You always hear, this time of year, of people making resolutions for the coming year.  People make resolutions to be healthy: to remain that way or to get that way.  People resolve to make financially wise choices: get out of debt, start to save money, give more money away, etc.  People resolve to get material things.  They have saved up and now they want to finally get that new car, new house, new iPad mini, new smart phone, etc.  I want to encourage you to make a New Year resolution to be blessed in the New Year.  However, this blessing is greater than any of the above.  This blessing is one only God can grant.  Psalm 1 speaks about the man who is blessed and contrasts him with the man who is not blessed.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;” Psalm 1:1

Sin’s Progression

Charles Haddon Spurgeon writes, “When people live in sin they go from bad to worse.  At first they merely walk in the counsel of the ungodly.  Their evil is practical rather than habitual, but they become accustomed to evil.  They stand in the way of open sinners who willfully violate God’s commandments.  If left alone, they become malignant teachers and evil enticers.  They sit in the seat of the scornful. They have taken their degree in vice (which is an immoral or evil habit or practice) and, as true Doctors of Damnation, are Masters in Belial.”  Belial is a Hebrew word translated in the Old Testament as corrupt, perverted, worthless and in the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 6:15, it is used as a name for Satan.

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.  For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?  Or what fellowship has light with darkness?  What accord has Christ with Belial?  Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?  What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the Lord Almighty.’” 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

The Westminster larger catechism states it's first question and answer as follows:

Q:  What is the chief and highest end of man?
A: Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, (Rom. 11:36, 1 Cor. 10:31) and fully to enjoy Him forever (Ps. 73:24-28, John 17:21-23).

We are to glorify God. I want to share with you what our worship should focus on: God.  It is how we are designed in the creation.  "God intended worship to be the motivational core of our lives.  Adam and Eve were created to live so that everything in their lives drew its meaning and purpose from the person, presence, and purpose of God.  Because of this design, everything a human does expresses worship.  What you do and the way you do it express your desire to serve something." - Paul David Tripp

So the question is: Do you find meaning and purpose from the person, presence, and purpose of God? Let's look at Psalm 100:1-2 as a Godward referent for our lives.  The passage states:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!  Serve the Lord with gladness!  Come into his presence with singing!

What price would you put on your children?  Priceless? Dare I say, worthless?  Surely they are of at least some value.  When listening to our culture, one hears a mixed bag of responses to this question.

I heard just last week about two young boys in the Memphis area who were found in a neighbor's front yard a block away from their house.  Being so young, they were lost, whimpering, and unable to direct themselves home.  Upon calling the police, a search ensued for the appropriate home which was ended an hour and a half later as police returned the young, cold, underdressed boys to their mother who showed no signs of having cared about their missing status.  She simply opened the door, allowed the boys to enter, and closed it as quickly as it opened.  No "thank you..." no "I was so worried..."  Nothing.

An article by John Cloud on Time Magazine’s Healthland website states many disconcerting thoughts.  Here are a few examples:

• “Some economists have argued that having kids is an economically silly investment; after all, it’s cheaper to hire end-of-life care than to raise a child.  Now comes new research showing that having kids is not only financially foolish but that kids literally make parents delusional.”
• “Couples who choose not to have kids also have better, more satisfying marriages than couples who have kids.”
• Richard Eibach and Steven Mock recently conducted research to test the “hypothesis that ‘idealizing the emotional rewards of parenting helps parents to rationalize the financial costs of raising children’.”
• Parents “idealize parenting” for “the same reason you keep spending money to fix up an old car when it just doesn’t work…”
• Researchers have now created “a new cultural model of childhood that [one researcher] aptly dubbed ‘the economically worthless but emotionally priceless child’.”

The conclusion is that children truly have no intrinsic value; parents simply persuade themselves that children have worth because they want an emotional connection, but they are foolish in that persuasion, because children actually bring less satisfaction than anticipated.

Ultimately, this article points readers in a completely selfish trajectory, attempting to point out that children bring too much of a burden to justify the expectation of profit.

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!”
Psalm 34:8

Just these few words communicate an eternity of truth.  Not only do they sum up Psalm 34, but are truly a summary of all of the psalms.  Furthermore, these words reveal an overarching theme of the entire Bible - the LORD is good! This phrase is crucial for our understanding of God.  First, the proposition “the LORD is good” is a truth claim about God’s nature - not just who He is but what He is essentially. God is Good!  This means that He cannot be anything other than good, which leads us to our next point.  Verse 8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!”, emphasizing not only God’s nature but His actions as well.  Since God is good and cannot be anything other than good, whatever He does, commands, wills, and speaks is good, regardless of human comprehension or judgment.  God is good and all that He does is good.

You cannot buy your redemption.  You can put your trust in your wealth here on earth, but it will fail you.  There is one thing that is certain: ALL MEN DIE.  Both the rich and the poor alike will meet this fate.

Psalm 49 makes this point very clear.  All die both rich and poor, both wise and unwise.

It states in verses 7-9, "No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him-- for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever-- that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay."

Verse 10, "For he sees that even wise men die; the stupid and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others."

Even if you were to pool all the wealth of the world into your bank account and were in some way to be able to transfer that into redeeming power, you would not be able to pay the ransom for the soul of one of your friends, or yourself.  Like the Psalm says in verse 8, "for the redemption of [your] soul is costly."

Have you ever asked God to bless you, your family, your ventures: be it a relationship, education, work, or any sort of decision you may have to make day to day?  If you have, you are not alone.  Nearly every Christian seeks to be blessed and we all need God’s blessing daily.  But have you ever thought about why you seek God’s blessing?  Is it for personal comfort, gain, success, and fulfillment or are you seeking the blessing of God for a bigger purpose - for His purpose?

Sometimes, Christians judge the importance of a biblical concept by the number of times it is mentioned in the Bible.  The word “sing” is mentioned 122 times in the Bible.  The word “pray” is mentioned 121 times (Experiencing Worship, Stephen M. Newman).  Does that mean singing is more important than praying?  Of course not.  Both are forms of worship and both are important for fellowship with God.  All Christians (hopefully) will tell you that they pray; however, not all of them will tell you that they sing.  In fact, some say flatly “Oh, you don’t want to hear me sing!”   Once, a young mother told me, “When I sing even my baby cries!”  Perhaps these people lack confidence or feel they have no talent.  And it’s true they might not have the same vocal ability others have, but that’s not what’s important.

Back in February, I began studying through the Psalms of Ascent.  I have spent much time chewing and thinking on Psalm 120, the first of fifteen Songs of Ascent.  These fifteen psalms (120-134) were possibly at one time a small book of songs that pilgrims would sing as they journeyed to the temple in Jerusalem three times a year for feast holidays.  Psalm 120 is the first in this section of Psalms.

Proverbs 24:19-20 tells us, “Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.”

The psalmist, in Psalm 120, seems to be a pilgrim who lives in the midst of a people who do not hold his beliefs in God and are actually vocally abusing him with scorn and deceitful lies.  They speak behind his back and are doing whatever they can to destroy his integrity, his joy, and his faith.  He lives in the midst of an unbelieving people.

I believe we all can relate to this type of persecution. If you cannot, just wait; if you are a Christian long enough and doing the work of God, this persecution will come.

One of the greatest tragedies in the history of the people of Israel is their forgetfulness.  It is not that they forgot where they left their sheep or where they parked their camel, but they forgot their God.  Soon after the Exodus and God giving the Law, the Israelites began to forget God.  As their minds drifted from the One True God, they began to worship the other gods of the surrounding nations.  Numerous times in the book of Deuteronomy, God, through Moses, commands the people to remember their redemption from Egypt and the law—to be careful to obey it.  With the death of Moses and Joshua came the slow fade of the Israelites away from being faithful to God.  

What caused this forgetfulness?