Month: September 2021

Advertisers have known for centuries that you can’t convince most of the people of anything the first time they hear it. Human beings are just wired that way. A few people will believe something the first time they see it or hear it but for most of us its takes a while longer. That’s why television marketers run the same commercials over and over. Maybe the twentieth time you see a commercial on television you might become interested enough in the product to give it a serious look and actually buy it. For some people it may be the fiftieth time they hear the message that does the trick. For some people the message never hits the mark and the sale is never made. That’s why selling anything is a volume business requiring repetition of the sales pitch. Salesmen have learned that rejection is part of the selling game because they may only make a sale to one person out of ten that hears the message or maybe only one in a hundred. Being a good salesman takes thick skin and perseverance. As servant’s of God we’re to be salesmen for God and we’re tasked with selling the gospel message of Christ to all people and all nations.

Proverbs 23:12 – Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.

Proverbs 28:9 – One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 – Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.

God made us all so he knows all our tendencies better than anyone, which is why the Bible makes ample use of repetition to drive home God’s message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer and I know for me personally I learn better by repetition. I need to hear information over and over several times for it to sink into my brain so I know it well enough to actually believe it. As a believer reading God’s Word don’t think God is beating a dead horse when he repeats spiritual truths over and over. You may know the truth of God but he is trying to reach those lost souls who need to keep hearing the gospel message of Christ over and over.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Proverbs 4:18 – But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

Proverbs 13:21 – Evil pursues sinners, but to the righteous, good shall be repaid.

Have patience and bear with God on this. God’s recurring message is meant primarily for those nonbelievers who have received the gospel of Christ one or more times yet still haven’t accepted God’s grace unto salvation even after several attempts. God knows he won’t reach everyone with the truth but he perseveres. God will never give up on you. As servants of the Most High we’re to follow God’s example by continually trying to bring lost souls into the kingdom of God. We must continue to witness for Christ and do good works while we live. It’s why God left us here on earth after our salvation.

Proverbs 11:30 – The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

Proverbs 14:25 – A true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies.

Ecclesiastes 3:12 – I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

Psalm 37 is a classic example of God using repetition to drive home his salvation message. God says almost the exact same things several times within this psalm to good effect. God also presents the same message in different ways to reach different people. Everyone responds differently to what they read or hear because we’re all individuals in our own right. No two of us are exactly alike. What works for me won’t work necessarily for you and vice versa. God also contrasts what the believer has coming to him and what the believer should be doing versus what the nonbeliever will receive at the hands of God for their wickedness.

Hebrews 9:27 – And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

Acts 4:12 – Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

If you’re a lukewarm Christian a regular reading of Psalm 37 will cure what ails you and keep your faith in God strong. I’m comforted when I read Psalm 37 because I feel as though God is holding my hand the whole time. I feel safe. On the flip side, Psalm 37 should scare the daylights out of all nonbelievers because God provides repeated clear warnings of what will happen to those who reject God’s mercy and grace and die in their sin. Psalm 37 should be a wakeup call to all those who do evil in the sight of God. Let’s break Psalm 37 down verse by verse to see what God is trying to tell us:

Psalm 37:1-2 – Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

In the Bible God tells believers repeatedly to persevere by putting their trust in God and not to worry about the evil that’s in the world. It’s all part of God’s plan and God is in control of his creation. We’re not to be jealous when the ungodly seem to be prospering more than we are. We should actually pity them because a just God will one day send them to hell for their sins.

Psalm 37:3-4 – Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness, delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.

Trusting the Lord means to accept God’s saving grace unto salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Jesus commands believers to share their witness for Christ with all peoples and all nations and also to do good works in his name as part of their reasonable service to God for their salvation. We’re to live our life in obedience to God’s will. We’re to love God for what he has done for us and we’re to meditate on God’s Word and obey his commandments. God will prosper those who are obedient to his word.

Psalm 37:5-6 – Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

Once you’ve become a believer committed to living by the precepts of the Bible God will declare you righteous before all the saints and angels of heaven. God himself will sanctify you during your life on earth so that you enter heaven as a righteous son of God.

Psalm 37:7-8 – Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret-it causes only harm.

Twice in the above verses God again commands us not to fret (worry) and not to give in to anger and wrath because it gives Satan a foothold in your life. The Bible tells us to give our cares (worry, anger and wrath) to God to handle. Sinners will get what’s coming to them because God is just. The Bible assures us that worry won’t accomplish anything. It’ll only affect our spiritual and physical health. When we give our problems to God we receive the peace of God but we need to be patient with God because God’s timetable for taking action is not the same as ours.

Psalm 37:9-11 – For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

At the second coming of Christ all nonbelievers who are not already in hell will be removed from the earth and sent to hell. During the millennial kingdom of Christ all believers will inherit the earth and there will be peace for 1000 years.

Psalm 37:12-15 – The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.

One of the spiritual laws of heaven we see play out over and over in the Bible is, “a man reaps what he sows”. I’m thinking of the Pharaoh of Egypt; I’m thinking of Haman; I’m thinking of King Herod. In every instance these evil men intended harm to others and God saw that they were repaid in kind. Only God can take sin and evil and use it for his good purpose.

Psalm 37:16-17 – A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous.

A believer who walks humbly with God is wealthy no matter what material possessions he may have. All the money in the world means nothing without God. There are no true riches, power or peace in this world apart from the grace of God. Eternal life in heaven is the only true wealth.

Psalm 37:18-20 – The Lord knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish; and the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away.

God is affirming his promise of salvation for believers and guaranteeing their protection under his mighty hand. God is also affirming nonbelievers will vanish from the earth to be incarcerated in the lake of fire for eternity. In the first half of Psalm 37 (20 verses) I count eleven times where God promises to bless the believer in some fashion and another eleven times where God promises to punish the nonbeliever. Both of those things will surely come to pass because God cannot lie and God’s will cannot be thwarted.

Although the Old Testament book of Psalms is classified as Hebrew poetry by Bible scholars, for Gentiles the psalms are counted as the wisdom literature of God along with Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes. In the book of Psalms God doesn’t have to give us any historical setting, develop any characters or provide plot lines. God can just pour out the unadulterated truth of God for us to feast on which is what he has done. The book of Psalms is all spiritual meat without the potatoes. If you were God and you were creating a book of 150 psalms which psalm would you put first? Would you make the first psalm a powerful one that summarized the entire book of God’s wisdom? Of course you would and God has done the same thing with the book of Psalms. Psalm 1 sums up the entire book of Psalms because it tells us exactly what we have to do to please God and live in his presence forever in heaven. God put on this earth to do exactly what Psalm 1 tells us to do. The answer to the question, “Why am I here?”, is contained in Psalm 1 so let’s break it all down.

Psalm 1:1 – Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

Always be mindful of any Scripture where God promises to bless you for your obedience. Be sure to obey whatever it is God commands you to do. I suggest you write down in a notebook every Scripture you come across where God promises a blessing for being obedient to his word. If you periodically review the promised blessings from God you will always keep your faith strong and bring your conduct more in line with God’s wishes.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 – All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

John 14:2-3 – (Jesus speaking) In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

John 14:6 – (Jesus speaking) I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Ezekiel 36:27 – I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

In Psalm 1 God promises to bless us if we do three things. First, we are not to do those things that the ungodly do which is simply another way of saying do those things that the godly do. What are the things that the godly do? The ungodly reject God while the godly accept God’s mercy and grace unto salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Second, we are not to do what the unsaved sinners do. As God’s children we are to confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness. Lastly, we are not to be contemptuous of God or deny his existence. Basically, God is saying he will bless us when we become believers and try our best to abide by God’s Word. What greater blessing can God bestow than to allow us to live in his presence in heaven for eternity?

Psalm 1:2 – But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.

God blesses us when we love Him and when we express that love by also loving God’s Word and following that up by meditating (thinking) about God’s law continually. That’s why daily Bible reading and regular personal Bible study is so important to our continued spiritual growth. We should always strive to keep God’s uninterrupted blessings flowing in our lives. The best use of our lives and the happiest we’ll ever be is when we court the blessings of God. When we accept God’s grace unto salvation, witness for Christ and do good works we’ll receive the greatest blessings from God.

Psalm 1:3 – He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

Can you think of a better description of the blessings of God? I can’t. God is telling us if we accept his saving grace and study his word for knowledge, understanding and wisdom then this blessing is our promise. Let’s see; God promises anything we do will cause us to prosper. In the dictionary the word “prosper” is defined as succeeding or flourishing, especially financially. In addition, God says we’ll live forever. I don’t know about you but I can live with both of those scenarios. You don’t need any self-help books to be successful and happy. Strive to know God and obey his commands and you’ll live a successful and rewarding life beyond your wildest imagination. There is no true happiness apart from God.

Psalm 1:4 – The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

In the first three verses of Psalm 1 God tells us plainly the good things that will happen to us if we seek God’s saving grace and obey his commands. God is just, fair and reciprocal to saint and sinner alike. God is clear what will happen if we reject God. Those who reject God are called ungodly and when they die they’ll be taken to hell, a place they do not wish to go.

Psalm 1:5 – Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

All believers will one day stand before Jesus Christ at the bema judgement seat to receive their reward for works done in the body. Those who are not saved (the ungodly) will not be there for the bema judgment (rewards). Unrepentant sinners ( the ungodly) will not find themselves among the righteous children of God and therefore they won’t be going to heaven to live with God the Father forever. God does no allow sin or nonbelievers in heaven.

Psalm 1:6 – For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

God established the way of salvation unto eternal life in heaven through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. When God gave each of us an eternal spirit at conception he gave us a part of himself. When our physical body dies our eternal spirit will go to one of two places. If we have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior our eternal spirit goes to heaven to be with the Lord. If we have rejected Christ or failed to make a decision one way or the other then our eternal spirit shall perish. To perish in the spiritual sense means to be eternally separated from God. Nonbelievers will spend that eternal separation from God in the lake of fire where they will be in torment day and night for all eternity.

John 3:16 – (Jesus speaking) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 6:13 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Acts 4:12 – Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

In summary, Psalm 1 tells us those who are ungodly by not accepting God’s saving grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will, upon their death, be taken somewhere they don’t want to go (hell). These nonbelievers (the ungodly) will be resurrected bodily and have to stand in judgment before Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne judgment. All the ungodly who appear before Jesus at the Great White Throne judgment are condemned already and at some point they will be grabbed bodily by an angel of God and thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where they will be in pain and torment day and night for all eternity. A billion years is only a blink of the eyes in eternity.

Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:9 – That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Ephesians 2:8-9 – For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Hebrews 9:27 – And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

Think of your life as one big television game show. You get to keep what is behind either door number one or door number two. The Bible tells us behind door number one we have honor and glory as a prince of heaven and the son of God with untold riches beyond our wildest imagination. Behind door number two we have total separation from God and confinement in the lake of fire for all eternity in constant pain and anguish. The choice of door number one is obviously the better choice but you must make the positive selection of door number one before the show is over (your death) or you will wind up with door number two as your consolation prize by default. If you haven’t selected door number one by now what on earth are you waiting for? Make your pick right now before it’s too late! Accept God’s saving grace unto salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If you don’t know how to be saved google “sinner’s prayer” on the internet and follow the instructions. Listen, there are no replays or reruns on the game of life. You only get one shot to get this right so focus on the truth of God and accept God’s saving grace right now.

Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Romans 8:16 – The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

1 John 5:11 – And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

1 Timothy 2:5 – For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.

Let me give you a graphic illustration of the vast gulf that exists between your two possible choices in life. When the believer dies and goes to heaven they will experience an eternity filled with joy, happiness, wonder and amazement. The believer will always look back on their life on earth and consider it to be the only period of hell they will have ever known. On the other hand, when the nonbeliever dies without accepting God’s mercy and grace unto salvation they will go straight to hell for all eternity. Their life will be one of continual thirst, pain, torment and anguish. The condemned soul will always look back on their life on earth with fondness and remember it as the only period of heaven they will have ever known. I hope this illustration gets across to you the importance of the decision we all must make in this life. Will you choose heaven or hell? God is waiting for your answer. Choose rightly.

The book of Psalms is more than just a book of Hebrew poetry. Psalms is unlike any other book of the Bible because it consists of a collection of many different hymns and prayers to God that were composed by many different individuals from the time of Moses ( 1400 BC ) to the Persian period ( 400 BC ). King David is referenced in many of the psalms by an ambiguous Hebrew construction which means the psalms were either written “for” or “about” King David or they “belonged to” him. In some cases King David was the actual author of the psalms bearing his name. The word for psalms in Hebrew means “praise”. These “songs of praise” were Israel’s hymnbook still used by the Jewish people today to sing their praise and worship of God. More than one-third of the collection of 150 Psalms is made up of prayers to God. Therefore, the book of Psalms contains both hymns and prayers that were used in the context of Israel’s worship of Jehovah God.

Psalm 50:15 – Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

Psalm 95:6 – Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Psalm 46:10 – Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

Christians over the centuries have created their own hymns to God so we don’t sing the psalms to God the way the Jewish people do. To us the psalms reveal God’s wisdom. Although the psalms were written specifically for the Jewish people, the wisdom of God, the truth of God, is universal and ultimately intended to benefit all people of God, whether Jew or Gentile. Psalms serves the purpose of teaching us all how to relate to God in various circumstances of life. The psalms also demonstrate God’s sovereignty over his people and the goodness God has shown shown toward believers in order to instill confidence in those who trust him. Remember that when Scripture capitalizes personal pronouns they are referring to God. This could be in the person of God the Father, Jesus the Son, or the Holy Spirit. There is only one God but the triune Godhead consists of three distinct persons all of whom are divine.

Matthew 27:46 – (Jesus speaking) – My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

Mark 15:34 – (Jesus speaking) – My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?

Psalm 22:1 – (Jesus speaking) – My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

Atheists have tried unsuccessfully for over 2000 years to find errors in God’s Word. Many atheists point to the comments made by Jesus in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 (shown above) to prove Jesus is not divine. According to the shallow reasoning of atheists, during his crucifixion Jesus was in a confused state of anguish while calling out to God for help which proved he was only a human being masquerading as the Son of God. The Bible says the truth of any matter is established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Here we have the documented testimonies of the Apostle Matthew and the disciple Mark from the New Testament and King David from the Old Testament, all quoting Jesus Christ verbatim prior to and while he was being crucified. Jesus was crucified in 33 AD and Matthew and Mark wrote their gospels between 55 AD and 65 AD. Psalm 22:1 was probably penned by King David himself during his reign (1062 BC to 1021 BC). God always repeats important Scriptures and if God repeats the same verses three times verbatim it means the scriptural message is very important and we should pay special attention to it.

Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.

Psalm 18:30-31 – As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust Him. For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?

Psalm 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

You must read Scriptures in the context of the times in which they were written and with an awareness of the customs of the Jewish people living in those times who were the target audience of the Scriptures. Writing was not prevalent in those days and few people could read or write so things that were important to the people were memorized. All Hebrews knew their psalms by heart. In the Hebrew tradition, if anyone quoted the first line of a psalm it invoked, or brought to remembrance, the entire psalm without having to repeat the whole thing. To quote the first line of a psalm was equivalent to reading the entire psalm. It was a Hebrew thing. During his crucifixion when Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”, he was merely quoting the first line of Psalm 22 to bring to remembrance the entire psalm to the Jewish people who were within earshot of his crucifixion and also for the future benefit of all Gentiles of every age. For Jesus to mention Psalm 22 during his crucifixion meant Jesus was in total control of his sacrificial death and could have stopped it at any time. There was important information contained in Psalm 22 that Jesus wanted to make us all aware of one last time.

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 17:7 – Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

Proverbs 14:27 – The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.

First and foremost, Jesus wanted to establish the fact that he is the eternal Son of God in heaven who preexisted his incarnation into a physical body at Bethlehem . King David penned Psalm 22 over 1000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. But there’s no doubt the speaker in Psalm 22 is a first person narrative by Jesus Christ himself. Throughout the Bible a divine person of the triune Godhead is always identified by the use of capitalized pronouns. When we read the Bible we need to be on our toes and pay attention to which divine person is being referenced in the Scriptures. Is it God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, or the Holy Spirit? The first word of a sentence is always capitalized but pronouns within the sentence aren’t unless they refer to God. I count over fifty such divine pronouns in Psalm 22 and we know Jesus is the speaker and reference for the pronouns because he discusses the crucifixion narrative in verses 6-8 and verses 12-18 and claims it as his own.

Isaiah 46:9 – Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.

Hosea 13:4 – Yet I am the LORD your God…there is no Savior besides Me.

Psalm 16:11 – You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness and joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

I know the crucifixion of Jesus is mentioned in other parts of the Old Testament, usually by the prophets, but Psalm 22 is the only place I can find in the Bible where we hear Jesus himself expound on the subject of his upcoming crucifixion at length. All three divine persons actually speak in the Bible. God the Father is usually the speaker in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ is the primary speaker in the New Testament. There are only two or three times in the entire Bible where the Holy Spirit actually speaks. The triune God may consist of three distinct persons but they are all one God with a single mind. What one knows they all know and they are always in agreement on every subject. Jesus Christ was a willing participant in the shedding of his blood for the sins of mankind. Jesus is our Savior because he chose to be.

Psalm 29:2 – Give unto the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Psalm 117:2 – For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 18:1 – I will love You, O Lord, my strength.

When Jesus declared on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”, he was not confused at all. By repeating this first line of Psalm 22 Jesus was invoking the entire psalm and bringing it to remembrance for all the Jewish people. Jesus was convicting the Jewish people of their sin by reminding them that he was the promised Messiah who was being rejected by them in the exact manner he described in Psalm 22. For the Jews who were actually at the crucifixion of Jesus this statement must have cut them to the quick when they realized they had crucified their King, the Son of God.

Psalm 33:18-19 – Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and keep them alive in famine.

Psalm 67:1-2 – God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on the earth, your salvation among the nations.

Psalm 18:46 – The Lord lives! Blessed be the Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

Psalm 22 is important for Gentiles because through this psalm Jesus exhorts us one last time to fear and glorify God because, by his mercy, God has saved from the fires of hell all who believe in his name. Jesus goes on to confirm he will always be the Mediator in heaven between God and man for all believers. Jesus reminds us that by his sacrificial death many will turn to God for salvation. Finally, Jesus reminds us one last time that believers will serve the Lord forever and all unbelievers will be judged on the last Day.

Psalm 86:13 – For great is Your mercy toward me, and You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Psalm 16:10 – For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

Psalm 37:27-28 – Depart from evil and do good; and dwell forevermore. For the Lord loves justice, and does not forsake His saints; they are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off.

Psalm 62:1-2 – Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation; He is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

Psalm 35:9 – And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord; it shall rejoice in His salvation.

Psalm 50:23 – Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.

In our study of God’s Word we would be remiss if we didn’t focus on the Bible books classified as wisdom literature (Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes). Every other book in the Bible also contains the wisdom of God, but only as a corollary to the main theme of that particular book. Wisdom is secondary to the story and to the point God is making. But in Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes God’s primary purpose for those books is to share his wisdom with man. We get only the concentrated wisdom of God in Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes. Can you name any instance in the Bible where God’s wisdom turned out to be bad advice? I know I can’t. God has perfect knowledge of every circumstance that will ever occur and therefore God is never surprised. God is never wrong.

Psalm 119:97-99 – Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.

Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Jeremiah 17:7 – Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

Hebrews 10:36 – For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Think of those three books as containing the essence of God’s wisdom; wisdom on steroids. Most of the books of the Bible I can read through fairly quickly without a hitch but not so with Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. When I hit these three books my progress slows dramatically. It’s like running into a brick wall. It’s as though I’m suddenly walking in quicksand. God’s concentrated wisdom is so overwhelming to my mind I have to go slowly in order to grasp it; to meditate on it. I have to crawl through Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes to get the most from them. The wisdom of God is a joy!

PROVERBS

What is a proverb? A proverb is a general truth derived from astute observations about how our life usually works. Proverbs are typically pithy, that is, it is brief and rich in meaning. A proverb is practical; it gives advice that is useful in the real world. For example: “no pain, no gain” or “a fool and his money are soon parted.” It’s no accident that the writer of Proverbs is none other than King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. We know every book of the Bible incorporates the character of the writer while at the same time dispensing the revelation of God; the truth of God. Therefore, the proverbs in the book of Proverbs are divinely inspired. Since they come from God, we know they are true and we can be certain they are beneficial. Biblical proverbs not only offer practical advice for this life but also guides the reader to eternal life, which is our ultimate goal.

Proverbs 16:20 – He who heeds the word wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he.

Proverbs 15:24 – The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below.

Proverbs 4:4 – He also taught me, and said to me: Let your heart retain my words; keep my commands and live.

James 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

Bible proverbs do not just entertain; they exhort, they encourage and they offer hope. Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs to lay out the basic principles of the wisdom of God. We know that God wrote the Bible to reveal himself to man and to lay out God’s intended salvation plan for mankind. God wrote the Bible to give us his commandments. The Bible is God’s instruction manual on how we are to live our lives in obedience to his will. God wrote Proverbs primarily as a guide for the young man on the brink of making decisions in life so that his life would be successful and fulfilling.

Deuteronomy 6:5 – You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 8:3 – Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

1 Chronicles 22:19 – Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God.

James 4:2 – Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

God wanted to share the unchanging principles for living a wholesome and honorable life. There is a close connection between God and wisdom. Ultimately, biblical wisdom is informed by and founded on faith in God. If you don’t have God you don’t have wisdom. If you don’t “know” God through Bible reading and prayer it’s impossible to have true wisdom. You might be smart and highly educated but that’s not the same thing. True wisdom presupposes the “fear” of God because God is the source of this inspired Godly advice we call wisdom. Only God himself guarantees the blessings that wisdom promises. The benefits of wisdom and the benefits of God are the same. What wisdom promises is what God grants. Throw away all the self-help books in all the bookshelves of the world because they aren’t needed. Look to Proverbs instead and you’ll find all you need to be who God intended you to be.

Proverbs 4:5-6 – Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her and she will keep you.

Proverbs 4:7-8 – Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all you getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her.

Isaiah 41:13 – For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, fear not, I will help you.

JOB

The Old Testament describes God’s relationship with the Israelites, his chosen people. The history of the Jewish people starts in the latter part of Genesis with the patriarch Abraham around 2100 BC and concludes during the Persian period around 400 BC. A good rule of thumb for dividing up human history is it was roughly 2000 years from creation to Abraham (born about 2166 BC). From Abraham to the birth of Jesus it was another 2000 years. And finally, it has been about 2000 years from the time of Christ to where we are today. God intended the Bible to be a history of his relationship with Israel and God presents it in pretty much chronological order. God is logical, methodical, and never does anything without a good reason.

Job 1:21 – Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Psalm 46:1-2 – God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.

Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Out of the blue God throws into the Bible the book of Job which isn’t a part of the Jewish historical narrative. Job is a one-off, an anomaly, an outlier. Why on earth has God given us the book of Job? We know there has to be a reason because God doesn’t do random. God doesn’t waste our time. I posit God gave us Job because God wanted to tell us something; to give us important information we need to know in order to understand him better. In most books of the Old Testament we know who wrote them and the general timeframe.

Psalm 50:15 – Call on Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

Joshua 1:9 – Have I nor commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do nor be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Ephesians 6:10 – Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Not so with Job; Job is a mystery. We have no idea who wrote Job. Job was set during the time of the patriarchs, making Job a contemporary of Abraham. That’s why some Bible scholars think Job could have been written as early as 2100 BC, making it 700 years older than Genesis. However, most Bible scholars are of the opinion Job was written between 1400 BC and 400 BC, with the consensus being around 950 BC during the reign of King Solomon.

Job 14:1 – Anyone born of woman is short of days and full of trouble.

Psalm 9:9 – The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

Ephesians 5:15-16 – See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

The hardest thing for Christians to understand is why does God allow suffering in the world and why does God allow evil to exist? From a merely human point of view, the answer is that there is no answer given to the problem of evil. God doesn’t tell us explicitly. God doesn’t owe us an explanation. From the divine perspective outlined in the Bible, the answer is that God’s glory is served even when evil and suffering is permitted in the world. Christ’s suffering and death at the hands of evil men is the prime example of this. God put us on this earth to go through hardship, suffering and tribulation. Otherwise what is the point of our lives? Why did Moses have to wander forty days in the wilderness? Why did Jesus have to suffer tribulation for forty days in the desert? Iron sharpens iron. If we lived an uneventful life we would gain nothing. Our life of suffering is the holy furnace that God uses to purify our souls.

Psalm 18:30 – As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

Isaiah 46:22 – Look to Me, and be saved all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

2 Corinthians 4:17 – For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

The book of Job teaches us that suffering comes to everyone. Instead of asking why and becoming bitter toward God we’re to accept God’s will. We’re in no position to challenge God and his wisdom. The message of Job is that we’re to continue to trust the Lord in every circumstance knowing we’re in God’s loving care. We may have to wait until eternity for everything to be made clear. Satan wants us to fall into the trap of cursing God for our troubles so don’t fall for it. Do just the opposite. Praise and worship God all the more when tribulation strikes because you’re glorifying God when you do. Life is hard and it’ll take every ounce of our strength and perseverance to get through it safely. We’ll make it if we hold onto God’s hand tightly.

Job 5:7 – Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

Romans 12:12 – Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 – We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed.

The ultimate in worship is when we honor God as our Sovereign and affirm his freedom to act in our lives. The Bible confirms that personal growth comes through suffering. God gets no pleasure from our suffering; quite the opposite. Our suffering is not for God’s benefit, but ours. What we know is small compared to what is unknown to us. Never under any circumstances let what you fail to understand of God’s purposes shake your faith in God’s constant love. Suffering drives many of us to first question God but later to trust and know him better. Don’t feel guilty; we all go through it. God knows us and he is great enough to survive our questions and doubts. We just need to push on through to a level of greater faith in God. We must respect and trust God. In the end, Job’s fear of the Lord and trust in the goodness of God is what ultimately saved him. Job is set before us as an example to follow. An example we should not forget as we persevere through our life of hardship.

Job 28:28 – And to man He said, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

Job 19:25-26 – And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Romans 8:18 – For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed is us.

In our brief lifetime we will receive tribulation by God’s purpose but nothing can overcome us if we fix our hope on eternity. We must keep our eyes on Jesus. That’s the message of Job. It’s like when you’re getting a vaccination; you know the momentary pain is coming because you can see the nurse approaching with a needle out of the corner of your eye. You must look straight ahead or you’ll flinch and the pain will be greater. You look straight ahead and bear it because you know the pain will be brief and you know the shot is in your best interests. Each of us must strive to, “look straight ahead into the face of God”, so that we reach that point in our walk with God where no matter what happens we can honestly say, “I don’t really understand how this can be, but I trust God absolutely.” When you’ve reached that happy place you’ll have found the peace of God that defies understanding.

ECCLESIASTES

We’ve shown that Proverbs is God’s general wisdom by sharing fundamentals to live by for all people, especially young people who need more guidance when starting out in life. Job is for the more mature man of God seeking specific wisdom about evil in the world and the uneven suffering of mankind. Ecclesiastes is also for the more mature Christian because it engages the question of whether death nullifies all purpose and meaning in life. King Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes around 935 BC after a long life and reflection on the meaning of life. We’re talking about the wisest man who ever lived; and King Solomon came to the conclusion that when it comes to our life, “everything is futile.” God created us to live a brief time in our physical bodies and then die. We all have an expiration date and there’s nothing we can do about it. We can show ourselves wise in the eyes of God by fearing him and turning from evil.

Ecclesiastes 1:2 – Absolute futility, says the Teacher. Absolute futility. Everything is futile.

Ecclesiastes 12:1 – Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near to when you say, I have no pleasure in them.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 – Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.

Romans 12:12 – Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.

King Solomon had it all: ultimate political power, more gold and jewels than any man who ever lived, 300 wives and 700 concubines, 40,000 horses, etc. In the end King Solomon concluded that the only thing in life that mattered is a right relationship with God, to walk humbly with God in obedience. Ecclesiastes warns us not to waste our lives in pursuit of useless endeavors like intellectual accomplishments, wealth, political power and irrational religious zeal. The Bible answers the question we all want to know the answer to, “What is the meaning of life?” That question is clearly answered in Ecclesiastes. Life’s meaning cannot be discovered on our own; it is only revealed by God through his word. How we live our lives is of eternal significance; so even through we are capable of accomplishing many wonderful things in this life, our primary focus should be on God’s revelation and eternity-for they are what define true meaning and lasting outcome of life.

Isaiah 33:6 – Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is His treasure.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:12 – I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

2 Timothy 2:21 – Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter (dishonor), he will be a vessel of honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.