Note: all Inspirations are now uploaded for the week – scroll down for Friday’s, and earlier posts…
Saturday 2nd August – Psalm 40 ‘The Proclamation’
Forty years ago, the rock band U2 were finishing the recording of their third album ‘War’. It was 6am, and they had to vacate the studio by 8am – but they felt they were one track short. The bass player had already gone home, but the guitarist had the tune for a final song. In desperation, the lead singer Bono turned to his favourite psalm (40) and wrote some lyrics in ten minutes; the guitarist played both bass and guitar; and the whole track was mixed in an hour. It became the final song ‘40’ on the album, and through the 1980s was the song which closed all of U2’s concerts – and still has, even recently. It has been played more than 400 times and is one of U2 fans’ favourites.
In many ways, the song ‘40’ does exactly what the psalmist encourages us all to do: to proclaim the saving acts of God publicly (v9). Whether or not you like their music, Bono has a great testimony of faith, and has never been afraid to speak openly about it, just as David did: (vv9-10) ‘I do not seal my lips, Lord, as you know… I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help. I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly.’
After the trials of psalms 38 and 39, psalm 40 offers something of a resolution. Truthfully, we don’t know if it was designed to accompany the previous two, but, even if it was written at another time, its testimony of salvation fits very well here: (vv1-2) ‘I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire.’
However, the particular focus of this psalm is on the heart of the psalmist. For all that his physical circumstances have changed, what David is most acutely aware of is what is going on in his heart: first, his obedient heart (v8), then his testifying heart (v10) and finally his failing heart (v12).
This last reference to his heart is vital, since this is not a message of easy victory; the sort of binary ‘before and after’ testimony which we love to hear but often fails to show the reality of the ongoing challenges of life. Yes, David has been restored, he has prevailed over his affliction; but he is acutely conscious that he remains a weak and flawed human being. He still battles with sin, which causes his heart to fail (v12); he still has enemies who desire his ruin (vv14-15). He may be victorious for now – but he still thinks of himself as ‘poor and needy’ (v17).
It is this humility which makes this psalm so precious to so many people. It is a psalm of real life: not ‘happy ever after’ (at least this side of the grave), but of continuing dependence upon God. That said, we can still savour the good days and the small victories. God put a new song in David’s mouth (v3) – one of his very best. May he graciously give you a new song, too.
Friday 1st August – Psalm 39 ‘The Muzzle’
Today’s psalm is a counterpart to yesterday’s Psalm 38. In both Psalms David has some sort of health problem which might prove fatal – probably the same illness/disease/condition. In Psalm 38 he reflected on this affliction in the context of his sinful behaviour and need for confession. Today, in Psalm 39, he considers his affliction as something which confronts him with his own mortality.
For an ‘action man’ like David, the reality of his mortality is a troubling one, and in this psalm he asks for grace to make his peace with it in two different ways. First, there is the personal dimension: (v4) ‘Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.’ In this Psalm, David brilliantly captures the ambiguity which most people of faith feel when facing the reality of their mortality. On one hand, we know that death is not the end, that there is something better and more wonderful to look forward to. On the other hand, we still enjoy life and want it to continue a while longer here!
The New Bible Commentary puts this dilemma very well: ‘The brevity of life and the sadness of death run throughout the Bible and the full revelation of the immortal world does not remove them. This life is precious. Its joys and loves may be transcended but they cannot be replaced. To be bereaved is ‘sorrow upon sorrow’ (Philippians 2:27); our own leaving of this life cannot be contemplated with unmixed equanimity, even though heaven is sure.’
And so, David asks for grace to make his peace with the reality of death, even as he also asks for grace to be spared a little longer: (v13) ‘Look away from me (note: not asking God to leave him, but rather to delay his death), that I may enjoy life again, before I depart and am no more.’
There is a second dimension to David’s reflection: he is unwilling to speak of his possible death among ‘the wicked’ – he initially determines to put ‘a muzzle on my mouth’ (v1). This might be because he (understandably) struggles to show weakness with those who wish him harm. Given what he says here, though, it seems more likely that what he fears is that his death will in some way undermine the witness of his faith. In a culture which equated health with divine blessing, he fears that knowledge of his affliction will lead people to scorn his faith, and the Lord he serves (v8).
He may even consider that the affliction of someone thought to be righteous might lead the wicked to even more wrongdoing, since it is David who is afflicted, and not them. Here, David’s warning in verses 5-6 applies universally: none of us knows how long we’ve got, and ‘we can’t take it with us when we go’, to coin a phrase. This is what he longs to share with these people, and what causes his heart to burn as he tried to hold his tongue (vv2-3). He wants all of us to see the facing of our mortality as something which both gives us a true perspective on life, and turns us back to our loving Creator. If ‘the wicked’ truly believed in the reality of death and judgement, would they (or anyone) live as they did?
These are never easy things to reflect on: but, as someone who deals with death and dying every week in his work, I can testify that our reluctance to talk about these things causes far more harm than good. May God grant us grace, each of us, to face our mortality – and as we lay our lives before God, so to find peace, and freedom, to enjoy whatever days we have left in the love, light and grace of the Lord.
Thursday 31st July – Psalm 38 ‘The Wounds’
Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against thy holy laws, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders; spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults, restore thou them that are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord; and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.
That is the standard confession at both Morning and Evening prayer in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. In other words, a devout Anglican in years gone by would have said this twice a day, or up to fourteen times a week, or as many as 730 times a year! In addition, were this devout Anglican to go to Communion on Sunday they would confess using the following words (and, until the pandemic, our monthly early morning communion service used these very words):
‘…we acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought word and deed, against thy Divine Majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us…. The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; the burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father…’
As my old vicar used to say, when you say the prayer book confessions, you are properly confessed. But as we read these words today, I suspect many of us recoil slightly. This kind of approach to ‘the sinfulness of sin’ (a phrase coined by Ralph Venning in the 17th century, around the time of the publication of the current Prayer Book) is nowadays dismissed as ‘worm theology’ – too negative, too self-punishing, too little focus on the good things about faith.
But David knew the secret 3,000 years ago. If there is no sin, there is no grace. We don’t know what he’d done prior to writing this psalm, but we can see is how conscious he is of the destructive effects of sin – not just to his relationships (vv10-12) and his soul (v9, vv17-18) but even to his health (vv3-8). These are all wounds (v5, v11) caused by the most fundamental of human problems, one affecting us all: our inability to curb our selfishness and unhealthy desires, our desire to run our own lives and shut God out. In a word, our sin.
It may be unfashionable to treat our sin like this nowadays, but it is also the path to true freedom. Just as David mourns the Lord’s disfavour, so he knows that the only ‘cure’ is the Lord’s favour (vv21-22). He appeals to God’s mercy, as the only one who can come quickly to help him.
And this God is the same yesterday, today and forever. We, too, can take all the dysfunctions in our lives and bring them before him. It is healthy to confess – and we confess to a merciful God who, thanks to Christ, we know will come quickly to help us. So, take a moment to confess today; and there may you find, grace, freedom, and hope. ‘Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God.’
Wednesday 30th July – Psalm 37 ‘The Meek’
This psalm became very precious to me in the year 2000. I undertook a piece of research for a client which unexpectedly got me involved in a very nasty local dispute over a planning development. Our client – the developer – wanted to prove there was support for the scheme and commissioned us to take a survey of local residents. 9 out of 10 results were positive, one was not. For two days I was pressured by the client to remove the one unfavourable result and release only the other nine. I refused, and eventually the client gave in and released the whole report, including to the local press who published the results on their front page: ‘survey demonstrates support for…’.
The following day, the group which opposed the development did two things: they reported me to the Market Research Society for alleged breach of professional standards, and then released that information to the local media – so the following day’s headline: ‘survey backing development reported for breach…’
The irony was that, if I had given in to client pressure and withheld information, I would indeed have breached my professional code of conduct and been sacked (and the project discredited). But because I had released the whole survey, and could therefore prove that I had reported fairly, the Market Research Society dismissed the allegation – cue headline several weeks later: ‘Case dismissed, survey stands after all!’ The developer who had pressured me to lie was in the end very glad that I didn’t: the development subsequently received planning approval and was built.
It is horrible both to be pressured to sin, and also to be wrongly accused – especially when you know what it had already cost you to do the right thing. In this difficult time, I found comfort in two places: from the example of Jesus himself, who knew far better than I did what it was to be wrongly accused; and from this psalm – especially verses 1-11 (and it’s a long one, if you can only manage verses 1-11 you’ll get the gist well enough!).
Suddenly this psalm spoke directly to me. I was in the same situation as the psalmist, at the mercy of other people’s schemes (v7), anxious because of it (v1, v7). This psalm reassured me of several truths: first, evil never wins in the end – it might succeed in the short term but not for ever (v2). Second, all I could do was to trust in the Lord (v3) and commit my way to him (v5) – if I did that, then eventually the Lord would vindicate me (v6). I knew I was innocent, but I was reliant on others to declare that – nevertheless, my prayer was that the Lord would contend on my behalf (see Psalm 35 two days ago!) So, I found strength to wait patiently (v7) and be still.
And I can genuinely look back and say that the Lord did give me a divinely-sent peace through all of this. I can testify that this psalm is true, and real. In the end – as Jesus reminded us a thousand years later – the meek really do inherit the land (v11); i.e. the gentle, the humble, the ones who don’t plot and scheme for their own advantage, but let the Lord contend for them. Psalms 34-37 are mostly psalms of trial; but we have a divine Contender. And may our gracious God continue to fill us with hope, both to wait and to overcome. Amen.
Tuesday 29th July – Psalm 36 ‘The Proud’
Human nature doesn’t change. For all our scientific and technological advancements in the last couple of centuries, the underlying problems remain the same. In fact, not problems plural – really just one problem, singular: that little word ‘sin’. The context changes, but the heart of the human problem remains the problem of the human heart.
I am a Christian for lots of reasons – I have been drawn into the saving love and infinite grace of Christ, both through belief and experience; I have found in the community of believers something I don’t find anywhere else; and I have seen God at work in my life, over many years now. I am also a Christian because I have found that the bible’s diagnosis of the human condition to be by far the most truthful, most realistic of any I have encountered. For all that we humans are capable of great good, we have to find a satisfactory answer for why, much of the time, we are not – for our innate selfishness, and how to address it.
Today’s description of how a proud (v11) heart gets corrupted in verses 1-4 was written 3,000 years ago – but it could have been written today. We may have swapped our papyrus scrolls for smartphones, our sandals for trainers and brogues, our donkeys for e-vehicles and our small hamlets of subsistence farming for large cities and multi-story buildings – but the diagnosis of human corruption is just the same, manifesting the same characteristics:
Narcissism (v2) – all they really see is themselves; lack of self-awareness (v2) – the natural outworking of their narcissism, they cannot see the wrong that they do and harm that they cause; lying (v3) – deceit comes naturally to their lips; lacking wisdom to make good choices and choosing not to get involved rather than to actively do good (v3); when given a choice, they choose to swim with the tide and do wrong – and invest their thinking time planning for that, and justifying it to themselves (v4). Ultimately, such people live as if God does not exist in any meaningful sense (v1) – or if he does, he isn’t interested in how they live (meaning they can do what they want). Their only object of worship is themselves and their needs, ambitions and desires.
Sound familiar? And whilst we can all think of people who tick many of those boxes, we also have to acknowledge that we’re not immune to those impulses, too. There, but for the grace of God… and that’s the point. Look at the contrast with those who look to the Lord (vv5-9) – and this psalm is really all about the eyes (v1, v9), about where we direct our gaze. If we direct it only to ourselves and our desires, we end up with the sort of life and character we see in vv1-4.
If, on the other hand, we direct it towards the unfailing love, faithfulness and righteousness of the Lord, then we find a completely different way to live. The Lord becomes our refuge (v7), the Lord provides abundantly for us (v8) and fills us with true joy (v8). Ultimately, David uses this beautiful image of God as the fountain of life (v9) – in other words life-giving water gushing continuously from him. If we direct our eyes towards the light of the Lord, then what we also see is light (v9) – our gaze is directed away from the darkness, and we view things through the glorious lens of light.
Today, may the Lord direct our gaze towards his light. May that light reveal any darkness in our own hearts – and may it also direct us to pray with compassion for those who, like us, desperately need the light of the Lord. For only with him is the fountain of life.
Monday 28th July – Psalm 35 ‘The Contender’
Twenty years ago, I was given permission by my then employer to run an Alpha Course in our office at work. We ran it at lunchtime in one of the company meeting rooms, and I put small adverts up on the office noticeboards around our building. About 15 people gathered for the first session – 5 of our little Christian group and about 10 guests. Everything was going well until we got to a Q&A after the talk and one of my colleagues got up and gave an impassioned speech against what we were doing.
As you can imagine, we were a little floored by this – he had in fact gone to the CEO trying to get it stopped before we met, but the CEO, to her credit, had stood her ground; and so he came to challenge the event itself. It was tense, but honest, and to be fair to him, he never lost control, although the meeting couldn’t really run as planned from that point. (As an aside, it backfired: a couple of the people who had come as guests – really just to take a look – were so outraged by what happened, they told me that they were now determined to come to the rest of the course regardless!)
Later that week he asked to meet me for a coffee. I was nervous about what was coming next, but to my surprise he came to apologise. The evening after the event he had received an unexpected phone call from a Christian relative, who hadn’t called him for a long time – but had got in touch that very day. He was very challenged by this, and saw it as something akin to a spiritual sign. He said that he felt that God was on his case, and whilst he couldn’t agree with what we were doing, he would do nothing more, and he was keen to shake hands and make peace.
Sometimes when things are out of our control, we need to God to intervene for us. Today’s Psalm is King David’s prayer for that to happen in his own challenging situation: (v1) ‘Contend, Lord, with those who contend with me.’
As we have often observed in the psalms thus far, even if we can sympathise with David’s predicament we may feel a little uncomfortable with the directness of his imprecations throughout these verses – and it is fair to soften these through the lens of New Testament grace and compassion. However, the underlying principle remains true: in times of trial God contends for us, on our behalf. When we face opposition, we are not alone. Moreover, in inviting God to act, this avoids us becoming either passive victims or agents of our own vengeance. Rather, we let God pull the strings. And when God does intervene – as he did for us twenty years ago, quietly but miraculously – how much more can we praise him (v9, vv27-28), having seen him at work!
For all followers of Christ facing such challenges, it is a great comfort to know that God contends for his people. If that is your situation, let today increase your faith to release it into God’s hands. And if that is not the place you find yourself, then take the chance to pray for all our sisters and brothers who face such opposition, that they may know the Lord’s vindication, as he contends on their behalf.
Saturday 26th July – Psalm 34 ‘The Taste’
I’ve always loved my food. I don’t have a big appetite, but I enjoy eating pretty much everything – finding as much joy in cheese and beans on toast as a gourmet dish. At school it became a lunchtime ritual for my friends to dare me to taste a bit of everything together, including mains and pudding. Like Remy in the film ‘Ratatouille’, you’d be amazed what surprising flavour combinations you can experience!
Today’s psalm reminds us of another kind of taste, albeit in many ways a spiritual version of tasting a bit of everything together in life: (v8) ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good.’ It was written after a particularly dramatic moment in David’s story (you can read the whole saga in 1 Samuel 21): fleeing from King Saul, and effectively under arrest with the Philistine king Achish (introduced in the starting notes to the psalm by the royal name Abimelek or Abimelech, depending on your translation) he pretended to be mad and was eventually run out of town.
What is instructive about David’s take on this escape is that he attributes its success not to his cunning, but to the Lord’s intervention and protection: (v6) ‘This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.’ In other words, although David took initiative, he knew that unless God changed the heart of King Achish, he was done for. David was rightly afraid (v4); but he recognises another, fruitful ‘fear’ – better translated as ‘awe’ or ‘reverence’ – the fear of the Lord. It is this reverent awe which invites both the Lord’s protection (v7) and provision (v9).
On this occasion, David wants to use his experience not just to testify but to teach (v11). He has learnt invaluable lessons, but, in the second half of the psalm, he wants to make sure we learn them, too. He is candid that even the righteous will have many troubles (v19), many challenges in this life – but we can trust the Lord to deliver us.
And so, back to the key verse of this psalm: to anyone who faces challenges, David’s advice is simple: ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’. In other words, give trusting God a try. Taste and see. See what happens, see what the Lord is able to do.
It’s great advice, and one which increasingly I offer to those who ask me. My years of Christian leadership and training have given me lots of arguments to persuade people; but in the end, what turns a person’s heart to the Lord most often is simply to ‘taste and see’. If God is real – as we know he is – then he’ll come through, we will experience that reality for ourselves. So, whatever you face today, may that be your reality, too. And as we recognise that the Lord’s eyes and ears are turned towards us (v15), let us exalt his name together!
Friday 25th July – Psalm 33 ‘The Template’
One of the things you learn at vicar factory is how to plan a service or act of worship. To most of us, these things seem to flow of their own accord – and that’s absolutely right, that’s how it should appear: something natural, innately logical. But you won’t be surprised to learn that there is also a bit of thinking behind it, and although there are various schools of thought as to how a Christian meeting should be put together, it’s remarkable how much of the Christian world’s worship follows a consistent pattern. The style might vary, the length, the language, the cultural trappings, so to speak – but the template is recognisable in most places across the world.
If you’ve ever wondered why there is such consistency, today’s psalm helps provide some of the answers. It’s a brilliant (though little known) piece of scripture, and what’s remarkable about this psalm (the first one whose author is unknown since Psalm 10, and only the fourth so far not ‘of David’) is how the template for approaching Almighty God was very much in existence three milllennia ago. This psalm is like a rich, four-course meal: it has everything in its 22 verses, including a perfect template for how to meet with the Lord:
Worship (vv1-3) – the psalm begins with an invitation to praise, especially musical praise, through song and instrument. It also reminds us to sing a ‘new song’: the Lord’s character, love and faithfulness do not change, but it is good and healthy (‘fitting’ v1) to keep thinking of new ways to express it!
Word (vv4-9) – noting that God’s word is both true (v4) and powerful (v6); as we do in our services and meetings today, we place the Word of God at the centre, teaching and reminding us of who God is.
Witness (vv10-12) – even as we worship and listen to God’s Word, we are reminded that what we do is not an inward-looking activity; it equips us to engage with the world. God is the Lord of the whole earth, and what goes on in the world matters to him. Nevertheless, we are blessed to worship this God (v12), who watches (v14, another ‘W’!) all who live here on earth. That sense of privilege inevitably calls us to desire for others what we have experienced for ourselves: namely, to know this wonderful Lord for themselves, and to experience those same blessings.
Waiting (vv16-22) – with this heavenly perspective on life, we can now turn our needs to the Lord in prayer. It is interesting that this psalm may well have been written in a time of need – famine is specifically mentioned in v19, so we can take heart again that this psalm of praise and faith is not an escape from reality – rather it speaks into that reality, it helps us to face that reality with eyes and hearts lifted.
As we feast on this rich, four-course psalm today, may its simple template shape our lives, and raise our faith for all that lies ahead. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Amen.
Thursday 24th July – Psalm 32 ‘The Covering’
At this time of year, our family is usually getting ready to camp for at least part of our summer holiday. Not this year, I must confess – the older I get, the more I struggle with thin mats to sleep on and stiff backs in the morning! Though, sat outside on a warm evening with a (plastic) glass of good red wine and a glorious sunset to watch, there’s nothing like it.
Probably the most important part of our annual preparations is the ‘tent material check’ – i.e. the time spent in checking the seams and (usually) re-spraying it with water-proofing spray. It doesn’t matter how much a tent appears to be water-proof – anyone who camps knows that a night’s rain finds relentless ways to drip onto your head! The first rule of every camping trip is to be properly covered overnight. If that happens, then you can cope with everything else.
The idea of a complete covering is central to today’s psalm: only this time, it’s our sins which are ‘covered’ by the Lord (v1). The idea of covering works in three ways in this psalm: first (though not first in order), we see that King David does not ‘cover up’ his sins before God (v5). This is crucial, because for God to ‘cover’ them with his forgiveness, we first must uncover them before him. It’s so tempting for us to try to cover over our sins – the problem is that it doesn’t work. Like putting on jumper over a dirty shirt, the stain is still there underneath the jumper. I’m sure none of you have ever done that….!
God, however, can provide a much more effective covering for this universal human problem, one which brings both forgiveness (v1) and removal of guilt (v5). This is the second, and life-giving covering. Scholars have argued as to whether this ‘covering’ effectively means that the ‘stain’ is still there, but the removal of guilt surely suggests that the covering is so complete the stain is irrelevant.
But there is yet a third covering: the shelter of God’s mercy. Or as David puts it: (v7) ‘you are my hiding place’. Like the best tent, no matter how much the rain beats down, we are safe inside; we are covered by the Lord, surrounding and protecting us. This verse has been made famous by Corrie ten Boom’s autobiography, called ‘The Hiding Place’, telling the dramatic story of how her family sheltered Jewish people during the war. In her story, the hiding place was both what her family offered those at risk, and also how the Lord himself acted as Corrie’s ‘hiding place’ when she was eventually arrested and sent to a concentration camp (which thankfully she survived).
We may not face Corrie’s challenges: but the Lord remains our hiding place, too. As we close this week, may we rest secure knowing that the Lord has not only covered our sins but surrounds us with songs of deliverance. And may that cause us to rejoice and be glad (v11).
Wednesday 23rd July – Psalm 31 ‘The Committal’
A man is dying, more or less alone save for his mother and a few friends. He is in distress, weak, not just from loss of blood and many physical injuries, but from sorrow at a broken world. He grieves the betrayal of one friend and the cowardice of many others. His strength is failing, and as he dies, publicly for all to see, he recognises that most of those who have come to watch are full of contempt for him. If you really are the special one, they spit, save yourself from this predicament! He feels forgotten, his body like broken pottery: many have plotted to take his life for some time, and now their wish has been fulfilled.
As his breath starts to give out, his troubled mind turns to the scriptures that have held him, nourished him, sustained and shaped him through his whole life. These scriptures are the bedrock on which his feet can still stand in a spacious place, even while everything else collapses. He knows his work is complete: he has already cried out to those watching that it is finished. And so he utters one last audible phrase, a verse from a psalm which mirrors his situation – one last beautiful truth that no-one can take away from him: not the authorities, not his enemies, not even death itself: ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he has spoken this out, declared it not just to those around him but to the world and all future generations that will succeed him, then he breathes his last….
Psalm 31 is not particularly well known, and it never appears on a list of people’s favourite psalms. Its context is bleak, and (we might as well admit this) it’s one of the longer ones, too. We like the ones which are 6-12 verses – but a 24-verser needs a decent ratio of upbeat stuff, and Psalm 31 doesn’t have quite enough of that to make it onto our ‘favourites playlist’.
But it is a vitally important psalm, for one verse alone – verse 5, a verse quoted by the Son of God at the climax of his life. When Jesus seeks solace in the terrible agonies he is enduring, he comes here, to Psalm 31. He knows his situation reflects exactly what David writes in verses 9-13, and we can look back and give thanks that David unconsciously – but prophetically – wrote words which were fulfilled by Jesus Christ a thousand years later, words which held him and gave him comfort even as he was dying. Jesus committed his spirit into his Father’s hands, knowing that his work was done.
Ultimately, to commit our spirits into the Lord’s hands is not an act of death but of life. Jesus knew that – three days later, the world did. Likewise, we can also commit our spirits into the Lord’s hands every day: it is an act of trust (14) – trust in the Lord, who holds our times in his hands (v15). And as we do that today, so may we know the abundance of the Lord’s goodness (v19) and the shelter of his presence (v20).
Tuesday 22nd July – Psalm 30 ‘The Exaltation’
In February 2023 a 19-month old toddler was rescued safely from a 50-ft well in Thailand. The well had been newly dug, but had been carelessly left uncovered after it failed to strike water. The toddler spent 18 hours at the bottom before being lifted to safety, thanks to a huge team, careful digging and a strong red rope. Her successful rescue made news around the world, and thankfully she suffered only minor injuries.
Today’s Psalm is all about lifting, too. Two liftings, in fact. What occasioned the Psalm is David being ‘lifted out of the depths’ (v1) – by God. We’re not sure if David is referring to specific physical danger, or if the image is primarily spiritual. But, like the toddler, David sees himself as helpless unless it is God who lifts him out: (v2) ‘Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me… you spared me from going down to the pit.’
The pit is an ancient way of understanding death, and thanks to his survival, David too does some ‘heavy lifting’ of his own. The word exalt means to ‘lift up’, and what David wants to do is exalt (lift up) the Lord himself. As David has been lifted by God, so now he lifts up God’s name, and his glorious qualities: his capacity for healing (v2) and for mercy (v3), his holiness (v4), and most significantly in this psalm, his favour (v5).
What David says about God in v5 is such an important message for us to hear. We often think of God as being, if not angry, then mostly disappointed with us. But David says that the opposite is actually true: (v5) ‘his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime.’
The Puritan writer Thomas Goodwin draws the contrast between God’s ‘strange work’ and his ‘natural work’, when describing the text in Deuteronomy that God’s punishment passes down three or four generations, but his love lasts for a thousand generations. In other words, as Goodwin interprets, God’s strange work is punishment, but his natural work is love. Or, as David says here in this psalm: ‘his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime.’
Wherever you find yourself today, take heart from this beautiful truth. If it is a time for weeping, remember that, in the Lord, rejoicing comes in the morning (v5). If it is a time to wail, then eventually we will find ourselves able to dance (v11). May this wonderful thought cause our spirits to exalt the Lord, too, that our hearts may sing his praises and not be silent (v12). Amen!
July 2025 – ‘The Cloud of Witnesses’
Hebrews 11 is perhaps the greatest chapter celebrating the biblical heroes of the faith: Hebrews 11. Over the next two weeks or so (13 Daily Inspirations) we’ll look at this amazing chapter a few verses at a time to see what real faith looks like in practice – feel free to go back to the original stories if you have time. Either way, as we do so, may the faith of these great characters inspire us to keep living out our faith today!
Monday 21st July – Hebrews 12:1-3 (iii) ‘Faith fixes eyes on Jesus’
When our kids were toddlers we went to the park most days. We were lucky to have two or three options nearby. It was a great way for them to let off steam, have some fun and provide a change of scenery. Any of you who have (or remember having) young children will know the drill at the park. Lovely as it is to be there, and even if you take a few minutes to sit down or chat to another parent, all the time your eyes are fixed on a small moving object(s) which is in constant motion – your children! Wherever they run, your eyes, like a guided laser, follow them round.
This is a skill it takes time to acquire: that capacity to follow your kids even in a crowd, or when ducking behind play equipment. You learn their methods, their preferred locations, any surprises they might have up their sleeve. The real childcare experts – and when you start at the park you are in awe of other parents who seem to have this sixth sense – manage to look unflustered, sipping their coffee or enjoying the sunshine, and yet always intervene at the right moment, just before their child gets themselves into trouble.
Learning to fix your eyes is a valuable skill – and we conclude our short series by making the same observation about faith. Over the last two weeks, we’ve mined many valuable reflections about what faith is and how it works. We’ve thought about how faith has energised people through the generations, and how it gives us inspiration to grow, to be courageous, to be hopeful and to endure. But ultimately it comes down to one thing: it’s about where we fix our eyes. Or rather, on whom.
In the end, the key to the life of faith is to fix our gaze on Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is the source of faith and the example of faith. Our faith is in Jesus, and also modelled by Jesus. And as Jesus faced all that life and death threw at him and overcame, so we too can do the same.
In Jesus we find the wisdom, the courage and the hope that we need. Jesus gave his best, obeyed regardless and trusted the promises of God. Jesus found grace to wait, and held nothing back when the time came. Jesus blessed others throughout, overcame fear and found the seeds of grace in surprising people. Jesus never lost sight that he was known, and precious to, God. He faced his struggles because he looked forward to something better (‘for the joy that was set before him’), travelled light – both physically and spiritually – and persevered in every circumstance. Truly the source and the example on which we can build our lives.
So the key to life comes down to this: ‘let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith’.
Faith is not easy – but we know someone who’s been there before us. And that Someone is able to keep us and empower us in every situation, every day. Amen.
Saturday 19th July – Hebrews 12:1-3 (ii) ‘Faith perseveres’
It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Several hundred years before the author of Hebrews wrote this passage, Aesop wrote his famous fable about the hare and the tortoise. The moral of the story: faithful, consistent plodding beats erratic and inconsistent speed every time.
Jesus himself made a similar observation in the parable of the sower: the seed that fell on shallow soil grew quickly and then withered. Rapid progress followed by an equally rapid falling away. This last story is pertinent to the situation faced by the recipients of this letter. Times were hard for them, opposition to their faith was increasing, and some of them were tempted to give up; the cost was just too great.
The author of this profound letter is really making a simple point throughout: keep going! Don’t give up – the challenge is worth it. Faith perseveres.
During the course of this letter, the writer has made this vital point in lots of ways: the divine status of the Son guarantees that his saving work is effective; Jesus is both the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice; Jesus is also human like us, and so is with us in our trials.
And then we get to chapter 11, and the history of faith, and it is this chronicle of faithfulness to which the writer finally appeals here in this passage. Keep going because… ‘since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’ Better the tortoise than the hare. Better the slow-growing seed in the good soil which bears abundant fruit. True courage is not the absence of fear but overcoming our fear.
Jesus persevered in every circumstance: ‘he endured the cross, scorning its shame.’ Consider this, the writer concludes, ‘so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’ Whatever challenges we face today, Jesus has been there before us. He overcame: and we, Christ’s adopted sisters and brothers, can overcome too, in the strength of his Spirit. Keep going: you shall overcome.
Friday 18th July – Hebrews 12:1-3 (i) ‘Faith travels light’
Most of you know that I love cycling. I’m not a serious cyclist: I only potter about, mostly around the parish and rarely making journeys of more than a few miles. But, apart from the pleasure of cycling itself, I do love to watch the Grand Tours and Track Championships as well, seeing the real pros at work.
And in the world of cycling, one of the big changes of the last 20 or so years is what you might call the ‘Law of Marginal Gains’. Sir Dave Brailsford, erstwhile Head of UK Cycling, was very much a pioneer in this regard: the idea that the way to beat your competition was not by one massive improvement but by a huge number of small advances: slightly smoother clothing and better bike position to reduce wind resistance, exact timing of when a cyclist should eat to maximise the energy boost, and even (so the urban myth goes) rounder wheels! I kid you not, this was actually the subject of an informal complaint by another team at the 2016 Olympics – the GB Track Cycling Team had wheels that were perfectly round, instead of being out by 0.1%.
The other huge area for ‘marginal gains’ concerns weight: every gram you can shave off the weight of the bike is one less gram for the cyclist to have push around the track or road. Track bikes used for sprinting now routinely have no brakes, as this adds weight and possible friction with the wheel. It’s all about travelling as light as possible.
And what’s true in cycling is just as true when it comes to following Jesus. We are to travel light – Jesus himself famously told us this in one of the best-loved passages of Scripture: ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light’ (Matthew 11:30).
The author of Hebrews describes it in a different way here: ‘Since we are surrounded,’ he or she begins – and this signals to us that what comes next is the ‘so what’ of everything we’ve looked at over the last ten days – ‘let us throw off everything that hinders.’ Thankfully it’s not quite the same as taking the brakes off our bikes! It’s more like taking the heavy rucksack off our back as we try and cycle, or removing the gunk from our brake pads which slows the bike down.
As we journey in faith, we pick up baggage. Scars from failures, sins we struggle to shake, doubts that nag away at us. Today’s encouragement is very simple: cast them off! Keep asking God to heal your scars, forgive your sins (and have new hope to walk free) and give you courage to face your doubts.
Our baggage does not have to define us. Our God is in the baggage reclaim business – let’s offer everything that weighs us down to him, so we can keep running (or cycling) our race.
Thursday 17th July – Hebrews 11:39-40 ‘Faith looks forward to something better’
Every year, in November, it is my privilege to attend the Milton Keynes Confirmation Service, where people from around the city – including from our team of churches – publicly affirm their faith in Christ, and their determination to live for him through the rest of their lives. It is always an uplifting occasion, as we celebrate what God is doing here, especially in the hearts and lives of particular people. This year, in fact, it will be our privilege to host it.
It is an inspiring reminder that faith continues to blossom and grow from one generation to the next. God is still looking after His Church, and the kingdom of heaven continues to be at work on this earth. Throughout this wonderful chapter of Hebrews we have told the stories of some of the great heroes of the faith, as well as honoured the unknown saints who served faithfully in their generation. That story of faith continues to this day. Who knows what heroes will be confirmed in November?
As the author brings this amazing chapter to a close, he or she summarises what energised the people described very simply and profoundly: even though they did not receive the fullness of what was promised (v39), they perceived with the eyes of faith that ‘God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect.’ (v40)
Faith is ultimately a forward-looking attitude. Yes, it looks back to the saving work of Christ as a constant encouragement and source of our assurance. Yes, it lives in the present outworking of our day-to-day lives – but it also carries us towards ‘something better’. Coming full circle to where we started this chapter, ‘faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see ‘. (v1)
The full revelation of God in Christ was ultimately what the ancient heroes of faith were looking in hope towards – hence they also share in the benefits that Christ has won for all of us. And this forward-looking perspective is what energises our present. It is not ‘pie in the sky when we die’: but something real to carry us through all the seasons of life, both good and bad, light and dark, happy and sad. As any seasoned walker will tell you, that moment when we see our end destination puts new energy in the legs, however far away it seems at the time.
Over the next three days, we’ll look at three practical tips that the author gives us to put this forward-looking perspective into practice. But today, let’s give thanks that we do have such a hope – and may that future hope give us fresh energy for all we face at present.
Wednesday 16th July – Hebrews 11:32-38 ‘Faith is known to God’
I like to call today’s passage ‘the avalanche of faith’. The chapter as a whole feels like the spiritual equivalent of a snowball picking up speed as it careers down the mountain. The first 29 verses focus largely on a few central characters and only take us a third of the way through the book of Exodus. Verses 30 and 31 speed us up to the book of Joshua – and then the avalanche really begins!
In verse 32 we cover the rest of the Old Testament, with some accompanying description of the valiant deeds of this additional list thrown in for good measure in verses 33-34. And then the perspective widens out completely to the great cloud of witnesses: the thousands upon thousands of faithful souls who lived and loved and served their Lord – unknown to history, but known to God.
Many of them paid a significant price for their faithfulness, as the passage reminds us in verses 36-38. Even those who didn’t, however, kept the flame alight, kept the faith alive. These are the people that Pete Greig describes so evocatively in his poetic vision which birthed the 24-7 prayer movement:
‘Don’t you hear them coming? Herald the weirdos! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.’
The frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes… children of another dimension. Most of us know someone like this. A quiet hero, who lived their faith in a way which inspired us. Probably someone unknown to the wider church, but known to us – and known to God.
And that’s the point: in the end whether others applaud our faith doesn’t matter that much – but God sees, and commends, and blesses. Our faith is always known to him – and God is cheering all of us on. Including you, and me.
So perhaps, today, give thanks for those quiet heroes, those children of another dimension that have inspired you. And pray that you too might live faithfully, according to their example, adding your contribution to the continuing story of faith in our world.
Tuesday 15th July – Hebrews 11:29-31 ‘Faith is found in surprising people’
Today, in quick succession the author of Hebrews skates over two famous episodes – the Crossing of the Red Sea and the Fall of Jericho – and then reminds us of the role that Rahab played in the latter drama. Rahab is one of those unsung heroes, who eventually merits a place in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). Today I’m going to hand over the rein to Alianore Smith, who wrote this excellent reflection on Rahab a few years ago for an Advent series:
Sometimes it feels strange to tell people that one of my biblical heroes was a prostitute. It feels even stranger to tell them that this prostitute appears in Jesus’ genealogy. But that is the case with Rahab, the second woman to appear in Matthew 1.
As a prostitute, Rahab was the lowest of the low – especially according to Israel’s laws. And yet when two Israelite spies appear in her city, trying to work out how they can conquer it, she helps them. Instead of obeying Jericho’s king, she hides these men in her house and lies to the authorities, sending them on a wild goose chase across the desert.
Then comes the best bit. Rahab goes up to the men that she’s hidden on her roof, risking her own life by doing so, and says this: ‘I know that the LORD has given this land to you … For the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.’ (Joshua 2:9, 11)
For these words to come out of the mouth of a non-Israelite is completely unprecedented. The wording of this confession of faith in Joshua 2:11 is matched in only two other places in the whole Old Testament: the confession of Moses in Deuteronomy 4:39, and the confession of Solomon in 1 Kings 8:23. This woman, this prostitute, this ceremonially unclean, broken woman of the world has just made a confession of faith in the Lord which puts her up there with the likes of Moses, friend of God (Exodus 33:11), and Solomon, the wise King (1 Kings 3:12).
Not only that, but by bravely hiding these Israelite spies from the authorities and preventing them from being captured and killed, she is behaving in a way that chimes with the very heart of the covenant between Israel and the Lord. Her actions are completely in line with the deeds and quality of life that was supposed to distinguish the Israelite people from people like her. These actions and this confession lead her whole family to safety and result in her joining the Israelites after Jericho falls.
Rahab is a curveball in the story of Israel; another example of God’s plan deviating from what we might expect. But it is also a reminder – that God was at work in the most unlikely of places, and in and through the least likely of people. And he still is today.
Which unlikely people is he at work in around you? Take a few minutes to pray, in faith, today.
Monday 14th July – Hebrews 11:23-28 ‘Faith overcomes fear’
What is the opposite of faith? Many of us when asked that question, would say ‘doubt’. But the bible’s answer is different. The opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear. Fear is the thing that stifles faith the most. It’s no surprise that when God meets people in scripture, the first thing he often says – whether it’s Jesus or an angelic being – is ‘don’t be afraid’.
We all feel fear to some degree. Some of that is a biological necessity – as humans we learn to feel healthy fear whenever our physical wellbeing is in danger, that’s part of what keeps us alive – and why we tell toddlers not to wander towards a road or eat the litter they pick up from the floor!
So it could be said that one of the keys to flourishing in faith is learning to overcome our fear, whatever that might be: fear of failure, of unpopularity, of being wrong, of conflict, of appearing weak, of accepting help, of trusting a friend (or God).
Today’s passage surprised me when I read it. Moses inspires me in lots of ways, but I hadn’t expected the way that Moses was described. Events that are described in one way in the book of Exodus (you can read the full story in Exodus chapter 2) are re-cast here. Moses is left in a basket not just because it was too dangerous to keep him hidden, but because his parents ‘were not afraid of the king’s edict’. (v23)
Similarly, Moses is ostracised from the royal court not just because he killed an Egyptian but because ‘he chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God.’ (v25) And he left after the tenth plague not just because he was told to go by a duplicitous king, but also because he did not fear the king’s anger. (It’s possible that v28 refers to Moses’ first flight, which makes the bold statement that he did not fear the king’s anger even more striking.)
Now we know that Moses felt fear at various points in his life, even during the famous Exodus narrative – he was reluctant to obey God’s call to go back to Egypt, and his initial response to the discovery of his killing was to be afraid (Exodus 2:14). But this passage reminds us that Moses overcame his natural fear – it did not come to define him, or prevent him from fulfilling his calling.
The book of Hebrews was written to Christians under extreme pressure – far greater pressure than we face today. But its encouragement is just the same. We face fears, just as they did, just as God’s people have always done. But faith helps us to overcome our fear. Faith keeps God on the throne, and lifts our eyes to see beyond our current circumstances, perhaps to do things we didn’t think we were capable of. Faith is the antidote to fear, and calls us today to trust anew in both the power and the goodness of God.
Saturday 12th July – Hebrews 11:20-22 ‘Faith blesses others’
‘God’s people in God’s place under God’s blessing.’ This simple definition of the kingdom of God I learnt many years ago, and it’s a pretty good summary, which also allows us to track the progress of this amazing divine plan throughout the bible. Adam and Eve begin very much as God’s people in God’s place under his blessing, but then lose those benefits through their rebellion. When God calls Abraham in Genesis 12 he promises the restoration of that pattern – ‘to the land I will show you’ (v1 place), ‘a great nation’ (v2 people), ‘I will bless you’ (v2 blessing).
So far, so good – but there’s something missing. It somehow feels a bit… introspective. And in fact, helpful as this summary has been for my understanding of the bible and growth in faith, it neglects a fourth dimension: ‘All peoples on earth will be blessed through you’ (Genesis 12:3).
God’s people are blessed to be a blessing. We pass it on. The word for ‘love’ invented by the early Christians – agape – means selfless giving, inspired by Jesus’ own example.
So a huge part of the life of faith is the capacity to bless others: to pass on our blessings, to share them around. And so we see, in today’s passage, that ‘by faith’ Isaac passed it on – he blessed his sons Jacob and Esau (v20). Similarly, Jacob on his deathbed blessed his twelve sons, and also Joseph’s sons too (v21) – you can read this in detail in Genesis 49-50.
Even Joseph too became a blessing – while today’s passage looks forward to the return from Egypt several hundred years later (v22), it was Joseph’s wise leadership and gracious forgiveness extended to his family which saved their lives and allowed their lineage to continue.
As perhaps only becomes clear later in scripture, this lineage is special as it becomes the family through which God’s global promises are fulfilled – leading all the way to Jesus. What this family only understood vaguely at the time of their lives takes on huge significance.
So often the same is true for us whenever we are called to take steps of faith. Often we can’t see its true value at the time – but later we can see how God worked through it and brought a blessing.
And so, as spiritual descendants of this family – of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph – we too are called to bless others, in faith that the same God will work in us and through us, and that we also might be blessed, according to his infinite love and grace.
Friday 11th July – Hebrews 11:17-19 ‘Faith holds nothing back’
In recent years, it is noticeable how much more often we’re witnessing extreme weather, not just here in the UK but all around the world. Record-breaking seasons are commonplace, an inevitable consequence of climate change – here in the UK, the wettest 18 months on record from 2023-2024 was followed in 2025 by the driest spring for more than 100 years, and the hottest June since 1884. (As an aside, farming is under as much pressure as it’s been for generations.) Average global temperature was the hottest ever recorded in 2024, beating the previous record which was… 2023.
As someone who has been involved with the environmental movement for more than 30 years, my sense is that the elephant in the room is the same as it when I first signed up in the late 1980s: there is no pain-free solution. Technology will go some of the way to helping us out of this hole – but the rest requires a change of lifestyle on a huge scale. Changes that our leaders are unlikely to commit us to, because they know that they are things which most of us still won’t accept.
The reason we are where we are now is that we’ve always held something back – either as individuals, or as a country, or as a global community. Our ‘faith’ in the future of the planet has a cut-off point. There are sacrifices that we will refuse to make. Today’s passage is profoundly challenging because it reminds us of a story in the bible where the central character held nothing back: he was prepared to surrender the most precious thing in his life if God called him to do so.
We know the end of the story – Abraham was spared having to go through with it. But it remains disturbing, nonetheless. Would God ever call us to something similar? Thankfully for nearly all of us, the answer is no. This passage is a prophetic foretaste, not of what God would ask of any other human, but what God would ask of himself. Isaac points to Jesus, first and foremost.
But there is a spiritual lesson for us here: faith is about the surrender of self, the willingness to give everything to God, who gave everything for us. We may never be asked to offer what Abraham did, but we are still called to hold nothing back. And in doing so, there is true freedom. The secret of surrender, if I can call it that, is that there is great blessing in the act of full surrender to God. ‘They are no fool who gives what they cannot keep to gain what they cannot lose.’ (Jim Elliot)
And so, as we watch and pray regarding the future of our planet, may our ears as well as our eyes be open. More generally, as we reflect on all of our lives, may God grant us grace to hold nothing back from him, and in so doing, to find fullness of life, both now and for eternity.
Thursday 10th July – Hebrews 11:13-16 ‘Faith waits in hope’
1st November – All Saints’ Day – is traditionally the day of the year when we celebrate the worldwide church, living and departed: the ‘cloud of witnesses’ who have lived by faith and borne testimony to their Lord in every culture throughout the centuries.
Some of them are famous, and rightly so. The vast majority are not: people just like us, who lived quietly faithful lives. All of them/us are saved by the grace of God, since none of us ever achieve perfection this side of heaven. There will be parts of our lives that remain ‘works in progress’, and certainly the societies in which we live will never be more than a partial reflection of the true kingdom of God.
After a brief tour of several of the most celebrated saints (and maybe a couple who are less well known) in the first part of the chapter, today the author of Hebrews pauses for a moment to remind us that, however much they achieved, ‘all these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.’ (v13)
Like us, these saints saw only a partial realisation of all that they lived and prayed and longed for. Noah and his family were saved, but Noah had to trust the future of the human race into divine hands when he died. Abraham and Sarah were blessed with a son, but had to trust that this son would indeed be the ‘child of promise’. We know there were plenty of bumps along the way after that!
The author summarises by reminding us that to live by faith means to live as ‘foreigners and strangers on earth’ (v13). It’s not that we cut ourselves off from society: but there will always be a part of us that has a different home: ‘a better country – a heavenly one’ (v16).
The assurance that this is our future is what inspired the saints of old – but it also inspires us, too. We have the same inheritance, and we trust in the same glorious Saviour to lead us there. And so, today, let us give thanks for the worldwide fellowship of the church of God around the world; and may we also give thanks for the future hope which awaits us, too. May that future hope energise our present hours with faithful and fruitful service, this day and this season
Wednesday 9th July – Hebrews 11:8-12 ‘Faith trusts God’s promises’
Today we navigate better-known waters – the famous story of Abraham (Genesis 12 onwards). Like Noah, Abraham was called to step out in faith. Unlike Noah, the greatest promise of God was one for which Abraham had to wait much longer to be fulfilled. God first promised Abraham that he and Sarah would have a child when he was 75 – it was finally fulfilled when Abraham turned 100.
Abraham’s journey was somewhat chequered, and not without its failings. But the extraordinary faith he showed when leaving his homeland to head to the land to which God had called him (v8) and then to settle there (v9) proved a sure testing ground for the promises to come. Indeed, he shared that faith with Sarah, who quite rightly gets equal billing in this text in trusting God for the family she was promised (v11).
We are the heirs of this promise – indeed all of us who worship our Lord are beneficiaries, a global movement ‘as numerous as the stars in the sky and countless as the sand on the seashore.’ (v12)
Not many of us have likely been given promises as huge as Abraham and Sarah. But most of us carry smaller promises, special to us – and sometimes those promises take time to be fulfilled. Abraham and Sarah’s story gives us faith and hope to believe that God will come through for us – even a mustard seed of that faith is enough.
Then there are God’s universal promises, the truths we find in scripture, the eternal realities of our faith. The blessings promised to Abraham are ours: God has given them to us in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14). These promises have already been fulfilled – by faith we receive them and join God’s global family – both in this life, as well as in the one to come.
May God give us grace to trust his promises – for the one who promises them is faithful!
Tuesday 8th July – Hebrews 11:5-7 ‘Faith obeys regardless’
Many of you may be familiar with the film ‘Evan Almighty’ – apart from being very funny, the value of watching the film is that it is a modern-day re-telling of the story of Noah. It visualises what it would actually be like to receive the sort of message Noah had from God, and to actually build an enormous boat in your garden while everyone around you pointed and laughed. Like Chicken Licken in the child’s story, I wonder how many of us would have passed Noah’s home and believed that the sky really was about to fall down?
It’s easy to romanticise Noah’s story (Genesis 6-9), but the reality was hard. Noah was given an incredible task, which required unusual faith to obey. Indeed today’s passage soberingly reminds us that Noah’s faith did not just save him and his family but also condemned the world (v7). Not that this was Noah’s fault, but the stakes were high – and we know that at the end of the story God gives Noah assurance that he would never have to ‘start again’ with humanity in the future: the rainbow would be a sign of blessing to remind us – one we can still see and give thanks for today.
Noah teaches us that faith obeys God in all circumstances: much of the time that will be reasonable, but there will be times when God asks us to do something unusual. It is wise to check with trusted friends and companions, and to seek assurance in prayer –but we should not rule out such prompts. We are all heirs of ‘the righteousness that it is in keeping with faith.’
A word, too, about Enoch (vv5-6). Perhaps not a character you’re familiar with, but Enoch belongs to a very select group of people in the bible who were taken directly to be with God – as far as I can recall, there are only two others: Elijah and Jesus. So this puts Enoch in very exalted company, which might cause you to wonder why he is so little known?
In fact Enoch’s life only covers a few verses in Genesis 5:18-24, one of those long genealogical lists you find in the Old Testament. But Genesis 5:24 is quite clear that Enoch had a unique end, which is picked up on here in Hebrews 11, and the author rightly concludes that this remarkable chap must have lived an extraordinary life of faith. In fact, his name means ‘dedicated’, and so he passed on as he lived: dedicated to his Lord.
We too have a similar calling: may God grant us grace to be dedicated to our Lord, and obey him in all circumstances.
Monday 7th July – Hebrews 11:1-4 ‘Faith gives its best’
What is faith? It’s a fair question to ask – it’s a word that lies at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus, but so often it is parodied today as ‘the blind leading the blind’. Many compare ‘faith’ unfavourably to fact or reason, or dismiss it as a crutch for the weak.
But this is not how the bible sees it. Faith is something strong, active, dynamic – in fact this great chapter begins with this summary: ‘Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance in what we do not see.’ (v1)
Note the words used: confidence, assurance. Other translations use the words ‘sure’ and ‘certain’. Words we associate more with facts! And whilst we can’t ‘prove’ faith in the way that some would wish, what scripture consistently affirms is that we can rely on faith because: (a) we have good reasons to believe; (b) we have our own experiences and convictions which we know we can’t deny; and (c) we have the examples of others to inspire us.
Which brings us to Hebrews 11: in this one chapter, the author (whose name we don’t know) brings together many of these inspiring examples in one extraordinary narrative: the 1st-century equivalent of a coach’s pep talk. ‘Look at these people,’ the author says, ‘if they can do it, so can you. So keep going!’
And this list of inspirational figures begins at an unexpected place. If I were to ask you who the first hero of the bible is, I bet most of you would say Noah. But Hebrews gives us two heroes before that, and the very first is the one we read of today: Abel (you can read his story in Genesis 4). Most of us simply think of Abel as the first murder victim of history, but what this passage does is remind us why that happened.
Abel gave God his best – the firstfruits of his flock. That is what put him at odds with his brother, but it is also why he is a hero of the faith. Despite what happened to his parents, Abel knew that God deserved his worship, and so he gave God something precious – which in turn showed that his heart was fully given to God.
Faith is sometimes caricatured as a free pass – but nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, faith is always our bedrock – but to live out our faith means to live with gratitude, and therefore to give of our best to God.
It is easy to get weary of doing good – but may Abel inspire us: how can you give God your best today?