Pastor Billington's Blog

Psalm 92:8-15 “But you, LORD, are on high forever more. For behold, your enemies, LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish. All the evildoers will be scattered. But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. I am anointed with fresh oil. My eye has also seen my enemies. My ears have heard of the wicked enemies who rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the LORD’s house. They will flourish in our God’s courts. They will still produce fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and green, to show that the LORD is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”

The temporal victory expected here foreshadows our ultimate victory later!

Revelation 19:1-9 “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God; for his judgements are true and righteous. For he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.’ A second said, ‘Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever.’ The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sits on the throne, saying, ‘Amen! Hallelujah!’ A voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!’ I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns! Let’s rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let’s give the glory to him. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.’ It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. He said to me, ‘Write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” ‘ He said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’ ”

For additional worship: Children of the Heavenly Father (Steve Green)

Psalm 92:1-7 “A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. It is a good thing to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, Most High, to proclaim your loving kindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night, with the ten-stringed lute, with the harp, and with the melody of the lyre. For you, LORD, have made me glad through your work. I will triumph in the works of your hands. How great are your works, LORD! Your thoughts are very deep. A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this: though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.”

Morning and evening is a way of encompassing the whole. We are to praise and give thanks constantly, with both our voices and our instruments. We give thanks because of the work that He has done through creation and salvation, because of His omnipotence and omniscience, and because we’re not fools!

Hebrews 13:15 “Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.”

For additional worship: Come Thou Fount (Official Music Video) | Celtic Worship.

Psalm 91:9-16 “Because you have made the LORD your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot. “Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him. I will satisfy him with long life, and show him my salvation.”

Making the Lord your refuge means that you will be generally safer in this life, and certainly safer in the life to come! Take the book of Proverbs for instance. Proverbs gives us probabilities. If we listen to what it says, then we’ll live better lives because we stay out of a lot of trouble. That’s what following God does. Following God doesn’t mean that we’ll never have trouble; just that we’ll stay away from much of it! And we trust that God will also watch out for us because of our desire to serve Him. The absolute blessedness described here will happen in the new heavens and the new earth:

Isaiah 11:1-9 “A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. The LORD’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears; but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

I would suggest that this passage engages in the rhetoric device of hyperbole: it exaggerates to make a point. The point being that following God is safer than not following God! Jesus even warns about the dangers of misunderstanding this passage:

Matthew 4:5-7 “Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and, “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.” ‘ Jesus said to him, ‘Again, it is written, “You shall not test the Lord, your God.” ’ ”

Putting ourselves in harm’s way simply because we think that God will keep us safe is not a correct reading of Scripture. In fact, we’re sometimes reminded that following God can bring trouble because of the hatred of the world around us.

John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

One absolute spiritual truth that should comfort us from this passage is the fact that once we are God’s, we are His forever! He guards us and keeps us in the palm of His hand.

John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

For additional worship: On Eagle’s Wings (Michael Joncas)

Psalm 91:1-8 “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes, and see the recompense of the wicked.”

Where is the secret place of the Most High for us? It starts with knowing Jesus! When we know Jesus, then we don’t have to fear death, hell, or Satan anymore. But in our day to day lives we may still experience fear and distress. In order to stay in that secret place we need to study, praise, pray, and live for God. When we do these things we won’t grieve the Spirit in us, and we’ll be able to experience the fruit that comes from our relationship with Him!

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.”

For additional worship: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go (Indelible Grace)

Psalm 90:13-17 “Relent, LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work appear to your servants, your glory to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.”

Can you see Moses composing this as they are getting near the promised land? They’ve wandered in the wilderness for 40 years as a result of their disobedience. They cry out for mercy and compassion, and ask to experience God’s glory, goodness, and blessing again.

While you may not feel far from God right now, or feel like you’re being disciplined by Him in some way, there are some very important reminds for all of us here. When we wake up each morning God should be on our minds, we should remember that we’ve already experienced His mercy through Jesus Christ, and we should go through our day with joy. We should ask Him to reveal His work in our lives, and to establish the work of our hands.

Ephesians 2:4-10 “But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.”

For additional worship: Take My Life and Let It Be (Reawaken Hymns)

Psalm 90:7-12 “For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh. The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger, your wrath according to the fear that is due to you? So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

These verses teach us that life can be short and hard, so we should do everything we can to stay on God’s good side. And we shouldn’t think that we can keep anything from Him, because He knows all and sees everything!

Job 28:28 “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.”

For additional worship: A Few More Years Shall Roll (Ancient Hymns Reimagined)

Psalm 90:1-6 “A Prayer by Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations. Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night. You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass. In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.”

These verses remind us that God is eternal and we are not. People have a physical beginning and end. We read here that man returns to destruction, which literally means humiliation, and some translations render as dust. This should remind us of Genesis and the fall, where mankind is punished with death because of sin. God is self-existent (aseity). He always has been and always will be (“from everlasting to everlasting”). That’s why He can continue to be the dwelling place of His people for each and every generation!

For additional worship: Everlasting (Brian Doerksen)

Psalm 89:46-52 “How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men! What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah. Lord, where are your former loving kindnesses, which you swore to David in your faithfulness? Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples, With which your enemies have mocked, LORD, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one. Blessed be the LORD forever more. Amen, and Amen.”

Ever feel hopeless and far from God? Don’t give up reaching out to Him!

Matthew 15:21-28 “Jesus went out from there and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders and cried, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!’ But he answered her not a word. His disciples came and begged him, saying, ‘Send her away; for she cries after us.’ But he answered, ‘I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and worshipped him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ But he answered, ‘It is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ But she said, ‘Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed from that hour.”

But there is one who shall live and not see death. Jesus! And He is the one who will deliver us from the power of the grave.

Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the LORD’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.”

1 Corinthians 15:20-23 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep. For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming.”

For additional worship: Glorious Day – Living He Loved Me (Casting Crowns)