Old Trees, New Leaves

Psalm 92 is a banger. It’s unique in the Psalter, being the only Psalm dedicated explicitly to the holy day of rest. It’s a good one for reclining upon the Lord’s bosom. Among other nuggets of heavenly wisdom, the psalmist drops this gem about the righteous in verse 14:

They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green…

An old, seasoned Christian is a formidable creature to behold. While our bodies may be weakening, our spiritual vibrancy shines through. Let those of us who are not yet aged take heed to this wisdom and get planted alongside the flourishing trees of God’s people. As one of our own poets has said,

As long as the love and the trust is there, we’re gonna grow, like a plant.

The Reformed Doctrine of the Now

It was said of Michael Jordan that the real secret to his success was that he lived fully in the present moment. Now was all there was for him. Behold, a more Enlightened One than MJ has spoken the wisdom, “Tomorrow will worry about itself.” And the reason it can do so is precisely because God rules all moments at once, even the tomorrow we fear. He’s already there, waiting for us (as it were) with plenty of grace to help. So let’s leave it to him and immerse in today.

Why Is God Doing This to Me?

We think God disciplines us because he is mad at us. When he rebukes us, perhaps taking something away or frustrating a plan, we think he is saying, “You’ve had your fun, now you’re done.” That makes sense to us because that’s how we are. But he is different:

My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

-Proverbs 3:11–12

In reality, our tender Heavenly Father is training us not to go in the ways of sin that will bring much worse upon us. It is his way of getting our attention. So when it happens, let’s learn the lesson well and thank him for it.

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

-Psalm 84:11

The Reformed Doctrine of Pleasant Words

Since God rules all things, his word is supreme. As supreme, that word is not only powerful, but utterly delightful. It is pleasant to the human soul (though it is offensive to our sin and terrifying to God’s enemies). But the believer understands the pleasures of God’s word. Our dear brother Solomon had the privilege of enjoying this pleasure as he pondered and penned the very words:

The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.

-Ecclesiastes 12:10

If God’s word was not pleasant it would not be God’s word, for he is the source of all pleasure. Let’s steward our taste for God’s word and treasure it always, for truth, and for enjoyment. As the catechism says, our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. For now, we do this mainly through the sweet, sweet delights of Scripture.

Quiz Some

I quiz some with my wisdom.

What a legendary line from Killah Priest. It’s clever and it’s funny. Much like the jolly Wu affiliate himself, wisdom has the effect of making one cheerful. Consider what the wisest of all has to say about the puzzley matter of wisdom:

Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

Ecclesiastes 8:1

What makes the hard furrows in our puzzled brow but our confusion at things? We don’t understand and so we are overwhelmed. But when we understand a thing, we are eased and even cheered. For we are no longer in the dark.

To understand a thing is not to control it. Interpreting anything (an event, a circumstance, a saying, a person, or even ourselves) is simply seeing it and accepting that it is what it is. We can’t orchestrate the waves of providence, and we are fools to stand against them. We can only hang 10 and get pitted. So pitted.

Christeamanity

There’s no I in team. Well, there’s also no team in Christianity (although that one does have an I—this is falling apart rapidly), but hear me out. With a little revocalization…voila! There it is: Christeamanity. A perfectly good neologism.

The Christian life is not a solo sport. Believers are supposed to squad up in local churches. So submit yourself to a local body of believers and step into the fullness of the Christian life. Just do it.

Always Reforming

You may have heard the Latin expression semper reformanda, which means always reforming. It is a principle of the Protestant Reformation that our work of reshaping our churches and our lives is never done.

So what does it mean to reform? It means that we must go back to the Bible again and again to examine the way we do things. Why do we do what we do? Is it because that’s the way we’ve always done it? Is it because that’s what our own minds tell us to do? Or do we do what we do because it’s written in God’s Word?

The Reformed Doctrine of Scaling Walls

Yeah, we’ve pretty much got it all in the Reformed tradition. Since we can do nothing apart from our Lord, every good thing we do is by his sovereign grace. And on that note, check out this banger from King David (Psalm 18:29):

By my God I can leap over a wall.

You’ve heard of the song “Break Every Chain.” One of y’all can make a Reformed remix called “Scale Every Wall.” Our almighty God will get us over whatever stands in the way of trusting and serving him.

The Christian runs into many an obstacle in the way of following Christ. What are we to do? Scale that mug. And keep it moving to the heavenly Zion.

Open Your Word Eye

“The wise have eyes in their heads” (Ecclesiastes 2:14). So there it is, the infamous third eye, or should we say third eyes? And why wouldn’t the mind have eyes? It sees invisible realities which cannot be perceived by the physical eye. Without it the two eyes of the face can’t even make sense of what they see. Truly, “what is seen was not made out things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3).

But not everyone has these eyes. What makes the difference? The wise person sees things as God sees them. Their mind has been opened to understand his word and through it to understand all things. It’s a way of seeing the world through Scripture, like a great lens upon the mind’s eye. Without it we are blind to the spiritual realities around us. So let’s goggle up with the word and see the most important things more clearly.

Orbology

What have the orbs to do with Jerusalem? Apparently very much indeed. I’ve been reading C.S. Lewis on medieval cosmology and the orb presents itself as a theme.

In short, when the ancients lifted their gaze and beheld the heavens arrayed in circles and spheres, they naturally asked the question, “Why?” Their answer was simple: all created order wishes to reflect its Maker as closely as possible. In this case, the heavenly bodies exhibit not only spherical shape, but circular motion. Of all the shapes, said they, the circle most nearly epitomizes the Divine Nature. A circle (and its 3D counterpart the sphere) has no corners, no shadow of turning, no sides or parts. It is all one. And as for movement, a circular path is also the swiftest motion. Thus, for some ancient and medieval thinkers, the heavens were populated by sun, moon, planet, and star orbs that, embedded into the transparent spheres of the heavens (look it up), moved in circular love for their simple, invisible Creator, who just so happens to be the God of the Bible and the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Not bad, eh?