All Things New

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26) Exile is quite the prolific theme throughout the Old Testament for the people of Israel. If nothing else, they are quite acquainted with the pain of suffering under foreign occupation and rule. Even more difficult would have been one of their prophets task...

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD. All the families of the nations will bow down before you,” (Psalm 22:27) If there has ever been a passage of scripture to be described as an emotional roller coaster, it’s Psalm 22. It begins in anguish and ends in worship. The suffering within its pages isn’t some ethereal metaphor, it’s very real and felt pain. Yet, somehow, someway,...

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) Isaiah gave us a prophetic look at the Suffering Servant and His redemption of a broken humanity. In Mark 10, Jesus gathers up this prophetic hope into Himself; the Suffering Servant is no longer a future promise, but an incarnate reality walking down a road with His disciples...

“But as for me, LORD, my prayer to you is for a time of favor. In your abundant, faithful love, God, answer me with your sure salvation.” (Psalm 69:13) Over our adult life we’ve had more than our fair share of reasons to lament and cray out to God for this reason or that. From minor inconveniences to downright hateful and egregious treatment from church members to losing a child to crime and raisi...

“I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33) It’s easy for us, especially in days of trial and suffering, to hope that God’s answer to human failure will simply be better circumstances, better leadership, or even better national security. While all those things matter, they don’t go deep enough, they don’t matt...

“But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.” (Isaiah 53:5) This week we find a somewhat jarring turning point in the story. By now Israel is well-acquainted with suffering by way of exile, failure, judgment, and a deep longing. The nations are still fractured and the world bears the weight of...

“The LORD swore an oath to David, a promise he will not abandon: ‘I will set one of your offspring on your throne.’” (Psalm 132:11) (Luke 1:33) Psalm 132 is a Psalm of remembrance, the so-called Song of Ascents. God remembers the covenant of David and they both long to be home in Zion. David is not being worshipped here, but God, who continues to refuse abandoning His people or His oath. As great ...

“He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.” (Luke 1:33) I’ve always been a history buff of sorts and have been fascinated by various leadership approaches, good and bad, throughout human history. The fact is, no matter how effective or powerful, leaders and kingdoms rise and fall over time. They fracture, break apart, change, get taken into exile, or just go ...

 “This is the declaration of the LORD to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’” (Psalm 110:1) So much of the Bible seems to most as information that exists “out there” in the expanse of the cosmos. The important part of study, after understanding the nature and character of God and His Kingdom, is bringing that knowledge close to heart. Psalm 110 helps us do jus...

“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” (Psalm 2:6) Humans have always had a peculiar definition of freedom, especially in the West. As Psalm 2 opens, the nations rage, people groups plot while kings and rulers gather together against the Lord’s anointed. This orb isn’t shown as neutral or calm, but restless, proud, and resistant to the divine reign of God.Our world still reflects th...

Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever. (2 Samuel 7:16) At this point in the story, we find David in a place of rest from his enemies. He has a grand palace in which to live and a desire to do something meaningful for the God of his worship. After surveying his own palace made of cedar and the finest things in the land, he observes the ark...

“Restore us, LORD, God of Armies; make your face shine on us, so that we may be saved.” (Psalm 80:19) This has been a tough week of reading. We’ve looked honestly at failure, forgetfulness, corruption, and gazed into the mirror of self-reflection only to find ourselves guilty. As the week ends we aren’t compelled to “try harder” or “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps”, but instead, we turn to...

“Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.” (Mark 7:8) When my children were young after a round of discipline or scolding, we’d always talk about the root cause of the behavior, pointing to the reality that the behavior, while sinful, was only a symptom of something awry in the heart. In fact, as they got older it became a family joke that everything was apparently a “heart i...

“The LORD looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God.” (Psalm 14:2) When we read stories of Israel’s failing and unfaithfulness, it’s easy to shake our heads towards them, naively believing in our hearts that we are somehow different. Psalm 14 brings us back to reality. It drives a truth deep into the human heart. The Lord looks down on the human...

“Hear the word of the LORD, people of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land!” (Hosea 4:1) Our culture has long characterized unrighteousness as simply “making a few mistakes” in an effort to minimize the impact of our behavior. Hosea 4 teaches us that personal failure is really more than a few i...