Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land - 240105

SPEAKER A Hello, I'm Clive Nash. Welcome to let God speak. In the previous episode, we uncovered several attributes of the God of the Judeo christian tradition. He hears, he cares, he is our shelter, our defender and deliverer. But how do we live in a world that is becoming increasingly strange to God's people? Our panel will endeavour to answer that question today on our. Today we have John Kosmeier and Hana Nakagawa. Good to have you with us, John and Hana. I'm looking forward to our discussion today, but before we begin, let's take time to pray. Our loving Father in heaven, we just want to commit this programme to you today. We thank you that people all over the world are blessed by. Let God speak. And we pray that you'll bless us too today as we discuss in Jesus name. Amen. Well, John, first question to you. In our dealings with God, is it always clear to us how he is treating us and how he's dealing us and how he's leading in our lives? SPEAKER B That's one of the paradoxes about the experience of God, because the book of psalms is a book of experience, and this is where the psalms deals with that. When you read in psalm 74, verse 18 and 19, and I'm reading from the new king James version, remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed your name. Oh, do not deliver the life of your turtle doves to the wild beasts. Do not forget the life of your poor forever. And here, Asaph, who was the author of this particular psalm, which was one of the psalms of lament and sorrow, by the way, that he is dealing with this question of why does God have the evil and the wicked and the righteous? They experience very negative experiences at times. And then when you go down to verse 22 and 23, he asked the question, arise, o God, plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man reproaches you daily. Do not forget the voice of your enemies and tumult of those who rise up against you, increasing continually. And this is where the question is asked, is God slow to hear? And yet he says, before they speak, I will answer. And so you have this paradox of the experience of God. SPEAKER A Yeah. It takes a bit of faith to be able to see beyond where we can't see, isn't it? SPEAKER B Well, he seems to be absent when we know that he's near. SPEAKER A Yes, and in many ways, the psalmists express all sorts of thoughts. They express joy, they express thoughts of praise. But there's more than that. As you say, they give the voice to doubting, to questioning. Here's another psalm of lament or sorrow, psalm 79. And I'm going to read verses five and eight, verse five. How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? This is Asaph again, crying out. He's confused. And then in verse eight, he says, oh, do not remember former iniquities against us. Let your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low. Hana, can we cry out to God when we realised we are living in an imperfect world? SPEAKER C Definitely, yes. And this cry like, how long, Lord? We can be really honest to God as well when we see the big picture. Yes, there is the great controversy going on between good and evil and we see a lot of suffering. There is a battle going on with God and Satan. And in psalm 90 79, ASap is crying out because Israel has been destroyed by their enemies. And this is microcosm of the battle between good and evil. And let's read chapter 79, verse twelve and 13. The Bible says, and return to our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom, their reproach with which they have reproached you, O Lord. So we, your people and sheep of your pasture will give you thanks forever. We will show forth your praise to all generation. So here we see in verse twelve the neighbours that is talking about the force of evil. But here in verse 13, we see you people and sheep of your pastures. It's talking about God's faithful people, so who are on the side of good and defiling of the temple mentioned in the verse one in the same chapter is reflection of God himself. How people have been treating. Treating him. Let's read verse ten. It says, why should that nation said, where is their God? Let there be known among the nations in our sight the avenging of the blood of your servants which has been shed. SPEAKER A Yeah. And it's interesting, Hana, that in verses eight and nine, the psalmist says, do not remember former iniquities against us. Let your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low. Help us, o God. It's kind of like John. It's a very earnest cry, isn't it? This one here that's going on? SPEAKER B Well, Israel, of course, were in a bit of a pickle here because they had not followed God the way they should have. So then he allows their enemies to afflict them. And the only place where the people can go is go back to God and say, God, when people see the way we are being treated, it is your reputation that's at stake. And so this is where verse nine. Have a look at that verse. For the glory of your name and deliver us and provide atonement for our sins. And this is where it's God's reputation that is at stake here. And to think that like in verse ten, why should the nation say where is their God? Fancy question. Even the existence of God. And so Asaf here was dealing with one of the great difficulties that we have as we do what's wrong? And then we actually show God to be something which he isn't. SPEAKER A When we read the scriptures we can get a kind of appreciation for the fact that Israel had brought God's name into disrepute. But Hana, can we as christians dishonour the name of God today? SPEAKER C Unfortunately, yes. There's a saying that we must practise what we preach and we can turn off God by wrong action. By professing Christian we can name the use of Christian or Christ, but we can fully misrepresent represent God. Unfortunately, for example, the tragic abuse that can happen, like abuse of children at the hand of clergy, it is natural for people to say, wow, this is the Christianity. This is Christian. I don't want to be Christian. It can be possible for people to think that way. That for me before I became a Christian I thought that all the Christian are same. If they do something, all of the Christian do the same thing, that kind of thing, which is very dangerous as well. But there is a beautiful quote here from desire of ages. It says, the very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity. The owner of God, the owner of Christ is involved in the perfection of the character of his people. So here the image of God, the perfection of God, is actually reproduced through humanity. SPEAKER A Yeah, I'm going to read psalm 41, verse one. Now blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. So here's David clearly talking about the fact that we do have personal times of trouble. And John, are christians somehow fenced off from trouble? Are they immune from trouble, Clive? SPEAKER B I wish we were, don't you? But it hasn't turned out to be that way. However, there is verse two through to verse four. And what a blessing that is. Let's read it. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive. So God is there preserving us and keeping us alive. And he will be blessed on the earth so we will find happiness. And then verse three says, the Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness. You will sustain him on his sick bed. The Lord is with us even in sickness. And how many people at present are sick in the world? The 8th wave of COVID is running right now and this is where David says, look, God is there. He is merciful. He is an understanding God. We can still be blessed even when times are tough and God will sustain us where we are sick because of what we ourselves have done. God is also forgiving God and it's an important element of our healing that we ask and that we receive forgiveness from God. What a blessing that is. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER B And this is where in verse ten he says, but you, o Lord, be merciful to me and raise me up, that I may repay them and so we can turn to God when we suffer. SPEAKER A Yeah, let's go over to psalm 102 and I'm going to read verses one and two. This is a prayer of the afflicted. It says my heading here. And verse one says, hear my prayer, o Lord, and let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble. This seems to be a common theme amongst some of these psalms of lament the fact they have in trouble. Incline your ear to me in the day that I call. Answer me speedily. Is there any suggestion here, John, that the psalmist suffering is somehow his own fault? SPEAKER B There are some things that are, but not necessarily always, because here in verse eleven it says, my days are like a shadow that lengthens and I wither away like grass. And this is what happens to us, especially you and I. SPEAKER A We have a limited lifespan, don't we? SPEAKER B We have a limited lifespan and that's part of living and so that'll be replaced by eternal life. But we're not talking about that now, except that the God of our life, present life, is also the God of our eternal life and that's what he is aiming us for. SPEAKER A So John, can we remember the qualities of God in life's trials and things are going tough for us? Can we remember the character of God? SPEAKER B Yes. Fortunately, there's another psalm and that's psalm 88. When you read verse eleven and twelve, psalm 88, verse eleven and twelve, shall your lovingkindness be declared in the grave or your faithfulness in the place of destruction? The answer to both of those questions, of course, is no. Shall your wonders be known in the dark? No. And your righteousness in the land be forgetfulness? The answer is no. And despite affliction, the psalmist still remembers God's loving kindness and his faithfulness. And so, as Clifford Goldstein has written, although the psalmist suffers, he does not deny God's love and knows that God is his only salvation. These appeals show that the psalmist knows not only suffering, but also has an intimate knowledge of God's grace. And the two do not necessarily exclude each other. And it's good to remember. Yeah, it's good to remember that. SPEAKER A So what about Jesus, Hana? Did he know what it was like to suffer? SPEAKER C Yes, definitely. It is an amazing thing that Jesus, who was in heaven, he had all the glory, but he came to live on this earth. And he know what it is to live on this earth. And of course, he knows what it is. And actually, he suffered more than. Even more than us. He suffered worse than ours. And the thing is that his suffering was not caused by his own wrong choice or his action. No. He suffered for us. Let's read first Peter, chapter two. And we will read verse 21 to 24. The Bible says, for to this you are called. Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, did not reviling return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him. Who judged righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. That we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. By those stripes, by whose stripes you are healed, he was without sin. All the things that he suffered was for us. SPEAKER A And I guess you could say, john and Hana, with Jesus being one with his father, both the father and the son, and understood what it was to experience suffering. Wouldn't you say that, Clive? SPEAKER B It's interesting for me that the first book of the Bible that I think was written was actually the book of Job. And here God answers the question of suffering. Behind it, there is the devil. We are experiencing the suffering that's going on. And just like the book of Psalms is the experience of God, the book of Job is actually the experience of suffering. And how it is that God explains it. And here when you go to job, chapter 23, and you read verse eight, nine and ten, look, I go forward, but God is not there. And backward, but I can't perceive him. When he works on the left hand, I cannot behold him. When he turns to the right hand, I cannot see him. But then comes verse ten, but he knows the way that I speak, I take. When he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. And if God has to do that to turn us into the pure gold that he needs, so be it. SPEAKER A Yeah, I'd like to go back to psalm 42, back into the song book of the Bible. Again, psalm 42 and verses one to three. Some lovely words here. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, o God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Then he asks this question, when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, where is your God? So here we have a bit of a contrast going on, haven't we, Hana? Between assurance and also questioning what's happening here. SPEAKER C Yes, there's a famous song for this astaya, but yeah, here, though, we see some being greatly troubled about personal and group suffering. And now he's explicitly feeling that God is not present. We may experience that in our life as well, that God is, God is. We feel like God is so far away from us and God is not caring about the hardship. So he here likesned this dilemma to thirst and needing satisfaction in verse one and two, like there's the deer panted for the wall uprooks and the tears, wondering where God is. But here we can read psalm 63, how it might be a little bit different here. Psalms 63, verse one, it says, God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So it's a little bit similar here that looking for the answer, looking for God's presence, but this time he has an answer. Let's read verse two to three. It says, so I have looked for you in the sanctuary, to see you, your power and your glory, because your loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise you. So he finds God in a sanctuary where the types represent a saving sacrifice fulfilled in Jesus. But it is not always easy to come to that point. We may feel like we are abundant, but here, there was an answer here. SPEAKER A John, when you talked about job just a little while ago and his coming to an understanding of why he was suffering. Can you apply the lessons of scripture to your own personal experience in any way? SPEAKER B You have to. Otherwise why read the scriptures? And this is where the Bible is our best guide and so we partake of it. And I think a very good example of that is found in psalm 39 and verse twelve. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Here we are interacting with God on the question of our suffering. And when you have someone like David who had experienced some of the worst things that you could do, David would be guilty indirectly of the death of Uriah. Well, for me, it wasn't indirect, it was direct. And this is where he could be forgiven of that, but only after he had prayed to God. And so we apply that to our lives. SPEAKER A Yeah. John, you might like to share David's prayer about when he was confronted by Nathan. Can you read for us psalm 51 and verses one and two there and share that with us, please? SPEAKER B Yes. Psalm 51 and verse one and two. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. You notice how David is praying here directly to God? Blot out my transgression, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. And so what applied to him also applies to us as well. SPEAKER A Yeah. And prayer has a strong part to play, doesn't it, in our search for God when he doesn't always seem to be present in our experience. Psalm 51 and verse 14 is notable where he says, deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God. And of course, this is directly to do with Uriah, his death. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. So David was a man after God's own heart, despite his sin. Psalm 77 is an interesting one asaP. Seems to be like a pendulum here, Hana. I think he's going between questioning and assurance. And I'm going to read verse two of psalm 77 just to illustrate this. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing, my soul refused to be comforted. And then in verse three, he is troubled by remembering God. How can that be, Hana? SPEAKER C Yes, he seems to have this anguish moment. He's been affected mentally and physically and his spirit is really overwhelmed. In verse three and verse four, it says that he cannot sleep. He said that you hold my eyelid open. And verse four, he cannot speak neither. And then he asks us some serious question. Let's read verse seven to nine. It says, will the Lord cast off forever and will he be favourable no more? Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed forever more? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? This question like, oh, did he? Has he forsaken us? But he gets some reassurance as well. Let's read verse ten. And I said, this is my anguish. But I will remember the ears of the right hand of the most high. I would remember his right hand, but it's not only there. Verse eleven, I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of all. So he looked back and remembered that, yes, God has done this, done this, done this. He kind of reminded. He was reminded of what God has done for his life before in a previous way, in previous. So, yeah, I think we can also do the same thing. When we are in a darkness, we can't see God. We can always remember what he has done before. SPEAKER A Yeah. Another issue that's addressed in the psalms, John, is the apparent prosperity of wicked people. Why do the wicked prosper? For example, psalm 94 and verse three says, how long will the wicked. How long will the wicked triumph? Is there an answer to this question, John? SPEAKER B It's the only thing the wicked will get, because when Jesus comes, their reward is different to those of the righteous. And so we're not to fret about the way God deals with the wicked in psalm 49, verse five to seven. And I like the way the new living translation puts verse eight and nine. Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave. And so it doesn't matter, because God is there working to save us. It reminds us of the little story of the rich man who died. Someone asked, how much did he leave? The answer, all of it. And so riches will not save us all. Heaven has poured out its riches in Jesus Christ for our redemption. SPEAKER A Yeah. What a wonderful thought to close on, John. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER A Unfortunately, the clock is against us once again. But my guests today have been John Kosmeier and Hana Nakagawa. Good to have you with us as we discuss today. You know, when the Israelites went into captivity in Babylon, the psalmist says that they were asked to sing one of the songs of Zion. The reply was, how can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? In many ways, followers of Jesus Christ seemed we living in a strange land, too. We have many questions. God's leading is not always clear to us. You may have doubts at times. Bible writers felt the same way. But there is the assurance that God is in control. Let him have control of your life today. We're glad you joined us today on let God speak. If you're blessed by this programme, why not tell your friends? Remember, all past programmes plus teachers notes are available on our website. SPEAKER C 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on Au. We'd love to hear from. SPEAKER D You have been listening to Let God Speak, a production of 3ABN, Australia. Television. To catch up on past programs, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au Call us in Australia on 024-973-3456 or email [email protected] We'd love to hear from you.