Saturday, August 11, 2018

2018.08.11 Hopewell @Home ▫ Psalm 78:67-72

Questions for Littles: Whom did the Lord not choose (v67)? Whom did He choose instead (v68)? Why? What did He construct there (v69)? Whom else did He choose (v70)? From where did He take him? From doing what did He take him (v71)? For doing what did He take him? What did he do and how (v72)?
From the Scripture for this week’s sermon, we learned about God’s plan for bringing the cycle of failure to an end.

At first, it seems like this passage is only about David the son of Jesse. After all, v70 calls him by name and v70-71 describe his beginning as a shepherd, following mama sheep and baby lambs.

But then v72 describes a result from this “shepherding” that we don’t quite come away from 2Samuel satisfied has happened: “So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.” Bathsheba. Uriah. Amnon. Absalom. Adonijah. There’s a fair measure of integrity and skill missing.

Even worse, we go from king to king, finding that they are just about all thieves and robbers, just as the Lord declared they would be in 1Samuel 8, and as the Lord rebukes them for being in Ezekiel 34.

At last, there is One who comes and says, “I am the door of the sheep… all who came before Me are thieves and robbers… I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10).

As we go through the history of Israel, we wonder when the time will come that there will be one faithful generation after another? Then we put John 10 together with the end of Psalm 78, and we find that this is a big part of what Jesus means when He announces that the kingdom has arrived.

Jesus is the promised, forever-King. He is great David’s greater Son, the Good Shepherd. And it is His generations who transmit faith, worship, and obedience from one generation to the next. If ever there was a time when Psalm 78:5-7 would be fulfilled among God’s people, it is now!
How does Christ’s Kingship over the church come out in daily and weekly life?
Suggested Songs: ARP72A “God, Give Your Judgments to the King” or HB146 “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”

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