[This devotion is the final part of a 3 Devotion series on The Venite.]

Psalm 95:7

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As we continue meditating on The Venite. That song from the office of Matins, which is Psalm 95. I want to read one more verse to you. Verse seven of Psalm 95

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. (Psalm 95:7)

As we consider this song as the perfect morning hymn, as we’re preparing to use our hands to go out and accomplish the work God has for us, we look at our God’s hands. And here the third time in this Psalm, we see God’s hands described for us, now as a shepherd’s hands. Holding his sheep. We are the sheep of his hand. We often think of the shepherd holding the staff aloft, the shepherd’s crook by which he guides the sheep. But of course, that staff is in the shepherd’s hand, and the shepherd’s hand is of so much more importance than just the staff by itself. The staff is there to point to the hand of the shepherd, so that the shepherd can bestow his love on the sheep as he pets them, lovingly moves them along, uses those hands in working to shear the sheep, to feed the sheep, to water the sheep, to birth the lambs. Those hands are intimately at work among the sheep.

Now, as we, these sheep, go about accomplishing the work that God has for us. Ultimately, we’re receiving all the work that he is giving to us. We’re receiving the blessings. This good Shepherd is guiding us in good pastures everywhere we go. It might not always be apparent, but everywhere we go he has blessings in store for us. He is guiding us along every step, whether it’s along the greenest pastures or in the deepest, darkest valleys. We belong to that shepherd. He not only guides us by those hands, he holds us in those hands, those very hands that once again were pierced for our transgressions. Those hands that formed us out of the dust. Those hands that open to feed us every day. And those hands that embrace us with his love, his undeserved love and holy grace that he gives us especially and most significantly in His Son, Jesus Christ.

His hands open now also to you in His Word. He reads this word to you through the mouths of pastors and fellow Christians, or through your own eyes, perusing this word. This is the green pasture on which you can feed throughout your daily work, and you can know as you go about that work that your father is pleased with you. Your God loves you, sanctifies all that work. He is working through you. Rest in him and enjoy the blessings that he has for you.

Psalm 95:5

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We’re continuing to talk about the Venite, that Psalm 95 song that’s often sung in the mornings, that perfect morning hymn as we get ready to go about our work day. I want to read the next verse in Psalm 95. This is verse five.

The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. (Psalm 95:5)

This is again emphasizing the work of the Father’s hands. As we prepare for our work going about our day, we look at our God’s hands that formed the earth. When we think of how God created Adam, we think of the sculptor who’s so intimately and delicately forming the clay to build a human being in his own image, in order to accomplish the work that he has for him, and to receive the blessings that he wants to bestow upon him. But God is not just a sculptor, he’s a landscape painter. He built the whole earth. All the dry ground was formed by him. You can picture him lifting it up out of the sea. Of course he accomplished all of this by his word. So the hands are a metaphor here, but his hands hold the earth. Form it, shape it. When you see a beautiful landscape that was designed by the painter, God, and not just the dry land, but the sea also is his.

There’s an old school of thought about the sea and the land. The land is stable. The land is where you can rest secure. You know you’re safe when you’re on dry land. The sea, however, is chaotic, especially if you’ve ever been caught in a wave in the ocean and totally subsumed by it. There’s a moment while you’re tumbling through the water where you don’t know which way is up. Direction makes no sense. Space makes no sense. Time makes no sense. The sea is chaos. That’s a picture that we have in Genesis two that when God created the world, it was formless and void, and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters and then created a perfect, beautiful order out of it. So we can start to think of the sea as something evil. But it’s not. It also belongs to God. It is the good thing out of which he has brought his creation.

Think of a painter using the pools of paint and splattering them around, mixing them around. It looks like a mess, but what a good thing that is to create beauty out of and the sea that our God owns. He commands as well. And we can see when Jesus was on the boat with his disciples numerous times how he calmed the stormy seas, it obeyed him. The disciples asked, who is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? This is none other than God. God owns the sea. He owns the sea of troubles that come against you, also. He owns your entire environment so that when you feel lost and alone, so that you don’t know which direction is up or where you’re headed, God has this in control. He formed the dry land, and the sea also is his, and you are his. And he has redeemed you through the waters of baptism and adopted you as his child to give you peace and life everlasting.

Psalm 95:1-4

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There’s a song that we often sing in our church services, especially in the Office of Matins, and you find it there under its Latin name, The Venite. And that’s the first word in the Latin version of Psalm 95. And I want you to consider Psalm 95, or the Venite, as the perfect morning hymn. The perfect way to start your day. I want to read the first few verses here, but then I want to focus, especially on this picture of the hands of our God. And we’ll talk about that over a couple more devotions here. But the first few verses of Psalm 95,

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.

Psalm 95, verses one through four. Now picture the hands and the picture the start of your day. You’re getting ready to use those hands. The day has been prepared for you to go and take your hands and do the work that God has prepared for you. Whether you’re working outside the home, inside the home, at your studies, work is objectified in the hands.

Think of the work that Adam had to do in the Garden of Eden, digging those hands in the dirt in order to plant and cause things to grow. All that work went out into a more difficult sphere after the fall into sin, and now that work is filled with pain and trouble and sorrow. But we’re to be reminded as we go to our work, which is going to be a day filled with our own sins and sins committed against us too, that we shouldn’t look just at our hands, but at the hands that are holding us and all things. Look at these hands. The hands of God hold the deep places of the earth and the heights of the hills. Not only does this emphasize the power of our great creator, but he’s the one who formed us out of the dust of the earth and who holds us still. And in a prophet, it also says that he has engraved us on the palms of his hands.

Where you see the hands of God most vividly are in those hands that are pierced by the nails on the cross. In Jesus hands your name was engraved. He holds the deep place of your sin, your death, your suffering. He holds that in his hands to bring you up onto the mighty hills of salvation, the hill on which he was crucified, the hill from which he ascended into heaven. The hill on which God comes to meet you with His Word and Sacraments, and ultimately will bring you again to be caught up with your Lord in the air. To be embraced by those hands once again. The hands of God hold you.

Genesis 1:14-16, Psalm 147:4, Psalm 8:3-4

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Genesis chapter one, verse 14

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. (Genesis 1:14-16)

I’m Pastor Pittenger from Bethany Lutheran Church out in Port Orchard, Washington. And I want to talk to you a little bit about those stars. Nowadays scientists, astronomers, they estimate, it’s an estimate because they can’t count, that there are about one septillion stars in the universe. That’s so number one with 24 zeros after it.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

So that’s a septillion. Whole lot of stars out there. And stars have been important throughout the history of God’s creation, we use them to navigate both on land and at sea. Because of the stars, people were able to sail over the horizon and find their way to where they’re going or find their way back home. But man, one with 24 zeros after it, we can’t even count that high. We can only estimate that high.

Let me share something else with you. Here’s something I think equally or even more amazing. Psalm 147, verse four, speaking about God. Praise the Lord. The psalm begins, but verse four,

He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names. (Psalm 147:4)

We can’t even count that high. And yet God has got names for all of them, which is absolutely amazing. And but why should we really care about all this? Now flip over to Psalm eight. Psalm eight, verse three.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)

When you go outside and look up at the stars, and you see how many there are. And if you look up in a book and find out how big they are. Well, who am I? What am I that God should care about me? I am so small. I am so insignificant. Add my sin to that equation. I’m so unworthy of God’s attention, let alone anything good from him.

Well, the answer to that is found in that phrase the Son of Man. That’s reference to Jesus. Hebrews chapter two makes it clear that Psalm eight is talking about Jesus, who was made, as it says, a little lower than the angels, who that is, who humbled himself. God. God the Son became one of us. He didn’t become a star to save the stars from eventual decay and running out of fuel. He didn’t become a bird to save the birds. He didn’t become an angel to save the angels. But he became man, the Son of Man in order to save us.

So next time you’re outside on a nice, clear night and you look up at those stars, marvel at how many of them there actually are or may be. And when you consider yourself in comparison to them and the seeming insignificance that you might feel. Remember the Son of Man has come to save you. God, who numbers the stars, even names those stars, knows your name. And he’s even given you a new name. A name, the name Christian. You’re named after his son, in whom we have eternal salvation, forgiveness of sins, redemption.

Psalm 46, Matthew 28:20

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Today, I’m going to share some of the comforting things that God has in store for us in Psalm 46. The Psalm says he is our refuge and our strength. A fortress is how Luther translated it. He’s never absent. Jesus promised, surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age or the end of the world. [Matthew 28:20]

Well, anyway, I love this psalm because I grew up out in Washington state. I was 12 years old on May 18th, 1980, and I know that probably that day, date, probably doesn’t mean a lot to many of you, but for kids from Washington back then, it was an unforgettable day. On Sunday, May 18th, 1980, at 8:32 a.m., Mount Saint Helens erupted. 1300ft, more than that, were blown off of the top and off of the side of the mountain. When the ash finally finished falling and all the dust settled, there’s this gaping crater that this hole in her north side. But still, in spite of that, she’s still there. Saint Helens, she’s over 8000ft to tall.

So with Psalm 46 in mind, think for yourself. What would it take? What kind of eruption? What kind of earthquake? Tsunami? Or God forbid, what kind of horror of nuclear war would it take for all the mountains to be leveled, to be thrown into the midst of the sea? And speaking of disasters, think of the chaos that would ensue in an eruption, in an earthquake. We see when Florida is trying to evacuate in front of a hurricane. The roads are clogged. Hospitals are overrun. Stores are empty. Their shelves are empty. Well, Psalm 46 assures us that if a mountain is gone the next day, if the entire Cascade Range or the Rockies or the Alps, we would wake up and find them gone, that we won’t wake up and find the Lord gone.

God is our refuge and our strength. He is ever present. There’s never a time when he will not be with us. Because didn’t God the Son come here, become incarnate for us? And wasn’t he rejected by those he loved by his own people? Wasn’t he hated by them? Didn’t he breathe his last and give himself into death?

Take your thumb and tuck the last two fingers of your hand behind the thumb. Three right. Three digits. Sort of tucked away, sort of hidden. And then what are you left with? You’re left with two. Two standing there together. Two fingers.

When Christian pastors, priests, ministers proclaim God’s blessing on God’s people, they often put their hand in this configuration, the three the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity are tucked away, somewhat veiled, but those two that stand so prominent for everybody to see. Those two represent the two natures of Christ, true God and true man together, one Christ. And that is how God’s people are often blessed.

So the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge because God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God sent the Son of God here to this world to give himself into death, to rise again for our salvation.

So whether it’s the latest disaster that you’re seeing on the news and all the chaos that ensues, whether it’s rumors of war or real wars, whether it’s false friends or whether it’s your health that’s failing. I pray that the promises God has for you in Psalm 46 and along with Christ himself, will be your strength and your comfort. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Amen.

Psalm 98

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Today’s Psalm, Psalm 98. Let’s take a deeper look at these verses. It says that we are to sing a new song. It’s a fresh song. It’s something that’s never been heard before. This means all the way back to Adam and Eve. No one has ever seen or let alone done this new thing. And again, that Hebrew word has got the sense of being fresh. In other words, it’s not old. It’s not moldy or mildew y. It’s alive, it’s fresh. And it’s a miraculous thing because God has revealed the sense of that word is unhidden or unveiled his salvation.

Now here’s something really cool that Hebrew word for salvation is also the Hebrew name Jesus. Or they would have pronounced it Yeshua. God has uncovered, unveiled, unhidden Yeshua. Salvation. Jesus. And he’s shown this dropping down to verse two, to all people.

In verse two we find a great word goyim. And that’s me. I’m from, my ancestors or from northern Europe, and that’s probably you. Goyim is everyone who’s not Jewish whose bloodline can’t be traced back to Abraham. We’re the filthy masses, the unwashed, we’re the Gentiles conceived and born in sin. But the Psalm says that there’s this new song of salvation, this new song, a fresh song of Yeshua for all people.

Because verse three says, God’s remembered. He didn’t forget his mercy, his love. All the ends of the earth are going to hear about this and see it for themselves. Verse nine, it says that he’s coming. The Lord is coming and he’s coming to judge the world. He’s going to decide about the world and its fate, but he’s going to do it in righteousness. Right before God. So how can the world, how can the people, the Gentiles, be judged to be righteous? Well, there’s a new thing. It’s Christ, the crucified and risen Christ. So that new song, that thing that’s now unhidden for all the world, that salvation is the risen Christ. So that new song, that unhidden salvation fresh and never before seen. It’s God the Son giving himself for you, dying and rising.

We usually hear, see, Psalm 98 on Easter morning. What better day of the year to sing about this new, this brand new, never before seen thing than on the day our Savior conquered sin and death for us? Read Psalm 98 for yourself and the Lord bless and keep you.

Psalm 16, Psalm 23, Acts 2

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The first two verses of Psalm 16, a Psalm of David preserve me, David prays. In other words, keep me safe. I take refuge in thee. I hope in you. I trust in you. Jump down to verse three, it mentioned saints. It mentions holy ones. It uses the word excellent ones as another translation, royal ones, and in other words, God’s people.

But wait a minute. Aren’t God’s people sinful? We are. So how can we be called saints? Well, we’re called saints because we’re made holy. We’re made saints because our sins are paid for. We know that. We believe that. That’s what Jesus has done for us, which means that we are the excellent ones. We are royalty, children of the Heavenly Father, princes and princesses of Heaven itself.

Drop down to verses five and six. Did you ever eat in a school cafeteria or in a military chow line? Maybe you learned to be extra nice to make friends with the lunch ladies, might not have been ladies serving, because they give you a little bit extra food. Well, verses five and six talk about the portion that the Lord has given us. The portion that God serves up is God Himself, the Lord himself. In Psalm 23, David speaks about that, saying that his cup is overflowing. And verse six says that the lines, thats boundary lines, property lines, the place, the home that God has prepared for you is fallen in pleasant places. It even talks about an inheritance. You’re in God’s will so that when God died, you inherit what he has: his righteousness, his holiness, the forgiveness of your sins.

Verse eight says that I have set the Lord, always set the Lord before me. He’s my foundation. What that means is my life is now built on this. It’s built on him. There is no other foundation that anyone can lay, a permanent foundation, than that which has been laid, laid down: Jesus Christ. And this is a foundation so firm that the Psalm tells us it can’t be shaken. It doesn’t budge. It doesn’t sag or slip with age. Soul, my heart, my being, my frail mortal flesh, which grows older and weaker every day, it rests secure. Because even though I do grow weaker every day, even though my grave is somewhere out there in the future, God promises not to desert us. He won’t leave us in death and in hell, in Sheol.

And in verse ten, Psalm 16:10, we’re told how all this is possible. It says, you will not let your Holy One see corruption or see decay. What is that? Who is that? The Holy one. It’s singular. Well, if we jump into the New Testament Acts chapter two, we’ll find Peter preaching on Pentecost Sunday, and Peter quotes from Psalm 16, verses eight, nine, 10, 11. Peter says, first and foremost, this is about Jesus. God didn’t abandon him when he gave his life for us. God didn’t even let his flesh see decay or corruption. And like Peter, we’ve all sinned. In our thoughts, words, deeds. We’ve all denied being his, his saints, his royal ones. But because of Christ, God didn’t abandon us to the grave or doesn’t abandon us to Sheol, to hell. Now all who trust in him will be with him.

Verse 11 captures that. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there’s fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So because of Christ and all that he has done, every single word of Psalm 16 also applies to you as much as it does to him. I hope you’ll open your Bible, maybe even today, and read Psalm 16 for yourself, and be assured that in Christ, because of him your sins, like Peter’s, they’re all forgiven. They will not be your undoing. You will rest secure, established on the rock that is Jesus Christ. So. May he bless and keep you. And I look forward to seeing you again.

Psalm 1

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Psalm one begins with three postures or positions of the believer. He doesn’t walk alongside the wicked. He’s not going in their direction. And the believer doesn’t stand in the way of sinners. They’ve stopped walking, now. They’re standing there. They’re discussing things. Maybe they’re planning, planning to sin, but the believer is not with them. And third, the believer doesn’t sit alongside, sit with scoffers. He doesn’t break bread with those who mock God, God’s way, God’s word. This doesn’t mean we don’t have friends, family members, coworkers who are unbelievers. It means we’re not participating in their sin.

Instead, the psalm goes on. It tells us what the believer delights in. God’s law. God’s word. More than just the commandments, all of God’s word. That’s his comfort. That’s her companion. Let’s look at an example from nature. A tree or any other plant, it needs water to survive. Back home in Washington, where I live, I can walk outside and I can see trees that are over 100ft tall. And I don’t have to be a great botanist, a great scientist, in order to know at least one thing about any tree that’s lived that long and that has reached that kind of height. It’s a tree that’s well watered well. Psalm one verse three says that the believer is like that. You don’t have to be a great theologian to look at someone, maybe someone that you admire, that you sort of look up to, maybe at church, a kind elderly person. You don’t have to be a great theologian in order to realize that person is well watered, watered with God’s own word, the water of life. Psalm one begins by telling us this is essential to spiritual life. God’s word is. Its essential to producing fruit, to growth.

And it contrasts that with the life of unbelievers, despite any seeming profit or success, that their sin may give them. Their unbelief and their sin have already determined their end. And so verse six, the last verse, it makes one last comparison, the comfort that the Lord knows the way of his people, and that means he knows where we are. He knows what we face. He knows what we struggle with and wrestle with in this life. In fact, the Lord is intimately aware of it all. In fact, we could even say he is personally aware of it. How? How can God, who is spirit, God who is perfect, be personally aware with all that that we wrestle and struggle with and as we try to produce fruit and at times we don’t produce the fruit, we should?

Psalm one is a perfect description of Jesus who did delight in God’s Word and who submitted himself to God’s law. But because of Jesus, because of him, his relative Elizabeth once called him the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb, because of him and that fruit all of God’s people are blessed. We’re blessed in him, and we are like trees that are living beside streams of water, trees that are well watered.

So Psalm one, have a read of it yourself, and in it, first and foremost see Jesus, your Savior, the Blessed One of the Book of Psalms, the Righteous One in whom we’re nurtured and in whom we grow. So it’s about him. And because it’s about him who took on our nature, it’s about us, our brother, our Savior. God bless you and we’ll see you again.

Psalm 42:1,11

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I’d like to read the last verse of Psalm 42. This is verse 11.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:11)

When we hear from God’s Word, what God would have us believe and do, we know where we’re headed. Jesus died on the cross for all of our imperfections. We know the goal. He has planned eternal life for us and the joy of that eternal life. We have depictions of that, descriptions of how God wipes away every tear from our eyes when we get to heaven. What a joyful thing that we’ll get to look forward to. The end of this Psalm is an effort at comforting ourselves that will one day come. The soul speaks to itself. I speak to myself and say, I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Especially we’re looking at that praise in eternity with all the saints and angels in heavenly glory and bliss. And in fact, that verse is repeated. It comes earlier in the Psalm as well, almost right around the middle, so we can see how important that is and how necessary it really is for us to remind ourselves of that, because we know where we’re going. We know what’s promised, and we also know it’s not here. We don’t have it. We’re waiting. We’re struggling. We’re in pain so often that it obscures that heavenly glory. It’s hard to see.

I’ve had people say to me, especially when they’re grieving the death of a loved one, we have the comfort that they, because of their faith in Jesus, they are in heaven now in glory and bliss, and so we can be happy for them. And yet it’s also comes up yeah, pastor, I know that, but I’m sad now. I’m struggling now. So where’s the comfort for life? Not just death. There is comfort for life.

This psalm begins with the problem. The first verse is

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God. (Psalm 42:1)

We’re thirsty for God. We’re thirsty for what he can provide. Think of that as parched lips and how all you can think about is water. Just getting rid of that pain, that ache of the parched mouth. We want God to come and comfort us in this. And that’s exactly what he does through His word, not just, oh, just wait, look ahead. This is going to come for you. But no, he is with us right now. We want God, that’s why we want to be in heaven, because we’ll be with God in perfection. And he is with you now. He’s with you in his word. He’s right beside you. He’s behind you. He’s beneath you, holding you up. He is within you. The Holy Spirit uses you as his temple.

We’re looking forward to our Sabbath rest right on the last day. When we come in glory with all the saints and angels, we get to worship God forever and enjoy that Sabbath rest. Well God established the Sabbath also for himself. He wants his Sabbath rest, and he takes that Sabbath rest in his temple. He takes that Sabbath rest in you. God comes into your heart to rest. And where he rests, he brings his joy. He brings his peace that passes all understanding. It’s not necessarily something that will feel every moment of every day. And that’s why we need this word. We need this comfort of the Holy Spirit. We can’t comfort ourselves. It only comes by the Holy Spirit through the word. God does comfort us in life and death. The advice isn’t, oh, just hold on. No, the advice is more here’s God. He comes to you in His Word. He’s with you as you weep and as you wail and as you wait and as you hope. And he strengthens that hope, and he strengthens you in that comfort.

1 John 2:1, Psalm 32:1-5

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Hi there. My name is Tony Pittenger. I’m the pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church out in Port Orchard, Washington. And when I was a teenager, there was a television show on late nights, and the host had these blue cards, and he would do a top ten of this, top five of that. And so sort of in that tradition, dear fellow redeemed, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you top five dumbest things that people have done in the Bible.

All right, number five, messing around with the wife of a Nazarite. This goes back to Samson. It’s in Judges chapter 14. Samson had been promised his wife. We don’t even know her name, but she was eventually given to someone else. And, well, read Judges 14. You’ll see that did not go well for those people.

Number four, dumbest things that people have done in the Bible, making fun of a prophet’s hair, especially a bald prophet. This is in Second Kings chapter two, and there are some kids making fun of Elijah and his lack of hair. That was a very dumb thing to do, disrespectful. As two she bears came and well, taught them a lesson they wouldn’t forget.

Number three, chasing God’s people into the heart of the Red Sea. This is Exodus chapter 14 as Pharaoh and his army, even though there are walls of water on the right and on the left. Hey, if the Israelites are safe down there, maybe we will be to. And in they go.

Number two, going sailing when God tells you to go to Nineveh. That’s the prophet Jonah. And I think you know that story well. Jonah got an up close sort of an immersion class in marine biology for disobeying what God had told him to do.

But the number one, number one, probably dumbest thing that you can find humans doing in the Bible hiding from God after you’ve sinned. This is Genesis chapter three. This is Adam and Eve, and they’ve been told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They fall for the devil’s lies. They fall for his temptations, which is a terrible thing, which is a sin. But then, when God comes looking for them, calling out to them, they hide.

And if you think about what a natural thing, maybe because we’ve inherited that from them, don’t we do that too? Don’t we hide when we’ve sinned? Don’t we avoid God? We avoid his church? Avoid his Word? Because we don’t want to be confronted with what we’ve done. We hide from him when we need him absolutely the most.

The Bible tells us

If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (1 John 2:1)

Hiding from him is the worst thing that we could possibly do. I wish the story said that Adam and Eve went running up to him and saying, Lord, Lord, Father, we’ve done something wrong. We did something we weren’t supposed to do. But they don’t. But God does. God goes looking for Adam and Eve to tell them about a Savior. Psalm 32.

How blessed is the person whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the person whose guilt the Lord does not charge against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away as I groaned all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My moisture was dried up by the droughts of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover up my guilt. I said, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:1-5)

My friends, dear fellow redeemed, remember those dumb things we naturally do. We hide from God. We avoid him. Remember, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. And remember that blessed are you, all those with whom the Lord does not remember does not count their iniquity. Confess our sins. Run to him when we fail. Run to his loving arms because we have a Savior, Jesus Christ.

I pray you’ll remember that. And until we meet again, God bless and keep all of you. Amen.

Matthew 5:48, Psalm 14:3, 1 Peter 1:18-19

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Hitting a baseball is said to be one of the most difficult things to do in all of sports. The ball is coming at you at 95 plus miles per hour. It’s moving, it’s dropping, it’s curving. And the surface area of a baseball bat, they say there’s less than 5% of the bat is the sweet spot, the part that’s going to make contact and result in a hit. Even after that, that hit might just be a pop up. It might be hit straight back to the pitcher, who knows? But hitting a baseball, one of the most difficult things to do in all sports.

In the year 1941, a player named Ted Williams, he had a batting average of .406. Call it .400. What that means, though, at .400, is that six times out of every ten times he was at the plate, Ted Williams got out. He went down swinging. He popped up. He didn’t get on base. Six out of ten times. That was 1941. And since then, no one has had a batting average better, a season average better, than Ted Williams .406. Most modern players would be thrilled to be batting .300. That means they’re failing seven out of every ten times that they get up to the plate.

Well, Jesus said in Matthew five, verse 48,

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

If this were baseball, perfect means you’re getting on base every single time you’re making contact, you’re getting a base hit, or you’re even hitting a home run. But a 1.000 batting average. If we were talking about baseball, if our Lord was talking about it, but he’s not. He’s talking about life. He’s talking about us and our behavior. Be perfect. Not three out of ten, four out of ten, not even nine out of ten times. What the law demands from us is perfection. That means in everything we do, in everything we say, even in everything we think, in every little temptation that comes along that we don’t entertain it. We don’t think about it, but we’re too chicken to do it. Even that is sin. That is imperfection. And that condemns us.

Now, Adam and Eve, there was a time when they could have been perfect, but they chose not to. And because they did all of their offspring, you and me, we can’t do it. Psalm 14 verse three says,

There is none who does good, not even one. (Psalm 14:3)

No one. No one but Jesus.

Jesus was perfect. And if it were baseball, what that means is that Jesus got on base every single time he was up to the plate. He never failed. He never went down swinging. He never struck out. He never got to the base late, the ball getting there before he did. Jesus, if it were, baseball would have a 1.000 batting average. A sure thing, but it’s not about baseball. It’s about our life. His life and our life. Because he was perfect for us. He came and he fulfilled the law. Doing what we can’t do. So that someone would have a perfect record, a perfect average. And he applies that average to you. He gives it to you.

Saint Peter, who knew a thing or two about striking out, right? Three denials. Saint Peter later on in life, Peter wrote this.

You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

So, my friends, the next time you go down swinging, the next time you fail, the next time you fail miserably to be perfect. Remember your Savior who was perfect for you, who stood there for you to do what you cannot, and who has ransomed you from that futile ways that we’ve inherited from Adam and Eve ransomed us with his precious blood. I pray that’s a comfort to you. I’m Pastor Pittenger, and until we see each other again, God bless and keep you. Amen.

Psalm 23:4, Matthew 27:46

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In January of this year, the Pew Research Center released the results of a new study they did on various social aspects of society. And one of the results that really stood out was to do with loneliness. Loneliness has rapidly increased in our society in recent years, and the results were very alarming for all categories, age categories, but particularly for the younger generation. In the 18 to 29 year-old group, 24% of them indicated on the survey that they were lonely all of the time, or most of the time. 24%. That’s a quarter of people in that group are extremely lonely. And the results weren’t much better for the other age categories either.

It seems like loneliness has become a major challenge for us nowadays, and perhaps this is something that our congregations should consider when they’re thinking about outreach and how to serve the community. Now, if you are experiencing loneliness, I have some comforting thoughts for you to consider. First of all, God loves you and he is with you. David said in Psalm 23 verse four,

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4 EHV)

God is with you even in those horrible dark days when you’re going through the darkness of loneliness. He does not abandon you, but he is your companion. Another thing to consider is that God tells his believers that they should gather together in their local areas and love one another as brothers and sisters, like a family serving one another and gathering around his word. And so I would encourage you, if you don’t have a congregation, a family of believers that you belong to, to find one, and I would recommend one of our Evangelical Lutheran Synod congregations.

Now, these congregations, the people there are not necessarily perfect. In fact, they gather together because they are in fact sinners. And they need that forgiveness that they get through Christ and the word, his word. And here is perhaps the most comforting aspect of all of this. Jesus loves you so much that he was willing to experience the most terrible Loneliness so that you could be saved. When Jesus was on the cross at one point. He said,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

At that moment, we recognized that the Father had forsaken his son. Jesus there was suffering the worst pains of hell with your shame and my shame, our sins. But he did it, and he endured it so that we could be saved. And God the Father was satisfied with that sacrifice of Jesus. And that’s why he raised him up on that first Easter Sunday.

God loves you. He forgives you, and he wants you to gather with your fellow believers as a family. You are not alone. Amen.