Scripture

God, give Your justice to the king and Your righteousness to the king’s son. He will judge Your people with righteousness and Your afflicted ones with justice.

~Psalm 72:1-2, HCSB

Quote

If we do not show love to one another, the world has a right to question whether Christianity is true.

~Francis August Schaeffer

 

According to tradition, Psalm 72 was written by David and it is a prayer for his son Solomon who succeeds him as king of Israel. I am confident that David believed his son would make the ideal king; it certainly seemed that way for a time. Although Solomon is considered a success by the world, you and I know that he was anything but the ideal king. He did not rescue the poor who cry out or the afflicted who have no helper. He had no pity on the poor and helpless, nor did he save those in distress. He made no effort to elevate them. He did not redeem them from oppression; matter of fact, he became the chief oppressor and they {people} were not precious in his sight {Psalm 72:12-14}. Solomon was and is a huge disappointment to all true believers. As we mentioned a few days ago, practically all of the great bible heroes made critical mistakes: Moses, David and Paul were all guilty of murder. David also committed adultery. Peter denied Jesus. James and John wanted to nuke the Samaritans. Yet we do not think of any of these men as failures. When the name Solomon comes up: we think failure and disappointment. What is the difference? Solomon never repented; he never changed his sinful ways. As a result, his testimony was destroyed.

Two things made his father David a great king: [1] David’s passionate love for God and [2] His love for his people. This is where Solomon failed: instead of loving God with all his heart and his subjects as much as himself, he loved pleasure, women, gold, extravagance and power. In Deuteronomy 17 Moses gives us a list of things the anointed king must not do and Solomon violated every single one…[1] He must not acquire many horses, [2] No dealing with Egypt, [3] He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won’t go astray. [4] He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself. [5] He, like Joshua, was to keep a copy of the law of Moses by his side and read it daily but Solomon did not pay heed to the law of Moses.[6] He was not to exalt himself above his countrymen which of course he did: Solomon was an elitist. [7] He was not only to read and study the law of Moses daily, he was to obey it which of course he failed to do. As you can see, Solomon violated all seven principles of leadership that Moses laid down. I guess he thought he knew more than Moses.

Certainly, I am no Solomon. He was probably a genius. I am just above the idiot level on the IQ test and I seldom think of myself as the smartest man in the room. I do know one thing: we are to follow God’s instructions. We are to love God with all our heart and soul and our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. If we don’t get these two things right, we cannot succeed in the kingdom of God no matter how gifted or intelligent we are and no matter how much wealth we amass. Humility is first base in God’s kingdom and loving people is paramount.

Extra

Folks, you can’t beat this weather. I run neither heat or air in my little office. It is just right. Got a lot to do today as we move toward the weekend. LORD willing, we will be in Lexington, Alabama this Sunday morning. I will be preaching for one of my sons in the ministry, Bro. Sam Wallace, a native of Cherokee, AL. but now living in Muscle Shoals. Sam is like Moses, he is 83 but strong as ever. He is full of energy and he loves the LORD. I am looking forward to seeing He and Brenda.

We are also tying up some loose ends for the fish fry Sunday night at 5:00. My mission today is to find the shrimp and crawdad tails. Kip has the catfish. If someone wants to give me a mess of Crappie, I would take them.

GRACE POINT has launched a building program. We are, LORD willing, building a 40X60 metal building for a fellowship hall. We need one desperately. They love fellowship at the POINT and their senior pastor loves it also. We will not be in it by Christmas but hopefully we will be using it by Easter. Construction {site prep} will begin within the month. PTL

I hope you have a great Thursday. Thanks for reading the blog.