To The Metal

Lord, how they have increased who trouble me!
Many are they who rise up against me.
² Many are they who say of me,
“There is no help for him in God.” Selah

³ But You, O Lord, are a shield ^[a]for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
⁴ I cried to the Lord with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah

Psalm 3:1-4

The Lord helps HIs troubled people.  This psalm was written in a time where David fled from Jerusalem.  His third son , Absalom seeks to steal the throne from him.  While he laments over his troubles, how Israel is rising up against him, and how many claim God is not with him, David knows the truth.

The Lord is his shield, his glory, his provision in all ways, He lifts David up.  From 2 Samuel 15:13-14, David fled to escape his son but also to spare Jerusalem from Absalom’s sword.  David’s faith in God protected him in this time, he would live to fight another day. For now he seeks shelter in the Lord.

¹⁰ Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
^12 [a]Kiss the Son, lest ^[b]He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Psalms 2:10-12

Psalm 2 appears to close out with wise advice and correction to the kings and judges of the earth.  “Serve the LORD with fear.”  Hold Him in holy reverence, do not try to challenge Him or interfere with His people.  Rejoice with trembling that He is your God.

Kiss the Son, love the Son, else you may perish by even a little of His wrath.  Put your trust in Him and you will be blessed.

⁷ “I will declare the ^[a]decree:
The Lord has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
⁸ Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
⁹ You shall ^[b]break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ”

Psalms 2:7-9

This messianic psalm continues, the LORD (Yahweh) has said to “Me” (Jesus), “You are my Son, Today I have begotten (created) You.”  “Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.”  All power and authority come from the Father to the Son.

The psalm continues to describe how these nations would break and be dashed to pieces by the Messiah.  The Roman empire was dashed to pieces, but Christianity endures.  The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD, but Christ is King.  The enemies of Christ are destined to this fate, to become His footstool by the hand of the Father. (Psalm 110:1).

⁴ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
⁵ Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
⁶ “Yet I have ^[a]set My King
^[b]On My holy hill of Zion.”

Psalms 2:4-6

At the efforts of His people to free themselves from Him in favor of the world, from the heavens God laughs.  Was he amused by their vain efforts as a father watches his child attempt a feat that is doomed to fail?  The next verse reveals more of a mocking laughter, “Are you serious?”

The Lord holds them in derision!  For these acts he responds with wrath, sharing his deep displeasure in all they do against Him, filling them with distress.  Despite their misdeeds, He places the Messiah, Jesus Christ, upon His holy hill of Zion, Jerusalem.  This is where God dwelled on the Earth and where Christ would reign over His kingdom.

Why do the ^[a]nations ^[b]rage,
And the people plot a ^[c]vain thing?
² The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed,^[d] saying,
³ “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”

Psalms 2:1-3

The nations rage and the people plot a vain thing, because their leaders embrace worldly power and pursuits as they turn against the Lord and His anointed Messiah.  Their plan to free themselves from God is in vain, it will not succeed how they believe it would.  

Is it courage, fear, or foolishness which drive them to break all ties with God?  In the New Testament we see repeatedly how the Pharisees and Sanhedrin no longer fear God.  They only fear losing their power over the people and their worldly esteem.  Given thousands of years later, Christ is King and Pharisees only show up in history books…

The plans were most definitely in vain.

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ^[a]ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
² But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he ^[b]meditates day and night.
³ He shall be like a tree
Planted by the ^[c]rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

⁴ The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalms 1

The Way of the Righteous and the End of the Ungodly.  If a blessed man is not listening to the ungodly, he is listening to, counseled by the godly, or God Himself through the Word.  He heeds the word of God and depends on His wise counsel.  

A blessed man does not stand in the path of sinners. To share that path risks being overcome by sin, or being tempted by it unnecessarily.  That path is the wide path, the wrong path, the one that leads to death and destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).  The righteous man  takes the narrow path.

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ^14 [a]Because narrow is the gate and ^[b]difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

A blessed man does not sit in the seat of the scornful, not bitter or holding contempt against others.  He is at peace, always forgiving and heeding God’s will as he delights in the law of the Lord.

A blessed man is like a tree planted where it would be best nourished, by a river, so it always bears fruit in its season, full of everlasting life that brings prosperity.

All of this stands in stark contrast to the ungodly, who are not rooted in faith.  They don’t hold fast to the source of all life and are driven away like worthless chaff by the slightest wind.  They will not stand before God at judgment but be eternally separated from Him.  Nor would they stand with the righteous.  The way of the righteous is eternal life, but the ungodly is death.

Judgment on Judah

⁴ Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Judah, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they have despised the law of the Lord,
And have not kept His commandments.
Their lies lead them astray,
Lies which their fathers followed.
⁵ But I will send a fire upon Judah,
And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”

Amos 2:4-5

Judgment on Judah.  These verses repeat the statement “for three transgressions, and for the fourth” repeatedly.  What this means is not an exact number of sins, but a limit was hit.  Three was the limit before judgment would be delivered by God.  The fourth was the tipping point where it could not be allowed to continue.

Judah despised the law, and failed to keep His commandments.  They were led astray by their own lies.  For this God vowed to send a fire that would devour the palaces of Jerusalem.  God would again turn worldly wealth to ash.

The words of Amos, who was among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

² And he said:

“The Lord roars from Zion,
And utters His voice from Jerusalem;
The pastures of the shepherds mourn,
And the top of Carmel withers.”

Judgment on the Nations

³ Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron.
⁴ But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,
Which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.
⁵ I will also break the gate bar of Damascus,
And cut off the inhabitant from the Valley of Aven,
And the one who ^[a]holds the scepter from ^[b]Beth Eden.
The people of Syria shall go captive to Kir,”
Says the Lord.

⁶ Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they took captive the whole captivity
To deliver them up to Edom.
⁷ But I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza,
Which shall devour its palaces.
⁸ I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod,
And the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon;
I will turn My hand against Ekron,
And the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,”
Says the Lord God.

⁹ Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom,
And did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.
¹⁰ But I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre,
Which shall devour its palaces.”

¹¹ Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Edom, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because he pursued his brother with the sword,
And cast off all pity;
His anger tore perpetually,
And he kept his wrath forever.
¹² But I will send a fire upon Teman,
Which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.”

¹³ Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead,
That they might enlarge their territory.
¹⁴ But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah,
And it shall devour its palaces,
Amid shouting in the day of battle,
And a tempest in the day of the whirlwind.
¹⁵ Their king shall go into captivity,
He and his princes together,”
Says the Lord.

Judgment on Israel

2 Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Moab, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.
² But I will send a fire upon Moab,
And it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth;
Moab shall die with tumult,
With shouting and trumpet sound.
³ And I will cut off the judge from its midst,
And slay all its princes with him,”
Says the Lord.

Amos 1,2:1-3

Judgment on Israel’s neighbors.  Here, through Amos, the Lord expounds upon the crimes of the neighbors of Israel against Israel and each other, and describes the punishment that is coming for them as a result of their actions.

Damascus ran over Gilead like a threshing sledge cuts through stalks of grain.

Gaza exiled and sold entire Israeli communities into slavery in Edom, as did Tyre who additionally took up arms against his brother, Israel.  Edom also took up arms against its brother, Israel.  The ammonites murdered pregnant women, the language was more gruesome as it described tearing them open.

Moab would be punished for desecrating the bones of the king of Edom, an act of pure hatred and not how the culture would treat their dead (by burial).  The Lord vowed to bring fire that would turn their worldly opulence to ash and humble them.

⁵⁰ And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. ⁵² And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³ and were continually in the temple ^[a]praising and blessing God. ^[b]Amen.

Luke 24:50-53

The ascension.  The book of Luke ends where it began, in the temple in Jerusalem.  Starting with Zacharias (Luke 1:8), a priest, burning incense and praying to the Lord.  At the right hand of the altar an angel appeared and blessed him with news that he would have a son who was great in the eyes of the Lord.

It ends with Jesus Christ, His work complete, blessing His disciples and ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.  By His sacrifice and intercession, we are worthy in the eyes of the Father.  The disciples returned to Jerusalem from Bethany with great Joy, praising and blessing God in the temple, as they would soon bear witness to all they had seen.

⁴⁴ Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” ⁴⁵ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

⁴⁶ Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, ^[a]and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ And you are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city ^[b]of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Luke 24:44-49

The scriptures opened.  Jesus reminds His disciples of all He said and taught them in His ministry, while He was still with them.  From the Law of Moses to the prophets and psalms, all pointed to Jesus and had to be fulfilled.  He then opened their understanding so they could see how the scriptures foretold all of this.

Jesus reinforced that truth, it is written in the Word of God, so it was necessary.  Christ had to suffer, die and rise again.  Repentance and remission of sin must be preached in His name to all nations.  The disciples were to wait in expectation in Jerusalem, until they were endowed with the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.