Psalms 112:1
“Praise the Lord!
Over the years the Lord has been gracious enough to allow a handful people into my life that have had a tremendous influence upon me both as a person and as a pastor. One such person is Barbara Hemple. She and her husband Bob moved to town to be close to their daughter and grandchildren. I can still remember our first conversation about serving the Lord, Barbara had spent several years as a kindergarten teacher at a Christian school. I think she felt a bit of responsibility to the children’s ministry, however she shared with me that she thought maybe the Lord was calling her to serve in a different way. I told her that since I was often a bit like an absent minded professor I could use someone who would run the church office and serve as my secretary. She jumped at the chance and for several years became part of the backbone of the ministry. (The staff used to say that I could leave without a problem but if Barbara goes the whole place will fall apart.)
As time went on it became necessary for her to step out of that role and into a new one. Several years ago I began writing devotional blogs in hopes of encouraging people to read through the Scriptures on a daily basis. I am not a writer and quite frankly not even sure how to punctuate properly. After a few weeks, Barbara approached me and asked if there was anyway she could help. From that moment on she began to edit every post. Morning after morning she would eagerly await the blog and once it was posted she would immediately make the necessary corrections so that it would make sense to the readers. (We often laughed together at the times when it was almost impossible for her to decipher what I was actually trying to say.) It is amazing to me that over the years she has actually edited devotions on almost every chapter of the entire Bible that amounts to over 1,000 posts. During that same season we began a series at our church where we did an overview of every book of the Bible. Because of the enormous content in each lesson I decided to make notes available to the church. Again Barbara stepped up to assist. After teaching I would email her the outline and she would once again use her editing skills to make it understandable to the reader. Those notes have now been passed along to hundreds of people all over the world. (I have been contacted by people from Israel, West Bank, Brazil, Europe, West and South Africa and even Siberia who have been blessed by those studies.)
My last conversation with Barbara was a joy. She approached me after our evening service and offered her assistance to help organize the prayer ministry. (That was another passion of hers as she met with a handful of other women and prayed every Thursday for the needs of our church.) As always we took care of business pretty quickly and then just talked and laughed.
After helping to lead a servants meeting at church Barbara suffered a sudden and unexpected hemorrhage and as a result stepped across the threshold into eternity surrounded by her family who loves her dearly. While I know the hurt is deep for many, I also know like many other giants of faith, her final act on earth was serving Christ. Over the years I have been blessed and encouraged by a lot of people but very few have supported me the way Barbara did. I am a better man and a better pastor because of her. If you have been blessed in anyway by the ministry of the Word at Calvary Chapel Vero Beach or by the these blog posts, Barbara had a hand in all of it.
Until we see each other in glory.
Jim
This psalm is one of the most detailed prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament. It goes into great detail to speak of the person and the work of the Messiah. In it we find reference to the deity of Christ when we read, “The Lord said unto my Lord.” This is nothing short of the Father referring to the Son as Yahweh. We also find reference to the Sufferings of Christ, in that he was consecrated a priest after the order of Melchizedek who would offer himself in our place in order to make a way for man to have access to God. We also see the resurrection and Ascension when we read, “Sit thou on my right hand.” And finally we see reference to the final Judgment, when all Christ’s enemies will be put under his feet.
The evolution of love is seen in the relationship between children and parents. An infant child cannot survive on his own and is completely dependent upon the mercy, grace and love of the parents. In a proper relationship the parents give time, energy, even sleep for the benefit of the child. As the relationship develops so does the love, it is not long before the parents begin to see the return in their investment. I can remember being so excited when my children began to smile and laugh, or when they would crawl across the room only to get up on my lap and snuggle. What a joy! Just this week I received messages from each of my boys expressing Father’s Day wishes in their own humorous ways. Our relationship has become one of an exchange of love. This Psalm is an illustration of that kind of love relationship with God. The Psalmist cries out with thankful praise as a response to what God has done for them. Paul used an interesting word for thanks when writing to Timothy, he said “Thanks be to God…” and the word he used was “karis” which is the word used to speak of God’s giving nature. Because of the grace we have received from the Lord, we give grace back to Him.
This psalm recounts the faithfulness of God during the days of the patriarchs. After mentioning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Psalmist reminds us of the struggles Joseph faced after being sold into slavery by his own brothers. We know he experienced betrayal, beating, false accusations and imprisonment. Each trial he faced was a means by which the Word of God put him to the test.
