Praise – BradRiley.Org

April 19, 2019

The Praise of Agony

Yet you are the Holy One, *
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

Psalm 22:3

“Eli! Eli! Lama sabachthani”, the voice of Jesus cried out from the cross. Most scholars agree that those words were written as a Greek transliteration of the spoken Aramaic of Jesus’ day. They also are the opening words to Psalm 22, one of many scriptures often read on Good Friday.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
and are so far from my cry
and from the words of my distress?

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer;
by night as well, but I find no rest.

Psalm 22:1-2

But what did those words mean? Scripture tells us that many who heard Jesus’ cry of despair from the cross, thought that He was crying out for the prophet Elijah to appear and save Him. However, the name ‘Eli’ in both Hebrew and Aramaic is not only a proper name, but a transliteration for the word ‘God’.

Jesus endured the agony of a Roman scourging without crying out. Isaiah 53 records this prophetic truth as it says, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” It wasn’t the agony of His passion that caused him to cry out to God, it was the burden of sin – yours and mine.

Again, we hear the prophet Isaiah, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”(Isa. 53:6) It was the weight of our sin that caused Him to cry out as his Father looked away, that Christ would die… the one for the many. As the divine Son of God, Jesus couldn’t die, but in His humanity, he willingly gave up His life to the agony of death. In the moments before giving up his life, He cried out because he knew what it felt like to become as sin and to be separated from His Father.

Psalm 22 prophetically offers us the thoughts of Jesus as he hung on the cross. We hear the agony, pain and shame he felt in becoming the full and complete sin offering for the world…

But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *
scorned by all and despised by the people.

All who see me laugh me to scorn; *
they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

“He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; *
let him rescue him, if he delights in him.”

Psalm 22:6-8

“If he delights in him”? Yes, that is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. The scorners and mockers didn’t realize how prophetic they were. In the pain and agony of all agonies, Jesus still found the delight of His Father’s love to pray for those who crucified Him. When no one else would have strength to think or speak, He took the time to show love and mercy to a penitent thief, and assured him of paradise. He took the time to speak forgiveness to His executioners, and He took the time to care for His mother, and gave her into the care of His beloved disciple, John.

It wasn’t the agony of His passion that caused him to cry out to God, it was the burden of sin – yours and mine.

As you look upon the cross of our crucified Lord this Good Friday, consider Him who though in the agony of all agonies, took time to remember you and to praise His Father – the Holy One who is always enthroned upon the praises of the true Israel. Whatever trials and pain you may be enduring right now in your life, consider the faithfulness of the Father who didn’t forget His son in death, but raised Him to life in glory three days later.

Our God is the “Holy One”. He is the praise of all who are truly Israel. He is the one Who can take our ashes and turn them into beauty.

Shalom for a Blessed God Friday,

Pastor Brad

Image credit: https://www.christthesaviourhbg.org/icons.html

August 30, 2016

From Fear to Praise

2 O my God, I cry by day, but thou dost not answer; and by night, but find no rest.

3 Yet thou art holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

Psalm 22:2,3

Every night, as I laid down to sleep, I would remember my friend in prayer – He’d been missing for over a year. Some nights I would literally cry out to God. The burden to pray for my friend was sometimes so strong I would get out of bed and find a quiet place to pray; a place where I could prostrate myself before God in petition.

Many Catholic churches have a small chapel that is filled with prayer for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They call the prayer Eucharistic Adoration. People sign up for one hour a week to go to the Chapel and pray before a consecrated Host of the Eucharist (Holy Communion), which according to their theology is the transubstantiated body and blood of Jesus Christ. A Catholic friend who knew of my burden told me about these chapels and said if I really wanted a sacred place to pray I was welcome anytime, day or night.

One lonely, cold, winter night, as I was particularly burdened in prayer for my friend, I was losing hope and beginning to fear the worst had happened. So, I got up about 3 O’clock in the morning and drove to one those chapels. There in the chapel, was an elderly man spending his hour in prayer. I knelt down and prayed for a while. My custom is to turn to Psalms for guidance in prayer – they are the ancient prayer book of God’s people. That night I turned to a few different Psalms, but when I got to Psalm 22, I heard my voice echoing in the words of Psalm.

David wrote the Psalm but it is historically understood to be the prophetic voice of the crucified Christ, calling out to the Father as He hung on the cross. We hear Jesus crying out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (v. 1), the very words which St. Matthew quotes of Jesus in his gospel, chapter 27, verse 46.

As I read and prayed the words of Psalm 22 that night, I realized that while much of them are words of angst and agony, many of them are of faith and hope. The Psalmist changes his voice in verse 23 to one of hope and assurance that God will hear his prayer and rescue him. In fact, the first line of the Psalm in the Septuagint version is, “concerning help in the morning”. Though Jesus prayed in agony, He knew His Father would send help in the morning. God would not abandon Him in death, and neither will He abandon us in our hour of great need.

It was another four months or so, and my friend was found – alive. He was hurting, but he was alive. God heard my prayers; He always has and He always will, and He hears yours too. What’s your burden in prayer today? Know that He hears, and that His desire is to deliver you as you surrender all to Him. And, just like the Psalmist in the midst of his outcry, let your cries turn to praise:

23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! all you sons of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you sons of Israel!

24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; and he has not hid his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

25 From thee comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.

26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live for ever! (Ps. 22:23-26)

In your prayers, don’t stop when you run out of words of petition. Don’t be afraid to lay out your deepest fears before God. Then, let your cries turn from fear to praise.

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

image credit: http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/february/feeling-forsaken-thoughts-on-psalm-22.html

August 11, 2016

Name Above All Names

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will tell of all thy wonderful deeds.

2 I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High.

Psalm 9:1-3

Psalm 9 offers the reader three themes that are recurrent in many Psalms: thanksgiving with a whole heart, telling the story of God’s wonderful deeds, and praising His Most Holy Name. These three themes are one of the reasons the Psalms make the perfect prayer book of God’s people. The writers of the Psalms were inspired to praise God in these three ways as the prophetic voice of Jesus. As our Messiah, Jesus showed us how to live by modeling the very prayers of the Psalms.

The inspiration of the Psalmist’s prayers seems to be the righteousness of God as He judges from his divine, everlasting throne, “4 For thou hast maintained my just cause; thou hast sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.” So too, as we pray through the psalms our hearts should be quickened to offer praise and thanksgiving to God as we remember and tell of his amazing grace extended in our lives.

Psalm 9 was originally written as an acrostic. The first word of each stanza was formed with a word using the Hebrew alphabet. No doubt Psalm 9 and 10 in most Protestant Bibles was originally one Psalm in the original Greek Septuagint version, which dates from 250 BC. This is why the numbers of the Psalms are off by one following the 9th in the Catholic Bibles, which use the Septuagint version for the Old Testament.

By using the Acrostic form of poetry, the Psalmist was giving praise to God with a view to the whole of life. As you consider the beautiful praise offered in Psalm 9 today, think about your life? How have God’s righteous judgments blessed and protected you from your enemies? How have you contemplated the holiness of His Name? St. Paul reminds us that the name of Jesus is above all names and given the highest glory in heaven, and that every knee shall one day bow to His great name (Phil. 2:10).

Remember, the psalmist praised God from the midst of his tribulation. He didn’t wait until God delivered him to offer praise. Rather, he offered praise for the time when he knew he would be delivered.

13 Be gracious to me, O LORD! Behold what I suffer from those who hate me, O thou who liftest me up from the gates of death,

14 that I may recount all thy praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in thy deliverance.

What a difference it makes to praise God from the midst of our storm and not wait until after it passes. To praise God in the storm is to live by faith, and living by faith is the highest form of praise, for then, we are truly trusting in the name above all names.

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

image credit: http://kevron2001.deviantart.com/art/Name-above-all-names-281053941