The Theme of Psalm 22, 23 & 24 United in Christ Jesus

January 31, 2025 — jwwealand

The Cross of sacrifice, Psa. 22 has parallels with every gospel account of the crucifixion of Jesus. For Christians this is in the past tense. “God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.(Rom. 5:8) The Lamb of God had to be perfect, as well as the first-born. So he was good in two aspects: 1, Good intrinsically without sin. 2, Good in humble service as sacrificially demonstrating love on the cross. This kind of goodness, only God can share. We see this point taught by Jesus in Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18 & Luke 18:19.

 “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only ______ who is good.”

Can you ‘see’ someone being crucified in Psa. 22:14-18 ? 

The Crook of the Shepherd’s Staff, Psa. 23:4 & John 10:1-17 has an obvious parallel for Jesus as the Good Shepherd, which for us today is present tense. The Staff was used in two ways: to help hold the sheep in a position for inspection & treatment when sick or injured or suffering from parasites. Also, to help rescue a lost sheep if it was trapped or stuck, else it would become a predator’s meal.

The Spirit of Christ is active, seen in the New Testament;

Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from 

the dead the __________ shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, Heb. 13:20.

How much bigger and more capable does a Shepherd seem to mere sheep, when sheep are in trouble or suffering?

The Crown of the Savior, Psa. 24:1-4 & Revelation 21:27 Share a sentiment about the utopian earth with the sovereign security of a King who rules to protect his domain and citizens. The reason “earth” is used is because the Rule Jesus demonstrated before he became a glorious King after the resurrection gives him control over all forces on earth. 

That is why Peter calls him the __________ Shepherd in 1st Peter 5:4. A shepherd who became a King, writing in the Lamb’s book of Life, everyone’s name who is secure in the Kingdom of Heaven. This has a futuristic glory in fulfilling the promise of our home in heaven. 

In Psa. 24:7-9, Four times the words “gates and/or doors” are used to describe the King’s entry into a holy place of security & glory.  Do you see the importance of being “in Christ” as the Chief Shepherd or Door of the Sheep (Jn. 10:1-9)?

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Psalm 12 from a Christian Perspective

January 24, 2025 — jwwealand

12:1, Have we ever felt we were the only righteous people around? Elijah felt this way after Queen Jezebel sent him a death-threat letter, 1st Kg. 19:10. God directly gave Elijah the truth of many other followers that were currently alive & well. Now David feels this way & needs rescued, because David feels like all who are godly, are finished & obliterated. Jesus once asked

 “When the Son of Man comes, will he find ___________ on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)

v2-3 Knowing what the wicked speak is a great way to discern what words we should not speak. Twice used is the word “flattering” – chelqah (hebrew) smooth & slippery. 

This is the opposite of the word used in v6, from Jehovah, which is “reliable” – imrah (hebrew) uttering a command.

Jesus says, “for every _________ word men may speak, they will give account of it on the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified & by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36)

Consistently the only word used for God in this Psalm is YHWH, Jehovah. Requesting that God cut off the lips and cut out the tongue of wicked people is not incongruous with his Holy nature because holiness ultimately demands elimination of everything unholy. The reason the speech of the wicked persists is because Jesus says “you will be sons of the Most High, for he

 is ________ to the ungrateful and the evil, be merciful even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35-36) With God, mercy always triumphs over justice.

v4 shows the rhetorical question expressing the arrogant attitude of wicked people. As far as they are concerned, they are answerable to no one for how they speak. What does Jude v16 say about people who talk like this? What is it about our God that makes Christians feel differently?

v5, We should be careful how we treat people in the world who are poor and afflicted. It is because of how these poor and afflicted people cry and hurt, that Jehovah “springs into action” (hebrew) attah meaning ‘to rise up’ which is the same verb in God’s reaction in the running Father who sees the prodigal son returning repentant. (Luke 15:20) We do not want to be the people who Jesus says would be better off with a millstone tied around our neck drowning in the sea. Read & understand Luke 17:1-2.v6-8, Jehovah will protect and shelter his children who are poor and afflicted. The verbs protect & shelter are both words that make God act like a sentinel watchman weaponized to strike out on threatening enemies. God’s promise of protection, once proven, is as precious as silver refined by fire. Do not forget how priceless our own faith in God is; 1st Peter 1:5-7 uses “Gold” not silver to describe our faith tested & proven in the promises of God.

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Virtues of Christ ~ Faithfulness

January 4, 2025 — jwwealand

The idea of being faithful, usually falls into three different contexts for our modern vocabulary. Firstly, marriage, secondly, worship and lastly, we sometimes use the word faithful in the context of allegiance in support of an athletic team. Christ is the perfect example of what it means to be faithful from God’s perspective. He always did the will of His Father, see John 8:28-29, this is the very essence of faithfulness as a virtue, it is pleasing!

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven – only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” 

This shows us clearly, the command of Christ is to faithfully obey the will of God in Him, without this, we will not be saved in His Kingdom!

Christ was, is and will always be faithful in doing the will of God in our lives. Jesus said, 

(Matthew 23:23-24) “Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you neglect what is more important in the law – 

justice, mercy, and _________________________. You should have done these things without neglecting the others. 

Jesus often spoke of faithfulness as the exact opposite of honesty, see Luke 16:10-11.

“The one who is _________________ in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you haven’t been 

_______________________ in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? 

So to be honest with the gifts God gives us, and also to be obedient to the commands Christ has for us, is the essence of faithfulness as a virtue of Christ in the Christian.

Are we honest with our spouse?

Are we honest with our income?

Do we have integrity in ourselves, when faced with the commands of Christ? Faithfulness is not measured by the number of times we attend worship services in a year, but it is measured by what we do during worship. Loyal love in our hearts towards Christ for all he is, has done and will do is the driving force behind real faithfulness.

The answers to these questions help us evaluate our own faithfulness. A virtue the world does not emphasize. We must rely on Christ’s Spirit to grow His fruit, Gal. 5:22-23, which includes faithfulness.

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Virtues of Christ ~ Humility

October 19, 2024 — jwwealand

Micah put this truth forward centuries before Christ.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy


and to walk _____________ with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Walking humbly with our God, of course, is humbling ourselves before God. Acting justly and loving mercy are respecting and showing concern for our neighbors, humble service of others. 

What Humility Is Not. Humility has sometimes been distorted into self-abasement, self-denigration, lack of courage, non-assertiveness & low self-esteem. To clarify what we mean by true biblical humility, we’ll flesh out from Scripture what authentic biblical humility looks like. Humility can be seen throughout the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-10.

1. Meekness Is Not Weakness

The world sometimes considers weakness as wimpy. The word translated “meek” in Greek is “praus”, meaning “the attitude or mindset of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance, but gentle, considerate & self-controlled.” In the Bible, the meek are not the weak and docile, but the ones who endure oppression and persecution and still stand in faith. They are the persevering confident saints of God that can rejoice even in service that hurts. They are tough!

2. Humility Is Not Timid or Passive.

The phrase “Meek as a mouse” is heard often enough to identify meekness with timidity and fear, with running from a challenge, “a timid, meek, or unassertive person. This describes neither Moses (Numbers 12:3) nor Jesus, nor the disciples Jesus is laboring to form. Jesus is not passive.

FOUR REASONS TO ADOPT A HUMBLE MINDSET

  1. The apostle Paul instructs and encourages us to have a mindset of humility in Colossians 3:12-14. 
  2. Even divine love itself carries within it humility, see 1st Corinthians 13:4. 
  3. Humility gives priority to the concerns and needs of other people, Philippians 2:3-5.
  4. Everything we have is from God (Dt. 8:18; 1st Cor. 4:6-7). Since everything we have has been given to us by God, we have no reason for boasting in self, that we are somehow better than others, we don’t boast over a gift, but we should boast of the Giver.

“I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, 

but to think with __________  ____________________, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith”. (Romans 12:3)

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Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus from the Gospel of Luke

October 5, 2024 — jwwealand

Luke 1:17 quotes Malachi. 4:6, The success of John the immersionist is not measured by longevity, because his life was cut short, not by riches, because he lived in poverty and ate poor, not by miracles because he didn’t perform a single sign, but by the acceptance of God’s word into the hearts of many Israelites, (Lk. 3:21 “ALL”). Jesus said John the immersionist was the greatest of men born amongst women because of his ability to practice what he preached in holy living (Matthew 11:8-11).  The word “Turn” is a great word for describing the emphasis of John’s message of repentance, Mark 1:4 & Luke 3:3. In John’s ministry, baptism was immersion expressing a changed lifestyle in exchange for forgiveness, however in Christ’s ministry, baptism is immersion expressing death to sin and being raised to new life in exchange for a forgiven heart that can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:37-39.

Luke 4:18-19 quotes Isaiah 61:1-2, The success of Jesus Christ (Anointed) – ‘Masah’ Isa. 61:1, would be emphasized in preaching, the word “Preaching” is repeated 3 times in this passage. Proclamation of God’s word, not necessarily the acceptance of His word. The miraculous healing and many other powerful signs was simply the proof or confirmation of power from God in the word’s message, see Mark 16:20 & Hebrews 2:3-4. The preaching is described by two words, firstly, “Euangelizo” which is a reference to the inherent goodness of the message. Secondly ‘preaching’ or proclaim is “Kerysso” which is a reference to publication of the message. This kind of message is always public, never private. The fact that the Christ (Anointed) one did the preaching fulfilled the prophetic promise in Isaiah to make the “year of the Lord’s grace” known. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, Jn 1:17, not Moses or any other prophet or religious leader of any kind, it was only Jesus who can deliver gracious words and absolute truth, see Luke 4:22.

Luke 23:30 quotes Hosea 10:8, Jesus points to the destruction of Jerusalem impending with warnings, from prophets of the past, to his own generation. A sign of mercy to those who accept his word as God’s word, to flee and escape the judgment of God. Reference Matthew 24:15 & Daniel 12:11. If non-believers stay in Jerusalem to see this wrath they will cry out for creation itself to fall upon them, see Revelation 6:15-17, because the destruction is so thorough there will be no hope anywhere else but under the earth, i.e., dead!

Luke 24:27 quotes “all the prophets”.., after Cleopas said “but they did not see him”, v24. Jesus replied with a rebuke towards their wondering curiosity and wherever in the Old Testament Christ was spoken of prophetically, Jesus explained his fulfillment. What is amazing about this encounter, is that Christ’s knowledge did not open their eyes, but rather it was fellowship and prayer over dinner! A prayer of blessing opened their eyes, v30-31. Do you pray about what you read in the Bible?

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