeremiah’s prophetic word meant that this possible scenario didn’t come true. We too by grace have many possible scenarios open to us, but our unbelief and desire to follow our gut feelings lead us not to fulfil them.
43:8 Jeremiah in Tahpanhes- It’s incredible that Jeremiah went there with them, despite having had his prophetic words specifically ignored, and being slandered as actually not a true prophet of Yahweh. But this was his level of identity with God’s people, weak as they were. After reading this verse, the spiritual weakness of others in the family of God should never again make us think that we want nothing to do with them. We need to stick with them as Jeremiah did.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ54MkQsBX4
commentary:
44:3 Time and again Jeremiah accuses the people of purposefully inciting God to anger through their worshipping of Him along with other gods (7:18,19; 11:17,18; 25:6; 44:3-8)- whereas the onlooker would’ve likely commented that at least they were doing something, and Jeremiah should just calm himself down about it all. The demand is for total dedication.
44:14 For none shall return save such as shall escape- God’s grace is amazing here. He had promised total destruction of Judah; but some survived. He had told Jeremiah that He wouldn’t respond to Jeremiah’s prayers for the people (7:16; 11:14). Yet Jeremiah had prayed for this remnant of the people, and God had responded (42:6). The people had solemnly promised to do whatever God said in response. He told them not to go to Egypt. They went anyway. God said they would be destroyed there “so that none... shall be left to return”. And now He hints at the possibility that some would still return to Judah from Egypt. He so seeks relationship with His people. See on :28.
44:18 Were well, and saw no evil- Their motivation was simply to have a situation where they would experience good and not “evil”, in the sense of disaster. Yet they had claimed that they would accept God’s word whether it meant good or evil for them (42:6). However, their agenda was clearly that they wanted good in this life, right now; rather than accepting evil now as a preparation for God’s future Kingdom. The prosperity Gospel has likewise totally misunderstood this; through much tribulation in this life we shall come to enter God’s Kingdom (Acts 14:22).
44:19 There is fair emphasis on the role the women played in the decision to worship “the queen of the sky”. Perhaps the women were attracted by the idea of a female deity and cast off their faith in Yahweh because of that attraction. People can be abused and discriminated against, just as women were at that time, and yet allow this to lead them into rejecting the true God because they think some other religious system gives value to the abused and glorifies them; when in fact it is Yahweh alone who can glorify anything and ultimately right any wrong.
44:28 Having said that all the Jews in Egypt would be destroyed (:27), there is still going to be a tiny remnant, by God’s grace. See on :14.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlppv4bwRn0
commentary:
45:5 The command not to see great material things for himself was given to Baruch in the context of the fact that the entire nation of Judah was about to be taken over and destroyed by Babylon. Likewise James 5:3 comments upon the absurdity of heaping up treasures in the last days. If Jesus is about to return and establish His Kingdom here, then amassing wealth in this present order of things which is so soon to be destroyed is bizarre. To live as if the day of Christ’s return is upon us appears to have been an expectation of the early Christians. It is not to say that we actually know that day shall be hear imminently; rather are we to live as if it will be.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMT9qnN2woA
commentary:
46:2 The disobedient Jews had fled to Egypt because they thought there would be support and stability there from the Babylonians. Here God prophesies that the Egyptian army would be destroyed and wouldn’t be a strength to the Jews. Egypt so often becomes a symbol of human strength which God’s people are tempted to trust in rather than in Him. His requirements are often counter-instinctive to obey; to remain in the ruins of Judah under Babylonian occupation was in fact the way to peace; but Egypt always looks the logical, more attractive choice.
46:5 Why have I seen it?- Jeremiah like us at times was weary at having to teach bad news to sinners, and the loss of life because of human pride.
46:9 The reference to “mighty ones” here and in :5 is an allusion to the Hebrew word elohim, which also means “mighty ones” or ‘the one great mighty one’, and is often applied to God and His armies of Angels. The mighty ones of Egypt and her allies were what Judah preferred to trust in, rather than in the mighty ones of Israel’s God. Hence God calls Himself by His title “Yahweh of Armies” in :18. His was the true army, not human armies. Day by day and at times hour by hour, we have this same choice- between trust in God’s might or human might. Biblical history is recorded so that we might make the right choice.
46:27 None shall make him afraid- This was how it would be at the time of the restored Kingdom of God; and yet Judah are then told that therefore right now in this life “Don’t you be afraid” (:28). They were to live now the kind of life they would eternally live in the Kingdom; and we too are asked to live the Kingdom life now. In this sense as Jesus often promised, we who believe in Him “have eternal life” right now (1 Jn. 5:13); not in that we will never die in this life, but in the sense that we can begin to live now the kind of life we will eternally live in the future Kingdom.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-MuTCcy_A8
commentary:
47:1 The Philistines were another group of people with whom Judah were tempted to trust upon against the Babylonians; but here their destruction is foretold. They should of course have realized from Biblical history that the Philistines were God’s enemies, and they ought to have driven them out of the land rather than think about making such alliances with them.
47:6 Again as in 46:5 we sense Jeremiah’s weariness at all the bloodshed and his desire for an end to come. We likely feel the same as we survey our world and the prophecies of its immediate future. The fact is, if Judah had been faithful, there would’ve been no Babylonian invasion, no destruction of the nations Judah wanted to make alliances with to stave it off rather than repenting.


christian_basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-enxLb6fUg
commentary:
48:6 It appears that God was even concerned about saving some of Gentile Moab, who had been so aggressive to His beloved people. He gave them the same choice as He did to Judah- if they believed that Babylon really would take their land, then they should act appropriately. But just as leaders madly cling on to power, so people more than anything else want to retain their existing lifestyle and environment; we are all so conservative by nature, as Jesus recognized in His parable of Lk. 5:39. The old must continue at all costs, we think; whereas God’s word demands of us a counter-instinctive and radical change. This theme continues in :11, where we read of Moab as wine which has settled for too long.
48:9 It really was God’s will that even Moab be obedient; or perhaps this was Jeremiah’s interjection, as he too wished that Moab would flee their land and thereby escape death at the hand of the Babylonians. There was no gloating over the fact that Israel’s historical enemy was also to suffer, just as believers shouldn’t get caught up in feelings of national aggression against another race; rather did God and Jeremiah reveal a true perception of the value of the human person, and therefore a desire that they should repent.
48:13 The intended purpose of the judgment upon Moab was so that they would quit their allegiance to Chemosh their god. In those days, a people couldn’t exist without a national god, and in any case, there is within all humans a basic desire to worship at least something. The implication seems to be that if they quit Chemosh, then they would adopt Yahweh as their national God.
48:31 Therefore will I wail for Moab- Moab was to weep for her own destruction (:20), but Jeremiah was so identified with them that he felt their future pain and desolation, and wept with them ahead of time. This was how sure Jeremiah was that these prophetic words he preached would come true. He didn’t just relay them to the world as a duty, as merely a messenger. He identified with his audience and felt for them. This is our pattern in preaching. We must ask whether we have a heart that bleeds for this world, whether we have ever wept tears for the people we preach to and for the world around us which is fast heading to destruction.
48:36 Therefore my heart sounds for Moab- The preceding verses are clearly God Himself speaking. Both His and Jeremiah’s heart [see on :31] groaned for Moab, the continual enemy of God’s people. God weeps for the arrogant, for the condemned, for His enemies (:42). We who at times fear His judgment of us should remember this; ultimately His love and desire to save is very great, and we unlike Moab have openly shown in baptism, daily prayer and the life of faith that we do indeed want to be saved.
48:47 The latter day blessing of Moab will be when Christ returns and all Israel’s angry neighbours finally humble themselves and accept the God of Israel. So many prophecies of their judgment end with this prospect in view. The destruction of the wicked is but part of God’s greater plan to bring people from all nations to Him and the eternal blessing of His Kingdom on earth.


