Sermon - AudioPslam 102-104 - Audio
Pslam 102-104 - Reading
Daily Insights - Please Comment
Psalm 102
A Psalm that combines intense personal lament and the plight of God’s covenant people with trust that God will merciful restore his covenant people. Traditionally, this psalm has been included with the penitential psalms that are prayed during the season of Lent (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143).
102:1-11: Pleading for Relief in the Midst of Distress
102.1: The Psalmist cries out to the LORD.
102.2: hide your face from me- In the Old Testament, “face” meant personal presence. The psalmist is pleading for the LORD to make his presence known in the midst of distress because the psalmist knows that without the LORD there is no hope for relief. When the LORD’s face shines on someone, blessing and deliverance comes (Psalm 31.16, 67.1, 80.3,7,19 119.135). The Priestly Blessing, which the Israelite Priests were told to use to bless Israel, calls for the LORD’s presence/face to be with the people of Israel “the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Numbers 6.24-27 (NIV)
102.3-11 Describe the suffering of the psalmist in detail
102.3 days vanish- one of the themes of the psalmist’s lament is the brevity and frailty of life. As you read, look for the different imagery the poet uses to express this theme.
102.4 The psalmist’s suffering is not just physical but also spiritual--suffering consumes both the body and soul of the psalmist.
102.10 In vs. 8, the psalmist identifies his enemies as a source of his suffering; however, in vs. 10 the psalmist recognizes the real reason for his suffering: God’s anger. But, the psalmist does not question the absence of God’s face (presence) or God’s justice in but turns to God to beg for the suffering to end.
102.12-17: The Time of God’s Mercy on Zion
102.12 The psalmist’s shift here is striking. He asserts the kingship of the LORD and recognizes that God remains in control of his (and every) situation. Moreover, the psalmists extensive description of his own frailty is contrasted by the psalmists declaration that the LORD is eternal and consistently faithful to the generations.
102.13: you will arise In psalms of lament, the psalmist often calls upon the LORD to arise and to save. But, here the psalmist proclaims, with assurance, that the LORD will come and save Zion. While the exact date when this psalm was written is not known, the psalmist’s personal lament is set during a time when Jerusalem (Zion) had been overthrown. The psalmist’s individual plight mirrors that of his beloved city (Zion), and his assurance for restoration and hope come from the promise that the LORD will restore Zion through His faithfulness to the generations (vs. 12).
102.15-16: “To fear the LORD” in the Old Testament meant to have awe and holy reverence for the LORD. The psalmist knows that the restoration of Jerusalem will ultimately lead to the universal praise and holy reverence of the the LORD. The hope proclaimed by the psalmist is fully realized in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21)
102.18-22: Let it be Written...for Continual Praise
102.18: The psalmist calls for the LORD’s restoration to be recorded so that future generations will know what He has done and praise Him for His faithfulness.
102.20: The LORD’s restoration of Zion, is also a restoration of those who are afflicted.
102.21-22 : The praise of the LORD is universal upon the restoration of Zion. Complete universal praise, from all the kingdoms of the earth is a reality which we, like the psalmist also await. It is promised in Revelations 7.9-10 “9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (NIV)
102.23-28: Recapitulation of Assurance
102.24: Having no beginning or ending, the eternal God whose years go on is again contrasted to the psalmist’s short life (Note: the psalmist compares his life to days while expressing that God’s years continue through generations.
102.24b-27: The writer of Hebrews uses these words to describe Christ (Hebrews 1.10-12). In the context of Hebrews using the verses which the psalmist spoke about the LORD (Yahweh) to speak about Christ is extremely important. The writer of Hebrews is showing, through his use of the Psalm, that Christ is also eternal; He was there before the foundations of the earth. i.e. Jesus Christ is fully God and was not created.
102.28: The psalmist ends by praising God for the deliverance of the generations to come. ...will live in your presence The psalmist trusts that God will answer his cry for God to not hide his face from him at the beginning of Psalm 102 (vs. 2) by being present with the generations to come.
Psalm 103
Psalm 103 is a Psalm that begins and ends with the loudest of praise (notice that the Psalm begins and ends with exactly the same words). Among all the Psalms it rings with the highest of praise for Yahweh as it speaks both of his attributes and his deeds. As such it is a Psalm that is worth regular reading both to remind us of our need to praise and to remind us of the God we praise.
103: Because of the centrality of forgiveness in this Psalm it is important to read this Psalm through the eyes of the work of Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection put in context not only how God forgives, but also what it means to be a new covenant people who live faithfully before God.
103.1: “Soul” means the whole of one’s person. To “praise” (Hebrew: barach) means to esteem highly, to bow down before, to celebrate the success of. In the Psalms we discover that when we bless God we use all of our person (clap your hands, shout, bow, kneel, dance, play instruments etc.). From the Psalmist’s perspective God is so great there is no way we can possibly fully bless him apart from using all of ourselves.
103.2: “benefits” means the good that he has done for you and given you
103.3: Sin and disease are at times connected. We find it in Psalms such as Psalm 32. We also find the reality that sin and disease can be connected in the New Testament in places such as James 5 and 1 Corinthians 11.17ff. When God steps in and forgives sin he also heals the disease which flows from the sin.
103.4: “crowns you with love and compassion” Love is “hesed” God’s covenant love. God renews his covenant love with all of its promises and hopes when he forgives sin.
103.5: The desires that God satisfies are the desires the flow from his covenant promises to us. The good things are the things that flow to a faithful covenant people (see Dt. 28).
103.5: “youth renewed like the eagle’s” is a wonder-filled promise which basically means: “When God’s covenant promises flow to us our hearts are lifted and we find great joy and energy to live for God.” We get at least a sense of this from Caleb who after 40 years of wandering in the desert (he’s over 60 at this time) goes off and takes the inheritance that God promised (Joshua 15.13-14).
103:6: The proclamation that is ongoing in the Bible--God’s heart is with those who are oppressed. In the ministry of Jesus we get this same sense when he hangs out with tax collectors and sinners.
103.8: “abounding in love” Love, again, is “hesed”. God abounds in covenant faithfulness.
103.10,12: Sins, iniquities, transgressions -- the Psalmist lays out all the different words that reflect how we break our relationship with God. We wander from him, we follow a crooked path, we fall short of how he calls us to live. The good news is that he forgives all of these. Through the eyes of the New Testament and the work of Christ we know that forgiveness comes because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
1.11: “so great is his love (hesed, covenant faithfulness) for those who fear him.” In verses 11, 13 and 17 we find that God’s compassion, forgiveness, hesed flows to those who fear him. To fear God means to hold him in awe, to show him reverence, to bless him. The writer of Hebrews says, Heb. 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Heb. 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.” The danger is that from the Psalm we might assume that the way God’s forgiveness flows to us is because we fear/reverence God. When we see through the eyes of Jesus, however, we know that is not the case. God’s forgiveness flows to us through the work of Jesus Christ. In response to that work (and because the Holy Spirit is at work in us) we become people who fear/reverence God. In this light, if we do not fear/reverence God we need to ask if we belong to him or if we need to better understand him because the pull of our hearts is to fear the God who has rescued us.
1.12: The wonderfully good news that our sins are completely removed from us.
1.13-18: A contrast is drawn between our frailty and the shortness of our lives and God’s eternal covenant. While our life is short, we can be assured that God’s promises last for all eternity.
1.18: “...with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.” Again, we look at these words through the eyes and work of Jesus Christ. In doing so we know we keep his covenant and obey his precepts because he has saved us and is renewing us through the Spirit.
1.19: The Psalmist’s celebration of God’s benefits to his children now turns to celebrate that God is ruler over the cosmos.
1.20-22: The beings of the entire universe are called on to bring praise/bless God.
1.22: The Psalm ends where it began with the Psalmist calling on himself to bring praise to God.
Psalm 104
Psalm 104 is a psalm which brings joy to the soul as it shows the wonder of God as creator and ruler over the universe. It needs to be read slowly, allowing the imagery to fill the mind and heart.
104.1: This Psalm of praise begins like Psalm 103--a cry to the soul to praise/bless Yahweh.
104.1-4: The great creation, including the sun which some were tempted to worship, is all there to serve God and display his glory.
104.5-9: The creation story in marvelously poetic language. Mountains rise, valleys sink. God sets up boundary markers for the sea that they can’t pass (i.e. he made the sea and the dry land).
104.10-13: This creation that serves God is also a creation that God serves. It is amazing to some to realize that God serves not only people, but he serves his entire creation.
104.14: “He makes the grass grow for the cattle.” NIV The esv says, “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock…” i.e. the reason God causes the grass to grow is so that livestock can be fed. It shows God’s care for the animals. It brings to mind the words of Yahweh to Jonah, 4.11 “But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
104.15: “wine that gladdens the heart of man” This simple statement is a fabulous picture of God’s desire for human beings to not just scratch out an existence on earth but to enjoy the earth and its fruits. We could live on water, but God gives wine which “lights up the eyes” (another translation of “gladdens the heart”). The truth about this Psalm and God’s creation as it’s revealed here is that all of God’s creation (in its unfallen stat) gladdens our hearts
104.15-18: God creates habitats for each of his creatures.
104.19-23: God creates day and night and the seasons that bring variety, rhythm and life.
104.24: “In wisdom you have made them all…” There is this fantastic picture of God using his practical wisdom to create each part of his creation so that all things come together into a harmonious whole, each part complimenting the others.
104.26: One of the most fun verses/pictures in all of the Bible. “There the ships go to and fro, and the Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.” Leviathan was the mythical monster of the deep. In Psalm 104 we find that this great monster is God’s pet cavorting about in the sea. Another legitimate interpretation of the Hebrew which adds a whimsical picture is, “There go the ships, and the Leviathan, which you formed to play with.”
104.27-30: God’s rule, care for, and ultimate ownership of the creation is shown.
104.31: In two phrases we find two powerful truths. First, the creation shows the glory of God. The idea that the creation will do this forever reflects the New Testament picture of God finally renewing his creation (See Romans 8 and Revelation 21). Second, the reality that God rejoices in his creation should cause us to desire not only to rejoice with him, but to treat his creation with care for it is a place that causes him to rejoice.
104.33: “I will sing to the LORD all my life…” because of the wonder of his creation. If we sing to God because of his creation how much more we sing because of the promise of his new creation.
104.35: Sinners are those who oppose God and fail to see him as the ruler of creation.
A Psalm that combines intense personal lament and the plight of God’s covenant people with trust that God will merciful restore his covenant people. Traditionally, this psalm has been included with the penitential psalms that are prayed during the season of Lent (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143).
102:1-11: Pleading for Relief in the Midst of Distress
102.1: The Psalmist cries out to the LORD.
102.2: hide your face from me- In the Old Testament, “face” meant personal presence. The psalmist is pleading for the LORD to make his presence known in the midst of distress because the psalmist knows that without the LORD there is no hope for relief. When the LORD’s face shines on someone, blessing and deliverance comes (Psalm 31.16, 67.1, 80.3,7,19 119.135). The Priestly Blessing, which the Israelite Priests were told to use to bless Israel, calls for the LORD’s presence/face to be with the people of Israel “the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Numbers 6.24-27 (NIV)
102.3-11 Describe the suffering of the psalmist in detail
102.3 days vanish- one of the themes of the psalmist’s lament is the brevity and frailty of life. As you read, look for the different imagery the poet uses to express this theme.
102.4 The psalmist’s suffering is not just physical but also spiritual--suffering consumes both the body and soul of the psalmist.
102.10 In vs. 8, the psalmist identifies his enemies as a source of his suffering; however, in vs. 10 the psalmist recognizes the real reason for his suffering: God’s anger. But, the psalmist does not question the absence of God’s face (presence) or God’s justice in but turns to God to beg for the suffering to end.
102.12-17: The Time of God’s Mercy on Zion
102.12 The psalmist’s shift here is striking. He asserts the kingship of the LORD and recognizes that God remains in control of his (and every) situation. Moreover, the psalmists extensive description of his own frailty is contrasted by the psalmists declaration that the LORD is eternal and consistently faithful to the generations.
102.13: you will arise In psalms of lament, the psalmist often calls upon the LORD to arise and to save. But, here the psalmist proclaims, with assurance, that the LORD will come and save Zion. While the exact date when this psalm was written is not known, the psalmist’s personal lament is set during a time when Jerusalem (Zion) had been overthrown. The psalmist’s individual plight mirrors that of his beloved city (Zion), and his assurance for restoration and hope come from the promise that the LORD will restore Zion through His faithfulness to the generations (vs. 12).
102.15-16: “To fear the LORD” in the Old Testament meant to have awe and holy reverence for the LORD. The psalmist knows that the restoration of Jerusalem will ultimately lead to the universal praise and holy reverence of the the LORD. The hope proclaimed by the psalmist is fully realized in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21)
102.18-22: Let it be Written...for Continual Praise
102.18: The psalmist calls for the LORD’s restoration to be recorded so that future generations will know what He has done and praise Him for His faithfulness.
102.20: The LORD’s restoration of Zion, is also a restoration of those who are afflicted.
102.21-22 : The praise of the LORD is universal upon the restoration of Zion. Complete universal praise, from all the kingdoms of the earth is a reality which we, like the psalmist also await. It is promised in Revelations 7.9-10 “9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (NIV)
102.23-28: Recapitulation of Assurance
102.24: Having no beginning or ending, the eternal God whose years go on is again contrasted to the psalmist’s short life (Note: the psalmist compares his life to days while expressing that God’s years continue through generations.
102.24b-27: The writer of Hebrews uses these words to describe Christ (Hebrews 1.10-12). In the context of Hebrews using the verses which the psalmist spoke about the LORD (Yahweh) to speak about Christ is extremely important. The writer of Hebrews is showing, through his use of the Psalm, that Christ is also eternal; He was there before the foundations of the earth. i.e. Jesus Christ is fully God and was not created.
102.28: The psalmist ends by praising God for the deliverance of the generations to come. ...will live in your presence The psalmist trusts that God will answer his cry for God to not hide his face from him at the beginning of Psalm 102 (vs. 2) by being present with the generations to come.
Psalm 103
Psalm 103 is a Psalm that begins and ends with the loudest of praise (notice that the Psalm begins and ends with exactly the same words). Among all the Psalms it rings with the highest of praise for Yahweh as it speaks both of his attributes and his deeds. As such it is a Psalm that is worth regular reading both to remind us of our need to praise and to remind us of the God we praise.
103: Because of the centrality of forgiveness in this Psalm it is important to read this Psalm through the eyes of the work of Jesus Christ. His death and resurrection put in context not only how God forgives, but also what it means to be a new covenant people who live faithfully before God.
103.1: “Soul” means the whole of one’s person. To “praise” (Hebrew: barach) means to esteem highly, to bow down before, to celebrate the success of. In the Psalms we discover that when we bless God we use all of our person (clap your hands, shout, bow, kneel, dance, play instruments etc.). From the Psalmist’s perspective God is so great there is no way we can possibly fully bless him apart from using all of ourselves.
103.2: “benefits” means the good that he has done for you and given you
103.3: Sin and disease are at times connected. We find it in Psalms such as Psalm 32. We also find the reality that sin and disease can be connected in the New Testament in places such as James 5 and 1 Corinthians 11.17ff. When God steps in and forgives sin he also heals the disease which flows from the sin.
103.4: “crowns you with love and compassion” Love is “hesed” God’s covenant love. God renews his covenant love with all of its promises and hopes when he forgives sin.
103.5: The desires that God satisfies are the desires the flow from his covenant promises to us. The good things are the things that flow to a faithful covenant people (see Dt. 28).
103.5: “youth renewed like the eagle’s” is a wonder-filled promise which basically means: “When God’s covenant promises flow to us our hearts are lifted and we find great joy and energy to live for God.” We get at least a sense of this from Caleb who after 40 years of wandering in the desert (he’s over 60 at this time) goes off and takes the inheritance that God promised (Joshua 15.13-14).
103:6: The proclamation that is ongoing in the Bible--God’s heart is with those who are oppressed. In the ministry of Jesus we get this same sense when he hangs out with tax collectors and sinners.
103.8: “abounding in love” Love, again, is “hesed”. God abounds in covenant faithfulness.
103.10,12: Sins, iniquities, transgressions -- the Psalmist lays out all the different words that reflect how we break our relationship with God. We wander from him, we follow a crooked path, we fall short of how he calls us to live. The good news is that he forgives all of these. Through the eyes of the New Testament and the work of Christ we know that forgiveness comes because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
1.11: “so great is his love (hesed, covenant faithfulness) for those who fear him.” In verses 11, 13 and 17 we find that God’s compassion, forgiveness, hesed flows to those who fear him. To fear God means to hold him in awe, to show him reverence, to bless him. The writer of Hebrews says, Heb. 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Heb. 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.” The danger is that from the Psalm we might assume that the way God’s forgiveness flows to us is because we fear/reverence God. When we see through the eyes of Jesus, however, we know that is not the case. God’s forgiveness flows to us through the work of Jesus Christ. In response to that work (and because the Holy Spirit is at work in us) we become people who fear/reverence God. In this light, if we do not fear/reverence God we need to ask if we belong to him or if we need to better understand him because the pull of our hearts is to fear the God who has rescued us.
1.12: The wonderfully good news that our sins are completely removed from us.
1.13-18: A contrast is drawn between our frailty and the shortness of our lives and God’s eternal covenant. While our life is short, we can be assured that God’s promises last for all eternity.
1.18: “...with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.” Again, we look at these words through the eyes and work of Jesus Christ. In doing so we know we keep his covenant and obey his precepts because he has saved us and is renewing us through the Spirit.
1.19: The Psalmist’s celebration of God’s benefits to his children now turns to celebrate that God is ruler over the cosmos.
1.20-22: The beings of the entire universe are called on to bring praise/bless God.
1.22: The Psalm ends where it began with the Psalmist calling on himself to bring praise to God.
Psalm 104
Psalm 104 is a psalm which brings joy to the soul as it shows the wonder of God as creator and ruler over the universe. It needs to be read slowly, allowing the imagery to fill the mind and heart.
104.1: This Psalm of praise begins like Psalm 103--a cry to the soul to praise/bless Yahweh.
104.1-4: The great creation, including the sun which some were tempted to worship, is all there to serve God and display his glory.
104.5-9: The creation story in marvelously poetic language. Mountains rise, valleys sink. God sets up boundary markers for the sea that they can’t pass (i.e. he made the sea and the dry land).
104.10-13: This creation that serves God is also a creation that God serves. It is amazing to some to realize that God serves not only people, but he serves his entire creation.
104.14: “He makes the grass grow for the cattle.” NIV The esv says, “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock…” i.e. the reason God causes the grass to grow is so that livestock can be fed. It shows God’s care for the animals. It brings to mind the words of Yahweh to Jonah, 4.11 “But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
104.15: “wine that gladdens the heart of man” This simple statement is a fabulous picture of God’s desire for human beings to not just scratch out an existence on earth but to enjoy the earth and its fruits. We could live on water, but God gives wine which “lights up the eyes” (another translation of “gladdens the heart”). The truth about this Psalm and God’s creation as it’s revealed here is that all of God’s creation (in its unfallen stat) gladdens our hearts
104.15-18: God creates habitats for each of his creatures.
104.19-23: God creates day and night and the seasons that bring variety, rhythm and life.
104.24: “In wisdom you have made them all…” There is this fantastic picture of God using his practical wisdom to create each part of his creation so that all things come together into a harmonious whole, each part complimenting the others.
104.26: One of the most fun verses/pictures in all of the Bible. “There the ships go to and fro, and the Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.” Leviathan was the mythical monster of the deep. In Psalm 104 we find that this great monster is God’s pet cavorting about in the sea. Another legitimate interpretation of the Hebrew which adds a whimsical picture is, “There go the ships, and the Leviathan, which you formed to play with.”
104.27-30: God’s rule, care for, and ultimate ownership of the creation is shown.
104.31: In two phrases we find two powerful truths. First, the creation shows the glory of God. The idea that the creation will do this forever reflects the New Testament picture of God finally renewing his creation (See Romans 8 and Revelation 21). Second, the reality that God rejoices in his creation should cause us to desire not only to rejoice with him, but to treat his creation with care for it is a place that causes him to rejoice.
104.33: “I will sing to the LORD all my life…” because of the wonder of his creation. If we sing to God because of his creation how much more we sing because of the promise of his new creation.
104.35: Sinners are those who oppose God and fail to see him as the ruler of creation.
5 comments:
From comments:
"When God steps in and forgives sin he also heals the disease which flows from the sin."
So, when I confess my sin, (1John 1:9) He who is faithful and just to forgive my sin will also provide for my healing? If this is true why don't we see more supernatural healing?
HI Anonymous,
A couple of thoughts. First, let's start with the text. Hebrew poetry is often built in a parallelism which means the first and second line say the same thing but using different words. At times the second line deepens or gives a greater emphasis to what was said in the first. In this case we find that God forgives our iniquities. Iniquities is a word that speaks of our life being twisted or bent our of shape. Forgiveness brings about our being straightened up. The second line follows this same idea with our diseases being healed. Since this a parallelism the normal understanding would be that diseases is a metaphor for sin. God heals us of our sin.
The John passage does indeed speak of God forgiving, but it does not connect forgiveness with healing. This is not to say that sin and illness are never connected (see James 5 and 1 Corinthians 11.30). But it is also true that sometimes disease and struggle aren't connected to sin (See John 5). So it has a certain level of risk to assume that if we confess our sins that we will be healed. First, because there is no guarantee that confession will bring healing. Second, because our illness may have nothing to do with sin (cf. Paul's thorn in the flesh), but it could be something God is using to teach us, for his glory, or it could be a simple reality of living in a fallen world.
Why don't we take Pauls thorn to be what the Bible says it is? A messenger of Satan.
2 Corinthians 12:7
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Hi Chris,
I'm not sure what you are aiming at in your comment. But I'll throw out a couple of thoughts. First, Paul's thorn is an example of suffering that doesn't flow from some sin he has committed, rather it is something used to keep him from becoming conceited. The point of the earlier comment is that we can't trace all illness back to sin even as we can't trace Paul's suffering back to some sin in his life. The second thought has to do with the structure of 2 Cor 12.7. Paul speaks in the passive voice in Greek "there was given me" which indicates that God is behind the giving of the thorn. The Word Biblical commentary says, Paul confesses that he is not the agent responsible for this thorn. He reports that the thorn “was given to me.” It is doubtful that Satan is the giver, even if is the grammatical subject of "given". If Paul had intended to convey such information, he most likely would have chosen a word other than"given". This word was usually employed to denote that God’s favor had been bestowed (cf Gal 3:21; Eph 3:8; 5:19; 1 Tim 4:14). Plummer suggests that if Satan was the agent, , “lay upon” (Luke 10:30; 23:26; Acts 16:23), or “cast” (Rev 2:24), or “put on” (1 Cor 7:35), would have been more appropriate (348). As mentioned earlier, we have an example of the passivum divinum. This “divine passive,” speaking of God as the hidden agent behind events and experiences in human lives, fits well into Paul’s thinking. He sees both the revelation and the thorn as from God.
Anonymous's comment is interesting to me......
As I pray with people and God shows them their part in a sin and they confess it and accept forgiveness from God often they are healed from pains they are having from the sin they have been carrying. It is amazing to watch...God's Truth is always best for us. Sin causes stress in our lives and we know what stress does to our bodies. We were not made to carry it.
The other comments are interesting too because they hit a question I brought up a few weeks ago about ....if God's hand is in something satan is part of ...then is God the source?
This is so hard to put into perspective.
Another verse will be coming up soon in
1 Chronicles 21:1 that fits into this conversation... 2 Samuel 24:1 says God did it.....so who did it God or satan?
Thanks for the thought provoking questions!
Post a Comment