Be Still And Know

Psalm 42:11 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Saviour and my God! We all face times of discouragement, when nothing seems to be going right, as it’s an inevitable part of the ups and downs of life. But sometimes those times of discouragement can dominate all our thinking; that is clearly how it was for the psalmist. He reflects that his tears have been his food day and night and people were taunting him all day long with the words: “Where is your God?” He thinks back on the happy days when he would lead the worship procession up to the temple, but that’s all a distant memory now. He paints a very sad picture. But his feelings of despair don’t have the last word, because amid the grief he knows that God will not let him down. He puts his hope in God, knowing that there will come a time when he will be able to praise God again. We are told that depression is extremely common and that about 50 per cent of people will experience it at some time

Psalm 42:1-2 As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Having spent a couple of years in India, I am very familiar with the challenges of living with intense heat. One lesson I learned very swiftly is that you need to carry a drink with you at all times. But, inevitably, I sometimes forgot. I can remember occasions when I was craving a drink and was happy to drink anything to slake my thirst. Deer are just the same. They can only bound around the countryside for so long before they need to search for a stream of cool, refreshing water. King David used the image of thirsty deer as an illustration of his longing for the living God. This psalm suggests that David was feeling deeply discouraged. Nothing seemed to be going right. It was a time of struggle and confusion, but he knew that God could satisfy him in a way that nothing else could. Many things give us satisfaction for a short while: possessions, success, re

Psalm 40:1-2 I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. I was born and brought up in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex on the Thames Estuary. As a boy I loved exploring the coast, which is well known for its generous expanses of mud! At low tide it is possible to walk out more than a mile from the shore. However, you have to be careful. In places the mud is of such a fine quality that you can easily sink into it; I remember being told gory stories of people who got caught in the mud when the tide turned, with disastrous consequences. The psalmist here is reflecting on his own life and recognises that he had once been totally stuck – just like being stuck in mud. He had been in a hopeless situation but he cried out to God, who had reached out to him and lifted him to a place of solid ground. What a relief! There are some predicaments in life

Psalm 39:4-5 Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath. I will never forget the moment. I was 17 years old and a friend of mine asked me: “Have you heard about Luke?” I hadn’t. Luke was always full of life, had very long hair (as most of us did at the time) and a cheeky smile. My friend said: “He died last week in a car crash together with three friends. Their Mini hit a fuel tanker and burst into flames.” I was completely and utterly devastated. It made no sense. I couldn’t believe that he was dead. As I struggled to come to terms with Luke’s untimely death, I learnt many things. Most of all I learnt that life, which seemed so permanent, was anything but. As tragic as this moment was, it taught me to look at every single day as a miraculous gift from God. I came to realise that every day needs to

Psalm 38:4-9 My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief. A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken. I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart. You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh. In this Psalm, David is incredibly honest. He tells us exactly how things are in his life, and it’s not going well! He feels guilty, he’s in pain and he is emotionally crushed. You can hardly imagine anything worse. But in the middle of it all, he knows that God hears him. I love the expression that David uses when he writes: “you hear my every sigh”. God doesn’t merely know when we are going through a hard time, but he picks up every detail of our distress. He is our creator, and he knows us better than we know ourselves. When we pray, he is well ahead of us in understanding what is wrong and why we are st

Luke 2:29-32 Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel! Eight days after Jesus’ birth, his parents took him to the temple for his circumcision. There is no suggestion that the people of Jerusalem understood the significance of this moment. All the people at the temple saw was a young couple presenting their baby in the way that people did every day. But two elderly people did understand what was going on. Simeon and Anna had been longing for this day - and it had finally come! These verses form what is known as the Nunc Dimittis, Simeon’s famous prayer of thanks for this miraculous moment. He had been looking forward to this day for so long that he could now die in peace. As a Jew, he recognised that this was a glorious moment for the people of Israel. But it was much, much more. Simeon also recognised that the Messiah had

Luke 2:19 Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. This sentence is what I would call a piece of considerable understatement! Mary had just given birth to the Messiah. She certainly had plenty to think about! Older versions of the Bible translate this verse as: “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (NIV). What had happened to Mary was a turning point in human history and stands at the centre of God’s loving plan for his world. No one, however old or mature, could possibly have taken it all in or claimed to have fully understood what had happened. Two thousand years later, theologians are still reflecting deeply on it. There is much that we do understand about our world, but still much that is beyond us. When we see the wonders of creation, we can attempt to describe what we see but we may never completely capture its beauty and intricacy. When we see the way in which God works in our lives, there is much that makes sense but always some things

Luke 2:16-18 The shepherds “hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished.” Just imagine if this was happening now. Bethlehem would be swamped with news reporters and film crews, and all the shepherds would have microphones thrust in front of them. The world would be hanging on their every word and the details of their amazing story would have been cross examined with forensic care. As it is, we have to rely on Dr Luke, who sums up the whole story in just a few dramatic words. In short, the shepherds confirm that the words of the angels about Jesus’ birth were absolutely true. Then, they went out to tell everyone the astonishing story. Good news cannot be hidden. You rarely need to tell new Christians that it is good to share their story with other people, because they just love to do so.

Luke 2:8-9 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. Of all the many surprises in the Christmas story, this is one of the greatest. We have long since got used to the fact that the birth of Jesus was announced to shepherds, but they were surely the last people you would have expected to hear about it. Their work forced them to live away from their communities and so they were always last to hear the news. But more than that, shepherds were smelly and ritually unclean because of their work. Yet God gave them the front seats in the Christmas story! If we had been given the responsibility of compiling an appropriate guest list to welcome the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, I would guess that shepherds might not have made an appearance. We might have thought about the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. If Jesus was their Messiah, surely it would be crucia

Luke 2:5-7 Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. In a few brief verses, Luke summarises the birth of Jesus. Brief as they are, Luke offers us more details than any other Gospel writer. After placing the birth of Jesus within Roman and Jewish history, we are given some very specific details. With the town crammed full for the census there was, not surprisingly, nowhere for the family to stay. After his birth, Jesus was placed in a manger, or cattle feeding trough. On many Christmas cards, this manger looks like an idyllic place to put a baby straight after it is born. But it wasn’t. It was just the only place available. It would have been smelly, unhygienic and the last place that anyone would want to use for a newborn. The idea of God coming to earth in human form is amazing enough. But for him to have made his entrance in the least suitable place, at a time of profound political upheaval

Luke 2:1-3 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. I am delighted that, in our highly secular society, Christmas still has a very special place. No one could possibly miss the fact that it is Christmas! All attempts to replace it with a festival such as Winterval have failed miserably. But even so, we have a problem. The birth of Jesus has become inextricably linked with Father Christmas and Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, and a whole host of other imaginary characters. It’s really important that we recognise Jesus’ birth was a historic event, and here Dr Luke gives us the facts. Jesus was born during the long reign of Augustus Caesar, who ruled the Roman Empire from 27BC to 14AD. During his reign, he established the Pax Romana which led to a period of relative peace for more than two centuries.

Luke 1:76-77 And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Have you ever lost your voice? I’ve had many sore throats and, at times, have had difficulty speaking. But only once have I lost my voice completely. It lasted for around two weeks and it was the most bizarre experience. I felt horribly disconnected from everything that was happening around me. So, I have great sympathy for Zechariah, who was rendered unable to speak for nine months. Only after the birth of his son, John the Baptist, was his speech suddenly restored - and here are some of his words. John and Jesus were relatives, but they were brought up in very different parts of Israel and so probably didn’t know one another very well. But Zechariah recognised that John would play a crucial role in God’s plans. John’s message of repentance was crucial in paving the way for Jesus’ ministry - and h

Luke 1:51-53 His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. As Mary praises God that she is going to give birth to his Son, she takes us right to the heart of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus didn’t come merely to rearrange things. He came to turn the world upside down. If we are to take Jesus seriously, we have to look at our society with new eyes. God is not merely disappointed with arrogance, abuse of power and injustice. God wants them to be toppled. Sadly, it is all too easy for us to fit in with our society and, in the interests of a quiet life, not to challenge injustice. The story of the German Church in the 1930s is a terrifying illustration of this. Hitler sought to bring the Church under his exclusive control, and the overwhelming majority accepted this. They were, understandably, fearful of resisting him and

Luke 1:46-49 Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.” What an incredible moment this was for Mary! How could anyone put into words the overwhelming joy and privilege of being called to be the mother of the Saviour of the World? It is hardly surprising that she, as a young Jewish girl, turned to familiar words from the scriptures. She would have been brought up with the wonderful story of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, and would have been familiar with her prayer when she learnt that she was going to give birth. The words of Mary’s song, which is often known as the Magnificat, are extremely close to the words which Hannah had used centuries before. There are many moments in our lives as Christians when we simply don’t have the words to describe how grateful we are to God. Like Mary, we often tu

Luke 1:38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” We know the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth so well that we often have to work really hard to imagine how completely incredible this moment was for Mary. She was probably a teenager, and may well never have travelled outside of the rural Galilee region where she was born. The news that she was going to have a baby was shockingly at every level. She was a virgin, and having a baby was therefore a complete impossibility. But she listened attentively to the angel’s words and is assured that, crazy as this all sounded, nothing is impossible with God. Her response was extraordinarily impressive. She describes herself as the Lord’s servant and accepted the future that God had chosen for her. To be a servant would normally be seen as demeaning. We probably instinctively think of Downton Abbey, and the way that servants, living below stairs, were given all the heavy, dirty and difficult work to do so that a fe

Luke 1:14 An angel of the Lord prophesied to Zechariah concerning the birth of his son, John the Baptist. “You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord.” This was the greatest day in Zechariah’s life. Being a male descendant of Aaron, he was a priest, which was a great privilege. However, it is suggested that there might have been up to 20,000 priests at this time, and so there were divided up into 24 groups which served in in rotation. The greatest privilege of all was for a priest to be chosen to go into the temple and burn incense at the time of the morning or evening sacrifice. Having burnt the incense, the priest would then emerge from the temple and pronounce a blessing on the people. This was such a great honour that a priest could only do this once in his lifetime - and many never got the opportunity at all. The priest was chosen for this responsibility by lot. Just imagine the sense of anticipation as the choice was ma

Matthew 1:22-23 All of this occurred to fulfil the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Loneliness is one of the greatest problems of our society today - and it is on the increase. This matters because loneliness is incredibly dangerous. It increases the risk of death by 26 per cent, is more damaging to health than obesity, and increases the risk of high blood pressure. Loneliness, living alone and poor social connections are as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to research. But the person who knows Jesus personally need never experience loneliness, because he is Immanuel, God with us, and when we live with him day by day, we are instantly connected to a worldwide family of his people. The difference between our relationship with God and with other people is that God never leaves us. He is always by our side. We may have warm relationships

Matthew 1:21 “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Naming a child is a huge moment for parents. If you have ever had that privilege, I am sure you will remember the conversations about the various possibilities. You might have considered names that were particularly important in your family, or names that you simply liked. But, knowing that the child will carry that name for life, you will have given it careful consideration. We have three children, and I remember the long discussions about various names well! Our third child is called Bethany, the name of the place where my wife and I first met. I was leading a student group on a trip around Israel, where we stayed in a cheap hotel on the West Bank near Bethany. My future wife was one of the students! Many have since asked us what we’d have called her if we had met in Bognor Regis or Market Harborough…and I guess the answer is probably Bethany! Jesus was given his name because tha

Matthew 1:20 As Joseph considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.” This account is so familiar to us that we need to take a moment to try to imagine what the experience must have been like for Joseph. In all probability, he was a man in his 20s. Mary may well have been a teenager. He was clearly of good character and took his Jewish faith seriously. His decision to end the relationship quietly was understandable - but he must have been experiencing a riot of emotions, thinking about Mary, himself, his family’s reputation and his desire to do what God wanted. As he turned these things over in his mind, he had a dream in which he was addressed with his family title. He was Joseph, belonging to the line of the great King David. In the dream, an angel told him not to be fearful but to take Mary as his wife, because the baby was a gif

Matthew 1:19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. At the centre of the account of Jesus’ birth is a man about whom we know very little. Joseph was the legal father of Jesus, but after Jesus’ birth, we meet Joseph on only one occasion, when the family visit to Jerusalem for Passover when Jesus was 12 years old. Although it is not detailed anywhere, we get the distinct impression that Mary was a widow by the time Jesus’ public ministry began. One verse in the New Testament tells us that Joseph was an artisan (Matthew 13:55) and it is generally assumed that he was a carpenter - but we can’t even be sure of that. The Greek word used for artisan also refers to those who work with iron or stone. Although we know very little about this extremely important man, we do know about his character. In today’s verse, he is described as a “righteous man”, which means that he was concerned to be obedient t