DREADNOUGHT
Psalm 37: 1-11
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A PRESBYTERIAN PSALTER - by Pastor Max A Forsythe |
At the turn of the century, there was an expensive naval arms race that contributed to the coming of the Great War. It all started when the British Navy laid down a new concept for the battle fleets of our own century. The first ship of these fast, modern big gun battle line was appropriately named the Dreadnought because there existed no ship anywhere in the world which threatened Brittania's rule of the seas. "Fear nothing" we might translate this Old English term which was used to coin a class of ships which dominated the seas for half a century. And so a whole generation or more of sailors went of to sea and war in confident ships to battle for king, country and empire.
Now, the kicker here in all of this naval history is that sometimes the attitude of the crew is of equal value to their fighting platform. The confident assurance that comes from good training and familiarity with state of the art technology wins victory after victory. In the second of the great wars, the Flying Tigers of the Chinese Air Force were able to win victories with obsolete planes that other Americans regarded as flying coffins. Their gung-ho attitudes and the five hundred dollar gold bonus for each enemy plane flamed, may have had a lot to do with their unsurpassed combat record.
Now, how does all of this relate to our calling as Christians? I do hope that I am close to the mark in thinking that very much of the Christian Church appears wimpy, wimpy, wimpy in the eyes of a fallen world. In spite of the fact that we have the strongest moral and spiritual force in the universe behind our witness, why does the Church fight the war of ideas so poorly. Is it not because we do not understand the spiritual weapons available to us. Is it not because we lack confidence in our Lord and our God. As we open our month's study of the thirty-seventh psalm, with a "dreadnought" injunction from the God of heaven through the revelation given to David the king.
Our psalm opens in verses one and two with the first of five precepts: "[Dread naught] because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away." Do not fret is our injunction. At first glance this seems in accord with a popular a few years ago: Don't worry, be happy! However, I believe that there is something more here than an injunction for daily living. Let us look at the object of our instruction there. We are not to dread, fret or worry because of worldly people, neither are we to envy their situation. C.H. Spurgeon shares a farm image here of the ungodly being but beasts fattened for the slaughter. Perhaps that image is beyond our modern urban comprehension, but, let me delve into it briefly. Every other year or two shepherds choose a young ram lamb to keep for breeding stock. The lamb is tagged and monitored closely. At a certain age he is separated from the ewes and the withers. Thus you have three groups of sheep in different pens. When we had sheep, our little ram had a hard time understanding why the withers in the next pen were fed so well? Later on in the fall, the withers were loaded into the truck for a one way trip to market. The ram continued to grow and was eventually returned to the ewes as the master of the flock. While the farm image here is not completely adequate, let us firmly realize that the way of the wicked is well described in verse two. They have their calling, we have ours.
A second precept is aptly described in verse three.: "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture." Like our little ram who was penned up, we ought not bleat our voices away in complaining. Instead, we should trust completely in our Master and our God who fences us in for our own good! Trust or as we should put it, faith can cure our worry. Sometimes when we look at the situation of the worldly around us we do not see as we ought to see. We need the eyes of faith to appraise our minds properly. I remember when I was a teenager I enjoyed reading more than any other activity. Some people thought I should be outside playing ball and having a good time. However, I would sooner get bonked on the head than be able to catch anything. We finally discovered that I needed glasses because I was near-sighted. But, by then the real damage had been done, I had fallen in love with the pleasure of reading. I never developed the normal habits of chasing after pigtails and pigskins and otherwise keeping my eyes on the ball because I couldn't see a baseball until it was too close! In a similar sense, we all need the optics of faith given to us by the Holy Spirit to properly behold Him whom we ought to trust.
So we have covered two injunctions from our psalmist. First, dread naught, second trust in Him who is all powerful and mighty as you do good. Our third precept is found in verse four: "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." This injunction was the second half of that once popular song: "be happy". Yes, we ought not to dread, fret or worry, and we should be happy! But let us not leave the Lord out of our singing. Our true happiness is to be found in the Lord, our creator and our God. Yes we may imitate the values of the worldly song as long as our object is proper. Just as the worldly delight in their portion, so should we delight in the Lord. If we trust in Him and take delight in His counsel then there will be no room for fear, fret or worry.
There is also a greater blessing here in the second half of verse four. If we would desire to please our God, then He who is the object of our desire may bless us as we worship, walk and witness in His eternal Name. This desire leads us to the fourth precept to be found in this psalm: "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun." Now the words here in the Latin translation are indeed indicative of how we should commit our way. The Vulgate translates the first phrase of verse five in these words: "Reveal thy way". Is not this the best commitment we can make to our God? Reveal thy way O Lord as we trust in you. Too often we bear the burden of our own affairs. Then we wonder why we are chastised with anxiety and want of success. Our commitment here should be to accomplish God's will. Certainly we are to do our duty, as we are enabled. Then we are to cast the care of success over to God, just as the farmer does when he has finished the work of the spring and waits for God to provide the harvest. We should note that the Lord rewards this kind of commitment as we see in verse six. We also note in the next verse an affirmation of God's providential actions: "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes."
I am reminded of a story about a philosopher who was seeking God. One afternoon he discovered the Lord in the quietness of the forest. He fell on his knees and confessed his joy in his discovery. Then asked the Lord three questions.
"Lord, is it true that a moment of time for you is like a thousand years to us? Lord, is it true that a penny of your wealth is like millions of dollars to us?"
He was answered in the affirmative to both questions. The philosopher then asked for a personal blessing: "Lord, could you give me a penny?"
"Certainly my son", was the cheerful answer, "I'll be back in just a moment!"
An older version of Scripture encourages us to rest in the Lord and to await His good pleasure and the objects of His providence. The worldly have their wealth immediately. We shall have to wait a moment or two for ours. In the meantime we are encouraged to prepare ourselves for His eventual return in verse eight: "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret - it leads only to evil." Here we come back to where we started today "Dreadnought"! How often are we really envious with what our neighbors sometimes get away with? How often are we afflicted by the worldly who help us to get our blood pressure raised? The Holy Spirit reveals to us through these words of David that inappropriate anger on our part will only lead to more evil!
In the last three verses of our portion is defined the essential lesson of the last precept that David lays before us: "For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace." Here we see that the worldly will be cut off. The word here indicates a penal judgment, not a gentle removal to a different state of existence! If we would learn to be patient and wait for the Lord's portion we may well enjoy Him forever and ever. We are assured that we have an inheritance in eternity. But there in that heavenly land, the wicked will not be found. Let us resolve this day to hope in the Lord and may we seek to learn the heavenly patience to wait for the eventual revelation the great peace of eternity. And until we realize that blessed reward, let us dread naught whatever comes our way. With this attitude and the training of the Word we may fight the good fight and finish the course that is laid out before us. Amen.
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Resources Used: |
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Spurgeon, C.H. |
The Treasury of David. | |
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IBS: The Holy Bible, New International Version (1984) | ||
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Psm 037e |
24 June 90 & 01 October 95 | |