Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good evening, dear ones.

Once again, this day took off in a direction I didn’t anticipate. We were able to first do a walk/jog on our own place. An early call prompted me to run with Becki to Woodburn, where I dropped her off to do her Bible Study at Country Meadows Assisted Living Center. I ran on from there to Newburg to follow through with checking out the offer of a big bunch of cedar logs. If they were as great as the guy described on the phone, it would have been a good deal. I did some research and made an offer, but it’s most likely disappointingly low for him. I haven’t heard back. I picked up Becki on the way back.

We have an ailing dog. Dandy must have been raiding a burn pile at the neighbor’s place as he had a sooty face. He may have eaten something there that translated as poison. He’s functioning like a spastic and can hardly walk. Not sure which way this will go. Time will tell.

Good night. I’m called to the table.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Are you ready to sing Psalm 60 to the tune of “Lily of the Covenant”? To be sure, even though David had established a covenant relationship with his Maker, not everything coming his way was like a pretty lily. He was facing some storms and thorns. In fact, he complains to the LORD, “You have shown your people desperate times; you have given us wine that makes us stagger” (Psalm 60:30). But, to his credit, David recognizes that the battle outcome is determined by the degree to which he chooses to align himself with his Maker—or chooses not to. The FOCUS VERSE is David’s appropriate prayer of recognition. A similar perspective is presented in Psalms 127:1: “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.”

One of my main motives for selecting the Psalms as a resource for our devotional attention is that David can offer us a relavant template for coping and managing our own battles for survival in this fallen world. We are indeed in warfare. We do indeed have enemies (Ephesians 6:10-13). The Word of God promises that. But just for the sake of identifying our enemies in principle form, let’s agree they are any thing, any spirit, any thought, any ideology, any activity, or any person that impedes or militates against loving God and seeking first His Kingdom rule—against a HEART AFTER GOD.

To be sure, the conflict around us is not waning. If Biblical prophecy is to be believed, the worst of the worst is still forthcoming. The predicted tribulation period of the LAST DAYS is promised to be the worst nightmare ever in human history. We have reason to believe things are heating up in that direction. Failure to live within this awareness can be dangerous. I draw that warning from Proverbs 29:18—“Where there is no revelation (no clarity of purpose, no awareness of the battle lines, who is the enemy, or the seriousness of affiliation) the people cast off restraint (they get careless, compromising, and contaminated); but blessed is he who keeps the law (particularly “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus”—Romans 8:1-2).”

The sad description contained in the last verse of Proverbs 29 describes our own up-side-down world: “The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.” Yup! Right here in our own America, good people are being often judged as bad people—and bad people are viewed as good people. Perversion is becoming the new normal, and Biblical holiness is laughed at, ridiculed, and rejected as abnormal—even destructive. While we must not yield to it, I guess we’d better get used to it.

Here is the wonderful bottom line: “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe” (Proverbs 29:25). Safe from what? From ultimate perishing—but not necessarily from rejection, persecution, or physical death.