Category: Psalms

Posted in John, Matthew, Psalms

The Benefits of the Good Shepherd

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” Psalm 23:1

In John 10 Jesus revealed that He was the good shepherd Psalm 23 was written about. There are three tremendous benefits in making the Lord our Shepherd:

  1. Security – Sheep are timid creatures and don’t eat or rest well when they’re afraid. When Jesus is truly our Shepherd we have somewhere to take our fears and can learn how to live our daily lives free from anxiety. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil; Your rod and your staff they comfort me.” Through the forgiveness offered in the cross, Jesus takes away the fear of death by giving us eternal life now. Death becomes a promotion instead of an end and getting older no longer means we’re past our prime; we’re only getting closer to coming into it. In Christ, our best days are before us because we were created for eternity and not just time.
  2. Success – When the shepherd is not close by, sheep immediately form a butting order by which each sheep learns its place. Sheep won’t even lie down without the shepherd nearby because they’re afraid they’ll lose their place. The world’s definition of success is often about power, money, and fame, and it requires a lot of energy to protect one’s place. But Jesus redefines success for His people – “He leads me in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.” We only have to do the right thing in each situation we are in and live to honor His Name.  When we live to please God and make that our priority, “goodness and mercy will follow.” We always get in trouble when we seek God’s blessings instead of letting them follow us. Jesus said it this way: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
  3. Satisfaction – “My cup overflows.” Jesus said, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) God’s idea was that witnessing would be a very natural outflow of our satisfaction in Him. Is it a burden to tell someone about a movie or book you loved? The witness is spontaneous because you want those who you love to experience the blessing that you enjoyed in watching or reading. George Mueller said, “I consider the first duty of every day is to get my soul happy in God.”  Let’s do the same!
Posted in 2Samuel, Acts, Psalms

What’s Your Dream?

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.” Psalm 27:4

David’s dream was that he would know the intimacy of God’s presence which is why he was called the man after God’s own heart.  His dream was to know God Himself. What’s yours?

David also had an assignment, in fact, it was a big one. He was appointed by God to be king in Israel which meant that he was responsible to lead and shepherd them, which he did with integrity and diligence (Psalm 78:72), but his assignment was never his dream.

This became evident when he sinned against God and was in danger of losing everything. In his prayer recorded in Psalm 51, he pleaded with God about his dream but never even mentioned his assignment: “Do not cast me from Your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me…” (Psalm 51:11) When Absalom was seeking to overthrow the kingdom, David fled, but made Zadok keep the ark in Jerusalem: “If I find favor in the Lord’s eyes, He will bring me back…”, but if not, “I am ready; let Him do whatever seems good to Him.” (2Samuel 15:26) David’s identity wasn’t in being king but in being God’s child. He didn’t have to fight to be or do something, He just wanted to be where God wanted him.

Acts tells us that David completed his assignment while on earth (Acts 13:36) and you should aim to fulfill yours as well, but I hope you don’t make it your dream. Making your assignment your dream will burn you out and all those who are around you because burn out is always the end result of putting the second commandment (Love your neighbor) before the first (Love God). But if we seek God Himself as our dream, like David did, we will find an abundance of grace to complete His assignment and all the glory will belong to Him.

Posted in Daniel, James, Psalms

The Humility of our Humanity

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” James 4:13-16

God gave King Nebuchadnezzar a dream and then gave Daniel the interpretation to warn him about the brevity of his life. In the dream he was pictured as a head of gold, but Daniel explained that the reason why the metal changed at the shoulders was: “after you will arise another kingdom…” (Daniel 2:39) The king didn’t like this reminder of his humanity so he ordered that a ninety foot statue be made of himself out of pure gold, and then ordered those in his kingdom to bow down and worship it. He had those who would address him use this phrase before stating their business; “O king, live forever!” (Daniel 2:9)

God was very patient with this proud king revealing Himself in many ways until he finally came to a place of worship. Daniel records his words: “I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Daniel 4:37) I wonder if he had his servants remind him by changing the greeting to something like: “O king, you won’t live forever.”

When we remember how short our time on earth is, it is easier to live for the important things of eternity instead of the temporal things of this world. No wonder David prayed, “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am;” (Psalm 39:4) and Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

When we’re right with God we have no anxiety about the brevity of our lives because the best is yet to come!

Posted in John, Psalms, Romans

Natural Disasters

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Romans 8:20-22

As we witness earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes around the world,  the age old question arises: Is this an act of God? Was this somehow God judging people for not responding to the gospel? Or maybe His way of preparing them for the gospel? We know God could have stopped the disaster, but did He intentionally plan it? Or was this an act of Satan? Do demonic forces somehow have the power to bring about disasters according to their mission statement of “kill, steal, and destroy?” (John 10:10)

I believe it’s neither God or the devil, but a result of the curse which came on this earth when Adam and Eve sinned. In nature we see evidence of the beauty of our God, but also evidence of the ravages of the fall. Very similar to what we see in mankind.

Although neither God nor Satan directly causes disasters, in my opinion, both kingdoms are very active in the aftermath. Darkness will use tragedy in human minds as proof that God doesn’t love them, or that God doesn’t exist at all. It will try to bring despair, survivor’s guilt, bitterness, etc., anything to lead precious people who Jesus died for away from the help only He can bring.

What is God doing? “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) Notice it doesn’t say, “Close to the brokenhearted if they’re Christians,” or “if they’re praying.” He is unconditionally close to the brokenhearted whether or not they even believe in Him. He is speaking gently to hearts about His love; He is bringing comfort beyond comprehension; He is raising up individuals and governments to help; and yes, He will use tragedy to show people that they can’t put their trust in anything man builds or guarantees.

One day soon Jesus will not only liberate the children of God from their sin nature, He will remove the curse from creation itself, and then the lion will lay with the lamb.

Posted in John, Psalms

Born Broken

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘ It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” John 9:1-3

Many people become blind because of an accident or disease, but some are born blind. The disciples are troubled by this because they think bad things only happen to bad people and this doesn’t fit their formula. When they ask if it was this man’s sin you see how predisposed they were to this thinking. You can almost hear their thoughts: It absolutely has to be this man’s fault that he’s blind… but he was born blind… maybe he sinned in the womb!

Jesus says that it wasn’t his sin or his parents’ sin. He also says that the work of God is not his blindness, but him being healed and made whole. So why was he born blind? I think it’s just the brokenness that sin has caused to the human race passed down from generation to generation. It has affected everything, including our DNA, so much so that some people are born blind even though Adam and Eve weren’t created blind and no one will be blind in heaven.

We have spiritual DNA as well as physical and it too has been broken by sin. In fact, the Bible says that the effects of sin multiply over generations. The sin nature passed down will become worse and worse if given into by the previous generation, so much so that people can be born with strong tendencies toward addictions even though they themselves haven’t done anything wrong yet. It doesn’t seem fair, but the truth is all of us are born broken in some way.

Although God has allowed this, He has promised to be close to the broken (Psalm 34:18) and He sent Jesus to redeem us from our sins and to bind up our brokenness. He doesn’t judge us for being broken, but invites us to make our identity in Him instead of in how broken we are. The work of God is that we become whole. Although blind eyes can be instantly made whole, spiritual wholeness is a process that won’t be completed until heaven.