Title: Sanctuary and Blessing
sanctuary and blessing
2006-11-01
I. Text Commentary
Psalm 20 before us today is a psalm of David. David wrote many poems of supplication, but today these 20 Psalms are poems of praise to God. David was a man who praised God a lot during his days. So, his hymn shows how he lived in his life stained with hardships, gaining the vitality of his soul through hymns. In this psalm, the psalmist first blesses all the Israelites who became the covenant people together as God's servants. The life of a saint is a life that blesses so many people.
God is the only source of all blessings, so how could he say to Abraham, “You will be a source of blessings”? By analogy, the Lord is a reservoir of blessing, and Abraham is another source of water as a small Ongdal spring that receives water flowing down from that reservoir. That is, God is the original source, and believers are the derivative source. We must have many blessings. There is so much light of knowledge that we must share it with people. Also, there must be a lot of grace. All that knowledge, grace, love, material things... All things come from the source God. You have to take it a lot and give it to people. By receiving it, we can make people wear our virtues. It makes us happy to see people revived in it, the ignorant to find light, those without material things to be helped through us, and those who remain only hate and jealousy to enjoy love through us. Well, this is the blessed life of a believer.
ㅣI. The Life of the Covenant People: Blessings
To do this, the believer must live a life in which he receives many things from God and enjoys it. That is why the lives of the covenant people bless many people. When you say blessing like this, you can bless people because you have the blessings you have received. There are three ways in the Bible today that God is a blessing to His own people.
A. Respond
First, God answers. “He will answer you in the day of trouble.” God loves us. It is God who has chosen us to be His people and will never regret that choice. In this way, God chooses us, never regrets it, and does not leave us after choosing us, but in the way of guidance and protection, he leads us toward the purpose for which he was chosen in the end.
B. Exaltation
The second is exaltation. To ‘enhance’ means to be recognized as more valuable than everything else in the order of values. This is an honor. Glory has several meanings, but in this context, glory refers to the effect of being recognized by all because of the importance that an object or person has and is called glory. David makes this confession in Psalm 2. “The Lord is my shield and my glory, he is the lifter of my head.” The shield is protection. Even if countless arrows rain like rain, you can save your life if you hide behind the shield. It means that God is your shield and blocks you from all arrows. It is a confession that no matter how accurately the wicked shoots arrows at the poet's heart, he can be saved because he hides behind God, who is his shield. This glory has the effect of recognizing the importance and value of the poet through the help of God.
C. Help
Third, God helps. The phrase “holding up” that follows is repeating the same meaning. In fact, if you look at this story of ‘helping’ in Korean, it is easy to accept that ‘helping’ means that I have already taken the initiative in my work, and that other people add something to my strength. But the truth is, the “help” we are talking about here does not mean that. In the Bible, especially in the Psalms, the phrase “Jehovah is my help” occurs many times, and this is ezer. When we say ‘Ebenezer’, the word translated as ‘Ezer’ is ‘Ezer’. This means special help. When we stand on the edge of life, we can say that it is God's help that God grants us wings in a miraculous way. Just like that, a drama of reversal is directed at the end of our lives, which were all inclined because of God's help. That is the blessing of the covenant people who depend on God.
III. Saints: Center of Blessing
But in order to do these things, we must first become those who receive blessings from God. Only when we receive God's blessings can we bless others, and when we bless God for them, they can enjoy the blessings He has given us and live their lives. Where do those things happen? “He sustains you in the sanctuary and helps you” This is what happens in the sanctuary after all. The temple had not yet been built until David wrote this psalm. It was a tabernacle. In a broad sense, the area around the tabernacle was called the sanctuary, or the room where the priests entered was called the sanctuary. In any case, this is a holy place where encounters with God take place. Undoubtedly, the thought of the sanctuary is that the church, the community of covenant people, is the place where God's presence is, where there is an encounter with God, and where God has specially appointed him to come down and meet us out of many lands is pointing. When we receive God's blessings in that sanctuary, we too become a derivative source so that people can enjoy it and live.
IV. Conclusion: Be a Source of Blessings
Then how should we live? It is said to be a source of blessing. “God, give me a wider heart so that many souls who are weary and weary can rest because of me. Help the weary souls to rest in my arms and learn of You. God, make my arms twice or four times as long.” Why?” Let some people lie on my arms. give me more material I will open up the lives of those who live crumpled up for lack of material things with them worthy of the Lord's heart. Please help me.” and live a life that is a source of blessing before God. It will be a blessing to many people in this world that we are alive on this earth at that time. In doing so, we will be able to give thanks and glorify God deeply. 2006-11-01