He has done it, it is finished!

I suppose I could finish Psalm 22 by commenting on the fact that in the consummation of all things, the rich and poor and despised will all sit together and we shouldn't wait until then to put that into practice.  That is very true and should go without saying. However, I did not want to end on the horizontal plane, but on the vertical plane. Pointing towards our great and mighty God who accomplishes our salvation by His grace. 

August 26, 2015

Worship: Every Giant Falls by Rend Collective

"Every Giant Will Fall"

I can see the Promised Land
Though there's pain within the plan
There is victory in the end
Your love is my battle cry

When my fear's like Jericho
Build their walls around my soul
When my heart is overthrown
Your love is my battle cry
The anthem for all my life

Every giant will fall, the mountains will move
Every chain of the past, You've broken in two
Over fear, over lies, we're singing the truth
That nothing is impossible with You
With You

There is hope within the fight
In the wars that rage inside
Though the shadows steal the light
Your love is my battle cry
The anthem for all my life

Every giant will fall, the mountains will move
Every chain of the past, You've broken in two
Over fear, over lies, we're singing the truth
That nothing is impossible
Every giant will fall, the mountains will move
Every chain of the past, You've broken in two
Over fear, over lies, we're singing the truth
That nothing is impossible with You
With You

No greater name, no higher name
No stronger name than Jesus
You overcame, broke every chain
Forever reign, King Jesus

No greater name, no higher name
No stronger name than Jesus
You overcame, broke every chain
Forever reign, King Jesus

Every giant will fall, the mountains will move
Every chain of the past, You've broken in two
Over fear, over lies, we're singing the truth
That nothing is impossible
Every giant will fall, the mountains will move
Every chain of the past, You've broken in two
Over fear, over lies, we're singing the truth
That nothing is impossible with You
With You

Oh nothing is impossible

https://youtu.be/qW63lCBOaVo

Personal: I decided to just continue on from yesterday. I began by prayer as usual and review of a past journal entry. I read the journal entry from August 6^th, 2015. There I had discovered a song by Isaac called “Join all the Glorious Names”. This song reminds me that if I,

“Join all the glorious names

Of wisdom, love, and power,

That ever mortals knew,

That angels ever bore:

All are too mean to speak His worth,

Too poor to set my Savior forth.”

However,

But O what gentle terms,

What condescending ways,

Doth our Redeemer use

To teach his heav’nly grace!

Mine eyes with joy and wonder see

What forms of love He bears for me.

I then sang the songs from yesterday. One wonders how these two songs of  differing generations and tempo have to do with each other. Perhaps none except that we know from that ,

Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,

And all the twinkling starry host;

Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer

Than all the angels heaven can boast.

And,

You will never run away
You're forever mine
You will never run away
You're by my side
You will never run away
You forever shine
You will never run away
You're by my side

Because,

Love wide as galaxies
Love deeper than the sea
Countless as all infinity
Love like a shooting star
Tearing apart the dark
Shining for all eternity
Shining for all eternity

I believe that’s why God put those two songs together in my spirit!

While I was beginning to share what was on my heart about the things that happened today; how my wife was hurt by the response of one our children to a post she had made on facebook and my response to her -  which she totally rejected - a song came by Rend Collective that totally ministered to my heart. It is called “Every Giant Will Fall”. These words captured my attention and I had to worship to this song today:

Every giant will fall, the mountains will move
Every chain of the past, You've broken in two
Over fear, over lies, we're singing the truth
That nothing is impossible with You
With You

WORD:

Ps 22:25-23:1 25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. 26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. ESV

Ps 22:25-23:1 25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows. 26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the Lord will praise him — may your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 28 for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. 29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him — those who cannot keep themselves alive. 30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. 31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn — for he has done it. NIV

Well I have struggled enough over these verses and it’s time to move on to the “green Pastures” of Psalm 23. Let me share a few things before I move on tomorrow.

Verse 29

I’m not the only one who struggles with verse 29. In fact the Cambridge Bible for School and College says, “A most obscure verse.” (from Bible Hub)

It goes on to say:

The first line (according to the present text) may be rendered literally,

All earth’s fat ones have eaten and worshipped.

The tense is a ‘prophetic perfect’; with the eye of faith the Psalmist sees homage already paid to Jehovah even by the haughty nobles of the earth. They abandon their proud self-sufficiency, and join in the eucharistic meal with the meek (Psalm 22:26), whom once they despised and persecuted. Then he continues

Before him bow all that were going down to the dust,

Yea he who could not keep his soul alive.

Those who were on the edge of the grave, ready to die from want and misery and trouble, come as guests and gain new life. Rich and poor, strong and weak, alike partake of the feast: for it the rich desert their wealth; in it the poor receive the compensation of their privations; and those who were ready to die find life. Cp. Isaiah 25:6-8.

This seems to be the best explanation of the text as it stands; but it is open to serious objections. The reference to the sacrificial meal is very abrupt; the sense given to ‘those that go down to the dust’ is questionable; and the last line drags heavily at the end of the verse.

It goes on to suggest that that the text has been corrupted:

But the text is not improbably corrupt. An easy emendation, adopted by several critics, simplifies the first line thus:

Surely him shall all earth’s fat ones worship,

and the second line repeats the thought,

Before him shall bow all they that must go down to the dust.

Earth’s mightiest are but mortals and must yield their homage to the King of kings. Then the last line should be joined to the next verse thus:

And as for him that could not keep his soul alive,

His seed shall serve Him.

The Psalmist and those who like him were at the point of death will leave a posterity behind them to serve Jehovah. The reading indicated by the LXX, But my soul liveth unto him, my seed shall serve him, suits the context less well. Bible Hub,

I do not believe one has to go that far in order to see this in the text.

Barnes says something similar in seeing three types of people here:

All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.

All they that be fat upon the earth - The general meaning of this verse is, that "all classes of persons" will come and worship the true God; not the poor and needy only, the afflicted, and the oppressed, but the rich and the prosperous. There are three classes mentioned as representing all:

(1) the rich and prosperous;

(2) they who bow down to the dust, or the crushed and the oppressed;

(3) those who are approaching the grave, and have no power to keep themselves alive.

The first class comprises those who are mentioned here as being fat. This image is often used to denote prosperity: Judges 3:29; Job 15:27; Psalm 17:10; Psalm 73:4 (Hebrew); Deuteronomy 31:20;Deuteronomy 32:15. The meaning is, that the rich, the great, the prosperous would be among the multitudes who would be converted to the living God.

Shall eat and worship - This expression is derived from the custom of offering sacrifices, and of feasting upon portions of the animal that was slain. In accordance with this, the blessings of salvation are often represented as a "feast" to which all are invited. See the notes at Isaiah 25:6. Compare Luke 14:16.

All they that go down to the dust - All those descending to the dust. Those who are bowed down to the dust; who are crushed, broken, and oppressed; the poor, the sad, the sorrowful. Salvation is for them, as well as for the rich and the great.

Shall bow before him - Shall worship before the true God.

And none can keep alive his own soul - Or rather, and he who cannot keep his soul (that is, himself) alive. So the Hebrew properly means, and this accords better with the connection. The class here represented is composed of those who are ready to perish, who are about to die - the aged - the infirm - the sick - the dying. These, thus helpless, feeble, and sad, shall also become interested in the great plan of salvation, and shall turn unto the Lord. These classes would represent all the dwellers on the earth; and the affirmation is equivalent to a statement that men of all classes would be converted, and would partake of the blessings of salvation. (http://biblehub.com/commentaries/barnes/psalms/22.htm)

This agrees with the first interpretation in the Cambridge commentary. Perhaps the commentator is reacting too subjectively to the text when suggesting the text was corrupted. Calvin says of this verse:

29. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship. Lest it should be thought inconsistent that now the fat ones of the earth are admitted as guests to this banquet, which David seemed immediately before to have appointed only for the poor, let us remember that the first place was given to the poor, because to them principally comfort was set forth in the example of David. Yet it was necessary, in the second place, that the rich and the prosperous should be called to the feast, that they might not think themselves excluded from the participation of the same grace. They are not, it is true, urged, by the pressure of present calamities, to seek comfort for grief, but they have need of a remedy to prevent them from intoxicating themselves with their delights, and to excite them rather to lay up their joy in heaven. Again, since they also are subject to a variety of troubles, their abundance will be a curse to them, provided it keep their minds down to the earth. The amount of the Psalmist's statement is, that this sacrifice will be common as well to those who are sound, lusty, and in opulent circumstances, as to those who are lean, poor, and half dead from the want of food; that the former, laying aside their pride, may humble themselves before God, and that the latter, though they may be brought low, may lift up their minds by spiritual joy to God, the author of all good things, as James (James 1:9, 10) admonishes both classes, in these words, "Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted; but the rich in that he is made low." Now, if God, under the law, joined the full with the hungry, the noble with the mean, the happy with the wretched, much more ought this to take place at the present day under the gospel. When, therefore, the rich hear that food is offered to them elsewhere than in earthly abundance, let them learn to use the outward good things which God has bestowed upon them for the purposes of the present life, with such sobriety as that they may not be disgusted with spiritual food, or turn away from it, through loathing. So long as they wallow in their own filth, they will never long for this food with a holy desire; and although they may have it at hand, they will never take pleasure in tasting it. [525] Farther, as those who are fat must become lean, in order that they may present themselves to God to be fed and nourished, so David endeavors to inspire the famished with assured and undaunted confidence, lest their poverty should hinder them from coming to the banquet. Yea, he invites even the dead to come to the feast, in order that the most despised, and those who, in the estimation of the world, are almost like putrefying carcases, may be encouraged and emboldened to present themselves at the holy table of the Lord. The change which the Psalmist makes in the number, from the plural to the singular, in the end of the verse, somewhat obscures the sense; but the meaning undoubtedly is, that those who seem already to be reduced to dust, and whose restoration from death to life is, as it were, despaired of, shall be partakers of the same grace with him.

So you see the various interpretations, each having its merits and demerits. The verses following (vs 30-31) envision the passing on of God’s gracious acts down through the ages. God will always have a people and a witness. Even in the millennium, when Christ rules on earth, the testimony of God’s grace will be passed on to the next generation!

I conclude with the words of Spurgeon:

"They shall come." Sovereign grace shall bring out from among men the bloodbought ones. Nothing shall thwart the divine purpose. The chosen shall come to life, to faith, to pardon, to heaven. In this the dying Saviour finds a sacred satisfaction. Toiling servant of God, be glad at the thought that the eternal purpose of God shall suffer neither let nor hindrance. "And shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born." None of the people who shall be brought to God by the irresistible attractions of the cross shall be dumb, they shall be able to tell forth the righteousness of the Lord, so that future generations shall know the truth. Fathers shall teach their sons, who shall hand it down to their children; the burden of the story always being "that he hath done this," or, that "It is finished." Salvation's glorious work is done, there is peace on earth, and glory in the highest. "It is finished," these were the expiring words of the Lord Jesus, as they are the last words of this Psalm. May we by living faith be enabled to see our salvation finished by the death of Jesus! (http://biblehub.com/commentaries/tod/psalms/22.htm)