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The Good Shepherd – Psalm 23

This is probably the most beloved of all Psalms, bringing comfort to so many in times of fear and difficulty. Henry Beecher wrote of it,

The twenty-third Psalm is the nightingale of the Psalms. It has charmed more griefs to rest than all the philosophy of the world. It has remanded to their dungeon more felon thoughts, more black doubts, more thieving sorrows, than there are sands on the sea-shore.

Henry Beecher

The first line opens the metaphor of God as shepherd and the writer, David, as a sheep. As king, David could have seen himself as a lion or an eagle, but instead he lands on the simplicity and vulnerability of a sheep, and compares the King of Creation to a blue-collar shepherd.

This metaphor sees its fulfillment in Christ, who calls himself the Good Shepherd. The catacombs where the early church met in secret are littered with images of Jesus as the good shepherd.

The picture painted here is of God as provider, echoing the promises of God to Israel as they wandered in the desert, keeping them safe often without them knowing. How often do we receive these material blessings without even realizing it? The illnesses we do not get, the car accidents we do not have.

But more than that, even in the midst of illness, injury and difficulties, God Himself is our portion, he is our sufficiency.

Aristotle provides the broad ancient view of sheep: “The sheep is said to be naturally dull and stupid. Of all quadrupeds it is the most foolish: it will saunter away to lonely places with no object in view; oftentimes in stormy weather it will stray from shelter; if it be overtaken by a snowstorm, it will stand still unless the shepherd sets it in motion; it will stay behind and perish unless the shepherd brings up the rams; it will then follow home.”

All that to say, the sheep need the shepherd. Isaiah 53:6 says “We all like sheep have gone astray.” We need to be brought to the still waters and the pasture. We see a picture of this in how David treats Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan who had beg crippled. David, if he had been like other kings, would have had him killed. But instead, he brings him out of the town of Lo-Debar, which means “no pasture,” to eat at the table of the king.

Then verse 3 echoes what we saw in psalm 85:13 – “Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.” It’s not the God carries us, per the Footprints poem, but he makes our way forward in righteousness plain.”

Then in verse 4 the psalm shifts – from speaking about God to speaking to Him directly. It does so at the same time as another shift, from green pastures and blue waters to darkness and danger – where else do we turn when in fear?

It refers to the staff and rod used by shepherds. The staff, broadly, is a support, something to lean on. The rod can mean the same thing, but it can also mean branch or tribe. There may be a connection here between the branch and tribe six Israel with whom God made His covenant.

Then the metaphor shifts from us being sheep to us being people at his table – as Jesus says, “I have called you friends.” Our ultimate destiny is not as sheep, but as guests of the king of the universe, and we will dwell in His house forever. Spurgeon writes, “While I am here, I will be a child at home with my God. The whole world shall be his house to me; and, when I ascend into the upper chamber, I shall not change my company, nor even change the house. I shall only be in the upper story forever.”

Is Christ your shepherd? Do you hear His voice? He loves you and is calling you to join his flock and to be His friend in His house forever.

-Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, August 1, 2021

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A Prayer for Revival – Psalm 85

This Psalm is a heart cry for revival, possibly written as the remnant of Israel return from captivity. It may come earlier, but either way it is a call for revival among God’s people.

Revival has come to mean for many a planned and scheduled event focused on conversion or rededication. But in reality, it is a movement of God in the hearts of His people.

In the psalm, the word “restore” or, maybe more accurately, “turn” in verse 4, point us to the notion of revival, as does “revive” in verse 6.

It opens with a prayer for the conviction of sin, a development of awareness of our thoughts and words and actions that are in opposition to the desires of God.

Next, the Psalmist pleads for God’s salvation, ultimately for God Himself to turn us from that sin. And he does so with a fear of the Lord, a turning from all the other things that spark fear in our hearts and rather letting all that anxiety be swallowed up by the awe of God and his power, an awe that is also deeply embedded in His steadfast love.

That intersection of God’s attributes is seen clearly in verse 10, where love and faithfulness, peace and holiness meet. This intersection is exactly what drove Christ to the cross, the ultimate fulfillment of the truth the psalmist saw centuries before.

And the result of that intersection is revival, as faithfulness springs up and righteousness looks down. It is God’s goodness that brings this about, with all the blessings that our entails.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, July 25, 2021

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The Righteous vs. The Wicked – Psalm 37

This is an imprecatory Psalm, seeking retribution on the wicked. This presents a quandary, because Christ calls us to love our enemies. But there are two things to consider – first, the New Testament has plenty of imprecatory pieces as well, but perhaps more importantly, there is a difference between seeking justice on the wicked and seeking our own personal retribution. We, like God, should desire all people to be saved – but we can also seek and desire evil to be punished and justice to be done.

The psalm is a contrast between the righteous and the wicked, in particular when it seems like the wicked are prospering and the righteous are not. How do we know which side is this we are on? As Christians, we know that our righteousness ultimately comes from Christ – we have been given the righteousness of Christ Himself. We seek to live out lives of righteousness to claim the name we have already been given.

This Psalm provides many imperatives to show us what that life of righteousness looks like. “Fret not,” “be not envious,” “trust in God,” “befriend faithfulness,” “delight yourself in the Lord.”

Much of this is about your thought life – where does your mind sit? Does it sit on worry and envy? Or does it dwell on the Lord and the trust that we can have in Him? Do we delight in God like a child delights in the things that bring them joy?

Rather than being overwhelmed by evil around you, or rushing out to just do something about it under your own strength, we’re called here to rest and wait. To do good, certainly (verse 3), but without anger and wrath (verse 8).

Verses 10-26 dig deeper into the contrast between what God has for the righteous versus the wicked. There’s an emphasis on what is coming, not always on what is right now. The section starts with an emphasis on the wicked but shifts to the righteous, noting that even when the righteous fall, God holds their hand like a parent holds up a child.

The next sections start again with imperatives: first, turn from evil and do good. Then, wait for the Lord and keep His way. God’s timing is not our time, but His justice is just. Finally, “mark the blameless and behold the upright.” They are the ones who have the future, even if their present seems filled with persecution.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, July 18, 2021

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The Psalm of Psalms – Psalm 51

Anglican liturgist J. M. Neale calls Psalm 51 “the psalm of all psalms” ranking it as among the most vital texts in the Old Testament for understanding sin, atonement and grace.

It’s a psalm with a specific origin, coming in the wake of David’s great sin, the rape of Bathsheba and murder of her husband. Specifically, it comes after God’s first act of mercy towards David, the sending of Nathan to confront him publicly.

The psalm uses three different words or sin: hatta, pesa and avown. Hatta is the classic “missing the mark” concept. Pesa is a specific crime or offense. Avown is the perverse spirit within us, what Paul calls “the flesh.” Sin, however it is referred to, is the breaking of God’s covenant with His people. What David is banking on is that the love and mercy of God will outweigh his sin and repair that break.

That is how he opens the psalm, begging for mercy. We have all been hurt and had mercy withheld from us. We have all withheld mercy from others. But God does offer His mercy to all of us through the death and resurrection of Christ. The steadfast love and abundant mercy David called on was put into direct practice on the cross. Adam and Eve ran from a merciful God, but David relied upon Him.

David does owe a debt to others – while his and our sin is ultimately against God, there are others who need restitution. But he also sees that his sin runs even deeper than his actions, that they spring from a broken inward being that needs restoration.

He seeks a “purging with hyssop” and herb used in rituals from the original Passover to the cleansing of disease and uncleanness. He has confidence that the purifying work of God can ultimately make him pure, even whiter than the whitest thing he can imagine. Even though it comes in the wake of crushing consequences, he looks forward to the work of restoration.

Quick notes from the rest, pieces of which I missed:

  • Verse 10 is one we should memorize and repeat in our own prayers.
  • There was no real concept of the trinity in the Old Testament, so the appearance of the Holy Spirit here, fairly clearly, is remarkable.
  • Remember that God is merciful but He is not stupid.
  • The full mercy of God leads to the most abundant life.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, June 13, 2021

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God Our Refuge – Psalm 16

This Psalm is a Miktam – another one of those musical phrases we don’t really know the meaning of. It could mean “engraving” in that it was written down or carved somewhere. It could mean “golden, ” meaning valuable or popular. Most likely it is some kind of notation for the musician or the singer. Like many of the first set of psalms, it is a psalm of David.

It opens with a request for deliverance, using a soft imperative tense that means a begging or beseeching. There is no specific dilemma cited like there is in many other psalms, but there are certainly many possibilities throughout David’s life – or it could be a general prayer.

He sees God as a hiding place, as a protective source of refuge from the danger around him, but then builds on that. He speaks to his own soul, calling himself to acknowledge God as Lord, and to acknowledge himself as sinful, either meaning he has no goodness without God, or that whatever good he may have is insufficient when coming before the Lord.

He then looks outward at those around him, aligning himself with those who align with God, but looking at those who do not, not with scorn but pity, because he knows their end will be tragic.

He goes on, back to God, who is his chosen portion and cup, not only sustenance but also the prime choice and something to rejoice over. The next verse basks in the goodness of what God gives him, despite the difficulty around him. The territory, the inheritance God has promised him is pleasant and beautiful.

God gives him counsel and instruction, God is always set before him, always at hand. This is what makes him glad, rejoice and dwell securely, even in the midst of persecution and danger.

Then David gets a glimpse of God’s ultimate promise of salvation even in death – this verse is cited in the New Testament as a picture, as a calling forward of the resurrection of Christ. And David closes the prayer with another glimpse, of the eternal joys awaiting us in the presence of God. No wonder there is no fear! No wonder God is his refuge in which his flesh dwells secure.

In Acts, we have the story of Pentecost and Peter’s impromptu sermon after the coming of the Holy Spirit. He speaks to his Jewish audience about David, who died, pointing forward, in this Psalm, to his descendent Jesus Christ who fulfilled all the promises that David gave glimpses of.

We, who have this fullness come to us that David only foresaw, can pray this prayer along with him when we feel oppressed and in need of refuge. May it bring us out of our inward, downward facing orientation and point us to the God who loves us.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, June 6, 2021

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Blessed Is the Man – Psalm 1

There is a choice for all of mankind – who are you going to give yourself to? A choice between blessings and curses, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of self and darkness. Psalm 1, echoed in the Beatitudes, walks through who God blesses.

It begins with a negative – what we are not to do. It paints a picture of a man sliding into temptation, from walking along, to stopping to listen, to sitting and engaging in wickedness directly. Paul uses these same terms in Ephesians to paint the opposite, the deepness of the relationship with Christ that we are offered.

The first positive attribute of this blessed man is “delight in the law of the Lord.” The instructions of God are not simply rules and regulations but God’s outstretched hand to His people, to be grasped in joy. How much moreso for us now, with the Law fulfilled in the person and work of Christ?

The blessed man is compared to a fruit tree, firmly planted (and planted by Someone else, not by itself) by an irrigation stream, specifically and strategically placed in order to bear much fruit.

In contrast, the wicked are like the leftover husks of wheat, blowing away as the farmers separate the grain from the garbage. It is a picture of God’s judgement that we see throughout the scripture.

This fruit vs. chaff dichotomy is one of several in this brief Psalm as the psalmist walks us towards the ultimate end of both the righteous and the wicked. The one knowing and known by God – the other, perishing. The psalm is a call to right living, right thinking, right speaking as we seek that relationship with God.

The term “meditate” here means to mutter or even growl. It’s like the grunt of effort as you pull up brambles, it’s like the gargling as we fill our mouths with the word of God. It’s like the savoring of the flavors of good wine or good coffee, engaging in the depth and nuance of the word. As Spurgeon says, “Not by hasty reading, but by deep meditation, we profit by the Word of God.”

The task set in front of us is not easy – the mockers, sinners and wicked are all around us – and even within us, in the form of the Old Man. All our natural inclinations are towards what is easy and selfish. It takes time and difficult effort to train ourselves away from this. The Psalmist here is begging us to engage in that training, drinking deep of the training manual we have been given.

Jesus tells us about the importance of being known by God: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Ultimately this is the most important thing there is – and through Christ’s fulfillment of the law we are given His righteousness, bringing us the blessings promised here.

But we still seek to live out what we have been given, seeking to delight and meditate on the words of God and the Word incarnate. We seek to be, in the words of Isaiah, “oaks of righteousness,” drinking deep from the well of truth and love that we have set before us.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 30, 2021

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Faith Triumphant – Habakkuk 3:1-15

This is a book about faith. It starts with Habakkuk’s faith being tested, crying out to God asking why His people are so corrupt. His replies by promising judgement through the Chaldeans. This continues to test Habakkuk’s faith, and he asks why – but he seeks to listen. God replies with a teaching of faith – the righteous will live by faith, and we can have faith that He will bring all things fulfillment.

In chapter 3, we see the outcome of faith triumphant, in Habakkuk’s song of response. The song is a “Shiggaion” like Psalm 7 – but we don’t know what that means, exactly. It could mean a wild, mournful song, or it could mean a song of meditation and humility, which is certainly the spirit of the song. The other musical term used is “Selah” which we also do not know the meaning of – or could be a pause, or an intensifier, or a line repeat.

The song starts with an acknowledgment that Habakkuk is fearful. While we know that “God has not given us a spirit of fear” we still experience fear. Habakkuk also sees that the only rescue from his fear is the revival of God’s work, even though that work is part of what is making Habakkuk afraid. From Paul in the New Testament, we can have confidence in the promise that “He who began a good work in [us] will be faithful to complete it.”

The core of Habakkuk’s request is this: “In wrath, remember mercy.”

Then he gets to the poetry of the song, painting a broad picture of the seeds and power of God. First, he recounts God meeting Israel in the wilderness (the wilderness of Teman here is used as a more general term) and Mount Sinai (called here and Deuteronomy Mount Paran). He points to the flashes of glory shown to Moses and in the pillars of cloud and fire, and to the plagues sent on both Egypt and, later, the wandering Israelites.

He calls out God’s power over those things that seem permanent, whether mountains or kingdoms or rivers. All of them fall before God’s “chariot of salvation” – his “merkabah yeshua”. Even the sun and moon are under His command, calling back to how God gave the land to Israel in the first place.

Then he pivots from what God had done to what He will do. He again brings in the term salvation, “yeshua,” twice – He will work the salvation of His anointed people through His anointed. Habakkuk and others of his time may have seen this pointing back to David or even ahead to Cyrus, but we see how this is ultimately fulfilled by Yeshua himself. The head of the wicked will be crushed, as His promised at the beginning would be the end of the deceiving serpent.

That gives an additional perspective on next lines, which serve as multiple hopes: hope that the rule of the Chaldeans would not be permanent, that the oppressors of the poor would not last, but also that the rule of sin within our lives and our world is not permanent, either.

We can sing our songs of hope like Habakkuk, because we know that Yeshua the God-man is the ultimate fulfillment of all the promises of the prophets of Israel. Have we sought the salvation that He offers.”

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 16, 2021

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The Righteous Will Live by Faith – Habakkuk 2:2-5

In chapter 2, Habakkuk shifts from being a complainer to being a learner, with the key line coming in verse 4 – “the righteous will live by faith.”

God’s answer to Habakkuk’s second complaint begins with an instruction to make the message public, and a note that understanding the His answer will require patience. He is about to share a vision of the future, a vision that starts with the coming invasion of the Chaldeans and stretches through the unfolding of His plan to the coming of Christ and Christ’s return.

To recap, Habakkuk started with a complaint about violence within his own society – God’s answer is that the Chaldeans would come to bring His judgement on Judah. Habakkuk then objects to the use of this evil people, but closes his second complaint with a promise to seek and wait for God’s answer.

And so God answers, contrasting the arrogant with the righteous and the upright – those who do what is right in their own eyes versus those who seek to follow the way of God. “Righteous” here is innocent or justified in a legal sense. Faith is the firm, faithful response to the word of God. Martin Luther says, “Faith is a living, unshakable confidence in God’s grace.”

The object of our faith, though, is of vital importance. We cannot let faith simply be wishful thinking – if we put faith in things that do not deserve it, we will be let down. Blind faith is like dropping a coin into a wishing well – Biblical faith is like tracking a package. Faith requires understanding God’s promises and submitting to His sovereign will and plan. Faith in things that God does not promise will be disappointed – but so also will be a faith that does not expect anything of God, which inevitably turns into faith in ourselves, in our own ability to make the change that is needed.

The full importance of this verse is only for revealed in the gospel of Christ. New Testament writers quote this verse three separate times: Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38.

In Romans, Paul cites this in the context of introducing the gospel, within which “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.” In Galatians, Paul uses this verse to show that even in the Old Testament, the Law itself was insufficient to achieve righteousness: “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law” – because the righteous live by faith.

This verse is one of the many breadcrumbs God scatters throughout the Old Testament – some of which Habakkuk may have been aware of. Ezekiel, who was likely a contemporary, also prophesied about the coming exile, and about God’s ultimate response:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

We see similar promises across the prophets – that God will ultimately upend the natural order of things, that righteousness will no longer be something we do in order to gain God’s favor, but will become something that God imputes to us if we rely on Him in faith – which itself returns itself back to God as an act of worship and sacrifice.

Are you righteous today? What do you base your righteousness on? Do you want to be made righteous, founded upon the saving work of Christ, through faith in His death and resurrection? That righteousness through faith is only true righteousness we can achieve, and it is offered to us freely.

And if we have taken that step of faith, how are we living that out? Are we living with the faith of the centurion, knowing that Jesus has things well in hand even if we cannot see it? Are we seeking the promises of God that we can rest on in faith? Are we living every day in that “living, unshakable confidence in God’s grace?”

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 2, 2021

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Habakkuk Reacts – Habakkuk 1:12-2:1

The opening of Habakkuk is about what righteous people do in the midst of difficult times. Habakkuk cries out to the Lord about the evil he sees around him and is answered – eventually. It may not have been immediate – Habakkuk may have been praying for answers for a long time before receiving one. And then, when it came, it was kind of a terrible answer! He is going to bring in the Chaldeans to discipline His people. It may have been startling to finally get an answer, especially one so dissatisfying.

So he replies, opening by acknowledging how much higher his God is than he is. God is from everlasting, from before, outside of time. The word he uses is qedem, before time.

Then he interjects the statement, “we shall not die.” Habakkuk knows about the covenants with Abraham, with Moses, with David, but clearly he understands that there is an everlasting thread to this. He will protect his people – but we get a whisper here of the everlasting life that comes in the New Covenant.

So Habakkuk acknowledges God’s higher perspective and His promises to His people. But then he pushes his questions again – why is God using the Chaldeans, who are so much worse than the Israelites?

He calls out God on His own terms – if God cannot even look at evil, how can he countenance these invaders? It is easy to compare ourselves to others, to focus on other people’s sin rather than our own, to focus on other group’s sin rather than our own.

Habakkuk continues to press his case, now against the invaders instead of his own people. He speaks in terms of fishing implements, hooks and nets, both because of the importance of fishing to the Mesopotamians but also because the Neo-Babylonians would even use those tools in their conquests.

Habakkuk closes with a promise to wait for God’s reply. This time, he will not be caught off guard. This time, he is ready for correction – he is ready for the reproof of God, just as God has prepared the Chaldeans for the reproof of Israel. There may be some softening here, now that he has had a chance to say his piece.

We should similarly be situated on our own watchtowers, ready for reproof from God. All of us need that correction. God is changing the focus for Habakkuk from the world around him into focus onto his own need for reproof.

But God indeed is also working in the world around us, even when we don’t see it. But for God, who lives outside of time, there is no delay between sin and His judgement, but in His mercy he leaves opportunity for repentance.

And more than that, He came to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ who lived, died and rose again in order to make that repentance possible.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, April 25, 2021

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The Morning Everything Changed – Luke 24:1-12

Each gospel brings out a different view and perspective of the resurrection. Luke’s emphasis is on more everything is different now that Christ is risen, about how the world changed overnight, and how the news of that change went out from the disciples.

The moment was like the first time a deaf person is able to hear after a cochlear implant, or a colorblind person sees color for the first time. Or even something traumatic, like a car accident, or sprinting down a hall in the dark and hitting a new checkin desk at a full sprint. Everything changes in an instant, and it takes a moment to understand that the world will never be the same.

The group of women who made the first discovery were heading out after Sabbath in order to prepare the body in ways that there was not time for after the crucifixion. What they found confused them.

Sometimes the search for Jesus is confusing and elusive. But that’s because he is a person, not a doctrine. Meeting Jesus is more like a conversation, a relationship, then it is a set of rules, beliefs and rituals. We are seeking a living, breathing, resurrected Savior.

These women knew the living, breathing Jesus, but even after all that time they did not know the fullness of Who he really was and what He came to offer. Jesus can be confusing, and in response we all tend to create imagined Jesuses in our own image. To the extent that confusion can lead us away from those mistaken perspectives, that confusion can be a good thing. Here, it certainly was – they thought Jesus was dead, but confusion eventually led them to the truth of His resurrection.

And then, suddenly they were met with two men in dazzling robes. They ask a question we can ask ourselves still – “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” We can do this easily – looking for the living Christ among the dead things of the world, in dead religion, in dead ritual, in dead culture.

But they also provide the way to address the women’s confusion – pointing back to the words of Christ Himself. That is always the answer.

The disciples respond with doubt and disbelief – Thomas gets the bad wrap, but he was certainly not alone. Peter, though, responds differently – leaping up and running to the tomb. This Peter, who had just denied that he even knew Jesus, must have seen some small opportunity to make right what he had broken. Like says that Peter “marveled” or “was amazed.” We can see an echo of this in both the hymn “Amazing Grace” and the life of its writer, John Newton.

The reality of this story continues to confuse and amaze, and we continue to have the opportunity to meet the risen Christ and watch the whole world change.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, April 4, 2021