Thursday: The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning

Theme: Wrath and Mercy Mingled

In this week’s lessons, God is displayed as the righteous Judge who demonstrates his wrath toward sinners, but mercy toward his chosen people.

Scripture: Psalm 76:1-12

It is a natural practice of the psalmists to reflect on the meaning of some great historical event, projecting it onto an even larger screen. That is what happens here in a string of theological comments woven in with the historical descriptions. These deal with the nature and inevitability of God's judgments generally and may even point, as I suggested earlier, to the great final judgment of the last days.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning

Theme: God Will Judge

In this week’s lessons, God is displayed as the righteous Judge who demonstrates his wrath toward sinners, but mercy toward his chosen people.

Scripture: Psalm 76:1-12

In spite of the way I have handled this first stanza, using it to ask who God is and where knowledge of the true God may be found, we must not think that the subject matter of this psalm is theoretical. This is not a matter for polite debate with little or no consequences attached. According to this psalm, this true God is a righteous Judge whose wrath is constantly hanging over those who are enemies both of himself and of his people.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

No Special Providence?

It is one thing to profess to believe in God's sovereignty respecting His ability to intervene in certain affairs and quite another to believe that He is sovereign over the circumstances of our lives when things seem to go terribly wrong and when they seem to be going quite well.

Many Christians profess to believe in the sovereignty of God. They will speak of God's sovereignty in the salvation and damnation of sinners. They may even remind others that God is sovereign over the trials and challenging circumstances of life.

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Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Christward Collective and the mission of the Alliance.

Tuesday: The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning

Theme: Knowing the True God

In this week’s lessons, God is displayed as the righteous Judge who demonstrates his wrath toward sinners, but mercy toward his chosen people.

Scripture: Psalm 76:1-12

The opening stanza of this psalm (vv. 1-3) sounds to most people today like the narrowest possible provincialism: that God is known only in Israel. However, those who believe the Bible will know that, first, that it is true—that is where God was known—and second, that this is merely the same kind of exclusiveness we also demonstrate when we declare that God has revealed himself uniquely in Jesus Christ.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Monday: The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning

Theme: When God Decides to Act

In this week’s lessons, God is displayed as the righteous Judge who demonstrates his wrath toward sinners, but mercy toward his chosen people.

Scripture: Psalm 76:1-12

It is not always possible to find a reason for the psalms being placed where they are in the Psalter, but in this case Psalm 76 follows the former psalm nicely. In fact, there are links between Psalms 74, 75 and 76. Psalm 74 looks on the violence and injustice that are in the world and asks the Lord to intervene. In Psalm 75 God speaks to say that in “the appointed time” he will act both to strike down the arrogant and to lift up the meek and afflicted. Psalm 76, the one we are to study now, celebrates a dramatic incident in which God did exactly that, utterly destroying Israel's enemies.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

That is Revival

Revival, for Martyn Lloyd-Jones, was real and powerful. The two primary characteristics of revivals throughout the history of the church are an “extraordinary enlivening of the members of the church” and “the conversion of masses of people.”

Writing a foreword for his friend Philip Hughes in 1947, Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “There is no subject which is of greater importance to the Christian church at the present time than that of revival. It should be the theme of our constant meditation, preaching and prayers."1 He described his daily prayer for revival as “an unusual and single manifestation of God’s power through the Holy Spirit."2

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Christward Collective is a conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Christward Collective and the mission of the Alliance.

Friday: Our God Reigns

Theme: The Psalmist’s Testimony and Ours

In this week’s lessons, we are reminded that God is sovereign over all things, and he will execute justice and judgment in his own time.

Scripture: Psalm 75:1-10

The very last verses of Psalm 75 contain a testimony agreeing with all the psalm has been teaching (vv. 9, 10). I take them to be the testimony of the individual, indicated by the pronoun “I” occurring twice in verse 9 and a third time in verse 10. By reciting them, you or I or anyone else can add his or her testimony to these truths.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Thursday: Our God Reigns

Theme: The Cup of God’s Wrath

In this week’s lessons, we are reminded that God is sovereign over all things, and he will execute justice and judgment in his own time.

Scripture: Psalm 75:1-10

God's assurance of the righteous and his warnings to the wicked would seem to be sufficient in themselves. But preachers always seem to like to have the last word, even with God, and Psalm 75 is an example. God has spoken (in vv. 2-5). But now the preacher or priest adds his observations and applications to God's teaching (vv. 6-8).

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

Revoice and God's Design for the Family

On the possibility of valuing the family more than God does...

If you are a regular reader of this blog then you have probably read my previous piece on the Revoice conference. Revoice has been the source of great division in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the denomination in which I serve. That is because although Nate Collins, the conference organizer is a Southern Baptist, the church which hosted the conference belongs to the PCA and several of the speakers are office holders in the PCA.

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

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Mortification of Spin is a casual conversation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Mortification of Spin and the mission of the Alliance.

Wednesday: Our God Reigns

Theme: Words to the Righteous and the Wicked

In this week’s lessons, we are reminded that God is sovereign over all things, and he will execute justice and judgment in his own time.

Scripture: Psalm 75:1-10

It is not entirely clear from the Hebrew text how much of the following is spoken by God or at what point the writer breaks in to give his own personal comment or reflection of God's words. The New International Version makes as good a judgment as any when it puts verses 2-5 together as being spoken in one way or another by God. But they fall into two parts. In the first two verses (vv. 2, 3) God speaks to assure the righteous. These words concern the nature of God's judgments. In the next two verses (vv. 4, 5) God addresses the wicked to warn them about their evil actions.

Think and Act Biblically from James Boice is a devotional of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. It is supported only by its readers and gracious Christians like you. Please prayerfully consider supporting Think and Act Biblically and the mission of the Alliance.

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