Worship Warnings

 

Worship Warnings (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7)

By David Feddes

As a boy going to church, I sometimes entertained myself by watching other churchgoers. I remember watching a well dressed woman with perfect hair reach into her purse and pull out a file and go to work on her fingernails. Many a Sunday she spent half the sermon filing her nails. I don’t know if she heard what the preacher was saying, but I do know she always had lovely nails.

I remember watching a rugged man who did a lot of nodding—but not necessarily to show agreement with the sermon. His eyes were often closed—but not necessarily in prayer. The man spent a lot of time sleeping. He just couldn’t seem to stay awake in church, no matter how hard he tried. It was fun to observe his body slouching, his eyelids falling, his head drooping. Then suddenly he would jerk awake, banging his head on the bench. He would sit straight and try his best to pay attention, but before long he would be nodding off again.

I remember beeping watches, bawling babies, bickering kids, babbling teenagers, and other sights and sounds of Sunday church. Of course, there were people who focused on God and whose hearts were moved by reverence and love, but there was also a lot of other stuff going on. Some of it was the sort of thing that’s bound to happen whenever ordinary people gather together. But there were also times when people’s behavior made me wonder how serious we really were about worshiping God.

What would happen if the God we were supposedly worshiping actually showed up in tangible form at a worship service? Would I do anything differently than I do now? Or, to put it another way, do I now worship as carefully and reverently as I would if I could actually see the Lord right there? How serious am I, really, about the God I am supposedly there to worship?

All too often we worshipers seem to forget that we are in the presence of a holy and awesome God. Even when we pay attention in church, what are we really paying attention to? Nowadays many churches are going out of their way to make worship more inviting and exciting. Preachers (myself included) try to weave something colorful or humorous into our sermons to make it easier for people to stay interested. But interested in whom? The Lord God, or a clever preacher? Music leaders want lively, fast-paced songs to create a sense of enthusiasm. But enthusiasm about what? The mighty acts of God, or the fun of singing a bouncy tune? Sometimes it seems as though worship isn’t really worship at all but just a professionally planned event. People go to church out of habit, expect to be finished on time, and consider it a success if a good time was had by all.

Many people have kicked the church habit. They don’t take God seriously enough to go to church and worship him, and that’s a problem. But what if our biggest problem isn’t those people who would rather stay in bed or cut the grass or go to the lake or play golf than go to church? What if the biggest problem is all those people who do go to church but aren’t really serious about God and don’t seem to know what they’re getting into? Author Annie Dillard writes:

Why do people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? … Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up batches of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return (Teaching a Stone to Talk).

 

Danger Zone

Do you realize that when you go to church you are entering a danger zone? It’s like being close to a high voltage electrical wire: it’s a power that can do many wonderful things, but if you get careless, it can destroy you in a moment. The God who created electricity is far more powerful—and dangerous—than any high voltage current. Get careless around him, and it could cost you. Trifle with him, and it could destroy you. The place of worship is a danger zone. So get serious. Watch your step!

The writer of Ecclesiastes was a careful observer. He was especially quick to note things that were empty and meaningless, so he couldn’t help noticing the casual attitudes and careless words that many people brought into the place of worship. He knew that not only was this kind of worship hollow, it could be fatal. Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 is a warning to watch out when we worship.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know what they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.

With those words Ecclesiastes puts up two major warning signs around the danger zone of worship. The first sign says, TAKE GOD SERIOUSLY. Get serious about this Lord who is so much higher and greater than anything you can possibly imagine. The second warning sign says, TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUSLY. In particular, take your promises seriously. Say what you mean and mean what you say, because God will hold you to it. Let’s think some more about each of these two warning signs.

 

Take God Seriously

First, TAKE GOD SERIOUSLY. “God is in heaven and you are on earth,” says Ecclesiastes. Never forget it. You are a small creature on a tiny planet in one corner of a universe so vast it boggles the mind; God is the all-powerful One who created and controls this enormous universe using barely a fraction of his infinite power. You are a sinful person on an earth corrupted by evil; God is the holy Lord of heaven, radiating a purity so fierce and fiery that no mortal can see him and live.

What kind of worship is fitting for such a God? The Bible says, “Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth” (Psalm 96:9). “Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11). “…worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for ‘our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).

Scripture tells terrifying stories of what happens when worshippers get careless around God. Early in Israel’s history, God appointed Aaron and his sons to be priests. But Aaron’s two older sons, Nadab and Abihu, decided to do things their own way. They offered incense in a way God had not commanded. “So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:2). No wonder Ecclesiastes 5 says not “to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know what they do wrong.” God commands us to worship him according to his Word. If we decide to do things our own way and come to God with whatever kind of worship we dream up, we “offer the sacrifice of fools.” And that can be fatal.

Another lesson in taking God seriously came from the ark of the covenant. The ark was an ornately decorated, sacred box which was made at the time of Moses and Aaron. It contained the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, and it marked the presence of God in a tangible way. The Lord gave strict commands for how the ark was to be treated, and it was fatal not to take those commands seriously. Once a group of people got curious and decided to open the ark and look into it. It was the last thing they ever saw on earth. God struck them dead. The cost of curiosity and carelessness was seventy corpses. Those who saw what happened were terrified and asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God” (1 Samuel 6:19-20)?

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper became the special, physical token of the Lord’s presence. Thanks to the saving power of Jesus, the Lord’s Supper is far more accessible to us than the ark of the covenant ever was. The ark could not be touched or looked into, while the Lord’s Supper may be seen and touched and even tasted and swallowed. What a privilege! But it’s a privilege that can’t be taken for granted or handled carelessly. “Therefore,” says the Bible, “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” He “eats and drinks judgement on himself.” The Bible says that there were many people in the church of Corinth who got sick, and some even died, because of their obnoxious handling of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:27-30). Maybe churches should post a warning label near the bread and wine of holy communion: HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED IN AN UNWORTHY MANNER.

But maybe none of this is getting through to you. Maybe you’re thinking that these examples of God’s judgment are just stories from long ago. You prefer a kinder, gentler, more relaxed religion. You’ve never seen anybody struck dead for being careless in church, and you figure that church services should be designed around what people happen to like. Who’s to say that God minds? Maybe God likes it!

But it’s disastrous to start with our own preferences and then assume that if God doesn’t punish us immediately, he must be thinking pretty much the way we do. In Psalm 50 God says, “These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face. Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, with none to rescue” (Psalm 50:21-22).

God refuses to be taken lightly. So take him seriously. Watch your step when you worship. In general it’s best to keep your ears open and your mouth shut as much as possible when you’re in God’s presence. As Ecclesiastes 5 puts it, “Go near to listen … Do not be quick with your mouth… God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” It’s wiser to be a humble, obedient listener than a blabbermouth.

Guard your steps when you enter the danger zone. Before you come to worship, clear your mind and close your mouth. Clear your mind of distractions and daydreams so that you can focus on the God of Scripture, the God who reveals himself in Jesus. Close your mouth so that you can hear God’s Word from Scripture and from a preacher who proclaims biblical truth.

Our words of praise and prayer and promise have a place in worship, but only as a response to God, not something we come up with on our own. The beginning of worship and the heart of worship is to be reverent before God and receptive to his Word. God says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word (Isaiah 66:2). Take God and his Word with utmost seriousness. Only then do your words begin to be worth anything at all. Only then are your prayers and praises and promises truly a response to God and his truth, rather than foolish daydreams and empty babble.

 

Take Yourself Seriously

The first warning sign in Ecclesiastes 5 says, TAKE GOD SERIOUSLY. The second warning sign says, TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUSLY. Now, taking yourself seriously doesn’t mean you’re a conceited, self-important person with no sense of humor. But it does mean that you’re not careless or flippant, that you choose your actions and words carefully.

There’s a connection between how seriously we take God and how seriously we take ourselves, between how seriously we take God’s Word and how seriously we take our words. We’re living in a time when promises are taken lightly, sometimes even by church people. Why is that? The answer is simple: we take promises lightly because we take God lightly. Show me a church where more and more people are breaking their marriage promises and getting divorced, and I’ll show you a church where worship has either become a dreary formality or else a circus sideshow. Show me a society where people won’t keep their word without legions of lawyers armed with legal contracts, and I’ll show you a society which does not tremble before the living God and his commands. When worship is weightless, words become worthless. And life becomes hollow and hellish.

Ecclesiastes 5 warns us to take God seriously and then to take ourselves seriously—because God takes us seriously. He hears what we say, and he holds us to it. Too often our worship and our words focus on our own changing feelings rather than on the changeless majesty of God and his changeless Word and the changelessness of promises made in his presence. When we’re feeling-oriented rather than God-oriented, we may say one thing when we’re feeling a certain way but then do something entirely different the moment our feelings change. We say, “Oh, I didn’t really mean what I said before. That’s how I felt back then, but I’ve changed my mind. It was a mistake.”

Not so fast, says Ecclesiastes. If you make a promise, you’d better keep it. God has no use for fools who break their word. You’re better off saying nothing than saying something and then not doing it. Don’t let your mouth lead you into sin. Don’t try to weasel out of a promise or say you’ve changed your mind. “Why should God be angry at what you say,” asks Ecclesiastes, “and destroy the work of your hands?” (5:6). Jesus says “men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37).

The Lord is watching whenever you worship, and he is listening whenever you speak. So say what you mean, and mean what you say. This certainly applies to the words you speak in church. When you make promises at baptism, God holds you to those promises. When you say that you will follow Jesus and live by the Bible, the Lord holds you accountable. When you sing a hymn that says, “Take my silver and my gold,” God expects you to put your money where your mouth is. When you make wedding vows to stick with someone for better or worse until death, God expects you to keep those vows. It’s not always easy to keep promises. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it’s even painful. But the Bible says in Psalm 15 that a godly person “keeps his oath even when it hurts.”

And let’s not limit this only to what we do and say in church. There’s no doubt, of course, that on a day set apart as the Lord’s day and in a place set apart as the Lord’s house, worship and words are surely important. But is God any less present at any other place or time? Every place, every moment is his. All of life is lived before the face of God and bears something of the weight of his glory. So, then, everything we do should be an act of worship to God. Every word we say should be trustworthy and true.

If you say you’ll help someone, or you say you’ll do something, then do it. Don’t say, “Well, it wasn’t really a vow or a promise. I wasn’t in church and I didn’t swear by anything or make a formal oath.” Jesus says that if you’re a child of God, you shouldn’t need oaths at all. Your word is your bond. Your yes means yes, and your no means no (Matthew 6:33-37). Treat every word you speak and every promise you make as a sacred obligation; you’ll be far less talkative and far more truthful.

 

Rejoice With Trembling

Take God seriously, and take yourself seriously. Live life as though you’re in a danger zone—because you are. Does that mean you always have to be grim? No, seriousness isn’t the same thing as grimness. A danger zone is a place to be careful, but that doesn’t mean it’s ugly or unpleasant. Some of the most beautiful and exciting and enjoyable places in the world are also dangerous—mountains and waterfalls, for example. In fact, the danger is often part of the awe you feel, and the awe is part of the delight. But even in your delight, you still need to watch your step. So too with the worship of God: when you take God seriously, you don’t have to be grim, but you do have to be careful. Rejoice in God’s awesome reality, but don’t forget to watch your step. Be joyful and enthusiastic in worship, but never lose your sense of awe. “Rejoice with trembling,” says the Bible (Psalm 2:11). Life in the danger zone can be wonderful, but stay alert to the infinite majesty of God and the importance of your own words. Otherwise your worship becomes dreamy and deathly, and your words become babbling, blathering, yammering, jabbering claptrap. “Much dreaming and many words are meaningless,” says Ecclesiastes 5:7. “Therefore stand in awe of God.”

Wouldn’t life be empty and boring if there were nothing at stake? If the god you worship is a soft, sweet marshmallow, and if the promises you speak are forgotten like a dream, then life is all vanity, meaningless. The thrill of living before an awesome God and the challenge of keeping your word even when it hurts—these things give excitement and purpose to life. The people who are most serious about God and about keeping their word—these are the people for whom life is a wonder and a joy.

And these are the people who really know and love Jesus. Only when you tremble with fear that God is in heaven and you are on earth will you tremble with joy at the knowledge that God came down from heaven to earth and become one of us in the person of Jesus. Only when you know the value of promises can you put your faith in the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus. Only when you know how horrible it is to dishonor God and break your word can you appreciate the price Jesus paid on the cross to take those sins away. Only when you revere the God of heaven will you rejoice that an earthling like you can have access to his heavenly splendor, thanks to the risen Christ.

“Therefore stand in awe of God.”

Day 48 Psalm with Jesus quote

Psalms 48

The City of GodPsalms 46, 47 and 48

Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you killed the prophets and put to death the people that (God) sent to you. I often wanted to bring you together, like a mother bird that brings her young birds together under her wings. But you would not come”. (Matt. 23:37)

(This is) a song. (It is) a psalm for the (music) leader.

*1* The LORD is great. He really is worth our praise. His holy mountain is in the city of our God.

*2* Mount Zion is in a beautiful place, and it makes the whole world very happy. It is the city of the Great King. (It is also called) the High Place of Zaphon.

*3* God was in its defences and he made them very safe.

*4* (This was) when we saw the kings meeting each other. They crossed (into our country) together.

*5* (Then) they saw (something) that really surprised them. It made them very frightened (so that) they hurried away!

*6* They were so afraid that they felt pain like a woman having a baby.

*7* It was like the east wind that destroys great ships, (like those from) Tarshish.

*8* We have seen in the city of the LORD of Everything that it was just as people told us. (They told us that) God would keep the city of our God safe for ever! *SELAH

*9* When we are inside your temple, God, we think of your kind love.

*10* Your name reaches to the ends of the world so that (people) give you praise. Your right hand is full of the good things that you do.

*11* Because of the things that you decide to do:Mount Zion will be very happy the daughters of Judah will praise you.

*12* Walk all round Zion, go to every side of it. Count the towers,

*13* think about its strong buildings and make a note of its defences. Then you may describe it to your children.

*14* For this God is our God for ever and ever. He will be our guide until we die.

💜KellyClayWoo

Day 45 Psalm with Jesus quote

Psalms 45

A Love Song

Jesus said, “At midnight somebody shouted, Look, the bridegroom is coming. Go out and meet him”. (Matt. 25:6 )

(This is) for the music leader. (It is) for the sons of Korah. (It is) a maskil and a love song. (Sing it) to (music that they call) “lilies”. (Words that the psalmist says:)

*1* These good words make my heart very happy. I will say these verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of someone that writes easily. (Words that the psalmist says to the king:)

*2* You are the most beautiful man (that there is). You speak words of grace. God has made you special for ever.

*3* Wear your sword by your side. (You are) the Mighty One. (You are) great and (you are) the king!

*4* (Because you are) the king, ride out and beat (all your enemies). Then (people that are) honest and meek and righteous will always win. Your right hand will show you that you can do things that (make people) afraid.

*5* Your sharp arrows will cut into the heart of the king’s enemies. Nations will fall down under your (feet).

*6* Your throne, God, will go on for ever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom will be a righteous sceptre.

*7* You have loved things that are righteous and you have hated things that are wicked. So God, your God, has put you above the people that are with you. He did this by putting some oil on you, which made you happy.

*8* All your clothes (smell) of myrrh, aloes and cassia. The (beautiful) ivory in big houses (and the music that you hear from them) makes you happy.

*9* Among your great women are the daughters of kings. Your queen stands at your right hand. (She is wearing) gold from Ophir. (Words that the psalmist says to the queen:)

*10* Daughter, listen (to me). Hear (what I am saying) and think about it. Forget your people and your father’s house.

*11* You are beautiful and so the king loves you. He is your lord, so worship him, (v12) daughter from Tyre.

*12* Rich people will make you happy with gifts.

*13* The daughter of the king is beautiful inside. They made what she wore out of cotton made from gold.

*14* They led her to the king in her beautiful clothes. The girls that were her friends followed her.

*15* They came in with joy and were very happy as they entered the king’s palace. (Words that the king says to the queen; or the psalmist says to the king:)

*16* You will have sons instead of fathers. You will make them princes over all the land.

*17* I will make sure that people always remember your name. So, people will praise you for ever and ever.

💜KellyClayWoo

Day 44 Psalm with Jesus quote

Psalms 44

God Help Us!

The friends of Jesus came to him. They woke him and said, “*Lord, save us! We are dying”. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? You do not have much faith”. (Matt. 8:25-36)

(This is) a maskil. (It is) for the music leader of the sons of Korah.

*1* God, we have heard it for ourselves. Our fathers told it to us. (They told us) what you did for them a long time ago.

*2* Your hand pushed out the people (that lived in the land) and put (our fathers) in. You broke (our enemies) but gave help to (our fathers).

*3* (Our fathers) did not get the land by their own swords. Their own power did not win the fight. It was you andyour right hand your arm the light on your face (that did it) because you were their friend.

*4* You are my king. You are my God. You are the one (that said that) Jacob must win.

*5* Because of you, we pushed back our enemies. Because of your name, we beat those that fought us.

*6* I do not believe that my bow gave me help. I do not think that my sword won (the fight).

*7* This is because you give us help to beat our enemies. You make the people that hate us ashamed.

*8* We praise God all day long. We will always praise your name. *SELAH

*9* But now you have turned away from us. You have made us ashamed. You do not go out with our armies.

*10* You make us run away from an enemy. Those people that hate us take what they like from us!

*11* You make us like sheep so that people can eat us! You have thrown us into other countries.

*12* You are selling your people (and the price is) cheap. You have sold them and not got anything for it!

*13* You have made us into something that our neighbours laugh at. Everyone round us laughs at us and scorns us.

*14* We are as nothing among the nations! Everybody is sorry for us.

*15* I am ashamed all day long. I do not know where to look.

*16* (This is) because of:the bad things that people say about me the people that do bad things to me (the people that are) my enemies (the people that are) happy because they hurt me.

*17* All this happened to us, but we did not forget you. We did not forget our covenant with you.

*18* Our hearts did not turn away, nor did our feet turn from your path.

*19* But you broke us where the wild animals are. You covered us with great darkness.

*20* If we hadforgotten the name of our God, or lifted up our hands to a foreign god

*21* would God not have discovered it? He knows the secrets of (people’s) hearts.

*22* Yet because of you, people kill us all day long. They think that we are like sheep ready for (people to) kill.

*23* Lord, awake! Why are you asleep? Get up! Do not throw us away for ever!

*24* Why do you hide your face (from us)? Why do you forget our trouble and the way that people hurt us?

*25* We have fallen down to the earth. Our bodies are on the ground.

*26* Wake up and give us help! Save us, because of your kind love.

💜KellyClayWoo

Day 42 Psalm with Jesus quote

Psalms 42The Psalms of David (Book 2).

Remember the Good Times

Jesus said, “My *soul is so sad that I am nearly dying”, (Mark 14:34)

Psalm 42

(This is) for the music leader. (It is) a maskil for the sons of Korah.

*1* My soul cries out for you, (my) God, like a hart crying out for streams of water.

*2* My soul is thirsty for God, the God that is alive. When can I come and see the face of God?

*3* (All) day and (all) night I cry and do not eat. All day (my enemies) say to me, “Where is your God?”

*4* My soul cries inside me when I remember that:I went with a crowd (to worship you) I went to the house of God there was the sound of singing there was a loud noise of people thanking (you) and dancing.

*5* My soul, why are you so sad? Why are you so restless inside me? Hope in God because I will praise him again! When God is with me, he will do great things (for me).

h2. Psalm 42:6-11

*6* My soul is sad inside me. So I will remember you (my God) from:the land of (the) Jordan (river) (the mountains) of Hermon the hill of Mizar.

*7* The deep (waters) make a noise when your waterfalls thunder. All your big waves and all your little waves roll over me.

*8* In the day time the LORD sends to me his kind love. At night his song is with me. My prayer is to the God of my life.

*9* I will say to the God (that is) my Rock, “Why did you forget me? Why must I be so sad? You let my enemy do what he likes to me!”

*10* My enemies hurt all my bones. The people that fight me are always saying, “Where is your God?”

*11* My soul, why are you so sad? Why are you so restless inside me? Hope in God, because I will praise him again! When God is with me, he will do great things (for me).

💜KellyClayWoo

Day 33 Psalm with Jesus quot

Psalms 33

Jesus said, “All power is mine, in heaven and on earth.

I will always be with you”. (Part of Matthew 28: 18-20)

Word, Plans, Eye And Power

*1* Shout to the LORD, everyone that is righteous.

*2* Praise the LORD with a harp. Make music for him with a lyre that has 10 strings.

*3* Sing to him a new song. Make beautiful music with a trumpet.

*4* Do this because the LORD says what is right. Everything that he does is good.

*5* He loves all that is right and fair. The world is full of his kind love.

*6* The word of the LORD made the skies. The breath of his mouth made the stars.

*7* He put the waters of the sea together in a bottle. He hid the deep seas in a safe place.

*8* Let everyone that lives in the earth be afraid of the LORD. Let all the people of the world fall down in front of him.

*9* Do this because he spoke and it happened. At his word, everything became fixed in its place.

*10* Governments make plans, but the LORD checks them. He does not let people do everything that they want to do.

*11* The plans that the LORD makes will always happen. His ideas will always be with us.

*12* The people that have the LORD as their God will be very happy. They are the people that he chose to be his own.

*13* The LORD looks down from heaven. He sees every man, woman and child.

*14* from where he lives, he can see every person that lives on the earth.

*15* He made every separate person. He knows everything that they do.

*16* A great army will not save a king. A soldier does not win because he is strong.

*17* A horse will not always give you help to win, even if it is very strong.

*18* Look, the eye of the LORD is on the people that are afraid of him. It is on the people that trust in his kind love.

*19* He will save them from death and from famine.

*20* We will trust in the LORD. He will send us help, and he will be our shield.

*21* We are singing happy songs for the LORD. We are trusting in his holy name.

*22* LORD, we want you to send to us your kind love. LORD, we are trusting in you.

💜KellyClayWoo

Day 32 Psalm with Jesus quote

Psalms 32

The Hiding Place

Jesus said, “The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”. (Mark 2:10)

(This is) a maskil by David

*1* (v1-2) A man is very happy when (God):forgives his disobedience covers his sin does not put it against him when he does bad things There is nothing false in his spirit

*3* (v3-4) When I said nothing my bones became weak and I cried all day long. In the day and in the night your hand was heavy on me. I felt dried up as in the heat of summer. SELAH

*5* (Then) I told you about my sin and I did not hide the bad things that I had done. I said, “I will show my disobedience to the LORD”. You forgave the bad things that I had done in my disobedience. SELAH

*6* So let everyone that enjoys your kind love pray to you. (Let them do it) while they can still find you. Then the great floods of water will not come near to them.

*7* You are my hiding place. You will keep me safe from trouble. Your songs will be all around me now that I am free. SELAH

*8* I will tell you the way, I will teach you where you must go. My eye will be your guide.

*9* Do not be like the horse, or the mule. They do not understand. They need special bits in their mouths to make them obey you.

*10* Bad people will be very sad. People that trust in the LORD will find his kind love all round them.

*11* So, all you good people that have clean hearts:show everyone that the LORD has made you happy praise him in words and in music

💜KellyClayWoo

Day 31 Psalm with Jesus

Psalms 31

David under Stress

Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I give my spirit”. (Luke 23:46)

(This is) for the music leader. (It is) a psalm of David

*1* LORD, I am trusting in you. Do not let me ever become ashamed. Make me free, because you always do what is right.

*2* Listen to me and send me help very soon. LORD, be a rock for me to hide behind. Make my house a fortress and keep me safe.

*3* You really are my rock and my fortress. Because of your name, lead me and be my guide.

*4* You are my fortress. Make me free from the trap that they hid for me.

*5* I put my spirit into your hand. Send me help, LORD God of truth.

*6* I hate people that believe in false gods. I am trusting in the LORD.

*7* I am very happy because of your kind love. It makes me want to dance. You saw my trouble. You knew that I was under stress.

*8* You did not give me into the hands of my enemies. You made my feet to stand in a wide place.

*9* LORD, give me mercy because I am in trouble. My eyes and my stomach and my whole body are sick because I am sad.

*10* My life must come to an end because I am so sad. My years will finish while I am crying. I am so unhappy that I have become weak. My bones are weak.

*11* All my enemies hate me. People that live near me do not like me. Even my friends are afraid of me. People that see me in the street run away.

*12* Everybody has forgotten me. I am just like a broken pot.

*13* I heard people say unkind things about me. There is danger everywhere. They are making bad plans for me. They want to kill me.

*14* But I am still trusting in you, LORD. I am saying that you are my God.

*15* My times are in your hand. Save me from the hand of my enemies and from the people that are trying to catch me.

*16* Shine the light of your face on your servant. Send help to me because of your kind love.

*17* LORD, do not let me become ashamed. I am shouting out to you for help. Let the godless become ashamed. Let them be silent in Sheol.

*18* Let the lips that tell lies become silent. They say unkind things about good people. They think that they are better than them and they hate them.

*19* You have prepared many good things for those that are afraid of you. You did this in front of everybody. You did it for those that trust in you.

*20* You will hide them from the bad plans that men make. They will not hear the bad things that people say. They will be in a secret place with you.

*21* Bless the LORD. He showed me his kind love when I was under stress.

*22* I said too soon that you were not watching over me. But you did hear my voice when I prayed to you for help.

*23* Love the LORD, everyone that has enjoyed his kind love. He will keep safe those that are always his servants, but he will pay back those that are proud.

*24* Everyone that hopes in the LORD: be strong and be brave in your heart.

💜KellyClayWoo

Day 30 Psalm with Jesus quote

Psalms 30

Bless this House

Two things that Jesus said:

• What good will it be to a man if the whole world is his but he loses himself? (Mark  8:36)
• You can do nothing without me. (John 5:15)

(This) psalm of David (is) a song for blessing the house.

*1* LORD, I will praise you because you have lifted me up (from Sheol). You have not let my enemies laugh at me.

*2* LORD, my God, I prayed to you for help, and you gave me health.

*3* LORD, you brought my soul up from Sheol. You gave me life, so that I am not with those that go down into the Pit.

*4* Sing to the LORD all you that believe in him. Praise his holy name.

*5* His anger is for a moment, but his grace will be for as long as you live. You may cry all night, but in the morning, you will sing for joy.

*6* I said that I was safe for ever because of what I had done.

*7* But LORD, it was your grace that made me safe and protected my mountain. When you hid your face (from me), I became very sad.

*8* I prayed to you LORD and asked you, Lord, for mercy.

*9* What value is there in destroying me in the Pit? Will my dead body praise you? Will it say that you keep your promises?

*10* LORD, listen to me and give me mercy. LORD, be the person that gives me help.

*11* You have changed my crying into dancing. You have taken away my sad clothes and given me wonderful clothes.

*12* So my heart will sing to you, nothing will stop it. LORD, my God, I will always praise you.

💜KellyClayWoo

Under the Sun

Under the Sun

Under the Sun (Ecclesiastes 1)
By David Feddes

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 1:14

Have you ever had the Sisyphus syndrome?

According to an old Greek legend, a man named Sisyphus offended the gods, and they decided to punish him. They ordered him to push a heavy, round stone to the top of a mountain. But every time he got to the top and let go of the stone, it would roll right back down to the bottom, and he’d have to start all over again. Push it up, watch it roll down; push it up, watch it roll down; push it up, watch it roll down; over and over and over again for all eternity. That’s the Sisyphus syndrome: always working hard and never accomplishing anything. Know the feeling?

The Sisyphus syndrome can hit students. You get up and go to school and come home. The next day you get up and go to school and come home. The next day you get up and go to school and come home. Each day you go to class and do your homework, and what’s the reward? More classes, and more homework!

The Sisyphus syndrome can also hit stay-at-home moms. You change one diaper, but soon there’s another diaper, then another and another. You make a meal for your family, but soon the meal is digested and you’re making another meal. You scamper here and there picking up around the house, but the next day the place is as messy as ever, and you’re picking up all over again. It’s like shoveling snow in a blizzard.

The Sisyphus syndrome also hits people on the job. You slave away to finish a pile of paperwork, and tomorrow there’s an even bigger stack waiting for you. Or you finish one unit on the assembly line just in time to do the next, then the next, then the next. Or you’re a trucker, driving mile after mile after mile to haul one load, only to pick up the next load and drive mile after mile after mile with it. Or you’re a farmer doing all the same things you did last year, or a store manager stocking the same shelves over and over, or a salesman giving the same sales pitch again and again and again. Whatever your job is, don’t you sometimes feel like you’re pushing a stone to the top of the mountain only to have it roll down so that you can start all over again?

Nobody is immune to the Sisyphus syndrome. No matter how exciting something looks from the outside, it can seem routine and useless to the person doing it. A professional athlete going from game to game and hotel room to hotel room; a rock star doing yet another concert; an author writing still another book; a government leader working on still another piece of legislation—their lives can seem as monotonous and repetitive as students doing yet another homework assignment. A business tycoon getting on the next airplane or making the next million can get as bored as a mother changing diapers.

What’s the Use?

You can be the richest, smartest, most powerful person around and still feel empty and insignificant. Listen to the opening statement of the Bible book of Ecclesiastes: “The words of the Teacher, son of David, King in Jerusalem: ‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” Or, as another version puts it, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!”

Now remember, these aren’t the words of some poor dummy without the imagination to think of anything exciting or the brains to do something impressive. These are the words of a genius called Mr. Teacher. The Hebrew word is Koheleth. (The wordEcclesiastes is the Greek equivalent.)Koheleth literally means the person people gather around. This is the guy people listen to: the authority, the pundit, the expert, the Teacher. He is smart, and what’s more, he’s rich and famous. He’s a son of the great King David and reigns as king in Jerusalem. It appears that the writer of Ecclesiastes is none other than the brilliant and mighty King Solomon, though he avoids using his own name and speaks of himself as “the Teacher.”

At any rate, he’s got a bad case of the Sisyphus syndrome. After years of hard work and brilliant thinking, what does he have to show for it? Nothing. He hasn’t changed a thing. The rock just rolls back to the bottom of the mountain.

What does a man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place where the streams come from, there they return again (Ecclesiastes 1:3-7).

Everything seems to be going in circles, always moving but never getting anywhere. The sun keeps going, the wind keeps blowing, the water keeps flowing, and nothing much changes. So what’s the use of all our labor and effort?

The Teacher’s view here is like the view you get from a skyscraper or an airplane. You see farther than you’ve ever seen before. You see the big picture. When you look down and try to see people, they’re almost invisible. If you see them at all, they look like tiny ants crawling along. Then you realize that you are one of those ants yourself. When an ant enters a place, nothing much changes; and when the ant gets stepped on, nothing much changes. So too, people’s lives have an ant-sized impact on the world and the universe. Entire generations come and go without leaving a trace. Millions, even billions, of us live and die and turn to dust, and the earth remains as it always has. The cycles of nature roll on and on.

We don’t seem to amount to much in the bigger picture. So what’s the use of living? What’s the point? What value or meaning do our lives really have? Nature goes through the same cycles with or without us, and during our short lives we seem to be going in circles just like the rest of nature. We do the same things and go through the same routines over and over. Then we die and disappear and leave the wheels of nature to go on turning without us. How can we deal with such monotony and emptiness?

All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow (Ecclesiastes 1:8-11).

Many of us would rather not face reality, so we get hooked on distractions. When we’ve got a spare moment at home, what’s the first thing we do? We turn on the television. Even if we don’t like anything that happens to be on TV at the moment, we watch it anyway, just to kill time—about four hours a day, on the average. If we do turn the TV off, it’s only to turn on the radio or stereo or computer instead. As the Teacher puts it, “The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.”

Take away all our noise and distractions, and what’s left? Most of us would rather not know. So we keep stuffing our eyes and ears with sights and sounds. Is that the cure for the Sisyphus syndrome? Just give poor Sisyphus a TV to watch and a set of headphones to listen to as he pushes the rock up the mountain for the umpteenth time, and maybe he won’t notice how monotonous and meaningless his life really is!

Under the Sun

The Teacher won’t settle for distractions, and neither should we. We need to take a hard, honest look at life under the sun. That phrase “under the sun” is one that’s repeated over and over in Ecclesiastes—about 30 times, in fact. “Under the sun” is life lived through human effort without trusting God. It’s life seen from a human perspective without looking at things from God’s perspective. And from that point of view, we can’t see any true purpose or meaning to our lives. Life “under the sun” is vanity of vanities. It’s monotonous, empty, meaningless.

This isn’t just a grumpy complaint from a man in a bad mood. It’s the result of careful study and realistic observation and thorough thinking. The Teacher says,

I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after wind (Ecclesiastes 1:12-14).

He’s seen it all and analyzed it all, and that’s his conclusion.

Remember, he’s relying only on what he can discover for himself without listening to God. He knows that God exists, but in “under the sun” thinking, God is just a label for whatever higher power made this world. He’s not a Lord to be worshipped or a Friend to be trusted or a Father to be loved. He’s just a distant factor in an equation. He’s the One who set the whole boring cycle in motion, the One who burdened us with lives that don’t seem to accomplish much or make much sense.

That’s life under the sun: even if you believe in a God of some sort, when it comes to your work, you rely on your own efforts, not his grace; and when it comes to your thinking, you rely on your own wisdom, not his revelation. And what’s the result? Your work seems useless, and so does your wisdom. You feel like you’re just chasing the wind.

Facing Our Limits

Secular, “under the sun” wisdom has to face the fact that there’s much that it can’t control or change, and much that it can’t even know. As the Teacher puts it, “What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted” (v. 15).

Living in a twisted world, we hear over and over that we need better education in order to straighten things out. Whether it’s AIDS or alcoholism or child abuse or teen pregnancy, we expect education to straighten out what is twisted. But it doesn’t. Journalist Malcolm Muggeridge once said,

Education—the great mumbo jumbo and fraud of the ages—purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility. For the most part it serves to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity, and put those subjected to it at the mercy of brainwashers with printing presses, radio, and television at their disposal.

Perhaps Muggeridge was exaggerating a bit, but it’s time we realized that education isn’t the solution to everything. There are limits to what human thinking can do. It can’t straighten out what is twisted by sin. And it can’t figure out things to which it has no access. “What is lacking cannot be counted.” If there really is something missing from our lives, then humanistic thinking—”under the sun” thinking—can’t tell us what it is. God himself will have to show us what it is, or we’ll never know. We can’t rely on education or brain power to solve all our problems or to find out all we need to know.

So, then, it makes no sense to be snooty or self-satisfied about how smart we are or how much we know. In fact, there are times when it seems we’d be better off not knowing. The Teacher puts it this way in the last part of Ecclesiastes 1.

I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief (Ecclesiastes 1:16-18).

In other words, the more you know, the more it hurts. With so much education and research data and investigative reporting, much of the information you learn just makes you sadder and more cynical. You admire a certain person as your hero—and then some news report or biography shows just how rotten that person can be. You enjoy a certain food—only to hear a news report that it could give you cancer (if it doesn’t give you a heart attack first). Sometimes you wish you could just go back to not knowing. The more you know, the harder it is to believe in anybody or enjoy anything. “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow,” says the Teacher, “the more knowledge, the more grief” (v. 18).

So what’s the alternative? If knowledge makes us more miserable, does that mean ignorance is bliss? And what about work? If it seems monotonous and empty, does that mean we’d be better off not doing anything? Should we just drop out and be a bunch of know-nothing, do-nothing, good-for-nothing bums? No, that may be tempting, but that would just make us lazy and foolish and empty, instead of hard-working and educated and empty. Either way, we’re still empty.

Our main problem isn’t that we work too hard or know too much. It’s that we pursue our work apart from God’s blessing, and we pursue education without God’s revelation. The main trouble with our work isn’t that we work too much and accomplish too little; it’s that we don’t know whom we’re working for or why we’re working in the first place. The main problem with our wisdom isn’t that we know too much about earth; it’s that we know too little about heaven. As long we work and think with an “under the sun” perspective, we end up feeling like nobodies who are headed nowhere, like the “Nowhere Man” in the Beatles song:

He’s a real nowhere man,
sitting in his nowhere land,
making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.
Doesn’t have a point of view.
Knows not where he’s going to.
Isn’t he a bit like you
and me?

That’s life “under the sun.” Doesn’t have a point of view: you don’t have God as your supreme point of reference and you don’t see your life in light of God’s plan. You know not where you’re going to: you leave your eternal destiny out of the equation and focus on the here and now. You have no personal relationship to the God who rules all things; you have no idea where your life is headed; and so all your work and wisdom is empty.

Without God you are a nowhere man or woman, and God will make sure you stay that way. He will make sure that your work and wisdom remain meaningless as long as you live without him. “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain… In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:1-2). Any work without God’s blessing is ultimately in vain—vanity of vanities, meaningless.

As for wisdom, it too is worthless without God. The Lord says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ … Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:19-20). Education without revelation is vanity.

You see, God never designed us to work without him or to think without him. The Lord made us for himself. God created the universe through his Son, Jesus Christ, and he designed all things to thrive and find their meaning and fulfillment and happiness only in Christ. When humanity fell away from the Lord through sin, God subjected us and the entire creation to a frustrating cycle of monotony and eventual decay (Romans 8:21).

From Frustration to Fulfillment

Is there any way out? Is there anything new under the sun? Yes, there is, but only because of someone who came from beyond the sun. Jesus Christ has come into this world, and he has done what we could never do. He has broken the cycle of repetition and decay by doing something truly new under the sun: he has risen from the dead, never to die again. And he has sent his Holy Spirit to fill our emptiness and give our lives meaning and draw us into the eternal life of God and make all things new. For those who trust him, that changes everything.

When we live for the risen Lord Jesus and work for him, our work is not meaningless. 1 Corinthians 15, God’s Word speaks magnificently of Jesus’ resurrection and of the fact that all who trust him will also be glorified. And how does that great chapter end? It says, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Not in vain! Not vanity! Not meaningless! If you know the risen Lord, life is no longer a matter of going in circles. It’s a journey that leads to glory. And on that journey everything you do for God and in his power is of immeasurable value.

And what about wisdom? Well, in 1 Corinthians 2 the Bible picks up on the theme of knowledge without God. It says that people who have only “the wisdom of this age” are “coming to nothing.” But, the Bible goes on to say, there’s another brand of wisdom, “God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began… ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:6-10).

If your work seems empty and your wisdom seems worthless, there’s only one way to escape. Stop living on your own. Stop ignoring the Lord. Stop living life under the sun (S-U-N), and start living under the Son (S-O-N), God’s Son, Jesus. As the Bible puts it, “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2). Then your work and your thinking can begin to glow with a sense of meaning and purpose and wonder and gratitude. Then, instead of being a nowhere man or woman, you can sing a new song.

He’s a real Christian man,
headed for the promised land.
Living life within God’s plan,
he’s somebody.
God gives him a point of view,
shows him where he’s going to.
Oh, I pray that’s true of you
and me.