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Psalm 43 1 Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men. 2 For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 3 Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, To your tents. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God. 5 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God   Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file ~ You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Study 9: Job Ch 38:1–40:14 The voice from the whirlwind   Finally, at last, after all the human argument, the LORD speaks out of the storm - or the whirlwind as most of the translations translate the word here. Even now if we expect conclusive answers to all the questions Job and his friends have thrown up we are going to be disappointed. There are some answers but also some fundamentally unanswered questions; questions that will never find an answer in this world. it is a huge passage but it all needs to be read together. It will lose its force if I break it up into short bits. So here it is.   Perhaps the first thing to notice in the very first verse is that it is the LORD, Yahweh, who is speaking. This is the personal name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob given to Moses at the burning bush. I have been referring to God as the Lord throughout these studies because I reckon that is the way that we commonly think of him. By doing so we tend to confuse God the Father with Jesus, but that is no

Psalm 54   (as read by Anne A)   For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Is David hiding himself among us? 54:1 Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might. 54:2 Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth. 54:3 For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah. 54:4 Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the one who sustains my soul. 54:5 He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth. 54:6 With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good. 54:7 For he has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.   Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Study 8 : Study 8: Job 32-37 A young man sounds off.   The next 5 chapters of the book of Job are rather strange. The discussion between Job and his 3 friends has come to its end. A young man called Elihu speaks up with a 5 chapter long speech, an uninterrupted harangue in fact. Unlike the 3 friends he is an Israelite and he is young. He is not mentioned anywhere else in the book as the others are. All of which makes many people think his contribution is a late addition to the book. Perhaps. But we have it as a part of scripture so we need to look at it and may expect to get something from it.   Four main points arise from what he said, of which only one really contributes much to the argument of the book. 1. He is a brash and arrogant young fellow who says things that do not make him a very likeable character; 2. After announcing that he is going to tell the 3 friends what they should have said, he says a great deal that is not significantly very different; 3. His main new argument is th

Study 7 : Job 29-31 Job’s self-assessment.  We now come to two long speeches: the first by Job, summarizing his thinking, is 3 chapters long; the second by a new guy, Elihu, is 5 chapters long. Job cannot have been an old man when the disasters struck him. However long he lived (another 140 years according to the last chapter) he was only middle-aged for he had time to have another complete farming career and a considerable family. But much of what he describes in these chapters is remarkably similar to the common experience of an old person in western culture. Up to about 100 years ago most people in the world only lived in one or two or three places their whole lives long, often one as they grew up and just another subsequent to marriage. Consequently as they grew old they would be surrounded by people they had known for a very long time: family, friends and acquaintances. For many today things are very different. Education and job opportunities take us to live in many different places. Sometimes parents

Psalm 145 A psalm of praise of David. 1 I will exalt you, my God and King,and praise your name forever and ever. 2 I will praise you every day;yes, I will praise you forever. 3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!No one can measure his greatness. 4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;let them proclaim your power. 5 I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendour and your wonderful miracles. 6 Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;I will proclaim your greatness. 7 Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;they will sing with joy about your righteousness. 8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate,slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. 9 The Lord is good to everyone.He showers compassion on all his creation. 10 All of your works will thank you, Lord,and your faithful followers will praise you. 11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom;they will give examples of your power. 12 They will tell about your mighty deeds and abou

Study 6 : Job 26-28 Glorious Wisdom. This study falls into 2 parts. First there are the chapters after number 23 and up to chapter 28. But I am going to skip over these. They do not add a great deal to what we have already thought about and, indeed, appear somewhat muddled. So much so that many scholars think they have got scrambled somewhere between Job and us. Two bits are worth reading. The first is as much for amusement as anything else! Job has already called his friends “miserable comforters” and he now unleashes a real blast of sarcasm against them in 26:1–4..   Much more positively Job once again states that nothing will make him give up his faith in the Lord and his righteousness. Theses are words worth hearing in these days when so many are prepared to give up their faith and thus their integrity for the thinnest of reasons.  Hear that in 27: 1 – 6.   But then the steady progression of argument between Job and his friends is suddenly interrupted by a beautiful poem in chapter 28. At first

Psalm 83 A song. A Psalm by Asaph. 83:1 God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God. 83:2 For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads. 83:3 They conspire with cunning against your people. They plot against your cherished ones. 83:4 “Come,” they say, “and let’s destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” 83:5 For they have conspired together with one mind. They form an alliance against you. 83:6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites; 83:7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 83:8 Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Selah. 83:9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon; 83:10 who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth. 83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb; yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna; 83:12

Study 5 : Job 20-23 Job begins to see his way forward. In chapter 20 Zophar is clearly convinced that Job is a sinner and is suffering as a direct consequence. He doesn’t say so directly but it is the obvious implication of what he says. In the Bible sin is almost always a result of how somebody has failed to live well in relationship to other people. It is seldom about a failure to live well directly towards God by failing to worship correctly or failing to follow the correct prescribed religious observances. So Zophar criticizes Job in his actions towards other people. Zophar raises another and more difficult question. He seems to suggest that there is a major difference between good and evil in how long they last. He says that evil is inherently short lived, unlike good that lasts. Well, he doesn’t actually say that good lasts longer but that, again, would seem to be strongly implied by what he says. Listen out for those two implications as I read the chapter.   Question:       what do you think? Is i

Study 4 : Job 16 - 19 Job continues to struggle, In these chapters Job says some truly astonishing things that we may otherwise overlook.  To give you an idea of what is to come these are: in chapters 16 and 17 he reckons that he has been attacked by God, which leads to him saying that he has been abused by God; and then after a further statement from Bildad in chapter 18, which implies that he, Job, must be a wicked man, Job says in chapter 19 that although God is against him he has a strong hope that he will be able to state his case before the heavenly court and he hopes to be supported by an effective advocate. Who exactly that advocate will be is not clear to him – though perhaps it is to us!   First, the relatively easy passage, Job 16:1–5, where Job is asking himself how he would do if he was trying to comfort a friend who was suffering as he is suffering. Here it is. If someone else is suffering it is so easy to stack up a heap of conventional phrases such as ‘you will soon feel better’ even when

Psalm 78 A maskil of Asaph. 1 O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old- 3 what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done. 5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, 6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. 7 Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. 8 They would not be like their forefathers- a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him. 9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; 10 they did not keep Go

Study 3 : Job 12 - 14 Job states his case.   Chapter 12 - after all his ‘friends’ have stated their cases and he has answered them Job makes a major statement in these 3 chapters of how he views the situation. Much of what he says could be regarded as very pessimistic as he expresses his, quite natural, unhappiness at what has happened to him and his family. But I think we are expected to learn several things from his experiences and what he says, so we will try to make the most of it! To repeat yet again what was said in the introduction to the first study: behind all the arguments of the 3 friends is what we are calling a CEP, a cause-effect principle, operating in moral theology. They are all, his friends and Job, saying that everything that happens to a person has a moral cause hidden behind it. In essence: good things happen to good people; bad things happen to bad people. From that starting point his ‘friends’ have deduced that however much Job may protest otherwise he is not a good person becau

Psalm 59 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A poem by David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. 59:1 Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me. 59:2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men. 59:3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me,  not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh. 59:4 I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me! 59:5 You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah 59:6 They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city. 59:7 Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For,” they say, “who hears us?” 59:8 But you, Yahweh, laugh at them. You scoff at all the nations. 59:9 Oh, my Strength, I watch for you, for God is

Study 2 : Job 3, 4, 6, 8 Job finds his voice; he and his friends argue.   The pattern of the book is simple. Within the frame given by the prose of the first two and the last chapters and following an opening speech from Job there are 3 cycles of speeches: Eliphaz, Job,  Bildad, Job, Zophar, Job and round twice more. That should be 3x6 = 18 speeches but the last speech of Zophar is lost, perhaps deliberately to show the answers are incomplete. The next chapter after these cycles of speeches (28) is a poem to Wisdom. That is followed by a speech of Job and a lengthy rant by a 4th guy, Elihu. Only then do we hear from the Lord God himself, pointing out how Job has failed to understand what has happened and to learn from it. Then, finally, there is an epilogue, probably drawn from the old tale, which is used to teach one final fundamental lesson about life. The poetic dialogue begins after those first 2 chapters of prose we thought about last time. Job expresses his total horror at what has happened to h

Psalm 73  A psalm of Asaph. 1 Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. 3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. 5 They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. 7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity ; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits. 8 They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression. 9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. 10 Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. 11 They say, "How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?" 12 This is what the wicked are like- always carefree, they increase in wealth. 13 Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my

Study 1 : Job 1 - 2 Terrible disasters hit Job. The book of Job is totally fascinating – but difficult. It is deeply concerned with the question of wisdom – how does one live well – but we will leave consideration of that to later in our studies when the question rises to the surface. In particular the book deals with the questions that arise when disaster strikes. There are no clear answers to the questions it poses. Instead there are lengthy dialogues between Job and his three friends, then between him and a rather brash young fellow and only finally with God. We are left to think and puzzle over what is said and draw our own conclusions rather than treating it as an authoritative text that tells us things we should believe or do. One commentator says “we need to be transparent about the hazards of being human and teach the full witness of Scripture, which is messy, complex and, ultimately, wonderfully true.” That is nowhere more the case than in the book of Job. This is an attempt to teach that

Psalm 133 A song of ascents. Of David. 1 How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe. 3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing,even life forevermore. Right mouse click or tap here to save/download this Psalm as a MP3 file

Exploring The Bible 49. Old Testament Job G'day and welcome to our series, "Exploring the Bible" This is also the title of our latest book available on Amazon by clicking here or visiting PulpTheology.com Key Verses: Job 19:25 Job 42:1-6 The Book of Job is perhaps the earliest book in the Bible according to scholars. It tackles the always difficult question - “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Set during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob & Joseph), it is the story of a man who loses everything - his wealth, family & health and wrestles with the question “why?” Rather surprisingly when Job acknowledges the sovereignty of God in His life, he received everything back that he had lost and even more – which is not the solution to the difficult question! In so far as there is a solution, it is that we must trust ourselves wholly to the Lord however surprising and mysterious His ways are. Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file ~ You can now purchase o

Psalm 134 A Pilgrim Song     Come, bless God, all you servants of God! You priests of God, posted to the night watch in God's shrine, Lift your praising hands to the Holy Place, and bless God. In turn,  may God of Zion bless you- the God who made heaven and earth!   Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Psalm 55 For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David. 55:1 Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication. 55:2 Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan, 55:3 Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me. 55:4 My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me. 55:5 Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me. 55:6 I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest. 55:7 Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah. 55:8 “I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.” 55:9 Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. 55:10 Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her.