August 7, 2018
WORD:
Ps 27:11-14
11 Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence. *
13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
NIV (1984)
* spouting malicious accusations
NIV (2011)
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Ps 27:11-14
11 Teach me how to live, O Lord.
Lead me along the right path,
for my enemies are waiting for me.
12 Do not let me fall into their hands.
For they accuse me of things I've never done;
with every breath they threaten me with violence.
13 Yet I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness
while I am here in the land of the living.
14 Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
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Ps 27:11-14
11 Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
KJV
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Ps 27:11-28:1
11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
ESV
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In my last study, I said I would go into more depth on the words translated as “strong” and “courageous.” I quoted other places where these two words appeared together. However, I did not cite them all. These words appear together in the same sentence at least 18 times in the OT as far as I can tell. The familiar phrase “be strong and courageous” appears 11 times. This was the exhortation Moses gave to his successor, Joshua (Deut. 31:6,7,23). God Himself said these words to Joshua (Joshua 1:6,7,9). Several verses later we read of an incident where Joshua is addressing the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh (Joshua 1:12-18). He reminds them of the command that Moses had given to them based on a request they had made to him that we read about in Numbers chap. 32. In response to Joshua’s reminder they said:
16b "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! 18 Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous."
Josh 1:16b-18 ESV
Next, we find David giving this exhortation to his son Solomon as recorded in 1 Chron. 22:13 and 1 Chron. 28:20. In their context, David is telling his son to “be strong and courageous” concerning the building of the Temple of the LORD.
Finally, we read in 2 Chron. 32 of an occasion where the land of Judah was being invaded by the king of Assyria.
Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself. 2 Chron 32:1 ESV
This was during the days when Hezekiah was king of Judah. He did many things to fortify the nation’s infrastructure and build up the supply of weapons. He even had much of the water supply in the country cut off to limit the Assyrian army’s water supply. Here we have the last time this phrase is used in God’s word (though not the last time they appear in a sentence together). It is a powerful and beautiful use of this saying.
Here’s what Hezekiah did and said in 2 Chron 32:6-8:
6 And he set combat commanders over the people and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, 7 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. 8 With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles." And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. ESV
One cannot read this without being reminded of a greater promise given to us by God through the Apostle John. For we too are engaged in a battle and are surrounded everywhere by the enemy. They are often crafty and have even disguised themselves as believers, bringing in their false teachings to lead astray and capture the weak and uninformed. However, they have their “shibboleth” (see Judges 12:5-6) which will expose them. The Apostle reveals it in 1 John 4:2-3;5-6.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world... 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. NASU
But notice what he says in the verse that is sandwiched between these verses!
You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 NASU
I haven’t even referred to the lexical meaning of these two words yet. That was my intention, but I have happily “stumbled” onto a better finish for this portion of my journal. One that buttresses and completes what I wrote in my last entry. If I can put it in one pithy statement it would read:
Be strong and courageous
For greater is He who is in you
than he
who is in the world
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Witness:
In order to become strong, I must recognize that I am weak. Tony Stark as a mere mortal has no superhero strength. However, when he dons the suit, he becomes Iron Man and has great power. Actually, in reality, he is still weak, it’s the suit that is strong.
Similarly, I am weak, but when I put on the Armor of God, I am strong. Or rather, I am weak still, but His Armor is strong. If Tony Stark deluded himself into thinking that he didn’t need his suit and tried to fly off the top of a very tall building (or a two-story house for that matter) the results would be very gruesome. And if I am ever under the illusion that I am strong enough to fight the enemies of my soul without God and His armor, the results would be even more horrendous (because Tony Stark is a character of fiction and I am not)! Therefore, I must sing and confess every moment of the day, that “I am weak, but He is strong.” Armed with this truth, I then can be “strong and courageous.”
Armed with His word,
Strengthened by His Spirit,
And surrounded in His love
I am shielded from the enemy.
Equipped for the battle.
Empowered and embraced
By the Heavenly Dove.
Worship: Jesus Loves Me –by Anna Bartlett Warner/ William Bradbury
The words to this popular song were written originally as a poem in Anna’s novel, Say and Seal. In the book, the words were spoken to comfort a dying child. In 1861, William Bradbury set the words to music and added the chorus, “Yes, Jesus loves me!” The joyful tune and simple words soon became favorites around the world.
https://www.sermonwriter.com/hymn-stories/jesus-loves-me/
Jesus loves me
This I know
For the Bible
Tells me so
Little ones
To Him belong
They are weak
But He is strong
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
The Bible tells me so
Video: https://youtu.be/yb9ckUIAlLI
Kings and Kingdoms by Travis Cottrell
When the mountains shake, crash into the sea
When the oceans roar their troubled song
When the nations rage, when there is no peace
And the cries of war are loud and strong
We will not be moved, We will not be shaken
Kings and kingdoms fall
But the Lord our God will reign forever
Sov'reign over all, the Lord our God will
Reign forevermore
Generations stand on Your faithfulness
Ev'rything unknown is in Your hands
You have overcome ev'ry enemy
You have vanquished death by Your command
We will not be moved, We will not be shaken
O God, You are our God, we put our trust in You
Jesus, the Lord of all, we put our trust in You
You hold the whole world in Your hands
You hold the whole world in Your hands
The Lord our God will reign forever
The Lord our God will reign forevermore
Video: https://youtu.be/wJ1pvou7jI4
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