God, our Savior, help us so people will praise You. Save us and forgive our sins so people will honor You. Why should the nations say, "Where is your God?" Tell the nations in our presence that You punish those who kill Your servants. Hear the moans of the prisoners. Use Your great power to save those sentenced to die. (Verses 9-11)
Hungry, weary and in need of a good shower, Jesus walked out of the wilderness and His encounter with Satan. Forty days alone and with no food should've left Him vulnerable to the temptations of the enemy -- make a rock into bread, worship me and jump from this precipice to show everyone the antics of the Son of God. "Don't test the Lord your God." Interview done. The enemy slithered away and the Lord, his God, headed to His hometown. Nazareth. In the power of the Holy Spirit.
The townspeople had heard all about the miracles Jesus was doing and about His great teachings. Hometown boy made good. Let's hear what He has to say. On the Sabbath, Jesus was in the synagogue. The priests handed Him a book to read from. Isaiah. Jesus knew exactly the passage He'd read. The Lord has put His Spirit in Me, because He appointed me to tell the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind they can see again. God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show us His kindness. (61) Jesus closed the book and sat down. All eyes were on Him. What would He do next?
"While you heard these words just now, they were coming true," Jesus declared.
Hmmm. What could He mean? Isn't He just the son of Joseph? The illegitimate son of Mary? But what if He's the Messiah? What if Messiah is our local boy? Let's see Him do some miracles here.
"I know what you want to say to me," Jesus said, understanding what they were all thinking. " 'We heard what you did in Capernaum. Do those things in Your own home town.' But a prophet isn't accepted in his home town." He knew these people. Grew up with them. Made them. Jesus reminded the church goers of two stories they would've known well. During a great drought, Elijah brought water to a heathen widow, not to the dying widows of Israel. Elisha ignored Jewish lepers and healed Naaman, a Syrian, instead.
What was He talking about? Claiming on one hand to be the Messianic hope of Israel and on the other slapping them in the face with stories of God's mercy toward, instead of judgment of, those who weren't Jewish. This boy of Joseph's, who claims to be the fulfillment of their hopes for liberation, insinuates instead their judgment. Blasphemy! Neighbors and priests rushed Him. Ready to throw Him over the nearest cliff. When they looked around to grab Him, He was gone. Eluded them somehow.
For the whole world to know unequivocally that the prayers of centuries, including the one made by Asaph in this psalm, were answered in Jesus, He began His ministry with the declaration that He'd come to be Messiah. That meant healing the sick, binding up broken hearts, setting Satan's prisoners free and announcing a new way God would deal with sin. And it wouldn't be just for the Jews. It was breathtaking and awful for the Jews to realize salvation was for everyone. That wasn't fair. God was their God.
But all along the Lord showed He loved all of us. Hagar, thrown with her son into the desert by the jealous Sarah, was visited by the angel of the Lord because He saw her desperation. Provided for her and Ishmael, her boy. Rahab, the harlot, a great grandmother of Messiah. On and on it goes. God seeing hearts He loves and drawing near. Jesus came because God so loved the world He gave His Only Son. And He didn't come to condemn the world, but so the world through Him might be saved. John 3. By His great love, God answered Asaph's prayer: Use Your great power to save those sentenced to die. Because we all are. No one is righteous, no not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Caught in Satan's traps. Even if it means, like these folks in the synagogue, we miss God because we are so religious we tell God what to do. Even if we have ruined our lives and think there is no way out of the prisons we have built around ourselves. We all are sentenced to die for our sins.
Jesus could've done it some other way. Satan knew He could call the angels...all of them...to save Him if He jumped off the cliff to show how great He is. Knew He could turn stones into bread. It wasn't a matter of mighty power. It was a matter of our need for salvation. Save us! We are helpless! Still our cry. Help didn't look like they thought it should. Jesus wasn't a national Messiah so they could say, "Look, here's our God!" Instead, Jesus showed us He loves us all. No nation can brag about Him being just their God anymore, because He so loves the world, He came.
Asaph, God heard you. A new nation has been created by God Himself. It is all inclusive. Lepers, the lame and blind, the pariah and the prince, Irish, Muslim, Jewish and Arab, American and Spanish, smart and challenged, successful and struggling and righteous and sinner. These make up the holy nation of those who understand what Jesus meant when He said He's the fulfillment of God showing His kindness to the world. Jesus was raised up in their presence, on a cross outside the city gates, to tell the nations He punishes those who kill His servants. Then Jesus took that punishment upon Himself. What kind of God is this?
But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. At one time you were not a people, but now you are God's people. In the past you had never received mercy, but now you have received God's mercy. I Peter 2
Hungry, weary and in need of a good shower, Jesus walked out of the wilderness and His encounter with Satan. Forty days alone and with no food should've left Him vulnerable to the temptations of the enemy -- make a rock into bread, worship me and jump from this precipice to show everyone the antics of the Son of God. "Don't test the Lord your God." Interview done. The enemy slithered away and the Lord, his God, headed to His hometown. Nazareth. In the power of the Holy Spirit.
The townspeople had heard all about the miracles Jesus was doing and about His great teachings. Hometown boy made good. Let's hear what He has to say. On the Sabbath, Jesus was in the synagogue. The priests handed Him a book to read from. Isaiah. Jesus knew exactly the passage He'd read. The Lord has put His Spirit in Me, because He appointed me to tell the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind they can see again. God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show us His kindness. (61) Jesus closed the book and sat down. All eyes were on Him. What would He do next?
"While you heard these words just now, they were coming true," Jesus declared.
Hmmm. What could He mean? Isn't He just the son of Joseph? The illegitimate son of Mary? But what if He's the Messiah? What if Messiah is our local boy? Let's see Him do some miracles here.
"I know what you want to say to me," Jesus said, understanding what they were all thinking. " 'We heard what you did in Capernaum. Do those things in Your own home town.' But a prophet isn't accepted in his home town." He knew these people. Grew up with them. Made them. Jesus reminded the church goers of two stories they would've known well. During a great drought, Elijah brought water to a heathen widow, not to the dying widows of Israel. Elisha ignored Jewish lepers and healed Naaman, a Syrian, instead.
What was He talking about? Claiming on one hand to be the Messianic hope of Israel and on the other slapping them in the face with stories of God's mercy toward, instead of judgment of, those who weren't Jewish. This boy of Joseph's, who claims to be the fulfillment of their hopes for liberation, insinuates instead their judgment. Blasphemy! Neighbors and priests rushed Him. Ready to throw Him over the nearest cliff. When they looked around to grab Him, He was gone. Eluded them somehow.
For the whole world to know unequivocally that the prayers of centuries, including the one made by Asaph in this psalm, were answered in Jesus, He began His ministry with the declaration that He'd come to be Messiah. That meant healing the sick, binding up broken hearts, setting Satan's prisoners free and announcing a new way God would deal with sin. And it wouldn't be just for the Jews. It was breathtaking and awful for the Jews to realize salvation was for everyone. That wasn't fair. God was their God.
But all along the Lord showed He loved all of us. Hagar, thrown with her son into the desert by the jealous Sarah, was visited by the angel of the Lord because He saw her desperation. Provided for her and Ishmael, her boy. Rahab, the harlot, a great grandmother of Messiah. On and on it goes. God seeing hearts He loves and drawing near. Jesus came because God so loved the world He gave His Only Son. And He didn't come to condemn the world, but so the world through Him might be saved. John 3. By His great love, God answered Asaph's prayer: Use Your great power to save those sentenced to die. Because we all are. No one is righteous, no not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Caught in Satan's traps. Even if it means, like these folks in the synagogue, we miss God because we are so religious we tell God what to do. Even if we have ruined our lives and think there is no way out of the prisons we have built around ourselves. We all are sentenced to die for our sins.
Jesus could've done it some other way. Satan knew He could call the angels...all of them...to save Him if He jumped off the cliff to show how great He is. Knew He could turn stones into bread. It wasn't a matter of mighty power. It was a matter of our need for salvation. Save us! We are helpless! Still our cry. Help didn't look like they thought it should. Jesus wasn't a national Messiah so they could say, "Look, here's our God!" Instead, Jesus showed us He loves us all. No nation can brag about Him being just their God anymore, because He so loves the world, He came.
Asaph, God heard you. A new nation has been created by God Himself. It is all inclusive. Lepers, the lame and blind, the pariah and the prince, Irish, Muslim, Jewish and Arab, American and Spanish, smart and challenged, successful and struggling and righteous and sinner. These make up the holy nation of those who understand what Jesus meant when He said He's the fulfillment of God showing His kindness to the world. Jesus was raised up in their presence, on a cross outside the city gates, to tell the nations He punishes those who kill His servants. Then Jesus took that punishment upon Himself. What kind of God is this?
But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. At one time you were not a people, but now you are God's people. In the past you had never received mercy, but now you have received God's mercy. I Peter 2
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