The President's Schedule Today - Tuesday. Today the President and his family are at the 28-acre Blue Heron estate that they have rented at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. They will continue to be on their summer family vacation. The President will continue to receive morning security briefings while he is on vacation. There are no public events for the President today.
Good for him. The President probably needs more breaks like this than the average person.
1-2 Come, let's shout praises to God, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!
Let's march into his presence singing praises,
lifting the rafters with our hymns!
3-5 And why? Because God is the best,
High King over all the gods.
In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns,
in the other hand grasps the high mountains.
He made Ocean�he owns it!
His hands sculpted Earth!
6-7 So come, let us worship: bow before him,
on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, he's our God,
and we're the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.
7-11 Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:
"Don't turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising,
As on the day of the Wilderness Test,
when your ancestors turned and put me to the test.
For forty years they watched me at work among them,
as over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked�oh, was I provoked!
'Can't they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?'
Exasperated, I exploded,
'They'll never get where they're headed,
never be able to sit down and rest.'" (The Message)
"His people are here spoken of accordingly as the people of his pastures, whom he watches over with peculiar care, and loads with blessings of every kind. The Psalmist wants to press upon the people a sense of the inestimable favour conferred upon them in their adoption, by virtue of which they were called to live under the faithful guardianship of God, and to the enjoyment of every species of blessings."
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)
"Glory to God Alone"
Isaiah 42:8
I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols. (ESV)
Today, we look at the final sola, soli Deo gloria--to God alone be the glory.
"God's glory is the highest good and therefore is the purpose for which we were created."
All of the other solas lead up to this one, because if we try to attribute redemption to our own efforts in any way, then we rob God of his glory. "If God and God alone is not the one who saves, then He shares His glory with creatures." But our Scripture for today proves this to be untrue. God will not share his glory with anyone or anything.
"Our Hands On Christ's Head"
1 Peter 2:24
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (ESV)
To gain any benefit from the ceremony of the Day of Atonement that we discussed a few days ago, the individual had to "exercise both penitence and faith." We must humbly acknowledge our sins. Then we must have faith to believe that our sins have been transferred to the "scapegoat," and that their guilt is no longer over us.
Jesus is the true scapegoat. "We see Jesus as the One who not only propitiated the wrath of God, symbolized by the sacrifice of the first goat, but who also removed our sins from God's presence, symbolized by the second goat led away into the desert, bearing the sins of the people."
We, too, must have the attitudes of penitence and faith. We are sinners before a holy God. In a manner of speaking, just as the Old Testament priest, we must lay our hands on Christ's head and "confess over Him all our transgressions and rebellion."
These two attitudes should "characterize our lives throughout every day." We must live in the presence of Jesus as our propitiation and our scapegoat. We must believe that he has literally carried away our sins.
I pray, Lord, for the attitudes of penitence and faith to be present in my life at all times. Not just when I'm reading Scripture. Not just when I'm praying or typing prayers. All the time. Let it be a way of life for me.
I worship your glory, Father. I pray that I would never try to take any of that glory from you, either purposefully or unknowingly. Your glory is amazing, and I believe the truth that you will share it with no other. Therefore, you will also share my worship with no other. You alone are worthy of my worship and praise.
I praise you that I have been adopted into your family. I thank you for the benefits that come along with that adoption. Let me never lose sight of those while I am living my life.
And I pray that I would never be the kind of person that is described at the end of today's Psalm when you exclaim, "Can't they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?" and "They'll never get where they're headed,
never be able to sit down and rest." That is tragic. I never want those words to describe my life, my Father! But yet, at times, I find that I struggle to keep my mind on you for more than five minutes! Oh, Lord, heal my fickle heart and mind.
Grace and peace, friends.