In yesterday's study I wrote that the psalm focuses on David and his desire to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. We see that from the beginning, for the psalm starts: “O LORD, remember David and all the hardships he endured” (v. 1). The next verses tell of David's vow and its result. Then verse 10 brings David in again in a prayer.

We also have to raise questions about the use of our money and other resources. We're going to have to ask how our money should be used? How much should we really use on ourselves? How much is going to be necessary to do the Lord's work? How much are we going to use for the benefit of other people?

In addition to a clear grasp of our authority, a second way in which we have to be distinct is in our theology. Contrary to what the world's theology says, we all know that people are not basically good, and therefore all one needs to do is work a little harder. The Word of God tells us that things are not that way at all. Things are terribly, even desperately, wrong. Speaking spiritually, men are dead in their trespasses and sins, and what we need is a miraculous work that only God can do.

The literature of the world is filled with utopias, but all of these utopias are different from the one that we find in the 21st chapter of Revelation. In it we read of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. The remainder of the chapter spells out the details of that revelation, which differs from the human utopias we have seen in literature. 

2. The world's theology. We can deal with this second point more briefly because the world's theology is perfectly obvious. It says that there's nothing much wrong with men and women and that we don't need a savior, perhaps only a little bit of help. The church has begun to buy into this theology as well. This does not mean that the church of Jesus Christ, going by that name, necessarily abandons the terminology. It'll still speak of sin and salvation and faith and evangelism and Jesus and all these things, but it doesn't mean by these terms the things that the church has traditionally meant.