Rose, my lovely and talented wife, lamented to me a couple years ago that she wishes she could write songs. I said, “How do you know that you can’t write if you’ve never tried?”. So she wrote a song and she’s been writing great tunes since. Most of which have been sung at Mars Hill. I have the distinct privilege of hearing these songs come together around the house as Rose labors at the piano. That’s phase 1. Then we get to arrange the song in phase 2 as a band in Sons of Thunder. Rose brings the “skeleton” of the song (i.e. the melody and chord changes) and our wildly talented band mates help us put skin on the song by adding their respective guitar, bass and keys parts.
Here’s Rose’s thoughts on the writing of Psalm 8. (Read Psalm 8 here) –Pastor Matt
Piper does an amazing job looking at this Psalm in its entirety, and I would highly suggest you check it out. But the part that really stuck out and convicted me to write this song is how Jesus uses the very weakest of things to declare his praise and silence his enemies. (more…)
Here’s a quick update of some of what has been going on in my world over the summer…
After a crazy year I have been taking some time off with the family the last few weeks. We were able to get in a camping trip, a little time at a place near Leavenworth, WA and about a week on the Oregon coast. The hours have really counted up in recent months so it has been good to get some time away, enjoy my family and take stock of things.
This week we also had our annual elders retreat. It was only a couple nights but it was a joy to spend time with my fellow pastors and their wives. We have a tremendous team of guys and praise God for how he has brought us together. Truly nothing in all creation besides Jesus could bring together such a different mix of men.
I am also looking forward to the month of August as I am sharing the preaching duties with Pastor Bubba Jennings at the Ballard campus as we preach through the book of Jonah. It’s going to be a great 4 week series as we look at Jonah’s story and how it challenges us to confront our own idols and love the city where God has placed us. Bubba is preaching chapters 1 & 3 and I have 2 & 4. I will post the sermons here in addition to our main mars hill website so you can check it out.
Lastly, I am actually writing this from our nation’s capitol, Washington DC (actually suburb north of DC called Gaithersburg). Joel Brown and I are out for the bi-annual Worship God Conference. The conference is put on by my dear friend Bob Kauflin and Sovereign Grace Ministries. If you haven’t heard of Bob’s blog Worship Matters I highly recommend you check it out. I have gotten acquainted with Bob over the last year and he has become a friend and a bit of a mentor to me. He is a wise man who has been a worship pastor for many, many years, raised 5 kids to love Jesus and now serves in leading Sovereign Grace’s worship ministry across their network of churches. I got to spend a day with him earlier this year during the Resurgence Text and Context conference and was able to record an interview. We posted the whole thing on the Resurgence site but we have now broken it up into small pieces and will release an interview a day during the Worship God conference. Joel and I will also be posting our thoughts as the conference continues.
When I meditate on this Psalm and consider the theme of pain and anguish, I’m reminded of times in my life of emotional / psychological dis-ease (“My soul also is greatly troubled”). Despite my personal good health, I have not always been well in my heart and in my mind And at the risk of stretching the original intent of this psalm and importing my own subjective experiences into the text, I believe The Spirit of God is faithful to convict me of sin and grow me in grace.
Going beyond the immediate scope of the Psalm
While this Psalm seems to point toward objective illness that isn’t necessarily correlated to specific sin, I can say for myself that my “troubled soul” is almost always self inflicted. I’ve read this Psalm many times over the years. And though I don’t recall meditating on it specifically, I have in effect, prayed “Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love” And God, in his graciousness, while not exactly delivering me from pain, has faithfully lead me through it. In a nutshell He is in the process of saving me from myself. (more…)
According to Broyles many of the Psalms were written objectively for a community. So the question to keep in mind when reading Psalm 6 isn’t necessarily a subjective point of view as in: “‘out of what circumstances was the psalm written’ but rather ‘for what kind of circumstances is it appropriate?’”.
The theme
The overall theme of this psalm centers around waiting on the Lord while suffering through the trials of ill-health. Though the psalm seems to focus on physical sickness “I am languishing / my bones are troubled” emotion and mental health may be in view here as well “my soul also is greatly troubled”. First, this psalm is a request to receive love instead of wrath. Second there’s a plea for healing and third that God would rescue him from death so that His praise can continue as a witness to the living “in Sheol who will give you praise?”
Jesus and Psalm 6
After meditating on this chapter I wonder if Jesus prayed Psalm 6 in the garden of Gethsemane. (Mark 14, Luke 22) It’s just a guess but this prayer would certainly be appropriate. A bed flooded with tears, troubled bones, it all seems kind of hyperbolic. But consider the weight that Jesus carried. He knew he would have to bear the sin of the world alone, become sin on our behalf (2 Cor 5:21) and face the most horrific of deaths. The beating and crucifixion that Jesus endured is hard to even imagine. But to be separated from the Father with whom Jesus had enjoyed perfect communion for all eternity…that’s unfathomable. And yet Jesus’ words in Luke 22:42 “not my will, but yours, be done” could very well have been followed by Psalm 6:8-10.
“Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping. The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.” (more…)
Here, Pastor Tim interviews RR founder and artist Lecrae as they discuss what it means to faithfully articulate the gospel to hip-hop culture. Stay tuned for additional interviews with Trip Lee and Sho Baraka.
“The Mars Hill band Loma is in search of a ‘Master Of The Skins’ to replace our talented current drummer who unfortunately is moving back home to Florida in August. Stylistically the band is currently in transition, though past influences include Wilco, The Posies, Spoon, and most pop-oriented indie rock. Please contact Brian Ward at 206.915.7260 or at theunionstate@hotmail.com for more information”.
Verses 10-12 A final word of warning with a promise of blessing
Psalm 2 alone establishes that the psalms aren’t the domesticated Ned Flanders niceties that so many of us grew up with in Sunday school. To recap psalm 2, we’ve learned that:
Jesus is always the point of the psalms,
The Father has established Jesus as the King over the nations
The human heart is deceitful and proud and fights against Jesus’ preeminence
As a whole, this psalm is a rebuke and warning against Kingdom subordination and a threat to every nation and individual that won’t surrender position and power (which, if we’re honest, is pretty much all of us.) The kings and rulers or the world are warned to “be wise” and to “serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.” (more…)
Sadly many will choose not to follow the rule of the Kingdom. And this stiff-necked posture will end in the unbeliever’s destruction as Jesus’ patience will inevitably run out. Verse 9 says that he will “rule them with an iron scepter” and “dash them to pieces like pottery”. But this kind of language doesn’t bode well with our civilized/educated/modern sensibilities.
How could a supposedly all loving God be so…mean?
First of all, we all are given ample opportunity for repentance. In one of the most quoted verses of the bible we’re told that God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love (Ex 34:6, Num 14:18, Neh 9:17, Jonah 4:2 etc.)
Read the psalms lazily and it’s easy to feel removed from the original context with all the talk of kings, thrones and the wrath of God. It all seems so…antiquated and harsh.
The context of Psalm 2
Psalm 1 established that there are two types of people in the world. The righteous who are firmly planted near refreshing waters and the wicked who disappear like chaff in the wind. And where Psalm 1 focuses on individuals, psalm 2 gives a wide angled panoramic shot of the nations.
At the time of psalm 2’s writing, the name of the game for near east nations was to wage war and expand territories and Israel was just one puny nation among others to be conquered.
It’s been said that king David composed this psalm after he had taken Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and made it the head of the kingdom (2 Sam 7:9). When the Philistines heard this they warred against David. But David consulted the Lord (2 Sam 7:19) and took the Philistines to task.
So on the one hand the psalm may very well have been written to celebrate Israel’s military victory but more importantly, king David is typified as Jesus by the Apostles as Acts 4:25-27 states. That said, let’s break down the psalm incrementally… (more…)
Doxologist Content
After a crazy year I have been taking some time off with the family the last few weeks. We were able to get in a camping trip, a little time at a place near Leavenworth, WA and about a week on the Oregon coast. The hours have really counted up in recent months so it has been good to get some time away, enjoy my family and take stock of things.