From Psalm 122: Part On, Party People

“I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let’s go to the house of the Lord.” (v. 1)

You get to choose what you celebrate, and you get to choose who you celebrate with.

So why not celebrate with those who are walking with you, with those who share your passion, with those who are orienting their lives rightly?

Why not celebrate with the worshiping people?

It’s easy for friends—even church friends—to prioritize other Sunday things. It’s easy to share excitement for outside opportunities—and count church as the chore in the way. It’s easy to let your joy drift toward other things.

But the biblical pattern—indeed, the faithful and rightly religious pattern, in Christ—is to rejoice with the worshiping people. We are called out and called together for this, that we might worship the Lord as His church. The joy the is in the House of the Lord will increase when His people gather rejoicing.

So let’s get this right. Rejoice all the way into and through church.

Party on, party people.

— Tyler

From 1 Samuel 2: Negative & Positive

“For those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disgraced.” (v. 30)

When this verse is given, the context is decidedly negative:

Eli, the priest, has a problem with his sons. They have been appointed as priests, also—but they are wicked, selfish, and indulgent. Hence, the judgment: It is only those who honor God that will be honored by Him.

When those words illuminate the judgment you deserve, they’re pretty negative.

But…can we read them positively? Is it biblically in-bounds to see these words as the foundation of a remarkable grace? Are we permitted to apply them diligently, trusting that God will indeed honor those who honor Him, thereby giving us a good goal and a high hope for our own moral activity?

I think so.

The God who knows how to give good gifts also trusts those who prove trustworthy. Eli’s sons give us a negative illustration. May we seek to apply it positively.

— Tyler

From Psalm 120: The Two Tongues

“Lord, rescue me from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.” (v. 2)

You can read this prayer two ways:

Do you need to be rescued from the lying and deceitful tongues around you?

Or do you need to be rescued from the one within you?

Both are valid readings.

We are all too aware of the bitterness in the world: slander and cancel culture and unguarded social streams. And so we are subjected to all their deceits. The prayer for God’s protection against the destructive force of their tongues is a good prayer.

Yet we are also aware that that same potential—for the murderous and slanderous misuse of the tongue—exists inside us, too. So, then, ought we pray: “God, by grace, rescue me from my lips and my tongue!”

One prayer shields you. The other shapes you. All for God’s glory.

— Tyler

From Ruth 4: Willing

‘Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you will acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man’s name on his property.” The redeemer replied, “I can’t redeem it myself, or I will ruin my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I can’t redeem it.”’ (vv. 5-6)

However it is that you talk about the Gospel…

…don’t forget to talk about it this way.

When the apostle Paul—by the Spirit—unfolds the truth of Christ’s substitutionary atonement, he includes this detail: “For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8). We all come to the Redeemer with a problem, namely that we are ultimate outsiders. Only the One who would risk His own reputation to rescue ours could save us.

We get a glimpse of that in Ruth’s Boaz. Others wouldn’t lower themselves to lift her up. The cost was too great—not just monetarily, but reputationally. Only the one who would risk his own reputation to rescue hers could do it.

So, when we talk about the Gospel, keep this kind of grace in view. And see it as the thread that runs all the way through Scripture. It will inspire the gratitude of outsiders every time you do.

— Tyler

From Ruth 2: Welcomed

”She fell facedown, bowed to the ground, and said to him, ‘Why have I found favor with you, so that you notice me, although I am a foreigner?’” (v. 10)

We are meant to see a whole lot of ourselves is the Book of Ruth. We’re meant to look for a corresponding spiritual reality in its history.

And this moment is a big one:

When Boaz—the wealthy family redeemer—shows especial favor to Ruth, it should stop us in our tracks. Ruth is a foreigner. Ruth doesn’t belong at the table. Ruth is an outsider by birth.

Yet she is welcomed.

It’s a glimpse of our own experience with the ultimate Redeemer. Jesus welcomes us, though we are estranged by both both and behavior. He shows us favor, though we, in sin, are outsiders.

So Ruth’s cry ought to be our cry. The grace of the One who can give it ought to drive us to worship.

See yourself in Ruth, and approach the Redeemer with gratitude.

— Tyler

From Psalm 119: Firmly Fixed

“Lord, your word is forever; it is firmly fixed in heaven.” (v. 89)

It’s this, and only this.

Everything else fades and falters. Every progressive bent, every groupthink, every replacement religion. All of the wisdom of the earth withers away.

Everything else fades and falters.

But…the Word of God?

It is firmly fixed, forever.

So read it. Meditate on it. Hold on to it, no matter what the wider world says about it—or about you.

It is this, and only this, that is fixed in heaven.

May we, then, be fixed upon it.

— Tyler

From Psalm 119: What They See When They See You

“Those who fear you will see me and rejoice, for I put my hope in your word.” (v. 74)

Here’s a challenging rubric for your life:

Does your testimony—of faith and faithfulness—encourage others?

We have known far too many pastors and personalities who, though we once rejoiced alongside, have strayed. The church was left to repent of their joy, rather than keep on rejoicing. Whether it was a lack of personal integrity or a departure from biblical orthodoxy, we lost the opportunity to be encouraged by them.

As it turns out, the testimony that inspires joy in the church is one that is shaped over a lifetime of faithfulness.

May we, then, be the ones who keep their hope firmly rooted in God’s Word. May we live with faithful integrity. May we live lives of genuine encouragement, and may we do it with endurance.

Will your testimony, in the final analysis, encourage others?

— Tyler

From Judges 15: Escalation

“I have done to them what they did to me,” [Samson] answered. (v. 11)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus flipped the script on revenge? Why He told us to turn the other cheek, to persist though we are scorned, and to love our enemies?

It’s because the opposite—revenge—always ends in tragedy.

Samson is the perfect illustration of this:

In a time of conflict, Samson serves Israel—but not as a prophet or a pastor. Samson is a judge, a minister of God’s justice, against the pagan and in defense of his people. So, though it is bizarre to us, we see the Spirit of God strengthen the man for slaughter.

It’s…kind of a mess.

Not the judgment, but the temperament.

The reason we’re turned away from violence and revenge is that those things only ever escalate. You can only take an eye for an eye, like, twice. Then you have to move on to more and worse.

Samson lives this out, his own vengeful will working out God’s judgment, but it gets increasingly bizarre and brutal as his days go.

We, when we love the Jesus way, short-circuit brutality with beauty—though we are slain. Deescalation is the path to proclamation, not retaliation.

— Tyler

From Psalm 119: Defense

“I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.” (v. 11)

You can try a lot of different things.

You can change the channel. You can block those sites and delete those apps. You can journal your penitent prayers. You can wrestle your words away from arrogance and toward love. You can put the cookies on a higher shelf.

You can try a lot of different things to keep your heart from sin.

But there is only one sure defense:

Get more of God’s Word into your heart.

The more you know—the more you remember, the more you treasure—God’s Word, the less likely you are to err. The more you permit His voice to speak, the less likely you are to ignore Him. The more you open yourself to His instruction and His authority, the less likely you are to chart your own deadly course.

God’s Word, in your heart, is your defense against sin.

Let’s devote ourselves accordingly.

— Tyler

From Judges 7: Strength in Numbers

“The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many troops for me to hand the Midianites over to them, or else Israel might elevate themselves over me and say, ‘I saved myself.’” (v. 2)

When it comes to radical obedience…

When it comes to going for God’s Kingdom…

When it comes to engaging your neighborhood and the nations with the Gospel…

…what holds you back?

(Probably a hundred things, but stay with me here.)

Whether we are on mission or simply ministering locally, a lot of us are a lot more willing…if there are a lot of us. We find strength in numbers. We are more confident in the crowd. We will go and do, so long as we’re surrounded and strengthened by our friends.

But, if that’s so, what does that say about our reliance upon God?

The strength for our mission can’t come down to whoever and how many are with us in the fight. If it’s always a strength-in-numbers proposition, we’ll never minister faithfully on an individual level. We’ll let the daily calling pass us by, we’ll sit put in our fears, and we’ll miss an untold number of mission moments.

So let’s push out bravely. Let’s let the Lord be our strength and our salvation, and let’s let His faithfulness drive our obedience. Don’t wait for strength in numbers—because strength is in Him, which means it is in you, by His Spirit.

— Tyler

From Judges 6: All the Difference

“But I will be with you,” the Lord said to him. (v. 16)

Consider the calling that’s in front of you:

You are asked to live in a culture that has lost its moral mind. You are asked to engage with a singular and enduring and undimmed truth, which is the only Gospel, the Good News of salvation through Christ alone. You are asked to navigate an ever-increasing godlessness—or, more accurately, an ever-multiplying pantheon of secular gods—even though it draws the scorn of the nations.

You are asked to do all of that, even if it costs you culturally and popularly and materially.

Sound like too much for you?

Because it is.

But the same thing that was true for Gideon, who faced a similarly stark calling in pagan Midian, is true for us. We are not asked to do any of it on our own, in our own strength, with our own wisdom and ability. God, by His Spirit, goes with us—His strength, His wisdom, His power for His purposes through His people.

God goes with you.

And that makes all the difference.

— Tyler

From Psalm 116: Repayment

“How can I repay the Lord for all the good he has done for me? I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” (vv. 12-13)

When it comes to the Gospel—the Good News of the gift of grace, given in Christ, received by faith—there is one overriding and fundamental truth:

You cannot earn it. It cannot be purchased, worked for, or otherwise obtained. It is only ever a gift, only ever mercy.

You cannot pay for it, for it was paid by Jesus.

You can, however, repay it.

Wait a minute, Pastor Tyler…that doesn’t sound quite right.

You’re right.

But let’s work with the language if the Psalms.

When the Psalmist accounts for all of God’s mercy and compassion and grace—and when he praises the One who hears prayers and rescues the repentant—he comes to the end if himself: How in the world can I repay God for all of this? How can I respond with anything worthwhile?

Then, in the Spirit, it hits him:

I can only repay God’s gift—I can only respond rightly—by receiving it.

You are not asked to give God anything but your faith. He has afforded salvation for you. The only question is, Will you receive it? Will you call on Him in worship? Will you, because of what faith has afforded for you, live faithfully?

How can repay the LORD?

I will take the cup of salvation.

The best way to honor God’s goodness is to receive His saving gift…and live for His glory.

— Tyler

From Psalm 109: A Negative Example

“He loved cursing — let it fall on him; he took no delight in blessing — let it be far from him.” (v. 17)

Sometimes, we need a negative example, so that we know what not to do.

This prayer against an enemy and accuser gives us that.

In Psalm 109:17, we find a logical imprecation: For the enemy who has loved cursing, let him be cursed. And for the accuser who has spurned blessing, let his own blessings be removed.

This prompts two reactions:

First, may we trust that God will righteously—and, indeed, logically—judge human sin. Adversaries aren’t rewarded. Those who elevate themselves and speak down to their neighbors will know an ultimate humbling.

But, second, may we be rightly warned by their negative example. May we do the opposite of what they do! Let us take no delight in cursing, pursuing both purity and humility in speech. And let us love blessing, serving our neighbors—and even our accusers—with Good News.

When the Scripture gives you a negative example, listen up, and turn around.

— Tyler

From Joshua 5: More than Grumbling

“Though all the people who came out were circumcised, none of the people born in the wilderness along the way were circumcised after they had come out of Egypt. For the Israelites wandered in the wilderness forty years until all the nation’s men of war who came out of Egypt had died off because they did not obey the Lord. So the Lord vowed never to let them see the land he had sworn to their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (v. 5-6)

A lot of us know the story. (Or, at least, we think we do.)

Israel was radically rescued from Egypt by Holy God and His mighty acts. But, on their way to the Promised Land, they grumbled and complained and even rebelled. So God judged them, and an entire generation was made to wander until they passed away. It would be forty years before Israel’s sons would inherit their home.

That’s a pretty good Sunday School retelling.

But it’s not the whole picture.

You see, when Joshua leads that generation into Canaan, we get a new detail: Israel’s sons, born in the desert, haven’t been circumcised.

(And, no, I didn’t really want to talk about circumcision either.)

The very sign of the Covenant—the ritualistic marking that shows a people’s submission to the God who chose them—has been abandoned, or at least overlooked. The pattern for right worship has been lost in the wilderness. God’s people had done more than mere grumbling: they had neglected the faithful upbringing of their children and had failed to obey God’s commands.

Turns out, you don’t have to vocally and overtly complain about God to miss His way. Casual negligence of right worship—skipping the things that seem inconvenient or culturally irrelevant—sets you outside His will. By grace, He welcomed Israel back in.

Since His grace has come to you, how do you need to turn around?

From Psalm 107: In the Assembly

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for his faithful love and his wondrous works for all humanity. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.” (vv. 31-32)

Has the Lord helped you?

Comforted you?

Rescued you?

Has He fed you and filled you and faithfully loved you?

Do you know Him—who He is and what He has done, for you, in Christ?

Then go to church.

Corporate worship is the consistent, historical, undimmed expectation for those who believe. You can—and should!—praise Him in your heart, but the redeemed are always called to praise Him in the church house, too. The worship of His people together is the major exalting force on the earth—and He is worthy of our exaltation!

So, if you know Him and His work, go to church—and worship Him in the assembly.

— Tyler

From Psalm 106: From Depths to Desert

“He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led them through the depths as through a desert.” (v. 9)

You know the feeling.

In over your head. Crushed by sin’s weight. Out of breath and out of time. Desperate for light and hope and life.

You know the underwater feeling.

So listen to who this God is:

He is the one who rescues. He is the one who saves. He is the one who breathes His Spirit into you, when you believe.

Ultimately, He is the one who transports you from the depths to the dry ground, and it fundamentally changes the way you walk in the world.

Israel was saved from Egypt and captivity and pursuer when God dried the seabed before them. And you, in Christ, will be saved from worldliness and sin-slavery and death, when you walk in His light.

Pray, then, that all your life’s depths will be as dry ground, in Him.

— Tyler

From Joshua 1: Courageous for This

“Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go.” (v. 7)

Isn’t this precisely the word that we need today?

We’re familiar with the biblical refrain, “Be strong and courageous.” The idea comes front and center in Joshua—but it’s a meaningful thread through all of Scripture. God’s people are called to walk, to follow, and to go courageously.

I’m not sure how you’ve imagined that would look in your life. Maybe you imagined heroic moments or big stands or fateful decisions. We think, when we’re asked to throw our chests out and be courageous, that it also means throwing ourselves into something epically adventurous.

But read the words given to Joshua again:

“Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction….”

You know what takes courage?

Obedience.

You and I walk in a world that is hostile to exclusive truth, to objective morality, and to a singular Gospel. We are antagonized by those who hate our Jesus-commissioned proclamation. We are surrounded by a culture that refuses to die to self and resists any encouragement to do so.

If we, then, are to press forward in obedience to all those things—repentance and evangelism and mission and orthodoxy—we will have to be courageous.

The good news is that He goes with us, when we go obediently.

— Tyler

From Deuteronomy 32: Just Arrived

“They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known, new gods that had just arrived, which your ancestors did not fear.” (v. 17)

There are a lot of words that an unbelieving world might attach to your faith: Traditional. Old-fashioned. Conservative. Maybe even out-of-touch or out-of-fashion. Your steadfast belief in an unchanging truth rubs against the wider world’s incessant syncretism and secularism, which operate behind a veil called “progress.”

The danger, of course, is what you end up worshiping if you try to worship like that.

The world teems with lesser “gods.” Material idols. Sexual ideologies. Moral—or, frankly, immoral—mandates. Truthfully, it’s always been this way, but the enemy dresses them differently from generation to generation.

Here’s a good matrix for evaluating the things the world would lure you toward, the things others are giving their hearts to:

If it is something new and novel and contrary—if it requires yet another reinterpretation of the truth as we have known it for thousands of years—it likely isn’t of God.

Beware any of the culture’s “gods” who have only “just arrived.”

— Tyler

From Psalm 102: Later

“This will be written for a later generation, and a people who have not yet been created will praise the Lord….” (v. 18)

I don’t know about you, but I constantly find myself in need of God’s promises now. Whether I am shipwrecked by sin or by shame or by doubt, I turn to theWord I have trusted, and I am renewed. It has been—He has been—my strength and my hope and my confidence.

That’s pretty much the faith norm. It’s been like that for thousands of years. Every generation has needed it.

And that is precisely the point:

What we have been given in the Word—every promise and every fulfillment—is intended for them, too. It is as much for those who will inherit from us as it is for, well, us. The Good News is a gift we hand down to the later generations. We teach our children. We make generational investments. And we pray, hoping that those yet to be born will hear and know and trust this Word, too.

Cherish this in your now. Share it for their later.

— Tyler

From Psalm 99: Holy

“Let them praise your great and awe-inspiring name. He is holy.” (v. 3)

Who is this God?

Is He your buddy? Your life coach? Your escape hatch? Is He your listening ear, your wish-granter, your religious preference?

Who is this God?

His Word tells you:

He is holy.

Anything that styles Him as something less than the only worthy object of our worship misses the point. He is all that is pure. He is all that is good. He is all that is right and righteous and reigning.

This God is the Holy One.

And that truth demands—not our agreement or our approval, but—our worship.

— Tyler