Even Wind and Sea Obey

 

Psalm 9:9-20[1]

⁹The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. ¹⁰Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. ¹¹Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what he has done. ¹²For he who avenges blood remembers; he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted. ¹³O LORD, see how my enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death, ¹⁴that I may declare your praises in the gates of the Daughter of Zion and there rejoice in your salvation. ¹⁵The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden. ¹⁶The LORD is known by his justice; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. ¹⁷The wicked return to the grave, all the nations that forget God. ¹⁸But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish. ¹⁹Arise, O LORD, let not man triumph; let the nations be judged in your presence. ²⁰Strike them with terror, O LORD; let the nations know they are but men.

 

Background[2]

David probably wrote Psalms 9 and 10 as one psalm. The Jews thought that he wrote it after he killed Goliath. The first part says that God beat the foreign enemy (Psalm 9). The second part says that wicked men in Israel are making the helpless into oppressed people. (Psalm 10)

The reasons for thinking that it was one psalm are:

   · Psalm 10 has no words at the top about David or music. This is not usual in a psalm by David.

   · Hebrew words that David did not often use are in Psalms 9 and 10.

   · Psalms 9 and 10 make one acrostic.

Acrostic psalms use the Hebrew alphabet. The first bit starts with the first letter. The second bit starts with the second letter. This happens until the alphabet finishes. Look at Psalm 9 on the next page and you will understand. We have used English letters. These are not the same as Hebrew ones. After a time some of the letters became lost or mixed up! Also, the Jews decided to make them into 2 psalms. Some Christians have put them back together as one psalm, for example, some Roman Catholics.

It is difficult to write an acrostic psalm. The words sometimes go in a strange order. This makes them hard to understand. It may give you help if you change the order of the words. In verse 3 you could say "My enemies went back" instead of "Back my enemies went". It means the same.

 

Biblical Truths²

Psalm 9: 7 - 10: God is always ruling the world. Sometimes it is hard to believe this, but it is true. Sometimes we must wait a long time for his righteous judgments. Righteous here means this: the judgments of God are the best judgments. While we wait for his judgments, what can we do? Psalm 9:9-10 tells us! We can:

   ·    Look for the LORD: if we do this, the LORD will find us!

   ·    Trust in the LORD: if we do this the LORD will give us help

   ·    hide in the LORD: if we do this, the LORD will make us safe

 

Psalm 9: 11 - 14: When God finds us, gives us help and makes us safe, that is not the end. We must:

   ·    always give praises to the LORD: on our own, and in Church

   ·    tell people about God: our family, our friends, those we work with

 

Many people will not like this! As they made life difficult for David, so they will for us. So we must pray, 'Have mercy on me, LORD'. These are the words that some Churches still pray in Greek: KYRIE ELEISON. God's mercy is when he is loving and kind to us, and not angry.

 

Psalm 9: 15 - 20: In Psalm 9:6 we read, 'You killed them'. In Psalm 9:15-16 we read how God does this. Often, people kill themselves, or each other! The plan that they made to kill their enemies kills them. They go to Sheol. The Jews thought that Sheol was a dark place. It was under the ground. The psalm finishes by telling us 2 things:

   ·    God will remember the oppressed, even if they have to wait a long time

   ·    God will teach men and women that they are only human, it is only God that is really powerful

 

Items for Discussion

• What can we learn about our God from David’s description of his Lord?
• From what you can remember about European histories, who were the “lords?” How did subjects behave?
• Why would this Psalm, if David really wrote this right after killing Goliath, have significance to the Israelites?
• Read Verse 16 – What are some modern day examples of this in action?
• What cautions should government (our leaders) take from this Psalm?

 

Mark 4:3-41

³“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.” ⁹Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” ¹⁰When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹²so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding;   otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’” ¹³Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.” ²¹He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? ²²For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. ²³If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. ²⁵Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” ²⁶He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. ²⁹As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” ³⁰Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. ³²Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.” ³³With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. ³⁵That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” ³⁹He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. ⁴⁰He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

 

Background[3]

The Gospel of Mark (literally "the good news according to Mark") is the second of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament but is believed by most modern scholars to be the first gospel written, on which the other two synoptic gospels, Matthew and Luke, were partially based. It was written anonymously but has been traditionally ascribed to Mark the Evangelist (also known as John Mark), a cousin of Barnabas. However, there are pieces of evidence that may confirm that the author of the Gospel of Mark was a disciple of Peter. The gospel narrates the life of Jesus of Nazareth from his baptism by John the Baptist to the resurrection, but it concentrates particularly on the last week of his life (chapters 11-16, the trip to Jerusalem). Its swift narrative portrays Jesus as a heroic man of action, an exorcist, a healer and miracle worker. It calls him the Son of Man, the Son of God, and the Christ (the Greek translation of Messiah).

 

Two important themes of Mark are the Messianic secret and the obtuseness of the disciples. In Mark, Jesus often commands secrecy regarding aspects of his identity and certain actions. Jesus uses parables to explain his message and fulfill prophecy (4:10-12). At times, the disciples have trouble understanding the parables, but Jesus explains what they mean, in secret (4:13-20, 4:33-34). They also fail to understand the implication of the miracles that he performs before them.

 

Biblical Truths

The parables of Jesus, found in the synoptic gospels, embody much of Jesus' teaching. Jesus' parables are quite simple, memorable stories, often with humble imagery, each with a single message. Jesus, for example, likened the Kingdom of God to leaven (an image usually meant as corruption) or a mustard seed. Like his aphorisms, Jesus' parables were often surprising and paradoxical. The parable of the good Samaritan, for example, turned expectations on their head with the despised Samaritan proving to be the wounded man's neighbor. The parables were simple and memorable enough to survive in an oral tradition before being written down years after Jesus' death.

 

 

Items for Discussion

• What are parables?
• Why would Jesus have chosen to teach using parables that so many, including the disciples struggled to understand?
• Which are your favorites?
• Why are parables so effective?
• How do we use them today to teach others?

 

Discussion Challenge

• Christ was the ultimate teacher – How can families and churches use His model of teaching to teach other life skills to those around us?