Theology

Psalm 108

December 7, 2016 by wagraham Leave a Comment

A Song, a mizmor of David:

My heart stands firm, O God.

I will sing and will play music, indeed, to my glory!

Awake, o harp and lyre.

I will awaken the dawn!

I will praise you among the nations, Yahweh,

and I will make music among the peoples.

For your faithfulness is great—it goes above the heavens!

And your truthfulness goes above the sky!

Rise above the heavens, God,

and let your glory rise above all the earth!

So that your beloved ones will be saved;

Grant salvation by your right hand and answer me! [Read more…] about Psalm 108

Jesus Shares Your Struggles

December 6, 2016 by wagraham Leave a Comment

The second chapter of Hebrews aims to prove that Jesus shared in humanity, so that he could be a forerunner of glory and honour, leading those behind him into the same (2:5–18). But sometimes we see Jesus as the perfect God so different from us, that we never consciously assume that he could have experienced temptation and suffering as we do.

Yet Hebrews 2 argues just the opposite: “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (2:17–18). [Read more…] about Jesus Shares Your Struggles

Trinitarian Minutiae

December 5, 2016 by wagraham Leave a Comment

Derek Rishmawy recently tweet-blogged about the Trinity and how evangelicals engage with Trinitarian theology. For example:

2) Evangelicals at the pop level simply don’t take the Trinity that seriously. They believe it mostly, but often not “deeply”.

— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) December 2, 2016

[Read more…] about Trinitarian Minutiae

Hearing the Trinity’s Voice in the Psalms

November 18, 2016 by wagraham 3 Comments

The psalms contain the emotions of the soul and portray the experiences of life, but they also direct us god-ward. If we only read the psalms in a personal or internal way, we miss something important.

And yet reading the Psalms in a god-ward way does not make our reading impersonal. John Calvin begins his Institutes by asking the question: Do we start with God or with man? It is nearly impossible to answer that, since one always leads to the other. When we start with ourselves and our weaknesses, we turn to God who is our strength. When we start with God, we come to know ourselves truly. For Calvin, “it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he [has] previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself” (Bk 1., Ch 1., §2).

The Psalms uniquely contemplate the face of God. They record divine conversations of the Trinity, of the Father to the Son and of the Son to the Father. We may wonder how the Father and Son talk to each other since they are both God. To some degree, the Psalms satisfy our wonder, as they pull back the veil, as it were, and let us listen to the Trinity speak.

How to Complain Christianly

November 16, 2016 by wagraham Leave a Comment

The Psalms also teach us to talk to God, to pray. They teach us how to complain to God and to praise God. How to accuse God, how to honour God. How to lament to him, how to thank him.

Many of us probably feel comfortable praising and honouring God, but it feels intuitively wrong to complain, accuse, or lament to him, and yet the Psalms often teach us to do just that.

We need to be very careful here, because simply telling God how you feel in all its ugliness can be a recipe for darkness, despair and God’s displeasure. The Psalms avoid these dark paths, and they instead lead us down a road of sorrow, reconciliation, and praise. They supply divine words to our distasteful experience. By speaking the words of the Psalms to God, we are really using words supplied by the Holy Spirit to work through our relationship with our Father. [Read more…] about How to Complain Christianly

The Problem of Praise

November 15, 2016 by wagraham Leave a Comment

One thing I have asked of Yahweh, and I will seek after it. It’s that I might sit in Yahweh’s house every day of my life to gaze at the beauty of Yahweh and learn in his temple.

– David in Psalm 27:4

The Psalms constantly command readers to praise God, yet doesn’t this make God out to be a unsatisfied narcissist? The Psalms also seem to make praise something of a transaction: do this and I will praise you, yet doesn’t this make God like the pagan gods of old? Such questions, however, betray a misguided perspective of the idea of praise. [Read more…] about The Problem of Praise