What Does This Mean?

Grace, mercy, and peace, be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

            The theme is this: Great is His faithfulness.

            I believe you can ask every mother in this room today and get quite more of a description than you bargained for about the pains of childbearing. But let John do the describing for us without the extra embellishments. The woman in labor has such pain in order to give birth to her children, but all of that pain fades away when she holds her baby in her arms. Her sorrow and her pain are turned to joy. When she holds that child, nothing else matters.

And I believe you can ask every mother in this room today about how she feels when her young whippersnappers head off to college. On the one hand, she wants what is best for you, wants you to do your best and achieve your goals. She wants you to be grown up and start your own families. But on the other hand, I tell you the truth, she misses you, her children, when you are gone from the home. She wants you to call her, so she can hear your voice again. She wants you to visit her, to come home. While you are off at college, she has sorrow. But when you return, her sorrow is turned into joy. A little while you are away, and again a little while and you come back.

And this is no different in the life of the church. That our children have left or our neighbors have left. And for many of us, we want them to come back. A little while and you will not see me…but we hope and pray that again a little while and we will see them. We have sorrow now, and the world rejoices at this. The devil loves our suffering. The devil devises divisions, strife, false doctrine, you name it.

When Jesus speaks these words to the disciples, it is on the night in which he was betrayed. A little while and you will not see me. I will be crucified. I will die, and I will be buried. He knows this, but the disciples cannot believe it is true. Sure, Jesus said three times that he would be killed and be buried and on the third day rise again. Sure, the Old Testament prophesied this long ago in Psalm 22 and 31 and in Isaiah 53. But our text today reminds us that the disciples are still not understanding what Jesus means. This news makes them sorrowful, but again a little while and they will see Him, see Him raised from the dead. That will turn their sorrow into joy.

On a day like today, on “Take your Mom to church” Sunday, I hope that many of our mothers are joyful that you are here with them hearing the Word of God and believing it like you were raised. I pray that you come back and that she has joy when you return. But when this Sunday falls on a theme like this one, let us turn to the book of the Bible made famous for sorrow, the book of Lamentations, written from Jeremiah, the so-called Weeping Prophet.

For Jeremiah surprises us when he says to us today, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” This is incredibly comforting for us. This is the Good News and Gospel for our souls. That like our own mothers who love us our whole lives, our Lord loves us even more and greater and it never ceases. He died on the cross because He loves us. His mercies, His grace, is not conditional nor does it only last for a few months or years. God’s mercy is granted to you all the days of your life, even today, in the midst of sorrow.

Great is our Lord’s faithfulness to us! In the midst of lamentations, in the midst of pain, in the midst of sorrow, in the midst of struggles, our Lord’s mercies will never fail us. There is no other piece of our lives that can promise us this. At the school, there will not always be an ear to listen. On the farm, there oftentimes seems to be no mercy. At work, we may struggle with various trials. Even in our homes, there are times of lamentations. But you must always remember and never forget.

Great is our Lord’s faithfulness to you. The Lord is your portion, therefore you will hope in Him. Our hope is not in our jobs or our children. Our hope, dearly beloved saints of God, our hope is in the Lord. This hope that we have is this very thing, that our sorrow will be turned into joy. Rejoice, for you shall see the Lord again, again you will see Him, this time face-to-face in clouds of glory.

Great is His faithfulness. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that we should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. In our lives, we wait for many things, for many prayers to be answered, for many children to come home. Let us also wait for the salvation of the Lord. Let us also wait, for the Lord shall return to bring us, His children, home. Let us also wait, and as we wait, His mercies are new every morning. His faithfulness is great every day.

So also, you have sorrow now, but the Lord will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you forever and ever.

In the holy name of Jesus, Amen.

Rev. James Peterson
St. John
Curtis, Nebraska

©2022 James Peterson. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Up through endless ranks of angels,
Cries of triumph in His ears,
To His heavenly throne ascending,
Having vanquished all their fears,
Christ looks down upon His faithful,
Leaving them in happy tears.

In this first stanza, the hymnwriter puts us in the place of Christ. As Christ ascends into the heavens, “through endless ranks of angels,” He hears “cries of triumph.” Certainly we think of “Alleluia!” We think of “Christ is risen!” We think of “Glory to God in the highest!” The angels and archangels and all the company of heaven rejoice and sing that the Lord is living, that King comes back “to His heavenly throne ascending.” He has vanquished their fears and leaves them in happy tears. “It is finished,” the salvation of souls, the redemption of the whole world.

Death-destroying, life-restoring,
Proven equal to our need,
Now for us before the Father
As our brother intercede;
Flesh that for our world was wounded,
Living, for the wounded plead!

The first Adam died because of His sin and therefore all die. But the second Adam, Jesus, destroyed death and restored life to all creation. What we needed the Lord hath provided. This stanza emphasizes that the Lord Jesus pleads and intercedes for us, His people to the Father. Yes, Jesus died on the cross. Yes, Jesus rose from the dead. But His work is not done. He still prays for us, for the wounded here below, that grace on us would bestow!

To our lives of wanton wandering
Send Your Spirit, promised guide;
Through our lives of fear and failure
With Your power and love abide;
Welcome us, as You were welcomed,
To an endless Eastertide.

In our lives of wanton wandering … Isn’t that a wonderful phrase for our lives as Christians? We are yet wandering in the wilderness waiting for the return of the Lord. And though we love the Lord, we love ourselves, our sin, and our desires even now too. We are wanton wanderers.

But notice the prayer we pray. “Send Your Spirit, promised Guide.” We rely and hope on the work of the Holy Spirit. We know God sent the Spirit, that we would never be alone. Think the Ascension promise, “Lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” The Holy Spirit will guide and teach us, enlightened and strengthen us. That we will be welcomed to an endless Eastertide in heaven forever!

Alleluia, Alleluia!
Oh, to breathe the Spirit’s grace!
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Oh, to see the Father’s face!
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Oh, to feel the Son’s embrace!
Glory be to the Father,
And to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning,
Is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Rev. James Peterson
St. John
Curtis, Nebraska

©2022 James Peterson. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

                Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

                Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

                Isn’t odd for Christian churches to talk about the resurrection of Jesus, but not to talk about His cross?

                The disciples were hidden away in the upper room, likely the same room they had been with Jesus on Thursday evening for their last supper together, the same place that He had condescended to them and took up the role of the servant and washed their feet. The same room in which Peter and Jesus discussed the washing, and how important being washed by Jesus was. “Without this washing, you have no part in me.”

                Perhaps you have been in places that bring back a flood of memories. Maybe its an old barn where you threw haybales with Grandpa before the days of round bailers. Maybe it’s Grandma and Grandpa’s old farm house kitchen where you and your cousins got to sit again for Easter brunch. We associate memories with places. The memories associated with the upper room were likely still vivid for the Disciples. The upper room, the place that Peter valiantly swore He would not betray Jesus. That they all would rather die than fall away from Jesus. And here they are, sitting around in fear in the evening.

                The men had heard the news. They saw the empty tomb. The empty tomb did not give them joy. The idea of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was not something joyful to them. And the resurrection of Jesus is nothing to glory in, in and of itself. The disciples were wallowing in self-pity because they failed Jesus. They did not live up to their word. They played a good game with words, but their actions could cash the checks their mouths wrote. Think about how many times the disciples failed Jesus. How often they argued over who would be the greatest among them. How often they didn’t pay enough attention to Jesus as He patiently taught them. And of course, how horrible of them to have run away from Him when He needed their aid the most. How pitiful and disgraceful.

                Throw in fear they had for the Jews, who had overseen the crucifixion of Jesus, and you can begin to understand what was going on. Heck, you already had another disciple leave the company. Thomas wasn’t even gathered with them when the Lord first came. He had left the company, gone back to whatever life he had before Jesus.

                Fear all around, thick enough to cut with a knife. They feared because of sin all around them and even in them. Their hearts heavy with grief and fear.

                And then the risen Lord Jesus Christ shows up. And He stood among them. I bet when they recognized him, the room was suddenly hushed, if it wasn’t already. The hair on the back of their necks likely standing. What would Jesus say?

                ‘Peace be with you.” “Peace be with you.” That is what He said, and when He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Only then, where the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Why might you ask?

                Well, they saw the nail marks and the thrust of the spear, they knew and believed that Jesus took those blows for them. That Jesus went to the cross for their sins. That Jesus still bears the marks of His cross for them that He might bring them peace. Peace that comes only from the forgiveness of sins. This is a peace which is offered nowhere else. Jesus shows up in His resurrected body bearing the marks of His cross here to bring peace to those disciples, soon to be sent out to proclaim this peace to all the world. Just as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

                And when He said this, He breathed on them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Jesus gives them the Divine mandate, the great commission of John to go out and preach forgiveness in the Name of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, who is as Thomas finally calls Him, “my Lord and my God.”

                The marks of the cross matter. Being in worship on Good Friday matters. Pondering the work of Jesus on the cross matters. Seeing His marks as the marks of love for you, that you might have peace matters. Those marks are the only way you have forgiveness of sins. And it is because of those marks that the disciples are glad. So we too should be glad.

                From those marks flow the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ as He went to cross gave up His Spirit, and thus in His resurrection breathes upon His beloved and gives the Holy Spirit. Just as He does for you. See here the connection to the beginning of Genesis. The man was created, and the Lord God breathed into the man the breath of life. Jesus breathes the breath of life, that is the Holy Spirit, into His disciples on that first day of the week, the evening of His resurrection from the dead.

                But 2 were missing that day. Judas who did not believe that he could be forgiven, who killed himself out of his despair, and Thomas who seemed to have gone back to his life before Jesus. He was not there with his brothers in the upper room. And He would not have been there the next Lord’s Day either. But someone cared enough to tell him, “We have seen the Lord.” I want to believe that the same man who told Nathaniel, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,” that would be Philip, also came to Thomas to tell him, ‘Come and see.” Come to the upper room, come to the church and see the crucified and risen Lord for yourself. He is not here to hurt you. He is not here to destroy you. You may be afraid but Jesus is not here to cause you harm. He is here to give you peace.

                But that peace comes with a bit of price. Not to you, but to Him. Christ bears the marks of the cross that you may have peace. And its in those Holy Wounds that we find healing. Fear is vanquished. Sin is atoned for and forgiven. We are given new life. And when we are confronted again with fear and the accusations of sin which would cause us worry, we can and should be unafraid to come to the Lord Jesus where He promises to be, and confess them, but also confess, “Christ for me was wounded.” And rejoice and be glad like the disciples were that first Easter evening and every Lord’s day ever since. Do not miss. And do not forget to pray for those who are long absent. We all have failed our brothers and sisters. I am chief among you in this regard. I am your pastor, undershepherd of the Good Shepherd Jesus. Many of our flock have wondered, going their own way. It hurts to see, and it hurts me to see how I have failed, just like the disciples hurt when they saw their own failings to keep their word to the Lord. The vows made at ordination and installation confront and give direction. It also acts as mirror like the 10 commandments. Your pastor fails. But the gospel is the same for me as it was for the disciples this day. And it is the same for you now.

                Whatever failing you have committed. Whatever opportunity you had and blew in the past for speaking up about the importance of Christ and being where He promises to be to bring peace in a chaotic world. Where sin is forgiven. Do not fear. Christ forgives you. He loves you. He wants you here. He wants you look upon his wounds and know He went to the cross for you. Be renewed in the knowledge of His love for you, he bore the cross for you. And His marks still bear His love. And now His love is given you in His supper, you are brought to His table, welcomed as His own. And He speaks His peace to you, He wipes your tears away as He says, “Take and eat, take and drink. Your sins are forgiven be at peace.”

                And having been filled with His peace and His love, we pray that we be motivated to speak the proclamation of the disciples, “we have seen the Lord.” No, we have not seen the physical Lord Jesus in His resurrected state, but we do see Him with the eyes of faith in His Supper. And Christ calls us the blessed ones. So we do the best thing we can do for those who in the world walking about as if they have no hope. We say, “Come and see.” Yes, come and see the grace and mercy of our Lord in those holy wounds which our Lord still bears for us. Those wounds are glorious to us, and they make us glad, for they are what tell us Christ comes to bring us forgiveness and peace everlasting.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

©2022 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

You say it every time you recite the 1st commandment and its meaning: “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” But what does that actually entail? What does it mean to fear, love, and trust in God? Suffice it say the words work together so talk about faith.

I deeply appreciate the definitions that Rev. Peter Bender provides along with his Lutheran Catechesis materials. He offers this definition for fear: “the awe and reverence of the heart toward God.” Also in light of the first commandment, he adds, “The terror of heart caused by the demands of God’s Law.”

There are two types of fear in play then when talking about fearing God. We must always remember who is the Creator and who is creature. Obviously the Creator is greater than creature. The Lord speaks through Jeremiah about He being a potter and we being His clay. He can do whatever He desires with us. We should be afraid of Him because of the terror that He can be to sinners. The Lord God is a consuming fire. Fire is a good thing, but we can have a healthy fear of it. If, for instance, fire is uncontrolled it can be dangerous.

At the same time, we should fear the Lord in the since of having awe and reverence toward Him. He is our Father. He is the One who has created all things out of nothing for us. He is the one who sent His only Son to redeem us from our sin. So while we can be like Moses and tremble with fear before Him because of our sin and His awesome holiness. We can and should revere Him for all that He has done. Ultimately because He has saved us through His Son, we are to love and trust Him.

Fear, love, and ultimately trust, all come together in the worship of Triune God. We love God when we by the Holy Spirit desire to hear His Word. We are called to rely on His Word for our life now and into eternity. This is the life of faith. This is a life that relies upon God for everything that makes up our needs for this life and the next.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

©2022 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sermon on Romans 6:3-5, 9-11
The Vigil of Easter
April 16, 2022
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana

Text:  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. … We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Intro: Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Allelujah! Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who by his death has destroy death and by his rising again opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

The Easter Vigil is one of the oldest worship services the church celebrates. As early as the first or second centuries, the church at Jerusalem met at sundown on Holy Saturday to tell the whole story of salvation – from the creation of the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus. People love stories. We read them, tell them, quote them and enjoy them over and over again. Even ones that are of real people, often embellished, have a charm for us.

The story of salvation is the best of them all, not only because it has great power and drama, filled with one water rescue after another, but because we are a part of it. This story is not over yet and that makes all the difference in the world. This story, you see, will actually end happily ever after, when Jesus will raise us from our graves to live with him forever.

1.  Jesus is at the center of this story
   1. As God, he created the world.
   1. He kept Noah and his family safe on the Ark.
   1. He spoke from the burning bush to call Moses and was in the pillar of cloud and fire.
   1. He is the Redeemer Job will see on the last day.
   1. He stood with the three witnesses in the fiery furnace.
   1. At just the right time he was born of the virgin Mary,
   1. As the Lamb of God, he was slain for us.
   1. Through apostles, faithful witnesses, pastors and countless others, he brought the word of God to us.
2.  We are in this story.
   1.  In our right time, his Holy Spirit, united us with him in Holy Baptism.
   1.  When he died, we died with him.
   1.  When he rose again, we rose with him, too.
   1. On a day very soon, he will come for us to bring us home.
   1. And on that last day, he will call our bodies from the grave and we will live with him forever.
   1. So now, we consider ourselves dead to sin but alive it him.

Christ is Risen!

©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sermon on Luke 15:1–32
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Our Hope Lutheran Church & Kramer Chapel
March 27^th-28th, 2022

Text:  “[The Father] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”  

Intro: The Parable of the Prodigal Son is, ironically, not about the lost son. It is about the Father and another son – the older one. Nor is the other two lost parables about the lost sheep or the lost coin. Nor are they about the ninety-nine sheep, safely grazing in the pasture or the nine coins still in the woman’s purse. They are about the friends and neighbors and the angels of God. God looks everywhere for the lost and rejoices when he finds them. He throws a party and wants us to rejoice with him. For they were dead and now are alive again; they were lost and now are found.

1. Before He made the world, God loved us.
   1. He chose us to be his children, rigged things so that we would be adopted as his heirs.
   2. In Jesus, he became one of us, sought us, died for our sins and rose so that we might live with him forever.
   3. His Holy Spirit put faith in our heart, keeps us safe in his care and is a guarantee of our salvation. 
2. God loves sinners and wants us to love them, too.
   1. Yet we are not alone. God has countless lost children, who have wandered far from home.
   2. Jesus searches everywhere for them.
   3. When he finds them, he rejoices and brings them home.
   4.  He throws a party for them and wants us to celebrate and be happy with him.
3.  Yet sometimes we do not feel like celebrating.
   1. Most of us have lived our lives as faithful Christians.
   2. Yet we live in a world that at best ignores God’s will and worst defies it.
   3. When they finally come to their senses, are we really all that happy about it?
   4. What we forget is that we are sinners, too.
4. Jesus came from heaven and sought us.
   1. He was born and lived in every way we are, except he didn’t sin.
   2. He bore our sins and complaining to the cross, where he died in our place.
   3. He rose to break the power of sin and death.
   4. He brought us home, singing and rejoicing.
   5. In the end, we will share his joy in the party that lasts forever.

This can be a challenging topic for Christians to hear and understand. But, understood well, it is a tremendous comfort. The comfort is not just for the confidence of individual Christians in the faith. But, the confidence also is in Christian witness, that what we perceive as success and failure are not ours but the Lord’s.

First, it is good for us to understand that’s foreknowledge and election are different attributes of God. This distinction is not for God’s benefit or to contain His action or His will. This distinction serves us by preventing us from applying our own reason to fill in gaps what God has revealed to us of himself. The revealed aspects of God and those hidden things can deliver us truths which seem to be in paradox. Our duty as Christians is to embrace and hold fast to those seeming paradoxes in the confidence that we have received what we need to know.

God’s foreknowledge is his knowledge of all events of history, the current time, and the future prior to their occurrence. The prophets are all examples of this attribute of God. This is not to say that they possessed the attribute of God of which we speak. But rather, God revealed to them some of his foreknowledge, allowing them to prophecy correctly. And, that is the mark of a true prophet. What a prophet says, if they are from God, must come true.

“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

God’s foreknowledge includes Christians and unbelievers alike. But it is not given to us to understand this as a causal relationship. That is to say that the foreknowledge of God does not cause sin or evil. The cause of evil and sin is the Devil himself, and mankind’s evil inclination to do sinful things. God’s awareness of all things does not cause bad things to happen.

There are two errors of human reason concerning predestination/election that arise from our discomfort with those things revealed to us that seem to be in paradox.

The first is that there is no predestination/election. This is the Arminian teaching commonly referred to as decision theology (teachings rising from: Jakobus Arminius 1560-1609). Decision theology lays hold of the truth that damnation is a result of mankind’s sin and hatred of God. Then, the Arminians make the intellectual extrapolation that salvation must also be a result of the will of man. The assumption that I can choose God simply does not stand in the face of the scriptures. St. Paul say we were dead in sin. Dead things don’t do things apart from the external, life-giving work of the Holy Spirit.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)

The second error is that God chooses both the salvation of some and the damnation of others. This is a Calvinist error that rises from applying human reason to the hidden things of God and in mingling together foreknowledge and election (teachings rising from: John Calvin 1509-1564).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Reason says, “if God chooses some for salvation, then He must choose not to save others.” Reason is wrong. He is uncomfortable with incomplete understanding God reveals to us. The rest may be revealed to us at the eschaton, the resurrection of all flesh. But, for now, it is not give to us to know or understand.

There is a simple gap in our understanding between what is revealed and what is not. Those are not given to us to fill-in or to work-out in our own understanding. Rather, God has revealed what He wants us to know. It is sufficient for our salvation by faith in Christ Jesus.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

©2022 Jason Kaspar. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com.

“Love your enemies.” This is one of those difficult phrases of Jesus that hits right at our hearts. As my parents used to remind me, if you are mad with someone, pray for them; it will help you not be mad at them anymore.

But “love your enemies” is even a bit more difficult than that because sometimes prayer does not solve issues or restore friendships. “Love” these days in our world is all about feelings and all about selfishness. But that is not Christian love. It is not the “love” in the Scriptures. “Love” means to sacrifice for the sake of someone. Who would sacrifice anything for their enemies?

David certainly wrestles with this in Psalm 3.  Let’s take a look.

O Lord, how many are my foes!
    Many are rising against me;
² many are saying of my soul,
    “There is no salvation for him in God.”

David’s enemies think he should be damned. “There is no salvation for him in God.” What’s more, these foes that are rising against him are led by Absalom his son. David the King vs. Absalom the prince. Talk about a family feud brewing! We love our children, but sometimes our children do not love us. We ask ourselves, “How could David love his son Absalom, the son who is about to kill him?”

³ But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
    my glory, and the lifter of my head.
⁴ I cried aloud to the Lord,
    and he answered me from his holy hill.

David has our answer. The Lord is his shield. David’s army was against him. His own son was against him. But God was not against him. God would defend him. God would protect him. God would never leave him or forsake him.

“Love your enemies” may be one of the most difficult challenges for us, but we know that God loves His enemies, even those who killed Him, even those who sin against him. He loves even us and forgives us. This we know for the Bible tells us so.

With this comfort in mind, David then continues:

⁵ I lay down and slept;
    I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
⁶ I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
    who have set themselves against me all around.

As someone remarked the other day, these verses are not here so that we know that David was tired, and that he needed a nap. David writes this in the poem to show how God is his shield. Even though his son pursues him, even though the army wishes to kill him, even though he has enemies all around, the Lord grants him sleep. The Lord sustained him that evening and each day.

David will not be afraid, and neither should we be afraid. For just as God was David’s shield, he is our shield too. We can love our enemies as God loved His enemies, and we do not need to be afraid because God will sustain us.

Now the psalm finishes with even more comfort.

⁷ Arise, O Lord!
    Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
    you break the teeth of the wicked.

⁸ Salvation belongs to the Lord;
    your blessing be on your people!

“Save me, O my God!” This is David’s prayer, and we hear it again and again in the Scriptures. So many in the Gospels say this very thing to Jesus. “Save us” is “hosanna” in Hebrew. This points us toward Palm Sunday when the entire crowd is chanting “Hosanna!” And save them He did, five days later when He died on the cross.

On that day, our Lord “loved His enemies” even unto death.

Rev. James Peterson
St. John Curtis, Nebraska

©2022 James Peterson. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

What are we fighting about anyway? It seems everywhere you look these days, there is fighting going on. There are fights in families about politics and health. There are fights on social media, and friendships are erased. There are fights between countries, and anxiety among the nations. What are we fighting about today?

Let’s take a look at Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage
    and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers take counsel together,
    against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
³ “Let us burst their bonds apart
    and cast away their cords from us.”

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? According to the psalmist, it is because they are fighting against the Lord and against His anointed. Preach that in this world that is angry 24/7. Why don’t families get along? Because you are fighting against the Lord. Why don’t I have any friends anymore on the internet? Because you are fighting against the Lord. Why are countries destroying one another? Because they are fighting against the Lord. I imagine this message would get laughed out of the room because there is no space for truth like Psalm 2 tells us.

But consider what the war cry is, that “we” would “burst our bonds apart and cast away cords from us.” That they would be free. That is what the war is about. That is what all the fighting is about. That this world wants to be free from God, wants to be free to sin, wants to be free to speak, but only because “I am right and you are wrong.”

It would seem that at the time of the Psalmist, they have forgotten that the truth will set you free. It seems in our own day, that we have forgotten that the truth will set us free. Without the truth, there will always be fighting because there will always be lying. But the fighting isn’t so personal, it is in fact theological. The people are fighting amongst themselves because they are fighting against the Lord.

Let’s take a further look at Psalm 2.

⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs;
    the Lord holds them in derision.
⁵ Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
    and terrify them in his fury, saying,
⁶ “As for me, I have set my King
    on Zion, my holy hill.”

⁷ I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
    today I have begotten you.
⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
    and the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron
    and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

What will God do about this? It is clear what He will do. He sets His King on Zion, the holy hill. In other words, it is only through the church that peace will come on earth. And the church will only have peace because that King is God’s Son. We know Jesus has come, and that He has brought peace on earth through His death on the cross. We know that Jesus is God’s Son, begotten of the Father. And that we are now going therefore, baptizing and teaching and making all the nations into His heritage.

Consider these comforting words of warning from Psalm 2 today:

¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
    be warned, O rulers of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear,
    and rejoice with trembling.
¹² Kiss the Son,
    lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
    for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Rev. James Peterson
St. John Curtis, Nebraska

©2022 James Peterson. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com